William Wallace made it all look so straight forward, however, freedom is notoriously difficult to define because it can mean something different in any given situation. To one person it is the right to freedom of speech, to another the right to move and act without unlawful restraint (even here it depends on who is making the laws), and to another the right to be free of oppression and injustice. Whichever way we view it, freedom does have the common thread of not being constrained from the ability to move, act, and speak.

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The drinking of wine can, not inevitably though, lead to strange behavior, and equally not drinking wine can lead some to strange conclusions. And I’m not sure which is worst – a headache or forced exegesis? One goes away in the morning but the other stays all day, all life-long. One is certainly regrettable, the other rarely repented from.

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By a case for gravity I don’t mean, what goes up must come down. What I refer to is a case for dignity, for solemnity, because it appears that we have all but lost the capacity, or even the desire, to present with some sense of gravity – in our words, and our lives. I apply this to us, to God’s people, because who am I, who are we, to judge the world.

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Holiness, without which no one will see God, has become either a despised term or, worse, a forgotten one.

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The universe we inhabit is vast and beautiful; it is equally terrifying. We are both captivated by it and captive to it.

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Quite a lot of things died in 2020, not the least being the traditional Christmas Card. We sent none and received five, which both surprised me and shouldn’t have surprised me.

I am not sure whether to mourn the loss or think – about time, inevitable, or something else altogether?

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The maxim that most easily encapsulates evolutionary theory is – survival of the fittest. In other words, only the fit survive, and those that survive are the fit…

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Globally we are facing a very troubling and confusing season…

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The West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand has the biggest dragonflies I have ever seen, and the angriest bees…

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Summer holidays were wonderful, especially where we spent many of them - at the northern end of the South Island of New Zealand at a place called Pelorus Bridge. It was called that because a bridge crossed a river, a deep green river.

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Daniel, of Jewish royalty, was exiled to and raised in Babylon, and chosen to be schooled in its language and literature. In other words, Daniel was steeped in Babylonian culture: he was adept at their cultural, moral and philosophical structures, which, at points were anathema to his monotheistic heritage.

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In the UK, ‘I’m sorry’ is used so commonly it is virtually meaningless, although everyone knows what it means. If I inadvertently bump into you – easy in a city as dense as London – I am quick to say sorry, but then so is the person I bumped into.

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Hebrews 12, in particular verses 1 through 4, isn’t always included in our thoughts/messages on faith, as it is a new chapter.

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People by faith did mighty deeds, wrought justice, miraculously escaped death, and some were resurrected. People by faith also suffered tremendously, dying for their faith; they were chased, afflicted and mistreated because of their faith.

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The faith examples of Hebrews 11 all responded to God’s word in a particular manner, because it was a particular word. Faith, in other words, is particularised. What God said to one he didn’t to the other.

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