Goal!

Let love be your highest goal! But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives—especially the ability to prophesy.1 Corinthians 14:1 NLT And the same is true for you. Since you are so eager to have the special abilities the Spirit gives, seek those that will strengthen the whole church.1 Corinthians 14:12 NLT…

Re Action

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is…

Spread it around

Libby and I are very alike in a lot of ways, but in some we are totally different. Spreading butter is one of the things in which we are different. Libby spreads very carefully and makes sure that she covers every bit of the bread, right up to the edges. She perhaps has this feeling that if she misses a bit then it won’t taste the same. Not me – I go for speed. Get as much on, over as large an area as you can, then take a huge bite, on the assumption that there will be the right amount of butter and bread in the gob, and just mix it all up as you chew. Fast food.

Heartbreak Hotel

We all have times of heartache in our lives. If we haven’t, then it’s one of those “not yet” things – sooner or later, heartache will probably come.
It’s part of life, part of growing up. We get emotionally attached to someone, then it all goes wrong. Everything falls apart, our lives crumble into sadness, and we find ourselves, as Elvis Presley sang, in Heartbreak Hotel.
It hurts, deep inside it hurts. “That’s it – no more relationships! I’m not going through that again! Never again! I’m finished with love!” (I can’t remember what age I was when it happened to me, but I’m glad that I changed my mind about being finished with love!)

A sign of things to come

For most of my life IT has been a very prominent feature. Information Technology has improved exponentially during the last few years, and we can get the information we are looking for at the touch of a few buttons. But we get loads of information without pressing buttons. Just look around you – it’s everywhere! I don’t know how many signs there are in the UK. It must be a huge number. Everywhere you look there is one in front of you, probably more than one.
During World War 2, the UK Government removed all the road signs so that if the Germans invaded they would get lost – or it would at the least slow down their advance. Can you imagine the chaos that would happen if they did that now? If every sign suddenly disappeared, there would be total disaster. Think about it – all the road signs, street signs gone in an instant! It would be OK for the locals, but others would get lost in no time. There would be jams as cars go the wrong way up one-way streets, accidents as drivers go straight across without giving way. Just imagine the house numbers being removed from people’s homes – how would you find anyone?

You cannot make love

During the last week we had a lot of snow (50 cm) where I live. It’s one of these things that is fascinating and beautiful, but then reality bursts in and spoils it all. Everything looks truly stunning, especially when the skies clear and the sun shines, but when you try to walk in snow that deep you discover that it is really difficult. When the snow comes up to your knees every step is a struggle. For the first few days driving was impossible.

Fearful delight

Why do we do what we do?
Some things we do just because we do – they sort of happen around us and we just go along with the flow. Some we do automatically, out of habit, and sometimes we don’t even know we are doing them. Sometimes that habit can be so compulsive that we cannot stop ourselves from doing it – we have lost control, and the drift into addiction can follow. We do some things out of our emotions – we laugh because we are happy, cry because we are sad, we lash out in anger, scream with fear.

Fear is the key

What are you afraid of? Anything? Lots of things? Everything? Nothing?
Many of us are afraid of flying, but I remember Spike Milligan once saying that he wasn’t in the least frightened of flying. Not in the least! But crashing – that was totally different! He was terrified of that!

To be or not to be

They say that what you are is what you eat. I have never really understood that. OK, I can see that if you do not eat meat you can be called a vegetarian or a vegan, but that is really as far as it goes – it puts you into a category, but that is only part of what you are, part of what you do.

So, what else can define what you are? Your fashion or your taste in music can suggest what age group you fall into. Your accent can suggest where you come from. The car you drive, or your lack of a car, can point to your income group, but not necessarily. The way your children behave can possibly show how good a parent you are. How you behave might point to what you have been through earlier in life. But all these things only show a bit of you – they are not what you are, who you are. Like nationality or political affiliation, they might classify part of you, but they don’t define you.

Who you?

I don’t have a very good memory. That can be useful or helpful at times, but it can also be anything but useful or helpful! I would love to give you some examples of both sets of circumstances, but I just can’t think of any at the moment!
My not-very-good-memory means that I find it almost impossible to remember passages of the Bible. I know some people can remember whole chapters and others whole books. Many people have a whole bank of verses which they can draw from at a moment’s notice. I salute them all!
I, on the other hand, can draw on very little, and even then I can only recall part of the verse.

Why does he do that?

Libby and I have a cat, a wonderful cat who goes by the name of Keziah.
But Keziah is like all cats. She is demanding and self-centred, greedy and sometimes destructive. She is always after something. We get up in the morning and she is immediately asking for food. After she has eaten, she wants to be on my knee and for me to start petting her. Then she wants out. Then she wants in. Then she wants fed. Then she wants petted. Then she wants out. And so it goes on. She has even learned to beg like a dog for food. She is always after something, and if we ignore her she might resort to picking the carpet to bits with her claws.
Why do we do it?