In my last post, I urged the importance of creating time and peace, to allow God to talk to us individually through the Bible. In this post, I want to look at the nature of the Bible and tackle some of the pitfalls we should try to avoid. My final post will give advice about which readings to start with, where additional help can be obtained and summarise some basic principles. Please do stick with me through this most important of topics!
Author: James Blott
Without the Bible, there’s no Christianity. But where to start?
Over the months, an increasing number of my readers have told me that they’re reaching out for something, but they’re not quite sure what. These are people who have no tradition or background in Christianity, but they feel that following their experience of COVID and lockdown, something important seems to be missing from their lives. They’re reaching out for God, perhaps, rather than for formalised religion, and they don’t know how to make progress.
Certainty: the curse of our age
I was recently reading about early exploration of the Arctic and I found myself mulling over a most interesting fact: Scurvy was a massive killer of sailors and others serving overseas in the eighteenth century. It’s believed that between 1756 and 1773, the Royal Navy enlisted 184,899 men (they were all men in those days) and over the same period, 133,708 men died in service, ‘mostly’ of scurvy.
Arrogance: The Antithesis of Christianity
I wonder whether, like me, your friends or family have referred to the last eighteen months as ‘strange’? When I first heard this, it struck me as a rather odd choice of word for the period of COVID restrictions. But the longer I continue to see apparently fit young people wearing masks in the street, or even sitting alone in their own cars, the more apt the adjective seems to become.
Thank God that nature can’t spell ‘Coronavirus’
Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote a blog about giving gratitude for the English Countryside in summer. At that stage, it was warm and sunny and our garden was full of butterflies of many kinds. This year has been so different. I can’t remember a colder spring than 2021, and many of the plants in our garden were scorched by a heavy wind-borne frost well into May.
Jesus would be appalled at the Church of England
Since my last post, the government, some would say unsurprisingly, have delayed lifting restrictions for another month. What should we do? Continue to comply or start to resist? My purpose on this blog is not to encourage people to break the law, but many Christians may be tempted to wonder. ‘What does our Christian teaching say, which direction does it point us in?'
Reflective Preacher 