Featured Articles

One of the pleasures of ministry is catching up with people for a coffee and a chat. One of the places I have used for such visits is a former Baptist chapel which is now a coffee shop. The vestiges of its former role as a place of worship can still be seen by those who visit. High on the wall behind where the pulpit once stood (the till has [...]

In some ways, Hebrews is a book about people who quit… and the people who want to follow them. It’s a book in which the author is keenly aware of the temptation to return to the ‘better days’ of the past.Why? Because rather than make life easier, faith in Christ appears to have made life a lot more difficult. Is Jesus really that important? This is a question, incidentally, that [...]

As Christians we confess that “those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus, love him sincerely and strive to live in all good conscience before him may in this life be certainly assured that they are in a state of grace and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God” (WCF 18.1). Many Christians I know live with such a hope in their hearts. They go to their [...]

Mumford and Sons have a song titled “Hopeless Wanderer”. It’s a song about a quest for meaning and purpose in a hopeless world. The song suggests we are all just wanderers passing through life trying to find a place and a purpose. As age advances, hope diminishes. While this is a popular song, it is the opposite of what Peter writes about in his first letter. The Apostle Peter writes [...]

Words that have often been used to describe this generation are rampant individualism, self-determination, and self-entitlement. There is an ever increasing rhetoric around individual rights. A whole new category of celebrity, the “Social Media Influencer” has emerged. Anyone can be a leader or an influencer, all you need is a phone and you can be famous. Gone are the days of needing others to help take our picture. We can [...]

Some readers may remember back to1983 when The Return of the Jedi, the third of the Star Wars movies, was released. I do not remember seeing the movie, but I do remember a conversation with a friend from school. He assumed that I knew all about the Jedi, asking, “Aren’t they in the Bible?” I remember being amazed by that comment as we both attended school in Ballymena, the heart [...]

I remember it well. The day when I came home from a sleepover at my cousin’s house. My aunties were sitting in our living room, my mother, being comforted by them. There was a heavy, sadness in the room, my mother acknowledging my arrival with a piercing sob. I did not think to ask what was wrong. My question was, where is dad? This was the natural question, wasn’t it? [...]

Love. The word is everywhere. We see it splashed across screens, hear it echoing through music, and weave it into our daily conversations. It’s the theme of countless movies, the refrain of endless songs, and the subject of heartfelt speeches. Yet, for all its ubiquity, love remains one of the most misunderstood and elusive concepts in our modern world. Our culture often reduces love to a fleeting feeling, a sentimental [...]

We all know the verse: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16). In fact the Bible is full of verses commanding us to rejoice and be full of joy. Matthew 5: 12 says, “Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven” or Psalm 81:1, “Sing aloud to the God [...]

Imagine what it would be like living in a society without money.  No bills, no taxes, no rent or mortgage, no petty arguments at the church AGM, no scammers. That actually sounds quite refreshing and liberating. Yet so much of life, how we live and what we do involves the use of money.  There is, indeed, so much we can do with money. But at the same time, there is [...]