We don’t like rules very much, we tend to think of them as restrictions and people trying to run our lives. We had enough of that at school – (perhaps not so much the modern school – I went to school in the sixties and there were a lot of rules and sanctions) – and also growing up, from our parents. We want to rebel against this and as soon as we are ‘free’ we design our own lives around what constitutes pleasure and self-satisfaction.

The problem with this, of course, is that without boundaries this path can lead us to a very dark and sad place. We are trying to fill the void of our desires in a way that wasn’t intended for us and we put at the top of our wish list a desire to make ourselves happy no matter what. This leads to addictions of all kinds and these can’t fill us with happiness, just momentary empty pleasure that can never fully complete us.

Boundaries help us to feel safe and secure. They tell us how we should be behaving and by setting a standard we can all live our lives whilst not damaging other people’s.

Our modern world consists of an aggressive minority telling us what is right and what is wrong. They don’t want to be held back by traditions, boundaries and any idea of what should be at minimum an objective, moral standard (unless they set that standard). They are not open to debate. If you speak out against what they believe, they shout you down, their ears closed and their minds taken over by this idea of leading a life that they see as unrestricted and unbiased.

We try to have our say, but there is no real freedom of speech now and this is a tragic loss to society. It has happened slowly and it is shocking the ground that has been gained by this small minority.

You can apply what I am saying to abortion, euthanasia, gender issues, same-sex marriage and so on. If you try to debate with someone who has an opposite opinion to you, you are abused, made to feel ignorant and worse. When some of these subjects are discussed at all the worst case scenarios are always brought up to make a point and are geared to make you look unfeeling. There is never any thought to those that will be affected who could be the victims of rushing in and licensing those acts that could cause great damage. They only see the positives they want to see.

God’s commandments are built around respect and love for each other. When we turn our back on them we are entering into a very dark place, growing further away from Him, and entering into lives that can never make us happy. We are of course free to do this, as God gave us free will, and if we choose to abuse it then we do so at our own risk. What is at stake is our happiness and peace of mind.

Hosea 8:7

They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind

Our relationship with God is very important. How do we see Him?

He is the Creator. We are told that he created all that is seen and unseen and what an incredible creation! Our planet is so beautiful and if you think of the variety of flora and fauna, you can see, if you want to, that only a superhuman all-powerful designer could have done this. I don’t believe in happy accidents. We don’t know what is ‘out there’ in our universe, but if you look at the surrounding planets you won’t find any evidence of the beauty and variety that we have here on Earth. God shows his love through his creation. It is a great gift to us. We should be looking after it as the stewards he wanted us to be. All thanks and praise should be given to him and I daily thank him and ask for his forgiveness of what has happened to it and his help with healing the wounds we have inflicted on it.

God is Our Father. He is not like an earthly father because his love is unconditional and he wants us near him and loving him no matter what. We need to treat him as our perfect father with the respect, devotion and honour that is rightfully his. We can turn to him whenever we need him and his love is constant and unwavering. His love is expressed through his Holy Spirit, connecting us all with him and with each other.

God is our friend. He sent his son Jesus so that we might know him better and in this way we can turn to Jesus, knowing that he is man and God and pour out our problems and worries. He wants to know what we think and feel and engage with us on a personal level. His is not a distant God, but a God that longs for connection with us. We can talk to him about anything, big or small, and he is interested and willing to guide us. He wants to be there for us in the good times and the bad. If you think of how you treat your friends, that is how Jesus wants to be treated. He should be constantly in our thoughts and like a good friend we should keep in touch and not neglect him.

John 15:15

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

Often in our lives we will find that we have to deal with difficult situations. We may be ill, lose a loved one, feel isolated and alone and fear the future. In these times the last thing we would expect anyone to advise us is to seek the joy that is at the centre of our being.

Deep within us, we have a capacity to tap into a source of wellbeing that transcends the world we live in and what we are going through. Unfortunately, instead of attributing this to our baptism in Christ and feeling his deep love within us and the joy that this brings, many attempt to seek this through mindfulness, yoga, etc.

We are given this capacity to find joy within ourselves so that when we are going through situations we find hard to cope with, the Lord shows us that he is going through them with us and provides us with the capacity to find hope, love and a central point of joy to tap into that encourages us to keep going and have faith and trust that all is well and will be well.

We don’t have to seek outside help to find this peace within us: it is already there. We just need to connect with our God and experience the deep love he has for us. It isn’t easy, just have faith, centre your focus on God and he will help you find your way.

I hope that you can find this peace, joy and hope within yourselves especially if life is difficult at the moment,

God bless,

Julian of Norwich (Author of Divine Revelations of Love):

All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.

I’ve just been discharged from hospital. I enjoyed watching my youngest son play violin and electric guitar in pantomime on Christmas Eve and had a lovely Christmas Day with my family. However two days after I collapsed and was rushed to hospital with what turned out to be a deep vein thrombosis which turned into a pulmonary embolism.

I was extremely unwell for two days with really frightening levels of pain and I lay in my hospital bed wondering if I was going to be alright. The staff were amazing. I have heard that they are overwhelmed by the numbers they are treating for Covid, but they certainly gave me great care and attention when I needed it even though they are short staffed and under a lot of pressure.

Feeling a bit better, I started to think about what had happened and why. I had been perfectly well right up until Monday night and couldn’t understand how everything had changed so abruptly. One thing that hit me was that if I had collapsed anywhere else I wouldn’t be here writing about it. My oxygen levels were so low that every second counted and being in the right place at the right time meant I have come through (so far so good, still lots of recovery to go through!)

When I felt really low I thought about this miracle and decided that God still wants me around for a while. It did however make me realise that we keep pushing things away when we are well and busy – such as spending more time with God, thinking and praying about others and giving our time and efforts to make others’ lives better. Maybe God is giving me a wake up call and it is one I had better listen to.

I think it is a good idea to evaluate our lives, especially at this time of year, and see whether we are more focused on the world than on God; on charging through life and worrying about worldly things rather than the state of our faith and life in Christ.

Don’t wait for a wake-up call – who knows if it really is your time?

God bless you,

Matthew 24:42

Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming

I have mentioned in one of my previous blogs that I love the C S Lewis Bible. His reflections on the scriptures are so insightful and can be life changing. Recently I came across his insight into Isaiah 55:6-7:

Isaiah 55:6-7

Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near;

let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

C S Lewes suggests that we should ‘distrust states of mind which turn our attention upon ourselves’. (Letter to Walter Hooper Nov 30, 1954).

What I can take from this is that we should neither look at our sins or at our virtues. We shouldn’t look at the past and let failures drag us down and tell us that we are unworthy. We should also not worry about the future. We can’t change the past or affect what is coming, but what we can do is focus on being the best we can be, filling ourselves with God’s love and friendship and sharing that with others.

The sun when it is right above us means we cast no shadow and I think that is such a great way of viewing how we should exist, looking neither backwards or forwards and living in the present. Lewis says that if we can do this, our spiritual shadow (consciousness of self) will vanish, and we will become nothing for God to fill.

It isn’t easy to do this. We have all made mistakes and cringe when we think of them even if we have repented. This isn’t healthy. It also isn’t healthy to consider ourselves perfect as we live in a world that makes perfection impossible. How often have you tried to help someone who is depressed and full of troubles with the root cause being a kind of self-obsession? It is difficult to show them how to escape from this.

Do read this passage and think about what it means to you, and help others to understand how your way of life can be changed through this way of thinking and being.

God bless,

I think if you are reading the newsfeeds at the moment and keep on top of events in the world you can’t have missed Adele releasing her new album and saying that she divorced her husband and risked damaging the wellbeing of her child because she wanted to put her own happiness first.

There are so many things that you can say about this. I am an Adele fan. She has the most amazing voice and I do love her songs. But having such a talent comes with its costs. I don’t know what kind of world she lives in and what the people who surround her are like. Unfortunately fame, talent and wealth comes with its price. I imagine you can become quite disconnected with normal life and influenced without a moral compass to keep you on the right track and know what is a good and bad decision.

Deciding to divorce someone is a very serious decision with far reaching effects on all of the people involved in that relationship, especially the children. Unfortunately some marriages are so bad it is hard to sustain them. However, for the sake of the children, if a marriage can be saved then every effort should be made to do so. The damage it inflicts on children is enormous.

I love my sons very much and have probably put their happiness before mine too much. I can’t bear to see them unhappy and would do anything to not be the cause of any of that unhappiness.

I don’t think putting your own happiness first will ever make you happy. It is quite the opposite. The greatest joy you can have in this world is giving happiness to others.

I hope that her example is not followed just because she is a great singer/songwriter, but such is celebrity culture at the moment, some people might think this is a good way to live. It isn’t.

As a believer, I know that true happiness can only be found in God.

God bless,

Philippians 2:3

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves

When God created our world he thought it was perfect. Can you imagine how it was in the beginning – the beautiful colours, lush greenery, a wild variety of flora and fauna, unpolluted seas, rivers and skies. He rewarded us with such generosity the incredible beauty and variety of his masterpiece.

We are stewards of this wonderful creation; in charge of every living thing. I am sure that a lot of us think about this and are careful about how we use the resources that are here for us. Unfortunately there are many who may be unaware or uncaring of their effect on their environment. The big question is: how do we convince those who won’t partake of this new ideal of cutting carbon emissions, that their lives and the life of every living organism depends on us waking up to the need to stop destroying our world? It almost seems an impossible task, but nothing is impossible for God.

Hopefully COP26 will produce results that can give us some hope for our future, but fundamentally, we need to pray for the healing of our planet; for forgiveness for all the things we have done that are destroying it and for help in undoing the damage we have inflicted on it. Only God can produce the change of attitude we need; an altering of many mind sets, especially of world leaders; so that we can build a much better future for our earth.

Do constantly pray about this – we can’t do it alone.

‘ Dear Father, touch the hearts of those who look only for gain at the expense of the poor and the earth. Teach us to discover the worth of each thing, to be filled with awe and contemplation, to recognise that we are profoundly united with every creature as we journey towards your infinite light. We thank you for being with us each day. Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle against those who abuse what resources you have placed in our world. Help us to look after everyone and care about their environment as well as our own. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen. ‘

It is so easy to be deceived into thinking about ourselves and our lives in negative ways. We aren’t perfect and we do make mistakes but we have to learn to repent of these, give them to God, asking for forgiveness and move on from them.

I have been finding this very difficult recently and am struggling to hold onto this idea of turning my back on my mistakes and feeling healed and renewed when I repent of them, truly believing that I have been washed clean of these sins. Jesus died for our sins and in going over and over what we have done wrong and not letting go we are not trusting in this.

We are all fallible and if we accuse ourselves constantly of being weak and unlovable then we will believe that and we can’t move on into a better and nearer relationship with our God. We have to be wary of that voice inside us that accuses us constantly. It is designed to make us depressed, feeling unloved and unworthy and stopping us from developing a joyful life with Christ.

St Paul in Romans 8: 31-39 tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Don’t let introspection and negativity prevent you from bathing in this love and don’t listen to the voice of deception that will try to drive you away from your faith.

St Paul struggled, but he recognised that he was a new creation in Christ. His former role was to persecute christians and it is only his encounter with Christ that helped him to become a new person and turn his back on his former life: Galatians 2:20: “It Is No longer I Who Live, But Christ Who Lives in Me”.

God bless you and help you in your struggles,

Romans 8:31-39

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I have struggled with anxiety most of my life. It started at school and was probably because I found the environment very stressful and I suppose in the end a constant state of nerves becomes the norm. Many people do suffer with it and just live with it thinking it is part of their lives and that there isn’t much they can do about it.

Now I turn to God in prayer whenever I feel overwhelmed and manage to rest in him. I don’t let anxiety rule my life, or let it prevent me from being as free as I would like. So many worries come to mind when I get nervous about something and if I don’t pray about it, this can become a problem.

I do feel that without my faith and constant prayers, my life would have been totally different. I couldn’t have coped with many situations I have put myself through and my life is much richer as a result of being able to focus on God and not on what is bothering me.

I listened to an Ellel Ministries blog about this and it was very helpful. They also recommended a bible passage (copied below) that helps to pray in times of stress.

I recently thought a lot about this freedom when I saw a bird trapped behind a window, constantly jumping up and down and knocking the window with its beak as it tried to escape. Some of the situations we are in are similar to this. We are imprisoned by these feelings of anxiety, despair, depression and without God we are like that bird trying to escape them. It did eventually manage to escape and how free it must have felt.

Do take all of your troubles to God. He is listening and wants to help us. Don’t live in a glass prison. God bless,

Philippians 4:6

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

I have always read my Bible with an open mind. I don’t tend to think something is impossible but rather take the leap of faith and am happy to accept what is written without needing proof. There is room for interpretation but it should be done with care so as not to distort and put your own take on what the text means. When looking at these expert opinions, also be aware that all interpretation is by its nature personal. Some people may claim to ‘know’ the truth and have interpreted something correctly based on their experience and qualifications, but you should always treat everything as an opinion which may or may not be right.

I am talking about this because I recently saw a documentary about two men who were trying to find the real Mount Sinai and began by tracing the steps outlined in the Bible of the exodus from Egypt. I have heard many theories about where the Israelites may have crossed the Red Sea, but these vary greatly. The one I most dislike is the idea that what was meant was the ‘Reed Sea’ which has low tides and can be crossed sometimes. It is almost as if the people who came up with this found it difficult to believe that our God can part a sea. We are supposed to believe that he created the universe and if you believe this, why would you have difficulty accepting he has power over the sea?

Figures vary, but there were around 600,000 to 1,000,000 people involved in the exodus – how would they cross muddy land? The documentary people found a causeway under the Red Sea at the tip of the Sinai peninsula where the crossing would be narrower and these stones would have supported such a mass crossing. They went on to trace the other clues in the Bible about coming across bitter waters, then an oasis, and finally they found a mountain known by the locals as Moses’ mountain and it had a black ‘blasted’ top to it, described in the Bible as happening when God descended onto the mountain. They discovered other clues as to the presence of the Israelites: altars, a large rock cracked at the centre with indications that vast amounts of water would have spewed out from it and filled the land below. I could go on, but there is so much in the programme that it would take too long.

This Mount Sinai is in Saudi Arabia and not as previously thought, in the Sinai Peninsula itself. These men found it because they believed what they read in the Bible and they based their search on that faith. If you doubt you will be led along paths that won’t bring you to the truth. It is a very exciting find and hopefully one day more will be said about this discovery.

The Bible is a very exciting and informative series of writings and should be treated with the utmost respect.

God bless you and help you to make the leap of faith you need to really immerse yourself in the story of our creation and salvation,