Everyone wants a shortcut. A hack. But the fact is you won’t find one. Shortcuts are a lie. The hack won’t hack it. The easy road won’t get you there[i]. The broad road and wide gate won’t take you to where you want to be[ii]. It won’t take you to heaven. But it also won’t…
Category: Reflections
A Christmas Meditation: For us and for our salvation
“who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven” This is my favourite line of the Nicene Creed. When I read it I want to shout out in worship, and I hope it will do the same for you. It is a perfectly apt line to consider this Christmas season. It answers…
Thoughts on Age for Pastors and Everyone
The other day my wife and I watched a particularly enjoyable film called ‘Midnight in Paris’. One major theme was the ubiquitous desire to live in another era- in the movie in question it was some past golden era. Similarly most of us have at some time or another felt that desire in a different…
Baptists Assemble 2011!!!
The Baptist Union of South Africa held its 2011 assembly in Port Elizabeth over this past weekend. It was my second assembly, and my last as a probationer. This assembly had many highlights and BU quirks that I hope to share in this article. Registration happened at a Presbyterian Church, we met at an Anglican…
If you don’t have anything good to say…
If you don’t have anything good to say, then don’t say anything at all. This is a common refrain, and what that felt very apt as I struggled with what to post on for today; I had nothing really good to say, until I began thinking about what qualifies something as good. Ephesians 4:29 says,…
The Road to Idolatry is Paved with Many Good Distractions
Everyone expects bad things to be a distraction, but few people anticipate the danger good things can be. Firstly it must be clear what we are being distracted from when we talk about being distracted. The Westminster Catechism’s first question (after which my dear friend and colleague’s blog is named) is “what is the chief…
Reducing the ‘If I Coulds’
Harriet Beecher Sowe said, “The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.[i]” And what a bitter yet true saying that is. The idea of ‘if I coulds’ came up in conversation the other night with a group of newly marrieds. We were all reflecting on the importance of…
