Coach House Talks and Beacons

Then there was the other criminal. But in his case, he appeared to have a rather different attitude of heart than his confederate. Maybe it was that the Holy Spirit was working in his heart during those last hours of his life.

We LOVE the familiar, no surprises, known, routines and habits. We don’t take well to people or circumstances that bring about change. For example: A New boss at work, with new ideas, new targets and new standards- not good !

Many of us are familiar with the fear of exposure. Perhaps we’re new to a job and we don’t quite have the skills that we put on our CV. So, we work hard so that people won’t see our mistakes and we try to blag our way through it.

We recently opened the church for the first time on a Sunday after the lock-down. At that service we sang “Praise my soul the King of Heaven”. This song features the repeated refrain “Praise Him Praise Him” which reminds me that it is really important that as Christians we praise God.

Everyone has to live with it, and we all have different ways of handling it. Most of us would not hand a car salesman our bank account details and tell them to surprise us with any type of car

My dad loves the idea of treasure hunters. He was always intrigued by the idea of finding something historically significant and I caught the bug too.

A few weeks ago, I fulfilled one of my want to do ambitions. I had been involved on three peak challenges as the minibus driver on occasion but not climbed any of the three peaks, Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike or Snowdon.

Who am I that the highest King,Would welcome me, In my Father’s house, There’s a place for me, I’m a child of God

In our Bible passage the cause of the woman’s disability is an evil spirit, and Jesus said that she had been bound like this for eighteen years by Satan.

How is your hindsight? Are you able to look back on your life and see where you have been, where you come from ? to see where the crossroads were to meditate on the the choices you made and where they have taken you, what they have thought you?

Have you ever been forced to undergo an exercise programme? It’s not a fun experience. Perhaps you got an injury, and had to go to physio to fix a certain collection of muscles and joints over a period of time.

I want to point out that certain situations will make your position irrelevant. Certain situations will make it not matter that they call you a Leader, CEO, President

When I was young my Dad told me a little story. I think he must have told it me more than once as I can still remember it now. He thought it was funny, and so did I at the time. It concerned a friend of his, although I suspect that it was actually my Dad or one of his brothers. Maybe the story wasn't even true

The gospel is simple right? We are all sinners. We have all gone apart from where God would want us to be. We were made to be in a perfect relationship with our heavenly father and in perfect relationship with each other

I’m not sure about you, but I am getting awfully confused with all the ever-changing rules and regulations that we are having to conform to and obey as national lockdowns, become local ones - local ones become different depending where you live and so on and so forth.

You must have played hide and seek when you were younger, or maybe you’ve played it recently with younger children. You get more creative each time you play, more daring, squeezing into the tightest of places trying desperately to not make a single sound and give yourself away.

We are told that in the end times, there will be a “Great Feast" — a marriage celebration. The Lamb of God will be the bridegroom and the body of believers will be the bride.

Whenever people learn new skills, they have to start with the basics. If you learn to play an instrument you have to practice, practice, practice the basics. I’m thinking back to when I learned to dance salsa.

It’s a small snapshot, and from my own limited perspective, so I encourage you to read Hebrews and Revelation in your own time.

One of the benefits of being a football fan and following my chosen team to lots of away games is that you get to visit towns and villages all over England. I like driving and as I travel around I get to see lots of interesting things

What would it feel like, when the guest you were waiting finally arrives and you say “Please — don’t apologise. In fact, you know what, thank you for being late!’”

Sometimes we think that our leaders, the people we see worshipping at the front or speaking, we think these people are somehow special. We think that because God has given these people different gifts

The system was lifeless, so I investigated further. Then I noticed a fault referenced on the control panel.

I had a sense of entitlement that I should get off the boat first. I thought that it was my right. Rights are something we hear quite a lot about these days

She reminds me of two elderly ladies that I knew in my first church fellowship back in the 1970s. They were of the First World War generation.