Cross Encounters

Birthday musings, living, and dying … what is important in life? Really? It has to be Jesus and the Gospel!

There is often more than meets the eye.

We are conscious of time and history and yet sometimes one date so dominates that it ‘takes over’ that day. Are there any such dates in your life?

His story is more than just history!

While we would like to control things so that problems, hassles, and suffering are avoided, life is not like that. A lot of living is responding to what is happening and for Christians, they do so never alone, for Jesus is with them.

When we think we know everything then we can be so blind. Jesus and the Bible can seem hard to understand, crazy even. And yet when the crucified man is seen as our gracious Lord, then we can see ourselves and living here in such a new way.

We are seeing less of them in these pandemic times. Yet we desire to see them because they help us know someone personally. So what does it mean when God’s face shines on us?

In the northern hemisphere, going back to school is happening. And that inevitably means assessments. How do we think about them and where does God fit in?

There are lots of reasons why things don’t go right. Where does God fit in? Well, that depends on who your God is and what you’re expecting to be done.

In a changing world through the centuries, Christians have always found themselves wrestling with what the world says is normal and what following Jesus means.

Our calendars are being crossed out as plans are cancelled or changed but for those in Christ, all time is ‘crossed out’ because Jesus has defeated death’s power to cancel and wreck life. That truth affects each day and guarantees our future.

Reflections on trust in a time of pandemic. Whom do you trust? Why? This is worth hearing! Trust me!

We get a sense of perspective looking up and usually it is that we are very very small. But when the Creator speaks we can discover that we are very very precious.

Places and things powerfully affect us. That’s why we build them. But for Christians the eye must give way to the ear.

When ‘locked-down’ we miss our routines and plans and we can be concerned for a future we do not want. Friendships help us to be secure and have meaning – especially friendship with God.

Musings on ‘abyss’ and ‘abbess’ and a purpose of pastors.

How we shape our future is best determined by why.

How do we assess what we are told? What has the greater authority? For Christians, it is Jesus, the Word of God.

With the weight of sin and evil so suffocating, what do we do?

Encountering the Word of God always has consequences. God wants everyone to follow Jesus and have the best adventure in the world.

We need skill and expertise to get jobs done. But living is more than just one job after another.

Alarms are meant to be noticed. Yet they can be ignored. At Pentecost and from then on the Holy Spirit has been active focusing people on Jesus. Will the world hear?

Knowing how and why we know what we know helps us live.

In a world of public and private, inside and out, having someone who sees all might be confronting, even fearful. But when it is Jesus who sees all, sees us inside and out, and loves us - then it is life changing every day. His love can cast out all fear.

Jesus’ message and promise was given to comfort not control, to lift up not lock down, and, above all, to set people free by promising to remain with us.