Phils focus

What are we talking about when we talk about money? In our series of teaching on fasting, praying, and giving, this month we are exploring giving. What does it means to build a culture of generosity and to grow in the art of giving? It has opened a reservoir of memories and reflections on the times and seasons where I have made the most generous choices and felt the most freedom. Let me tell you a love story. A long time ago (..in a far away galaxy..) I met the vision of grace and beauty I am privileged to call my wife. I was 19 years old. She was a teacher, and I was only a year older than her ‘A level’ students. One of the first things I did, after working up the bottle to invite her on a first date, was to start bringing her gifts; A large clay pot, a mirror, a steak. The latter gift of raw meat I brought to her flat one evening as I had observed that as an exhausted secondary school teacher she appeared in need of energy, so my best solution was...

Fasting, praying, giving  To his disciples living in a world full of danger Jesus makes this remarkable statement; “ So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. ” (Matthew 6) Of course, he has just introduced us to a brilliant short teach on the assumed habits and disciplines of a disciple, and he caps it all with this summary statement, saying in effect; ‘if you practice these things in this way, then you will be better equipped to live the life of faith’. Each of us is most prone to anxiety in one of three areas; appetite, affirmation, or ambition. We may know them by other names; (provision, position, and possibilities), but they are the three areas in which Jesus was personally tempted at the start of his ministry, and which we encounter on a regular basis; Will we have enough? Will we be recognised and attributed worth? And will good things happen to us? One or more of t...