Phils focus

I woke up this morning thinking about Ents and avalanches. I think trees represent something profoundly comforting, and also something wildly exciting. They were always my hiding place and ‘den‘ as a child. Whenever we went away on a holiday I would often be looking for a potential place of vertical refuge. We had a large weeping willow in our garden, and whenever life troubled me, I would lodge myself in its branches to retreat and think, drawing unconscious comfort from the beauty of nature and the solidness of the tree itself. But trees were more than a comfort, they were an adventure, a place of imagining wild stories and other possibilities. Trees had an element of danger (especially if they were very high and hard to climb) and their wildness stimulated my imagination. Even before I read Lord of The Rings, they were sleeping giants who, if roused, could wreak mighty acts of vengeance upon any presumptuous enemies who trespassed their holy forests... These two dimensions of safet...

After a long break I just wanted to give my Christmas greeting to all. Possibly like many of you I have been engaged this Christmas in family debates on a variety of issues and putting the world to rights. The current scandal over global warming data was a favourite topic this Christmas. Rather than state my opinion I will simply direct you to Greg Boyds blog on this. As usual he has written a well researched and measured response to the debate that you can view here I am tentatively making a N.Y resolution to increase my blogging in 2010, largely due to several amazing discussions this blog has generated late 2009. I appreciate all the emails - do keep them coming - or add your comments and add to this simple offering. Grace and peace.

I love the bits in the bible where God talks to himself. He is seen reflecting, deciding, wieghing things up and making decisions. You see this especially in Genesis where God is chatting to himself within the trinity about how to make man, and what he thinks of each bit of his creation work. (other examples include; Gen 11:7, 6:1-8) Genesis says we are made in His image, and part of that image is the ability to reflect, to hold an internal discussion with ones thoughts and memories, reflecting on our daily experiences, drawing lessons and conclusions, drawing aside to listen to our heavenly father and making fresh plans with him. My reflections this summer have drawn me to a stronger conviction of Fathers love; of his faithfulness, and of his strong desire to pour out blessings in a new season of grace. Why should God want to bless me? Who am I that he should be mindful of me? Its not that I am more saintly or less prone to weakness, or more spiritual than others, its simply that whe...

(Picking up on number 19 from my list of 'things I don’t believe in') Tonight’s episode of the TV series on Darwin related the accounts of his battle to publish his studies on evolution, causing outrage among those who held to a ‘biblical’ account of creation. Darwin, a pious man, came to reject belief in a God who would ‘everlastingly punish’ unbelievers (see point 15 in previous blog), and yet he retained his belief in a creator God who was the author of life. Darwin saw glory and majesty in the awesome developments of life on earth, and the reaction of his detractors reveals more about their form of exegesis than it does about Darwin’s precepts. His detractors (and even his dear wife) were products of their culture and believers in a the prevalent (but particularly modern) idea of Christianity that interpreted scripture to mean that mans physical body was made in the image of God, and that therefore, to accept the theory and implications of evolution would be to render their...

I used to get asked what I believe in by people. However it happens less nowadays and I'm thinking it is probably because there is an assumption on the part of folk that if I am a Christian, a church leader and an evangelical that I must believe in xyz, so why bother to ask. Such is the distortion of the image of evangelicals in the public mindset that some have (understandably) abandoned the title altogether. The problem I have with doing that is that you abandon the wonderful testimony of the early evangelicals who did not believe or practice that which many who currently claim the title do. In my view the label 'evangelical', much like the label 'Christian' is something still worth fighting to redeem in peoples imagination, if only to honour those who have gone before. So for those of you who want to take a shot at my beliefs as an evangelical, before you take aim here is a brief list of 20 things I don't believe in (and which annoy me most intensely when peo...

The recent experience of walking my beautiful daughter down the aisle on her wedding day is something I have few adequate words to describe. The whole day was a epiphany from beginning to end. After my father of the bride speech it appears that I had caused not a small number of, mostly , but not entirely, women to cry. Without going into my merits or otherwise as a father, I have been struck afresh by the very real power of a father, and how witnessing (or being part of) that relationship at its best can awaken the deepest emotions in all of us. Post wedding research revealed that my words as a proud father that day made people cry through emotions stirred on a wide spectrum. Some were identifying with a positive experience in knowing thier own father, and my proud words of affirmation were resonating with memories of words their own fathers may have spoken over them. Others were apparently dissolved by the pain of shame and anger at the memory of harsh or absent fathers, and being ...

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