Blog
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Devotional of the week: Love, love, love (5 in 1 Peter 4 series)
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8 Recently I was texting a friend, and the auto-correct turned my words into, “I’m paying that God will give you strength today.” Imagine if we had to pay God to answer our prayers! Thankfully no payment is involved,…
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The Irrational Author Ego
If you’re a writer, how do you handle criticism? I’m guest posting today at the Association of Christian Writers’ website, sharing the story of how I felt when I received feedback on my book, Finding Myself in Britain. Not a pretty sight. At Friday, 5pm, I met my deadline. Having pressed “send” to my dozen…
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Devotional of the week: Divine Conversation (4 in 1 Peter 4 series)
“The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.” 1 Peter 4:7 I’m passionate about prayer, including leading retreats called “Adventures in Prayer.” Why? Because prayer opens up a divine conversation, and wonderfully, the Lord loves to meet us. The ways he reveals himself delight,…
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Devotional of the week: Our Life’s Story (3 in 1 Peter 4 series)
They will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 1 Peter 4:5 Some time ago, I was asked to draft, in advance, an obituary for a Christian leader. The task weighed on me, for not only was there no immanent deadline (thankfully, the person was in…
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Devotional of the week: New Self (2 in 1 Peter 4 series)
For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do… 1 Peter 4:3 Last week we talked about suffering and death being out of fashion in our Western world. So too is judgment. Many Christians today fear making public their views on matters of ethics, thinking they will be branded…
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Interview with Julie Klassen
Lovely to feature this interview with Julie Klassen (originally published in Woman Alive), who just won the fiction award for the Minnesota Book Awards with her book The Secret of Pembrooke Park. This makes me happy on many levels, not least because Minnesota is where I grew up but also because I was a reader…
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Devotional of the week – Like Christ (1 in 1 Peter 4 series)
Time for a new devotional series! Let’s delve into some of Peter’s first letter, written probably around the year 60 by Peter, with the help of Silas. Peter writes to the Jewish and Gentile Christians scattered throughout much of Asia Minor. Over the next weeks we’ll be looking at 1 Peter 4:1–11 in depth: Therefore, since…
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The Bible: God’s Word for Life, Love, and Change
Today I have an article on Sacred Reading over at the Kingdom Life Now magazine. Here’s a taste. Recently I led an exercise of meditative reading of the Bible. Four times I read the passage of Isaiah 43:1-8 with instructions to the women with a different emphasis in engaging with the text each time. About…
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Devotional of the week – for writers
On the 13th of every month I’m blogging over at the Association of Christian Writers’ blog. Here’s a taster of today’s entry. For last month’s, on riffing to Psalm 23, click here. “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us… With this in mind, since I…
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A conversation about publishing on World Book Day
I had a lovely time on Premier Christian Radio yesterday chatting about writing and publishing for World Book Day. In prepping for the interview, I found out that World Book Day is celebrated in over 100 countries. Many countries celebrate on April 23 (Shakespeare’s birth and death day!); that’s when the UK marks World Book Night…
