Blog
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Devotional of the week: Hebrews 11:8–12 (4 in series)
Strangers and foreigners By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country… (Hebrews 11:8–12) …
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Devotional of the week: Hebrews 11:4–7 (3 in series)
Holy fear By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. (Hebrews 11:4–7, TNIV) The unknown writer of the book of Hebrews was warning…
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Devotional of the week: Hebrews 11:1–3 (2 in series)
By faith “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.” (Hebrews 11:1–3, NIV) By faith Abel… By faith Enoch… By faith Noah… By faith Abraham… By faith Sarah… Hebrews 11 is chock-full of ordinary people who believed that…
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When life changes in a moment – or not
A second can change everything. Yesterday my husband and kids were meeting me at my parents’ home for dinner. They arrived in a jumble, the story spilling out of my children in fragments before Nicholas was able to park the car and come into the house: PyelotSon: “An idiot/jerk almost hit us!” he said with…
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Twentysomething choices
My niece is turning 20 soon, that wonderful decade of exploring identity, building relationships, entering into the world of independence and adulthood. It can be a time of searching and experimentation; a time of solidifying who we are. My smart and hard-working niece has known since she was 10 that she wanted to pursue a…
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Devotional of the week – Hebrews 11 (1 in series)
Faith in Action Having delved into Psalm 18 over the past weeks, next I’d like to look at Hebrews 11, which I believe is one of the great passages in the Bible. It’s the long list of people from the Old Testament whom the writer to the Hebrews commends as heroes of the faith. These…
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Becoming ourselves – Agnes Sanford
I love hearing about heroes of the faith, especially those who might be overlooked today. One is Agnes Sanford, a pioneer in the healing-prayer movement in the twentieth century. Before she died at the age of eighty-four in 1982, Newsweek magazine hailed her as one of six people who shaped religious thought in the twentieth…
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Devotional of the week: Psalm 18:46–50
The Lord lives! The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Saviour! He is the God who avenges me, who subdues nations under me, who saves me from my enemies. You exalted me above my foes; from violent people you rescued me. Therefore I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;…
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Just say no
Two years ago the world-famous theologian, pastor, author, and visionary, John RW Stott, died on 27 July 2011. I remember joining nearly two thousand others in St Paul’s Cathedral at his memorial service: archbishops and bishops were there; former churchwardens and vicars galore; scholars and publishers and laypeople. But missing were his wife, children and…
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The things we love
All the talk of royal babies has got me thinking about the beloved cuddly toys of childhood. Do you still have a favorite stuffed animal? I do; my bear with its sewed-up neck peeks out in my study, more a thing of sentiment than of love these days. It’s old, musty, and is marked with…
