Hi there. I’ve not written to you much. We normally do this verbally. But anyway, I have some thoughts to share with you.

I know I’ve not been the perfect disciple. My whole life I’ve attended church, so much so I don’t know a life without it. But both of us know I’m nowhere near perfect. You see my bad habits, the bitter, under-my-breath prayers cursing you, even saying I hate you.

Sometimes I wonder how authentic my faith in you is. I wonder how much I believe in you because simply I’m afraid of the alternative – rather than simply because you’re true.

You see, I can’t bear the thought of a world without you. This place is so dark and messed up. I live in a system which lives to make money, to sell products I don’t need. And I am so much as part of this, almost to the degree where there is no difference.

Is this the radical faith you spoke about?

Is this the counter-cultural life you call me to?

It certainly doesn’t seem like it.

But a world without you? You not being real? I can’t imagine.

What would it be like?

There would still be (more…)

I don’t normally write posts and post them on the same day. I usually take time to edit and refine them, to allow the message to marinade in my heart, before finally sharing it. As a writer who is growing in his gift, it’s a good discipline to learn.

But occasionally you need to take a risk. You need to go out of your comfort zone.

And you just have something on your heart to share which you know needs to get out.

As it is.

Raw and naked for the world to see.

I would think of it as is kind of a ’5 minute Friday’ of my own, on a Thursday, unprompted, unedited, on a theme which has come straight from the heart. It’s even in a different font, because it’s come straight from Evernote & I’m not quite technically savvy enough to change it. That’s how raw it is.

Seriously though, I’d recommend occasional spontaneous writing and sharing to anyone, especially those passionate about writing & creativity. It will unlock thoughts, feelings and questions you never knew existed.

Anyhow, here we go with mine….

 
I want to write words whose power goes beyond words.

I want to write words which open our imaginations to endless possibilties, words which point to infinity, which open our souls to the reality that nothing we can ever describe, experience or imagine can ever truly capture, contain, know, or aptly describe the wonder, love, grace, nature and awesomeness of God, or who He is.

In one way words are very limiting, but if we use them well, they can be liberating.

Words must always be the beginning, never the (more…)

As you’ve probably noticed, this month I’m taking a break from posting new material. There will be more on my reasons and the outcomes of this next month, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

But in the meantime I simply wanted to share with you some of my most read posts from the last 18 months or so.

For each post I’ll share a link to the post along with a small excerpt to give you a taster. I hope you are really blessed by these posts, and I look forward to sharing some new material with you very soon.

Abstinence: A dirty word?

Sex. So often it’s a taboo subject for Christians. I know I’ve never really written on the subject before (more…)

A man owned a beautiful, rare piece of artwork, worth millions. But he was afraid of it being stolen. He decided “I want to keep this safe, where no one can get to it, where it can never be stolen”.

So he puts the painting in a safe in the most secure bank vault in the world. His wife noticed the painting is gone and asked

“Where did the painting go?”. He replies “Oh, I locked it away so it was safe. Now no one can steal it. I know it’s safe now.”

She replied  “Yes, but now no one can marvel at it’s beauty, reflect on it’s meaning and admire the creativity and talent behind it. It might be more safe  but no one can fully appreciate it’s magnificence.”

Many of us are like this with our faith. We want it safe and controlled. We like a nice, secure faith where we know the boundaries and where we stand. It’s much easier to have a relationship with that kind of God.

But it’s not real faith at all.

A faith that’s safe, can’t be faith. (Tweet that here)

If our faith doesn’t allow for questioning, if we cannot explore the mystery of the divine, we are going to miss out on God completely.

We will have a concept of God which we understand, which allows us to practice our faith more easily. But we will not have true intimacy (more…)

As many of you know this is not the only place where you will find my writing. I also guest post for various sites on a fairly regular basis.

This week, however, there’s not just one but two guest posts written by myself which have gone live.

The first of these is on a site called ‘Goins, Writer’ and it’s run by Jeff Goins – who some of you may remember I interviewed a couple of months ago. It’s a site about writing, creativity and how to become more effective and mature in those areas of our live. It has been a big inspiration to me in my own writing and creativity, and for anyone with a creative spirit I would heartedly recommend it. (more…)

Romance. We all love it don’t we? This week was Valentine’s Day – which our consumer society has made a day about romance (I don’t say love, deliberately…if only it were a day about real love) – and there’s nothing like a great romantic story.

Many of us daydream about our own (it’s okay, you can admit it) – and when we’re fed such a diet of rom-coms and Hollywood endings, it’s very easy to get sucked into thinking this is normal.

But this romanticism isn’t something we apply simply to relationships.

It can be easy to over-romanticise every area of our lives – work, relationships, creativity, and of course the supernatural  – and these romantic films certainly encourage this view. It’s so easy, that we can do it without even realising.

For example, I could easily romanticise my writing and creativity.

The romantic in me would simply quit my job, finish my book and then sell it to a publisher. Then of course there’d be the happy ending to the story when it sold millions and millions of copies and was a roaring success.  (more…)

One thing I always want to do is explore and develop my writing and creative gift. One area that’s always fascinated me is the concept of parables – I’ve not really written much fiction in my time, but a good friend recently challenged me to spend more time on some parables and to share those with people, to try to grow in my faith and develop my written and creative gifts.

So over the next few months I hope to be sharing some parables I’ve created with you here. A good parable, for me, is a story which answers some questions and leaves us with more questions, which communicates truth in a way we can understand – I will share more on that topic in a future post.

In the meantime, enjoy my first attempts at a Parable. We begin with ‘The Parable of the Perfect Church Service’: (more…)