Holy Saturday (or Easter Saturday as I have always called it) is a strange day. Often so quiet. Rarely discussed.

Yet I think there is so much we can learn from this day about following Jesus, and our need for Him.

The first Holy Saturday was a day without hope. A day of grief and despair for followers of Jesus. The previous day they had seen their leader tortured and crucified, publicly humiliated and seemingly defeated.

Jesus body was in the tomb, sealed in (see picture left). It wasn’t rolled away and there seemed no chance of it.

The disciples themselves were hidden away, fearing for their lives.

They had put their faith in Jesus. They had given up their livelihoods and possessions to follow Him, surrendered their lives as they knew them. They had lived with Him, eaten with Him and trusted that He was the Saviour foretold in the Holy scriptures.

They had no doubt He was the one who had come to save them, to liberate them. In their eyes to rescue them from the Romans.

Now He was dead.

Gone. Continue Reading…

It’s Good Friday. Today in our Passion series we come to Jesus on the cross.

He has been abandoned, betrayed, let down, humiliated, misrepresented, beaten up, tortured, publicly stripped naked and rejected by almost everyone.

He asks God why He is forsaking Him.

Now there’s a time and place to talk about doubt and faith. That’s not what I want to examine today.

But in this moment, Jesus asks why. Again, associating Himself with us.

How often do we ask why suffering happens and get no answer?

How often when life gets disrupted and we suffer, or when we get rejected or abandoned, do we ask why and simply get silence?

The simple answer is that most of us have done this, at one time or the other. We’ve all had these moments.

Often, however, we always get the answer later.

Jesus, when He asks the question of why God has forsaken Him, is quoting the beginning of Psalm 22 knowing it’s ending:

“He has done it”

Jesus is trusting that God will take care of the ending of the story. Continue Reading…

Welcome to the first post of my series on Jesus’ Passion. We begin today, Maundy Thursday, the evening Jesus was arrested.

So let’s try and picture the scene. Jesus has been in Jerusalem all week preaching. It is now late Thursday, going into Friday. Jesus has had a last supper with the disciples and broken bread with them. Judas has already gone to fetch those who will arrest Him.

Now to Gesthemene.

Jesus goes on ahead, and prays. He tells His disciples that His soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.

A sorrow so deep in His soul that it is taking over His physical body.

He knows what lies ahead. He knows the path laid out for Him. He knows what He must do.

He grasps it so fully it is overwhelming Him.

So He prays, and He is brutally honest in His prayers.

“take this cup of suffering from me…” Continue Reading…

As many of you will be aware, this week is Holy Week. The week we remember the week leading up to and including Jesus arrest, crucifixion, death and resurrection.

This is a week absolutely fundamental to all of us who choose to follow the way of Jesus, the week that makes all other things possible, that culminates with the fulfillment of true hope.

So this week, I will be posting a series of posts – one each day from Maundy Thursday, reflecting on the events of the week and how they speak to us, what they mean for us.

But I’ll be trying to move beyond the obvious and take some quotes, perspectives and events from the story that are less reflected on and examining them. Continue Reading…

I’ve lost count of the number of discussions I’ve now had online about the reality of social media. (Anyone else see the irony of that statement?  Yes, me too). I’ve also now had a fair few requests for more posts on the subject.

Funnily enough this was all perfect timing, given I’d just written a few posts on the subject. I’m also working on an e-book on the subject, which hopefully will be published toward the end of the year.

Social media is going to become one of the ongoing discussions on this site, and I hope to be blogging on it a bit more from now on.

I want to discuss issues around this subject as wide-ranging as like today – the reality of this realm – to how we can live without it, and cannot replace physical interaction.

So let’s begin with the absolute basics. The difference between digital and virtual.

On one level it would seem simple enough to discuss the reality our interactions on social media and the honesty or otherwise of the comments we post in those domains.

The problem is the same one that you often find in a lot of big discussions.

It misses the point. Continue Reading…

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. Continue Reading…

For so much of my life I’ve tried to control everything. Relationships, work, creativity, circumstances.

Even my faith.

Yes, I’ve tried to control God.

Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? On the face of it it sounds patently absurd, no matter what your view of God is like, when you hear the term ‘God’ you don’t think of a being you can control. The whole idea is impossible.

But I’ve tried to do it nevertheless. There are several cunning ways my soul comes up with to do this, many of which I do without even making a conscious decision to do so.

First, I can get angry with God and make demands and accusations of Him, which are patently ridiculous and make assumptions about His character which in reality I know aren’t true.

Second, I don’t give Him a chance to respond. I don’t spend enough time listening to Him to hear what He has to say in response.

Third, I restrict God to human boundaries – I treat Him like He’s human and sees things from my limited perspective. This above all is something that it’s so easy to do that I often don’t realise I’m doing it. Continue Reading…

Depeche Mode once recorded the song, ‘Enjoy the Silence’ – a great tune. But how much do we ‘enjoy silence’?

In my experience silence is something that can be, certainly at first, very uncomfortable.

Awkward.

Strange.

Thoughts rush through our mind, things from within. You suddenly remember things you had to do, errands you had to run, things you need to buy, places you need to be.

As silence wraps its cloak around you, your mind begins to churn out things just to fill the gaps.

Because silence exposes us.

It strips us bare.

It makes us naked. Continue Reading…

Today is Mother’s Day, and we come to the conclusion of my series about my Mother’s story. When she was first ill, she met with a therapist, and during that time wrote a lot of poetry in order to process what she was going through.

In many ways today is the end of one series and the beginning of another, as I will be sharing a couple of these over the next few weeks.

But on Mother’s Day, I felt it was entirely appropriate to post a poem she wrote about myself and my sister – who were 8 and 4 years old respectively at the time (the photo below was taken a few years earlier…)

It’s called ‘Let not the children suffer’ and in many senses it is a prayer asking for protection over us, a poem written out of the overflow of the heart. It was birthed out of her deep love for us and desire for us to be protected from what she was going through.

It is relatively short, but I still find it moving to this very day, and I hope on Mother’s Day it provides comfort, encouragement and inspiration to you too. Continue Reading…

When Jesus rose from the dead, the first person to see Him was important. They would be the first person to preach the gospel, to teach people the good news that the Son of God had been raised from the dead – indeed, to tell Jesus disciples He had been resurrected. Such an amazing privilege, and a huge responsibility – whoever that person was would be remembered for the whole of history.

Now some theological standpoints would say this role – to teach the gospel, the give the message of Christ to His people, would of course have to be a man. Of course it’s a man, only a man would be trusted to teach the gospel for the first time.

It has to be, if the traditionalists and complimentarians are correct in their theological beliefs. Otherwise their views would simply fall apart wouldn’t they?  Anyway, at that point in history, in that culture, a woman’s testimony wasn’t valid in a court of law, so there’s so chance it could be a woman.

Could it?

Hold on a moment.

Let’s have a look at scripture for a second. In Luke, we see it was three people named Mary Magdalene, Joanna and another woman named Mary who were the first to see the empty tomb and tell the disciples of the resurrection. In John, Mary Magdalene is the first one to see Jesus risen and tell the disciples.

So what do these three people have in common?

That’s right. They are all women. Continue Reading…