Escape to the mountains

Escape to the mountains

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Recently I’ve been thinking  a lot about mountains. Hardly surprising given that I have spent the past two weeks amongst the mountains at Loch Lomond and the Lake District! Mountains are hard to miss. By nature they are big and they impact everything around them. They are places people go for solace, peace, recreation and even for refuge or to hideaway. Over the past twenty years, basically ever since I met Debbie, mountains have been something of a draw for me. As a child…

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Hope: An anchor for the soul

Hope: An anchor for the soul

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While hope is rooted in our expectation of the future there is also an everyday reality that impacts upon us in the here and now. Otherwise whilst we might cling with everything we have to our hope for eternity, we might at the same time feel somewhat hopeless here in the present. If Hope is primarily based upon the promises of God we must recognise that God’s promises are grounded both in the present and the future. God wants us to…

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A hope for all seasons

A hope for all seasons

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Over the last couple of years the theme of ‘seasons’ has been one I (Debbie) keep coming back to in my thinking. The rhythm of life is dictated by the idea of seasons, both in the calendar sense and in terms of phases of life and activity that make up each day, week and month. The Bible is full of examples of seasons. For example, Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden for a season, before they sinned…

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Sharing Hope

Sharing Hope

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During the past few years when I have reflected on hope it has often been through the lens of suffering. When times have been tough my hope in Jesus Christ has inspired me to persevere (1 Thess 1:3). From that hope has sprung the faith and love (Col 1:3-6a) to deal with all that life brings. We trust that we are now moving into a different season of life, not devoid of struggle but somewhat freer of the kind of…

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Making sense of Faith, Hope and Love

Making sense of Faith, Hope and Love

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So its been quite a while since I last posted anything here! We’ve been in Norway (4 weeks), the Lake District (8 days) and my wife Debbie recently spent some more time in the Mother & Baby Unit. Suffice to say that we are now moving into a somewhat calmer season of our year and so as life starts to find the rhythm of its new norm I thought I would post some of my thoughts from the summer. In particular I…

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Hope in anxious times

Hope in anxious times

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I’m conscious that time is ticking on and once again its been a while! In fact its been such a long while that we find ourselves on the cusp of yet another Norwegian adventure which jets off on Thursday morning. Since the arrival of young Aaron we seem to have had a really busy few months and even though the student ministry term finished at the beginning of June this past month has been exceptionally full. A full life is not necessarily a…

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Remembering God’s faithfulness

Remembering God’s faithfulness

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Its been a while since my last post when we announced the safe arrival of baby Aaron. To say that these past six weeks have been difficult for us is probably putting it mildly! A few days after Aaron was born Debbie began suffering again with another bout of Post natal depression. On the advice of the doctors she went back into the Mother & Baby Unit (where she had spent 3 months in 2014 along with Jacob). The rational was partly…

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Hope and Peace: A Child is born

Hope and Peace: A Child is born

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In January I wrote in my blog Unexpected Blessing that we were expecting a fifth baby. It was quite the surprise and in trying to get our heads around the news God has taken us on quite the journey as we have come to terms with His plans for our lives! I used that blog to reflect upon God’s Sovereignty, Wisdom and Love which I used as a framework to think about all that was going on in our lives. You may also…

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Jars of clay: Power made perfect in weakness

Jars of clay: Power made perfect in weakness

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“If you are a child of God, you don’t lose your status if you have a bad week.” Tim Keller A few days ago I shared this quote on social media; I don’t know about you but following our holiday in the Lake District it has been a bit of a challenge to adjust back to work and everyday family life in Southampton. Its definitely not been easy getting out of bed in the mornings! I am not sure whether it was just holiday…

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Easter Hope: The Resurrection

Easter Hope: The Resurrection

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With Easter almost upon us it seemed timely to spend some time considering how our ‘hope’ arises from the events of 2,000 years ago. Specifically my thoughts turn to the importance of the empty tomb and the resurrection of Jesus. The New Testament links the resurrection with hope. In Peter’s first letter he speaks of having been given “new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1:3) and Paul refers to the “hope of the resurrection of…

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