Preaching with a purpose

I remember as a teenager in the sixties that we were all afraid of imminent nuclear war.   Today no one seems to feel this anymore.   Why is this?   I was hearing on the T.V. this evening that America and Russia still have nuclear weapons aimed at each other with button primed for immediate use.   So why does this get spoken of so rarely? I would say that most people are more worried about a terrorist   bomb, when they are on holiday than they are about huge devastation in a nuclear exchange.   The fact is people are so set on making money and buying the latest gadget, the things they believe they must have to be happy.   Also to contemplate nuclear devastation is not comfortable and so denial kicks in.   The danger of nuclear war is probably greater now than in the Cold War.   The reason I am less worried about it is because I believe God is in charge of all these things and He knows best.   That does not mean that it will not ha...

Every now and then the world seems on the brink of disaster with different world powers posturing against one another and danger seems imminent.   The truth is we are always on the brink but make ourselves a cozy bed in denial. Many of us are cushioned by being in a less danger situation at least close to home.   For us disaster is something remote in the Mediterranean where migrants drown because their boats are not sea worthy. We say, “Poor things.” And turn back to our comfortable lives. But the biggest danger we face, no matter where we come from is danger from God.   We are all sinners having inherited this problem from our first father and mother Adam and Eve.   If we think about God at all we may try to please him with the good deeds we do.   But the problem is God requires us to be absolutely perfect!! He knows that is impossible for us if left to ourselves and so in His kindness and mercy He sent Jesus to die on the cross so that absolutely any...

This is a thorny topic.   My own mother-in-law was a very gentle person who never interfered, except to buy cards for my birthday and other occasions for my husband to give me.   I always knew that she had done this because the cards had corny verses of a sickly sweet kind which made my husband and I giggle. So how am I shaping up as a mother-in-law?   There is always the temptation to interfere with my years of wisdom.   It is hard to stand back when you know the right way to do things.   But standing back and letting the young couple get on with sorting themselves out is the most important thing you can do for them. How are they going to learn to swim in family life if you keep dragging them out of the water?   Plying them with money is also very bad.   How are they going to learn to budget for themselves if there is always a slush fund waiting to bail them out? So my advice on being a good mother-in-law is, “Keep your hands off.” After all ...

Recently I decided to lose some weight.   I had a little health scare that turned out to be nothing, but by then it had given me the impetus to lose weight.   I set myself some targets to tick off on the way.   I had books from a well known slimming group from a previous time when I had slimmed with them.   I decided I would do it alone as long as I was succeeding.   After all why pay out good money for something I was confident I could do on my own. Since February I have lost a stone.   That’s fourteen pounds to my American friends. I’ve plateau-ed a bit now but I’m getting through that.   I’m keeping a diary of what I eat and comparing it with my daily weight.   Yes, I know they tell you to weigh once a week, but I find it helpful to keep a close eye on things and it doesn’t discourage me because I can usually see a reason for any ups and downs in weight.     So how much value do I put on physical well-being within the pic...

Quite often in  life we have little accidents.  We need to realize that these could so easily have turned into big disasters. Maybe the electric blanket caught fire to your bed clothes when you forgot to switch it off in the morning, but something made you check your bedroom and you discovered the problem quickly and were able to switch off the blanket and stop the bed clothes from doing more than smoulder.  Did you thank God that disaster was avoided? You could have lost everything! We take for granted how God is looking after us and we are not thankful enough.  Even when involved in a big disaster as has recently happened in Canada, although many have lost a great deal, still they have escaped with their lives and being resiliant people will, in time rebuild their lives.   The biggest disaster that faces us is death and the question of where we will spend eternity.  Even this God has provided for us, salvation in Jesus, if we will just put our trust in ...

I wonder what took you away and I wonder what brought you back.  Perhaps you see that I am a fan of Danil Pluzhnikov who recently won Voice Kids on Russian T.V. What a wonderful singer he is. I am praying for his safe keeping as there are many pitfalls in Show biz.  I see he now has is own website.  My Russian learning is progressing but not very good yet so I have been glad to use Google Translate when I want to know what is being posted on Daniel's Russian version of Face Book.  the translation is almost immediate but sometimes does not quite convey the right meaning, but it is a useful tool.   For those of you who don't know Daniel, he is 13 year's old, is 98cms tall but has a great personality and sings with such passion.  Even when you don't know what he is singing about he stirs the emotions.  Why not take a look at his website or find him on YouTube?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgQsKzx1kLk I think this will take you there.   As I wat...

My daughter has a four-year-old and baby twin boys.  They live in the same village as I do, deep in rural Devon.  As they live so near to me I get to see them lots.  This impresses on me how important it is to play a part in their upbringing.  Even more important is this for the parents and particularly the mother.  I just want to say to all you Moms and Grandmas out there, never under estimate the value of what you can teach your little ones, passing on the important things about life that you have already learnt over many years. If you are fortunate enough to be able to spend time with the children and not go to work don't under value what you do.  In Britain most children are out of the house very early to be dropped off at their child minder's and not picked up again until the early evening.  By then they are tired and soon in bed, so what input can their parents give them. Today's parents feel they have to earn more to give their kids "a good life...