Monthly Archives: December 2020
The vast majority of those living in the United Kingdom will have only known one monarch. Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in 1952 which means you would need to be in your mid-seventies to remember her predecessor and father King George VI.
It would be hard to find anyone on the planet with a broader wealth of life experience given her array of duties which include meeting people and dignitaries from cultures all around the world throughout such a long time period. It is staggering to think the fourteen different UK Prime Ministers have sworn allegiance to her since she ascended to the throne, the first of which was Sir… Continue reading
As we approach the end of an extraordinary year, we focus again on the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The traditional texts at this time of year are the nativity accounts in Matthew and Luke which explore Jesus’ birth from our earthly perspective. However, the opening verses of John’s gospel focus on the nativity from the spiritual perspective. The focus is not so much on Jesus’ birth, but on our ‘re-birth’!
Danny preached a sermon last Sunday on John 1:1-14 where he unpacks this in relation to Jesus’ birth – feel free to listen below:
As we approach the end of 2020, we reflect on what has been a monumental year. A year we will believe that will prove to have greatly accelerated the world towards the coming end-time climax as outlined in Scripture. Our respond to Covid-19 has been the main catalyst to this and the mainstream media has been bombarding us with worst-case scenarios and gloomy predictions.
This is led to a variety of negative responses within society such as increased anxiety, worry and tension. This is all epitomised by a climate of fear. Fear is defined as an ‘unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain or harm’.… Continue reading
There may not be a year in recent history that we’re more glad to get to the end of than 2020! As we are in December and approaching Christmas, people know that the end of the year is near. Typically, once their Christmas holiday starts, the festivities begin, and then not back at work until a New Year begins. For this reason, and particularly this year, people have been wanting Christmas to start sooner, encouraging the decorations to go up in November to help the ‘Christmas spirit’. The real reason for Christmas is all but lost in our society, advent time is now more about Christmas parties and having a… Continue reading
2020 will go down in history as one of the most eventful years of our generation. While it is a year that most people want to see the back of, it should really act as a catalyst to grab our attention! 2020 has seen major events that will undoubtedly shape our future – there will be no going back to ‘normal’ as new ways and ‘rules’ will be introduced that will be here to stay. This should be a wake up call to each of us to look at what is happening around the world and see that we are heading to events of Biblical proportions.
Natural disasters
The year… Continue reading
Taking any Bible verse in isolation should always be done cautiously and will often lead to a distorted view of Scripture. The context and co-texts around any Bible passage are crucial when seeking an accurate interpretation. It is not unusual to be confronted with a barrage of isolated verses that are used to attack or silence someone, usually within the church environment. The ‘Do Not Judge’ phrase used by Jesus Christ is one of the classic examples and may well be the most misused verse in the Bible.
‘Do not judge, or you too will be judged.’ (Matthew 7:1 NIV)
This verse is often used as though it is the… Continue reading