These Lively Oracles

I toasted some scones for myself recently. My American readers might know these as “biscuits”. In the U.K. we call them scones, and that in turn will start a whole other debate about how to pronounce the word. But that’s just an aside – I toasted some scones for myself recently. When they were all nicely browned and the butter on them I went to the fridge to get some jam (jelly). I lifted the jar out and spread some on my food but once I had taken the first bite I knew right away something was not right. I called to my wife, “honey, which shelf do we keep the jam on?” She replied, “It’s on the bottom shelf in the cupboard”. I looked at the fridge. “Noooooo”, I said. “The jam in the fridge”.   “That’s not jam”, she replied. “That’s chutney”. Long story short – The chutney was scraped into the bin and some jam retrieved from the cupboard. I didn’t really enjoy the scones as I knew my lovely wife was glaring at me from the other room. Ofcourse, this is all entirely my fault. It is. Yo...

Life is never simple nor runs smoothly. Not for anyone, anywhere. Particularly when it comes to our past. We all have acquaintances that we don’t really care to keep in touch with. Or we have had jobs that we never really enjoyed and would never really go back there again. There will have been places that we didn’t enjoy being at and we purposely decide not to visit those places again no matter what the circumstance. We all have our various experiences, places, people and scenarios that we would be glad if they stayed in our past. King David, in his later years found himself in a situation that he had been in before. In his youth, David had confidently walked into the Valley of Elah and fought the giant, Goliath. 1st Samuel 17v43 And the Philistine (Goliath) said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods… v50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. Th...

My life has changed. Even during the short time that I have been writing these blogs I have noticed how my life has changed. And although the changes have sometimes been dramatic, my life has been wonderfully blessed. You see, although I no longer volunteer for any church work, my church-life is busier now than it has been for a very long time. Although I didn’t actively go out to mix with friends and socialise, I now have more friends at my local church social group than I have done in a long time. You see, the difference is God. He is the one who makes the changes. When we come to realise that Jesus is the only one we have to look for, then looking for Him is the only thing that matters. I was recently reading about two incidents in the life of King David. Two very, very similar incidents but two very, very different outcomes. And they are to do with King David’s mindset as a king when his armies went to war. In King David’s earlier years he was meant to be away at war with his army ...

Have you ever wanted to just come aside from everything and just take an undisturbed break for a few days? Get away from the troubles and worries of life? And just take time to breath, process your thoughts, knowing that no one will disturb you for a while? It’s something we all need to do at some point in our lives. Some of us will need to do it several times in our life as we grow older and more experienced. We spend years on a career or relationship and we never take the time to take stock, look around, and re-assess our positions. And it’s something we should all be doing, whether it is in a career, a course of study or a long term relationship. We need to stop, rest, look back and then plan forward. David found himself in this position at one time having to get away and hide from King Saul. He ran to a city in the north and asked the local priest for some help in the way of provisions. The priest gave him some bread and told David that there was a sword being stored at the back of...

There is no two ways about it. The christian life is not easy. Not only do we have to face hassles from others around us while we try to stick to our standards, but we also have to fight against ourselves and overcome our own failings and laziness. But our bible talks about “peace” in a different way than society teaches us. In 1st Samuel chapter 17 King Saul had found himself in a situation that he did not know how to handle. He was King over Israel. He and his army were encamped on a hillside along one side of the Valley of Elah. Half a mile away, on the other side of the valley were the armies of the enemy - The Philistines. And they had a very powerful weapon - Goliath. Goliath was a giant. Biblical scholars estimate him to be anything between 6 to 9 feet tall (2.5 – 3 meters). And he was standing in the middle of the valley. He had been coming down into the valley floor every morning and every evening for 40 days – almost 6 weeks – and shouting and intimidating King Saul’s armies....

I have no memory of the event. Yet it still happened. My sister and I were caught up in the middle of it. But I have no memory of it whatsoever. On Friday 21st of July, 1972 atleast 20 bombs went off in Belfast city centre. We were in the city centre that day but I have no memory of any of the events. However, my sister remembers everything. We were both in our early teens and were going to a dental appointment when the carnage started. Apparently I grabbed my sister by the hand and started to run in the direction of home. The whole town was in desperation. People were running away from one bomb and into the path of another. A policeman stopped us from running through the town and toward home. We were at a loss, not knowing what to do next. I don’t think the policeman knew either. So we just stood there at the side of the road. All of a sudden a man mysteriously appeared in a car. He told the police officer that he would make sure we got home safely. He got us into his car and followed...

Too often, when we start to build something or do something in God’s work, we try and second guess God and tell Him what it is that He really needs. Even though we all know that God doesn’t work that way. We still try to take the initiative and get things done. This was evident many times in the bible. But one occasion that I was recently studying brought the message home to me a bit more strongly. I shared in a previous blog about how The Judge Samson, and the Prophet Samuel both lived at approximately the same time period – give or take a couple of years. While Samuel was with the armies of Israel in the Valley of Elah, Samson was 30 miles to the South West fraternising with the Philistines. Samson was imprisoned and made blind, and Samuel was busy grieving over King Saul being rejected by God….. 1st Samuel ch15v35 And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the LORD regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. But God told Sam...

There is a little town mentioned in the bible and very little was ever spoken of it. Or so we thought. It is known as Shechem and is first mentioned away back in Genesis. It is still there today and is about 30 miles north of Jerusalem. It is a strange little place with absolutely nothing to offer except that it is right in the middle of two valleys, one heading north and south and the other coming out of it and heading west to the Mediterranean Sea. And it shares the valley floor with another town called Sychar. Both little towns are only about 2 miles apart and historically they both appeared to share the local water source. A single well. And, like some of the places mentioned in the Bible, although this is just a little place, serving only as a junction or waypoint for travellers, it has proved to be very significant in God’s plans over the millennia and centuries. How many times has God met with us at a juncture in our lives? It was here where God met with Abram and promised him t...

There have been many times in my life that I felt that I have been walking blindly through things. Or even just been so busy that I was concentrating on what was going on around me rather than looking to Jesus. I can think of times when I was involved in large employment schemes, or doing exams. Or even just getting along with life with my friendships and family life. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that I deliberately forgot about God in my life. I didn’t. But sometimes the “stuff” of life just requires my attention. But it has always been good to know that God was always there. Isaac was leading a nomadic life in tents in the desert. He was almost sacrificed on an altar by his father Abraham. But as we can now sit and take a panoramic view of his life we can easily recognise that God was there all the time…. Genesis 26v3 Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. Jacob had a tumultuous lifestyle. Even from his mother’s womb he wrestled with h...

There are a vast number of people who work in christian and church circles who always seem to be nameless and in the background. They busily labour away and are seldom ever seen in the spotlight of church functions or celebrations. They clean the church, do the administration. Look after the various youth groups and organise the music. But no one ever gets to see them while they’re working. Everything just seems to come together during the service and no one is any the wiser for the workers in the background. One of Jesus’ disciples, Andrew, was just such a person. Andrew was the brother of Simon Peter and he had previously been a disciple of John, the Baptiser. And yet, it was Andrew who went and got Peter when Jesus was baptised by His cousin, John. Read the words as recorded by the Apostle John… John 1v40 Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John (the Baptiser) had said and who had followed Jesus. v41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother...