Jesus, I my cross have taken

Jesus I my cross have taken is one of the many x-hundred year old hymns that have been given a new lease of life by overhauling the music it is set to. In the case of this hymn, the music has been reworked by Bill Moore and can be found here. However, the original words are still quite dated. For instance, one of the later verses end with the line ‘child of heaven, canst thou repine?’ Repine? What the heck is that?! I have been asking people for nearly 9 months now (since I first heard the new arrangement) and still haven’t met anyone who knows what that word means.

So, I have set about updating the words (I seem to have a habit of doing things like this) but in such a way that the original sense or meaning is not lost or diluted. Here are my updated words, and I hope the prove useful and uplifting for you and your church.

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World War remembrance wallpaper

World War remembrance artwork

100 years ago Britain entered into the Great War or, as we now call it, World War I. In memory of those who served, fought, sacrificed and died to uphold freedom, and in to honour and fulfil Romans 13:7, I have put together this composite piece to help continue the memory and legacy of brave men and women all those years ago.

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Revelation title slide image

Revelation title slide image

I’ve been getting ready this week to preach on Revelation 19-22 at a youth group weekend away for older teens. Revelation is such a visual book of the Bible rich in imagery, metaphors and biblical theology; I think reading it is the textual equivalent of watching a film in full 4D vision with the volume on 10, the brightness and contrast on max, on a motion simulator.

So, to give me a break every now and then from the work of preparing to preach Revelation, I’ve been working on a piece of composite artwork to act as my title screen. And here it is…

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Faith and Family

Why honouring and obeying parents is a good idea

We live in a cultural context where children are increasingly being allowed not to honour and obey their parents (or anyone else for that matter). For instance, I know of only one or two secondary schools where good behaviour is to be expected and not rewarded. In the majority of secondary schools nowadays it is the opposite. Good behaviour is not expected and so it is rewarded. The distinction is subtle yet has massive implications.

In the fifth week of our sermon series on Faith and Family, we looked at the role of children in our families and saw that Children are to live in the image of Jesus, who loves and obeys his heavenly father (and showed this by loving and obeying his earthly mum and adopted dad). Ephesians 6:1-3 is a key text in setting out the expectation to honour and obey parents, and it gives us three reasons to do this… 

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Faith and Family

The role of the Word in our families

Last weekend I preached the forth sermon in a six sermon series entitled Faith and Family at Romford Evan. The big idea of the sermon, based primarily on Deuteronomy 6:4-9,20-25 was that God gives parents a simple but far-reaching calling: to listen to God’s Word, believe and accept it, and pass it on to their children (and their children, etc). 

In the sermon I shared some observations from Deuteronomy 6, 2 Timothy 3 and the subject of God’s Word in our families generally. For those who need the reminder, here they are…

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Bible by the Beach

Why you should think about going to Bible by the Beach

Over the first May Bank Holiday weekend Kirsten and I, along with a team of volunteers, went to Eastbourne for a relatively new event called Bible by the Beach, where we serve in leading the work with 14-18 year olds. Bible by the Beach started in 2009 with the aim of providing a weekend of Bible teaching that would be easily accessible for people who live in the south east of England. Since then it has seen 6 fruitful years of strengthening and equipping the church to live for Jesus in 21st century Britain.

Nevertheless, I get the feeling that Bible by the Beach is often underestimated or overlooked as a great option for those seeking to spend time growing in their faith. If you are committed to growing as a Christian and you live south of the Watford Gap (or even if you don’t), you really need to think about getting you and your church along to Bible by the Beach, and here are three reasons why…

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Bible preparation

5 things you really need to teach the Bible faithfully

Teaching the Bible can be a joyful task or a daunting task. I find I go through seasons of being able to get into a Bible passage really easily, and then find myself a few weeks later stuck in the mud of my own preparation. No matter whether my preparation has gone well or really badly (and some have been truly shocking!), there are a few things that I simply cannot do without if I want to faithfully fulfil my role as a Bible teacher.

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Which youth ministry language do you speak?

Ask for some chips in the UK and you will most likely end up with oblong batons of potato that have been deep fried in oil and wrapped up in paper. Ask for chips in the US and you will be given a packet of thinly sliced potatoes that have been fried or baked until crispy. The reason for this is that Brits and Americans use the same words but have slightly different understanding of what those words mean. We actually speak a different language to our American cousins.

The same is true in the world of ministry to teenagers. Church members, youth workers, and pastors can all be using the same terminology, but be speaking very different languages.

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Cumberbatch has been at it again…

Since seeing his photobombing efforts at this year’s Oscars, Benedict Cumberbatch has gone up in my estimations. Not least because it seems that Benedict has been photobombing for quite some time now. It is a little known fact that the famous painting ‘The Last Supper’ by Leonardo Da Vinci was actually a second attempt.

Indeed, the first picture was ruined by none other than Mr Cumberbatch himself…

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