suffering
It was my very first training seminar with Langham Preaching. April 2009. We were based at the OMF Guest House in Chiangmai, Thailand. As I wandered the property, I came across this striking quotation on one of the walls: So striking, in fact, that I stopped to take its photo! But is it really true?…
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I’ve been feeling a hymn-shaped gap opening up in my spirituality. No one sings the ones I truly love anymore. I miss their sustaining strength in my life. So, I’ve decided to do something about it. I’ve dug out the old hymnbook from which I selected songs as a pastor. And I am working my…
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Today is Day 56—and on Day 57 we board a flight for home. There has been so much to absorb as Barby and I have encountered the people of God in different places. el-christo, in bolivia A few days before we left NZ, I discovered that I had five sessions to give in Pakistan. Yikes.…
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When we lift our eyes to the world around us, there are so many reasons to lament. It is overwhelming, isn’t it? In recent days it has come into even greater focus through experience, conversation—and song. Sunday Sermon Our young senior pastor (Dave) is admitted to hospital with a chest infection and then, within hours,…
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Maria lived through the Nazi occupation of Holland. At one point, at 11 years of age, she pushed her pram down a road lined with soldiers, transporting a forbidden radio hidden under her dolly. Imagine it. Suddenly, I have this inner stirring to be a movie director. That is not all. Her family hid two…
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The last time I was in the Blue Mountains, in 2011, a funeral was on my mind. My father had died in Auckland on a Wednesday. The funeral was set for the following Monday. And I faced the dilemma of whether to fulfil a commitment to speak at a mission conference in Katoomba from Friday…
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There can be no doubt about what is on Vince Bantu’s mind with his book, A Multitude of All Peoples. It is sitting there, blunt and bald, in the opening two sentences of his Introduction: “Christianity is and always has been a global religion. For this reason, it is important never to think of…
READ MORE“Oops!… I did it again.” Yep — reading a book while pursuing every imaginable Wikipedia, Google Maps and YouTube distraction. Why is the story so compelling? It’s been called the ‘Stalingrad of the East’. ‘Britain’s Thermopylae’. More significantly, ‘in 2013, it was voted as Britain’s greatest battle after a debate at the National Army…
READ MORECovid has turned my heart towards the poor once again. Poverty is not just a material issue. It is a choice issue. The wealthy have options, by definition. They can choose to be vaccinated, or not to be — while so many among the poor just keep waiting for a vaccine, a second vaccine and…
READ MOREIf you are attentive to the news, there is a lot of pain to feel in the world today. Income Gaps. Loneliness. Housing Affordability. Health Care Availability. Unemployment. Child Poverty. Gross Domestic Product. Tax Rates. Youth Suicide. Refugees. Homelessness. Fossil Fuels. Vaccination Rates. Broadband Speed. Mathematics Literacy. It goes on and on. The data is…
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the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.