suffering
After creating ‘lyrics for living’ to be the occasional equivalent of an archaeological dig into the world of ancient hymnody, for the second time in two months, I am reaching for a song written in 2021. What is happening to my world? Is lockdown getting to me? This time last week I was expanding my…
READ MOREYesterday, Covid-19 came close to heart and home, with the death of my friend, Pastor Ohm Prakash, in Pune (India). As is the custom, the funeral took place within a few hours, with a livestream on YouTube which I was able to watch. I am always a bit slow to roll out the great…
READ MOREWinter. Spring. Summer. Autumn. I do enjoy the beauty in each season. Whether it be these familiar four, or tropical twosomes like Wet and Dry, Hot and Less-Hot — there is always beauty to be discerned in each season. Yes, it is even true with those Hot and the Dry climates. Over the years I’ve…
READ MOREIt is 500 days (exactly) since we left Bangalore, with the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic. What a week that was, back in March 2020. After five months without any international travel for Langham (my longest period out of the skies), I had five complex trips planned in the following three months — and I…
READ MOREThe hijack of the word ‘evangelical’ by a bunch of right-wing political fundamentalists, largely in the USA, is one of the sadnesses of our times. That evangelicals, authentic evangelicals, could be identified with a person with a character and legacy like Donald Trump is scarcely imaginable. And yes, I hear them say, all with one…
READ MOREIn January each year two lists are published. 1. List One is the Open Doors’ World Watch List (WWL), identifying the countries where it is ‘most dangerous to follow Jesus’. Persecution is ‘any hostility experienced as a result of one’s identification with Christ’. Although people will quibble, the methodology looks pretty sophisticated, with a simple summary here. Every year…
READ MOREIt is great to be in the garden again. Whether it be horticultural, or human, I love watching growth. It is pretty much my favourite thing to do. I delight in nurturing plants, but also people, to completeness, to maturity, to fruitfulness and to all they are designed to be. The principles and the rhythms…
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Earlier this month, in the space of 24 hours, two video clips arrived in my in-box. One is nine minutes in length. The other is six minutes. Both were recorded a long time ago and are rather limited, technically. Both feature men who were born in the same decade and then who died in the…
READ MORE20/20 has always been associated with a clarity of vision, one that enables a certainty of purpose and a strength of step. But when 2020 finally arrived among us, it has brought confusion, uncertainty – and sickness. The irony is that those of us who have trumpeted our ‘wisdom, wealth and power’ down the decades,…
READ MOREThere are times when worship can be a bit of a worry. Here is one example that came to mind this week, for reasons I’ll explain later. There are two songs ‘out there’ with the same first line: Jesus, lover of my soul. One, written in 1993, starts like this: Jesus, lover of my soul; Jesus, I…
READ MOREAbout Me
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.