firebrandnotes

We’re All Changing: ‘I want’ to ‘they need’

There are two kingdoms: the claustrophobic kingdom of self and the expansively glorious Kingdom of God. One is a kingdom riddled with small-minded selfishness and the other is one saturated with the transforming love and grace of Jesus. The mind-sets of ‘self’ and ‘others’ collide. As believers we are fundamentally subjects of only one Kingdom butContinue reading “We’re All Changing: ‘I want’ to ‘they need’”

Just As You Are

Hello Blogg (ers)! I have been having a rest from blogging over the last year – it has been a good break. One of the main themes of all my prayers is the on-going ask that Paul had that the Father would grant a Spirit of wisdom and revelation to the NT (Ephesians 1:17) churchContinue reading “Just As You Are”

Adopted! Romans 8:14-16

The Holy Spirit of adoption compared with the spirit of slavery. It’s like the difference between sitting on your Dad’s knee eating a Werthers Original compared to being trapped hopelessly in a child slavery camp: Loved unconditionally, understood, empowered, protected, believed-in, rescued, highly esteemed and cherished, pleasing. Compared to being over-worked, under-fed, beaten, abused, exposed,Continue reading “Adopted! Romans 8:14-16”

RNX – Becoming What We Are

My, my, my…what a very cool church we have here in Bradford, UK. (www.alm.org.uk). We are in the middle of celebrating 10 years of Rock Nations, a youth conference with plenty of differences. When I was 15 in 1995, we had summer camps in vacated schools and for 2 or 3 days where we used toContinue reading “RNX – Becoming What We Are”

Let’s Remember Them

Living as a Christian in 21st Century England is easy. It might not always feel easy, but it really is. There are no laws prohibiting Bible reading or praying to Jesus or talking about Him in public places. There aren’t any government-sent army soldiers knocking on the door of your life-group to demand youContinue reading “Let’s Remember Them”

Love and War

It is true to say that the right book in the right hand at the right time can literally save a life. And the power of someone’s testimony in the right hand at the right time is spectacularly powerful, let alone a husband and wife’s. In “Love and War” John and Stasi Eldredge have ‘bared all’ toContinue reading “Love and War”

Get Low

We all know that God likes it when we’re humble and He’s not very happy when we’re proud and arrogant. How is it then that we often struggle to take the last spot in the queue or the smallest bit of pizza from the Domino’s box? Why do we insist on giving ourselves the bestContinue reading “Get Low”

Go And Make 2010 Happen

Jeremiah 33:3 – ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ One of the things I regularly think about is the future. It might be a future week, a future year or even a future decade. It might be that I’m thinking about a significantContinue reading “Go And Make 2010 Happen”

Ginger beards and shell-suits

The other day I was running along a canal near to where I live in Bradford and I was praying as I started picking up speed. As I was running this particular day, a young chap with a bright ginger beard, a caring face and a full-length shell-suit caught my heightenedContinue reading “Ginger beards and shell-suits”

No-one Like You God

In Exodus 15:11 the phenomenal prophet, Moses, says, “”Who among the gods is like you, O LORD ? Who is like you— majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” Today, often in the shadow of Islamic mosques, Jehovah’s Witness call-outs and the world’s obsession with political correctness, the prophetic accuracy ofContinue reading “No-one Like You God”