Sins are pushing ourselves away from God You know that sermon, the ones where we are asked, "Do you want more of God?" I would reply, "Yes, I want more of God." If people who wanted more of God were to be asked to come forward for prayer, I may well be amongst them. In …
Author: balaam
I am married with one wife, three grown kids, one cat and no hair.
Other people: Othering people
"People from other countries are not like us," starts so many racist statements. That is the bigger part of the problem. Another part is double empathy, we judge them because they do things differently to us. How desperate do you need to be to trust yourself to the open seas in a rubber boat? Seeking …
We all have an insight that can help someone else
Holy Trinity Church, Huddersfield, Sunday 20th September, 2020 Developments this week:The government has introduced the further restrictions to prevent the second wave of Covid-19 from getting out of hand, which is good. The restriction is simple which is good. The restriction come with all sorts of exceptions which will make it difficult to enforce, which …
Continue reading We all have an insight that can help someone else
Psalms of ascent: What a long strange trip it’s been*
Embrace the disillusionment and rant on. Reading the songs of ascent in sequence as a journey that started with a rant and moved through disillusionment into praise, then back into disillusionment and back into praise again. If you think you know how spiritual journeys are supposed to go then either these psalms have got it …
Continue reading Psalms of ascent: What a long strange trip it’s been*
The judgement of God
Reconciling God's judgement and God's grace God's judgement means that sin will not go unpunished.God's grace means that we do not get what we deserve.God's love means that we are all cared for. How do we reconcile these things? God’s judgement. God's judgement has traditionally been seen in terms of Hell fire, I have no …
Real power comes from God
Reboot and rebuild - Resist and persist Holy Trinity Church, Huddersfield, Sunday 13th September 2020 As far as the Pape household are concerned as our Granddaughter has started school this week I have taken on a new role, of twice a week child collector, taking over from being the full day child minder on Mondays …
Arrival – Psalm 134
The end of the road We are there. We have got to the end of the psalms of ascents. The pilgrims on their journey to Jerusalem have been singing these songs on the way, now they are at their destination, Jerusalem. This may be the last of the psalms of ascents, but it is not …
How long will the pandemic last?
People are still scared, some are frustrated. How long are these restrictions to our freedom going to go on. I am not being pessimistic here, but there are people with unrealistic expectations, talking about us coming out of the Covid-19 crisis as if it is already happening, we are in the first stage of controlling …
Reboot and rebuild, using Jenga blocks
Holy Trinity Church, Huddersfield, Sunday 6th September 2020 Holy Trinity Church, Huddersfield from Trinity Street. A good week. The extra lockdown restrictions on our side of Kirklees were lifted on Wednesday, which coincided with us looking after our granddaughter for two days. So a visit to the Lindley Children's Bookshop, and then the day after …
Harmony – Psalm 133
Unity not uniformity Politicians like to talk about freedom and unity. Freedom is often the freedom for their supporters to ride roughshod over everyone else,and unity means everybody doing as they tell them to do. Ironically the ones who talk most about freedom are often those whose politics are the most authoritarian. Psalm 133 A …
