MEDIA WATCH There are more of us than you thought Is there an autism epidemic? Some say so, but the opinion of experts in the autism field is that it is not so. There is no evidence that there are any more autistic people as a proportion of society, but changes in diagnostic criteria, a …
Author: SteveP
I am married with one wife, three grown kids, one cat and no hair.
In the land of the living—Psalm 27
Psalms of David Psalms in Book 1 (Psalms 1 to 41) are primarily personal songs, so I will look at how they apply to us personally. Social and communal aspects of life and work do not come in until the later books of Psalms. I'm back at looking at the psalms after a break for …
Prayer starts here—Colossians 4:2-4
The prayers of Paul This is a series on the prayers of St Paul found in the letters attributed to him in the order he is believed to have written them. Letters to the same place or person will be treated together with the first letter to that destination. Morning prayer by Library of Congress …
Wet naked people
Easter Sunday 2023 If you have seen the title and are looking for porn, I apologise for disappointing you. The title is about the practice in early Christianity to baptise people on Easter Sunday when those baptisms would have been done naked. After the baptism, they would be given white baptismal robes to wear, not …
The day God was dead
Black Saturday You can always tell if a Christian feast is important, not by how we all agree with what to call it, but by how we disagree. Some feasts are so full of meaning that one name is not enough to describe what happened. or in the case of this day, one name is …
God hates
The practical awe of God When deciding what to write during Lent I forgot about the panic of seeing an empty page. On 1st January this year, I said I wanted to regain my awe of God. Then thinking about Lent I wanted to build on the idea that God's gifts are practical, The Holy …
Exile—Habakkuk 3
Psalms not in the psalter Habakkuk Chapter 3 Looking back just over a year ago to February 2022. The news was full of Russian troops gathering in Belarus near the border with Ukraine. Many people are afraid that the Russians will take the opportunity of the Winter Olympics, which are being held in Beijing, China …
Do less
Jesus gives away power Lent 2023 Power is not ours to keep, nor ours to wield over people. As Christians, our job is to follow the example of Jesus Christ in not holding on to power but giving it away. On Fridays this Lent, I shall be looking at the example of Jesus both in …
Decisions
The practical awe of God When I was deciding on what to write during Lent I forgot about the panic of seeing an empty page. On 1st January this year, I said I wanted to get my awe of God back. Then thinking about Lent I wanted to build on the idea that God's gifts …
Restoration—Lamentations 5
Psalms not in the psalter Lamentations of Jeremiah The Lamentations are five psalms that describe the results of Babylon's destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. in detail. The first four chatters are in the form of an acrostic poem, this form using the whole of the Hebrew alphabet in order. The other common element is …
Making an ass of myself 