Let's face it, we all make mistakes. Being in the wrong is part of the human experience, so when we do, what next? Other people mess up too. Here are five steps to putting things right and avoiding disaster: 1) Fully own the harm caused It was your fault. Accept that, there are no excuses …
Category: God
I will walk with integrity – Psalm 101
The 4th book of Psalms "When will you come to me?" asks David in this psalm. But the idea is not a frightening one to David, God is someone whose presence he welcomes. Unlike the double-standards of the work manager who calls spending time talking to people "networking" when it applies to himself and fellow …
Doing theology is a vulnerable process
I shall start with a quote: Doing theology, daring to speak of God, is always a vulnerable process of self-revealing and becoming, trusting in God’s love and justice. (No wonder those with way too much power and big voices are prone to get a little defensive when new voices dare to speak their truth......!)Revd Dr Ayla …
Get out – Psalm 100
The 4th book of Psalms In churches we hear a lot about confession, and rightly so. The General Confession in the Book of Common Prayer is a bit grovelling, containing the phrase, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Why be miserable when forgiveness is assured? Outdoor praiseFree image on PxHere The 4th book …
The Gospel takes away our right to discriminate
“The Gospel takes away our right forever to discriminate between the deserving and undeserving poor.” - Dorothy Day. I love this quote. God's care for the poor is because they are poor nothing else. It cuts across governments whose attitude to immigrants is less than generous, especially those who have signed up to the 1948 …
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And justice for all – Psalm 99
The 4th book of Psalms I have no idea what God is going to punish Pastor Wilhite for (see the image below). Possibly for his theology. The 4th book of Psalms, those 17 religious songs between psalms 90 and 106, have a theme, God is above us. The layout is like this:Book 1: Psalms 1 …
Where is God in this? — Part viii: The monarchy
The divine right of kings The idea of the divine right of kings, that God had appointed the monarch to have authority and could not be held accountable by parliaments, was popular in Europe from the medieval period. By the sixteenth- and seventeenth-centuries this had grown to mean that the king also had authority over …
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Let the whole world go wild with joy – Psalm 98
The 4th book of Psalms The third psalm in a row that says that God is coming to judge the earth in righteousness. Unlike the manic street preacher I would pass on Briggate when I worked in Leeds, these psalms do not say God's judgement is something to be afraid of. God is coming to …
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Trinity
A poem for Trinity Sunday In the beginning was chaos.Into the chaosthe Spirit of God fluttered over the waterand into a place where there was no lightand a new day dawned,An idea in the mind of the Creator, Spirit, Word Godcame into reality. Into the created world the Word walked.Into the chaosthe Spirit of God …
God’s power – Psalm 97
The 4th book of Psalms In the novel Small Gods by Terry Pratchett, Om, the great god, visits the Discworld*, only to find he is in the form of a small tortoise, he has none of his godly powers. Om has no power because the power of gods depends on the number of believers, and …
Making an ass of myself 