When the prison door opens…

Have you ever had a defining moment, where everything in your relationship with God changed? Shifted in some almost-intangible way? It might have been the moment when things finally ‘clicked’ for you, the point someone prayed for you? Or it might have been a dream, a vision, or particular church service or experience. But somehow […]

I got trolled…

I got trolled! My last blog post on the subject of Joel Osteen generated some pretty negative online responses from strangers.  Within an hour of posting, I’d sent several rather nasty comments straight to the Spam folder, which among other things, accused me of making up the story and oh, my particular favourite, the suggestion that […]

When celebrities do good things…

I was watching a TV chat show the other night. You probably know the kind; celebrity interviewer deposits 3 or 4 other celebrities on a sofa, grills them lightly with safe, pre-arranged questions, all the while hoping there won’t be a monstrous clash of VIP egos.   Usually, the celebs are wheeled in by eager-eyed […]

Are you a ‘Spiritual’ Christian? 

Growing up in the Pentecostal church, there were mostly two kinds of people; those who were ‘spiritual’ and those who were not.  In that context, being ‘spiritual’ meant to chase after whatever God was saying, to be fascinated by the unseen world, to understand (and use) spiritual gifts.   In short, you’d know a ‘spiritual’ […]

God in a box

I follow about 140 people on Twitter; a mish mash of friends, preachers and thinkers. It’s mostly a news feed of Christian ‘stuff’ and news with the occasional wander into the interesting world of Richard Dawkins.   Now, I know it’s  unfair to judge others’ relationship with God, based on what they tweet about, but […]

Don’t get a big head: stop disaster in its tracks.

When I was a kid, I loved the story of Esther. A family friend gave me a tape cassette with an accompanying book (in rhyme) of the story and I listened to it so many times, I eventually wore the tape out.  Most great stories have a goody and a baddy and the evil villain […]

I’m a Christian…because…

In early December, the hashtag #ExMuslimBecause briefly trended, followed up swiftly by #ExChristianBecause. Both trends told stories of people who’d given up on religious belief for lots of different reasons;  #exChristianbecause I can find more wisdom in Harry Potter than in the Bible.  #exChristianbecause I don’t need to fear eternal punishment to be a good […]