I stumbled on this blog post by a friend of mine. It’s about the idea of being “open-but-cautious” to the Holy Spirit. http://jamesheth.blogspot.com/2011/04/open-but-cautious.html Favorite quote: If you were to meet a stranger on the street – and they were to say “I’m open but cautious about Jesus.” What are the thoughts that jump into your mind? What [...]

What do we mean when we say that God was present or not present somewhere? I often hear people talk as if God wasn’t present or doing anything at a particular group or church meeting. At the same time I hear others react by insisting that God is everywhere, always present when 2 or 3 [...]

An older man from Newcastle Methodist church recently (ok, a little longer ago than I care to admit…sorry, Alec…) gave me a tape of a service at their church from about 5 years ago. It’s a healing service they did about a year after the (then) minister’s wife was healed of a very rare, aggressive, [...]

It’s been way too long since we blogged so I thought I’d ease back in with a simple post instead of the mammoth “catch up on the last two months” one. I was thinking this morning about these two verses: John answered, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried [...]

Not my own original thoughts, unfortunately, but those of Carl Medearis, who is one of my missions heros and has influenced and articulated what is in our hearts a lot over the last few years. Carl has been working in the Middle East for many, many years and is refreshingly unorthodox in his methods and [...]

First, Hebrews 7:26 says describes Jesus as “separated from sinners.” How is it that when he was on earth he was described as a “friend of publicans and sinners” (Matt 11:19)? Could it be that our definition of “separated” is messed up? I realize that in Hebrews 7, the author is talking primarily about his [...]

Ange and I were prayer walking down on the main street and promenade of Newcastle this morning. It’s something we’ve been doing on and off since we got here, and lately we’ve organized our schedule so that we’re in the town prayer walking two mornings a week. We pray for Newcastle as a town, for [...]

Just got back from our prayer retreat at the Christian Renewal Centre in Rostrevor. We had such a good time. We went down on Saturday morning and joined them for an all day prayer for Ireland event, which finished around 4pm. We then went for a walk, had dinner and spent the evening reading, praying, [...]

This is so wierd.  We’ve been here long enough now that I sometimes hear a Northern Irish or British accent and think it’s an American accent because it’s sounds so normal.  We were watching a British movie on TV the other day and I totally could not tell what the accents were.  I wasn’t convinced [...]

Hope is like a toddler in the surf, a candle in the draft, a frail child at recess. Hope is held up on the thinnest string: So easily he falls prey to the waves, the wind, the bully’s words. We must guard him, this tender egg. If he hatches he brings a new world, If [...]