Christian Focus

Paul Wells

Books on Christian Growth often follow one of three basic approaches. The most common of these follows a systematic theology model, sometimes taking into account the order of salvation, or more often focussing on biblical sanctification or holiness. The second type focusses more exclusively on holiness and practices that promote it, such as prayer. More recently the tendency is toward down to earth Christian self–help manuals, majoring in ‘how it feels’ to be a believer or how to tackle mental heal

Emily J. Maurits

If you’ve ever read a fantasy book or watched a fantasy film, you’ll know that a common trope is that the protagonist is often the prophesied ‘chosen one’. They are called to stand up as a hero and save their people because it was ‘written in the stars’ before they were born, or promised by an old seer, or revealed in a dream.

Eryl Davies

That is no exaggeration. As a nine–year–old boy in a mid–week children’s’ meeting in our village Presbyterian church in North Wales, during the winter months an elderly lady serialised the story of Thomas Charles (1755–1814) on a weekly basis. And it was exciting. In fact, I remember being one of the children who wanted her to carry on with the story. Why wait a week before hearing more? We were enthralled. ‘No’, was her firm and regular response, ‘come again next week and hear more’.

Graham Hooper

There is no such thing as untested Christian faith.
Testing is part of Christian experience. Not in the sense that God sets us tests we have to pass to qualify to be Christian. If he did, none of us would make the grade! But our Christian faith is tested and ‘proved’ in life generally when we face sickness, bereavement, and family problems, or when we experience doubt, depression or injustice. We naturally start wondering, ‘Is God really there? Does he care about my life? Why do I have to wait so

Margaret Roberts

I don’t know about you, but I feel tired. When people ask how I am, I am inclined to answer, “busy,” and hurry on with my life. Between work commitments, personal commitments, church commitments, weddings, hen parties, travel, I’m starting to sympathise with Bilbo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings when I said, “I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter over too much bread.”

David A. Smith

We all have them. ‘Yuk’ moments. Some notice them. Some are unaware of them. Some ignore them. Many form addictions in an attempt to eradicate them. What are they? They are those moments when for whatever reason we feel a lack of fulfilment and purpose and a feeling of emptiness washes over us instead.

Linda Finlayson

Have you been following the space exploration that NASA and other groups are doing? I like to check in on the Mars mission that began in 2020 with the launch of the rover that the scientists have named Perseverance. Perseverance was launched in July 2020 and landed on the planet Mars on February 18, 2021. That was a long trip, and all would have been wasted if the rover had not landed safely.

Margaret Roberts

We’re delighted to introduce the newest member of our team, Julian Gittings.

When I was in elementary school, our physical education classes took one day (I think it was every April) for students in each grade to run a timed distance race. By the time I was eleven years old, the distance for my grade was a mile. I remember we would be on the car park near our school, and the idea was to run down to an orange cone, back to the starting line, back to the cone, back to the line…until we had covered the mile distance.

Luke H. Davis

Our family felt both excitement and anxiety. In June 2008, we were flying halfway around the world for our son’s Make–A–Wish trip to Germany. We were overjoyed to be going to a place we’d never been. And yet, the fact we’d never been to Germany caused our nerves to erupt. How would we get our train tickets to go on our various outings? Would there be restaurants within walking distance of our hotel in Berlin? So many other questions popped up even before we boarded our flight for Germany. We were g