St John's and Kiltermon

    ‘longsuffering with JOY.’ Colossians 1:11 ‘being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience  with joy; ’ New English Version Have you ever needed God to strengthen you? In recent months we have been learning how The Lord has a very particular way of strengthening His Church. It began as we thought about how JOY itself is a grace and gift from the Holy Spirit. ' But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.’ ‘‘Fruit’ here means "the result of labour." The labourer is the Holy Spirit. So what Galatians 5 really describes is the characteristics of a believer who has yielded to the Holy Spirit's work in his or her life. One of these character traits is joy:’ (from Compelling Truth.) The result is JOY as God labours to develop us in faith, and our response as we continue in Him. Simply put, s...

  ‘Where does my help come from?   My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.’     Today has been a good day. The sun has been shining since early morning. The Autumn leaves are riven with colour and are still holding on in the light breeze. Spring bulbs have been planted. There is some grazing still to be had in the side field. It’s a day for outdoor jobs, before the winter sets in properly. And unexpectedly, a very kind someone brought us a delivery of turf for the winter fire.   All days are not so sun filled or lit with colour from the Creator. Some are more demanding than others, and some have their unexpected challenges.   But whether the days be easy or unsettling, one constant remains, and that is the Great Joy which the Lord gives to all who look to Him. Recently I have been en joy ing the many encouragements in the Bible, given to the Lord’s ...

  When Someone Asks, ‘Where Are You Going?’ Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. Psalm 84:5   Virologists have become very current. It’s almost impossible to watch a news broadcast now without one being interviewed. This week, one mentioned a very interesting concept called Baader-Meinhof. I went looking for it, and basically it’s the bias that you see more of something because you are alert to it, not necessarily because it is really occurring more often. You know how a song catches your attention, and you start to hear it everywhere for days, or a favourite writer or poet keeps being mentioned. What caught my attention was the idea, that although an increased awareness of something can be explained by this, that you are simply more alert to it, the blurb also acknowledges that another aspect of this could be that something is happening more often, and might even have a Divine / supernatural ( their ...