Contributed by Owen Bourgaize on Apr 7, 2001
based on 98 ratings
| 2,000 views
As a Pharisee Paul had dedicated his life to the scrupulous observance of his religion. John Wesley would have had much in common with Paul. When he was a young man at Oxford University he founded the "Holy Club" with the intention that he and his friends should live well-ordered lives in God’s
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Contributed by Owen Bourgaize on Mar 29, 2001
based on 72 ratings
| 2,095 views
I live in Guernsey in the Channel Islands. I remember back in the 1950s there was a short period of freak tides and currents around our coast that swept up great shoals of fish to the beaches. Before this phenomenon only relatively few people were interested in fishing but now it was so easy to
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Contributed by Owen Bourgaize on Mar 15, 2001
based on 138 ratings
| 3,502 views
It’s very easy to pass judgement on people, especially if we haven’t passed through their experience. People who have lost a loved one, lost their job through being made redundant or lost a position of responsibility, often go through a valley of bereavement which can’t be understood second-hand.
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Contributed by Owen Bourgaize on Mar 10, 2001
based on 240 ratings
| 2,364 views
I recently saw the film of the American classic ’Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ and realised afresh that slavery is such a terrible institution, a blot on the human race. It has been a source of puzzlement why Paul did not condemn it outright, for here was his opportunity to do so. And yet he remained
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Contributed by Owen Bourgaize on Mar 5, 2001
based on 174 ratings
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We need God’s help on a daily basis. I came across a little prayer in a parish magazine, headed: "A Morning Prayer for Help" - note that I said "morning"! "Dear God, so far today I’ve done alright, I haven’t gossiped, lost my temper, been nasty, selfish or over indulgent. But in a few
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Contributed by Owen Bourgaize on Mar 5, 2001
based on 139 ratings
| 5,159 views
Hitler imprisoned a German pastor, Martin Niemoeller, for eight years. He spent some time in prisons and concentration camps, including Dachau. Hitler realised that if Niemoeller, a First World War hero, could be persuaded to join his cause then much opposition would collapse, so he sent a former
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Contributed by Owen Bourgaize on Jan 6, 2001
based on 70 ratings
| 5,772 views
Sometimes His ways are hard to understand at the time, I can offer a personal example: Teenage children can be quite a trial, even a pain! 25 years ago my son was! He was keen on old vehicles that he intended to renovate. Against my better judgement, so I thought at the time, he acquired an old
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Contributed by Owen Bourgaize on Dec 10, 2000
based on 135 ratings
| 3,339 views
Terry Waite, who was a hostage in Lebanon for five long years, tells in his autobiography, how for month after month he was kept chained hand and foot. Most of his clothes were taken from him, his shoes and even his watch. For hours at a time he could only curl up as a baby and he says he felt
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Contributed by Owen Bourgaize on Dec 8, 2000
based on 116 ratings
| 9,613 views
I’ve been reading "The Journal of John Wesley". In the entry for 24th May 1738, he wrote a detailed account of his spiritual pilgrimage. As a young boy in the family of a clergyman he had been "carefully taught" that salvation could only be obtained by "keeping all the commandments of God." Over
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Contributed by Owen Bourgaize on Dec 6, 2000
based on 132 ratings
| 7,259 views
In a business magazine I read, there was an article about a company, imaginary I hope, that was planning its Christmas sales campaign. The board of directors was puzzled how they could beat their competitors, then suddenly the chairman had an idea. "We’ll have a crib," he said, getting very
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Contributed by Owen Bourgaize on Nov 18, 2000
based on 384 ratings
| 4,387 views
A small boy was writing a letter to God about the Christmas presents he badly wanted. "I’ve been good for six months now," he wrote. But after a moment’s reflection he crossed out "six months" and wrote "three". After a pause that was crossed out and he put "two weeks". There was another pause
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Contributed by Owen Bourgaize on Nov 9, 2000
based on 154 ratings
| 4,198 views
A vicar had a dream. He was on his way to heaven. Before him there stretched a long flight of stairs. As he started to go up, he was given a piece of chalk and told that he must put a chalk mark on each of the steps for each sin he had committed. When he was about halfway up he met the bishop
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Contributed by Owen Bourgaize on Nov 9, 2000
based on 128 ratings
| 5,349 views
When Karl Barth was speaking at Chicago University, he was asked by one of the students what was the most profound theological statement he had ever reached. He
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Contributed by Owen Bourgaize on Nov 5, 2000
One of images which remains with me is the sight of the Nile valley seen from 35,000 feet up when returning from the Middle East. There was a green fertile strip on both sides of the river and then nothing but sand - and that’s where David felt he was. When I was preparing this message television
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Contributed by Owen Bourgaize on Oct 30, 2000
based on 96 ratings
| 4,335 views
Mankind has been trying to get satisfaction for an inner longing. Someone put it in terms of our having a "God-shaped gap" in our make-up. The famous poet, Lord Byron, described his experience vividly: he "Drank every cup of joy, drank early, deeply drank, drank draughts which common millions
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