What is faith?

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It has been my privilege and very great blessing to have taken hundreds, if not thousands of school assemblies.  These have ranged from nursery school age to sixth formers and even into colleges and universities.  It is certainly challenging to face a hall full of young people - all with their own ideas - no doubt all wishing they could be somewhere else than school listening to a visiting speaker!  It is essentially telling them a story that has a particular point which encourages them to think and reflect about aspects of God and how we can know Him.

Blood

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Using an average of 80 beats per minute, the heart beats around 115,000 times a day. Although a typical adult human body contains near to 5 litres of blood, the heart pumps the equivalent of 7,500 litres of blood a day through around 60,000 miles of blood vessels. That is equivalent to more than twice the circumference of the earth’s surface, and some of the blood vessels are as thin as 5 microns — that is 5 thousandths of a millimetre, thinner than a human hair.

Hubble Trouble!

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The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation to this very day. It was not the first space telescope but it is one of the largest and most versatile. Well known both as a vital research tool and as a public relations boon for astronomy, The Hubble telescope is named after astronomer Edwin Hubble. It is one of NASA's Great Observatories sent out to gather images of the distant stars and galaxies of our universe.

The conversion of a Tax Inspector

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About thirty years after the Lord Jesus had gone back to heaven, a Jewish disciple named Matthew was inspired by the Spirit of God to write a book. The finished product is what we know today as "The Gospel according to Matthew".  Nowhere in the four Gospels do we find a single word that Matthew spoke.  Yet in his Gospel, he gives us the words and works of Jesus Christ, "the son of David, the son of Abraham". Matthew, originally a tax collector, did not write to tell us about himself, but His own experience with the Lord Jesus is recorded for us in a few verses in chapter 9; and it is a beautiful example of the grace of God.

Thankful - did you ever tell anyone?

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I met a man on the streets that I had previously met a number of times. As I gave him something to eat, he looked me right in the eye and said, ‘Thanks Stu, I haven’t eaten today!’ His look was genuine, and it left a mark on me. As children we were taught to say please and thank you and I am sure that at times this seemed very irksome, but it is the right thing to do and when the words 'thank you' are used with sincerity they mean much.

I can remember an interview with the boxer Barry McGuigan who was at great pains to thank everyone who had helped him to be a great success. The commentator chuckling said that he had forgotten to thank the lady that cleaned the toilets! It is better to be thankful than arrogant and think that all success is fully reliant on you!

What will you read this weekend?

 

In Western culture, we almost take the ability to read for granted! Reading is such a basic requirement for life. 

The fact you understand what I am talking about in this article means that you can read! Essentially, it means that you can translate the squiggles and strokes on the page. If I am incapable of writing well or of expressing my ideas then you may read the words but have no idea what I'm trying to say. Therefore, reading with understanding is vital. 

Living for the good of others!

 

It is reported that there are 7.5 billion people living on planet earth today and sad to say not many of them could say that they have never misappropriated something that belonged to another person i.e. that they have not committed theft. Possibly, the same could be said about lying but that is another subject.  

The eighth commandment is ‘Thou shalt not steal’, the sixth is ‘Thou shalt not kill’, the seventh ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery’. So, God was precise in giving us an exact code of moral conduct for life.  

The definition of theft is to ‘dishonestly appropriate property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it’. The word ‘theft’ covers many acts of misappropriation - larceny (theft of personal property), robbery, fraud (identity, benefits, expenses, mortgage, insurance etc), embezzlement and burglary.