Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

During the World Cup in July we were serenaded with 26 assorted National Anthems – songs intended to infuse players and fans with patriotic fervour. Most of them were predictable. Even if you didn’t know the language, you could guess the message: ‘our country’s better than your country’. A few sounded downright aggressive, but without...

Have you ever sinned since you became a Christian?  Really sinned – or in other words done something that was SO wrong and totally ‘out of line’ with being a Christian that you are still ashamed when you think of it now.  If so, and if you went on to ask God’s forgiveness for it,...

The youngest person to swim the English Channel was a British boy, Tom Gregory, who was 11 years and 336 days old when he did it 30 years ago this month, on 6th September 1988. Tom was trained for the event by the legendary John Bullet, who ran the local pool in Eltham, south-east London....

Here’s some good news:  an apple a day could help keep diabetes at bay, according to new health guidelines. Yoghurt, cheese and regular cups of tea or coffee are among other food and drinks that could also help ward off the condition.  But keep an eye on the meat and potatoes – they may actually...

Don’t feel guilty about giving up on a novel.  If you don’t enjoy it, simply abandon it. That’s the advice of the Reading Agency, a literary charity which recently surveyed our novel reading habits.  It found that more than 20 per cent of us refuse to give up on a book once we have started...

Joseph of Copertino (1603 – 63) should be the patron saint of all awkward people who mean well, but who drive those around them to distraction – especially their church leaders. Joseph began life in a garden shed, because his father had sold the house to pay debts.  Then he grew up wandering about open-mouthed...

Google, the internet search company, was founded 20 years ago this month, on 4th September 1998, by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both students at Stanford University in California.  The company was initially based in a friend’s garage. The friend – Susan Wojcicki – is now CEO of YouTube. The company developed from an idea for...

Korea is known for its thriving Christian church.  But it was not always so – in fact no Korean was baptised until as late as 1784.  Christianity arrived in Korea through Christian books sent from China, and the Koreans responded warmly as soon as they heard the Good News.  A Chinese priest who visited in...

The most efficient way to clean your house is to tackle it chore by chore, not room by room. Dusting, vacuuming, and tidying room by room wastes time, according to the Good Housekeeping Institute (GHI).  Instead, once the duster is out, go over the whole house with it.  Follow the same procedure with the vacuum...

‘Most Christians don’t really believe that the ordinary things they do every day have anything much to do with God’s purposes in time and eternity. But the reality is that God can and does work through His people… among the people they naturally meet, doing the things they normally do.’ (Mark Greene). September is the...

St Matthew was one of 12 apostles.  But he began as a publican i.e. a tax-collector of Jewish race who worked for the Romans, before he left all at the call of Christ.  From earliest times, he was regarded as the author of the first of the four Gospels.    The Gospel of Matthew is in...

‘Let him lead me to the banquet hall…’ Song of Solomon 2:4     Saturday was the annual village fete. By late in the afternoon, there were still some raw burgers left over. The butcher had supplied them frozen and during the day they had defrosted. Someone had baked some rock cakes which they could not...