I’ve been blogging for about four years. During that time people have asked me for advice, recommendations, help and people have also criticised my blog. When you put something online you’re inevitably going to get kick back. I receive kick back, or a general dislike of my blog, for a variety of reasons both online and offline. So the questions naturally comes to mind, why bother? I thought I’d give you a short insight into why I started, and have continued, this blog.

I have three aims for this blog and I hope that I manage to fulfil all of them. But in and of themselves these aims won’t be helpful. The entire foundation of this blog, and my reason for writing, is Jesus. My desire has never been to create a platform for myself. My intention is always to point people to Jesus. To make his name great and to give him all the praise and glory I can. That’s also the basis of the following three aims of this blog.

To Inform

This blog started with book reviews. I read a lot and wanted to share the stuff I was finding helpful. Publishers and authors then started sending me books to review and it’s gone from there. My desire is to help those who don’t have a lot of time to read to know which good books are out there. I do this with my weekly reviews, but I also recommend books on a daily basis (online and offline). I want my readers to be informed about the amount of good materials out there, to find new authors and to wrestle more with God’s Word.

If you have a book that you want me to review, send it my way. If you have a topic that you want to get my recommendations on, contact me through the contact page and I’ll happily help.

To Encourage

Being a Christian is hard. We are foreigners in this world and so we will feel out of place. I want to encourage Christians through this blog. I want to encourage you to read good materials that will equip you, help you engage with difficult topics and most important to encourage you to always look to Jesus.

It’s so easy to be discouraged by things that are going on in the world and in parts of the church. My goal is to build people up, not pull them down. I also like to encourage other writers by promoting their work on my weekly Saturday Snippets.

To Challenge

Lastly, I want to challenge people to grow. If we all just surround ourselves with ‘yes men’ there will be no growth. I don’t think that I write anything controversial, I generally try not to for a couple of reasons (but that’s another story). But I do pose questions or touch on issues within churches, culture and our sinful hearts that may at times be uncomfortable. My desire with those posts is to encourage growth in the Christian life.

I intentionally write about things that I’m wrestling with or thinking about because I want this blog to be genuine. Before I challenge anyone else, I first challenge myself.

Whilst these three aims are not groundbreaking or super exciting, I hope that they are evident in my writing. It has certainly been helpful for me to reflect on why I write and it’s always good to remember whenever the criticism comes my way.

I hope this blog helps you and if you have any thoughts or ideas on how to improve it, books you want reviewing or topics you want me to think about please do get in touch.

Thank you for read and following this blog. If you want to receive the posts in your inbox click subscribe and it’ll all be done for you. Thank you for your support.