Alistair Chalmers

Real prayer…

“It is better to pray real, honest, even angry prayers than not to pray at all. Prayer recognises God is still God” Sarah Collins & Jayne Haynes, Dealing with Depression

This week I have had the privilege of spending the best hours of my day thinking through the book of Joel, and particularly the first chapter. When it comes to the minor prophets, from my own experience, not many Christians feel like they are on comfortable ground, often thinking that they can be obscure andContinue reading “How seriously do we take sin…”

The gospel is…

“The gospel is the good news that God in his mercy does not leave us in our hopeless condition, but sent his only Son, Jesus, to rescue us, redeem us, and restore us to relationship with God.” Brian Croft, The Pastor’s Ministry

God’s covenant…

“If there is one word that summarizes God’s redemptive design for sinners—assuring them of forgiveness and restoration—it is covenant.” Derek Thomas, Strength for the weary

Made for service…

“We exist to serve the Lord, and we are redeemed to serve the Lord.” Derek Thomas, Strength for the weary

Strength for the weary

Derek Thomas is becoming one of my favourite authors because of his ability to simplify core doctrinal truths into bite size chunks that are accessible and easy to read. In Strength for the weary Thomas takes the second half of Isaiah and touches on some of the key themes and explains the context in anContinue reading “Strength for the weary”

How Does God Treat His Friends?

Ever since I can remember Job has been one of my favourite books in the Bible. I have read it numerous times, studied it, listened to many sermon series on it and read a number of books and commentaries on it. However, after each reading I was still left with questions, and I know thatContinue reading “How Does God Treat His Friends?”

Satan’s tricks…

“One of Satan’s most dangerous devices is to speak with a voice that can be mistaken for God’s own and act in a way that can be misunderstood as divine action.” Robert Fyall, How does God treat His friends?

Broken Works Best

When you pick up a book that has the subtitle of ‘when God turns your pain into gain’ you think that you’re buckling up for a cheesy ride. However, Campbell does a great job when it comes to the topic of suffering. Sometimes when authors write about suffering and pain they forget to live inContinue reading “Broken Works Best”

The End of Religion

I picked up this book because a friend of mine wanted a review on it, and once I received it in the post and read, on the back of the book, ‘sick of religion? So was Jesus’ I was intrigued. Reading a sentence like that got my attention alright, and so I took the bookContinue reading “The End of Religion”