Chalmers' Blog

Saturday Snippets (January 27)

As well as reading a lot of books, I also read a ton of articles every week. Here are some of the articles that I’ve read recently and have found interesting, helpful, challenging and encouraging. I hope that they will be the same for you, my dear readers…

Saturday Snippets (January 20)

Saturday Snippets (January 13)

2000 years of Christ’s power; the Age of Enlightenment and Awakening

I’m a firm believer that every Christian should have a basic understanding of some of the key moments and happenings in the history of the church. There are plenty of books out there that provide that, let me introduce you to one. Nick Needham is a Church History lecturer at Highland Theological College in Dingwall, Scotland. He’s written a whopper of a series called ‘2000 years of Christ’s power’. The series does as it says on the tin, it starts back at the beginning of the early church father and walks through to the 18th Century in this newest volume.

Saturday Snippets (January 6)

How to read more in 2024

It’s that time of year again, social media is full with pictures of books that people received at Christmas, reading goals are being put into the world and some are asking the question “how can I read more in 2024?”. Personally, I think it’s a good thing. I think reading is a good discipline that you can use to help you in your spiritual walk with Jesus. Reading the right materials can point you to Jesus, help your grow in your knowledge of Him and make you more into His likeness by the enabling of the Holy Spirit.

I believe that reading is important for Christians because it is one of the ways that we are exposed to materials that will fuel our devotional life and help us grow in our knowledge of Christ and so having our minds transformed we become more like Christ.

Just be honest

One of the areas that we can grow in as a Global Church is seeing the benefit of lamenting and actually doing it. Often our church services are filled with people hiding behind the mask of “I’m fine” but in reality they’re struggling. Often our sung worship is full of uplifting and ‘triumphant’ songs, but many people aren’t in that place. As a global church we need to rediscover the gift of lamenting. Lament isn’t moaning or groaning the difficulties in life, but it is bringing our pain and our suffering before the Lord in prayer and in worship.