Chalmers' Blog

Love the lost – why it’s important to grow in your love for non-Christians

In some ways love is easy. Whether it’s loving a friend you grew up with playing together in the park, or a friend that you met at school and you share the same interests so you naturally get along and build a good and close friendship. There are some people you just naturally get along with more and that makes loving them easy. But what about those who we perceive to be different? That’s where it gets a little bit trickier doesn’t it?

Jesus’ words, grief, the environment, journaling and God’s rascal

Those five things don’t seem like they have much in common do they? Well, normally they wouldn’t, but today there is one thing that connects them all; they’re all books that I’ve recently read and would like to share with you. Of the 5 short reviews below 2 aren’t that positive, 2 are positive and 1 is ‘I recommend you buy it’. But, books are subjective, so you may love the 2 I’m not a big fan of, think the other two are ok and really dislike the one I enjoyed most. I doubt it, but it could happen. Books are subjective, but I hope that my short reviews will help give you a feel for the material and help you weigh up whether or not these books deserve the preciously little space that still remains on your bookshelf. Happy reading!

Saturday Snippets (April 22)

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 (April 15)

3 practical ways to help you grow in your love for the Lord’s people

The local church is a place that has always fascinated me. At it’s most basic level the church is a collection of people from different backgrounds, cultures, countries and languages all gathered together to praise God, to fellowship with one another, and to grow together as we are pointed to Jesus through the teaching of His Word. The thing that has always intrigued me is that the local church is a mixed bag of people but at the same time a group of people that are united in their love for Jesus and their love for one another.

I often speak of the four loves in the life of a Christian; love the Lord, His Word, His people and the lost. As Christians we should be growing in these four loves as we grow in Jesus. Today I was to focus on the third love, the love for God’s people, that’s the church. So, what does it look like to love each other, as the Lord’s people?

Truth for Kids

One of the most important things that any parent can do is to teach their child about Jesus. There are plenty of great resources out there, each with their own strengths and approaches, designed to help parents teach their children and get them into the Bible from an early age. But sometimes children’s books often only deal with the ‘easy parts’ of the Bible or the most well-known stories. Personally, I think that we do our children a disservice when we don’t teach them the whole range of Bible material. Here are two resources that I would highly recommend for parents to consider getting, but I would also recommend these for adults to read too because they will definitely be helped by them!

Saturday Snippets (April 8)

Saturday Snippets (April 1)

Events ≠ Evangelism

Churches can be funny places sometimes, the language we use isn’t always straight forward or the correct meaning of the words either. Take for example how some people use evangelical and evangelism simultaneously (it super annoys me, but that’s for a whole new post). Today I want to talk about the mix up, or assumption, that Christians can often make; that church events mean evangelism.

Pastor, Jesus is enough

Spend anytime with a Pastor, listening to what a ‘normal’ week looks like in their lives and you’ll soon learn that being a Pastor isn’t easy. I’m not meaning to set up those in ministry against those who aren’t, I don’t think that’s right. However, it is important to notice the draining nature of full-time ministry on a Pastor and his family. Here’s the voice of someone who knows what that’s like.