Tag: dailyprompt

Great news?

February 10, 2024

You get some great, amazingly fantastic news. What’s the first thing you do?

What is the first thing I do? Give thanks to God. He is the source of all good things including fantastic news. His blessings flow down to us. It makes sense to thank Him first.

Four verses come to mind as I type…

Psalm 136:26 NLT – Give thanks to the God of heaven. His faithful love endures forever.

Ephesians 5:20 NLT – And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Psalm 103:2 NLT – Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me.

James 1:17 NLT – Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.

Most important invention?

February 8, 2024

The most important invention in your lifetime is…

This is a tough one to answer. As I am in my mid fifties I have seen some pretty cool new inventions in my lifetime. It is a close run race for me.

1. The home computer – I can remember only using a mainframe computer at work and the introduction of personal computers at work. That was a really big change, but the biggest change was having a home computer. You could create and save new documents. It made study so much easier.

2. The mobile phone – I remember only having a work phone number and a home number. If you were out and about and you had to make a call, you had to find a phone box. We only got a “family” mobile phone when my wife was pregnant. Whoever left the house took the phone. Now most people have their own they take everywhere.

3. The internet – Although this was first used in the early 1970s for scientists, I never used it until the mid 1990s. I used it for research at work, then a few years later I worked as a Webmaster for 10 years. This changed my life and paid my house off! There is hardly a day goes by that I do not use the net for something. Usually 100 times a day!

So if I had to pick one of the above three things, I would have to say the internet. It has changed everything we do. We pay bills, check our bank balance, the weather, sports scores and we communicate with those we love. We can also research just about anything. So yes, it would be the Internet for me…but just by a tiny margin.

Book I want to read

January 27, 2024

What books do you want to read?

I have to admit I was never a great reader at school. Getting me to read was like pulling teeth for my teachers. I loved sport and maths, but reading was not my thing.

After leaving school this continued until my early twenties. All of a sudden though, I had a desire to read the Bible. I did not have one so I went to the local church and purchased one.

After getting a Bible of my own I found I actually loved reading for the first time in my life. It was nothing to read for an hour of more. Looking back I now know this was God drawing me to His Word and enabling me to do it.

Many years later the Bible is still my go to book. I very rarely read other books as I prefer to listen to them while I am travelling. But I can always just sit down and read my Bible. I can pick it up any time of the day or night and just read.

I just love the fact that the Bible has 40 different authors, it is made up of 66 books, was written over a 1600 year time period, but it has one central theme – God’s love and saving message for mankind. He loves us all and He wants us to be in relationship with Him.

This is why I love the Bible so much. It tells us how we got here, who we are, that God loves us and He has a plan for our lives. For me there is no other book that compares or even comes close to it.

So which book do I want to read? It is the Bible for me by a long long way.

Good leadership?

January 19, 2024

What makes a good leader?

Leadership is something that is vitally important in all areas of life. We have all had good leaders that we loved and bad leaders who we did not love as much.

When I was at Bible college I had to do an assignment on what we thought was good leadership. We had to come up with five points with both Biblical ideas and reflections on Christian leadership sources.

Surprisingly I found this harder than I expected. There is so many examples of Biblical leadership and thousands of resources on Christian leadership.

In the end I distilled my idea of principles of Christian leadership to the following five points.

1. Christian leaders need to cultivate an intimate relationship with God

2. Christian leaders need to have a servant heart

3. Christian leaders need to be shepherds of God’s people

4. Christian leaders need to live with character and integrity

5. Christian leaders need to be committed to making disciples

For me personally I really thought long and hard about these five things. Thankfully my lecturer agreed and gave me a good mark for it.

If you are interested you can read an online version of my article on my website below. It is a cut down version of my assignment.

Five Principles of Christian Leadership

Felt loved?

January 17, 2024

Can you share a positive example of where you’ve felt loved?

I have to say in answering this question that I am a very blessed man. I feel loved by my wife every day and when I see my adult children they always give me a big hug and tell me they love me.

But one instance when I felt really loved recently was on the last day of school in 2023. I was walking around school doing my usual work as a Chaplain, when I large group of students came and gave me cards. I got lots of high fives and fist bumps from them all too.

On the cards were really nice messages of how they loved and appreciated my work as their Chaplain. They said things like thanks for always being there to listen and encourage us. One card from the oldest students was signed by all of them with personal messages.

I really love my job as a school Chaplain and times like that make me feel loved and appreciated too.