In England, growing up, I enjoyed the wheat harvest when the wheat turned from green to golden yellow. Now in California I enjoy seeing the bright oranges contrasting with the dark green of the leaves. We have a few fruit trees in our yard but we are really bad gardeners and we fail to give [...]

Filed under: Anglo-USA, Bible, Christianity, Church, following God, My teenage years, radical Christian life, Student life by sian
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Worrying about money and wealth is a national pass time. Americans are very focused on making money and they seem to be very good at it. It is normal to have about ten days of paid leave in US companies, compared to about thirty days in Europe. If you are tied into that level of [...]

Filed under: Bible, Christianity, Church, money, worry by sian
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I am continuing to reflect on Jesus’ story: the parable of the sower in Matthew chapter 13: Jesus compares the growth of healthy seeds in four different types of soil. The seed is representative of the Gospel: the good news about the kingdom of God. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the seed or the [...]

Filed under: Bible, Christianity, Church, faith, persecution, teaching the Bible, worry by sian
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Where I live in Southern California we try to grow grass in almost desert like conditions. Apart from an occasional attempt to sow wild flowers, my only repeated experience of sowing seeds was scattering grass seed over the soil. We covered the seed with wire netting, we added compost to the soil to make it [...]

Filed under: Bible, Christianity, Church, faith, prayer, the devil by sian
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Martyn and I run a marketing company, Billy Fire LLC, specializing in web design. Martyn is the technical genius and I am the people person who finds new customers and tells them about how we can help enhance their marketing with a great website, branding etc. It is a challenge being the marketing person who [...]

Filed under: Christianity, New Media by sian
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September 11th, 2001 is still considered the most catastrophic event in American history. At least 2,985 people died in the terrorist attacks and all of us have vivid memories of the tragedy. Abortion, in my opinion, is also a terrible tragedy that is ongoing. Sadly it is not a past atrocity like the concentration camps [...]

Filed under: abortion, Anglo-USA, Christianity, Church, forgiveness, repentance, teenagers, worry by sian
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Lust and love are often confused, to the detriment of many. Teenagers, who start to feel sexual intrigue for the first time, are in particular danger of responding out of lust rather than love. We know from experience that this is not just a teenage problem. Divorce at any age is usually in some way [...]

Filed under: Bible, Christianity, forgiveness, love/lust, marriage, repentance, teenagers, Uncategorized by sian
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Attached to my lap top is a bright red phone. It is a Skype phone which is a very affordable way of calling relatives who live in England. It has now become the least expensive way of keeping in touch with our son, Tom, at the University of Chicago. If we both use Skype neither [...]

Filed under: Bible, Christianity, following God, forgiveness, New Media, prayer, repentance, Student life, teenagers by sian
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I met a woman in a grocery store about a year ago and since then I have received the occasional email from her. I am the sort of person who enjoys meeting new people and I have met some delightful people in interesting places. Essie is one of them. In a recent email she addressed [...]

Filed under: Bible, Children, Christianity, homosexuality, marriage, persecution by sian
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This morning I was asked to deliver a five minute Bible talk at very short notice. I was up for the challenge and while I was preparing the talk, which was a re-hash of my homecoming blog post, I was struck by an exciting thought! The thought related to a more profound meaning of the [...]

Filed under: Bible, Christianity, following God, God's invitation to us, My teenage years, teenagers by sian
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