I don’t remember very much about the service. It was a Parish church somewhere on the edge of the moor. The preacher was reasonable and the hymns ok. It was in all a very ordinary service but I can still remember the shock I felt when the preacher said “God loves you”.

It seems a little strange to me now to think that this simple thing would have such an effect on me but it did. I didn’t suddenly start going to church or talking about God but it meant a great deal to me to hear those words.

If you are struggling with your faith, or even just feeling a little down about God it is well to hear this simple truth again.

God loves you.

I think it is important to try and get a good routine going for your own devotional life and to maintain that discipline for yourself.

I would recommend finding a regular time on a Sunday for some devotions as well as a regular time for morning and evening prayers. I’ve done this myself and it helped a great deal.

I’m not suggesting that we try and invent our own religion or force ourselves to follow Christian traditions just for the sake of it. Having a good discipline in life can help you keep close to God. If we neglect to spend time with God then we are really giving ourselves some major problems. Keeping this closeness with God is more important than anything else and without the rest of a church to help it is much more difficult.

Sadly I’ve come across an awful lot of Christians who have left the church because they didn’t feel their church wasn’t following Christ and yet they lose that closeness of relationship with God that they so eagerly wanted. It  doesn’t happen overnight but it does happen.

So make use of tradition and make sure you keep regular in your time spent with God.

It follows a progression through thinking about who Jesus is and it’s content is in line with mainstream Christian belief.

Just seemed to me that there was room for such a course on the Internet. I hope some people find it helpful.

Commit to having ten minutes every day that you do nothing but think about Jesus. During this time read a short bit of the holy week story every day and then pray that God will help you make sense of it.

At Thursday main meal time (supper, dinner, whatever) break bread and drink wine with the people at the table. Don’t get too fancy about it but when you do it remember what happened at the last supper. I’m not suggesting you have a communion service here but do something meaningful and in remembrance of Jesus.

On Friday take a walk up a hill in silence. It’s best if the hill is in a remote place but it doesn’t really matter. Jesus carried his cross through the city remember. When you get to the top take a few minutes to think about the cross and the sacrifice Jesus made for you.

On Sunday get up really early – dawn is a good time – and go somewhere beautiful (gardens are ideal for this). Just sit for a while and remember the resurrection of Christ and say thanks to God for bothering with you.

You probably have lots of other good ideas. Why not share them in a comment.

If you haven’t seen it yet then you can on youtube.

However this is an excellent example of the kind of behaviour that causes many Christians to leave the church. You won’t witness many fights within the Christian church but you will witness many conflicts and, it has to be said, over some very trivial matters.

I understand the fight in the Sepulchre broke out over who gets to stand where during a worship service. Satan must love this stuff.

When will the churches wake up to the wickedness of what they do and make an effort to change. It is the experience of many Christians that people outside the church are less aggressive and more tolerant than people within – surely this is the wrong way around.

What ever happened to turning the other cheek? and being salt and light to the world. I guess the world would probably want us to hide ourselves away at the moment so they can get on with stuff.

It’s time to stop pretending that everything is ok. It’s time to stop playing at being Christians. It’s time to stop this kind of thing ever being seen again.

May God have mercy on us and forgive us.

On behalf of Christians everywhere I apologise for what you had to witness.

I think the truth is that many different things were happening during the crucifixion. Some of them obvious and others more hidden but ultimately its not what it does to your head that matters its how it touches your soul and your heart. Scholars who insist on reducing the cross to one meaning are just plain wrong.

But then we should be used to things having multiple meanings. If I can take a trivial personal example first here. I go running every morning. I have lots of reasons for doing it. I want to get fit, I need to lose weight, I want to try and avoid some illnesses, I want to be fit to enjoy my walking hobby and I want to be an example for my children. Now if anyone were to reduce the meaning to just one of these they would be right in saying that this is what was happening but would also be very wrong because it means so much more.

If we reduce the cross to just one meaning then we might be right in what we say about that one meaning but we are so very wrong if we think that is the end of the story.

Was Jesus dying for us? Yes. Was Jesus taking away the sin of the world? Yes. Was it a moral example to inspire us to better things? Yes. Was Jesus the lamb of God? Yes. And so I could continue.

But ultimately you can’t understand the cross without feeling it. It’s only when you can stand at the foot of the cross yourself, and see your Saviour suffering and bleeding, and dying with your name on his lips, and understand that it should be you up there, that you get what it means.

It means so much and yet the message is simple – God loves you.

It takes a lot to submit to God’s will completely. For instance how happy would you be if to follow His will you had to be poor for the rest of your life? Or how willing if you knew it would cause you conflict with the people you love the most?

Jesus once asked a rich young ruler to give up the thing he loved the most (his money) before he could follow Jesus. All we know is the young man went away feeling sad. He wanted to follow Jesus but the cost was too great.

I don’t believe it is God’s will for everyone to be poor or that the point of this story is that you have to give away all your stuff to the poor before you can follow Jesus. I think the point is that if we are really going to follow Christ we should be willing to go this far.

I want God to use me but I hope he includes a comfortable life for me as well. So far the comfortable life part (that’s the bit I want) has never materialised. Should this mean I stop following Christ? Well ultimately that’s my choice but so far I think not.

What are you willing to give up to follow Christ?

I know that for some of us this is very difficult. Those of you with a young family will know that it is incredibly hard to find any time to do anything. Young children are very demanding and you are on the go all the time, babies in particular make finding time along almost impossible.

You know just because something is almost impossible doesn’t mean that it is not worth doing. Most of us, if we are pressed, could find some time if we really wanted to.

If you knew that if you made a 15 minute phone call you would get a million pounds (read dollars or whatever) then you would find the time to even if it was nearly impossible.

So how much is that time with God worth to you? This is where the problems arise.

I often hear people complaining that God doesn’t listen to them or they never hear God speak. This is often down to not listening. You can’t expect, in any relationship, to get a clear message from someone you only ever listen to about once a month. For one thing you have to learn to hear the voice of God which comes in many different forms. You can’t listen just occasionally and expect to understand what God is saying. It’s not that God is trying to hide away its simply that the rest of life gets in the way.

So let me encourage you to find a time (first thing in the morning or last thing at night maybe?). If you go to bed at 11pm then either go at 10:45pm and spend 15 minutes before you go to sleep with God or turn off the TV at 11 and go to bed at 11:15pm. You can work out what to do in the morning for yourself.

If you want to hear God you have to give Him time to speak.

However there are no set rules about when to pray other than that it is a good idea to pray but the rest is left pretty much up to us.

I love the bit in the gospels (see Luke 11) when the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray. Jesus then gives them a formulae they can use (e.g. the Lords Prayer). Of course in other places they learn important things about prayer as well but here is an example of Jesus’ teaching. He doesn’t make it complicated, he doesn’t give them set times to do it, he doesn’t even expand on the Lord’s Prayer with a whole lot of commentary.If you sincerely pray the Lords prayer every day it will transform your prayer life. I did this – only praying the Lord’s prayer – for a month and I was amazed at how much deeper my prayer life became. I thought at the time I was doing pretty well anyway.

So when do you pray and how do you do it? Please leave a comment so others can benefit.

Of course such thinking helps no one. If we all went through life beating ourselves up because we missed an opportunity to help someone then we would all be pretty depressed. But then again perhaps we should feel bad about such missed opportunities and admit them to God so we can say sorry and find forgiveness.

Recently I learned of a friend from my past who has taken his own life. I don’t know the details, I doubt that I ever will know everything. I feel sad that whilst I had lost touch with him somewhere along the line, in the end I was not there to help.

But you know Jesus faced something similar in his own life. Not a suicide but the death of someone close to him, a death which he could have prevented. A friend of his called Lazarus. Lazarus fell ill and Jesus knew about it. Being Jesus he had the power to stop his friend from dying but instead deliberately didn’t go to help so he could use this situation for something greater.

After his friend died he went to see the family, who are distraught. Why didn’t Jesus save him? Then comes one of the most moving of the verses of the Bible. The two words, “Jesus wept”.

You can find this story in the Gospel of John Chapter 11.

Why did Jesus cry? Was it for his friend? Maybe. Was it for the people who suffered as a result of that death? Quite likely. Whatever the reason it shows us that Jesus, God, is human. Jesus knows about grief firsthand. He is not some spectator sitting on a cloud smiling at us when we get something right or wagging a finger when we get it wrong, he is one of us.

Then Jesus raises Lazarus and in one spectacular event shows us that he can change even death itself.

When someone we love dies, especially when that loved one ends their own life, it is important that we understand our own power to change death. We can’t raise people from the dead (at least this is not an every day experience) but we can change our world so that out of death can come life.

We change what we can, maybe all we can really change is ourselves, so that the world is a better place in memory of those who have passed on.

At the end of Saving Private Ryan there is a moving moment when Private Ryan visits the grave of the man who saved his life. He is trying to say that he hopes what he has done has earned the death that gave him life. He hasn’t cured cancer or ended all wars but he has done his best to live a good life and bring up a good family. Maybe this is all we can do, but at least in this way we can demonstrate that the lives we once loved meant something.

So long Phil, it was a pleasure knowing you, may God take away the pain you have felt, wipe the tears from your eyes, and may you find peace at last in paradise.