The Vicars Blog

This morning rather than picking out a particular theme I thought I’d go through today’s passage and pick out a few things that strike me about what John is saying in his letter. You might find it helpful to refer to the text on your service sheets. Firstly, John...

So, another Christmas approaches and as Christians we celebrate Jesus – God in a human body – coming into our world both in order to save us – but also to show us what God is like. And that is what I’d like to talk about today. I’ve entitled my talk God is Nice and He...

The title I’ve been given for my talk today is the Gospel and the Church. So, this morning I’d like to try and answer 3 questions. Firstly, what is the church? Secondly what is the gospel? And thirdly how can we share it effectively? So, what is the church? Some of...

In today’s gospel reading from Matthew we come across what are known as the Beatitudes, which are eight declarations of blessedness spoken by Jesus at the beginning of his sermon on the mount. The reason there are eight Beatitudes is because verses 10 to 12 are...

Here at Brenchley we quite often talk about the fruit of the Holy Spirit – God developing his loving character in us – but we don’t talk so often about the gifts of the Holy Spirit – and that is what I’d like to look at today. These gifts – some of which are mentioned...

Trinity Sunday – John 3 1-17 Today is Trinity Sunday so firstly I’d like to say a few words about the Trinity and what it means. And then, focusing on today’s gospel reading from John, I’d like to look at how we can come to know God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit in...

This morning I thought I’d say a few words which are based loosely on the parable of the sower. I want to look at the seed in the story, where it takes root and how it can grow. Now I know that many of you know this parable very well and have probably heard it...

This morning I’d just like to say a few words about God’s love. I want to look briefly at how this manifests itself in our everyday lives – and then look at why perhaps we don’t always experience God’s love and what we can do about it. Of course this is a huge subject...

This morning’s New testament reading and gospel reading fit together very well. The gospel reading is about life and death and hopefully as we will see this morning – how in God’s kingdom – death leads to life, and life comes out of death. And the New Testament...

Having an eternal perspective The title of my talk today is – ‘Having an eternal perspective’. And having an eternal perspective is absolutely crucial if we are going to live effective Christian lives in today’s world. What do I mean by having an eternal perspective?...

This morning we continue with our series of talks on Rick Warren’s excellent book, The Purpose Driven Life. It’s been a few weeks since our last talk, so just to recap, Rick Warren initially asks the question – ‘What on earth am I here for?’ and then goes on to...

You were formed for God’s family. This morning we continue with our series of talks based on Rick Warren’s excellent book – The Purpose Driven Life – which I’d urge you to read because it contains a huge amount of Christian wisdom and insight. Campbell spoke last week...