058 How to Hear God’s Voice – Three Keys
Life's full of big questions. Should I marry? If so, who? Take that job? Buy that house? Is this the career for me? Which church is the right one? And which city should I settle in? If we believe there's a God who cares and wants to guide our big decisions, we need to know
Focus Your Life for the New Year with These Three Questions
If you’re anything like me, you've probably been in a reflective mood as the New Year begins, contemplating all you’d like to achieve in 2016. I've spent the last few weeks pondering not just my goals for the year ahead, but re-thinking my life mission and what I'd like to achieve in my time on
We are More Than Our Greatest Success or Worst Failure
Frank Sinatra will forever be remembered for the song My Way, even though he hated it. The same thing happens to celebrities and politicians all the time as one song, controversy or policy failure becomes lodged in public memory. But there is more to them than that. And there is more to you than others
057 The Resilient Life [Keynote Talk]
It's easy to feel insignificant in a world that values power and popularity. It's easy to feel weak in a world with so much violence. In this keynote talk I share the stories of a KKK leader, a black preacher, a seventh-century farmhand, and one of my own humiliating moments (ouch!) to suggest that Jesus'
Redeeming Generation X
Cynical, nihilist, commitment-phobic, dispassionate. Perhaps no age-group in history has had more negative labels attached to it than Generation X: that often ignored 'middle child' generation between the Baby Boomers and Millennials. As a Gen-Xer myself, I want to shout "We're better than you think!" But as I share in this BBC Pause for Thought
056 Radical Islam is Filling a Spiritual Void, But There’s an Even More Radical Alternative
According to research, most French Islamists come from non-religious families. They are former secularists who are drawn into jihadist religion searching for meaning and purpose for their lives and a grand cause to live for. This is a desire every human being has - a desire secular society fails to fulfill - which leaves jihadists
055 What ‘Turn the Other Cheek’ Means (and Doesn’t) in an Age of Terrorism
The stories come almost every day: terror groups like ISIS destroying lives and using every form of intimidation to get implement their radical vision for the world. How should we respond? I believe Jesus has something powerful to say to the problem, but his words need to be carefully understood before being applied.
What a Cold Pint of Beer Can Tell Us About God
I've never had much of a taste for beer. I know some see beer as such a societal menace, it's not worth talking about too. But keep this in mind: the first breweries were started by Christians to provide a healthy alternative to either drinking dirty water or getting drunk on gin, and the very
054 Overcoming the 4 Forces That Destroy Relationships
When people ask me what personal discoveries I made reading the Sermon on the Mount every day for a month (then two months, then three), I mention the fact this famous speech is ultimately about resilience, that praying the Lord's Prayer can be a powerful daily exercise, and that I was surprised how practical his
If You Were to Write Your Life into a Short Story, What Would it Say? Here’s Mine
When you're an author doing media for your a book, it's an honour to have a journalist ask you questions that reach beyond the press release. That's what Amy Boucher-Pye did for me recently in preparation for a magazine article. 'If you were to write your life into a short story, what would it say?'