Listening to the media and talking with friends, it is easy to get the impression that our new national goal is to simply to ‘get back to normal’. However, I have come to the conclusion that, if life before the lock-down is what we consider as ‘normal’, then we would...
It was a real privilege on Thursday to have the opportunity to speak from Psalm 16 during Worship at One. In the Psalm, David makes the following statement, ‘No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice. My body rests in safety. For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your...
This coming Sunday we are encouraging the Ridgeway church family to do something we have never done before. That is, to share the Lord’s Supper or communion ‘remotely’. We have even asked parents to bake bread and press grape juice with their children in preparation of this celebration. Given these...
On any other Good Friday, the churches in Wallingford would gather together in the Market Square as an act of witness. Yet today, due to the coronavirus, we are meeting online at 11.00 am and trusting that others will join us. But why bother? It is because we perceive the...
I am going to do something I haven’t done before and may never do again. That is, recommend a book from somewhere other than The Fountain. However, desperate times call for desperate measures! On Monday, John Lennox (Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University) published, ‘Where is God in a Coronavirus...
One evening last week I rang a friend from the church. On answering he said, “I am really sorry, but am in Life Group”. After asking “how many are there”, I was told “around ten of us”. I was fascinated how, after only ten days of social distancing my friends...
I was reminded this week of these words from Psalm 20. In verse 7, David writes: Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. David is writing three thousand years ago, in an age where national boundaries were even...
It appears that politicians, health officials and the general public are increasingly worried about the spread of the coronavirus. And rightly so. Yet, as believers we should not be surprised by the advent of such new ‘super-bugs, nor should we panicked. At the end of his earthly ministry, Jesus sat...
Many years ago, David, the shepherd-king, wrote a wonderful psalm. Sometime later, someone bound David’s songs, along with a number of others and numbered it 103! For obvious reasons, I have spent time reading through it over recent weeks. David starts by praising God with his whole heart. He then...
I am pleased to let you know that we can now confirm a Service of Thanksgiving for the Life of Bernard Thompson (following a private family burial) will take place at 1:00 pm on Monday 17th February, at the Kings Centre, Osney Mead, Oxford, OX2 0ES. The service will be followed...
