Commonly people say: "It's not what you know – it's who you know." There is truth in this, but not the whole truth. It is a false antithesis. They do not need to be opposed to each other, but are complementary. The statement is sometimes used as an excuse for not knowing things. We cannot …
Category: Personal religion
Evangelistic one-liners
This is one in a series of evangelistic one-liners that Christians should practice. Recently I drew attention to Goodbye meaning 'God be with you'. Christians need to learn how to use one-liners. The role of one-liners There was a time when people read books. As advertising became more prominent, leaflets were used, not so much …
What constitutes a ‘good’ sermon?
The answer to this question is subjective, although it ought to be objective. The difficulty in making it objective is that everyone has a different idea of 'good'. The preacher will have a different assessment from his hearers, and the hearers will differ according to their readiness to receive instruction from the preacher. Even Jesus …
Why we need Christian voices in public life
A "Christian Voice" is a Christian articulating a Christian perspective on issues. It is not enough to have a Christian perspective, but one needs to articulate it. The Scottish National Party measures everything in terms of Scotland, the feminists in terms of gender, the homosexuals in terms of sexuality, the Greens in terms of the …
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Misreading public confession
The predictable media storm has erupted around the notable example of public confession by Liam Neeson that he once felt that he wanted to kill a black man and that he harboured the intent for about a week almost 40 years ago. The reaction on social and main stream media is predictable. The public opening …
Reunions and Partings
The One Show on BBC 1 tonight draws attention to reunions and partings. I was watching this programme because the results of the BBC programme 20th-century Icons are announced on it. The finalists were clarified in tonight's programme and I have updated my blogpost. However, the same show had a marvellous story about the reunion …
Christianity and secularism
Christianity is an optimistic worldview that faces the reality of human wickedness by addressing individual responsibility and accountability to God through Jesus Christ. Secularism is a worldview that denies the existence of God and acts as if mankind has enough collective goodness and goodwill to lift each other up and improve the lives of most …
My two Inverness landladies
One of my Inverness chapters came to an end this afternoon. I stood by the open grave of Isabel Margaret Grant (1927-2018), the first of my two landladies when I was a student for the Christian ministry during two years 1980-1982 in Inverness. On the gravestone were the names of her parents. Below these was …
Celebrating a grand lady
Family and friends There have been a few ladies in my life. The first one was my beloved mother, and I suppose I need to mention my two sisters who knocked the awkward corners off my teenage life. The grand lady in my life is my good lady, Elizabeth, the Home Secretary, His Master's Voice …
A better nature than the one with which you were born
When will the study of human behaviour teach people that each human being needs a radical change of spirit? How many more examples of social media messages full of hate, personal and corporate scandals, and human trafficking and child abuse do we need to hear before people will realise that human nature needs to be …
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Donald's Thoughts 