The sovereignty of Parliament, the sovereignty of the monarch, the sovereignty of the people or the sovereignty of God? Donald Boyd Her Majesty the Queen gave authority to prorogue the UK Parliament. This was resisted by two unsuccessful legal challenges and it did not stop opposition MPs in the House of Commons objecting to Her …
What constitutes a ‘good’ minister?
Not so long ago I discussed the subjective nature of a 'good' sermon. A good minister is not so subjective to assess as a sermon, because the apostle Paul discusses it in his letters and when writing to Timothy he gives advice about a good minister 1Tim 4:6 and evangelist 2Tim 4:5. Ministers and preachers …
Confidence to converse
This is a continuation of my series to help Christians to witness to their neighbour. Lack of confidence Young Christians usually want to witness to their friends about their faith in Christ but they lack confidence. They need guidance but they do not have many examples to follow. It is important for those who lack …
Happiness in the Highlands
The Bank of Scotland's annual happiness survey indicates today that the Highlands and Islands is the happiest region in which to live in Scotland. Some of us have known this for some time. Indeed, Inverness, the capital of the Scottiish Highlands was voted the happiest place in Scotland in 2014. The same year, Llandrindod Wells …
Compounding one error with another
As if it was not bad enough to discover child abuse scandals in the Church of England, but its General Synod meeting in York has voted to formally recognise monks and nuns for the first time since the 16th-century European Reformation. These two errors are compounded by trying to justify one for the sake of …
Will I meet you in heaven?
I promised a follow-up on my "Will I meet you in heaven?" parting greeting. It is a very useful one-liner. The purpose of one-liners is to capture interest and to convey information in short compass. It provokes thought on an important topic. There should be many one-liners in the repertoire of Christians who wish to …
It’s who you know
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 …
The advantages of the King James Version of the Bible
Many students of Scripture will notice that there are multiple variations in different versions of the English Bible. Study will reveal that many verses and phrases in the King James Version of the Bible are omitted from current versions. Textual basisThe King James Version, or Authorised Version, published in 1611 is based on the historic …
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Christian lessons from D-Day and Operation Overlord
Today is the 75th anniversary of Operation Overlord, the plan for the Allied invasion of France to liberate Nazi-occupied Europe, going into action. There are many good lessons to learn from it, but as some of these will not be noted by our mainstream media, I offer a few additional ones for the Christian church. …
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‘Catch me if you can’ politics
It is hard to hit a moving target. This seems to be current policy in Holyrood and the Brexit process. The SNP Scottish Administration Yesterday the SNP Scottish administration supported a Bill to ban smacking of children and to criminalise parents who smack their children. Today the SNP administration published a Bill to begin the …
Donald's Thoughts 