Review : Wholeness and the Fruits of the Spirit

Micki reviewed Wholeness and the Fruits of the Spirit
on Amazon.com 

Excellent! April 21, 2012

I've always felt that I seriously fall short in exhibiting the Fruits of the Spirit. Pastor John explains this meaty section of the Bible in a way in which I'd never considered it before. This book lends encouragement and a healthy outlook to those of us who strive to become more like Jesus. 

 

******************

Thank you for your review

John

Christian short stories for all ages

I have just published a new book for the Kindle on Amazon. This is different to my other books. It is a book of Christian children's stories that I wrote to tell in schools, churches and Sunday schools. The stories bring in religious and moral truth in a gentle and natural way. They should not need explaining - the meaning is in the story.

There are twenty stories in this book and the first nine are about my dog called Goldie. (The dog got his picture on the cover)

The other stories are about various characters and situations. They have all been trialled with a live audience!

This book is now available for the Amazon kindle -  click here if you live in the UK or here if you live in the USA.

Let Christ out

Nobody worries about Christ as long as he can be kept shut up in churches. He is quite safe inside. But there is always trouble if you try and let him out.

-- G. A. Studdert Kennedy

Geoffrey A Studdert Kennedy,  (27 June 1883 – 8 March 1929), was Church of England priest and poet. He was nicknamed 'Woodbine Willie' during the first world war for giving Woodbine cigarettes along with spiritual aid to injured and dying soldiers.

After the war he had a parish in London where he bacame a vocal campaigner for Christian Socialism until his death. 

Solvitur Ambulando - a cure for stress from St Augustine

St Augustine is believed to have coined the phrase "Solvitur Ambulando" which means "it is solved by walking".


Diogenes of Sinope, also known as "Diogenes the Cynic," is said to have replied to the argument that motion is unreal by standing up and walking away. A more idiomatic English translation might be “you’ll find the answer as you go.”


Whichever is the correct source of the phrase it has been quoted by Dorothy L Sayers, Thoreau, and Bruce Chatwin in their works.


When you feel stressed a walk is the best cure I know. Once you get outdoors in the open air, ideally amongst nature, then with the wind blowing around you and in your hair, your own concerns seen to shrink and get into proportion. My mind clears and I see much better probably because of both the fresh air and the exercise.

We have two dogs. They love to walk.  They have to go out every day rain or snow, wind or storm. They make me walk them even when I don't feel like it or would prefer to be huddled up beside the fire with a good book.


Setting out for a walk you can hold some question that is causing you concern in your mind. Not worrying about it but holding it there gently in your thoughts as you enjoy the physical aspects of taking a walk. Perhaps you want to do the same with something that you are worrying about. It is likely that when you return from the walk the stress will be reduced or gone and you will see more clearly.


When you walk in company you often chat about problems you are facing and often come up with solutions. Walking alone is essential for a writer friend who finds it is a time that he comes up with plots and ideas for his books. A walk can also be a cure for a writers block.  If you are not blessed as I am to live next to beautiful woods maybe when you walk you have to cross major road intersections. Instead instead of streams and distant mountain views you walk past apartment blocks, shops and factories but you can still lose yourself in the exercise. You are outside. You are taking in the perspective of the wider world. It is the walking that brings healing and up to a point it doesn't matter where you walk - though I know which I would find preferable.


Solvitur Ambulando

A prayer for today from history

A Prayer of St Jerome (347-420)

O Lord, you have given us your word for a light to shine upon our path; grant us so to meditate on that word, and follow its teaching, that we may find in it the light that shines more and more until the perfect day.

Faith seeking Understanding

This is my third and latest book available for the Amazon Kindle.

Confident Christians are not only those who are theologically conservative. This book explores how progressive and liberal Christians can develop a faith that is robust and confident. Faith is a lively and exciting journey of discovery and in this context confidence comes from living out that faith in our complex modern world. The chapters deal with faith, spirituality, the prophetic voice, intellectual exploration and inclusion. The title comes from the words of Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury over 1000 years ago. Pastor John from Scotland has written several books, available on Amazon Kindle, to help people explore and develop their faith and spirituality.
This short book is just over 19,000 words. 

You can find this book for sale here in the USA and here in the UK.

A motivational poem

Last week in a group of friends discussing the world and its problems over dinner someone referred to Rudyard Kipling's poem "If". I had not read the poem for several years but found that I still know large stanzas of it by heart. 


I was put off this poem over twenty years ago when some commentator on a radio discussion programme dismissed it as a relic of the British Empire. He was no doubt one of those Marxist intellectuals who reinterpret history to fit in with their narrow view of what constitutes human life. (Fortunately most of these people have now retired!)


Looking at the poem afresh I can honestly say I am truly moved by the sentiments expressed here. Kipling captures something about what it means to be a good human being and a valuable and contributing member of society. It is about being positive. It is about perseverance against the odds. It is about big society - in the proper sense of the word - not the political spin often associated with the word. It is a truly motivational poem.

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

After Easter

Easter isn't only a one off event.

Easter is the starting block for numerous other adventures. These new beginnings lead on to bring more and more people into the experience of life in all its fullness.

Easter Resource

A short book with a bible reading and meditation for each day from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday

Available for kindle download on Amazon in the UK click here and in the USA click here.

Wholeness and the fruits of the spirit

In the letter to the Galatians in the New Testament St Paul outlines the fruits that can be expected to be made manifest in the lives of believers as a gift from the Holy Spirit.

In this book Pastor John looks at what each of the gifts of the spirit involves and how together they indicate what to be fully human means.

Wholeness is a word often used today and Pastor John explains that wholeness is the result of these spiritual gifts becoming our normal way of life. Jesus came to bring fullness of life and in this book this special life that is open to all is explained.

This book is a spiritual treasure, and though it is a short book ( just under 16,000 words) it is full of practical wisdom that comes from Pastor John's long experience of ministry in the church.

To purchase for your kindle in the UK click here

To purchase this book for your Kindle in the USA click here