Are you cold, indifferent, angry, frustrated, intolerant, castigating or hostile towards your local church? Or are you warm, concerned, involved, sympathetic, committed, patient, and full of love, grace, hope and peace, in your relationships and dealings with your brothers and sisters in the blood-bought congregation of God?

A desire for freedom is inherent in man. A yearning for liberty is part of the very soul of mankind. We can see it if we look through any history book. Tale after tale of people struggling to free themselves from oppression.

At the Young Adults Weekend 2018, Rev. David Whitla gave a seminar entitled The Sanctifying Psalter; the below article is a transcription from his notes.

That relationship, those results, that career, those friends, that new iPhone. We are a generation of discontented, jealous people. What can we do to fight off this temptation?

When it comes to our spiritual life there can be occasions when a dull and lethal lethargy creeps into the soul. On these occasions a glimpse of the heaven fuelled life of God’s saints from past and present can be just the life surging boost that is needed.

The subject of this article may perhaps seem dry and abstract, or of little practical importance for the Christian life. But really there is no truth of the Christian Faith that is more important for the way of salvation and the Christian life. Christianity stands or falls with the doctrine of the Trinity; where this truth has been abandoned, Christianity soon disappears. It is the landmark of the Christian Faith.

War is a terrible thing. Those who are most in favour of war are generally those who are safe in the knowledge that they will never be called upon to fight. War brings suffering beyond description – to combatants and non-combatants: lives destroyed, bodies and minds devastated.

Self-isolation; pandemic; super spreader; coronavirus; covid-19. Just a few of the words and phrases that have become part of everyday conversation since the first outbreak of a novel coronavirus was reported in Wuhan, China on 31 December 2019. How should we as Christians respond to an event like this? How can we be salt and light?

When we find high-profile sportsmen or women who share our faith getting slaughtered in the regular media or on social media for their outspoken views, or for what the world sees as outdated and intolerant convictions, how should we respond?

Voltaire, the French philosopher and sceptic of the 18th century, is reported to have said “If you would destroy Christianity you must first kill Sunday” the inference is that so long as men preserve and observe the one day in seven as a sacred day, so long will religious life be vigorous; and conversely, just in the measure that men secularise the Sabbath and make a common day of it, will they lose the sense of God and so lose religion.

All ethnic Jews can trace their roots back to forebears who were refugees and migrants. From their original temporary residence in Canaan, to their becoming refugees and then slaves in Egypt, right through to the 40-year trek that took them finally to a homeland of their own, they were 'of no fixed abode' and were often dependent on the kindness of pagan neighbours in order to survive. And God used that kindness - even from their erstwhile oppressors, the Egyptians - to sustain them. But how quickly Israel forgot.

Twenty minutes of mindless scrolling YouTube on my phone and I can’t even tell you what I’m watching anymore or why. It’s amazing how quickly time slips away without any purpose - films, music, video games, TV, books, magazines, social media, podcasts. We have more control over how we curate our content than ever before, so why does it often feel like we’re still failing when it comes to what we listen to and watch?

Angels seem to be everywhere nowadays - angel cards, angel charms, angel therapy, lots of books about angels and a lot more. One of the best-selling books in recent years has been Lorna Byrne’s, “Angels in my hair”. She claims to have had many encounters with angels and to have received a lot of comfort from them. Some people believe that a white feather falling in their pathway can be a message from an angel. So why are angels so popular? What should we believe about them? And can they really help you?

WE ALL love mysteries. Story writers know how we are enticed by a tale where the true causes of an event lie hidden in complex plans devised by powerful institutions. You are drawn in as you follow the hero’s discoveries, and all is put right once the evildoers are exposed and vanquished. The present popularity of conspiracy theories reaches far beyond the world of entertainment.

PICTURE THE SCENE: Thursday afternoon, sometime around 2pm. Stuffy classroom, not yet even the end of the day, let alone the week. Lunch has left you with serious drowsy numbness, and the bell went before you could finish that conversation with your friend. Now this: not only are you stuck in school, but you have to learn another language. As the teacher starts to explain how to give directions to the cinema in Toledo in Spanish, your brain simply shuts down. “Why?” I hear you cry. It seems so utterly futile. You’ve never been to Toledo and, even if you were there, you would be appreciating the sights, not going to the cinema, nor would you ever dream of actually asking a Spanish person in Spanish about how to get there. They all speak English anyway.

In the beginning, BANG! That is how it all began, or so they tell us! A book firmly committed to the theory of evolution gives the following explanation of how the Universe began. ‘We live in a Universe far removed from its violent beginnings. Time, space and matter all began about 12 to 15 billion years ago in an explosive event called the Big Bang, Cosmologists (cosmology is the scientific study of the origins, structure and development of the Universe) believe this because the Universe is still expanding: run time backwards, reversing this expansion, and both logic and the theory of relativity suggest that at the beginning all matter was concentrated into a single point of infinite density.

YOUNG MEN - what do you want to be when you grow up? If you have been blown away by the Gospel there will be stirring within you a deep compulsion to serve King Jesus. You can do that in almost any walk of life: working on the farm, sitting behind a desk, driving a van, teaching children, collecting the bins or delicately operating on an aortic valve. It is exciting when young men passionately want to serve Jesus Christ not only in their workplace but in something more.

The congregations of Ballenon and Ballylane are a joint charge, both congregations in and of themselves being too small numerically and unable financially to have a pastor of their own.  The church buildings are located just over halfway between Armagh and Newry in the townlands of Loughguilly (Ballenon) and Mowhan (Ballylane). Currently there are two elders in Ballenon and three in Ballylane (one of whom is retired from duties due to advanced age).

This is the first in a new series on the fruit of the Spirit recorded by Paul in Galatians 5v22-23. The apostle wrote, 'the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.' The importance of this spiritual fruit in our Christian lives and growth can't be overstated.

Sometimes a problem seems so entrenched and so impossible to scale that giving up is the easiest option. That is as true of an untidy study as it is of global poverty, or endemic racism. Not knowing where to begin, and feeling unclear about what one’s responsibilities are, can lead to defeatism, defensiveness and denial.