Pete's Blog

Britain is becoming a more religious country, historian Simon Shama has said. After years being relegated to the sidelines, religion has once again become part of mainstream life, he told Radio Times. The 69 year old, whose most recent documentary was The Story of the Jews, said: "My generation grew up thinking that religion was completely marginal to British life, which, as for the rest of the world, has been proved more and more wrong. "We were arrogantly isolated from that, thinking religion was just an ornamental part of Britishness. Now look at the success of the Alpha Evangelicals, how important Christianity has been to the community of West Indians, the huge place of Islam. Britain is becoming a more religious place, not less". A few years ago I produced a short Youtube video to introduce the idea of Britain being post-Christian but I think we need to revisit this idea.

The interview with Baliva, the Gospel rapper, was popular but blighted by a high pitched whine. Before you ask, the whine was not the voice of the interviewer! This background noise has been removed digitally, so listen again or for the first time without distraction. This interview was a special episode of the show with Peter Cooper interviewing Baliva about his musical and Spiritual routes. There is also a discussion of how Hiphop culture relates to church culture. A fascinating insight into  the life and work of a Christian creative artist.

Article by George Cross in 1967 In 1967 George Cross predicted that in the 21st Century Ice Hockey games would no longer have boards round them to prevent the puck going out of bounds.  Rather, he surmised that the game would be surrounded by a force field. This is rather a prosaic use of the futuristic concept of force-fields. However, lasers are used for life changing surgery on eyes and to improve self esteem in plastic surgery. They are not used that often as the weapon so beloved in Sci Fi stories of old. You never know what the future may hold. One thing that George Cross did not predict was that Ice Hockey would not be around.  There were certain things he assumed would remain constant.  But with the culture around us changing at a dizzying pace there is little that we can assume will remain constant.  This is unsettling.  However we can be confident that the Lord Jesus Christ will be here , the same Lord, Saviour and friend.  He will be wit...

An article that appeared in USA Today had this title: “Psychologists now know what makes you happy.” And the writer discovered a not-so-surprising fact, forgiveness is most strongly linked to happiness and the Bible closely links forgiveness with healing. "Forgiveness is the trait most strongly linked to happiness", said University of Michigan psychologist Christopher Peterson. T he Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, in removing revenge from the agenda, brought, to a certain extent, forgiveness and healing to the country.  There are reported to be still deep divisions in the country of South Africa.   However, the situation would have been far worse, most political commentators agree, if revenge had been left to take it's course. Truth is  important, but so is reconciliation. At a personal level forgiveness also has a profound effect.   The psychologists are right on this one. Happiness is closely linked to forgiveness.  The truth is t...

It is often claimed that the Devil currently rules over this world without having a physical throne and an earthly physical presence.  The Devil or the Satan showed that at least he believed that he had power over the kingdoms of the earth when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-10) However, after the victory over evil on the cross, Jesus says “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18–20).  Jesus from that point on has been reigning over the world. Jesus’ throne is in heaven: “Thus says the Lord, ‘Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me?’” (Isaiah 66:1; Acts 7:49). Jesus occupies David’s throne in heaven (Acts 2:29–36). When Jesus asc...