Pete's Blog

There was a large group of people who’d gathered from all over the world, from different countries. And had come to that one place in Jerusalem. There were religious leaders, there were people of great philosophical learning and they all heard the disciples of Jesus getting up and appearing to be drunk early in the morning, 9am in fact. That’s first thing. They accused the disciples of this. Of just being drunk. And Peter replied to them, ‘men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem. Let this be known to you and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk as you suppose since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered to the prophet Joel.’ Then he went on, to quote from the prophet Joel. The prophet from our old testament and he applied this prophesy of Joel to what was happening right then. In fact, he applied it to what had happened to them that made them appear drunk. This was what he quoted: ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,...

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...

At Christmas, Jesus was born. At Christmas, God became a human being to rescue us. This human being who came to rescue us was born in a stable in Bethlehem and laid in a Manger, he is Jesus Christ. All of us need to receive Jesus Christ, to receive him in the same way as we receive the King or President of our country when they come to stay. We need to invite him in and give him the run of the price. Without Jesus Christ, we "perish," as John 3:16   makes plain "...that whosoever believes in him should not perish..." T he word "perish" means just what it implies and the only way to avoid this is to receive God’s grace by faith—his grace displayed in Jesus.   Without him, we are "lost" a terrible thing to contemplate—though millions of people today never give it a thought. I n Acts 4:12 we are told: "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be save...

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...