Michael’s Missives

  • Why go to Church?

    I have written down 15 reasons why we should attend a worship service. It could be more, but we will leave it at that number. This knowledge can be used as an evangelising tool as the reason we gather together weekly but not weakly! It is always wise to have a reason for the faith…
    Read more

  • The Wide-mouthed Jar

    “In fact, he taught only by illustrations (parables) in his public teaching.“ (Mark 4:34 – TLB). Thus was the ministry of Jesus. “The word parable signifies in general a comparison, or a parallel, by which one thing is used to illustrate another. It is a likeness taken from the sphere of real, or sensible, or…
    Read more

  • Real Happiness

    Britain’s war years sponsored a frontline song favourite, which was eventually adopted and adapted by the world system – “Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag, and smile, smile, smile.” Hide your problems and pretend to be happy. Look at the positives, ignore the negatives and so make it buoyantly through life. Don’t…
    Read more

  • Valentines

    Recent polls tell us that we no longer know what love is; we don’t recognise it and cannot work out what it is for.  We are “fearful of its complications, perplexed by its obligations, and wish it would simply go away.”  In spite of that mournful response the amount of money spent on February 14th…
    Read more

  • Schmitz

    My first dog was a Doberman, which by definition was teeth on legs, and a wonderful creature. We sold him to a hotel in Solihull to get rid of awkward customers, and replaced him with two miniature Schnauzers who shared a large basket with Cadbury, our Chocolate Point Siamese cat. She used to sneak up…
    Read more

  • One degree out

    “The remains of a fleet of 17th century French warships, victims of a fatal navigational mistake, have been discovered off Venezuela, more than 300 hundred years after a reef dashed Louis XIV’s hopes of seizing the Dutch Island of Curacao.”[1] Seven of the fleet’s 18 ships and 500 men were lost because the fleet was…
    Read more

  • Inflation

    “Humans seem to always want more” and the current generation is no exception. No matter how much people earn they always want more. Experts have found that irrespective of what people earn they always estimate that the amount they really need to live on is just a bit beyond their means. Many blame it on…
    Read more

  • Double Dip

    At dinner parties there are often dips, either salsa, heavy on coriander, or guacamole, with blue tortilla chips. In an early episode of Seinfeld in 1993 the “odious George is berated for double-dipping at a funeral buffet. A bystander is appalled to witness George dipping the same crisp twice with his saliva into a single…
    Read more

  • Laughing is a good medicine

    I was sitting on a Boeing 767 on the return journey to Heathrow from Toronto.  The airline was showing the film “Patch Adams” about a doctor who made people laugh. He argued that laughter increased the positive antibodies that fight disease. He was denied his qualification by the hospital where he was studying because he…
    Read more

  • Christian the Lion

    This article appeared in The Times newspaper some years ago – “THE heart-tugging video diary of Christian the lion, a big cat who lived in a London antiques shop, has become an internet sensation – 38 years after he was returned to life in the African bush. The home movie has been watched 6m times…
    Read more