The writings of that godly man the first Bishop of Liverpool JC Ryle have been a great source of help to me in suffering. Here I share his reflections on Lazarus in italics and my thoughts below.
1...
What's our biggest problem as Christians? I suggest it is this: that we don't know God enough, we don't trust him enough, we don't love him enough and that we don't pray to him enough. But this is...
I’m writing this devotional looking down from on high into the historic streets of London which are now eerily deserted. Unfortunately this is not my home, but a famous London cancer hospital, the...
Psalm 34 was written when David was desperate. It helped me when I was desperate.
The key thing in starting to know God is a sense of our need for God. This need is itself planted by God in our...
Last October I was stunned by the news that two great friends of mine, Chris and Susanna Naylor had been killed in a terrible car accident, taking them immediately to God, but leaving behind three...
To what may we compare illness fear and suffering? To a rollercoaster: not an image we find in the Bible of course! Like a rollercoaster you are strapped in and can’t get out. At times nothing much...
In this life we often don’t know why illness happens, but this we do know: that God is sovereign over all things and is working all things together for his purposes. Namaan, the commander of the...
Ecclesiastes (7:13) is "Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked?" Thomas Boston (1676-1732) wrote a wonderful book on this "The Crook in the Lot" which I found...
The book of Job shows how not to help others who are suffering. Job's comforters get so many things wrong. They try and take control. But if the storm is raging only God can calm the storm. Our job...
Since having cancer I’ve never felt angry with God but I’ve often wondered “why me?”. I think we all sometimes feel this in suffering and fear. The story of Joseph in the Old Testament I have found...
The Bible tells us that death and his two sidekicks fear and suffering are intruders. We live in a beautiful house and one night we hear the noise of breaking glass and we realise that someone has...
Perhaps the hardest part of the Christian life is dealing with that unholy and unwanted trio of visitors; fear, suffering and death. Death, the Bible tells us, is the last enemy and one we must all...
Irenaeus, born around 130 to a Christian family, was a disciple of Bishop Polycarp in Smyrna, who had himself been a disciple of the Apostle John. After a persecution decimated the church in Gaul,...
Cyril of Alexandria was born in the small town of Didouseya, Egypt in 376. At the age of 38 he became the patriarch of Alexandria, a turbulent cosmopolitan city with over a half million inhabitants...
Cyril of Alexandria was born in the small town of Didouseya, Egypt in 376. At the age of 38 he became the patriarch of Alexandria, a turbulent cosmopolitan city with over a half million inhabitants...
Leo the Great, a native of Tuscany, was elected bishop of Rome in 440 and is perhaps best known for meeting with Attila the Hun in 452 and persuading him to turn back from his invasion of Italy. The...
Gregory of Nyssa was born in 335 to a devout aristocratic Christian family in Cappadocia, which had suffered persecution for their faith. Gregory's grandfather was martyred, his parents had their...
John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople from 397-407, was one of the early Church's greatest preachers, whose homilies were written down by stenographers and widely circulated. Many hundreds of...
