Send us a text Andy B starts this week’s GoDeeper with a prime example of hypocrisy, in which someone balances precariously on a ladder which is balancing on two tables and says, “don’t do this at home.” He draws our attention to the Pharisees of the Bible who were very hypocritical, so much so that Jesus called them ‘white-washed tombs’. They knew the law like the backs of their hands but did not live it out. Andy B points out that outward actions, which seem hypocritical, don’t necessarily poi...
May 29, 2022•11 min
Send us a text I’ve finished another book writing project. I’m pretty thrilled about it, but when I say I’ve finished, that’s just the initial editing. Next up is my middle son – Nathan – who follows behind me cleaning up any spelling mistakes or grammar issues. He’s a star! After that it’s simply down to finalising the cover while waiting for the foreword being written by a friend, set a date for publishing and away we go! As I was sitting there looking at the last text, on the last page, I tho...
May 26, 2022•2 min•Season 4Ep. 79
Send us a text Every day is a learning day! And I learned that you can be made to learn the same thing over and over! Because, today, I learned that it can be too early to count your chickens. Again! Having struggled with fitting a replacement TV to our supposed universal TV stand, I thought I had sorted the issue with being unable to fit cables in the back - due to the way the universal TV stand completely covered the plugs and sockets and on the back of the TV; I bought some right angled plugs...
May 25, 2022•3 min•Season 4Ep. 78
Send us a text Every day is a learning day! We saw some friends recently who gave us a TV they no longer needed. It’s bigger than the one we have, so we were really grateful for such a kind gift. And, at home, we have a universal flat screen stand – which we knew could handle the job of holding up the TV. I don’t know about you but I’ve recently come to the conclusion that the something designed to be ‘universal’ really means it’s something that is designed to accommodate or fit anything other t...
May 24, 2022•3 min•Season 4Ep. 77
Send us a text Our studio camera is great! The quality is outstanding, and it can even record 4k video should we want to. When setting it up I popped in an SD memory Card I had kept for a while in a drawer. I figured it’d work no problem! But, with the best will in the world, there’s so much data our camera can hold onto while waiting to write data (video) to the memory card in it’s side. And, as it turns out, that old memory card I reused simply was not up the task at hand because it could have...
May 23, 2022•3 min•Season 4Ep. 76
Send us a text Andy B begins GoDeeper by explaining the idea of a tactical retreat when it comes to the military. He adds that making a tactical retreat is more deliberate than just retreating. Andy then gives multiple examples of Jesus making tactical retreats, often to pray, but on a few occasions, he retreated to simply get out of harm’s way. Jesus’ example is obviously helpful to try to imitate. Andy B points out that there is a time to make a stand and that we only retreat so that we can pr...
May 22, 2022•11 min
Send us a text We’re enjoying the mature garden we’ve inherited with our home. It’s stunning to see all sorts of flowers, bushes and wildlife taking shelter in the various places that such a garden creates. Our house sits in ¼ acre, so there is plenty of it! We’ve spent time, recently, mowing the grass, and trimming the hedges - our home is almost completely hedged in by hedges, which we love! We’ve been blessed by the garden, and the hedges. But, with the changing of the seasons, it is all grow...
May 18, 2022•3 min•Season 4Ep. 75
Send us a text In the garden, to one side of our home, sits a bush. It has the most stunning, beautiful, purple flowers, that literally can take your breath away, such is the colour. But that’s only half the story. Because the other half of this same bush is looking rather barren and dead. In our lives we often need pruning to keep us looking at our best – like having a hair cut. It keeps us looking tidier, and more presentable. In our spiritual lives, if we are having a relationship with Jesus ...
May 17, 2022•2 min•Season 4Ep. 74
Send us a text Holidays. From the south of France to Alaska, from Venezuala to New Zealand, people like holidays, and we all need downtime, one way or another, to help recharge those batteries so we can serve God better. Do you see your holiday as time for you? Or do see holiday as an opportunity to give to God in a different way? If you are able to enjoy some annual leave, remember that the skill and health that God gave you – that enables you to have a job – is the very reason you are entitled...
May 16, 2022•3 min•Season 4Ep. 73
Send us a text Andy B unpacks this week’s theme by first defining what we mean by the expression: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you will always get what you’ve always got.” He further explains taking risks with examples of stepping out in faith from his own life. In addition, he gives an example from Bear Grylls climbing Mount Everest. Andy B also looks at some of the risks Benaiah, a character from the Bible who oversaw King David’s bodyguard, took during his life. Benaiah is one o...
May 15, 2022•11 min
Send us a text Whenever Jo needs to be in the office for just a few hours I take the opportunity to take her in. We get some time together, and I can get some shopping done. With 5 of us in the house, there’s always more food shopping to be done! As a family we’ve been so blessed by two gifts of money, from two very different people, who have wanted to partner with us in what we’re doing. This has been super encouraging, and blow us away – how God speaks to others about what we’re doing, and see...
May 13, 2022•3 min•Season 4Ep. 68
Send us a text Through life things are always changing around us. Whether it’s the latest development in mobile phones or the most recent, progressive opinion on what society should look like, there are always these shifts around us that we need to pay attention and deal with. Sometimes it is accepting those changes – like getting old. All the plastic surgery in the world can’t increase your lifespan. It has the power to reduce or end it, but never to extend it. In our relationships with God the...
May 12, 2022•3 min•Season 4Ep. 68
Send us a text Feelings come and go. They can be like the changing of the winds at the seaside and, if we let them, they’ll blow us round in circles. Feelings are a great way of measuring our emotions. They act as a thermometer for our body. But, feelings can lie too! I’ve used this illustration many times, but it is so true: you can eat a pudding, following a huge meal, but then feel ill because you ate too much. And yet, you felt like you had the room to eat it before you began. What happened?...
May 11, 2022•3 min•Season 4Ep. 71
Send us a text We might change the wallpaper or some paint to refresh a room. It can change our mood and lift that room so we want to spend more time with it. From haircuts to wallpaper, and cars to our favourite restaurant, things change. Sometimes, the simplest things can make something appear entirely new and different. In our lives as Christians it can beneficial to refresh our Christin faith too! Perhaps it’s time to change where or when you read the bible? Or to try a new devotional plan? ...
May 10, 2022•3 min•Season 4Ep. 70
Send us a text Ever found yourself wondering around the house looking for something you already have in your hand? Or perhaps you put the milk in the cupboard and the tea bags in the fridge? Now, of course I’ve never done those things myself. I’m just using the examples a friend told me about. We all can have moments when we simply can’t get our head in the game. We are going through our day with odd socks, two coats – one on each arm, and a third for our head. It made sense, but now we’re tryin...
May 09, 2022•3 min•Season 4Ep. 69
Send us a text #GoDeeper Andy B delves deeper into this week’s theme from the angle of knowing who we are in Christ, i.e., knowing that we are free from our sins. He unpacks Psalm 139:23 by pointing out that being a Christian not only involves God encouraging us but also involves God cleaning out all the sin in our lives. Andy B also talks about how a rock climber training for a really difficult mountain climb has no difficulty walking on a slightly narrow mountain path because of his confidence...
May 08, 2022•12 min
Send us a text When we spend too long staring at a computer screen we can end up being a little too deep in the Virtual World. It’s easy to be absorbed into what is virtual, missing the reality of the Real World. Ever been watching your washing on the line, getting soaked by a downpour - while looking at an app on your phone that ells you there is 0% chance of rain that day? Maybe that’s just me. Sure, I look at a weather radar website and see what the rain is doing real time, but I still stick ...
May 03, 2022•3 min•Season 4Ep. 67
Send us a text #GoDeeper Andy B unravels this week’s theme with some examples of adapting well and adapting poorly. He explains how witnessing to French people in German would not work, because they wouldn’t understand you. He looks at the idea of joining in the bad activities of others in order to witness to them. This, of course, is wrong, because God will never command us to sin. He challenges us to reach people ‘on their level’, without being two faced, and while remaining true to our self a...
May 01, 2022•11 min
Send us a text Andy B begins this week’s episode of Endurance by first explaining what exactly we mean by the mundane with the emoji “meh.” He goes on to compare short-term happiness with the eternal joy of the Lord. Short-term happiness, or pleasure, obviously doesn’t last and could become a bit of an addiction. He touches on Ecclesiastes, the Psalms, and 1 Thessalonians as he walks us through the difference between being happy and being joyful and what the bible can teach us about the mundane....
Apr 24, 2022•10 min
Send us a text On my cycle today I ended up at the coast. It’s a beautiful, if rather barren place. But I loved it. The wind was hitting my face. The sound of the waves incredibly relaxing crashing on each other, or the shore below me. It was wonderful – I even met some friendly who each made a point of saying good morning. I munched on some fig rolls, a few energy tablets, and drank some water, recovering from what, so far, had been a brutal ride, with the direct blowing straight at me! So ofte...
Apr 22, 2022•2 min•Season 4Ep. 66
Send us a text If you buy something in a concentrated form, they you need to add water, usually, in order to make it user friendly. From screen wash for our cars to squashes in our kitchens and washing up liquid, we routinely buy things that need to be watered down to use. The obvious advantage is that, just like Ikea, furniture that arrives flat packed, you can transport more of the end product when it is concentrated while being transport. I recently attended a church where I saw a massive ran...
Apr 13, 2022•3 min•Season 4Ep. 65
Send us a text Sometimes, the simplest solutions are the best – when something electronic freezes, hangs or stops working, turn it off an on again is often the simplest way to help it reset and start working again. As a family we share a digital calendar and a digital to do list. It’s a great way of us each knowing what the others are doing, and helps us to stay on top of things like shopping lists, or cleaning lists which we’re all involved in. And a digital diary helps us know where we’re each...
Apr 12, 2022•2 min•Season 4Ep. 64
Send us a text Music. It can move in pretty amazing ways, and God designed, and hand made us, to be able to enjoy music. Vinyl records were once at the height of technology for listening to music at home. Later CDs took over, and now digital music is streamed to us in better quality than those discs we used to play on record players. With advancing technology we can see improvements. But I’m always reminded that because we can doesn’t mean to say we should. Likewise, just because we think someth...
Apr 11, 2022•2 min•Season 4Ep. 63
Send us a text A friend in the US sent me a photo from her garden. And it struck me just how much the old vegetation had protected the new flowers growing, because the old had literally covered over the new, during the winter. With Easter just a week away at the time of writing this theme of old becoming new, is very much on my mind! I’m reminded how the terrible eruption of Mount Saint Helens resulted in the devastating loss of much forest. And yet that loss also allowed smaller plants, flowers...
Apr 08, 2022•3 min•Season 4Ep. 62
Send us a text While being the awesome husband I am, I kindly drove jo to work again. It meant I could do some shopping without making a second trip, and we could some time together in the car. She got to have a couple of hours in the office and come home again. By the time I’d got in the car, Jo had already pressed the button to raise the electric garage. We drove out the garage and started our journey. Only, because I didn’t open the garage myself, I didn’t look back to check it was closed as ...
Apr 07, 2022•2 min•Season 4Ep. 61
Send us a text Beards need grooming. They need care and attention, or they can look pretty scruffy rather rapidly. That may be the look you want, but in our house that wouldn’t fly! So, since I can’t shave at this time due to a medication I’m on, I’ve now bought myself a beard brush. I didn’t know such a thing existed, and yet I now use it fairly frequently to keep my growing beard in order and making myself look a little more presentable. In life we can often spend time tidying and grooming our...
Apr 06, 2022•3 min•Season 4Ep. 60
Send us a text A cup of tea with a friend can be a great way of spending our time! Talking to someone, seeing the reaction on their face as we say something, helps steer the conversation. It is invaluable feedback to deepen the relationship. As a preacher, or as a worship leader, that same feedback is really important - it helps us steer how we say things, or how many times we can get away with repeating that same chorus while we try to remember what the next song was supposed to be, or how we’d...
Apr 05, 2022•3 min•Season 4Ep. 59
Send us a text This Andy B 2 Minute Video was inspired by Mandy, and her brilliant post - and power packed prayer - “April 2022 Prayer”. You can find out more about Mandy at her blog “Blue Collar Theologian”. Go check it out! Darkness often feels like it is greater and has more power. People love to do bad things in the dark because, I guess, they think it can appease some of the evil of their actions. Or, just because they don’t wish to get caught – which really amounts to the same thing. Darkn...
Apr 04, 2022•2 min•Season 4Ep. 58
Send us a text Andy B begins this week’s episode by asking, “What do you do when things go well?” and, “How do you handle praise?” He makes an interesting point, that out of the top three places in a running race, the person in 2nd place is often the most depressed. He proceeds to share his struggle with receiving praise – how he finds it easier to face criticism. And he warns about some of the dangers when things go well, such as false humility, rubbing our successes in other people’s faces, an...
Apr 03, 2022•12 min
Send us a text Temporary or permanent. You might see this in an advert for a job. But there are many temporary things in the world, that became permanent features. From the Eiffel Tower to a bridge built after World War II and “pre-fab” houses in the UK, some temporary things last well, but others show their age quickly. In our home we don’t do well with bright light coming into our room when trying to sleep. A temporary fix for this is showing its temporary nature, after less than a couple of m...
Mar 31, 2022•3 min•Season 4Ep. 57
