Shalom!

Welcome to the new improved CWI website.
www.cwi.org.uk

First of all, a confession. It’s getting to the point where technology is beginning to scare me. To paraphrase Jackson Browne: “I can't keep up with what's been going down. I think my brain must just be slowing down”.

Many, many years ago I enthusiastically got to grips with a steam-driven, DOS based computer. Then along came Windows which both surprised and excited me as I discovered it was easier to use than DOS (what wasn’t!). Then I discovered e-mail and the world-wide-web, and today... I begin to blog!

I’ve also been trying to understand tweeting and I’m getting hundreds of requests from complete strangers who want me to be their friend on Twitter. Goodness knows what's going to come up in the years ahead or even the weeks ahead.

Don't get me wrong. I’m not techno phobic. It’s just that the thought of having to keep up with the thousands of cybermates who want to chat with me. And anyway, I’m beginning to get blisters on my index fingers.

But I’m determined to blog because I’ve seen the power of blogging. This first posting is all a bit lightweight but in the days, weeks, months and years ahead I hope to bring to your attention important information. There will be some laughs (I hope) and I'll be sharing biblical teaching, telling you where I’m preaching and teaching, informing you of the work I’m involved with and much more. Be sure to check this blog each day and let me know what you think because I need to know someone is reading this.

Have a look around the site. If you have suggestions for things you’d like to see, let us know.

So, from the ridiculous to the sublime, let me on my first blog share a devotional thought for 1st December from the inimitable Charles Haddon Spurgeon:

…begin this wintry month with your God. The cold snows and the piercing winds all remind you that he keeps his covenant with day and night, and assure you that he will also keep the glorious covenant which he has made with you in Christ Jesus. He who is true to his Word in the revolutions of the seasons of this poor sin-polluted world, will prove faithful in his dealings with his own well-beloved Son.

Winter in the soul is by no means comfortable and if a winter season is upon you just now it will be very painful: but there is this comfort: the Lord makes it. He sends the sharp blasts of adversity to nip the buds of expectation; he scatters the hoarfrost like ashes over the once green meadows of our joy; he casts forth his ice like morsels freezing the streams of our delight. He ... is the great Winter King who rules the frost and therefore you must not murmur. Losses, crosses, heaviness, sickness, poverty and a thousand other ills are of the Lord’s sending, and come to us by his wise design.

How we prize the fire at this time of the year! Let us in the same manner prize our Lord, who is the constant source of warmth and comfort in every time of trouble. Let us draw near to him and in him find joy and peace in believing. Let us wrap ourselves in the warm garments of his promises and go forth to labours which befit the season...