Sandyknowes Blog

Living beside the busiest roundabout in Northern Ireland gives plenty of opportunity for watching the world go by. Sandyknowes Blog is the personal blog of Niall Lockhart (minister of Ballyhenry). Pull in and have a read…

Read: 1 Samuel 2:1-10

Yesterday we were reading together the story of Ruth. Ruth is set during a period of Old Testament history ‘when the judges ruled’ (Ruth 1:1). The best word to sum up what life was like during this time is the word ‘chaos’. The book of Judges tells story after story of a world full of broken pieces. Everybody did their own thing, genocide and murder were common place and those with power often abused it terribly to further their own ends.

Read: Deuteronomy 18 vs 15-19

2020 has been a year that has thrown up so many new words and so many new phrases: ‘Social distancing’, ‘self-isolation’, ‘please sanitise your hands’, ‘have you got your mask?’ and so the list goes on. For anyone who is a Zoom user one of the phrases of 2020 has been ‘Can you hear me?’ a phrase usually accompanied by a waving hand and all kinds of tempts to touch the right part of the screen to make a voice come to life.

Read: Exodus 2 vs 1-10

Every morning we listen to the radio, glance at our phone, or pick up a paper and there is news. Lots of news. The news we hear and read tends to be about famous people, powerful people, important people. Babies rarely make the news.

Reading: Genesis 15: 1-6

For the last number of months there has been a lot of talk about Christmas. A lot of talk about ‘saving Christmas’ and real concern at times that Christmas this year might not actually happen. 

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