Thought for the week

On 6 June 1944, 80 years ago, the largest seaborne invasion in history occurred in the Normandy landings. By the end of D-Day 156,000 British, American and Canadian troops had landed on the beaches of Normandy. By 4 July, that figure had reached one million. This operation began the liberation of France, and the rest…

On the 6 June people in Britain and other nations will commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day. But there would have been no D-Day without God’s gracious overruling in the amazing deliverance at the time of the Dunkirk evacuation four years earlier. Across the Channel 350,000 Allied troops were trapped by the advancing German army…

Oleksandr Usyk from Ukraine is now the undisputed World Heavyweight Boxing Champion after defeating Tyson Fury in a ferocious championship fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Both men were exhausted after the fight for which they were paid very large prize money, making it one of the richest boxing fights ever. Both men were undefeated before…

The Sunday Times Rich List profiles the richest individuals and families in Britain. There are 171 billionaires in Britain, which has more billionaires per head of population than almost any other country in the world. The wealth of the richest person is £35 billion. The top 50 individuals and families together hold a combined wealth…

This year is the centenary of Eric Liddell’s success at the 1924 Paris Olympic Games. Eric’s story was told in the Oscar-winning film “Chariots of Fire.” He was born in Tientsin in northern China where his parents were missionaries with the London Missionary Society. In 1923 Eric gave up rugby to concentrate on athletics in…

Death is in the news as a few well-known people are promoting a campaign for the UK Parliament to legislate to make physician assisted dying legal for people suffering from a terminal illness. The petition states that “terminally ill people who are mentally sound and near the end of their lives should not suffer unbearably…

The Bible teaches that being rich can be a hindrance to knowing God and becoming a disciple of Jesus. But it is possible to be very rich and to put God first. Scottie Scheffler is a very successful golfer who has just won The Masters golf tournament, which is one of the 4 annual major…

No other generation has been bombarded by words, both spoken and written, as we are today. Newspapers and magazines provide news and comment on current events. Television 24-hour news channels communicate information from around the world. Chat shows and phone-in programmes offer the opportunity for people to express their views. Social networking enables millions of…

Tony Bullimore was a millionaire British businessman and international yachtsman. In November 1996 he set off from France in his yacht Exide Challenger in the non-stop Vendée Globe round-the-world yacht race. The route took competitors southwards to South Africa and eastwards into the Southern Ocean towards Australia. In January 1997 his yacht, and the yachts…

The wonderful message of Easter is “The Lord is risen!” After the crucifixion of Jesus, his disciples were devastated and despondent. The Lord whom they loved, and in whom all their hopes were centred, had died in the most terrible way. Early in the morning on the third day after Jesus died, Mary Magdalene went…