The Show's over. But the horseflies are still biting. And something I saw at the boot sale won't leave me alone. Nearly 2,000 years ago, a man named John opened a letter with words we now toss around without thinking: "I pray that you may prosper and be in health,…
A young handler burns her leg at the Royal Welsh Show. Her mam knew exactly what to do: cold water, straight away, twenty minutes, no fuss. That's the kind of quick, practical, action-packed compassion rural Wales runs on, and it's exactly the shape of the story Jesus tells in Luke…
At the end of a long, hot day at the Royal Welsh Show, here's a word for anyone running on empty. Psalm 23:3 says "He restores my soul", not "He keeps me going." A shepherd who never rests isn't a good shepherd, he's heading for a breakdown, and that's bad…
"He will feed his flock like a shepherd, He will gather the lambs in his arms and carry them close to his heart." (Isaiah 40:11) Filmed in the sheep shed at the Royal Welsh Show, this Super Short Thought looks at the difference between driving a flock and carrying it.…
There's no mess like 'oxen' in the barn, and there's no increase without them either. Proverbs 14:4 puts a choice in front of every farmer, and in front of every one of us: keep things clean and empty, or carry the cost and mess of real strength in your enterprise…
He had no name, no home, and no hope, until Jesus crossed the lake to find him. In this episode of the Word for the Week, we work carefully through Mark 5:1-20, the account of the Gerasene demoniac, from the Greek text (NA28) outward. We look at why the demon's…
What value do you put on a human life? Filmed live at Carmarthen livestock market, where the price of sheep and cattle was being weighed up all around, this Super Short Thought asks a harder question. In Mark 5, Jesus set a higher value on one broken man than on…
Jesus didn't manage the man in the tombs, He restored him. Chains were the town's solution. Redemption was His. A quick look at Mark 5:1-20 and the cost of choosing restoration over restriction ... the way to view broen people the Jesus way. Watch the full Word for the Week…
They gave him chains instead of a name ... a man so broken that his own family and neighbours gave up and left him among the dead. This is the true story of the Gerasene demoniac in Mark 5, and what happened when Jesus refused to just manage him. If…
In Mark 4:35-41, Jesus calms a violent storm on the Sea of Galilee with two words. The point of the story isn't the weather, it's the question the disciples ask afterwards: "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" In the Old Testament, only God…
We assume smooth water means we're doing the right thing, and a storm means we've gone wrong. Mark's Gospel suggests the opposite might sometimes be true. The disciples are crossing to the eastern shore of the lake, Gentile territory, heading straight toward one of the most disturbing encounters in the…
A boat full of disciples starts the night afraid of a storm and ends it afraid of the man who stopped it. In this Super Short Thought, we unpack Mark 4:35-41 and the psychological shift buried in the Greek text: the flinching fear of danger, giving way to a second,…
Lovely weather today. Wouldn't want to change it. But what if you did? In Mark 4, Jesus is in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, caught in a violent squall. He speaks two words in the Greek: σιώπα, πεφίμωσο (siōpa, pephimōso), "be silent, be muzzled." The wind stops. A…
"Teacher, don't you care that we are perishing?" It's the sort of question we've probably all wanted to scream at God at some point: in the hospital waiting room, in the middle of the night, in the silence after the prayer that didn't seem to get us anywhere. Mark doesn't…
Burry Port, West Wales. There's a gap in the land formation here that funnels the wind straight through. It's the perfect place to ask a question: if you were on a boat in a storm and the most experienced person on board was fast asleep, would you wake them up?…
If you're going to challenge somebody with the question "who do you think you are?", you'd better make sure it's not the person Mark has just introduced as Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In this Word for the Week, Simon works closely through the Greek text of Mark 2:1-12,…
What happens when the thing that defined your helplessness becomes the evidence of what Jesus has done? In this Super Short Thought, filmed at Llandeilo Mart, Simon looks at one of the most striking details in Mark chapter 2. A paralysed man is carried in on a mat by four…
Jesus looked at a paralysed man lowered through a roof by his friends, and said something nobody in the room expected. Not "be healed." Not "get up." He said: "Child, your sins are forgiven." He went somewhere deeper first. In this Markine Super Short Thought, Rev Simon Bowkett reflects on…
When every route is blocked and your own strength runs out, sometimes the most important thing you can do is let someone carry you. In this Super Short Thought, we look at one of the most dramatic moments in the Gospel of Mark: four friends who refused to give up…
Standing in a field close to the site of the 13th-century Battle of Llandeilo Fawr, Simon Bowkett opens Revelation 5:9 and asks a question that cuts right to the heart of contemporary debate: where is the line between loving your nation and making an idol of it? In this Word…
Filming outside the RNLI lifeboat station in Penarth, with their flag flying behind me, a question came to mind. What would Jesus make of Y Ddraig Goch, the Welsh Red Dragon? What does He think about national identity, language, culture, and the fierce pride people feel about where they are…
Standing on Penarth esplanade, beside an Italian Garden that marks a century of welcome, WelshRev asks one of the most pressing questions facing Wales today: can a nation be both genuinely open and genuinely honest? Wales has declared itself a Nation of Sanctuary. That is a noble instinct. But good…
