Trevor and Linda Galpin - Ministering the love of the Father - TLG Mins (US) Inc

  It had to come one day and here it is, The Story of Paul III the Final Years . This book was much harder to write than I thought it would be. The reason being, there are so few historical facts to work with. Luke writes about Paul in his final chapters of The Acts of the Apostle . Yet his main purpose for writing is to show how the Gospel was taken to Rome rather than the events of Paul’s life. Luke gives us fascinating details particularly when he was personally present, such as in the shipwreck on the Island of Malta. He neatly concludes Acts with Paul a free man in Rome. Traditions of the church claim Paul was beheaded by Nero in Rome. Fanciful legend says his head bounced three times and three fountains miraculously appeared out of the ground. But was he beheaded? Indeed, was he beheaded in Rome even? For information of Paul’s death, we are dependent on early traditions from the second and third century, about when, where, and how. Nothing is certain. In reality, solid evidence

Here is what has kept us busy in this Covid season.... I'm delighted to launch my latest book....   The Big Picture   Finding the Father in the Bible . The Big Picture takes a look at the great story of God in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It charts how God is eternally Father since before creation and how he reveals himself as Father through all scripture. It draws together all the various parts of this glorious biblical truth, like pieces of a jigsaw, that come together into one vast glorious narrative of the love of the Father for his lost children. It focuses on The Father’s love and the sending of his Son Jesus who brings us home. It explores how this truth is inspired by the Holy Spirit in the pages of the Bible.   Stephen Hill in his foreword says of “ The Big Picture ”, “ I believe that this book is an important part of what Paul the apostle called “The whole counsel of God.” It is a resource for now and for the future and many treasures are conta

  Linda and I went for a walk along the beach at West Wittering recently. It was the last sunny day forecast before a period of very wet weather was due to come our way. It was a beautiful day. As we walked the beach a storm blew up through the English Channel across the Isle of Wight. We both managed to catch some photos and when I looked at them later the title of this post came to mind. I felt this w a s a metaphor for this season of life we are all in. Many are facing the full force of the Covid storm. None of us are untouched. Yet the sun behind the storm was a powerful and comforting reminder of the Father's constant presence.    We learning to live each day as it comes and enjoy each day's opportunities. We also look to the future when the storm clouds clear and a new day finally dawns. To that end we are not cancelling events scheduled for 2021.  If nearer the time they don't happen then so be it. We hold all these things lightly. Indeed, I was recently

I'm delighted to announce the publication of my latest book,  The Story of Paul, the early years.  It is available on Amazon and Kindle. But why another book on the apostle Paul? Haven’t there been enough books on him already?  Here is why I wrote the book. The apostle Paul has been with me all my Christian life. What I mean by that is, my earliest memory of the apostle was being informed by my parents that my middle name was Paul and I was named after him. I had no idea what they were talking about. Much later, I discovered what they meant. They were expressing in some way their hopes for me, that I would be like Paul. Whatever the reason behind it, I have always had some sort of affinity with the apostle. That was about as far as it went for years. In the 1970s, I studied theology at Spurgeon’s College and whilst Paul was on the curriculum, he was not a major focus for me. In many ways, I felt more akin to the apostle Peter in his ups and downs. Inci

I have been mulling over writing about Martin Luther and the five hundredth anniversary of the Protestant Reformation for quite some time.  In this 500th anniversary year we have had the opportunity to visit the sites in Germany that are most closely linked to Martin Luther.  I was surprised how "un-touristy" it all was.  I liked Wittenberg and enjoyed listening to a Lutheran service in English in the Castle Church that finished up with a rousing rendition of Luther's great hymn of the Reformation, "A mighty fortress is our God." It was stirring and moving.  The painting by Cranach in Luther's local church where he used to preach, was particularly fine.  It visually described some of the basic tenets of Luther's teaching. On October 31st 1517, Martin Luther had nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg.  These 95 statements challenged the Roman Catholic Church of the 16th Century to question what it means to be a Christian a

In the last year we have encountered two hurricanes.   The first was Hurricane Matthew which slammed into South Carolina the day l ast October before we flew in to Atlanta.  It delayed our arrival by a couple of days and disrupted the event we were due to attend not far from Charleston. This year was more specific as we landed in Florida for a week of rest and holiday and found ourselves caught up in a mass evacuation of over 6 million people.  We joined the interminable lines of cars heading north and eventually after driving for nearly 18 hours found ourselves in the safety of Orange Beach, Alabama rather than St Petersberg Florida.  We sat on the sidelines of the main event which tore through the Florida Keys, made landfall near where we were meant to be staying and ripped a path up the centre of the state causing billions of dollars worth of damage and flooding many coastal communities. Friends suffered damage to their property and most are still without power. We met nothing