Ruth Chesney

¿Anhelas el año nuevo, dispuesto y listo para los nuevos retos y oportunidades que están por delante? ¿O estás, como yo, algo inquieto y quizás preocupado por lo que te espera y las noticias que puedas recibir antes de finalizar el 2018? Sabemos, por experiencias anteriores, que no todos los años son lo que podríamos llamar un buen año, y sospecho que muchas personas arriban el primero de enero con diferentes medidas de temor. Hace unos días estuve leyendo el Salmo 112, un salmo que nos habla sobre el hombre justo. En el verso siete me detuve repentinamente. “No tendrá temor de malas noticias…”   Malas noticias. ¿No es eso lo que tanto tememos? Noticias de enfermedad, pérdida de trabajo, angustia, fracaso… la lista no tiene fin. ¡Sin embargo, este hombre extraordinario no tiene miedo! ¿Por qué? ¿Porque tiene dinero, un buen doctor e hijos obedientes? “No tendrá temor de malas noticias; Su corazón está firme, confiado en Jehová.”   Su secreto es su confianza en el Señor. T...

Do you look forward to New Year, geared up and ready for new challenges and opportunities ahead? Or are you, like me, apprehensive and maybe a little worried about what might come your way or what news you might hear before this year is over? We know from past experience that not every year is what we’d call a good one, and I have a suspicion that most people approach the first of January with varying measures of trepidation.   Earlier this week I was reading Psalm 112, a psalm about the righteous man. At verse seven, I came to an abrupt stop. ‘He is not afraid of bad news…’   Bad news. Isn’t that what many of us are scared of? News of illness, job loss, bereavement, tragedy, heartache, failure… The list is never ending. Yet this remarkable man isn’t afraid! Why? Because he’s wealthy, has a good doctor, obedient children? ‘He is not afraid of bad news;  his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord .’   His secret is his trust in the Lord. He has a firm, fixed, steady hear...

God is good! I often come across this short phrase on social media, on posts announcing births, engagements, marriages, and for other celebratory occasions. But what does it really mean? What is the person trying to say? The goodness of God is a fact. There are really only two options – good and evil – and anyone who reads their Bible is in no doubt that God is most definitely good. In fact, we wouldn’t be stretching it too far to say that God is the very essence of good, not just that He is good in the way that we might be happy, or sad, or anxious, depending on external circumstances. And it’s this knowledge of His unchanging goodness that makes me stop and pause when I stumble upon this phrase. Interestingly, this exact phrase is used only once in the Bible. It’s in Psalm 73:1. ‘Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.’ Here the psalmist recognises that God rewards those who live uprightly. I’m pretty sure that those who use this phrase are only trying to e...

Appalling. Dreadful. Distressing. Callous. Sickening. All words used in official statements to describe the Manchester bombing earlier this week when twenty-two people lost their lives and many more were injured. The world is reeling from the senseless loss of life, and the manifestation of desperate wickedness in the hearts of men. It has touched many to hear of children and young people killed, and we’ve watched in dread as pleas for information about missing people from distraught relatives have ended in announcements of their death. Tears have been shed, and many more are yet to be shed. So much pain, so much tragedy. A sample of the countless tears shed across this groaning world through all the ages. Wars and genocide. Gang violence and drug wars. Billions killed by man’s inhumanity to man. And, in the numbers, each one an individual with their own story. A bright, ambitious son killed during protests in Venezuela. A beautiful teenage daughter kidnapped and murdered in Mexico. Pa...

I had a wonderful childhood growing up at the foot of Slemish, the mountain to which, according to legend, Saint Patrick was brought after he was captured and became a slave. We loved climbing the small rock and heather-covered mountain as children, and we couldn’t slide back down the steep, muddy slopes until we’d each had a turn sitting in what we called Saint Patrick’s chair – a missing section from a large, flat-topped stone. It wasn’t only local people who visited the mountain, however. Each 17 th  March, Saint Patrick’s Day, hordes of people descended on our area in cars, buses, and even walking the ten or so miles from the nearest town. From our garden, we were able to see the climbers as small specks silhouetted against the spring sky. Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations vary widely throughout the world. In Chicago, a city where many residents claim Irish ancestry, the Chicago River is turned green. Saint Patrick’s Day parades are held in obvious places such as Dublin and Belf...

When I’m on holiday, I love stumbling across art galleries, and can never resist taking a peek inside to admire the paintings. While I know very little about the world of art, I find the variety of style and technique intriguing. My personal favourites are paintings which, up close, look like a mass of small, thickly-applied brushstrokes, seemingly with no pattern or focus, yet when you stand back and observe the painting from a distance, all the brushstrokes have combined to form a rich, textured and outstandingly beautiful picture. In life, I often forget to stand back. Instead, I focus on the tiny, individual brushstrokes. The little daubs of paint that seem to make no sense. The humdrum of life. Everyday activities. Even things that we, as believers, started out with great gusto to do for God. It’s so easy to become focussed on today. This earthly life. We get discouraged so easily. Things don’t work out the way we planned. Our efforts seem to fail. No one seems to notice or apprec...

What better time for a new start? Christmas, with all its overindulgences, is over, and a whole new year stretches out before us, clean and unspoiled, full of potential and ripe with promise. This is going to be the year in which we lose some weight, be more organised, manage our money better, or spend more time with family. Then reality hits. The reality of saying ‘no’ to those tempting chocolates, getting out of bed to exercise on cold, wet mornings, discovering we have the same demands on our time that we always had. Why do so many new year’s resolutions fail? In most cases, they are noble and worthwhile goals, things that are perfectly legitimate and right. Maybe the goal was unrealistic. Someone whose only exercise consists of taking out the wheelie bin isn’t likely to suddenly be able to run ten miles every day. Maybe there was a lack of planning. Managing finances requires a budget, which doesn’t happen on its own. Maybe there was insufficient motivation, or we hit discouragemen...