David Turner Blog

In 2014 we visited Iceland for New Year. We had an amazing time, in a beautiful country with stunning landscapes, visiting Waterfalls and geysers, going whale watching and getting to see the Northern lights dance. Like most holidays, we came back with several souvenirs, woolly hats with the Iceland flag, a northern light scarf, some volcanic rock and some candles (still not sure why we bought candles). But one of my favourite things I brought back was a photo we purchased from a small gallery in Reykjavik. It was a picture of the same tree four times, in each of the four seasons. It’s a photo I have always hoped to recreate, and perhaps I one day will. I recently had an intriguing thought about this image, which hangs in our hall — what would this photo look like if it was a reflection of our lives and the unique seasons we faced? What if we were the tree? Life is of course made up of different seasons, of ups and downs, a s Ronan Keating famously sang, “life is a rollercoaster, just g...

 I live in a town called Hadleigh, one of the best things about my town (other than Costa, a McD's and the bus routes) is its castle, Hadleigh Castle. Today not much of it remains and it's effectively ruins, good for pigeon's nests and the odd bit of graffiti. The area around the Castle is owned by The Salvation Army and is well kept, and makes for great walks and bike rides, but as great as the castle looks or its surrounding is, it remains a ruin. The English Heritage website says that it was Hubert de Burgh who built the castle and that he did so "as a statement of his power." It's interesting how humans like to build things to show off their power, to impress others or to make a name for ourselves, pointing to this desire within us all to leave a legacy, to be remembered. But what kind of legacy will we leave? What will I build with my life? On Sunday I spoke on Matthew 16:13-18, a conversation between Jesus and his disciples, where Jesus asks his disciple...

 On Easter Sunday I shared a message entitled ‘it is finished,’ based on the final words of Jesus before his death. I love studying and writing sermons, but this sermon left me with more content then I’ve probably had before, and that meant much of it (rightfully) got left on the cutting floor. But this week, parts of what I did and didn’t share have kept coming to mind. Easter, after all, was never meant to be confined to one weekend of the year.  Jesus’ words ‘it is finished,’ followed of course by his resurrection, bring to fulfilment all that Jesus taught and did while here on earth, and opened up a new way of living for us every day of our life. Understanding those not-so-final words of Jesus becomes pretty important if we desire to follow him every day of our lives, so I thought I’d reproduce what I wrote for easter Sunday in a four part blog, mainly for my own enjoyment, but perhaps it will be of interest/help for you, as you seek to be a Jesus’ follower, living in the ...