February 28, 1944, started out like many other days in Corrie’s family watch shop in Nazi-occupied Haarlem, in Holland. Corrie, the first woman watch-maker in Europe, was helping her father, Casper, repair watches, and her sister Betsie, was doing housework in their home attached to the back of the watch shop. Corrie wasn’t surprised when a stranger, under the pretence of showing her a broken watch, whispered that his family was also hiding Jews. His wife had just been arrested. Could she help? Believing that God called her to resist the evil embodied in the Third Reich, Corrie led a clandestine network of rescuers hiding Jews in Haalem. By 1944, Jews still alive in Nazi-occupied countries had a simple choice: hide or die. Corrie agreed to help the stranger.
During the night of 1st March 1944, sleep in the ten Boom house was shattered by a Gestapo raid. That night Corrie, Betsie, Casper, and thirty-nine other rescuers in their network were arrested, beaten and charged with hiding Jews. But in spite of a two day search, the Gestapo never found the six people hidden behind the bookcase in a secret room. Casper ten Boom, Corrie’s father, died in prison ten days after his arrest. Corrie and Betsie were transferred to the Ravensbruk death camp, where Betsie later died on Christmas Day. The Jews hidden behind Corrie’s family bookcase were freed, hidden again, and eventually survived the Holocaust. Corrie Ten Boom had a God-given purpose, that kept her focussed and faithful to her calling during severe trial.
We don’t know what will happen in 2014. But how we respond to the challenges ahead will be determined by our convictions, by our character and above all, shaped by understanding our calling from God. Do you know God’s purpose for your life because you are not here by accident. Rick Warren says, “Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has no significance…” The greatest tragedy is not death. The greatest tragedy is to live without a purpose.”
Why do we smile when we see a baby, even when we are having a bad hair day? Have you ever wondered what it is about babies that melts our hearts? Why are we instinctively drawn toward babies? Is it because a new person has come into the world? The thought that this person is unique? Is it the sight of their tiny hands and feet so perfectly formed? Is it their vulnerability? Their big blue or brown eyes?
Reading this book may seriously put some at risk – at risk of facing latent prejudices and stereotypes caused by selective reading or biased reporting on the Middle East. I am delighted that Hodder has had the courage to publish Brother Andrew’s book Light Force
Remember the last time you filled out a job application? You listed your education, your skills, your work experience. Then you hit the final question: “What is it that makes you uniquely qualified for this position?” How do you answer without appearing arrogant? And when I am asked to give a reference for someone, the question I stumble over is “What are the applicant’s weaknesses? Employers assume your availability, but what they really want to know about is your liabilities. Most employers hire on the basis of competence. They look at your skill set and maybe your personality type. Only the enlightened ones care much about your character. But God doesn’t operate this way. In today’s reading from Luke, we learn what it means to say “I am the Lord’s servant comma”
“High fidelity: Julian Richer rewards staff loyalty with holiday homes and trips on the company jet. Next? He’s planning their inheritance…” That was the eye catching headline in the 
Every year the British Social Attitudes survey asks over 3,000 people what it’s like to live in Britain and how they think Britain is run and the results of the latest survey are published today. Since 1983 the survey has been tracking people’s changing social, political and moral attitudes. Compared with 30 years ago, the survey reveals British people are far more likely to be tolerant of one another’s relationships and lifestyles. When the survey back in 1983 it was hard to imagine a Conservative Prime Minister advocating gay marriage. Now public opinion suggests that widespread acceptance of gay marriage and gay adoption is here to stay. The survey shows that in 1983 only 28 per cent said it was ‘always’ or ‘mostly’ wrong for a man and a woman to have sexual relations outside marriage. Now just 12 per cent say this is ‘always’ or ‘mostly’ wrong, and an all-time high of 65 per cent see nothing wrong at all in such behaviour. Even when a couple want to have children only 42 per cent think they ought to get married first. But the figures reveal that attitudes towards other parts of our personal relationships have become more conservative. Cheating on a partner likely to be greeted with disapproval than it was 30 years ago. Now 63 per cent say that it is “always wrong” for a married person to have sexual relations with someone other than their partner, slightly more than the 58 per cent who thought this in 1984.