Paul Morris
1. How did you become a Christian?
I had a good head knowledge of Christianity from school, but joined the ’60s rebellion with gusto, seeking for peace and reality in many directions – all fruitless. William Blake’s writings inspired me to read the gospels again. Jesus wonderfully revealed Himself to me as I read His post-resurrection encounter with Mary Magdalene while I was sitting in a pedestrian precinct in Brighton; my heart cried ‘Rabboni’!
2. What lessons have you learnt since that you would want to pass on to a younger Christian version of yourself?
Youth and humility are like oil and water, they don’t usually mix well; so consider you might be wrong. Also, it is easy to forget how slowly and steadily God sometimes works to bring people to faith; don’t rush others. Work hard to get a better understanding of the whole counsel of God while keeping a firm eye on the essentials.
3. How would you describe your prayer life?
God is ready to hear at all times and the flesh is always ready to do something else. Starting the day with the Lord has always been important to me, and I have tried to spend a special time at the start of each month to pray through important matters.
4. Which two or three Christian books apart from the Bible have most influenced your faith?
I cannot point to individual volumes. In my early days Spurgeon’s sermons and then Lloyd-Jones’ sermons on Romans, all of which led me deeper into the gospel. I was drawn by their understanding, warmth and power.
5. Who or what have been your biggest Christian influences?
My first pastor, Derek Fortnam, a good friend to this day, whose patience and careful teaching was invaluable. My wife, whose godliness, wisdom and graciousness has been of incalculable benefit to me. George Whitefield, a fellow son of Gloucester, a man of global vision with an ability to think outside the box, who kept his focus on essentials and preached with warmth, boldness and power. 6. What are the main challenges you believe Christians face today?
Firstly, we are still in a unique time of special warning from God to His fallen world of the Judgment to come. Christians are to be ‘messengers, one among a thousand’, because God desires to awaken and save; let us not grow weary or be timid.
Secondly, information and involvement overload threaten to take our eyes off the glorious event which should be an ever-present anticipation in our minds and hearts – the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. We will all be there, and Jesus will, for the first time, see us all gathered before Him. What a moment!
7. What encourages and what discourages you?
Lives changed by Jesus encourage and fill me with happiness. I am discouraged when Christians (myself included) act proudly and insist on their own way, fracturing fellowship.
8. What makes you laugh?
Clean jokes and stories told by Irish comedians, and my grandchildren’s antics. 9. What would you want to say to the wider evangelical world?
Remember the rock from which you are hewn and the root which bears you; remember the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, mostly living in unbelief of the promises God made to them and which Gentile Christians enjoy. Pray for them and tell them of Jesus – God has promised a remnant and a fullness which will be life from the dead for the world!
10. Which Biblical person do you most look forward to meeting in glory and why?
One of the apostles who walked with Jesus for three years. I would like to know what it was like to begin to grasp that the man they rubbed shoulders with every day was not only Messiah, but also God incarnate.
