About Saints of the Restoration
My own journey has been shaped by both faith and a lifelong interest in understanding people.
I hold a priesthood office within the Restoration tradition, a branch of the Christian faith rooted in the nineteenth-century restoration movement, and for many years I have been involved in the study of Scripture, Christian discipleship and the development of character. Alongside that, I have worked since the late 1980s in the field of personality understanding, exploring how people think, make decisions, respond to pressure, form relationships and develop through the experiences of life.
Over time, those two areas have increasingly come together in my writing.
A Faith Made Personal
Christianity has never been, for me, simply a subject of theological interest. There have been moments in my life when questions of faith, purpose and the reality of God became deeply personal.
One of the most significant came in 1994, when I was diagnosed with an aggressive Stage 4 cancer. The seriousness of that diagnosis brought mortality and the fragility of life into very sharp focus. I subsequently experienced a recovery that I regard as a profound movement of God in my life.
That experience did not answer every question, and it did not mean that life thereafter became free from difficulty. What it did was deepen my conviction that God is not merely an idea to be examined from a distance. Faith became something far more immediate: a relationship with a living God and a growing awareness that His purposes can reach into the most difficult and uncertain moments of life.
That experience has stayed with me ever since and has influenced the way I approach Scripture. I do not see the Bible simply as a collection of ancient religious writings. I see it as a continuing witness to the character, purposes and activity of God, speaking into the realities of human life just as powerfully today as it has in previous generations.
Why Saints of the Restoration Exists
For more than a decade, Saints of the Restoration has been dedicated to one purpose: helping people grow in their knowledge of God through the careful study of His word.
What began as a collection of devotional reflections has gradually developed into a much broader body of work, including daily devotionals, longer theological essays, Bible classes, studies addressing some of life’s most important questions, and a growing library of books that are all freely available to read and download.
The site grew out of a long-standing conviction that faith should not rest simply on habit, tradition or inherited assumptions, but on a thoughtful and serious engagement with Scripture.
In every generation, Christians face the challenge of living faithfully in a changing world. Cultures shift, values change, and ideas rise and fall, but the truths revealed by God remain constant.
Saints of the Restoration exists to encourage a deeper understanding of Scripture and a closer walk with Jesus Christ. My aim is not simply to provide information about the Bible, but to help readers think carefully about what Scripture teaches, what it means, and how it should shape the way we live.
Whether someone is encountering the Christian faith for the first time, returning to it after many years, or has spent a lifetime studying the Scriptures, I hope the material here encourages careful thought, honest reflection and spiritual growth.
The different parts of the site are designed to support that journey in different ways. Daily Bread provides shorter devotional readings centred on Scripture and everyday life. The Deeper Walk explores themes of faith and discipleship in greater depth. Life’s Questions considers some of the fundamental questions people ask about God, existence, purpose, suffering and faith. The Bible classes allow for more sustained study, while the books develop many of these themes at considerably greater length.
Together, they form different parts of the same purpose: to discover what Scripture teaches, understand it more deeply and allow it to shape our lives.
Understanding the Person as Well as the Belief
My professional work in the field of personality has had a significant influence on the way I think about faith.
After decades spent studying how people think and behave, one truth becomes difficult to avoid: knowing what is right and consistently living according to what is right are not always the same thing. Human beings are complex. Our decisions are shaped by personality, experience, fear, confidence, relationships, habit, conscience and the way we have learned to understand ourselves and the world around us.
Scripture recognises that complexity remarkably well.
The Bible speaks repeatedly about the heart, the mind, conscience, motive, temptation, character and transformation. Christianity is concerned not merely with what we believe, but with what we become.
This relationship between personality and spiritual development has therefore become an important theme in much of my writing, particularly within The Soul Series. The books explore questions about why people respond to life as they do, how character develops, why change can be difficult, how fear and insecurity influence behaviour, and how grace, repentance and a relationship with God can bring genuine transformation.
I do not see psychology as a replacement for Scripture. Rather, an understanding of personality can sometimes help us recognise more clearly the human realities that Scripture has been addressing for thousands of years.
Why do we struggle to change? Why do we sometimes resist what we know to be right? How is conscience formed? Why can two people experience the same event and respond very differently? What does it really mean for the mind to be renewed?
These questions sit naturally at the meeting point between an understanding of human personality and the biblical account of spiritual transformation, and they continue to shape much of the work found throughout Saints of the Restoration.
The Perspective Behind the Work
Saints of the Restoration is intentionally Bible-centred.
I write from within the Christian Restoration tradition and from a conviction that believers should continually return to the word of God as the foundation upon which faith is understood and lived.
My purpose is not to promote controversy, theological novelty or speculation. Nor do I believe that sincere Christians must agree on every question in exactly the same way. Scripture contains subjects that deserve careful examination, and genuine faith should never be afraid of honest enquiry.
My aim is to approach those questions prayerfully, thoughtfully and with a willingness to allow Scripture itself to shape the conclusions we reach.
The name Saints of the Restoration reflects this conviction. Throughout biblical history, God’s people have repeatedly been called back to Him. When truth has been neglected, priorities have become distorted or faith has weakened, restoration has involved returning to God, rediscovering His word and renewing obedience to Him.
I believe that need remains just as real today.
Every generation must decide whether it will allow the assumptions and values of the surrounding culture to determine its understanding of truth, or whether it will seek to understand life through the revelation God has given.
Restoration, in this sense, is not nostalgia and it is not simply an attempt to recreate the past. It is a continuing call to bring our hearts, minds and lives back into alignment with God.
Why Everything Is Free
For me, this work is ultimately an expression of gratitude for what God has done in my own life and a desire to use the experiences, understanding and opportunities I have been given in the service of others.
That is why everything published on Saints of the Restoration is made freely available.
There is no charge for the books, Bible classes, devotionals or longer studies. I want the material to be read, shared, studied and, where it is helpful, used by others in their own journey of faith.
If an article helps someone understand a passage of Scripture more clearly, if a class encourages a deeper examination of faith, if a Daily Bread devotional strengthens someone during a difficult day, or if one of the books causes a reader to think more seriously about God and the person He is calling them to become, then the work has served its purpose.
Saints of the Restoration will continue to grow, but the reason for doing the work remains the same: to help people draw closer to God, understand His word more deeply and allow that truth to shape the person they are becoming.
Restoring hearts. Renewing minds. Returning to His Word.
Thank you for visiting. Wherever you are in your journey of faith, I invite you to explore, question, study and continue the lifelong task of knowing God more deeply through His word.