http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/02/10/do1001.xml
I came across this article in the Guardian recently which refers to how Christian Charities are struggling with bureaucracy when it comes to obtaining grants. It never really occurred to me that by wanting to employ Christians in your Charity that it could be deemed discriminatory. There just seems to be so many obstacles these days put in the way of people who just want to make a difference in their communities and in the world.
" But it turns out that, while the works of faith groups are sometimes welcomed – and almost always needed – the faith of faith groups is too much for the authorities. Thus if a Christian group prefers to employ Christians to do its work, that is discriminatory. If it offers prayer as one of the activities available to its clients, that is anti-diversity."
This got me pondering how important it is as Christians to support Charities that are based on Christian values and principles. That is not to the exclusion of other secular Charities who also do good work but I just think that if our Christian Charities are coming up against the sort of issues mentioned in the report then funding is always going to be tough. Especially in the current economic climate.
Friday, 31 October 2008
Thursday, 30 October 2008
Credit crunch and all that..
I am not sure we can conclusively pin down who first coined the phrase 'credit crunch', certainly it appears to have been used decades before the current crisis. Came across this posting which makes some reference to how Christians might view the current turmoil http://solapanel.org/article/jesus_and_the_credit_crunch_2/
Personally, I have always had an interest in the stock market and finance and so I could see some of the problems coming but I don't think many people would have thought the near banking collapse. It effects us all in one way or another and I think it is one example that has demonstrated to the world how humankind can really be shown to be foolish at times and it's just greed at the end of the day.
So what should our reaction be? It's easy to blame others but I guess as consumers we all have contributed to the continued rapid globilisation of markets and our desire for cheaper imported goods. What happened to paying a fair price. In saying that it is easy to jump on the bandwaggon and look for excuses. In some ways globilisation has enabled developing countries to increase labour opportunities and standard of living (think Shanghai and the emerging middle class - but the flipside is the Chinese outside the main cities who continue to live in poor conditions). Think of Africa that still struggles with tribal conflicts and political problems and has yet to really see much of these so-called benefits.
So perhaps at times like these, it is important for us, yes, to tighten the belts maybe but also to really think hard about what is important in life. To concentrate on those things that go beyond the day-to-day and the worries of this life, to pay attention to eternal things (Matthew 6v20) "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal."
Returning to a related topic, here are some websites which might help with the budgeting and saving the pennies. I believe God wants us also to be good custodians of what we do have.
New Word Alive 2009
I did not attend this myself last year but I know a few who did and came back with good reports, looks like they have made it a bigger event for 2009 over 2 weeks. Speakers include Don Carson, Terry Virgo, Liam Golligher & Vaughan Roberts.
They are also trying to get Stuart Townend back to lead the worship which would be great.
I don't think I will forget the experience of Stuart Townend leading Worship at the Royal Albert hall of all places, in this years Mens Convention http://www.christianconventions.org.uk/lmc/
Owain's Journey
http://owainsjourney.spaces.live.com/default.aspx
I came across this blog today and I hope Owain and his family don't mind me linking it here. I think it is amazing that we are able to share these stories with the world and Owain's is certainly one of courage and bravery. If you are reading this can I just ask that you remember to pray for the little guy and his family today, that the doctors and those that care for him will be given the gifts and skills to be bring healing and that God in his mercy and mighty power will oversee and breakthrough for the good of all concerned.
I came across this blog today and I hope Owain and his family don't mind me linking it here. I think it is amazing that we are able to share these stories with the world and Owain's is certainly one of courage and bravery. If you are reading this can I just ask that you remember to pray for the little guy and his family today, that the doctors and those that care for him will be given the gifts and skills to be bring healing and that God in his mercy and mighty power will oversee and breakthrough for the good of all concerned.
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
Yesu and their bus project
http://www.yesu-sheringham.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7&Itemid=10
I have spent many of my childhood and now adult years holidaying in North Norfolk and here is a great little project that has been set up by a local church which seems to be going from strength to strength. They have recently purchased a bus for use within the surrounding communites and this bus project and the Yesu premises in Sheringham high street really does show what can be achieved in a relatively small sea side market town. I am encouraged by it really because clearly when God wants something to happen and He has willing workers to help make it happen then he can really break out and bring blessing to people not traditionally part of the "church" environment.
I have spent many of my childhood and now adult years holidaying in North Norfolk and here is a great little project that has been set up by a local church which seems to be going from strength to strength. They have recently purchased a bus for use within the surrounding communites and this bus project and the Yesu premises in Sheringham high street really does show what can be achieved in a relatively small sea side market town. I am encouraged by it really because clearly when God wants something to happen and He has willing workers to help make it happen then he can really break out and bring blessing to people not traditionally part of the "church" environment.
How does God speak to us
I adapted this from some correspondence and discussion I recently had on the subject of 'bible dipping', when sometimes you just turn to the Bible, let it fall open and are really helped and spoken to by God.
I guess 'how God can speak to us' is a pretty significant part of our Christian lives, maybe it should be 'how God DOES speak to us..' (..and much of the time we are either not listening or we ignore it) It's a bit like when we are warned not to grieve the Spirit, a very important subject for our lives to be successful. The Bible is our food and the context of what you are reading is very important so we can understand how the words were intended by the author or Author. The authors had their own context of course, like many of the 'letters' in the New Testament, but it is GOD who is the Author, it is through Him and His Spirit that all these authors are brought together in one Book (we won't mention some of the books that many scholars think may have been omitted from our 'version'..).
Interpretation of Scripture is a subjective matter of course, which is why there is disagreement amongst Christians or a difference in emphasis placed on certain things, that will always exist. I happen to think that the Holy Spirit is very powerful and can and does open up the word to individuals and ministers to them in a personal way that is just right for them, sometimes without the input from any hints, help or Minister. The Gideons example, where they decided to put "hints" in the front on the Bible definitely does have it's place but I suppose some might say is this not then in some way encouraging the reader to only read certain chapters and nothing else. It is possible to be led by commentators and 'scholars' and have lots of head knowledge but without any Spirit led heart felt knowledge. Understanding the context is certainly very important, it is not always easy to do, maybe it is something we need to study and consider in more depth. It is also very convenient in churches to place emphasis on the context surrounding verses but then on other occasions to place less importance on the context, either way to support or disprove an argument.
I also believe that it is possible for God to take some words out of the context of the 'story' they are in, in a situation where an individual is seeking God in a very real way or when God needs to speak to them in a more direct way. So if that individual opens up a Bible and a verse or verses give him/her the answer they were seeking or God speaks to them there and then - then that is a real intervention by a powerful and awesome God. I don't think that God then expects them to read beyond and before, to study the context, the historical perspective and analyse it it studios detail. He might, but then he might not.
He speaks to us in many different ways, and sometimes the purist ways when he speaks to us through our own spirit without any intervention or input from others, are the most important ways. Sometimes. I have never read the Bible from cover to cover, it is something that I have often thought I should do - I wonder if we are truthful how many actually have. I know some do daily readings or have a 1 year bible that helps them. I wonder how easy it would be to really be able to understand all the context to every chapter, especially some of the Chapters in the book of Numbers, but then perhaps do we always need to. Maybe in just reading the words, even if we don't understand them at the time, maybe at the end they come together as a whole or one day they will make sense to us.
It's rather like life in general, sometimes we don't understand why things happen, it's only after many years or through experience that we can make sense of them or the reasons are revealed to us.
Follows, by J.I.Packer which seems very relevant to this:
The Bible is the rope God throws us in order to ensure that we stay connected while the rescue is in progress (by J. I. Packer Christianity Today, October, 1996)
A lifeline is a rope to which a drowning person clings while being pulled ashore. Drowning is a condition of being invaded and overwhelmed by water, which gets into your lungs so that you cannot breathe. Metaphorically, you can be said to drown in sorrow, or grief, or any other invasive mood that disrupts normal personal life.Today we are surrounded by people drowning in the raging waters of hopelessness. The proverb rightly says that while there's life there's hope, but the deeper truth is that only while there's hope is there life: When the light of hope goes out, and there really seems nothing to live for anymore, life itself becomes a killing burden. We are so made that we live very much in our future, and the desolation of feeling that there is nothing worthwhile to come, nothing good ever to be expected again, eats the soul away like a corrosive acid.To moderns drowning in hopelessness, disappointed, disillusioned, despairing, emotionally isolated, bitter and aching inside, Bible truth comes as a lifeline, for it is future-oriented and hope-centred throughout. The God of the Bible, whom Christians know as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit united in a shared divine life, is both a very present help in trouble and a very potent hope in times of despair. The triune God, we might say, is the lifeguard, who, in true Baywatch fashion, comes in person to the place where we are drowning in order to rescue us; the Holy Scriptures are the lifeline God throws us in order to ensure that he and we stay connected while the rescue is in progress; and the hope that the Scriptures bring us arrests and reverses the drowning experience here and now, generating inward vitality and renewed joy and banishing forever the sense of having the life choked out of us as the waves break over us.That the Bible throughout is a book of hope is not always appreciated, but it is so. From the giving of the promise that the woman's seed will crush the serpent's head (Gen. 3:15), the Old Testament constantly looks forward to great restorative things that God will do for his people and his world. The New Testament nails down this hope by its repeated assurances that the Lord Jesus Christ, our divine Sin-bearer and present heavenly Friend, is with us by his Spirit to keep us sane and safe till he returns to re-create the cosmos and lead us all into unimaginable endless glory with himself. Meantime, he gives our lives permanent and satisfying meaning by making us his servants, with jobs to do, and that is a relationship that will continue forever. In a world in which the individual's natural sense of significance is so largely snuffed out, such a hope is a lifeline indeed.
I guess 'how God can speak to us' is a pretty significant part of our Christian lives, maybe it should be 'how God DOES speak to us..' (..and much of the time we are either not listening or we ignore it) It's a bit like when we are warned not to grieve the Spirit, a very important subject for our lives to be successful. The Bible is our food and the context of what you are reading is very important so we can understand how the words were intended by the author or Author. The authors had their own context of course, like many of the 'letters' in the New Testament, but it is GOD who is the Author, it is through Him and His Spirit that all these authors are brought together in one Book (we won't mention some of the books that many scholars think may have been omitted from our 'version'..).
Interpretation of Scripture is a subjective matter of course, which is why there is disagreement amongst Christians or a difference in emphasis placed on certain things, that will always exist. I happen to think that the Holy Spirit is very powerful and can and does open up the word to individuals and ministers to them in a personal way that is just right for them, sometimes without the input from any hints, help or Minister. The Gideons example, where they decided to put "hints" in the front on the Bible definitely does have it's place but I suppose some might say is this not then in some way encouraging the reader to only read certain chapters and nothing else. It is possible to be led by commentators and 'scholars' and have lots of head knowledge but without any Spirit led heart felt knowledge. Understanding the context is certainly very important, it is not always easy to do, maybe it is something we need to study and consider in more depth. It is also very convenient in churches to place emphasis on the context surrounding verses but then on other occasions to place less importance on the context, either way to support or disprove an argument.
I also believe that it is possible for God to take some words out of the context of the 'story' they are in, in a situation where an individual is seeking God in a very real way or when God needs to speak to them in a more direct way. So if that individual opens up a Bible and a verse or verses give him/her the answer they were seeking or God speaks to them there and then - then that is a real intervention by a powerful and awesome God. I don't think that God then expects them to read beyond and before, to study the context, the historical perspective and analyse it it studios detail. He might, but then he might not.
He speaks to us in many different ways, and sometimes the purist ways when he speaks to us through our own spirit without any intervention or input from others, are the most important ways. Sometimes. I have never read the Bible from cover to cover, it is something that I have often thought I should do - I wonder if we are truthful how many actually have. I know some do daily readings or have a 1 year bible that helps them. I wonder how easy it would be to really be able to understand all the context to every chapter, especially some of the Chapters in the book of Numbers, but then perhaps do we always need to. Maybe in just reading the words, even if we don't understand them at the time, maybe at the end they come together as a whole or one day they will make sense to us.
It's rather like life in general, sometimes we don't understand why things happen, it's only after many years or through experience that we can make sense of them or the reasons are revealed to us.
Follows, by J.I.Packer which seems very relevant to this:
The Bible is the rope God throws us in order to ensure that we stay connected while the rescue is in progress (by J. I. Packer Christianity Today, October, 1996)
A lifeline is a rope to which a drowning person clings while being pulled ashore. Drowning is a condition of being invaded and overwhelmed by water, which gets into your lungs so that you cannot breathe. Metaphorically, you can be said to drown in sorrow, or grief, or any other invasive mood that disrupts normal personal life.Today we are surrounded by people drowning in the raging waters of hopelessness. The proverb rightly says that while there's life there's hope, but the deeper truth is that only while there's hope is there life: When the light of hope goes out, and there really seems nothing to live for anymore, life itself becomes a killing burden. We are so made that we live very much in our future, and the desolation of feeling that there is nothing worthwhile to come, nothing good ever to be expected again, eats the soul away like a corrosive acid.To moderns drowning in hopelessness, disappointed, disillusioned, despairing, emotionally isolated, bitter and aching inside, Bible truth comes as a lifeline, for it is future-oriented and hope-centred throughout. The God of the Bible, whom Christians know as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit united in a shared divine life, is both a very present help in trouble and a very potent hope in times of despair. The triune God, we might say, is the lifeguard, who, in true Baywatch fashion, comes in person to the place where we are drowning in order to rescue us; the Holy Scriptures are the lifeline God throws us in order to ensure that he and we stay connected while the rescue is in progress; and the hope that the Scriptures bring us arrests and reverses the drowning experience here and now, generating inward vitality and renewed joy and banishing forever the sense of having the life choked out of us as the waves break over us.That the Bible throughout is a book of hope is not always appreciated, but it is so. From the giving of the promise that the woman's seed will crush the serpent's head (Gen. 3:15), the Old Testament constantly looks forward to great restorative things that God will do for his people and his world. The New Testament nails down this hope by its repeated assurances that the Lord Jesus Christ, our divine Sin-bearer and present heavenly Friend, is with us by his Spirit to keep us sane and safe till he returns to re-create the cosmos and lead us all into unimaginable endless glory with himself. Meantime, he gives our lives permanent and satisfying meaning by making us his servants, with jobs to do, and that is a relationship that will continue forever. In a world in which the individual's natural sense of significance is so largely snuffed out, such a hope is a lifeline indeed.
women and the local church
http://42.blogs.warnock.me.uk/2008/07/new-frontiers-a.html?cid=122226554#comment-122226554
I have included the above link to a blog discussion that I somehow came across during a marathon surfing session, you know the ones...you end up at one point and through various click throughs and web searches you end up at another. It is certainly a heated discussion at times. It is also a topic of debate which has run on and on for many years - with lots of different opinions as you would expect.
My whole view on blogs and debate of this nature is that I don't want to hide from it and that whilst often we don't agree with others it is useful to hear differing viewpoints to your own. I contributed under posting name of "gil" (there was already a Mark).
I have included the above link to a blog discussion that I somehow came across during a marathon surfing session, you know the ones...you end up at one point and through various click throughs and web searches you end up at another. It is certainly a heated discussion at times. It is also a topic of debate which has run on and on for many years - with lots of different opinions as you would expect.
My whole view on blogs and debate of this nature is that I don't want to hide from it and that whilst often we don't agree with others it is useful to hear differing viewpoints to your own. I contributed under posting name of "gil" (there was already a Mark).
Tuesday, 28 October 2008
My Background
As the good old blogger.com only allow 1200 characters as html in the "about me" section I thought it would be only right to fill in the gaps here:
I now reside on the Essex/Suffolk border a few miles down the River Stour from Dedham and 'Constable Country'. Moved here in 2005 and much has happened over the last few years including the birth of my 2 & 1/2 year old Son, who is now a bouncing-full-of-energy-never-sits-still-always-on-the-go variety. It has been a busy few years, new house to furnish and garden to clear of builder’s rubble, meeting and making new friends and dealing with the change a child can make! It has been a time of change on so many levels and I have felt God's call on my life in a real and new way.
I was brought up in Christian home with all the good and not so good points that entails when growing up. I gave my life to God at a relatively early age and had a few recommitments during those early years. I am one of those people who cannot say 'on this day, at this time, I gave my life to Christ'. I often used to wish I could have had or remembered such a moment in a true hell's angel rocker type of way but we are all different and with our own path and story. I guess my recommitments in those early childhood years (to make sure) make pinpointing a date difficult but I do have distinct memories of praying to God and being impacted at summer camp under the fantastic and gentle messages delivered by Dave Pritchard (Camp Padre).
I was baptised on Sept 14 1986 and enjoyed many years in a Brethren Assembly when in those days we had a thriving youth work. I attended Essex Christian Camps each summer from the age of 11 initially as a camper and then a tent leader and later tent officer. It was a good work supported by brethren and evangelical assemblies throughout Essex and London and met on a school site for many years near Lowestoft. They were interesting and fruitful times. However as I grew up and as more independent thinking took place I began to feel that the church environment for me was not really relevant at that time in my mid to late teenage years.
This was followed by a period where my walk with God was not as it should be and I entered a period of back sliding and then a 'typical' university experience. It took a number of years through my 20s to really settle down and indeed it led me to leaving the country and going to teach English in Ukraine of all places in the summer of 1996. This was a great and fascinating time where I really learnt a lot about people and how other people lived and where I also met my future wife. I came to appreciate the things we take for granted in the developed West versus the comparative poverty in a place like the Ukraine. Whole families of 5 or 6 share a two bedroom flat in a high rise in a dimly-lit district and as their Guest I had one of their rooms!...I learnt about how appearances can be deceptive and that the people were so kind and humble but so very friendly and hospitable. It made a lasting impression on me. So that's the background.
In recent years since 2005 when we moved to where we live now and said right let's find a church the first Sunday after we move in, my walk with God has been closer. I have felt his hand on my life in a much deeper way and I have come to know him as a friend as well as a Father. During the pregnancy for our first child we had many worries and concerns which culminated in a very unexpected and premature birth. During the first 18 months we had other concerns with development, feeding, glue ear, hearing loss etc. But often these things happen for a purpose and I know that God brought me through the other side with a greater reliance on him and his purposes. Today my walk with God, whilst having 'it's ups & downs' which I think is probably normal is on much deeper spiritual level than ever before. I guess this is due to both a maturity on my part but also I feel because I am listening more to what the Holy Spirit has to say and allowing him to guide and direct me.
In recent times I have been trying to deal with the whole area of a reformed theology, gifts of the Spirit and the like and a local church based on New Testament principles. I want a local church that values each member equally, that is very much based on scripture and that is out there trying to connect with society and its locality. Church is not as we are often reminded about the building but about the people and my desire is to see the church going beyond the building to meet the needs of a broken society and in many senses a nation, a world which is totally lost.
I now reside on the Essex/Suffolk border a few miles down the River Stour from Dedham and 'Constable Country'. Moved here in 2005 and much has happened over the last few years including the birth of my 2 & 1/2 year old Son, who is now a bouncing-full-of-energy-never-sits-still-always-on-the-go variety. It has been a busy few years, new house to furnish and garden to clear of builder’s rubble, meeting and making new friends and dealing with the change a child can make! It has been a time of change on so many levels and I have felt God's call on my life in a real and new way.
I was brought up in Christian home with all the good and not so good points that entails when growing up. I gave my life to God at a relatively early age and had a few recommitments during those early years. I am one of those people who cannot say 'on this day, at this time, I gave my life to Christ'. I often used to wish I could have had or remembered such a moment in a true hell's angel rocker type of way but we are all different and with our own path and story. I guess my recommitments in those early childhood years (to make sure) make pinpointing a date difficult but I do have distinct memories of praying to God and being impacted at summer camp under the fantastic and gentle messages delivered by Dave Pritchard (Camp Padre).
I was baptised on Sept 14 1986 and enjoyed many years in a Brethren Assembly when in those days we had a thriving youth work. I attended Essex Christian Camps each summer from the age of 11 initially as a camper and then a tent leader and later tent officer. It was a good work supported by brethren and evangelical assemblies throughout Essex and London and met on a school site for many years near Lowestoft. They were interesting and fruitful times. However as I grew up and as more independent thinking took place I began to feel that the church environment for me was not really relevant at that time in my mid to late teenage years.
This was followed by a period where my walk with God was not as it should be and I entered a period of back sliding and then a 'typical' university experience. It took a number of years through my 20s to really settle down and indeed it led me to leaving the country and going to teach English in Ukraine of all places in the summer of 1996. This was a great and fascinating time where I really learnt a lot about people and how other people lived and where I also met my future wife. I came to appreciate the things we take for granted in the developed West versus the comparative poverty in a place like the Ukraine. Whole families of 5 or 6 share a two bedroom flat in a high rise in a dimly-lit district and as their Guest I had one of their rooms!...I learnt about how appearances can be deceptive and that the people were so kind and humble but so very friendly and hospitable. It made a lasting impression on me. So that's the background.
In recent years since 2005 when we moved to where we live now and said right let's find a church the first Sunday after we move in, my walk with God has been closer. I have felt his hand on my life in a much deeper way and I have come to know him as a friend as well as a Father. During the pregnancy for our first child we had many worries and concerns which culminated in a very unexpected and premature birth. During the first 18 months we had other concerns with development, feeding, glue ear, hearing loss etc. But often these things happen for a purpose and I know that God brought me through the other side with a greater reliance on him and his purposes. Today my walk with God, whilst having 'it's ups & downs' which I think is probably normal is on much deeper spiritual level than ever before. I guess this is due to both a maturity on my part but also I feel because I am listening more to what the Holy Spirit has to say and allowing him to guide and direct me.
In recent times I have been trying to deal with the whole area of a reformed theology, gifts of the Spirit and the like and a local church based on New Testament principles. I want a local church that values each member equally, that is very much based on scripture and that is out there trying to connect with society and its locality. Church is not as we are often reminded about the building but about the people and my desire is to see the church going beyond the building to meet the needs of a broken society and in many senses a nation, a world which is totally lost.
The First Post
Who know's where this will lead. Like many others I have dabbled with webpages, contributed to many more and decided actually it would be rather nice to concentrate on a blog of my own. Clearly there are millions of blogs all over the world, circa 112 million if you believe wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog. The internet is so vast and growing year on year, who know's how many blogs there are now as we approach the end of 2008.
So I have joined the club of bloggers... and this was the first post.
So I have joined the club of bloggers... and this was the first post.
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