Sunday 29 May 2022
Sunday 1 May 2022
Friday 15 April 2022
An Hour at the Cross
Sunday 10 April 2022
Palm Sunday 2022
Sunday 27 March 2022
F.F.Bruce, New Testament History
Saturday 5 March 2022
Ukraine Thoughts
Wednesday 9 February 2022
Points to Ponder
Isaiah:6:1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.’
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 ‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’
*****
Luke:5:1. One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding round him and listening to the word of God. 2 He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.’
5 Simon answered, ‘Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.’ 6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!’ 9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.’ 11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
************
I had a short, sort of polite, debate on twitter with a chap who claimed to be an atheist. However, in the usual manner of most atheists he did not declare this at first. On Twitter people often jump on Christian type posts and make a few points, often not worth commenting on. This one however, appears to be a genuine and in some ways a thoughtful individual, though how genuine is his claim to have ‘studied’ Christianity we have to take as read.
A quick look at his own timeline indicated the type of atheist posts that younger, often gay, men offer. Usually with Boris Johnson like short phrases to catch attention and defeat all arguments. Well, that’s what they intend.
The brief debate brought to mind Isaiah and Simon. Their experience reveals what many miss, the supernatural revelation of God. The study of scripture ought to bring the reader into the presence of the Living God, however, for many this is a wearisome affair, and the less sincere reader will happily accept interpretations that ease his life and end further study. For others such study may be seen as Historically worthy but God himself appears difficult to accept, many parts are confusing to a modern reader and therefore thrown out rather than an understanding sought.
Isaiah appears to have been a man of learning, well versed in scripture of the day, and he may well have been in the Temple when God met him. Peter likewise was brought up on Jewish beliefs and appears to have followed the Law as he knew it all his life. Though both had an understanding of God and his works in the nation it was when both men were brought up by the revelation of their sinful nature that they truly ‘Knew God.’ No more was he a distant figure, no more words on a page, he was God, the supernatural one outside of our experience and control, he was Lord indeed! Both men now knew this.
All believers have an experience similar to this. The circumstances may vary, it may arrive in one revelation or it may occur over time, but the personal meeting with the Living God changes everything.
Most people appear to live only in the here and now, no allowance is made for the supernatural. This is a fault we all made. We all once saw religion as unimportant, thus the church attendances fail, until Jesus turned up at our door and pointed out the difference between, what we once called the ‘righteous and the wicked.’ It was that moment when we realised for the first time that we are never going to be free of ‘wickedness,’ for want of a better word. Our nature is corrupt and we will stand before Jesus in judgement and can do nothing about this.
It is also at that moment when we can appreciate Jesus finished work on the cross. We can now understand that he took our nature when he gave himself on the cross for us. That he died to cover our sin, that he died in a personal manner for me! That sacrifice can be made available to us and our response has to be to give ourselves to him, or we have failed to comprehend our situation.
“We love, because he first loved us.”
The cold world of the atheist cannot compete with the warm loving but difficult life that Jesus has to offer. He is the centre of his world, we cannot control much yet the Christian knows that whatever the situation that Jesus is Lord and we see all too often that he is in control. This person Jesus is always with us by his holy Spirit.
This is not a religion, this is not fancy, often boring ceremonies, this is a relationship with a friend who is always with us, both now and forever.
Individuals might have a few friends during their life, but life’s events take them away, circumstances change and our control over them is feeble. The atheist, highly intelligent and hard working, often a caring person has only himself. The one who is brought by the Holy Spirit to see his need, understand his situation, and brought to the cross can face the world knowing he is forgiven and his friend Jesus will always be beside him and never leave him.
This only fails when we choose to go our own way or return to the empty world around us.
Jesus however, always satisfies.
Sunday 26 December 2021
Boxing Day 2021
Two days holiday now follow. This is time for the wrapping paper, empty boxes, the ones without cats sitting in them, and other assorted rubbish, including that strange uncle that comes only at Christmas to be discarded, recycled or dumped. Peace and quiet, unless the kids are still around, and a time for sleeping off excess now arrives.
Tuesday 26 October 2021
The City of Abraham by Edward Platt
Friday 2 July 2021
Psalm 24
Psalm 24
My reading this morning led me to wonder about this God who created all things yet seeks wretched sinners like us. The King of Glory in particular struck a cord for me.
Sunday 19 July 2020
Parkside
A week late, being five hours behind in the USA today's service begins after 2:30 pm here. So I make use of last weeks. Still good.
Friday 10 April 2020
Sunday 21 April 2019
Easter 2019
The Easter eggs have for the most part gone the way of all chocolate. The unbelieving public have eaten themselves sick, travelled to family elsewhere, visited the zoo, museums, old houses, parks and gardens, or sat by the sea while turning lobster red.
The faithful gathered en masse (but not en masse in evangelical circles) to give thanks and worship and distribute eggs.... at least I gave away a few Cadbury's cream eggs to the little hooligans, none of whom refused. Neither did the women when offered bar one who is banned from eating them by the doctor. I will have that one later.
Easter was not observed after Jesus died, it does appear to have been around in some places by the end of the first century as I read somewhere John mentions this as to be observed at the Jewish passover. It was certainly around by the mid second century.
Christians ought to celebrate this daily, not annually.
I note the government has taken time of from Brexit to support Jeremy Hunt's attempt
With the news of over 200 people Christians and tourists being killed in Sri Lanka by suicide bombers Theresa May has spoken of her feelings on the issue. It is clear the Conservatives are attempting to get back the church vote they have lost over the years. Quite how they will do this while Brexit is trundling along and they have given us austerity leading to an ever increasing use of Food banks throughout the land is not clear. It would be terrible if some preacher was to read the Book of Amos to Theresa while she is in church being photographed by the media. She might get a shock.
Easter is over, although it is not over, Christ is risen and is moving in his world, speak to him tonight, he might surprise you...
Friday 12 April 2019
My BT Problem, Rugby Problems
This contained my BT problem. This little box and the wire connected to it prevented me from receiving calls from people offering me tax refunds, changing bank accounts and allowing me to buy anti-virus supported by Microsoft. All this, plus one or two nuisance calls - the family - because one wire was frayed and required replacing.
The new building next door has been awaiting connection to the mainline for some time but nothing could happen until the new telegraph pole (telegraph, what's that?) was installed. That occurred Sunday and today the BT Outreach man arrived to plug them in. Last night my great nephew contacted me via facebook, he is now an outreach engineer and he checked the line confirming a fault. How he did this from near Edinburgh I did not ask as technology is beyond me.
Today I mentioned the fault to the engineer, made an online fault report, and almost immediately everything went dead!
You canny say they are not fast!
Within a short while all returned including the dead phone.
The men had installed the new line next door, found the corrupted wire, replaced this with new wire and all is well. All in a mornings work. Well done Outreach.
The internet and the football it contains, sorry I mean contact with friends and family it contains is important. My life is lived through the web these days. For instance when it went dead I had just found on Twitter a new relevant to the museum site concerning this area, the web is great for that.
So many good things but while it was down I was so lost I almost cleaned the fridge!
How sad can one get?
Of course now all is well I am not using the phone until tomorrow, when it is free for an hour...
Discrimination is rife in the world of Rugby Union Football. One Australian player made a, somewhat rough, statement regarding the end for gays, atheists, liars, drunks and others when they die and meet Christ Jesus, reject the offer of life in Christ Jesus and Hell awaits. This was a simple biblical statement certainly made in a 'straightforward' manner and has naturally brought upon his head the opposition of the gay lobby and the politically correct fear of the rugby authorities who do not wish anyone to attack them. Israel Folau an Australian rugby union international may well lose his position as the nations most important player because of his opinion. In the rush to be seen as innocent of all charges his own team bosses are 'making enquiries' as to the matter. I short washing their hands Pilate like. Rugby is a man's game, especially in Australia, what a shame so few men lead the organisation running it and appear to be in charge of his own club.
Folau has made it clear he will oppose any attempt to fire him from his rugby international contract, quite rightly, and we must now wait and see if the brave men running the game there will stand up for him and his right to free speech or run from the gay lobby and dump him.
In England, Billy Vunipola, another rugby playing Christian, has defended Folau's right to speak. He too now finds himself up before the authorities for offering biblical truth to the world led by the gay lobby that would reject truth.
We now live in a world in which biblical truth is pushed aside for 'political correctness,' that is the social pressure led by the gay lobby forcing the people to accept their demand to be accepted as they are, though no Christian has not done so, and bullying anyone, especially Christians who continue to point out God's views on the subject. We are corralled into accepting their opinion and afraid to speak out against it. Hitler's Germany had a similar approach to opposition.
What is the biblical view?
All men and women are born sinners, no-one will be saved on the day we face Christ Jesus, not one!
Therefore as we are totally lost God himself came down to earth in human form, lived some 30 years or so on earth facing the same problems we face, never sinned and gave up his own life after being hounded, arrested, beaten, ridiculed, scourged, and crucified, always offering forgiveness to his enemies, and dying on the cross as the price to pay for our, yours and mine, sin. Our nature put him on the cross, only a perfect man can stand and none exist, Jesus, fully man and fully God took our punishment, was separated from his father, and the Father from him, so you and I could have an opportunity of salvation.
On the third day he rose again, he being sinless could not remain there, our sin could.
When he rose he offered 'repentance' the chance to change our ways and follow him and receive forgiveness and then by his grace the Holy Spirit who will lead us into a new life. His life is hard but in the end glorious. Even now it has its moments. Nothing compares with knowing Christ Jesus, the living God!
Those who ignore or reject this offer then stand alone before God on that day that comes to us all, only their perfection will enable them to stand, and none are perfect. One sin rejects us, how many have you?
The chance of a new life is available, Folau and Vinipola have found this life and will suffer for it, all Christians do. One day God will receive them through Jesus sacrifice, they wish all others, gays, drunks, liars, even politicians, to be save also, we have one life let us make the correct choice.
Friday 21 September 2018
Friday Faffing
I note Chris Evans, paid £1.6 million for blethering on Radio 2, has had a couple of babies, or at least this weeks wife has. He has named them 'Ping and Pong.' Now my love for Chris is such that I suspect I have not actually heard a word from him for at least ten years and would continue this quite happily for another ten, however I make so bold as to interfere in his life by suggesting that anyone who names their child in a stupid manner be hung from the nearest lamppost upside down.
At the very least the social services ought to be involved as there is no doubt names such as this, plus the constant publicity that follows them will do them much harm. 'Zowie Bowie' you will recall became 'Anthony, known as Tony, as soon as he was able to change his name. He may remain working in music but now nobody notices, what could he have achieved with a proper name?
Theresa May, rejected by most of her party, rejected by 27 EU leaders and indeed laughed at, following, she says, 'the will of the people' in spite of the people wanting a second referendum that will end this madness. She and her associates, if she has any left, are out of ideas and desperate to succeed in pushing Brexit in spite of knowing it will devastate the nation for fifty years. Don't you feel sympathy for her?
No.
Today is the 'International Day of Peace.'
Who decides this? Who organises this? Why did I only find out by chance?
Does it work in Syria I wonder?
Does it run into Friday evening when the pubs come out?
Hmmm it appears this arose from the United Nations and has been running annually since 1981.
I had not noticed.
How many wars since then? How many conflicts great and small?
Peace with God is available but only through Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross.
Will folks allow you to say this?
Possibly not as that would disturb their 'peace...'
Apple, that company famed for making money and watching your every move, have introduced a new 'iphone.' This one retails at around £1400 and people in various parts of the world have queued up overnight just to be the first to buy this product.
Are they stupid?
Yes!
At the UKIP party conference, yes they still have one, there are a variety of items on sale, as you may expect. Chequers Fudge and a UKIP branded thong are available but the best seller appears to be the condoms with Nigel Farage's face upon the packet, for when you have a 'Hard Brexit.'
This is being advertised as the best way to avoid pregnancy!
Monday 9 April 2018
Mark is Listening
It comes as no surprise that facebook, like most other internet things into which we input our information, is being used to feed us even more information. This knowledge has recently upset many of us as it interferes with our privacy to discover that supermarkets can sell our details to those interested in swaying our opinions on foodstuffs or politics, yes Mr Putin I mean you! The fact that billionaires with a right wing outreach and no concern for their staff, yes Mr Amazon I mean you, make use of this information to lie to us though social media and newspaper comment columns in an effort to make us vote for Brexit can also be no surprise. This after all is what the elite have always done as the attempt to get their own way, only the machinery is different.
Propaganda has for over a hundred years spewed out of the daily newspaper, almost all owned by some magnate of some kind, especially today, all they are allowed to print has always been what was demanded by the owner in spite of some editors considering they had they right to voice their opinions. TV and radio are also a branch of the government, though not as directly as in Russia or Iran I venture, in the UK the programmes, almost none of which I watch, are offered by brainless middle class media folk on the up with no comprehension of what 'quality' means in TV, though radio can do well but you have to seek it out sometimes. The news however, especially in the BBC has become very much a tool of the Brexit lobby, these 'loony lefties' as the Loony right wing 'Daily Mail' calls them spout the same nonsense re Brexit that the Mail does with no questioning allowed of government policy. A farce and one we are lumbered with.
How worried ought we to be that such folks know that you 'Checked in' to Sainsburys on Monday or posted a photo of your breakfast yesterday? Do you think that nice Mister Putin cares about that? I doubt it myself. It may well be these men have had an effect on the thinking of many in various elections, mostly by stirring emotion rather than thought, just consider how many 'bots' you meet on forums that are negative but never argue the toss to see how effective they are at emotional threat, but on the whole the majority are already half way their if they are influenced by such propaganda. People as we know read the paper of their choice because it tells them what they wish to read rather than anything that disturbs equilibrium.
I do not worry to much at this however the information obtained would be a blessing to Heinrich Himmler and his Gestapo had he had the opportunity to possess such and the possibility of a police state in the UK is not as hard to obtain as some think. Hitler took power in 1933 and by 1939 had complete control of everything, similar could happen here and much quicker.
Who would be targets of such a state? In my view Christians are the ones most likely to be targeted. Christians strongly, or ought to, strongly oppose the Politically Correct world in which we now live. This upside down generation tat has flooded in during the last thirty years has not brought freedom to the masses it has merely allowed people to lose their freedom and indulge themselves in themselves. That is not freedom. Jesus came to offer Abundant life and today's cosmos opposes that abundance and offers slavery to self. The control via the web offered to a right wing state, e.g. China, is great but in their mental outlook the Chinese view this as a form of security, as long as prosperity continues, in the west liberal values constructed since the Reformation give us a different outlook. Freedom of thought has been fought for and is now being eroded, soon I think it will be taken from Christians altogether, who will stand then?
Wednesday 21 December 2016
Winter Solstice
At long last the winter solstice is upon us. It seems like six months since the last solstice. At last it has arrived and from now on we look forward to Spring! Ah Spring, that favourite time of year when lambs go a-leaping, little flowers erupt throughout the countryside, blue skies and warm sun appear in the sky in between the rain storms and all around see the world in a better light. Or is that see the world in day light?
For now we suffer winter itself. Indeed Winter begins today, in spite of what has gone on since late October, and we know that storms, all given stupid childish names for no good reason, will lash the coasts and send rain from the Atlantic on our heads. Snow that awful substance will fall making the roads and pavements slippery, blinding travellers, freezing our hands and feet, causing accidents to man and beast, plus cars of course, and no doubt allow kids to throw snowballs at their betters, or folks like me. Ban snow, I would vote 'Brexit' if they promised to keep it away and bring sunshine instead.
The darkness arrived as I returned from buying another new bell for the door. The last one rang with such a resounding ring I could not hear it while standing next to it. Resounding? I hit it and it doesn't resound. Bah! This one might be better but I suspect it too will be quiet, possibly some PC lout has ensured bells must not ring loudly in case someone is offended? We will see, eventually. The darkness arrived but had not really gone away, cloud covering the land all day. Dreich and yuck all day, a bit like me I suggest.
Just how dark can it get around here...?
I am spending much time listening to the Classical music resounding properly on Radio 3. Even R3 lightens up at this time and the Christmas around Europe music is good. I suspect if I was one of the millions travelling around in these Xmas days I expect I would be desperate to listen to such as this while on a crowded train, bus, platform. The joys of train travel are a delight but not when crowded. One screaming child, two women nattering loudly about nothing, a drunk, a long wait for no reason in the middle of nowhere, all these make folks wonder why they travel at this time.
O course Christmas ought to be in March rather than December, and not just because the shops are crowded. I am sure Jesus entered the world at the end of that month rather than December. Of course life begins at conceptions so possibly July would be a better time? It would be warmer then even if some wished to go on holiday at that time.
This would mean rewriting Carols of course, 'In the bleak midwinter' would become 'In the much to hot for us summer' and 'Silent Night' might become 'Turn the noise down!' The landing in a manger, where hay was dumped as donkey feed, would not change. Jesus taking the lowest place never ends, and for us too!
Sunday 18 September 2016
Eye Watch You
Been quiet here recently, I ignore the news mostly as it is the usual ongoing stuff, the weather and being a fat slob has kept me indoors for the most part and nothing has happened except the stormy rain. This Collared Dove, or bloody nuisance as it is called when calling for his mate outside my window early in the day, posed happily for me until he actually saw me behind the filthy back window. He is about the only bird I see these days all the others have scarpered including the noisy Starlings who no longer squawk around the hanging feeders. Maybe it is something I said?
The wind and rain battering the window forced me to do those things left undone for so long, cupboard cleaning, rubbish dumping and long lost object finding. It is amazing what lies in cardboard boxes at the bottom of cupboards and I have just uncovered some slides from years ago of happy times and a black cat not necessarily connected. Now all I need is one of those devices to transfer the pics to digital so I can see them properly.
Sadly I also have two heavy boxes of photos dumped aside long ago that now must be gone through. Some will be quite good but I expect I will have to be 'Donald Trump tough' and dump the ones that need not be kept. The dust I will return to where I found it and remove it next time...
The lentil soup was another requirement that will be needed to keep me alive as I continue my calorie controlled diet. I lost 4 pounds since yesterday by not eating and humping things which no doubt will return today, however the soup, which is too salty, will keep me going for lunchtimes.
The 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' comes at a price. The price is a darkening sky, shorter days, colder temperatures and golden leaves falling from trees. That last one is a bugbear for some around here today. The rain and wind have loosened the leaves from countless trees and garden paths, streets and back alleyways bust be chock a block with these things today.
In days of yore one of our tasks was to clean up such leaves, daily we would sweep as far as possible knowing that tomorrow we would have to do this all over again, and again, and again until no leaves were left. This was not a job we enjoyed as there were daily tasks to accomplish at the same time. We never complained or grumbled, no we didn't, we just got on with it and looked forward to next year.
Round here one man not far from me insists on burning all fallen leaves and this delightful aroma reminds me of my Uncle George who did similar many moons ago. Uncle George had a small fire and the smoke did not come inside, my local man enables his smoke to travel a great distance from the far side of the park and to establish a home in my room. This delightful reminiscence will not be looked on as favourably as Uncle Georges is.
Once the weather ended its downpours I made it to the late night shopping and obtained no bread that satisfies. The best stuff had gone and I had to make do with 'heat it yourself' loaves. Greedy locals had bought all the decent stuff and left me hungry, or as hungry as anyone 16 stone could be.
At least I got a night shot of others failing to get the bread they wished. How much better it is to shop when the masses have gone home, how easy it is, how quiet, how bare the shelves!