Things wot stain affect the flavour. (said in best Bedforshire slang!)
OK before we get into this post I need to put a disclaimer in place, the photograph to the left is NOT a photo of one of our mugs, it is a picture I got off t’internet click the image to see where I got it from. I just couldn’t be bothered to dig my own camera out and take a photo of one of our mugs.
That being said I can now get into the topic of this post.
As many of you will already know I am a coffee drinker, I drink real coffee, and where possible avoid the instant stuff that clams to be coffee, I will drink it if its offered, more out of politeness but I am a real fresh brew man.
What you possibly don’t know, unless you know us pretty well, is that Joy does NOT drink coffee, of any sort, she is a tea drinker, she does not like the taste of coffee, so we never partake of the same hot beverage, I drink coffee not tea and Joy drinks tea not coffee.
In our kitchen we have a vast array of mugs, just odd mugs we have collected from here there and everywhere, one of Joy’s hobbies is collecting mugs, anyhow, there are some mugs that are ‘hers’ and some that are mine, yet others that are used by either one of us. more out of ritual & an unwritten rule rather than out of a real insistence of us not sharing each others mugs.
The other day I made myself a coffee, well I think Joy actually made it and left it brewing in the kitchen, so I only had to pour it out (cafetiere, which is my favourite way to have coffee made) which I duly did, into the first mug I grabbed, which just happened to be one of Joy’s mugs, one that she got a couple of months ago for her 40th Birthday, says something like ‘I am not 40 just 18 with 22 years experience, but I digress…. the point being its not an old mug, but one she uses a lot.
Anyhow, I used this mug for some reason without paying much attention to it, until I started to drink the coffee, because I realised that the coffee had a very strange taste to it, after a few sips it dawned on me that it had a tea taste, on checking what mug I was using I realised that it was indeed one of Joy’s tea mugs.
Now, this mug looked clean, it hasn’t be around for years, she does have 1 mug that has obvious permanent tea staining inside it, but she loves drinking from that mug, we are not talking that mug but one that has been used a lot recently but still looks basically clean, yet it still had a tea taste to it. Of course you need to understand that we are a dishwasher free household, largely because there isn’t space for such an appliance in our kitchen, I am sure that cups/mugs washed in dishwashers come up as clean as new each time, but when you wash mugs by hand it is near impossible to rid it of all the tea staining.
I realise that many younger readers will not have seen things such as teapots with huge amounts of tea staining on the inside, partly because lots of people don’t even use teapots these days but if you have a dishwasher & wash your teapot in the dishwasher it doesn’t build up stains, but it is a long lasting memory from my childhood, seeing the teapot so badly stained, I am sure this is part of why I never liked tea.
But back to the tea mug I was using, it is incredible how that tiny amount of staining, visible yet not obvious, can affect the taste of my coffee, tea is generally considered to be a much more subtle tasting drink than coffee yet the tea taste overpowered the taste of coffee, even fresh real coffee.
So it is in our lives, if we have things in our lives that have stained us, it is going to flavour everything we do, everything else that we taste will have that subtle yet unmistakeable taint of the stain, unless and until we deal with it, a simple wash will not deal with the stain it needs a good dishwasher to get rid of the stain and the taste before it is suitable for use for another purpose.
Anyone for Coffee?
lessons from a trapeze artist….
As many of you will know, from previous posts, I regularly receive books to read and review, one that I am currently reading (well nearly finished actually) at the moment is Friendship for Grown-Ups: What I Missed and Learned Along the Way by Lisa Whelchel has been a real challenge to me in places, but I don’t intend to go into too much detail on that right here and now, suffice to say a review will be forthcoming in probably about a week.
What I wanted to write about at the moment is a quote she puts in her book that’s obviously impacted her, she got it from Henri Nouwen in a book called Our Greatest Gift: A Meditation on Dying and Caring As you might have guessed I have been as impacted by this illustration as Lisa was so I have decided to dedicate a whole blog post to it.
I am sure it doesnt need any further explanation or clarification from me, it stands all by itself.
Henri had a conversation with a famous flying trapeze artist which went as follows:
One day, I was sitting with Rodleigh, the leader of the troupe, in his caravan, talking about flying. He said ‘as a flyer, I must have complete trust in my catcher. The public might think that I am the great star of the trapeze, but the real star is Joe, my catcher. He has to be there for me with split second precision and grab me out of the air as I come to him in the long jump.’ ‘How does it work?’ I asked. ‘The secret’ Rodleigh said, ‘is that the flyer does nothing, the catcher does everything. When I fly to Joe, I have to simply stretch out my arms and hands and wait for him to catch me and pull me safely over the apron behind the catchbar.’
‘You do nothing!’ I said surprised. ‘Nothing’ Rodleigh repeated. ‘The worst thing the flyer can do is to try catching the catcher. I am not supposed to catch Joe it is Joe’s task to catch me. If I grab Joe’s wrists, I might break them or he might break mine, and that would be the end for both of us. A flyer must fly and a catcher must catch, and the flyer must trust, with outstretched arms, that his catcher will be there for him.’
nuff said!
A Rap…….. on the knuckles that is! and a quote/prayer for you..
I got told off, well kind of, for the last sentence in my previous post where I said that what I write isn’t worth reading.
And I guess that she has a point, after all she had read right through to the end of my post, as she does with all of them, to find that comment, so it must have been worth reading!
So, here is my apology to you all for saying that, I promise to be a good boy today.
Right now we have the apology out of the way, I am a fan, as many of you will know, of the NLT Bible and am really enjoying my Mosaic Bible, with meditation material. I can’t claim to read it every day, or even read every weeks material completely but I really appreciate it when I I do pick it up and read from it, in amongst the material, much of which comes from a different age, are some real nuggets of truth that are such a blessing to read.
Anyhow, I read the following quote this morning, or was it this afternoon? well either way the quote is:
O Lord, we besech thee to deliver us from the fear of the unknown future; from the fear of failure; from the fear of poverty; from the fear of bereavement; from the fear of loneliness; from the fear of sickness and pain; from the fear of old age; and from the fear of death. Help us, O father, by thy grace to love and fear thee only, fill our hearts with cheerful courage and loving trust in thee; through our Lord and Master Jesus Christ.
Akanu Ibaim (Nigeria / 1906-1995)
I was pretty struck by the fullness and depth of the quote so thought I would share it with you. Simple really, no words of wisdom from me just that quote, which was obviously written in Authorised Version English but yet is so profound and significant for many, many of us have fears and worries and so desperately NEED Christ to fill our hearts with cheerful courage and loving trust in him.
Perhaps this was a bit of an answer to my previous post? I don’t know! but it is certainly very timely for me.
Christian Standards?
My apologies for the poor standards of writing in this post, I have struggled to get the matters down in a coherent and logical manner but I trust tht you will read and know my heart as you read, my desire for holiness and purity but not to condemn or criticise.
I realise that the blog post that follows could be seen as me being super spiritual but I want you to know that is not the case, I am all too aware of my own failings and struggles and am writing out of weakness myself but out of a desire to move on and move into a true and better relationship with God, to now Christ more and more, to know his love and a real encounter from him to enable me to live more pure and holy a life before him butt he following post is one that I have felt I need to write in order to address a growing concern I have with the standards being set within the church in this age, perhaps I am of a previous generation but I do believe that the way we act, the way we speak, the things we do and the things we call ‘entertainment’ matter, they matter to God, they should matter to us, and they affect our relationship with him as well as our witness to those who are around us.
Leaders of the church in particular should be setting examples of holiness and purity, and teaching those standards clearly to the church, so that they challenge the believers to live purer and holier lives, we can no longer rely on peoples own understanding of right and wrong, or of expected standards, people coming to faith now have come from a background where they have not known anything of Christian standards, where anything goes and there is no black and white, no right and wrong, therefore we need to teach, and keep on teaching, the standards we believe to be right.
One of my concerns over the ‘seeker sensitive’ models of church is that there seems to be a far greater emphasis on forgiveness and grace than on holiness and purity, it seems that we are so keen to get people into the church that we are prepared to overlook some serious moral failures in an effort to make them feel welcome.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not for one minute suggesting that we should expect people to have it all sorted before they become a part of the church, we all sin and fail, but what I am suggesting is that we do need to challenge moral standards that fall bellow the standards expected of Christians, whether in our own lives or in the lives of other believers, however long they have been walking with God.
This lack of desire to challenge difficult areas of peoples lives actually does them no favour, they don’t know how they should live because we don’t extol the virtues of a Godly lifestyle.
For example, there are a good number of Christians who don’t realise any more that it is wrong, and against the laws of scripture to live with your girlfriend or have sex outside of marriage, the world says its fine, go on it doesn’t matter and therefore when they come to faith new Christians continue lifestyles that are ungodly simply because no one has told them that it is wrong and it grieves the spirit, that there is another way to live and they should, indeed MUST maintain a different standard from the worlds standard.
As a parent, how can I teach my children the basics of Christian living when the example they see in the church is so far from that standard, when those who my children look up to in church are living by the worlds standards.
I am not suggesting that it is wrong for us to mix with the world, I am not advocating a separatist or elitist attitude or a holier than thou way of living I am not suggesting that we should leave people under condemnation and judgement, but we do need to point to the right and godly standards that we hold dear, or do we hold them dear? I am not so sure about that some times.
In John 8, when the Pharisees brought the woman caught in adultery to him he said ‘let those who are without sin cast the first stone’ as we know the people left one by one, what did Jesus do? he was the one without sin so he could have stoned her but he says ‘they have not condemned you and neither do I’ he could have condemned her but he didn’t he was the one who was holy enough to condemn her but choose, in his love and grace not to, we are in no position to condemn however he does go on to say ‘Go and sin no more’ so we are not to condemn but we are to teach standards and expect that people will be challenged by the spirit.
Neither am I advocating a simple compliance to rules and regulations or following moral standards alone, what people need more than anything is an encounter with the living God, he will bring about life changing transformation in their lives, but along with praying for that encounter with the living God, for both ourselves and others, we do still need to teach right from wrong, in a world where anything goes and there are all shades of grey but no black and white we need to stand up and say NO there is a right and we will maintain the line.
I think that one of the things I find saddest is the way that Christians seem content these days to lower their standards to the levels of the world, particularly in the world of entertainment, a few months ago I watch a few minutes, I think about 10-15 minutes tops, of a comedian, I had heard a couple of Christians rave about this particular comedian, so decided to watch his TV programme, what I was ‘treated’ to was a barrage of swearing and crude jokes and innuendo, including blasphemy, we will come back to blasphemy in a minute, I watched as much as I could cope with and switched off!
Similarly we bought a few DVD’s before Christmas, got some cheapies so some of them were block busters in their day but were pretty old hat, one of these, 4 weddings and a funeral, was so full of people jumping in and out of bed with each other and having affairs etc, we had to turn it off! now I am aware that a good many Christians have watched and enjoyed that film but since when has sin been entertainment to us? does Paul not talk about this in Romans 1:32: Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. in the context of listing sexual sins and impurities that the people of the generation are given over to he then condemns those who are in effect giving assent to those sins and approving of them, I think that in this generation we are in danger of just this, in fact worse, not only do we approve we find it entertainment!!
Getting back to blasphemy, it seems that it has actually become acceptable for blasphemy to be used in every day language, even on TV and radio programmes before watersheds no one stops to think when someone says ‘Oh my God’ do they not realise this is blasphemy? and why not? because we as Christian s have not told them.
On Facebook and Twitter one of the abbreviations used regularly is ‘OMG’ which is basically an abbreviation of the blasphemous comment above, I have even seen it written by Christians! so since when did it become acceptable for Christians to use blasphemous remarks on their Facebook and Twitter status updates?
Please Christian Brothers and sister, consider how you live and try to maintain a lifestyle that is pure and holy, we don’t, make our faith more attractive just by ignoring moral failure and lowering our standards we just make our faith mean less, we loose our distinctive if we water down our standards and morals to match those of the world.
I emphasise again, I am not suggesting that we should be elitist or separatist or that we should condemn the world but that we should live in the world, amongst unbelievers and that our lives should be lives of holiness and purity that challenges their standards and morals.
Where is HE who has been born the King of the Jews?
Mathew 2:1-6
NOW WHEN Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men [astrologers] from the east came to Jerusalem, asking, Where is He Who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east at its rising and have come to worship Him. When Herod the king heard this, he was disturbed and troubled, and the whole of Jerusalem with him. So he called together all the chief priests and learned men (scribes) of the people and * anxiously asked them where the Christ was to be born.
They replied to him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: And you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, you are not in any way least or insignificant among the * chief cities of Judah; for from you shall come a Ruler Who will govern and [ shepherd My people Israel. [ Mi 5:2]
OK its not very often I quote the bible in my blog, and even less often (if ever!) that I start of a blog post with a quote from the bible, where I have used a quote its usually just 1 verse! so why is this different? I don’t know really! I just felt that the whole section I put in had relevance for what I wanted to say, or ask.
So, my question is very simple, what did the Chief Priests and Scribes do after the birth of Jesus had been revealed to them? here we have some ‘wisemen’ who were astrologers, a practice and occupation that God detests, yet reveals his most miraculous event in all history, the birth of his own son, to such as these, Gentiles no less! and uses their chosen profession, astrology, to do so! strange as that may be, what is even stranger is this, once they get to the palace of Herod and tell of the wonders of the birth of ‘the King of the Jews’ Herod calls the chief priests and scribes and asks them ‘Where is the Christ to be Born?’ they answer by quoting from Micah 5:2 that he is to be born in Bethlehem, OK so these learned people, who proclaim that they are followers of the Lord, who have the truth in them, who have studied scripture all their lives, who KNOW where the Christ is to be born, why did they not go with the wise men to find this miraculous sight? why did they not go to confirm one way or another whether this really was the birth of the one who had been prophesied about so much? Were they not at least a little curious as to what was going on? Indignant possibly at the fact that God had chosen to reveal this news to such as Gentile Astrologers, perhaps a little sceptical that God would reveal this truth to those people, but surely curiosity would have had them explore further?
If that had been me what would I have done? well I hope I would have sought God on the matter, wanting to know whether this was indeed the fulfilment of great promises or just some hoaxers and if I had enquired of the Lord with earnestness would he not have confirmed it in my heart too? even if he hadn’t done so, I think I would have wanted to tag along with the wise men, just to satisfy my own curiosity, I am not convinced that I would have been any more certain that the baby born in such poor circumstances was the one who had come to bring salvation but at least I would have gone to see, and perhaps in doing so put myself into a situation where God would/could speak to me.
Had they become so wrapped up in their own traditions and religion that they had no time for listening to what God was saying or doing in their very presence? they were living at a watershed in history yet they missed what was the biggest sign from God, other people coming into their city and telling of what they had seen and understood from it. It is little wonder that God chose to speak to Gentile sinners & poor Shepherds when the Chief Priests and Learned men (of God) chose to ignore what was brought right to their feet.
Had God been trying to get these people to listen to him for a couple of years, since Jesus Birth and only after trying to grab their attention chose to go instead to those who were outside of his own. We don’t know but I wonder…..
So what? I hear you say, well, if those Chief Priests back then, who held the truth, who had studied Gods word to the extent that they knew where Jesus was to be born, if they can choose to ignore, or not listen to, the truth when its so clear before their own eyes, then what about us? are you, am I, still listening to Gods voice? are we prepared to accept that sometimes God doesn’t work in exactly the way we choose, sometimes he reveals things to those who don’t know the truth in the same way we do, sometimes he chooses to present the truth to us in a way that we least expect and sometimes, well very often actually, he does things in a way that is so different to what we expect, it may run counter to our experience, just because its not in our experience doesn’t mean its not in Gods plan!
I am not advocating following every whim and move that comes our way, not suggesting that we should take in every teaching and every teacher who purports to be giving Gods word, we are still told to judge what we hear/see but lets suspend our own suspicions and cynical spirit and at least wait on God to reveal the truth to us, maybe, just maybe, he has chosen the foolish, or the weak, to shame the wise, maybe, just maybe, he has chosen to work in a way that we didn’t expect, or using people we didn’t expect, even people we wouldn’t choose.
Well thats it for me, just wanting to wish you all a very happy and blessed Christmas and peaceful New Year
London (again!) and 3 encounters…..
London, Again and 3 encounters that saved MADE the day.
If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you will possibly already have heard that I had a very successful visit to London on Thursday, the conference went really well, it was entitled From Vision To Action and was held at and run by HTB the big draw back is that HTB are very much central London, SW3 being their post code, just down the road from Knightsbridge.
This matter was compounded by the fact that the conference started at 9.30am, and finished at 5.30pm, so basically journeying during rush hour was pretty much obligatory.
As if that wasn’t enough, I was travelling on my own and have a fear of large crowds, busy places, hectic city life is just not for me, and I hate the underground system with a vengeance, no really HATE it! Not so much afraid of being trapped or a fear of the tunnels and the dark just find it disorientating and confusing as well as too busy and its too easy to go the wrong way.
I have a few bad experiences of London and, particularly the underground, to support my case for avoiding it, not last of course the saga that was my last trip to London, to another conference, just a couple of weeks ago, where even in the company of a seasoned London Commuter, well he used to be, we still managed to get on the wrong train and end up going from London to Bedford via Tonbridge, Kent!
So I feel there is some justification for me being a little nervous, to put it mildly, about the upcoming journey to London, on my own. I seriously considered not going to the conference but decided, with a little encouragement from some friends, that I wasn’t going to allow this fear to rule my life and prevent me from benefiting from what looked to be an exciting and interesting conference, In had really wanted to go and was as torn over the decision about whether to go as I have ever been about anything.
In the end, I went, and enjoyed it, I will possibly write a bit more about the conference on a future blog but for now I want to explain the cryptic comments I posted on Facebook & Twitter where I mentioned that I had 3 encounters with ‘angels’ whether these were real angels or simply divine ‘coincidences’ coming together I am not sure but either way it was a remarkable series of events.
Anyhow, the day started early, I was up when the alarm went off at 6am, got to the train station just in time to leap on the 7.32 train to St Pancras & beyond (I woke up at some stage between Bedford & Luton) anyhow, one advantage of the trains starting their journey at Bedford is that it does more or less guarantee you a seat, and even a choice of seats, from my previous experience of sitting on a seat next to people who are slightly on the large side, I opted to sit in one of the seats sitting near the door that goes sideways on, they used to be luggage racks but those were removed to squeeze a few more seats on, anyhow, the seat was tight for space but at least it was all my own space and I had plenty leg room too, anyhow, a guy got on at Luton and chatted briefly across the aisle, which is unusual for a commuter train, anyhow he saw me get my Oyster Card out and made some comment about being a regular underground traveller, I said no I wasn’t and I wasn’t looking forward to it as I hate it (the purpose of getting the oyster card was simply because I wanted to make my underground journey as simple as possible and felt this was the simplest option) he asked where I was headed, I think I just about got my head round the fact I wanted the Picadily line to South Kensington or Knightsbridge, having just checked it out on the instructions I had, he said that he was going on the Picadily line too, although in the opposite direction, so if I tagged along behind him he would show me the way and point me onto the right platform.(Angel No 1)
So I duly followed him, through the crowds, to the underground, passing through the gates with relative ease and simplicity, we arrived down on the Picadily line and he indicate I wanted to go Left and he went right, so I arrived on the correct platform but it was heaving bodies, like more people than I thought was possible, it is a real miracle that no one ended up on the tracks, the trains were coming in pretty fast, about 1 Minute intervals, I decided pretty quickly that I was NOT going to get involved in the crush of people trying to cram onto the trains, each train that stopped seemed jam packed and yet, even though only a few people got off many more got on, they looked to me rather like human sardine cans on wheels, how on earth they physically fit everyone in there is beyond me, I am sure it must be against health & safety regulations, overcrowding etc, but I guess nothing much will happen until (and please God don’t let it happen) a disaster happens as a direct result of the overcrowding.
Deciding not to get involved in the hustle of the crowds, I stood back from it all against the rear wall to keep out of the way, several (probably 7-8) trains came and went, at some stage a lady came and stood next to me, by this time I was getting a little more than freaked at the crowds, not sure when they would stop pouring down the escalator onto the platform, would I end up stuck here for a few hours> anyhow, as I said this lady came and stood next to me and waited as a couple of trains passed, I turned to her and made some comment about her not fancying the crowds, she said no she was going to wait till it was quieter as she wasn’t in a rush and asked where I was headed, so I told her it was HTB, she said oh that’s just down the road from where I work, you want to get off the same station I am getting off, I will show you the way (angel No 2) turns out she works at Harrods, so we got on a train together and off at Knightsbridge, she took me to the top of the stairs and outside, it turns out that tube station comes out right next door to Harrods, so walking past Harrods she glanced at her watch and said, I have plenty of time I will walk you to HTB, on the way she told me that finding my way back was nice and easy as all I had to do was look for the mass of green fairy lights that cover the Harrods building and it would be easy to find in the dark, the tube station being right next to Harrods of course, anyhow, she took me to the drive of HTB and left me to go the short walk up the drive on my own.
I arrived with very little stress, other than a few minutes where I almost freaked on the underground, well actually if I were honest, I did freak but there was little I could do about it, so many people coming down to the platform there really wasn’t an easy way out so all I could do was take a few deep breaths and put up with it.
Not having had to find my way round and not getting the chance to get lost or disorientated was great, the conference was well worth the effort, but more of that at some other stage.
I had agreed with Joy that I could avoid the evening rush hour by hanging around in London and getting tea before heading home, being all too aware that this would lead to the potential of me getting lost I had noted on the walk to HTB that there were a number of eateries between the 2 locations, so I decided to go for one of those, however, on my walk back towards the station I realised that the restaurants were all very very expensive and I could not afford even a starter at any of them, so I decided to take a walk round Harrods, to fill in some time, I bought a couple of bits there as gifts, for Joy & the kids etc, and got served by my ‘angel’ who asked how the conference had gone, I asked her if there was anywhere to eat that was reasonably priced, she said No so I thought I would eat back at St Pancras, the tube would be less crowded now, the lady behind me in the Que said that she was headed for St Pancras as well and could show me where to eat reasonably priced there, so I was escorted back down the underground, through to St Pancras, she then took me round the maze of the station via a lady giving out money off vouchers for the Better Burger Co, she seemed to know that these vouchers would be available, then through to the better burger co for a meal, we got takeaway as she advised me that our train would be leaving shortly, not sure how she knew as she didn’t seem to check any of the timetables/boards, anyhow, it turns out she was headed to St Albans so needed the same train as me, she showed me the way to the train and on we get, just in time for the doors to shut and the train headed homeward, with myself and Angel No 3 enjoying burger and chips.
I got home a few minutes after 8.30 after a relatively hassle free return journey and it wasn’t even raining for my cycle ride back either.
So, I ask again, as I asked in my twitter/facebook post on Thursday evening, do you believe in angels?
the indecision and the conference!
OK so you will know by now that I braved the delights of London last week to go on a conference, something which was a pretty big deal for me, I don’t do London and definitely don’t do the underground!
I felt relatively at ease doing the conference last week as I had company, my opposite number from the CofE church down the road from us, who had actually made me aware of the conference, travelled with me, and we still managed to get on the wrong train.
Well, at the conference I bought a recommended book, From Vision to Action by Tricia Neill (She is in a senior management position at HTB Holy Trinity Brompton) anyhow, having read the book I was really impressed with what she had to say, it all makes a lot of sense and I was really encouraged in reading it, not least because it was so easy to read.
Essentially Tricia sets out to expound the idea that we, the church, should bring business levels of standards into all that we do in the church, i.e. we should not settle for second best but seek excellence in all that we do she comes from a background of working in senior positions with some fairly bi household names so she knows what she is talking about, she manages to walk the thin line between implementing business standards and keeping our focus spiritual, which is refreshing to say the least, I thoroughly recommend the book to anyone who has any responsibility in a local church.
It dawned on me at the end of last week that I had received an e-mail from htb about a conference being held there entitled ‘Vision to Action’ being run by the same lady who wrote the book.
Anyhow, when I originally received the e-mail, some weeks back, I forwarded it to David G & Myles (Pastors) to see if it was of interest, David G responded by saying that he would love to go but as he was in Kenya at the time the conference was due to be on he thought it was a bit far to come back for it, he did suggest that he thought it would be good for myself and Myles to go, based partly on it being a HTB conference and they always do conferences well, but also because he thought it was worth going to, especially having watched the promo video they had done, I must confess that my initial response was somewhat muted, for a number of reasons, now however, havign read the book I was suddenly more interested, having checked with Myles, he cant go because he has something else on that day, so if I go I go on my own.
I had pretty much made my mind up that I would go then I decided to check where HTB was, I had assumed, thought, mistakenly believed, that it was North London somewhere, not sure why I thought that! well it turns out to be in SW7, pretty close to regents park and that sort of area, erm, No I don’t think so! Me, on my own, on a train & on the underground, all the way to Central London, well through central London actually, Not a chance!
I did make the mistake of mentioning this to Meryl, who shares the office with me, she felt that I could do it and suggested that I ought to try, erm, no I dont think so, there is no way I am going to do it.
Anyhow, this morning during my counselling session I mention that I had been thinking I would love to go to the conference but felt it was just totally impractical, my counsellor spent a lot of time with me working through the options and making it sound so reasonable and so feasible, after all its only a busy commuter filled, packed to the brim, hot sweaty train to St Pancras followed by either a similar packed tube train, well probably more packed, through London, and a few minutes walk or an extortionate taxi ride through the London rush hour, of course its a piece of cake, no problems with it at all. erm no I don’t think so!
Anyhow, she got me moved from, No way to, well I could consider it, it MIGHT work but I am really NOT keen!
this afternoon I had an e-mail pop into my Inbox from the delightful Meryl, again encouraging me to go, she had spent the time working out the routes, she came up with pretty much the same 2 route options I had, the underground option I mention earlier and another option involving changing at London Bridge and catching a second train, thus avoiding the underground! trouble is, that train will still be filled with cattle, er I mean commuters, with a herd mentality.
Anyhow, now I have 2 women on my case about it, so reluctantly I discuss it again with Joy, she is happy with me going even though it means another long day for her, with me not being around to help with the kids, SO I took a deep breath and, without giving too much thought to the consequences, book myself onto the conference.
Did I happen to mention that the conference is actually only next Thursday? no? I didn’t think I did, well it is. I think I definitely need my head testing for even entertaining it as an idea let alone booking myself onto it.
OK so maybe not the biggest deal to some of you guys who do that every day but I do have a real fear? if that’s the right word? of London, I get so uptight and worked up but I am determined that I WILL go to this conference, I WILL achieve this, and I WILL enjoy the conference, even if I am not so keen on the bits either end of it.
SO, if you want to go to the conference do get in touch because I am still keen to find a travelling partner if I can.
Mosaic Bible – Book Review
My Thanks to Tyndale Publishers for giving me a courtesy copy of The Holy Bible: Mosaic
I have the honour of hosting Keith Williams (General Editor of the Mosaic Bible) on my blog, over the next couple of days he will be answering all your queries and questions about this bible, in addition, you have the opportunity to win a copy of the bible, I have a voucher ready to send out to the winner, all you have to do is comment on my blog, ask a question, tell me why you should win, or just make a comment about this review or the Mosaic Bible, to be entered into a draw to win the voucher, this competition is open to anyone who comments before midnight – GMT (UTC) on 18th November.
OK as a Christian the Bible is very important to me so having the opportunity to review and check out a new Bible is pretty cool.
When I say ‘New Bible’ its not a new version or a new translation, the Bible text used, as might be expected from Tyndale, is the NLT, New Living Translation, this just happens to be my favourite version which makes this product even better.
Anyhow, what’s new with this Bible is the material, placed at the front of the Bible, for study and meditation, the material is made up from inspiration writings, readings, poems, prayers & artwork, from a whole host of sources, the publishers claim that this material covers every continent and every generation of Christian History, I have to say that from my reading so far there is a wealth of material from a whole range of church traditions.
The Bible takes its name, Mosaic, from the concept that each item is like a fragment of coloured material, unique in colour, shape and size, of its own it looks lovely but placed expertly together it forms a beautiful Mosaic Picture.
This Bible is designed primarily to be studied liturgically, through the Church Calendar, beginning at the start of the Christian year, which is the first Sunday of Advent (something I only learnt very recently) but there are 2 other suggested methods of using this material, I shall address these 2 first, briefly, before returning to the Liturgy side of things.
firstly, you can study the material by topic, there is a topical index included and you can pick topics in any order you wish to study them.
or you could use the bible with your existing study or bible reading programme/notes, as you do you will find that there are cross references back to material in the front section you can take the opportunity to supplement your own study with this additional devotional material.
Other features of the bible include a Greek/Hebrew word study guide and a theological dictionary combined with concordance, both to be found at the back of the bible.
The bible is also a cross reference bible, with the usual cross references to be found down the centre column of each page, there are also wide margins to the left and right of each page for users to write their own notes.
But returning to the main attraction of this bible, which is the liturgical study material, this is at the front of the bible and is arranged, as I said before, around the main Christian feasts and the Liturgical calendar, coming from a non-conformist background I am not familiar with the liturgical church year but am finding it very interesting, the material is built around weekly themes such as ‘The Wilderness’ ‘Blame’ ‘Service’ ‘Seeking and Saving’ and ‘Gods Holiness & Grace’ the material is not divided into daily readings/thoughts for the day instead you are treated to a fair degree of freedom in how you use the material, each weeks material is made up of 4 main scripture readings, an optional extra reading and a variety of poems, prayers, inspirational work and though provokers, as the reader you are free to choose exactly what you do with the material.
Not being an intellectual type of person I enjoyed the laid back style as it enabled me to take it at the depth I was comfortable with and I found it best to use the material in a fairly meditative way, I have got into getting through the firs treading of the material by about Wednesday, leaving the remainder of the week for me to meditate on specific parts or go back on things that struck with me and re-read that, however I also felt free to stick with one core aspect for a large part of the week e.g. a particular liturgical prayer, there was no compulsion to have to get through the material.
I am pretty sure that this material would appeal to people at all stages of their Christian walk, due to the free style structure of the material.
The bible readings are not reproduced within the study material but are cross referenced to, they include page numbers, which is very useful to those who are less familiar with the layout of the Bible.
I have to say that I did enjoy the material, it excited me in its approach, I am not too familiar with the liturgical style of responsive prayers but have really appreciated the freshness with which it brings some really good material together.
The study material also includes space fro the user to add comments, the reader is encouraged to engage with the material and write their own thoughts and ideas in the spaces provided, to in a sense, add their own pieces to the mosaic.
There is also plenty of opportunity to interact with other users in their on line forum where you can discuss the material, especially helpful as most people will be studying the same material at the same time.
I have a feeling that there could well be regular updates to this study material as ideas and thoughts are collected from people around the globe as they study.
Also, whilst talking about the on line material, there is a helpful study guide calendar so that you can find out where you should be at any point in the calendar, very helpful if, like me, you come in part way through the liturgical calendar, or if you loose your way and need to pick it up again at a later date.
I do have 2 negatives though, firstly, I refereed earlier to the topical index, I have to say that I have found this pretty difficult to comprehend, I just think this could have been made much simpler and more straightforward.
the second criticism is that I cant understand the need to put this material together with a bible, the material stands on its own 2 legs bundling it into a new bible just adds unnecessarily to the cost of the material, one that I suspect will put some people off buying it, most Christians have a good number of bibles, in a variety of translations and, if they were to be honest they would admit that most of their bibles just sit there gathering dust! So why do they need yet another bible?
Having said that though, it is actually the first physical version of the NLT I have had, although I use the NLT for all my own personal study I have tended to use the bible study software and bible notes from my laptop or my smart phone (both of which have the NLT set as my default version. I have to confess that I have realised, in using this material, how much I have missed picking up a real physical Bible.
In all I have found this material to be fresh and exciting, it is a real departure from anything that I have experienced before and I have really enjoyed it, the whole feel, right from the cover design through to the nature of the material and the way it is put together has a very Celtic feel to it, which I really appreciate, I think that I am a closet Celt, I am sure that I would feel really comfortable in the Iona Community, its on my list of places to visit before I die.
I think this Bible would make an ideal Christmas Gift for a loved one or for yourself, especially if you have struggled to get into other more structured material in the past or are new to the idea of studying the word.
One closing plea though, thinking back to my comments about the number of bibles that people do posses, if you do find yourself with a copy of this bible please consider turning out all those unused bibles, if you don’t have a good home for them contact me and I will give you my mailing address, our church has links with churches in Africa who are crying out for Bible’s especially study bibles, Many of the leaders, never mind individual members, don’t posses their own study bible, if you send me your old bibles I can assure you that it will find its way into the hands of African Christians who will really appreciate and treasure them.
OK so now I have had my say, its over to you, I look forward to hearing your questions, comments and thoughts on my review and on the Mosaic Bible, don’t forget that Keith Williams is here to answer your questions and comments and one of you could be the winner of a voucher and obtain their own copy of the Mosaic Bible.
Consider it pure joy……
Yesterday (Monday) I went to a conference in London, no big deal you say? well some of you will realise that there were several factors that made this a big deal for me.
firstly, the last conference I went to was not a happy experience for me, I basically found it too much to cope with, being around people etc, no space and lots of other factors, when I was at a very low level myself, the result of going to that conference was to put me back off sick, having just got back a few weeks earlier, only this time I was off sick for several months rather than the few weeks I had been off before.
As if that wasn’t enough, I have a huge phobia of London, the underground, the railway, the streets, the business the traffic, nothing about London inspires or encourages me to want to visit, I steer clear as much as possible, the last time I went to London was with our daughter, for an appointment at Great Ormond Street, it was pretty early so we went down very early and got breakfast in their restaurant, but afterwards we decided to take her to see one or two of the sights, well we managed to get a little disorientated on the way back to the car which didn’t help but then the journey back home was a nightmare, traffic everywhere, the journey down was good and took a little under an hour and a half, the return journey, middle of the afternoon so not rush hour, took about 3 1/2 hours.
OK that wasn’t too bad but the previous visit to London was me on my own, by train/underground, for a specialists appointment, resulting in me getting thoroughly lost and disorientated, to the extent that I asked a Police Woman how to get to the station, I said Kings Cross, she checked my ticket to establish which Kings Cross I needed, as there is more than 1! and she then decided, rather than give me directions, she would walk me there and make sure I got on the right train before she left me, I must have looked in a bad way!
So with that as a backdrop you can understand why going to the conference was a big deal for me, anyhow, this was a 1 day conference for Administrators, we are all supposed to be efficient enough to manage to pick everything up in 1 day! I decided I was pretty safe going as I was going with the Parish Manager (my equivalent post) at Christ Church (his name is John) down the road from us, I get on really well with him and it was pretty safe going with him as he used to commute to London every day, although he also has a phobia of the underground but as this trip, by train, would not require the underground at all we were pretty safe.
John did all the timetable checking and booking of tickets, we had to catch a train from Bedford (7.48) to London Bridge, then a train from London Bridge to Waterloo East (1 stop) followed by a short walk across the covered walk through to Waterloo station to catch one to Raynes Park, I still don’t have a clue where Raynes Park actually is! The church where the conference was held was a couple of minutes walk away from the station.
The first 2 trains were like sardine tins but the last one was pretty empty, as I said we got a train at 7.48, had absolutely no delays and hardly had to wait for connections yet still only just arrived in time for the 10.15 start.
However we arrived, and in one piece, the conference was a resounding success and I thoroughly enjoyed it, I managed to cope with chatting to people and sat through the different sessions, it was in all a very good day, and the conference kept pretty much spot on time, finishing only 10 minutes later than the scheduled 4.45 end time, which was pretty impressive considering how much was packed in and how many people had contributed to the day.
I have come away with lots to process and think about and a fair amount of reading material.
Anyhow, at the end of the conference we headed straight off, got to the station and immediately leapt on the train to Waterloo, no delays again got off at Waterloo, picked our way through the crowds to the Waterloo East Station and noted, next train for London Bridge, was from Platform C, down the stairs to the platform, there stood the train so we leapt into it, just as the doors closed and the announcer on the train said well I didn’t catch any of the words except that the first stop was Tunbridge! WHOOOPPSS! we got on the wrong train, it was at the right platform but was the train before the one we wanted!
I pressed the exit button but too late the door didn’t open as the train started to move. gosh, how far was that? well it was a 40 minute journey, followed by a 2 minute dash over the bridge to the other side jump on another train to head back to where we came from, stopping just long enough to double check this train would take us to where we wanted to go to.
The things that saved me feeling really stupid were, firstly, I had got on the train with someone who had some experience of London Trains so it wasn’t just me that was being stupid, secondly both the ticket inspectors who spoke to us, one on the way out and one on the return, just said something like, ‘your not the first and you wont be the last’ apparently we were not even the only ones on that train to have done exactly the same thing, we escaped any excess journey charges.
So, as a result I didn’t get home till just after 9pm.
Fortunately Joy had no real problems with the kids, they seemed to cope pretty well with me not being around and were in bed and fast asleep by the time I got home.
Why ‘Standing in the Gap’?
OK so there have been a couple of people ask me how I came up with the title for this blog ‘Standing in the Gap’ well, here goes for my attempt at an explanation.
Some years ago, whilst reading my bible, I came across Ezekiel 22, I cried my way through the whole chapter, because in it I could see our country being described, for those who don’t know, it basically describes the way that Israel is/was at the time, it doesn’t make pleasant reading.
Anyhow, in Verse 30 we read: I looked for someone who might rebuild the wall of righteousness that guards the land. I searched for someone to stand in the gap in the wall so I wouldn’t have to destroy the land, but I found no one.
This verse is often used to refer to Gods people praying for their land, and indeed it is a very good call to prayer, so why do I take it as the title of this Blog? after all I am hardly a prayer warrior, I don’t spend hours in prayer or intercession, so?
Well when I came across this passage, pre-adoption of our 2 children, I felt that there was more to the concept of building up the walls and standing in the gap than simply prayer, although that is very important and I don’t intend to diminish the importance of prayer in the slightest.
For me, the deeper meaning has more to do with bringing Heaven to Earth than lifting earth up to heaven, if that makes any sense? I will unpack it a bit anyhow!
For me, standing in the gap means yes prayer but it also means being the answer to prayer.
It means standing in the ago on behalf of Man but it also means standing in the gap on behalf of God, it means presenting (or representing) Man to God but also presenting (or representing) God to Man.
No one can truly stand in the gap and appeal to our God on behalf of Man if they are not also prepared to stand in the gap appealing to Man on behalf of God.
OK that sounds pretty complicated stuff I know! how do I represent God to man? well by being like Christ before Man, by doing the things that we see the father doing, by loving those who are unloved, by caring for those who are uncared for, by loving, loving, loving.
I felt so strongly at that time that we, myself and Joy, were being called to a life of serving in the place of the Gap, to look at the wrongs in our society and instead of recoiling into ourselves we were to stand up for the rights of the oppressed, we were to take God into the situations we face, not necessarily, in fact rarely, to preach with words, but always to preach with actions, to love with God’s love and to care with God’s care.
What I didn’t know at that time was exactly where it would lead us, into the centre of a community made up of probably the most marginalised and misunderstood people in this nation, those with learning difficulties.
Through not being able to have our own children and our decision to adopt children, regardless of what they threw at us, we have had the privilege of being Christ in situations that we could never have considered in any other situation.
I am not sure where we are heading with this but I am passionate about the need to stand up for the rights of the oppressed, not just those with learning difficulties but others too, I believe that, as a Christian, I am called to a life of speaking out for the oppressed, to speak out where I see injustices and to be Christ to those who are at the receiving end of oppression and injustice as well as fighting to ensure that the oppression and injustice stops.
Standing in the gap is not easy, it was never meant to be easy, its tiring, its difficult and it leave you exposed and weak at times.
In order to stand in the gap you also have to be prepared to build up the walls, if the gaps too big for you to stand in you need to do some repair work first, building up the walls may involve getting involved in political campaigning, trying to get unjust laws overturned, trying to establish justice through the law courts and through official channels seeking to have new, just and right, laws established and upheld in this land, I think an example of Ezekiel 22:30 in action in this land could have been seen in the likes of Shaftesbury, Newton & Wilberforce, to name but 3 well known names from previous generations but it can also be seen in hundreds and thousands of Gods children working in possibly very small ways to change the world for those they come into contact with.
So my challenge to you, if you Know Christ, is are you prepared to stand in the gap? I mean really stand in the gap, in the way I have outlined? its challenging but the rewards far outweigh the cost.
Welcome
Hi,
Welcome to our blog, we trust that you find this blog useful and interesting.
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Verse of the day:- NLTverse: Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving!” Ex 14:15 NLT http://ow.ly/2zS3c 08/09/2010NLTverse: Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving!” Ex 14:15 NLT http://ow.ly/2zS3c […]
- NLTverse: Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving!” Ex 14:15 NLT http://ow.ly/2zS3c 08/09/2010
