So, here I am toddling along back to the blog which I haven’t managed to update in quite some time (seems like 2 months almost).

The truth is, I became quite disheartened by the whole blogging thing, partly because the majority of my views are coming from people who are searching for “french wine” or “durdle door.” Neither of which is my topic of choice.

However, I am still here, I am still youth-working, I am still blogging, and facebooking and occassionally twittering. I just get disenthused with the inordinate choice of wedsites through which to portray who you are.

Anyway, currently I have no real insights to share with the world on this site. However, I was reading Psalm 3 this morning, and I thought I would share the encouragement which I received from it.

1. God is a sheild around you.
2. God is your glory.
3. God holds your head high.
4. God answers you.
5. God keeps you in safety and watches over you.
6. You do not need to be afraid of 10,000 enemies.
7. And finally, your victory comes from Him.

Well, that’s about all for today, hopefully it won’t be another 2 months until I blog.

I don’t really know who Brodie McGregor is, but he left a comment on my blog and on visiting his blog in return I found an excellent (and more detailed) post about the discussion between Dr Rowan Williams and Mona Siddiqui. The post is focused more on detailing the exchange between the two scholars than on any judgement or personal view on what was said. My previous post, on the other hand, was more of the latter!

Also, if you are even more interested in this discussion than reading some thoughts from someone else on it, and you wishyou had been there. Or more worryingly, you were there and would like to watch it again, Glasgow University provide the webcast in their archive, and you can find it here. You will have to have windows media player to watch this wmv however.

Brodie, however, also reminded me that Brian Mclaren is coming to Glasgow at the beginning of December. Precisely, he will be speaking on Sunday 7th December and also two times on Monday 8th December. I plan to attend both events on the Monday (11am -3pm at ICC, focusing on the topic ‘A new kind of Christian’, and then laterly at the Vertigo Bar in Strathclyde Student Union from 7.30pm) as I am otherwise engaged with work on Sunday evenings.

And for some added information, I wanted a picture for this post, so choose Brian Mclaren, but found it funny that Google Images more or less only has two different pictures of him, this one, and another with him sitting next to a cross. Either that, or her just poses the same way quite a lot.

I was privileged to be present at the Glasgow University hosted discussion between Prof Mona Siddiqui and Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, last Wednesday.

I arrived with a whole load of preconceptions about the Archbishop who thinks that Sharia law should be an integral part of British law. I’d heard so much about it on the news, and Dr Rowan Williams received so much criticism and caused uproar because of the comments. The archbishop had been “ridiculed” and “lampooned” by some who believe that any change along these lines would create social chaos.

However, the Bishop of Hulme said, in response to this, “We have probably one of the greatest and the brightest archbishops of Canterbury we have had for many a long day,”

It was this fact that I started to realise as I listened to the bishop speak, and my misconceptions were in part turned around and sorted out. I maybe wouldn’t go as far as to say he was the greatest and brightest, but I certainly think he has more to him than the media have been suggesting. He speaks in an engaging manner, almost as well as a politician, answering the questions which he likes to answer and effectively missing out those which he prefers not to. He speaks of his passions of sharing Christian love and of the similarities between different religions.

There were a couple of things which stood out to me, but I will only deal with one tonight as it ended up being a larger thought process than I would have imagined at first. So, the Archbishop spoke of his view of Holiness and how he could see the attributes of Holiness in all different types of people, including people of other faiths.  In particular, he said that he knewthere were holy aspects visible in people such as Mona Siddiqui, a Muslim and other Jewish people that he knew.

But, how exactly can this be so? Isn’t Holiness an attribute of the God of the OT, in fact it is the only description which is emphasised by repeating it three times. For in the OT there was no bold text or underline, rather the emphasised by repeating, so to have one word repeated three times makes it pretty special. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty. God is Holy! So, then, if we are not worshipping the same God how can we all be displaying this attribute of God.

Well, the Archbishop of Canterbury suggests that we are not worshipping different Gods, rather we are expressing it differently. Of course, this is the controversial point, and I do not agree with this as such. I do not think that different religions are merely different expressions of worship towards the same God. The main point for me, as a Christian, is the fact that a third of the entire being of God is Jesus. Therefore, if any religion, or any person, disowns or does not believe in Him, then they do not know the true God. So, if Jesus was fully God, and you do not know Him or worship him, are you really worshipping the same God as someone who does? So really, while I agree that some worship by obeying law and others worship by serving others and being in relationship with “God”, they are only worshipping God if they have come through Jesus. – “No one can come to the father except through me” – Jesus

My thoughts are scrambled on this one and I keep going round in circles, hence my statement about the theological hamster wheel earlier in the week.

Anyways, it’s time for me to move on, but what’s your thoughts on Archy and the Sharia Law?

What are your thoughts on holiness and it being visible in people of many other religions?

I realise this is a sensitive question and I haven’t dealt with it fully, I just hope people don’t think I have been offensive!

So, it comes to Saturday, and usually this is the only day through the week that I’m not working. I guess this makes it an excellent day for a bit of a round-up on what has happened in the previous week, which is usually not much. However, we are told that Saturday and Sunday visitors to our blogs are few, so perhaps this is the best day to do this.

We worked on the youth bus for the first time in the town centre and I must say it was great. However, we didn’t get to work on it yet again on Tuesday which was disappointing.

Other things are going well, having seen over 60 young people again this week through various different meetings.

On Friday night, the 31st, we didn’t go to a Halloween party, rather we opted to take the young people to see James Bond, the Quantum of Solace which happened to be the first Bond film I’d ever seen. I would say it is very worth seeing it, and didn’t particularly need the previous film in order to understand the content. On the downside, it did take a lot of time to build up the story, probably because it was a standalone film. As a Bond virgin, I would say, however, that the opening credits interested me much more and were great! I realise there’s a whole load of people who would disagree with me. There was a lot less action than I thought there would be, and a whole lot more talking. Daniel Craig is a good Bond but has a weird pouty thing going on. And if anyone asked for some random thoughts on the movie then this was them.

Today, I slept, drove some, and watched Clerks II, which unfortunately, I enjoyed! hm!

Anyways, I will be back at the beginning of the week with some real stuff on this blog!

real persecution?

Today we continue our series on Romans 12 with verse 14. We are looking at the following verse:

Rom 12:14  Bless those who persecute you; bless, and do not curse.

The image I have used from the Simpsons to illustrate the point which I intend to make may seem a little crude to a few of you, but I just had a feeling when researching into today’s verse that very few of us actually understand persecution. Persecution is not just someone mocking us, scoffing at us, sidelining our views in society, although ultimately these things can be part of persecution in a larger scale. Rather, persecution is the systematic mistreatment of a person/persons. This could involve, arrest, imprisonment, beating, torture or in extreme cases execution. And yes, this still happens, but fortunately not to us. So, how then, do we understand persecution in our contexts? My initial response to my own question would be that we do not fully. However, we must attempt to understand this concept as comprehensively as we can. Therefore, we must look forwards, backwards as well as examining our present circumstances in order to gain an answer.

Here are the following three parts I feel would help us understand persecution and this verse:

Past: The past can tell us a lot about persecution, particularly of the religious sort. In order to get a full perspective on persecution and how it has an effect on people we can read from the Bible the persecution of early Christians and perhaps imagine ourselves in those situations and attempt to recreate how one might feel about those who persecuted them. In addition we can listen and try to understand the stories of those around us who may have been persecuted for whatever reason. This could be real testimonies from someone we know who might share what they have been through, or alternatively we could submerge ourselves in the retelling of stories such as ‘The Heavenly Man.’ Which gave me an interesting insight to persecution in China when I read it.

Future: The book of revelation is by no means my specialist subject but I know that this book says that Christians will be persecuted and it goes into some detail about this. We should familiarise ourselves with these writings and prepare ourselves for what is to come. Most importantly we should stock up on scripture such as the one which we look at today, as these are vital for us in understanding how we should deal with the persecution which will inevitably come our way.

Now: As mentioned above, I don’t believe that in our current culture contexts in the UK we have anything which we could remotely call persecution; therefore I actually think it might be quite offensive to say that we do. However, we do have trials and tests and there are people who hurt us or turn against us. The best we can do in these circumstances is to practice with the little what we will have to with the lot, if you know what I mean?  For example, when we have people who go out of their way to make life difficult for us we should not treat them unkindly and as enemies in any way. We must remember that although we were once enemies of God, he did not treat us as such as we opened our hearts to His calling. However, there is more to this than simple not treating ‘enemies’ as enemies, because we are asked to bless rather than curse. This takes courage in most circumstances, but we must know that this which Paul speaks of in this verse is the way God would ask us to proceed when we are persecuted or faced with difficulty.

It is a difficult one, I don’t deny it, but I guess it is important. Thoughts welcome as usual.

So, here we are, finally getting round to adding more to our Romans study after a good long while of selective forgetfulness. For this I apologise, much as been going on, as you will appreciate from toher posts here.

However, this apology made, let us get round to reading the scripture and deciphering yet another verse from Romans 12.

Rom 12:13      communicating to the necessities of the saints; given to hospitality.

Now, this verse is one which I had to read in many different versions in order to attempt to understand its meaning. In the KJV the translation is not particularly useful for a comprehensive understanding, but looking at the Greek words behind this translation helps a little. In simple terms, and from my simple understanding, this verse tells us that in amongst these other attitudes which we should have as a Christian, we should also be seeking to help our brothers and sisters in Christ, those who have faith like us, especially if they have need in their life. In all circumstances we should seek to pursue hospitality. Hospitality being the quality or disposition of receiving and treating guests and strangers in a warm, friendly, generous way.

On this matter I was reading recently the thought that “the world’s love is focussed on people’s desires, Christian love is focussed on people’s real needs.” I wholeheartedly agree, however, the writer continues to go on quite a substantial rant over how Christians build large buildings and employ profession Christians etc while having little concern for Christians in the third world. Whoa… hold the boat! When did this connection get made? I’m supportive of missions, especially into Africa, as I often feel as though my heart was left in North Africa in 2007, but what about the mission in our backyards? What about those on the same streets as those large buildings or living across town from those professional Christians. I simply don’t see why Paul’s mentioning of hospitality would bring up issues of third world mission, unless of course you were living there also.

Much closer to home are those who are within day to day reach of us, they are the ones we walk past without friendly contact or those who fail to be invited to our Christian fellowship dinner meetings. The ones who would truly benefit from this hospitality. I’m also not saying, as the above quoted commentator suggested that looking after fellow Christians is wrong, after all the first point of this scripture talks about looking after brothers and sisters, but this needs to be in proportion. At the end of the day, we all, as Christians, could live tidily inside our Christian comfort zones, but then we wouldn’t be even close to living out our commission.

So, the result? Focus on real needs, rather than on our own Christian wants. Help your brothers and sisters in Christ when they are in need rather than in want. But above all, reach out to those around you in all manners necessary; show them your lovingkindness, your patience that you care. Above all, show your God through your actions.

So, I find that I go through phases with blogging, sometimes I am all out promoting blogging and the usefulness of it, and then some other times I find it more difficult to be enthusiastic about it. In order to get everyone up to speed, here’s a little list of where things are at right now:

• I’m still working as a youth worker for my church, the job is a amazing, so varied, so right for now, and when I am honest and not tired and grumpy, which happens from time to time, I wouldn’t be anywhere else right now and I am so blessed.
• I am also working for a couple of other organisations doing youth work, in a youth club and also on a youth bus. It’s been amazing because these jobs have provided me with the means to get more training and get a wider perspective on youth work and what God can do through young people.
• I am currently doing some web related stuff which is giving me a break and a welcome distraction from the youthy stuff, and its great because I can do this stuff at home and even when I’m not feeling so great.
• Church has changed more than I have ever known it to in the past month or so, the people outside my family who I have known for longest, who trusted me, gave me a job and mentored me have moved on from my church and things are vastly different. Sometimes I don’t know what to do with this change, but most of the time I feel optimistic about where we are going as a team and as a church. I am excited to be involved in where we are going and what we are doing!

So, there’s a whistle-stop tour of life right now, and before I go I must mention that there are two things which God has been teaching me through everything that is going on right now.

1. We must praise God through everything we are going through. Especially we must praise him for bringing us out of difficult circumstances and providing for us. More so, we must praise God just for being God. For this is the essence of worship, to praise God for being who He is. Then also, I am constantly reminded these days of the song that Moses sang after God parted the sea and saved Moses and the Israelites. He sang of God being his salvation and also of the amazing things that God had done to save them. This is where worship comes from; an ecstatic response to the wonders of God’s character and the wonders of His actions
2. Secondly, I am learning about the pearls of self-reliance and the foolishness of relying on people. Sometimes, these two things take the place of simply relying on God, and I know this is wrong, but it does not stop it from happening. They often seem like the easier option, as we want to know where our safety lies and we feel comfortable if we are in control or if we can see who is in control. Unfortunately, people let us down, they are ultimately selfish, self-absorbed, busy, lazy, or they just move on and relationships can be discarded. As for ourselves, we are also selfish, we fail, we fall, we over-protect and then we under-protect. Then we beat ourselves up for the things we do wrong and we take too much pride in the things we think we got right. We are not God. He, on the other hand, is always true, always loving, always works things together for His good, and there is no other good except from that of God. He is merciful, graceful, all-seeing. Therefore, knowing all this, I must strive to place ALL my trust in God who knows infinitely more than I do or ever will. This is the bit that I am coming to terms with and trying to put into practice as I am faced with a sea of changes and few people who are constants and who are supports. In God alone will I place my trust.

Anyways, that would be enough rambling for now, Ciao.

durdle door image - c mccormack

 

So yesterday we went visiting various places along the ‘Jurassic Coastline’ of Dorset. I must say, there are some really quite phenomenal places along there, including the Durdle Door (above) and Lulworth Cove (below).  These places strike me as quite amazing simply because they are completely natural. Handmade but not by us. The Durdle Door for example is amazing to look at, this huge stone arch in the middle of the water, the centre arc eroded and now it looks like this. Goodness knows how long it took for this to happen. And Lulworth cove, once completely land, the sea has eaten away at it and made it what it is now. All along the walkway there are little coves forming and little arches in the stone walls beginning to be created and you can see these. In the whole of my lifetime they will probably look exactly the same, but here is the evidence to compare in many years to come.

These are the sort of images that we see on postcards and on TV, never thinking that we will see them all with our very own eyes. However, when we do see them we realise that the sights before us as too big to comprehend.

Yup, so slightly embarrassingly I’m posting about Dolly Parton again. Some people who know me will be fine with this, and some won’t, but really, who cares!

Just the other day I went with a couple of friends to the SECC in Glasgow to see Dolly live. Now, I must admit that I don’t have much experience with concerts of the live variety but happen to be quite critical of some when I see them on TV afterwards. I don’t know whether this is a bad thing or not, you can make up your own mind about that.

Now, back to Dolly… My overall verdict on this concert was that it was fantastic, she really puts on a show and for a little lady she has a huge stage presence. The crowd were totally hyped for her to come on and some even cheered as her little blonde backing singer came on stage, thinking that it was the lady herself. OOOoooh the suspense!!

However, the show started with the amazing Two doors down which is always a crowd favourite. I must say that I was a little disappointed in the response of the audience, with most sitting down for the entire show. Needless to see, my companions and I were dressed up in our country gear, and some looking very dolly-ish, and we were not for allowing this to be a sitting concert. Afterall, doesn’t country music like Dolly’s just make you want to dance?

The set list for the first half looked like this: 

There may be some I’ve missed out of there, so if you’re aware of any I forgot then let me know and I’ll add them on. My personal favourites from the first half were definitely the autobiographic track Backwoods Barbie and then the Gospel Medley which was immense and I totally didn’t expect it. It also reminded me that there are people out there who just refuse to be ashamed of their faith and I think that’s great! The flow of songs in the whole evening was great, with Dolly bridging from song to song with stories from her life. Sometimes in a crowd of 10000 I felt like we were just sitting in her livingroom and she was telling me all about herself. Random eh?  But great!

After the intermission, Dolly came storming back onto stage in a similar but similarly stunning outfit (white with possibly rhinestones on there, but hey if you know me you’ll know I don’t have a clue – they were shiny!). She kicked off with Baby I’m Burning and I’d heard this song but had no idea Dolly sang it. The second half was even more amazing than the first half if that was even possible! She stormed through some of her classics and through some of her very first songs which were simply great! Again the whole thing was laced with jokes and story-telling which added to the evening and character of the woman. I must say that overall I was still disappointed with the crowd’s reaction, but Little Sparrow was where things began to change. Through the song the entire audience was stunned and silenced by her powerful vocals, and then she stuck up chords to her next song and the audience were energised.

Here’s a more comprehensive list of the songs she played in the second half. Again, I think I might have got some wrong but I’m sure someone will tell me if I got mixed up!

The last three songs of the main set were amazing, Islands in the Stream sung with her backing vocalist who was great, 9 to 5 having everyone on their feet and some (Er, Us of course!) dancing and singing, and then and energy filled version of the hit I will always love you. The crowd were wild for her, understandably and I was truly amazing at how this little woman could play a crowd so well with her vocals and amazing songs.

However, my favourite favourite bit of the evening was the Jesus and Gravity encore. I thought it was so so great, and its by far my favourite song on her newest cd (Backwoods Barbie 2008). My friend and I were totally waiting for this one and I’d almost given up that she was going to sing it! She sang it so beautifully and it was even more powerful than on the cd if that’s even possible! I think it’s an awesome description of the woman’s faith and allegiance that even in a concert where people would expect her to encore with 9 to 5 or something more well known that she actually chose to encore with Jesus and Gravity because her faith is important to her. In addition, I felt that because she left stage before the song was finished and the backing singers kept singing the words Jesus, Lifting me up, Holding me down, Keeping my feet on the Ground it just emphasised the thing she’d said more than once in various ways during the concert, that she needed to remain humble. I think the whole encore was actually a great testimony to her faith and humilty as a woman of God. I know there are people out there who disagree with this and would just say it was showmanship, but I’m not sure – I’d love to hear those arguments though. Go for it! 

Anyways, I am so pleased I got to see her, and I’m so glad the whole thing fulfilled my expectations and more. I would definitely go and see her next time she is back in Glasgow, and I would happily recommend anyone else to see her live. I will leave you with what I filmed of the encore. Be sure to leave me a comment here or over on Youtube about the video or your take on the Dolly in Glasgow experience!

Alcohol and the Christian (My Views and others)- Part 1

I’ve been thinking a lot more about whether or not a Christian should drink at all. I guess to put the horse before the cart, my conclusion would be that the answer is almost entirely contextual; but, the contextuality of this is something we will discuss in part 2 of this series.  I mean, at YF:T we’ve looked into all the biblical stuff surrounding it, and we will re-cap on this here for those who read this but haven’t been part of our studies. However, it’s not the biblical stuff that I keep coming back to, rather it’s the moral and ethical responsibilities of a Christian which I feel are important,  so check back for the link to part 2 very soon.

A Biblical Staple?

As a re-cap on the biblical side of this argument, we’ve recently looked at the pearls or alcohol in our youth fellowship group. We discussed ideas relating to the New Testament events where Jesus was involved with wine.  These are as follows:

• 1. Matthew 11:18 – This passage talks about John the Baptist firstly, who did not drink wine, but of Jesus following on, who did drink. While this verse does not say directly that Jesus drank wine the proximity of the statement to the statement above about John drinking wine suggests that He did. However, as will be reiterated whenever I talk about this subject, we must assume that since Jesus didn’t sin (or else the whole salvation plan would be down the proverbial toilet) that He didn’t get drunk. It is clear throughout the bible (Old and New Testament) that drunkenness is a sin.
• 2. John 19:29-30 – One of the last things that Jesus actually did was to receive a drink of wine in these verses. Just after that, Jesus said “It is finished,” and then died. Again, Jesus didn’t drink to get drunk as is very clear here, and if He had this would have been sinful. However, it’s also clear that alcohol wasn’t a problem for Him.
• 3. We all know the story: Jesus turned water into wine. Would He have done this and lead other people into temptation if He knew drinking wine was sinful. I think not. Verdict: wine isn’t sinful.

As for the Old Testament views on alcohol, we see that the word yah’-yin is used around 144 times in the OT. The meaning of this is as follows:

From an unused root meaning to effervesce; wine (as fermented); by implication intoxication: – banqueting, wine, wine

Some people say that this word does not always necessarily refer to grape juice in its intoxicating form; however, Strong’s concordance clearly differentiates between this type, which is intoxicating and others which are not.  There doesn’t seem to be a view against this wine, and in actual fact the frequency with which it is mentioned perhaps suggests that it is completely normal. On the other hand, there is another word, shay-kawr’, which is mostly translated as strong wine, and for the most part is condemned, except for case where it seems to be used an offering to God.

Despite the frequency of the subject of wine, we still see this balanced with many many warnings on drunkenness. There is absolutely no doubt that being drunk is sinful in biblical terms.  We see that the OT describes to us how alcohol makes people become unwise, noisy and encourages them to mock others (Proverbs 20:1). From Isaiah 28:7 we also see a collection of priest and prophets who are too drunk to stand properly and who are confused and make more judgements because of this. A few examples also show us that people do stupid things that would have caused them embarrassment had they not been under the influence.  For example, take a look at Habakkuk 2:15, or at the story of Noah’s shame after He got drunk and his son saw him (Although this story doesn’t not brand Noah as an alcoholic, nor does it mark his stereotypical image). The story of Noah also reminds us that drinking to get drunk clearly has repercussions on the people around us as well as ourselves. Far too many of us, especially in Scotland, have had the unnecessary experience of a family member, friend or acquaintance who becomes addicted to drunkenness for whatever reason.

It is clear to me, through the bible or through personal experience, that a social, relaxed drink is not a problem. However, drunkenness is unnecessary and frequently harmful to ourselves and others around us.

All of this does not clear up the issues surrounding the morality and appropriate context of drinking. For example, I believe that there are in fact circumstances where Christians in particular should not even have one drink. This, as pointed out above, will be discussed in the next part of this series, delivered to you tomorrow.

 As always, readers’ thoughts are very much appreciated on all of my posts.