You can't scare me - I have children

Closing Down....

You may have noticed a tailing off on the output from this writer.... I'm running out of steam.... So this is the last post....

If you are interested, catch my weekly ramblings at www.refinersfire.co.uk

One byte too many....

Apple incs. arrival in Buchanan Street finally results in a much speculated on casualty....

Keep on celebrating....

Since we started our teaching series in our church about how Jesus showed us agape love I’ve been meditating on celebration. I’ve been thinking about Revelation 21:1-4, and I’ve been trying to imagine the incredible celebration we will have when we, the people of God, are altogether with Him in a creation that he has made completely new.

But I’ve also been reflecting on how we need to anticipate that time by celebrating the goodness of God now. His Son died and rose again for us, his Spirit empowers us everyday. We need to learn to give thanks for all the good things he provides for us, because then we will be people who will have our eyes up, looking for the doors He opens for us because we want to keep celebrating his glory. It’s a thought that I’ve been desperate to share with anyone who will listen to me this week….

But I’ve been gripped by a connecting though this week. Psalm 138:8 tells us The Lord will fulfil {his purpose} for me; your love, O Lord, endures for ever— do not abandon the works of your hands. Often during hard times we cry out to God for help. I know I have – and the truth is that God is continually faithful to me. He has never, ever failed me and I don’t expect him to, in fact I expect him to be continually faithful to me. Cry to him and he will not abandon you.

But then what? If I’m honest I move on and forget to acknowledge his faithfulness. I’ve just assumed he’ll be faithful, so when he does it’s not something I mark. I wonder if this hurts God (Malachi 1:6). And I wonder if I’ve missed a chance to share with those around me the goodness of God, missed a chance to celebrate. And I wonder if this helps contribute to our heads being pushed down to view focus on our troubles rather than raised towards heaven.

Eternal life starts now....

It’s common for us to believe that eternal life is something we get when we die, but in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10) Jesus shows us that we live out eternal life by what we do now.

We worship God who, the Bible tells us, is love. It is His defining characteristic, and love, deep, committed agape love pours out of him. For those of us who are Christ followers the proof of our eternal life is living lives of agape love in our daily situations. If we love God we will love our neighbour. We will be moved to acts of compassion. Acts which are costly. Acts which mean involvement.

We won’t let our perceptions of what is right and proper get in the way of us showing Jesus’ compassion to those who are hurting – too much damage to the cause of Christianity through history by our failure to act in compassion because we’ve wanted to point out what is proper.

We won’t let our prejudice get in the way. Jesus showed us that there were no limits to God’s love, no boundaries to the Kingdom of God. We won’t limit our love to those who are close to us and to whom we love anyway.

If sharing eternal life means anything, it must make a difference in the here and now, as well as in the time to come. By compassion we show that eternal life can bring hope today as well as in the future. In the same way that The Samaritan’s actions made a difference to the injured traveller. In the same way that Jesus’ love healed nad rescued us.

And if we are not moved to acts of compassion? Then maybe we don’t actually share in God’s eternal life. The Scriptures teach us that faith without works is dead – maybe hope in this is groundless. As Jesus tells us, fruit which brings glory to God is proof that we are his disciples – and that fruit is growing agape love. Today make sure that you are living in eternal life.

air....

I'm just wondering if the guy on stage is the only person in the room with a girlfriend.....

Eyes Down....

Very often life is hard for us – we have our call to follow Christ and we have all the pressures of work and study placed on us too. It is often no surprise that we call out to God in help. We feel we need his help just to survive. When this happens I wonder if Satan feels he’s got us where he wants us. Looking at ourselves. Thinking on getting through the day. Eyes looking down. And when your heads down then the chances are you feel beaten – and if it’s how you feel it’s probably how you act.

But the Bible tells us Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. [3] And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Col. 4:2-3.

It’s not just that we are people who pray, but are people who are looking to see what God is doing around us. Our eyes should be looking up. And when we see what He is doing around us we should learn to celebrate – because celebrating encourages us to look for more of his work. And if our eyes are up we will get involved in the great things that God is doing – because we’ll see where he’s moving. If our eyes are down we won’t see it. We won’t notice the doors God wants to take us through.

Christmas Cheer

The recent events in Pakistan have brought a distinctly uncheerful Christmas thought to my mind - the end of the world.

At the moment Pakistan is veering towards an abyss. Democracy is being squeezed from two sides - fanatical extremism on one side and reactionary conservatism (the ever-present military) on the other. if one side looks like it is about to topple democracy through chaos the other will doubtless attempt to step in and restore order. And we will probably be cheering them on because that is real-politik since Pakistan has something that Ben Ladin craves, and even Saddam and Qaddafi and the present Iranian regime lacked - the ability to field nuclear weapons.

Much international energy has gone into attempting to persuade the Iranians to abandon pursuing a nuclear weapons programme, witnessed by that excellent reality TV show Spooks. You can understand why - an Islamic nation with a government making radical noises would be perceived as a threat by Israel who would not sit on their hands - they acted once by bombing Iran twenty years ago when all that was there was the shell of a reactor. They would be liable to do something more drastic now. This isn't a path the world should want to go down.

But what would happen if Pakistan were to fall to extremists? A country which has been in an arms race with its neighbour, part of which culminated in a successful underground test detonation? What would we do then? Wait for the worse to happen, or see an invasion take place - a western one of an Asian nation? Try selling the justification of that around the world.... Pakistan won't fall yet. But it may be on its way.

We cannot uninvent nuclear bombs. Nor does it seem that we are able to control them. I heard of an expert conclude that with terrorism, global warming, collision with asteroids and bird flu we may only have a 1 in 2 chance of getting through the century intact. I hope he wasn't being optimistic.

So at this time of year when we remember the incarnation of Jesus Christ perhaps our renewed prayer should be come, Lord Jesus.

Pick up your cross #1....

A quote from the back page of yesterday's Sunday Times Magazine....

"I'm not a Christian. I know some people go to church but they tend to live outside the catchement areas of decent schools...."

iNO-VID?

It's sleek and sexy but it doesn't come with a decent camera and doesn't take video.... Some people may see this as a weakness in the iphone's abilities but it may have some useful side effects as a guest on Monday night's Gadget Show pointed out.....

Huge chunks of YouTube is captured on camera phones. If we all get this sleek and sexy piece of kit we want be able to capture footage to upload. Which will mean a reduction in crime, as there won't be any point in fighting in parks anymore.....

So that's our new crime reduction strategy sorted - instead of Child Investment funds each young person today should just be given an iphone and signed up to O2. There's a minimum 18 month contract with the new phone, so with a projected fall in crime does this mean there will be an election in early spring 2009?

Anger....

An e-mail found on Alex Salmond's laptop: "Come Home Agent McLaren - your job is done."

I must admit I was a bit stunned on Wednesday nigh when I got home, checked the internet and discovered that England had been knocked out of the European Championships. So it was with great joy that I then tuned into 6-0-6 on Radio 5 to listen to the general public venting their collective spleen. Hearing the nation speak with such collective force restores my faith in our ability to speak as one. I just wish it was about something worthwhile.....

I've heard numerous sports fans and football journalists vent across the airwaves over the past 48 hours and their collective anger is of epic proportions. It seems a travesty of nature that England will not be competing with the other great nations next summer. Every voice speaks with passion and righteous indignation. It is the type of mood which would have politicians running in fear. There seems to be a genuine desire to change the football culture of something I heard a rugby player describe as the Andrex Premiership - a bit soft and unnecessarily expensive.

But here's my concern. Sport, and I count myself as a fan,is essentially trivia. It isn't that important - despite the BBC letting its economics editor speculate on the fallout of the failure to advance to the finals - yet the public and our journalist speak with such conviction and belief that the nation deserves better.

We do. But not about sport. If only our journalists could speak with as much anger about politics, or schools, or poverty - forget impartiality, what they should be demanding is that good be done, wherever and whenever it can. If only collectively we could feel the same. Sport draws us together in hope. Maybe it does so because in most other things we are suffering from apathetic despair.