Seeing as it’s half-term, I didn’t have any youth club to run this evening. So the usual suspects gathered at Ally’s and out came the Diplomacy board! I was hoping I’d get to play a country away from the Balkans, as that area is a nightmare. Alas, I drew Austria-Hungary out of the bag! So much for avoiding the Balkans. Anyway, I made tentative alliances with Italy, Turkey and Russia, and a pact of mutual interest with Germany. I watched to see how each country developed its policies, and strengthened and broke alliances as was necessary. Before I knew it, I’d carved up Turkey between Italy and myself, and shared Russia with England and Germany. I’m not sure who was the more crafty of the players, but Germany and England made an interesting alliance for the others to contend with! As with all games of Diplomacy I’ve ever played, we never actually finished it, but there was ample interest in the mechanics of the game, and in the interactions of the players, that this didn’t matter. The state of play at the close of play left three main powers, England, Germany and Austria-Hungary vying for domination. There’s more to some people than meets the eye!

Played Trivial Pursuit with the usual suspects this evening. It started well when we realised the box only contained a board and questions – no counters/wedges! A quick improvisation with Risk pieces and a piece of paper to keep track of wedges averted a crisis. Given our numbers, we decided to go in four teams of three (well, I decided and no one argued :)) with some interesting teams.

There were a few rather amusing moments! When Dave, Steve and Nige were asked what a group of bears was known as….a train..a pride…a family…(it’s a sleuth for those who don’t know).

Or when asked what a ‘meat wagon’ was the Karens and Sarah, after much deliberation, came up with a ‘mobile butcher'(!)

There was always a single voice in one team which always punctuated the air with ‘I know this one….seriously…honestly…’

The crowning achievement was back with Dave’s team. When asked where Amundsen-Scott station was, in deliberation, one of them said, “Isn’t that in the South Pole?” to be put down with “Why would anyone need a train station there!”

Come the end of the evening, my team was only ahead by one wedge, with the others close on our tails – surprisingly equal teams given they were divided up by where people were sitting. A highly amusing evening!

You ever get those times when you confuse the Star Wars and Superman film music themes? Sometimes you think you’re humming Star Wars to yourself and you realise you’re actually humming Superman – or vice versa? Well, I had the same problem this evening in my violin lesson. After learning the Star Wars theme, I was now learning the Superman theme. Even with the sheet music in front of me, somehow I ended up playing the rhythm to Star Wars! Fortunately I was not alone in this blunder, as my violin teacher who was playing along with me made the same mistake!

I’ve been helping out at the church youth club for quite a few years now, and looking back there have been some very happy moments, the odd sad moment and maybe one or two hair raising moments! A couple of Fridays ago, while I was running the club for the evening, I was surprised to find some young men standing outside the church. It was even more surprising because these young men were kids once who attended the club many years back and were there to say hello to the leaders, including me! One was now living in Australia and was here visiting friends and relatives and took time out to come and see us!

Looking at them, while they were possibly a little bigger now, most of them hadn’t changed a bit! Some were at university, some at college and some were now working. It’s amazing to think they still remember their time in the club, and we spent a while recounting stories from the past.

Of course, you may be wondering why this is appearing on my blog. Well, some of them were disappointed I hadn’t mentioned their visit! So here’s for you – Azim, Dheeraj, Hareem, Shanil, Tom, and Vinay.

After the last supper before the crucifixion, Jesus tells the disciples they will all fall away. Before he even thinks about it, Peter blurts out he will not, but will stay with his Lord. Jesus knows Peter’s heart though and responds with

“I tell you the truth…this very night, before the cock crows, you will disown me three times.”Mt 26:34

. Before Peter has even thought about who he is talking to, he denies Jesus’ words, as though he hasn’t really grasped who he is talking to. How often do we say things without thinking it through, without knowing our true self, without praying about it, without giving it the full attention it deserves. Our mouths are so quick to speak, so quick to defend ourselves without contemplating the truth.

Some credit is due to Peter though, as when Jesus is led away, John and Peter follow. Then Peter loses proximity with Jesus and ends up where he shouldn’t be. He’s a follower of Jesus, he should be following and staying close. He then places himself in harms way by approaching a fire to warm himself, and his speech gives him away. A girl asks if is a follower of Jesus because of his Galilean tones. Jesus’ words find their fulfilment in these successive moments, with Peter denying his Lord three times and then the cock crowed. Peter realises what has happened – Jesus was right. Jesus knew him better than he knew himself.

Yet, Peter wasn’t dealing with a fellow sinner, but with Jesus, his Lord and Saviour. After the resurrection, Jesus tells Peter he is forgiven. Even when we fail him, Jesus can still forgive us and use us.

Do you remember those games where you had to guide a dot through a maze without touching the sides? If you do, this is for you. 🙂

http://winterrowd.com/maze.swf

The day started off rather lazily, with a nice lie-in until around noon. I then proceeded to cut my ‘to-do’ list down by trying to install Fedora Core 4 on one of the spare PCs I have lying around, which I’d hopefully then be able pass on to someone who needed a computer. Only problem was that the PSU in one of them made a popping sound and then emitted a significant plume of smoke. The other I had was passed onto me because it was causing problems for its original owner. After a little diagnosis, I concluded the processor was overheating and causing random failure. So much for a productive afternoon.

I then went round Beth’s to accompany her on the piano as she played her musical composition on the oboe. I must say I was very impressed with it – much better than anything I’ve ever done. It had a pleasant but distinctive melody and harmony, and was typeset very nicely. Only slight snag was that the reed on her oboe was on its way out but she didn’t have a spare.

The rest of the evening was spent at the church with the usual suspects playing table tennis, pool and other games. A good evening spent with good friends and giving me a good run around, ensuring I will sleep well tonight. 🙂

Q: Which is the sixth commandment?
A: The sixth commandment is, Thou shalt not kill.

Q: What is required in the sixth commandment?
A: The sixth commandment requireth all lawful endeavours to preserve our own life, and the life of others.

Q: What is forbidden in the sixth commandment?
A: The sixth commandment forbiddeth the taking away of our own life, or the life of our neighbour unjustly, or whatsoever tendeth thereunto.

(Questions LXVII, LXVIII and LXIX from the Westminster Shorter Catechism.)

It would appear that Islam’s profile in the West has risen quite significantly in the past few days. What with the cartoon kerfuffle and then Abu Hamza being found guilty of eleven of the fifteen charges brought against him by Scotland Yard and sentenced to seven years imprisonment.

It is evident that a primary motivation for his words and his actions was his religion. His particular “brand” of Islam which enabled him to preach words such as

“Killing a Kafir who is fighting you is OK. Killing a Kafir for any reason, you can say it, it is OK – even if there is no reason for it,” – source: The BBC

where a Kafir is a non-Muslim, and in reference to suicide bombers

“It is not called suicide… this is called martyring, because if the only way to hurt the enemies of Islam except by taking your life for that then it is allowed.” – source: The BBC

The fact that he was convicted under legislation which existed prior to the introduction of the Religious Hatred laws, demonstrate that the current laws are adequate for keeping hatred relating to religion in check and that extra legislation is unnecessary. It makes me wonder why the Religious Hatred Bill was ever conceived.

As an aside, it’s interesting to note both Hamza’s brand of Islam, and that of more moderate Muslims, claim to be the true religion. Who’s correct? I leave two quotes from the Qu’ran, and one from the Bible, to mull over

“And dispute ye not with the People of the Book [a term used for Jews and Christians], except with means better (than mere disputation) … But say, ‘We believe in the revelation which has come down to us and in that which came down to you. Our God and your God is One, and it is to Him we bow (in Islam).'” The Qu’ran, Sura 29:46

compared with

“God hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods. For theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise). They fight in His cause, and slay and are slain.” The Qu’ran, Sura 9:111

Regardless of which interpretation of Islam someone may have, the words of Jesus Christ concerning how we treat others are fairly unequivocal

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…Matthew 5:43,44

Who would’ve thought some cartoons, depicting Muhammad in various depictions, would have caused such a furore?

Should such religious mockery be made illegal, or should freedom of speech be upheld, regardless?

I’ve always believed that people should have freedom of speech – to an extent. In many cases, people should be allowed to say what is untrue, that they might be rebutted by those who speak the truth. I say to an extent, as there are also many things which should not be said. There are personal details which are entrusted to others in confidentiality, there are matters of national security, there are many pieces of information which need to be handled by those who know how to interpret them correctly. It depends on what the matter is as to whether there should be freedom of speech, and whether there should be legal safeguards to either enforce or deny it.

When it comes to matters of religion and philosophy, freedom of speech is paramount, but so is respect for others.

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 1 Pe 3:15-16

Freedom of speech is necessary that debate and discussion might take place. Yes, we should be allowed to put across our point of view, as should others be allowed to express theirs. At the end of the day, if someone has a differing opinion, then that is between them and God. Even if someone is blatantly wrong, there is no remit for Christians (or indeed anyone) to force others to comply, be it to threaten them with violence or even death. Nor is there any remit to mock others because they have differing opinions. We are to stick to the discussion in hand and refrain from name-calling.

In Denmark we have a tradition of satire and humour and some cartoonists made satirical cartoons. We have done the same thing with Jesus Christ and other religions. That’s what we do with the royal family, politicians and other public figures. We were not treating Islam or the Prophet any differently from how we treat everybody else in Denmark. Flemming Rose

Looking at some of the cartoons and what those who published them have said, it would appear they are possibly trying to make a statement about how Islam is perceived, and even might possibly actually be. This is not to say all of them say anything meaningful – some of them do appear to merely mock Islam. As such, the original publishers might possibly be right to publish some of the cartoons. However, the press who have published the cartoons to demonstrate freedom of speech are at risk of merely mocking Islam without even realising the message behind the cartoons.

I may think that Islam is putting forward a false revelation of God, but I’m not going to poke fun at it. Mockery doesn’t achieve anything and may even be counter-productive. It makes more sense to put forward the historical, biblical and reasonable arguments against it.

When the Jews were exiled in Persia at the time of King Xerxes, the king chose Esther – a Jewess – to be his queen. A chap named Haman convinced the king to order the destruction of the Jews, mostly by shaking money in front of the king. Through Mordecai, God asked Esther to petition the king to remove his edict. This is not to say this task would be easy, as women had very little status in that society and it would be against the law for anyone, including the queen, to approach the king without an invitation. Additionally, Esther was part of the condemned race.

Initially, Esther balked at the idea, but Mordecai tells Esther that if she doesn’t do it, God will use someone else to deliver the Jews and accomplish his will, but her own family would suffer. With this, Esther accepts the task. Rather than barrel straight ahead into the task, she brings the matter before God in prayer and fasting. She doesn’t do this to discern God’s will, she already knows what God requires, but rather does this to commune with her God. Even with this, she plans her actions carefully and gave Mordecai instructions.

With Esther’s careful planning, and the hand of a sovereign God in all of it, everything falls into place, the Jews are delivered and Haman falls victim of his own scheming. God had it all under control.

Much like Esther, as Christians, there are many times God confronts us with a task, either through his word, the church or even individuals. Many times we respond by saying it’s impossible, or why me? We forget that God only asks us to do things we are capable of through his strength. Even more crucially, God will work out his purposes with or without our cooperation, not that this diminishes our responsibilities to do his will, but that God is in complete control.

Even once we have accepted our task, we often forget to pray. As human beings we have a tendency to pray as the last resort. It is not unknown for even atheists to pray when things get desperate. This prayer is not to discern the will of God, as a lot of the time we know what we should be doing. When we embark on a task for God, we should earnestly pray about it, that we would relate with our God.

When we carry out the task, so often we fail to plan it – at all! Even though we may be doing a task for God, this doesn’t diminish God’s use of our abilities to achieve the task. We need to spend time thinking about the task and how we might go about it, that we would successfully accomplish the task.

“Most people would be travelling in the other direction today” I thought to myself as I drove along the M4 towards Wales. Of course, England were playing Wales at Twickenham, but seeing as I have only a vague interest in rugby, I decided to attend camp reunion instead – much more fun!

After a couple of hours, I was in Cardiff – with a few others – and catching up with those I’d met at camp. The conversations ranged from mobile phone screensavers to gliding in South Africa. (You can have a guess which one was with a camper and which with an officer).

Before the afternoon was over, I left for Bristol, making the short journey back into England for my dad’s birthday which had occurred during the week. After a humungous meal, I collapsed on the settee and attempted to doze off with my nephew trying his utmost to keep me awake!

A tiring but great day spent with friends and family.

A while ago, the British government put a bill to Parliament attempting to make “incitement to religious hatred” a criminal offence. Whilst it sounded good in principle, looking at the actual details of the bill meant it would seriously curtail freedom of speech as it was very badly worded.

By the grace of God, the bill was modified by the Lords to ensure freedom of speech, and the Commons voted yesterday to go with the amended bill rather than the original.

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 95% Spider-Man 70% Batman 60% Robin 52% Green Lantern 50% Supergirl 50% Iron Man 40% Wonder Woman 30% Hulk 30% The Flash 20% Catwoman 10%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

After entrusting Peter to look after his sheep, Jesus tells Peter how he will die. Not in a blaze of glory, but as an old man taken against his will.

Jesus then tells Peter to follow him. Rather than obey his Lord and Saviour, Peter is preoccupied with what John is up to and queries Jesus about him. Jesus sees Peter has missed the whole point and asks Peter “What is that to you? Follow me.”

Even after that response, there were those who missed the point, thinking the crux of the message was about John’s fate, rather than what Jesus was really saying – follow me.

So often instead of concentrating that we’re following Jesus, we can spend time looking around at others and judging their walk. Before we can successfully help others, we need to make sure we’re following Jesus, otherwise instead of shepherding, we’re just interfering busy bodies.

So often we can hear teaching and instead of applying it to ourselves, we think of someone else it could apply to. Now it’s possible that person might need to hear it also, but we must first check to see if it applies to us.

Only by looking first to Jesus can we then look around and help others.