There’s a new cafe in the high street called Benjy’s which I noticed a week or so ago. It sells hot food which is perfect for Autumn, and I ended up having a Full English Breakfast – egg, bacon, sausages, baked beans and toast – for lunch. It was a good warming lunch, although I think I suffered later on the football pitch. I couldn’t run all that much, and had a slightly bloated feeling! Slightly odd as you’d have thought all those calories would’ve been useful for burning off later. Still scored a goal or two though.
Finished the day round Sarah’s watching old episodes of Fawlty Towers. 🙂

When the disciples met on the first Sunday after the crucifixion, Thomas wasn’t with them. Rather than going up to him saying “Why weren’t you with us on Sunday?” or “Where were you?”, they instead told him “We have seen the Lord!” Thomas had missed out on God’s blessing because of his absence.

The following Sunday, the disciples met up again and this time Thomas was with them. Again, Jesus appeared to the disciples, and Thomas finally saw his Lord. He was able to see and worship his Lord.

Similarly for us. If we are followers of Christ, we receive much blessing through meeting up with fellow believers to meet with our Lord. We may not see the Lord physically, but Jesus has promised to be with his people in a special way when two or three are gathered in his name.

As Christians, we should need no prompting to attend church services, to listen to our Lord that we might benefit, for when we miss them it is our loss. We may miss them because of many reasons, but it would be folly to miss them because of lame excuse.

It’s been a while since I last used my walking boots for walking! (Rather than just as suitably rugged footwear in Wales and Kenya!) So today’s jaunt around Windsor Great Park was an invigorating return to walking. Despite the rather wet weather forecast, not a drop of rain fell during the ramble, and the sun even made an appearance, giving ample opportunity to take photos. It was good just to get away from the usual hustle and bustle of city life and get some fresh air.

In the evening, the usual suspets gathered in Victoria for some food, and then we wandered down to Battersea Park to watch a huge fireworks display. After spending most of the day walking, I was a little worse for wear and was content to just watch the impressive sequence of bangs and flashes.

A good, if rather exhausting day!

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o’er His body on the tree;
Then I am dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Isaac Watts

Yesterday evening saw a Risk rematch, with Ally, Dave, Dave, Sam and myself vying for victory. There were allusions to the previous time the lads lost – to a girl, so this match was buzzing. This was also the first match in which we used the “Golden Cavalry”, which modified how reinforcements were determined, and with four-part mission cards. The game took a decidedly silly turn when the two Davids weakened themselves so much that Ally overcame both of them and seized their Risk cards. A little tussling ensued and I relieved Sam of his Risk cards, thinking my mission was one step away and victory would be mine. Before we knew it, the game was over as Ally completed her mission, occupying three continents as her final step. I’m beginning to think that her previous victory wasn’t a fluke at all, but that might actually be a formidable foe…

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Mt 5:10

A few days ago I received several texts from well-meaning Christians regarding Ferdie Flores, a missionary in East Timor. The body of all the texts alleged he was about to be executed, by beating, in the next day or so and asked for prayer. These were evidently ultimately forwarded from a single point, as the message was consistent, and had my friends and relatives concerned for this man.

Being the sceptic I am, I wasn’t so willing to believe the content of the text. I rummaged around the web, and found the web site of Baptist International Missions, Inc., a missionary organisation which is supporting Ferdie Flores – no mention of his pending execution at all though. Surely, if this man was to be executed, something would’ve appeared on their site? Rather than make my thoughts public though, I quietly passed on my sceptical views to those who had forwarded these texts to me. After all, it would’ve been awful if these texts were true and I’d publicly rubbished them without concrete proof.

As it turns out, it was a hoax. Ferdie Flores is alive and well. Reliable accounts are now being indexed in the search engines, such as this one, and BIMI has also issued a statement.

This is not to say that Christians are not persecuted, nor am I trying to say we shouldn’t pray for those who are persecuted. Ferdie Flores should be prayed for, as he does suffer persecution, while he continues to do a very difficult work for God.

However, as Christians we should be careful to test everything which is said to see if it is true.

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 1 Jn 4:1

We have very little excuse when we have ready access to information and organisations like Christian Solidarity Worldwide do all the hard work for us.

I am rather irrited that a hoax can occupy so much time, energy and resources of Christians, especially when it means that real persecution is overlooked and goes unnoticed.

A few days ago, Andy brought Nation States to my attention. Iniitially I thought this would be a pointless waste of time, but created a nation anyway, due to persistent pestering. After a couple of days of making decisions and seeing how my nation – The Kingdom of Plebbus – is developing, it’s becoming quite addictive. Whilst it is based on current political theory, which may or may not be accurate, the way decisions affect the general populace are sometimes a little unexpected! A good way to make politics interesting.

Those who trust in God will occassionally be tested by him. In the case of Abraham, the test was very tough! To be asked to sacrifice his only son would’ve been a big test of Abraham’s faith. For Abraham knew God would not contradict himself, yet this appeared to be a contradiction – the sacrifice of his son.

Regardless, Abraham prepared for the sacrifice, collecting wood, saddling up the donkey and looking to the point where it would happen.

Despite the apparent contradiction, Abraham still trusted God to provide an alternative. This can be seen in the account, with Abraham telling his servants both he and his son would return, and also telling Isaac that God would provide a lamb.

Right up until the final moment, Abraham carried out all the actions necessary, and then God provided the substitute. Not only did this result in Abraham being blessed, but through this all nations would be blessed.

It would be through the line of Abraham, that the ultimate sacrificial substitute would come. For Jesus Christ would one day be born to be sacrificed on a cross to take on the sins of those who believed in him.

Just as Abraham was willing to sacrifice his only son, we should be prepared to sacrifice whatever is most important to us. If God the Son gave up his life that I might live, how much should I be willing to give up?

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Ga 2:20

I had a fairly relaxed start to a rather busy Saturday morning. After a bit of a lie-in, I was off on one of my little jaunts as voluntary IT support for a fellow church member. His internet connection was no longer working. A quick rummage around /var/log/messages indicated the problem was “NO DIALTONE” reported by the modem. However, I then plugged in a phone to the same socket, picked up the receiver and found there was a dialtone. Slightly odd – will have to try another modem I think. Mission incomplete. 🙁

Played some pool in the afternoon, due to the fact the snooker room was being refurbished. After playing on the green baize for so long, the blue baize was distinctly smaller! So much so that we managed to play 11 games in an hour.

The evening was spent round Nigel’s with just the ‘lads’. A fun evening spent playing Risk and watching DVDs without the distraction of any girls. At the risk of sounding slightly odd, I think we should do these things more often.

Saw Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit this afternoon. What a cracking film! A very English film, with a great imbibing of eccentric English humour – something suitable and enjoyable for all ages. It’s amazing what the guys at Aardman can do with a few blobs of plasticine. It even persuaded a rather sceptical Sarah that it was worth watching.

Went round Dave’s afterwards for a game of Monopoly. A slightly sketchy game, with almost a repeat of my previous victory! I had managed to acquire all the stations and through it, to bankrupt a few people and acquire even more property through it. The final duopoly staged turned into a game of attrition, until I finally landed once too often on Dave’s property and victory went to Dave.

It’s nice to have a change from the usual routine occassionally.

After a slight misjudgement on Sunday, I ended up carting my Windows box to church to play a DVD. This left me using my Linux box at home as I couldn’t be bothered to plumb my Windows box back in. For practical things such as reading email and browsing the web, this was fine as I used it for that anyway. However, my Linux box was missing a DVD player and any large scale games. Instead of plugging the Windows box back in, I decided I would remedy the shortcomings of my Linux installation. A little rummaging around resulted in Ogle and a Linux binary for Quake III. Fortunately RPM made Ogle installation a piece of cake, and before I knew it I was watching Goodbye Lenin on DVD on my Linux box – at a nice smooth and regular 25fps! This did, however, delay the installation of Quake III though! When I finally got round to it, this was also very easy as id had made the installation really easy – now all I have to do is update punkbuster, or I’ll be doomed to just spectate games on the internet!

After a two week hiatus, this evening involved a little running around a football pitch. Despite the lull, I managed to run around the pitch for the whole hour, have a few shots at goal and even get one in the net.

After that, I headed round Sarah’s, picking up Barnaby along the way, for dinner and bridge. This time I was to be partnered with Barnaby. Although he had never played bridge before, he was very enthusiastic, although the large number of rules and conventions required for bridge took a while to sink in. Despite a few, I guess inevitable, beginner’s blunders, he was getting the hang of it and we eventually won two games in a row, claiming rubber. A good evening. 🙂

In this Psalm of ascent, the psalmist extols a godly father. A husband who fears the Lord, not in a way that one might fear a spider or a mouse, but acknowledging that God is above man and not on the same level. God should be respected, revered and worshipped, whilst being the only being worthy of our trust and praise. The fear of the Lord does not mean we shouldn’t also stay near to God, for he is our refuge in times of trouble.

A godly husband should be a diligent worker. Created in the image of the God who worked six days in the week, and rested on the seventh, man should also work. This is not to say that work will always be exciting and exhilarating. There will be times when it is tedious and dull, but it is in those times we should continue to work, that a husband and father can be relied upon to provide for his family.

A godly wife will care primarily for the home, looking after children. She will provide a haven for children to take shelter from the buffeting of life. Her husband should be able to tutn to her for wise counsel and be able to trust her completely.

The children of godly parents should be brought up to know the things of God, that they might know the Gospel. The family is to function as a unit, with communication – especially around the dining table – paramount.

This is not to say that godly parents will always get it right, nor will their children always be obedient and make the right decisions.

If the family is functioning according to the will of God, so will the body of God’s people, and if that is the case, the nation will be affected. Such a nation will be at peace with itself.

A day spent at Swindon to go on a whistle-stop tour of the bible. It’s always good to listen to good biblical teaching, with the added bonus of meeting up with Christian young people.

The tour was particularly interesting, starting with the tree in the garden, and the separation of rebellious sinful man from that tree. How the tree was represented in a fallen world, yet even then man rebelled so much, that even that was removed from them. Yet, all this was then dealt with, with God sacrificed on a tree, that we might one day be in the city, where the tree is in a garden.

Q: Which is the second commandment?
A: The second commandment is, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Q: What is required in the second commandment?
A: The second commandment requireth the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath appointed in his word.

Q: What is forbidden in the second commandment?
A: The second commandment forbiddeth the worshipping of God by images, or any other way not appointed in his word.

Q: What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment?
A: The reasons annexed to the second commandment are, God’s sovereignty over us, his propriety in us, and the zeal he hath to his own worship.

(Questions XLIX, L, LI, and LII from the Westminster Shorter Catechism).