Q: What is God?
A: God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

(Question IV from the Westminster Shorter Catechism).

What with the submission of the Religious Hatred Bill to Parliament, the existence of “Anti-Hate Crime” organisations and other similarly “politically correct” ideas, one would’ve thought basic criminal law wasn’t enough.

Surely a crime against a person, regardless of motive, is still a crime. If someone is physically assaulted because of their religion, their sexual persuation, their ideology, their philosophy, their job, or whatever, they are still assaulted and a crime has been committed against them. Conversely, if someone is assaulted regardless of their religion, their sexual persuation, their ideology, their philosophy, their job, or whatever, they are still assaulted and a crime has been committed against them.

What is the point of trying to bring in extra legislation to deal with particular types of crime, when existing laws are able to deal with those issues already. An incident of arson on a Mosque doesn’t need specific religious hatred legislation to be dealt with, there are already laws which deal with arson. An assault on a Hindu doesn’t need specific legislation to be dealt with, there are already laws which deal with assault. I could go on…

As such, there must be some other reason for these new bills. The religious hatred bill in particular only appears to have curtailment of free speech as an added “bonus” to existing law. It seems so badly (or well) worded that criticism of a religion could become a criminal offence. This would be bad news for everyone! Not only would the Christian feasibly not be able to be critical of Islam, the atheist would feasibly not be able to be critical of either or any religion. A significant point of free speech is the freedom to be critical of, religion, philosophy, sexual preference – of anything anyone is able to promote.

So are these proposed new measures well thought through, or just an attempt to win the votes of minorities, at the expense of the everyone?

When a person trusts in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, they are justified – treated as righteous – and the Holy Spirit starts working in them that they eventually might be presented to the Father as righteous. Even as Christian believers, going through this sanctifying process, we still have our flaws and Abraham demonstrated this. Abraham had been a believer in the one true God for many years now, sin was no longer his master, but a small pocket of sin surfaced and he was up to his old tricks again – passing off his wife as his sister.

In order to achieve this, not only did he sin, but he caused his wife to sin, using, arguably, one of the oldest emotionally unfair statements on his wife – “If you really love me you’ll……sin” (My paraphrase). Jesus himself would later say it would be better for someone to have a millstone attached to ones neck and dropped in the sea than to cause others to sin.

Yet, despite Abraham’s mistakes, God still counted him as a prophet. God was still able to use Abraham for his glory later on. This is not to excuse Abraham’s conduct, for it was a sinful action and God recognised it as such. If anything, this shows how great God is, that he is able to use such flawed, sinful, characters for his glory – even us.

In addition, such characters cannot bring glory to themselves, and show the glory of God even more.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 2 Cor 4:7

A fine evening spent at a classical music concert in Sandhurst with some of the usual suspects (the more cultured of the bunch) and some of the elder members of the church. The lineup was tantalising, with Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto no. 2, Mozart’s Piano Concerto 23, and Saint Saens Carnival of the Animals being the main attractions. Alas, some of the soloists for the Bach were ill, so a Telemann was sustituted. A very fine piece, but not Bach. That said, it was a great evening just to be able to sit and listen to live music performed for music’s sake and not to be distracted by anything else. The visual aspect of the performance came to a fore during the Carnival of the Animals, with many of the musicians evidently enjoying themselves, poking fun at some of the folly musicians (and humans in general) fall foul of occassionally.

An evening of exilaration, contemplation and most human emotions in between – experiencing something which expresses that which words fail. It’s a shame most young people don’t seem to have the patience for classical music.

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great high Priest whose Name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in Heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Saviour died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.

Behold Him there the risen Lamb,
My perfect spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
King of glory and of grace,
One in Himself I cannot die.
My soul is purchased by His blood,
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ my Saviour and my God!

Charitie L. Bancroft

Learnt something which I’d never heard of before in my violin lesson yesterday evening. The Alexander technique is supposed to be good to relax the arm before and during playing so that the tone produced by the bow is more even and smoother. All I need to do is check I’m not in a room with a low ceiling or I might put a bow shaped hole in it! Things seem to be moving on though as I can now play the major scales of all the natural notes. (The “white keys” on a piano :)) and quite a few minor scales. Just need to improve my bowing so it’s consistently even and improve the agility of the fingers in my left hand. (In contrast to the agility of the fingers of my right hand which are very good for playing the piano, but only hold the bow on the violin!)

Spent the evening playing bridge at Sarah’s with her parents. It’s been a while since I’ve had the opportunity to play this great game, so I was easily persuaded to forego my usual run around a football pitch. Whilst her parents were keen bridge players, Sarah was not, but was persuaded it was a game worth learning to play. As such, the game was played a little slower than usually played as the various rules and conventions of bridge were explained. Sarah is fairly bright though and picked up the game without too much of a problem. Alas, the first rubber went to her parents, albeit with one game to us, but the second rubber looked promising with one game to us until bad light stopped play – it was getting late! A very cool evening spent doing something different from the usual. 🙂

Mary Magdalene evidently loved her Lord very much.

She was not content to just walk away from the empty tomb, but peered in again and saw the angels in the tomb where Jesus should’ve been. It would seem the magnitutde of the event had overcome her. When Jesus approached her, she was facing the wrong way and did not recognise his name at first. Upon hearing her name though she was overjoyed. Her spiritual eyes were opened and she turned around and realised who was speaking to her.

Jesus then speaks on the family of God, that she is a child of God. Although makes a distinction in his relationship with God, as the eternal Son, and her status as an adopted heir.

He then tells her to tell the other adopted children of God about what he is going to do. At which she obeys immediately.

Do I love my Lord as much as Mary Magdalene? Do I suffer from moments of spiritual blindness?

A slightly different Saturday from usual, for me anyway, as I ushered (with a few others) the wedding of Tim and Joy. Alas, it involved an early start, as even though the ceremony commenced at 2pm, I had agreed to ferry the groom and best man to the church in good time – 11am! Fortunately, once the groom was installed, everything went like clockwork as each stage, from entrance of bridal party, through to exit of husband and wife, executed. Everything was modest, subtle and low-key, much in line with the personalities of Tim and Joy. This was also a great opportunity to meet many of their friends and family in their great diversity. May God bless their marriage abundantly.

Today was one of those days where I’m glad to be alive. Tim, a good friend of mine is getting married tomorrow and we went through the motions of its rehersal this evening. He and his fiancee make a wonderful couple and, whilst I’m no expert in these matters, I think they know what they’re doing. It was fascinating just watching people milling around, doing flowers, setting up refreshments, as well as absorbing the information required for me to do my part tomorrow. Saying that, even if it doesn’t all go completely to plan, as long as this is the start of a blessed lifelong special relationship, it’ll be a perfect day.

For the director of music. According to gittith. A psalm of David.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour.
You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet:
all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Psalm 8

In this evening’s violin lesson, I started off being challenged to play various scales from memory. I started off OK with G and A major, but came unstuck on a chromatic starting on G! The rest of the lesson was in a similar vein, with a revision of most of the stuff I’ve learnt over the past few months to see what I remember, and also to see if I’ve improved. My teacher reckons I’m a lot better than even just a month or so ago. I’m not entirely convinced, but I’ll take her word for it. 🙂

Well, after a week away feeling ill, and many weeks with dodgy ankles, tonight’s football game felt normal for once! No longer were my ankles feeling fragile, nor was my immune system fighting off an infection. The only reason I couldn’t run around the pitch like everyone else was because I’m hopelessly unfit! Saying that, I managed to score a cracking goal by a combination of fluke and er…fluke. 🙂 Oh well, things are looking up!

As Abraham came before God to pray for Sodom and Gomorrah, a number of things are can be seen, things which should affect our prayers.

To start with, Abraham is prompted by God. God let’s Abraham know what will happen to the cities on the plain, that for their sins he will destroy them, and lays it on Abraham’s heart to plead for them. We should be careful that our own prayers are prompted by God.

Abraham’s prayer is specific, he does not speak in general terms. He addresses God about the righteous and the wicked. He knows the mind of God, knowing that God is righteous and knowing that appeals to God to spare the righteous. We should seek to know the mind of God, to know his will , through his word, that we might be specific in our prayers.

He also perseveres. This is not to say he is presumptious in asking what he wants, but that humbly persists, seeking God’s will. We should earnestly pray to God, seeking his will and persevering humbly.

An interesting, if slightly busy day. First port of call was ABC Music in Kew to source a replacement digital piano for the church. The main considerations were quality of tone, as this instrument was to be used to aide worship, and compact size, so it would fit where it would be used. As such, I’d shortlisted a Roland EP-760, even though I’d never seen or touched one. On arrivial I headed directly to the model they had on display and, after obtaining permission, gave it a try – I thought it was perfect. Only issue was the price, quite a bit more expensive than prices I’d seen online in other shops. This was mentioned to the assistant who asked where I’d seen it – I mentioned the online store and he duly checked it to verify (after all, I could just pluck numbers out of the air otherwise!) He said they’d try to match it, but needed to check with those in the know and disappeared to find out. I was very pleasantly surprised when he returned to say they’d match it, and I left the store with keyboard (and bits) under arm, after paying for it obviously, a very happy customer.

Went down to Hounslow to play some snooker in the afternoon with David – I think he’s getting better, 3-3 frames. A draw!

Spent the evening at Uxbridge Road Tabernacle to listen to a talk on “Men and women”, and how the worldview of the bible on sexuality differed from the view of the world – specifically the media. An interesting contrast of what the bible says men and women should be – holy, godly, virtuous, and what the world through the media suggests – selfish, out for number one. This is not to say everything is obviously black and white, but that Christians need to think about everything they do, that they might do God’s will.