Was invited to a Christmas dinner for the charity LIFE this evening. It was a full three course meal consisting of soup, followed by turkey and pork with all the trimmings, finished off with a wide ranging selection of desserts.
The meal was followed by a short address on the very important work of LIFE in the locality, providing help and support to pregnant women. Some statistics on abortion were also shared.
I cannot help thinking there is something wrong with a society which sees nothing wrong with the killing of over 100,000 unborn babies every year, for the past ten years, and yet spends vast resources debating the rights and wrongs of fox hunting.
It is tragic when a person dies, regardless of their age. Surely?

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Phew! Another busy Saturday. Just after lunch went up to Hayes Town to join with some folks from Hayes Town Chapel as they sang Christmas Carols in the high street and shared the gospel with those to stopped to listen. Whilst there were a good number of singers, most of the men didn’t sing either bass or tenor parts, so it was a good job I had gone along as there were only two of us singing parts, me on bass and another chap on tenor.
Later that afternoon was the baptisms of Ali, Ally, David A, David H, Jarwad and Mim. It was encouraging to hear these young people declaring their faith in Jesus Christ both to us as a church and to their peers whom they had invited to witness the event.

“May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” Hebrews 13:20-21

Finally, the usual suspects, and then some, celebrated Christine’s birthday. First we went bowling, allowing me to finally beat Karen and come top of the table! We then moved on to Sarah’s place to finish off the evening with some pizza, cake and games.
Time for bed I think.

Well, I appear to be ill again. Fortunately not as serious as last time, but bad enough to induce sneezing, coughing, a headache and generally make me more sleepy than usual. Went to work this morning, but didn’t feel so good so went home for the afternoon. Didn’t even feel well enough to go wandering around the locality to play with my new camera. What I have managed to do is watch up to series six of Friends and sleep. Fortunately I don’t find those two things (I was about to put “activities”, but they aren’t particularly active) too unpleasant, so it isn’t all bad. Hopefully I’ll feel better tomorrow.

The past couple of evenings have been fairly routine, yet good. Yesterday evening played five-a-side football with work colleagues and, even though I haven’t played for a couple of weeks, I managed to run around for longer than I had anticipated and I even scored a few goals! Then I went bowling with the usual suspects, eventually coming just behind Karen and drawing with Dave.
This evening was spent at Sarah’s house playing Scattergories, whilst eating a rather large pizza between us. A very pleasant evening, and unusually for a word game, I beat Nigel…although Sarah came out on top. 🙁
A very pleasant couple of evenings.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26

Attended the funeral of a good friend’s mum today.

What is God that he could be constrained? When Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem, he acknowledged that God could not be contained within the Temple. Even the whole earth and the highest heavens could not contain God. God is beyond containment.
Yet, on the first Sunday of Advent, we are reminded that around 2000 years ago, God took on flesh and became a man. Jesus Christ is God incarnate. The infinite within the finite, the immortal within the mortal. What people make of this varies considerably.

A lot of people would say this is impossible, because they believe God does not exist. Looking around, it would seem to take more faith to believe God does not exist than to believe he does exist. From the precise arrangement of the solar system, with the third planet from the sun being so carefully aligned that life could exist on it, to life itself. Life, that is so intricately designed from the smallest organisms, to the largest mammals, and so intricately interweaved into a complex and marvellous ecosystem. To believe this universe happened by chance, rather than to believe the universe was created by a creator, would seem a large leap of faith.

Some people may accept that God exists, but believe that the incarnation is beyond credibility. They refuse to accept that Jesus Christ is God. Yet looking at what he does and says in four separate accounts by the Gospel writers doesn’t leave much room for another explanation. C.S.Lewis titled it the Lord, Lunatic or Liar argument. If we cannot accept him as Lord, we can only come to the conclusion he is either a lunatic, on the same level as a man who claims to be a poached egg, or a liar from the pit of hell itself. (To paraphrase Lewis) But from what Jesus says and does, he is neither a lunatic nor is he a liar.

Ultimately, the incarnation was inevitable, as God loved us. Whilst it seems amazing that God would even consider us, given our insignificance before him. It is even more amazing given that we are rebellious sinners before a holy God. Yet, through faith in the incarnate Son of God, we can be made acceptable before him and he will make his dwelling in our heart.

A nice lazy Saturday, after the rather hectic Saturdays of late. Woke up nice and late, had a nice long shower, cooked some breakfast and then lounged around in front of the computer for a couple of hours, played the piano for a while then went and played snooker against Pete. I must admit, Pete isn’t that bad at it, although very, very, very, slow… In the time it would take to play around six frames, we’d only played three! There’s lazy and then there’s lazy…
In the evening I went to see The Incredibles, by Pixar, with some of the usual suspects. In true tradition, the main feature was preceded by short film, although this particular short was slightly bizarre!
The main film itself was very good though. Can Pixar do no wrong? It was fast paced, yet had a good underlying message. In a way, it is rather ironic that Prince Charles’ comments of the past days have surfaced, as both the film and the prince say similar things. Whilst everyone is special, everyone’s gifts and talents are different. Additionally some people’s talents will far exceed the talents of others. As such, we should be able to recognise those talents we have and work hard at them, developing them to the full, whilst not gloating about these talents before others. These gifts and talents are precious and should be used for good. We should also be able to recognise when we do not have a talent for some things and accept it.
On top of this message were great animation and a superb storyline, with characters who were incredible, yet had very human issues. Well worth seeing.

Q: How doth Christ execute the office of a king?
A: Christ executeth the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.

(Question XXVI from the Westminster Shorter Catechism)

Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And Summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And oft’ is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d:
But thy eternal Summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

William Shakespeare

I must admit that Mondays aren’t always my favourite day of the week. However, this Monday was very good as we spent the evening celebrating Ally’s sixteenth birthday at Nandos in Hounslow. The usual suspects from HWEC and HTC were there, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and most importantly, the birthday girl seemed to enjoy herself.
Afterwards we headed round Sarah’s, rather unexpectedly, and chatted and continued where we’d left off, although somehow it ended up with everyone trying to determine who I might marry! After much deliberation and amusement, no concensus had been found and it was time to head home.
Needless to say, a good evening for which I’m grateful.

PS A belated Happy Birthday Ally! 🙂

As John continues to record his account of Jesus’ life on earth, we become privy to a conversation between two persons of the Godhead. God the Son is talking to God the Father.
The immediacy of the Son’s mission is made apparent. Despite his status, the Son doesn’t ask that the Father will protect him or save him from this hour, but that the Son might glorify the Father. This same Son has authority over all, that he might save those whom the Father has given him.
The Son knocks human pluralistic thought for six, stating that only through his mission can we know the one true God. For we can only know the Father if we know Jesus Christ. He even specifically uses the title Jesus Christ to reinforce this, that he was chosen (Christ) to save his people from their sins (Jesus).
Yet, he had no reason to do this. The Son had glory before the creation of the world, he had no reason to do this. Yet, God the Father sent God the Son to save his people because of his great justice and his great love. If Christ is willing to glorify the Father, how much more should we be willing to glorify the Father instead of ourselves?

“Amazing love! How can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?.” Charles Wesley

This Saturday was another one of those long, yet enjoyable, Saturdays. A small group of us headed off from West London to Birmingham for CCIW Week 1, Camp Reunion, rather early this morning. It was good to meet up with the friends I had made on camp, catch up with them and learn something new about them. It was also good to meet the children again, seeing how they are and how God is working in their lives. There was quite a bit of free time both for officers and children, with organised games for those who weren’t so interested in chatting with others. There was a short talk on the need to know Jesus Christ and then there was more time to play games and chat, with meals interspersed. A very tiring but enriching day.

Decided to start my Christmas shopping today. Being the lazy geek I am though, I decided to it all online this year.
Usually when I go shopping, I saunter all the way to Kingston as it has the best quantity and quality of shops this side of Marble Arch. The usual approach involves a lot of leg work though as I wander from store to store trying to think of what to get various people and by the end of it I’m completely worn out.
Today was different though, I started off with Christmas cards from Tearfund as I always think Christ should be part of Christmas, and these cards all have Scriptural references in them as well as making some practical contribution to the furtherance of God’s kingdom. The Banner of Truth Trust was my next port of call, with a wide selection of good Reformed books to choose from, although I’m not mentioning who they’re for as they might read this. My final web destination was Amazon, with a little more discernment required when choosing gifts. After an hour or so browsing the web, I had purchased a significant proportion of required gifts, with only a few people left to think about. Additionally, I’m still feeling quite awake and able to do more. It was all rather easy – in fact, so easy, I even bought a little something for myself, let’s just say I now have no excuses for poor photos…

Epilogue

So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.” Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. The women living there said, “Naomi has a son.” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. This, then, is the family line of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, Boaz the father of Obed, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David. Ruth 4:13-22