Remember your Creator…Ec 12:1

…because God is our creator, we are his and not our own. It would be foolish of us to forget him who created us. Not only should we remember him, but we should give him the place in our lives he is worthy of occupying – God should be first in our lives.

The writer of Ecclesiastes then says we should remember God in our youth, as we get older and long into old age before we eventually die – we should always remember God for as long as he lends us breath, for none of us know how long our lives will be.

If we are to place God in his rightful place in our lives, we are to obey his commandments for anything else, well, is meaningless.

Hmmm….one of those busy weekends! Travelled to Bristol on Friday night for my nephew’s birthday, although slightly earlier in the day than usual. I reached my destination in good time, and had a good night’s sleep.

The sleep was necessary – the birthday party was loud and frantic, with lots of children running around and testing their lung capacity to their fullest! There was even a magician, who was actually rather cool and he captivated the children with his show – even I thought he was entertaining.

After that, I had a short kip in the afternoon and spent the evening at my sister’s helping my nephew play with his birthday presents. 🙂

…..or almost not! The weather was looking a little dicey during the day – very stormy, and the plan to attend an open air concert at Kneller Hall looked like it might be washed out. Fortunately, the the rain held off, it remained warm, and we were able to enjoy a selection of British light music, from the likes of Vaughan Williams and Walton, moving to some not so British music from Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, with the odd Irish folksong thrown in for good measure.

A pleasant evening spent relaxing in the cool of a summer’s evening.

Spent the evening in a nice shady area of Dave’s garden playing Monopoly with him and David H. I had suggested playing Scrabble, but the majority preferred Monopoly. The game seemed to be going in my favour, with me ending up with the orange set and developing nicely, until a slight financial blunder resulted in Dave getting the yellow set and David H getting the dark purple set – spot the blunder. With this, the pace of the game increased and before I knew it – Dave had another victory under his belt! Somehow, even though the game is significantly based on chance, Dave is ‘good’ at it….

John wrote this part of his letter to people who had been Christians for a while, exhorting them to stick to the gospel they heard when they were first converted. For there were many around who offered a different gospel to the one proclaimed by the apostles. John urges them to remain in the original teaching.

These Christians were anointed, they had the Spirit within them, who would guide them and enable them to listen. John urges them to remain in the Spirit.

Throughout the ages, from the days of the New Testament until today, there are those who propose a different gospel to the one proclaimed by the apostles. As with the Christians of the New Testament, the Spirit indwells all Christians to guide them and enable them, and the apostles teaching has been preserved in the New Testament as a written account that we might be able to test the teaching.

For if we hold to the only true gospel, we will know God – for that is eternal life.

Today was the church annual outing to Littlehampton, and throughout the previous week I’d been keeping an eye on the weather forecast hoping for sun. Oh ye of little faith – it was a scorcher! Almost too hot and sunny to be doing anything besides sitting on the beach! As well as the regulars of the church, there were a number of those who I don’t see much of, if at all in the church, so it was a good opportunity to talk to those who I don’t always see. It was interesting to see how different people used the time on the beach, some preferring just to rest in the sun, whilst others running around and burning off huge amounts of energy, not to mention giving off a lot of perspiration!

A good, if slightly burnt, day! 🙂

Q: Which is the tenth commandment?
A: The tenth commandment is, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

Q: What is required in the tenth commandment?
A: The tenth commandment requireth full contentment with our own condition, with a right and charitable frame of spirit toward our neighbour, and all that is his.

Q: What is forbidden in the tenth commandment?
A: The tenth commandment forbiddeth all discontentment with our own estate, envying or grieving at the good of our neighbour, and all inordinate motions and affections to anything that is his.

(Questions LXXIX, LXXX and LXXXI from the Westminster Shorter Catechism.)

I’ve always been a fan of card games, my two most played being bridge and poker (mostly Texas hold ’em). I prefer bridge as it has a significant amount of strategy and thought involved in order to successfully play, whereas I play poker mostly because most of the people around me don’t know how to play bridge, but know how to play poker. Imagine my surprise when I heard that Bill Gates prefers bridge. For once I will agree with Bill.

Beat David P 2-0 and Ed 1-0 at snooker this evening. Admittedly, I think I had some of the most fortunate shots I had for a while! 🙂

If we know the love of Christ, we are compelled to share that knowledge of the love of God with all. We were not redeemed by the precious blood of God the Son to keep this knowledge to ourselves, either out of selfishness or inactivity.

We are not to continue seeing the world as men do, but as God does. We are to see the bigger picture through the lens of eternity.

For, as the apostle Paul says,

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Co 5:17

We are no longer our own, but bought at a price.

If we are in Christ, we are his ambassadors. When the world sees us, they should get a glimpse of Christ’s kingdom. We are called to bring his good news of reconciliation with God to all. To tell people that God loves them and has done everything required for the forgiveness of their sins that they might be righteous. To tell people that this righteousness is available through Jesus Christ, completely by the grace of God.

I think my snooker might be back on track after a 4-1 frame win over David. I’ll have to see how I go against Ed now.

OK, it’s been a while since I’ve done any exams – possibly ten years…however, I spent the evening, with some of the usual suspects, at a celebratory end of exam barbeque at Sam and Susanna’s. The evening was pleasantly warm and dry, and the company was jovial and chatty. We seemed to spend most of the time recounting stories from summer camps we’d been on, mostly related to the toilets for some reason, and generally building up a sense of anticipation of the next month’s camp. The food wasn’t bad either, with Sam duly committing the burgers and sausages to the barbeque, with salad and other bits supplied by his dad and Susanna. A good evening spent with friends.

A football free day, with a nice relaxing evening listening to Eugene Alcalay on the piano in Egham. The concert was organised by Egham and District Music Club, although I knew of the performer through friends. Myrtle, the two Daves and myself had the pleasure of listening to some piano sonatas by Mozart and Beethoven, a Liszt etude and fantasia and Mussorgsky’s Picture at an Exhibition, all played very energetically with a Bach prelude tagged on the end. It was great just to be able to sit and listen to some live music from across the classical spectrum. Admittedly, I preferred the earlier era music to some of the later stuff, but the quality of the playing couldn’t be faulted. Of all the pieces, I thought The Great Gate of Kiev at the end of the recital was magnificent and finished off with a very grand majestic flourish.

Another evening of defeat – lost 6-1 frames to Ed. Not sure what happened there!

“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed.
As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.
But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.
Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain.
Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times.”
Then Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Mk 4:1-9

Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?
The farmer sows the word.
Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.
Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy.
But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.
Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word;
but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.
Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop-thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.” Mk 4:13-20

Another fine Saturday evening spent wandering around Richmond Park, although with more of the usual suspects than last week. The park itself is huge, so this time we walked around a completely different part to last time – Spanker’s Hill wood – a rather unfortunate name! It was nice just to be able to sit and chat over an al fresco dinner and to go for a walk afterwards. I even managed to get some photos. 🙂