Ramblings along the narrow way

One of those weeks where I’ve been busy doing things which aren’t interesting to read about. Very useful things, but quite mundane. Fortunately, this evening was spent playing Diplomacy with some of the usual suspects.

After a slight mix up with the tokens, and a redistribution, I ended up being Russia. Fortunately, I hadn’t got the short straw as Dave had drawn Italy. Quite early on, the alliances were made, with Russia allying with Turkey and Austria-Hungary, France and Germany became inseparable and England allied with Italy (!) It became evident that the Franco-German alliance was the one to contend with, as England and Italy fumbled and eventually collapsed without too much effort by 1904. I seemed to spend most of the game watching the world go by as Russia was too remote from any of the action to really be active. However, a little provoking produced a slight tactical blunder through a premature attack on Warsaw by the Germans allowed a swift march into Germany and the fall of Munich. As with most games of Diplomacy, we never came to an end, although it was looking interesting. A fun evening none the less.

Does God really care about me?

It’s a question which can crop up far too often for the Christian. Even for the disciples, when Jesus was in the boat with them – they wondered if their Lord cared for them. They had forgotten who was in control of the storm. They were so taken up with the immediate storm which had arisen around them, that they had forgotten who Jesus is. This becomes even more apparent when Jesus’ awakes, and with just a word calms the storm. Then their understanding of Jesus becomes ever greater.

How often do we panic when we think we’ve been abandoned by God? How often do we forget how great God is, how faithful he is and how caring he is?

After all, he cared so much for us, that he sent his Son to die for us, that our sins might be forgiven. Why would we doubt he could do anything? For this is the God who can do more than we can ask or imagine. If our hope is in Christ alone, our hope is well founded.

…but not Bristol fashion, as I spent the day, with some of the usual suspects, in Portsmouth to celebrate Karen and Nige’s birthdays. After a rather early start for a Staurday morning, we arrived in Portsmouth with vague ideas of what we wanted to do. First port of call was lunch, and then a wander along to the Spinnaker Tower to have a rather impressive view of the city. From the observation decks you can see pretty much all of Portsmouth, with its naval history dotted all around the city. We then wandered more, with plenty of sunshine, scenery and social interaction until it was time for dinner at a local Harvester restaurant. The day ended with us relaxing back at Nige’s with a DVD.

A fun day spent with friends, old and new.

Well, I know I’ve been classed as homophobic in the past. For some reason, because I believe the bible states that homosexuality is a sin, some people equate belief that with believing that all homosexuals should be assaulted/abused/have all sorts of nasty things done to them. If anything,

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Mt 22:37-40

so regardless of whether I agree with someone about anything, I’m still to love them.

Of course, this becomes even more interesting when I see something like:

As placed in the Independent on 29th June.

Then something like

“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 Mt 5:43,44

becomes ever more appropriate.

An interesting observation of the ad can be found at Hacking for Christ.

“I should try and practice more”, ran through my head as I attempted to play a study intended to be played in third position throughout. Admittedly, the week since my previous violin lesson had been rather hectic and short of practicing time, but as my violin teacher says, even just ten minutes a day is useful. Saying that, it might take a while to get used to playing in third position, let alone playing anything which requires shifting position a lot! I did seem to spend a lot of time concentrating on what I was doing, instead of concentrating on the sound I was making. The finger work might’ve been correct, I’m not sure the intonation was though…

The gap is closing – lost 4-3 frames to Ed this evening. The first couple of frames started badly, with Ed pulling away with comfortable wins, but the games slowly turned and I was eventually firing on at least three cylinders before the end of the evening.

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! 🙂