Ramblings along the narrow way

What a cool day. 🙂 Started off very early this morning for Alton Towers, with Ally, Dave and Mim, with the intention of getting there for 9:30am. Anyone who knows me will know this wasn’t quite achieved as intended, although we did get there by 10 o’clock and met up with the Salisbury lot and some bods from HTC.
Now I’d been to Alton Towers quite a few times in the past, yet I’d never been on the ‘Black Hole’, so it was quite fitting that the first ride we went on was the ‘Black Hole’. To be honest, I don’t think I had missed much in the past! However, as the day progressed, some of the rides left an impression on me. A cool ride was ‘Oblivion’, which isn’t much to look at – basically a vertical drop, but after taking a ride on it, I was impressed. Such a simple concept, yet very effective in getting the adrenalin going! The best ride though was ‘Air’. This ride wasn’t scary and didn’t try to chuck you around a lot, nor did it intend to get you wet. The background music for this ride was serene and the movements along its course were graceful and sweeping. What was great about this ride was that it gave quite a good idea of what it would be like to fly like Superman.
Of course, the quality of the rides wasn’t the only thing which progressed during the day. Slowly but surely, the rain clouds made their presence known. Starting off with occassional droplets just after lunch, through drizzle to full-scale raining by the end of the day.
Regardless of the weather, a very cool day. It was good to catch up with the Salisbury lot, with the added bonus of a chance to ride some of the latest attractions at Alton Towers

I was tidying up my papers last night, taking a little longer than I thought. It’s amazing how much paper comes through the letterbox. Some of it is useless, some of it is actually useful. Amongst the useless stuff are numerous credit card application forms, book club offers, wine club offers, personalised number plate promotions, magazine subscription forms…the list goes on.
However, whilst sifting out the useful stuff, I came across a few pamphlets and magazines which caught my eye. One was from the Co-Operative Bank detailing their ethical stance on banking. I also came across magazines published quarterly by Tearfund and World Vision. They detailed the plight of many people around the world, some caused by natural disaster, most caused by man’s inhumanity to his fellow man, but they also detailed how we can help them to change these situations for the better. Included with both magazines were also catalogues of fairly traded goods, where the producers are paid a fair wage for their labours.
How often we complain the world is unfair and then do nothing about it. We have so much power as consumers. We can choose who we purchase our goods from. Do we choose the cheapest source, regardless of the ethics, or do we choose sources which deal with their suppliers ethically?
I guess G.K.Chesterton was right, “What is wrong with the world? I am….”
Since I’m quoting, I’ll finish with a quote from Big Tent Revival, “To change my world, I gotta change me”.

Scene three

Act one, “The mother-in-law”
Ruth 3:1-5

After discovering that Boaz is a kinsman-redeemer, Naomi see an opportunity for Ruth to find a new home – to find rest, and so she tells Ruth to do something rather unusual. Not entirely something I’d consider to be a typical way to become acquainted with someone!

Act two, “The threshing floor”
Ruth 3:6-15

Ruth dutifully does as her mother-in-law says, and goes to the threshing floor. When Boaz arrives at the threshing floor, presumably to guard the new harvest, Ruth waits until he is asleep. She then removes his footwear and lays down at his feet. Boaz awakes, probably because he has cold feet, and finds Ruth at his feet.
However, Boaz is a man of integrity and good character. He points out that there is someone who is more eligible as a kinsman-redeemer and does not take advantage of the situation. He also thinks of Ruth’s reputation and tells her to leave before she could be recognised, even though they had not done anything wrong. Before she leaves, he generously gives her some of the barley.

Act three, “The report”
Ruth 3:16-18

When Ruth tells Naomi everything that has happened, Naomi’s trust in God and Boaz is evident. She tells Ruth to wait and see what happens, and also that she is sure Boaz will do what is right.

Now there are some parts of the bible I have no problem understanding, stuff like:

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith�and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God�not by works, so that no-one can boast. For we are God�s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:8-10

As amazing as the passage is, I can understand it. However, I’m currently reading through Ezekiel in my quiet time and I’m struggling to make sense of some of it, even to be able to picture it would be nice.

“I looked, and I saw beside the cherubim four wheels, one beside each of the cherubim; the wheels sparkled like chrysolite. As for their appearance, the four of them looked alike; each was like a wheel intersecting a wheel. As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the cherubim faced; the wheels did not turn about as the cherubim went. The cherubim went in whatever direction the head faced, without turning as they went. Their entire bodies, including their backs, their hands and their wings, were completely full of eyes, as were their four wheels. I heard the wheels being called “the whirling wheels”. Each of the cherubim had four faces: One face was that of a cherub, the second the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.” Ezekiel 10:9-14

OK, so there’s four wheels, four cherubim, each with four faces. Is there some significance here? Even consulting the wisdom of Matthew Henry leaves me feeling I’ve missed something. I guess I’m not going to understand everything, so maybe I should leave it for now and maybe pursue it later?
Possibly even in eternity…

I don’t know why, but sometimes I use too much force. Sometimes I should probably just hold back, nestle up and just gently kiss. There is just too much of an urge to be impatient and go in all guns blazing. Admittedly, even with this approach, I still beat Robin at snooker this evening by three frames to nil. Fortunately, I’m on target most of the time, so I can pot balls all over the place. Probably best to try and play more controlled shots though.

As I am still slightly ill, after work I figured I’d go home and spend the evening doing nothing. It actually turned out to be fairly productive as I managed to catch a few good television programmes on Channel Four.
Usually, I lament when I see what is being broadcasted on the television, especially in the evenings. (Usually because of documentaries irresponsibly presenting fiction as fact, and the ridiculous notion that entertainment can’t be educational, anyway I digress). I had intended on just watching the news and have done with it. Being 7pm when I switched the TV on, I caught the Channel Four evening news. However, in the ad-breaks, the couple of programmes which followed the news caught my eye. After catching up on current events, I found myself listening to the arguments of a composer, who had Tourette’s syndrome, that W A Mozart also had Tourette’s syndrome. I must admit that after watching for an hour, I wasn’t entirely convinced, but the argument was an interesting one. What followed was a magnificent opening of “Monarchy“. A series which has set itself the task of chronicling the foundation, rise and maturing of the British monarchy from its roots in the Dark Ages, through 1500 years, to the Constitutional Monarchy we have today. At the heart of the series was the idea that monarchy in the British Isles was ultimately grounded in the people and at the consent of the people. The first episode dealt with the birth of the nation state, under one king, one Church, one language and one currency. Very compelling and I hope to be able follow the series to its climax.
A thoroughly relaxing evening.

“Our Father in heaven…
…Give us today our daily bread.”

A right attitude to prayer reflects on a right understanding of God. When Jesus reveals the Lord’s Prayer, he reveals God for who he is. From a God who is our heavenly Father, to a God who provides for all our needs. In this line of the prayer, Jesus says we should ask God to provide for our basic temporal needs. Further on in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus elaborates on what it means to rely on God to provide for our needs.
If God is our provider, we should be anxious for nothing, from the basic things of food, drink and clothing, to things such as friends and relationships. What we are to do though is to concentrate on seeking God’s kingdom and righteousness – seeking and then doing his will, for God will provide.
It can be a challenge sometimes to rely totally on God and to concentrate on doing his will. Yet, my ultimate happiness in life can only be found by putting God’s glory first and my glory last.

Went to Swindon Evangelical Church today for a conference on Christian mission.
I do wonder sometimes whether I show enough interest in mission. What is my role in missionary work? Is it just to show interest in missionaries? The culture of where I live would appear to indicate that for me to fulfil the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), I only need to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with those who live around me. In a way, I am a missionary. Of course this means meeting people where they are, rather than expecting them to come to me. It requires time to get to know people, to make friendships so that I can meet them where they are. It also means not just telling them the Gospel, but showing them the Gospel through acts of love. It means truly understanding people for who they really are – made in the image of God, yet destined to meet the wrath of God because of their sin. God’s love is so great though that he sent Jesus Christ who can deliver them from their sin through faith. It still amazes me that God will use sinful humans beings to convey this message, yet he does and even achieves great things through them. Oh that God would use me for his glory.

It’s occurred to me that if I were really very ill, quite a few of you would be stuck if your computer went belly up, so I thought I’d write a small missive on basic computer maintenance. 🙂

First of all, backups. Regardless of everything else, keep backups (copies) of anything you couldn’t replace if you lost the computer. Copy them onto CD-R, floppy disk, USB storage device…whatever. This includes things like documents, address books, photos, in fact anything you can’t replace by buying a new one from the shop, or reinstalling. If the worst happens, be it a virus attack, hard disk failure, flooding, EMP, etc. at least you’ll have a copy of your precious data safely stored away. If you don’t have a backup, once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.

Secondly, make sure you have all the CDROMs, DVDs etc. which came with your computer stored away safely so you can reinstall everything back to your computer if everything goes horribly wrong.

Thirdly, if you’re on the internet, make sure you have sufficient security. If you have Linux or MacOS installed you don’t have much to worry about, as they’re fairly good out of the box. However, if you have any version of Microsoft Windows (95,98,ME,2000,XP) you’ll need to keep it up to date with Windows Update. In addition, at the very least, you’ll need the following software:
Anti-Virus software such as AVG
Anti-Spyware software such as Spybot S&D
Firewall software such as Zonealarm

I’ve suggested free (legally) software in each case, but other software is available at a price. Regardless of whether you use free or paid-for software, you should always keep your software up to date. Most of the security packages have a facility to check for updates. You should also do a complete virus/spyware scan around once a fortnight.
It might also be an idea to use an alternative WWW browser to Internet Explorer such as Firefox, and an alternative email reader to Outlook Express such as Thunderbird.

With these basic points, your computer should be available to you more of the time, instead of spending time being cursed at by me. 🙂

So much for forecasting the demise of my cold. I appear to be completely at its mercy, whatever ‘it’ is – a small bunch of viruses which neither I, nor modern medicine can control. 🙁
Ah well, gave me a chance to continue with my empire building. I managed to overrun the Greeks, reducing the number of opponents by one, whilst still keeping a technical lead. I also appear to have viewed the whole of the first series of Friends on DVD. I must acquire the next series or two from somewhere now.
The evening meal consisted of a very palatable won-ton (云吞) and noodle soup from the local Chinese take-away. Nothing like a steaming bowl of soup to make a cold-wracked body feel better! Mmmm….
On a slightly more constructive note, I’ve now added a blogroll to my blog, thanks to bloglines. Although the number of blogs which will remain on my roll might well change when this cold finally decides to depart from me.
Anyway, hopefully I can bid farewell to this cold soon, as otherwise you’ll have to continue to read my ramblings of self-pity. (Or you could go and do something less boring instead?)

Well, woke up this morning feeling a little better than yesterday. My throat was only slightly sore, the headache was abating, the fatigue almost gone and the temperature was gone. Spent most of the morning lounging around and finally had a shower just before noon. Fortunately I was feeling well enough to leave the house, it was either that or starve as I’d run out of food in the fridge! After purchasing and consuming breakfast/lunch (a fine Mega-Breakfast from the local Tesco), I surfed the web a bit. I then loaded up Civilization III which I haven’t played for ages!
A few hours passed as I set up a prosperous Chinese empire, only to be bothered around AD1000 by an alliance of Mongols, Americans and Greeks with the Egyptians as the ringleader. Not sure how long I can hold out, but as long as the French, Indians and Germans are friendly towards me, I should be able to keep a technological edge over my enemies and keep them at bay.
Alas, I think the cold is now on its last legs so I’ll be back at work and unable to complete my virtual empire building.
I guess I’m quite privileged really, even if I don’t have a wife to look after me :P. Although I did have a well-wisher or two :). If I was living in a developing country, my illness might well have been a lot less trivial, possibly even life-threatening. It’s amazing how even the smallest illness could be life threatening, depending on the surrounding conditions. Quite a thought really.

Well, I appear to be ill. I haven’t been ill for quite a while now, which is probably why I’m making note of it. I went to bed last night with a slightly tickly cough. Woke up this morning with a very sore throat, sore muscles, headache, a slightly runny nose, a slight temperature and fatigue. I can only guess I’ve got a cold. Hard to tell as, allegedly, men aren’t very good at medical self-diagnosis. Decided it might be wiser to stay in bed instead of dragging myself to work. Went back to sleep and woke up around 2pm, still not feeling much better, and now with cold feet. Finally got out of bed to get some breakfast, drink plenty of fluid and have a hot soothing bath. I must admit I felt slightly better after the bath, and the cough has developed into one of those large chesty ones with plenty of phlegm in my lungs to dislodge. The headache was still the same, as was the muscle ache.
I’ve come to the conclusion that being ill isn’t much fun. Unlike usual days off, when you’re ill you’re unable to do much, which leads to a high degree of boredom. Finally decided to watch The Truman Show on DVD, which was good, as always, and helped to pass the time.
I’m now knackered, even though I haven’t actually done much! Time to go to bed soon I think…

Another fine evening of football with my work colleagues. For around ten minutes, our team was a man down as he hadn’t appeared, and we ran rings around the opposition. Then our fourth man arrived, and our play gradually declined! I’m not sure what happened there. Maybe we had overexerted ourselves in the first ten minutes and paid the price subsequently? Anyway, the score was close, with the opposing team slowly finding their feet and bringing on a counter offensive leaving the score at 15-14 to us.
Rather foolishly, I then went ten-pin bowling in a large group of young people from APC, HTC and HWEC. I didn’t do too badly, coming somewhere in the middle of the scores. Didn’t matter too much, as the fellowship was good and I had met a few new people.

As human beings, we are unable to grasp the truth of God. We have problems understanding the world around us and we have problems understanding the Bible, the word of God. Jesus says that when he leaves, the Holy Spirit will come.

1. The Holy Spirit will guide us in all truth. He will open up the truth of God to us. He will allow us to understand the words of Jesus, and ultimately the words of the Father. He is not there to grant new revelation, but to open up existing revelation. If the Holy Spirit is guiding us, we will know what God would want us to do.
2. He will allow us to understand what is to come. Not only does he help us understand God’s dealing’s with us in the present, but also to understand God’s dealings with us in the future.
3. He brings glory to the Son. We will know the Holy Spirit is guiding us, as our lives will glorify God.

Do we have the Holy Spirit in our lives? Jesus Christ promises the Holy Spirit to all who trust in him.
If we have trusted in Jesus Christ, do we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, or do we resist him?

A nice pleasant Saturday. 🙂 Started it off with a leisurely breakfast of bacon rolls and mango juice, followed by a whole afternoon of playing Links 2003. I had started playing Links in single player mode, in the “Career” option. However, after completing a season, I wandered around the in game options and found “On-line tournament”. All of a sudden, the game took on a new dimension. I was no longer playing against a computer program, but against fellow human beings. This guaranteed I spent the rest of the afternoon on it!
Fortunately, I had already planned to go to the Harvest Supper at my church and so my virtual golfing addiction didn’t have a chance to take root. As always, the food on offer was plentiful and of a good standard – I found myself going up for seconds. There was a good turnout, and a chance to talk to people I haven’t spoken to much, either recently or ever! The speaker after the meal was from Amyand Park Chapel and he spoke on the parable of the sower. A good time was had by all and, hopefully, everyone went away well fed, both physically and spiritually.