Ramblings along the narrow way

Jesus, lover of my soul,
let me to thy bosom fly,
while the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Saviour, hide,
till the storm of life is past;
safe into the haven guide;
O receive my soul at last.

Other refuge have I none,
hangs my helpless soul on thee;
leave, ah! leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me.
All my trust on thee is stayed,
all my help from thee I bring;
cover my defenceless head
with the shadow of thy wing.

Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in thee I find;
raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is thy name,
I am all unrighteousness;
false and full of sin I am;
thou art full of truth and grace.

Plenteous grace with thee is found,
grace to cover all my sin;
let the healing streams abound,
make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art,
freely let me take of thee;
spring thou up within my heart;
rise to all eternity.

Charles Wesley

Just spent the evening catching up with Robin. I haven’t stopped and had a proper conversation with him for a few weeks now. Over the past few weeks we’ve just exchanged a quick hello when we’d seen each other, so this evening was good. Most of the evening was spent in the local snooker hall, although I’m not sure Robin was concentrating as I won five frames to none. Finished off the evening at Nandos in Hounslow East, with a hearty meal of chicken, corn and rice.
On a completely separate note, I’ve been playing with GMail recently as I got an invite a week or so ago and decided to give it a try. As webmail services go, I think this has to be one of the best. The interface is clean and quick, it has a decent contacts facility, and the feature of having one of the most effective search engines keep track of your email for you seems very useful. Now I know there have been concerns raised about privacy, so I’m still a little cautious, but then what’s stopping other webmail services handing over your precious data to some government agency after being served the appropriate paperwork? From past performance I think I trust Google more than I trust Microsoft or Yahoo anyway. We’ll see I guess…
Now all I need to do is avoid starting up Links 2003 as otherwise I won’t go to bed until quite late! (How sad is it that I appear to be addicted to computer golf!?)

Well, this Monday was better than last Monday in that I managed to remember to set my alarm on Sunday thereby waking up in good time to get to work!
The routine was broken though as the five-a-side football was cancelled this evening as there weren’t enough players. Fortunately Nigel and a few others wanted to go bowling, so this evening wasn’t a complete loss. In the couple of games played this evening, I managed to come second and first in the first and second games respectively. 🙂

“Our Father…
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

The first question when looking at this part of the Lord’s prayer is, “What is the will of God?”
God reveals his will in his word, specifically in his commandments. Yet, when we consider that everything that happens ultimately is in accordance with the will of God. Even though, through our sin, we don’t always do the will of God, and God’s anger is invoked, God’s will is always done. Somehow, God can use the free will of men to accomplish his will, even when the will of men is not in accordance with his will
This prayer has twofold implications.

1. We ask that God will carry out his will, that we would allow God to do his will in us. That we will trust God and allow him to do what is right in our lives.
2. We ask that God will carry out his will, that we would do the will of God.

These two implications may seem contradictory, but actually they should be in harmony. We need the wisdom to know when we should be passive and allow God to do his will, and we should be active and carry out God’s will. It is worth noting that we are never warranted to go against God’s will in either case, nor are we allowed to be fatalistic.
Of course, as with everything taught in the Sermon on the Mount, this is aimed at the poor in spirit, those whose trust is in Christ and not in themselves. Consequently we are not left alone to make these decisions, but given the Holy Spirit to guide us and grant us wisdom by the grace of God.

Very odd…I received a text message last night from Sarah asking if I’d want to go bowling the following day (today). Now this wouldn’t seem too odd usually, but she said it would be at 10am! Given that today is a Saturday, this was very odd indeed, but Becci was only visiting for a short period. However, I figured I hadn’t been bowling for a while, as well as not seeing Becci since she moved up north, so I thought I’d go along. Morning’s aren’t my strong point at the best of times, so I was not entirely cogniscient this particular morning, but a McBacon roll and orange juice helped me attain consciousness. Not sure I should’ve bothered though. Even though I scored a respectable 147, both Tristan and Steve beat me, leaving me trailing in third place, with Becci and Sarah bringing up the rear. Ah well, at least my score was satisfactory and everyone enjoyed themselves.
The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping for food and playing golf on the computer. I must say that the digital version is a lot easier than the real thing!
In the evening Ally, Mim and Steve and I went to the Uxbridge Road Tabernacle for one of their young people’s meetings. The subject for this evening was “Is the world in the church?” The speaker outlined, from John 17:15,16ff, the need for the church to be in the world, being salt and light. But also that the world should not be in the church – the attitudes and values of the world should not be allowed to permeate the church and so cripple it.

I had a few interesting discussings with some teenagers this evening. One in particular I thought was noteworthy.

They asked, “How do you know the Bible is true?”
I responded with, “Have you ever read it?”
To which they replied, “No.”
I then asked, “How can you know if it is true or not if you’ve never read it?”

I guess there are many things in life we don’t investigate ourselves, but trust the judgement of others, that we might form our own opinions based on those judgements. Sometimes it is right to do this, as some things don’t matter that much. However, if a book claims to contain the “words of eternal life” (John 6:68) and to be “God breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16), surely it is worth reading for ourselves, that we make our own judgement on its authenticity and validity? What could be more important?

Q: Who is the Redeemer of God’s elect?
A: The only Redeemer of God’s elect, is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continueth to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, for ever.

Q: How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?
A: Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body, and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin.

(Questions XXI and XXII from the Westminster Shorter Catechism)

What a day! First I forgot to set my alarm clock after the weekend, subsequently having a rather leisurely awakening, followed by a frantic rush to get in a state fit for work.
By now in September I would usually be heading up to Ruislip after work to play the piano for the Harlington Singers. However, sadly they are no more due to various reasons, I guess I’ll miss both the musical and social aspects which used to occupy my Monday evenings. No doubt, my piano playing proficiency will deteriorate due to a lack of regular change in repertoire. I should probably endeavour to play challenging pieces for pleasure.
Therefore, I am now a regular at the Monday evening five-a-side football games with my work colleagues, which in itself isn’t a bad thing. I now have a regular slot in which I maintain my physical fitness and, hopefully, my footballing skills and fitness level will improve over time. This evening’s game was interesting. I played mostly a defensive role, with only a few shots at the goal. A pleasing result at the end, with a win by a significant margin for the team I was on, and I managed to run around for pretty much the whole hour.
The remainder of the evening was spent at Sarah’s playing various games and chatting. A very pleasant way to end the evening.

While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable:
“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.” When he said this, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Luke 8:4-8

“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop. Luke 8:11-15

Which type of soil typifies you?

Looking back, this has been quite a long day! I was up fairly early this morning, for a Saturday anyway, to go to the church to carry out some maintenance. Spent a good while inspecting the guttering, pushing the seals back into place and clearing out debris. After that, the chairs in the building needed servicing to keep them in good nick, things such as replacing lost feet and cleaning the upholstery.
Following lunch, an afternoon nap was in order and then a trip up to Hayes Town Chapel for their Harvest Supper.
I had spent a fair amount of time umming and ahhing as to whether I should go. On the first invite, I said I’d think about it. I wasn’t sure whether it would be appropriate for me to attend, me belonging to another church and all. However, during the week I then received another two invites from two other people and figured it would’ve been rude not to attend. I will admit I was glad they persisted as the food and the fellowship were very good. A wide selection of foods from around the globe were on offer, and a wide selection of people from all over the place were conversed with. A speaker gave a short address between main course and dessert, basically explaining how good God was and God’s dealings with him. A very personal and yet real account.
Afterwards, a few of us congregated at Karen’s ‘place’ spending the time watching Only Fools and Horses – the one with Batman and Robin. 🙂
Finished off the evening playing far too many games of minesweeper against Sarah. Came out on top on aggregate.
Cushty.

Scene One

After the scene is set in the first five verses, we come across Naomi who is about to set back to Bethlehem as she has heard the famine is over. Her two daughters-in-law initially say they will follow her to Bethlehem, but when Naomi outlines the situation to them, Orpah returns to her people and her gods. Ruth on the other hand says she will go with Naomi and that Naomi’s people will be her people and Naomi’s God will be her God. At this, they set off and arrived in Bethlehem just as the barley harvest was beginning.
Ruth shows great faith by trusting in God, who to her is a foreign god, and yet is ultimately the only God. Despite all the difficulties she may face, in finding a husband, being accepted in a foreign land and leaving her own people and land.
A similar experience is found by those who are confronted by Jesus Christ. We are called to follow him and to leave the world behind. We are warned that following him will not be easy, that we will need to put him first and ourselves last. Yet at the same time, through Jesus Christ we will be God’s and God will be ours. Ultimately we are called to put our faith in Jesus Christ to carry us safely through this world and into the next.

Once upon a time, a rather clever chap by the name of Tim Berners Lee came up with the concept of the World Wide Web. At the time the world was still only just acquainted with email and computer networks, even dial-up internet access was only for the technical elite, so any mention of webs usually only conjured up thoughts of creepy crawlies. These were the days when the only web browser available was NCSA Mosaic, concepts such as inline graphics and different typefaces were revolutionary and ideas like Cascading Style Sheets and Macromedia Flash weren’t even thought of.
For a year or so, the world bumbled along with Mosaic and everyone was content. Then a new kid appeared on the block, Netscape introduced different typefaces and background images, and in later revisions tables and frames appeared. All of a sudden, Mosaic was passé and Netscape ruled the roost. For the next few years, Netscape’s dominance was total, and Microsoft considered the Internet, with the World Wide Web in particular, to be a passing fad.
This was until the World Wide Web demonstrated itself to be more than a passing fad. In an apparent U-turn of significant proportions, Microsoft poured vast resources into its own web browser, Internet Explorer, and gave it away with every copy of Windows it sold. Now most people are just interested in accessing the web with as little hassle as possible, and so instead of having to download an internet browser from Netscape, they’d use IE. IE was already installed and was ready to go. It didn’t matter that IE wasn’t possibly the best tool for the job, all that mattered was that it was there and it was free.
The next couple of years saw a fierce browser battle, with Netscape’s share of the web browser market fade from almost a monopoly, to such a small portion that most people hadn’t even heard of it and doom loomed over its future. Then AOL bought Netscape and IE emerged victorious. AOL’s mismanagement of Netscape led to its further demise, until it finally made the source code for Netscape open source in a final last ditch attempt to breath life into it.
Another couple of years passed and it looked like IE was the only player in town, but this position, as well as its patchy development history, meant it was vulnerable to security breaches, and boy was it vulnerable. However, in the background, the Mozilla Organisation had been working on the, now open, source code from Netscape and had made it leaner and meaner. Almost as if out of nowhere, a credible alternative to IE now exists in the form of Firefox, arising from the ashes of Netscape, and from recent reports, it looks like a new browser battle might just be starting. Why not give it a try?

Last week I had trouble running around and had to concentrate on staying alive. This week I ran around for pretty much the whole hour and scored quite a few goals. I’m not sure why this should be, as this evening was four-a-side rather than last week’s 4vs5. Maybe it was slightly cooler, or less humid? Who knows? All I know is that I was pleased with my performance during the game, even though we lost overall by one goal.

Spent the rest of the evening round Sarah’s again, playing games and generally socialising. A very pleasant way to end the day.

The Lord’s prayer was the next topic in the sermon on the mount in Matthews’ Gospel, starting with:

This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…'”

If we are to pray this truthfully, the following points are essential:

1. We must be able to perceive who God really is. If we consider how vast the universe is, where even our nearest star takes four years to reach at the speed of light, and the furthest known stars are at mind boggling number of light-years away. Yet God cannot be contained by the universe, even the heaven of heavens cannot contain him. He is the creator and sustainer of all things. He is holy and righteous, he is eternal and he is love.
2. If we truly perceive God for who he really is, our purpose will be to glorify him, for he alone is worthy of glory. We need to change our whole attitude, from glorifying ourselves, to giving all the glory to God.
3. If we understand the two points above, we will pray this prayer with a passion, not out of duty but out of love and reverence. For God loved us before we loved him, he gives us everything we need.

However, before any of this can happen, we must remember the Sermon on the Mount was aimed at those who are poor in spirit, those who realise they are incapable of pleasing God through their own efforts, but can only please God through faith in Jesus Christ. Only by the grace and power of God can we truly appreciate what it is to say “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name”.

Today was rather an interesting day. Went to James and Jasmine’s place with some of the usual suspects from Hounslow West Evangelical church, finding more of the usual suspects from Hayes Town Chapel at our destination. James had decreed a barbeque would be the order of the day and, by the time we got there mid-afternoon, had set up the equipment ready for lighting. After a little deliberation and messing with lighter gel, there was fire. Combustion in all its raw beauty and power. However, after the flames had died down, the garden furniture arranged and the first sausages had been placed on the barbeque for only a few minutes, the sky above began to look ominous. Moments later we found ourselves in a torrential downpour, quickly moving the large sunshade over the barbeque to keep the rain off! However despite the rain, the food was cooked and consumed with aplomb. More importantly, even though the weather wasn’t particularly clement, the fellowship in the house was particularly warm and a good time was had by all.

The day was rounded off with an evening around the Monopoly board at Sarah’s house. Alas, Sarah and Sam ganged up on me, and I was ousted fairly early on in the game. I think I may have to revise the conditions on which I play this game.