Thursday 30 December 2010

GOD'S GOOD NEWS

Spreading the Gospel is all about telling a story, the triune God's story of His salvation of His creation. All men love a story and can readily relate to it. It is not threatening and should not be. God has come in kindness not condemnation.

He has come to us in a Person whose life and deeds have rescued us. His people must mirror Him, by giving Him praises and by our wise rule of His creation.

Monday 6 December 2010

NARRATIVE OF LIFE

Evolution by Natural Selection is all about where we came from but tells us little about who we are, why we are here and where we are going.

Philosophy is bound up with present reality, seeking a meaning in it.

The two seldom meet in a coherent story.

Only the Biblical narrative gives true lucidity and meaning to life. A Creator God who sculptured man in His image to rule over creation and bring its praises to God. A relationship immersed in mutual delight.
Proverbs 8

Through disobedience man chose self-rule, forfeiting his destiny of an everlasting life pleasing to God. Through grace God reinstated man through the atoning Death and Resurrection of His Messiah, giving life to all who recognise Him.

Men who have this life are being renewed in the image of God's true Man, living as royal priests who mirror the rule and glory of God to all, soon to be lived out in a gloriously renewed creation

Heaven come down to earth, hidden now but to be revealed in its fulness. The greatest love story ever told.

Friday 3 December 2010

WINDOWS AND STORIES

Stained-glass windows often tell a story. Christ, in the midst of God's glorious cosmos, is God's stained-glass window. When the sun shines through, it's beauty is revealed, sending multi-coloured beams into darkened recesses. There is always more to see. It remains a mystery only to those who close their hearts to it.

God has called His sons to be the sun for others.

Sunday 21 November 2010

THE WORLD

Christians need to reclaim the cosmos as God's creation, and to proclaim His creation of a new one.

Sunday 14 November 2010

DESTINY

Love is not a duty, it is our destiny, the language and music of heaven.

Tom Wright

EVOLUTIONISM

Denies men of their heritage from the past and their inheritance in the future.

DELIGHT

Love is having mutual delight and affirmation.

'This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.'

VIRTUE

Austerity without virtue is hell. Democracy without virtue is impossible.

Virtue, the moral strength to do for others what is commendable in God's sight when the temptation is to self-gratification.

Friday 22 October 2010

SALVATION - A MOMENT IN TIME

A timeless moment when we love God and others made in His image. The essence of eternal life now and hereafter.

'And this is eternal life, that you may know Him.'

DISCIPLES

Through the good news we are called to follow the teachings of God, enlarging our thoughts and taking us out of ourselves in order to obey God and love and draw others made in His image to follow His ways too.

We do this enabled by the Spirit of the Indwelling Christ who is forming us into His image, the ultimate purpose of God.

'Go into all the world and make disciples....teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo I am with you always.'

FEAST OF LOVE

Joy is the calling card of the Kingdom of Heaven, inviting us to a feast with the King of Love.

The Song of Solomon is the theme tune.

THE PHILOSOPHICAL MIND

A love of wisdom bringing about a wisdom of love.

Luc Ferry

Sunday 3 October 2010

AN EMPTY COSMOS

Only by accountability and moral order can society survive. We are realising the bankruptency of self-rule but there is no authority to rule in its place. Man has no bearings to give him identity and no ability of self-denial for the benefit of others.

He has lost his theological template, declaring he has no need of God.
Each man is his own avatar and designs his own cosmos. Atheists seem not able to comprehend that God exists whether we need Him or not.

Humanistic science has done away with God. Technology does away with man.

Only when man understands his true place in the cosmic order as made in the image of God, is there hope for the future.

Monday 27 September 2010

GRAZES

When we are grazed and bruised by life we must apply the balm of wisdom. Truth gathered through the ages, smooth pebbles rounded by many waters.

'Christ is made unto us wisdom', set out in ancient times by Solomon.

Sunday 26 September 2010

CELEBRATION

God celebrates His creation, declaring it is good; the creation of man as very good.

He delights in His only begotten Son, the mastercraftsman of His world.
The Son rejoices before His Father and finds His delight in man.
Proverbs 8

It is into this celebration that will culminate at the wedding feast of the Lamb, that God would draw all His creatures. Abundant life is promised here and now as the gospel goes forth from those who celebrate the love and light Christ brings.

Perhaps the question we should continually ask is, 'does what I am doing help me to celebrate the life I have in Christ?'

TWO PATHS TO VIRTUE

Philosophy seeks salvation coming from within man, living out a virtuous life above fear.

Christians seek to live out the salvation they already have by faith, becoming a new man in Christ, the only true virtuous man. The only fear that of grieving God.

'Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.'
Philippians 2 vs 12,13.

DECEPTION

Through the ages evil has the same skeleton but fashions different cloaks to cover death. The name of the designer is Satan, the father of lies, the great deceiver. It is this deception we must fear above all.

Paul's description of the armour God provides is no mere stirring story but highlights the sober facts of our warfare.

Tuesday 7 September 2010

TOUCH

A moment of tenderness can restore a flagging spirit.

REDEEM THE TIME

Use your body to good purpose and your spirit to spur others on.

Monday 6 September 2010

CREATURES

In a greedy pursuit of prosperity, man becomes a mere 'talking animal'.

Thoughts garnered from the writings of C S Lewis.

Wednesday 1 September 2010

Saturday 28 August 2010

FALLING SHORT OF GOD'S GLORY

Sin is that which defaces God's image and ours, made in that image. Anything less than the whole image is Sin.

'...for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God...'
Romans 3 vs 22

Love is that which glorifies God and His creation, ourselves in particular as its pinnacle.

'What is man that You are mindful of him,
Or the son of man that You take care of him?
You made him a little lower than the angels,
You crowned him with glory and honour,
And set him over the works of your hands.
You have put all things in subjection under his feet.
Hebrews 2 vs 6,7,8.

MIRRORS

The more we belittle God's glory, the more we diminish ours.
The more we behold Christ's glory, the more like Him we become.

The world prefers narcissism, beholding only itself. The Church is not immune to this with religion becoming 'self-caressing luxury.'

'We all, with unveiled face, beholding in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.'

2 Corinthians 3 vs 18

Wednesday 25 August 2010

TRUE CHURCH

Where better to hide a lie than in the home of seeming truth - the visible church ? Today we look in the wrong place for the mother of the Child caught up into heaven. As it says, there is a place of safety prepared for her in the wilderness. Not many comforts to be found there.

'And she bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and to His throne.
Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God...'

Revelation 12 vs 5,6.

THE GLORY OF MAN

Seeing the God-given beauty of body and mind in ourselves and others,taking responsibility for living a God-pleasing life in present reality.

That is true humanity.

LIFE

We sacrifice the present to a future that can never be.

SOCIALISM THROUGH THE EYES OF THE LEFT

The 'Progressive Idea' matters more than 'the People'. It is always being reborn because it never survives. It carries the scent of death as it worships nihilism.

David Horowitz
Peter Collier

Monday 23 August 2010

THE RAGE OF A REVOLUTIONARY

Anger and hostility towards the present, hope in a future which never arrives. Endless rage, awaiting the apocalyse, convinced of heaven on the other side.

REALITY

We never live where we are because we are always on the way to somewhere else, which we cannot yet conceive.

'Home' is a place where we never seem to arrive.

FURTHER THOUGHTS ON EVOLUTION

If evolutionary science detracts from God's glory and immanence in all of life, and in man's dignity as made in the image of God, then as C S Lewis phrased it, 'let science be dammed'.

Sunday 15 August 2010

MEANING

God has a purpose in all things and we are made in His image.

We cannot live without meaning.

Tuesday 10 August 2010

FALSE HOPE

Encouraged by unscrupulous optimists.

Roger Scruton

SCABS

People develop scabs to cover traumatic events in their lives. We do well not to pick at them while the injury is healing.

Man's body has tremendous resources and is capable of repair from within.

MENTOR

Someone who believes in you and what you aspire to, and stands alongside to encourage and instruct you along your way.

THE PURPOSE-DRIVEN LIFE

In looking for a purpose to drive our lives, we can do no other than imitate Christ, who said it was His purpose to show the world that He loved His Father by what He did. Obedience to death.

John 14 vs 31

GRATITUDE

Bestowing value on others enables them to value themselves. As we recognise their aspirations they are given the power to pursue them.

They and their aspirations matter.

THE 'I'

Self without self-knowledge is dangerous. It refuses to live within restraints and seeks only self-gratification. The 'untamed I' betraying the 'collective 'we' of society.

Roger Scruton

ANGRY MEN

Men become angry when deprived of their illusions. They will never accept responsibility for their error or acknowledge the ensuing danger.

Does this have a familiar ring in the politics of today?

BLINDFOLDS AND EARPLUGS

Men are addicted to illusion, unable to see painful reality. Men, such as C S Lewis, seek to strip the blindfolds from the eyes of our minds.

One such illusion is Progress, but Christians are happy to march to its tune.

At times God ordains blindness as we willfully refuse to recognise Him, deafness as
the voice of the world is sweet to our ears, blocking out the voice of wisdom.

'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand.
And seeing you will see and not percieve;
For the heart of this people has grown dull.'

Matthew 13 vs 14

IT

Men who live in the 'Artic vacancy of cyber-space' are unfit for human encounters, escaping a call to take responsibility for themselves as part of the 'we' of society.

'The world-wide web threads its filaments into every human brain', turning men into an interconnected database.

Trust and accountability are absent tenants.

Roger Scruton

Sunday 8 August 2010

MAN

Men without true manliness are a mockery of man made in the image of God.

We women do well to remember we were deceived first and their acquiescence in our disobedience stripped this from them.

FRANCIS BACON

Reading of his life and on his own confession, he was ruled by greed for wealth and status. For him, progress was the way to rid us of all that holds us back from prosperity and health, bringing about utopia.

Although a brilliant thinker, setting the way forward for modern science, he had a sad lack of knowledge of God and His ways. In his view, man was master of his destiny.

The root of progress was poisoned by self-aggrandisement.

CONVERSATION

To engage others in meaningful conversation, we need to recognise them and draw them to ourselves. There needs to be an evident desire to share something of value to them.

Knowledge must enable us to engage with assurance, respect and dignity, marks of a genuine professionalism.

CIVILISATION

There needs to be an ongoing conversation about the 'considered life'. The Ways of Man must be rewritten in every age without losing any of their excellence

FUTURE

Maybe there is a way coming to free us from the sticky tape of an outmoded bureaucracy.

Self-discipline, accountability and respect are the glue if a new building is to rise.

Saturday 7 August 2010

HUMILITY

The King became a servant so that His enemies could become kings.

'I have seen servants riding horses while princes walk in the dust'

Ecclesiastes

Tuesday 3 August 2010

IVF

'Fertility without the fun'.

We prefer to play god with embryos.

Monday 2 August 2010

PRICE

'We should never buy knowledge at the cost of life.'
C S Lewis

Eve followed Satan's lure to be as God by eating from the Tree of Knowledge and paid by loosing spiritual life. We follow her example and have been paying for it ever since.

Is it ever ethical to kill in order to learn?

Sunday 1 August 2010

TRUE ETHICS

'Only those who have been educated in the wisdom of life, can muse on ethics.'
'The well-nutured man recognises Reason when it comes'.
Aristotle

'With those who follow a different Way, it is useless to take counsel.'
Confucius.

Those without Ancient Wisdom may be hostile but never critical of 'The Way'. An open mind is idiocy. 'If his mind is open let his mouth be shut'.
C S Lewis.

IDEOLOGIES

Fragments of what all men think, 'wrenched from their context and swollen to madness in their isolation.'

C S Lewis
The Abolition of Man

'MEN WITH CHESTS '

Men with chests are those who have 'trained emotions', connecting the 'reason of the head to the belly of desires'. This training should be the heart of education, drawing on ageless wisdom, sometimes known as 'Tao,' to be universally found. True men are those who have ardour to pursue virtue. There is to be a 'propagation of manliness to men'.

A true leader has learnt to harness his emotions for the benefit of others.

Today we have propaganda for secularism and wonder why, when we call for virtue and enterprise, we find none. We look for honour and find traitors.

Clever men's heads appear larger as they have no chests.

Abolition of Man
C S Lewis

PRECIOUS LIVES

We 'tear our babies from the breast' in order to survive in an self-driven economy, projecting our little ones into learning before they can reason. We are persuaded to'fit them for progress and the future', unkowningly grooming them to covet as we do. We give little thought for the values by which a true society survives. We now have a generation to whom living in debt is 'normal' and self-gratification rules.

Walter Lippman, a true progressive, perhaps spoke truly when he said that bringing women into the labour market would bring death to society. He saw them, rather, as enriching the home with knowledge gained from progress and science.

To whom are our young precious?

Saturday 31 July 2010

NO TRUCE WITH THE ENEMY

Ever since Cain killed Abel we are called on to resist sin which is crouching at our door with a desire to have us. It is no mere right and wrong with which we have to do. Knowing the law is not enough to protect us. There is another force active and enticing, well versed in the art of deceit. Complacency will kill us.

'Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.'
1 Peter 5 vs 8

HOPE

Society is a living organism, to be led by the 'invisable hand of consensual politics'.There can be no rigid plans but rather respect for others who may differ, as well as towards ageless customs and traditions and a concern for generations yet to be.

Roger Scruton

Saturday 24 July 2010

SEXUAL PERVERSION

Bringer of death rather than life.

Fruitfulness delights God above all else and He has bound one of our greatest delights with it too.

'It is man who has taken fun out of fertility.'
C S Lewis

Monday 19 July 2010

THE 'BIG SOCIETY'

News comes today of a way forward out of increasing moral lawlessness, the 'rule of the untamed "I"', escaping the shackles of 'big government.' It is those duped with illusions of progression into 'modernity' who are blind to our bankrupt state.

Returning to the wisdom of many ages brings hope of the restoration of respect towards the individual and the survival of a society where men care about each other rather than personal prosperity.

Saturday 17 July 2010

WIDOW

C S Lewis commented that 'whoever married the spirit of the age would soon be a widow.'
Evolutionism and Christianity have got into bed together and produced a still birth. They have together destroyed man in the image of God, the only hope of a renewed humanity in Christ.

Whose seed was He if not the seed of a woman called Eve?

ILLUSION

Ever since Satan spoke to Eve in Eden, deceiving her as to the true characture of God, fallen man has been living surrounded by illusions and fallacies. They are death-dealing illusions and so become delusions. We are blind to reality and conceive fallacies to deal with the falleness of our world and ourselves. The untamed 'I' will always work against the well-being of the collective 'we.'Down through the ages the collective wisdom of the 'we' has been preserved but there are few who hear its voice.

The Laodicean Church proved that it is possible to be deceived as to our true spiritual state. The call was to hear the voice of the Lord of the Church who sought fellowship with His people.

As in Hebrews '...exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today", lest you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin...it is said 'Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion'.

Thoughts engendered by Roger Scruton in 'The Uses of Pessimism'

Thursday 15 July 2010

BED FELLOWS

Science without God as a priori, may well be the enemy of God, but the Church is happy to marry it.

We are to be 'stewards of the earth and our frail nature' not lords over them. That place belongs to God alone.

VOMIT

Christians, complacent in a fleshy world such as we have, are blind. Such are drifting, unaware of the strength of the currents of life drawing them ever further from godliness. They make the Lord of the Church naseous with their lukewarmness. Rather a Dawkins than the insipid leaders of our time.

SHACKLES

Some governments promote moral lawlessness but shackle society. They maintain that families, schools and churches are 'the slaughter houses of children' because of their moral constraints and seek to put them in shackles. They are blind to the slaughter of the unborn. Some would say they are necessary sacrifices on the altar of woman's freedom.

'...and they shall call good evil, and evil good.'

THE RULE OF FREEDOM

True freedom comes from obedience to the laws and constraints that protect the "we" in society, guarding against the 'untamed freedom of the "I".'

Saturday 10 July 2010

PALLID CHRISTIANITY

To C S Lewis as a child, the church services were 'Christianity leached of its true colour.'

Should we be surprised that men turn away from the sickly hue of its complacency?

'Because you are neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm I will spit you out of my mouth.'
Laodicean Christians in Revelation 3

LISTENING

The community of the 'we' seek to conserve the values of the past and protect the sanctity of those yet unborn.

As Roger Scruton says 'It is the voice of wisdom in a world of noise and for that very reason no one hears it'

Thursday 8 July 2010

LIFE AND DEATH

I was walking past a house where the front garden was being replaced with stones. Probably less upkeep was the purpose.

How like us to replace life with death.

Or perhaps we forget that God said 'you shall work by the sweat of your brow.'

Aging bodies and flooding in cities is the price we pay.

SCIENCE

Science that is no friend of God is no friend of man. Its hidden agenda is '... and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.'

The first ethical code it must satisfy, is the ethical code of God's revelation in Scripture. The God whose name is 'I Am' preceeds all.

'In Him we live and move and have our being.'

Monday 5 July 2010

NARCISSISM

Narcissism is said to be the mark of our times. That delightful story of the youth, gazing at his reflection in the water, turned into a flower, forever admiring himself.

The ultimate narcissism is the inordinate love of those of the same gender as ourselves. A sterile relationship that bears no fruit, displeasing to God who desires generations of children made in His image.

Sunday 4 July 2010

A CHRISTIAN

Someone who has recognised, needed and embraced Jesus Christ. It is this that brings such joy to the Father and to those who do, He gives the authority to become His sons and daughters.

'This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye Him.'

'...as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.'

Tuesday 22 June 2010

PROLIFE

It is God's prerogative to take us out of the womb.
'But You are He who took Me out of the womb;
Who made me trust when I was on My mother's breasts.'
Psalm 22

By You I have been upheld
From my birth;
You are He who took me out
Of my mother's womb
Psalm71

Human choice may lead to abortion, betrayal in a safe place.

Others weep for loss of potential motherhood.

Monday 21 June 2010

HUMAN RIGHTS

It is those least deserving of respect who are the loudest in calling for their Human Rights.

Sunday 20 June 2010

SUMMER FLOWERS

It seems this summer that there are flowers of different kinds blooming in profusion on the bushes and in the flower beds. Every branch laden down with its own kind of beauty.

Nature so often rejoices to reflect the character of the God who made it. Paul mentions this in his letter to the Roman Christians.

This reminds me of reading of the 'Prodigal God', likened to the longing father in the parable who showered kindness and gifts on his returning son. It seems to be in God to show forth His kindness and handiwork in reckless abandon, often unseen by the eye of man. God took great pleasure in seeing the universe take form, the fruit of His all-creating word and pronounced it 'good' at each stage.

We are without excuse and do well to do the same.

ET

Just recently the evocative music from ET has been played together with comments as to the strong feelings it arouses. Perhaps compassion for a little stranger to our world?

Aren't we all strangers to our world at times, looking for a familiar face to whom we can turn? A mother standing at the gate of a new school, watching to see if her 'little stranger' finds a friend?

Was God not like that as He sent His one-and-only precious Son to a hostile world?

'Jesus came to His own and His own received him not.' Surely reason enough to turn away from us. Yet He didn't but went on to give His life in a most shameful way, being cursed in our place. Greater demonstration of God's love to us through His Son there cannot be '....while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us'.

'How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation'

Friday 18 June 2010

SPARROWS

Birds have been nesting under the eaves of my house. Sorrowfully one of their nests fell to the ground this morning and two baby birds were killed. As I picked them up it came to me so clearly that God was just as concerned as I was at the tragedy.

What an amazing God we have who is touched by the death of a baby bird, not able to protect itself against the forces of nature. Why do I say this? Jesus assured us that the Creator God, whom He came to make known to us, cares even about the death of a sparrow.

Man values sparrows lightly, two for a farthing, but God values them as His handiwork. How much more man who reflects His glory. The baby in the womb is known to Him too. How dare we tear them out of their God-given nest.

Thursday 17 June 2010

VIRTUE

The pursuit of excellent living in the face of temptation to selfgratification, much loved by early philosophers. The sure sign of calling and election as God's children. Faith that does not flower into virtue is no faith at all.

'Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me'

It is the prerequisite.

Wednesday 16 June 2010

HIDDEN

Jesus kept His sorrowful countenance from the view of man. He came to bring Life not Death. Even as death drew near with all its horror, He drew aside to agonise alone.

Any sorrow He displayed was on our behalf. Lazarus died and Jesus wept.
As He drew near to Jerusalem He wept over the city saying if only you had known the time of your visitation. But they did not recognise him.

We despised Him as He was shamed through Crucifixion for our sin.

'He is despised and rejected by men.
A man of sorrows and aquainted with grief
And we hid as it were our faces from him;
He was despised
And we did not esteem Him.'
Isaiah 53

KNOWLEDGE

Man's self-centredness and self-glorification has poisoned the roots of the Tree of Knowledge, tainting its fruits. God warns that such branches and fruit will be burnt up and man's glory will return to dust.

Only the branches and fruit of the True Vine will remain.

Jesus encourages His followers in His final hours before death, that as they gave themselves in imitation of Him, '...you shall bear fruit and that fruit will remain'

Saturday 12 June 2010

YOBS

...'and he (Elisha)went up there from Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him and said to him "go up,you bald head! Go up you baldhead!" So he turned round and looked at them, and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the Lord. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths. Then he went from there to Mt Carmel.'

2 Kings 2 vs 23,24.

Where would Elisha have ended up in these days?

Wednesday 9 June 2010

CHARACTER

That part of personhood which is acquired as we go through life. It reflects the ability to relate to life and others in response to easy and difficult times, success and failure. We tend to think of a strong character as one which stands firm
under adverse circumstances or standing up against destructive relationships. A weak one as giving way.

With present lifestyles there is little time or inclination to work at living skills, alighting only briefly at 'destinations' along the way, forging passing relationships and reaping little satisfaction. It seems that character building is a rare occurrence, most overcome by lethargy in response to drudgery and speed of change.

The ideal is a 'life-sustaining'pathway, but there are few that find it.

Monday 7 June 2010

LOST TIME

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor imprisoned in Nazi Germany. Shortly before he was hanged for his part in the plot to assassinate Hitler, he wrote: 'Time lost is time when we have not lived a full human life, time unenriched by experience, creative endeavor, enjoyment and suffering'.

Do you make time or lose it each day?

Sunday 6 June 2010

GOD'S WAY

For four hundred years God was silent, from the time of Malachi to the appearance of John the Baptist, designated the last of the prophets. He came to prepare the way for the Messiah, a People ready for their Saviour.

In another part of the world God was speaking, making Himself known through men's thinking and living in the City of Athens. A time such as this had not been known before. The Gentile world was perhaps being prepared for the coming of the one true Man, made in God's likeness, the One who perfectly lived out the excellent virtues the philosophers spent so much time discussing.

As with John, it could be that this prepared the way for the revelation of the good news of Jesus Christ who had come for the 'sins of the world'. It was perhaps so that all men should recognise Him. His own people, the Jews, failed to do so and put Him to death. The Greeks, who now had a witness in their own hearts as to true goodness, saw God's news as foolish and were in turn condemned.

'For God has committed them all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on them all' Romans 11 vs 32

Sunday 30 May 2010

TAPESTRY

The future belongs to those whose dreams are woven into present reality.

EVANGELISM

The gospel is often presented as a teaching to give man a sure destination, but without telling of the journey.

God expects effort and exercise. Toil of the mind and labour of the body. Without these fruits in our lives we will not survive the race.

'Christians' more often have self-satisfied smugness and a big belly, telling of how good God has been to them.

Without a God-glorifying journey we may well deprive ourselves of the destination.

Saturday 29 May 2010

LAST SUPPER

The conversation round the table at the time that Jesus spoke to his close followers for the last time before His death, was one that suffused them with joy and love.

It was not all joy as He warned them of the suffering they would endure as His followers and their life was to be one of humble service to those around them.

There was no mention of their weakness and sinfulness, but a call to obedience and fruitfulness. The only negative note was concerning lack of fruit in their lives and the stern action God would take against that.

It is perhaps strange to us that He does not speak of their sinfulness, causing them to perhaps value more what He was about to accomplish in His approaching death. One hears this theme from some who preach the gospel. It was future glory made possible by His Resurrection, and the Holy Spirit given to them that was uppermost in His mind. It was comfort He came to bring.

It sounds much more like the welcoming arms of the Father to His errant son who realises his lostness and returns home. It is the returning that marks repentance and is the cause of joy. The older brother could and would not return; his heart had never been there. It is coldness of heart and lack of fruitfulness that Jesus abhorred.

Men can never keep balance in life as he is unable to fully comprehend God who alone is all wisdom.

Thursday 27 May 2010

LUCIDITY

Clear-sightedness is to be highly valued, especially when it pertains to our future. There is little hope of well-being if we don't understand who we are, why we are here and where we are going.

Several issues make this difficult, not least of all that we have cut our ties with past teaching of man made in the image of God. This in turn denies us a purpose and destination. Thereafter it does not take long to deny God.

There have been cycles of thought down through the ages but it is increasing complexity and speed of change which seem to be sucking us down into a 'black hole'. As Lippman said a hundred years ago, 'we are uprooted and disorientated' and have no words to express what is happening to us. How can we articulate our needs if we don't know what they are? Life is fragmenting and globilising at the same time. We are ever more dependent on technology and machinery but so much the more on energy resources.

The sources of wisdom, through many ages, have been the Church, Judicial and Educational systems of one form or another, together with rule and authority of many kinds. No one man or body can possess this today. Many have attempted to delve into the ills of our society and of course there is no one problem or one solution. Of greater concern is that many do not give thought to the dire straits we are in.

Walter Lippman has critiqued the church as the one institution that gave a solid foundation to society, but has lost this authority and hence lost its voice. As he says, the preacher should exercise his mind to determine the way to give meaning and direction in disordered chaos. If not relevant preaching and pastoring, men will turn elsewhere. It is our feelings and behaviour that must be addressed.

Jesus spoke with authority, evident to all, and addressed the day to day issues of life. If we are in doubt as to His identity, He made it clear that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, the wisdom and righteousness of men.

In the Psalms the writer says that 'The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him and He will show to them His covenant' What is that covenant? 'I will be your God and you will be my people'. Caring authority and belonging, what man craves. However it is man that has brought this miserable condition on himself and rightly reaps what he has sown.

The wonder is that God's grace is greater than our sinfulness and He anxiously waits for our repentance. God has a passionate longing for the hearts of His people. ‘Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all my commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!’ Deut 5:29

Monday 24 May 2010

SOLDIERS OR SOCCER

Can they be spoken of in the same breath? It seems they can.

Both rate time on TV. From those who go beyond the call of duty in protecting others from the evil devices of man to those who entertain others and rake in thousands, basking in the glory of their fans, both seem rated as of equal worth.

The victorious team parade through London to the adulation of thousands, while our true heros neither see nor hear aclaim as their hearses slowly and silently make their way past the few who mourn and care.

'Times are indeed out of joint'. It takes a grieving widow to try and set it right.

AUSTERITY

At the heart of austerity lies self-denial, a rare virtue in today's world. Some would say it is the essence of virtue itself, underlying all others.

More than ever before the Me-Society has ruled, promoted by those wanting control over people and profit.

Baby-boomers, in the 1960's, adopted self-serving self-esteem as their banner, inculcating the importance of self-image in their offspring, preparing them for consumerism.

A generation less prepared for austerity is hard to imagine. Banks, unions and consumers see only their prosperity denied. It seems we will die if there is no 'progress', no increase in self-pleasing, no better life, however defined.

The greatest tragedy is the complacency of those calling themselves Christians, blind to the danger and wallowing in self-ease. Talking to the church at Laodicea, Jesus Christ says they make Him retch with their luke-warmness and will be spat out of His mouth.

For what can we hope? Society is desperately sick but there is little hope of our world being healed without us acknowledging that there is a Creator God and we are made in His image, now distorted beyond recognition. Restoration of the dignity of man will mean sacrifice, service and suffering, seldom spoken of and unpalitable to Western man.

Perhaps it will be another 'Niniveh' with secular man, who has more insight and concern, leading the way in repentence and so restoration. Perhaps our new coalition government will be true progressives, but only if they acknowledge the one and only God who made them and brought them into power for His purposes.

Wednesday 19 May 2010

SUFFERING

'The secret antagonism of the heart is laid bare by suffering'.

DIET

Eat only that which has the lable 'Prepared and Made by my Own Hand'.

God has ordained that we will eat with toil. 'In the sweat of your face you will eat bread'
Not to do so will disadvantage our bodies.

Sunday 9 May 2010

DRIFTING OR DRIVEN?

Drifting makes one think of a lazy summer afternoon on the banks of a slow-flowing river. A leaf floats by going nowhere.

There is a sense of purposeless motion.

Driven on the other hand speaks of earnestness, energy and emotion. There is steady progress towards a chosen destination.

Some are driven by others, like a herd of sheep.

Are we driven or drifting?

What decides the choice? Is there a choice?

Tuesday 4 May 2010

FOSSILS

Evolutionists have a great love of fossils. Is that because they like to trace their human lineage from them?

Surely another form of ancestor worship.

'Those who hate me love death'
Proverbs 8

Wednesday 28 April 2010

THE RACE

He who does not first examine himself before God does not even have his foot on the starting block.
He who does not continue to examine himself will not make much progress.

Thursday 22 April 2010

MORALITY

It is an eternal matter. 'God grows not old.'

'Perfect fear of heaven in righteous laws.'

WORDS

They can be 'valiant couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts'.
A sense of 'carelessness and power'

They can also 'set the whole course of life on fire' and are as destructive as a forest blaze.

Yet again they are 'words of life', seeds planted to bring forth fruit.

MEN OF CAMBRIDGE

John Rutter is able to turn his pain into music which glorifies God in His creation and lifts men's spirits.

Darwin turned on God and did irreparable damage to His glory in creation and men's faith.

Both lost a child.

'The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Romans 1: 18-23

Suffering brings out the 'antagonism at the heart of the world'.

NEW WEALTH

'He who reaps a sudden harvest is savage to his slaves'.

THE GREEK WAY

'Poetry is the finest alchemy that turns pain into glory'

'Words are the symbols of creative thought expressed in the midst of tragedy'.

The death of Christ is the highest tragedy in the universe. It was as He promised during the last coversation with His followers. The Resurrection turned it into glory.

His followers walk the same road.

Wednesday 21 April 2010

BALANCE

The frame is the wideness of life. The picture, the detail. We need both to admire the scene.

Sunday 18 April 2010

BABY BOOMERS

We have always sat in a 'generational bubble' living for self, creating the world in our image, sidelining our elders and forgetting the generation to come.

We've promoted abortion and encouraged euthanasia. Comfort at any price. Sucked in by consumerism, the immediate satisfaction of our desires.

No surprise then if our children regard us as expendible commodities.
Heaven help us when we are of the aged

TREE OF KNOWLEDGE

Surfing the net should not only be about plucking fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.
We need to sit in its shade and spur one another on to excellence of character and life.

SECULARISTS

Men who fight with 'religious resolution' to eradicate ageless morals.

INHUMANITY

'Effortless barbarism'.

Babbling speech.

Mindless tyranny

Friday 16 April 2010

TRULY HUMAN

What is it to be truly human?
This should be answered by studying perfect man in the image of God.
Who is such a one?
Man in his falleness is a distorted image so to whom shall we look?

The early Greeks examined man and the meaning of life and came to see that the dignity of man resided in the virtues. How were these expressed? There was a striving to control the appetites, developing self-respect and desiring to lead others to this end.

The truly human man to them, could see the comedy in life, taking pleasure in all of the world outside of himself. But he could also see the tragedy of life, suffering in the midst of the brokeness of life. To them man achieved greatness when he was able to exalt in suffering. Men who felt deeply about both comedy and tragedy.

As in all of God's world there is the balance, and few there are who find it.

Monday 5 April 2010

DEMOCRACY

The intellect flowered under the Greek philosophers who took great pleasure in discussing new thoughts. To Aristotle it was a pursuit of excellence, striving to master the virtues to enable man to rule himself to the benefit of others

It is this which lies at the heart of democracy and is impossible without it. To our shame it has never been truely reached as man is driven by self-centredness and is out for personal gain.

It was the Greek civilisation that cradled the gospel in its early days, a language fit for the King of Kings, the one true, virtuous man who gave Himself for the greater good of all.

Friday 26 March 2010

SCHOOLING

The term 'education' came into being in the 1600's when an alchemist, Comenius, coined the phrase to describe 12 levels of instruction to bring about enlightenment.

This was used as the basis for preparing children to serve progress in an industrial society. Childhood became a new age in man's lifespan, marked by a sacred presinct, the school, and professional teachers, the priests of the new learning. The reality of life and society was left at the doors of a professionaly-run institution who controlled the curriculum. Children have been trapped in an enclave of state-biased opinion eversince.

Now they are groomed to become citizens of a commodity-dependent economy and the most important resource of the state. They imbibe the teaching of endless consumption both of knowledge and of other produced goods.

In contrast, true learning will give tools to the young to enable them to carve out an independent and meaningful life without jeopardising the free lifestyle of others.

Friday 19 March 2010

SPEED

In giving ourselves over to speed, small wonder that time is running away with us.

C S Lewis said many years ago, fast travel obliterates space.

Thursday 18 March 2010

FEASTS

Celebrating life takes the form of feasting throughout Scripture. The most natural way to give expression to joyfulness.

These feasts foreshadow the marriage feast of the Lamb spoken about in Revelation.
Christ said farewell to His companions after a feast, that of Passover and spoke of coming joy. In Egypt it was a meal that reminded God's people that He had delivered them from slavery.

God celebrates when His lost sons return and reminds us of that joy as we eat the bread and drink the wine, emblems of Christ's sacrifice.

As believers we are to celebrate life in all that we do. This should be the spearhead of evangelism, the calling card of the Kingdom of Heaven. There is no place for the judgemental older brother. He excluded himself from the feast as he knew only resentment in his heart.

It is the 'prodigal God' who lavishes all on His repentant son. Which son are we?

Sunday 14 March 2010

CONVIVIALITY

The mark of a healthy society where men are free to live out their lives creatively with all the necessary competence to do so.

In so doing man discovers the joy of celebrating life, that marked by festivity, the true meaning of conviviality.

Life is marked by 'discipline and morality' but enlivened by 'graceful playfullness'. A true feast.

Saturday 13 March 2010

FRIENDSHIP

To the ancients, friendship was synonymous with joyfulness.

Our friends are those in whom we find pleasure. There is joyful sobriety which ensures that we discipline ourselves to guard against all that would be detrimental to that relationship.

TOOLKIT FOR LIVING

In order for man to really live he needs only the simplist of tools. Tools which will bring him autonomy and competence.

Luxuries enslave us and bring no lasting joy.

TRUE EDUCATION

There should be 'liberating discipline' together with a 'playful creativity'.
Morality and joyfulness must live side by side.

Enforced learning destroys intelligence which thrives on curiousity and questions.

Saturday 6 March 2010

IDIOT

To the Greeks, he was a man who could see only as far as the end of his nose. He lived in a private world of his own creation, divorced from a wider reality.

We cannot afford to be led by such in the world of finance, politics, education and health. Even more so in religion.

The wise man had a clear understanding of the wider world. He sought its virtues and shunned its evils and taught others to do the same.

In the Scriptures the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

WHAT IS THE BIBLE?

A narrative of the Creator God's revelation of Himself to men whom He made in His image. It recounts their disobedience and distortion into the image of Satan, the father of lies. It is a history of their restoration into the image of God in the likeness of Christ through His life and death in their place.

Tuesday 2 March 2010

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Why the change from customers to consumers?

Maybe the former speaks of need for service and an attitude of respect.
The latter are merely essential ingredients to a profitable business which makes sure they have an insatiable appetite.

They have no productive role whatsoever. They exist only to consume.

Saturday 27 February 2010

FREEDOM

Freedom is only safe when kept within the bounds of decency and respect.

EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY

These words are the buzz words of today, but used to demand that there be no demands for standards of behaviour and ability acceptable to all. Incompetence and loss of virtue follow and respect with it.

Discriminating ethical judgement is not allowed as man departs from ageless moral wisdom. There are no boundaries to behaviour and civilisation is under threat. Each is god in his own eyes, the avatar we hear so much about.

What if we all follow this way? Surely anarchy.

What is the cure?

Surely the voice of passionate reason from our leaders who are prepared to examine our state and apply the wisdom of ageless morality.

What hope of this?

Friday 26 February 2010

FORSAKEN

We know how we feel if someone turns their back on us. We little think of how God feels when we turn our back on Him. At creation He delighted in man and purposed to enjoy fellowship with him.

Man chose to ignore Him and His words. All joy in man was gone and God must surely have experienced desolation, the same desolation Christ knew in His crucifixion, the price He paid to restore the joy of fellowship.

Friday 19 February 2010

GOVERNMENT

For democracy to survive, social criticism needs to be alive and well. By its nature it rises out of concern for the future of man, and so should be passionate.

Christians need to be leaders in the debate, not caressing themselves in comfortable isolation.

Wednesday 10 February 2010

LIGHT

Walking with a lamp in a dark place necessitates slow progress. One can only walk within the circle of light. This should illustrate to us the nature of our spiritual life. We walk in the midst of greater darkness than we realise but rush from one activity to the next, without pause for thought.

Man has harnessed energy to throw light everywhere and at all times so forgetting his dependence on God for light on the path of life.

'The entrance of your word gives light'.
'Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path'.
Psalm 119

We in turn should be lights for others.

Thursday 4 February 2010

KINGDOM OF GOD

In Luke, Jesus makes clear that He was preaching the good news of the coming of the Kingdom of God. It is not merely to be friends.

To preach any gospel which excludes His rule is no gospel at all. Even the dying thief realised this.

Tuesday 2 February 2010

SALVATION

The truth is that we can do nothing for our salvation.

The other truth is that now we can do all things for our salvation.

Each is centred in Christ and flow from Him.

Wednesday 27 January 2010

PORTALS OF HELL

History records that Columba led the early Christianization of the country we now know as Scotland. Coming from Ireland, he led a delegation to call on the king of the Picts who controlled most of what was then Caledonia. At the time the religion was pagan with druids all powerful.

The story is told that, facing a cold reception from king and priests, Columba strode up to locked doors and declared that they be opened to the declaration of the gospel. And it was indeed so. 'The gates of hell could not prevail against it.'

We tend to see ourselves inside the fortress and on the defensive.

Tuesday 26 January 2010

ELIXIR

It is in ordering our lives to enrich the lives of others that we find the elixir of life.

'...though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor so that through His poverty you might be made rich.'

'..I am come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.'

'These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.'

Friday 22 January 2010

IRAQ

March 2003 there were headlines blaring out the danger posed by Saddam Hussein who could mobilise his weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes. It altered the mood of the nation and facilitated a declaration of war. Now we hear that it was included for effect and lent a 'bit of local colour'. It is now admitted that it was not a wise move.

The local colour it lent is that of the blood of our soldiers.

Sunday 10 January 2010

PROFESSIONAL POLITICIANS?

The term 'career politician' is not new. This speaks of self-advancement.But should we not rather talk of professional politicians? For this is indeed what they are according to the current understanding of the term 'professional': those who pursue an occupation as their means of living.

This would bind them to professional standards as most of us have to do. This would include Lifelong Learning and Continual Professional Development with an annual appraisal by their constituency. Surely for those entrusted to lead our country this should be obligatory?

Embedded in professional standards are moral values and ethics. The citizens expect this but it does not seem to enter the reckoning of Members of Parliament. They feather their own nests until exposed.

Insight and perception head the list of abilities. On this score who of our leading politicians show evidence of professionalism? Small wonder we don't honour them, nor can we show respect.

'For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellers there is safety'.

Our politicians would do well to study the wisdom of Solomon in Proverbs.

Tuesday 5 January 2010

GOLD

Unless men of this world observe the burning away of the dross of God's people they will not believe there is a God.

GLOBAL WARMING

This winter is regarded as the most severe in decades. Weather forecasters talk of bizarre shifts in weather patterns.

'He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;
The Lord shall hold them in derision'
Psalm 2 vs 4

THE BEAUTY OF OBEDIENCE

As I watch my puppy grow and learn obedience, I enjoy her more and more. All the good things become even more delightful. This caused me to think that it must be so with God as His children joyfully learn to do His will. God is not an austere master who must be pleased but a loving Father who delights in His sons and daughters as they seek to know His will and carry it out.

As she grows in obedience I give her more freedom as I know I can trust her to respond when danger threatens. Surely this is so with us. Just as with Eve, Satan would depict God as other than He is, the spoiler of our enjoyment. When Adam and Eve took to themselves the role of judge between good and evil, they were taking on God's role, something too heavy to bear and which ruined their lives. Allowing God to be the judge is the first submission man must show. Obedience to Him, his first service, out of love and not compulsion.

'And do not be conformed to this world (with its false judgements), but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God'
Romans 12