Faith, Hope and Love

When I look at the photo of my youngest son Jacob below and then at the many photos of children being currently shown on our TV screens who have died or who are missing, I am numb.

At these times our faith is severely challenged and probably rightly so. The question is asked, why do innocent people suffer? Yes, most of the time a finger can be pointed at the evil in ‘man’ for man’s own suffering. But when you look at the devastation caused by an earthquake, a tsunami, we look small and insignificant against such awesome power. And in our blame culture, even the Insurers can only say ‘an act of God’.

Terry Waite has written these words in the last few days…

‘When in my own life, I have had to face a limited amount of suffering, I have always refused to blame God. Rather I have recognised that, whether I like it or not, suffering is part and parcel of this world. Suffering is never easy, it is bitter and painful. However I can truly say that in some strange way it has drawn me closer to the mystery that lies at the heart of faith.
Personally, I believe that we shall never in this life truly understand suffering and evil. We shall know them, certainly, but never understand their causes. What I do know is that faith enables them to be transformed and gives hope.’

The three pillars that are intrinsic to our lives I believe are faith, hope and love, as the apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

Faith in God who knows our suffering and who's love for us is wonderfully displayed through His Son.

(Romans 8:35-39) - (35) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? (36) As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." (37) No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (38) For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, (39) neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Hope for a great future – eternal life, where ‘death’ is not the final page.

And Love - as we again watch our TV screens and see love being expressed in amazing ways.

'....And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love'.

Mr Incredible

Mr Incredible
You can see what one little boy got from Santa?!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Christmas 2004
It's mad in our household today....but we're having fun!

You can't teach an old dog....

Without giving too much away a member of my family, who shall remain nameless, has entered the modern world with the purchase of a DVD player.

After watching a film one evening they’d reached the end of the movie and spent the next half hour trying to work out how to re-wind the film back to the beginning.

I’m sure there are many funny examples of this kind of technological conundrum for the ‘old dogs’ out there…

A Little Angel

My youngest son Jacob, who is 5, is very excited at the moment. He’s going to be an Angel in the School Christmas Liturgy next week.

It’s taking him over an hour and a half to go to sleep at the moment, every time he goes to bed. He keeps talking and singing to himself.

I have a lot of fun listening to him outside his bedroom door. Me thinks a star is born!

"Showtime"

We all went to see ‘The Incredibles’ yesterday. What a great must-see film for all the family. We all loved it! Check out the reviews.

Value

Here’s what I will be sharing tonight at our ‘Chatroom’ event for teenagers.

'I have in my hand a £10 note. No doubt you would all like to have this if I were to offer it for free to anyone who wants it. Even if I crumple it up, you would still want it as yours. If I were to grind it into the mud, or even tear it a little, it would still be very much in demand, because even now it still has not lost its value.

God looks at us, crumpled, and torn, and ground down by all that life has to fling at us, and still he values us, still he loves us.

There’s a guy in the Bible who was called Saul who later became known as Paul. He was known originally for persecuting the Church and having Christians executed. Then he had the ‘road to Damascus experience’ where God rescued him....saved his life!

He wrote these words...

1 Timothy 1:15-16 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown grace and mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.

God loves us. Whatever our condition He takes our lives and saves us, restores us, sets us free. We can know his love and grace in our lives...it’s the best thing that could ever happen to us.

Paul also wrote these words...

Colossians 3:8-9 Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Jesus as my Lord, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant - rubbish! I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Jesus and be embraced by him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting and knowing Jesus - God's righteousness.

The greatest thing for Paul....KNOWING JESUS'.

Want to Buy a Bus?

There are a number London Routemaster Buses up for grabs, around 200 in total. My father-in-law would love one…he’s a bus fanatic! Not sure my mother-in-law would appreciate one parked outside the house though.

It's Here!

The postman has made my day today.....the Return of the King DVD (extended edition) has arrived! Now to try and watch it, i.e. find a spare 4 hours!

'Come on, Mr. Frodo. I can't carry it for you... but I can carry you.'

'Earn it'

Great time in church last night. Roger Davies was with us from Hope City Church, Sheffield. He spoke about the things that constitute a good soldier.

2 Timothy 2:1-4 (1) You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. (2) And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. (3) Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. (4) No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs--he wants to please his commanding officer.

One striking reference he made was a quote from the film ‘Saving Private Ryan’ where Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) utters his last words to Private Ryan - ‘Earn it’, in reference to Ryan’s life that they had just saved at the expense of most of his platoon. In comparison we were then reminded of Jesus’ last words on the cross, ‘It is finished’ or ‘paid for’ (Greek translation) - the price had been paid, in reference to our own lives being saved through Jesus’ sacrifice. Now because of the victory of the cross we can choose to live incredible lives by living for Him.

John 3:16-17 (16) For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (17) For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Shopping with the Wife

I've been Christmas shopping this week with Jane. We decided on the 2 pronged attack which meant we get more done in the time available......'Here is your mission if you choose to accept it!'

Results Just In....

Official results from the Clowne Half Marathon have been published. Very pleased with my time, 1:43.20 which is over 2 minutes quicker than last time. My mate Rob was also pleased, in at 1:45.26 which is his quickest half marathon to date. 226th out of 484 finishing - not too bad!

Keep on Running

When the bug bites…!

I will be running my second half-marathon this Sunday. It’s the Clowne Half, again this is just a local run with about 500 to 600 contestants.

My running mate, Rob, will be with me this time. He’s hoping he can keep up with me! Actually we’re about the same pace so I don’t think he needs to worry.

Will let you know how I get on.

My Flexible Friend

I accept there are somethings in life you would never move from. BUT without wanting to sound too contradictory one of my pet hates is inflexibility. So often flexibility is the vital ingredient in life that brings joy and a breath of fresh air!

"Men are born soft and supple; dead, they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail." - Lao-tzu

"The bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you refuse to take the turn". – Anon

The Big Picture

This is a great read from Baggas who is a Family Doctor in Perth, Western Australia. Makes you think!

20Q

Check out this 20Q website where the AI will try to figure out what you are thinking of by asking you 20 questions. It’s pretty accurate.

I’m a (kind of) Celebrity….Get Me A Job!

The popular TV show is with us again, here in the UK. The feeling is of deja vu after the first couple of days. This time it is Natalie Appleton (who?), formerly of girl band ‘All Saints’, who has taken up the mantle of the whinging whining contestant who say’s she doesn’t like the jungle et al. What did she expect?!

My suspicion is that this is the recognised tactic of someone who really wants to win (agents advice?!)...or am I getting too cynical? The Brits love to see them suffer, so she will be hard to get rid of.

Seizing the Day

Here’s one way to get your message across....or not as the case may be!

There must be more creative ways of delivering this theme....?

LG Fruit

I will be sharing in church this Sunday on ‘Bearing Fruit’, in particular ‘life-giving’ fruit.

Proverbs 11:30: The godly are like trees that bear life-giving fruit, and those who save lives are wise.

Have you seen the Tango ads? The one I really love is the one with postman posting the last apple through the letterbox and the last drop of juice causes the ceiling to give way and the guy in the cellar gets drenched in gallons of apple juice.

We were created to bear fruit…good fruit! Fruit that positively effects and impacts the world we live in.

Some keys for being and remaining fruitful:

Be a good tree…stay connected to Jesus: John 1:1-4 (1) "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. (2) He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. (3) You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. (4) Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

AND stay fresh (even in old age!!)…be planted in the House of God (the Church):
Proverbs 92:12-14 (12) The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; (13) planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. (14) They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.

Born to Run?

Here’s a news item sent to me today from (news.com.au) written by Patricia Reaney in London. (Thanks to Paul for this)

Humans were born to run and evolved from ape-like creatures into the way they look today probably because of the need to cover long distances and compete for food, scientists said today.

From tendons and ligaments in the legs and feet that act like springs and skull features that help prevent overheating, to well-defined buttocks that stabilise the body, the human anatomy is shaped for running.

"We do it because we are good at it. We enjoy it and we have all kinds of specialisation’s that permit us to run well," said Daniel Liberman, a professor of anthropology at Harvard University in Massachusetts.

"There are all kinds of features that we see in the human body that are critical for running," he told Reuters.

Prof. Liberman and Dennis Bramble, a biology professor at the University of Utah, studied more than two dozen traits that increase humans' ability to run. Their research is reported in the science journal Nature.

They suspect modern humans evolved from their ape-like ancestors about 2 million years ago so they could hunt and scavenge for food over large distances.

But the development of physical features that enabled humans to run entailed a trade off - the loss of traits that were useful for being a tree-climber.

"We are very confident that strong selection for running - which came at the expense of the historical ability to live in trees – was instrumental in the origin of the modern human body form," Prof. Bramble said in a statement.

The conventional theory is that running was a by-product of bipedalism, or the ability to walk upright on two legs, that evolved in ape-like human ancestors called Australopithecus at least 4.5 million years ago.

But Profs. Liberman and Bramble argue that it took a few million more years for the running physique to evolve, so the ability to walk cannot explain the transition.

"There were 2.5 million to 3 million years of bipedal walking without ever looking like a human, so is walking going to be what suddenly transforms the hominid body?" said Prof. Bramble.

"We're saying 'no, walking won't do that, but running will.'"

If natural selection did not favour running, the scientists believe humans would still look a lot like apes.

"Running has substantially shaped human evolution. Running made us human - at least in the anatomical sense," Prof. Bramble added.

Among the features that set humans apart from apes to make them good runners are longer legs to take longer strides, shorter forearms to enable the upper body to counterbalance the lower half during running and larger disks which allow for better shock absorption.

Big buttocks are also important.

"Have you ever looked at an ape? They have no buns," said Prof. Bramble.

Humans lean forward when they run and the buttocks "keep you from pitching over on your nose each time a foot hits the ground," he added.


My thoughts...is this a chicken and the egg thing? 'Running made us human'....or created to run?