AboutLife - Faith

The Light Will Come....

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:51:55 -0700

Starlight fades…night’s velvet cloak withdraws
Though indistinct at first the colours come
A blurry brown…a splash of green perhaps
As morning mists flee from a rising sun

Does Religion Poison Everything?

Fri, 09 May 2008 07:11:15 -0700

“Religion poisons everything. As well as a menace to civilization, it has become a threat to human survival … As I write these words, and as you read them, people of faith are in their different ways planning your and my destruction, and the destruction of all the hard-won attainments [I am touching upon]. Religion poisons everything.”

Thus Christopher Hitchens, the British-born commentator and polemicist, in his immensely readable and provocative book published last year entitled God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. What are we to make of such a trenchant claim? Are we to put it down to the nature of the polemicist’s art, staking out the most extreme opposing ground possible and slug it out from there? Or should we take him at his word? Is he right? I want to start by suggesting that he is not right, obviously. Religion, like sex or food, can be used or abused. We don’t find anyone in Austria calling for the state to legislate its way into the bedroom because one of its deranged citizens sexually assaulted his own daughter. We don’t ban fish and chip shops just because some fanatics of the fat-fry choose to carry out suicide strikes on their own bodies.

.... and the journey continues

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 08:31:24 -0700

Hello and a very warm welcome to you!

As you may have gathered from my name, I am German – and if you’d be speaking with me, I’d probably have already corrected your pronunciation of my name. Hehehe! (more like 'Ungelika' or 'ahn-GE-lee-kah'). I’m a minister of the Gospel and live in London, UK.

Diamonds Among The Ashes (a kind-of-poem)

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 10:41:56 -0800

"Ringing alarm bells, traffic and weather reports
hurriedly pursue the eating of breakfast
and rush to begin the day.
No gentle shaking or slow awakening in this
sanctuary thats become a reminder that
time does not stand still.
Four walls and a bed for troubled sleep.
All ash - with a diamond just flung in.

the word, the thought that never ceases

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:03:03 -0800

sitting in the sun listening to www.rivertribe.com (my favourite world music fusion band) ... I had an epiphany of sorts ...

Diamonds Among The Ashes

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 04:54:11 -0800

Ash Wednesday...

Last night I went to an Ash Wednesday service and ended up staying up till about midnight writing the following...

I don't ever really remember what Ash Wednesday is about and what the significance of the ashen cross on the forehead is all about . I thought it was a bold proclamation of the fact that you are christian without having to ever say the actual words. Well - only to those who may have managed to get a glimpse of it as you slink back home in the shadows...

Questions, Brokenness and a humble King

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 09:42:20 -0800

I have just been away on a church weekend and I found it really hard. A lot of it! ( I had originally written - ALL of it but there are some good friends of mine who I love dearly and got to share time with as well - that was good!)

The preaching was on the book of Philippians and it was really quite hard to take it all in. This is the thing....

Introspection v Extrospection?

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 02:46:34 -0800

I was recently sent an invite to join a Facebook group called 'Anglican Bloggers'. On clicking on the group, I was struck by the logo the group uses, and wrote this piece on the discussion board:

A friend sent me an invite to this group, and I was struck by the logo. I am, by upbringing, an Anglican - my father was an Anglican clergyman until he died in 1982. However, having lived in S. Wales for much of the past 20+ years, and in a village where the Anglican church is little better than a social club with a spirituual gloss, we actually attend a Baptist church in a local town which is outward-looking, mission-minded and child-friendly - 3 things that the local Church in Wales church wasn't and still isn't.

You have to fight harder....

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 11:19:17 -0800

Well, happy new year to all reading this. I.pray yours began in a really different way to mine. I went to the prayer party at HTB and it was good. I put on a happy face, praised the Lord and attempted to try and supercede the pain and confusion that was really beneath the brave exterior. This got me thinking.

I thought how it was so easy to pretend that everything was ok. How easy it was to believe that by closing your eyes and focusing on God, your freshly shattered world would all be ok again when your eyes reopened. You know what , for a moment it was. For a moment it was just Him and me and everyone interceding for the year ahead and taking it by force... then it was over.

Talk - Mark 6 - Jesus feeds five thousand and walks on water...

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 03:58:34 -0800

So what do you think is going on here?
What questions do you have?
What leaps out at you?
What is Mark tryiing to tell us?

Read on and reply...!

CHRISTIAN DESIGN SYNERGY

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 11:19:23 -0800

christian designers, architects in church and life

this is a bit of response to the text written by hongkongsnelly, but its lying on my heart now for quite some years... We all are more or less comfy with having creative arts, music and drama in our (emergent) churches and worship services, we all seeing them in different forms...some kind of band is quite the normality,, from time to time we´re seeing some kind of drama or even a (worship)-dance....

Do people choose God or does God choose people?

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 07:29:58 -0700

St Paul talks about the "elect". But Welsey developed and championed the modern idea of Arminianism where all may be saved, but by their choice in acceptance of God.

Does Arminianism contradict Paul?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Arminianism

Mike

walk beside me

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 02:04:14 -0700

Yesterday i was looking throught some old post of friends and i cam across charlotte's (lottie's) post about dear brothers and sisters and it really got me thinking about the relationships we have in our and under our heavenly father..

In my 'earthy' family i know who to go to for certain thing i know to go and talk to that sister about the fact i got a tattoo and the parents dont know and she wont tell them and the other sister i can just talk to about nothing and take the mick out of the rest of the family.. but i know it will get back to my mum..

Are You Mr Incredible?

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 17:02:23 -0700

Greg Shepherd New Community Church, London, UK
In the children’s film ‘The Incredibles’ Bob Parr is an unhappy office worker, ground down by the dreariness of his job and the rest of his mundane existence. Yet he has a secret: he is really ‘Mr Incredible’, a man with extraordinary strength.

Jesus christ, the same yesterday, today and forever, Or Why Wales wont win the world cup

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 08:55:34 -0700

In just under a week the rugby world cup starts. As a passionate armchair sports fan I love any kind of international sports tournament, but the rugby world cup is one of my favourites. In fact the first time I ever went to see a big sporting occasion was back in 1991 at the rugby world cup, when it was staged in Britain. I went with my dad to watch Wales vs. Argentina – it was fantastic for an 11 year old boy. Big occasion. The old Cardiff Arms Park filled with passionate welsh fans, eager for their team to do well. Of course the singing at any Wales game is special, and this was my first experience of it in the flesh. It was an evening game, played under floodlights, and of course any sporting occasion is somehow magnified when played under lights. It was in may ways the perfect introduction to welsh rugby. To be honest though I cant really remember that much about the game, except that it wasn’t a classic. And Wales scraped a narrow victory over a team that on paper at least was ranked well below them. Of course in general at the start of the 90’s the welsh rugby team was going through a bit of a low patch, and that resulted in us failing to make the knockout round, losing humiliatingly in the group stages to western Samoa, leading to English people all over the country pointing out to any welsh friends or relatives that if that was the result against western Samoa, imagine what the whole of Samoa could do. (And people wonder why the welsh have such a strong antipathy to the English?!)