Whilst browsing the BBC website I noticed this interesting article on creationism
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7613403.stm
Creationism has reached prominence due to the election in America. Sarah Palin stated that she felt creationism should be taught in schools. The God debate has had a profound impact on the US elections with debates on abortion and creationism. At the start of the campaign, when candidates were being selected, the question was asked whether the candidates believed in evolution
The response from three candidates was no. McCain answered yes but attempted to defend his position, to what is a difficult question if you consider micro-evolution.
Often you will hear that people don't care about God anymore, but I perceive that if you engage people they have a view on it. It appears to me that the issue of creationism and whether there is a God is becoming prominent again.
Today on my lunchbreak I wanted through Borders bookshop. I found several books that engaged my interest Radio 4s John Humphrey's "Confessions of a failed atheist" a book about agnosticism, Dawkins now infamous "The God Delusion" and although I did not see it there the referenced Christopher Hitchens book "God is not great". People are willing to put there view forward on christianity and whether God exists. (Now I have not read these books but only browsed them). What encourages me is that we have Christian books emerging such as John Piper's "The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World" and Tim Keller's "The Reason for God".
We need to be those who engage with the world not defensively but offensively. We need to read atheistic literature that attacks God and respond to it, because this is what people think and feel about the King of Kings and we need to engage with them to show them his glory and grace.
Hopefully I'll post my thoughts on the US elections and all that is happening and has happened soon.
Monday, 15 September 2008
Tuesday, 9 September 2008
A Working Man
I've started work! This seemed a distant reality back in August, when I was applying for anything going. On Thursday and Friday I had my induction in the City office and the last two days I've been at College in Angel studying towards my ACA. I've had to deal with the hustle and bustle of commuting and learning Accountancy all over again.
There is a contrast between being unemployed and working, both have their hardships. Being unemployed requires discipline to get things done and to get up and going, it can be easy to lose half a day when you're unemployed. When you are working there is a different problem, you have to get to work but it is finding time to fit things in around work. Whilst unemployed I struggled to use the abundant time I had to read, now I fit it in while I'm on the train, somehow with less time I am more productive.
It's odd being at college this week, as it reminds me of 6th Form except that I am getting paid to learn! This gives me extra motivation.
However, whichever situation you find yourself in work as if working for the Lord (Colossians 3:23) whether unemployed or working honour God with your time, your heart, your mind all of your life!
Hopefully I'll be able to keep blogging whilst working. It's a busy season at the moment though, with new job, and students coming back soon.
There is a contrast between being unemployed and working, both have their hardships. Being unemployed requires discipline to get things done and to get up and going, it can be easy to lose half a day when you're unemployed. When you are working there is a different problem, you have to get to work but it is finding time to fit things in around work. Whilst unemployed I struggled to use the abundant time I had to read, now I fit it in while I'm on the train, somehow with less time I am more productive.
It's odd being at college this week, as it reminds me of 6th Form except that I am getting paid to learn! This gives me extra motivation.
However, whichever situation you find yourself in work as if working for the Lord (Colossians 3:23) whether unemployed or working honour God with your time, your heart, your mind all of your life!
Hopefully I'll be able to keep blogging whilst working. It's a busy season at the moment though, with new job, and students coming back soon.
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
Humour
If you like random pun humour this is well worth seeing:
Mitch Jones on Stand Up on 7
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b007xrxn/
Also really like Mark Watson on Radio 4
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00d0sjl/
Mitch Jones on Stand Up on 7
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b007xrxn/
Also really like Mark Watson on Radio 4
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00d0sjl/
Monday, 25 August 2008
The Providence of God
For the last couple of months, since moving back to Sidcup, life has been hard. As I ahve previously blogged, I felt called to come back to Sidcup, but I have struggled to find a job and without a job it means I can't move out of home. Last week at church I was just holding on to God and where as previously I had been angry at him for the situation, I repented and prayed Habakkuk's prayer (Habakkuk 3 v17-19), Though I have not a job, though I have not moved out into a new home, though life is tough and doesn't make sense, still I will praise you.
In fact much of the process of the last few months feels like Habbakuk. Asking why Lord?, And understanding that God is sovereign seemed only to make the situation worse! Habakkuk says God why are you going to do this? It doesn't make sense! And why the Babylonians! Habakkuk knew God was doing this, not life, not circumstance, not karma (this is another topic, people say Karma is "everything happens for a reason" and to some extent I believe this is true, but karma has no concept of grace)CJ Mahaney did a great preach on this called "When Life Doesn't make sense" at Together on A Mission 2005.
So I praised God in spite of circumstance, because he is worthy, and he loved me when I was in the miry pit (Psalm 40 v2).
God is faithful and this is how he has blessed me this week.
On Thursday Rachel got in from her trip to Chicago, and I planned to surprise her at the airport. Her flight got in at 8am so I planned the journey leaving Sidcup at 6:11am and arriving at Heathrow at 7:45am. However checking the flight arrival times her flight was getting in early at 7:25, and I was thinking I was going to miss her. Sitting on the Piccadilly line was interminable, the journey seemed to go in slow motion, and then we got to Hounslow. Hounslow, Hounslow, Hounslow, why do you need 3 stations it just slowed me down Hounslow Central, Hounslow East, Hounslow West, couldn't you just have one! Then once we got past Hounslow (the time now being 7:45 and me thinking she's probably already left Heathrow) we stopped at Terminal 4 for 8 minutes! I felt like pushing the train to terminal 1,2,3.
Finally I got there, found terminal 3 arrivals and waited. I soon realised there was a fork in arrivals so passengers could go two ways and I was standing at the end of one, I though tI'm bound to miss her! so I mover to the centre and waited and waited for her to come out. So I phoned her, but not wanting to ruin the surprise I asked where she was and what time she'd arrive at Sidcup station! Finally she came out and I held my banner up saying Rachel, she looked around seemingly oblivious until she finally saw it and I flipped it over to say "Will you go out with me" and she said YES!. Providence of God.
Then Friday I got up early to send my CV over to a firm I'd seen advertising in the paper, I phoned the agency who said it's unlikely I'll get anything until September, dampening my spirits. Then the firm I sent the CV to phoned back and offered me an interview, then one of the jobs I'd applied for on the internet phoned and offered me an interview on Thursday and then one of the firms I'd applied for in June/July and done interviews for, (but they ran out of positions), said someone had dropped out and offered me the position in Redhill!!! So after weeks of no interviews, many applications, signing on for the agency, suddenly the door was opened and I have 2 interviews and a job offer!!! and then Friday night me and Rach had our first date.
God is faithful, the challenge for me now is to continue to rely upon him, trust him and worship him, as the Matt Redman song says "Praise him when I'm laughing, when I'm grieving, every season of the soul". During this time, I've prayed to God (the job process has taken 10 months since my first application), wrestled with God (no dislocated hip though!), and persevered when all felt lost, yet not I, not my works but God's abundant grace has brought this change of situation, still many hurdles remain, house, student work starting up, which job to accept, maintaining and growing our relationship(I'ma complete novice when it comes to dating), but God is abundantly faithful and gracious. Amen and praise his name.
In fact much of the process of the last few months feels like Habbakuk. Asking why Lord?, And understanding that God is sovereign seemed only to make the situation worse! Habakkuk says God why are you going to do this? It doesn't make sense! And why the Babylonians! Habakkuk knew God was doing this, not life, not circumstance, not karma (this is another topic, people say Karma is "everything happens for a reason" and to some extent I believe this is true, but karma has no concept of grace)CJ Mahaney did a great preach on this called "When Life Doesn't make sense" at Together on A Mission 2005.
So I praised God in spite of circumstance, because he is worthy, and he loved me when I was in the miry pit (Psalm 40 v2).
God is faithful and this is how he has blessed me this week.
On Thursday Rachel got in from her trip to Chicago, and I planned to surprise her at the airport. Her flight got in at 8am so I planned the journey leaving Sidcup at 6:11am and arriving at Heathrow at 7:45am. However checking the flight arrival times her flight was getting in early at 7:25, and I was thinking I was going to miss her. Sitting on the Piccadilly line was interminable, the journey seemed to go in slow motion, and then we got to Hounslow. Hounslow, Hounslow, Hounslow, why do you need 3 stations it just slowed me down Hounslow Central, Hounslow East, Hounslow West, couldn't you just have one! Then once we got past Hounslow (the time now being 7:45 and me thinking she's probably already left Heathrow) we stopped at Terminal 4 for 8 minutes! I felt like pushing the train to terminal 1,2,3.
Finally I got there, found terminal 3 arrivals and waited. I soon realised there was a fork in arrivals so passengers could go two ways and I was standing at the end of one, I though tI'm bound to miss her! so I mover to the centre and waited and waited for her to come out. So I phoned her, but not wanting to ruin the surprise I asked where she was and what time she'd arrive at Sidcup station! Finally she came out and I held my banner up saying Rachel, she looked around seemingly oblivious until she finally saw it and I flipped it over to say "Will you go out with me" and she said YES!. Providence of God.
Then Friday I got up early to send my CV over to a firm I'd seen advertising in the paper, I phoned the agency who said it's unlikely I'll get anything until September, dampening my spirits. Then the firm I sent the CV to phoned back and offered me an interview, then one of the jobs I'd applied for on the internet phoned and offered me an interview on Thursday and then one of the firms I'd applied for in June/July and done interviews for, (but they ran out of positions), said someone had dropped out and offered me the position in Redhill!!! So after weeks of no interviews, many applications, signing on for the agency, suddenly the door was opened and I have 2 interviews and a job offer!!! and then Friday night me and Rach had our first date.
God is faithful, the challenge for me now is to continue to rely upon him, trust him and worship him, as the Matt Redman song says "Praise him when I'm laughing, when I'm grieving, every season of the soul". During this time, I've prayed to God (the job process has taken 10 months since my first application), wrestled with God (no dislocated hip though!), and persevered when all felt lost, yet not I, not my works but God's abundant grace has brought this change of situation, still many hurdles remain, house, student work starting up, which job to accept, maintaining and growing our relationship(I'ma complete novice when it comes to dating), but God is abundantly faithful and gracious. Amen and praise his name.
Thursday, 14 August 2008
Some light (toilet) humour
Yesterday, I noticed a sign on the top of the toilet in the office where I was working, someone had written "Pleas flush the toilet" For some reason I found this spelling mistake hilarious, as it now had a different conotation that if you beg/plea hard enough the toilet would flush. I remember once in year 7 I did a title page which I spent ages colouring in, it was supposed to say Great Britain, but somehow I wrote Great Brain.
I would love to hear other funny misspellings, one I saw on the internet was a sign outside a school saying "this school is committed to excellense"
I would love to hear other funny misspellings, one I saw on the internet was a sign outside a school saying "this school is committed to excellense"
Monday, 4 August 2008
Sex, morality and Lads Mags
Today's news contained comments from Michael Gove the shadow secretary for education about the contribution of lads mags to social breakdown.
Firstly I applaud his comments I think these magazines try to bill themselves as funny, sporty, whilst all they are doing is creating a malaise behind which they really are porn mags. We often feel uneasy when politicians speak out about anything in society as we feel they are distant from society, yet I think this shows that this is not always the case.
Indeed at the recent Brighton Conference hearing Philippa Stroud talk about the Centre for Social Justice and the role that can be played in reversing social breakdown, these comments show the Conservatives are prepared to do something.
The problem with these comments is that the media misinterprets them, it is communicated as “lads mags responsible for social breakdown”. Obviously no-one blames the lads mags entirely, the purchaser makes a decision when they buy the magazine, however it is in my opinion the way the cover-up what they really are.
The secondary issue that Michael Gove highlights is that they teach men to be irresponsible, he also uses the word hedonistic which captures our society aptly. If any issue is raised many people will respond “it's my life I can do what I want”, “No one can tell me what I should or shouldn't watch/read/do”. It's hedonism people looking for fun whether in sex, gossip, cars, bikes, whatever gets them going they are looking for fun without boundaries.
Mark Driscoll did a fantastic talk on Responsibility at CCK on the Sunday after the conference. As men we have a responsibility to look after our sisters, wives, mothers and daughters, let us not abdicate this through selfish desires. 1 Corinthians 12 v23 says we need to give greater honour to those the world doesn't honour and treat with greater modesty those parts which define our gender.
Whilst on this subject, I need to make an admission of guilt. I am an avid Neighbours watcher and have even been known to watch Home and Away!!! Now often I can just laugh at the terrible acting or awful storylines, but I have become more aware of the poor moral standards these programmes (soaps in general) set. The classic one is the snog, as soon as two characters think they may like each other they show a lack of restraint by snogging and inevitably this leads to sex and someone always gets hurt. There are seemingly never any marriages without infidelity or relationships without sex. The characters lack any restraint, because they lack a moral compass, what guides them or leads them? In many way this represents our generation whose moral compass often is absent fathers, tv shows and the fallout from all those experimenting in the 60s.
My prayer is that our generation will be one that rediscovers morality through Christianity and rediscovers responsibility through the church.
I am grateful that we have politicians who are able to take a stand to educate the next generation.
Firstly I applaud his comments I think these magazines try to bill themselves as funny, sporty, whilst all they are doing is creating a malaise behind which they really are porn mags. We often feel uneasy when politicians speak out about anything in society as we feel they are distant from society, yet I think this shows that this is not always the case.
Indeed at the recent Brighton Conference hearing Philippa Stroud talk about the Centre for Social Justice and the role that can be played in reversing social breakdown, these comments show the Conservatives are prepared to do something.
The problem with these comments is that the media misinterprets them, it is communicated as “lads mags responsible for social breakdown”. Obviously no-one blames the lads mags entirely, the purchaser makes a decision when they buy the magazine, however it is in my opinion the way the cover-up what they really are.
The secondary issue that Michael Gove highlights is that they teach men to be irresponsible, he also uses the word hedonistic which captures our society aptly. If any issue is raised many people will respond “it's my life I can do what I want”, “No one can tell me what I should or shouldn't watch/read/do”. It's hedonism people looking for fun whether in sex, gossip, cars, bikes, whatever gets them going they are looking for fun without boundaries.
Mark Driscoll did a fantastic talk on Responsibility at CCK on the Sunday after the conference. As men we have a responsibility to look after our sisters, wives, mothers and daughters, let us not abdicate this through selfish desires. 1 Corinthians 12 v23 says we need to give greater honour to those the world doesn't honour and treat with greater modesty those parts which define our gender.
Whilst on this subject, I need to make an admission of guilt. I am an avid Neighbours watcher and have even been known to watch Home and Away!!! Now often I can just laugh at the terrible acting or awful storylines, but I have become more aware of the poor moral standards these programmes (soaps in general) set. The classic one is the snog, as soon as two characters think they may like each other they show a lack of restraint by snogging and inevitably this leads to sex and someone always gets hurt. There are seemingly never any marriages without infidelity or relationships without sex. The characters lack any restraint, because they lack a moral compass, what guides them or leads them? In many way this represents our generation whose moral compass often is absent fathers, tv shows and the fallout from all those experimenting in the 60s.
My prayer is that our generation will be one that rediscovers morality through Christianity and rediscovers responsibility through the church.
I am grateful that we have politicians who are able to take a stand to educate the next generation.
Sunday, 27 July 2008
Jobless, Homeless and Hopelessly Reliant on God
At present I stand jobless, despite having applied for over 10 jobs since November and getting to various rounds, including the final round of applications at least 3 times. It’s getting close to September now and if I haven’t got an accountancy job by then, then I’ll have to wait a year to get something, which is not great news, as I have no idea what else I could do that I would enjoy as much as Accountancy and it would mean doing all the applying and job interviews again!
Homeless, well I’m not homeless, I’m living at home with my parents but the longer the job hunt goes on the more the chances of getting a house with some other guys in the church seems to disintegrate.
And hopelessly reliant on God, well to clarify I’m hopeless in being able to make any of this happen, I apply, yes but I have no control over whether I get the job beyond my interview preparation, and the amount of interviews I’ve done that must be pretty good!
So I’m reliant on God for a job, a house, leading the Students & 20s next year and so much more!!! Sometimes when I sing “It’s all for you Lord”, I think it should be “it’s all on you Lord” but hey he has done it all he has conquered sin and death he reigns supreme over all powers and authorities (Colossians 1:15-18 and Romans 8:35-39), so who better to rely on, who better to trust with my burdens and cares than him!
Homeless, well I’m not homeless, I’m living at home with my parents but the longer the job hunt goes on the more the chances of getting a house with some other guys in the church seems to disintegrate.
And hopelessly reliant on God, well to clarify I’m hopeless in being able to make any of this happen, I apply, yes but I have no control over whether I get the job beyond my interview preparation, and the amount of interviews I’ve done that must be pretty good!
So I’m reliant on God for a job, a house, leading the Students & 20s next year and so much more!!! Sometimes when I sing “It’s all for you Lord”, I think it should be “it’s all on you Lord” but hey he has done it all he has conquered sin and death he reigns supreme over all powers and authorities (Colossians 1:15-18 and Romans 8:35-39), so who better to rely on, who better to trust with my burdens and cares than him!
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