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Showing posts from May, 2010

June tomorrow

I have noticed year after year that June in England is often wet and cold, but somehow other people have not cottoned on to this, so they invariably say,"It's not much like June,is it?" I say, "Well yes, it is actually." They find me strange.I must ask my friend from the Met Office to find me some statistics for June over the last few years, see if I can proove my point. It's true to say that we often expect things to be how we think they should be when, in fact, the evidence is all against it. We expect Christmas to be blissfully happy when in fact, many families end up having a row because too much is expected of the occasion.We have a tendency to expect too much of this life altogether. It is a learning ground, a time to test things, a time to find a way that works. Jesus said he had come so that we could have life to the full, but he didn't mean things would be easy. The way was not easy for him and it is not for his followers.

House work

I have a friend who once said she would rather sit and look at a wall than do house work. I know how she felt. I am the world's worst housewife, particularly when it comes to washing up. Yet I feel it would be silly to get a dishwasher when there is just me here. Now you may think it very unhygienic and that I am putting myself in danger of food poisoning. However I am of the opinion that I am maintaining a very healthy immune system by exposing it to small amounts of problem material. My first husband has a fridge which hasn't seen a jay cloth in several years and he is bursting with health. My children like to say that it's Dad's fridge which has made him immortal. I do feel bad about my lack of cleaning and hoovering and tidying and I keep turning over a new leaf, but very soon more exciting things get in the way. This blog is one of them!

Family

My daughter and her fiance came to lunch today, in fact he cooked it and very good it was. Such a delight to be cooked for. Her Dad was also here. We all get on fine. We did fall out a bit on holiday last year but that was down to me being tired and not making enough allowances!! We joke about it constantly and probably that is the best way to deal with these little hiccups. The weather has turned cold and wet again. After all it is a Bank holiday weekend and the weather always seems to be annoyingly bad then. I've been cooking sausage rolls this evening ready for a tea at church tomorrow. I'm a bit busy tomorrow. Taking church in the morning then doing teas at a meeting in the afternoon and then shoot off to the tea at my church straight after that. And they call it a day of rest.

Something happened to last night's blog

It isn't there. What did I do wrong? Well I had better repeat, I passed section B of my preaching course. Halfway through now. I really enjoy taking services. It's all about helping people to worship God, mostly by saying what I think He is like, based on the Bible primarily. Although I find the idea scarey I would like people to be able to stop me when I'm preaching and ask questions and even disagree with me, politely I hope. Most things in life are inter-active and I think services should be too. Maybe I've got to start asking for that. I could take a roving mike around the congregation and get some participation. After all the preacher is just an ordinary human being who doesn't have all the answers. What do you think? Would you like a church where you could have your say? Here's my lens on becoming a preacher How to become a local preacher in the Methodist church in the U.K.

Tiredness

Most of us sleep for a third of our lives!! Some more, some less. We must be a kind of rechargeable battery. Sleep is a great mystery to us. Sleep deprivation takes a terrible toll on us if we suffer it. Even Jesus slept. Although being fully God he was also fully human. He suffered hunger and thirst as we do and needed sleep too. How amazing that God humbled himself to be one of us. He did it to lift us back up to Him. He did this by His life here and by his death on the cross. It is a great mystery how this works but we are not required to understand it, but to believe it.You might like some of the poetry on these two lenses Inspirational Meditations and More Inspirational Meditations

Marriage

As a christian I believe marriage should be for life. But I haven't managed to live up to that. True I managed 28 years with the first one, but only seven with the second. Now I live happily on my own. So I failed, but I have also survived and learnt a lot. Now I try not to criticise other people in how they live their lives. I think that sentence about going a mile in someone else's shoes is very pertinent. So at church I encourage people to look at their own failings and have sympathy for others. There is a desperately wrong attitude among some church goers in thinking themselves better than the people in the street who don't claim to be good. Let's face it we are all human beings with human failings. Not one of us can come up to God's standard. We all need Jesus. Read about a man with failings, yet God loved him. Interesting Bible People:Jacob

Into the wild

I have just watched this DVD lent to me by some friends. A wonderful story of a young man who was so disgusted by today's society that he went off to live in the wilds of Alaska, to find out what life should really be about. For some reason it made me think of Jesus wandering the roads of Israel, going from village to village teaching his disciples and healing the sick. He also challenged the leaders of that day's society about how they were treating the poor and marginalized.I'm not really up to date with today's films and songs but I plan to become so as I would like to use them to illustrate what Jesus was teaching and how it relates to us today, in my services. The good news is for everyone so we need to relate to them by using material they love and understand.The life of Christopher McCandless is inspiring because he knew what he did not like in society (and there is plenty wrong with it) and went searching for some answers. Are you looking for answers? Seek a

What makes us bloggers tick?

Why do we want to blog our thoughts to the world? I guess we feel we have sommething important to say. As a preacher I want to tell people about Jesus. But what does that mean? Who is this Jesus? He is the one who stood up for the under dog, the poor and the under-privileged, those without a voice. But also where everything was wrong between us and God he put things right by sacrificing himself on the cross. O.K. so we don't understand how that works but it's what we christians believe and we find it works for us. Unfortunately we christians are fallible humans and we don't live up to Jesus's standards as we should. We are not much of an advert for Jesus. O.K. we call ourselves christians but what about the rest of you? Well only God can know and say who is a christian and who not, it is not for us to decide. The other thing Jesus did was to tell off the religious leaders. Oh dear I suppose as a preacher I am a religious leader so I had better make sure I am foll

Dog-sitting

Isn't it bliss to stay in a friends home. You can really get stuck into a book and relax. In your own home there is always something that needs doing. Some cupboard to tidy or a drawer to sort out. But here it's not my problem. There is just the dog to walk twice a day but that's a pleasure as I enjoy walking. So I am relaxing and letting all the stress fall away. So I won't spoil it by saying too much here. Do you know how to relax? Take a look at this Have a me day

Playing for the funeral

Playing for a funeral is quite a responsibility. The family and friends are grieving and they don't want hiccups from the organist. Fortunately all went well. They had recorded music for the coming in and going out of the coffin. So I was just required to provide some music before hand and accompany the hymns. Organs are supplied with rear view mirrors so that you can see what is going on behind you in the congregation. For the hymns you have to give a solid lead and not be put off if the congregation don't seem to be singing very much. The secret is to set a good pace, not to quick and not too slow. I did not know the departed man but noted that he was six months younger than myself, a significant thought. As John Donne said,"Do not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee." We all have to face up to our own mortality. If you are recently bereaved you might find my poems helpful Poems of loss

Church organ

Tomorrow I'm to play on a proper church organ for a funeral. Today I went to the town and had a practice. I'm a violinist really and piano comes second. I have some experience of playing for church in little rural churches where there are little electronic organs. This means playing a real church organ, a pipe organ, is a bit daunting. There is such a powerful sound comes from this organ. The minister was desperate as all the other organists are on holiday or in hospital. So I have to grit my teeth, steady my nerve and do my best, which is usually adequate but not faultless.Fortunately this type of organ sounds well even without the pedals so I won't be getting my knees knotted but use hands only. If you want to see what other music I'm interested in look at this link My music lensography

Down to earth

I took my friend short mat bowling tonight. We had a good time. When we got back her neighbour blocked her way up the path and refused to let her to her door. There were three rottweilers roaming about as well. What is this ? The wild west?It is now 11.20 p.m. and I'm tired so that's all you are getting tonight. Except do you know what short mat bowling is? If not look here. Short mat bowling

Eternity

How do you think of eternity? Perhaps you don't. We have a concept of the universe expanding on and on . That's one way of looking at eternity, but have you thought of looking inwards, into each cell in your body? They used to think that the atom was the smallest part of a cell but now we know that atoms have smaller parts within them. What if this is like the universe and goes on and on inside the atom. Then we would be made of eternity. No wonder when wood burns such power is released.No wonder the atom bomb was so terrible. How do you feel knowing there is eternity within you. God within you. Hadn't you better get to know Him? Read my poems the one on May 18 2010. A poem for every day in May

Preaching

When I preach I want to know that I am giving people what God wants them to hear. Because this is important I want to spend a lot of time in preparation. I also want to make sure it is understandable to today's people. I'm not interested in it being erudite or clever I just want to get the message across in the best way possible. I do my best to keep close to God by spending time alone with Him. I don't expect my services to be always polished and perfect. Part of the message is our imperfection and we need to admit it. People who are hurting because of their or someone else's imperfection are not going to be helped by a preacher who presents themselves as perfect. The people need to know that the preacher and themselves are all in the same boat of imperfection and that together we can explore God's way of coping with that imperfection, namely in Jesus. The perfection of Jesus is never off-putting because it is there for us to solve our problem.

A good Sunday

What would a good Sunday be like for you? Mine was to take a morning service in a little chapel in Somerset, U.K.then to go home and have lunch cooked for me by my daughter's fiance and then spend some time with them. Then I went to my local chapel in Devon to play the organ at a service with six other people in the congregation. Then home to catch up with my poems for Squidoo and this blog. Perhaps it sounds boring to you but I find it fulfilling. Tell me what you like to do, perhaps we could swap for a day and see how we get on living someone else's life. I must say I'm in no hurry to try, after 63 years I think I know what suits me best.Here is a lens about my chapel A little Methodist chapel in Devon, England

A busy day

Today I have been to the LWPT meetings at Budleigh Salterton. Had a good day and met lots of lovely people. We spend a lot of time equipping ourselves for preaching and reaching out to people but sometimes seem not to get out there among the people we should be reaching. These meetings are good and have their place, but oh to be getting on with the job of reaching out.For every meeting we have with committed christians we should have three with those fumbling in the dark, needing answers. That means going outside the doors of the church to find them. We can't wait for them to come to us. They don't realize they can come to us because our behaviour is so foreign to them. We have to start learning their language again. We cannot expect them to learn ours.

Another new resolution

Yes I've already broken my resolution to write here every day, but I'm making a fresh start today. The holiday is behind me with no more searching for wi-fi in Wetherspoons, or finding the wi-fi at the holiday park was not working. Now I am home with my trusted broadband. So you won't be escaping from my posts now. Life is very often about failing and making new starts (I've got my preaching hat on now)Never be totally down hearted, with the help of Jesus you can pick yourself up and start over again with a determination to do better. On your own you will sometimes be able to do this but in the end you need help, we all do. I have had two failed marriages but now I am happily on my own and training to be a local preacher. "What a cheek" you may say, but preaching is all about being able to come along side sinners and understand where they are coming from. What better than a sinner to understand sinners?

Holiday

So here I am on hliday in Cornwall but I can't keep away from the internet. I have to write my blog and put my poem on Squidoo. It's become like a sacred trust I dare not break. Or what will happen? I will sink into oblivion. Well I'm pretty much in oblivion anyway, being a 63 year-old living in a rural situation. What effect does my little life have on anyone else out there and yet I feel I should try to have an effect? Therefore I have put Bible stories on Squidoo as I feel not many people know them any more. These stories are full of human situations we still all face. They are most definitely relevant to our lives now. Here is a link to one which will lead to the others, dear reader, if you so wish. Interesting Bible People:Rahab

Day 2 of my new resolution

I do seem to be a bit obsessive, which means I am likely to succeed with my new determination to write in this blog on a daily basis. Whether anyone will appreciate my efforts or not I cannot say. Are the ramblings of a 63 year old lady from the depths of Devon going to resonate with anyone out there, or will I be a voice crying in the wilderness? How many million words are written like this every day? Are we all speaking and no one listening? To speak effectively to others we need to listen, in order to understand their viewpoint.I want this to be an effective blog that brings the possibility of God to people who have no time for Him as yet. That's a tall order. To get a flavour of what I believe go to this lens Inspirational Meditations . Thank you for being here to listen.

Where have I been?

It's time I took this blog seriously. On Squidoo I am writing a poem a day for a year. I started in April. So if I can do that there should be no reason why I can't write here every day too. Actually there may be a problem this week but certainly from Friday onwards I should manage it. So keep your eyes peeled. I am now awaiting the result of section B of the Faith and worship course for local preachers in training. I think all should be well but one can never be entirely sure. I am preparing myself for all eventualities.to get back to the poetry, I here include a li A poem for every day nk. There will be a new lens for each month, so, of course, there is one for May too.