Wonderful sights in Russia

After visiting St Petersburg our ship steamed to Mandrogi and later to Kizhi where we saw the amazing wooden church there, made entirely of wood, including the nails. When we were there it was undergoing renovation work and so in my photo you see the middle onion domes are missing. I bought a book which had a photo of the church when entire. We saw a man making shingles to be fixed in the domes. Someone pointed out that the ends of his first and second fingers on his left hand were missing!! Use Google to find more details of this church.

Comments

Why do many disasters happen?

I have written in previous posts about disasters. In the case of Concorde, decisions by people, plus other factors were directly to blame for the event. In the case of the Penlee disaster it may have been avoided if someone had made a better choice in the time beforehand and as a consequence brave men and the ship's crew and the captain and his family died. 9/11 was certainly the result of wicked men committing a terrorist act, but even in this there was heroism notably by another Cornish man, Rick Rescorla who helped many to safety and left it too late to help himself. In situations like this we see what the human spirit is capable of both good and evil. What of disasters that come on people because of the earth restless movement of tectonic plates. Often people live near volcanoes because the land is rich and fertile and they have the chance of a better life there when the volcano is resting. We cannot blame them for that but sometimes people become complacent...

Optimism conquering experience

I watched The Detectorists tonight. I have not watched it before. It is about a group of people who use detecting equipment to discover old coins and other things of archeological interest. This was the last in the series and had a bitter sweet feel to it. One of the main characters asked,"Why do we do it?" and the other replied,"This is the nearest you will ever get to time travel." You have to be an optimist to do metal detecting. There is always the attraction of making a big find or an important discovery. Among all the tin cans and coat hangers found there is the hope of a Saxon hoard, or Roman gold. Optimism keeps them going.

Always wanting something new

Every time I take a few days off from my blog my ratings slump. Very rarely do people go back into my old posts and read again. This is a typical attitude of the human heart, always wanting something different. At this time of year we should not be greedily wondering want new thing we will be getting for Christmas. Instead we should be looking at the old, old story, which is ever new of a baby who amazingly was God incarnate, God's gift to those who will put there trust in this one who was to grow up to give His life for His people. Set aside the controversy over whether December 25th is the actual date of His birth.(Shepherds do not keep their sheep out at night in Israel in December.) and set aside time to think about the fact that He did come and ponder if He came to set you free and if your answer is ,"Yes," He will make you free indeed.

Preaching with a purpose

Search This Blog