Preaching with a purpose

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.

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.

I think I'm becoming a fan of BBC 4. Tonight they showed a reenactment of the Roman cavalry in Carlisle.  An amazing sight which the archeologists really enjoyed and learnt from.  You have to have a lot of imagination as an archeologist, sometimes it leads them astray, sometimes they find the right answers , or at least we hope so.  Archeology is fascinating, but one and one does not always make two.  As I said a lot of imagination is needed and it is difficult to sort the useful imagination from someone sticking to their own pet theory, come what may.

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...

December 19th this year will be the 36th anniversary of this disaster. Eight brave men from the village of Mousehole, Cornwall gave their lives in an heroic attempt to save the crew and Captain's family in a storm which had crippled their ship and driven it near rocks. I heard the story at a 60 plus meeting. It was the most moving account I've heard and given by a man from Mousehole, who was no doubt a relative of some if not all who died on the Solomon Browne. Apparently the captain of the Union Star had previously refused help from a tug, presumably because the tug could then claim salvage.  He might well have been saved by such a move but he refused only to lose his life, the lives of his crew and family and even more tragically the lives of brave men trying to save him against the odds.  The captain of the Solomon Browne obviously realized the danger of the situation as he refused to take one young crewman because his father was already on board and it was his policy not t...

There was a fascinating programme about Concorde on television last night.  My memory of it was that as it passed overhead in Devon it reached supersonic speed and we heard a load bang every time as it broke the sound barrier.  I think they eventually got it to do it more out to sea, so I guess the Scilly Isles heard it instead. It was a phenomenon in my time.  Such a shame that it crashed and lost all on board.  As usual most of the problem was down to "human error." Extra luggage had been allowed on board and extra fuel had been taken in.  They couldn't help the piece of metal on the runway, I suppose. What finally did for Concorde was 9/11.  After that, for some time, people were generally put off air travel. I guess Concorde was a sort of titanic of the skies. Maybe even a Tower of Babel. When we worship things other than God they always let us down. When we worship these things we are worshipping man's achievements and man himself and always we are let...

Canada 57 United States 9 Germany 5 United Kingdom 3 Belgium 1 Brazil 1 France 1 Peru 1 Romania 1   When I was young I used to wonder if I would be a missionary.  Would I go to darkest Africa or somewhere in India.  It all depended on the current visiting missionary on furlough.  For a while I was interested in Lebanon and later in Nepal.  There was no way I could have believed you then if you had told me I would be able to write about Jesus to people all over the world, at the same time and with no stamps involved (you know those little squares of sticky paper you can put on envelopes.) But here I am and there you are and I do hope I am bringing blessing into life with my blog. As you see I am not going viral, but if someone is being blessed I am happy. Sorry I let you slip Romania.

What a sad but fascinating story David Attenborough told us tonight.  Jumbo was a young African elephant brought to England in the mid 1880's.  He was taken to London zoo.  He had a devoted keeper but had a very bad diet and was used to give rides to several people at once. He also did not have the company of any other elephants which must have been very lonely for him. Attenborough tracked down his skeleton in New York and listened to the findings of scientists who pointed out the tale tell signs in his bones.  Also there were stories of the time of Jumbos rage at night and this seems to have been due to toothache, too many sticky buns and not enough fibre.  The people then , including Barnum the circus owner, were not as aware as we are of the needs of elephants, but we have no excuse, elephants need to be kept in their country of origin where they can live out their lives in the company of their own families.When we have a world where people exploit people it...

This is a beautiful programme to watch but sad because of the impact we are having on the ocean,  Why can the makers not see that people are sinners and this is the problem.  They are desperately trying to solve the problem of our rubbish and its impact on the sea, but they are choosing to ignore the Bible which tells us that the earth is headed for destruction.  Man thinks that he can solve the problem but he cannot.  He can only make sticking plaster solutions.  The good news is that God has said he will make new heavens and an Earth.  That will be glorious and unaffected by sin. Perhaps we will be able to swim under water, certainly unhampered by diving gear.  I hope to see you there.

We always think in terms of time, the here and now, but God is not limited by time, He invented it not for Himself but as a framework for us to live in, He knows everything that has ever happened or will ever happen.  If you are His He has forgiven you everything.  God is not surprised tomorrow when you fall.  He does not say,"I am so disappointed in Liz, she has sinned again. I didn't see that coming." He knows.  Now sin is no small matter, it sent Jesus to the cross.  Sin is a huge barrier between us and God which only trusting in the death of Jesus can wipe away. So we should never treat our sins as unimportant little blips, but we should never let them crush us under their weight, because we are forgiven.

If you had joy in your heart because Jesus has saved and someone else has crushed that joy by telling you how bad your sin is, be crushed no longer.  Jesus has forgiven your sins, even the ones you haven't committed yet!  He wants you to fully know the joy of sins forgiven.  Don't fear the future, He is with you.  He knows the way you are going and He knows He will turn the sins into lessons He wants to teach you.  If you are His He will always forgive you and never desert you no matter what you do.  So step into the future trusting Him to keep you no matter what is up ahead and don't listen to those who want to pull you apart and criticize you, they are on dangerous ground because you are a precious child of the King.

When you repent and put your trust in Jesus He forgives you and God forgets your sin and puts it away as far as the East is from the West. That's a very long way as there is no East pole or West pole. If you travel East you can keep going forever and never find an end to it and so it is travelling West. Once you are forgiven no one has the right to delve into your sin and remonstrate with you over it, but some will try,  You may think your sin is a particularly bad one, but all sin is bad and an affront to God.  All that other christians need to know is that you are a sinner saved by grace by faith in Jesus.  If God has forgotten your sin so should your fellow believers.

I have been learning Russian for more than a year now.  Like most Brits I am shy of using another language other than English.  I desperately want to, but it is just too easy to let the other person speak English, especially when they are so accomplished at it.  Today, however, I had an encouraging experience; at the bus stop was a lady and after a while I said something to her in English, naturally.  She indicated that she did not speak English.  I asked if she was Polish, she said Lithuanian.  A light dawned and in Russian I asked if she spoke Russian and she did and a little conversation took place between us which we otherwise could not have had.  I have a Russian friend but she speaks excellent English so the incentive to use Russian is just not there. I need to get out of my cozy little village and find some Russian speaking people who are not good at English.  Two things could happen; I could improve my Russian and now as I am a qualified t...

Recently I've been teaching a friend to play the piano.  I said she could learn any way she liked, by reading the music, playing by ear or from memory.  This encouraged me to play from memory and it has been a very liberating experience. no longer am I thinking about processing dots, but I can play more expressively. I always felt that people who played by ear or from memory(the two are very much intertwined) played more expressively. So if you play and have been bound to your music book all these years make a dash for freedom. If you want some help and live in my area give me a call, I would love to help.

Britain is blessed in many ways.  We have so few disasters happen.  Seeing the fires in California made me think of this.  I guess they are taking place over a large area which is difficult to control.  We are such a small island with relatively small areas of wild land so any fire can be dealt with quickly.  We don't have earthquakes, well only minor ones that you hardly feel.  Today in more northerly parts there is snow.  If we have three days of snow we panic and wonder how we will cope, but before we have time to decide what to do we find it has gone away again. We moan about our weather but really it is very mild, at least, most of the time. In Russia last July I found the Russians have a similar attitude to us about summer never making an appearance.  I don't know what they say about their snow, but they certainly get enough of it.

What a jolly evening.  First I watched Chernobyl being entombed and now I'm watching a programme on Porton Down, all about nasty things like mustard gas. The presenter is a doctor who has worked with soldiers on active service.  He asks questions and the personnel often reply,"I can't tell you that." Hardly any relief from Wilfred Owen's poem, Dulce et decorum est which describes the effect of some nasty gas on a soldiers breathing.  It's all gloom and doom tonight. It's just amazing what horrors man inflicts on man.  I guess I need to do the sensible thing and switch off the gloom machine in the corner of my living room.

I remember when the Chernobyl disaster happened. I remember we had tadpoles in a pond in the garden in Devon.  The next day they were all dead. I firmly believe the two things were connected. I am watching a programme on T.V. tonight about a new bid to contain the radio activity at Chernobyl.  The narration is very upbeat but it seems to me that containing something like this is not an easy task.  I commend to you the men working on this project.  Hopefully their health is being monitored and every measure taken to keep them safe. For years after the disaster I remember children from the area came to Tiverton for a month each year, as this gave them valuable time away from contaminated areas where they lived.  I think we do not know the full story of the effect of Chernobyl.  Maybe even the increased incidence of cancer in our own area has something to do with it, but most certainly it is the people of Ukraine who have suffered the worst.

Often as we grow older we are forced to down size because of moving to a smaller dwelling, but its good to down size anyway.  Over the years most of us tend to gather many things which seem precious at the time but when we died would be thrown out without a backward glance by those who come after us.  I prefer to do the throwing out now and lessen the burden on my loved ones.  It's not that I'm planning to go just yet, but then again who knows when. I've found it liberating in the last year to take a hard look at my possessions and find that I really don't need many of them any more.  This included my violin. I sold it to an adult learner in about May and I really haven't regretted it. Of course with the violin gone there were several piles of music to be passed on too. I love Jesus and I have so much to look forward to in being with him forever so why would I want to hold on to anything from this life.  The butterfly doesn't hang on to its cocoon case, it flies...

Nostalgia is usually a sudden pleasant memory triggered by a present stimulus.  The other day I opened a new bottle of bath creme which immediately sent me back to my youth.  The scent was described as lilac but to me it was the scent of violets and especially reminded me of the violet flavoured sweets we sometimes had.  I think my brother once used some to try to disguise that he had been smoking! Not a good move, whoever heard of a teenage boy wanting to smell of violets.  Nostalgia is usually a pleasant but maybe bitter-sweet thing. The smell of Astral soap always reminds me of a childhood holiday at my uncle's farmhouse.  Sometimes it is not possible to know why these triggers happen.  Do you often have nostalgic moments?

I have many friends about my age who simply cannot cope with computers and the like.  For me it was just an interesting challenge.  Before blogging I used to write on Squidoo and there I needed to upload photos.I loved doing that.  My best teacher was my daughter because I would say, "How do I do .....?" and she would reply, "Oh mother find out for yourself.!!" And I did.  Previously I went to a short course in the local town and got the basics from that.  It was just a matter of working through a book with very little input from the teacher.  That's the thing with computers you just have to experiment. Don't let the bounder win!! The annoying thing about computers is that you can do something in about six different ways.  You can use ctrl and P to print or go to file and find print.  I know that is only two ways, but I think there are more. A friend of 77 recently bought a smart phone and I am very pleased with how he is getting on with it, even ...

I'm sorry I've not written here for a while.    I have been finishing off my online course in teaching English as a foreign language.  I have now passed the 120-online course and received my certificate.  What comes next?  Well, I am redoubling my efforts to learn Russian.  I recently reached a log jam situation where I knew all sorts of thing, but they had all become jumbled like a log jam on a Canadian river when the logs are being floated down the river and get stuck.  I now have to tease these bits of knowledge apart and make sense of them again. It is the sort of situation where one could easily give up. Well now of course, I hope to find some people who need to improve their English.  All sorts of interesting people could surface here.  I like to think that I could help someone in a low paid boring job learn enough English to be able to do something more interesting.  It could be a life changer for them and more interesting th...