Open Sunday

Just an update bacause I have been rather silent on this blog for a while... We're planning a Church "Open Sunday" in January and I've been snowed under with the planning and organising for that! There have been various things that I have wanted to get on with for this blog (poems, book, songs, etc.), but these have had to go on to a bit of a back burner at the moment.

Talking of which - if you are a Christian, then please pray for God to guide us and for us to be open to that guidance so that we can work for Him in the way He wants.

If you are not a Christian (or even if you are, for that matter), then why not come along if you happen to live somewhere near Crawley, West Sussex, UK? The Open Sunday will be at Gossops Green Community Centre, Crawley on Sunday 18 January 2009. Details have not been posted on our church website yet, but I'll try to remember to post a link here when it is.

"There's Probably No God"

I was interested to read reports this week about an advertising campaign that is planned by a certain anti-religion movement for next year. What they are planning is to get large posters on London buses that read: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

What I find interesting about this is: why are they planning to include the word "probably"? If they are so sure that God doesn't exist why don't they just say: "There is no God. Now..."?

Is this a tacit admission that even those who oppose religion most vehemently can't actually prove that God doesn't exist? So even they have to concede that while, in their opinion, God "probably" doesn't exist, actually, there is a possibility that maybe He does exist.

Of course, if you have looked into the evidence yourself and concluded that you don't believe that God exists, then fine. Personally, I have concluded that He probably does exist.

But are you living with the belief that God doesn't exist without having really ever looked into it in any detail? -- If so, wouldn't it be a good idea to look into it in a bit more detail just so you can make up your mind for yourself? After all, even these campaigners seem to accept that there is at least a chance that He does exist, so it's surely worth at least considering that possibility?

If you are interested, I have put together a few posts on at least some of the reasons why I reached my conclusion - the post "You Believe That Stuff???" is the best place to start if you are interested.

The other interesting (or, possibly, sad) thing is the second part of their message - the reason that they don't want you to think about God: so you can "stop worrying and enjoy your life". What's sad about that is that not only do they disagree with me on whether God exists, but they also disagree on what life is like if you do choose to follow Him. They seem to be working from the assumption that following God means you are therefore going to have a miserable life. Well - maybe they should listen a bit more closely to what He says - their assumption doesn't exactly tally with His message - nor my experience...

The Magic Word

Quote from Abigail (aged 4):

Abigail to her grandmother: "Could you pass me some of that fruit?"
Dad (from nearby): "What's the missing word?"
Abigail: -silence-
Dad: "It starts with 'P'"
Abigail: "Pancake?"

Salvation Study Summary

A group of us have recently finished a study on salvation and baptism. This involved reading through the New Testament to collect as many relevant passages as we could find (we ended up with nearly 300 of them) and then looking at them in a fair amount of detail to try to ensure that what we believe / teach is supported by what the Bible seems to us to be saying on the matter.

Here is the list of what we perceived to be the main points:

1. God can give salvation to anyone. He doesn't need us to do anything to "enable" Him to save us.
2. There is nothing that anyone can do to "earn" salvation.
3. God indicates that He will give salvation to those who genuinely come to Him in faith / belief.
4. If our belief (faith) and love are genuine, then they will be demonstrated in our willingness to respond to Him in any way that He asks (i.e. in our actions). A "belief" that is not accompanied by an appropriate response (change) is not the kind of belief that God is looking for.
5. A key part of the initial response that God wants from us is for us to be baptised. By being baptised we "sign" a covenant with God in which we pledge to become slaves to Him. This releases us from our former slavery to sin, transfers us to the new covenant and makes us part of Christ's body.
6. This does not mean that there is any power in the physical of baptism itself - it is God, through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus, who gives salvation.
7. Once we are under this "new covenant", our sins are continually cleansed by Jesus' blood so we are continually perfect in the sight of God even though we fail to be perfectly sinless ourselves.
8. However, we can later choose to reject God and His gift of salvation. If we do so we remove ourselves from the "body" and return to our previous slavery to sin (fall away).

Slightly more detail of these points (and some others that we also noted) as well as examples of supporting passages) are included here: summary of baptism study (PDF).

Still Hungry

Here's another quote from Lucia - she must be going through a growth spurt at the moment - anyone would think we never fed her!

Lucia: "Is it breakfast time?"
Dad: "Yes"
Lucia: "I like that! I do, I do! Are you having breakfast? Is it lunch time?"

Hungry

Lucia (aged 2) early one morning before breakfast:

Are we having supper for lunch?

The Feeding of the 5000

Following on from my earlier post about "Loaves, fish, pride and burnout", here's a poem based on the feeding of the 5000 recorded in John 6:1-13...

I looked round about and saw lots of mouths
That needed all to be fed.
"It's lucky for me," (I thought to myself)
"That I brought my own fish and bread!
I think if I too was one of those folk
(And was waiting too to be fed)
It would take such a time to bring in supplies
That I think that by then I'd be dead!"

So I pulled out my food (five loaves and two fish)
And was about to dig into my tucker,
When I heard Jesus say (to someone nearby)
"Now - What are we planning for supper?"

The someone He spoke to seemed rather surprised
And nervously looked up and down:
"I'm not really sure we'll have enough cash...
And besides - it's a long way to town"

I looked round again at the mingling crowd
And looked down again at my bread
And thought to myself, "Well, it's not very much,
But... well - let it never be said
That there in the midst of that ravenous crowd
'Twas only me that was fed!

"I must surely do something - um - I'll give them some fish.
... No - in fact, I'll give them it all
It's not very much; it is hardly a drop
But ... it's better than nothing at all."
So I gave them my bread and I gave them my fish
(And it really looked rather small)
But Jesus just smiled and gave me a look
That made me feel seven feet tall!

He said a short prayer and called His disciples
Who handed the food round about.
And my five little loaves and my two little fish
Just never seemed to run out!!
Everyone there, in that whole crowd of people,
I can confidently say without doubt
Ate as much as they needed (and some even more):
An amazing - awesome - result!

I'd have never imagined; I'd have never believed
That such a small little thing
Could make such a difference - when it looked at first sight
That the little that I had to bring
Was tiny compared to a problem so large
That no-one knew where to begin.
But what I now know, what I've learned here today
Is there really is no such thing
As a gift that's too small to be used for great things
When placed in the hands of The King.

- Mark H (DelightInLight.com)

Note: This is one of a number of poems for Christian children that I have posted on this blog. If you want to see more of them, please have a look at this post: "Fun Poems for Kids"

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