Quite a bit

A blog post about Jesus

2012-01-25T21:02:00.000Z

This was going to be a blog post about Mark Driscoll, but I was going to link to a post on his blog that concludes,
"The best thing is to not waste time blogging, twittering, and talking about me. I was not born of a virgin, have not lived without sin, and am not going to judge the living and the dead. Jesus is all that matters."

How can anyone link to that in a post and not collapse under the weight of irony? So I decided to blog about Jesus instead. But then I found it hard to think exactly what to say about Jesus - there are so many things I could say! So let me say something that, if you read this blog, you have probably assumed, despite the fact that I have never expressed it.

I love Jesus.

I think Jesus is the best thing in the universe. I believe that if someone could live a hundred lifetimes and experience everything the world has to offer that they would not find anything that comes close to Jesus. If everything in my life were to be taken away, destroyed or lost I would still be utterly fulfilled as long as I still had Jesus.

Without Jesus I would be a mess. Without Him I would be a totally selfish person. I would live to please myself, all my efforts would culminate in a great big worthless hideous tribute to the person of Andy Lowe, which God would despise and then rightly destroy. I would have no hope.

Jesus has lifted me out of the wretched dark stink of slavery and loneliness and reversed the whole situation. Because of Jesus life is not a misery nor a pantomime but a real opportunity to run into the arms of my loving father God and be embraced as His son. Every day. Every day.

Love and forgiveness that never ends. My slate wiped clean, and my heart healed.

Jesus did not demand that I become a religious person and tie me up in a world of pews, stiff shirts and dull dirges. He set me free. And I love Him when I'm cleaning my teeth, when I'm driving to work, when I eat a sandwich or hug my wife I love Jesus and nothing will stop me from loving Him because He loves me.

However many long words and clever things get said about Jesus, the thing I constantly struggle to get to grips with, the thing I will always come back to is that He cares about me. And I will have all eternity to ponder that, and get to know Him better.

Hallelujah!

Praying or rubbing a lamp?

2012-01-20T15:40:00.000Z

At some point everyone must have thought about the genie-in-the-lamp scenario, and decided what, given three wishes (and having restrictions on wishing for more wishes, bringing people back from the dead and making people fall in love) they would wish for.

Would it be a new car/house/tropical island?

an eternal supply of chocolate?

or just oceans of money?

Given the chance to ask for anything, what would you go for?

Well, Jesus said "Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it."

What are we to do with this? Can it really be true? What about the time I asked God to give me the spiritual gift of being able to fly (true story) and it never happened?

Of course we need to look at this verse in context. The slight problem is that "looking at this verse in context" often becomes a euphemism for "find some evidence to suggest that this particular part of the Bible isn't really true, or at least, it doesn't mean anything like what it seems to."

It can be too easy to strip this promise of all its faith-increasing power by mitigating it with conditions like "as long as you ask for something which is within God's will, with the right motivation, with enough faith and you persevere for at least a week." You don't find that in the verse, but neither is Jesus suggesting that He is a magical genie waiting to fulfil our every desire.

This passage will probably always confound those people whose top three wishes are for combinations of money, success, pleasure, prestige or power. It won't make sense because it seems like an amazing offer that Jesus consistently fails to come through on.

For those people, however, whose greatest desire is for the kingdom of heaven to come on earth, to see people saved, healed and set free, this promise is one of the most encouraging in the whole Bible, and should be one of the biggest motivators to prayer. Because it's true.

How to not get your iPad stolen

2012-01-13T11:09:00.001Z

Thanks to outstanding technological innovation our lives become so much easier.

Like Tom, the IT consultant from Hove, you could take your iPad to Tesco and use it to remind you what you need to buy.

Then, when the iPad is stolen from your trolley, you can use iCloud's automatic mobile photo-streaming (which you will have set up previously) to see pictures that the thief has taken of his woolly-hatted friend and forward those images to the police.

Yet, with access to technology like this, many people can still be seen walking around the supermarket with shopping lists written, by hand, on paper.

What hope is there for society?

Getting going

2012-01-12T10:26:00.000Z

It's nice to have a break.

While I haven't been blogging this last month, I have been...

- Feasting on delicious festive food served up at the in-laws.

- Enjoying some well-chosen Christmas presents, like the Yes Minister Miscellany, Muppets Socks, A Stephane Grappelli vinyl record, cheese and Bohnanza.

- Dressing up in 1920's garb.

- Reading Leviticus.

- Attending the annual Youth for Christ Conference (which I normally devote a whole post to, maybe I'll do that at some point).

- Playing the translucent blue recorder the Open University sent.

- Not making new year's resolutions.

- Thinking.

One thing I've been thinking about is this:
As we move forward, if we want God to use us more and see more changes in our lives or in the world around us, then we'll have to let ourselves become more dissatisfied, more grieved and hurt, more burdened and troubled by those things that need to be changed.

We like to quote James 4:8a, "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you" without necessarily following onto "Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you."

I hope that this year will bring lots of blessing, but I mainly hope to get closer to God's heart, and that might mean that this year brings more mourning and weeping.

Is religion a force for good?

2011-12-16T11:25:00.000Z

I just read that Christopher Hitchens has died. I'm not familiar with his books, but I can see how they might have generated huge interest, especially with titles like How Religion Poisons Everything. This clip of his debate with Tony Blair last year is on the BBC's most watched list today.

"There was never a time when it was appropriate for Jesus to play the saxophone"

2011-12-08T16:51:00.000Z

So says Conrad Gempf, as he asserts that the popular What Would Jesus Do? way of thinking might be a little bit misleading.

Personally, I can see the WWJD slogan being helpful in some situations. I wore one myself, for parts of my teenage years. The most frustrating thing was that you couldn't apply it to a situation where you'd done something wrong.

Q. "What would Jesus do if he was about to get told off for not doing his homework?"
A. "Jesus would have done his homework"
Bah.

It's true that we can only hope to imagine what Jesus would have actually done in most of our circumstances. But I think it's still helpful to ask the question. In fact, I agree with Gempf when he says "What's good about it is that it does get people asking a question about what they're doing, looking at it from another perspective. Most people don't ever do that. But the right question is: what did God create me to do?"

WDGCMTD? isn't quite so catchy of course.

That's from the BBC, by the way.

Preview tracks from "Hope for the World"

2011-12-02T12:38:00.000Z

Hope for the World - previews by andy@s-yfc

New album, new website!

2011-11-25T13:20:00.000Z

My new (and first) album of Christian music, "Hope for the world", has just been released and is on sale at Illuminate Christian book shop, Shrewsbury. If you're not local to Shrewsbury and you'd like to buy a copy, leave me a comment below.

It's an album of 13 mostly original tracks, with a couple of re-worked hymns and a Tim Hughes cover (with thanks to Kingsway, who let me use the track without paying royalties). Anyway, it's only £10, and all of the proceeds will go to Shrewsbury Youth for Christ.

To infuse yet more excitement into the situation, I've also just launched a new music website.

The King's Sp**ch

2011-11-21T17:47:00.000Z

We recently borrowed a DVD of The King's Speech, which was rated 12 due to "strong language in a speech therapy context" (I don't think I've ever seen that exact criterion before). Anyway, the language certainly was rather strong in places, which made me feel a bit uncomfortable. However, it seems I'm in the minority.

For a long time I've suspected that most people are actually quite comfortable with just about all the words we refer to as "profanities", and now a High Court judge has ruled that there should be no law against hurling obscenities in public because people just aren't offended by them any more.

As a student of English Language, I find the whole issue of what's considered "bad language" fascinating. I mean why, exactly, is the word bottom less offensive than many of it's more concise synonyms?

There's also a difference between hearing a post-toe-stub cuss and actually being sworn at.

And then there's blasphemy - the worst of the lot, and yet tolerated to a much greater extent, especially on TV.

A while ago (2000), the ASA did a research project on swearing, which makes interesting reading. One of it's main components is a rank scale of the perceived severity of specific words (if you're interested it's on page 13. If you want to avoid reading it, it's on page 13). It also reveals that 38% of people think swearing is more acceptable on Channel 4 than BBC 1, among other delicious statistics.

Also, saying "Jesus Christ" is apparently more offensive than saying "crap", but not quite as offensive as "balls".

What do you think?

More dance worship

2011-11-18T14:20:00.000Z

It's just incredible.

CCM:City worship by Tim Simmonds

What's influencing you?

2011-11-08T09:29:00.000Z

[First published in the Shrewsbury Chronicle 3rd November 2011]

Recently, in preparation for our ‘Rock Solid’ lunch-time and after school clubs, we performed an experiment on a jelly baby. Next time you buy a packet, try this out: take one of the sweets and plop it into a bottle of water. Leave it there for about a week. Slowly, the jelly baby absorbs the water until it becomes a grotesque bloated baby blob bobbing around in the bottom of the bottle (try reading that out loud). The point of all this? To get the message across to the young people we work with that it’s easy to soak up influences from our surroundings.

How often does a discussion about television, video games or the internet bring out a statement along the lines of, “it’s a bad influence on the children”? We are rightly concerned about the effect mass media has on impressionable young minds. As a child, I was a regular reader of The Beano comic. While I do accept responsibility for my actions, I’m sure it was reading the antics of Dennis the Menace that led me to put a drawing pin on Tom Poole’s chair during a maths lesson.

It may be true that young people are particularly vulnerable to the messages that creep out of our screens, but are we all keeping track of what’s influencing us? Saint Paul instructed the early Christians in Rome “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2, NIV). He believed that the attitudes of Christians should be totally different from the attitudes of the culture that surrounds them. That’s only possible if we allow God’s Spirit to influence us more than anything else.

Thought-provoking image of Delhi

2011-11-01T08:13:00.000Z

From the BBC

I am the 80,038,090,107th person to have ever lived

2011-10-28T13:18:00.000+01:00

Where are you?

This nifty widget also told me that people in my area have, on average, more than one mobile phone contract. Astounding.

On nuns and commitment

2011-10-24T17:16:00.000+01:00

I've got mixed opinions about nuns and monks, at least, in the traditional sense. I mean, they do a whole lot of great stuff; working with the poor, educating children, praying etc. It's just that the concept of nunhood does seem to foster the incorrect opinion that a married, full-time employed Christian is somehow less committed to God than a single, full-time ministering nun. Basically that it creates a false hierarchy of holiness.

Mind you, this is almost entirely due to the fact that nuns have to wear special costumes. If it wasn't for that, people might see that they are not walking stereotypes, but rather real people who have devoted their lives to serving a real saviour. (Q. Why do they wear those robes? A. Force of habit.)

Apparently the number of young nuns in the UK is growing, and the BBC is airing a documentary called, originally, "Young Nuns." Sadly, even that great institution (the BBC, not the Church) got all confused over the basic idea of Christianity. Their article features a nun called Sister Jacinta, "[who] had been a nun for eight years before taking final vows and has now made a lifelong commitment to Christ."

D'oh!

Dance/techno worship

2011-10-14T15:09:00.000+01:00

This epic remix from Tim Simmonds's church has been used in a couple of Sunday morning worship times. Would it go down well with your church? (HT: Phil)

Consuming fire (DEMO) by Tim Simmonds

I'm not the enormousest fan of dance music, but I love this track. I mean, if it were released on iTunes I would buy it. However, if I decide to use this in worship on Sunday I'm not sure it will be similarly appreciated.

At Hope Church, we have a range of age groups. In churches like ours, worship teams are not likely to be very adventurous becuase at least one cohort of the congregation is sure to be offended. Sticking to the status quo is much more acceptable (definitely not sticking to Status Quo though). But if we want to engage with culture, then our music has to follow the culture. Our creative output should reflect today's styles and trends. Who knows what we're singing now that will cause widespread cringing in the next generation. Blessed Be Your Name could well be the next Shine, Jesus, Shine.

Llamas

2011-10-11T17:34:00.000+01:00

Questions for church leaders

2011-10-02T20:13:00.000+01:00

(HT: Charles)

1. When was the last time I heard from God? Am I doing what he called me to do?

2. What should our church be known for in this community?

3. Are we really focusing our time, money, leadership, prayer behind the things that will produce life change and community impact?

4. Is our church growing both spiritually and in numbers?

5. Is there a clear path to help people take steps in their faith with the ultimate goal of them becoming fully-devoted followers of Christ? (ie disciples)

6. What does a disciple of Christ looks like?

7. Are we empowering the people of God to do God’s work?

8. Are we developing leaders?

9. Do believers see their ministry happening only at the church or have they become missionaries to their families, their neighborhoods, their workplaces, their schools, etc

10 Do I have the right leaders around me to accomplish the vision?

Bacon Sandwiches and Salvation

2011-09-29T13:55:00.000+01:00

Hopefully reading will be one of the activities to fill the void once occupied by a playstation. I've already read about four books in a month, which might be a record (and one of those was Lord of the Flies, after which I just sat in a stupor for 3-4 days). Anyway, another of those books was Bacon Sandwiches and Salvation; An A-Z of the Christian Life, by the stalwart Adrian Plass.

This is the kind of book I like; essentially light-hearted and comical, but in a beautifully organised alphabetical arrangement. It's the literary equivalent of a Toblerone bar; you snap off small segements for easy digestion, but find that it's hard to stop at just one. At points Plass is deliciously funny, as in the following entry:

When I survey - favourite hymn of Christian architects

Jeff Lucas commends the book on its reverse - "Subversive but not destructive, cutting but never unkind, the man helps me want to remain a Christian. Brilliant, fun, laugh-out-loud stuff."

Jeff highlights what, for me, was the big problem with this book. Bacon Sandwiches and Salvation walks a very fine line between lightly poking fun at some of our quirky religious traditions, and actually undermining Christianity. The minute you start making humorous observations you start to become cynical, and this is what seems to happen.

Now I'd say Adrian has every right to be cynical about the role of pews, jargon and religious tradition (in a similar vein to the work of Dave Walker). Want to take the mick out of church notices? Go ahead! Prosperity gospel? Lampoon away! But just occassionally the jibes extend to things that are actually important. This is probably best illustrated in this definition:

Defying Gravity - (2) what at least a few of us so-called followers of Jesus need to be doing. Christianity is far too serious not to be laughed at from time to time.

The extent of my uncomfortableness with this statement would depend on what Adrian means when he talks about "Christianity". If he's referring to the pomp and tradition that has sadly worked its way into the life of the Church then yes we can laugh at it. If, however, Adrian is saying that following Jesus is too serious not to be laughed at then I very strongly disagree.

Firstly, I disagree with the logic. I think we should laugh at things that aren't serious, not things that are. If I started laughing at funerals people would rightly write me off as insensitive. Some things deserve to be taken seriously, although that's getting harder in a culture where we will laugh at anything (is there any way of prosecuting the people who circulate post-tragedy jokes?). I made it one of my new year's resolutions to be more sincere.

Secondly, if we, as Christians, don't take Christianity seriously, what hope has anyone else got?

I've read other Plass books before and found them really helpful as well as entertaining. I think Adrian is a great guy as well as a good author, and I believe that he actually does take following Jesus very seriously. Maybe, like the rest of us, not quite as seriously as Jesus Himself.

I'm getting rid of all my video games

2011-09-26T08:17:00.000+01:00

Well, not quite all, but I'll explain that later.

I've blogged a few times about video games, and even listed five reasons why they should be appreciated. Now I'm culling my collection of PS1, PS2, PC, DS and GameBoy games down from about 70 to under ten. This was a really difficult decision to make, but in the end, I think it's what God wanted me to do, so I'm doing it. To help me explain, I'm going to pretend you're asking me questions...

Q. You're getting rid of some old games, what's the big deal?
Video games have been a big part of my life for the last 14 years or so. I must have spent thousands of hours playing them. I could spend hundreds of hours playing a single game if it's good enough, and there were lots that I really, really enjoyed. This is not like giving up TV, which was easy and painless because I didn't care about TV. I'm giving up doing something I love doing.

Q. So why are you doing it?
I still don't think video games are bad, but I think they've been a big distraction in my life, and at times stolen my heart away from following Jesus and being fruitful. For a while God has been leading me to make this decision.

Q. How do you know this is what God wants?
I've suffered for years with what I'll term gamerguilt; a lingering feeling of guilt that stems from doing something that other people consider a waste of time. I don't agree with making people feel guilty for how they choose to spend their leisure time, and I have had to convince myself that it is actually ok to play games. However, recently I've been thinking about my love of gaming more, and it's often sprung into mind in situations like prayer meetings, quiet times, sermons and worship. I'm starting to learn that if you can't stop thinking about an issue when you're meeting with God, then He might be trying to tell you something about it.

Q. So why aren't you getting rid of them all?
Ok, well out of the ones I'm keeping...
- 2 are actually music-making programmes
- 3 are games for the dance mat
- at least 1 isn't really mine to give away
- 1 is a favourite for me and Lis to play together (it's Super Monkey Ball 2, by the way)
- 1 is Final Fantasy VII. I'm keeping it more for the historical significance, and a few childhood memories.

Q. What are you going to do with the extra time?
It's not like playing games was all I did. Maybe eight hours per week average, but now that's eight hours I can spend doing other things. Hopefully some more song writing and recording, more reading books and more times with Jesus.

Q. Are you giving up games for good?
No. I enjoy playing games socially, and I won't stop Wiiing with mates, or Monkeybowling with the wife. I'm not going to buy any more consoles or games though from now on.

Q. Until when?
Maybe a few years. Maybe forever. I guess it depends on how it goes. If there are huge benefits to cutting gaming out of my life, then would I ever want it back?

If you are a gamer yourself, the last thing I want to do is pour on the gamerguilt. However, if you really idolise video games (and the industry tries very hard to persuade you to idolise them) then you need to do something about it. To be honest, I am still gutted at the thought of saying goodbye to Morrowind and Star Wars Battlefront II, but if it brings me closer to Jesus then it's totally worth it.

Top 5 Christian Rock Albums: #1

2011-09-22T09:27:00.000+01:00

Did you guess? Were you right? Here it is...
#1: Casting Crowns, Casting Crowns

That's right, Casting Crowns have taken the top spot with their self-titled debut album. Having written such beaming reviews of numbers four to two I'm wondering how to make this one sound like it deserved to beat them all. Of course, this is my personal list and I don't need anyone to agree, but I'd find it hard to believe that any rock-tolerating Christian would not love this record. It's a beast.

Casting Crowns are a challenging band to listen to at times, not because the music isn't wonderful, but because the songs they write often probe pertinent issues within the Church, as you can see simply by reading the title of the first track: What if His People Prayed? You might call this a sneaky tactic - writing a very provocative piece about what the Church could accomplish on its knees and then setting it to the most fantastically thrilling music ever conceived. You can't not listen. You can't listen and ignore the words. It's a trap! What a great trap to fall into though, and it's cleverly executed in track 2 also; If We are the Body. Some more great lyrics here to motivate us to reach out, like, "Jesus paid much too high a price for us to pick and choose who should come". (Before you accuse the band of being all self-righteous, you should listen to Stained-glass Masquerade on their Lifesong album. While you're there, you may as well listen to the whole album. It's great too.)

So what treats are in store for us next? Ah yes, we have The Voice of Truth, a song with similar impact to the Footprints in the Sand poem, but without the feeling of having heard it a billion times before. I guess you could listen to it a billion times though if you wanted that feeling. Anyway, it's like a power ballad but less corny because it's actually all entirely true. It's a similar story with Who Am I, not connected at all to the Jackie Chan film, this is a song about the incredible fact that God cares about us.

I love this album because it combines eternal Biblical truths with a refreshing blend of genuine human experience. The song American Dream is a story about a workaholic guy who ruins his life trying to get rich. Hope I didn't spoil the ending for you. And Here I Go Again is about the common experience of trying to find a way to tell a friend that God loves them, but lacking in both time and courage. The melodies of these songs are so well crafted you'd think they had always existed somewhere and Casting Crowns just dug them out of the ground.

The second half of the album is more worshipful. Praise You with the Dance is a brilliantly fun tune that turns into a full-blown ceilidh at one point. Another great thing about this album is that the female backing vocalist (name, anyone?) takes a lead in some songs. Variety is the oft-neglected spice of Christian music. You can tell that she's having a ball with this foot-tapping number.

Glory is a song that you could sing in church on a Sunday, but you'd struggle to get the band to sound anywhere near as good. There's a fantastic breakdown section with some sweet harmonies. In fact, this album is full of really delicious harmonies, and Life of Praise is no exception. If my life were a movie, this could be the song that plays over the credits.

At the end of the album the whole mood changes. Imagine you've just been at a huge rock concert, leaping about and sweatily chanting and whatnot. As you're driving back from the gig you suddenly realise the lead singer is sitting on the back seat. He pulls out an acoustic guitar and begins gently strumming, serenading you as you journey home. That is what Your Love is Extravagant is like. A stripped-back, soft and beautiful serenade. Only they're not singing to you of course. The album ends with a quiet tribute to God's astounding love. It's superb.

Top 5 Christian Rock Albums: #2

2011-09-19T08:04:00.000+01:00

#2 - Revolution, YFriday

After far too long, we have reached the penultimate place on the podium. The silver medal of my Christian Rock awards is presented to another British ensemble by the name of YFriday. This album packs one heck of a punch. It's got all the noise and energy of a revolution with the bloodshed. Ken Riley (lead singer) may not be as widely recognised as Ché Guevara, but I'd dare to say that his songwriting abilities are far superior.

Ken starts off by showing his mastery of the simple-but-effective rock riff, with which Rise begins. This tune has so much buzz about it that you wonder what the four Geordie musos have been imbibing. We get the answer in the chorus: "Love, love is the drug I'm feeling. Love, love is the drug I'm dealing." Aha. I've listened to most of Yfriday's albums several times, and I reckon this one is lyrically the best. Track 2, Someone I Can Live For, sums up Christianity neatly and profoundly.

Revolution is the third song in the list, and if your roof was already raised, this one will send it into orbit. You don't need a singing voice to be able to join in for the chorus, you can just shout your head off. This song is a very loud prayer for God to change the world, or maybe I should say carry on changing the world. Either way, listening to this makes you really excited to be a part of it.

If by this point in the album you find yourself shattered, then you should probably sit the next one out. Hands Up is a song that makes me want to employ the phrase "barn-storming", even though I never use it and don't really know what it means. Hands Up is a praise anthem that would get Dr. Rowan Williams jumping out of his armchair.

Finally there's a pause for breath, as 13 (based on 1 Corinthians 13) takes to the stage. No prizes for guessing that this song is about love. I might have given you the impression that this tune is gentle, relaxing and soothing. Sorry, it's not. It's not quite as full-on as the first four, but it does get fairly heavy. And once 13 is over, the tempo goes straight back up courtesy of the exhilarating Saved the Day.

It's only at track 7 that the moment really slows down. Lift is a tender worship song, one of the kind that feature more in YFriday's other albums, but unique on this one, like a pearl surrounded by great big chunky rocks.

The next proper boulder of a song comes in the form of Start of the Summer, a testimony set to music. Music you can mosh to. And if you've got any energy left, you'll be jumping up and down to Shine2 after that.

The album winds down again right at the end with Lament. There's a great progression in the lyrics of this song; the singer describes feeling hollow and alone, until, dramatically, "night explodes in symphony" and he reaches out for God during a crescendo.

And that's it. I wonder if the plan was to leave the audience wanting more, but it seems like the band went for quality over quantity here. These 10 tracks add up to a mere 35 minutes. But these 35 minutes are well worth listening to. Everyone should buy this album.

So, there's only one post left to come. What will be number one? Any guesses?

Top 5 Christian Rock Albums: #3

2011-09-15T10:15:00.000+01:00

#3 - The Mission Bell, Delirious?

Any predictions on the top 3 should have included at least one of Delirious?'s ground-breaking studio albums. The only one to make it into my list is their penultimate - The Mission Bell. Undeniably the most successful British Christian rock band in the universe, Delirious? have at times come close to receiving my "slightly overrated" badge. At such times it is only necessary for me to listen to this album and the doubting Thomas within is silenced.

The album kicks off with Stronger; an odd choice in my opinion. The song progresses at a stately pace and sounds vaguely mysterious, which strikes a contrast with its triumphant lyrics - "Hallelujah, here we come". Those words could be the theme for the whole album - there's a lot of noise and general anthemic "let's do it!" kind of feeling in here. This is embodied perfectly in track 2, Now is the Time, for which Delirious? collaborated with the genius Matt Redman. This track has probably been the theme tune to every youth mission/social action project for the last six years.

Next up, it's my favourite tune - Solid Rock. With an ever-so-steady beat, and that delightfully simple yet powerfully confident blues riff, this song sounds like its name. Great choir work on here too, but the real vocal highlight comes when tobyMac turns up to rap his way through the old hymn My Hope is Built on Nothing Less.

All This Time is a more reflective, brooding sort of piece. (Did I say piece? That's what you call classical stuff, right, like Mozart and stuff. I must hold this band in high esteem.) Well, the following track, Miracle Maker, is an absolutely epic song - a classic if ever there was one. More choir here and emotive string playing. If there was a music video for this (is there?), it would certainly feature Martin Smith singing in gale-force winds, while lightning flickers in the distance. Just epic.

Here I Am Send Me and Fires Burn are in a similar vein to All This Time. The pattern of moody, tension-building verses exploding into a powerhouse of a chorus almost becomes repetetive, but the songs are so unique and sitrring that you don't really mind, or even notice.

Our God Reigns is a fascinating song. I read somewhere that they wrote the chorus first, and envisaged using it in a worship song. It actually ended up as the crux of a song about famine, AIDS, abortion and the generally shocking state of human affairs. Not exactly easy listening, but great to listen to.

That choir is still going strong as we get into track 9, Love is a Miracle. In fact, this is basically Martin Smith pretending he's in a revival tent in America in the 1960s, poetically delivering some testimony accompanied by a gospel choir. A nifty sample from "That's my king!" (google it if you need to) makes its way onto the album here.

The shortest and most rockingest song on the album is definitely Paint the Town Red. The "here we come" line from Stronger gets its own chorus. This song is like running up a mountain. Somewhere near the summit there is a small, dark and inviting cave called Take Off My Shoes which changes everything. I think this is the most beautiful song on the album - musically and lyrically. An intimate meeting with God is played out through delicate piano work and ethereal guitars. And speaking of the celestial, we finish off with I'll See You, a song for a loved one who has died. Moya Brennan's Gaelic vocals float around mistily. Martin thinks about meeting Jesus in heaven and lets out a few woohooooos. The combination works.

This whole album works very well. In fact, just writing this has given me a new appreciation for the work that's gone in. The writers, composers, performers and producers showcased on this album are worthy of a very large round of applause.

Top 5 Christian Rock Albums: #4

2011-08-29T14:14:00.001+01:00

#4 - So Natural, Salvador

I first came across Salvador at a Christian music event in Stoke called Passion. I'd never heard of them, and din't know what to expect, but they totally rocked my socks off. As you might have guessed from the name, Salvador are fundamentally a latin-pop-rock Christian band. Quite an ensemble too, with eight musicians credited on the CD sleeve. The Salvador sound is funky, driven by two percussion players and the best bass player I've ever seen, fleshed out with both delicate and meaty guitar sounds, rhythmic piano and a grooving horn section.

These guys are serious musicians, and their 2004 album, So Natural, is a feast for the ears. There's a lot of variety packed into 12 tracks, with songs appearing at most points of the pop-rock continuum. We kick off with Can You Feel (The Supernatural), a raucous party of a track that sets the up-beat tone of the whole album. Before too long, however, Salvador recline into This is My Life, something more reminiscent of a boy-band hit, with a cameo chorus of How Great Thou Art.

At around track five, It Comes Back to You, the serious rocking gets underway, which comes to a climax during the insane funk of For More Than Ourselves, which shows off the bands musicianship with reckless bars of 7/8 in the verse (it, like, sounds like they just missed a beat out). The contour of the album continues into some deliciously smooth pop tunes before winding right down to the title track (and, in fact, my least favourite) So Natural.

But then, suddenly, as a glorious finale, a live recording of La Palabra kicks your stereo back into action. This is the most purely latin track on the album, and is the only one sung entirely in Spanish. Having heard several infectious Spanish tunes at Passion I was slightly disappointed not to hear more on the CD, but at least I can understand the rest of them.

There is almost as much variety in the lyrical content as there is in the music. Nic Gonzales is most often heard singing about his personal relationship with God. There are moments of real tenderness and surrender amongst the partying. Heaven is a song about someone getting tired of life on earth, who keeps asking God from the back seat of a luggage-filled car "how far is heaven?" It Comes Back to You is a tuneful reminder to the listener that you reap what you sow.

So Natural is the most unique Christian album I own, and the band is quite possibly the most talented. I'd really love to see them live again at some point. Anyone fancy a trip to Nashville?

Top 5 Christian Rock Albums: #5

2011-08-19T12:16:00.000+01:00

So, whatever you define "Christian music" as, I'm a fan.

Q. What's better than music?

A. Music about Jesus.

Now I wouldn't say I was an ardent follower of the Christian music scene, or totally submerged in Christian culture, but I've listened to a fair amount of the stuff and now the time has come to blog my Top 5 Christian Rock Albums.

Note that by 'Christian Rock' I'm not talking about Creed and other vaguely-Christian-philosophy-based-heavily-distorted-guitars-screaming-yeah-yeah music, but I'm talking generally about music by Christian bands. And I'm doing a post on each, so here is...

#5 - The Beautiful Letdown, Switchfoot

This is probably the least explicitly Christian album in my list. I'm not sure the word 'god' is sung very much, if at all, which is strange for Christian rock. This is intentionally a very accessible piece of work. It's also very wonderful. If you want proof of both it's mainstream popularity and high quality, look no further than the Spiderman 2 movie soundtrack (UK version), which features Switchfoot's epic tune Meant to Live.

Meant to Live is my favourite track on this CD. The lyrics, whilst not explicit, are probably more powerful than most modern worship songs. The music is equally powerful; your speakers will turn themselves up if you don't, out of respect for the rockin'. As an opening track, Meant to Live sets the bar high.

The album challenges the listener throughout. If you imagine Jon Foreman is singing at you, it can be quite stirring at times. In This is Your Life he asks "are you who you want to be?" And the suddenly more laid-back groove gives you some space to ponder the question, if you don't get distracted by lots of ethereal, electronic noises.

The challenge becomes more direct in track 5, Dare You to Move, a song that should be played in the background every time an altar-call is made. Again, this is a powerful track, almost epic, in fact. Despite the gravitas, it is probably also one of the more uplifting tracks.

The crown of feel-good on this album goes, remarkably, to Switchfoot's song about death; Gone. The epitome of catchiness, Gone tells the story of a life spent of possessions and excitement, only to find it is all absolutely worthless. While the lyrics only briefly reveal the antidote to materialism ("every second that we borrow brings us closer to a God who's not short of cash"), the overwhelming cheerfulness of this song leads you to suspect that losing everything you ever owned is actually a good thing.

The title track, Beautiful Letdown, expands on the theme. This is a ballad about a personal experience, and I would venture a guess that the "letdown" frontman Jon is singing about has something to do with wealth, fame and success. Switchfoot are, after all, a very successful group. "Easy living", sings Jon, "you're not much like the name". Instead, he is determined to "carry a cross and a song where I don't belong".

The rest of this album is great, but those five songs make it number five in my list. Go on Spotify and give them a listen. Or just buy it. In summary, these guys are like rocking sages who cram a truckload of godly wisdom into some banging tunes. What could top it?

What is Christian music?

2011-08-13T09:49:00.000+01:00

So in my last post I responded to the question "can you worship God to secular music?"

I didn't try to define what secular music actually is, or, for that matter, what Christian music is. But that sounds like a fairly significant issue. The author of one of my favourite worship-leader-blogs made the decision to limit his music-listening to entirely Christian material (and has also written a fantastic post on whether rock music is acceptable to God).

So what is Christian music?

Matt Blick has set a quiz over at his blog. Read the song lyrics and then decide whether they are taken from a Christian song. It's harder than you'd expect. Then check the answers.

Here are some possible definitions of "Christian music":
1) Music written by a Christian
2) Music written primarily for use in worship
3) Music with religious lyrics that make reference to God/Jesus
4) Music that expounds Christian theology
5) Music that is written to God
6) Music that is sung by a gospel choir

Would you agree with one or more of those, or add your own?

Can you worship God to secular music?

2011-08-11T15:17:00.000+01:00

Vicky Beeching has written (4 months ago) a piece on whether non-Christians should play in a worship band (HT: Phil (I recently found out that 'HT' means 'hat tip' - mystery solved at last!)).

Whilst that issue begs a post for itself, I was more compelled by some of the comments below. Atkins5614 (clearly a fan of diets) asks the question
What if I told you that I feel very close to God when I am listening to music played by non-Christians? Essentially, they are leading me into worship by their amazing skill. I find myself basking in the glow of God because of what they are playing.

To which Vicky B replies
I agree... some of my most powerful times with God have been when listening to U2 or Sigur Ros. Interesting eh??

Very interesting indeed. Most rock-loving Christians would be quick to point out that a fair few of U2's songs are in fact about Jesus. And Sigur Ros just sound like they're singing in tongues, but that's because the frontman is, in fact, singing his own made-up language most of the time. But can their music really lead us into a 'powerful time with God'?

I'd like to answer that question in the most annoyingly helpful way I know; by asking another question...

What is music?

Music is an amazing product of human beings harnessing properites of the physical world, i.e. Physics and Maths. If I create a sound wave with a frequency of 440 Hertz and stop that sound at equal intervals I am actually playing the note A repeatedly. The most beautiful symphony can be stripped down into waves, vibrations, frequencies etc. just like a rose is actually a combination of different types of atoms.

What I'm trying to say is that music is a part of God's creation. As such, it has the ability to stir our spirits to worship Him, much the same as seeing incredible views out of your airplane window. <This is a link you really need to click by the way.

Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring can be just as soul-stirring as that view across the Himalayas, even if the orchestra playing it are out-and-out atheists. So yes, I'd say that 'secular' music can lead us to worship God.

However, I haven't yet mentioned Music's long-time companion - a certain Mr. Lyrics who likes to show up almost anywhere Mme. Music makes an appearance. Many times I've asked myself "Why do I like In Christ Alone so much? Is it because of the tune or the lyrics?" Never has the answer to any question been so obviously 'both' since the whole Preach the Gospel Vs Acts of Kindness discussion.

So, yes, while a particular harmony might stir your heart to worship God - a stirred heart has to overflow (like a too-vigorously-stirred mug of coffee), and that overflow is more likely to be a chorus of How Great is Our God than a rendition of Sunday, Bloody Sunday.

Fox-eye view of London Riots

2011-08-10T09:55:00.001+01:00

I've been devouring a lot of the BBC's content on the recent riots in London and other English cities. There are a lot of comments and opinions swirling round my head, but for now I'd just like to point out a few things that struck me while watching this report from Fox News.

1) Fox News is using dramatic footage that I haven't seen on any UK-based website. Where did they get that? Why hasn't the BBC got that video of a protester getting whacked?

2) Fox plays all the clips with sound. And at times shows two clips simultaneously - with sound, behind the reporter's prattle. Lots of noise heightens the appearance of utter chaos.

3) Fox shows a small-girl-crying clip.

4) Fox refers to the shooting of a man in London on Monday night as "The 1st death of the riots". This is either depressingly pessimistic, or is just insensitive sensationalising.

Thank goodness the BBC isn't like Fox, or half of London would have fled for their lives by now.

Resolution #1 in the bag

2011-07-28T11:52:00.000+01:00

In January I blogged my New Year's Resolutions. It was about time, I said, that I learned how to drive an automobile. I've been having lessons since February, and last week I passed my test! Apparently I'm a really annoying person because I passed first time, albeit with 12 faults.

My examiner (who, to be fair, tried to put me at ease) said my main problem was over-cautiousness. He went so far as to call me a Nervous Nelly. I would have preferred Nervous Nigel myself, but either way I must have been fairly trepidatious. I've never seen my leg shake so much. Thank goodness it was my left leg, otherwise things would have been even trickier.

Anyway, the result is the main thing. The world is now ~~literally~~ my oyster.

My other resolutions are more work-in-progresses. I think I'm being more sincere, but I've temporarily given up on getting up at 7am, just while I recover from the Summer Term. It's all good.

Americanisms

2011-07-21T14:16:00.000+01:00

A lot of people seem to have issues with the increasing amount of Americanisms creeping into our English usage. All those seasons of Friends and CSI that get broadcast 24/7 are affecting the way we talk. I mean, out of the 30 hours of TV we watch every week, oftentimes the majority will be US-produced. You do the math. Like, go figure.

This list of 50 notable Americanisms caught my attention. The responses are more interesting than the phrases themselves. These are some reactions of the British respondents to American vernacular:
- "It infuriates me"
- "It makes no sense ... my pulse rises"
- "The one I can't stand is..."
- "It makes me cringe no end"
- "The word I hate to hear is..."
- "I was thoroughly disgusted"
- "It makes me shudder"
- "My teeth are on edge every time I hear it" (The phrase being referred to here is, in fact, "train station")
- "I don't know how anything could be as annoying or lazy"
- "Really irritates me"
- "Just makes me shiver with annoyance"
- "What a ridiculous phrase!"
- "Hideous"
- "Sets my teeth on edge with a vengeance" (What?)

Gosh. American English must be really vulgar to evoke such strong feelings of hatred, annoyance and (seriously?) vengeance. Let's find an example...

Ok, so Marcus Edwards says: "I hate the fact I now have to order a "regular Americano". What ever happened to a medium sized coffee?"

Oh yes, Marcus, how horrendous. How will you cope Marcus? Is your life a misery now Marcus? Do you have an inconquerable fear of coffee shops? Does you blood boil every time you set foot in Starbucks? The world is such an insufferable place to exist, isn't it? When people start to use vomit-inducing words like "regular". Bleurgh... Retch.

You might have noticed that I don't quite agree. Some people seem to have the ridiculous idea that English, in its current form, is "proper", and any deviation is terribly upsetting. The arrival of words like "regular" cause private uproar because they are different, and therefore they are wrong. This is ludicrous. JP Spore says it better than I could:

"English itself is a rather complicated, interesting blend of Germanic, French and Latin (among other things). It has arrived at this point through the long and torturous process of assimilation and modification. The story of the English language is the story of an unstoppable train of consecutive changes - and for someone to put their hand up and say "wait - the train stops here and should go no further" is not only futile, but ludicrously arbitrary."

The idea that changes from outside (particularly from another country) are bad and should be resisted is the same attitude that spawns racism. In fact, I think that if you hate the phrase "touch base" because it's American, then you are a kind of linguistic racist.

So if you object to any particular words or phrases I use on this blog, then I have two words for you...

My bad.

The Newfrontiers Story

2011-07-18T08:58:00.001+01:00

I was at the Brighton Conference - TOAM - for a couple of days last week. What a fantastic two days it was! My highlight was the final evening meeting that Adrian Warnock blogs about here. As well as praying loudly for the nations (including Sweden, where Phil and family landed safely the following day) we celebrated God's love by giving, singing and dancing exuberantly. I was shattered by the end of it. Evan Rogers is a brilliant worship leader/fitness instructor. This video is from last year's TOAM but it gives you a good idea:

I went along to a seminar track on leading worship: really useful and inspiring training from Stuart Townend, Kate Simmonds and Simon Brading (I missed Dave Fellingham's).

It was also good to catch up with the Newfrontiers vision. Being in a Newfrontiers church is great, but I often forget about all the amazing stuff God is doing through the movement elsewhere. Reading about the history of Newfrontiers is exciting... from 1 to 850 churches in 43 years is quite an achievement when Christianity is supposed to be in decline.

The important bit is that it's not our achievement (or Terry Virgo's), but Christ's. Jesus deserves all the credit for what has happened so far, and I can only imagine what He might have in store for the future.

Did I mention that this was the last TOAM ever? No, but you knew that already, didn't you? Anyway, the point is this is a time of transition; a key moment in the story of Newfrontiers. It's also a key moment in the Hope Church story, as Nick takes on what Phil started a decade ago.

This is an adventure: to live for God's kingdom on earth now.

Achieving gender equality

2011-06-30T11:15:00.000+01:00

The other day I came across this article about a Swedish school with a gender-neutral language policy. Basically, they are trying to raise the children to be unaware of their gender differences by changing the way they talk to them.

The staff are told to avoid any "masculine and feminine references".
These words (or rather, their Swedish equivalents) are banned:
Him/his
Her/hers
Girl
Boy

They also "read books featuring gay and lesbian couples, single parents and adopted children, instead of fairy tales such as “Cinderella” or “Snow White,” which are rife with gender stereotypes."

The comments below the article make interesting reading.

Although the motives are admirable, I think this kind of exercise is flawed. And, to be honest, a little bit disturbing. Gender is a key part of a person's identity, and by refusing to acknowledge that someone even has a gender, that person will not develop a healthy sense of identity. The point of gender equality is not that girls and boys are actually identical (and we just haven't noticed), it's that they are equal despite their differences.

My friend Phil might come across more of this when he moves to Sweden next month.

Choice and freedom

2011-06-22T18:11:00.001+01:00

This is a response to Dave Warnock's post "Choice and Freedom of Male Headship". This is the main gist of it:

"Male Headship and Freedom of Choice for Women: they are alternatives, you cannot have both at the same time."

Freedom of Choice. That's a human right isn't it? We should all be free to choose. Most of the time, we (in the West, at least) are free to make lots of choices.

We are free to choose what to eat for breakfast.
We are free to choose what clothes we wear.
We are free to choose who we pursue relationships with.

But I believe that when Jesus calls me to surrender my all to Him, I do not have the liberty of withholding my rights.

I am free to choose revenge,
but Jesus calls for forgiveness.
I am free to choose greed,
but Jesus calls for generosity.
I am free to choose malice,
but Jesus calls for gentleness.

To follow Jesus, I must daily lay down my right to Freedom of Choice and say "not my will, but yours". I propose that this statement is therefore true:

Following Jesus and Freedom of Choice: they are alternatives, you cannot have both at the same time.

So the question that remains is "does Jesus call for elders to be male, and for wives to submit to their husbands?"

[Update 24/06/11: Please read my comment below (the second comment) for clarification of what I'm trying to say here]

Newfrontiers: Borderlands Conference

2011-06-20T17:08:00.000+01:00

I spent a damp weekend at this lovely Welsh camp site for a meeting of Newfrontiers churches in our region. Despite the drizzle it was a fantastic few days. God is really good. Instead of writing my own review, I'm going to be lazy and just concur with the last five paragraphs of Dave's.

Interestingly, I went to a seminar on leadership where some comments were made about male/female roles so I thought I would talk about that a bit. The seminar was led by Tony Smith, whose wife Kay also spoke about training leaders. You'll soon be able to download the talk, but for now I'll have to settle for what I can remember.

Tony understands the Bible to teach that positions of governmental eldership of a local church should be held by men. He went on to say that women should be actively encouraged to develop and undertake all other leadership roles in the church.

In an interesting anecdote, he told how after a local Vineyard pastor challenged him on the issue he counted the number of women in positions of leadership (small group leaders, children and youth leaders, worship leaders etc.) The result was that there were proportionately more women in those roles in the Newfrontiers church than the Vineyard church.

Obviously every church is going to be different, but I think that is helpful in debunking the theory that women in Newfrontiers are always in the kitchen or the créche.

Engaging with the gender debate

2011-06-16T16:33:00.000+01:00

My previous post about Newfrontiers generated this response from Dave Warnock.

The issue of gender roles is obviously a hot one, and I've decided that it's going to help me understand the issue better if I engage in some creative discussion around it. So I'm going to read some posts on the topic, and respond here.

It seems I'll be have to tread carefully though...

"I am pleased Andy has dared come through that and say he is willing to engage, although I don't think he knows quite what he is letting himself in for!"

Mm hmm.

Newfrontiers

2011-06-14T08:03:00.003+01:00

A quick search of this blog confirms my suspicion that, no, I have never published a post about Newfrontiers. The word "Newfrontiers" only appears in this post about Newday. The lack of coverage might seem surprising, considering I've been in the movement for the majority of my life. However, despite the absence of contributions from myself, you will probably not run out of things to read about Newfrontiers on the blogosphere.

Notable posts for me have been...
Phil's reasons why he's happy to be a leader in Newfrontiers, and Dave's similar list. Both guys subsequently wrote a post titled "Newfrontiers Weaknesses?" - Phil's here, Dave's here.

Terry Virgo is currently posting a series of videos on Newfrontiers vision and values.

And then there are the anti-Newfrontiers rants that sporadically appear, none of which I would call 'notable'. Hostility towards the movement usually stems from issues about gender, and while I won't dismiss any genuine concerns, nor claim that Newfrontiers is without flaw, it is a great movement to be in.

My reasons won't be much different to Phil and Dave's:
- Commitment to plant and grow churches
- Preaching the gospel
- Teaching the Bible
- Serving the community
- Being a family
- Working with the poor and needy
- Valuing the call of God
- Emphasising the work of the Holy Spirit
- (plus Paul Oakley, Stuart Townend and Phatfish - and that's just one church!)

There's a lot in there to be happy about.

Do dogs go to heaven?

2011-06-09T18:26:00.003+01:00

This book seems quite clear on the fact that yes, you will see your passed-away pets when you reach the golden shore. The author's confidence seems to come from some vague reasoning based on creation and the goodness of God. As you can tell, I'm not convinced. Friar Jack Wintz raises a few questions, like "does God's plan of salvation only include humans?"

That's not quite the same as "is Scruffles the hamster waiting for me in heaven?"

To anyone who would answer that in the affirmative, I'd like to pose a few questions of my own:

1) If pets can go to heaven, can they also go to hell?
2) Do pets get to heaven in the same way humans do? In that case...
3) How do you know if an animal has faith in Jesus Christ?
4) Can animals repent?
5) Can animals sin? (I'm thinking of that time Scruffles chewed up the curtain. Naughty Scruffles.)
6) What about animals who lived under the Old Covenant?
7) Do lower life forms, such as insects, bacteria and plants also go to heaven when they die?
8) If there are wasps in heaven, will they still sting me?
9) What will happen when the Christian cows meet the Christian McDonald's workers?

Seriously, I don't mind people mourning the loss of a pet, but I don't think there's going to be any furry rendezvouses (well, what is the plural of rendezvous?) in the afterlife.

Let's have an opinion poll to conclude:
What are you looking forward to most about heaven?
A) Seeing Fluffy again
B) Seeing Auntie Flo again
C) Being able to fly (I hope)
D) Jesus

Why not ask the audience?

Application

2011-06-07T08:08:00.003+01:00

Hi Andy

Thank you for your application to audition for Britain's Got Talent series 6.

To confirm your email address and receive audition details and updates via email please click on the following link.

Good luck! The Britain's Got Talent Team

_______________________

Oh yes. I have applied. Along with (I'll hazard a guess) about 200,000 others. I'll let you know if I get an audition, but that won't be til November probably.

Result

2011-05-31T10:30:00.002+01:00

Since I blogged that I had a theory test, I should probably blog the result... I passed! I was most nervous about hazard perception, but it was fine really. The multiple choice was a doddle, but I had gone through every possible question the night before.

The best theory test question

2011-05-25T19:57:00.003+01:00

I'm taking a short break from my driving theory revision - my test is tomorrow morning. Hopefully I'll get 50 questions like this (click to see it biggened):

Jesus raves

2011-05-16T18:40:00.003+01:00

I met someone a while ago who was wearing a hat bearing the slogan 'Jesus raves'. She commented, not in an unpleasant way, that it was "probably quite offensive", but I'm not sure. If you associate raving with taking drugs and getting sloshed then I guess it's an offensive hat, because Jesus would never do that. On the other hand, if 'raving' is more about dancing, partying and having a good time, then yes - that is Jesus' kind of thing.

I was in Cambridge over the weeked, and happened to visit a church where Mike Pilavachi was speaking. He talked about how individualism is ruining our society, and parts of the church, but the antidote is living in community - like God. He explained the Holy Trinity as being an eternal dance (not his analogy, it's several hundred years old), which we get to join in.

In the Bible, how often does Jesus visit, or base a parable around, a party/feast/shindig? Quite a bit. What will happen in heaven? Endless quiet reflection and meditation? I doubt it. I'm expecting the biggest knees-up since these guys broke the record for the longest Riverdance. Occasionally, we get little previews of what heaven will be like. This is a great one:

Not only are the bride and groom being launched into the air - the rest of the crowd are dancing around them. I'd be up for more of this sort of thing in church, but unfortunately I live in England.

The dancing headmaster

2011-05-12T19:07:00.001+01:00

This is a fantastic example of someone not taking themself too seriously. Everyone could benefit from a little dancing in the dinner hall once in a while.

Chinese TV turns 'propaganda' for three months

2011-05-09T17:08:00.004+01:00

In July China will be celebrating 90 years of the Communist Party. To get the nation into a fittingly festive mood, they have ordered television stations to air programmes that highlight the wondrous achievements and general fantasticness of the country's rulers. They have also banned crime drama, and programmes that feature time travel.

Wouldn't want to go giving people funny ideas now, would we?

No. For the next few months all of China will be raising rice-wine toasts to their adorable government in front of equally enamoured TV sets. I find this uncomfortable for two reasons:
a) As an Englishman, I can't imagine people celebrating the government
b) As a believer in democracy, I shudder at the thought of communist propaganda

But then some Chinese blogger might be thinking very similar things about our royal wedding.

Brave New World: Utopia?

2011-05-03T07:57:00.003+01:00

I've just finished reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It's a really interesting book, and I would say "ahead of it's time" (written in 1931), but being a sci-fi it shouldn't be a surprise. This isn't a book review. For a plot summary (with massive spoilers) you can read this post. My post will be a comment on the worlds that Huxley creates.

Brave New World takes place in a future 'utopia'. There is total social stability, there is almost no disease, very low crime, high rates of happiness and acceptance of death. However, in order to achieve this the "World Controllers" have engineered a system where humans are bred in bottles, conditioned from embryos to fulfil a predestined place in society, and kept content with doses of drugs and recreational sex.

Within this new world there is, however, "The Reservation" - a small restricted area where human civilisation continues as it did hundreds of years ago; with gods, rituals, rites of passage, solitude, conflict and squalor. John, a central character, leaves the Reservation to visit the outside world, and we see what happens when his archaic worldview clashes with this modern civilisation.

The two worlds are almost opposite, and they are both (to quote the author) insane. The choice is between happiness and freedom.

In one society there is no end to the pleasure, no uncurable strife, as long as you conform to the life laid out for you.

In the other there is pain, life is beset with troubles, but there is also freedom to be an individual.

Which would you choose?

It's hard to read this book without wondering whether the real world is heading in its direction. Is it possible to achieve happiness, contentment and peace without sacrificing freedom?

Only through Jesus.

God knew that in giving humans the gift of freedom, he was giving us the option of messing up. We are not limited to an easy life, but opened up to a life of struggles and conflict. But we have a hope! If, out of our freedom we choose Jesus, then we can have happiness, contentment, peace and freedom! And even though the pain is still here for now, it won't last forever, even death will be forgotten. The hope of spending eternity with God is better than 'utopia', because it actually exists.

Jibes

2011-04-27T15:17:00.004+01:00

David Cameron has been criticised for telling MP Angela Eagle to "calm down, dear". Labour accused him of being a sexist bully.

When Mr. Cameron called Ed Balls "the most annoying person in modern politics", no one accused him of anything.

So when is a jibe just a light-hearted joke, and when is it bullying discrimination?

Would you rather receive scathing remarks, or subtly belittling comments?

I have to remind myself sometimes that one of the fruits of the Spirit is gentleness. Jesus certainly scathed on some occasions, but there's no stories I can think of where Jesus jibed. So the essential difference, IMO, is between a put-down, and a rebuke.

We're often too eager to dish out the former, and too timid to offer the latter.

Palm cross causes offence

2011-04-17T19:53:00.005+01:00

In another incident of "company policy" vs "religious freedom" a Yorkshire man could be disciplined for displaying a palm cross in a company van. Although the BBC play this up a lot with the headline "job loss fear", it's fairly obvious he'll just be told to get rid of it. Displaying personal items in the van is against company policy. That doesn't mean he's going to get fired.

So who's being religiously intolerant here:
a) The company that asked the driver to remove his policy-breaking item?
b) The Yorkshireman who drove around with a symbol of his faith in a van window?

Actually, I'm voting for secret option 'c': the grumbling twit who registered a complaint that a palm cross was offensive.

Famous for being rubbish

2011-04-13T19:26:00.003+01:00

Plenty of people nowadays achieve fame despite lacking much discernable talent. There are some impressively mediocre pop stars, and some downright abysmal ones too. A rarer creature is the celebrity who has attained such status precisely because of their badness. I've already blogged about Rebecca Black's stunningly awful song Friday, (although it's the song writers that take the lion's share of disgrace here) which is now at over 1,000,000,000 YouTube views.

I was under the impression that the whole 'it's so bad it's good!' thing was a new idea, until I discovered Florence Foster Jenkins. At the height of her fame she sang in Carnegie Hall, apparently because of huge public demand, in 1944. And yes, she was utterly appalling. Crank up your stereo and listen to this.

Apparently Florence always believed she was a really great singer. It's pretty sad really. But not quite as sad as a person who would rather be infamous than anonymous.

Does religion or lifestyle make you happy?

2011-04-12T12:27:00.009+01:00

A movement called Action for Happiness launched today. Apparently Britain is glum, cynical and sarcastic (you don't say) and we all need our spirits lifted. One of the founders told Mark Easton that it is needed because of the failure of organised religion to turn back the "tide of narrow individualism".

So how will Action for Happiness achieve what religion has failed to do? With a list of rules of course - the "ten keys to happiness"! Here's what you have to do to be happy:

So, instead of expecting religion to cheer you up, you can do it by yourself - by adopting this new way of life! And what kind of lifestyle is this exactly? Hmm? To me it looks suspiciously religious.

So will it work? It will work just like a shopping spree, a stuffed-crust pizza and a chick flick: satisfying for a short while, but not lastingly and not deeply. Think about how you'd approach the last five keys on the list:

Direction - I am trying to bring happiness to make the world better

Resilience - In tough times I'll just grin and bear it

Emotion - I'll always have a positive approach, even if it's against my nature

Acceptance - I am comfortable with who I am, because this organisation says I should be

Meaning - I find my purpose in trying to make people happy

And now compare an approach to the same keys, but from someone who knows Christ:

Direction - I am following Jesus because He is my Lord

Resilience - In tough times God is my rock and foundation. In my weakness He is strong

Emotion - I'll always celebrate the fact that Jesus has washed my sin away and adopted me as God's own child

Acceptance - I am comfortable with who I am because God loves me as I am

Meaning - I find my purpose in the destiny of an eternal God

The top five on the list are more active - things you should do. Again, there is a massive difference between the Action for Happiness and the Christian approaches:

AfH - do all these things because then you will be happier

Christian - meet Jesus and you'll want to do all these things

Action for Happiness tells us that we can achieve happiness, we can earn grace. It sets up a religious lifestyle for us to follow. Jesus chucks out grace free of charge, He can do things in my life that are impossible to achieve on my own. This makes me very happy :)

What does the sun sound like?

2011-04-08T18:05:00.003+01:00

I'm not sure why I was surprised to learn that the sun makes a noise. I mean, it is a staggeringly large bonfire, and they can be pretty loud. What is genuinely surprising is that from Earth we can pick up the sounds emitted by different stars all around the galaxy.

The universe is stunning. If you haven't already, you should look at some images that the Hubble Telescope has captured. Science is great at showing us how incredible God is.

Standing on eggs

2011-04-06T15:08:00.004+01:00

I'm doing Easter assemblies this week in secondary schools with Shrewsbury Youth for Christ. The assembly kicks off with a cracking stunt - standing on a tray of eggs. Mostly we do this live in the assembly, for the rare occasions where it's not possible, we have this video.

Blog views

2011-03-31T15:27:00.005+01:00

You can now choose to view my blog (and all Blogger blogs, apparently) in one of these five chic formats. My favourites are Flipcard and Mosaic. Simply go to www.quiteabit.blogspot.com/view and choose the one you like best.

Don't try and click the image embedded in this post though, it won't work :(

Lyrics in worship music

2011-03-30T17:53:00.003+01:00

Following my earlier post, which referred to lyrics in secular music, I thought I'd look at worship music under the same microscope.

You would expect that music written mainly to help people glorify God would generally be of a pretty high standard, and you would especially expect that of the lyrics. However, a number of people have argued that we are settling for benign, clichéd and recycled lyrics instead of using the full breadth of expression in worship.

It's harder to write music for congregational worship because you have a number of constraints that just don't exist in performance-oriented music.
1 - Everyone should at least tolerate, and hopefully enjoy, the style of music.
2 - Everyone should be able to understand, and identify with, the content of the lyrics.
3 - Everyone should be able to sing the songs (so the pitch and the rhythms need to be singable).
4 - It has to be theologically sound.

Do these constraints stifle creativity? Certainly, there are Christian artists writing very creative lyrics, but they won't often get sung in church. Take How He Loves (John Mark McMillan) for example, which is very popular, but still not sung often in worship times because it has lines like "heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss".

I do see a lot of creativity in the lyrics of hymns, and in the Psalms. One of my favourite hymn verses has got to be:
Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature's night
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light
My chains fell off, my heart was free
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee
(And Can it Be? - Charles Wesley)

"Thine eye diffused a quickening ray" might sound archaic now anyway, but there aren't many modern songs that come close to that level of creative expression. The best worship song writers are those who can take timeless truths and express them in a fresh, creative way. Matt Redman, for example, is fantastic at doing this. Hopefully, as I write more songs myself, I'll be able to remember my own advice.

Do lyrics matter?

2011-03-28T16:35:00.003+01:00

When someone lists "music" as one of their interests, what is it exactly that interests them? How many times have you heard the following conversation:

A: I really love music, you know, I couldn't live without it.

B: Yeah, me too, what's your favourite chord progression?

Probably not very often. "Music" for most people is not about rudiments and theory, but about glamorous people creating glamorous sounds. At the basic level, both the aged concert harpist and the wild teen drummer will agree that music is about making a good sound. So once you've got your melody, harmony and rhythm prioritised, where do the lyrics fit in?

Can you make a good song with rubbish lyrics? Apparently the answer is "yes", when swathes of young people buy a song with the chorus:
Something kinda oooh
Jumping on my tu-tu,
Something inside of me,
Wantin' part of you ooo
(Girls Aloud - Something Kinda Oooh)

Or what about a song with nonsensical lyrics? Well, the Beatles made it clear that was possible with (among many others):
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen
I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob
(The Beatles - I am the Walrus)

Many people also lament the increase in profanity, aggression and general filthiness that appears in popular music. Rihanna's recent top-ten single is called S&M. But I'm not going to get caught up in that particular discussion at the moment. What I'm asking is do music consumers and artists care about the lyrics they listen to/write?

Actually I think that yes, they do. A lot. Rap music has exploded across the Western world; a new form of expression which is all about writing good lyrics, and lots of them. Amongst the dross that gets churned out song writers are still striving to come up with new ways of putting across the same idea. For example:
Now that it's raining more than ever
Know that we'll still have each other
You can stand under my umbrella
(Rihanna - Umbrella)

It might sound like pap to you, but the point is it's original.

As a final point, people must care about lyrics because why else are millions of people talking about the song Friday, which contains possibly the most feeble lyrics ever written. Here's just a sample:
Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday
Today is Friday, Friday
We, we, we so excited
We so excited
We gonna have a ball today
Tomorrow is Saturday
And Sunday comes afterwards
(Rebecca Black - Friday)

Did God have a wife?

2011-03-23T07:46:00.007Z

We don't have a TV licence at home, so while me and Lis were babysitting last night we took the opportunity to see what was on the box. After an entertaining Poirot mystery, we stumbled upon a documentary called "Bible's Buried Secrets: Did God Have a Wife?" You can get an idea of the genereal tone of the programme from this extract from a Telegraph write-up - "Dr Stavrakopoulou subjects the Bible to radical, rigorous analysis, looking at it not as holy scripture to be taken at face value, but as fictitious religious literature with an agenda to cover up inconvenient truths".

I'm going to respond to the series of points that Dr. S. made in her report.

1) God shared the name El with a Canaanite God. Therefore they are the same God.

I share the name Andy with a proffesional cricketer. I am not a proffesional cricketer.

2) The Bible talks about a "council" of God's agents. These are other gods.

Or, in fact, angels.

3) Evidence shows that the Israelites worshipped other gods. The Bible admits this. Therefore the Israelite religion was polytheistic.

Except that the Bible consistently and routinely condemns the worship of other gods. If you think the OT was written in 200BC then you could be right, I suppose. I'm not sure it was.

4) One of the gods worshipped by the Israelites was Asherah, the Canaanite goddess of fertility, also the wife of El.

So the Israelites absorbed some of the Canaanite religious beliefs and practices? Golly, what a revelation! Thank goodness we have people with doctorates who are clever enough to work these things out. (The sarcastic tension was building, I was going to have to let it out at some point. A straight answer would be "Yes, that's what the Bible says".)

5) There's a spelling mistake in Deuteronomy 33:3, which means that the word translated to mean "hosts", "holy ones" or "saints" actually means "Asherah".

Says who?

6) One (lost) piece of pottery describes Asherah as God's partner.

Does this mean that the ancient Jewish religion worshipped Asherah as the wife of Yahweh?

7) The elevated status of the virgin Mary in Christianity is the continuation of the veneration of the feminine deity Asherah.

Firstly, Mary does not have elevated status in Christianity, she has elevated status in Roman Catholic Christianity. And secondly, no it's not.

Conforming to the norm

2011-03-22T18:30:00.002Z

When I was 17 I realised that I pronounced the word if differently to everyone else. That's right. All my talking years I had been saying "iv" - the same way that you pronounce of. When a fellow student informed me that the proper way to say it was "iff" I thought it sounded weird, but it turned out that everyone said it like that.

So then I had a dilemma: should I change my pronunciation to conform with the accepted standard, or persist with my own unique style? Hmm.

How about when, at secondary school, people noticed that I walked with a bit of a bounce, and started to point it out through little jibes and impressions. Eventually I decided to make a conscious effort to change the way I walked. Was that the right decision? Should I have protected my "individuality" despite the jokes?

A lot gets said about the need to be yourself. It's true, and often individuality is so undervalued. But what "being yourself" actually means depends on how you define yourself in the first place. So if I hold tightly to my identity as English, I might not like the thought of speaking French as a first language. At the end of the day I don't see my identity as being particularly bound to the way I talk or walk, so I don't have much of a problem changing those things.

I do have a problem with the idea that everyone should be the same.

Studying at the Open University

2011-03-17T08:00:00.004Z

You might have picked up that I'm studying English at the moment. I never went away to university, despite being offered a place. A few years ago I started searching for a way to study again, and the OU turned out to be the best idea ever. With all the fuss about tuition fees at the moment, I thought I'd outline why the best option for a lot of people will be the Open University.

1) Time. Ok, so it might take six years to get a degree with the OU, but studying part-time allows you to work as well. Full-time studying is still an option though.

2) Money. Most of my friends who went away to uni paid £3,000 per year to study their course. I paid £1,250 for the equivalent. Except that I didn't, because I got a grant. Factor in the lack of accommodation fees (if you study from home) and just look at the difference. I will finish my degree with a total debt of £0.

3) Flexibility. There is a huge range of courses to choose from, and there's masses of flexibility. Apart from the offer of an "open degree" (a qualification made up of whatever subjects you like) OU also allows you to:
- Take a break for a year or so and come back to studying later
- Change your mind in between courses and study for a different qualification than you first intended
- Transfer credits to/from mainstream university (sometimes)

4) Recognition. Distance learning is tough because you have to be really motivated and have enough discipline to stick to schedule. Thus, OU degrees are valued highly by employers because they show that you have those qualities.

5) Satisfaction. OU is always in the top few, and often the number one university for student satisfaction in Britain.

6) Access. I'm selling the benefits of OU as an alternative to mainstream university, but one of the key advantages is that you can study at any point in your life. Most of the people I met on my last course were over 30 and had families. Open University - it does what it says on the tin.

Dave and Vicky still going

2011-03-14T16:32:00.003Z

I learned two new things today. Apparenly Victoria Beckham is a fashion designer, and she's also pregnant again.

Of course I have never met the Beckhams, nor can I claim to have any insight into their real lives, but I like them. I relish the fact that a very very famous couple are still married and on their way to having four kids. As has been said by others, celebrities don't choose whether they are role models or not, they only choose whether to be good or bad ones. Too many make the wrong choice.

But here we have one of the world's richest footballers and a ex-pop star who have gone through a decade of marriage under the pressure of the media microscope and are showing no sign of cracking. Well done, I say. And how did we find out about the pregnancy? David inferred something while he was at a hospital visiting sick kids.

Keep up the good work.

Pronouncing Reykjavik (and other ridiculous words)

2011-03-10T11:18:00.002Z

If, like me, you've struggled to talk about accompaniments and Icelandic capitals, you'll love this website.

Type any word and the kind gentleman will tell you how exactly it's said. The only problem is you have to know how to spell it first.

I could listen to him saying rhabdocalyptus all day...

What are you living for?

2011-03-07T18:52:00.007Z

On my way through town I spotted this in the window of Costa.

My goodness gracious me.

This smirky, stubbly man allegedly lives for (and let's put them in the proper order, please):
1) Great coffee
2) Good conversation

Whilst it is intriguing that he is not so fussy about the standard of his socialising as he is about the standard of his mocha, that's not the thing that irks me most. I am very much irked by the notion of someone living for coffee. Not only that, but the fact that Costa think more people will want to buy their coffee if the customers believe that the staff behind the bar are living for coffee.

Can you imagine a similar poster advertising celery sticks?

"I live for great celery sticks and good banter" declares a rosy-cheeked grocer.

I'd suggest two responses to the above:
1) Buy some celery because it must be pretty gosh darned good
2) Buy some celery so the grocer can spend the profits on some therapy

Who lives for vegetables and hot drinks? People who have not found anything better.

Things that are worth living for are the things that are worth dying for. Jesus is worth dying for.

Best song about food

2011-03-03T09:40:00.001Z

This is genius.

So long to Sheila's Wheels

2011-03-01T12:07:00.003Z

According to the pink-attired Australian trio girls are "bored beyond edurance paying too much for car insurance". Well, they're going to have to do endurance training now, since the European Court of Justice has ruled that insurance companies cannot charge different premiums on the basis of gender.

So despite the fact that the average car claim by an 18-year old male is £4,400 and the average claim made by an 18-year old female is £2,700, it has been officially labelled as gender discrimination to charge higher premiums to men.

Now, surely, surely there will soon be another ruling that to charge 18-year-olds higher premiums than 42-year-olds is age discrimination. It's only logical.

And surely then it will be pronounced disability discrimination to refuse to insure blind car drivers.

Shortly to be followed by the revelation that it is shoddy driver discrimination to charge higher premiums to people who have a history of writing off cars.

I wonder how much it cost to officiate this silliness...

New songs!

2011-02-22T19:24:00.002Z

I've just finished uploading some of my composéd tunes onto MySpace, yes, the website that 13 - 17 year olds used to waste all their time on before Facebook emerged.

If you have a penchant for acoustic guitar-based music then you should listen to them here.

Penchant is a real word, right?

Images and Web Browsers

2011-02-15T11:59:00.002Z

A quick technical post here, wondering if anyone can shed any light on it?

I've noticed that when I upload an image into a blog post it looks fine when I post it, but if I look at my blog on the PC at work huge gaps appear between images and the text beneath.

I use Firefox at home as opposed to Internet Explorer in the office. Could this be causing the problem?

The Worship Files: top years

2011-02-13T15:39:00.005Z

The graph below shows the amount of songs from each year that I have included in my big worship file.

In 1995 there must have been some kind of annointing on worship song-writers. Basically, this shows that, on average, four songs will be written each year that will make it into my "keepers" list (and one of those four will be written by Matt Redman). A "keeper" is a song that I will continue to use indefinitely in coprorate worship times; one that I think will stand the test of time.

I'm not discounting all the other worship songs that get written every year. Some are great to sing in church for a season, others are fantastic to listen to, and I have a whole other file of songs that I'll still use for personal worship. But eventually most songs get left behind - in terms of church worship times - while tunes like "My Jesus, my Saviour" are still doing the rounds.

The Worship Files: top artists

2011-02-12T15:34:00.003Z

Over the last few days I've been creating a sizeable "worship file" (it's actually two ring-binders) of all the songs I use, or plan to use in worship at some point. I've also put all the songs into a database with authors, dates and key words for easy searching. I love databases.

An interesting corollary is the following list, which shows the amount of songs from each worship song-writer I've included in the file.

Matt Redman	14
Paul Oakley	7
Tim Hughes	7
Brenton Brown	5
Chris Tomlin	5
Martin Smith	5
Joel Houston	3
Beth Redman	3
Brian Doerksen	3
Jesse Reeves	3
Nathan Fellingham	3
Stuart Townend	3
Al Gordon	2
Marc James	2
Paul Baloche	2
Reuben Morgan	2
Simon Brading	2

I wasn't surprised to see Matt Redman at the top of the list. Beth Redman and Jesse Reeves are mainly there through collaboration. There's a whole heap of writers in the 'just 1" club, notable members include Darlene Zscech, Graham Kendrick, Handel, Noel Richards and Vicky Beeching.

Why our culture is obsessed with the story of Jesus Christ

2011-02-10T09:53:00.004Z

This is the final post in a series of "Deep Thought" mini-essays. If you've got a fantastic memory, you'll realise that I've missed out the post on pre-destination and free will. That is because since writing it I have changed my mind. It might appear in some form at a later date, after much over-mullage.

As a youth worker, I am constantly on the look-out for examples from culture that I can use to help explain Jesus. Films, TV shows, music and YouTube videos can all help people get their head around the amazing story told in the Bible. I used to think, “wow, isn’t it great how there are so many ideas in popular culture that reflect Jesus in some way!” Then I started thinking about why that is.

Popular culture is just what it says on the tin – popular. The film makers in Hollywood have one main objective – make successful films that bring in big bucks. In order to do that they need to make films that appeal to popular ideas. So what are the ideas that we see time and time again in the most successful films?

The forces of good overcome the forces of evil

The hero saves the day

The bad guys get their comeuppance

The hero wins the woman

This is the film formula that people like to go and see – this is what makes most people feel satisfied at the end of a movie. It’s a story that’s hard to get away from, but whose story is it? It’s easy to think that this just happens to be the format we like, that there’s no reason behind it other than the fact that it’s tried and tested. But the more I look at it, the more it resembles the story of Jesus Christ.

How often does the hero have to do something completely unselfish, and make a personal sacrifice?

How often is the hero betrayed by one of his closest allies?

You could get confused by the ‘winning the woman’ bit. Jesus never had a romantic relationship, so who did He win?

Ephesians 5 says:

³¹ “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” ³² This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.

Christ will be united to the church, his bride, whom he has won. The story of Jesus is the story of a hero who saves, delivers justice, fights evil, brings happiness, wins a bride and receives his glorious reward. Bearing in mind that there are other kinds of stories – the folk tales of sly animals (Brer Rabbit, Anansi), the mythologies of trickster gods and horror stories where everyone dies – why is the hero story most popular?

At this point I should probably remind myself that it’s just a theory, but I think that our culture is still obsessed with the story of Jesus. The problem is that though we see it all the time, we don’t recognise it. Instead of letting the hero story point us to the ultimate hero, we let Superman replace the Son of Man.

Bran Flakes

2011-02-08T18:25:00.002Z

I emailed Kellogg's yesterday to tell them how much I like Bran Flakes.

They replied today and said they would like to send me a voucher in the post.

I might try emailing Lamborghini next.

Average? Fantastic!

2011-02-05T11:44:00.003Z

Since the amount of web traffic has slowed down I've been able to check the crime stats for my neighbourhood on police.uk. I live on an estate that has a bad reputation, although I haven't lived here long enough to determine just how fair or unfair it is. In December there was 1 crime reported for every 1,000 residents, which is average compared with the rest of England and Wales. No crimes were reported on my street.

I thought about publishing the map here, but I don't want everyone to see exactly where I live, so I'll just show you the breakdown instead:

Nothing wrong with fine wine

2011-02-03T10:37:00.005Z

There are so many good things available for us to enjoy. It's amazing how God designed some of the most basic human functions to be pleasurable experiences. Eating is one I particularly enjoy. Adriano recently posted an excerpt from John Piper about how we are distracted from loving God, not so often by nasty diversions (like going out shoplifting), but by good things that He gave us to enjoy.

Because we don't want to replace the delight of knowing God with other, worldly delights, we sometimes assume that if something is "highly pleasurable" it is therefore dangerous and to be avoided. Take a fine wine, for instance; a Château Les Vimieres le Tronquera perhaps. I've never tried it, but from the £30+/bottle pricing I can guess that it tastes good. However, I'm more likely to think "£35 a bottle! That's a sinfully high price!" and reject it based on the idea that anyone willing to fork out that much must be an elitist, hedonistic, consumerist pig. But when Jesus made His own wine, He didn't make Tesco's house red, it was the best.

I think there's a quietly present attitude that if a Christian had to choose between a flat-screen 38" HDTV and an old 18" box that were the same price, they should choose the naff one anyway because the great one might make them fall away from God. We are determined not to create idols. That's good, but lets not assume that if I am really, really enjoying a rib-eye steak, I will probably become a steak-idoliser.

I just have to remember that however much pleasure I get from anything else, it cannot compare to the riches I have in Christ. So I can be very satisfied after eating a delicious dinner, but I know that the finest food will not bring me ultimate satisfaction, God will. In that way, I think Christians become more free to enjoy life's small pleasures, because they know exactly how small they really are.

So I can carefully enjoy all that is enjoyable, remembering that
"You [God] will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever." - Psalm 16:11

The main pleasure in heaven will stem from closeness to God, right?
But the food at that banquet is still gonna be awesome!

Driving

2011-02-02T09:33:00.011Z

Last week I made a start on my #1 New Year's resolution: learn to drive. At first the amount you have to remember seems a bit overwhelming, but then I watch someone else driving and realise how it becomes habit after enough practice. When the accent poll closes, the next one might be "how long will it take me to pass my test?"

I'm learning in a Fiat 500...

Which has a few abnormal features; it's an "eco-car", the gear-stick is in the wrong place and a light comes on when you need to change gear. Interesting. I'm looking forward to lesson two on Friday, I might turn a corner - literally.

Hope Launch

2011-01-27T13:49:00.003Z

I haven't blogged about the fact that my church has merged with another to form Uber-Neo-Hybrid-Hope-Church - the smallest multi-campus church I know about. A few other people have been on the case though, particularly leader Phil.

Here's his post on the launch events, plus a great one from Dave, and further reflections from Charles.

Hope Church - aka North Shrewsbury Community Church and Harlescott Grange Free Evangelical Church Amalgamated, or NSCCHGFECA (pronounced Nus-chug-fi-cah).

Accent poll

2011-01-21T11:21:00.002Z

I thought I'd put a new poll up as the Bible one had been there for months.

Which accent sounds best to you?
The options are limited and not very specific (I prefer Northern to Southern Irish for example) but I thought it would be interesting.

Feel free to leave a comment with reasons for your choice.

Morality in the human race

2011-01-20T09:31:00.001Z

This is the third in a very protracted series of "Deep Thought" mini-essays. They're a bit longer than my usual posts. This one's not too bad though.

I attended a sixth form debating society meeting once where the topic was “without God there is no such thing as morality, therefore the existence of morals shows that God exists” or something like that. It was a really interesting discussion, and I found that my thinking was challenged, because I would have said the above statement was true, but eventually changed my mind.

I would have probably said something along the lines of “without God, where else could our moral standards have come from?” Now, I’m fairly sure that any society can develop the concept of morality and have moral standards without having any religious/spiritual beliefs at all. I wouldn’t dispute that moral systems can be invented and implemented in society through other things than religion.

However, if you argue that all moral systems are constructs of human society, then no moral system has absolute authority, because it’s all relative. Without God you can say, “it is wrong to kill a platypus for fun, according to the moral code of my society” but what you can’t say is, “it is always wrong to kill a platypus for fun, regardless of the society in which the killing takes place”. In other words, it is impossible to claim that anything is either universally right or universally wrong without a universal standard to compare to. I hope that I is making sense.

Basically, without God there is no such thing as “good and evil” or “right and wrong”, there is only “acceptable within this society” and “unacceptable within this society”. Let’s say we come across an ancient tribe somewhere, who hold among their values that it is good and right to commit murder, as long as the victim was not in pyjamas at the time. We would disagree, and argue that it is not good or right to murder anyone, no matter what clothes they happen to be wearing. However, on what basis can we, the members of society A, persuade members of society B that their moral code is skewed unless we have an external moral code to which we can compare the moral codes of both societies?

Relative morals are like relative tape measures. If my tape shows my foot is 10cm long and someone else’s tape makes it out to me 10km long then how do we know what my actual foot size is? We need a measuring tool that conforms to a universal standard. In the case of morality, I believe that God gives us a universal standard by which all actions can be measured. Without God all you have is relative, unauthoritative rules made up by people.

*****

While I was pondering all this, I thought that someone would probably come up with an argument like this: “there is a universal standard already built in to the human race – pain. Whatever causes others pain is evil, whatever relieves it is good”. That sounds fairly convincing until you come to the question of honesty. Is it more morally right for a man having an extra-marital affair to confess it to his wife, or to keep it a secret? I hope most people would say that telling the truth is the right thing to do, but in this case it would cause more pain.

YFC Staff Conference 2011

2011-01-17T17:10:00.003Z

This is the fourth time I've been, and the third time I've blogged about a Youth for Christ Conference. YFC employees and volunteers are an interesting bunch, and there's a large portion of both the country and the church represented. There aren't many occasions when I'm surrounded by so many people who are passionate about Jesus and His gospel, so they are usually fantastic events.

This year it started miserably though as I had a bug and was ill on the first night. The hotel rang my room to inform me that I was quarantined for the next 24 hours. So I spent the Tuesday sleeping and reading The Iliad.

After that things picked up a lot. The worship times were great, and speakers were inspired (by God, hopefully). In fact, Steve Brady was possibly one of the best speakers I've heard, and not just because he does funny accents.

I was challenged on a number of levels, which I can summarise in a few questions:
- How can we make evangelism more experiential in order to engage young people?
- How can I make more time for Jesus in my own life?
- Am I remembering my brothers and sisters who are being persecuted?
- How should YFC relate to the church?

I also delivered a 3 minute talk myself on how we talk about Jesus.

So we all left with lots to think about. The hard part is actually putting stuff into action instead of letting it become part of the eternal mulling-over soup.

Lexiblographicalistic

2011-01-13T08:38:00.002Z

Phil Johnson crafts a great expression over at Pyromaniacs: "Ersatz enthusiasm and crass tomfoolery".

Er-satz, Adj. Being an imitation or a substitute, usually an inferior one; artificial.

As an aside (one of those "asides" that takes up most of the post), isn't it annoying when you think you've coined a really great original word only to google it and find it already exists? I refer to my "lexiblography" idea, which frustratingly is already the name of someone's blog! Hence the slight extension for this post.

And then my original strap-line "porridge for the soul", which turns out to be a monthly networking breakfast in Canada. There is nothing new under the sun.

Except grupfrootsplakey; I just made that up.

Lexiblography

2011-01-12T14:19:00.006Z

I enjoy language, and I'm actually looking forward to starting my "English Grammar in Context" course. So when I'm reading various blogs I don't just think about what they're saying but how they're saying it. Tim Keller uses a couple of words here which I just love the sound of:

Heterodox - sounds like a society for straight medical practitioners, but just means not orthodox. Unsurprising, but I still had to look it up.

Unction - even Keller put it in "inverted commas" so it must be a strange word. He calls it "a sense of God's presence" which is probably the Christian definition. A web dictionary defines it as "The act of anointing as part of a religious, ceremonial, or healing ritual." Apparently it's also the collective noun for a group of undertakers.

Resolvage

2011-01-10T08:19:00.002Z

As promised, here's a summary of my new year's resolutions. I'd like to point out that I don't see the new year as being a particularly significant time, and that it's just as good to make mid-April resolutions (or, in fact, better, as you don't tend to be as ambitious in mid-April as you are on January 1st). But I've been resolving over the last week or two and here's what I've come up with:

1) Learn to drive. This has been on my list for donkeys yonks. Time I actually got round to it.

2) Be more sincere. I wouldn't describe myself as a flippant, irrational person, but there are times when I think I should stop trying to be comic and just say it how it is. Ee jee, when you're impressed by someone's effort at, say, painting, it's easy to say "that's rubbish" in a way that they know you're joking and you think the opposite. But it's probably more encouraging to them to just say "that's great".

3) Get up earlier. I often find myself wishing there were more hours in the day, and I always knew this was the solution, but it's hard to implement. So I'm going to try getting up at 7am every week-day and see what happens. If any farmers or milkmen read my blog I'm in for a ribbing.

In summary... (or should that be "in wintery"?)

2010-12-31T13:12:00.003Z

Goodbye 2010! Goodbye forever. This has been a major year for me, probably the busiest my life has seen so far.

Planning a wedding and getting married dominated the first seven months, somehow during that time we also managed to buy a house. Working part-time is useful. Also I passed my English Language course and moved to a new church. Changes all over the place.

This Christmas holiday has been great too. Despite problems in the heating, plumbing and vehicular departments we've had a good time with our newly-extended family. Here's a photo I took on Boxing Day while me and Lis were waiting for a neighbour to jump-start the Clio:

I haven't been as active on the blog recently, but in 2011 you can look forward to...
- A summary of my new year's resolutions
- The conclusion of my "Deep Thought" series (hopefully)
- My report on the annual Youth for Christ staff conference
- Fiding out whether we manage to eat all of that chocolate in the cupboard. It makes me feel full just looking at it. Boxes and boxes of the stuff. Golly.

And more exciting events are bound to happen in Baggleswich.

Cheerio for now.

Exciting word usage graphs!

2010-12-19T15:30:00.005Z

I am aware that I started a series of posts a while ago. I'll continue that shortly, but I decided to make a few changes to it and in the meantime I've found this very very interesting tool...

Google and some other organisations with too much time and money have put together a digital database archiving millions of books (in fact they think it's 4% of all books ever published). Using this website you can search all those books for a particular word or phrase, and it will display a graph showing you how the frequency of that word has changed from 1800 - 2000.

For example, if you search for "fish pie"...

You can see how everyone was writing about fish pie in the 1940s, then it trailed off, but is starting to increase again. "Blunderbuss", however, has just been going downhill since 1820.

And then you find sudden changes, like the explosion of "pink pyjamas" around 1914.

Fashion designers commonly refer to this event as the "pink pyjama awakening".

Have a go, it's great fun.

The world is getting more corrupt

2010-12-09T14:30:00.002Z

So says a recent survey taken by Transparency International (not the company that makes acetates). Apparently one in four people have paid a bribe in the last year, and here's what they paid for:

Why pay a bribe?

In sub-Saharan Africa, 67%of bribes were to avoid trouble with the authorities
In the Arab world and Latin America most bribes were paid to speed things up
In Asia-Pacific, 35% of people bribed to get a service they were entitled to
In North America and the EU, most bribe payers say they could not remember why they had paid

Read the article on the BBC here.

So any suggestions on how to reverse this trend? I assume that most people's first response will be to place the blame squarely on "the authorities" who are behind all corruption in the world, thereby avoiding the idea that all humans are naturally selfish creatures.

Science and spirituality

2010-11-28T20:38:00.005Z

This is the second in a series of "Deep Thought" mini-essays. They're a bit longer than my usual posts.

In the previous post in the series I said that people should believe what is reasonable to believe, and these are the things that are evidence-based and observable. I think a lot of people make a huge mistake by subconsciously adding “... and material” on the end (‘material’ as in physical, I’m talking about the material worldview, where nothing exists that isn’t physical). There is a really common argument that a surprisingly large number of people rely on, which goes a bit like this:

- Science does not concern itself with spiritual things, only material

- Therefore science explains the universe in a physical way

- Therefore the universe is entirely material

- Therefore there is no spiritual aspect of the universe

I want to quickly say that I love science. A girl I met at a youth group once proudly declared “I don’t believe in science!” and I cringed so hard I almost flattened my eyeballs, because she thought she was being a determined Christian. Science is amazing! It teaches us astounding things, and gives us understanding and appreciation of the wonderful way in which the world works.

But science does not address spirituality, and it makes me mad that people think by not addressing spiritual things, science has proved that there are no spiritual things. Ok, so religious people used to think the sun went around the earth, science proved them wrong. There are probably lots of examples of religious thinking being refuted by scientific enquiry, but somewhere along the line the idea arose that therefore all religion and spirituality must be tosh, which is, ironically, tosh.

Then we developed this notion that science and religion are opposed to each other, which again is nonsense. But we do tend to separate the two along these kind of lines:

- Science is about finding out the truth through testing and observing the world.

- Religion is about taking a blind leap of faith in something for which there is no evidence.

I think a more accurate definition would be:

- Science is concerned with how the material world works.

- Religion is concerned with how the material world relates to the spiritual world.

Materialists will disagree with my definition because they will certainly claim “there is no such thing as the spiritual world”. But how have they found that out? Through science? Can exploring the human body show that humans do not have a spirit? The statement “there is no such thing as the spiritual world” is nothing more than an assumption.

But... It’s a reasonable assumption, because the default position should be non-belief. By default I do not believe in talking jam, and I won’t until I am convinced otherwise. So it’s fair enough to be a materialist, until someone provides evidence to the contrary. The big question, therefore, is; is there any evidence that a spiritual world exists? Yes. Here are some examples;

Miraculous healings

Unexplained illnesses

Out-of-body experiences

Particularly abnormal dreams, visions, trances

People’s experiences of Jesus

People’s experiences of the occult

The huge majority of the world’s population that recognises a spiritual force of one sort or another

I’m not saying that any of these prove that the spiritual world is there, but it’s evidence.

Most materialists, upon hearing about a miraculous healing etc. will probably claim that there ‘must be a logical (a synonym for scientific/material) explanation’, which is a handy way of addressing the uncomfortable issue without actually supplying any explanation at all. The thing is, a lot of the time there is no scientific explanation whatsoever, and the materialist must comfort him or herself with the knowledge that ‘science has disproved religion’, which is bunkum.

Lets create a scenario, or better yet use a real one. A girl has an illness, someone prays for her to “be healed in the name of Jesus Christ” and afterwards she finds that the illness has gone. The materialist makes ridiculous claims such as, “she wasn’t really ill in the first place” and “it was all psychological”, but why are those claims being made if the materialist is aware that he/she was only assuming the non-existence of the spiritual world to start with? Surely it’s logical, that faced with such an example, anyone would say “ok, maybe it’s reasonable to believe that Jesus really healed her.”

The reason that doesn’t happen is that most materialists are not just assuming that the spiritual world doesn’t exist, they’re determined that it doesn’t, despite there being no evidence that it doesn’t.

Here’s the contradiction: A materialist will often admit that they can’t disprove the spiritual, that the burden of proof is on the believer – the ‘religious person’ needs to come up with a good bit of evidence. But when the believer shows that evidence to the materialist, they react as though it has already been disproved. They will find a reason to utterly reject a spiritual explanation, when they really have no reason to at all, unless spirituality has already been disproved, which they admitted at the start can’t be done.

Can we please redefine ‘logical explanation’ to mean an explanation that is logical, not an explanation that is fundamentally scientific?

The philosophy of truth

2010-11-19T11:22:00.005Z

This is the first in a series of "Deep Thought" mini-essays. They're a bit longer than my usual posts.

What do you make of the concept of personal truth; the idea that what is true for you might be different from what is true for me? The classic case for plurality, tolerance and general chumminess rests on the fact that what you believe is your truth, but what others believe is true for them. There is no absolute truth. When I first came across this reasoning I dismissed it as absolute r*bb*sh (excuse my strong language but I think it’s fitting).

I think I have slowly begun to understand the thinking behind this way of thinking. When you look at the sky you see that it is blue, but how do you know that someone else doesn’t see it as puce? We understand the world based on our perception of it. I perceive an elk, therefore I believe that the elk exists, but what if someone else looked at the same thing and perceived a toaster?

Well, you say, there must be a way to test, to find out once and for all, whether this thing is an elk, a toaster or anything else! But however many tests and observations you carry out you still rely on human perception – we perceive the tests and the results, and how do we know that the test results are true? We have no way of knowing for sure that what our eyes tell us is real is actually real, that what we hear with our ears is an actual sound or a figment of our imagination. The only thing we can be 100% sure of is “I think, therefore I am.” Even if 27 million people all identified the object to really be a piano, how can we prove that those 27 million people actually exist, and aren’t just a creation of my over-active mind?

So this is how people end up deciding that what a person perceives is their truth, because there is no such thing as a “fact”, since nothing can be proven, there is only perception.

There are two main points that I would raise to address this kind of reasoning.

1)1) Just because no one can be absolutely sure whether a thing is true or not, doesn’t mean that there is no absolute truth. Even if no one can be sure whether it’s an elk, a toaster or a piano, there still can only be one reality. Either it is one thing, or it is another, or it doesn’t really exist at all. Nothing can simultaneously exist and not exist, so no matter how much you emphasise that the religious groups have one truth and the atheists another, one group really must be actually wrong. God cannot both exist and not exist, regardless of what different people perceive.

2) 2) People should believe what it is reasonable to believe. In the case of, well, nearly everything, we have ways of ascertaining what is, if not absolutely true, then at least a safe assumption. For example, in reality it is very easy to tell an elk apart from a toaster, and if it was a large brown furry thing with antlers everyone would agree that it’s a safe assumption, it’s reasonable to believe that the thing is an elk. If 27 million people thought it was a piano, it’s almost definitely a piano. No one argues about these things in real life. Not that you can prove it’s a piano, but who would disagree with 27 million people?

Just to illustrate this, here’s a list of things that you (according to the reasoning above) cannot prove to be true, but that I would say are reasonable to believe:

My name is Andy

Gravity exists

The world is round

I could not survive without water

E=mc²

I was born

I will die

If I jump into the sea I will get wet

Hopefully you agree that these things are safe assumptions. Some are safe to assume because they are commonly observed (such as being born), whereas some are safe to assume because they have been tested (E=mc²).

Here’s the thing; why, when it comes to spiritual things, do people completely ignore the idea of reasonable, evidence-based, observable ‘truths’ and say that it’s ok to believe absolutely anything? Just because you can’t be sure that what you perceive is true does not give you a licence to believe any old piffle, like “I am a pineapple” or “my dog used to be the king of Nepal”.

When it comes to religious beliefs, like the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you can’t just suddenly switch to different goggles and claim that it’s “up to you.” That Jesus rose from the dead is either a reasonable thing to believe or it is not. And, in reality, it is an event that either definitely happened or definitely didn’t. You can’t go all fuzzy on the facts just because gravity is “science” and Jesus is “religion” – that’s a false dichotomy.

Basically, the safest approach to ‘truth’ is to forget the whole argument about not being able to know what is absolutely true and pursue the thing that is most reasonable to believe, IMO.

Deep Thought

2010-11-11T17:40:00.004Z

I've just finished writing a few mini-essays. They're going to form a series of posts here, which is a new venture for me. My only other series is Ultimate Twister Destiny Duels! (Which reminds me that it's about time I did another one of those).

Anyway, here are the posts I'll be uploading in the near future:
-The philosophy of truth
-Science and spirituality
-Morality in the human race
-Determinism, predestination and free will
-Why culture is obsessed with the story of Jesus Christ

I could do with some posting advice though. When uploading longer posts (the longest is 858 words), is it better to seperate into two shorter parts? That would make it easier to digest but I'm wondering if it would be better for people to read the whole thing at once?

How to honour Christ

2010-11-09T08:13:00.003Z

I can think of a few better ways than this

The above is now apparently the world's tallest Jesus. That's only if you include the mound he's standing on though, so I'm not convinced. Nor am I convinced that it resembles Jesus, or that it pleases Him much to see the crowds gawking at it and then going home to carry on living unchanged lives.

The saddest thing is this quote from a local priest: "I have never been as happy as I am today," Rev Zawadzki, aged 78, said. "This is the culmination of my life's work as a priest."

If everything Mr. Z worked for was building up to the construction of a very large statue, then I'm worried for the Polish church. The annoying thing is that no-one will ever be able to knock it down without being labelled the anti-Christ.

Turning chewed gum into art

2010-11-04T10:29:00.002Z

I was just going to share this and say how cool it was, but I think there's something a bit more I can draw out of it.

Like Ed, I've noticed a good metaphor in a news story (which, if you're not in the habbit of clicking on every link that appears in a blog post, is about an artist who paints pictures on pieces of discarded chewing gum trodden into the pavement).

God knows the extent of all the filth that the human race wallows in. He sees people who are stuck, helpless, dirty and downtrodden, and yet he stoops down into the dirt where we are, and by his amazing power makes us a new creation; alive and beautiful.

Radioactive

2010-10-30T20:56:00.002+01:00

Kings of Leon have to be one of my favourite bands at the moment. There aren't many songs that I instantly like (by instantly I mean after listening to for 10 seconds), but it happened with Notion, and now Radioactive. So, naturally I had to have a play for myself. This is the result:

If you want to hear the original, much better version, click here. Embedding has been disabled by request apparently.

What's so wrong with Comic Sans?

2010-10-21T16:18:00.003+01:00

That's the title of this intriguing articl e, which pointed me on to this more intruiging website. I never knew that so many people shared my loathing of the terrifying font (although if Blogger let you use Comic Sans, I would definitely be applying it here because I can't resist a good heaped spoonful of irony).

You can buy mugs and t-shirts with the "ban Comic Sans" slogan, and they're even making an anti-Comic Sans documentary. Wow. Now heed this warning:

Medal of Dishonor

2010-10-15T09:54:00.004+01:00

A while ago I blogged about the release of controversial game Call of Duty; Modern Warfare 2 (see here and here). Now there's more controversy over a very similar game - Medal of Honor - which is set in Afghanistan in 2002. In fact, this game offers the player the chance to play as the Taliban as they fight against the invading coalition forces. Following early complaints, the developers chose to change the name of the Taliban in the game to "The Opposition".

Quoting from a BBC article:
In August, Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox called for the game to be banned after it emerged that users could fight as The Taliban. Dr Fox described the game as "un-British" and said it was "shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban against British soldiers".

Note that he does not say it's unacceptable to recreate the acts of British soldiers against the Taliban. I wonder what games Afghanistan would be producing if it had an industry...

Blogger & the ampersand

2010-10-14T17:19:00.006+01:00

I haven't really questioned it so far, but every time a blogger I follow uses the '&' symbol in a post title (for example, "Humility & how I excel in it") it appears in my list as "Humility & how I excel in it".*

I always wondered where the 'amp' comes from, until I learned that the name for the symbol is an Ampersand. You can read about the etymology of the name here (it's not a wikipedialink). But that doesn't explain why Blogger insists on displaying it wrongly. I'm curious, does this happen to anyone else?

*[Update: this bit makes no sense, because when I typed what appears instead of '&', Blogger changes is to '&'. Which is what it should do in the post titles I guess. It actually comes out as &_amp_; without the underscores. Sorry for confusion]

The ethics of ad blocking

2010-10-12T17:20:00.007+01:00

A while ago someone persuaded me to switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox, a decision which I haven't regretted, although I do wonder how some people get so crazy evangelistic about a program that essentially does exactly the same thing in a slightly better way.

Anyway, one of the biggest draws is the ability to add on add-ons to enhance your browsing experience. Last week I installed Adblock Plus, a nifty piece of programming that stops pretty much all adverts from appearing on websites you visit. So instead of this...

you get this...

which is much better. But there's an ethical question here. The income that supports websites and keeps them in existence comes from the advertising space that they sell off. Companies pay good money so that net surfers see their ads. So if all web users installed Adblock Plus then the companies would stop advertising and the websites would go bust.

So if I want to use a website, should I just expect to see adverts as a kind of payment for the service I'm receiving? Not that anyone's going to make much money from advertising dating for the elderley to a married 22-year-old anyway.

I'm back!

2010-10-07T13:48:00.005+01:00

I would love to start this post with a very drawn out "well", but that would have to be spelled "weeeeeeeell" and you'd think it sounded like a very drawn out "wheel" instead. Actually, now I've told you that I can probably do it...

Weeeeeeeell then, I have been away from my blog for a while. That's not to say I haven't been reading yours though! Yes, that's right, I read all about that. Anyway, while I've been cruising around the blogosphere periphery I've been doing all sorts of other things, so much, in fact, that I will have to spill the beans in quite a reduced form. More like drop the beans in a very orderly fashion.

I got married. Wedding was amazing. Wife is beautiful.

We went on honeymoon. Italy was amazing. Food fantastic. Thunderstorm in Venice.

School started again. School for me is work - playing games with kids in drama studios, presenting assemblies in front of kids in school halls, talking about Jesus to teenagers.

Bought a Shure SM58 mic. Started recording songs.

And got internet at home now, which involved quite a bit of phoning, waiting, paying, drilling, screwing, unscrewing and moving computers around.

It was all very necessary.

Also, I've launched a new blog! There's not much there yet but feel free to check it out:
Baggleswich Parish Council

You'll want to live there, seriously.

More funny biblical names

2010-07-26T10:34:00.003+01:00

Following on from my post on best biblical names - I found a guy called Bunni the other day in Nehemiah 9.

Bunni. And he has a friend called Bani, and another one called Kanani.

Bunni, Bani and Kanani. There should definitely be a song about them. And people say those long lists of names are boring.

In other news, I'm getting married in five days!

Naughty figs

2010-07-19T15:33:00.005+01:00

I like reading the King James Version of the Bible, but don't find it particularly more edifying, just more interesting from a linguistic perspective.

Take this verse from Jeremiah 24 for example:

2One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

3Then said the LORD unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.

Tsk tsk, naughty figs!

What will happen to Rover after the rapture?

2010-07-06T12:23:00.002+01:00

If that is a question you've been nervously asking yourself then this is for you...

After the Rapture Pet Care!

For only $10 you can be sure that your beloved budgie will be well looked after when you've floated off into the sky.

I thought it was a joke at first but the website looks pretty bonafide (by which I mean they are honestly certifiably looney). I mean, only a real Christian would think it was witty and originial to make a letter 't' look like a cross in their logo.

And if you still think it's a joke read this.

Slowing down

2010-06-29T09:58:00.002+01:00

That title might be a bit misleading. Actually things are still fairly busy as it is now 1 month and 1 day before Lis and I get marriaged!

But other things are slowing down, notably blogging. Although I'm not going to totally quit, expect posts to come sparsely for the next 2 months or so.

Watch this space for my thoughts about "Wild at Heart" and more Ultimate Twister Destiny Dueling.

In the meantime, let this remind you that you should be cautious about how you blog.

Does anyone remember that old Christian kids' tune:

"Oh be careful little fingers what you type
Oh be careful little fingers what you type
For there's a billion other people
Who could possibly read and then
Misinterpret what you've said
Or you might just say something
Offensive because you had bad
Day but it'll come back to bite
You on the bum
Oh be careful little fingers what you type"

On being let down

2010-06-22T11:06:00.003+01:00

If you follow a football team, you'll be aware that it's impossible to go a season without being let down. If you're an England fan you'll be very aware.

Do we realise just how incredible it is that to follow Jesus is to be a fan of someone undefeatable?

I am a glory hunter - I support Jesus. He always wins.

Heaven is going to be like a massive post-match party, when all the fans come together to celebrate Christ's crushing victory over the opposition. I will be there, jumping around in the crowd and shouting like a crazy person.

Battling for the Christian book shop

2010-06-16T14:07:00.003+01:00

In Shrewsbury we have a Christian book shop called Illuminate. It doesn't make any money, but it's a fantastic resource. Especially when there happens to be a cafe on the first floor, and offices of two independent Christian charities on the second.

Anyway, it's come to the point where something will have to done to stop the shop from closing down. I put this film together, which outlines the masterplan...

Help keep the light shining from Illuminate Trust on Vimeo.

Best Biblical names

2010-06-11T09:38:00.002+01:00

One of the things that seems to deter people from reading the Bible are those genealogies of hard-to-pronounce names that pop up every so often. Whilst I can't say they are my favourite part of scripture, I do enjoy searching through them for names that are slightly odd. It's a similar hobby to poring over maps looking for funny place names. Everyone does that, right?

Anyway, here are some of my favourite Bible names:

- Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (Is 8:3)

- Brothers Uz and Buz (Gen 22:21)

- Joshbekashah (1 Chron 25:4)

- Brothers Muppim, Huppim and Ard (Gen 46:21)

- Everyone loves Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (Dan 2:49)

- Zadok (2 Sam 15:24)

- Lot (Gen 12:4)

- Nimrod (Gen 10:8)

Can you think of any more?

Lego me

2010-06-10T10:55:00.003+01:00

Here's what I would look like if I was a lego person (dream come true).

You can do the same to yourself here.

Exciting realities

2010-06-08T17:27:00.002+01:00

At the moment I'm watching series 7 of the stunning, gripping programme that is 24. For the majority of each episode I am biting my proverbial nails (I don't actually bite my nails). There are so many cliff-hangers it's a surprise there's enough space on the cliff to hang them all. In a word, 24 is thrilling.

I wonder though, how I can be so thrilled by something that isn't real, and not get quite as excited about reality, even when it is very exciting.

History, for instance, bored me at school, and yet I happily read Tolkien's 'The Silmarillion' - a not-so-brief account of the history of his fictional Middle Earth.

Why do people spend hours reading magazines about the lives of celebrities they've never met, and then ignore their actual friends?

I think it's all to do with the way things are presented. Sensational! Colour! Impact! And less to do with the actual content.

There is so much hype about Christmas (most of it superficial) that I could hardly get to sleep on Christmas eve. But the solid, dependable truth of a new heaven and new earth, where there will be no evil at all is just as much a reality. How many sleepless nights have I had because of the anticipation of glory? Well, none.

The media treats Christian beliefs as vague, powerless and irrelevant. Lets adamantly reject that idea. God is not just a real idea, He is a real person. Amazingly, reality for Christians is actually better than anything ever imagined. It's true, but do you believe it?

Soul Purpose 2010

2010-06-04T12:15:00.003+01:00

After last year's exciting event, I was looking forward to SP10 with great enthusiasm.

This is the sixth year of Soul Purpose - a town-wide multi-church initiative reaching out to communities in north Shrewsbury over three days.

It went so fast, yet there was a heck of a lot crammed in. So, I think I'll just do highlights again (in no particular order):

1 - Having an awesome team of young people. I was in charge of a brilliant crew of young guys and girls, who did a fantastic job of gardening, painting, litter picking, chair stacking and eating.

2 - Playing connect-4 with children. By children I mean aged 3 - 6. I won every time :)

3 - Hearing an amazing story about God's power and love at work in a bloke called Mike. How he was changed from a hard, violent, bitter soldier into a man totally at peace, and how God helped him battle with leukemia.

4 - Playing loud Christian music with Try The Polish (the best Christian covers 3-piece band this side of Telford). It might have been too loud.

5 - Inventing a brand new dance called "the strimmer". Ask me for a demonstration.

6 - Although someone did remind me about Team Tumnus, I mostly managed to escape being likened to said faun. This year we were Team Trespass; so called because when we arrived to paint a junior school the gates were locked, so we climbed over the fence. They did know we were coming.

7 - Getting to know people from the area, like Randall, who advised me not to eat too much pork. Very wise.

8 - Having some fantastic times of worship with people from 14 different churches. On Monday we were led excellently by a band from Nexus, which is like worship college.

I'm now about to go on another exciting weekend venture - to a regional church camp in Wales. It should be a more relaxing time, because I'm not as involved. Normally I would be doing worship, but this year we have Phatfish leading worship for us, so that'll be ace.

If anyone else wants a game of connect-4 let me know.