Monday, Monday, so good to me

Monday mornin', it was all I hoped it would be'

Okay, the Mammas and the Papas were singing about lurve, but what do we hope Monday will bring? Or more importantly, as I was getting ready for the week ahead, what is our / my focus for the week?

I was looking at more than a dozen emails in the inbox, a to do list that despite my best efforts seemed to have some items slipping into the red overdue colour and a calendar with several meetings I need to prepare for.

As I sat looking at the above I realised that all these things are secondary, my focus and starting point is God. Working for a Christian organisation makes that quite obvious, but it is still easy to slip into task mode, when sometimes vision and goal mode is where we need to begin.

Why is Monday morning so good to me? Because God is with me.

How is Monday going for you?

Darren

Halloween, a nightmare on your street?

On the main SU site there is a really good piece about how to talk to children about Halloween, you can read the whole article here. However, I thought it might be interesting to get a few thoughts from anyone reading this this blog. In particular I wanted to point out this paragraph...

Modern times
Churches and individual Christians will differ in their assessment. Some will see Halloween as a harmless bit of fun quite detached from its pagan origins (but we need to note that Samhain is still a key festival for modern Pagans); others will see it as direct involvement with the occult. In between is a whole range of views. If you are discussing this with your children be clear on your own point of view first, and then be clear about the position taken by your own church, which may be different.

What do you think? How do you use the Bible and prayer to find your own point of view? What part does personal experience play?

I tend to place myself toward the 'harmless fun' end of the spectrum, because God is all powerful and Christ has the victory. However, I haven't had to help anyone who has been involved in the occult and now wants nothing to do with it.

So, what do you think?

Darren

Calm in the chaos or chaos in the calm

It's all a matter of perspective.

Of course saying that is easier than living it out. The fact that my bath currently has a leak is a real pain, causing misery to the whole family - you try telling a 16 year old boy he can't have a shower.

But then the pain I'm going through is nothing like someone who is facing a terminal illness. Or to take things further, to those who don't even have running water.

However, these things do cause us anguish.

When things get a little too much I often take a moment to reflect on Mark 4:35-40, where Jesus calms the storm. Both Jesus and the disciples are in the same position, they are both being battered by the chaos that is the storm. Jesus though, remains calm and... well you go and read it.

One of the activities in WordLive suggests the following:

Bring to God the bad news in your life right now – the things that just don’t
make sense, that seem chaotic. The hurts, family rows, disappointments, the
betrayals and setbacks, the broken hearts, broken dreams… here

We may be in the midst of chaos, but we can focus on the calm. How do you stay calm in the middle of a storm, or if you don't, vent a little here in the comments.

An eye for an eye, and the whole world goes blind

There's a video on this week's WordLive talking about whether it is right to treat people badly if they've wronged us.

What role does justice, and our sense of personal justice - take a look at the news most days and you'll see people claiming that justice has been done through the retribution of the courts, play in all this? Should we forgive and forget? Is incarceration an outmoded form of revenge?



So what do you think? Why not leave a thought in the comments or make a video response on youtube, we'd love to see what you think.

Darren

Go to all nations in my Christian ghetto

In today's WordLive we see Paul talking about the relationship between Christians and non-Christians. And this activity asks us to think about our close relationships. In essence, which of these relationships may cause an issue in our relationship with Jesus.

This made me think of another seeming paradox in our faith journey. We should only be close friends, or work closely, with other believers. And yet we know that one of the most effective forms of telling others about Jesus is to come alongside them, befriend them and show them God's love.

So, how do we apply these verses in our lives today? And yes, I'm asking you, and being deliberately provocative too :)

• How do we avoid working and living in a Christian ghetto?
• Should we leave our jobs if there are non-Christians working there?
• How friendly can we be with non-Christians?

Those are my questions, but what about you? Do you have any good or bad experiences that could shed some light on what Paul says? Leave a comment and let's begin the conversation.

Darren

God's guidance; clear as mud?

How often have you heard, or used, something like the phrase, 'I'm pushing some doors to see if they open,' with regard to God's will and guidance in life? I can answer 'quite often' to both.

But after reading today's WordLive and thinking about the picture there, I'm becoming less than sure of using it again. Pushing doors to see if they open is more about finding a way through a maze than being guided by the Divine. After all, in a maze we can end up going down many cul-de-sacs. Jonah pushed a door and ended up going the complete opposite way to God's will for a time.

I wonder if the problem is that we see guidance as a means to an end. 'God guide me to where I need to be'! When there is no clear answer, we feel God hasn't responded.

However, what if the destination isn't as important as the journey? Then, the way we travel, the words we say, the things we do can become God's will and be guided. Perhaps we are never meant to 'arrive' but always 'travel', seeking God every step of the way.

Darren

Straight talking?

Straight answers aren’t common just now. Even Buckingham Palace struggled to know how to respond to reports that the Queen let slip that she supports West Ham. A spokesman said, ‘Which team she supports is not something we would know"’.

Meanwhile the ‘Lockerbie bomber’ story just isn’t going away. In the Scottish Parliament, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill again defended his decision to release the bomber. But it wasn’t enough to stop the SNP government being defeated over its handling of the case.

South of the border the repercussions continue too. Maybe the apparent lack of straight answers is a factor. A government minister seems to have accepted that trade was after all a factor in discussions in 2007.

As if that weren’t enough, the issue of compensations for victims of IRA bombs made from Libyan supplied explosives has emerged again. Does the government support it or not? Perhaps the simplicity of Paul’s (and more importantly God’s) answer ‘Yes’ (2 Cor 1:18,19), would be a good example for all contemporary politicians and leaders.

On a lighter note (so to speak), the essence of England has been captured in a perfume called By George!. It was produced for VisitEngland, to promote the country during the Ashes series.

Those who smell it are apparently being taken on ‘a journey through an English seaside garden with salty sea air notes mingling with damp earth, garden mint, carrots and beetroots and freshly cut grass’. All of this is wrapped up in the ‘subtle exhaust fumes of the lawnmower’. Perhaps.

Paul said that Christians bear the ‘aroma of Christ’ (2 Cor. 2:15,16). I wonder how he would have described that particular perfume?

Emlyn Williams