Free Track

Hi everyone, I don't normally do freebies but I really want to highlight Human Trafficking, it is something I have been reading a lot about recently and I feel strongly that it is sub human abuse of all that God has given us. I will do a longer blog post on this in the future but for now this will have to do.

Currently Matt Redman and L27 have written a great single which is aiming to help highlight this. Please consider downloading from here:

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/twenty-seven-million-single/id500399945

I am prepared to buy 3 copies of the song from Itunes for the first 3 who reply to this post (Not sure how that will work but I can figure it out).

The campaign is A21 here is a link:

http://www.thea21campaign.org/

The 21 things you can do is great idea.

You may not like Matt Redman, you may think this is just a bunch of Bible bashers, a cheap promotion and a way to make money but please consider doing this.

Blessings

Paul

Freedom- What is it?

This weekend was a great one for good sermons. Chris spoke strongly on Gal 5.22 and Matt 5.1-12.

But my highlight was Rowan Williams on Radio 4 (Sorry Chris). Other than a great message on freedom, Bonhoeffer takes centre stage...It is worth a listen:

The Archbishop on Freedom (and Bonhoeffer)...

Rowan Williams summarises Stations on the Road to Freedom:

• Discipline
• Action
• Suffering
• Death

(Taken from: Bonhoeffer, D. (1956). Letters & Papers From Prison. London: SCM Press. (July 1944, p170)

He comments on how counter cultural true freedom is. Most people would avoid each of these, freedom for most people is to enjoy life the way they want to. It is about choices and enjoyment. Bonhoeffer provides a critique to this.

It makes Freedom something which is judged according to God's criteria, maybe the Jesus Manifesto (Luke 4) would be the way to express freedom:

¹⁸ ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

   because he has anointed me

     to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

   and recovery of sight to the blind,

     to let the oppressed go free, 

¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ (NRSV)

In Nachfolge (aka Cost of Discipleship or the new addition Discipleship), Bonhoeffer goes through the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7). Following Jesus is the call. Jesus Christ laid down his life freely, no one took it from him (John 10.18).  True freedom is a life laid down.

The link between the two sermons is fruit, Chris concentrated on Kindness and what true kindness would look like. The fruit of the Spirit is what we so want for our lives, but the fruit comes as we follow Jesus Christ and lay down our lives, not endless striving. Fruit takes time to grow.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus Christ, you call us to follow you,
Help us to lay down our lives and take up yours,
That you may produce a harvest in our lives and an overflow to the rest of your creation.
Come Holy Spirit.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit


Amen

N.T. Wright Interview: “Simply Jesus” & Wright Responds to Critics

Great interview well worth a read...

N.T. Wright | Beyond Evangelical | The Blog of Frank Viola:

Frank's blog is a good read and slightly more prolific than mine. As a Bonhoeffer fan he is worth a read!

'via Blog this'

Cycling as formation...

5 Things which irritate me when cycling:

• Other cyclists who don't have lights in the dark
• Cyclists who jump the lights
• Slow cyclists who cycle in the middle of the cycle lane
• Cyclists who overtake pedestrians when there is no space for them to pull in causing me to break hard
• People who think it is funny to jump out in front of me

Other than that I love cycling to college in the cold and wet... and of course I am a great cyclist ;)


Formation is the word which could be replaced with character building but with one key difference. From a Christian perspective life transformation starts with God. Often this comes in humility and confession of sin. Cycling, just like driving with my family, is formational ie patience can be stretched. Jesus said it is out of the abundance of our hearts that our mouth speaks, things will always irritate us, especially with 5.30am starts to the day, or a 3 year old asserting themselves. I cannot excuse myself, but need to continue to be prepared to listen to the things God highlights and others highlight.

Still, I have a new bike which makes my journey in to college a bit easier. It is a shame to put the old bike to rest but having sheared of the pedal, and damaged the bearings, the cost of repair is just not worth it. So I had another formational experience of trying to put together a bike carrier in Ikea car park

God's View of a Woman | Beyond Evangelical | The Blog of Frank Viola

Thought some of my friends at college may like to have a read of this:




God's View of a Woman | Beyond Evangelical | The Blog of Frank Viola:




God's view of men and women is far bigger than our own. I think often we miss it, we concentrate on Jesus being a carpenter for men, that being a man is all about being good at sport and diy, or being a woman is all about being good at craft.

via 'Blog this'

Do you ever feel got at?

If you know me, then you will know only one of the above applies... though when I watched the DVD of my videoed sermon yesterday I did have a very shiny forehead maybe it is 2 of  3.

100th Post

Well today I post my 100th blog post. Something which gave me a little stage fright, what could I write which would be profound and yet at the same time fun?

Well it stumped me, so I thought I would say thanks for reading the blog. It has been a while as I am really trying to both catch up with my reading schedule (I have a mountain of assignments to write), and integrate new technology into life (Kindle and an Android Phone). Both have been recommendations as ways to work better I will blog a simple users guide to each...

Basically I went to my dyspraxia study skills and found that simple things make a profound difference. I have a rubbish memory but have just learned the planets from Mercury- Pluto in about 10 minutes (using mind mapping and story telling) which is amazing, and it encourages me to keep trying. The reason I ended up with the new phone was talking through my organisation (lack of) and the 6 places I keep info of the stuff I am meant to do. Now I have it in one place my pocket!

But I have now been introduced to the world of Android phones, and I am loving it, it will make blogging easier and should hopefully resolve the issue I have in logging in from time to time. As long as I stop playing angry birds...