Christmas already?

So i was doing my weekly shop at a store that cannot be mentioned in case it classes as advertising, but suffice to say it was big, blue and white!

So i was doing my weekly shop, and i walk down the cheap stuff aisle, which also happens to have summer stuff in it too. So i walk down and what do i see but chocolate coins, selection boxes and chocolate Santa's.

I couldn't help but exclaim out loud "what?" I wasn't the only one thinking that, the lady who was also in the aisle looked at me and replied "I know, when the kids can get Christmas stuff all year round it doesn't make in very special anymore!"

This got me musing, hence the blog post!

Christmas, any Christian knows what it's about, and most people have an idea too, even if it is a little skewed. It's there in the name. Christ-mas. It's about Jesus Christ becoming a man. Well a baby to be exact, but man in the mankind sense!

But that isn't what i was thinking about. I was thinking about Christmas all year round. Is it such a bad thing? From the crass commercialism it probably is, but it certainly isn't wrong to remember that God the Son came down to earth as a vulnerable baby, and lived a perfect life on earth. Why? Well as Romans 5:19 says "For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous." Through Jesus becoming man and living a perfect life, the life that Adam and his offspring could not live, he makes many righteous. He is the model man.

That we should remember each and every day. That Jesus came to earth to make us righteous. It's not what we do ourselves, but what he does. We cannot live the perfect life, because we are children of Adam, and are therefore born in sin. But through Jesus' life, and consequently death, we can be made righteous.

So, Christmas, is it a bad thing that it's already in the shops? Not if it reminds us that God came to earth as a vulnerable baby so that we can be righteous.

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds

I was sitting at my laptop, having a bit of a surf before bed, and i clicked onto one of my favourites - a sweet shop website, yummy yummy.

Now i'm quite a big fan of sweets, as anyone who ever comes to our house will testify, and i love the selection of sweets that are out there. You can get anything from aniseed balls to Drumstick lollies, Double dips to chocolate drops.

Now as i started this blog i don't really know where it is going. I think i wanted to say how cool sweets were.
But it also reminds me slightly of the Bible. The Bible is full of sweet truths. The sweetest being that Jesus died for us, all because God loves us mucky tasteless people.

Someone once said to me that i should get excited about the Bible as much as i do about sweets. Shouldn't we all? The Bible is so much better than sweets because the truths and promises inside are going to last forever.

The next time you're tucking into a pack of Haribo, or unwrapping that Wham bar, remember the goodness of God, the sweetness of His love, and the everlasting place that has been prepared for us with Him.

It's lunchtime, i've just eaten some chocolate cake, and i'm sat on reception, so i thought i'd write on my blog.

Not much has been happening, although what is taking most of my thoughts at the moment is an essay that i have on the providence of God. basically How God is in control of everything at all times, how he is caring for his creation and how he is keeping his creation.

many people find it hard to beleive in a God that knows everything about us and our choices. This has led to a new school of thought called Open Theism, which after a brief look for my essay, doesn't really make sense. The open Theists basically say that God doesn't know the outcome of our choices, and he isn't in control of them. To my mind, this limits Gods power. It makes him not all knowing and infinite, but finite.

Another issue that people have is the issue of evil. If God is in control of all things then surely he can't have wanted evil to come into the world. So some people say that evil is outside of God and his power. On some level i agree with this. God hates evil, and cannot do evil. But if evil entered the world without God knowing it and wanting it to then that makes evil not in his control and therefore God isn't in control of absolutly everything, which again in my mind doesn't sit so well.

Now i'm not sure where my conclusion is taking me, as i haven't finished the essay and reading yet, but one thing i know and trust, is that God is an almighty, all knowing, all powerful God. He can be trusted to bring what he wants to pass in our lives. I know that he has a plan for us and he sent Jesus to earth, to take the punishment that we deserve for our rebellion so that we can be brought into his glorious new creation as his children.

Back to School

So at the age of 27 i have decided to go back to school. The school is the Wales Evangelical School of Theology, otherwise known as WEST, and i have gone to study there for three years on a BA in Theology.

it's an exciting time for me and my wife, and i look forward to what i am going to learn. I have already learnt the Hebrew alphabet and will probably keep writing some of the things that i have learnt.

One thing that i have learnt and will look into, is what use are the intertestamental writings, books like 1,2 and 3 Maccabees and the Testament of Job. Are they useful for interpreting the NT or are they all just a load of rubbish?

Currently i'm erring on the "they are pretty much rubbish" argument! Why look at them, when you could just look at the OT, which is probably what Paul did when writing his letters. However, it is a controversial point and will look into it some more!

Anyway, back to my Hebrew learning!

Faith that works?

After having spent 2 weeks up in the rainy lake district, at the Kewsick convention i have decided to put some thoughts down!

For 2 weeks we were looking at faith that works. First from James and then from Proverbs and Hebrews 11. Some very challenging stuff. But one thing that has stuck with me in particular is something that one of the speakers said (i can't even remember which one!)

He said Faith in God doesn't keep you from the hard times, but keeps you through the hard times.

Being a Christian doesn't make life easy but it does mean that we have something to hope for. I thought that was awesome, so thought i'd share it!

Chosen by God?

It's been a while since my last post, but i haven't felt like i have had much to say, but this is something that i have been thinking about today with the youth groups that i do on Wednesdays. It is based around this verse in 1 Peter.

1 Peter Chapter 2 vs 9-10 (NIV)
"⁹But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."

I was thinking alot about this, about what it means to be the people of God. It's quite hard to put into a blog post but being part of the people of God means so much. Peter lists these in verse 9

• A chosen people -God chose us. Can't be bothered to go into predestination here, but all we need to know is God wants us to follow him. That is why he sent his son to earth. That is why Jesus died in our place.
• A royal priesthood - the priests used to be the people for Israel who taught them about God, who interceded to God for them, who helped them worship. Now we don't need priests for that, because as Gods people we are all priests. We don't need to go to someone to get our sins forgiven, we just go to God. We don't need to pray through anyone else, we can pray directly to God. I'm not saying that we shouldn't have ministers and pastors and youthworkers, but that they are not neccesary for us to have a relationship with God. They are just gifted people who can explain the Bible to us, to help us worship God in our own lives
• A Holy nation - Our ultimate allegience isn't to our earthly country, like the BNP might have you beleive, but we have another nationality (Peter describes us as aliens, or foreigners in the world). Our nationality is as the Holy people of God, and our home is in heaven. Holy just means that we are separated for God, we are special to him.
• Belonging to God - This is my favourite bit, and one of my young people summed it up. He said "When we have belongings we often care for them and look after them because they are special to us, and this is what we are like for God." This really struck home for me. Belonging to God means that he cares for me, he wants to look after me, he wants the best for me, and he will never let me go. I am his. That is an extremely, awesomely, encouraging thing to know.

Why on Earth would God go to all that trouble? Why did he send his son to die in our place?

The end of verse 9 tells us the answer to that. He did it so we can praise him. So we can say how great our God is. He called us out of darkness. That is what we should do as Christians. We should live our lives as praise to him. That means our whole lives, every aspect of it. Everything we say, everything we think and everything we do. We should be thinking "hey i'm a holy nation, am i acting like it?" or "is this thing that i'm thinking about really praising God."
It's not easy, and it wont save us. But it sure is a good thing to do. Praising the God who called us to himself, who made us this special people, who cares for us should be what i want to do with my life.

It is astounding this passage. It really challenges me, but it also encourages me. I belong to God. He cares for me, he will look out for me. Living my life for him is the least i can do!

What, Jonah again?

Yes, i know i wrote about Jonah last time, but i thought i'd write a bit about what i learnt writing some stuff on this at the youth conference i just done!

The Book of Jonah tells us a lot about God. He's in control. Of everything. Firstly, the storm. God sends an almighty wind, so big the sailors are scared. Secondly he's in control of the dice. God makes the dice fall on Jonah. Thirdly, God is in control of the fish. He sends it to swallow Jonah and then puke him back up again. Fourthly, God is in control of the weather. He makes it hot so Jonah gets hot. Fifthly, God is in control of the bush. He makes it grow. Sixthly, he is in control of the worm. He sends it to kill the bush. That covers quite alot of things, both big and small.

We also see from the book of Jonah that God loves to save. He saves the sailors from the storm, he saves Jonah from drowning (this might sound odd that we class being in a big old fish saved, but Jonah sees the depth of the see as dead, or Sheol, and the fish isn't) and then God saves the Ninevites because they repent. God ends with a question - why shouldn't God care for a city of 120,000 people that are lost and don't know how to not be? That is the point. We see fully that God cares for everyone, not matter who they are and if they repent then he will have mercy and turn away from his promised judgement, because he hates sin.

That is why he sent Jesus. To take the punishment in our place, so all we have to do is repent, turn our backs on our sinful life, and live for Jesus with him in charge of our lives. Then we are called heirs of God with Christ. Which means that we have a place in heaven with God, which is pretty amazing.