| I am posted this here for posterity, its an email I sent to someone in the church after the church family meeting a couple of weeks ago.
( email .... ) | comments: Leave a comment   |
| Recently, we re-organized our house, rooms swapped location where the upshot was that there was no-longer a good place for the television. So I persuaded my wife ... well we discussed it ... that we should no longer have the television, at least for a year.
TV is incredibly bad, it is both compulsive and compelling ... you might catch a minute of a program and suddenly its a hour or 3 later. Programs are designed to catch us and keep us watching, often regardless of the actual content or relevance of the program to our life. I stopped watching TV regularly in these last couple of years for exactly that reason, while I enjoy escapism like Alias, B5, BSG, 24 the rest of the content is not relevant to my life though it can be interesting. For instance, must be nearly a year ago now, we caught a program on how the use of coloured lenses can help some people see better (they had a particular problem or disability don't remember now what it was). It was incredibly interesting but what was the point of it? Has watching it helped me in any way? Did I really learn something from it? Ultimately no.
I should say that my alternatives to TV are not much better, listening to music, surfing the web or playing computer games. Those I need to control in possible a similar way and in time I will.
Interestingly when we where at our Applied Christian Studies course last weekend, I bought a book called "Amusing Ourselves To Death" by Neal Postman. The books is a study on how the medium of media (first the telegraph and now television) has affected our (well specifically American) lives. To borrow a bit from the book:
"...culture in which all public discourse increasingly takes the form of entertainment. Our politics, religion, news, athletics, education, and commerce have been transformed into adjuncts of show business."
Its a fantastic book that I consider a definite must read. I will say more on it later, for now though checkout
Amazon.com reviews of the book | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Study | | Time: | 10:09 pm |
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| | Just finished our first weekend of study for the Applied Christian Studies (Level 3) course that is being run in London (among many other places in the UK). Its quite interesting and I shall write more about it tomorrow, time for sleep now. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | "Your a Christian in denial" quote from Bob (wife) and JP (from church) - 19th September 2003 | | comments: Leave a comment |
| We went to an Alpha / evangelical meeting in St. Johns park last night. One of the local churchs (Mid Sussex Christian Center) has quietly decided to erect a large tent in the middle of St Johns park (with police & council permission). Over the next 4 evenings they are doing worship, prayer and talking about Alpha and coming to God / Jesus.
I dragged Bob along last night, partly for company and partly because I knew it would be good for her. IT wasn't to bad, the speakers, one from Ireland, the other from Northern Ireland, were really good. The one from Ireland was quite interesting for he came from a background of theft, bank robbery and so on.
I went forward at the end to be prayed for, to have Jesus enter my life and soul. One thing I noted during that was his light pressure on my chest that was pushing me back and a few times I stumbled and nearly fell but I caught myself. Afterwards I talked to the one from the North for a little while.
Afterwards as Bob and I where wondering around Burgess Hill (about 9:30pm) we talked a little about the service and a little about the nearly falling. Part of my not falling was simply not wanting to give them a visible "sign" of some work achieved but the not falling actually indicates another thing. The other part it symbolises is that I am in control, I wasn't willing to trust in what he was doing and simply let go.
That is a major problem I have with asking Jesus / God to come into my life and work. I am unwilling to simply relinquish control. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Where You are - FFH | | Subject: | Some Study? | | Time: | 12:46 am |
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| ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) johannisberry and I are considering going to the following year long course.
Its Applied Christian Studies from a group called Anvil Trust, its non denominational.
http://www.workshop.org.uk/
Basically you do a weekend a month going to London (in our case), for 11 months and the study is quite extensive.
As the page says "The Workshop course covers an extensive range of themes in 4 units, 15 modules and 95 elements during 110 sessions."
checkout http://www.workshop.org.uk/programme/ for a lot more detail about the modules, units and so on.
johannisberry has been looking for something like this for a while and came across the prosectus for it while she was doing Festival Manchester last week (Christian week aimed at bringing help to those in need in inner Manchester, with worship, evangilism and so on) and brought it home. I had been interested in doing something like this workshop as well, so it looks like a great fit and means we can explore things together and talk about it. A shared hobby if you like :)
*chuckles* We even get a qualification of sorts if we do it:
"Having completed the Workshop course, fully and successfully, you will be awarded the ‘ABC : Certificate in Applied Christian Studies’ (Level 3). It is accredited by the Awarding Body Consortium (ABC) and by the government accrediting and standards agency the Qualifications & Curriculum Authority (QCA). This means that the qualification is nationally and independently recognised.
The Certificate is unique in being the first faith-based vocational training qualification ever to be recognised by the QCA. It may also offer you credit towards further study should you wish to pursue that path. If this is the case Workshop undertakes to do all it can to help you progress to any further study or development programme you may wish to pursue, whether Higher Education or specialist courses, full time, distance learning or short courses." | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Precious Jesus - The Choir - Leigh Nash | | Subject: | Matthew 9 | | Time: | 12:35 am |
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| Book: Matthew
Chapter: 9
Verses: 1-38
URLs: http://www.dtl.org/alt/nt/matt-1-10.htm and http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/mt/index.html
Story:
Notes:
Jesus only healed those who where brought by someone that had faith in Jesus. His healing was not done irrespective of belief. (verse 1 and earlier in matthew 8)
the crowd believed the miracle came from God
Jesus does not require sacrafice
Jesus came for the sinners, not those already repentant.
John's disciples were disgruntled that Jesus's disciples did not need to.
without Barnes notes, I really wouldn't have got verses 14-17
every healing that occured was because the person had faith in Jesus's ability.
Questions:
Possible Lessons and things: | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Interesting | | Time: | 11:48 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/thinking.gif) contemplative |
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| Was reading the notes by Albert Barnes on the bible, while reading Matthew 8 ... and came across a reference to Luke 14:26-27
Luk 14:26 "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
Luk 14:27 "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
Barnes note on 26 leads back to Matthew but this time 10:37-38
Mat 10:37 "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
Mat 10:38 "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
The contrast between Luk14:26 and Mat10:37 is quite a lot, yes basically they mean the same thing but the Luke version is much, much harsher and effectivly says if you wanted saved you can only love me. At least with Matthew you can still love your family, as long as it isn't more than your love of Christ.
(excerpts from NASB) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| (been a long time in coming - basically lots the drive, interest and will I had in doing this a long time ago - one minute yes this is what I want to do and now its bluh)
Book: Matthew
Chapter: 7
Verses: 1-29
URLs: http://www.dtl.org/alt/nt/matt-1-10.htm and http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/mt/index.html
Story:
These are more teachings of Jesus to his disciples.
Notes:
it is not enough to simply talk about God / Jesus and his religion. You must life by the tenants he has set forth. i.e. not judging, helping ones self (regarding problems - anger, upset and so forth) before you help others.
Barnes has interesting notes on 7:21 regarding the theory that God may equally give the power of healing to someone evil, as someone good. We do not know what his purposes are, nor can understand his choice of vessels.
Questions:
Jesus will let in those that are doing the will of God, how do we know what that is? (Verse 21)
Possible Lessons and things: | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Went to loo and thought I'd read a little more of Galatians 5 & 6, but bible opened on 1 Corinthians 6 & 7 instead (Sexual Immorality & Marriage). Which is quite relevant to me at the moment. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| On the way to work today I was sitting writing up some notes for a book I am working on; all I was really focusing on was Eclipse and what to cover. (okay so there where occasional glances around me). Anyways as I was writing some possible text, from out of nowhere at the back of my mind pops in the word "Galatians'. It needled me for a little till I stopped on the Eclipse stuff and the idea of reading Galatians became clearer in my mind.
Now I've never read Galatians but I did know of it as a book in the bible. I sat for a little while waiting for something else to pop in, like a verse or chapter but nothing came. In the end something did form but it felt more like my mind answering and picking random combinations. (1:17, 1:19, 2:25).
I ignored looking until we had passed Horsham, its sad but true but I feel embarrsesed to look at the bible while "in public". I don't want others labeling me, as I would likely do to others if I saw them reading it. I was very surprised to find that Galatians was in the new testament (I thought it was in the old testament) and had been written by Paul as a letter to lead them back to faith and from law. Boy did I shiver when I was reading it, esp chp 1 & 2. I cannot say more at the moment other than it touched me and that it felt like it was "talking" to me.
I'll write a little more on this later when I have explored my thoughts a bit. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| I have been given a challenge for the week, possibly to discuss at the weekend or else next week sometime.
I asked Rachel, like I do with Christians I get to know and who have expressed knowledge or experience of speaking tongue, what the difference was between what she spoke and [ Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<insert [...] transcribe;>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.] I have been given a challenge for the week, possibly to discuss at the weekend or else next week sometime.
I asked Rachel, like I do with Christians I get to know and who have expressed knowledge or experience of speaking tongue, what the difference was between what she spoke and <insert a language that I cannot even begin to transcribe; which I dropped into immediatly>. She said it gave her goose bumps and then we got chatting about it and about what happened a couple of weeks ago at homegroup. (bursting into song). I asked about the goosebumps and it turns out she felt a kind of ... *wracks brain trying to remember* stirring (I think) we talked about a few other bits and pieces for a bit and I realised that I had a couple of "strange" words nuding at the edge of my mind and basically for 5 minutes it kept intruding into my thoughts as we talked. So I mentioned it and Rachel asked me to say them and so basically spoke for about a minute and a half. She then challenged me to pray to the Holy Spirit to see if I would be given an answer, or an inkling as to what I said. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | John Williams - 01 Hymn To the Fallen | | Subject: | Matthew 6 | | Time: | 01:52 am | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/sad.gif) depressed |
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| Book: Matthew
Chapter: 6
Verses: 1-34
URLs: http://www.dtl.org/alt/nt/matt-1-10.htm and http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/mt/index.html
Story:
These are more teachings of Jesus to his disciples.
Notes:
Questions:
In Mat_6:3 what is meant by left hand and right hand? Is this simply meant as an illustration really meaning both hands, or is it a parallel to friends and family.
Is the secret giving why envelopes are used in churches for giving the collection?
Mat_6:6 appears to suggest that pray should be done in private, how does this gel with the open prayer seen in churches or homegroups?
Matthew 6:6-9 seems to suggest that prayer should simply be the lords prayer because God already knows what we want and need. Like above this doesn't really Gel with any church I have ever seen.
Trouble really understanding 6:22-23. Drawing the parallel back to the idea of having a hole inside us. Do these verses possibly mean: If you are fulfilled you will know true happiness, if you aren't then how empty you must feel?
Possible Lessons and things:
Should not make our charitable acts public to be noticed.Our reward will come from "secret" giving.
Prayer should be done in private
Prayer should be succinct, using only those words that are necessary
Prayer should simply be the Lords prayer.
If you fast do so with a smile and a glad face. It is a private thing and you will be rewarded only this way.
Don't horde earthly possessions where they can be stolen, lost or destroyed. Instead invest in heaven where none of those things can happen. In a sense they last forever.
Don't worry about the trivial things of life, know that when you go to God (and live righteously) he will provide for you all that you need (even if its not what you want).
Do not spend your life thinking and worrying about tomorrow, basically look at what you can do now. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Madonna - 06 - Nobody's Perfect | | Subject: | Help | | Time: | 12:16 am | | Current Mood: | depressed |
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| | Anyone recommend a verse / verses to cheer up a soul? | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
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