Riots in England

It has been a  depressing business watching the news media in the last few days. There is no doubt that once the violence in our cities  is under control,politicians and others need to work hard to understand why these disturbances happened and how we can prevent them happening again.
I suspect the causes are many;ranging from poverty to  greed, to boredom to poor parenting skills, and many other things.
Simon Jones makes some interesting points on his blog here particularly the fact that we are all to blame and we all have a part to play in making things better.

This is especially  true of the church whose calling is not simply to be a community at a time when so communities are falling apart, but a community whose task is to build God's Kingdom and share Jesus love with our neighbours, who are made in God's image and loved by him whether they  are criminals or the victims of crime.

I would make one more point.  It is this: The western world has already jettisoned God or appears to be in the process of doing so.We have declared we can live without Him ,but the problem is we have not replaced Him .There is no meta narrative by which we live our lives, and for many no sense of right and wrong, of good and bad.
That is to be expected
It would be naive to think Christian ethics will survive for long in a soceity which has stopped believing in the Christian gospel.
The truth is God is real and we were created for Him.We need Him.There can be no authentic substitute ,nothing else and noone else can satisfy.
The youing people of the UK are like  young people everywhere .They want to know their lives matter ,that they count ,that they are significant .

Our young people need a reason to live a reason that brings  meaning and purpose.

Only Jesus can satisfy that need.

Our dangerous story!

Enjoyed this short but provocative video from  Michael Frost on "The Verge Network

All one in Christ Jesus

On Sunday we continued our series in the book of Acts .We looked at Chapter 16 which describes Paul's second missionary journey ,this time accompanied by Silas.The thing that struck me was that on the journey there must have been many converts, but in Phillipi we are told about only three. The businesswoman Lydia ,the demon possessed girl ,(most commentators assume she was converted), and the jailer.

Three different people who as Stott points out are racially,socially,intellectually and psychologically worlds apart, and yet  are united in Jesus Christ  & become founder members of the Phillippian church.
The gospel  unites in one family those who believe
We also shared communion together.In communion we don't just remember that Christ died for me(though thank God He did!) but that Christ died for all and to create a new community from every tongue and tribe and race and indeed (if we think about the church triumphant ) from every age

I felt a very heavy heart as I watched the news this weekend which focused on the terrible massacre in Norway and the unbearably sad consequences for the victims families that will endure long after the TV cameras and other journalists have moved on somewhere else. Although the murderers motives are not yet fully clear,it seems his purpose was to divide and destroy.
The hope of the gospel is that  ultimately good will triumph over evil ,light over darkness and hope over despair
It is a message that Christians should not only share but demonstrate as well
In the words of a popular song when I was a young Christian- They will know we are Christians by our love

Story of Everything

I never really got on with flannel boards but I must say I love this kind of thing.It is a very clever and original way of telling an old and true story.It neatly encapsulates great truths about God
 I will use it in church sometime soon !






  Thanks to Changing Worship website for directing me to it