Review Award - Chris Duffet

< Living to please God | Index | No later items >

Our second 'Review Award' goes to Chris Duffett. He richly deserves it for his lively, fun and very different blog called 'be the light'. A very special blog from a very special guy - both focussed on sharing Jesus.

Chris lives within a few miles of me in the East of England. We've met several times but not as often as I'd like. His blog is called 'be the light'.

The first time I went to visit him he was baking bread and we shared some straight from the oven with butter, cold meat and salad. Scrumptious!

Chris is a baptist, meets with a local church in Bedfordshire, and is very active in sharing the good news about Jesus in some unusual ways. Visit the blog and you'll see exactly what I mean.

Why I like the blog - I have to say right away that the thing I most like is the sheer, abundant, happy life and energy of this site. And that is a good description of Chris himself. He describes some of his city centre adventures with us - always fun, always unexpected, always exciting. And he meets people everywhere he goes, making no distinction on grounds of appearance but blessing everyone in some very inventive ways.

Another thing I love (and it has a lot to do with that inventiveness) is that he makes people think, he gets in 'under the radar' and touches hearts and minds. It doesn't work with everyone of course, but Chris doesn't give up or bear grudges or get disappointed. He just keeps on keeping on with a smile and a warm heart.

Selected quote

I have a passion to enable Christians to let all kinds of people connect with the good news of Jesus through creative initiatives such as ‘Get in the picture.’

Conclusion - We tend to be fairly inactive in sharing the good news with local people. There are probably many reasons for this, and one of them is lack of ideas. Most of us understand at a very intuitive level that handing out tracts or stopping busy people on the street is unlikely to be effective. But we don't know what else to try.

We need something more arresting than a tract. Instead of stopping busy people we need them to choose to stop because they are puzzled or intrigued or amused. Chris's website 'be the light' is crammed full of ideas. What's more, they are all ideas that have been tested on the street.

Chris's approach is not the only one open to us. But it is a useful component in our tool-kit. Don't forget the other tools including prayer, a compassionate heart, the day-to-day guidance of the Spirit, and the headship of Jesus. But armed with these (as Chris clearly is), any one of his ideas is likely to be fruitful.

Read through some of the many examples in the 'Stories' section of Chris's website. Here are a few of my personal favourites

• A new coat for Jeff
• A typical day and some free fruit
• Hearts on the doors in Peterborough
• Free hugs, people really need these
• The stone crocodile
• The gate in the marketplace
• Doughnut handout

See also: An earlier review of Chris's blog

< Living to please God | Index | No later items >

Coventry Cathedral - Index

(See indexes on other topics)

In November and December 2011 I began to feel Father wanted me to travel to Coventry and visit the Cathedral and that he would speak to me as I did so. I made the visit on 9th December and he did indeed show me a variety of things on that day.

This index page collects together a series of posts about the visit, what was revealed, and how the revelation has gelled and developed since then.

1. Coventry Cathedral - Visiting the old and new cathedrals
2. Hearing from the Spirit in Coventry - Truth poured out like a flowing stream
3. The centrality of Christ - What does it mean for Jesus to be central in our lives
4. Oneness and reconciliation - We are all one, in and through Christ
5. New and old in church life - How the two relate and benefit one another

Snowdrops in the rain - INDEX

(Click the photo for a larger view)

Snowdrops in the rain at Moggerhanger - Photo taken 20th February 2011

Moggerhanger Park has a fine collection of naturalised snowdrops in its areas of woodland. Last year I was able to capture a photo of these beautiful flowers liberally coated with raindrops.

See some other image posts (scroll down when the page loads).

The centrality of Christ

< Hearing from the Spirit in Coventry | Index | Oneness and reconciliation >

This article returns to the results of visiting Coventry Cathedral late last year and considers some aspects of  what it means for Jesus to be central in our lives. It's all about him.

Back in December I posted some reflections on my visit to Coventry Cathedral. I always intended to revisit those thoughts and now I'm beginning to see how it all fits into the bigger picture.

Jesus really is building his church, just as he promised he would. I'm seeing it now much more clearly.

I'm seeing it in what is happening in my own life and I'm seeing it in what others are writing, saying and doing. This is so exciting!

Here are the topics from the previous post in this series. I'm going to expand on the first one this time.

• The centrality of Christ, his majesty and glory.
• Oneness with Jesus and in church life, reconciliation.
• New and old in terms of church. They are connected. We need to remember the old but live in the new.
• The old was brought down by intense fire.
• The new is a different kind of structure.
• Jesus expresses himself through the new.
• The new touches the world and should transform it.

At Coventry - There was so much about Christ in the two cathedrals.

The enormous tapestry at the northern end of the new building is very striking. It is so large (it weighs more than a ton) that it dominates that end of the building and is clearly visible from every part of the nave.

One thought that was sparked by looking around the new cathedral was this - 'The view is very different depending whether you are looking towards me or away from me.' And that is so true of our view of Christ. He can only appear to have a central place if we are looking towards him. If we look away from him we will not see him at all!

There is also a strong theme of reconciliation in both old and new, and reconciliation is essential if we are to be one.

The centrality of Christ - It's just not possible to overstate the importance of this. If Jesus is not central in my life, who is in control? Often we fail to see what it means to have him central in our lives, or we begin to see but shudder and quickly move on to an easier topic.

What does it mean?

He said, 'Pick up your cross and follow me'. He said, 'I will build my church'. He said, 'I am the way, the truth and the life'. And he said, 'Nobody comes to the Father except through me'.

Some negatives - I must lose any ambition I have, and cease any attempt to make my life 'safe'. I have to give up what I regard as mine and see that it is all his - and always was. I have to die to self and I have to let go. I have been called to a new life and a new way of life. I have to see that if I lose my life while honouring Jesus that will be better for me than keeping my life. I have to understand that just as the world was implacably against him, so it will be against me too. I have to appreciate that with Jesus in charge my life may at times be very hard and unpleasant.

It's taken me a long, long time to discover that I am no good at managing my own life.

The positives - But if some of this sounds very negative, it's because I'm relating it from my point of view. What will we find if we view it from Christ's point of view? In John 17, just before he went out to be arrested in the olive grove, we are allowed a glimpse of Yahshua at prayer. We get to hear him setting out his deepest heart's desire before the Father.

In verses 1-19 he prays for his disciples, and there are one or two principles we should consider carefully.

• In verse one, Jesus asks the Father to glorify him (the Son) so that he can give glory back to the Father. He cannot give what he does not have. Make a mental note of that. It's true for all of us, isn't it? We cannot give something we do not have. Remember that.
• In verse two he makes it clear that he has authority over everyone.
• In verse three he says that eternal life is to know the Father and the Son.

But from verse 20 to 24 he prays for you and me. He prays for everyone who believes in him because of his followers' words. In the light of the three principles listed above, we need to understand these next five verses in the deepest places of our hearts and minds. Here is where we find the positive set out for us!

• He prays that we will all be one, just as he and the Father are one. Just as he is about to give himself into the hands of those who will kill him, his thought and prayer is for our unity. Do we attach as much value to unity as he does? We should! It is the first thing he asks for us at this terrible time. He puts it ahead of everything else - and so should we. Jesus is our unity! We are one in him, he is central. That is the only basis for our oneness. If we are not one in him, we are not one at all.
• There is a purpose for our oneness. We are to be one so that the world may believe that the Father sent the Son.
• And now hear his words in verse 22. These words will change your life forever if you allow them into your heart. 'I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one.' Hang on a minute... The Father has given his glory to the Son. And now the Son is giving it to you? Why would he do that? 'So that they may be one as we are one.' If you stop reading at this point and just reflect on this single verse for the rest of the day, that is OK by me.

In the last two verses of this amazing chapter Jesus prays again for his followers.

What Jesus wants - Now ask yourself, what does Jesus want from us? The answer has to be unity with one another, doesn't it? And remember that first principle - we cannot give what we do not have. We cannot give Jesus what he wants from us unless we have unity with one another.

So if Jesus is to be central in our lives the implication and the requirement is that we are one people, one church.

He has given us the glory that the Father gave to him so that we may be one. Our unity is worth everything to him.

Remember the other two principles - he has authority over everyone - eternal life is to know the Father and the Son. That authority and that life are also ours if we are in Christ. Truly Christ is central.

He is majestic - His majesty arises from all of these things. That majesty cannot be separated from the glory that he receives and bestows, from the oneness we have in him, from his authority over all, or from his life that lasts forever.

'The Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.' (John 5:19)

'Apart from me', Jesus said, 'you can do nothing' (John 15:5).

< Hearing from the Spirit in Coventry | Index | Oneness and reconciliation >

Has the Bible been modified?

If we are to trust the Bible we need to know that it faithfully reproduces what was written by the original authors almost two thousand years ago, or earlier. It turns out that the Bible stands up to scrutiny better than any other ancient book.

The Bible is not really a book in the normal sense, rather it is a library of books written at different times and by different authors. Some versions of the Bible may include or exclude particular books for a variety of reasons.

But what can we say of the accuracy by which the books have been copied over the years and centuries since they were originally written? And how do the books of the Bible compare in terms of reliability with, say, Plato or Aristotle, Caesar or Cicero?

Surprisingly, we have a great deal of evidence for the reliability of both Old and New Testament books. Far more than we do for any of those other ancient books.

This is well-summarised in a web document by Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM).  Here's a claim made on that web page. Take a look at the page itself for the supporting argument.

The New Testament documents are better-preserved and more numerous than any other ancient writings. Because they are so numerous, they can be cross checked for accuracy... and they are very consistent.

Notice especially the table that shows how other respected ancient documents don't even come close in terms of early copies.

This section from an article on Wikipedia supports the accuracy of the New Testament, while another article, Textual variants in the New Testament, actually lists them for us. The majority are very minor indeed.

Whatever we may say about the comparisons to be made between the Bible and other ancient books, we may be quite certain that the Bible we read today has been faithfully copied. The New Testament we can buy and read today is very, very close to the original works written almost 2000 years ago. For the vast majority of the text (99.5%) the match is perfect across all copies.

Translation - Doesn't translation affect the meaning of the text, changing it from the originally intended sense? The purpose of good translation should always be to render the original meaning in a different language as accurately as possible. Many of the Bible translators have gone to extreme lengths in research, learned debate, discussion, checking, inviting critical comment, reviewing and revising. All this before they even consider printing a new version.

A far greater danger would be lack of translation, with less knowledgeable people trying to understand the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek and probably making mistakes.

Paraphrase versions, like the Living Bible and idiomatic translations like The Message do their best to make the text more readable. These are not intended to replace the formal equivalence of more typical translations, but they can be an excellent way to introduce the Bible, making it more accessible and providing impact and immediacy.

Study aids - For serious study I recommend reading several modern translations along with Hebrew or Greek interlinears, good commentaries and Bible dictionaries (giving the range of meanings of the Hebrew and Greek words). There are excellent tools online, take a look at Bible Gateway and Biblos, but there are others out there. Try some out and bookmark those you find most useful.

And rest assured, the source material you are using (directly or indirectly) is of high quality and pretty much identical with what was originally written.

(Check linked articles on other blogs - please explore!)

Review Award - Rhoda

< No earlier items | Index | Be the light >

It's time for the first 'Review Award' which goes to Rhoda's delightfully titled 'Living to Please God'. Why does she get the first of these? Because she sparked the idea recently so she deserves it!

Rhoda lives in Wales and has a blog called 'Living to Please God'.

Her husband is an American missionary leading a local church; they have a young family that Rhoda is home-schooling. That must be quite a challenge! She somehow finds time to write about many things including church, family, blogging, holiness and more - but all of them are rooted and centred on Christ.

Why I like the blog - That consistent Christ focus is one of the reasons I like Rhoda's writing. Another is her propensity for kindness and gentleness with her readers, even when writing on difficult or challenging topics, although she doesn't shy away from dealing with those issues. For a good example of this look at 'The dangers of questioning the Bible'.

What else? Ah well, the banner image is just wonderful. It shows a serene lake surrounded by mountains, possibly somewhere in Snowdonia which just happens to be one of my favourite parts of the British Isles. Am I allowed to like a blog for its banner? Of course!

And last, but by no means least, I have yet to see an article on Rhoda's blog that is not interesting and engaging. This blog is simply written, straightforward, and packed with good things.

Selected quote

This blog is here to share what God is teaching me about living for Him, in the hope that it will help and encourage others.

This simple statement sums it up, really. This is what 'Living to please God' is all about, and it's what Rhoda herself is all about. If we can't engage in ordinary, messy life and take Jesus there with us, we have failed to follow him as we should.

Conclusion - Jesus didn't call us to fine theological discourse or endless argument over small details, he left those things to the scribes and pharisees. Instead he healed the sick,  threw out demons, and made life better for ordinary people. He even provided wine for a wedding when it ran short. He covers our poor planning and our lack of resources in all that we do. He is - basically - a hero in every possible way.

If he's our hero what else should we do but learn to live for him, hoping to help and encourage others? If that is your goal you will find abundant hints and help in Rhoda's blog.

< No earlier items | Index | Be the light >

The AAJ Review Award - INDEX

(See indexes on other topics)

Awarding a review and a badge to other bloggers seems like a good idea. It will be fun to do and will help link blogs together. Hopefully this and other schemes will encourage a developing sense of community.

The 'Review Award' is a new idea, sparked by a comment on one of my recent posts. It was really encouraging to receive an award, in fact it made me grin from ear to ear! And that's good; we should encourage one another.


Hopefully, review awards will help other bloggers by encouraging them, drawing new visitors to take a look, and strengthening the blogging community in general.

I like the idea of providing a badge and I'll start with the simple design displayed here - we'll see how it goes.

You can view recent awards, or pick from the list below (most recent awards are at the top).

2012

• 20th Feb - Be the light - Chris Duffett - East of England, UK
• 13th Feb - Living to please God - Rhoda - Wales, UK

Beech tree in the snow - IMAGE

(Click the photo for a larger view)

The beech tree in our neighbour's garden - Photo taken 10th February 2012

This beech tree grows next door but the branches cross high over our fence. With a fresh snow fall yesterday and a beautiful blue sky, what a glorious sight it is! If you enlarge it you can make out some of last year's beechmast husks still clinging on.

Click the 'image' label below to see other image posts.

Index to themed articles

This post lists the series indexes on 'Journeys of heart and mind'. Each index collects articles on a theme, often written over a period of time.

From time to time I write a series of themed articles, and usually I provide an index article to make it easy to find the entire set. Now that there are several such indexes it seems time to make 'an index of indexes' - and this is it.

Alternatively you can view all the indexes as one, long page; the link for this is always available on the 'About' page (scroll down part way to find 'INDEX' in the 'Topics' list). But the brief alphabetical list below will often be more convenient.

So here it is...

• Bible tools - Computerised Bible tools, on the web and to install
• Choudhrie's steps - Victor Choudrie's list of church transforming steps
• Church as Network - Networks connect well and communicate well
• Coventry Cathedral - Revelation through the old and new cathedrals
• Don Snell's Questions - Questions and answers on mission
• Grace Outpouring - The extraordinary story of blessing at Ffald-y-Brenin
• Greatest Thing - Notes on Henry Drummond's essay on love
• Holidays - A variety of family holidays and visits
• I will build my church - The proper basis for church life
• John's Gospel - Short comments on John, chapter by chapter
• Leaders in the church - Thoughts on leaders and leadership
• Meetings - Notes on some of the meetings I've shared in
• Planting churches - Thoughts on the processes involved
• Review Awards - Awards to other bloggers
• Seven signs in John - These signs help focus our attention on Jesus
• Spiritual Journey - A life journey to spiritual knowledge
• Universe - Series on the development of the universe
• Valley of dry bones - Ezekiel's prophetic writing and the church today
• Wine - Collection of info on organic church developments

Praying for Britain

Some of us are thinking we should begin praying for Britain, for England, and for our local area. Megan first suggested the idea after reading John Richard's prophecy (item 4 in the list below).

Recently we've become aware of a series of events related to prayer for Britain. They're listed here in the order in which we heard about them. However, it was item 4 that provoked our interest in prayer.

1. Prophetic opinion from Clifford Hill that there is a five year 'window of opportunity' for the church in the UK, there would now be about three years of this window left.
2. Some thoughts from Clifford Hill, Wolfgang Simson, and Peter Farmer in the Millenials Meeting at Moggerhanger Park.
3. A word from Mark Stibbe concerning the 'seven pillars of society'. There are details of the seven pillars online. It's an idea that goes back to the 1970s.
4. A prophecy from John Richards
5. A second prophecy from Lance Lambert

As an initial response we plan to meet on Tuesday afternoon, 7th February at 15:00 to consider how we should take this forward. We will review the five items above, consider the practicalities of prayer and perhaps fasting, and decide if and when to meet again and whether to invite others to join us.

My feeling is that we should involve anyone in the St Neots area who feels led to take part. Whatever we do would probably be  non-denoninational, informal and very flexible. If enough people are involved we could consider meeting in a variety of places and at different times. Others may have different ideas and we'll know more after we meet on 7th.

Here are some factors that I regard as especially important as we go forward. There may well be others that we can add as we go along.

• Love Jesus ever more fully and learn to listen better as the Holy Spirit speaks to us.
• Love one another so that we can act in unity of heart and purpose despite any differences that might divide us.
• Recognise that there is only one living Temple and we are all stones built into it.
• Wholeheartedly give ourselves to whatever he shows us to do, even if it seems very costly or very stupid.
• Understand Jesus' call to mission in the widest possible sense, and be ready to urgently reach those in our lives who need to hear the good news he has for them.
• Keep everything as simple as the Father has made it, not adding the complexity that we may find more amenable.
• Remember that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are in charge and we are not. Give them the glory and honour and praise they truly deserve, and humbly exercise the authority we have in them (which we do not deserve).
• Our prayer should be to bless (in the manner of Ffald-y-Brenin).

If you are interested in this and live near St Neots perhaps you'd like to contact me. You can comment on this post below or you can mail me (chris@scilla.org.uk). I will pass your comments on when we meet on 7th.

Organic church life

Alan Knox uses the term 'organic church life'. There's a certain flowing, difficult to pin down, deep life about church that is well described by the term 'organic'. When we share this life we are sharing Christ himself as well as sharing ourselves.

Alan Knox gives some thought to the question 'Why is it so difficult to find organic church life?' and I very much like his answer. It's closely related to my recent post 'Circles of friends'.

Alan decides to use the term 'organic church life' rather than the more usual 'organic church', and his reasons are very revealing.

When I write about “organic church life,” I’m not talking about a certain church gathering, or a certain type of meeting, or a certain group of believers, or a certain method of organizing (or not organizing). Instead, I’m talking about believers sharing their lives with one another as they also share life in Jesus Christ.

I simply could not agree more! And I could not express it better.

Yet our minds are so anxious to organise and structure everything that we overlook organic church life in our rush to find something organisational in its place. We have insecurities that seem best met by plenty of structure and tradition and hierarchy. These things are not bad in and of themselves, but they are not where the life is. They have served us well in society and civil government, but they do not serve us well in finding and experiencing organic church life.

Structure is required as human life grows in scale. Very little structure is needed by three small children at play (though it's there if you look for it). A great deal is necessary to manage a large company, a big orchestra, or a nation.

Structure, tradition and hierarchy are useful tools for running large organisations, but in the day to day life of a family freedom, spontaneity and shared responsibility are much more appropriate. So too with organic church life. And that is why it's so hard to find even though it may be there right under our noses. Perhaps the truth is that it's not really hard to find, just hard to recognise until you get your eye in. And then you'll notice it everywhere.

But on the larger scale of the church worldwide, structure, tradition and hierarchy become necessary - right?

Wrong! Jesus said, 'I will build my church'. If we each focus on organic church life amongst our own circle of friends we can (and should) leave the rest to Jesus. He is the only one who knows how to do the job properly, only he can properly integrate our overlapping circles into the bejewelled network of networks structure of his design.

Prophecy about Britain - again

I've been directed to another prophecy about Britain, this time from Lance Lambert, and would like to share a link to it. Prophecy is about hearing and telling; both are needed.

I hadn't expected to post about a second prophecy so soon after the previous one exactly two weeks ago. But yesterday evening I was chatting with two friends about our intention to pray regularly and today they emailed me with another prophecy, this time from Lance Lambert.

I'd encourage anyone who was struck by the first prophecy to visit Lance Lambert's website and read what he has shared about Britain. Both prophecies were given in the August/September period in 2011.

Of course, the two are not identical, but there are some common themes. I have heard that Mark Stibbe also shared something similar in Bedford at around the same time. There are coincidences in life, but I think this is not one of them.

I am not drawing conclusions here, or suggesting any particular response. But I do urge everyone to read these two prophecies prayerfully and thoughtfully and consider what, if anything, Father would have you do about the current state of Britain.

Prophecy is often thought about in terms of speaking, but it also involves listening and hearing. Hearing what the Holy Spirit is saying must come first; there can be no prophecy without discernment. But what is heard and discerned must then be shared if it is to have any effect. I am particularly interested in the hearing aspect and may revisit that topic again.

Circles of friends

Help doesn't always come from the places we expect. Community may not be the shape we design it to be. Church structure is better recognised than defined. Practice and experience are very likely to differ from theory.

All of us need a little help from time to time, or someone to listen or encourage. And if we're involved in local church life we expect to find that support from church friends as well as from family members and others. In particular, if we are in a cell or home group we expect the members to provide the help we need. It's often claimed to be one of several reasons for meeting in smaller, more intimate groups.

But what happens in practice?

When a friend recently told me that he was not getting the help he needed from his home group, I was able to identify a number of people who were providing help. It was coming from a rich combination of close friends, some involved in other home groups, some in entirely different churches. Most of these people had not been 'designated' as his close church family, yet they were there when he needed them.

And this made me wonder whether we have things 'back to front' in some sense.

Rather than organise people into groups, why not recognise that most people already have circles of friends around them? Does it matter if these circles overlap with one another and don't fit into a tidy pattern?

As usual, organic life is messy but vibrant and abundant. Let it be what it is. If I can see vibrant and abundant I'm willing to overlook messy, or even rejoice over messy! Far better messy, abundant life than organised sterility. Yahshua said, 'I came so they may have life, and have it more abundantly.' (John 10:10)

So may I suggest that the people Father has placed around us are more likely to be there when we need them than the people that even the best organised church has defined as 'our' group? (The two are not mutually exclusive, or course.)

The corollary of this is that 'church'  is a shifting network of unique yet overlapping circles around all the individuals. True community comes, not from human-defined groups, but from the Father himself guiding his people in loving one another. And if we saw church in this way we would lose our need to identify ourselves as members of this fellowship or that denomination. We would let all the buildings and programs go (we wouldn't need them any more) and we could focus on life as the church that meets at Jane and John's house or the church in St Neots. Wouldn't that be grand!

SOPA blackout

SOPA and PIPA

The blog is now restored to normal use.


All About Jesus will be unavailable from 13:00 UT on January 18th until 01:00 UT on January 19th. These times correspond to 08:00 EST to 20:00 EST on 18th January when many websites large and small will be blacked out to draw attention to the issues around SOPA and PIPA.

Please read the Wikipedia article on the initiative for more detail.