Saturday 31 March 2007

Be Inspired!



Have just been to see the Movie "Amazing Grace". It's the story of William Wilberforce and his struggle with the Abolition of Slavery. You cannot fail to be struck by his compassion for the African slaves on the ships. Of course this compassion stemmed from a very deep Christian Faith.

These are the things that struck me while watching the film:

As Christians we have a responsibility for social reform . This means helping the poor, oppressed and down trodden.Proverbs 31:8 Says:

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves , for the rights for those who are destitute. Speak up and Judge fairly;defend the rights of the poor and needy.
As Christians we should be known for this.

When doing something right, we will meet opposition. Some of W. Wilberforce's strongest opponents were those who had a vested interest in the slave trade. But with persecution one should persevere like William did.

Go and see this film and be inspired!

Monday 19 March 2007

A Year For Comebacks


Yet another one of my favourite bands are reforming this year, Crowded house. I assume the guy on the end is the new drummer (replacing Paul Hester who committed suicide in 2005). I have to admit that some of their lyrics are pretty strange, but the tunes are just great.
As far as i know they begin touring the UK in the summer, so i'll be sure to go see them live.

A Good Time


















On saturday some of us from college went for a hike up the Brecon Becons. Saturday was a difficult choice for me, there were 3 Rugby matches i could of stayed at home to watch but instead i decided to make the effort and get to know people from college. I can be a little bit of a lone ranger sometimes and need to make the effort to get to know people more. It took us between 1.5 to 2 hrs to get to the peak depending how fast people walked. The hike down was a little cloudy.




Thursday 15 March 2007

Easter time


Its come that time of year again, when we celebrate an important part of our Christian faith.At Christmas we celebrate the coming of our Lord and Saviour. Mary sang for joy about the coming of Christ (Luke 1:39-56) . This is something we can share in too because we all know that at that time: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15)
But at Easter we celebrate one of the greatest acts of love one could ever imagine (John 3:16). The freedom we enjoy today came at a great price, but that price has been paid on the cross. This Easter we should remember that the amazing act of love by God is some thing we didn't deserve. However, Paul's great words in the book of Romans sums the whole thing up for me when he said:"Where sin abounded, Grace did much more abound" (Rom 5:20 KJV).
How is the reality of this effecting your life today? Paul said: I have been crucified with Christ and i no longer live, but Christ lives in me. This is something we partake in too.
If i am honest I'm also writing this to myself, i really do lose focus sometimes and forget how radical and life changing the basic tenants of our Christian faith are. We live the way we do, make sacrifices and sometimes have persecution all because of this amazing act of grace and love that happened 2000 years ago.
We should never forget that or lose sight of it, no matter how hard life gets.

Sunday 11 March 2007

Some wisdom from the inside

I do my weekly placement at Gloucester Prison, not far from the College. This was found scrawled on a prison wall.
I believe in the sun when i cannot see it
I believe in love when i cannot feel it
I believe in God when he's silent
To me this speaks of hope in the most difficult of circumstances , standing , by Gods strength when all around has fallen and holding onto truth when nothing else seems real.
None of us really know what the seasons of our lives will bring.Of course they will bring happy and joyful times , but in the dark and difficult times we need to be saying that: "We believe in God when he is silent". Also that he is so very faithful.