When the wind stirs the water, the ripples distort the reflection. When everything is calm and still, that’s when there’s the greatest clarity.
Whirlwind
Ten days ago I was feeling happy and fat after Christmas, but I had no idea what I would be doing for the immediate future. Since then so much has happened it feels like I have been picked up in a whirlwind! It’s so amazing to look back on what has happened and see how God has been leading me through.
Community and Consumer Choice
You may have noticed from recent blog posts that I’ve been thinking a lot about independence in Western culture, and the effects of it.
One aspect of independence is the high value based on consumer choice, the mentality that says, “I have the right to choose the best option for me.” Again, the individual is at the centre of this mentality, and the needs of others don’t really enter into it. I know this is a great oversimplification, feel free to argue in the comments.
I think this mentality explains a lot about why the sense of community has decreased rapidly, for example in the UK. In searching for the best option in whatever it is we are looking for, we need to start looking in wider and wider areas. Because of our wealth and technology, we are able to, and happy to, travel a fair distance to find cheaper, better quality, higher quantity of whatever it is we are looking for. That distance might not even be a physical distance any more, as virtually (!) anything is available on the Internet.
Do you have just one minute spare to help defend the human embryo?
Do you have just one minute spare to help defend the human embryo?
I believe that even embryos have a right to life. What do you think?
Science’s function is to describe processes, but it cannot pronounce on the purpose of things. Physicists and biologists have a right to say that in looking at matter and life scientifically, no evident purpose is discovered. They overstep their limits if they go on to require faith in pure chance as opposed to faith in a creator. In any decision which may have to be made between faith in God or in ‘blind chance’, the science of evolution is strictly neutral, and cannot be anything else.
“Origins of Religion” by Robert Brow
in “The World’s Religions: A Lion Handbook”. Ed by R Pierce Beaver, Tring: Lion, 1982.1st Ed. pp.30–34
in “The World’s Religions: A Lion Handbook”. Ed by R Pierce Beaver, Tring: Lion, 1982.1st Ed. pp.30–34
Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
Hebrews 12:1
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Paul says in Philippians 4:
I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
Sometimes we forget what a mind-blowing statement this is! Paul was beaten, whipped and stoned almost to death, thrown into prison for months, years. In all this he learned to be content.
Could I do that?
Recently we had a scare with Zach and had to take him into hospital. The doctors and nurses said that Farrah and I seemed very calm. We may have been on the surface, but we were terrified underneath! I wouldn’t say we were content in that situation.
Funding
Just sat through my first experience of an STFC Town Meeting. This is a meeting of a group of physicists to discuss matters of the Science and Technology Facilities Council. It was almost exclusively about money: how the limited funding we get from the government should be allocated, and how we should try and get more money.
The government has, within the last few years, drastically dropped the level of investment in particle physics. This means that a number of existing and future projects have had to be scrapped, and other projects have had to be scaled down.
While I was listening to this discussion, I was thinking about how money should best be used. Continue reading “Funding”
Holy Spirit breaking through!
God is good!
(You say, “All the time!”)
Yesterday and today I’ve been at the Worship Central London event with Fairy and a gang from our church. We learnt lots and had a great time, but by far the most exciting thing for me was what happened in the last worship session tonight.
I’ve been struggling for ages with feeling emotionally detached from God. It’s been a long time since I’ve tangibly felt the Holy Spirit, and although I feel fine in the “head” part of my relationship with him, I’ve been missing the “heart” part. It has felt like, whenever I pray, I’m talking at God rather than meeting with him and hearing from him. The only times I’ve really felt close to God have been when I’m leading worship, which isn’t a healthy state to try and serve in.
Tonight though, something broke through. I was worshipping God and giving him everything, when suddenly it just clicked, and I felt a wave of the Holy Spirit running through my body. It wasn’t dramatic or overpowering, but it felt like the beginning of something big. I’m excited about what God might do next!
