Monthly Archives: June 2015

Marriage Equality: We have lost Nothing!

Insights, Sexuality/LGBTQI

I believe that one of the things the Father is doing in this time is to put right so many misconceptions that the Christian church has held for so long.

Misconceptions that come across to the unbeliever, not as bravely-held convictions worthy of honour and careful consideration, bringing glory to God as we stand firm as illuminated believers in a dark world, but as anachronistic, irrelevant ironclad rules that simply put people off the beautiful simplicity of Jesus’s love!

Silly arguments about how old the Earth is; how old the Universe is. Silly arguments against modern scientific discovery which is reminiscent of the ‘Earth at the centre of the Universe’ model so beloved of the Church in the 17th century that they persecuted those who held the sun-centred view that we now know to be completely correct. And that wasn’t even an important doctrine!

So, in this time, the landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States to legalise same-sex marriage in all 50 of the United States of America is also seen by many Christians as the ‘end of marriage as we knew it’.

But in fact it does nothing of the sort. This ‘end of marriage’ statement is, in my opinion, simply an overstatement to try to get people on to the side of the anti-lobby, by frightening them. Heterosexual marriage will continue to thrive as it always has; the legalisation of same-sex marriage will not affect it in any way.

In fact, the effects of this law are asymmetric.

On the one hand, the anti-same-sex marriage lobby, for whom life will go on pretty much as normal. This result will not affect them one iota, unless they let it. And in any event, they’ll get over it. To put it bluntly, we heterosexual people have lost nothing!

On the other hand, for all these dear people who now have more of the freedom to be who they want to be, and who God made them to be, life will never be the same again. In a good way.

Let me remind my readers: there is serious doubt among modern theologians that the Bible does in fact condemn ‘different’ sexualities. And we should therefore err on the side of Love, rather than hate. Take a look at my previous article, The Call to Love, for more on this.

Granted, making same-sex marriage legal is not going to change the hearts and minds of the anti-gay lobby, at least not overnight. There will still be persecution; entrenched opinions sometimes take several lifetimes to drain from some people, if indeed they ever do. But in 25 years time, we will look back from a time when same-sex marriage is accepted as perfectly normal, perfectly run-of-the-mill, and wonder what all the fuss was about.

But for the people for whom this judgement is so important, the people in same-sex marriages, life will be as it should be.

For a real from-the-heart piece on this subject, check out Susan Cottrell’s blog entry here at FreedHearts. It’ll be well worth it.

Also, I have made an archive copy of Susan’s article here on my blog. You just never know how long some sites will last on the Internet; they are constantly disappearing!

The Yeast of the Pharisees

Insights

As part of my recent Christian walk, I have done much research into mainstream Christianity’s attitude towards Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ) people. Some of the fruit of my research has, of course, appeared in these pages. Much of my reading concerns the ‘clobber passages’ – the six main Scripture passages which are usually used by religious people to justify their doctrines, if not their emotional attitudes, towards LGBTQ people. The Bible is used supposedly as the Scriptural basis for these doctrines.

But to me this represents a fundamental flaw in this whole thing about reasoning from the Bible when it comes to setting today’s ‘standards’, as it were.

You see, the Bible was never intended to be a book of rules. The Law brings death; the Spirit brings life. The very fact that we argue about what’s right and wrong, what the original writers intended, the differences in culture between people 2,000 years ago and now, the differences in understanding – all these things – illustrates precisely why the Bible should not be seen as a book of rules.

This is one of the main reasons why God declares in Jer 31:33 that “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts” – and not on tablets of stone. Because He knew that the readers of His Word, right down the centuries and millennia, would all be from unimaginably different cultures, backgrounds and ethnicities….because of all this, He wrote it never intending that we should follow it as a set of rules to be followed to the letter. It is completely wrong to not only try to do this, but indeed to want to do this.

The ‘requirement’ to follow rules in order to be acceptable to God is part of what Jesus referred to as the ‘Yeast of the Pharisees’. In this day, the Yeast is just as strongly entrenched – worked through the whole batch of dough, if you will – as ever. The Yeast of the Pharisees is the unwritten, unspoken expectation in religious groups (of all kinds, not just Christians) that the faith’s adherents will not only believe the same thing but also follow the same rules. But you see rules never give anyone a single scrap of righteousness. In fact, to try to make ourselves pure in God’s sight by any other method than by simply accepting the complete sufficiency of the Cross, is to make out as if we don’t need the Cross at all. You can’t have it both ways. You either follow the rules – which will get you nowhere – or you accept and embrace the Cross. This is fundamental to the Christian faith, and is perhaps the main reasons why many ‘religious’ people appear to fail. They’re just not getting it.

And to be honest, many, many believers still just haven’t ‘got’ it in that way. Their need to conform to those around them, probably stemming from a fear of rejection, is what becomes for them the ‘Yeast of the Pharisees’, which has worked its way through their part of the dough as well.  This is why it is so insidious and why Jesus warned against it so strongly. The thing is that Jesus will no doubt release people into more and more freedom as their lives go on. But in the meantime the problem is that these rules are still applied to others when folks have no business doing this. Each of us stands on our own relationship with Christ, not on someone else’s, and in the end it’s our own walk with Him that matters, not on pleasing other humans by adopting their standards, which, let’s face it, can never really be met anyway no matter how hard we try.

Don’t get me wrong – I understand why it is important to point out what the original Bible writers meant in their context. It is important to grasp intellectually, also to help those who still feel they need the justification of Scripture to support their viewpoint. But at the end of the day, it’s all about Grace. Amazing Grace, full and free! And until the believer is set free, in his heart, from the need to follow the requirements of all these people, who have so many silly little rules and expectations, he will never be free to follow Christ in fulness, to let the Spirit of God work the changes in his heart that He wants to make.

However, despite this, I have recently come to realise that many of the Pharisees in the Church actually are believing Christians. They know the Lord, they have the fulness of the Spirit and they are anointed in their ministries. God loves and accepts them. In some ways I don’t get this, but of course Jesus works with us as we are and He looks on the heart. He works in and through even the Pharisees in the Church because He knows what our heart’s inclination is. I think that usually these desires to conform, to follow the ‘rules’, is actually from a genuine desire to please God, and to not let anything stand in between us and Him.

But it’s such hard work to try to follow the Rules…which is why Jesus said in Matthew 11:28 (Message), “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (MSG translation)

The other thing is, I am actually not questioning the salvation of the people who live by the Rules. That’s not at issue; I personally believe that the majority of humanity will be saved. What is at issue is the quality of life for these people here in this life. A great preacher I used to listen to virtually every week once said, ‘It’s not Pie in the Sky When You Die, it’s Meat on a Plate while you Wait!’. Freedom of the kind I am talking about is for this life. Jesus came to give us life in all its fulness – here and now. There’s no longer any need to be under condemnation, guilt, poverty, slavery, oppression, addiction, sickness or anything else like that – including legalistic religion. Jesus came to set us free from all that.

We were made to be free. Free to follow Him in the freedom that He bought. Let’s learn to let go of Man’s requirements and instead follow His – ‘My yoke is easy and my burden is light’.

“Become like Little Children…”

Insights

In Matthew 18:3, Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The King James Version puts it that, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven”

Now that ‘enter into’ bit got me thinking. You see, throughout my Christian walk, I have held that verse in the light of my initial Christian ‘training’, if you like, where people told me that it means that you need to remain ‘teachable’, almost pliable, so that you can accept Jesus’s teaching in a heart that is ready to receive His word.

And while I agree with that, in that we do need to be ready and wiling to learn from the Master, I think there’s more in that verse. The key for me was in that KJV verse, where it said, “Except ye … become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven”. It’s the ‘enter into‘ – as in entering into the spirit of something. Say you’re at a Church service, a Gospel concert, or indeed a rock concert. You’re not fully ‘joining in’ unless you ‘enter into the spirit’ of the event. You won’t get the full benefit, and you certainly won’t enjoy it as much as would someone who does enter into it.

waterfalls

And so it is with the Kingdom. To really enter into the spirit of things, as it were, you need to become like a child. You need to accept things with simple faith, in a trusting and carefree manner. It’s not complicated. You are allowed to ask questions, including the awkward “Why?” question which is both beloved and feared simultaneously by all parents! You can’t enter into all the benefits of the Kingdom unless you become like that. Think of it as a mindset that encourages the manifestation of the Kingdom in your life. Remember that “…the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17) Those three fruits are much more easily enjoyed if you come to Him with a childlike spirit, and experience the awe and the wonder of a child seeing things for the first time.

childlike-awe

In order to reinforce this teaching further, let me give you an example of the kind of mindset that is the antithesis of the childlike mindset. In most groups of people, sadly especially in churches, there are people who thrive on gossip. They complicate things so much and delight in spreading rumours and lies about fellow believers, and without discussing their ‘grievance’ with the victim….perhaps it’s a doctrinal difference or something and rather than talking about it with the person they have the problem with, they instead ‘warn’ their fellow believers against that person and his ‘dodgy’ beliefs. A dear brother of mine has recently been subjected to this treatment by ‘godly’ people who really should know better!

I find it sad that these people, who could have so much freedom and joy in Christ, decide to fill their empty lives with harmful gossip, hatred and other inane rubbish. This is why they ‘cannot enter into’ the Kingdom things, as they would if they were ‘like little children’. Come on, guys, there’s a Kingdom to be entered into! There’s righteousness, peace and joy to be had; Kingdom power to change lives…all if we’re childlike and trusting rather than ‘grown-up’ and serious.

In summary, then, I believe that when Jesus said that ‘those who don’t become like ‘little children’ cannot enter into the Kingdom’, He meant that they can’t enter into all the blessings that the Kingdom gives. This is because their attitude is not the delightful, carefree, laid-back approach to life that little children have.

landscapes flowers grass meadows wildflowers blurred background children_www.wallpaperhi.com_1

I think of my grand-daughter – she’s 5 – and her delightful sense of humour, her inquisitiveness, her spontaneity. I think this is the way that Jesus meant for us to live. It doesn’t mean that we’re not allowed into the Kingdom if we don’t have a childlike attitude, it means that by not being childlike, we exclude ourselves from the blessings. We can’t enter into it. If we’re all really serious about theology, sin and hellfire and damnation – and serious about gossiping about other people; concentrating on the negative all the time – then it’s no wonder we don’t appropriate what God has for us! We simply can’t!

 

Cloud Dancing over Cornwall, 25th June 2015

Aviation, Personal

After posting the ‘High Flight‘ blog entry for 25th June, I went up and did some High Flight for real. Flinging my ‘eager craft through footless halls of air’, I ‘wheeled and soared and swung, high in the sunlit silence’.

It was quite a memorable flight. Typical British pilot’s understatement, that. Throwing the aeroplane around the sky, using clouds as ‘anchor points’, so flying under, over, around the towers of piled cloud, swooping and soaring, rolling, banking, diving, climbing and turning. This is what I call ‘Cloud Dancing’. I can only do that sort of thing when I have no passengers on board, because I would not want to subject them to that kind of g-forces – pulling a maximum of perhaps 2.5 to 3g is not for the unacclimatised….

So here’s a few photos and videos to let you share in some small measure what happened that day.

Firstly, here’s my start position at 4,000 feet over Colliford Lake, Cornwall, UK:

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As you can see, the clouds are perfectly positioned for dancing around, just a couple of hundred feet below me. The idea is to use that bit of altitude to build up speed on the run-in to the cloud dancing.

Here’s my first video of the cloud dancing. It might not look like much through the camera, but the feeling is indescribable!

And then another, shorter video with some emphasis on the lovely colour of Colliford Lake.  A free airshow for the folks parked in the carpark there, although at 2,500ft above their heads they wouldn’t have seen all that much.

A note for any pilots viewing these videos: nose drop in the turns was intentional!
And finally, on my way home, I always pass the magnificent old warrior, the lovely English Electric/BAC Lightning F6 XS936 at Castle Air, Liskeard. This time I decided, as was only fitting, to stop and pay homage to this dignified old lady. Here she is, complete with dummy Firestreak air-to-air missiles.
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Gorgeous. What a fabulous day out!

High Flight

Aviation, Quotations, Others' stuff

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

– John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

magee

 

During the desperate days of the Battle of Britain, hundreds of Americans crossed the border into Canada to enlist with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Knowingly breaking the law, but with the tacit approval of the then still officially neutral United States Government, they volunteered to fight the Nazis.

John Gillespie Magee, Jr., was one such American. Born in Shanghai, China, in 1922 to an English mother and a Scottish-Irish-American father, Magee was 18 years old when he entered flight training. Within the year, he was sent to England and posted to the newly formed No 412 Fighter Squadron, RCAF, which was activated at Digby, England, on 30 June 1941. He was qualified on and flew the Supermarine Spitfire.

Flying fighter sweeps over France and air defense over England against the German Luftwaffe, he rose to the rank of Pilot Officer.

On 3 September 1941, Magee flew a high altitude (30,000 feet) test flight in a newer model of the Spitfire V. As he orbited and climbed upward, he was struck with the inspiration of a poem — “To touch the face of God.”

Once back on the ground, he wrote a letter to his parents. In it he commented, “I am enclosing a verse I wrote the other day. It started at 30,000 feet, and was finished soon after I landed.” On the back of the letter, he jotted down his poem, ‘High Flight.’

Just three months later, on 11 December 1941 (and only three days after the US entered the war), Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr., was killed. The Spitfire V he was flying, VZ-H, collided with an Oxford Trainer from Cranwell Airfield. The mid-air happened over the village of Roxholm which lies between RAF Cranwell and RAF Digby, in the county of Lincolnshire at about 400 feet AGL at 11:30. John was descending in the clouds. At the enquiry a farmer testified that he saw the Spitfire pilot struggle to push back the canopy. The pilot, he said, finally stood up to jump from the plane. John, however, was too close to the ground for his parachute to open and he was killed instantly. He was 19 years old.

– Quoted from ‘Great Aviation Quotes‘

This poem has been the inspiration for countless pilots in the just over 100 years that powered flight has been in existence. Its verses beautifully capture the limitless joy of dancing your aeroplane among the clouds; indeed, I personally have ‘done a hundred things You have not dreamed of ‘ up there in the sky. I know what this feels like; that poem could have been written from my own heart (except that I don’t ‘do’ poetry!)

Which leads me to another great paragraph that sums up flying and a pilot’s responsibility:

The ultimate  responsibility of the pilot is to fulfill the dreams of
the countless millions of earthbound ancestors who could only stare skyward
and  wish.

-Anon

Anyway, I’m going flying right now. See ya!

IMG_0148‘Up, up the long, delirious burning blue…’ (Photo taken at 6,000 feet over Cornwall, 26th August 2013 by my daughter, with myself as Pilot in Command)

Epilogue: Pictures and videos from today’s flight

The Shack

Personal, Reviews, The Shack

I have just finished reading what has to be one of the most revolutionary Christian books ever written.

Overturning the World’s and indeed the Church’s views of the nature and character of God, this book is moving, interesting, fascinating and exciting all at the same time. I won’t do any plot spoilers for you but I would strongly and heartily recommend you read it for yourself and see what all the fuss is about.

The author, William P Young, took a lot of flak for his portrayal of the Godhead in this gritty and down-to-earth story, mainly from the conservative wing of the church and the usual Pharisees. All the more reason, then, for you to read this. If your faith has become stagnant, if your view of the Triune Godhead of Father, Son and Holy Spirit has become somewhat jaded, then this is the book for you.

But I have a more personal testimony to give regarding this book. Some of you will have read my article ‘The Dark Night of the Soul’, and you’ll know that I spend fifteen years in the ‘wilderness’ being detoxed from all my incorrect attitudes towards God. In those fifteen years, God showed me a lot about His nature and His love, forgiveness and mercy. When I read ‘The Shack’, I was astonished to find that about 80% of the ideas that Young presents in the book were things that God had already spoken to me in my wilderness time. He’s already downloaded the stuff into my spirit, and as you can imagine, reading it in this book, almost exactly as I was given it, was quite an affirmation for me!

If your interest has been piqued, you will want to get hold of this book and devour it! I have placed links to the Amazon websites (UK and US) to help you get the book if you would like to use their service; you can get it on Kindle too.

Here are the links:

The Shack on Amazon UK

The Shack on Amazon.com (US)

Alternatively you can buy it direct from the project website, click on the picture below or this link to go to the site.

splash-shack

It is my sincere hope that reading this book will transform your Christian walk. It has transformed the walks of all those whom I know who have read it.

Salt and Light

Insights, Others' stuff

Jesus tells us we are to be ‘Salt’ and ‘Light’ to the world. The phrase ‘Salt of the Earth’ has gone down in colloquial English to refer to someone who is perceived to be of ‘high quality’. Someone who would do anything for anyone. Interesting then how Christians has mainly thought that this means that we are to be ‘preservative’ for the world….

It’s also interesting how I found what respected Christian writer Jeremy Myers has to say about the ‘Salt and Light’ of Jesus’s parable:

“One  of  the  metaphors  Jesus  used  to  describe  how  we  work and function within the world is His picture of salt and  light.  Jesus  said  that  His  followers  would  be  the  salt  of  the  earth and the light of the world (Matt 5:13-14).

“In  our  churches,  we  accurately  teach  that  in  biblical  times,  salt  was  a  preservative.  And  based  on  that  fact,  we  think  that  Jesus  is  telling  us  we  need  to  be  the  world’s  preservative. We need to defend and protect the culture and  society against all decay and filth. We try to preserve what is  good  and  upright  in  society  and  culture.  We  embark  on  political activism by endorsing pro-life, pro-family, and anti homosexual  political  candidates.  We  picket  the  strip  clubs  and hold rallies to get prayer back in school. We write letters  to  the  editor  and  rent  billboard  space  on  the  interstate.  We  believe that it is the Christian duty to moralize the behavior  of the world.

“We do similar things with the image of light.  We try to  be  as  big  and  as  bright  as  possible,  thinking  that  this  will  draw people to Jesus and reveal the truth of God’s Word. So  we  try  to  get  noticed  in  the  community.  We  “go  big”  and  make a splash. We spend money on advertising, and do our  best to match the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. We hope that  if  people  notice  us,  and  we  can  look  popular  and  relevant, they will want to be part of us. But it rarely works.

“And so some churches go the opposite route, and simply try  to burn the sin out of others. These churches seem to believe  that if our holiness and righteousness can shine as bright and  hot  as  the  sun,  then  all  evil  within  ten  miles  of  the  church  will scurry back into the hole it came from. These churches  think it is our job to point out every person’s sin, shining the  spotlight upon any who fall out of line, and in so doing, call  people  to  repentance.  But  this  rarely  works  either,  and  usually the only sin that gets revealed is the hypocrisy of the  church.

“And  really,  the  sin  in  society  and  culture  just  seems  to  grow. So churches redouble their efforts and either go bigger  or  shout  louder.  But  nothing  seems  to  slow  this  downward  spiral into moral decay. Some critics of the church argue that  the efforts of Christians have only exacerbated the decline.

“It is probably time to recognize then, that the church has  gone about being salt and light in the wrong way. We have  tried to be noticed. We have tried to influence. We have tried  to get into positions of leadership and power. We have tried  to   shout   people   into   submission,   and   beat   them   into  obedience.  It  doesn’t  work,  and  in  fact,  it  turns  out  to  be  a  complete  misunderstanding  of  Jesus’  metaphor  about  salt  and light.

“When  Jesus  teaches  about  salt,  He  says  nothing  about  preservation. We are to be salt, but not to preserve. Though  they did use salt to preserve food in the days of Jesus, there  was another use for salt as well: Just like today, salt was used  for flavor. It is the flavoring characteristics of salt that Jesus  mentions in His metaphor.

“And as a flavor, salt should not be noticed. It is there to  enhance the flavor; not overwhelm it. Have you ever eaten a  dish  with  too  much  salt?  When  I  was  younger,  someone  in the family made a batch of cookies and accidentally switched  the  sugar  and  the  salt.  Those  cookies  were  not  a  family  favorite.  At  the  same  time,  when  salt  is  called  for  in  a  favorite dish, but is left out, the dish tastes bland. Salt brings  out  the  flavor  in  food,  and  shouldn’t  be  noticed  until  it’s  gone.

“The same is true of light. Light is helpful for life, but too  much light is harmful. It should not be  blinding, glaring, or  harsh. But when the lighting is just right, you don’t notice it  until  it  is  gone.  In  the  teaching  by  Jesus,  He  talks  about  giving light to those in the house (Matt 5:15). Clearly, He is  not talking about a light with the intensity of the sun. He is  talking about a nice, warm fire in the hearth, or a few candles  placed in strategic places around the room. They  give off  a  nice glow and let people go about their work or leisure. The  light  goes  unnoticed,  without  blinding  or  distracting  those  who are in its presence.

“This is the way of the church when we follow Jesus into  the  world.  We  are  present  in  all  areas  with  others,  working  among them, eating where they eat, visiting the places they  visit,  enjoying  the  same  activities.  But  we  are  a  hidden  influence.  A  small  dash  of  salt,  which  goes  unnoticed,  but  provides  the  spark  of  life  and  intensity  of  flavor  which  is  missing when we are not around. We are a light, showing the  way  forward  and  guiding  people  onto  the  way  of  truth,  whether  they  recognize  it  or  not.  When  we  are  not  around,  things  seem  less  clear.  When  we  are  salt  and  light,  people  cannot  put  a  finger  on  why  they  want  us  around,  but  they  know they do.

“We must find the right balance between not enough and  too much if we want to be salt and light. We need to exist in  our communities in a way that helps them exist and function  with all the flavor and color that God intended, but not in a  way  that  we  are  distasteful  or  harsh.  We  need  to  exist  in  a  way  that  is  influential,  but  unnoticed.  We  need  to  exist  in  such a way that the only time we really are noticed is when  we are gone.

“So  as  we  follow  Jesus  into  the  world,  He  pretty  much  leads  us  into  the  places  where  we  are  already  living  and  working. He leads us over the neighborhood diner, to eat and  laugh with the regulars. He leads us down to the ball game,  to cheer on the local team with our friends. We follow Him  to our jobs, where we work as the most honest and diligent  employees (or managers) the company has ever seen.

“When  we  are  ready,  Jesus  may  lead  us  other  places  as  well.  Like  maybe  over  to  your  neighbor’s  house  when  his  wife  dies.  Or  down  under  the  bridge,  to  bring  tarps  and  potato chips to the homeless. Even down to the street corner  to hang out with the prostitutes while they wait for work”

From ‘The Skeleton Church’ by Jeremy Myers, pgs 47-49, quoted with his permission.

You can get a copy of The Skeleton church by subscribing to Jeremy’s mailing list at RedeemingGod.com – no strings attached!

A Monopoly of the Truth?

Insights

I believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and, when interpreted intelligently and with compassion, it provides the best written means of learning more about God.

What I fail to see, though, is how anyone (an individual, a denomination or indeed a religion) can actually claim that they – and they alone – have all the Truth. Especially when Truth is actually a Person: Jesus Christ. (“I am the way and the truth and the life” – John 14:6). God is so much bigger than our petty little boundaries and definitions, and we insult His grace by being so parochial and narrow-minded. And I include myself in that ‘we’.

But I know full well that I do not have the full story, and the things of God are in places so unfathomable that anyone would be mad to claim that they ‘know’ all the Truth. Sure, the Truth will set you free, but He sets us free by degrees – as we are able to handle each step – and not all in one go.

I now believe different things, after 35 years as a Christian, than I did when I first believed. Does this mean I was wrong all those years ago? In part, yes. But in other things, no. That’s what learning is all about. No doubt in ten years’ time, I will not agree with, or believe in, some of the things that I now believe are true and for which I consider my understanding to be complete.

That’s what’s called becoming mature, and maturity is one of the things we are encouraged to proceed towards as Christians. “Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature” (1 Cor 14:20)

Maturing is, by its nature, change. Faith and belief are a journey, and you never really arrive at the end of that journey – not in this lifetime, anyway.

Blessing and Honor

Others' stuff, Worship

Here’s the brilliant Terry MacAlmon with a lovely rendition of his song ‘Blessing and Honor’ (well he will spell it like that, being American). The piano on this track is simply incredible.

Play this in your quiet place at home; ignore the fixed video and just bask in the Lord’s Presence as He comes to sit with you as He promised He would.