Learning to Walk

work, work, work

I have just reached the conclusion that I can really not take any more on Authorship of the Pentateuch today!  I am preparing for exams in just over a week.  They are 'seen exams' which involve preparing answers for 3-4 questions per exam (there are 3 exams) and learning them in preparation for being asked 2 of the questions.  I think the potential is there to score well in this sort of exam, assuming of course that the answer you prepare is a good one and your ability to learn is also good!

I was talking to someone last night who was saying that it had been said to them that the need for training is not important if one has a God given 'calling' on their life.  Whilst I can understand this persons reckoning, because rightly the training alone cannot be enough, I feel that academic training is also essential in preparation for ministry.  Something that I have tried since coming to ICC is not to differentiate between my 'study life' and my 'devotional life'.  I can and should learn more of God and grow deeper in him and his word not only through what would be traditionally known as my devotional time but also my academic study.  I also think that some of the most important lessons I have learnt since coming here have been outside of the classroom.  I'm sure few of us would dispute that medical doctors have God given gifts in this area of expertise.  However i'm also sure that we would see the need for them to train and study before being set loose on patients!  I strongly feel that this is the same for Christians, all of whom are called to service for God.  As such it is important that we never stop studying and learning. 

Although it is just a short verse I am encouraged, when I think about the need to study, by a short reading in Ezra that "...the gracious hand of his God was on him.  For Ezra devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the Lord, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel."

So a break is in order but then it will be back to work, work, work!

getting fit

Today I joined the gym!  For those of you who know me well this may not seem like the biggest surprise ever but anyone who has come to know me in the last couple of months could be forgiven for thinking that I had never set foot in one in my life!  I decided that with an impending skiing trip with my fit (for her age!!!) mother I really needed to start training again.  I don't know why but with me when I hit a rough patch I tend to stop training.  This, coupled with comfort eating, makes for a very unfit nick!  It makes no sense really as when I train I feel better for it but it's the getting out and doing it that seems so hard.  I'm sure that's the case for many other folk.  As I did my 40 minutes on the cross trainer lots of thoughts were flying around in my head about how to stay fit as a christian.  I was pretty excited by some of it but will save it for another time when it will hopefully have become slightly more formulated.

For now it's off to rest and rehydrate which as all you athletes out there will know is the most important thing about training!!!

champions and church

What a day for scottish sport!  The Glasgow Hawks retain their premiership crown (photos here) whilst in a slightly less enjoyable match for the english among us the Scots regain the Calcutta Cup.  I went through to Edinburgh as part of the Hawks squad to watch what was a nail biting affair.  The team stuck to the task brilliantly and came away with the victory that brought with it a third consecutive league win.  I found it hard to watch in some respects because although I have played a (small) part in it (7 games, 2 scores, 1 sin binning!) I felt that this was a day for the boys who had been there through it all.  As I get back into the swing of things following the knocks of the last couple of months I wish that I had been able to keep everything else going but realise that I couldn't and praise God for how he is bringing me through it day by day.

I also praise God for the Glasgow Hawks.  In them I have found a community and friends as good, in fact better, than at any club I have been at before.  I was chatting with the skipper last night in the bar over a (few) beers and saying that I feel that there is so much that the church could learn from a club like the Hawks.  The sense of community, commitment to friends and acceptance - even when people aren't able, for whatever reasons, to make the contribution they would like to - is amazing.  The thought crossed my mind this morning (and this is not a call about any churches I am a part of or that I have witnessed - it is just an observation and a challenge) that would a non-christian/backsliding christian be as welcome in church as I have been as a not playing rugby player (over the last couple of months)at this particular rugby club.  I am sure that they would be in many places but you do from time to time hear stories where people do not feel that this has been the case. 

Church was good this morning, St Silas is a lovely church and although the size of the congregation makes it hard to know the whole community I am really enjoying the relationships that I am being blessed with there.

french church

Last week I mentioned a guy who studies at ICC, John Ezechiel, who is starting a French speaking church in Glasgow.  Please continue to hold it in your prayers.  For any of you who may be interested here are the details.

Ambassade la Grace Etonnante du Christ (AGE du Christ).  Vous invite a partager avec nous la benediction de son service d'adoration, du Guerison et du parfait salut en Christ.  Chaque Dimanche de 14.30 - 16.00.  Location - Wellington Church (pres de l'Universite de Glasgow).  Au coin de University Avenue et Southpark Avenue.  Entree par Southpark Avenue.

JESUS CHRIST EST LE MEME HIER, AUJOURD'HUI ET ETERNELLEMENT (HEBREUX 13:8)

Christ Amazing Grace Embassy (Christ AGE) invite you to share with us in the blessing of Sunday worship services, with the opportunity of healing and to be made whole in Christ.  Every Sunday, 2.30pm - 4.00pm.  At Wellington Church (near Glasgow University).  On the corner of University avenue and Southpark avenue.  Enter by Southpark avenue.

JESUS CHRIST IS THE SAME YESTERDAY, TODAY AND FOREVER (HEBREWS 13:8)

imaginative prayer

This morning's class has been focussing on prayer and in particular 'imaginative prayer'.  If I am understanding it right then it involves imagining a situation where we meet with the Lord, it could be a place we know or more in the style of a meditation upon a bible story and imagining oneself into it, and in that situation speaking to and importantly listening to him.  It is an idea that I am very interested in as I attempt to hear more from him through prayer rather than it just being somewhere where I offload (as I mentioned yesterday I think).  I sometimes find that if I just sit or lie somewhere with the intention of listening to God I end up asleep and I feel that this idea of putting myself into a situation that becomes real in my mind may help to combat this tendancy!  We tried it in class and one girl shared what was an incredible experience through imagining herself into the feeding of the 5 thousand.  Like all spiritual disciplines it is exactly that, a discipline, and it will take time for me to find the 'place' where I am able to feel that I am with the Lord and not just my own day dreams, but I think that it could be a discipline that it is well worth pursuing.

listening

Something that I am trying to get better at in my life is listening to God.  It is so easy to come to God and talk to him, to pour out all sorts of things to him, but then to just get on with our day to day routine.  I am trying to make an effort to listen more to God.  Obviously circumstances dictate the way in which our minds are moving but God works in these circumstances and with this in mind I want to share these 3 bits of scripture with you.  They came to mind in the (short) walk from the station to college this morning.

Firstly, Luke 10:27, " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' "

Secondly, Matthew 18:21-22, Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?  Up to seven times?"  Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times."

Finally, Galatians 5:22-23, "...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control."

I find that it is easy to say these things, to know that they are things that as a believer I must do, but it is much harder to actually do and exhibit them, especially when there is a little voice in your ear urging you not to.  It would be easy to repay like for like but as we attempt to walk with the Lord it is to his teaching that we must attempt to hold and not the ideas of the society within which we live where we are taught that we get what we deserve.  In Jesus we have so much more than we deserve, that's what's so amazing about grace and why we must make every effort to show the grace that he so freely gave to us in the way we live our lives.

moving on

I have been very lucky with flats and flat mates.  I was particularly blessed by my flat mate in my house in Coventry before moving to Glasgow.  Despite not knowing each other well before we moved in together we got on brilliantly.  It was hard for me to leave.  I have also been blessed in my move to Glasgow.  I felt that the ease with which I found both a flat and someone to share it with was all part of God's confirming that the move here was right. 

The time has now come however for me to move on from this flat.  Again a great blessing to me has been that I have been asked to move in with some people who have become and become more so all the time good friends.  This has left me with a room to advertise and a flat mate who will remain here.  As part of my agreement with my current landlord I need to find a suitable replacement for my room which I have set about doing. I have handled the situation as honestly and with as much integrity as possible but it still seems that I have created an amount of tension by my decision.  I am learning, and it is not a lesson that I like, that it is impossible to please all of the people all of the time, and that something I will have to learn as I train for ministry is to get better at accepting people not liking me!  This is hard for me as I worry that not being liked for something I have done is making me a bad witness for Christ.  I think that in this respect I need to accept that there are times when this may seem the case to me but I need to trust in Christ that he can work in all situations. 

This is the second situation in a matter of months where moving on seems hard, and to be hurting those involved in some way.  In the first situation I have seen God working, even when I couldn't have imagined it at the beginning, and I trust that he will do likewise in this case too.

at last part 2

After a morning spent tidying them both up and finishing the bibliography as well as some technical hitches with the college printers I finally handed in not one but two pieces of work today.  I am now going to focus on some exam prep so I have it all done on time and will then try and get into the remaining assignments.  I had a bit of a panic earlier about how much there is to do, with catching up and getting ready for the exams, but thankfully God pulled me out if it before it could really take hold.  I had a good chat with one of the lecturers today.  One of the (many) great things about studying at Christian college is the potential to do one of the most important things going, pray, with anyone there.  It was good to share with this lecturer today and then to pray together.  The power of prayer is something that I need to give thanks for time and time again as God continues to 'pull out of the bag' situations that to me seem lost, this term being one.  Here's to praying...2 down, 6 to go...

brilliant

I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.  He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.  Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.

I read these words in psalm 40 and felt that they were so fitting, not only for myself but for any one of us who are attempting to walk with the Lord.  We all have testimony of times when he has lifted us out of the pit and placed us back on firm ground, praise him.

Today there has been such a joy in my heart as we met for Sunday worship at St Silas.  I feel that I am really beginning to know more people which is great.  It was a great privilege for me tonight to pray with a friend as he enters a hard week in his life.  He is an amazing guy and in the short time I have known him it has been a joy to see what the Lord is doing in his life.  Tonights service rocked, the talk (I think if David is to believed about how West of Scotland men respond to illness then a bit of that is rubbing off on me! - for those of you who don't get that - we're basically soft!), the music, and the prayer fitted together brilliantly.  It was so good to feel the Holy Spirit really moving amongst us.  I heard that the 'mad lads' led the service at Knights Meadow today which I can imagine went off brilliantly too.  When we let Church be taken out of our hands and into God's I don't think that there can be much that's better - this side of heaven!  Brilliant.

fellowship

I have been really enjoying fellowship with various friends over the last couple of days.  The enjoyment that spending time with people brings has really tied into the assignment I have been writing about what it means for us as humans to be created in the image of God.  One of the things that I have seen this to mean is that as people we are made to be in community, with God and also with other people.  This is something that I believe the church must work very hard at - to make sure that for people new to the church, the community nature of what it means to be a follower of Christ is not lost upon them.  Also as followers of Christ I think that we must show a real urgency to let those who haven't yet had the opportunity to realise it just how amazing it is to come into relationship with him.