Bread Loaf

It's a heavenly smell - freshly-baked bread.

The golden brown loaf sitting cooling on the rack.
Wisps of steam gently rising from the crispy crust.
It makes my mouth water just thinking about it.
I must be careful not to drool on the keyboard!

But it can't be eaten straight away.
It's too hot, soft, and stretchy, to be sliced.
I'll just have to wait, and keep swallowing!

To think that the whole process started with planting seeds.
Way back in the Spring, or maybe even the previous Autumn.
Buried in the dark earth, the roots and shoot sprout unseen.
Then the green blade riseth out of the ground, into the sun.

The wind blows, the rain falls, the sun shines, and harvest comes.
Some seed yields thirtyfold, some sixty fold, and some hundredfold.
The harvester trundles across the field and gathers in the precious crop.

The grain may have to dry further before it can be milled into flour.
In the old days the water wheel would turn the heavy millstones.
Nowadays the stones or crushers are powered by machinery.
The end result is the same - finely powdered flour ready for baking.

It's a complicated business - getting the mix of ingredients right.
Lots of flour, a pinch of yeast, butter, sugar, milk, a little salt.
And don't forget the water - as I did once!

The ingredients must be mixed and left to rise.
Then kneeded, squeezed, and stretched, into shape.
Finally the baking takes place under careful control.

At last the heavenly aroma fills the house.

Life's like that.
From seed to bread.
Eat your fill.
Live life - to the full.

Clay Pot

Being a clay pot must be tough.

You're born in a whirl.
Squeezed, pushed, and pulled.
Smeared in mud and slime.

Finally you're caressed into the perfect shape.
The artist decorates your surface.
Then it's off to the dryer and the kiln.

Et voila! A beautiful vase.

Sometimes life feels like being on a potter's wheel.
We feel moulded, squeezed, spun around.

It's scary unless we trust the Potter.

Turmoil and Trust

I'm in a turmoil this evening.
Maybe it's not a good time to write.

But then no-one will ever know about the turmoil.
If I wait until I'm calm then I won't be true to the turmoil.

When water rushes down a mountainside it's not calm.
When a storm rages across the ocean the water is not peaceful.

One person's wisdom and insight can be, for another person, injustice and ignorance. How can an outsider tell the difference?

I was watching a TV program tonight on channel 2 about miracles and healings.
The psychologist presenting the programme interviewed many people who believed that their experiences were a result of interaction with God.
Yet the programme concluded that there was no evidence that such experiences were genuine.

How arrogant to write off another person's testimony as of no evidence!
If our lawcourts worked like that where would we be?! Anarchy!

How could a court function if the only valid evidence was a scientific experiment?
If someone was accused of murder the prosecution would have to set up an identical situation and show that in that same situation the accused would have committed murder! A bit tricky getting a dead person to play their part!

If there is no evidence for God, other than people's testimony, then how can we believe in God? Is faith always blind? Can trust be proven?

I put my faith and trust in God on August 14th 1981.
During the past 27 years, I consider that trust to have been proven.
Now that I look back I am glad I made that decision.
But when I made it I didn't know what would happen.

Who is it that we all serve?
Is God really all-powerful?
And if so, who can measure up?

Music & Colour

It's been a lovely warm day, full of colour, and music too.
I was playing my French Horn along with a church organ.
It was great to be able to play at full blast!
And the vibrant harmonies throbbed in the air.

And then in the afternoon I enjoyed some time in our garden at home.
Yellow Daffodils, Bluebells and blue Grape Hyacinth, and red Tulips now.
Beautiful colours from one end of the spectrum to the other.

It reminded me of the Greek word 'Χρωμα' that I learned at the university. In English script - it sounds like 'Chroma'.
When I first read the Greek word I guessed straight away what it meant.
The subject was about harmony so 'Χρωμα' must be something to do with the pitch of a music note. A scale that uses all the notes is called a Chromatic scale.

When I looked up the Greek dictionary to check what it said 'Χρωμα' meant I was surprised to find out that it also means the colour of something. And I remembered that a Chromatograph splits up a coloured liquid into the individual colours of the chemical components.

So in Greek there is one word that means both the pitch of a note and the colour of an object. It was totally awesome! I was flabbergasted. How did that happen?

I could just believe that the Greeks understood that the frequency of a vibration determined the pitch of the sound - like a string vibrating.

But how could they possibly have known that the frequency of the electromagnetic radiation that we see as light also determined the colour of the light?

The Greek text I was reading was written in 100AD.
It wasn't modern-day Greek, nor a modern-day Greek dictionary.
It was Ancient Greek - very Ancient!
They knew nothing about radiation!

It wasn't until the 13th Century in England that the different colours of light were first observed in a glass of water by Roger Bacon. And the famous Isaac Newton first used the word Spectrum in his book on Opticks in 1671. He was lucky he didn't blind himself when he inserted a spatula (flat stick) in behind his own eyeball and made it see distorted images, including rainbow colours. Don't try it at home! Or anywhere else for that matter!!

So how could the Greeks have known over 1000 years earlier that frequency determined colour? Was it chance? Or luck? I don't know the answer? Do you?

These ancient cultures certainly seemed to know more than we often give them credit for. Well done the Greeks!

Nostalgia Galore!

I was in Linlithgow today.
It's a lovely burgh town West of Edinburgh.
Mary Queen of Scots lived there during Reformation times.

My connection with the town goes back to my university days.
We used to go dinghy sailing on the loch all through the winter.
I must be getting soft these days, for then I had no wetsuit!

My first long-term job was in Linlithgow too.
Our electronics factory made Radar Systems of various types.
At one time one of 'my' radars guided aircraft at Gatwick airport!

Today I was with some friends and we made some time to remember.
It was wonderful to sit in St Michael's church.
It dates back to Queen Mary's time - and beyond.

I wasn't thinking that far back.
But what a journey I have been on through the years.
I was remembering spiritual events in my life.
I was remembering places where I have worked.
I was remembering parts of the world where I have travelled.
I was remembering people I have known.

What a complex and tortuous route I have travelled.
At no time would it have been possible to predict ahead.
Yet when I look back it seems like at all hangs together;
like I was travelling on a trajectory - although not a simple one!

Experts in Chaos Theory say that a butterfly flapping its wings in California can trigger a chain of events that result in a tornado devastating the countryside in Central USA.

The smallest of decisions in our lives can lead to momentous events - maybe positive or maybe negative - that we could not have predicted. For some people this possibility leads to an inability to choose what to do. They cannot make any decisions for fear of making the wrong decision.

Having a friend to guide us is a great help.
We can talk over the issues and decide together.
It helps to have a friend who is knowledgable and wise.
It is good to know our friend will travel with us on the journey.

Wouldn't it be great if our friend had our best interest at heart?
How wonderful it would be if that friend knew what lay ahead!
We could do with a friend powerful enough to carry us through.

Were would we find a friend like that?

Core Quality

I was visiting a lady today.
She is wonderful.
So cheerful and grateful despite her difficulties.

I felt like she gave more to me than I gave to her.
We had a good time together, talking about the past times we had shared together, and the people who had been special to her during her long life.

Although she was sad at the loss of her husband, her home, and her health, she is full of thankfulness for all the people who are looking after her, both the medical staff in the hospital, and her family and friends as they visit her.

I was impressed at the solid foundation that gave her.
It is a solid platform on which she has based her life.
She is not depressed by her reduced circumstances.
Instead her heart is full of love and joy for the blessings in her life.

A long time ago, Paul wrote "Whatever is true, honourable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, and worthy, think about these things, always and for everything giving thanks."

My friend's bones are getting weak and her backbones are no longer providing a strong core for her body. But her spiritual core is as strong and dependable as ever.

From her foundation stone to the top stone she is a temple of God, filled with the Holy Spirit, knowing his love and strength every moment of every day.

How did she get that way?
Jesus, the master builder, constructed her one stone at a time.
She is not only a House of God, but has been built by God.

That's the quality at the core of her life.

The Problem of Pain

It's a topical subject Pain is.
My neck is still a little sore.
But now that I've found the right box, the Ibuprofen is keeping it under control.

For other people, my solution is irrelevant.
When a husband or wife of many years dies - it is painful.
Some people use alcohol, or sedatives, or other drugs, to dull that kind of pain.
But that type of solution inhibits the healing that is being sought.

Sometimes people try to cope with pains of the heart by blaming others.
Building resentment, or even hate, as a barrier to hurt can reduce the sense of pain. But too often it results in much greater damage - sometimes lifelong damage.

Even God gets the blame sometimes.
If He is so loving and powerful then how could He let me feel this pain.
If God loved me then He would have stopped the painful incident from happening.
It happened - so it must be true that God doesn't love me.

But for God to shield us from pain, he would have to stop us from loving.
Partings happen, be they through death, or choice, or both.
Would we give up all love in order to be pain-free?

God chose not to give up his love for you.
Instead He embraced the pain that our neglect and disobedience caused Him.
He embraced it and won through to the other side.
He knows our pain and He offers us real comfort and healing.
Despair. Anger. Grief. Bitterness. Hatred. Loneliness.
Instead, God offers, Love, Joy, and Peace.

Jesus offers you a shoulder to cry on, and arms to embrace you;
Hands to carry your burdens and feet to walk with you.

Pain - it's a problem.
But sharing it with God brings pain-relief.

Offer & Choice

Don't we just love a Special Offer?

10% off before the end of April.
Pre-summer sale.
All stock must go.

But then we have to choose.

What should it be?
Buy now - maybe on credit.
Or wait, maybe to save up, and miss the sale.

But maybe the Sale product is not the best product.
We should check out all the available models.
This feature, or that feature.
Which features are must-have?

After all we've got to have a proper choice.
It's not right to have only one option.
Surely we deserve a choice?

But what if the best model is on a free offer?
Is it a free choice?
Or an unfair marketing strategy?

The manufacturer paid the price.
It's a 100% discount.
And there's no expiry date on the offer.

Well there's only one answer.
Go for it!

And where to find this free offer?
Why surely - down at your local!

In the village square, or at the corner.
With the tower, spire, or steeple.

Your local church has unlimited stocks.
Hurry on down and collect your free offer.

Creation - again!

Last Tuesday I was discussing the question "Were humans created out of nothing?"

The same person who asked me that question also asked "Did humans create themselves?"

This question has a number of facets to it, as did the first one.
Clearly human babies are 'created' by two humans.
Not out of nothing, but out of themselves.

But what about the first human?
It's back to the chicken and egg situation we discussed on Saturday.
Which came first?

But if we accept the evolutionist argument then humans developed incrementally.
There was no sharp dividing line between homo sapiens (present-day humans) and the species which preceded them.
Humans didn't have a birth day - they just faded in without anyone noticing.

The fossil record doesn't show that kind of incremental fade-in.
The nearest predecessors, or less developed man, were Cro-magnon man, and Neanderthal man. These were not present-day humans, who co-existed with both of these types of man. Indeed, some scientists say that present-day humans did not descend from Neanderthal man, who just faded out about 20,000 years ago.

Other research has identified from studies into human mitochondrial DNA that all human females are descended from just four unrelated females at some point in Africa. And studies of male Y chromosomes have discovered that all human males are descended from just one male.

I don't have references for these genetic studies.
I just remember reading the news reports.

Of course, I wasn't surprised.
Those facts have been known for at least 3,000 years!

I don't think present-day man faded in.
Mankind appeared with a bang - although probably not a Big Bang!

We can discuss who came first - the man or the woman - another day!

Water - it's funny stuff too!

Today's been a funny old day!
I've been wanting to get down to revising.
But one thing after another has given me too many excuses!

A form to fill in for my next stage of training - at Viewforth.
An email from a concerned friend needed answering.
Shoes to collect from the repairer.
The bike shop to visit for new brake blocks.
And so it goes on.

I did get some revision done.
It was great to get back into it again.
It's all about what people thought 500 years ago.
And just like fashions - it's relevant again!

Water goes round and round too.
From the sea to the sky and back again.
Sometimes it's frozen.
And sometimes it's white fluffy clouds.
Or maybe clouds of white steam - burning hot.
Half the time it's totally invisible.

Water - all living things need it.
But when water is pure then it is sterile.

And as we know in Scotland - you can have too much of a good thing.
Not only too much rain, or flooding rivers, or rising seas.
Apparently if you drink too much water, too fast, it can kill you.

But used sparingly water cleanses us.
It washes away the dirt and filth of the day.
It's not just about washing feet.
It's about washing us clean inside.
All the regrets and mistakes can be set to rights.

It begins with water.
Two thousand years ago it was revolutionary.
Five hundred years ago there was reformation.
Today we still need to be renewed, refreshed, cleansed.

Wonderful, life-giving stuff is water.
In all kinds of strange and wonderful ways.

Glass - useful stuff!

I think my talk this morning went quite well.
Although it nearly blew up when I got the pages in the wrong order!
Someone was smiling down on me because hardly anyone noticed.

As we were driving home the sun was blazing in through the car windows. It was great to feel the heat during these cold days.

It's funny stuff glass. It lets the heat from the sun through and keeps the heat in the car too! And being able to see through the glass helps the driver to drive!

Glass has many other uses too. We use it to make bottles and jars and glasses for drinking from. It bends the light so we can make lenses for glasses (i.e. spectacles) and telescopes. It's great for making fish tanks for use at home and at the aquarium. It's even a fundamental part of the ubiquitous microchip.

All from stuff that you can hardly see.
Sometimes you can't even see it at all.
But just because we can't see it doesn't mean it's not there.

There's lots of things in life that we can't see but we know they are there.
Little things like electrons. Big things like galaxies.
And I'm not even going to mention Dark Matter - oops!

So why do some people have a hang up about believing in God.
OK, so we can't see God. But we can know Him.
There is evidence. Historical and present-day.
There are witnesses. From long ago and today.

So don't let the little matter of not seeing prevent you from receiving the good things that God promises to those who believe in Jesus Christ.

Seeds - for growing or eating?

I enjoyed some time out in the garden this afternoon.
It was beautifully sunny, but rather cold.
It certainly wasn't sunbathing weather.
I was glad to have my gardening gloves on!

I enjoyed giving the grass a light cut.
It's a methodical task that doesn't require much brain-power!
So I have time to think as well as to be busy doing something.

I was thinking about the seeds that I put in the bird feeder.
What were these seeds made for?
Were they made for growing new plants?
Or were they made to provide food for birds, and other little creatures?

Of course, the plants make seeds to make new plants.
But if there is no food for the birds then they'll die.
And if the birds don't spread the seeds then the plants can't spread.

I guess it's one of these chicken and egg situations.
Which came first? What's more important?

I suppose that would be one of the arguments for everything having appeared at once. That way the chicken could be there before the first egg.

On the other hand, if everything developed one micro-step at time, then birds and plants gradually come to depend on each other. There is mutual benefit.

Every living thing that we know of uses DNA to encode the instructions for life. And DNA is composed of just four proteins: Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine and Guanine, abbreviated to A, T, C and G. The two strands that form the DNA double helix are connected by bonds between pairs of these four proteins. The proteins can only bond in two ways: G and C can bind only to each other, and the same goes for A and T.

My question is this: how could DNA develop one step at a time?

Well, that was too hard a question to answer while cutting the grass!
So I moved on to the spring rake, to break up the matted grass and let in some air and light. I certainly needed to increase my own air intake. It's hard work and soon I didn't need my gloves any more!

After a final cut the grass was looking lovely.
At least so long as you don't look at the ragged edges!
They can wait for another day.

Behind the beautiful colours of the yellow daffodils, the blue grape hyacinth, the red dogwood branches, the white flowers making waterfalls on a couple of bushes, and the verdant green grass, is the business of seed making.

It's fundamental to life itself.
Without any seed there is no next generation.

A farmer scattered seed on his field.
Some of it was eaten by birds.
Other seed was choked by weeds.
Some of the plants dried up in shallow soil.
But most of it grew to fruition and made 100s of seeds.

Are you making seeds?
What for?

Fish Risk

We had a sad time in my family a couple of months ago.
So today I decided I would take my Mum for an outing.
We went to Deep Sea World, across the Forth Bridge.

It's a great place.
They have a 1 million gallon tank of sea water.
And on the bottom there is an acrylic-covered walkway.
One side of the walkway is motorised and gently carries you round.
The fish glide by, over and around the transparent walkway.

They have four Sand Tiger sharks reaching over 3m length.
There were many other rays and flatfish.
Mackerel, Sea Bass, Bream, Gurneys, and many other fish.
And Conger Eels inhabit the dark holes in the walls.

Up above, in the reception area, they have many other tanks.
Tropical fish, an Amazon River tank, Lake Malawi, even Piranhas.
They even have a Stone Fish, and poison arrow frogs.
Some of the most venomous animals in the world.

It's not a place for the faint-hearted.
It must be a rather risky place to work.

They feed the fish in the main tank by hand.
Albeit that the hand is covered in chain mail.
Otherwise the two divers wore standard wet suits.
No match for a hungry shark.

My friend Steve knows all about Risk.
He's made some rather bold moves careerwise over the years.
Lately he gave up his job as a data analyst to become a Risk Consultant.
Now that's a risky job!

Isn't it strange how sometimes we court the excitement and adventure of a risky hobby or holiday. And at other times we worry about a one in a million chance.

Someone I know took a big risk one time.
He lived in a right cushy number. No expense spared.
But one day he gave it all up to live a life of poverty and homelessness.
He and his friends travelled around from village to village.
They had to keep one step ahead of the authorities.
Hunted they were. Dangerous men, and women too.

They knew what 'risk' was alright.
Then one day he walked right into the lion's mouth.
His friends went with him to die too.

It's the greatest love you can have.
To lay down your life for your friends.
And he died - for his friends.
I'm his friend.
You can be too.

It's risky.
You get to go fishing.
And there's some big fish around.

But the risks are outweighed by the rewards.
The rewards are stunning, mind-blowing, everlasting.

Hot Air - lot's of it!

Today's been a cold day.
And I've been generating even more hot air than usual!

One of my hobbys is playing the French Horn.
I'm going to be playing in front of a bunch of folk in 10 days time so I've been practicing. My right hand gets warmed up by the outflow. My left hand gets warmed up twiddling the valve keys. The top half of me ends up beautifully warm. But the lower half was just as cold after my practice.

I've been writing a lot of hot air too!
I'll be talking to the same bunch of folk this weekend.
So I've been writing (well, typing really) what I'm planning to talk about.
My cold fingers were going a bit slow - that's my excuse.
So I enjoyed the music break to get them warmed up.
Now they're cold again!

Hot air rises - it's a well known scientific fact.
I wonder if that's why Craigsbank Church is designed so that the minister is at a lower level than all the congregation. It's like an amphitheatre, with all the seats in raised levels set around the central focus area - which is almost like a pit! And there's built-in hot air heating during the sermons!

And that set me to thinking about the Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit that God breathes into his body the church.
That must be really hot air!
No wonder they saw flames around each person at the first Pentecost.
They were really on fire.

I bet they didn't have cold fingers!

Broken Gate

My garden gate broke yesterday.
One of the welded joints has been rusty for a while and yesterday it broke.

The gate still worked, but it was sagging seriously.
The bottom joint was then overstressed and in danger of failing also.

Action was needed - and quickly.

I needed something to fix it with.
Usually for these kind of things I use a an elastic band, string, or a paper clip.

"A paper clip?", you say!
Well when my mother's toilet cistern broke recently we used a paper clip to replace the broken split pin. But not this time.

And elastic bands are good for fixing some things.
But not this time.

The ball of string was definitely what was needed.
A few lengths of string, some knots, and hey presto.
The gate's almost good as new.
Well for a little while anyway.

Sometimes I think we apply a paper clip, elastic band, some string, or some other equivalent, when our life becomes a bit broken.

We don't have the time or the energy for a proper repair.
Or we don't know who to consult.
Or where to find a repair person with a good reputation.

A long time ago someone got a reputation for mending broken lives.
He was so good at it, that those who should have been good at repairing lives, became angry with the man. So they strung him up and left him to die.
But that wasn't the end of him.

Nowadays others are following his example.
If your life is broken then get it repaired properly.

Made from Nothing?

Last week someone asked me if humans were created out of nothing.

It set me thinking - which was probably why they asked me!

In some senses the answer is obvious - No!
Humans are 'created' from an egg and a sperm.
So humans are created from something - well, two things - not nothing.

But asking if humans were created suggests the question is not about where babies come from. It's about where humans came from.

Or to put it another way - how did we get here?
And with the question containing the word 'created' then it includes within it the question "Whether there was a creator?"

That's a much bigger question than the one about where babies come from.
It has resulted in division between philosophers, scientists, and religious people.

My answer to this question also is 'No'.
Humans were not created out of nothing.
The Bible teaches that God made man from the material of the Earth.
And science tells us that humans are made out of the same type of matter as the rest of the planet.

I believe that what God created out of nothing was the Universe itself.

For a long time philosophers and scientists thought that the Universe had always existed in its present form. But in 1948 (I think!) cosmologists began to develop the concept of the Big Bang.

At the instant of the Big Bang the Universe was a Singularity.
Scientists have not yet managed to describe that Singularity, and probably never will.

But one thing they will agree on.
It was infinitesimally small - smaller than a pinhead.
So small it could not have been measured.
So small it was virtually nothing.

So perhaps Science too would agree that the Universe appeared out of nothing.

The Bible itself is rather vague about the timings of these events.
It does not give any indication about how God created humans, or even how long the process took - unless we go down the 'Six Days plus a Rest' route.

So I guess if you want to go right back to the beginning;
Humans were made from matter, and matter was created out of nothing.
So maybe we can answer the original question with a 'Yes' after all.

Well that's what I think, and have done for some time now.
But I'm open to other opinions.
How would you answer that question?
Were humans created out of nothing?

Hearing Voices?

This evening I met up with some of my friends and we were talking about hearing voices. How can you tell whether to listen or not?

Are all voices in our heads just due to imagination or illness?

Might the old, and not so old, stories about good spirits and bad spirits be true? Could voices in our heads really be some intangible being speaking to us?

Those were some of the questions we were grappling with during the evening.

It was an interesting conversation. Each of us had had some experience of feeling led, or being spoken to, by something or someone that we couldn't see. Sometimes we knew it was good for us, and other times we were not so sure.

Some of us even felt that we had been given messages for someone else - a bit like the prophets back in the Bible days! That was a thought! Who would have thought that here in Edinburgh you might bump into a real old-fashioned prophet?!

And if you did, what might they say to you?
And what might you not want them to say to you?
I think that's rather a scary thought.

Well, I'm off to bed now - and there better not be any bumps in the night!

Connection Grief

It was one of these simple jobs, but it took me all afternoon.
In the end I think the problem was down to a poor connection.

The video signal coming in was pretty good.
But by the time it had gone through the Cable box and the Video Recorder it was dirty and noisy. The TV didn't like it one bit.

By the time I had tried all the connectors, and cables, and optional inputs and outputs, the afternoon was practically gone.

Since the fancy alternatives hadn't worked, I just connected it all up the simple way I had planned to in the first place. And lo and behold, it was working!

It's a bit like that party game of Chinese Whispers.
One person starts a message and each person in the circle passes the message on to their neighbour. By the time it reaches the end the message is usually corrupted.

Or like that wartime request, "Send reinforcements. We're going to advance.", which turns into, "Send three and fourpence, we're going to a dance." (For young folk, three and fourpence, is 3 shillings and 4 pennies in pre-decimal money, equal to 17p nowadays!).

It's no wonder that a messge from 2000 years ago is a bit difficult to decode in today's modern era. But the core message remains uncorrupted and just as relevant today. If we work hard at it we can pass that fantastic message on to another generation. Let's eliminate the dodgy connections and pass it on as accurately as we can.

Pain Killers

I've had a pain in the neck all week.

I said "had" - not "been"!

So yesterday I visited the Doc and she said it was probably just over-tense neck-muscles and I should take some anti-inflammatory pain-killers for a few days.

When I got home I ferreted around in our small medicine cupboard and found the box of stuff. I took my two tablets, with water as recommended, and took two more before going off to bed.

This morning, as I was reading the instructions, my ever-observant wife looked at the tablets, turned over the blister pack, and said "Why have you been taking anti-histamine tablets?"

AAAAAAAAAAAaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!

How on earth could the wrong blister pack have got inside the pain-killer box?

Well - that was an object lesson in checking the labels.
And then I had to read the anti-histamine instructions.
"Do not exceed the stated dose" - which is one per day.
And I've already taken four in 12 hours!

Well I've survived - and now I know why my neck was still sore all yesterday evening!

It's still a bit sore even now - but easing off a bit.

When people look at you - I wonder what they think is on the inside?
Is your inside the same as what you look like on the outside?

If you look happy, friendly, and cheerful, are you really like that?
If you look sad, miserable, and grumpy, is that really who you are?

Let's check each other out, and make sure our insides match our outsides!

Carpet Everywhere!

I was at a worship service today as I do from time to time.

It was a new place for me and I arrived early so that I had time to find out how they do things at that place. I was surprised to find that the main hall was fully carpeted but there were no seats (except a few for those who needed them).

They had some problems with their microphone system, but that wasn't the reason I couldn't understand half of what the speaker was saying. It wasn't even that he was using religious jargon - in fact he spoke remarkably plain English, apart from his accent. No, it was just that half the time he was speaking another language altogether, and telling us in English also. It reminded me of meetings in Taiwan when everything was spoken in Mandarin and in English.

What he had to say was very good. He was encouraging those present to be more loving and gracious in our marriage relationships, just as God is generous and gracious in his relationship with us. I was impressed. I had not heard such a forthright talk about marriage at a church service before. But there again, it wasn't a church I was in today!

Rough Ground already!

Today has been one of those frustrating days.
Although I had a lot of things I wanted to do I figured I had plenty of time to get through them. So instead of pushing on I let myself get sidetracked.

However, although the early part of the day was a bit of a detour, the delays resulted in me 'bumping' into two of my friends while I was in central Edinburgh. One was from South Queensferry and another from Gracemount in South Edinburgh. Having met another friend yesterday, this time from Longstone in Edinburgh, I've been feeling quite connected. Edinburgh has a population of around 450,000 so to unexpectedly meet three friends in two days was quite a surprise!

Yesterday evening my wife and I enjoyed hosting two friends from Northern Ireland who have been visiting Edinburgh. Friends - they are far more important than 'getting things done'. No matter how much we look after our things they will degrade over time. That can happen with friendships too. But if we invest in our friends and family then the bonds of friendship grow ever stronger.

One rich man buried his treasure and ended up losing it. Another rich man invited all his friends to a party and no-one came. When we get to the end of the road we have to leave all our things behind and then all that we are left with are our friends. Whose friend are you? Know who your friends are and cherish them. It is true that love lasts forever.

Where does the path lead?

For me, today has been about turning new corners in my path of life. My supervisor and I have been reviewing our Final Reports. I can see farther ahead now.

The only ways to find out the destination of a path are either to find the end yourself or to find out from someone else who has been there already. In the case of the path of life we must explore it on our own. No-one else has ever made the same journey that we will make.

We might have our own ideas of the destination. Other people might have told us where our journey will end. We may even be following signposts that other people have created to help us. But in practice, our journey will be filled with unexpected events.

Just as on a real footpath we might find a fallen tree, or a landslip, an artifical barrier, or even just a large puddle, so it is with the path of life. We never know what barriers lie ahead, or what detours we will have to make, on our way to the final destination.

Many years ago I found a signpost that led me to change direction. Now I think I know what my destination will be, although not how I will get there! In recent years I have been helping others to find signposts on their own journeys of life.

Don't get lost for the lack of a signpost. They are there to be found.

It's All New to Me

I haven't ever Blogged before.
But I suppose there is a first time for everything new.
A Butterfly emerging from its Chrysalis has never done it before.

This next two years will be a year of firsts for me.
Why not come along with me and enjoy the journey of adventure.

Yours,
Stewart