In the Room

In the Room mk II

2009-05-03T16:56:00.004+01:00

As everything in life seems to nowadays, In the Room has become obsolete, and I have upgraded to word press. I've long thought Wordpress looks like a better platform than blogger, and so this weekend I've taken the plunge. Essentially it will still be called In the Room and it'll be the same mix of musings, music, movies, Christianity and any other things that come into my head, it just looks prettier and is easier for me to use!You can find the new blog here (www.grahamintheroom.wordpress.com)
Hope you continue reading and enjoy the new look!
See you at the new page!
Graham

Let Down (and hanging around)

2009-05-01T15:12:00.009+01:00

12 years ago today Tony Blair wrestled power from the Tory party in an unprecedented electoral landslide that left the defeated party in disarray for the best part of a decade, promised change and a fresh start for everyone in the country. Somewhere along the line, it all went wrong, and I've been wondering why?

Labour have been in power for nearly half of my life, but given the way the polls are looking and Gordon Brown's sorry attempts at governing, it looks like 2009 could be the beginning of the end for the current Labour administration. If I'm honest I'm not sorry about that either. My politics is naturally left leaning, and in that sense Labour should be my first choice party, but it isn't. More than anything they just leave me feeling let down, let down by 12 years of false dawns, failed new deals and empty promises.

It all could have been so different. I'll happily admit that I was too young to vote in 1997 (by 4 years), but that doesn't mean I wasn't excited by the potential of New Labour and Tony Blair. I knew I wasn't a Tory, and I knew I found John Major dull, uncharismatic, bereft of ideas and out of touch. The promise of 'things can only get better' combined with the euphoria of that day was intoxicating- we really felt things were going to change for the better. Tony was a bewitching character, a politician the like of which I'd never seen, and an engaging personality (something I found to be true when I heard him debate in the flesh at Oasis HQ in the last general election). After all Labour had a huge majority, they could do what they liked and they were promising so much- a new kind of politics (sound familiar David Cameron fans?)- and yet they fell so far short.

There are various themes that arise from the reign of New Labour that I find symptomatic of the disappointment I feel in them, and the way they failed to capitalize on the opportunity they had;

Style over substance has to be the first one. Instead of transforming the NHS, education and social welfare they threw money at everything, installed layers and layers of bureaucracy and squandered the opportunity of a generation. Yes, things have changed on the surface, but at their core have they improved? I'm not sure they have. Take education for example. Literacy levels are up, schools have higher funding and more pupils stay on post-16 than when Blair came to power. However whether the education system has improved qualitatively I think is a different question. From what I saw on my PGCE and when I visit schools in my current post I'm inclined to think it hasn't. Teachers work their fingers to the bone, but are weighed down by paperwork, unnecessary assessment and constant red tape. The freedom of the individual teacher to express their skills and abilities in the best way for each individual class has been suppressed by the constant demand to teach to test. To quote David Cameron (who I think was quoting someone else) "constantly weighing the pig doesn't make it any heavier" It's like the government wants to micro manage every element of the services it provides, giving no freedom at all to professionals who just want to get on with their jobs,and that is to the detriment of each of those professions and the people they serve.

Secondly there was the 'special relationship' between Tony Blair and George Bush, that so perfectly illustrates how the lust for power and influence overpowered common sense and just doing the right thing in number 10. With his Stateside ally Tony saw the chance to punch above his weight as a statesman and influence global politics in a way he otherwise couldn't. The longer he stayed in number 10 the longer these characteristics came to the fore as he strove for his'legacy' to write his name in the history books, regardless of what that cost in terms of Britian's global standing and integrety. By being the lap dog of one of the most hoplessly inept Presidents in history, Tony Blair condemned this country to an illegal war, decimating our human rights record by taking part in torturous 'extraordinary rendition' and of course causing the relentless humiliation we are subjected to in Eurovision every year!

Worst of all is the way it feels like New Labour abused the trust of the British public (and me!). To start with there was Alistair Campbell and the spin machine, the introduction of top-up fees, then the WMD's and the invasion of Iraq, the David Kelly affair, the handling of the economy, the erosion of our civil liberties under the anti-terror banner and the countless personal misdemeanours of politicians who came to power partly on an anti-sleaze ticket. That's just the headline errors for me, on a deeper level New Labour have further eroded the reputation of British politicians to the point where it can really go no lower and is second only to that of bankers. The sad thing is both Blair and Brown seem so self righteous I'm not convinced either of them would see this.

That's not to say it was all bad, the minimum wage was a positive move forward, the economy was booming for a while (although we now see how shaky the foundations of this were) and the Good Friday peace accord in Northern Ireland was an amazing achievement, to name some of the positives to come out of the past 12 years.

I realise that some of this will make me sound like a closest Conservative, but I'm not. I just think New Labour have taken the idea of 'big government' to a place where it becomes a hindrance, rather than a help, for society and have failed to live up to so many of their promises. I suppose its only natural a party that has been in power as long as Labour stagnates and I just hope they don't take as long to recover from the electoral beating that is sure to come their way as the Conservatives did from '97.

A Heavenly Manifesto

2009-04-22T15:19:00.009+01:00

A few weeks ago we watched a Delirious? video in Sunday club, and ever since then it has been running through my head, and the more I mull it over, the more it seems to be significant. Those of you familiar with the D: live experience will know all about Martin Smith's talky sections during History Maker, and I suspect you'll be quite fond of them too! During this one (from My Soul Sings DVD), he reads out Isaiah 58:6-7 from the Message;

"This is the kind of fast day I'm after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I'm interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on"

Then he begins to talk about child traffiking, finishing by saying "If it is not acceptable in Heaven, it's not acceptable here"

The more I think about this, the more it seems a deeply profound statement, a heavenly manifesto if you like, for those of us who profess to follow Jesus Christ and be part of His kingdom. "If it is not acceptable in Heaven, it's not acceptable here" It goes wider than the context of people traffiking and right to what is at the heart of the kingdom of God. It is Christians living out their lives here and now, but as if we were in heaven, a place of joy, peace and justice where God is centre of all things and righteousness reigns.

Everywhere we look in this world, there is pain, suffering and injustice, but in Jesus and the gospel there is the answer, the kingdom of God, a kingdom where the world's values and standards are turned upside down, where love is the overriding principle and compassion is the modus operandi.

In this kingdom the first shall be last and the last shall be first, actions will speak louder than words and faith will move mountains. It gives the voiceless hope and makes the comfortable uncomfortable. This kingdom is counter-cultural, it is growing faster than any other and will never end.

I'll be the first to admit, the church, Christians in general, and myself in particular have not always lived up to this standard, and sometimes fail spectacularly, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to meet it every day of our lives. Just imagine what the world would look if the people of God stood up and said "If it is not acceptable in Heaven, it's not acceptable here", if we prayed the Lord's prayer "your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" and then went and lived that out.

The world would be turned upside down in the name of God's love and what could be better than that? Take up the heavenly manifesto this week and see where it leads...

Arm Update #7

2009-04-14T13:15:00.007+01:00

I have just got back from my first visit to Fracture Clinic in Morriston since having the Zoledronate infusions at the Nuffield, and it was a good trip.

Turns out the infusion is doing its job, and the Fibrous Dysplasia cyst is getting smaller as the Osteoblasts do their job and re-establish the bone tissues. The fracture itself is also healing well, but they said I would be in the cast for around another month.

The big shock was the state of my arm under the plaster! It was so withered and absolutely grim! The unfortunate job of giving it a clean and rub down fell to a sister who commented it was like I was moulting! I've got to say, despite that it felt great!

On a postive note my arm is now strong enough for my wrist to be exposed and used again. I am currently shaking imaginary hands in an attempt to strengthen the muscles and get them working well again. However properly exfoilating my hand and wrist when I got home was a gross job, that I'm not looking forward to repeating when the cast finally comes off!

My visit was also made more entertaining by an encounter with Ospreys hooker Marc Breeze who was sat next to me in the plaster room. He was sat in his training top and shorts, so I passed a diverting couple of minutes whilst I tried to figure out who he was- although to no avail- the Ospreys website provided the answer when I got back!

So the countdown to 12th May begins when hopefully my cast will be coming off and physio will begin!

Tom Wright: The Church must stop trivialising Easter

2009-04-13T09:14:00.003+01:00

On Friday, the Bishop of Durham Tom Wright wrote a fantastic article in The Times. You can find the whole thing here, but I'll copy and paste a bit of it here to give you a flavour...

"Easter was the pilot project. What God did for Jesus that explosive morning is what He intends to do for the whole creation. We who live in the interval between Jesus's Resurrection and the final rescue and transformation of the whole world are called to be new-creation people here and now. That is the hidden meaning of the greatest festival Christians have.

This true meaning has remained hidden because the Church has trivialised it and the world has rubbished it. The Church has turned Jesus's Resurrection into a “happy ending” after the dark and messy story of Good Friday, often scaling it down so that “resurrection” becomes a fancy way of saying “He went to Heaven”. Easter then means: “There really is life after death”. The world shrugs its shoulders. We may or may not believe in life after death, but we reach that conclusion independently of Jesus, of odd stories about risen bodies and empty tombs.

But “resurrection” to 1st-century Jews wasn't about “going to Heaven”: it was about the physically dead being physically alive again. Some Jews (not all) believed that God would do this for all people in the end. Nobody, including Jesus's followers, was expecting one person to be bodily raised from the dead in the middle of history. The stories of the Resurrection are certainly not “wish-fulfilments” or the result of what dodgy social science calls “cognitive dissonance”. First-century Jews who followed would-be messiahs knew that if your leader got killed by the authorities, it meant you had backed the wrong man. You then had a choice: give up the revolution or get yourself a new leader. Going around saying that he'd been raised from the dead wasn't an option.

Unless he had been....The world wants to hush up the real meaning of Easter. Death is the final weapon of the tyrant or, for that matter, the anarchist, and resurrection indicates that this weapon doesn't have the last word. When the Church begins to work with Easter energy on the twin tasks of justice and beauty, we may find that it can face down the sneers of sceptics, and speak once more of Jesus in a way that will be heard."

Easter Sunday (on Monday!)

2009-04-13T08:54:00.003+01:00

Sorry part 2 of the video is a day late, but had such a fantastic day yesterday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, plus a brilliant baptism at Caswell Bay I didn't get near the computer!

THAT'S EASTER Death to Life from St Helen’s Church on Vimeo.

John 20

The Empty Tomb

¹Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. ²So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"

³So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. ⁴Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. ⁶Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, ⁷as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. ⁸Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. ⁹(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

¹⁰Then the disciples went back to their homes, ¹¹but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb ¹²and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

¹³They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"

"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." ¹⁴At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

¹⁵"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."

¹⁶Jesus said to her, "Mary."
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).

Good Friday

2009-04-10T08:24:00.004+01:00

It's Good Friday today, but why is it so good? Please take 3 minutes to watch part 1 of this video to find out why. Part 2 will be coming on Sunday!

THAT'S EASTER Life to Death from St Helen’s Church on Vimeo.

Romans 5:6-8 says this: "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Amazing! Yet there is more... It's Friday, but Sunday's coming!

The Youth Work Charter

2009-04-05T21:01:00.010+01:00

It may surprise some of you to find this out, but currently the church is one of the largest employer of youth workers in the UK, with an estimated 8,000 full time employees on the books. These individuals are responsible for much positive work with young people that would not otherwise happen and make a huge difference in the lives of those they work with. The vibrant, exciting reality of Christian youth work is often very different from the gloomy picture painted by the media and pessimists in power.

The trouble is youth workers employed by churches do not have many of the safegaurds and protections that are afforded to those employed by councils, and in fact are subject to many other pressures too, such as a congregation to be accountable to as well as a line manager, a potential lack of professionalism/experience in their employers and the desire of the church to see increasing numbers in youth groups, a constant stream of conversions, baptisms and an abiliy to work 25 hours a day!

In response to these, and other issues, the Youth Work Charter has been commissioned and launched by Youthwork the partnership, a collection of various Christian agencies involved in youth work such as Oasis, Alove, Spring Harvest, YFC and Youthwork magazine, who aim to resource, support and encourage youth workers up and down the length of the UK.

According to the blurb "The Charter is meant to be a helpful way for churches to think through the key issues in employing a youth worker. It contains seven declarations churches make about these issues.

The seven areas come from the very real experiences of youth workers up and down the country: they reflect situations where youth workers, and the churches that employ them, can often find frustration, conflict or simply unmet needs."

The basic 7 points churches would commit to following are as follows

We will pray and support

We will give space for retreat and reflection

We will provide ongoing training and development

We will give a full day of rest each week

We will share responsibility

We will strive to be an excellent employer

We will celebrate and appreciate

To see the details in every point and find out more in general, please visit the website and have a read! There is also a campaign running alongside the launch of the document called We Love Our Youth Worker which aims to resource churches and help them put the charter into practice.

Now, feel free to call me biased, but I think this is a really positive document. I am genuinely blessed with a fantastic working environment, brilliant colleagues and plenty of support, however I am aware that this is not the case for all church youth workers. On average we burn out after 18 months, suffer from stress and many church youth workers are managed poorly due to a lack of professional structures.

Yes, the positives of the job generally outweigh the negatives, but its worth making people alert to the downsides of full time Christian youth work and how to deal with them. I believe this charter could go a long way towards that, and I hope that as many churches as possible take it up when it is officially launched on Monday...

How the congregation can help with youthwork

2009-04-05T17:31:00.003+01:00

One of a series of cartoons about Youthwork by the brilliant Dave Walker. Any fire eaters out there for the return of Ignite in a couple of weeks?!

Romans 8:28-39

2009-04-01T11:31:00.003+01:00

This week I have been meditating on Romans 8:28-39. Usually I would write something about how this passage in God's Word has encouraged me, challenged me and changed me, but on this occasion I will just post it, and pray God will speak to you too.....

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

More Than Conquerors

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then can condemn? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Amen!

Is this the worst England shirt ever?

2009-03-29T10:43:00.013+01:00

Over the years I have found myself owning a large range of football shirts, more often than not, at least one of them was an England kit. It became something of ritual, that on the eve of a major tournament I would head out to the shops and spend my well earned cash on the latest overpriced offering from the FA. For me it was part of getting involved with the excitement of the tournament.

Now I'm happy to concede England shirts have never been the prettiest of football kits, but the latest one, debuting in the game against Slovakia last night, has plumbed new depths.

It is so dull and unimaginative. Clearly its meant to be retro, harking back to English football's greatest moment 1966, with the giant 3 lions badge and bizarre collar. Instead it just looks like a chavvy t-shirt from Burtons or something Matthew Horne would wear in Gavin and Stacey!

The first thing Cat said when she saw it was 'isn't that the girls version?' which for me, sums the other major problem with this kit. It is REALLY feminine and cut in a very shapely fashion, which would seem to be a major error on the part of Umbro, as most people who buy this will be men with sizeable bellies!

But how does it compare to previous England horrors and classics- here are my top 3 of each.

Classics

The all time #1 England kit 1966

The Euro 96 shirt

The Italia 90 top

Horrors

The Euro 96 away kit

The Euro 96 Keepers top

1997/98 home shirt

For me, the sooner the FA get signed up with a decent kit manufacterer like Nike or Addidas, the better, as the 09/11 is one shirt I will not be buying!

Arm Update #6!

2009-03-27T15:46:00.002Z

Today I have been at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford recieving treatment for the Fibrous Dysplasia in my arm that caused this break in the first place.

Basically this involved a Zoledronate infusion, which sounds way more exciting than it actually is, and involved me being hooked up to a drip for 15 minutes while they pumped me full of aforementioned drug. This should solve the problem of the Fibrous Dysplasia by slowing down bone remodelling in my arm, i.e. inhibiting the cells that break down the bone, and allowing those that rebuild bone to work more effectively. There is also a bonus effect- it should make my break heal quicker...

Really it is a pretty harmless drug, and the only side effects tend to be flu-like symptoms, which so far I am not experiencing. It does however mean I need to increase my calcium intake- which is great! It is now better for me medically to eat more cheese, chocolate and creamy things and to drink plenty of Nesquik!

Now all that is left treatment-wise is straight forward fracture based and hopefully some physio too. At this point I'm praying nothing else will go wrong, but already I'm worried my treatment has fallen into some administrative limbo between Oxford and Swansea, so will be on the phone on Monday kicking some consultant's secretary butt!

In the mean time I'm travelling back to Swansea tonight and will be spending the weekend stripping wallpaper in our living room. Good times....!

Hip-Hopopotamus vs. The Rhymenocerous

2009-03-25T18:06:00.001Z

I'm not a huge Hip Hop fan, but I make an exception for the genius that is Rhymemocerous

Calvinism vs Arminianism 101

2009-03-23T13:08:00.003Z

Found this a really useful, basic explaination of these two viewpoints that can have such a strong influnece on how we understand our faith and how we read the Bible. It's 8 minutes long, but well worth your time... I also liked how Mark Driscoll (usually a fairly confronational kinda a guy) emphasised that this is not an issue that should cause division, but only promote loving debate and discussion.

Which side of the fence do I sit on? Well my middle name is John, so you could say I dont really have choice!

It was in the notes all along! AKA broken bone update

2009-03-10T15:09:00.000Z

So it turns out the answer to the second opinion we have waited 3 weeks for was in my notes all along, and the doctors in Morriston missed it...

Along with 7% of the British population I have condition called Fibrous Dysplasia. Basically this means that in my left Humerus, fibrous tissue replaces bone and makes the bone very weak (you can find out more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibrous_dysplasia). This explains why my bone broke so easily, and the big lesion that appeared on all my scans. Essentially this is good news because the worst thing that can happen is I might break a bone (oh, now wait...) and it can be cured by a simple injection of drugs that inhibit fibrous material production and much drinking of milk!

All this was revealed to me by the very helpful Mr Gibbons at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford where I had gone for a biopsy and the long awaited 2nd opinion. It turns out I did not need a biopsy to establish what the cyst is, as it was recognised and diagnosed on an MRI scan I had in 2005 at the Nuffield while preparing for surgery on my Arthritic elbow. It was the aforementioned Fibrous Dysplasia and was nothing to be worried about. There is some more good news that comes along with this diagnosis; I will not be having a bone graft, as if new bone was put into the cyst the fibrous dysplasia would turn it into more fibrous material, thus rendering the procedure useless, and actually counter productive in terms of my overall well-being.

This is pretty galling on a number of levels; firstly the answer was in my notes all along, secondly Swansea missed it, thirdly I twice came very close to having a pointless bone graft that would have been extremely painful and a waste of time.

However I don't want to dwell on the negatives too much, as overall it has been a very encouraging couple of days. The tumour scare is over, and soon to be sorted out and we are just left with the fracture to deal with. I go back to the Nuffield on Thursday to see Mr Rees, the man who operated on my elbow back in 2005, to discuss the fracture. It is possible over the past 4 weeks the bone has healed enough that I may not even need the plate any more. We wont know till we see the X-rays that were taken yesterday. But ultimately if after all of drama I end up with just an operation to put a plate in my arm and an injection to calm my industrious fibrous tissue I will be pleased!

I will update again on Thursday!

Guilt free Dairy Milk!

2009-03-04T10:48:00.005Z

Fairtrade fortnight is turning out to be a good one! not only is Starbucks going fair trade, but now Cadbury's has announced that from this Autumn all its Dairy Milk bars will be too! According to the FT "The confectionery group will certify 300m of its Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate bars as well as its packaged cocoa, at a cost of £1.5m ($2.1m), by the end of summer."

Unsurprisngly this news has been welcomed by the Fairtrade Foundation, and their chief executive, Harriet Lambsaid Cadbury’s move, which represents £200m in retail sales, would “throw down the gauntlet” to other big chocolate manufacturers. “It’s an iconic British brand ... This does really set the pace for the mainstream industry.”

It seems that the tide is turning, that major multinationals are realising fairtrade (and ethical trading) is becoming an increasingly important part of people's choices, and that they have to keep up with it.

Cadbury 's will now pay an extra $150 a tonne for Fairtrade cocoa to ensure farmers receive a minimum price, which is $1,600 a tonne. It buys nearly two-thirds of its cocoa from Ghana, and this will make huge difference to their lives.

However we should never sit on our laurels, and much, much more still needs to be done. We all still need to make the right consumer choices, lobby companies and governments and serve those less well off than ourselves. Proverbs 16:11 says "The Lord demands fairness in every business deal; he sets the standards" We who are Christians, Christ's ambassadors, must do the same.

Guilt free Starbucks!

2009-03-03T09:26:00.005Z

I have a confession. I love coffee and I love Starbucks. I love Caramel Machiatos and Frappachinos, Mochas and Cafe Estimas. What I don't love though is their lack of ethical practices. For many, Starbucks, along with Gap are the torch carriers for all that is wrong with commercial globalisation, and therefore should be avoided at all costs. However generally I'm of the opinion that boycotting doesn't work as a tactic for change (see No Logo by Naomi Klein and Lift the Label by Tearfund), and positive action is a far more effective route to challnging the behaviour of multinationals. So I have written letters and emails asking them to expand their fair trade range, and usually that results in a nice letter, but aso a large degree of fobbing off and excuses.
Imagine my delight then when on Sunday we headed to Starbucks for a Frappichino, and discovered the following sign...

Its a little blurred, so I'll make it clear! In March all of Starbucks espresso will become fair trade! This is great news as most of their drinks (lattes, machiatos etc) are based on espresso, and therefore making this change will benefit the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of coffee growers and plantation workers. Also (and with much less significance) it means that we can drink Starbucks coffee guilt free! Hooray for Starbucks!

I realise there are still plenty of things wrong with the way Starbucks does business, and the homgeonisation of society is not a good thing generally, so we should continue to write letters, kick up a fuss and frequent independent coffee houses. But in the mean time we should enjoy this victory and enjoy the fair trade coffee!

Something a bit special...

2009-02-28T11:45:00.000Z

Rapture Ready?

2009-02-26T06:02:00.009Z

For the past few months I have been thinking about the issue of 'end times' and the theology that goes along with it. In some senses it is the first time I've engaged with these issues since I began (and gave up) reading the Left Behind series when I was a teenager. In the past I've shied away from this area because it is so intimidating intellectually, because of the unnecessary division it causes and because by nature I am much more of a 'here and now' kind of a guy rather than someone who spends lots of time thinking about what may or may not happen in the future.

However a combination of our trip to Israel and various conversations in its aftermath, my theology course and a request from Student Cell to study Revelation has piqued my interest and I have tentatively begun dipping my toe in this controversial water. At this point I would like to say I am still learning, I don't want to come across as dogmatic, and I certainly don't have all the answers, but there are some aspects of the way people deal with this subject that I find difficult to say the least.

Most of all I struggle with an obsessive focus on the 'rapture' and people trying to figure out when Jesus will return by reading contemporary events into the apocalypic predictions of Revelation. Let me qualify both those statements by explaining what I mean. One of the most popular strains of Christian thought in the US at the moment (prompted and strengthened by the ubiquitous Left Behind series) is that of the rapture, a moment when Jesus returns in secret and all the believers disappear, leaving behind crashed planes, motorway pileups and a momentarily baffled global population. What is supposed to happen next is 7 years of persecution for the church, known as the tribulation, and the rise of the anti-Christ before Jesus returns visibly and reigns on earth for 1000 years. In other words Jesus will return invisibly for his saints and then visibly with his saints.

For me the problem with this is, I see nothing in Scripture about a silent return of Jesus, and yet so many people believe it because of what they have read in the tomes of LaHaye and Jenkins. If you type the word 'rapture' into bible gateway you will find it does not appear in the TNIV, NIV, NKJV or ASV. I realise this is not a full-proof argument against the idea of a Left Behind style rapture, as the word Trinity isn't mentioned in the Bible either, and yet all Christians hold to the truth of that doctrine. However, it is something I think will surprise a lot of people, and means the evidence for a secret return of Jesus and rapture has to be explicit in other ways. I cannot see that it is.

The passage most frequently used to justify a two-stage rapture is 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17

"¹⁵According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever."

Nowhere in that passage do I see a two-stage return of Jesus. The Lord comes down, the dead rise first, and then all other believers join Him too, and we shall be with Him forever. Job done. In one stage. If this really is the best evidence for a 2 stage rapture then it is pretty weak. The strongest argument against this theory are the words of Jesus himself, in Matthew 24:30-31

^"30"At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. ³¹And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other."

What I do see written about in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testament, is a triumphant return of Jesus that everyone will see and everyone will understand immediately. The reason all of this matters is because a two-stage rapture leads to much bad theology. Stephen Sizer sums it up well in his book Zion's Christian Soldiers, when he says "It is the reason many Christians don't seem to care about climate change or preserving diminishing supplies of natural resources. They are similarly not worried about the nation debt, nuclear war, or world poverty because they hope to be raptured to heaven and avoid suffering the consequences of a coming global holocaust. Like a sinking ship, the world is doomed. Therefore there is no point in preserving the world or getting involved in humanitarian work."Scary as it sounds I have come across this attitude in Christians in Swansea, and it upsets me. It is so diametrically opposed to the commandment 'love your neighbour' that I fail to see how anyone claiming to be a follower of Jesus can, in all conscience, adopt it as their own attitude.

Sadly the craziness doesn't stop there. Whilst looking into all of this I came across a worryingly popular website called Rapture Ready and when I looked it up my jaw hit the floor. It's main purpose is to calculate how close we are to the rapture using 'the rapture index' which takes over 40 signs from scripture, puts them into 4 overall headings and then gives them a score based on frequency, intensity or significance at any given moment. It then totals them up and tells you how likely the rapture is (FYI anything over 150 means 'fasten your seatbelts'!)

The biggest problem with this kind of theology/crystal ball gazing is that it goes directly against the teaching of Jesus and the apostles in the Bible. In Matthew 24: 36, 42-44

³⁶"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father... ⁴²"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. ⁴³But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. "

That seems pretty clear- no one knows, so stay alert and keep serving Jesus because he could be back at any time. Also check out 2 Peter 3:4,10 for further confirmation of this.

A lesser problem is that it makes the church (and by association Jesus) look silly when people make wild 'definite' predictions about the end of the world that do not come true. For example in his 1970 book The Late Great Planet Earth (which sold millions of copies) Hal Lindsey claims that Russia was the power destined to bring about Armageddon by attacking Israel. Seems possible in the midst of the Cold War, but by the time he writes The Oracle Commentaries in 2006 the Soviet Union had collapsed and his force for Armageddon conveniently morphs into a Russian-Syrian-Iranian Axis. It is clearly nonsense and we should not engage with this kind of self-serving prediction, that depends entirely on who the US is most aggravated with at any given time. Worst of all this kind of thing diverts our attention away from serving God into endlessly speculating about something the Bible makes clear we can never know.

The lessons I've taken away from this are twofold, firstly when faced with any kind of Christian teaching, however popular, investigate what the Bible has to say about it for yourself, rather than just assuming what you have been told is correct. Secondly live every day 100% for Jesus, every moment as if He were about to return and don't miss out on living for Him here and now because you are so concerned about when he might return.

Oscars 2009

2009-02-23T18:32:00.011Z

2008/09 was a great year for films, and the Oscars this year seemed to be spot on too! Sometimes they seem a bit snobby and elitist in thier choices, often steering away from box-office successes even when they have been critically well-recieved. Thankfully there was none of this in 2009, as Slumdog Millionaire swept all others before it and took home 8 golden statues.

I saw Slumdog the day after it came out, and absolutely loved it! It definitely wasn't the feel-good movie the press were making it to be, but infact it was all the better for that. The darker side of the story gave it so much depth and emotional power, which elevated it above the simple rags to riches story that it could've been. Danny Boyle also won Best Director, and its easy to see why. It is stylish, original and really takes you on a journey with Jamal, Latika and the rest. I reckon he also deserves the Oscar for his past body of work which includes the seminal Trainspotting, Sunshine and 28 Days. His movies always have unique touches and are never dull! Its hard to imagine in the wake of all its sucess Slumdog was nearly lost to straight to dvd movie hell!

In another populist choice Pixar's latest offering Wall:E won Best Animated Feature. I loved this so much and have it on DVD, so am feeling good about it's Oscar as I took a bit of stick for owning it! Unlike Slumdog, Wall:E really is genuinely feel good, and although its beats you abourt the head with it's 'green' message, the story telling and stunning animation more than makes up for it! How the animators got so much character out of two robots who can't speak more than 5 words each is amazing!

In all the fuss about Slumdog it seemed to slip by unnoticed that Heath Ledger won Best Supporting Actor posthumously for his portrayal of the Joker in the Dark Knight. For me, this was well deserved based on the performance, even before you take into consideration the tragedy of his death. His Joker was dangerous, menancing, creepy and full of tics and nuances that made him seem so unhinged (and no doubt contributed to much of the press speculation around his death). I have always been a huge fan of Jack Nicholson's Joker in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman, but I think Ledger's turn surpasses it, and will probably prove to be the definitive word on the character.

There were lots of other interesting choices, Sean Penn for Milk instead of the favourite Mickey Rourke, Kate Winslett finally getting her Oscar (and making a surperbly ridiculous speech about shampoo) and the snubbing of Brad Pitt vehicle Benjamin Button. In short it was a vintage year for the awards, and I'm hoping for more of the same in 2010!

Robbie William vs Martin O'Neill

2009-02-18T19:56:00.002Z

I was reminded of this moment of genuis from Martin O'Neill whilst reading 442 magazine in hospital this week. Way to put Robbie in his place... Enjoy!

A short update...

2009-02-18T07:41:00.002Z

So I am back home again. still not had the op done. After sitting for 10 days in a hospital bed I was told yesterday that the consultants in Birmingham will take another 5-6 days to study my scans, write up their notes and then come up with a pan. Needless to say I will be spending some of today writing an official letter of complaint....

Arm update!

2009-02-15T11:02:00.005Z

Its now been a week since I last wrote an update on my arm, and as I'm sat at home on day-release, it seemed like a good idea to get some info out there!

On Monday (as you can see below) I got my bone scan and MRI, which my consultant Miss Topliss, said revealed the fracture was clean, and the cyst wasn't anything to worry about. I was told to come back to the fracture clinic the following day, and they would attempt to find me a bed and get the op done- so far, so good... They wanted to scrape out the cyst, do a bone graft and the put a plate over the fracture- a simple procedure we were assured, and once done I could be out in a couple of days.

It was at this point that my NHS adventure really began. I came back on Tuesday, and then sat around in fracture clinic till 1, when I found out there was one bed available in the whole hospital, and I was one of six people going for it. At this point I began to feel quite despondent, assuming at least one of those people would be old, infirm and more worthy of a bed than me!Thankfully though Dr Topliss must've fought a good fight on by behalf and I was the lucky one! So without a twinge of guilt for those I displaced I headed for my bed.

5 days later I am sat at home on day release, with nothing happening, no operation and a still broken arm. Classic NHS. On Tuesday I was all psyched up for the op, only for the consultant to tell me at the last minute they couldn't go ahead because they found a hole in the packaging of the plate kit they were gonna put into my arm, and it was therefore not sterile and couldn't be used- but I was assured it would all go ahead the next day.

Wednesday rolled round, I met with the anaesthesiologist first thing in the morning, got ready to go, only to be turned back again, this time as Wednesday's surgery team bottled it because of the cyst and wanted a specialist second opinion from a bone unit in Birmingham before going ahead. I've since been told this is fairly standard with unusual injuries, not because the surgeons are unable or unconfidant, but because of the pressure of potential law suits, and the safety net a second opinion provides for them. My scans were packaged up, and couriered to Birmingham, where ever since they have sat on a consultants desk being ignored, whilst I've sat in Morriston on a hospital bed, having much the same experience.

This is where we are, still waiting. I desperately hope that Birmingham get back to Dr Topliss tomorrow and we can get on with the op ASAP. I've enjoyed having time to chill out, unwind and read lots in my hospital bed, but it's beginning to get frustrating, and I just want things to start moving forward so I can begin to move forward and recover properly, instead of waiting in limbo with nothing being done.

X-Ray and Bone Scan

2009-02-09T20:47:00.001Z

My x-ray and bone scan! Weird!

The latest news....

2009-02-08T17:58:00.006Z

As some of you might have heard I've had an interesting couple of days and I thought it was about time I wrote a blog post to tell you all about it, and hopefully explain why this might be my last entry for a few weeks.

As I was walking home from church on Thursday I slipped on some snow and threw out my left arm to keep my balance- it worked and i didn't fall, but it also hurt- a lot. I got a huge amount of pain shooting through the top half of my arm and had to sit on a nearby wall for 5 minutes to gather myself. Next I phoned Pete, our minister, who I had just been in a meeting with, and he came to get me with the intention of going to A&E. Turned out though that i couldn't bend my arm enough to get into the car, so we called an ambulance. At that point i was thinking that my dodgy elbow had finally given up entirely, but had no way of knowing.

When that arrived i was given huge amounts of morphine and then taken to Morriston. After a bit of sitting around Cat arrived and I had some x-rays and got put in a half-cast- before being put on a trolley and taken to the Surgical Decision Making Unit where I ended up staying the next couple of days. It turns out I had basically snapped my humorous bone in half near the bottom end.The X-Rays revealed I had a cyst in said bone which makes it very weak and explains why such an innocous action led to such an extreme reaction.

At ths point the consultant told me the 3 options i faced to get my arm fixed. The first, and best case scenario was to scrape out the cyst and then do a bone graft from my hip into the hole and then it should just heal in a cast. The next option would be to put a plate over the cyst and pin the bone back together, and the last option was to send me to a specialist in Birmingham and leave to them.

However for any of this to happen they needed to find out more about the cyst, and that required an MRI scan. Annoyingly the machine was so busy, that after a day and a half of waiting they sent me home, and requested I come back on Monday to the fracture clinic.

So right now I am sat at home, drugged up to eyeballs, hoping that tomorrow I get my scan and we can start making some progress. I'll try to keep updating on here when I can, but in the mean time thanks to everyone who has sent messages of support, visited me, been praying and all the rest-I really do appreciate it!

Wordle- In the Room

2009-02-03T18:38:00.004Z




Spotted wordle on Sammy's blog and thought it was really cool.
It takes the text from your blog and creates a word cloud that shows you what you really blog about!

Robbie Keane- what a waste,,,,

2009-02-03T07:50:00.002Z

Cost £20.5 million summer 2008
Great signing, great player
Just what the reds need to back up Torres
Might actually score some goals unlike Kuyt
Sidelined
Marginalised
Sold £12 million Febuary 2009
Robbie Keane

Everlong, Wembley, 6th June 2008

2009-01-29T15:05:00.000Z

We were there!

Romans 12:1-2; A thought for the week

2009-01-26T08:10:00.005Z

Place Your Life Before God

1-2 "So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."

We looked at worship this Sunday in youth church, and used this passage from Romans 12. I love the way it's put in the Message paraphrase- its so simple and yet immensely challenging. This week take your "everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering" There is nothing that we can't do for the glory of God, there is no part of our lives that cannot be used to advance his Kingdom in some way. Being a 'Sunday Christian' and compartmentalising your life so God is stuck in a 'church box' is just not how its supposed to be. We need to think through the issues that surround being a Christian in our everyday lives, and lean on God for wisdom and strength, so that we might shine out like stars and point people to Him.

But this is not a one way street, as God gets glory from us living for Him, we find that we are being changed by Him, and that is amazing. Embracing what God wants for us is the best thing we could do, because He knows what He is doing and will change us from the inside out so that we might fulfil our God-given potential. Jesus said "I have come that they might have life in all its fullness", and isn't that what we all want? Going to church once a week will not bring that fullness, only living for Him everyday can bring that kind of purpose and satisfaction!

If involving God in every area of your life seems an overwhelming prospect, then just break it down a little bit, all we have to do is live for God one decision at a time, each day looking to Him to bring out the best in us. It is a marathon, not a sprint, that means there will be ups and downs, changes of pace, times when it's easy, and times when we hit the wall. In all of this we know God's grace is sufficient for all our needs, and there is nothing He cannot do!

Barack Obama: The Politics of Hope

2009-01-20T06:49:00.013Z

It is no coincidence that Barack Obama travelled to his inauguration along the same train route that Abraham Lincoln took to his. Just as the 16th president had to restore his nation from the damage wrought by the civil war, Obama is dealing in the hopes and dreams of a divided nation, economically on it's knees and unsure of the future. After 8 years under George Bush, where America's stock has fallen dramatically on the world stage (literally and metaphorically) Obama, and all he stands for is a breath of fresh air. His rallying cry of 'yes we can' stands in stark contrast to the dark mood that currently abounds, and lies at the heart of his popularity. He has harnessed the power of hope, he has promised something different, something new, a better future.

Obama developed this agenda back at the Democratic convention in 2004 during the speech that brought him to the attention of the public at large and laid the foundation for his campaign 4 years later "Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?... I'm not talking about blind optimism here -- the almost wilful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don't talk about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. No, I'm talking about something more substantial. It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!" It is a theme he has continued with his best-selling book 'The Audacity of Hope' and one that has got him to the most powerful office in the world.

Barack Obama is very deliberately standing in the line of Lincoln, Roosevelt, JFK and Martin Luther King, as visionaries and revolutionaries who changed the face of America, and indeed the world. He promises to unite people who previously stood divided and transform an ailing nation. In some senses this is a dangerous game, as it raises expectation levels through the roof, but then again nothing truly significant was ever achieved without the desire to see it happen. He is the first genuinely exciting political figure my generation can call their own, and if nothing else having young people excited about politics is a huge step forward in and of itself. He gives us the hope to get involved, believing we can make a difference, instead of breeding the cynicism and mistrust that Blair, Bush and the rest all engendered.

For me, the hope of Obama is that he will launch a program of progressive politics that will reconcile rather than divide, look to the needs of the people rather than pander to special interests (such as big oil or the religious right), and re-establish America's moral authority in world affairs, to say nothing of his environmental credentials compared to the blinding, dangerous ignorance of his predecessor. Obama has the potential to be one of the great Presidents, he is incredibly intelligent, very articulate and sure of his convictions. He has already changed the face of American politics, and I hope he continues along that theme.

However in amongst all of this excitement we need to be realistic. He faces the worst economic crisis for 80 years, is saddled with two difficult wars and has to undo much of the damage done by George Bush Jnr. The bottom line is Barack Obama is not the saviour of the world, but he does have the opportunity to make a positive difference. He has both congress and the senate with him, which gives him a great opportunity to drive through legislation and effect change in a meaningful way. The fact that he has promised to shut down Guantanamo Bay by executive order in his first week in power is a good start, and will hopefully be the first of many sweeping actions that do away with the worst excesses of the Bush era and replace them with something far more positive. There is a sense of new beginning, of fresh new energies brought to bear on the enormous problems of our time and it is good.

But it seems appropriate to end this post with a quote from Martin Luther King "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." There is no doubt Barack Obama is facing challenge and controversy, and how he deals with it will dictate the success or otherwise of his presidency. I just pray he can deliver on the hope he has brought into the White House, and proves to be the man of change he is seeking to be.

Stop the Traffik

2009-01-19T11:19:00.004Z

Watch this video (admittedly slightly out of date), visit the site and then do something....

Some great youth work books

2009-01-16T15:50:00.009Z

I've read quite a few youth work books over the past 3 years, and I know a few of you who read In the Room are also involved with youth work too, and so will hopefully find this useful!

Mend the Gap by Jason Gardiner
I bought this book at Soul Survivor this summer, and have been reading since. It has taken so long not because it is a terrible book and I had to work to get through it, but because it has changed and challenged me on so many levels that it takes a month or so to process a chapter and put it into practice. The basic premise is that the generation gap that is pulling society apart is doing the same in the church, which is a tragedy and strikes at the very heart of what church should be- a united family. This book is a call to mend that gap, to unite the church and to undo the compartmentalization we bring into church. The first half of the book lays down the sociology behind the generation gap, and the second half is Gardiner's call for radical change to combat the fissure developing between ages. His arguements are compelling and have led me to think seriously about how our services work, our isolation of our youth groups from the rest of the church, and how the youth engage with the rest of the congreation and visa versa. This book has the potential to change everything about how you do youth work. Get your hands on a copy ASAP!

Christian Youth Work by Mark Ashton
This book is an excellent guide to how to make your youth work biblically centred and driven by theological principles. One of the things that really challenged me was the call to develop a deep and meaning discipleship amongst a few rather than looking to get as many young people into church and youth group as possible. This flies against the expectations of many in church, but is based on the way Jesus worked and seems to me to be a liberating idea for the youth worker. Christian Youth Work very obviously comes out of a fairly conservative evangelical viewpoint, and reflects the values that come along with that. Most of the time that is great, but on occasion it limits the scope of what the authors have to say on a given subject, for example the importance of engaging your young people in social action or what to do with young people other than 'preach the gospel'. Obviously that is critical to all we do as Christian youth workers, but there is more to the job than purely preaching and bible study. Overall though this is a great reminder to trust God, to stick to basic Christian principles and not get carried away from keeping The Main Thing, the main thing!

Joined Up: An introduction to Youth Work and Ministry by Danny Brierley
This was one of the first books I read when I became a youth worker, and it proved a really good foundation for what was to come. Danny Brierley outlines the basic components of secular youthwork and Christian youth ministry, and how the two differ. He then argues churches today need a combination of the two, a level of professionalism and good practice combined with an incarnational ministry that seeks to show young people Jesus and all he has to offer. This comes together in his 5 core values for Christian youth work. I'm not sure I agree with every point he makes, but if nothing else this book makes you analyse what you do and why, especially if you haven't been previously trained as a youth worker. I think this book is currently unavailable, but can be found 2nd hand on Amazon and various other sites.

If you have any suggestions beyond what is here, then feel free to comment and let us know what you think!

Celebrity

2009-01-12T06:56:00.005Z

This past Sunday at Cafe Church we looked at what the Christian faith has to say to the world of celebrity, and it was really challenging, so I thought I would post (a very abridged) version of my talk to see what you all think!

When we were in New York last September, we were shopping at Macy’s, when we saw a big commotion- it turns out Fergie, a famous pop singer, was in the store meeting and greeting fans- but here was the trick- you had to spend $100 on her new clothing range if you wanted to get past the sea of security and sit down with the lady herself. Now I bet you, at least 60% of the people who met Fergie that day, had no intention of spending $100 on her clothing range, but the opportunity to spend a fleeting minute in the presence of such pop royalty was too good an opportunity to pass up- even if it did cost them a fair bit of their hard earned cash. The simple truth is there is something about celebrities that many of us find irresistible and that we live in a society obsessed by celebrity and fame. We watch it, we read about it, we dream about it and we participate in it. The simple fact is so many people are desperate to become famous, and treat celebrities as role models. In a recent survey by the Association of Lecturers and Teachers more than a third of pupils wanted to be famous for the sake of being famous.

Celebrity, it seems to me, is a celebration of being famous, it is a state where the subject lives two lives, the one played out in the media, and the one they live behind closed doors. It is a virtual reality, a narrative of life created and maintained by the media. The media creates the story, sustains the story and gives it its twists and turns, and we lap it up. The question I want to ask though, is why do we care?

Firstly, I believe celebrity shapes values. More often than not celebrity stories are painted by the press as morality tales, with all their ins and outs, ups and downs. In their images and stories we see possible ways of living, of being attractive, being successful, being male or being female. We care because we see life being reflected back to us through celebrities. They allow us to take positions, form moral opinions and make judgements on others. Lets take Paris Hilton as an illustration of this. To some she is the height of taste and fashion; to others she is a spoilt rich kid with the morality of an alley cat. In short the way Paris is portrayed as a celebrity forces us to make a choice about her- and we like that! We like being able to judge others as it deflects attention from our own shortcomings, and allows us to think ‘actually I’m not all that bad’.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells his followers; “How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.” Yes, its hyperbole, but it also makes a powerful point. What right do we have to take pleasure in judging and condemning others? We all know we do things that are wrong, and cause others pain and hurt- and yet we are more than happy to point the finger at others, knowing so little of what really is going on.The bottom line is, it’s easier to criticise a celebrity than face up to our own shortcomings. Thankfully the Bible shows us a way to transform our lives instead of avoiding the truth. It tells us to love God with everything we have, and to love others the same way too- this is the best form morality can take, and the world would change overnight if we genuinely took this teaching to heart

Secondly, in a world where life is can be hard and truth can be painful, an escape into the media led virtual reality of celebrity can be appealing. But this is a mistake! Hiding away from truth never solved anything, and in fact leads us to miss out on so much that life has to offer. Jesus says, in John 10:10 “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Life with Jesus, loving God and others with all you have is the best way to live. It is how you truly find yourself and who you are- it is far superior to the empty promises of celebrity and fame. The reason life with Jesus is so fulfilling is because the Bible says we were hardwired to have a relationship with God, and that all the wrong things we do, block that relationship and mess it up. If we were to use the picture language of the Bible it is almost like we are stumbling round in the darkness looking for what we are missing. Jesus says he has come to restore our light so that we can see properly."I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Following Jesus is the only way to have a truly fulfilled life. That’s not to say we cant find partial fulfilment in our family, or our work, or the things we buy, or many of the other things we enjoy, but without God our lives we are missing the solution to our longings.

So at the end of this brief look at celebrity, what can we conclude? Well basically don’t get too sucked in by the plethora of celebrity stories out there, there is life to be lived beyond OK magazine and Heat. More than that look to the needs of others before yourself, and don’t judge others before taking a long hard look at yourself. Ultimately though, what we see from celebrity is that life cannot be lived through other people, but can instead be found, in all its fullness in Jesus Christ.

Gaza

2009-01-06T07:38:00.004Z

I've been trying to think of a way to eloquently express my shock at the horror and futility of what Israel has been doing over the past week. I cant, so I will let this cartoon from the Guardian speak for me....

QI: The Hat Trick

2009-01-04T16:13:00.005Z

A debate broke out at church this morning during our discussion of the annual Pantygwydr Oldies vs Youngsters football match, as Naomi, not a football fan, asked why on earth scoring 3 goals was called a hat trick? A fair question we thought, and after some pretty lame attempts at figuring it out, we gave up!

But whilst watching the Villa vs Gillingham FA Cup game this afternoon, my interest was rekindled as James Milner hit a brace and then was on for his hat trick. Some swift internet research followed, and an answer emerged!

I was amazed to find the phrase originated in 1858, and was in wide enough us to be used in print just 20 years later in 1878. Mostly I associate the term 'Hat Trick' with football, but it began life as a cricketing term. It was coined when one HH Stephenson, a fine venerable Victorian gentleman I'm sure, got 3 wickets with 3 consecutive deliveries for an all England XI against the XXII of Hallam in Sheffield.

None of this explains the term itself, 'Hat Trick', which had caused such confusion. After a little more digging, I discovered in the 1800s when a sportsman achieved an special feat a collection was taken for him amongst the players and crowd (the days before professional sport remember). Naturally HH Stephenson's 3 wickets in 3 balls warranted a collection, the proceeds of which went towards buying the bowling ace a fine hat- hence 'Hat Trick'!

All of which is quite interesting and provided me with some good trivia to share with you all!

Thundercats the movie Trailer....

2009-01-02T16:29:00.002Z

Sadly this is just a brilliantly made fake, but it would be an awesome movie!

2008- the year that was,,,,

2009-01-01T12:52:00.005Z

It is hard to believe that 2009 is upon us already, and so it seemed worth spending some time to take a glance back at 2008, and some of the highlights from the past 12 months!

Israel/Palestine trip
In July Cat and I had the opportunity to go a trip to Israel/Palestine with Highway projects to spend 2 weeks working alongside the local church at a youth camp. It was just a brilliant experience, and a privilege to be able to serve the church in a new place for both of us.
We had 2 weeks of Bible teaching, crafts, games, and swimming in the beautiful surroundings of Nazareth. There were many highlights for us, but mostly it was just so great to see God working in the lives of the children and young people, and also in our own. It is amazing how He cares for us, how He provides for us and how He never, ever lets us down.
There were 8 of us working at St Margaret’s from the UK, and we all got on so well, brought different gifts, abilities and temperaments to the mix. It meant we had a huge amount of fun, as well as hopefully being a help to the guys running the camp. There isn’t space here to go into more details about some of the amazing Palestinian Christians we met, but they do amazing work, in very difficult circumstances and were an inspiration for all of us.
One final thing strikes me about the trip as I look back; once you cut through all the hype and religiosity, it was inspiring to go to visit the places Jesus lived and taught. It brings the Bible alive in a new way, to have visited Capernaum, stayed in Jericho, been on a boat in Lake Galilee, seen the old town of Bethlehem and walked through the Judean desert; literally to walk where He walked…

Foo Fighters at Wembley Stadium
My next highlight is something entirely different. On Friday 6th June Foo Fighters played their biggest ever gig at Wembley Stadium, and we were there! It was immense, superlatives just run out when I think about how to describe it. They played a great, crowd pleasing set, with all their best songs- Everlong and All My Life being my two favourite on the night. Dave Grohl is just an awesome front man, and the rest of the band are pretty good too! Taylor Hawkins’s extended drum solo during Stacked Actors was the best I’ve ever heard live, and might even give Grohl’s drumming skills a run for their money. They finished with an epic rendition of Best of You, and as the band left, fireworks exploded over Wembley which was a perfect end to the evening. One of the best gigs I have EVER been to!

Slum Survivor
On a cold, wet October weekend, Youth Cell spent a few days the way millions spend a lifetime, by building and living in their own slum outside church, eating rice and lentils and walking miles for our water. For me, it was a real challenge to be reminded in such a real way of God’s love for the poor, and our responsibility to act. The passage that really spoke to me over the weekend was from Amos It was also brilliant to see everyone youth cell rising to all the challenges placed before them, and raising around £500 for Soul Action in the process!

Additional 2008 list
Favourite Album: Viva la Vida- Coldplay
Favourite Song: Crawl- Kings of Leon
Favourite Film: The Dark Knight
Favourite Book: Sex.God by Rob Bell
Worst Film: Be Kind Re-wind
Most Annoying Song: Low- T-Pain and Flo.Rida

Christmas!

2008-12-24T06:42:00.009Z

Christmas is amazing! There is just so much I love about it, the chance to spend time with friends and family, fantastic food, especially mince pies, singing carols, Christmas trees and the classic Christmas movies we watch again and again, but most of all I love what it means for me as a Christian.

The idea that Jesus loves us so much, that he leaves heaven to come down to first century Palestine, to live and die and then be raised to life again as a man in order that we might be reconciled to God is just mind blowing! Christmas is the story of God getting his hands dirty, serving the people he created and bringing with him the Kingdom of God as he heals the sick, gives sight to the blind, teaches incredible, life changing truth and raises the dead.

Christmas is about the God who created the universe stretching out his hand and offering it us, offering us life and salvation, offering us the chance to start over without the guilt of our wrongdoing hanging over us. But it is even bigger than that, bigger than you or me. Jesus birth is the beginning of the end for death, suffering and pain- it is God starting to restore all the things we have messed up. This is the hope of Christmas.

One of the first Christian songs of praise, found in Philipians 2, sums up just what is so special about the Christmas celebrations....

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Have an amazing, hope-filled Christmas

Traffiking true life story

2008-12-20T10:59:00.001Z

Carol, from Zimbabwe to South Africa, Mozambique,
Zambia and finally Tanzania

In September 2006 Carol, a Zimbabwean girl aged 18, escaped from captivity of traffickers whilst in Tanzania. Carol was trafficked from Zimbabwe two years earlier when she was 16. Carol was orphaned and staying with her grandparents when this happened. One day on her way to school she was approached by two men who offered her a job. Carol was enticed by the job prospect as this would give her the opportunity to help out her grandparents, support her siblings and other relations. Carol left with the men and they took to a place where they raped her and then they transported her out of Zimbabwe to South Africa. She was drugged and placed in a coffin and crossed the Zimbabwean border. When she was in South Africa she was forced into prostitution. She was not allowed to go anywhere and was under lock and key.

She stayed in South Africa for several months before being taken to Mozambique where the abuse continued. Then she was trafficked through Zambia to Tanzania where she managed to escape. At an open market her captor left her for a few minutes to order food. Carol took the opportunity and ran off. She asked help from a woman who then took her to the Zimbabwean Embassy in Tanzania. The Embassy transported her back home and she was handed over to the police under the care of the International Organisation for Migration who offered her care under their victim support program. From medical tests carried out it was discovered that Carol had contracted HIV. The other difficulty Carol has to face is her family failing to accept her as they believe she will have a bad influence over the other children. Carol is currently staying at a centre and is receiving care.

This kind of story is hideously common. At least 2 million men, women and children are traffiked a year. This is a conservative estimate.It is time to Stop the Traffik. Visit stopthetraffik.org to find out what you can do.

My First Poetry Reading

2008-12-18T23:24:00.003Z

Sat in the corner with a Jack Daniels and Coke

Just there on my own

A sea of faces, some friendly, some not so much

The poetry starts, an open mic

Autobiographical

Short

Long

Funny

Sad

Navel gazing

So unlike English in year 9

Why don’t they teach this stuff in school?

Then I’m off

Embarrassingly early

Social skills all gone

Iraq: an op ed piece

2008-12-18T07:06:00.009Z

6 years after entering Iraq in a blaze of 'shock and awe' along with the rest of the so called 'coalition of the willing', the British army will be pulling out in July. They will be leaving behind them a country that is now a genuine, functioning democracy, with a army and police force, without its genocidal dictator and with a recovering infrastructure. When you look at those facts it is almost tempting to write a revisionist account of the whole bloody saga, but it is vital we do not, not yet anyway. These facts do not affect some of the huge problems that have been associated from this ill-fated endeavour right from the start

Firstly we sent our troops into harms way, based on a lie. George Bush said at the time of the invasion;
"Iraq continues to flaunt its hostilities toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade... This is a regime that agreed to international inspections — then kicked out inspectors. This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world... By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes [Iran, Iraq and North Korea] pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred."
The fact that Tony Blair went along with this nonsense, in retrospect is damning. There was no genuine evidence for either claim, WMD or links to international terrorist groups. Whether you believe it was a desperate grab for oil, an attempted to finish up what his daddy started or something else entirely, the reasons put forward to the public, parliament and the UN for going to war were lies.

Secondly, far from blunting the terrorist threat (remember there were virtually no terrorists in Iraq before the invasion) this war has only heightened tension and acted as a recruiting magnet for radicalised Muslims. It is seen as the West persecuting Muslims yet again, and the disgusting actions of US troops in abu Ghraib prison only highened these suspicions and accusations. Before the invasion al-Qaeda had no foothold in Iraq, after the invasion Iraq became a stronghold for them as they took advantage of the Sunni insurgency and began operating in the country.

Finally this war diverted valuable manpower and resources away from the genuine war on terror in Afghanistan. There was no evidence at all that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11, in fact Saddam, whilst hardly a pleasant dictator had very little to do with religious extremists, considering them a destabilising factor in his nominally religious state. Afghanistan (and the border with Pakistan), by contrast was a hot bed of radical Islam, breeding the kind of men that carried out terrorism all over the world before and after the invasion, not just 9/11 but bombings in Kenya, Bali, London and elsewhere. If the £5.5 billion the UK government has spent so far in Iraq (according to the Times) had been spent only in Afghanistan then it probably would have had a genuine influence in reducing the terrorist threat to the world. As it is, the invasion of Iraq has just made it worse.

So yes, things might improve for the Iraqi people in the future, and this may in the long term be a stabilising influence, but none of that changes the very dubious footing on which this war was fought, the mess that was made of the aftermath and the thousands of lives that have been lost. Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg is right when he says;

"There must be a fully independent public inquiry into how this was allowed to happen. The time when Brown has been able to hide behind our troops' ongoing presence in the country is coming to an end... The death and injury of hundreds of British troops and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians in this futile war cannot simply be swept under the carpet."

So let's have an inquiry, let's get to the bottom of this sorry saga and let's see if we cant get to the truth of it once and for all.

Halleujah

2008-12-15T21:25:00.004Z

Today X-Factor winner Alexandra'a version of Leonard Cohen's Halleujah became the fastest selling single ever. Whilst she does do a pretty good job with it, I think its worth reminding ourselves of the definitive version, courtesy of Jeff Buckley. Amazing.

Silence

2008-12-12T06:29:00.006Z

Really thought provoking post on The Resurgence today. If you are busy, and never have enough time, spend 2 minutes checking it out....
silence

Sports Personality of the Year- what about Shane?

2008-12-11T09:22:00.007Z

It's Sports Personality of the Year this Sunday, and after last year's non-event (aside from the very deserving winner) it looks like it could be a cracker. In the wake of the Olympics and other various sporting successes over the past 12 months it is a much more interesting race for the top prize.

However there was one name missing from the list that more than deserved to be there- Shane Williams. Right up front I will say I am an England supporter through and through, but I do think this was a bit of an injustice for the Ospreys winger. He played a pivotal role in Wales' 6 Nations win, broke the all time try scoring record for his nation, helped his club to the EDF Energy Cup and finally he became the first Welshman to win the IRB's player of the year award. The last player to win this award went on to pick up Sports Personality of the Year- Johnny Wilkinson (OK, he had just won a world cup too, but we wont go on about it!), so it seems wrong Shane doesn't even make the shortlist.

I don't think Shane should win, but I think at the very least he deserved a nomination. He has had a phenomenal year for club and country and somehow this seems to have passed the decision makers by.

For my part I think Rebecca Adlington should win, and probably will. The double gold she achieved this summer at the Olympics was amazing, all the more so when you consider how British swimming has been in the Olympic gold wilderness since 1960. Lewis Hamilton may be the youngest F1 champion ever, but Adlington is only 19, and when you consider she beat swimming legends like Katie Hoff of the USA on the way to her triumph, she should get the prize. Lewis Hamiltion's time will come again I'm sure.

I'm not a big Star Trek fan, but....

2008-12-09T10:15:00.002Z

... this looks pretty awesome!
(and is directed by JJ Abrams, the man responsible for Lost!)

So long sicknote...

2008-12-07T16:17:00.011Z

This Saturday, an English footballing legend (for all those under the age of 30 and over the age of 23) quietly ended his long career at Dean Court in Bournmouth. Darren Anderton, the last remaining playing member of England's Euro 96 squad retired. He hangs up his boots just one short of 600 games - having made 569 club appearances for Portsmouth, Spurs, Birmingham, Wolves and Bournemouth, as well as winning 30 England caps. He had so much potential, but was hampered by constant niggling injures and consequently earned the nickname 'sicknote'.

I'm writing a blog about this because it makes me feel like an era has ended and the world has moved on. Euro 96 was the first football tournament I truly got into, and was my first experience of England losing on penalties to the Germans. Anderton retiring makes me feel older and strangley nostalgic- it is as if a link with a long gone summer and some happy memories has been snapped. Anderton was at the peak of his powers during Euro 96 when I was in year 8, playing lots of sport, listening way too obsessively to Oasis and watching Shooting Stars with Vic and Bob- coo coo!It all seems a long time ago now!

In many ways it is hugely ironic that he is the last to retire given his horrific injury record. My hat comes off to a fantastic player, who soldiered on for his love of the game, when all to many are mercenary and in it for the money!
So long Sicknote! We'll remember you for that summer in 96...

Jesus:One solitary life....

2008-12-04T11:48:00.002Z

“Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty, and then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never travelled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He had nothing to do with this world except the naked power of His Divine manhood. While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a Cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth while He was dying—and that was His coat. When He was dead He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Such was His human life—He rises from the dead. Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and today He is the centerpiece of the human race and the Leader of the column of progress. I am within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that One Solitary Life.” --James C. Hefley

World AIDS day

2008-12-01T14:04:00.003Z

Today,December 1st, is World Aids Day 2008.The number of people living with HIV is continuing to rise in every part of the world - including in the UK. There are now 33 million people living with HIV worldwide and 80,000 people living with HIV in the UK. This is an epidemic that is just getting worse and worse, and needs to be addressed with all the resources that we can muster, sticking heads in sand is no longer an option....

HopeHIV (www.hopehiv.com) are a Christian charity working in Sub- Saharan Africa, doing all they to help and support those with the virus, stop its spread and educate people all over the world to the horror of this illness. If you do nothing else today check out their website to find out more.

Christian Chameleons?

2008-11-28T15:30:00.003Z

I’m currently reading ‘Mend the Gap’ by Jason Gardner, a book about how the church could and should bust a gut to get over the generation gap. One of the challenges facing us is how to remain distinctive, but still engage with the consumer society that drives the lives of our teenagers and adults and which divides the generations by creating hundreds of sub-cultures and demands constant re-adjustment to the god of ‘cool’. One of the biggest dangers the church has always faced is the desire to gain acceptance and adherents by fitting in, by seeming attractive and by looking like everybody else. This is especially tempting in the current day and age when only 3% of the population are practicing Christians and we are often portrayed in the media as unreasonable, unthinking fundamentalists clinging to obsolete and archaic myths.

However, attempting to fit in by compromising to society’s morally relative standards instead of sticking to Biblical truth is an incredibly dangerous game for the church to play, and ultimately nothing could be more counter productive. There is a fantastic quote from Graham Tomlin in the book which is full of wisdom and is a challenge the church in the UK would do well to take on board.

“If churches became known as places where you could learn how to love, to trust, to hope, to forgive, to gain wisdom for life, then they might begin to become attractive, perhaps even necessary places to belong to. Paradoxically, it is not making Christianity easier to follow that will help it thrive again, but making it harder. Only a distinct form of discipleship that offers transformation will seem worth it.”

In some senses this is just a restating of Jesus’ challenge on the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5 "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men”

So my question is; how salty are we? Do we stand out because of our love for God and our love for others or do we blend in like chameleons when we feel threatened because of our distinctiveness in Christ?

Killer Rabbit

2008-11-25T13:16:00.001Z

I'm hoping to train flapjack.....

Quantum of disappointment

2008-11-24T08:13:00.009Z

Unless you have been living in a cave somewhere for the past 3 weeks you will know the latest installment of Bond is out there in cinemas. Quantum of Solace picks up moments after the end of Casino Royale, as we see an angry, grieving Bond escaping a castle in Siena with Mr White in his boot, hell bent on discovering the agent responsible for Vespa's death and to expose the Quantum organisation that employed him. What follows is 100 minutes of high-octane set pieces, stylishly shot action scenes and Daniel Craig looking very, very angry.

It would be fair to say I was pretty excited when I walked into the cinema on Saturday night. I loved Casino Royale, Empire had given Bond's latest a 4 star review and I had been waiting 2 years to see what happened next. Sadly my mood wasn't as good when I came out

The film was just an extended set up for the next movie, which meant it didn't really develop any kind of an involving plot of its own. Yes, it was fantastic to look at, the explosions were impressive and the pace was relentless, but there was no depth to it, which is what had marked its predecessor as a cut above other recent Bond outings. None of the characters get time to develop personality between the action scenes and the consequences are that Quantum of Solace felt flat and uninvolving.

This film was purely a vehicle to establish a little more information about Quantum and tie up the loose ends of Casino Royale. For me this seems a little indulgent on behalf of the film makers, and means it can't really stand alone as a movie in its own rights, in the way Empire Strikes Back or LOTR Two Towers did. Each of those movies, despite being the middle installment of 3 had enough independent plot, character development and suspense to stand alone as a good watch whilst developing the overall story arc. In Quantum of Solace there simply wasn't enough going on beyond the action to sustain serious interest, it is purely a stepping stone on the way to episode 3. For me that is just lazy and disappointing.

Hardcore Bond fans are complaining about the lack of gadgets, one liners and quirky villans, but for me that's not really a problem. In so many ways Bond has always reflected the political and social context in which it was made, and whilst we made be obsessed with gadgets, the political mood is far more sombre, the world has moved on and Bond has gone with it. I wont spend long on the obvious Bourne comparison, but that series did raise the bar for spy movies and rendered the Brosnan era Bond irrelevant and a thing of the past.

But all of the things in the previous paragraph are secondary to Quantum's main problem; ultimately the film needed more of plot. I'm not sure Bond going postal is not really enough to sustain and justify an entire movie. Maybe you think it is?!

Stop the Traffik

2008-11-21T07:39:00.004Z

Jesus said this- some have called it His mission statement-

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour."

It can be read in two ways, both equally valid, firstly that He came to bring good news to the spiritually poor, proclaim freedom from sin and release those oppressed by it, and secondly more literally. Jesus came to preach good news to poor people, to physically heal the suffering, proclaim freedom for those who are wrongly imprisoned and literally release the oppressed.
As Christians we should be sharing the same vision and doing all we can to uphold it...
Today in the world 2-4 million people a year are trafficked (taken into slavery), for sexual exploitation, sweat shops, child brides, circuses, sacrificial worship, forced begging, sale of human organs, farm labour, domestic servitude. Many of these are children who are often bought and sold for as little $20. In fact there are more enslaved people in the world today than when Parliament abolished the trade in 1833. Something must be done. Join and support the Stop the Traffik campaign (www.stopthetraffik.org), write a letter to your MP, only eat fairtrade chocolate, raise awareness amongst your friends and family- there are so many little things we can do that can make a difference one person at a time. Don't be indifferent.
Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says this of the campaign;
"I believe that the Stop the Traffik Coalition has the potential to provide significant impetus to the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking"

Get involved

People should not be bought and sold

STOP THE TRAFFIK

Sello Tape

2008-11-20T07:03:00.002Z

Flight of the Conchords. Genuis. Watch it.

The First Post

2008-11-20T06:55:00.000Z

Hello and welcome to In the Room, my shiny new blog! Its been over 2 years since I stopped posting on fireworks and hurricanes, and after much thought I decided it was time to pick it up again and have another shot.

Possibly the question most of you who know me are thinking is ‘why bother?’ especially bearing in mind I’ve had a couple of blogs in the past and have given up on both of them! Basically I always enjoyed writing, and miss it!

Over the past couple of years I read lots of other blogs, and thought a bit about what makes a good read, along with some of the pitfalls worth avoiding too. Hopefully I’ll be able to translate that into something entertaining and readable here!

There’s no particular theme to In the Room but rest assured it will be filled with thoughts on a range of stuff, cool links, great videos and hopefully provoke a bit of debate too!

If you wanna be in on the action, you've gotta be In the Room!