There once was a worm
This worm had dreams of the sky
The sky would rush down and embrace it tightly
So great was the sky that when the worm felt that embrace it felt no fear
But as sure as the dream, would come the waking
And the worm would feel the earth again; surrounding, gripping, trapping
The worm would fear.
The worm would seek frantically, always looking for the sky
But the worm did not know what the sky looked like when it was awake
Only when sleep came, and the dreams returned could the worm know the sky
The sky that embraced the worm so tightly yet allowed the worm to feel so free
And so far from the darkness of the earth
Far from the fear.
The worm sought the sky all the days of its life never being sure it was ever really there
The worm died never seeing the sky
But the sky is still there
The sky never leaves
But awaits those who in dreams wish for freedom, so that it might embrace them again.
Sunday, 30 November 2008
I haven't died...
... I've just not had time/imagination/free-thought-processes to be doing my blog any justice recently. Once things are out of the way deadline-wise I'll be back on here, as it is now I'm taking a hiatus.
God bless.
God bless.
Thursday, 6 November 2008
Time to find where I am.
Right here would be the quickest answer.
The answer I will give in full, however, is as follows;
Following the minor break last Monday over workloads, I have spent the last few days working through these issues with my line manager, my fieldwork tutor, and my year tutor, all of whom have been so helpful. It's amazing how often people get themselves into the same state I was in by thinking, I'm the only one, whereas if they only opened up about their struggles they would find they aren't alone in this. I definitely learned a lot from this. The workload is still at the same level, but I've been given methods of managing it much better. Hallelujah!
Secondly, on the money side of life, I've finally been given my student loan! For the first time in 3 years I'm out of my overdraft with Barclays! Let's hope and pray that I don't mess this up again. Budget time.
Lastly, I've been mulling over Psalm 34. It is as great an example as I can think of of how the bible is relevant through message today as it ever was. I'll probably look into it further in a later post, but for now I'll leave it with you to check out for yourself.
God bless.
The answer I will give in full, however, is as follows;
Following the minor break last Monday over workloads, I have spent the last few days working through these issues with my line manager, my fieldwork tutor, and my year tutor, all of whom have been so helpful. It's amazing how often people get themselves into the same state I was in by thinking, I'm the only one, whereas if they only opened up about their struggles they would find they aren't alone in this. I definitely learned a lot from this. The workload is still at the same level, but I've been given methods of managing it much better. Hallelujah!
Secondly, on the money side of life, I've finally been given my student loan! For the first time in 3 years I'm out of my overdraft with Barclays! Let's hope and pray that I don't mess this up again. Budget time.
Lastly, I've been mulling over Psalm 34. It is as great an example as I can think of of how the bible is relevant through message today as it ever was. I'll probably look into it further in a later post, but for now I'll leave it with you to check out for yourself.
God bless.
Monday, 27 October 2008
A bit of vulnerability.
I'm going to be honest here, I don't believe I can manage on this course. Here's the situation, I'm not even 2 months in, and I'm already so far behind with, well, everything that I just can't keep myself from crying whilst sat on the train which thankfully isn't particularly busy at the minute. I just don't get it, WHY does the process of being organised enough to keep my head above water and coping not happen for me? WHY does the process of writing 800 words break me to tears? And why, no matter how hard I try, can I not keep myself from being reminded of what happened the last time I was in this situation? I'm really scared here. I don't want to go through this again. Please pray for me.
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Pictorial Triumvirate.
This is a small collection of back cataloged pictures I've been meaning to blog up.
Enjoy.
Necessary?
I think not. Doesn't this just say something about the depths of paranoia society seems to have fallen to? Bureaucracy is the norm, it takes hold of every facet of the human condition. Paperwork for the use of the printer which you need to print off the verification to collect your ID card that is needed to operate the printer, age verification for pizzas, allergy advice on produce because somewhere within a 50 mile radius of the processing someone may have purchased a foil wrapped packet of peanuts on an airplane, needing to be 21 to buy a metal spoon because of drug use potential, yet only 18 to buy knives, which incidentally are involved in one of the fastest growing crime scenes in the UK. Is this irony, or just plain madness?
Let me explain this image a bit, give it a bit of context if you will. I was doing my weekly acquisition of sustenance in Sainsbury's and I can across this seemingly out of place piece of information. Upon further investigation I ascertained that it was not only in the pizza aisle, but all over the entire shop. Warning! You will be asked for identification! I could understand if this was placed with items where age verification will be required, that would be reasonable. It doesn't mean you'll get ID'ed for a pizza, it's just a warning for when necessary.
I still think it's mad.
God bless.
Little fella's lost.
What you're looking at here is a Red Admiral butterfly, or Vanessa atalanta of the family Nymphalidae, it's a common sight to our misty Albion in late Autumn, seen as heralding the coming of winter. Now, why the diatribe on butterflies I hear you wondering, well, what I'd like to draw to your attention is the backdrop of this particular picture. Red Admirals are fond of ivy flowers, and tend to gather near them. This one in particular was just outside the Thermae Bath Spa, right in the center of city, sat on the pedestrianised roadway, nowhere even close to those delectable ivy flowers he craves so much.
In that moment I felt a kinship of sorts with the little fella. He was, as this title states, a little bit lost. I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds themselves in times when they pursued something they want or are fond of, only to find themself completely isolated, and not knowing which way to turn to find our way back onto the ne'er beaten track. Christians in particular fall foul of this as we're called to walk a much narrower path than most (Matthew 7 v14). We do, however, have one thing others don't, a God that loves us so much he'll search for us to the exclusion of all else to bring us back to him (Matthew 18 v12-14). But wait, there's more! That promise extends also to people who don't yet follow Christ, who don't know the life-changing power of Jesus' death and resurrection, for those he will seek and search also if they call to him.
God bless.
And finally...
I know I shouldn't have.
But I just couldn't help myself from giggling when I saw this. Oh, how childish of me...
God bless.
Enjoy.
Necessary?
I think not. Doesn't this just say something about the depths of paranoia society seems to have fallen to? Bureaucracy is the norm, it takes hold of every facet of the human condition. Paperwork for the use of the printer which you need to print off the verification to collect your ID card that is needed to operate the printer, age verification for pizzas, allergy advice on produce because somewhere within a 50 mile radius of the processing someone may have purchased a foil wrapped packet of peanuts on an airplane, needing to be 21 to buy a metal spoon because of drug use potential, yet only 18 to buy knives, which incidentally are involved in one of the fastest growing crime scenes in the UK. Is this irony, or just plain madness?
Let me explain this image a bit, give it a bit of context if you will. I was doing my weekly acquisition of sustenance in Sainsbury's and I can across this seemingly out of place piece of information. Upon further investigation I ascertained that it was not only in the pizza aisle, but all over the entire shop. Warning! You will be asked for identification! I could understand if this was placed with items where age verification will be required, that would be reasonable. It doesn't mean you'll get ID'ed for a pizza, it's just a warning for when necessary.
I still think it's mad.
God bless.
Little fella's lost.
What you're looking at here is a Red Admiral butterfly, or Vanessa atalanta of the family Nymphalidae, it's a common sight to our misty Albion in late Autumn, seen as heralding the coming of winter. Now, why the diatribe on butterflies I hear you wondering, well, what I'd like to draw to your attention is the backdrop of this particular picture. Red Admirals are fond of ivy flowers, and tend to gather near them. This one in particular was just outside the Thermae Bath Spa, right in the center of city, sat on the pedestrianised roadway, nowhere even close to those delectable ivy flowers he craves so much.
In that moment I felt a kinship of sorts with the little fella. He was, as this title states, a little bit lost. I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds themselves in times when they pursued something they want or are fond of, only to find themself completely isolated, and not knowing which way to turn to find our way back onto the ne'er beaten track. Christians in particular fall foul of this as we're called to walk a much narrower path than most (Matthew 7 v14). We do, however, have one thing others don't, a God that loves us so much he'll search for us to the exclusion of all else to bring us back to him (Matthew 18 v12-14). But wait, there's more! That promise extends also to people who don't yet follow Christ, who don't know the life-changing power of Jesus' death and resurrection, for those he will seek and search also if they call to him.
God bless.
And finally...
I know I shouldn't have.But I just couldn't help myself from giggling when I saw this. Oh, how childish of me...
God bless.
Monday, 20 October 2008
Words of the Christian
How often is it that we find ourselves using word that we assume are normal, and suddenly think about the correctness of the word? I find that as I am quite critical of the English lexicon in general, more so in the church and Christian context.
It’s Monday afternoon, and I’m sat in the office typing out college notes on the 6 competences of my course, and I notice that as I’m typing the little red wiggly line appears under a number of words that am certain that I am spelling correctly, so I double check them. Lo and behold those words aren’t in the computer dictionary, and it gets me thinking are these more words that have just been made up by Christians?
If I said to you the word ‘Disciple’ then chances are you’ll know what I mean, and the computer will not have a problem and not present me with a funny little squiggly red line. However, if I take this just one step further and make the word ‘Discipler’, or even ‘Discipling’ then it becomes a whole new kettle of fish, as the red lines of incorrectivity, yes I did just invent a new word for the purposes of this rant, oh the irony, now appear, why is that?
I’ve found that when looking through ‘church’ language Christians seem to be notorious of, here comes another new pair of inventions, verbifying nouns, nounifying verbs, or translating the noun or verb into a new tense, which might work if the English language still had defined tenses. There are also some instances of new adjectives appearing my “favourite” of which was when I heard the phrase ‘having had backslidden’. Grammatically it’s is all complete nonsense.
Now I do apologise, as I seem to have completely lost myself, and can’t remember where I was going with this, but I will most likely return to this subject as it is something which I continually struggle with when trying to relate church to people outside of it, in fact even to people inside of it as well. I’m not church-bashing at all, and I fully support the church, even though I don’t always agree with it, and I pray that people continue to be challenged by church, and continue to wrestle with issues they have, even ones that may seem as trivial as certain words that may get used. Also, I pray that we become more conscious of the words we ourselves use.
God bless.
It’s Monday afternoon, and I’m sat in the office typing out college notes on the 6 competences of my course, and I notice that as I’m typing the little red wiggly line appears under a number of words that am certain that I am spelling correctly, so I double check them. Lo and behold those words aren’t in the computer dictionary, and it gets me thinking are these more words that have just been made up by Christians?
If I said to you the word ‘Disciple’ then chances are you’ll know what I mean, and the computer will not have a problem and not present me with a funny little squiggly red line. However, if I take this just one step further and make the word ‘Discipler’, or even ‘Discipling’ then it becomes a whole new kettle of fish, as the red lines of incorrectivity, yes I did just invent a new word for the purposes of this rant, oh the irony, now appear, why is that?
I’ve found that when looking through ‘church’ language Christians seem to be notorious of, here comes another new pair of inventions, verbifying nouns, nounifying verbs, or translating the noun or verb into a new tense, which might work if the English language still had defined tenses. There are also some instances of new adjectives appearing my “favourite” of which was when I heard the phrase ‘having had backslidden’. Grammatically it’s is all complete nonsense.
Now I do apologise, as I seem to have completely lost myself, and can’t remember where I was going with this, but I will most likely return to this subject as it is something which I continually struggle with when trying to relate church to people outside of it, in fact even to people inside of it as well. I’m not church-bashing at all, and I fully support the church, even though I don’t always agree with it, and I pray that people continue to be challenged by church, and continue to wrestle with issues they have, even ones that may seem as trivial as certain words that may get used. Also, I pray that we become more conscious of the words we ourselves use.
God bless.
Saturday, 18 October 2008
It's a good thing we're not Vulcans.
It's 11:30, I'm sat here being a bi of a geek watching Azumi, with an open copy of Games Workshop's latest Codex: Space Marines, whilst commenting on a friends blog and something caught my eye.
I was asked to provide word verification to be allowed to post the comment, and that in itself is not what caught my eye as I think it is incredibly important in the ongoing 'War on Spam' as I now like to dub it, but rather the word I was asked to give as verification, fvupii. Now my wondering is how one would go about pronouncing typed word. Phonetically I imagine it would be something like 'fuh-voo-pee-eye',as any good Latin student would go about pronouncing it, or even 'fwoop-yee', which is just the bit more fanciful. It is a predicament.
Now the next question that just begs to be asked is; what could the dictionary definition of fvupii possibly be? Following the line of portmanteaus, but in relation to the first pronunciation I suggested, it could be this; for when a Vulcan gets a pea stuck in their eye (F'vu-pea-eye) geddit? Any suggestions from anyone else?
Well, I've ran out of typing steam so I'll just leave this as it is.
God bless.
I was asked to provide word verification to be allowed to post the comment, and that in itself is not what caught my eye as I think it is incredibly important in the ongoing 'War on Spam' as I now like to dub it, but rather the word I was asked to give as verification, fvupii. Now my wondering is how one would go about pronouncing typed word. Phonetically I imagine it would be something like 'fuh-voo-pee-eye',as any good Latin student would go about pronouncing it, or even 'fwoop-yee', which is just the bit more fanciful. It is a predicament.
Now the next question that just begs to be asked is; what could the dictionary definition of fvupii possibly be? Following the line of portmanteaus, but in relation to the first pronunciation I suggested, it could be this; for when a Vulcan gets a pea stuck in their eye (F'vu-pea-eye) geddit? Any suggestions from anyone else?
Well, I've ran out of typing steam so I'll just leave this as it is.
God bless.
Wednesday, 4 June 2008
Blowing off some steam.
I just spent the last like 4 hours down at the skate park. That's what I love about these outdoor parks, there is no time restriction, only other factors play into that area such as work, weather, and fitness. I never really realised until this last few months how much I missed skateboarding, and just how much I use it as a method to blow some steam and find myself.
Work today was quite difficult for me, in fact these last 3 days have been quite difficult. I'm struggling to find the energy, the inspiration, the enthusiasm, to do my job. I keep feeling as though I want to be finished and onto the next thing in my life. So it was with great liberty that I took the time after work to visit the Phillip's household to drop off some stuff, and work a bit of maintenance for Nathan's skateboard, and then went to the skate park.
This afternoon / evening has been wild for some of the things that have been happening, with some high quality skating from all areas, some real bonding happening, informal coaching, talking to people and hearing about their stories and their lives. Much later on into the evening, coming up now about 9:30, I got talking to two of the older lads about generosity, and about the church as a family, and even about what being a Christian means to me. I told them how I have found my own earthly, blood family incredibly difficult, but how when I joined the church, I gained a huge family that defies boundaries, and even what most people consider to be sensible reasoning. It all linked back again to this idea of being generous. I left this evening feeling as though in that way I had accomplished something, as I find it hard to evangelise to people, as I think I sound like an utter prune, but I think God used my weakness tonight.
Back to the title of this post, the actual blowing off of the steam, the skateboarding. I don't think this will mean much to many people I hope will read this, but to those who understand the terminology here goes. I found myself trying some really difficult tricks tonight, mostly from Nollie, and mostly one footed, safe to say, that's pretty technical. I didn't quite land properly, but did manage to almost land a one footed Nollie hard flip, and also a one footed Nollie heel flip, amazing! Praise God.
I'm needing to get a lot of practice in as next Thursday (12th June) I'm heading to Manchester to do some filming with the 180 Project, and also the God Channel, for their youth show The Warehouse Project. With this going national, and possibly even international, I must get something I can do to truly glorify God through my skateboarding, to show my worship to him. Hopefully thing's will work out.
Anyways, enough of this rant, I'm going to watch some Heroes before bed.
Good night, and God bless.
Adam.
Work today was quite difficult for me, in fact these last 3 days have been quite difficult. I'm struggling to find the energy, the inspiration, the enthusiasm, to do my job. I keep feeling as though I want to be finished and onto the next thing in my life. So it was with great liberty that I took the time after work to visit the Phillip's household to drop off some stuff, and work a bit of maintenance for Nathan's skateboard, and then went to the skate park.
This afternoon / evening has been wild for some of the things that have been happening, with some high quality skating from all areas, some real bonding happening, informal coaching, talking to people and hearing about their stories and their lives. Much later on into the evening, coming up now about 9:30, I got talking to two of the older lads about generosity, and about the church as a family, and even about what being a Christian means to me. I told them how I have found my own earthly, blood family incredibly difficult, but how when I joined the church, I gained a huge family that defies boundaries, and even what most people consider to be sensible reasoning. It all linked back again to this idea of being generous. I left this evening feeling as though in that way I had accomplished something, as I find it hard to evangelise to people, as I think I sound like an utter prune, but I think God used my weakness tonight.
Back to the title of this post, the actual blowing off of the steam, the skateboarding. I don't think this will mean much to many people I hope will read this, but to those who understand the terminology here goes. I found myself trying some really difficult tricks tonight, mostly from Nollie, and mostly one footed, safe to say, that's pretty technical. I didn't quite land properly, but did manage to almost land a one footed Nollie hard flip, and also a one footed Nollie heel flip, amazing! Praise God.
I'm needing to get a lot of practice in as next Thursday (12th June) I'm heading to Manchester to do some filming with the 180 Project, and also the God Channel, for their youth show The Warehouse Project. With this going national, and possibly even international, I must get something I can do to truly glorify God through my skateboarding, to show my worship to him. Hopefully thing's will work out.
Anyways, enough of this rant, I'm going to watch some Heroes before bed.
Good night, and God bless.
Adam.
Sunday, 18 May 2008
What's in a story?
Lets take a look at some key points of a story.
1) The telling of the story.
"As a youth worker, particularly in the Christian circles, I tell a lot of stories to the younglings I work with, and a lot of them are about my past. It just so happens that things this week have seemed to centre around college, and looking back I may have had a laugh but I really wasted it, and almost completely wasted myself. Don't get me wrong I don't regret college, as if I did it'd just kill me as there's a lot to regret about it, but instead it makes me feel ashamed. My whole time there was my spiralling off the rails, before hitting rock bottom after getting to uni really."
There is a danger, however, in this area as I have just demonstrated, sometimes we start to re-live a story, we re-live all the feelings, and experiences, and sometimes we can get caught up in ourselves re-living that memory. Particularly in areas such as drugs, sex and alcohol abuse from our past, all things I have struggled with, we can over highlight the thrill, and seemingly 'good' points of that and seem to be condoning that behaviour which isn't our mission and warriors of hope and of light. Alternatively we can alienate the listener from ourselves as we reopen wounds and struggles and spiral off once again into loss, darkness, and ultimatley death. We may even cause our listener(s) to do the same.
2) The context of the story.
"Don't get me wrong, it's not all sob story, as the situations I talked to people here about tend to be ones that they can relate to. I look at these times now and see a story of hope and of redemption, which is something I wrote prolifically on, ironically in terms of suicide back then. I don't feel the utter despair of the situation, of how I abused myself, and of how I abused other people around me, I have the bigger picture, I have the context."
What is a story without it's context, the before and after, the current and surroundng situation, the bigger picture? We need to keep context with our stories. British mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead once said “I have suffered a great deal from writers who have quoted this or that sentence of mine either out of its context or in juxtaposition to some incongruous matter which quite distorted my meaning , or destroyed it altogether”. I think that if we take away our story's context then we risk taking God out of that situation. As with my earlier scenario, the story I have been telling, if I took out the aftermath, where God saved me, then I'm just telling you how depressed, binge drinking, drug taking, and generally wild and twisted I was, and I might still well be, or I may have just made the thing up to scare you. Put in the context of God breaking into my situation when I hit rock bottom and started digging, and you get a beauty and a depth that was missing without it, you get the truth of God's mercy, the truth of God's grace, and ultimately the truth of God's love.
3) The point of the story.
"As I was talking to the lads about college, they started asking questions, about the change, about me now. Interestingly there aren't any direct questions asked about God, but I get to talk to them about that anyway as he is integral to the outcome.I don't know if they took it in, if they'll put it into practice, but I can always hope and pray for them. Thats the point, planting the seeds of God's love, grace, and mercy."
I could tell you a story, any story, because I'm a natural story-teller, I'm not saying I'm good at it, just that it's my natural instinct to tell people stories, but would there be any reason to if there wasn't a point to my telling of the story? I tend to tell stories to illustrate points I'm trying to make, taking my cue from who I think is one of the greatest story-tellers of all time, Jesus Christ himself. Jesus never told stories unless they had a point, a meaning, and today we call them parables, but none-the-less they are stories. He took the situations people were in or familiar with and told people stories to educate them at times, sometimes he told stories to show people how stupid they were being, but he always had a point. I don't think people will take our stories seriously if we don't have a point to them. Even great nonsense stories like the Alice stories Adventures in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass had meaning, they had a point to them.
I love stories, and I pray that you do too, and that in every story you get to tell and recount the you do glory and justice to God, our Dad in Heaven
God bless,
Adam.
1) The telling of the story.
"As a youth worker, particularly in the Christian circles, I tell a lot of stories to the younglings I work with, and a lot of them are about my past. It just so happens that things this week have seemed to centre around college, and looking back I may have had a laugh but I really wasted it, and almost completely wasted myself. Don't get me wrong I don't regret college, as if I did it'd just kill me as there's a lot to regret about it, but instead it makes me feel ashamed. My whole time there was my spiralling off the rails, before hitting rock bottom after getting to uni really."
There is a danger, however, in this area as I have just demonstrated, sometimes we start to re-live a story, we re-live all the feelings, and experiences, and sometimes we can get caught up in ourselves re-living that memory. Particularly in areas such as drugs, sex and alcohol abuse from our past, all things I have struggled with, we can over highlight the thrill, and seemingly 'good' points of that and seem to be condoning that behaviour which isn't our mission and warriors of hope and of light. Alternatively we can alienate the listener from ourselves as we reopen wounds and struggles and spiral off once again into loss, darkness, and ultimatley death. We may even cause our listener(s) to do the same.
2) The context of the story.
"Don't get me wrong, it's not all sob story, as the situations I talked to people here about tend to be ones that they can relate to. I look at these times now and see a story of hope and of redemption, which is something I wrote prolifically on, ironically in terms of suicide back then. I don't feel the utter despair of the situation, of how I abused myself, and of how I abused other people around me, I have the bigger picture, I have the context."
What is a story without it's context, the before and after, the current and surroundng situation, the bigger picture? We need to keep context with our stories. British mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead once said “I have suffered a great deal from writers who have quoted this or that sentence of mine either out of its context or in juxtaposition to some incongruous matter which quite distorted my meaning , or destroyed it altogether”. I think that if we take away our story's context then we risk taking God out of that situation. As with my earlier scenario, the story I have been telling, if I took out the aftermath, where God saved me, then I'm just telling you how depressed, binge drinking, drug taking, and generally wild and twisted I was, and I might still well be, or I may have just made the thing up to scare you. Put in the context of God breaking into my situation when I hit rock bottom and started digging, and you get a beauty and a depth that was missing without it, you get the truth of God's mercy, the truth of God's grace, and ultimately the truth of God's love.
3) The point of the story.
"As I was talking to the lads about college, they started asking questions, about the change, about me now. Interestingly there aren't any direct questions asked about God, but I get to talk to them about that anyway as he is integral to the outcome.I don't know if they took it in, if they'll put it into practice, but I can always hope and pray for them. Thats the point, planting the seeds of God's love, grace, and mercy."
I could tell you a story, any story, because I'm a natural story-teller, I'm not saying I'm good at it, just that it's my natural instinct to tell people stories, but would there be any reason to if there wasn't a point to my telling of the story? I tend to tell stories to illustrate points I'm trying to make, taking my cue from who I think is one of the greatest story-tellers of all time, Jesus Christ himself. Jesus never told stories unless they had a point, a meaning, and today we call them parables, but none-the-less they are stories. He took the situations people were in or familiar with and told people stories to educate them at times, sometimes he told stories to show people how stupid they were being, but he always had a point. I don't think people will take our stories seriously if we don't have a point to them. Even great nonsense stories like the Alice stories Adventures in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass had meaning, they had a point to them.
I love stories, and I pray that you do too, and that in every story you get to tell and recount the you do glory and justice to God, our Dad in Heaven
God bless,
Adam.
Tuesday, 6 May 2008
The single serving friend.
I love travelling; I really do, especially on trains. I also love the film Fight Club. Fight Club initially comes across as an overly violent 'man' film, however, underneath the surface of this flick is an open and honest look at some oft overlooked and neglected yet very fundamental elements of what it is to be human. I don't want to go into too much detail of the whole film as I just want to look at one aspect that is raised, the single serving friend.
The urban dictionary defines a single serving friend as "A 'friend' you meet once, for example on a plane, and never see again." It is a concept in which I find something profound about human existence, a particular need, a disposition, and it is something that is even biblical in my view. In the book of Acts, in the New Testament of the Bible, we get this story of a young disciple, a follower of Jesus, named Philip, and his experience of the single serving friend. Acts 8 v26-39 has Philip walking along the road from Jerusalem to Gaza (approx 80km) where he meets the servant of the queen of Ethiopia, who had just left Jerusalem after worshiping at the temple. They spoke about Jewish scripture and about how that related to Jesus. That man asked to be baptised and become a disciple of Jesus himself. God then whisked Philip off and away to do some other stuff, and the Ethiopian man left happier than he’d ever been, he was rejoicing.
Now, I’m not saying we go out there with the express interest in winning converts, but I would love to urge us all, myself included, to be open to and aware of, when travelling, whether on foot, by train, on bus, or even when flying, other people around us. You might just make their day, it might just be that the very thing they need is a sympathetic ear, it’s always worth a try, and if it doesn’t work then there’s no loss, as you’ll most likely never see that person again.
I have so many stories I could tell you from my own life experiences on this subject but I’ve already gone on long enough. If you are interested then please feel free to drop me a line and I’ll be more than happy to talk.
My prayer for you is that you are open to other people and most important of all, that you are open to God.
Peace out, and God bless.
Adam.
Sunday, 4 May 2008
In the beginning.
Just thought I'd give this blog a bit of background, the "Why am I here?" bit I guess.
Something that has bothered me quite a bit since long before I made the choice to follow Jesus, now just over 3 years ago, is that church always seemed to be just for women, little kids, and really old people. The only men I ever saw involved with church came across as plain wusses if I am to be honest, all nice and prim and proper and sitting round a campfire somewhere singing kumbaya with shirts, jumpers, and sandals, and I didn't like that.
So you may now be asking yourself the same question as my blog is asking itself,... "Why am I here?" but for entirely different reasons. The link between that little story, and my blog is that I have a passion and a heart for seeing men engaging with the living God on their terms, both men and boys, and growing up through the church with God by their side as strong Warriors of God. That is my passion.
1. I want the bible to be REAL to me as a man of God.
2. I want to feel strengthened in my birth right, God CREATED me as a man.
3. I want to SHARE this reality with other men, young or old.
4. And finally, I don't want to see the church fail another generation of men.
So somehow through having this blog, I want to be able to help myself and other people with finding their faith, and their strength, and their truth. However this project takes form, that is my goal.
I hope that made sense.
God bless,
Adam Rolan.
PS. If anything needs clarifying, or explaining, then please get in touch. I'd be more than happy to help.
Something that has bothered me quite a bit since long before I made the choice to follow Jesus, now just over 3 years ago, is that church always seemed to be just for women, little kids, and really old people. The only men I ever saw involved with church came across as plain wusses if I am to be honest, all nice and prim and proper and sitting round a campfire somewhere singing kumbaya with shirts, jumpers, and sandals, and I didn't like that.
So you may now be asking yourself the same question as my blog is asking itself,... "Why am I here?" but for entirely different reasons. The link between that little story, and my blog is that I have a passion and a heart for seeing men engaging with the living God on their terms, both men and boys, and growing up through the church with God by their side as strong Warriors of God. That is my passion.
1. I want the bible to be REAL to me as a man of God.
2. I want to feel strengthened in my birth right, God CREATED me as a man.
3. I want to SHARE this reality with other men, young or old.
4. And finally, I don't want to see the church fail another generation of men.
So somehow through having this blog, I want to be able to help myself and other people with finding their faith, and their strength, and their truth. However this project takes form, that is my goal.
I hope that made sense.
God bless,
Adam Rolan.
PS. If anything needs clarifying, or explaining, then please get in touch. I'd be more than happy to help.
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