I am Legend

I went to see the new Will Smith movie - 'I am Legend'. It's about this guy who seems to be the only survivor in New York city from a deadly virus that wiped out the majority of the population. I have heard mixed opinions on this movie, but for me - I really liked it. I thought the storyline was really well laid out to the viewer and the tension had you gripped the whole way through. Without giving too much away for those who haven't yet seen it, the only bit that was disappointing was when they introduced a new character, they protrayed that particular scene a little cheesy for my liking. Aside from that this movie gets my thumbs up. It would have Melanie's as well except she really never got over what happened to the dog!

There was one particular line that resounded with me, and I think this is a great message to everyone out there. It was when someone asked smith how could God create such a thing, and smith replied with...

"God didn't do this, we did"

It was the humans who accidently created the virus. If anyone wants to know the reason why there is pain or suffering out there, it's because man does the evil, not God.

worship part 2...

Quite often there are arguments over what is an acceptable way to worship God in church services. There are many ways we can express ourselves with our body in worship. Some feel there is no Biblical basis for what is performed, so here are some scriptures for where most of it came from.

Saying - Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name ~ Hebrews 13:15

Singing - Sing praises unto God, sing praises, sing praises unto our King, sing praises ~ Psalm 149:6

Shouting - Cry out and shout thou inhabitant of Zion; for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee ~ Isaiah 12:6

Lifting Hands - And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. Then all the people answered, 'Amen, Amen!' while lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground ~ Nehemiah 8:6 (Lifting hands is a sign of surrender and blessing)

Clapping - clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph ~ Psalm 47:1
... and other instruments
Our hands can be used to play musical instruments "Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty firmament! Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him for His excellent greatness! Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp. Praise Him with the timbrel and dance, Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes.Praise Him with loud cymbals: Praise Him with clashing cymbals, Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord! ~ Psalm 150

Kneeling - O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our maker ~ Psalm 95:6

Dancing - Praise Him with the timbrel and the dance" (Psalm 150:4). "Let them praise His name in the dance ~ Psalm 149:3

Togetherness - Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing ~ Rev 5:13

Silence...

The point is that unless something directly violates what God's word says, we can worship God any way providing our motive is pure and to God alone. Sometimes it can be easy to be sucked into looking holy for others to see in worship and the Bible warns strongly about this (Pharisees) stating God can see through it all, and He will spit you from His belly! Of course true worship is just not what we do in our church services, it is a whole lot more; and more on that will come in the next entry.

Happy birthday Jesus

'Tis indeed the season to be jolly, as today is Jesus' 2008th birthday. Today we are reminded of where God began His redemptive work of His new covenant. We have so much to be thankful to God for, and I pray you will feel a fresh amazement about the truth that God saves people like us. Just remember to say a prayer for those today who do not have a warm home, nice presents and a cooked dinner.

There are some things about the Christmas story that I don't yet understand, and I hope I do not sound stupid. But what exactly were the shepherds for? And those carols that talk about snow - was there snow in Bethlehem; was there not a clear sky for the wise men to see the star?

Another thing that struck me the other day during the carol service is the line; no room in the inn; in a manger he lay. Aside from the David healy connotations, I find this sentiment typical of our giving and good works for the Lord. We claim there is no room in the inn, and so we give him not even second best in the form of a manger. How often have we given begrudgingly, or made a contribution but kept something back for ourselves (we had better be glad that God doesn't treat us all as Ananias and Sapphira!). We feel good about ourselves for the every so often random act of kindness we do do.

When Christians talk about Christmas, they usually mention how far away it is from it's original meaning. A quick google search for 'Christmas' revealed that the first website found which was remotely close to the real Christmas story was found half way down page 4 coming in the form of Christian Cyberspace! Even the image search produced few and far between God related images. So in light of this, I just want to remind myself of how amazing it actually is that Christ came from the power of heaven, to become a baby in a sinful world to be slain for our sins.

SOS Bus

I was walking through Belfast yesterday when I came across the SOS bus on the Dublin Road. The guy who was running it was kind enough to invite us in and give us a tour. It turns out this guy is actually one of the visionaries for this faith-driven mission.

The SOS bus is a really simple idea yet such a versatile tool for bringing the Word of God alive in the community. During the day they going into schools helping with social issues and learning difficulties. Afterward they would go into the local estates and park the bus so the kids can play playstation on widescreen television or just hang out. Similary older people can come and enjoy each others company and the generations can join together.

Then at night the bus parks outside the local social scene and acts as an aide to people struggling on their way home. They offer tea, biscuits and heat to help people sober up. They do shuttle runs to bring people home and they even have a fully equipped medical centre. One must wonder how did this all got on its feet and became so sucessful.

The answer I believe is offering your talents fully to God instead of saving them (remember the parable). They don't use Bibles as they believe that God is already written all over what they do (and men often make a mess of telling God's story), people come to God by being touched by the love offered to them. They have been donated a whole batch of decomissioned translink buses, and why can't we bring one of these to Lurgan?. This truely is an amazing mission and you can check out more at:-

http://www.sosbusni.org/

worship Part 1 ...

I have been rather disappointed with a few of the new Christian 'worship' cds I have bought recently. For example I buy the annual Soul Survivor live CD every year as it usually has 2 or 3 gems on it (e.g. From the inside out, happy day, whole world in His hands, God of justice) but this year was a let down. Some of the songs are ok but most of them lack any real kind of depth to them.

That is something I am finding with a lot of Christian lyrics these days. There are lots of airy fairy lyrics with nice tunes, but seldom is there some real truth to declare. John McMullen did a good article on this a while ago, you can find it here.

Oh, sing to the LORD a new song!
Sing to the LORD, all the earth.

That can be found in Psalm 96:1. I think it's great that there are people trying to write these new songs, but lets actually write a new song, not the same lyrics rearranged. I wonder does God ever get bored of hearing the same thing? I can't say anything I guess as I am no songwriter, but I would say is that it is great to sing your own words to God.

Some of my favourite songs are...
When the music fades - matt redman
Blessed be Your name - matt redman
God of Justice - tim hughes
Consuming fire - tim hughes
In Christ Alone - stuart townend
Holy Holy - nathan fellingham
My soul praises the Lord - andy flan

I realise that the term 'worship' is a huge topic and a word which is highly generalised and over stereotyped in the shallow Christian culture of today, so I have labelled this topic part 1 as I will release further thoughts on this topic over the coming weeks and months.

23 today

Today is my 23rd birthday. I could say all the usual cliché's people say about birthdays....so I think I will :p

I can not believe I am 23 already, it does not seem that long since my last birthday. Time is going so fast at the moment that it brings into sharp relief our mortality. I am not scared of getting older and it annoys me when people harp on about wanting to be younger, or not wanting to grow up, or even when people try to hide their wrinkles!

There is nothing we can do about our age, so lets stop whinging about it and embrace it! I find it amusing that we spend our childhood desiring to be older, and we spend our adulthood desiring to be younger! I don't want to waste time like that, I want to use whatever precious time God has given me for Him.

Thanks to everyone who got me a gift, I really appreciate it. I once knew someone who asked for scarves and hats for their birthday so they could give them to the homeless, I think that's an amazing statement to make!

Cyclone devastates Bangledesh

I was appalled to see how little the devastating effects of Cyclone Sidr on Bangledesh have made the media. This cyclone made 240km/h down in the bay of bengal and has killed over 3000 people. It has left many with their homes flattened and their crops flooded. Soon disease will settle in and there are fears the death toll could soar. A couple of days after and it made barely the last news item on the BBC

So many people have died, so many people are suffering! The death toll is over twice that of September 11th, but because it Bangledesh, the western media don't care? There is something seriously wrong with the way our perceptions are controlled by the media but that is a topic for another time. 50,000 people are left injured and homeless to pick up the pieces. They need the love of Jesus, so get praying and click below to watch the DEC appeal.

DEC Bangledesh Cyclone Appeal

Something to thank God for is the warning they got before the cyclone hit. People were able to make it to purpose built shelters, to avoid the same disaster which killed 140,000 people in 1991

//... Update another typhoon has now hit the philippines. Please pray and keep an eye out.

Tennis Masters Cup

The tennis season has finally drawn to a close with a familiar sight to it: Roger Federer - all victorious. This hasn't been Federer's best year, yet he still walks away with 3 grand slams, the masters cup and the world no.1 ranking.

This week was the season finalé Masters cup tournament where the worlds top 8 players play each other in a round robin format. Federer suffered a shock early loss to an inspired Fernando Gonzalez but Federer stepped it up into that gear that nobody else has as he marched to the final without dropping a set the rest of the tournament. In the gold group, David Ferrer was in the form of his life beating world no.2 Nadal, no.3 Djokovic, no.4 Roddick and no.8 Gasquet!
Federer proved too much for the spandiard however as destroyed Ferrer 6-2 6-3 6-2 in the final.

Can anyone stop the mighty Federer? He has lost more matches this year but there is just something about him that says he can win anytime he wants to. Rafael Nadal is a bit like that too but only on the clay. Nalbandian, Djokovic, Murray have all shown they can cause him trouble, but none of them play so consistantly brilliantly in the big tournaments.

People say you are not the greatest until you win on all surfaces (something Borg did consistantly) but something tells me that we are watching the greatest player of all. He is a great clay court player already, it's just unfortunate he's living in the days of the best clay-courter ever in Nadal, but I can see him winning the french open and completing the illustrious elusive grand slam. It won't be long before he surpasses Sampras's record of 14 grand slams either (he only needs 2 more!).

SR07 - Cloughfern

I miraculously found my wallet which had been missing for over 2 months in the cinema completely by random this week (praise God!!). Inside was my writings about my time spent in Cloughfern during StreetReach in the summer and here they are, for memories sake.

Hebrews 12:1 - "...and let us run with patience the race that is set before us".

- out of the blocks
We finally hit the streets and straight away our team got stuck into action without having to be told. They already had eyes to see and ears to hear.

- false start
After lunch torrential rain hit. So we prayed and when we finished the rain had stopped. Thank the Lord!

- first lap
We tried to blitz a ladies garden that had knee height weeds with our limited resources. Her name was Cathy. There was lots of neglect inside and out - herself included. She spoke of fear to leave the house and hurt from the church. Lord please bless her. She seemed touched that we even wanted to chat.

- streakers
We were running this race, cleaning the local playpark when... kids! everywhere interrupted our work. The place exploded into life, even despite the rain there was no need to stop play (like at Wimbledon). The kids loved hanging with us so much, weren't we the ones supposed to be doing the loving?

- respect between competitors
We decided to stand-up and speak to the guys on the bonfire. They were initially hostile, but soon they were eating from the hand of a team leader who was formerly in the UDA. Lord break down the walls of sectarianism.

- lap 2
We were sent to Abbots cross to clean the local shopping area. We soon became disillusioned by the thought that no one could see and we didn't seem to be making much difference. That coupled with the sheer frustration that Cathy;s garden couldn't be finished as we weren't insured to use and equipment needed to finish the job. Who needs insurance? If God is for us, who can be against us? Should we not have taken that step of FAITH for the sake of the Gospel? Stand up!!

- 2nd Wind
...and then God. He showed up. A woman from the pharmacy saw what we were doing and decided to bless us with sweets; God had been working despite our ignorance - we are sorry Lord! Then a local man came up with a strimmer and we got to finish Cathy's garden after all. It turns out that when things don't go our way we learn to trust in God more.

- lap 3
2 laps gone - things have slipped into routine. Half of us tackled a ladies drive-way that had weeds. We also blessed her with grass seed on the bare patches - Lord, I pray new life in her Spirit as well. The other half helped run a fun day where we played games/football, had a bouncy castle and a bbq.

- hit the showers
In the park in the evening we were playing football and...

MORE RAIN!!

Then we met speedy. He wanted to know what it was like to worship God. Lord help him to come to you just as he is.

- final lap bell ringing
Starting to sprint now, doing the last minute things. A free car-wash, prayer-walking and praying with shop keepers to name a few. Lord please answer the groaning's of our ill-presented prayers.

- bell still ringing
With the sound of a new beat we will march the streets of Belfast, declaring a new way, new era, and the day of salvation 7/7/07. The bell is still ringing when we realise that this is not the last lap, in fact every day is a final lap; and our lives are a marathon of sprints - come Lord Jesus come!

The blue and white stuff

I just started in my new job this week. It wasn't so much a new job, but more-so a transfer from one Spar store to another. The store has just been refurbished and looks great, so come in and see me when I'm working to save me from the boredom!

Anyway, it strikes me as odd however that despite how modern we have become we still find the need to use the plastic bag. Surely by now those brainiacs down in the technology department could have thought of something else to carry our shopping home in; or a more environmentally friendly option at least!


There is a descent solution in the bags for life, and tescos has some nice ones. It is hard though to remember to bring them with you, we need a motivation! Plastic bags float around town like tumbleweed, and are very hard to dispose of as they take 400 years to decompose. Only 1 in every 200 bags are recycled, and in the UK alone we use 10 billion plastic bags a year!

In it's defense one could argue that plastic bags do not litter - people do. That does not excuse it though, it is a waste of resources! I say we should do what the south did, and make people pay for plastic bags, that could give us the motivation I spoke about earlier, and it seems to have really worked down there.

Autumn Soul

I had the privilege of going with my youth group to Autumn Soul (the Methodist youth weekend in Bangor). It was a fun weekend with all the usual antics. The photo is the youth groups annual masterpiece of filling the local fountain with fairy liquid and letting the bubbles overflow.

It was a strange weekend for a few reasons. First, There is a problem getting the young people to engage in what's going on. The phone is the first thing that usually comes out during worship, and then theres just complaints about how its not good enough for them and they just end up messing about.

I can understand their frustration with the songs though a wee bit. It just felt like there was no structure in the songs picked. All the songs were just the same lyrics rearranged a wee bit with a different tune, it was hard to find anything with real substance to really relate to God with.

Maybe it's just that I am getting old. I remember when I was 16 and had just become a Christian, I didn't question anything, I just took it all in and worshiped God. Now that I know 'more' I seem to question everything, and I wonder is this part of what God meant when he said we must become like children.

Paul Flavel was the speaker. He's an Aussie who lives in Birmingham and he spoke about justice and the lies of this world that we buy into to do with what we look like, where we're from, what we do etc. He also talked about what it means when Jesus said 'When I was hungry you fed me', for example standing up for the outcast kid in school.

Football fever

I was amazed today to read in the independent that Vladimir Putin's annual salary is a mere £40,000! Russia isn't exactly the richest country in the world with and average annual salary of £3000, and most people in the world won't even come close to earning what Putin does. However there are a large percentage of normal people in the UK who actually earn more than a Russian President!

George Bush the not-to-be-much-longer US President earns £195,000 a year. Yet I find it unbelievable that a football superstar for example Steven Gerrard could earn more in 2 weeks than a US President can in a year! Surely this can not be? The work load, stresses and pressures of a footballer don't even come minutely close to a President yet they earn ridiculous amounts of money, and even have the cheek to demand more or they'll leave their club!

Don't get me wrong I am not calling for an increase in Presidential salary, but a serious review of the salaries of sporting superstars and question 'is it really necessary to pay these obscene amounts when there is so much poverty in the world?' Where is the justice! Some may argue that sport stars needs extra because they have to retire early, but what is there to stop them from coaching or even getting a qualification and get a real job! Once the US President finishes his post, he isn't going to ever have another job!

Housekeeping

Last weekend I decided to give my student flat a good ol' once over clean. After a while I really got into it cleaning the kitchen, bathroom, living room and my bedroom. I vacuumed floors, wiped benches, cleaned sinks, tidied up, done dishes, I even washed the bathroom mats!

It took me a couple of hours and afterwards I was exhausted. I only do this about once a month, and I began to think, wow! how does my mother do this every week, twice a week in such a big house. How does she get the motivation to do it on top of having to cook, look after children, wash & iron clothes, and work a part-time job on top of it all.

I think it is clear that all of us under-appreciate what exactly mummies do for us, because it really is amazing! We tend to only celebrate the things mums do on mothers day (of which I am a culprit), and I think this is wrong, we should give our appreciation everyday. So here is toast to mummies everywhere! my mum ---->

Sex and things of such nature

Good - now that I've got your attention...Sad that I got it that way eh? In youth on Friday we talked about sex because unfortunately in the world we live in today, every young person is confronted by sex, probably more so than any other thing, and they need to know how to deal with it.

I read a funny article on google about how the church in the past used to deal with the issue of sex, and in the 19th century they would advertise it as dirty and disgusting. This has obviously not worked as young people today are so confused about what is right and what is wrong and feel like they can't talk to anyone about it because of the shame.

It shouldn't be this way. Sex is described in the Bible as a beautiful gift from God for our wedding days. In fact in the world today, sex is a far cry from that very description. It has been so cheapened into a pleasure act, focusing completely on ourselves and what we can get from it. It is in our faces all the time, in every advertisement, movie, the internet, music, the worlds attention and sole goal seems to be sex, and I believe this is why the world is so messed up sexually.

There is a very strong positive correlation with the rise in rape/child abuse cases and our moral standards dropping in the last 50 years. What we see women wear, and the acts we can watch on television, would not have been even imaginable 50 years ago - now its normal. Even in music, every song is about being sexy. With all this temptation in place is there any wonder men and women can no longer slake their lust.

Perhaps this is why God gave us the rule no sex before marriage. Not because he is a kill joy, but because He knew that bad things would happen like rape/unwaned pregnancy/HIV etc. So what can we do about it? Obviously we should wait until we're married. If we feed our mind (especially boys) with sexual things from the media, we will be tempted to act upon it. If we are 'fooling around' with our partners, it gets harder to stop. The Bible says flee from temptation, it is the only way. Pray to God to give you the strength to be brave enough to get away from the temptation. If there is something that really tempts you, get rid off it. Have nothing else to do with it. The Bible also tells us to cut off the things that cause us to sin. Find a friend who you really trust, to keep you accountable in everything you do. Have a plan.

Ok, so how far is too far then? I hate this question. Christians (as with alcohol/other stuff) are always asking where are the lines? Someone draw me the lines, so I can get my toes right up to the edge, so that I don't miss out on any fun. NO! that is not the Gospel! John 10:10 says Christ came to give us life and life in it's fullest! Surely then we wouldn't be asking these questions because living for God would be the thing that fulfils.

Andy Hickford once joked - Sex is made for the marriage bed, and lets face it, it can be the marriage kitchen, marriage car, marriage couch, just as long as its within marriage! But its so true! i think God is a romantic. I love the idea of my virginity being the one thing I can give my wife than no one else can. What is too far ur still asking me? Check your heart, your motives. Everything you do physically to your partner should be a sign of affection and love toward them, and the moment it becomes about you and what pleasure you can get from it, then that is selfishness and the Bible describes that as sin.

So you can't really do much then until you are married if that is the case. I urge you, keep sex until marriage, ask God to help, because this will only deepen your relationship with your spouse more than you can ever imagine.

Australia avenge 2003 defeat

There was bitter disappointment for England yesterday as they failed in their bid to become the first team to retain the rugby world cup. Fair play to the South Africans however for playing a good final and an overall great tournament, but one can only wonder what would have happened if 'that' try had been given.

The ball was set down. Cueto's leg was blatently lifted in the air while the ball was set down before he want into touch. I don't think even a South African would argue it should have been a try, so what can be said about it? Well the 4th official was none other than a scorned Aussie from 4 years ago.

Despite all of this, nothing should be taken away from a professional South African performance. They squeezed the life out of England, and never gave Jonny those much talked about drop goal chances. In the overall tournament South Africa have been the best team, never making a meal of any of their games, and in the one game where Fiji layed down the gauntlet, they were unfazed, and ran away with it.

It has probably been the best world cup ever, where the unexpected usually happened. One of the main culprits of this was Ireland. We had such hopes for Ireland this year after a promising 6 nations campaign. Some thought that we would exert revenge on France for that last minute try. But our boys really didn't answer Ireland's call. Harsh criticism perhaps, but after almost losing to minnows Georgia, and weak performances against France and the Argies, it is fair. It is so disappointing because with all the upsets, if Ireland had lived up to their billing, this really could have been their year.

In fact out of all the 6 nations, England were expected to be the most disappointing and indeed it started off that way, but they grew into this tournament and you have to applaud their never say die work ethic. I like to stick up for England as everybody else in Ireland seems to have a petty vendetta against them!

There were some great performances from the other sides this year. The pacific islands in fiji tonga and samoa showed that they were no push overs (and in fact if they were to unite would be a formidable team). France beat the All blacks, England beat the Aussies and the French, but the team of the tournament has to go to Argentina. Beating Ireland, Scotland and France twice, they really put their mark on World rugby, and they played with style as well. We can only hope they gain entry into the Tri or Six nations, because they would be well worth their place and would make things very interesting indeed.

Hospitality of the Irish

Ireland have recently won the Lonely Planet's award for most friendly place to visit in the world yay! If you want to read more about it check out...

http://travel.independent.co.uk/news_and_advice/article3067237.ece

An Oscar, now a Nobel - Why Al Gore should be US President

I have been enjoying seasons of the west wing of late, and it's been interesting getting to see how an idealistic American government should work. And it's with this new found interest I find myself writing this article.

Al Gore was Bill Clintons vice-President, and when Clinton's term ended, Gore joined the race to be the next US President, along with George W. Bush in 2000. He subsequently lost that election in the most bizarre fashion. He actually secured more than half a million public votes than President Bush, but it's electoral votes (like seats in parliament) that wins elections, and Bush received 4 more than Gore. It was the closest race in history, decided by a margin of just 537 votes in Florida (out of a possible 300 million!), which causeed further contraversy. Gore was initally declared winner, then Bush, then the case was taken to the Supreme Court to decide, and as we know it today - George Bush took the presidency.

Al Gore was the president that should be. He was branded boring by a lot of people, but this can not be further from the truth. Amongst other things - he passed a bill in 1979 that inevitably brought the expansion of the internet. With Clinton, they forged the best days the American economy had ever seen. He has made donations to the poor, he has one an oscar for his documentary film on climate change called 'An Inconvenient Truth' and he has won a Nobel Prize also for his work on climate change. He is only the second person ever to win an Oscar and a Nobel

Ok, so given all that, still why should Al gore be president? Well set aside his obvious experience, we are living in a day and age were we need to start thinking about the generations after us, and looking after our planet before it is too late. The G8 have brought out plans to cut carbon emissions over a certain period, but so far America under Bush have said no. Given that the US is the worlds largest supplier of greenhouse gas this has to change, and Gore will be the man to do it. He has the moral obligation to do it, and it's time for a moral leader of the western world.

Problems - he has today said that he so far has no plans to run for the 2008 US Presidency, but then again being president and with the way American politics works, he would only end up having to give compromise after compromise with the things he believes in. A newspaper article put it 'His cause is a higher one, the unwilling hero implies, that is better served by the public advocacy his celebrity makes possible, than by political office with its constraints and inevitable compromises'. So for now, I guess we will probably have to make do with Hilary Clinton! I leave it with a quote from Gore himself

"The range of things we're talking about now will come to seem so small. "This [climate change] is not a political issue but a moral and spiritual challenge."

Cliques

Tonight I talked about cliques in youth fellowship. A clique is an informal and restricted social group formed by people who share common interests or patterns of behaviour or in other words a group of people who know each other well and are into the same things.

There are so many social groups around it's hard to keep up. You have spides, chavs, skaters, hoods, goths, emos, surfers, nerds, cool people, even Christian and non-christian? People want to join these group because there is a deep longing to belong in them. The thing everybody seems to want is to be socially accepted by their peers and they will do anything to achieve this. People will change the way they look, what music they listen to, who they hang out with just to impress their mates, but I get the feeling there are things that they keep in the closet in fear of rebuke.

Everybody likes to hang out with their friends, and in reality who really goes and hangs out with people they don't know? It's too uncomfortable. Most people don't even realise they're cliquey as they probably just view it as hanging with friends, but to others who have yet to find a group or are new to a group, they find it isolating. I am reminded of the days when I went to CU in school. So often my friends said they didn't like CU because they felt unwelcome and judged by the cliques there, despite huge efforts to change this impression, but how can you? People will hang out with their friends!

Jesus faced cliques in His day too. He had huge opposition from the Pharisees. Another example is the story of the good samaritan. A Jew left robbed and desolate was helped by a man part of a social group that just could not tolerate the jews. Could you see that happening today? The problem is everybody thinks their way of life is the only way, and their ideals and styles are better than everyone elses.

In a survey done in youth group, it was seen that everybody at one stage had felt isolated by people, and on the flipside they had also deliberately isolated other people because of fear of what others may think. Galatians 6:1-3 Describes how we should treat people. If someone is struggling in their faith, we should help them lovingly and not patronisingly. We should help each other with our problems without superiority.

We need to be loving of everybody in our churches, so that when people who come in can see Christ through our community despite race or social group and want to be a part of that. Each one of us should be able to feel like they can be totally themselves in the church without worrying about being judged or cast aside

remerchandising

you know when you've worked too long in a business when you start taking pictures of your work. Today a remerchandised the drinks section, and for once I actually enjoyed my work. Even my boss was like "chris you've been itching to do this since you got here" So here's a little snipet of my work, hope it doesn't make you dizzy.

HIV/AIDS

There are an estimated 38.6 million people now living with HIV/AIDS. Its claims over 2 million lives per year and over 500,000 of which are children. The worst of the pandemic can be found in Africa. The drugs that can keep someone alive used to cost $20,000 per year. Now they only cost $200 (£100), largely due to people campaigning for something to be done about it.

So for someone to live for a year with HIV/AIDS it would only cost the price of an ipod nano. If you live on less than a dollar a day however, as do most f the 3rd world, there’s still no way you could afford $200 a year. So can we 'the rich' countries and our governments do even more. The fact is despite the progress we are still not even close to defeating HIV/AIDs.

By 2008, UNAIDS $22 billion a year will be needed to combat AIDS successfully. These seem like big numbers, the task seems too much for even developed governments like the UK and the US pr is it? The US alone has spent, and plans to spend $435 billion in Iraq since the conflict began in 2003. That is more money than it would cost to tackle AIDS successfully for 20 years. The UK defence budget in 2005 was $500 billion – enough to pay the 2006 shortfall in funds needed to tackle HIV 33 times over.

The finger shouldn't be pointed at the government alone though. A survey by UK credit card company Mint throws some light on our personal spending. In 2004, the UK population spent:

• £35.4 billion on clothes – $66.6 billion, three years worth of a totally effective response to HIV covering the entire globe.
• $123 billion on eating out.
• $29.3 billion on tobacco.

The cost of tackling HIV is nothing compared to what we spend each year in the UK alone on cigarettes. I'm not saying that buying clothes or eating out once in a while is wrong, but we are the rich people of the world, 3rd world countries can't afford any of those things at all. it's up to us to think of others and to make sure we are not spending all our money on ourselves. Letting the chance slip away from us; that’s what we can’t afford. (Figs taken from christian-aid.org)

Sexually transmitted HIV is the biggest cause of the disease in Africa. The problem is how do you tackle this. People say it is unrealistic to preach abstinance as not everybody is going to listen to this. Maybe this is why God told us in His Word at the beginning to not have sex before marriage because he knew in 2000AD so many people would die from HIV/AIDS. Now the church is being encouraged to support the use of contraception, but surely this will only ease the symptoms of HIV being sexually transmitted and not actually cure the disease. The only way for HIV to die out is for people to stop having sex outside of marriage. So what do you think is the right thing to do?

skateboarding bulldog

This dog is legendary!

Honey Monster

I had to take my hamster honey to the vet today. I was letting her run about when I thought I saw her limping. But on closer inpection in turned out she had actually lost a patch of hair the size of my thumb beside her leg. I freaked out, I couldn't believe I had only noticed it now, given I usually let her out every day. So I took her to the vet and he said that she had this hereditary thing where some form of mite lies dormant on her skin from birth, and when it becomes active she would lose her hair, and apparently it will get worse before it gets better


So he give her an injection to take out the mite, and as he injected her she was in obvious pain, and she give me this look of 'how could you do this to me'. I felt so incredibily bad; I felt like a daddy who had just scolded their child for the first time. Then I thought, I wonder is this how God feels when bad stuff happens to us. Too often we say to God why have you done this to me, and just like it pained me to give honey that injection, it breaks God's heart to see us go though things that hurt us.

But I let her have that injection for the greater good. Honey may never appreciate that the reason why I gave her it was so that she could grow her hair back, and in the same way, when God lets us go through stuff that we find difficult, we need to appreciate that God has greater wisdom than we do (just like I had greater wisdom than honey), and He has a greater plan and we will benefit in some way in the future, we just need to trust Him.

Come on Tim!

Well we bid a final farewell to the 'darling of British tennis' on Saturday, as Tim Henman hit the winning shot that sent Great Britain into the World Group of Davis Cup Tennis for the first time since 2002. It seems a shame now that Tim has left, because that leaves GB with only one good singles player in Andrew Murray, and will probably be relegated straight away!

But the weekend was all about Tim Henman, and as a short tribute to him, I really must say that I and the rest of Great Britain will really miss him. There was just something about his 'rollercoaster' matches that got the nation gripped, yet something tells me that watching Andy Murray take on the baton, just will not be the same thing. Even though Andy is tipped to go further than what Tim did, there was just an extra class about Tim.

Tim Spent 2 years at world no.4, winning 11 tournaments, and a fine career match record of 496 wins to 274 losses. He made the Wimbledon semi-final four times in five years, and once each at the French ans US Opens (all in the same year!). The closest he ever got to winning his beloved Wimbledon was in 2001 where he lost to Goran Ivanisevic despite being 2 sets to 1 up before rain interrupted play. With the draw opening up Pistol Pete having been earlier knocked out, this was Tim's best chance but it was not to be, Goran went on that year to take the championship.

Tim boasts a 6-7 record against world no.1 the unbeatable Rodger Federer, a record only bettered by Rafael Nadal. Indeed Tim had Federer's scalp in his early years at one stage holding a 6-1 winning record over him! Tim was also a shrewd doubles players with 4 titles accredited to him and an Olympic Silver Medal at Atlanta 96.

So here's to Tim Henman, a fine player whom Great Britain just did not give enough credit for his excellent achievements. His game will be sorely missed as the beautiful serve and volley is no longer popular within tennis, and for one last time...Come on Tim!

New Blog

Hi,

I'm Chris, right now I'm 22, and some of the 'secondary' things I mention on the About me section are that I am a student at university in Belfast finishing up a Math Degree, with the intentions of going onto a PCGE afterwards. I love guitar, outdoor pursuits, good movies, christian music, sports (especially tennis) my hamster (honey monster) and in particularly I love Melanie. I currently work in spar to help pay the rent, I lead a cell group in my church which I love, I am the treasurer of the tennis club at queens, and I'm trying to learn a wee bit of spanish too! In the future I'm not entirely sure what I want to do looks like, but I do know it will be for God.

That was just a little more about me. On this blog if I do manage to keep it, I intend on letting loose some of the thoughts that have crossed my mind over the course of time. If you have blogspot and want me to link you just ask!