Jericho

I wanted to recommend an under-rated, relatively-unheard of tv show called Jericho. It is about a small town in Kansas, USA supposedly 200 miles away from Denver. The main plot is that a nuclear acttack has occurred in Denver and the people of Jericho can see the mushroom cloud. Panic ensues as to what happened, and their worst fears were realised when they discover that this attack is much larger than first thought

The whole first series captures your imagination not only as they unfold the mystery behind the attacks but more so the way they work out each of the new roles and relationships between the characters as they learn to rebuild in the strange new world with power, fuel and food shortages.
I will not give any spoilers but you should definitely try this show. This is up there with my favourite shows such as Prison break, 24 and heroes.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jericho-Season-1-Skeet-Ulrich/dp/B000RHUERU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1214777087&sr=1-2

Animal Rescue

I love it when your day doesn't go at all how you expected it to. Yesterday, I went to dungannon to spend some quality time with my girlfriend Mel. She had just picked me up from the bus station and were off doing our usual random things when we spotted a dog at the side of the road.

This poor creature looked miserable. It was camped in the busheds at the side of a country road, soaked through to the bone from the torrential rain we had just had. We couldn't just leave it there so we stopped the car and tried to coax him over, but it was too nervous and wouldn't come near us.

After several failed attempts, Mel went to the shop and came back with tesco value ham, and that seemed to do the trick. However, the dog had a limp, a bleeding mouth and just generally looked confused so we decided we should take him (yes we estblished at this stage that he was indeed a him!) to the vet and tried to get him into the car. But the dog wasn't having any of it, so we call Mel's mum over for help.

Sure enough Dr dolittle herself got him into the car, and we got him to the vet for a little TLC. There was no way though we were gonna allow the vet hand him over to the dog warden just to be put down, he was a gorgeous black lab! So in the morning we came back and collected him in order to find him a home. Praise God, his owners had contacted the dog warden about their missing black lab, and they put the 2 together.

Turned out his name was giggsy. It was sad to part with him after our ordeal, and it got me thinking that if we put all this effort in just for a stray dog, how much more should I be doing this for our homeless people. Despite failed attempts to lure the dog over, despite failed attempts getting him in the car, despite not knowing where to bring him after the vets, we still did something, I mean where does our responsibility end?

Ireland says NO!

Wouldn't have Ian Paisley been proud? Thank God Ireland said no to the Lisbon treaty. It may be the case that it is inevitable the EU will take over everywhere, but at least it has been stalled for now. There are too many "hidden shadows" with this bill, and way too much that the general public don't know what they're signing on to.

I have several issues with this bill. We would be handing over federal power to unelected officials in brussels, with no real accountability being handed back to local government, and by local they actually mean national. It would be much harder to pass laws appropriate to our situation. There are way too many diverse cultures in Europe to have them all generically governed in one place. If the President of a European superstate wanted to abuse his power, he could achieve hitler-like ambitions without the wars.

Apart from all that, the Irish fought for centuries for home-rule from Britain; why would they hand it all away to Europe now? At least the Irish have had some sense and shown an example to the rest of Europe that hopefully the UK will follow. If not, I would suggest that perhaps then would be the perfect time to unite Ireland, and stay away from the EU. Also isn't there something apocalyptic about the rise of a nation in the scriptures?

Matthew 7: 21-23

I was reading this passage the other day, and as that happens with many who read the Bible, this was not the first time I have this scripture but this time I learnt something new from it.

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"

I thought to myself I try to do things in Jesus name, just as that verse describes, and I worried that one day Jesus would say to me 'I never knew you'. I think what this passage means is that if you do things (in the name of Jesus) but you are not really doing them for His will and glory, then you must be doing them for yourself and you will never get to truly know Jesus

I tried to apply to this to where I am at in my own life at the moment. I am trying to make big decisions now that I have finished Queen's in what to do next, and my big fear is that I will make a decision based on what I would like to do and not God's will for my life. For example I have had some ideas of things I would like to do in the future, and then I have prayed about them. I wish I had of prayed first, and then came up with those ideas, so that I could know they were from God! I don't want to pray about something because it is what I want. I would hate to wake up some morning and realise I've really been doing things for my enjoyment and not for God's pleasure and have Jesus say to me 'I don't know you'.

So please pray for me so that I can make decisions without being blinded by my own human ambition and that God would reveal His will to me and also that I would know Jesus more everyday.

city centre 24-7 prayer

I was hugely encouraged by the sight of a prayer room in the main shopping area of the city centre of the capital of northern ireland...that's right Belfast!! In the old accessorise shop, the methodist church in Ireland had set up a temporary 24 hour, 7 day a week prayer room. It was amazing to see open doors and windows and being able to watch people pray from the busiest street in northern ireland. Curious people who maybe had no faith were able to get their first possible taste of their maker.

It's a shame it's only temporary, but wouldn't it be great if we could encourage a more permanent one in such an amazing location? Thank you Lord though, for what you have given us! For more check out this

Armageddon like

One would have to be inhumane not to be moved by recent disasters in first burma and then china. So far the death toll is 40,000 (including many crushed school children) in china and 78,000 in burma with many more displaced and desolate. To many that is just a number but try to let that sink in for a while. They were human beings just like you and me with lives and families and there were enough of those people to fill wembley stadium twice over. That is tragic... in fact there are no words.

Once again the shallow western media haven't made a big deal out of this. They have barely made a front page yet the scale of the death and human displacement is tsunami like. When hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, we heard about it for over a month. Don't get me wrong that disaster was also terrible and it was right that we were made aware of the devastation for so long, but surely then don't china and myanmar deserve the same respect? Sure both are very closed countries, burma more so than china, but that should make us want to make even more effort.

China have actually got quite an impressive military regime that will have the worst affected areas up and running again in no time but the picture is bleak elsewhere, especially in burma. The UN chief Ban Ki-Moon is there today trying to force the issue of international aid. Please pray that the burmese government will give in to international aid so that the many left broken and homeless can get help they so desperately need. Also pray for the millions left behind from the disasters, that they would find help to rebuild their lives and comfort from loosing the ones they loved. You can also give at Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) by clicking here.

That's not all however. In South Africa angry mobs have broke out killing at least 40 and displacing up 15,000 other people. Read more on the BBC Website. Also at the start of the month there was the massive volcano eruption/electric storm which brought about some awesome fearworthy pictures. It is believed the volcano had been dormant for thousands of years! With all these disasters occurring in such a short space of time - that is weeks! - for me it all had very much an armageddon feel to it, with reference to Matt 24:7 (and various other scriptures) "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places."

Check out this amazing photo of the chaitan volcano

andy flan

Just wanted to blog to say i love this mans music. I heard him for the first time at summer madness in 2001 and immediately I was affected by his worship leading. He writes quiet humble songs as well as joyful melodic ones. Some of the ones that I really like are (i hope I don't break copyright infringement here!): -

My soul praises the Lord - A joyful song taken from Mary's Song written in early Luke. It's all about being praiseful for the things God has done for us and the day of salvation to come

He has filled the hungry with good things
Sent the rich empty away
He has helped to servant Israel
and He still does it today

All I Am - A song that talks about our purpose is to give God glory but we try to hold on to our lives (he who gives up his life will gain eternal life)

Each perfect gift has come from you
Yet I cling tightly
I pray oh Lord, release my grip
So I give gladly
All I am, I offer to you..

Arms - This song is all about trade justice (something I am extremely passionate about), corrupt governments and arms dealings. The candid sheer truthful nature of this song really hit me the first time I heard it and still does

We'll give you the food we're the generous ones
But only if you buy our rockets and guns
A bullet tastes better than bread, or so they say
...
When the arms that you use
The arms that you use
Are the ones that are holding the children you lose
...
So take me away from these facts that I've heard
The back of my head is the place they deserve
Take them away so my conscience remains undisturbed

Fragile - This is one that has affected me more recently. It was written in the aftermath of the tsunami. This was a particularly gut wrenching time for Andy as he was a missionary on one of the islands that got washed up just 2 months before the wave hit. This song can empathise with anyone who has gone through such suffering.

The same waves that brought you crashing in in with joy
Are the same waves that leave your universe destroyed
And the same sand that once warmed this white man’s toes
Makes graves for your silent flesh and bone.
...
The same man that the winds and waves obeyed,
Is the same man who was the first one to know pain
same man could keep control of everything
same man knows more than me about suffering
So calm this overwhelming force
As earth and heaven seem divorced.

But why does life have to be this fragile?
Why is there a death so close to birth?
Why does life have to be this fragile?
Here on earth.

He has released two albums called 'Advertising the invisible' and 'Son' as well as being on a few Summer Madness live CD's. There is more as well and some good new stuff on his website http://www.andyflan.com (where you can also learn his mums cooking recipes!). You can also download most of his songs off itunes. It's amazing to think this 'wee' man came from portadown, but I am also surprised his songs aren't more well heard of!