Potato Shindig

Yesterday we spent most of the day at Willows Farm. The girls love going there and we make sure that we make full use of our annual membership.

During weekends in September they have their Potato Shindig. One fork per family, all the children get a plastic spade and a bucket - then it's off to the potato field to simply dig potatoes and fill your bucket. It's the potato equivalent of 'pick your own'.

Guess what Nanny, Granddad and Auntie Carol are having for tea when they visit on Monday! The crop we picked a few weekends ago lasted about 2-3 weeks.

Next month we get to pick pumpkins.

In the news for the wrong reasons

Those of you who have read the blurb about me over to the right will know that I have worked in both Kenya and in Peshawar, Pakistan. It is sad to find both countries in the news today for all the wrong reasons. Praying for all those affected.

Chris Froome, who grew up in Kenya, on his twitter feed today said, 'My thoughts are with those affected by this horrendous attack'. In an early tweet he said, 'Feel ridiculous for being nervous about the TTT today while people are busy being held at gunpoint in Nairobi #perspective #westgate ' [TTT = team time trial].

On a different note one of the drivers in the Grand Prix this afternoon whose car broke down on the final lap commented, 'someone somewhere is having a worse day than me'.

Yes, Mark, yes they are.

The Tour of Britain visits Devon

Today the Tour of Britain visited Devon, passing right outside the house where we once lived in Moretonhampstead. I had hoped to catch a glimpse of it on the TV coverage - except they went to an ad break and missed out the whole of Moreton altogether - by the time they returned the cyclists were well on their way down to Bovey.

But I have managed to find a YouTube clip of the race going through the centre of Moreton.

How will they hear?

I became a Christian on an August Thursday night, in the dark, in a tent, in a farmer's field in Cornwall. Although I had grown up in a Christian home, where I had heard all about Jesus and gone along to church pretty much every Sunday of my life - I knew on that night that I had a choice to make. I knew in my head that Jesus had died on the cross to save me from my sin - but did I want to respond to God's love for me and follow Jesus?

The next morning I went to speak to the man who had been doing all of the main talks at this young people's camp, to tell him that the night before I had become a Christian. I had decided that yes - I did want to respond to God's love for me. He got out his Bible and turned to Romans 10:9 - if you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

He wanted me to be confident in what happened. He knew that there would be times in my life when I would question whether or not I was a Christian. When the enemy would bring doubts and try to sabotage what God was doing. When I would question God - maybe even wonder whether there was a God. And he wanted me to remember this choice I had made and what that meant.

And for those of us who are following Jesus, Romans 10 also brings the challenge of telling others. We can't force people to believe anything, but how will they hear about Jesus unless someone tells them - and who's going to tell your friends if it's not you? 

Here's the short video that we watched on Sunday.



To listen to this message click here

Is it worth it?

I have come across the following article a number of times recently on FB and Twitter so thought I'd put a link to it here too. 

It's a blog article, 'Dear Parents with young children in church' written by Jamie Bruesehoff, who is a pastor's wife and has two young children. Don't just read the article, there is also a short interview with Jamie at the bottom of the page.

The article is an encouragement to parents that when you bring your children to church you're doing something really important - even if they're a little bit noisy. When you wonder whether it's worth the effort - remember that, yes, it is.

So, click here, and read on.

London Triathlon

Later on this afternoon the Brownlee brothers, Jonny and Alistair, will be fighting it out with Javier Gomez in Hyde Park, London, for the title of Triathlon World Champion. 

Yesterday we went to see the mass events at the London Triathlon - the Olympic and sprint distance events. We were too late to see the elite women's race, which was won by Non Stamford, the new women's World Champion.

But at the mass events there were hundreds, probably thousands of men and women swimming, cycling and running their way round Hyde Park. The starts were staggered over a couple of hours and the Standard Distance was followed by the Sprint Distance events. Add to that the fact that the bike was a 5 lap course and the run a 4 lap course it meant that at any point you'd be watching a whole spectrum of athletes.

There were those who looked like triathletes and those who didn't. There were those who looked fit and those who...didn't. On the cycling there were some people on carbon fibre bikes, with the solid back wheels and the aerodynamic tear drop shaped helmets that you see during professional time trials - and there were others on mountain bikes that creaked as they went past.

For some this was their first triathlon and the aim was simply to finish, others would have been chasing a PB, very few would have had ambitions to win their age category etc.

But at least they were in the race - which is more than could be said for those of us who were watching. 

Some people live life as spectators rather than competitors. Some Christians live as spectators - taking a comfy seat and watching everyone do all the work - but that's not an option. We all have a part to play and it is important that we know what our part is and that we're fully involved.

So the next time you sit down to watch a triathlon, or the football, or the tennis, or even the Proms ask yourself whether you are a simply a spectator or whether you're playing your part in your Christian life?

Tricky issues...

Are you a Calvinist? Do you have any idea who this man is? Does it matter?

How you answer my first question will probably depend a lot on where you live and what kind of church you go to - or used to go to. I have no statistical evidence to back up what I'm about to say but I guess that there would be some Christians who would say they were definitely Calvinists. Others would say that they were not - and some of these might describe themselves as Arminians. There would be some who might have a vague notion about what I was asking. And then there would be others who would look blankly and ask whether that has anything to do with a small boy with spiky hair and a toy tiger.

This week we began a new Sunday morning teaching series looking at the second half of Romans - chapters 9-16. I admit I was tempted to make this a slightly shorter study and just look at chapters 12-16...

There are a number of questions that are raised in chapters 9-11 that I don't feel particularly qualified to tackle. Ask me whether I am a pre-millennialist, an a-millennialist or a post-millennialist and I will have something to offer - because I spent a whole term at Bible college reading around the subject and then had to write a 5000 word essay on the subject. I'm sure there were subjects and courses that I could have taken that looked at Calvin - but I took something else instead - but maybe that was just meant to be.

One of the questions that Romans 9:1-29 raises for us is the question of God's sovereign choice - God chooses some people - are therefore rejects others. Very simply (overly simply) this is Predestination - as opposed to Free Will. On one side God has already determined how we will respond in any given situation - on the other side we have free will to choose for ourselves.

I am not going to argue one way or the other here. There are Christians on both sides of the argument who believe the Bible teaches one or the other. They are able to quote verses that seem to clearly state one point of view or the other. That's why it remains such a divisive topic - if it was clear cut and obvious then it wouldn't be an issue.

So how should we approach issues or passages in the Bible that we find difficult to accept or understand?

I think one of the keys is that we do it with humility. 

Whatever we think it says - we might be wrong.

And even if we're right - if that's the way we're thinking about things (I'm right and you're wrong) then our attitude is almost certainly wrong anyway.

We need to remember that it is God who is God - there are going to be things that I won't understand - but am I prepared to obey and submit?

We need to pray that God will help us to understand more.

One conclusion I have come to as I've looked at Romans 9 - I should have started this series at chapter 12.