Lessons from 930 BC

Last Sunday we began a new sermon series at church. The title of the series is 'From Empire to Exile' and looks at the period of Old Testament history that starts with the death of king Solomon in 930 BC and ends with the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. Each week we are going to look at a different character, either a king or a prophet, and see what these ancient stories have to say to us as we seek to live a followers of Jesus in 2010.


We started with king Rehoboam and focused on 2 Chronicles 12 and drew out three short points for reflection.

First we saw the danger of blessings. After a time of struggle Rehoboam became established and strong. It was at this point that he and the people deserted God's way. Many of us turn to God in times of hardship, distress and turmoil, but when things settle down, when things are going well, the danger is that we drift away from God and start to rely on ourselves and on our own strengths, abilities and resources.

This morning I came across a quote from C.S. Lewis' The Problem of Pain

Everyone has noticed how hard it is to turn our thoughts to God when everything is going well with us

The second thing we saw was the God was in control. Humanly speaking - at this time in history Egypt was a world superpower, and could flex her muscles as she wished. But verse 2 makes it clear that it was because the people had abandoned God that the king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. God was working out his purposes. God allowed this to happen. The people may have wondered 'where is God in all of this?' The answer is that he is closer than you think.

And our final point was that because Rehoboam did not seek God, because often he did his own thing, his life was not all it could have been. God promises us life to the full. Rehoboam settled for a life of bronze imitations rather than the genuine gold. How much do we miss out on because we do things our way rather than God's?

To listen to this message click here

And the Results are in...

Today we went up to Great Ormond Street Hospital to hear the results of all the tests they have done on R following her stroke/seizure episode earlier in the year. And it would seem, when taking everything into consideration, that it was most likely a seizure and not a mini stroke after all.

So what does that mean? Well, in the immediate short term it means that R has stopped taking Aspirin, and so within a week or so the consistency of her blood will be back to normal - so not bruising as easily as she does now, and not bleeding all over the place when she cuts or grazes herself. This also frees us up from the daily petit filous saga!

But if it was a seizure, it could happen again - or not. There is no sign at this stage of epilepsy, but the more seizures she has the more likely she is to develop epilepsy in later life. They don't feel they need to do anything further at this stage, but if R was to experience more episodes then they would obviously see if there was anything further they needed to do. But we pray that it was a one off.

She is most susceptible when tired, ill, has a fever... So we will never leave home without a sachet of Calpol close by, and we may tape one of those forehead thermometers permanently in place, and even when R is 16 she will need to be in bed by 8!

Since coming out of hospital R has been fine, a perfectly normal five year old. She loves school and Girls' Brigade, and as you'll see from the photos a few days ago we had a great summer holiday.

Although there is of course some uncertainty over the future, and it is impossible to monitor a child all the time, we can see how God has looked after R so far, in her (to quote the consultant) short and eventful life, and we thank God that we can trust him for the future.

Oh yes...we also found out today that R also has a hole in the heart - but it's only small and will sort itself out in time!

Wordle

Here's a wordle based on my notes for last Sunday's family service. We were looking at teamwork - and how we all can be involved in the work of sharing the good news of Jesus with others.

Summer Holidays part 3

A relaxing picnic after an exhausting morning at Castle Drogo, in Devon.

Here the girls are pretending to drive a steam train at the South Devon Railway at Buckfastleigh.

Aboard the train for the trip to Totnes and back.

And if you wondered how we managed to get all the camping stuff and everything else and everyone else in the car...

Whoever said camping was about travelling light!