Christianity and other faiths (part 2)

Post modernism means 'select what suit you', 'pick and choose', 'my experience is self-validated', 'there is no absolute'. This understanding of life is 6000 years old. There are 3three million of Hinduist Gods however hinduism has got no foundation. In Christ you have someone who has the audacity to say: I am the ultimate truth. Truly, truly, I say. This claim that fascinated the gentiles is just as great now as in Jesus' time. ¹⁹ So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!” John 12:19. 
Our faith can come from a variety of sources. Looking at nature, rainbow, birds, you can be ecstatic. Surely there is a designer. In nature, we have clues of a divine being. Hinduism is based on an intuitive speculation. Islam shares one understanding with us, that God is an external being, not a product of our psyche. Muslims say we are all people of a book and claim the Coran is the last testament. If you tell them that Jesus is unique, this is not an argument.  The Muslims argue that they have the finality of revelation and will tell you that 
the Jews use the Old Testament, the Christians, the New Testament and the Muslims have the final product! Give me a break! Jesus is the alpha and the omega. Jesus is the ONLY testament! Time and knowledge is contained in him. 
God challenges us to go out and tell others the Good News. In our obedience, we are being changed. By being vulnerable, we begin to have a deeper appreciation of God and his love. 
Notes written at Doxey. Speaker: Rev. Canon George Kovoor
It looks as if we are snowed in tonight so I am not even sure that the school will be open tomorrow! We shall see. Blessings. Yours in Christ. N.

The Christian faith and other faiths

Steven and I went to a deanery synod in Doxey church. Our guest speaker was called Rev. Canon George Kovoor .We had an excellent evening.
Here are my notes.
For years, the UK has been the bastion of christianity and you sent the finest young men and women round the world to spread the gospel. They actually believed that Jesus was the Good News. There was something so important in the message of Jesus that they believed it was GOOD NEWS. So it should still be JOY in the Church. Therefore it is difficult to understand why there are too many miserable faces, constipated faces in the Church nowadays! Who wants to hang out with boring people! I train people who want to be equipped and not afraid to share our faith wherever they go.
However, if the Church itself is biblically illiterate and theologically clueless, it will find sharing the Gospel to people of other faiths difficult. Surely it is incumbent on the Church to share the Good News with everybody. If you do not know your bible and start talking to a Muslim for instance who will pick up on many apparent contradictions in the Bible, you will be stung! In the Royal Albert Hall, not long ago, an American apologist was decimated by a Muslim leader.
The Jews have had to live round the nations and they have always been a minority. They know how to engage. They consider themselves as called out people to whom God revealed his name. Abraham an Iraqui, was to be a light to the people. This always was the intention of God to reveal himself to all nations.
What is heaven like? When John is in Patmos he has a revelation, he sees that heaven is multicultural, multi-ethnic but not multifaith. In heaven the worship is super.
I am here in front of you because your grand-parents took trouble to come to our country and share the Gospel of Jesus-Christ. Brothers and sisters in Christ I am not prepared to collude with the system.
Isaiah 56:6-7 And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD 
   to minister to him,
to love the name of the LORD,
   and to be his servants,
all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
   and who hold fast to my covenant—
⁷ these I will bring to my holy mountain
   and give them joy in my house of prayer. Let's think about Jesus'triumphant entry in Jerusalem, He made a beeline to the temple. Mark 11:15-17 Did Jesus have a problem with money? Let's go back to Solomon. We have a blue print of what the temple looked like, notice there was a vast court for the Gentiles. God has made a gracious place for the nations to come. Hospitality and generosity for those who do not know Him. By clearing the temple, Jesus who incarnates God, restores the hospitality and generosity of God so that the nations can behold the splendor of God.
How much more the Church must do to adjust to the world?
What preparation is there for new converts?
To be popular you mustn't compromise your faith. It seems that the Church of England is a plate of jelly, nobody knows what to believe. Engaging with people of other faith require integrity. Dialogue is better than monologue. Dialogue requires listening. Why were we created with two ears and only one mouth?
You must meet people, promote an activity where people are welcome. Take trouble to go where they are.
Dialogue requires mutual respect.
Canon Kovoor's speech was full of humour too. I am afraid that jokes do not do so well on the paper. There is more so watch this space. Blessings in Jesus-Christ. N.

Protecting children!

Mothers’ Union believes children should be valued as children, not consumers. Yet marketers target children’s natural inexperience in order to reach the household purse
Their Bye Buy Childhood campaign aims to empower families to challenge the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood through positive action.

Join their campaign to say “bye bye” to buying childhood. Giving children the message that they are what they own, rather than being valued for who they are, can negatively affect their wellbeing. Nearly three-fifths of parents believe that advertising seen by children can be harmful to them. Using sex to sell to children is particularly objectionable and 80% of parents are concerned about the impact of sexualised content in television, films, magazines and the internet on their children.

This is such an important issue. Somehow in our world, it looks as if children are robbed of their childhood, they are under pressure to conform to adult fantasies. Their innocence is at stake. In my view, I would say that the way films are categorised in 12 and 15 is not effective. What do you think ?

 It is the same with magazines and their never-ending gossips. It becomes more and more difficult for parents to monitor what their children read or watch. Then begins a huge task to counteract the effect of those violent, wicked stories, where evil seems to dominate love and loyalty. I am not even going to start mentioning the soap operas! Let me know what you think. I hope that Mothers Union challenge is going to be successful and show that parents do care for their children. Yours in Christ. N.

The Archbishop of Canterbury's lecture on heresy (part 3)

The Archbishop of Canterbury's lecture on heresy (part 2)

The Archbishop's lecture on heresy

Here is the first song we sang at the conference. Then you can hear the Archbishop's lecture on heresy. I have split it in different sections.   Bishop Jonathan commented: “The Archbishop overturned our notion of what heresy is and encouraged Christians to be on fire to serve our communities. It was an amazing day”. We totally agree with  him of course. 

Church on fire!

Tomorrow we are off to Telford to hear the Archbishop of Canterbury...
Tonight we went to see the fireworks by the Green Man Inn, it was an impressive display (no photos yet as I cannot seem to focus right!...however hubby took a few (4....hundred ..) so I may post a few a.s.a.p...) and amazingly the wind was blowing away all the smoke far away from us. still one particle of whatever fell in my eye (obviously I looked up, eyes wide open!)  and four hours later it's a little bit painful..
Have a blessed week-end. Yours in Christ. N

The highlights of our hols in Norfolk..

 The forecast was rain in Norfolk for the week but fortunately it only rained one day! So we went birdwatching...four times...in fact it is so easy to go birdwatching as Heacham is by the sea and ducks walk alonside dogs in the village!








We went twice to Titchwell, the RSPB reserve, they improved the walk and did some digging and trimming round the banks..everything looked very new!

 
 In Wells-next-the Sea, we saw this baby cormoran, so cute lol!

 Our last day was spent in the butterfly and wildlife centre near Sutton Bridge. It was  such a challenge to photograph elusive butterflies in the tropical garden. In the end, I cheated and filmed them. There were  four iguanas relaxing and watching you incognito.

 

One of the eagles caused a bit of turmoil as he never came back..not unusual. However they still held a 'handling birds of prey' show. I do find the barn owl so beautiful, don't you?