Stuff from my brain... from God???

Lately I was asked to 'bring a thought' for the start of a meeting and as I thought about it (last minute as usual) it struck me that perhaps most people would be thinking - 'OK so I need to prepare a 'thought' to bring to the meeting', but instead of this, I thought it was probably better (risky probably) to simply bring my thoughts to the meeting as they were. Surely it's better to bring your thoughts than to go and get some thoughts to bring! I guess it depends on what's in your head to start with!

I've had a similar kind of thought about prayer lately. Someone asked me what my prayer life is like and about my 'quiet times'. The fact is, I don't really do 'quiet times' and haven't for quite a while but I do have plenty of times that are quiet if you know what I mean... probably not! What I mean is that I talk to God when I feel like it and the thing is... I feel like it quite a lot! I do talk to God a lot each day and bring my thoughts and feelings to him as often as I can. But I don't organise these times or plan them necessarily. Sometimes that can be useful and if I or one of my mates spots that my relationship with God seems to be slipping in some way then a new habit or structure might be useful to help change me a bit. But as it is (and I'm way from perfect!) I feel like organised quiet times would quite honestly get in the way of my relationship with God! Me and God talk regularly. I pray and I read his word in the Bible but these days it's more like a natural thing than something I make myself do.

I realise very quickly that all this sounds very arrogant and like I think I've got some kind of special sorted relationship with God that means I don't need to prepare anything or have any special time for prayer etc but if you know me, I hope you'll know that I'm not an arrogant person and neither am I a perfect person!!! Anyone who knows me will know enough of my secrets and failings to know that I struggle with sin as much as anyone and God has a lot of work yet to do on me to make me into the person he wants me to be. I guess my point is that although the process is a lifelong one, nonetheless it is happening slowly but surely, bit by bit. And it's encouraging.

Here's some possibly useful questions to think about...
  • How would you describe your relationship with God?
  • How effective are your patterns of listening to him by reading the Bible and in other ways?
  • How much do you choose to share with him in prayer?
  • How might certain patterns or structures of prayer and Bible study help you at the moment?
  • How might they hold you back or make you miss the point?
2 Corinthians 3:18

Goodbye to SCM

I've just finished my job at St Cuthbert Mayne as Pastoral Support Worker and I thought I'd write a bit about what I'm moving on to and also say something I think is really important for anyone back at school who might be taking a look at this...

I've got a day off today but tomorrow I'll be starting my new job at my church (Belmont Chapel) in Exeter where I live and I'll be 'Youth Support Worker' for 11-18s. I'll be thoroughly involved in all the youth groups, offering support to young people beyond those groups and activities and generally doing everything I can to help people grow well and discover more of their potential in God. Exciting stuff and I can't wait!

And the important thing? Well it's about knowing God... One of the hardest things for me about leaving SCM was saying goodbye to people who I know have been relying on me to some extent for things they needed - someone to listen, someone to rely on, someone to trust in. I've loved being able to help people and it was so hard to think about what might happen when I'm not there. But the thing is, as soon as I had feelings like this, I also had lots of encouraging thoughts too because although I'm leaving SCM, God is not!

God's way better than me at being available, organised and caring and loving and skilled and everything that anyone could ever need. And he's every bit as much at SCM as he is anywhere else. In fact, I think he's even more obvious at SCM than at many schools I've been to.

If you're a student at SCM reading this, you'll have heard me talk about God many times and thanks for letting me! It's because I know how much God loves us and wants to bring us peace and life to the full, forgiveness, life forever, purpose, gifts, etc, that I can't stop talking about him and inviting people to speak to him, learn from him and get to know him for themselves.

I hope you'll make the most of the opportunity to know God. He wants to forgive you and for you to know him as your best friend who will never leave you.

This websites might give you a good start in finding out more...

2 Ways to Live - The good news about Jesus that Christians believe and how to become a Christian yourself if you want to!
ReJesus - All about Jesus, his story, his followers, etc
WordLive - Free daily podcasts, emails with Bible passages, prayers, relevant thoughts, etc

Catholic Conversation 1 - Christ's afflictions lacking? (Colossians 1:24)

A good friend of mine who's a Christian and part of the Catholic church has suggested I comment on some 'Catholic-sounding' passages of the Bible.

Christians disagree all the time about all sorts of things but it can be worrying when they can't agree about things that are centrally important to what it means to be a Christian, have a real relationship with God, forgiveness, a place in heaven, etc. After all, if Christians can't even agree amongst themselves about what makes them Christians then why bother with Christianity at all?

I'm super-motivated to discover real truth and to know for sure that it's really true. Without know-able truth, we're all just guessing and we may as well believe anything that anyone comes up with! Who's to say we've got it wrong if it's impossible to know for sure? I'm personally convinced that God has revealed truth to us in the pages of the Bible we have today and particularly in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-4). If you want to know why I'm so convinced about this, ask me and I'll have to write about it! For now, I'm just letting you know that this is how I'll be measuring what I consider and understand to be truth - by looking at what God has said to us in the Bible and what he has shown us through his Son, Jesus.

So here's the first idea from my friend... 'Christ's afflictions lacking? (Colossians 1:24)'...

I'm left wondering a bit about what my friend is getting at here but I'm guessing it has something to do with the sufficiency of what Jesus did on the cross. Paul seems to be suggesting that Jesus' suffering was insufficient in some way but is this really what he is saying? Did Jesus do everything necessary for us to be saved, rescued from sin, death and hell into a relationship with God? Or do we need what Jesus did, plus something more?

The Bible is pretty clear that what Jesus did for us all on the cross was and is absolutely enough to secure the offer of free forgiveness and eternal rescue for anyone who puts their trust in him. It says we must believe in him to receive eternal life and be saved (John 3:16, Acts 16:30-31). It promises forgiveness for those who ask (1 John 1:9), and it describes Jesus as the one who perfects or 'finishes' our faith (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus said 'It is finished!' when he died on the cross (John 19:30). The original greek shows us that this was a triumphant statement rather than a sigh of relief. It was more like, 'It is accomplished!' or 'It is done!' or even 'Eat it Satan - I've beaten you!' (if I use my imagination slightly!).

After all Jesus went through, all the fulfilled Old Testament prophecies, all that the New Testament says about his death and resurrection - the idea that he didn't suffer enough or that his sufferings need topping up somehow by our own efforts just seems to be ridiculous.

We must understand what Paul is writing in Colossians 1:24 in the context of the rest of the Bible. We can't ignore what Paul is saying (it is still God's word to us) but neither can we accept the most obvious meaning of a Bible verse if that means it flies in the face of what God says throughout the Bible very clearly. God doesn't contradict himself.

The true meaning of what Paul is saying in Colossians 1:24 is more likely to be that he is identifying with the sufferings of Christ as he suffers for the church too. He's not completing, topping up or finishing off the act of salvation for Jesus. He's simply being like Jesus himself by suffering obediently for the love of his people. When he says 'I fill up in my flesh', he's saying - 'I want to be as much like Jesus as I can and I want to fill up my life with what he did!'

Playing God or Fighting for God?

I'm sure you may have heard or read about the 'hybrid embryo research' in the news. I'm sure it's sparked discussions all over the place about ethics versus scientific advances. It certainly did in our house!


I have to admit that I've only had a quick glance at the story really but I thought I would share some of my own thoughts and also some of the things God says about these kinds of issues that we should be aware of if we want to do things right by him. I'm not arguing one way or the other, just throwing some things into the discussion and I hope they might be useful...

Do embryos feel pain?
I think this is a critical issue if we're talking about manipulating life in its early stages, particularly human life (because we're made in the image of God - Genesis 1:27) but also animal life (because we are charged with taking care of them - Genesis 1:26). After sin and death came into the world, God said we could kill animals for our food but I think we should do everything we can to avoid animals suffering unnecessarily and going through pain needlessly. If pain can be experienced at the embryo stage, then I think we need to be very careful about what we do with them. On the other hand, if we can be sure they don't feel any pain then it follows that we're not hurting them by intervening and experimenting.

Sanctity of life?
The Bible makes it clear that murder is wrong and that only God can give life and only he should take it (Exodus 20:13). It also says that death, sickness and suffering only exist in our world because of sin (Romans 6:23). God is telling us that we should be fighting to reverse the effects of sin wherever we see them. We should fight for life and use everything we can to preserve life and improve the quality of it. This is what the principle of the sanctity of life is all about as I understand it and it seems thoroughly biblical to me too. So, if the motives for scientific experiment are to improve the quality and quantity of human life, then it could be a great thing to be involved in but if the motives are less than honourable to human existence, then it could be a horrific thing to be doing.

What are the risks?
A very practical question really. If genetic experiments could end up in human life being tragically shortened or diminished, especially on a large scale such as a pandemic, then this would surely overrule any noble aims to improve and prolong life.

Is it equal to bestiality?
Someone suggested that it's just wrong to mix human and animal genes because it's the same thing that's wrong with bestiality. I'm not convinced of this myself. In the Bible when God condemns besstiality (Leviticus 20:15), he's listing off a whole bunch of sexual sins that we should not engage in, including adultery, homosexual acts, sex within families, etc. It about sexual sins, not genetic experimentation, so I don't think it's relevant here.

Is it playing God or fighting for him?
This is the ultimate question that should determine our conclusions about right and wrong on this issue. Are we playing God by being involved in genetic experimentation or are we simply doing our duty to fight for life with all the resources he has given us?

So I haven't answered any questions but hopefully my rambling might have thrown some useful light into things. Let me know!

Man Cold

I've got man cold. Booo!

Watch my bro's film!

While you're here please have a look at my bro's short film (2 mins) to help him do well in a competition he's entered!

FATAL ESCAPE

More about John Pegg

For the Love of God (Isaiah 60)

Recently I was at home and decided (between watching Curb Your Enthusiasm and Prison Break) that I would pick up the Bible and look for a place to read about God's love. I stumbled over Isaiah 60 and I'm glad I did!

At first glance it doesn't seem very exciting but as I thought on it deeply I realised it's all about how God loves his people (including you and me if we trust and follow Jesus) and it's full of how God wants to romance us and lavish gifts and good things on us because he wants far more than to be our God or even our friend. He wants to be our lover and Isaiah 60 seems to be a glimpse of how God wants to spoil us!


Isaiah starts with the difference that being a Christian makes. While everyone else is living in darkness without forgiveness or God's life in them, we as Christians are forgiven and alive in the light and have his loving presence living in us all the time (v1-2).

After this, Isaiah lists and describes load of things God wants to do for his beloved people and the things that will happen because of his relationship with them and there is tons of meaning implied for us in our own lives today if we have a relationship with God too. As Christians we can expect much of what's described here and now in this life but it is merely a taste of when these things will be fully completed for us in heaven. Let's look forward to heaven but let's also look for these things here in our lives on earth! Eternal life starts now!
  • Others will be drawn to God through us (v3).
  • Be alert and expect others to come to you to know God (v4).
  • Our attractive lives will bring us joy and good things even in this world as people are drawn into praising God and they will come with good things for us as they worship him (v5-11).
  • Those who continue to ignore or reject the God we follow (despite the radiance of his work in our lives) will ultimately die unforgiven and miss out on him completely and totally forever (v12).
  • We will become a beacon of hope, life and joy for people around us because of God's love alive in us (v13-15).
  • We will enjoy peace and well-being and nothing but God's very best for us (v17-18).
  • We won't rely on natural schedules or pattern because God will sustain us and energise us (v20).
  • God will make us like him and we will be strong (v21-22).

Notice verse 16! If we're Christians we might think we know already that Jesus is our rescuer and saviour but we haven't seen it all - not by a long way!

God loves us more than we can imagine. How much have you realised it so far?

Quick Plug: Rock Goblin Shirts!

One of the lads at my school has started his own business selling great t-shirts! Check it out...

What to blog next... Hmmm

Just finished 1, 2 and 3 John and I'm wondering what to blog about next. Happy to do another Bible book but could do something different. Maybe people would like to ask questions and I'll have a go at answering them, maybe something else. Let me know what you'd like to see and I'll give it a go! At the moment, I'm wondering about looking at some Psalms but I'm happy to do something else if people want. Let me know!

Dealing with Family (3 John)

I don't know how you feel about your family but I love mine. Although we don't always agree, we manage to have some great times. The other day I sent my bro this picture just for a laugh and today I got a one word reply - "Fool" - Brilliant! I love it when family know just what you're like and you can say anything to them and you know they'll accept you because you're family and they love you, even if you're as silly as me! John knows that this is what the family of God ought to be like and he's writing to some brothers and sisters about it...


As Christians (if we're Christians), we have been welcomed into a huge spiritual family - God's family and we are brothers and sisters with Jesus! Sometimes we're great at remembering this and other times we're not!

John's buzzing about some of his family that have visited recently from another part of the church. They brought him great joy because they were full of stories about how other parts of the family are doing and how they're growing. We could learn from this! Do we get excited about this kind of stuff? John says he has no greater joy than to hear about other Christians living in the truth (v4).

John writes also to remind his readers to be encouraging to other Christians who are doing things for Jesus and not to neglect them (v5-8). He talks about showing hospitality to others who are working for Jesus. We should show love and practical help to other Christians because even though they might be strangers to us - they're part of our family because they belong to Jesus and are living for him.

Sometimes Christians are rubbish at being family. John mentions this guy Diotrephes, who's doing the exact opposite of supporting his family - he's slandering them and spreading lies and gossip about them just to make himself look good (v10-11). It happens! Have you ever experienced other Christians putting themselves first and deliberately being deceptive and even preventing other brothers and sisters from doing work for Jesus? I have! Like any family, we have our breakdowns at times and relationships aren't what they should be. We shouldn't paper over the cracks and pretend that everything's fine in the church. Sometimes there's rot and rubbish in the church and we need to sort it out! This could mean being ready to challenge sin in each other when we see it happening unchecked and being ready for others to lovingly challenge our mistakes and attitudes too!

The great thing is that when Christians do live as family together and encourage each other as John suggests, others notice that something special is going on. Christians should be the kind of loving community that causes others to realise that something is different about us. The difference is that God is living in his people! This kind of thing ought to be noticeable in the way we hang out as Christians!

A challenge...
What are you most excited about really? Ask God to make you increasingly excited about seeing others get to know him and live for him more and more and ask him to help you to do the same too! Maybe you could encourage one of your brothers or sisters with a letter about all the things God is doing in your life and those around you - exciting stories! Or maybe just send them a silly photo of yourself like I did!

A Reminder (2 John)

John's second letter is nice and brief and to be honest, although there's a lot we don't know about who he's writing to or the situation they were in, the main message of the letter is pretty straight forward. It's a reminder to another Christian and her local church family to keep loving God by living for him wholeheartedly and to avoid all the rubbish that would distract them from doing so...


We don't really know who the lady is that John is writing too but we can tell a few things from what John writes:
  • She appears to be a Christian leader with God-given reponsibility for others (v1)
  • She is someone who teaches and shows others how to follow Jesus (v4)
  • She has worked hard at it (v8)
  • She could benefit from a reminder to keep loving others (v5-6)
  • She could also benefit from a warning about false teachers that are around (v8-11)
  • She's a good friend of John's and well worth visiting in person (v12)
  • She is well-loved by other Christians where John is too (v13)
I think there is a lot we can learn from this letter but the one thing that jumps out at me is the fact that even Christian leaders that have been chosen and are hard-working and gifted, need reminders to keep loving others and warning not to fall into wrong teaching. We need to remember that none of us has all the answers and so it's quite possible for us to be swayed into wrong thinking or wrong actions that don't show love. Loving others doesn't mean going along with whatever they believe. Truth is still truth and it is the truth about Jesus that unites Christians because God is living in them by his Holy Spirit. If we're Christians, let's make sure that we're not too cocky that we think we can't go wrong!

A challenge
  • If you're a Christian, ask God to show you someone who you can remind and encourage to continue in God's love and who possibly needs a stabilising hand to hold them strong through a wobbly time where they could potentially give up on the truth. Maybe you could write to them like John did or go see them!
  • If you're not, consider the Christians you know and their attitude towards you. How much do they care about you and do they ever explain how their beliefs differ from yours? Maybe you could challenge them to show more love to others or to explain themselves more clearly (or do both at the same time)!
More blogs and that

    Everything is Different with Jesus (1 John 5:13-21)

    Everything is different when you're a Christian. I don't mean that life is necessarily easier or that all Christians sail through life with a smile on their face, impervious to struggles and pain. That's clearly not true! What I mean is that sin (the root problem behind all that is wrong with our world and our lives) is defeated in the life of the Christian and this changes everything...

    1 John 5:13-21

    John is writing so that his readers might become Christians and know that they are safe. If we're not sure what it really means to be a Christian (or if we've forgotten!), we can fin it in verse 13. John says it's about believing in the name of the Son of God or in other words, believing Jesus was and is who he says he is.

    If we're Christians, John says we can know for sure that we have been given life forever and also we can ask in prayer with greater confidence because we're asking our Father who's forgiven and accepted us. People who aren't yet Christians can pray too and God will hear them (he hears everything) but it's not the same if you haven't asked for forgiveness and there's sin separating you from God. Prayer changes when you become a Christian.

    Sin changes when you become a Christian too. All sin leads to death but God offers free forgiveness and life (Romans 6:23). Christians still make mistakes and do the old sins they used to but it's totally different because when a Christian (forgiven) is sinning - it's not killing them! God has taken the sting of sin away through Jesus' death on the cross and his resurrection. This is how John can talk about sin that doesn't lead to death. ALL sin leads to death but what he's talking about is forgiven sin. Forgiven sin doesn't lead to death. Making mistakes and doing wrong is also totally different when you're a Christian. Still wrong (and we still need to grow out of it) but it's forgiven! We can still have life to the full and life forever!

    John finishes this letter by ramming his point home. In short - 'Jesus is the truth so don't bother with fakes!' Why is he being so clear about it? Why is he being so exclusive? So arrogant? Because John knows that believing in the name of Jesus changes everything and it's the difference between life and death.

    Have you asked Jesus for forgiveness and for change? You're allowed to! And you're allowed to keep asking too! And if you've done this, remember that as you grow to become more like Jesus, your sinful mistakes aren't killing you any more when you fall back! Jesus is life!

    A Simple Choice (1 John 5:6-12)

    Just the other day I decided to try and cycle from Exeter to Bournemouth via Lyme Regis and Weymouth (about 90 miles) and after 3 hours hard slog, I just about got to Lyme Regis and I had a choice to make. Do I keep going and try and make the whole distance or do I give up here and eat some fudge instead? You can probably guess which one I chose and I don't regret it one little bit. Fudge is yummy!

    Our choices can be really important, especially when it comes to what we choose to do with Jesus...


    First of all, what's all this blood and water stuff in the first bit? I had some idea that it might be about the natural earthly life and death of Jesus (considering how important it is) and then I checked to see what the Message version of the Bible had to say...

    Jesus—the Divine Christ! He experienced a life-giving birth and a death-killing death. Not only birth from the womb, but baptismal birth of his ministry and sacrificial death. And all the while the Spirit is confirming the truth, the reality of God's presence at Jesus' baptism and crucifixion, bringing those occasions alive for us. A triple testimony: the Spirit, the Baptism, the Crucifixion. And the three in perfect agreement.

    I wasn't surprised about what the Message version said and I found it a really helpful explanation of the things John is talking about. God is basically giving us repeated opportunities to look and realise that Jesus is who he says he is and we all have a choice to make about whether or not we believe him.

    If we believe God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) when he tells us about Jesus, John tells us what we get - LIFE and if we don't, John is equally clear that we get death instead. There's no middle ground about saying Jesus was just a really nice guy but that's it. People who think that are totally ignoring most of the wild and miraculous things Jesus said and did.

    CS Lewis in his book, 'Mere Christianity', explains it really well I think...

    I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him, "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

    Do you ever doubt that Jesus is the Son of God and all that he says? I know I have my doubts sometimes and then I get to thinking about the evidence again... The historical reliability of the gospel accounts in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the birth, the baptism, the death, burial and resurrection. And it doesn't stop there. I have to think about the things I know God has done in my own life too. The peace, the rescue through all sorts of trials and trouble, the comfort in pain and the resources to know what to do just at the right time. I have to remember because the reality of God's presence and power at work in my life and in the lives of those around me has been abundantly clear. It's not been because I'm such an amazing person (I'm not!). It's been God. Some would say I'm kidding myself about it being God but when I look at the evidence I have to say that I'd be kidding myself to ignore all that God has blatantly done. He just been so busy showing us himself that we'd be stubborn and closed-minded to conclude he's not there or that Jesus was just some bloke who was really nice.

    A prayer...

    Lord - Thank you for Jesus and thank you for not being a totally invisible or silent God but for constantly interrupting our world's history with significant demonstrations of your love for us. Thank you for the biggest interruption of all when Jesus came and lived, died and rose again for us so we can have a relationship with you. Help us to keep trusting you until this world ends and sin, pain, hurt, death, sadness, tears, and everything else that's horrible and crap is over and done with - gone forever. Amen!

    Believing is Being (1 John 5:1-5)

    I was at a huge Christian conference once and sitting in a seminar about the 10 Commandments. The guy leading it asked us a question: 'Why did God give the Israelites the 10 Commandments?' I remember one of my youth leaders at the time sticking his hand up and answering, 'For their enjoyment!' I thought it was a great answer because God only asks us to do what is best for us but the guy leading the seminar obviously didn't see it that way and didn't know what to make of it. I think he thought it was a joke or something. Oh well.


    John says the commands of God are not burdensome.

    There's something really natural about being in a relationship with God that naturally affects everything else, even when there's sin trying to catch us at every turn. People struggle and strive to impress God and live for him but John makes it sound so natural - like breathing in and out. Loving God, loving Jesus, loving others and obeying God's commands should all be as natural as breathing in and out.

    If only it were that easy! But it's worth remembering that it should be this easy! The thing that makes it difficult to do these things is our own sinful nature (which we won't completely shake off until Jesus takes us to heaven) but if we're Christians, we have God the Holy Spirit living in us and this means that we have a new nature. This means that we're not battling to live for God against our nature but that we're living naturally for God and when we sin - we're battling our new nature. Do you see the difference? We're being less ourselves, less our true nature, less like our Father God when we sin.

    So how can we live more naturally and do the things John describes? Well, it all starts with believing. Not doing - BELIEVING. What we believe affects what we are. John says those who believe Jesus is the Messiah (chosen one from God, saviour, rescuer) are the children of God.

    So, do you believe this? If so, ask God to help you live according to your new godly nature. If not, why not and have you considered Jesus thoroughly for yourself or written him off?

    Have fun!

    Email from an atheist...

    I haven't been blogging lately because I've been on holiday but I just thought I'd share something with you. A while ago, I was chatting with people on the Richard Dawkins forum and I had a fantastically honest and thoughtful email from an atheist guy on there about why he didn't believe in God or religion. His honesty challenged me and I thought I would share it with you and also my reply. I wonder what you would have written back...

    Email from an Atheist...

    My mother brought my siblings and me to a Presbyterian church off and on for a couple of years when I was very young. Other than that I was never raised to be religious. Throughout my childhood and teen years I believed in God but it was a rather vague belief and it didn't do anything to shape my life. I believed in God only in the sense that I would give a positive response if asked. I didn’t subscribe to any religion because I thought (and still think) organised religion is subversive and caused a lot of evil. I wanted to believe in God but on my own terms. I really closed my eyes to the idea that God may not exist. It was a silly thought to me. I told myself “Since everyone believes in some sort of god there must be one and they’re all praying to it in their own different traditions and through their own understanding". I latched on to this idea for a long time (but now know the logic is fallacious and is an appeal to popular belief).

    After high school I joined the army and in 1998 I was deployed to Bosnia. There I saw enormous cemeteries, too many to count and in some cases too large to stand and view their borders, filled with the victims of the war. I saw the remains of what once were houses but since were marked with a spray painted x to signify that they were inhabited by Muslims and then riddled with bullets by Serbs. Other houses in the same neighborhoods were leveled to their foundations from rocket or mortar attacks. I saw old grey women in the streets forced to beg for money because they lost their legs to landmines hastily left in their backyards during the war. I saw other women standing in market places holding up pictures of their sons or husbands, men who died in the war, asking us soldiers if we knew where they could go for financial aid. A part of my job was to give mine awareness classes to elementary school to high school aged children in their classrooms. We had deactivated landmines to show the children so they know what to avoid. In one class, filled with twelve or thirteen year old children, one of my teammates held up a small antipersonnel mine and asked if any of them had ever seen one. One child held up his hand which was missing three fingers. He had to give no description of his account as his proof was his deformity. On multiple occasions my team and I were approached by Muslim extremists, members of the Mujahideen, who yelled at and spit in our faces and wished for our deaths, none deterred by the loaded M-16 rifles on our shoulders. It was in Bosnia that I asked myself if I was absolutely sure I believed in God.

    I didn’t think there was any way to prove or disprove God’s existence so the question lingered but I didn’t feel compelled to try to answer it. When I got back from Bosnia I started noticing things that didn’t accord with my view on God and admitted to myself I was agnostic and remained so for many years. On my first date with my current girlfriend I told her I didn’t believe in God although I didn’t call myself an atheist. She asked me why I didn’t believe in God and I wanted to give her a good answer. I then started a search for answers. I asked myself what still made me believe in God. The argument from design struck me as valid but then I studied evolution and learned natural selection is a mindless process that has no goal in mind and we and every other species are products of it. The cosmological argument seemed valid but then I studied cosmology and found an explanation of how stars form from clouds of hydrogen and create the heavier elements that make up planets and everything on them…including every atom in my body! The more I learned the less reasons I had to believe. The only issue that remained is if God doesn’t exist there would have to be a reason why the universe does. Then I learned about the Hawking-Hartle Wave Function Theory that states the probability of our universe coming into existence uncaused is 100%. Dr. Stephen Hawking started work on this theory about 15 years ago and it's been verified by observational data.

    That is how I became and why I still am an atheist. Can I ask why you believe in God?

    My reply...

    Thanks for your honesty and thanks too for asking me why I do believe in God. Here's a few reasons why...

    1. I believe because he loves me.
    Ok, ok, I know this is completely unscientific but it’s the biggest and most fundamental reason that I keep believing God is real. It’s like trying to prove that my mum and dad love me. There’s no way I could ever conclusively prove their love for me, least of all scientifically. However, this can’t take away the fact that I know they do love me. I know it because I know it. I’ve experienced it and I feel it. I’m reminded of it all the time but can I prove it? No. Is it real love? Yes! I believe God is real and loves me because I can’t deny that I’ve felt his love and seen his love at work in my life and the lives of others. Love in the midst of tragedy and suffering. Love that brings healing and hope. Scientific? Absolutely not. Real and true? I can’t deny it.

    2. I believe because historical evidence is overwhelmingly compelling.
    Most people who don’t believe the Bible haven’t taken much or any time to explore its claims. I’m thinking especially about the gospels and the account of the resurrection of Jesus. The historical reliability of the gospel accounts we have is incredible. We have eye-witness accounts written down for us to examine and test and they were written within living memory of Jesus. The evidence demands a verdict. We owe it to ourselves to thoroughly explore these claims before we dismiss them out-of-hand. Science is about building theories to explain the evidence we see around us. When a new piece of evidence comes up, we must test it to see if it’s false or if our theory needs to change in the light of this new piece of evidence. In this case, the scientific theory is: ‘Dead people don’t rise’ but the Bible says that Jesus came back to life. It would be unscientific for us to ignore the evidence completely and stick to our theory about death. Science surely should compel us to examine this evidence to see if our theory needs to change. The evidence is there but few people can be bothered to look at it. I could say more about specifics if you wanted. The evidence for the resurrection of Jesus is overwhelming and it stands up to examination.

    3. I believe because it’s logical.
    I go back to your comment about ‘Hawking-Hartle Wave Function Theory’, which I must confess I have never heard of before. I'm assuming it must explain scientifically how we got something from nothing. I'm skeptical straight away because principally it sounds like science is trying to explain the origin of the universe and that issue is simply beyond the realms of science. How can science build theories to explain non-existence? This question has to be philosophical at least if not theological. The only logical explanation for getting something from nothing (especially something so incredibly complex and precise and amazing) is an amazing designer God. People ask, ‘But who created God?’ This is a common question but surely it also should apply to whatever it is that anyone says pre-existed our universe. What do you think came first, right at the beginning of our universe? Gasses? Space? Something else? Whatever it is, we could ask the same question: 'Who made it then?' Sooner or later, we have to acknowledge that something or someone was there at the beginning of our universe and that something or someone has always existed. There is no other logical explanation for how we got 'something' from 'nothing' and I don't think we should be attributing eternal characteristics to simple matter or gas or molecules or whatever. It is surely more likely and more logical that God, above and beyond our understanding is the only one who has this 'uncreated quality'. Something has to have had it and anything less than God seems far-fetched to me. The logical conclusion must be that something above and beyond ourselves is responsible for all that we can see, hear, smell, taste and touch. That something or someone must be amazing and well worth getting to know, if they would give us the chance.

    4. I believe because of conscience and morals.
    Who decides right from wrong? Why do we even care? The fact is that from a very early age, humans instinctively react with an acute sense of injustice when they are wronged. A child will throw a tantrum when he or she feels that something is not fair. As we get older, we develop a more reasoned approach to ethics but still we don’t lose our sense of right and wrong. We may differ about specific issues like abortion or euthanasia or the death penalty but we all have ethics wired into our frame somehow. Why? Where does it come from? Why do we feel pangs of guilt when we get it wrong? I believe this points us all to God who gave us our conscience and our strong feelings for justice come from him. Everyone seems to have this sense of a moral obligation but to who? I believe it’s God.

    5. I believe because he’s my only real hope. My believing doesn’t make him real but because I know he’s real, I’ve found that he’s the only place I can find what I (or anyone else) really needs: forgiveness, peace, hope, love. I can get bits of these from other people but ultimately the only person who can give me these completely is God himself. I don’t deserve it. I’m no more important than anyone else and I’ve done plenty that I’m ashamed of but that’s exactly why I need him so much. Without him I’m lost and without any hope of real forgiveness, peace and life to the full.

    I hope this helps. I really appreciate your honesty, even though we currently have different views. I hope we can continue discussing and that we would be led into the absolute truth and reality of this issue. I think it could change our lives.

    Thank you!

    True Love (1 John 4:7-21)

    'All you need is love' - The Beatles

    'Love is friendship set on fire' - Unknown

    'We love because it's the only true adventure' - Nikki Giovanni

    'Love is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired' - Mark Twain

    People have all sorts of ideas about what love is but pretty much everyone would agree that love is important somehow and that everyone needs it. In today's reading, John tells us what real love is, where to get it and how to show it...


    What is love?
    John says, 'This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.' John knows that God's act of coming down to earth in the person of his Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross so that we can have a relationship with him beyond death is the greatest single act of love there has ever been. It is such a great example of love that John uses it as his definition up to which he measures any other idea of what love is.

    Where can we find true love?
    John knows that God is the expert when it comes to love because love comes first of all from God. Do we really think that human beings just learned how to love all by ourselves because of evolutionary or sociological processes? Personally I don't see how love could have come from anything on the same level as us. It has to be something that comes to us as a gift from our Creator - God. Love is too powerful and too impossible to have simply been thought of or developed by our human brains. We love because God first loved us.

    And John says that anyone who knows how to love, knows God in some way because they display one of the hallmarks of God's character. They may not realise that love comes from God, but they show by their own loving acts, that they know something about him, even if they haven't yet understood where their capacity to love comes from.

    How should we show love?
    We should show love in the same way that God has shown love to us. God's act of love on the cross is the supreme example and definition, so our love should aim for that kind of sacrifice. Sacrificial, effective, pure, selfless, etc. John says it's imperative that we love one another as God has loved us. How can we claim to know God if we hate others? It's hypocritical to claim to know God and yet hold things against other human beings.

    Do you ever find it hard to love someone? I do! What about the people who let us down, break our trust, hurt or abuse us or others we care about? I think it's extremely hard to love people like that and yet that is exactly what God expects us to do because he loves them too. But he doesn't expect us to love them in our own strength. Remember, love comes from God and God is love! So it's about letting God love these people through us. We don't (and we can't) do it by ourselves.

    So, have you found your true love? Are you looking in all the wrong places? If you want to know what true love is, you need to go to the source of all love - God himself. Take a good look at what Jesus was doing when he died on the cross 2000 years ago and then ask God to help you receive it for yourself and pass it on to others.

    Who's Right and Wrong? (1 John 4:1-6)

    I once had to lead a school assembly about the holocaust. It was a daunting thing to be asked to do, especially as I didn't want to do something ordinary and expected. I wanted to make people think about their own lives carefully as well as remembering how awful it was for those who died. With this in mind, we made the whole assembly about spotting fakes. Hitler was someone who managed to convince many people that he was doing something really good. He fooled many people into thinking that something really wrong was actually the right thing to do. It's quite a scary thought. How can we be ready to spot the fakes, especially when there's so many worldviews, methods and life-advice competing for our attention?


    Today we have so many different religions, belief systems and worldviews competing for our attention. Everyone seems to think they have got the best idea of how to live life. Or even more common these days is the idea that there is no right way to live at all and it's all about personal choice and personal truth. Tolerance these days is probably the most persuasive message out there. It says that all worldviews and claims to truth are equal. It sounds so reasonable and friendly but it's wrong! If there's any such thing as real objective truth at all then it has to be wrong.

    John is convinced that there is plenty of real know-able objective truth about God and what he has said and done in our world, especially through his Son Jesus Christ. He also knows that there were so many other mixed messages and stories, ideas and claims to truth out there and he wanted his readers to know how to sort them out.

    John says the bottom line is about what people say about who Jesus is. If they acknowledge that Jesus was and is the Son of God (a lot of implications for anyone who believes this!), then they can probably be trusted most of the time when they're talking about direction in life. But if they don't acknowledge Jesus was and is the Son of God (again a lot of implications here too!), then they can't be trusted on these crucial issues because they've ignored or rejected the most important intervention in human history that there's ever been - Jesus!

    That's not too say that non-Christians don't ever have valuable things to say. I've learned many wise things from non-Christians. It just means we shouldn't allow non-Christians to convince us about why and how we live for God because he must be the final authority.

    It also doesn't mean that Christian teachers don't ever get it wrong. I've heard preachers say the most stupid things over the years. It just means that if someone has accepted Jesus as the Son of God and their own saviour and rescuer, then they can probably be trusted on big matters like why and how to live for God because they're following him too.

    In short, we need to measure up all big ideas with what God says in the Bible (the written word of God) and with the live of Jesus (the living word of God) if we want to be sure about them one way or the other.

    In the assembly we looked at how to spot fakes. We saw that although there are many tests we can do to spot if a bank note is a fake, the best way by far is to handle real money as much as possible. Then when a fake note comes along, we'll spot it a mile off. This is true in life too. If we want to avoid being taken in by convincing fakes, we must be familiar with the real truth as much as we can. This means knowing God for ourselves, listening to him by reading the Bible, speaking to him in prayer and trusting in him.

    Let's go!

    Being Different (1 John 3:11-24)

    What makes Christians different from everyone else? I bet if you asked a hundred different people, you'd get a hundred different answers but I'd be pretty certain that many would say things like...

    - They think they're better than everyone else
    - They think they're the only ones who've got it right
    - They're arrogant and boring

    Having said that, I also think that many others in the survey would say things like...

    - They really care about people
    - They think of others more than themselves
    - They seem to be full of peace/love

    What do you think? Maybe it's worth doing the survey to find out!

    1 John 3:11-24

    I think John suggests three big ideas about what marks Christians out as different from everyone else...

    They believe in Jesus (v23). Not just that he existed but they believe in his name. That means they believe in who he is - the Son of God! And believing in doesn't just mean an intellectual agreement with but it means a total trust in and dependence on Jesus. It's like me saying I believe that a chair will hold my weight when I sit in it. It won't do me any good until I actually sit down in the chair! Believing in Jesus means being in Jesus! It's about complete love and trust towards God. Believing is the main command John talks about when he's describing what it looks like to do what Jesus says (v23).

    They love people (v11, 14, 16-18). Not just people they like but everyone! Even people who mistreat them and mock them. Even strangers. In fact, anyone who has any kind of need should find that Christians are the first people to step up and care emotionally and help practically (v17). All hatred is gone because we have passed from death into life (v14).

    They have the Spirit of God in them (v24). None of this is possible or sustainable without God himself living is the hearts of Christians. Not just his power or his life or some impersonal force, but God himself by his Holy Spirit living in Christians. All Christians have the Holy Spirit living in them and it is he that makes it possible for them to love God and love others the way they should - the way God has loved us first (v16).

    If you're a Christian - How are YOU different from anyone else?

    If you're not - How different can you be without a relationship with God?

    Spot the Difference! (1 John 3:4-10)

    See if you can spot the differences in the two pictures below...
    How long before you gave up? It wasn't long for me. I think I found one before I couldn't be bothered with it.

    Today John talks about spotting the difference, only it's much more important than the one shown above and it's far easier than people think too!

    1 John 3:4-10

    How do you spot the difference between someone who's a real Christian (forgiven, accepted, etc) and someone who isn't? Surely faith is a personal and private matter that doesn't involve others - wrong! Or at least according to John it's wrong. He seems to think that faith makes a BIG difference to our lives and others around us too. He says 'No-one who continues to sin has either seen Jesus or known him' (v6).

    We need to be careful with this one. It's awful when people start judging everyone else about whether they're actually saved by God or not. We'd be wrong to judge other people's relationship with God because...
    1. We can't know for sure. All we can do is have a pretty good guess at where someone's at with God based on the way they live their lives. This can't be fool proof because even the most mature Christian will make selfish mistakes and even the most humanist person will do excellent Godly things for others. People's actions are clues of where they might be at with God and they do add up to quite a clear picture but they don't settle the case! That's between them and God - and even then, it's not about how good they are (because no-one's good enough for God!), it's about whether they've asked for forgivenes or not!
    2. Our motives would probably be wrong. John isn't writing about this because he wants his readers to start playing spot the difference with everyone they meet. He's concerned about people who might try and teach them wrong things about Jesus to trick them into following things that didn't come from Jesus himself (v7). He's saying the best way to spot these fake teachers is not by the eloquence of what they say but by the message of their lives.

    It's impossible to have a relationship with God and not to have your whole life changed. Sure, we're not there yet, but if we've really encountered the living God, then the direction, reason and reality of our lives must be completely different from anyone who's living life for themselves or for the here and now.

    In my school there's a poster with an old cliche question on it. It's cheesy if you've heard it before but a great question to consider if you're someone who claims to follow Jesus...

    'If you were arrested with the charge of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?'

    Remember John started this chapter talking about the amazing love of God that has been lavished on us? After meeting a God like that, how can we go on living the way we did before? It must be impossible for our old habits to continue the way they did. In the last bit of the chapter (which we'll look at tomorrow), John talks about what it looks like to live for Jesus and how people will know for sure that we belong to him.

    Exeter Passion Play 2008

    The Easter 08 Passion Play in Exeter. I edited my footage of the Passion Play and set it all to a song called 'American Jesus' by Bad Religion. Very punk and I think it suits it. Only took 2 hours work in iMovie on the Macbook. Not bad!

    Amazing Love (1 John 3:1-3)

    My line manager at school is really kind and every now and again, she'll buy me a box of chocolates or something to say a big thank you for the hard work I've been doing. It's something she does for other staff she looks after too (just in case you were worrying)! Earlier this term, God challenged me about doing something kind for her and I decided that before Easter arrives I would buy her some nice chocolates for a change to say thank for her work for me. I thought it was a great idea but then today she goes and gives me a big Easter egg! I wanted to show her my kindness but she beat me to it. Doh!

    John talks about the amazing love that God has shown to us and the impact that it has on us and those around us...

    1 John 3:1-3

    I love the way John uses the word 'lavish'. It makes me think of something really huge and amazing being poured down on us. Maybe like 10 tons of strawberry jelly landing on our house - Brilliant!

    What has God done that's more amazing than 10 tons of jelly?! He's made it possible for us to become his children - for us to be part of his eternal family. Awesome! Imagine the safest, best, most loving family ever and then multiply it by infinity and you might get somewhere close to picturing what John's talking about. You really can't explain it properly - You have to experience the reality of it! Having God as our heavenly Dad and best friend in reality is something I really struggle to put words on. It's amazing. I'll have to leave it at that.

    Then John talks about some of the impacts that this amazing love has on us if we've received it...
    • It means that people will give us a hard time for loving God because they don't recognise God's love for themselves (v1).
    • It means we have an eternal future with God where we will be completely changed into the person we were created to be - just like Jesus (v2).
    • It means the journey towards that complete change has begun already and we're learning what it looks like to be like Jesus now (v3).
    We're never going to out-do God's love. He's loved us from before the beginning of time and he's made a way for us to be in his family. We can't top that! We can't do anything that will impress him enough to be friends with us. It's not about impressing him. It's about accepting him and showing him we're grateful by growing to be more like him.

    So will I buy my line manager chocolates anyway? Probably. Even though she's 'lavished' chocolates on me already, I want to let her know I'm grateful. It's not about out-doing her - it's about showing her the kindness she's shown me. Unless I can think of a way I can drop 10 tons of stawberry jelly on her house... hmmm, I wonder...

    She's Got Her Dad's Nose! (1 John 2:28-29)

    My mum says I've got 'a Pegg nose'! I didn't do anything to deserve it but I'm stuck with it whether I like it or not. It's a natural consequence of me being born. As John rounds off chapter 2, he mentions what should be a natural consequence of being born again...

    1 John 2:28-29

    John doesn't tell his Christian readers to start realising new things. He's not talking about stuff they don't yet know. Earlier in the chapter he's clear to them that they already know the truth. They've already put their faith in Jesus and trusted him for forgiveness and they have peace with God. John is writing to tell them to 'continue' (v28) in Jesus. It's about continuing on the adventure they've started, without getting distracted by other ideas that seem tempting but are actually not of God.

    We all face things that would distract us from doing what God wants for us. The difference between Christians and everyone else is that Christians have asked God to forgive them because of what Jesus has done on the cross (and God has forgiven them like he promised). If you're not yet a Christian, it's about starting but if you are a Christian, it's about continuing.

    Becoming as Christian about being 'born again'. Becoming like Jesus is not something we can achieve in our own strength because it flies in the face of our own sinful nature. But when God forgives us and gives us that fresh start that we've been talking about, it's like he creates us all over again, but this time we're born of the Spirit of God and we're a 'new creation' (2 Corinthians 5:17).

    So when John talks about being righteous (living right), it's not about us trying our very best not to make mistakes. Instead, it's about being true to our new nature. It's about continuing in Jesus. It's about being our true selves, the way we were made and re-made to be. When we're living this way, it's more about relaxing and resting than it is about working and striving. God is changing us bit-by-bit if we are letting him in. It's about being open to God.

    When this is happening, people will begin to recognise features in our lives that come from God (v29). Our lives will have characteristics that look like God's. They will be characteristics, attitudes and actions that point people to our heavenly Dad.

    Question to think/pray about: Do you need to 'start' or 'continue' with Jesus and what will that mean in reality for you?

    Who is the 'Antichrist'? (1 John 2:18-27)

    To my shame I don't mind listening to a quick blast of Slayer now and again. They're a thrash heavy metal band and the drums and energy of the music is incredible! The tragic thing is that pretty much every Slayer album is about how much they hate Christians. Their album 'God Hates us All' is full of songs like this and contains phrases like 'I keep the Bible in a pool of blood so that none of its lies can affect me'. Blimey! They just haven't got anything good to sing about. It's quite sad. All they can sing about is how against Christ they are. They don't seem to be FOR anything.

    Thankfully most people aren't into Slayer but there are so many people that are against Christ (or they're not FOR him, which amounts to the same thing actually) and today John speaks about the difference between those who are for and those who are against Jesus...


    There's been a lot of talk about 'antichrists' over the years. At various times throughout history, people in the church have asserted that they know who it is. They've been waiting for an incredibly evil figurehead to pin it on. People used to say it was Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, MacDonald's, Waitrose, the Pope, and the list goes on!

    John doesn't tell us to look out for one evil figure. He's a lot more real than that. John basically says that anyone who's not for Jesus is against him. They prove it by their actions because they have no time for him in their lives. They go off on their own way and live life exactly as they want to, with themselves in the driving seat and calling all the shots.

    The stunning verse in the middle of this bit is where John tells us who the real liars are (strong words). He says the real liars are the ones who flatly deny that Jesus is the Messiah (or chosen one of God). Blimey!

    The thing is, I think God has made it so obvious he loves us and he's spoken with so much clarity to show us that he's real and loves us but people still fail to recognise it. Creation itself, conscience, ethics, guilt, compassion, creativity, love, anger at death, logic. All these are clear reasons we have that God is real. Then we have historical evidence about Jesus. The evidence for his existence is unquestionable and the evidence for his resurrection is overwhelmingly compelling. The empty tomb, the 500 witness, the eye-witness accounts in the gospels (written within living memory of Jesus), the martyrs that died for the story of what happened, the dead body that was never found. It's very obvious that Jesus was and is someone uniquely special that came to save us. Maybe he really was and is the only Son of God who came to save us from our sin - but tragically most people ignore it or hate it so much that they agree with Slayer!

    What about you? What do you say about Jesus? Have you explored the evidence or just pushed it to the back of your mind or gone along with what most people believe? The dangerous thing about following common sense is that it's becoming increasingly less common and you might end up missing out on the one truth that could save your life.

    Or maybe you've made your mind up already and you're a Christian living for Jesus. John's words are, 'remain in him' (v27). Stay put. Don't stop thinking but also don't forget the biggest truth that you've been shown. Live in it and share it with others who need to know but do so with an open and thinking mind and in a way that shows people what Jesus is like rather than being arrogant and clouding people's vision of who Jesus really is.

    Is our world really that bad? (1 John 2:15-17)

    What do you think of our world?  Sometimes I love it here - the beauty of tree, the power of the sea, the compassion of people!  Other times it sucks to be in this world - the evil there is - wars, violence, greed, destruction.  How does God feel about the world?  And how should we feel about it? 

    1 John 2:15-17


    John's words here make it sound like God hates the world but we know from what John says elsewhere that God 'so LOVED the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not die but have eternal life'.  God loves the world he made and the people in it but that's not what the word 'world' means here.  He's talking about the sinful and evil WAYS of the world that is in opposition to God. 

    God made our world to be good and in the beginning it was perfect.  But these days it doesn't take a genius to figure out that something's gone very wrong and there is plenty of evil around in our world today. Just watch the news or scan the front pages of the papers and we'll see stories of real evil stuff that is destroying lives all around us. And (perhaps on a smaller scale but no less serious) if we're honest with ourselves we can see the same destructive, selfish tendencies at work in our own minds and lives. Much as we might try to always do the right thing, sometimes we are selfish, lazy, rude or whatever.

    John mentions 3 areas where we often go wrong:

    1. The lust of the flesh - this is obviously about sex and all the ways we're tempted to be ruled by our sexual appetites, rather than by the one who gave them to us.

    2. The lust of the eyes - this is about materialism and coveting or wanting more and more money and stuff.  It's a real distraction from what truly matter is life.

    3. The pride of life - this is about running our own lives with our own priorities and ambitions with no reference to the God who made us and loves us.

    These are just examples of what is wrong with our world.  It's sin: S-I-N:
    Shove off God.
    I'm in charge.
    No to your commands.

    John says the world and its desires will pass away.  Everything and everyone that's in opposition to God will go in the end.  And John says that followers of Jesus shouldn't be tempted to love the things this rebellious world loves. As Christians we're likely to stand out a bit if we're living life the way it's made to be lived.

    It's about where our focus is. If we focus on only the here and now (like most people do) then we'll probably be concerned with things like money, jobs, houses, families, cars, etc. All these things can be excellent and precious but if this is all that our lives are about then we've missed the point - God. The eternal God (no beginning, no end) has to feature in our agenda in this life. In fact, he deserves to be no less than number one. Unless we put him first in our lives and receive his forgiveness and hope - we will die with this world and be away from him forever. God wants to give us so much more than what we can see now! He wants to give us himself. He wants to give us eternity with him! Life to the full and life forever. A fresh start. Forgiveness. Hope, help, comfort and love like we've never known. Security, peace and joy.

    Let's take our eyes off this world for a minute and fix them on God. Stop for a minute and rest. Close your eyes and ask God to show you what he has for you! Don't just read this - try it! God might want to surprise you!

    KNOW You Are (1 John 2:7-14)

    Do you remember the Matrix films where Morpheus is training Neo (in the first film) to fight? All the time he's training Neo to 'free his mind' and use the bendy rules of the matrix to his advantage, rather than being bound by them. He says things like 'Stop trying to hit me and HIT ME!' and is generally rather annoying and smug as he beats him up with ridiculous anti-gravity karate. Morpheus' point is that Neo needs to stop trying so hard and remember the truth. 

    Something similar is going on when Christians try in their own strength to follow Jesus rather than letting Jesus live in and through them.  John writes to remind Christians of who they really are so their identity can shape their activity...

    1 John 2:7-14

    John says that what he's writing is not some new fad or trend but it's the same old God who has been around since forever.  Jesus is this God.  So he's not new, even though John's readers were new to Jesus.  John wants his Jewish readers to know that trusting and following Jesus is exactly the way they can obey the commands of God they've grown up with.  Their scriptures point to Jesus because Jesus is the same God who wrote them.  So he's not new.

    On the other hand, John says, perhaps it IS new in a way because for his first readers, the fresh expression of God's light and love in the person of Jesus Christ was a brand new experience altogether. And the idea that God's Spirit is living in all Christians was a brand new concept too! He says this truth is seen 'in him but also in you'!  It's the same God that they had known all along but now a new depth of personal intimacy with that God was available and this would have blown them away.  This was the new bit for John's readers.  Trusting and following Jesus means that he lives in us!

    John then talks about what it means to be walking in the light in terms of loving others, especially other believers and he says anyone who hates their brother or sister is still stumbling about in the dark.  Isn't it sad that Christians so often squabble and fall out or judge each other and stay away from each other?  Aren't we family because of Jesus?  We should ask ourselves who it is that we will enjoy eternity with and then start practicing now!  Why should we exclude those whom God has included?  Why should we draw lines where God hasn't?  Family isn't always easy, but if we're Christians, we ARE family and we should be learning to live like it more and more, refusing to give up on one another.  This is part of what it means to be in the light, John says.

    John reminds his readers (who are Christians) who they are in Christ so they can live from this knowledge as people of the light.  He says Christians are a bit like children, a bit like fathers and a bit like young men:
    • We're loved like children because we're forgiven by God
    • We're wise like fathers because we know God who knows everything
    • We're strong like young men because Jesus lives in us
    So thankfully, it's not quite like the Matrix but this is the stuff Christians need to remember if they are to free their minds and live well.  Who we are determines what we do.  Identity before activity.

    Living in the Light (1 John 2:1-6)

    Nearly six years ago I got married to Chrissi and we're very happy together and we have lots of fun! It probably wouldn't surprise you to know that I'm far from a perfect husband! I do plenty (and forget to do plenty) that makes Chrissi upset or cross or whatever. In short, I'm trying to be the best husband I can be, but I frequently need Chrissi's patience, forgiveness and help. Of course, it works both ways and as we work things out, we realise this is what the adventure of marriage is all about. Loving each other in relationship through all sorts of situations life brings - and bringing God glory in the process.

    Today's passage speaks of the relationship we have with God if we're Christians, how our mistakes affect that relationship and how our lives are increasingly affected by that relationship...


    If Chrissi wanted to divorce me every time I made a mistake, our marriage wouldn't last five minutes! It would be ridiculous if we had to be perfect in order to continue loving each other. It's a bit like this with our relationship with God, except that God is perfect and we're the ones who aren't.

    When we make mistakes, the relationship isn't over and God doesn't disown us. This is because the basis of a relationship with God is forgiveness, not performance. This is something that many people don't realise and many Christians are tempted to forget! John reminds us that Jesus has paid the sacrifice that has set us free to be in relationship with God. He has paid the price for our forgiveness and this means we can love God and be loved by him without our mistakes getting in the way.

    The thing is, we're still changing. We're still not perfect and we're learning, bit-by-bit to become more like Jesus. We don't have to be like Jesus in order to be friends of God, we just have to ask for forgiveness. After this, we're FREE to learn to grow to become more like the God who has forgiven us. We can make mistakes (forgiven mistakes) and we can grow without any pressure.

    John speaks clearly about living as Jesus did and this should be the intention of every believer. The problem is that some people haven't joined up their faith and relationship in God to certain parts of their life. They have areas that are off-limits to God. John challenges this way of living. It's not a real relationship with God unless we have willingly surrendered our whole life to him. Sure, we're not going to become perfect overnight but we ought to be naturally heading in the right direction by opening our lives up to his grace more and more. Remember the 'light' thing from yesterday? It's like that. We may not be as light as Jesus but we should be getting brighter by spending more time with him shining on and in and through us!

    Ask God to help you to accept his offer of forgiveness and then enjoy living for him in freedom!

    Come into the Light! (1 John 1:5-10)

    It's really quite sad when someone is lying to themselves. I remember being very little at school and my class were all making Easter cards. I saw some of my friends' cards and they looked amazing to me and I wished I could draw as good as them but I wasn't patient enough and I didn't think mine was that good. Later on, the teacher was holding them up, one-by-one and asking who's they were. I was so embarrassed by mine that I didn't want to put my hand up. I wanted mine to be one of the nice ones that looked really cool but the reality was that mine was the one with thick black scrawl all over it and it looked pretty ugly. I think I must have gotten into a right strop about it too, because I'd convinced myself it wasn't mine. I was lying to myself. What a sad day!


    I love the logic of what John says about the light and darkness, truth and lies. It's not difficult to see the sense in what he's saying if we take a minute to work it through...

    John's met with Jesus and he's talking about him. He's seen, heard and touched eternity and he's passing on the message that Jesus is the light. Let's think through what John says about this. Light dispels darkness. Switch on a light in a dark room and all the darkness goes instantly. You can't have both at the same time. It's the same with Jesus. He is the perfect bright light (perfect/righteous/pure) and there can be no darkness (wrongness/sin) in him.
    Then John talks about people. If we claim that we're friends of Jesus or Christians or whatever you want to call it, then it follows that our lives should be fairly well 'lit up'. If we're still fumbling around in darkness, making the same old dim mistakes, how can we say we're friends of Jesus? Our habits should be changing because if we've switched the light on, how can our lives still be dark? It's about having a REAL relationship with Jesus, the light of the world, rather than just pretending that we're anything to do with him. It's impossible to encounter Jesus at all and not change! If we say we're Christians and our lives don't look different, John's basically saying that we're liars!

    Conversely, if we ARE walking in the light and we DO have a real relationship with Jesus, then not only will our lives be increasingly well lit up but we will be able to see each other more clearly too and our relationships with others will be lighter and better because all the secrets are gone!

    John says we should fess up and be honest about our sin, our mistakes, our darkness. And if we do this there's an AMAZING promise from God (and he never breaks them!). If we own up to our sin (mistakes, darkness, badly drawn Easter cards, etc!) then God absolutely promises to forgive us AND more than this, he promises to purify us. That means he'll give our conscience a good scrubbing too so we don't need to feel guilty any more! Absolutely not! This means we can be full of light (full of Jesus!) once more and be walking in light continually, even though we will make mistakes again and again. We don't need to be stumbling around lost in the dark. It's about confession and getting real with God. It RULES! He offers a completely fresh start and the light to walk on into. Let's make sure we do it and not lie to ourselves any more!

    Is Seeing Believing? (1 John 1:1-4)

    Most people today won't believe anything without clear evidence to support it. They want to see truth, touch it, taste it before they make a decision, especially if it's a decision about their own life. They would agree that seeing is believing. And all this sounds quite reasonable to me.


    John seems to think he has overwhelmingly strong tangible evidence and experience of something. He's talking about something that he says he's seen with his own eyes, heard with his own ears and that he's touched with his own hands. This sounds like some solid evidence. The amazing and incredible bit though, is that this thing he's talking about is something eternal! It's not something we would normally expect to be able to see, hear and touch physically. It's not just something godly - John is talking about God himself! John is saying something amazing - that he has seen, heard and touched God himself! He's saying he's had a real encounter with the Creator of the universe - the one who was there in the beginning of time - the one who appeared in the flesh in the person of Jesus Christ - the one who gives life to all, the one who offers us eternal life - the one who wants to have a friendship with us all. Blimey!

    How can John be so sure? I think it's about two main things:
    1. Reasonable and logical evidence. Most historians agree that the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were all written within living memory of Jesus. If you read the start of Luke's gospel, you can see the care they took over getting their sources right. Saying something false and wildly wrong about Jesus in the gospels would have been discredited very quickly. It would be the same as writing a biography about John Lennon and claiming that he could fly like a bird and grow a pink beard! People would laugh at it because they knew him personally or knew people who knew him personally and they would know that it was a load of made up rubbish. The gospels were written this quickly after the life of Jesus and so any ridiculous statements about him would never have lasted for 2000 years!
    2. Personal experience. John's writing on a personal level. He's not just got his sources right but he's had a personal encounter with Jesus himself. In John's day, this could have meant that he actually and physically met Jesus Christ in the flesh while he was living on earth 2000 years ago. In our day, people have a similar kind of encounter on a spiritual level and they would say that this is just as real and vivid as meeting him physically.
    What evidence do you have for God? Have you got your sources right? Have you carefully examined the story? What are you convinced about? What are you not convinced about?

    Have you met God? What experiences have you ever had of him? What conclusions have you come to?

    John's point is not to cause arguments or intellectual debates but to bring his readers joy and to 'complete' their joy! What joy do you have from understanding and encountering the living God? Think and pray on this!

    More blogs and that

    Ecclesiastes 12

    At work I'm very careful about my time. I want to make sure that I make the most of every hour I spend working and I want to demonstrate to my line manager and others I work with that I am being effective and not wasting time on unimportant things. I want to see results from what I do and I know that the best way to make sure my work bears fruit is to make sure I'm working on the right things.

    Solomon concludes his book by telling us how we can make the most of our lives and not waste any of the time we have...


    Have you ever heard someone say anything like this: 'Well I suppose I might think about God one day but I'm going to have some fun first.'?

    A story is told of a circus bear who lived in a cage ten feet by ten feet square. Every day the bear would pace back and forth, ten feet one way and ten feet back. This was its life. Then one day it was time for the bear to retire and they gave him a massive enclosure with trees and landscape in which he could enjoy living out the rest of his life. As they observed the bear however, the saw that all he did was to pace back and forth, ten feet one way and ten feet back, as if he were still in the cage. He had all this new freedom and yet didn't make the most of it because all he wanted to do was to keep living his own small little life.

    The best time to know God is now! People think that becoming a Christian is like getting into a cage and that somehow they will have less freedom to enjoy life but the truth of the matter is quite the opposite. Becoming a Christian is about discovering true freedom, forgiveness, life and hope.

    Solomon knows that when it comes to thinking about when to know God, we should say 'the sooner, the better'. Why miss out on all God has for us, thinking all the time that our idea of fun is bigger and better than his? This is why Solomon says we should get to know God when we're young if we can. Why waste our life waiting to know God later?

    And this is Solomon's conclusion on the matter. We should know and fear and love and obey God, rather than ignore him and think that we know best. His love, his life, his hope, his fun are all way, way bigger than ours and we ignore him at our peril! Living with and for God is right where we should be. We're more free, more ourselves and more alive when we're in God!

    A prayer...
    Thank you God that you're real and alive and fun and exciting and relevant to me. Forgive me for the times I've tried to live my life without you and help me to give you my everything because you are Lord of all. Please give me a bigger and better perspective on my life so that I can glimpse something of the way you see me. And thank you that because of your forgiveness I can be free to live life to the full and life forever with you. Amen!

    Ecclesiastes 11:7-10

    Now that I've turned 30, everyone wants to let me know that I'm no longer considered young. I'm an 'old man' apparently. In some ways I feel the same as I did ten years ago and in other ways I feel ten years older than I actually am! Solomon again speaks of perspective, this time for those who consider themselves young. I'll leave you to decide how much that applies to you!


    I love young people. Working with adults drains me whereas working with young people energises me. I know for many people it would be the other way around but for me hanging out with a bunch of teenagers for a couple of hours sounds like fun!

    Solomon speaks to those who are young but there's a clear message for everyone in what he says. He sees that young people are generally more able to enjoy things than older people. They have a clearer sense of fun and they're exploring and discovering things that older adults are accustomed to or even bored of. Solomon tells young people to go ahead and enjoy their life and have their fun and make the most of it. And to everyone (not just young people) he says we should try and enjoy all the days of our lives (v8). Older adults all too easily lose their sense of fun, exploration and playfulness and I personally think it's a real shame. I think a lot of adults could benefit a lot from learning how to play!

    Anyway, there's a balance to be seen here in what Solomon says. Two dangerous extremes to avoid. The first danger is that we only focus on today and this life. We hear Solomon's advice to enjoy every day and that's where we leave it. We think that's what life's all about and we miss the point of the bigger picture. It's shallow and short-sighted. However, the other danger is that we focus so much on the bigger picture of judgement and eternity that it sucks all the fun out of living today. This is equally bad. Solomon says we should hold both in our hearts and minds - The 'now' and the 'not yet'. We should be able to enjoy all the grace to have fun in this life now without forgetting that we will be held to account and there will be an eternity where we will either be punished or forgiven for our wrong actions.

    Ask yourself:
    - How can I make the most of opportunities to have fun in this life?
    - How can I make sure I remember the bigger eternal perspective in my life?

    A prayer...
    Lord, Thank you that there's more to life than what we experience now. Help me to trust you for forgiveness and remember that there will be an eternity with you in a new and perfect place. Lord, help me not to be anxious but to enjoy living in this certain hope by having all the fun to be had in this life you have given me now and in this way to share the story of the good news with others.