How good is heaven going to be ? i fully expect it to be totally brilliant. like the best thing ever.
i may start eating chocolate bars again when i get there (or their celestial equivalent).
meanwhile, here on earth, we have to make do with giant chocolate vicars.
26things
After the success of the last church band bowling outing the event was repeated. Anita (here with clipboard and lovely lampshade hat) organised everything most efficiently and ensured the person to fun ration was optimised for the occasion.
some people thought it better to dance than bowl. here is craig combining the two.
i took a lucky photo through a glass and ended up elongating Mark’s nose. mark is a doctor and so is steve, seen on the right keeping a medical eye on proceedings.
finally, here is what it looks like to be a skittle. jane and craig thought they’d like to be in the picture to. so were.
here are esther and kezia outside church looking at the confetti left from a wedding the day before.
up close the confetti complimented the autumnal colours and the beautiful dew drops.
in a battle between man made and natural, i think the natural was winning.
click the leaves
what is a person without a soul ? what is a soul without a person ?
who does dave love ?
i love God, my wife, my family, my friends and chocolate.
who/what would you write on the wall if you had to chalk graffiti your first name and a list of loves ?
no need to answer. just have a thunk.
faith and religion are two slightly different things. faith is what people believe whilst religion is too often about ceremony and self-effort.
the cool thing about christianity is that there’s nothing we can do ourselves to earn our way in to God’s favour. this can be annoying as it means all those nice things you do to help people don’t count for anything in terms of getting in to Heaven. But it’s actually fantastic news as none of us would have been good enough anyway.
what am i on about ? dunno. but i was thinking about how people get in the way of religion. i’m always concerned when i play music in church that i can easily distract people from whatever God is trying to tell people by being too loud or playing my comedy bass riffs. so how can people leading the church service become ‘invisible’ so only God and his word becomes visible to people ?
well, may be here is the answer. It’s Mark and he was doing the reading today. i noticed he was camouflaged against the church. his shoes, trousers and jacket all matched the surrounding step, wall and hymn boards. he was getting as close to being physically invisible as he could have been (without physically being somewhere else)
after a rather excellent church service we had a kids band practice. scott is the drummist but due to transport difficulties hadn’t any drums or sticks.
he borrowed some drums and improvised with a pencil and a wooden spoon. the pencil was HB so his drumming was medium strength.
do kids today know anything about the pencil grading system ? i’d almost forgotten myself.
this hotel being an old monastry has its own little chappel which is open late at night. apparently it was all decked out with candles on my first night here but i missed it. instead here are the candles.
the chapel itself is now used for corporate events and has a bar built next to the altar !
our poor photocopier has been feeling sorry for itself as we seem to simply print new things these days rather than copy old things. and he take SO long to warm up.
i didn’t realise things had got this bad for him though. he’s essentially saying “please turn me off. i can’t take it any more”.
there’s a ray of hope here too in that it’s asked to be switched back on again. to be renewed if you like. made like new. brilliant.
but who is this service rep-resentative. and why is he so resentful ?
i was doing sound at church yesterday morning. inspired by the reading festival i added a little extra volume and reverb to the occasion.
the services incorporated a number of signs:
and here’s pete hiding behind a sign. he’s the only way you know. jesus not pete.
one of the nice things about old churches are the windows. this one might be 13th Century. it might not be. i’m sure someone will tell us (lynda ?).
either way, they must have been so cool back in the days before photos. the colours would have been unlike anything else.
this bollard was approaching the ‘little seeds’ tent at the holiday club. little seeds is for the 0 to 5 year olds, but it’s only a small bollard.
perhaps it was already starting to question why it was there. as a road and pavement user i often have to ask the same question about bollards.
in a strange matter of symmetry i sat for around 30 minutes in a number of bollard related traffic queues this afternoon. makes you think.
i spotted this sign at my local train station today. it says “due to instructions from above we will be unable to issue any car park tickets without your car registration number”
i suspect they felt that God was telling them to make this move when they read Luke 12:7 which says “Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”.
ie God who made the whole universe also has an interest in the minute details of your life right down to how many hairs you have on your head (easier to count on some than others).
but, if God knows these details anyway, why does the train station need to know too ? and what’s more, why the negative attitude
tonight represents the beginning of the second phase of my two weeks holiday from work. this week we’ve got our church kids club. it’s already practically sold out and we’re expecting 250 kids each day i think ! it’s in a marquee on a school field. you may have seen the photos from last year.
jane is leading the music and i’m playing bass in the band in the mornings. afternoon is kezia/esther looking after for me.
here is the view of the stage with mike and music stands in a nice row. it didn’t look like that by the time we’d finished we’d finished with it.
those of a praying nature may wish to pray for nice weather, safety and the kids learning stuff whilst having fun etc.
i’ve seen this piece of plastic on the way to work every morning. one morning i stopped and inspected it. it’s a hospital identification tag for an 80 year old lady (it had her name and date of birth). i’ve no idea if she’s still alive, but whoever it was has obviously had a stay in hospital.
her plastic identification bracelet is now being dragged in to the undergrowth by the trees where it lies.
in the morning it makes me think about the fragility and ultimately temporary nature of life. all this whilst rushing for my early morning train.
it’s been a while since we’ve had any Christian letter closes on the blog, so here is a fresh one. you can use this for the next 8 months until i give you a new one. ready ? here goes:
Until His appearing
it was communion this morning which meant bread and wine for all. esther and kezia opted for a post-service bag of quavers, prefering their cheesy crispness to the sliced white communion fair. the chap behind them is Ian. he’s actually tidying up, but looks more like a child catcher in this photo !
we’ve been studying Samson at church for the last three Sundays. Even if you’d never dream of going to church, i highly recommend you read Judges 13-15 to read this story of sex, violent and nagging wives/girlfriends. (Don’t forget it’s old testament so stuff like forgiveness and loving your enemies aren’t high on the agenda.)
We’re doigna series on Judges at church. We’ve reached Samson and i felt sadness at my lost hair. But in the scale of things it’s not an issue.
