All have sinned...

‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ Romans 3:23

What? Really? Mmm… I bet! As if! Cool. And…? Recognise these responses? Yup! They were most likely your last response when you heard this verse or something similar. So before you leave, read this!  I’m going to be quick because I know you don’t have much time and to make this easier to understand I have taken liberty to divide this verse up into four segments.

1.        ‘For all’. Who exactly does this apply to? For starters it applies to you, therefore it must apply to me and every other human (Except Jesus) who is and will be on this planet or universe! This is absolutely you and you can never get away from this ‘all’ meaning you.

2.        ‘have sinned’. Sin. It’s a nasty topic and unfortunately some make it seem like a good thing, but God meant sin to mean any and every bad thing we do “Every act of wrongdoing is sin” 1 John 5:17 (Phillips Modern English) Think about the worst thing you’ve done. Jesus has the power to take it away, but more of that later! It is sin that cause things like pain and suffering, this is a result of disobedience that occurred just after we were created by God, involving Adam and Eve. In summary ‘All have sinned’- We have all sinned, all committed something bad, hurt somebody or said a wrong thing. This is what sin is, and what it does I shall explain later.

3.        ‘and fall short’. The dictionary definition of ‘fall short’ is to not reach an amount or standard. People always set goals for themselves and God has set a standard for us- absolute perfection. We obviously can never reach this standard and that is why God has provided us a way of escape from the punishment that occurs because of this inability to reach the standard.

4.       ‘of the glory of God ’. The glory of God is so amazing and so spectacular, when Moses (a man in the Bible) saw part of this, his face was shining so brightly that he had to cover his face so that people could look at him. ‘And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone: and Moses put the veil upon his face.’ Exodus 34:35. I saw a useful quote on a website (who’s name escapes my memory but not my heart) it said, “The glory of God is the beauty of His spirit. It is not an aesthetic beauty or a material beauty, but it is the beauty that emanates from His character, from all that He is.”

5.        So in conclusion, You have sinned (done bad things), you have fallen short of the glory of God (you cannot because of your sin ever reach perfection). What then are the consequences of sin? The simple answer is, eternal separation from God. Otherwise known as hell. When you realise the how God holds together the universe and how he protects you and keeps you living, you will realise what this is like. Hell is the worst possible place to be and it lasts for eternity. But how do we get saved from such a place? One word- Jesus. He came down from Heaven as God and became like us, who he created. He subjected himself to human authority, lived a perfect life (totally sinless) and died an agonising death on the cross to crush the power of sin and then rose again to make a way for us to spend eternity in Heaven with God. Seem a little weird, made up story? All you have to do is admit your sin, believe in Jesus’ death and resurrection and understand that you cannot possibly live this life to the full without God. When you do this, Jesus stands in your place as a sinner and gives you a new life, hope and meaning.

So, was it worth your time? I hope so.

Dad = Superhero

I haven’t blogged for a while, but I decided that today I would continue my hobby. I have decided to take this step so I could write how much I appreciate my father. So here goes…

Most people go through their childhood years thinking their fathers are invincible and inevitably can do nothing wrong. They look at superman comics and think,’ Pffft, how pathetic! My Dad beats up villains for fun!’ I’m sure you can relate to this, I mean who needs heroes when you have Dad? This however was very different from my father, he didn’t grow up with a dad, his died when he was still in my grandma’s womb. I am still amazed to find that my father has turned out the way he has. In no way am I suggesting that those who have no fathers are automatically doomed, I am saying how he has managed to become such a good father. I guess him having no father, made him really have to think hard about how to be a Daddy to me and my three brothers- in a way he had to start from scratch. The truly amazing thing about my Dad, is how gifted he is at understanding and communicated Christian principles to me. Many hours after a church Bible study have been filled with discussing predestination, election and so on. He has been a huge inspiration to me and I know that without him, I would be in a very different place. The love he has shown me has helped me understand how to love God and others more. My relationship with him has helped me understand how God can be both a friend and father. I look to my Dad for guidance and counsel. I know that I am safe when I’m with him; he is a friend, an example, a companion and a true father. I am writing this to tell you all what he means to me. He is a true hero, and an absolute superhero.

So Dad- Much love and thanks,                                    

From your Son.

Love?

Love?

Like most people, I’m going to start with a question. So here goes… What is love? Is this not the same question many a teary teenage girl has inquired of her mother or many a discerning philosopher has contemplated with his peers? I would venture to say no. See, to ask the question we have to find out what love we are talking about. Am I talking about the sappy, Hollywood type of ‘love’? – No, or maybe, ‘Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul, but I do love thee, and when I love thee not, chaos is come again’- that idealistic Shakespeare love. - Again I must say no. The love I’m talking about is true love, the absolute type- pure and refined. To dig deeper we have to go straight to scripture. So deep breath and here goes, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ ‘Love your enemies’ ‘And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The list goes on…  All these scriptures tell us what to love, not necessarily what love is, these are evidences of love much like helping your mother in the kitchen or giving someone a hug, these are not love but the fruit of love, and then we find it! The scripture verse that tells us what love truly is- 1 Corinthians 13: Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. This is what love is. But to truly understand love, we have to know where love is from. It can only be from Love itself, that’s Love with a capital ‘L’. God is love. This phrase may only be three words, but three words that are fundamental to the enormity of what love is. You see, for something to exist, something has to first be it. To have love, God first had to be love.

 ‘We love him, because he first loved us.’ You see, we can only love because God first loved us first. Love only exists because God is Love. Amen? The amazing thing about this is he is, was and always will be love. Faith, trust, hope and other virtues will not exist in Heaven, Why?  Because they will be fulfilled at the coming of Jesus! Think about it, why would we need to hope or faith in Heaven. They just won’t be necessary, but love will be. God isn’t faith, He isn’t hope, but He is love and because God is love, if we want to be with him we have to have love both on Heaven and Earth. Love is a divine virtue; this means we are going spend all of eternity in true love. No more disappointments, no more envy, pride, selfishness or things that get in the way of us and God, an eternity completely fulfilling God’s purpose for life- to glorify Him. Someone recently said Heaven was like strawberry cake but a thousand times better! If that’s the case, we certainly have something to look forward to!

There are many examples of love in the Bible, but to find the deepest kind of love we have to go straight to the crucifixion.  What type of love was this? This love is sweat turns to blood, friends fleeing, healing enemies, ridicule, mocking soldiers, unjust circumstances, unbearable pain sweeping through body. Cruel, cold nails. Glass, metal, rope whipping through skin piercing even the deepest nerve, false accusations, crown of thorns, psychological torment, spiritual pounding, physical torture. Calvary’s cruel glare, condemning cross, confessing criminals, utter forgiveness, obedience to death, undeniable courage, unforgettable peace, liberating life, denying death, releasing captivity and pursuing freedom, bleeding body, suffering saviour, Head raised with a death-defying shout of ,’IT IS FINISHED.’ Death overcome, curtain split in two and victory is won. All for us, laid out for you. Jesus, our living sacrifice. My friends, this is love.

My day in the office...

...Today I’ve been completing work experience in an office. It’s interesting to see how different people work with altering working styles together. Some are busily typing away; Others are more relaxed– having a more social-work experience. So you’ve got the general atmosphere, but let us go into more detail.
Morning: Busy traffic so left early, dead on time. Introductions take place and then real work starts. Latecomers slowly slink in avoiding the managers eyes- “Traffic...” the perfect excuse and is therefore used. Smokers occasionally leave to have a quick ciggy. Lunch is an hour away now. The workers barely notice, work is now intense.
Lunch: Lunchtime comes and those who never seem to leave the office stay. Now off to Nandos, apparently it’s Nandos every day and every week. Half a chicken fills me up; one guy however has a chicken a day. Everyone finishes and heads back to the office.
Afternoon: A brief discussion on how the trial Breivik affects peoples view on religion leads onto a longer conversation on capital punishment. Then lunch break officially ends, maybe a few minutes late. So I move of to the admin area and do some minor work, giggles and laughter ensues (not from me!) as the people there find out who I am and why I'm there. The manager tells them to get on, giggles stop and a quick smoke break is undertaken (outside of course). I stay mostly because I’m not a smoker and continue doing some work. They return and more giggles are heard. The manager gives up comepletely and goes for a coffee.
Early Evening: Eventually work finishes and I head upstairs to where a conference call is occurring, frantic shifting of money around to fit the budget is happening. Sweating faces and hurried voices eventually solve the problem (at 2.am that morning). I go home at around 7pm with a headache, sore throat and shivering body. Now off to have a bath and crawl myself into bed. Sleeping ensues…. Hopefully!

Just War Theory- pt 1/5

So I haven't posted anything for absolutely donkey's years, the lack of posting is to do with School work. So I'm posting something I qrote about a year ago, This is part one of five. I'm going to be talking about the just war theory- one my most enjoyed subjects. Also, just as a little note on the side, all me work is from my own head, if however I do use someone else's work I will of written a bibliography or the such like. If you want to use any of my work in an essay or any similar thing, it is severely appreciated that you ask me first. :)

Just War Theory

The Just War Theory was developed at a time when armies frequently fought major battles in campaigns of conquests and when Christianity and Catholicism formulated a common cultural framework for the European world. In their society the Just War Theory had a major place in warfare. It kept countries from waging war for territorial reasons and revenge, and it made peace available to all those under Catholicism. However, since that time the world has seen a major shift in 'society' as a whole. We must ask the question - can a ‘just war’ play any part in today’s modern warfare and can it relate to the contemporary structure of international relations? In the following paragraphs I aspire to construct unambiguous reasons for the fact that the Just War Theory is outdated and cannot play any part in today’s society; I will also discuss what we can use instead of Just War Theory.

Just war theory or Bellum iustum has its roots in the thinking of various Roman and Greek philosophers, including Plato, but Catholicism played the larger part in its development. There are several specific criteria that must be met to label a war 'just' ¹(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_War). These criteria are: just cause, comparative justice, legitimate authority, right intention, probability of success, last resort and proportionality. Bellum iustum has two closely related components, Jus ad bellum (Just cause) and Jus in Bello (the laws of war). Jus ad bellum says is that the stimulus for going to war must be just, and thus cannot be based on recapturing stolen items or punishing persons who have done wrong. Also, the lives of innocents must be in critical danger; therefore, the attack must be solely based on saving their lives ¹(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_War). For war to be just, the wrong suffered by one side must significantly overshadow that suffered by the other. This is called comparative justice and is the perception that one side is more in the right than the other. Some people believe that this only works if one of the sides has done nothing wrong. This, of course, is difficult to assess in many cases, as usually both sides have participated in hostility... more to come....

People and noise- (primarily people and nothing to do with noise)

So in my previous post I briefly wrote about the noise, and the obvious thing now would be to talk about the creators of noise- us.

On Sunday, I was in the Cotswolds and during my time there I found myself in a wonderfully quintessential village. As I was pushing my little cousin on some swings I saw a group of ten lads appear on the road outside the park. As I glanced at them I realised something quite amusing: they looked all had scooters, they all wore the same brand of shoes, they all wore the same brand of t-shirt, they all spoke with the same slang, they all had the same mannerisms and they all created the same noise. I found myself chuckling as I watched them trying to slice along the curb and leap over obstacles, but I found the obvious similarity among all of them even more amusing. Isn't it interesting that people do the same things just to fit in or to be accepted.

They all followed the latest crazes and tried to create many mutualities to remain 'in the group'. I only a little older, found this amusing, however, I thought to myself, 'What do I do to fit in, and why?' Why is it that I wore those certain shoes to that certain party? Why is it that I had my hair that particular way when I went to church? Fundamentally, It is so I have even more reason than usual be accepted.

You see, us as human beings (or a highly regenerated form of some glorified monkey, if your an evolutionist) have a desire to be with others. This is evidenced all throughout history. We are social beings, and we will do almost anything to fit in. Our desire for company manifests itself in such a way that we have to stop for a moment and think about why we do certain things and choose to be a certain way. If we are not careful we will find ourselves slipping into a dangerous cycle of conforming, not for ourselves but for others. Be different, be yourself for once.

Noise and people.

For the last 60ish hours I have been in London. While looking around this city, two things really caught my attention. People and noise. The deep choral sound of the big, red buses rumbling down the street. Street vendors making you think you are their perfect customer. Great, old buildings stretching high and wide. The high squeek of the brakes of the tube and buzz of people trying to talk over all the noise. The noise they create. Trying to communicate over the noise that they create by transportation, commution and colour. It creates a fantastic contrast to the peaceful countryside. But is noise a good thing? Is it like marmite, in the sense that you either love or hate it? Or maybe we just get on about it, and just whistle away through our lives, adding to the noise. Just pause for a moment and listen, Can you hear nothing, or do you hear something. Maybe hearing nothing is hearing something. Maybe a little to far, but worth considering all the while. We have a fantastic ability to interpret a subject in many different ways, so maybe we just need to accept it- noise will always be with us. We make noise in everything we do. Maybe the thunderous roar of a jumbo jet or the beautiful syphony from an orchestra. We create it all. More to come...