Monday, 31 December 2012

Favourite Blog posts of 2012



So as I say Goodbye to 2012 and Hello to 2013 here are my favourite Blog posts of the last year.

They may not be to your taste, but I liked them

On God’s Grace

On Current Issues

On History

On Observations of Life (One man against the World!)

Poetry

On Life

Here is a brief snippet of each blog post, just to wet your appetite:-

God's mind isn't thinking of our sin!  Wow, how can that be, when we know God hates sin and loves righteousness, and we know that sometimes we as believers still mess up and do things wrong?  Sometimes I have been filled with fear that God majored in my faults and was always thinking "why can't you do better" when He thought of me.  I felt the main thing He wanted from me was for me to stop sinning and do better.  And I kept failing, experiencing more and more failure the harder I tried to do rightly!  It almost made me feel God must hate me or at least be really disappointed in me!  Because I knew God hates sin, and I seemed to have so much of it in my life..But what is really on God's mind?  Not our sin (Christ washed it away!) but Christ and His perfection and beauty, and us in Him, beautiful and perfect, too, in Him!

Do you believe God so loved you?  It is easy to affirm it with the mouth, but deny it with thoughts questioning God’s forgiveness and acceptance.  We tend to define God’s love as a reward for good behavior.  We have no problem dropping to our knees in prayer when we are not conscious of having committed any serious (what we consider serious) sin(s) in that particular day.  God’s love tends to be nothing more than Him having a nice feeling or a general concern about us……….

Being a mechanical engineer, I am somewhat of a practical guy and therefore I knew there always had to be a purpose behind everything that happened. For years and years I would offer my wisdom to people who were going through a tough time: “Everything happens for a reason.”

That was until my eyes opened to the truth of Grace and the New Covenant. The Holy Spirit started shaking my beliefs and praise God I am the kind of guy that (still) enjoys being “shaked”!! So naturally after a while when I pulled out this magical phrase of wisdom to try and console somebody again, the following question popped into my mind: “So if everything happens for a reason, WHO is responsible for it?”

Only a recovery of the greatness, supremacy, sovereignty, brilliance, and “allness” of Christ will lead us to restoration and even revival. The wonder of Jesus as “all in all” is the only hope for igniting the flame of a new reformation and resuscitating a church that’s presently on life support.
The body of Christ is in dire need of a reconversion to Jesus, not as Savior and Lord, but as the awe-inspiring, all-inclusive person He is. To say that He is our Savior and Lord is correct, of course, but it’s inadequate. He is so much more…….

You see, I am a Christian. I am not just a ‘Christian’ in the generic sense of the word but I am one of those ‘evangelical, born-again, Bible believing’ Christians. I doubt there are very many people who could be farther apart on the religious/political/social spectrum than Geoff and me.

However, as a Christian I find my views, opinions, ideas, and philosophy becoming less and less popular and less and less respected. I sometimes wonder why that is the case. I wonder where the opposition comes from and, in my mind often wonder where the greatest opposition comes from. In other words, what is Christianity’s worst enemy? 

Before I had an interest in military nurses, I researched some local war memorials in considerable depth. During the course of that work I learnt a lot about the course of the Great War, and began to visit the Western Front, paying my respects to local men who lie in cemeteries there and taking many photos along the way.  It was a good grounding for what came later.  However, one important lesson I learnt was that not all those who died did so in battle, with many never meeting the enemy or even leaving the UK

The sight of a park bench covered and surrounded by a mass of bright fallen leaves brings to mind the days past when such a sight annoyed me.  That was at the Maida Vale Hospital where several trees lay at the front of the building, and a couple more in the rear.  This meant muggins and mates would have to sweep the blessed things up day after day.  However as I passed this lot I could not resist a picture, which is not as bright as in real life, and chortled at the man who has to sweep this up.  I'd love to help but.....

My house is built on the bedrock of sentiment,
my windows paned in rose-tinted glass.
I painted the door a grief-stricken blue
to welcome the refugees of sorrow.

I led each broken heart to rooms
linked together by universal truths.
I attended to the task
of washing their feet.

Many of us use them several times a day without really noticing. And yet the way we behave in lifts, or elevators as they are known in the US, reveals a hidden anxiety.
"Most of us sort of shut down.
"We walk in. We press the button. We stand perfectly still."
Taking the lift could be the least memorable part of your journey to work, but Dr Lee Gray of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte has made it his business to scrutinise this overlooked form of public transportation. People refer to him as "the Elevator Guy".
"The lift becomes this interesting social space where etiquette is sort of odd," he explains. "They are socially very interesting but often very awkward places."

So there you have it! My Favourite Blog posts of 2012.








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Thank you for visiting my blog. Please do not feel you have to comment. I enjoyed writing, listening to God and sharing his toughts. I hope you enjoyed reading, and may God who is able to make all grace, every favour and earthly blessing come to you in abundance, do far above all you can ask or think, according to the power that works within you. Be blessed.