Dietary Rules

Towards the end of November every year, the village of Oystermouth in Swansea shuts down to traffic for the best part of a day while the local populace come together to turn on the Christmas lights.  The actual event takes place just outside the church I belong to, so we usually open up to serve tea, coffee and mince pies to the locals.  As well as giving mince pies to those coming into the church, we also hand them out to those outside in the street.

A couple of years ago, we were approached by a member of the trading standards who told us that we couldn’t give the mince pies out the way we had been doing.  He went on to inform us that we had to have a sign on the tray stating EXACTLY what was in the pies.  

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but over recent years we seem to have become far more aware of the food that we eat, and the changes have all taken place in my lifetime.

Three word Phrases

 

You would not be surprised to learn that I am fascinated with words. It would be a poor job if someone who spends a lot of time writing and public speaking was not interested in the words they use. Our choice of words and vocabulary develops over time and reflects what we read, listen to, watch, etc. Developing a pool of words you can draw from is good, especially if you want to communicate clearly.

 

Interestingly, we love to express ourselves in short, snappy statements. However, I was intrigued at how often we use memorable three-word phrases that communicate our point clearly. Let me give you some examples:

 

Black and White

Haves and have-nots

Kiss and tell 

Pros and cons

Tried and tested 

Flesh and blood

Down and out

The art of remembering!

 

This week brings us two “remembering” dates, one trivial and fun, the other serious and poignant, writes Bert Cargill of St Monans Gospel Hall. “Remember, remember the fifth of November” says an old rhyme, the date behind this week’s fireworks and bonfires. On 5^th November 1605, Guy Fawkes was caught guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder in cellars under the House of Lords. This “Gunpowder Plot” was hatched in hatred against the new King James and his policies, but was foiled. You can guess what happened to the plotters! An Act of Parliament then decreed that bonfires throughout the land should remember this date annually! The Act was repealed in 1859.

 

Next weekend, however, will bring another and more serious remembrance date. The terrible World War I ended officially on 11^th November 1918 at 11am. After more than a century, communities across the country willingly remember it each year. No need for an Act of Parliament. No bonfires and no fun. Just quiet reflection and thankfulness, for surely hard-won peace is so much better than cruel, destructive war. It’s easy to forget. But remembering and reflecting on this is very important and well worth the effort. 

 

In addition, many of us like to remember and reflect upon Jesus Christ and what He did. He is often forgotten - His unique birth, His perfect life, His teachings unparalleled in worth and value, His death on a lonely cross for us and for our sins. And most amazingly and significantly, He rose again from the dead as He said He would. If He had not died and risen again, there would be no Christianity. There would be no one to give us salvation today, to give us hope for tomorrow, and to assure us of a place in heaven forever.

All photos courtesy of Unsplash

50 days until Christmas

Did you know that on the 5th of November, there will be 50 days to Christmas? November 5th is a noisy, colourful time of the year and heralds the end of the Autumn season. For me, it can be an evening to drive around certain areas of Swansea whilst pulling over to enjoy a hot dog…or two or, quite simply, sharing a bag of chips with a flask of tea and the windows slightly down. The sights and smells have been so familiar since my childhood days and are a real highlight and something to look forward to.

Halloween would have been and gone and Harvest would have also been celebrated in the midst of the colourful carpet of leaves that continue to fall from trees. Harvest is that time of year to reflect on how food is produced and its journey from farm gate to kitchen plate.

Summer has gone, Autumn is passing . . .

 

By the time you read this column, the summer will nearly be over, and many people will be heading back to work, children to school and young adults off to university.

 

Many years ago, in farming communities, the end of the summer, the harvest's completion, and the crops' gathering was a great social event. It was often seen as a time of new beginnings, a fresh start, and when the cycle of life began again. 

 

The Bible develops this idea by calling people to enjoy a fresh start in their relationship with God. Jeremiah, one of the ancient prophets of Israel, wrote the following words - ‘The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved,’ Jer. 8. 20. Jeremiah is often described as the ‘weeping prophet’. A prophet in Bible times was a man who brought God’s message to the citizens of his country (and sometimes other nations). He was commissioned by ‘the Almighty’ to communicate a straightforward and specific message. Jeremiah had been doing this for a long time. He had become discouraged and downhearted with the lack of response from the nation he spoke to. It is recorded in Jeremiah chapter nine verse one that the Prophet was brokenhearted and wept over the state of his nation - ‘If only my head were a pool of water and my eyes a fountain of tears, I would weep day and night for all my people’^[1]. 

Any thinking person should be very upset at the state of our nation. We live in days when there is no absolute right and wrong, truth is traded for lies, people are free to do what is right in their own eyes, and we are often very self-centred. I believe God is very upset that we have moved so far away from the morals and values He designed us to live by. 

It could be said of us - ‘The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved,’ Jeremiah 8:20. As a society, we have lost our way.

 

However, as individuals, we still have an opportunity to make things right. God is calling our nation to repent of our evil and the pain we have brought upon each other by breaking God’s moral law. This change of mind and heart starts with individuals!

 

We can be saved and rescued from God's judgment against our sins. This is the very reason Jesus came. The Bible unequivocally states, ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,’ 1 Tim 1.15. This is a message of hope and encouragement that should fill us with optimism. 

 

If we follow the advice of scripture and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, realising that he died and rose from the dead to take the punishment for our sins, and if we accept him as our Saviour and Lord, we will be saved.

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^[1] https://www.bible.com/bible/116/jer.9.1-2.NLT

All photos courtesy of Unsplash

River of Light Liverpool 2024

Last night I visited the River of Lights in Liverpool with my family. It was impressive. Here are some photos. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. 

Stephen 

Playing by the rules!

The sports fans among us will be aware that this year, we have seen the UEFA European Football Championships and the Olympic Games Paris 2024. I am sure there are more, but I am not very focused on sports. Sports games and competitions are very important to many people. Still, others think they are only games, so don't get too serious about them.

 

It got me thinking! Is life just a game? From one angle, the answer is no, it is not, and it's a very serious undertaking. You only get one run of it, so don't mess it up. The Lord Jesus warned people about wasting their lives when He said, 'And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?', Mark 8. 36, NLT. You were created to know God, and without Him, this life and the next will be very pointless and hopeless.

 

Yet, there's a certain truth in the notion that life is akin to a game. Just as games are meticulously planned, so too is our life. The Bible teaches that our existence is not a haphazard occurrence, but a purposeful design. Each of us is a unique creation, born with the mission to know our creator, God. As Jesus said, 'I came that they may have life and have it abundantly' (John 10. 10).

 

An essential part of championships or games is to know the rules and play by them. Games don't work without rules; nobody enjoys the games, and it is impossible to be fair or to win without rules. So it is with life. Life falls apart without rules; we may not like them, but they exist to make life fair and enjoyable for everyone. So, the rules of life were written and published in the Bible, but oddly enough, God also wrote them in our hearts. So, from the youngest child to the most mature adult, we all have an inbuilt sense of justice and fairness. That's what we call conscience, which still works very effectively unless we ignore it. However, it is common knowledge that most of us regularly break God's rules of life - the Bible states, ' for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,' Romans. 3. 23.

 

But, here comes the hard part - the rules of games have built within them penalties for when the rules are broken. It would be abnormal for a referee to fail to enforce rules and to apply penalties. Games and sports could only run fairly or be worth their time if rules were enforced. Again, this is true of the game of life. Just as a referee is empowered to apply the rules and their decision is binding and final, so it is with the rules of life and God. God is the lawmaker, and Jesus, the Son of God, is the referee. He makes the final assessment and applies the penalties. On numerous occasions, the Bible make this clear:

 

'(God) has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this, he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead,' Acts 17:31 - this must be referring to the Lord Jesus.

 

'And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,' Hebrews 9:27.

 

But, the good news is that the Lord Jesus, while appointed Judge at the end of time, is today the mediator and the Saviour to all who come and trust Him to save them, 1 Tim. 2. 5, Titus 3. 4-6.

 

All quotations are from the ESV Bible unless stated otherwise. 

All photos courtesy of Unsplash

Where will it all end?

 

Are you frightened about the state of the world at the moment? Many people find it very scary, as every day brings another disaster. Murder seems to be so commonplace! Daily, we hear of someone else going on the rampage and killing people! Individual acts of terrorism are on the increase, resulting in the tragedy of people being deprived of their loved ones by an act of violence. Yesterday's events seem so long ago as we wake up to hear of another tragic evil act being perpetrated.

I find it all very distressing, and sadly, I can see the inevitability of how the world is going. The Bible teaches that conditions in society will get worse and worse as time progresses. Paul, an old man, wrote to Timothy, a young man – ‘but understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with deceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power,’ 2 Timothy 3:1-5. I think what the Bible says in these verses is staring us in the face. Do you recognize a description of our society?

If we reject the moral compass of the Bible, there are ultimately consequences. In effect, morality becomes subjective and personal. There is no absolute standard of right and wrong. Everyone does what is right in his or her own eyes. This is not a new problem. It happened in Bible times and many times since, but every time it happens, the results are disastrous. The old book says ‘there is a way that seems right to a man but its end is the way of death,’ Proverbs 14:12. 

Benny Paret

Benny Paret was born Bernardo Paret in 1937 in Santa Clara, Cuba. He took up boxing as a Welterweight and fought 50 fights, winning 35 of them.

Paret won the World Welterweight title in the early nineteen sixties before defending it against Emile Griffith, who knocked him out in the thirteenth round. Paret won it back in a rematch and was knocked out by the middleweight Gene Fullmer only two months later. Although Paret had recently taken a lot of punishment, another contest with Griffith was booked for Madison Square Garden, New York, on Saturday, March 24th 1962. Paret nearly knocked out his opponent in the sixth round, but he was saved by the bell.

It was the twelfth round that was to cast a dark shadow over the world of boxing and the lives of those involved. The twelfth round seemed somewhat tame when Griffith backed Paret into a corner, unleashing a tremendous flurry of punches to Paret’s head. He became dazed by this and could not defend himself, but the referee allowed the fight to continue, with Griffith laying on the punches. Paret’s wife,  watching the fight on a television in a nearby hotel, was screaming at the screen for the fight to be stopped. After 29 consecutive punches, including Paret being knocked through the ropes, the referee finally stopped the fight. Paret collapsed in the corner and fell into a coma. He died ten days later from massive brain haemorrhaging.

Aviation

There is a story told, and is said to be true, from the early days of aviation.  In those pioneer days planes flew from airfield to airfield to refuel and they could only carry a limited amount of aviation fuel.  One pilot was making a flight around the world and had landed at an airfield for more fuel.  He then set off and after two hours heard some strange noises inside the plane.  As he listened he realised, to his horror, that somehow a rat had got onto the plane at the last stop and was gnawing at the inside of the aircraft.  

He knew this was a very dangerous situation because if the rat gnawed through some vital cable or control on the plane then the likelihood of crashing was very high.  He was in serious trouble and was two hours away from his last stop and had nearly two hours to go to reach the next destination.  At first the pilot didn’t know what to do and felt deeply concerned and anxious. Then he remembered that a rat was a rodent and was not made for heights.  Rats live on the ground and even under the ground and not thousands of feet in the air.  The pilot started to take his plane on a climb upwards.  He reached a thousand feet, then ten thousand and eventually at twenty thousand feet the gnawing stopped.

David Butler

David Butler, who died in 2022, was in many ways a remarkable man.  He was often on television, especially at times of elections, and was blessed with mathematical skills.  As a young boy he spent a lot of time looking at cricket scores and working out batting averages and relished the dates, events and results of cricket matches.  

He came from an intellectually bright family.  His cousin was the well known politician Rab Butler who held many government offices, his father was a Latin professor and his maternal grandfather was the historian, A.F. Pollard.  David did well at school and eventually got a university degree from New College, Oxford.  His time at university was interrupted by the war and he became a tank commander with the Staffordshire Yeomanry and was part of the allied forces that crossed the River Rhine.

He certainly lived an interesting life but is best known for inventing a new science known as psephology.  This derived from the Greek word for ‘pebble’ and came from the ancient practice of the Greeks where pebbles were used to cast their votes. His science was essentially to analyse voting trends and to predict election results. This he did initially on the very first televised election broadcast by the BBC and he did that sort of work until 1979.

Lessons from Forest Gump

A few years ago, one of the year's biggest movies was "Forest Gump." Actor Tom Hanks played the role of a handicapped man whose mother believed in him to the extent that he was willing to try anything. He would often quote one of his mother’s favourite lines. "My mother says,  ‘Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get.’”

Today, I suggest that life is like a box of chocolates, not because we never know what we will get, though that may be true, but for another reason altogether. We have all noticed that foods that no one likes in the family do not get eaten quickly. When we open sweets around my house, they will be gone quickly. However, we could open a jar of marmite, and it would last a long time because no one is eager to eat it. That is the lesson that I want us to focus on today. Life is like a box of chocolates; it never lasts very long.

Lesson from 'The Sun'

Recently, I heard a quote from a preacher who lived in the 1800s. His name was Charles Spurgeon. He loved the Bible and preached thousands of sermons from it. But more importantly, he loved the God of the Bible and believed in Him. 

I heard a quote about the Sun. Charles Spurgeon believed it was a significant part of God’s incredible creation. 

It is an incredible fact that the Sun, which our planet orbits, is 15 million degrees Celsius at its core and a mere 5,500 degrees Celsius at its surface. This vast, enormous ball of glowing gas produces more energy in 1.5 millionths of a second than all 7 billion humans will use in one year. Yet when we consider our planet, the poles are frozen, and the equator is almost too hot to live on, but we live on bands of the earth with the right temperature for life. If our planet was closer to the Sun, we would all burn up; if we were further away, we would all freeze. God has placed the world in precisely the right position for life.