April Fool’s Day

Have you ever fallen for an April Fool's joke or prank? I know that, as a child, some classmate was always pulling a prank on someone, with the rest of us in on it, watching that poor soul make a fool of themselves by believing the prank. There have been some rather dubious April Fool's Day pranks on a national scale. Maybe you even fell for one of these April Fool’s Day hoaxes yourself.

On 1 April 1957, the British news show Panorama broadcasted a three-minute segment about a bumper spaghetti harvest in southern Switzerland. The crop's success was attributed to an unusually mild winter and the "virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil." The audience heard Richard Dimbleby, the show's highly respected anchor, discussing the details of the spaghetti crop as they watched video footage of a Swiss family pulling pasta off spaghetti trees and placing it into baskets. The segment concluded with the assurance that "For those who love this dish, there's nothing like real, home-grown spaghetti."

Ramadan - Fast or Furious

A number of years ago, a Danish minister sparked outrage after claiming Muslims fasting for Ramadan could pose a danger in the workplace. 

Integration Minister Inger Stoejberg, an immigration hardliner in Denmark's centre-right government, questioned in a blog post published Monday how "commanding observance to a 1,400-year-old pillar of Islam" was compatible with modern labour markets. 1

Is it fair to critique Islam and its practices like this? I do not think that because someone's faith is based on tenants and beliefs that were established long ago, that automatically makes them invalid for today. Surely, the reason for accepting or rejecting a set of beliefs or morals has to be the basis upon which they were founded—in other words, the validity of their origin and the genuineness of the statements that claim to be true. 

In this blog, I'm not seeking to undermine other people's faith but to establish the genuineness of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. I believe that the word of God, the Bible, can be verified to be a supernaturally produced document. The 40 different writers were given God's word, and within the pages of the Bible, God has left evidence on record so that we might understand the validity and genuineness of this document. 

In summary, a book written over 1500 years by 40 different authors who lived in various countries, cultures, and centuries or even millennia is quite an outstanding feat. The majority of the writers had no contact with one another. Yet, they produced a document that, from beginning to end (Genesis to Revelation), has a standard of uniformity that is impossible purely by human management and organisation. 

I will leave you with a quotation from the Holy Scriptures that will demonstrate why Christians believe that salvation comes not from religious practices such as fasting, praying, or other religious rituals but by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ alone. 

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by (grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. 

The Bible - Ephesians 2:4-10

1. Evening Standard 24/5/18

Surviving on the Lusitania

 

In 1915, the Lusitania was the largest and fastest passenger in the world. It belonged to the Cunard Steamship Company and regularly sailed between Liverpool and New York, taking about a week each way.  

Edward (known as Teddy) Bond, then aged 40, was a cabin steward on the Lusitania, having worked on Cunard ships since he was a boy, and by then, he had worked his way up (via being a waiter) to the 1^st class cabin section, as had his father (also Edward) before him. Teddy had married his wife Mary in 1909, and the Bonds had, a few years before 1915, moved with their family into 29 Donaldson Street, a nice street with a Welsh chapel (now Crete Gospel Hall) at one end.

What are the 3 most commonly told stories in the world?

All photos courtesy of Unsplash 

When the film 'Titanic' was first premiered, millions of filmgoers watched in awe as “Titanic” disappeared beneath the waves. The film had a huge global audience; many people attended six or seven times, according to newspaper reports. A cartoon strip had a mom saying to her family: “I am going, uh, shopping. I will be back in about four hours, maybe.” The family exchanges knowing glances: “Titanic—again.”

Historians and statisticians report that the three most commonly told stories in the world are:- 

1. The life and death of Jesus Christ 

2. The American Civil War and 

3. The sinking of the Titanic. 

Especially with the first and third stories, one element has captured the world: the possibility that a person who goes down with the ship into the icy Atlantic and drowns—can someday live again. People wanted to believe that the ill-fated lovers, Jack and Rose, could actually be united again on the grand staircase of Titanic. That heroic dads who put their wives and children into lifeboats and then perished might someday experience the Bible’s promise of a Resurrection Morning.

Is what the Bible says about resurrection true? Did a dead person named Jesus come out of the tomb on that first Easter ‪Sunday morning‬? Or did His disciples steal the body, hide it, dry their tears, and then concoct this tall tale to beat all tall tales?  It is not just the fate of “Jack and Rose” which rests on Bible truth. All of us are intimately affected by what we read in the Bible of the possibility of us ever living again, it rests entirely and completely on the doctrine of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.‬

The Bible tells us that:- “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised and if Christ has not been raised, your preaching is useless and so is your faith. . . . For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for THIS LIFE we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.”

If we reject the doctrine of Christ’s resurrection or begin to doubt that He really did come out of that tomb, then we immediately have to also embrace—or at least wince and acknowledge—the reality that when we sink into our own "Atlantic Ocean" and close our eyes in death, that it is all over for us  . . . forever!

Do we want chocolate eggs and bunnies or the plain Word of God? Do we want Jesus the wandering poet or Christ the Risen Lord? Do we want our end to be when a ship goes down or the lights go out . . . or do we look forward to a wonderful and everlasting life in God’s eternal kingdom made possible by Jesus Christ breaking through the walls of that garden tomb?

"I AM the Resurrection and the Life", Jesus promises. Do we believe Him today? "He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die."

There in the ground, his body lay

Light of the world, by darkness, slain

Then bursting forth in glorious day

Up from the grave, he rose again

And as he stands in victory

Sin's curse has lost its grip on me

For I am his and he is mine

Bought with the precious blood of Christ

Written by Peter Francis for Messages with Meaning (‪06/04/21‬)‬/Your542Day