Fall Back... Spring Forward!

The clocks have gone forward and not a moment to soon.

I'm not a winter person by any means... I get weary of the dark nights and mornings and I get lethargic and bogged down in many ways. Long live the Spring!

Similarly I've recently been through a mini-winter spell of the spiritual kind. OK, call it an overnight blizzard. Whatever it was,I had been feeling out of gas and was wide open to spiritual attack... and as sure as the winter follows the autumn, the attack came.

This is why, in matters of belief you shouldn't merely trust your feelings; instead you should check them against your faith and the facts.

Sometimes it's the small things that remind you of your greatest hopes. It is the single flower that pokes it's head above the snow; the glimpse of a distant ray of sunlight in the midst of the maelstrom; the sound of songbirds returning from a wintry exile; or the scent of blossom on the gentle breeze following a bitterly cold gale...

... the tenderness of a brief kiss, following a long exile.

Likewise it wasn't something massive that shifted my feelings/perspective. It was an answer to the briefest of prayerful thoughts. I had on the advice of friends, turned down the offer of one car (I wasn't sure about it either), but I find that I study my Bible and pray best when I'm alone at lunch times. All well and good in the summer, not so good in the winter or when it is raining down. I also am acutely aware that I need to to see a friend who needs my help and I knew that in order to do that I needed my own transport.

So I prayed.

It had been a good few weeks since I rejected the previous car and I thought I had been forgotten. However, the very morning after I prayed that prayer... my phone rang and
I was told of another car. I pursued it ardently, recognising it as an opportunity not to be missed.
Come Wednesday, I should be the owner of a silver Peugeot 206 51 plate with a mere 34,000 miles on the clock. No, it doesn't look like the one in this old advert:

As a brief humorous aside... have you ever noticed how big budget adverts make cars that were top of the line in year's gone past, look even older and more naff now that time has moved on? Here's a good example. Takes my breath away? Yeah with laughter. Please feel free to post me any of your own examples

Anyway, back on topic and as I said... the answer was nothing major, but it was a small blessing... like that first flower through the snow. It was the timing that was crucial and not the magnitude.

More importantly it reminds me of a blog post I wrote quite some time ago... which carries a far stronger message that is both relevant and demonstrates that God does not forget us:

God Remembers?

So I like to think that God has wound the clock on for me personally. I'm back up on two feet again.

Thank you to those of you who have been concerned for me. It was appreciated.

Not In Vain...

I've not been my usual chipper self lately.

No, I haven't.

Scratch a little below the surface and you'll find a man who has somehow managed to get a little swallowed in weariness. You see, when things get a little bit quiet... it is very easy to become disheartened and think that maybe you've been cast aside... even spiritually speaking.

Sometimes... and I say this as much for the benefit of anyone reading this as myself, you have to weigh your feelings up against faith and fact... and what you already know of God through your relationship with him up to this point.

I'm not a super apostle. Every now and then my knees buckle like anyone else, however... I don't believe in holding this all inside. I feel it is important to record things like this... in order to help lift other people when they themselves become encumbered. I'm by no means the first person to think of this... the apostle Paul made a point of doing the same thing in his second letter to the Corinthians:

"To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

There is no shame in sharing your weaknesses if it in turn encourages others. It's not about airing your dirty laundry, it's about loving one another and building each other up so that each one can get just that little bit nearer to God when they feel that their face is down in the mud.

I need to make a record here of Sunday's preaching. I believe there was something in there designed to strengthen my bones. Naturally, being Easter Sunday, the passage was connected to the Resurrection... we found ourselves jumping around 1 Corinthians 15 a fair bit. However, it was this verse that personally pricked my ears up:

"Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain."

1 Corinthians 15:58

And there my friends, we have it in a nutshell... I have been letting things move me... and downing tools because I feel I'm not up to the task ahead and why should God want me for it? He's probably written me off.

Self pitying fool.

I'm doing no better than the remnant who laid the foundations of the temple in Jerusalem and who at the first sign of things taking a turn for the worst,dropped the tools and went off to decorate their own homes first. God's calling me back to work on his temple, but shall I remain in the rubble of my own home?

While I write these words, iTunes has decided to play "The Healing" by James Newton Howard. Do you remember me talking about that a while back? It is from the film Lady in the Water. It is the point where one of the central characters - Cleveland Heap, is forced to confront the things that made him check out of his true calling in life. I can't help but think there's a deliberate irony there.

I'm plodding on though... I know what is right, I know the truth... I know God is good... but I've hit the valley floor here, as most of us do. Weary as I am, I endeavour to carry on bearing witness to my God... because it is true - our labour for the Lord is not in vain!

But I want to taste that Emmaus Spirit again... the precious moments of when God sets your heart on fire with the things he is saying. It is my hope and prayer that perhaps something written here will ignite you own spirits is some way.

Something else that was drawn out of the sermon on Sunday was that the second letter to the Corinthians was written sometime around 56-57 AD. It's a convincing blow to revisionists who claim that it was only later in the Church's history that the resurrection of Christ was held as a central belief and added to the Gospel theology. Yet here we have a passage of scripture written to an established church only a generation (20 odd years) away from the actual events recorded in the gospels:

"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born."

1 Corinthians 14:3-8

Paul is underlining the resurrection of Christ as being of primary importance... but he didn't begin there. About five years prior to this he wrote these words to a church in Thessalonica:

"You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what happened when we visited you. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath."

1 Thessalonians 1:6-10

Around the same time or possibly even as early as 48AD, he also wrote these words to struggling churches in the region of Galatia:

"Paul, an apostle—sent not with a human commission nor by human authority, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers and sisters with me, To the churches in Galatia: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."

Galatians 1:1-5

Now of course, there is so much more in both those books... but I merely highlighted those verses to underline the fact that as little as around 15 years from the events of the first Holy Week, there were people as far away as Asia Minor, who were adamant in their belief that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.

In this age, it is easy to remain unmoved by that statement. We live in an age where news travels ridiculously fast...an event being recorded on one side of the globe can be simultaneously broadcast to the rest of us, thanks to the technology of geosynchronous orbiting satellites.

The apostles had no such technology to hand. They had their voices, their bodies... pen and parchment... but most importantly they had the Spirit of God. Empire wide there were an estimated 1 million Christians by the time the century was complete. True, that was only 0.6 of the population of the then known world... but considering the means at their disposal and the distance from events, I think 1 million is a remarkable number... and now as we move the ever further from 1st century Christianity, we find that around 2.1 billion people lay claim to the same belief in the risen Lord(though whether they truly believe is a matter for themselves and God).

It is all the more amazing when you think that so many people were willing to lay their life down for this idea. I don't think was a case of blind religious fervour or frenzied false martyrdom brought on by a hypnotised bunch of cultists. I believe this response came from genuine conviction. You see it's not just about the fact that Jesus rose from the dead... it is more importantly about what his death and resurrection meant.

I quoted Galatians earlier and Paul goes on to say in a later chapter that:

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

Galatians 5:1

Freedom has always been among the highest ideals to die for. Whether it is freedom from slavery, freedom of speech, freedom of religious expression, or freedom to live out a life as seen fit by the individual... people have always seen the concept of freedom as the most precious commodity.

But for Christians, it isn't just about freedom in this life. It is about freedom in eternity. Freedom to live in the fullness of God's love... forever. That's what Christ's death is about - the defeat of death and the demise of sin's power over us.

And to that end the early Church did not labour in vain...

... and neither do we.

If you want to taste freedom call on Christ tonight.

Passion Parts 3 & 4

Well I missed the chance to send you all Easter greetings on time yesterday... but Happy Easter (albeit belatedly), from me.

I don't know if you've noticed...but it's been a veritable smorgasbord of programmes surrounding the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Today we have "Ben Hur" (okay that's a little bit of a stretch) and Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ". We've also had the usual coverage of services on Sunday Morning and Songs of Praise... and a couple of documentaries (some pro, some con).

Did you manage to catch the final two episodes of The Passion over the weekend? Here's a link if you still want to check them out:

Episodes 1-3 (if you missed all of them).
Episode 3
Episode 4

I personally had mixed feelings about the climax to the serial adaptation. I still think Joseph Mawle's interpretation of Jesus was solid and the characterization of most characters in general was of a high quality. However, I was intrigued about what was added and removed as events gathered pace.

They included the dream of Pilate's wife that served as a warning that he was a good man... presumably this was to give the Romans more to do, as once the sentence is passed by Pilate... there is very little to be done in terms of character development. Incidentally what do you make of the idea of that dream? Who provided the inspiration for it? If it was God and the message were heeded, Jesus would not have been able to make his sacrifice... so could it have been him? It's plausible that Satan used the dream as a way to try and disrupt God's plan and keep Jesus from the cross... but that doesn't feel right. I think what I'm inclined to believe, is that God needed to demonstrate to all parties involved in the sentencing of Christ (the Sanhedrin and Romans directly and you and I by proxy), that his son was a good man - righteous and without sin. God also knew in his sovereignty that the message to preserve the life of Christ would fall on deaf ears. I'm always in awe of that characteristic of God... that he knows when people are going to fail and fall flat on their face... yet he still invests in the effort of giving them the chance to succeed despite the eventual outcome. How just is that? How fair? For all those who say "if there is a God he must be unjust", think on that for a moment. How many of you would put substantial money on the table for a bet you knew you would lose? No, God is beyond fair.

Back to the Passion. The crucifixion scene was massively abridged. There were less people than we might have expected... and some of the big events that are described never happened: no darkening of skies, no mention of Christ being up there for three hours, no temple curtain being torn, no moment of clarity on the part of the Roman centurion. I appreciate that they were trying to stick with the human side of Jesus character (I even supported them in this), however there comes a time when you need to stop cushioning people from the more powerful aspects of a story and just go for it.

I think people accept that there is a certain amount of lore that is forged around death. People remember the manner in which a man or woman of public or personal significance, pass away. They draw parallels with that person in life.

I believe the nature of Jesus death was necessarily awesome because it was yet another pointer to who he was and the sheer scale of what had happened...

"From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" When some of those standing there heard this, they said, "He's calling Elijah." Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to save him." And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, "Surely he was the Son of God!""

Matthew 27:45-54

... not your average run of the mill death, then.

Similarly when it comes to Christ's burial, they inferred that the number of guards on the scene at the tomb entrance was limited to two...and that they snuck off for a pint at a crucial moment. Firstly, we don't know for sure it was the Temple Guard who were watching the entrance. If it were the Romans there would have probably been 16 soldiers taking turns in groups of four to stand watch for three hours whilst the others slept. If they nodded off or cleared off to the pub... it carried a high price. The Romans executed soldiers for this kind of behaviour. Notwithstanding this, the Temple Guard and Roman legionary alike, would have been trained to a high standard of discipline. The best explanation for what happened to them, is not that they cleared off, or that the disciples overpowered them (this is very unlikely - in such a short time, Jesus followers would have been utterly demoralised by the death of their leader... and the last thing on any person's mind during a time of grief, is to bust a body out of a tomb and venerate the person as risen. Even if they had the will, they would not have the capability. They were a rabble of working men from various trades, they would likely have been outnumbered and they were woefully ill equipped to take on a stationed guard); it is far more likely that the guards were taken out supernaturally as the Bible suggests.

Anyway, these are minor gripes. All in all I thought it was good. I also liked how they handled the return of Jesus. I didn't think I was going to at first... when they had two different actors portraying Jesus outside the tomb and Jesus on the road to Emmaus; however, this was just the writer using artistic licence to cover the parts of the Gospels that mention that the disciples were kept from recognising Jesus. That they returned to Joseph Mawle after these two occurrences, was incredibly clever. It must have lured a few people into a sense that the writer was going to suggest that the resurrection was a hoax... and then turned their ideas right on their head.

Which of course, is exactly what Jesus himself did when he died and rose again.

The Burden

I thought crossed my mind last night as I made my way back from my annual midnight vigil at church.

When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, we know he could have escaped. We know he was sorely tempted to do so, pleading "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."

But what is special about why Jesus remained?

Many people will make the mistake of assuming that Jesus was just afraid for his life. If that were the case, there have been many people who have shared that feeling... who have remained somewhere they didn't want to be and sacrificed there life. What sets Jesus experience apart from those?

Well, Jesus had greater reason to deter him, than just mortal fear. There are two extra things that take the hardship Jesus endured on the night of his arrest... far beyond the human experience.

Firstly, there was his relationship with the Father. John's Gospel explicitly states that Jesus wasn't just God's Son... he is also of one being with the Father - they have a shared existence.

"I and the Father are one."

John 10:30

This was clearly weighing heavily on Jesus' mind as he waited anxiously for the inevitable moment when his friend Judas Iscariot, would lead an armed crowd to an eventual showdown with him. John's Gospel gives a fairly detailed account of some of the things Jesus was praying about and amongst them, we find Jesus identifying himself with the Father:

"All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one."

John 17:10-11

We can scarcely imagine or conceive quite how this relationship works, because we are so individual. I believe we have glimpses of this when we share bonds of fellowship with say, our soul mate, or close friends and family (and of course the Church as the family of God), but it must surely pale by comparison to actually sharing your existence and consciousness with someone. Imagine if your reflection in the mirror could talk back to you and share your thoughts... and then all of a sudden you wake up one morning and look in the mirror and nobody is there.

Losing someone who is close to us is a terrible thing indeed... but how much harder is it to lose someone who is actually yourself also?

I can appreciate the wording of that is a little hard to track... but then so is the concept.

The other thing that must have been weighing very heavily on Jesus' mind, was the great burden he was about to take on.... the sin of the entire human race.

When I take into account how heavily my own failings have weighed upon me in my personal past, it completely blows my mind to think that the weight of every individual person's own gallery of failure was laid upon just one man. I was helping my father move sandbags across town today and they were incredibly heavy and it provided a good metaphor: imagine if one sandbag represented a single person's burdens throughout their life. You could manage one - your own... maybe if you were really strong you could carry a few more... but only for a time. However, to carry every single sandbag for every single person? A mere man could not do it.

But Jesus was and is not a mere man. We looked in my last entry, at how Jesus' humanity is essential to the Gospel message... about how focusing on Jesus' divinity at the expense of his humanity, can detract from who he is to us... and why he came. I'm not about to do a U turn... I still believe that. However, I will say that the reverse can also true - focusing on Jesus' humanity at the expense of his divinity can also detract from the Gospel message... for other reasons. Both aspects of his nature - the divine and the human, are fundamentally important to what he did.

The immense strain of all that is wrong with this world broke Jesus heart: there are some medical experts out there who will tell you that the cause of death in the case of Jesus Christ was a ruptured heart. It is a disputed theory... but when you consider the strain Jesus went through on that first Good Friday, it is completely believable that he died of a broken heart.

The reason why he did this was prophetically recorded hundreds of years before Jesus was born:

"Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all."

Isaiah 53:4-6

And now we come to the challenge... it is all there for you: the responsibility that weighed so heavily on him, and the sheer lengths that this man - Jesus Christ went to, in order that your own burdens would not crush you.

So as you stand there with your burden - your "sandbag", what are you going to do?

Are you going to struggle on?

Or are you going to hand them all over the the One who has already paid for them?

It's entirely your choice.

Just Like Us

I promised I'd talk about the BBC's new version of The Passion. If you haven't managed to catch episodes 1 and 2 yet, you should still be able to watch them on BBC's iPlayer if you are quick:

Episode 1

Episode 2

I really do like the way they've portrayed Jesus in this latest adaptation. They haven't kept strictly to the chronology of Christ's ministry (moving earlier teachings into Holy Week), but this is both understandable - filling in the gaps between the "big" events... and also not unbelievable - you can well imagine Jesus would reiterate major parables/messages to new audiences; modern speakers do much the same when they tour. Highlights for me are the way Jesus has interacted with people. I do believe - especially scenes such as the one where Jesus speaks to a prostitute, that they have stayed true to the essence of Jesus' character.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the writers opted to focus on the humanity of Jesus.

I think this was the right choice.

The predominant image of Jesus in western culture, is that of the man with long wavy hair, doe eyes and a serene look on his face. Religious art has often made the mistake of focusing on Christ's divinity at the expense of his humanity. We see in our minds eye this airy fairy image of a man walking on clouds with a halo behind his head... and if we are not careful, it can lend more credence to fantasy than faith.

We have to remember that the strength of the Gospel message lies not just in the truth that Jesus is God... but in the fact that he is also human. One of the names attributed to Christ is Immanuel - God with us. The whole theology of our salvation is founded upon the basis that God was so determined not to be separated from us any more- and knowing that we could not in ourselves do anything to change this, he decided to become one of us. He experienced the joys, the pains, the sorrows, the anger... all those emotions that can be summed up as the human experience. He lost friends and relatives to sickness, death and disagreement... just like us. He loved being around his friends... just like us. He got excited when people understood something that was important to him... just like us. He knew what it was like to be popular, he knew what it was like to be lonely... just like us.

Personally, I don't believe any man comes as close to Jesus in fulfilling the ideals of what makes a man, in Rudyard Kipling's poem, If.

In his ministry, Jesus often referred himself as "the Son of Man". It's a title that occurs frequently in Biblical prophecy. However it also seems to me that whenever Jesus uses the term in respect of himself, he is trying to reaffirm his link to us as humans. The Bible teaches us that Jesus (knowing he was already God), didn't make a big deal about pushing his divinity:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:5-11

Jesus lived as a man not only to sacrifice himself for our sins... but also to teach us how to aspire to live a life that pleases God. We need to remember that Jesus died that we may have life and have it in all it's abundance. We need to remember that abundant life actually comes from obeying the God who loves us. I know for many of you reading this, that a life of obedience may seem slavish... but in truth a life outside of God only carries a deceptive freedom -it still compels us to slavishly obey something or other less worthy than what we were designed for. The book of Galatians teaches us that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Jesus died so that we would have the freedom to reject sin's control of us.

The deal doesn't end there either. We might say that a life like that is too hard... we are bound to fail. But you see that is exactly another reason why Jesus emphasised his humanity:

"For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted."

Hebrews 2:17-18

You see, in sharing our humanity... Jesus isn't just sympathetic to our struggles, he is empathetic. He understands our trials and tribulations... and he is prepared to support and stand by us right through them.

The question is... are we prepared to do the same for him?

A Wrong Turn?

Today, for those of you who don't know, is Palm Sunday.

It's the day that Christians around the world celebrate Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey.

I tell you... what I wouldn't have given for a donkey myself, this morning. My journey to church was a little more of an obstacle course than usual; my usual 2.5 mile walk was almost blocked in two places by floodwater. Fortunately I was able to find my way through, precariously balancing on a grass verge, whilst looking out for inconsiderate 4x4 drivers many of who just plough through deep water with disregard for other road users/pedestrians. I think I must have been the last person to be able to get through on foot.... had I been any later, I'd have been cut off.

The Triumphal Entry marks a peak in Jesus' journey... at least in terms of public popularity. He'd just pulled off an amazing feat - bringing a man (Lazarus), back from the dead, who had been in the grave long enough for decomposition to set in. If you read the Gospels, that is when the authorities decided he was trouble and needed to be killed. Don't you think it is odd that it is when good people are at their most radical, that people conspire to remove them?

Anyway little of this seemed evident to the crowds on the day. They were full of religious fervour and zeal for the upcoming Jewish festival of Passover. Jesus, with Jerusalem set firmly in his sights... seems to pull an Obi-Wan Kenobi routine and acquires his transport for the day. He later apparently repeats the same trick in getting booked in to the Upper Room (note to self, Jesus is very handy for getting late bookings).

Then Jesus started to ride into town. Crowds who have either witnessed his miracles, heard his teachings, or merely caught wind of rumour about this mysterious teacher/prophet from Galilee... get worked up into a frenzy and start praising God. They start waving random bits of tree, or throw their clothes on the floor. It was one big party.

This was a glimpse of glory. Jesus is giving this people a veiled chance to understand who he really is. He isn't riding a warhorse, he is riding a donkey. He hasn't come to make war with Rome but to make God's peace with man. However people get caught up in events without fully understanding them. Jesus had experienced this before and was no stranger to it... but it never failed to move him:


"As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes."

Luke 19:41-42

And then it happens.

While the crowd goes wild, Jesus(from their perspective) makes a wrong turn... and the crowd hold their breath... stunned.

If Jesus is a potential Messiah... why is he heading towards the Temple? Why isn't he heading towards the Roman fortress? Perhaps he is going to say a prayer before driving out the Romans...

...but then the unthinkable occurs.

Jesus starts throwing his fellow Jews out of the Temple Courts. Furniture flies everywhere, doves disperse wildly into the sky and coins spill out onto the floor. Desperately, men dive to the floor to save their precious gold from being scattered.

Suddenly this man's agenda is not what they once thought. Their safe idea of what Messiah meant...has been turned on it's head.

Who is Jesus? Why is he really here?

We might know the answer to that question now. We may have a relationship with Jesus. However, I wonder... how many "wrong turns" has Jesus made in your life? How many times have you invited God to work in your life... only to fond he then has gone on to do something radically different to your expectations.

It can be hard sometimes... but this is at the very heart of the battle for the human soul. God is sovereign and part of having a relationship with him involves the hard choice of letting him do things that sometimes we will find uncomfortable. It is what in the final analysis defines who we are... do we obey our fallen nature and go our own way? Or do we accept that there is someone who is bigger than all of this... someone who cares for us deeply, wants the best for us despite ourselves... and knows what is best for us... even when it contradicts our own understanding of what we desire.

That is ultimately the BIG question you have to ask (not necessarily in words). In a smaller way we ask that question when we enter any meaningful relationship - is knowing and loving this person, worth the risk of anything they might do to hurt me?

With God it is different and a whole lot bigger. In him there is no wrong... and he can be trusted even when it hurts... especially when it hurts.

Are you willing to accept him?

It's Coming Home...

Football... football is coming home.

I'm not talking mere geography here... I am talking "spiritually".

Farewell to the corporate suits, WAGs, big names and usual suspects. The 2008 F.A. Cup is well on it's way to once more set in stone what the beautiful game is all about. It demonstrates the simple but elegant truth that for all the giants out there... sooner or later a David comes along.

Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United (HOORAY) all fell by the wayside, as a path was cleared for the unlikeliest of semi-final fixtures:

Here's how Chelsea fell:

and Man United:

Look at the charmed life that both Barnsley and Porstmouth lived! They certainly rode their luck, but that is what the game is about. Sir Alex Ferguson and his cohorts are naturally grumbling at the referee... but let them! United have certainly benefited from their own unfair share of refereeing decisions *cough* especially when Mike Riley referees (it would seem) *cough*. You have to admit though, it must take nerves of steel to give to decisions as big as the ones given in that game.

The F.A. Cup does not exclusively belong to a predestined clique of big clubs. The F.A. Cup belongs to the game of football itself. The lowliest teams aspire to achieve it... it is the holy grail of English football (and Welsh - not forgetting Cardiff).

Had this just been another case of one of a major Premiership side winning... i somehow think people would be less interested. Now that the competition has opened up in the latter stages, people's imagination has been captured once more... the dream of what might be.

There is only one Premiership side left - Portsmouth. Having seen the draw... and watched how the two sides have played (both in terms of skill and luck), I predict a Barnsley/Portsmouth final.

I really do hope that Barnsley go all the way. It will go down in history as an amazing day in football history if they do.

BBC One: The Passion

I'm very much looking forward to this year's coverage of the Easter story by the BBC.

I managed to catch the trailer on the Beeb the other night...and I've been searching everywhere for a version I can embed here. I haven't succeeded yet, but rest assured should a copy surface I'll have it up and running in no time. In the meantime however, you can watch the trailer on the homepage for the drama. There's a lot of information on it, it's worth taking a look at.

The most prominent member of the cast (at, least in terms of audience awareness/pop culture)is probably James Nesbitt (Cold Feet, Jekyll, Murphy's Law, and if you are really desperate... the very funny yellow pages adverts). Nesbitt is portraying Pontius Pilate; he describes his interpretation of the character as "a weary warrior dealing with something he doesn't want to".

Jesus - the man himself, is being portrayed by highly acclaimed relative newcomer, Joseph Mawle. He describes the responsibility of playing the role of Christianity's central figure as an awesome one that is full of depth, and he thinks of Jesus' journey as a character as a lonely one. Mawle suffered from a viral infection that left him partially deaf in both ears, requiring him to use hearing aids a lot of the time. One random and completely irrelevant fact is that he was born exactly 8 months before me.

From what the trailer is suggesting, it'll very much be done in the same style as the BBC's recent Roman History productions (Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire, Attila, Hannibal). This will be a good thing as it re-establishes the historicity of the Gospel story. I'm really looking forward to seeing how they realise ancient Judaea at the time of Christ.

If you want to catch The Passion, the schedule is as follows:

Episode 1: Sunday 16 March, at 20:00 on BBC ONE
Episode 2: Monday 17 March, at 20:30 on BBC ONE
Episode 3: Friday 21 March, at 21:00 on BBC ONE
Episode 4: Sunday 23 March, time TBA, on BBC ONE

Here is a link to a page giving a brief synopsis of each episode.

I for one am getting quite excited... I hope to review each episode and share my thoughts with you.

Are any of you planning to watch this? Do you have any pre-emptive thoughts you'd care to share?

Update as of 17th March:

For those of you who missed the first episode, I've managed to source a copy of the trailer for youto see what you are missing:

Thoughts on LOST: The Constant

I haven't written about LOST for a very long time... come to think of it, for that matter it's been a fair few days since I wrote anything at all. Well, I'm back now.

I appreciate I'm a few days late, but I'm a mere mortal and don't have Sky... so I have to wait until a work colleague loans me a tape - thanks Becky!

I think "The Constant" has to rank among one of my favourite LOST episodes... yes it features some cerebrally heavy plot twists involving the consciousness of a character travelling through time, but it was a strong character episode. Specifically it was a strong Desmond episode... and Desmond is among my favourite characters. In fact I'd say that for me, he's taken the number 1 spot from Locke.

In the episode, Desmond leaves the island to try and get some answers about his long lost love Penny Widmore. He's been trapped on the island for three years and they parted on harsh terms. When a woman named Naomi arrived bearing a photo of him and Penny in each others arms... it aroused his curiosity... and he finally gets the chance to visit the boat that Naomi came from.

Unfortunately Desmond starts suffering from strange side effects as the helicopter he is travelling on, leaves the island. Desmond had already gained precognitive ability following exposure to a strong electromagnetic pulse (his consciousness is able to travel along his personal timeline). However as he leaves the island it becomes violently unstable and his consciousness from 1996 becomes trapped in his present day body... resulting in much confusion for everyone present. It becomes apparent that he has become unstuck in time. The 1996 Desmond will keep appearing in his present body and the episodes will become more violent... leading eventually to death... unless he can find some way to stabilize the effects.

He arrives at the answer through talking to another man named Daniel Faraday... who is present in both the present and the past. He advises Desmond that he needs a "constant"; something or someone who is present in his past and his present, who can anchor him into his proper place in time before he suffers from a fatal embolism.

Desmond realises that for him, this constant is Penny.... and whilst travelling back into the past, he engineers a plan to contact her before he dies in the present day. Despite her feeling quite hurt towards him in 1996, he manages to obtain her telephone number and promises to call her on the exact day in the future that is contemporary with the Desmond we know. In doing this, he hopes that he can be restored to his respective place in time.

Here is what happens next:

Confession time:

I very nearly wept at the end of that. There was so much emotion in there I was very nearly overwhelmed...the acting was excellent and the fast inter-cutting between Des and Penny really enhanced the moment.

Wow. It really grabbed me by the heart strings and touched me where I'm vulnerable...

... did I really just say that? I'm turning into a Jessie!

It also got me thinking on a much deeper level. It is so easy for us to get lost in the world. Lost and consumed by the things around us.... people, events and concerns. What happens when we wake up and realise we don't know who or where we are anymore?

How will we get home? How do we reconnect with who we truly are?

Just like Desmond, we need a constant.

We need someone who can stand beside us, someone who has always been there for us in the past... is with us right now and will always be with us in the future.

For me there is no greater example than Jesus Christ. He is the very paragon of this notion. Who else knows us as deeply as God? King David famously wrote in Psalm 139:

"O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD."

Psalm 139:1-4

and

"your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

Psalm 139:16

We may think we are lost and forlorn... but God has not forgotten us. He is but a word away... not even the cost of a phone call. He longs to hear from us. He sent his Son to pay for all our wrongs... and he is deeply desperate for us to return into his loving arms. You may recall from Sunday School, the tale of the Prodigal Son. In that story, the son who is lost comes to his senses and decides to return home. Now the way God is often misrepresented in the modern world,you might expect the Father (the character who represents him), to be standing there with a big stick ready to punish his wayward son.

Is that the response we find?

No. The Bible says this:

"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him."

God was already on the lookout for his son; he embraced him despite his filth covered appearance. He accepted him and he restored him.

Similarly in Lost, Desmond could have quite easily been expecting the cold shoulder from Penny when he called her.... but er love had remained constant... despite how much he had hurt her.

The wonderful thing about unconditional love, is that it encourages a loving response. I love it in the clip how as soon as Penny has spoken affectionately,Desmond genuinely apologises for his past misdemeanours.

My challenge to you today is this. God is reaching out to you in love. He has already expressed his deep passion for you:

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 5:6-8

My challenge to you today is simple. Imagine you are like Desmond... holding the phone waiting to talk to Penny... but on the other end of the line is God. If you know somewhere deep in your heart that God is speaking to you of his love (in fact he has already acted upon his love, through Jesus), what is your response going to be as he hangs on the line waiting for you?