A hairy bus ride!

Yesterday I got the bus from Hatfield to Stevenage and from there, another via Benington Village towards Hitchin in Hertfordshire.  The purpose of the rides was to get to the Lordship Gardens and lose myself  among drifts of snowdrops and the promises of a spring-to-come.   Also to kneel down on a bin-liner – not to pray this time, but to photograph dainty blooms at elf-eye-views.

At first I was surprised to see that the bus that arrived at Stevenage terminus was a small 21-seater.  It didn't  take long to find out why.  Most of the route was along an oh-so-narrow English lane. See the Google-picture including the passing place on the left.

The Highway Code
Section 155
Single-track roads. These are only wide enough for one vehicle. They may have special passing places. If you see a vehicle coming towards you, or the driver behind wants to overtake, pull into a passing place on your left, or wait opposite a passing place on your right. Give way to vehicles coming uphill whenever you can. If necessary, reverse until you reach a passing place to let the other vehicle pass. Slow down when passing pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders.
Section 156 - Do not park in passing places.

This is my photo taken from the inside of the bus:   a reflection of the focused bus driver in the rear view mirror and the road sign a hint of things to come.

Again from inside our small bus : the country lane ahead.

Admittedly, the 2 journeys weren’t the scariest and deadliest rides on the planet, nevertheless I had to anchor myself with my knees against the seat in front  – and hope for the best!   There was no opportunity to be chicken and stop the bus to get off, because – the road is so narrow there’s not room to get out!  

We survived the first swooping bend and there were many more to follow.  Though the drive cannot be compared to  an inverted corkscrew roll or an airborne inverted S-roll or high-speed banked curves, still…… it was a good and proper hairy ride! 

To get a feel for the journey click on this link: An English Country Road and, in your mind's eye,  add oncoming traffic.

And while we are on an adrenalin-pumping topic…here’s a count-down to the scariest ride world-wide:

3.    Big Shot!
Astronauts travel at 45mph at blast off, which is slow in comparison because this ride throws you up with enough force to give you a weightless 4Gs for take off.
2.   Insanity
The Insanity is perched atop the Stratosphere tower in Las Vegas. Aptly named for what it seems to be at 906 feet above the Vegas strip, this ride takes you from the top of the tower and perches you at a 70 degree angle before a literal ‘spin’ at 40 miles per hour giving you a real bird’s eye view of Vegas…all without the wings.


And.................the winner!
1.  Top thrill Dragster
Top thrill Dragster, at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio, is only half a minute long ride that can force you recount your life.  It broke a few records when it was launched, including that of being the first rollercoaster to top 400ft and the first to go at 120 mph as well. Check out the 400 ft vertical drop, and don’t forget about the 270 degrees twist along the way!


I end  this post with a glance at snowdrops in the moat and  a few questions on fear.
 
 The snowdrops at Benington Lordship Gardens, Hertfordshire – 2011.


 Questions about fear

• Can I alleviate my stress and take off the edge off my anxiety? 
• How can I nail that which pushes my fear buttons?
• Is fear inescapable?
• Can you ward off rising fear?

If you are scared or fearful, please do take about 5 minutes to read "Real Fears, Real Help".

Real fears, real help

 

a) There comes a day…
when whistling a merry tune or giving the thumbs up sign or looking on the sunny side is not enough – I’m really scared and I need God.

b) What represents fear for me? 

• Werewolves, vampires and zombies, a dangling spider?
• Cancer, failure of treatment, relapse, death?
• What are my core fears?

c) What holds me together in a time of crisis? 

• What or who gives me a steadier pulse, inner poise and strength greater than my particular temperament or circumstance allow me?

 

Here are steps in the right direction on how to start to deal with stress:

1. Take stock of your fears and accumulated anxieties.
2. Jot down your actual fears – you MAY have been blowing things out of proportion and much of the hand-wringing could be eliminated at this early stage.
3. Note there is a  difference between feeling afraid and living in fear, being unduly dismayed and riddled with anxiety.
4. Sometimes we even enjoy our worry – ah the drama of it, the attention!

And now down to what to do with those fears!

•  1 Peter 5:7 Cast all your anxiety all your anxieties all your worries all your concerns on Jesus.  Yes, turn every worry over to him,  because he cares for you affectionately.
•  John 14:1"Do not let your hearts be troubled distressed, agitated. Don't let this throw you. Trust in God; and rely on God trust also in me. (Jesus)
• John 14: 27  Peace I leave with you; my own peace I give you and bequeath to you peace of mind and heart. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.  Don’t allow yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and unsettled. (Jesus)
• Psalm 34: 4 I sought the LORD, I looked for the Lord and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.  He took away all my fears. he freed me from my anxious fears.
• Isaiah 41:10  So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed. Do not be afraid, do not look around you in terror, for I am your God. There's no need to fear for I'm your God.   I will give you strength and yes, for sure I help you;
  yes I will uphold you with my righteous good and victorious right hand. I'll hold you steady, I will keep a firm grip on you.
• Philippians 4:⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Colossians 3:15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your unsettled hearts.

Shalom!

If you have a few more minutes, and you would like to read about sought-out fears, see  "A hairy bus ride" and other adrennalin-pumping, action-filled adventures, this is the link where you will find just that.

What if the bread I've asked for feels like a stone?

Our Father in Heaven.....give us today our daily bread.

To pray this way, I’m going to have to be convinced of at least two realities:

1. God is generous.
2. God is wise. 

I will have to believe God is generous and that God is wise and be convinced in my heart , before I will start to take Him up on His great and precious promises. Once I’m sure that God is generous and that God is wise, prayer flows more naturally.

  

OUR FATHER IS WISE.

Matthew 6 Verse 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

But…………what if it feels as if God is giving me a stone, instead of bread? Is it because I have forgotten that God is wise and generous?

WE HAVE GREATER NEEDS THAT WE MAY NOT PERCEIVE OR VOICE OR VALUE.

2 Corinthians 12: 7 so to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

By the way, this thorn is not a tiny little thing you can pluck out with tweezers. God basically says "no" to Paul.

• My need is often to be weaned of my self-confidence and perceived self-power.
• My need is to be brought to the end of myself and found in that moment, to be strengthened by God, upheld by a generous and wise Father, giving me strength, giving me joy.
• My need is to get to that place where I can genuinely say: “Jesus is enough for me; God’s grace is enough for me.” 

But .....many a time I do not see that as a need.

When the bread I’ve asked for feels like a stone,

I need to remember God is wise and generous and

He will do something I have not even

started to imagine or thought of asking.

Yes, ask what you perceive as your need. At the same time, ask Him to give what He, in His generosity and wisdom knows what you need.

“This is what I think I need, Father, but please give me what You KNOW I need.”

• I can fully trust that when my Father withholds what I think I need, it is not for a lack of generosity, rather, it is an expression of His loving wisdom.
• This is not the time to blame God for withholding my request from me, but to thank Him that in His wisdom and generous love
• He saves me from my limited and narrow vision of what I see to be my needs.
• He is working out His good for me that I cannot even start fathom to ask for. 
• Prayer is pleading for the generosity and favours and blessings of God to be lavished upon our lives, while also surrendering to the wisdom of God.

 Here is a good biblical preaching link to JR Vassar's sermon  on Give us Today our Daily Bread.

Rubbish Bins!

 As promised by our local council here in Hertfordshire, UK,  we all received two beauts of  rubbish bins today to add to our existing brown one.  Quite a collection!

So there we have it:  three rubbish bins plus kitchen caddy:

1. The black wheelie bin with the blue lid and internal recycling box.
2. The brown wheelie bin for compost.
3. The black wheelie bin (for landfill and non-recyclables)
4. Kitchen Caddies for food waste (which can be collected for free)

So then... 

1)  Recycling bin

Black wheelie bin with blue lid and internal recycling box - quite nifty!

 

In the bin you can recycle:

Tins, cans, aerosols, foil, glass bottles and jars
All food waste including:

• Tea bags
• Egg shells
• Meat, fish and bones
• Plate scrapings 

Plastic food packaging and drinks bottles

• Bottles and loose lids
• Yoghurt pots
• Ready meal trays
• Fruit, vegetable, meat trays
• Flower pots and seed trays
• Plastic wrapping
• Carrier bags
In the inner recycling box you can recycle paper only

• Newspapers and magazines
• Junk mail
• Catalogues and directories including yellow pages
• White office paper and envelopes (including ones with windows)

Next...

2)  Compost bin

Brown wheelie bin (Excess waste will only be accepted if it is garden waste only and contained in Welwyn )Hatfield Borough Council compostable sacks. Compostable waste only
All food waste including:
 

• Tea bags 
• Egg shells 
• Meat, fish and bones 
• Plate scrapings

Simple, natural cardboard

• Cereal packets
• Kitchen roll tubes
• Cardboard egg boxes
• Shredded paper
• Corrugated cardboard boxes (tear up to fit)
• Brown envelopes (no windows) 

Garden waste:

• Grass cuttings
•  Leaves
• Hedge cuttings and prunings 
• Flowers and plants
• Small branches (cut up to fit)
• Hay and straw

1. Make your bin available on the boundary of your property by 8am on collection day. Do not put your bin out earlier than 5pm on the evening before. Ensure it is clearly visible and can be reached easily from, but does not obstruct, the road or pavement. (Other bins from 5 am)
2. To avoid your bin being misplaced or stolen, we advise you mark it with your house number and street name. Please help to keep our streets tidy by returning your bin onto your property by the morning after collection.

3)     Black wheelie bin This is for your rubbish that cannot be recycled and will go to landfill. Non recyclables
• Polystyrene (foam) packaging
• Tetra Pak (juice) cartons
• Crisp packets
It is best to bag your rubbish before putting it in your bin. Please do not include:
• Paint
• Oil
• Bulky items
• Building materials
• Many of these items can be taken to the Household Waste Recycling Centres

4)   Kitchen Caddy food waste for recycling – to be wrapped up in paper and put in the BROWN bin.

Collection Weeks:  follow your diary card for dates.
The black recycling bin (with blue lid) and the brown compost bin are collected on week 1.
The black rubbish bin (with black lid) are collected on week 2.

There are further instructions about bulky, clinical, nappies and batteries waste – collecting times and recycle centres.  I see several road shows were offfered on how everything works have been on offer – too late now - the dates have come and gone.

  4 quick observations:

1. We better get our heads around these instructions and get it right!
2. We are thankful that rubbish is collected.
3. We are thankful that God gave us only 10 summarised rules for life.
4. It’s much easier to keep the Recycling instructions than to keep God’s laws!

I’m off to STUDY the latest recycling instructions – rules are rules, you know!
Our wheelie-bin and recycling rules.

Valentine's Day in Japan

"Valentine's Day (February 14) in Japan is basically the day for women to give men  chocolates or gifts.  Women give chocolates to men in general, such as co-workers, bosses and casual male friends out of obligation.  For example chocolates are given to bosses as a token of gratitude for a job. 

 These kind of chocolates are called giri-choco which mean chocolates given because they are token-gifts. Giri choco is cheap and can be bought at stores everywhere.

giri-choco, cheapies

But.....when a woman has special feelings for a man, he receives honmei choco (prospective winner chocolate). Honmei choco is a superior variety of chocolate and can either be bought or handmade. A man who gets honmei choco from a woman. knows where he stands in her affections: at the top!

Here's a picture of Honmei Choco which means "sweetheart chocoloate" or as already noted, "prospective winner chocolate."

The Japanese custom of the women's Valentine-gifts of giri-choco and honmei choco, led me to think about "obligation-love" and "heart-love" towards God our Father, Who has first loved us.

Here is a taste of Honmei choco - love:

1. It means that I really want to spend time with and for my Lord - I'm motivated by His great love in Jesus to put my trust in Him, obey Him, enjoy Him, to be thrilled by His ways and plans and holy character.
2. I'm deeply, deeply interested in my heavenly Father and in Jesus and, by the Holy Spirit, want to get to know Them more and more and  emulate, revere, worship and delight in Them.
3. It means I treasure my Father and Saviour and aim at alligning my will with His, and that it is deep privilege and pure joy to know His promises and faithfulness.
4. I serve Him with a first- love, joy and enthusiasm because - oh! -  I value above all the One who gave Himself totally to me and saved and forgiven me completely.
5. It means to love Him with all my heart, all  my soul, all my mind and all my strength  - overjoyed that because of grace and Jesus I am His and He is mine.
6. He is my one and only God, Friend, Saviour,Friend, Helper and Keeper.

Giri-Choco-love

it's a so-called love that drags its feet and half-heartedly and selectively "follow after" God.

 "Giri-choco's - love" - ie obligation and token-love  to our God is:

1. An appalling insult.
2. If we say we love Him, but bring Him giri-choco's/obligation-love, we are hypocritical and insincere.
3. It is downright hurtful.
4. Obligation without love reflects that I don't really care about God.
5. There are repurcussions.

So............

 Is it going to be honmei choco or giri-choco?

It's not good pretending otherwise: we are fallen people, who in this life cannot express perfect love and joy to our Father and to Jesus.  We don’t even get it right in our human relationships. Our emotions vary, circumstances hem us in, disappointments wear us down. So, what to do, when we find ourselves in a place where we are tagging along with God just to stay out of trouble, just to soothe our consciences? If this is the case, we cannot  face up to this disgraceful pretend-love for God, too soon.

What is at the root of our appalling lack of love, lack of joy and delight?  Is it because something else has stolen or replaced Jesus as our love, our joy and delight? Is it because we have not given time to get to know Him in His Word and by His Spirit?  One answer fits it all:  we all, by nature, suffer with self-addiction.

Let us draw near to our God through Jesus in repentance and prayer over the things that have replaced Him as our source of joy in our lives and remember our first love again!  

 Japanese for love.

Deuteronomy 6:4

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

And love one another as you love yourself.

Ephesians 3

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,

may have power, together with all the saints,

to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,

and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—

that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Fishing!

Meet our grandsons Joshua  and Jesse.  Summer 2010 they waded, with their fishing-nets, into a clear shallow stream near our home, just North of London.  Both were eager beavers and brimming with high hopes to catch silvery darting small fish. Sadly,despite the boys' focus and persistant efforts, despite not giving up, I'm sad to report that not even one single little fish agreed to land in their nets!

Our grandsons are hunting relentlessly with great expectations and focus.

Even the heron gave up after 10 minutes of stalking fish alongside Josh.

Oh the disappointment is clearly written all over Joshua's face!

Our grandsons' fruitless fishing efforts neatly leads up to the topic of disappointment.

Disappointment is a fact of life.
Regardless of their magnitude, disappointments can brutally painful. Survey your life and all too soon you will spot tarnished hopes and broken dreams. Incorrect evaluations, test scores, death of a loved one, social snubs, athletic loss. The list just goes on and on.

Four thoughts:
1)  Don’t let unresolved disappointments pile up. Disappointment can compound into depression.

2) Repeated disappointment may be the result of a pattern of faulty or irrational thinking. If you are frequently disappointed, evaluate what you are thinking and try to change faulty thinking patterns to biblical thinking patterns.

3) Adjust misplaced expectations. Not every team wins an Olympic gold. Not every applicant gets the job. Illness happens. Not every marriage soars. Some expectations are completely unrealistic.

4) Get to know God’s promises. Has He promised anyone a life free of all disappointment?

And so... to a final line about our grandsons' discouraging fishing adventure:  

A dash of humour helps a little bit...........

"A fish this big got away!"

Best Grandchildren!

You know how it is with grandparents and their grandchildren?  Well that is how it is with Gordon and me! 

We truly think that they are the most adorable children's children in the whole wide world!  Ok, Ok so they're not perfect, they too are born into a crooked, broken, sinful world and they need Jesus to forgive them too,  but.................we still say:  they are the most beautiful, cuddly, lovable, squeezable, edible grandchildren on the whole planet!

(We've a sneaky suspicion every other grandparent agrees - about THEIR grandchildren)!

Joshua and Jesse live with their parents Jason and Liesl in New Zealand.

Josephine and Evie live with their parents in Tokyo.

We live near London - far too far for grandparents to be from their grand-kiddo's.

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ - Romans 10:17

Our adult children are doing a great job parenting our grandchildren - great is His faithfulness!

We love you Joshua!

We love you Josephine!

We love you Jesse!

We love you Evie!

Big hugs, Gramps and Gran

Eccentricity & the Lord Mayor of London & Christians

 

“ec·cen·tric” 

 "Departing from a recognized, conventional, or established norm or pattern. One that deviates markedly from an established norm, especially a person of odd or unconventional behaviour."

When Gordon & I emigrated to the United Kingdom from South Africa, we had no idea who the London Mayor was.  So for those in the same boat, may we introduce the present London Mayor, Boris Johnson, to you, dear reader.
 
Before doing so, please would you please us by discarding, just for this post, opinions about Boris’ politics and values.  Just for this post, we would like to focus one of his very well-known trait:  eccentricity.

 

Apart from Mr Johnson’s political views and moral values, we really like him!   And the London Mayor is on our prayer-list:  a good place for the man.  We are praying for him for the biggest gift and change any human being under the sun could have:  eternal life in Jesus Christ, by grace, through faith.    If you’re a Christian, would you pray for this very interesting and gifted man for the biggest change of heart & ultimate destiny possible Christ.

 

So, to kick off a little chat on the topic of eccentricity –  we give you…………..the Lord Mayor of London himself!

 

on the tube

on the phone

Just being Boris



photo above – on St George’s Day - and then there's "the hair".
 

 

 

  
in casual garb as Boris and in the golden carriage as the Lord Mayor of London once a year,  in November. 

 
Making a speech and pretending to be a London Bobby

 
So, there you have it:  if Boris Johnson has been a stranger to you until a few minutes ago, you now have  a fair feel for the Mayor of one of a world-city: a creative, individualistic, intelligent free spirit – who holds down a lucrative job as mayor and also writes a column for The Daily Telegraph -and getting paid a cool  £250,000.  Incomes not to sniff at!   But that's not the point, this post is about eccentricity, or not.

You may, rightly, feel that it's a big leap from Boris Johnson to Christian practises such as prayer and baptism.  Here's the bridge question:  could prayer and baptism not be regarded as eccentric by our culture riddled with secularism? 

To depend on one personal God for direction in life, to look in faith to a Saviour to pay for my sin which separates me from God, to rely on Him as my Keeper, Helper, Model and Friend -  is crazy and unconventional to a godless society - really odd!   Anyone's belief in independence logically makes Christianity appear impracticle, useless, leech-like, crazy and odd!  Godly living in a godless culture may seem not only eccentric but really, really strange and annoying to a world in which many absolutes have stopped to exist.  What an oddity the Christian faith is in a culture where facts can only be stated in the realm of science.  
 
Where should Christ-followers stand? Inside the popular culture? Outside?  Ignore it? Isolate ourselves from it? Consumed by it?  Should we try to transform the culture and take it on the chin or go for total separation, or blend and get absorbed? 

 

Of course, there are at least two sides to a story - here's the view from "the other side", the Christian perspective.  Brace yourself and please keep in mind that the description is of a spiritual state.

"..... they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart; they have become callous and have given themselves up to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of uncleanness" (Eph. 4:17-19).

Three guide-lines on how Christians could walk this tight line in the populare culture:

1. Here's Paul again:

"For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more. And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, though not being myself under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, that I might win those who are without law. To the weak, I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. And I do all things for the sake of the gospel, that I may become a fellow-partaker of it (1 Cor. 9:19-23).  

2.   Old Testament Joseph, when he stood in Pharaoh’s presence, he shaved (Gen. 41:14), which was culturally very significant. A beard was highly regarded in Israel (cf. 2 Sam. 10:4-5), but in Egypt it was not. Joseph adapted to the culture of his day, yet in a way that did not violate any biblical principle. A beard was really a matter of culture, not of creed.

3.  Perhaps Daniel is another striking example of cultural concession. In Daniel 1 we find the prophet and his three Hebrew friends taken captive to Babylon.  All four refused to partake of the king’s choice food and wine (Dan. 1:8-16), which seemed to be associated with idolatrous worship. Daniel refused to stop praying (Dan. 6), and his three friends would not bow down to the golden image (Dan. 3). 

4.   The 4  friends were submissive to the king’s requirements by becoming educated in the schools of Babylon and of serving the king as advisors.

We'd like to develop in discerning our culture and times, relate to all people while walking to the beat of a different drummer, Jesus our King -  without being odd-balls in dress, mannerisms and lifestyles.

Does this mean our beliefs are to be banned to our private lives?   I recall Monday-chat in the office:  one work colleague bought shoes in Milan, another partied all night.   Surely  freedom of speech in this country allows us to tell of our great church service or how we cope in my suffering, without...  the wagging finger and  ramming the Bible down throats - without being OTT (over the top) and  out of touch with the world.

A super challenge: will we allign with the living Word of the Bible at the cost of being labelled an odd-ball - even at the cost of torture and death?  How tempted am I to be ashamed of Jesus Christ?

And bravo for Boris Johnson's eccentricity!