Unto us a child is born

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be callèd Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

A very blessed Feast of the Nativity of our Lord to all!

Enjoying Lewis

I am presently making up for the sin of not having read The Chronicles of Narnia in my childhood by attempting to read the first three novels before heading home to Belfast for Christmas. It's a task that I must say has been rather pleasant, particularly because of Lewis's quotability and wonderful turn of phrase. Indeed, I am now finally reading years of quotations that I've heard in sermons in context! Anyway, I'm coming near the end of this mini-aim (I do intend to read the rest soon, but we want to go and see "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" in the cinema when in Ireland, and I didn't want to do that without reading the books...), and came across what is my favourite so far:

"In our world," said Eustace, "a star is a huge ball of flaming gas."

"Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is but only what it is made of."

Just a wonderful way of putting it. I do feel a desire to revisit a lot of CS Lewis books past enjoyed in the near future...

The Christian's View on the Law

Some will doubtless dispute this. If that is so, they will say, why did Paul say all those nasty things about the law in Romans and Galatians? Paul was primarily opposing the way people were (mis)using the law; he was battling a misconception about the function of the law. The law can never be in any way to any degree a standard you can meet and so earn salvation. The law can show you how you fail to be or to do what God requires, but it cannot absolve you of the guilt incurred in breaking the law. The can accuse you but cannot justify you. The law is like your back-porch thermometer - it will show you how hot or cold it is outside, but it does not have the power to raise or lower the temperature. That's why my only hope is Jesus, the Law-keeper who suffered the lawbreaker's judgement (Gal 3:10, 13).

Dale Ralph Davis, 1 Samuel: Looking on the heart, pg 110

The Future Focus of the Church

Whereas the God of Israel is not a God of the dead but of the living. For His city, the future is always the touchstone. His city now is not the preserve of the city of yesterday but an anticipation of the city of tomorrow.

Peter J. Leithart, Against Christianity, pg113

Stop whining, Ricky...

It was a great morning for a Brit to wake up and check the cricket scores. It is not often that an Australian score of 245 all out is recorded at the Adelaide Oval (indeed, they haven't scored less than 300 in a first innings there since 1993). Still, I had one cause for being disappointed...

I read that there were two run-outs in the Australian innings, and I desperately hoped that one of them would have taken Ricky Ponting's innings. I may be alone in this (although I'd doubt it), but since his rather vocal moaning over his run out to substitute fielder Gary Pratt at Trent Bridge in the 4th Test of the 2005 series, I don't think a cricket series is complete without a 'genuine' Ponting run-out. Complain about that, Ricky.

Of course, the ultimate "Stop winging, Ricky" moment came at The Oval just over a year ago, but I don't think I'll get fed up of seeing further examples. Saying all that, I'll take a golden duck and run-out for Katich and Doherty. And of course, a 245 all out at the Adelaide Oval. Here's to the hope that the England batsmen actually post something of worth tonight...

A Prayer for the Day

Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all men. We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we shew forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives; by giving up ourselves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all men; We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we shew forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives; by giving up ourselves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

A General Thanksgiving from the Book of Common Prayer, 1662

A Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends and family!

A moment of life for a lonely 'blog

I feel that at some point I will have a consistent approach to this 'blog, and refrain from leaving it unattended and lonesome for months at a time. At times in the past, this has manifested itself in new resolutions to post more often, but time has taught me that these resolutions have rarely show much fruit beyond a brief flurry of posts followed by a period of radio silence, so the only recourse made available to me is to content myself that "once in a blue moon" is still, by strict definitions, a regular frequency for posting.

However, occasionally I enjoy celebrating the fact that the title for my 'blog holds true (that being "Probably not coming from Belfast" for those for whom the title isn't made apparent), and this moment of non-coherent and quite frankly self-referential rambling indeed comes far from Belfast, in the somewhat charming town on Moscow, Idaho (feel free to consult a map - I feel many people who live her would have to do likewise), enjoying a pleasant August, and alternating between enjoying the approach to my wedding in around 12 days time and feel all too much of the panic that often accompanies such a event. But in all, I am very much enjoying the company of my fiancee, Carolyn, looking forward to the point when she will become my wife, Carolyn, and the adventure that will come from probably not being in Belfast together. Happy times await.

And so in the meantime, the 'blog will have to content itself in the odd undirected comment. And additionally, it will have to deal with the fact that some postings will finish almost as abruptly as they began.

Message Ends. So to speak.

A different form of train spotting

There is a positive about having no cool points left, and that is I can make confessions without any fear of damaging my reputation any further...

With that in mind, here it is: I like train stations. Well, sort of. I like particular types of train stations, terminuses (or is that terminii?) to be precise. This is nothing to do with me being a train spotter, although I have been accused of being that in the past (I'll confess to enjoying travel of trains perhaps a little too much, but have no desire to take photographs of them...), nor is it because of the general collection of cafés that accumulate in larger train stations. That is merely a bonus.

My real reason is summed up by this sculpture in one of my favourite locations. Yesterday, I was in London and my friend asked to meet at St Pancras, and I was more than willing as it gave me a chance to go and look at The Meeting Place by Paul Day that is located in the Eurostar Arrivals lobby, which I feel really sums up what I love. There are a few areas that I'll confess to being a bit of a romantic in relation to, and one is people watching in places where people are reunited. This may be an extension of the fact that I love doing it myself - going to collect a certain special someone or a long since seen friend is such an exciting experience, it's something to look forward to, particularly the moment they walk through the door at arrivals and the embrace that ensues. It's the point where you have the opportunity to welcome the traveller home or to the destination of the journey, and I love it. Furthermore, it is arguably better in the other direction - there have been many a long journey made more than bearable because of the knowledge that someone will be waiting on the other side to welcome you.

And so I have my little bit of pleasure and enjoyment of sitting in a train terminus watching the same moment happen to others. People watching is a fun activity if you know where to look.

Book Review: "The Reason for God" by Tim Keller

Those, like me, who find it hard to shy away from “heated discussions” will more than likely be keenly aware of the difference between winning the argument and pointing people to Jesus as Lord. Many times I’ve walked away from a conversation knowing very well that I’ve spent too much time arguing over questions about Christianity, and too little actually explaining the gospel, or for that matter even preparing the ground for the gospel to be proclaimed. It’s a problem, I feel, that is shared by many popular Christian apologetics books. There are some excellent books explaining the gospel, but my non-Christian friends often have so many questions to sort out before they would even begin to read those. On the other hand, the books that do start to answer these questions can be too limiting. They often present themselves as the the be all and end all in the argument over issue X, and are content to leave it at that. It's like my fiery conversations all over again, never pointing people to the next step.

The Reason for God however, is different. It deals with many of the same issues - “How can you say there’s only one way to God?”, “Can the Bible be trusted?”, “Hasn’t Science disproved Christianity?” - and yet there is a difference in the way Tim Keller treats these issues. As you read each chapter, you begin to realise that his focus isn’t on answering the question and winning the argument as such, but to convince the reader that the reasons for rejecting Christ are not as watertight as first thought. From that point, he then argues that faith in Christ is itself an intellectually honest and compelling way of looking at the world. What stops Tim Keller’s book from falling into the same trap as others is his honesty on the limitations of his method. Even when arguing for Christian faith, he is upfront in admitting that his arguments are “rationally avoidable”, ie. there is a way of explaining your way out of any of the arguments without resorting to stubbornness! As a result, his arguments focus as a means to encourage the reader to stop putting up barriers and to engage with the gospel of Jesus Christ, rather than to land the knock out blow in the argument itself.

For the Christian reader, there is much encouragement to be found in reading this book as an intellectual and compelling defence of the faith that we all share. More than that, it provides a useful corrective and exemplifies how to point to the gospel through our discussions for those, like me, who can get lost in the fog of arguments. For the non-Christian, although this may not be the book that helps them make the final connection that Jesus is Lord and King, it may help them reach a position that they would be prepared to begin investigating more closely the claims of Jesus Christ that they may never have thought reasonable before. A recommended read.

Originally written for the Hall of SMACC, the blog for St Mary's Anglican Cathedral Contemporary in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Everyone knows that three flights are better than one...

Naturally, I've been thinking about flights recently, and I'm well versed in a number of flight comparison websites. Now, of course they're only really useful for long haul flights, where the options of different ways are quite dizzying. For internal flights, such as for my trip back to Belfast, I know perfectly well that the cheapest flight will probably be with Ryanair or Easyjet, and that BMI and flyBe are also worth looking at as an alternative. Still, it's good for a bit of enjoyment to see what the most ridiculous option they will offer will be...

So, if you were wanting to get to Belfast City from Bristol, had £1639 going spare and felt that just under an hour is much too short a time to spend getting somewhere, then you could:

• Fly with KLM to Amsterdam Schiphol
• Change to fly with CityJet to London City
• Then transfer to Heathrow to catch an Aer Lingus flight to Belfast City.

I really dislike Ryanair, but I feel this 8 hour 55 minute work of art is probably taking avoidance to the extreme. In the end, I've booked with Ryanair, and am now starting to feel a little cheap compared to the alternative...

Notes from a quiet year so far...

2010 has been a bit of a year so far. This can mostly be summed up by the fact that many from my church small group have been teasing me about being a world jetsetter. It's true that, although I tend to meander about Europe with a reasonable regularity (this year, despite everything else going on, I've still made it to Prague and have just returned from a school trip to the Schwarzwalde in Germany), my travels this year have been of a more far-flung variety. First of all there was the fantastic return trip to Kuala Lumpur in April. It was great to return to a place that now is firmly lodged in my heart, and my two weeks there had a wonderful feel of returning to family, which made leaving more of a strain than I had first realised. Of course, there was more than one way that statement could be taken - Icelandic geology has never featured so highly in my thoughts, and offered the opportunity to see more of Abu Dhabi than I'd ever really thought I would!

After finally managing to return to the UK, the jokes started with guys at work about finally needing to stay put. I then said I was off to the US in May. They laughed, I laughed, then slowly they realised I was serious. They asked where abouts I was going, expecting my answer to be Boston, New York, Washington D.C. or some other large metropolitan centre. My answer generally involved having to draw a map to try and show where on earth Idaho is... So what causes an already jetlagged man to pack up on another long haul flight to the middle of nowhere?

Well many of you now know the answer. Carolyn and I were introduced to each other in Easter of 2009, through what can only be described as the machinations of my good friend Daniel and his then fiancée, Brooke. Carolyn had travelled to Oxford to see Brooke, and while here I had been summoned (again, I feel this is the correct term) to share Easter lunch at Brooke's host family. It was a pleasant enough time, and I thought she was a nice girl who I could get on with. But nothing could happen - after all she lives in Washington state and I in Bristol. It would never work...

I met her again briefly at the wedding of the aforementioned friends, and again conversation sparked and we talked until the sheer exhaustion of that particular day overtook me - the details of my insanity on that day are enough for another story at another time. However, rather than drifting of our separate ways as we had last time, this meeting led to a series of e-mail exchanges and various comments on Facebook. Over the next few months, this became a regular and established feature, and to use the vernacular, I began to fall for this American lady. She is beautiful, considerate, very funny (in a good way), and we realised we shared a passion for learning and teaching, as well as for travel and things historical, and most of all earnestly pursuing a knowledge of the Lord and a life that pleases Him. So in November of last year we began courting. I'll not lie, it was an odd experience, as in the time that we were courting we only met face to face once, when she came to the UK for her break in February. We were both warned, and in what little way that we could prepared ourselves for, that because of the unusual nature of our relationship, meeting each other as a couple could feel somewhat awkward. I am truly thankful that this was not the case, and we seemed to pick up where we left off, and enjoyed a lovely week together.

We kept communicating for the few months that followed, and I booked a ticket to fly out to the US for the away leg. Over this time, I was able to reflect on the week that we'd had together, on top of letters, e-mails and phone calls that we'd had with each other, and became more and more convinced that I wanted to marry this lady. And so, jetlagged as I was already, I happily compounded that on a trip to the Northwest, and on a bench in the University of Idaho Arboretum, in a section where plants from the Western North America lie beside those from Europe, I asked Carolyn if she would be my wife. I am pleased to announce that she said yes.

For those who have felt left out of the process, I hope this fills in some of the gaps! We are both looking forward to the 28th August which will be our wedding day (God willing) and for the life together that lies ahead of us beyond that. Your prayers for us will be appreciated, and thanks to all who have already offered their words of encouragement and congratulations!

Bible Study Software

Before I got my mac, I was a huge fan of the bible study software e-Sword, and if I hadn't switched to OSX, I'd still be using it. However, it is a Windows only application, and I was forced towards the functional, but at the time not nearly as good MacSword. It was probably the only regret of switching to a mac...

However, doing an update of MacSword a little while back has revealed version 2 of MacSword to have made huge moves, and is now just as good as I remember e-Sword (although not having access to e-Sword, I don't know where that is in its development), and so well worth a look, certainly for anyone laymen who are regularly involved in leading bible studies or giving talks. Further to my delight, it has released a version compatible with iPhone OS 3, called PocketSword, again something worth having if you are lucky enough to own an iPhone or an iPod Touch.

Back to study

After a gap of just shy of three years, I'm continuing my part time theological studies with the Moore College Correspondence Course. While I was in Malaysia, I helped teach the classes for three of modules and sat a further three, but when I returned to the UK, time pressures meant that I never got around to finishing off the Preliminary Theological Certificate.

However, with feeling a little more settled with my job, and study leave for some of my classes coming up, I feel there's a bit more time now to continue, so have signed up to study Ephesians over the next couple of months, which I'm looking forward to. While doing so, I may be trying to get back into the swing of doing more extended pieces of writing, which will probably find their way onto this blog. For those who want to follow, any comments would be welcome, and for the very few that actually read my blog on Blogger, I'll make sure the posts are labelled appropriately. Alternatively, it'll probably just be me blogging into the ether, but it'll be good for me...

A New Take on Contemporary Christian Music

I'm in the process of listening to the album Hymns by Page CXVI, which is a project to make the words of older hymns more accessible by setting them to more contemporary tunes. A first listen sounds good (although I am the sort that likes to mix good theology with a bit of a rocky beat), and I figure it's worth a listen and can be found here. The album is free to download for this week only I believe.

How the "Hopey-Changey" thing going?

There now follows a party political broadcast for the Conservative party (or is it the Liberal Democrats? It's hard to tell...):

When did British politics get all American? I suppose it has for a long time, but it feels particularly noticeable this time around, when it's hard to hear much about policy, but what we do know is there'll be lots of change. Change you can believe in. Change that works for you. You know it's getting bad when even the incumbent Prime Minister is talking about change...

As much as I remain politically conservative, David Cameron appears to be taking Boris Johnson's route to victory in the Mayoral Elections a few years back, a campaign for which I was surprised the Conservative Manifesto wasn't contained in one page and read:

"I'm a different person to Ken Livingstone. I also don't like bendy buses."

Not that you can blame him, it's a tactic that seems to work, the electorate appear to be quite happy for indiscriminate change at certain points. Yet it's a little frustrating that it's easy to feel that Josh Lyman's comment to John Hoynes (I wasn't going to get through this without a West Wing quote) sums up what we know of his policy quite well:

"I don't know what we're for, I don't we against, except we seem to be for winning and against somebody else winning."

As mentioned, this is not a particular will to see Gordon Brown win, I will stick my neck out and say I want to see a Conservative majority in the election and for David Cameron to make to trip to Buckingham Palace to form the next government. My problem though is the means in which that will happen - it's sound-bite stuff. The result will probably mean, with the debates, a hung parliament, as the one playing the sound-bites well at the moment is Nick Clegg. And then when all the dust has settled, we'll start moaning about parties not delivering what they promised and failing to make the connection between what happens after 6th May and what happened before...

"More than 600,000 Britons disrupted by Volcano Ash"

Well, I'm one of the statistics. I've seen so many of these news articles over the years, and although they often plucked my sympathy, you never think that it'll happen to you.

Well it has. And I'm stranded in Abu Dhabi, not really knowing when my return flight will happen. But before I garner any sympathy, I should point out I could be in worse places. This is a photo from my hotel, provide courtesy of Etihad Airways. The structure in the background happens to be the new Abu Dhabi Formula One Circuit - if you look closely you can see the Yas hotel that sits in the middle. The image in the other direction is also quite nice - it's a pretty nice room I've been placed in.

But now is time to wait. I'm unsure whether I'll be back for the start of term now, and I'm trying to see how many of my fellow educators are in a similar situation - I've met a fairly large number of teachers here waiting for a flight into Heathrow - it'll be interesting to see if there are any school closures resulting from lack of staff. I shall be watching the new with interest though, it's not like I have anything better to do...

Dalam Yesus kita bersaudera

I'm sitting in the front room of what used to be my flat some three years ago. For the last couple of weeks, I've been back in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the first time since leaving at the end of my apprenticeship in 2007, and it's been wonderful to come back. In something that seems a little bizarre given the short time I was out here (after all, I only spent 11 months in KL), the last few weeks have felt more like coming home than going on holiday, and it's been a real pleasure meeting old friends.

In wondering why that is, a clue was offered in the Bahasa Malaysia song that makes up the title, which I was sing yesterday. It translates as "In Jesus, we are family", and coming back here makes me feel how true that is. I'm not returning to acquaintances, or even close friends. In a very real sense it's coming back to family, family who welcomed me in and I shared my life with those years back. A new family, in Jesus Christ with God as Father.

"And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

Matthew 12:49-50

The flipside is that it makes departing harder than the average holiday. Maybe it's time to start looking again at the flight costs for next year...

We are what we worship

The Bible has a lot to say about mankind, and one of the biggest issues that rubs against modern culture is the fact that we are a people made for worship, or as I heard it put a couple of weeks ago, we as a species are less Homo sapiens or thinking man and much more Home adorans or worshipping man. We may resist it, but the continuing mirror held up to us is that if we are not worshipping the true God, then someone or something else will receive our worship.

All fine and well, but I've been struck recently by the fact that the object of our worship doesn't leave us unchanged, and so we are not only made for worship but made to be transformed by our worship. So then, if our worship is something false, then the results will be clear:

"The idols of the nations are silver and gold,

the work of human hands.

They have mouths, but do not speak;

they have eyes, but do not see;

they have ears but do not hear,

nor is there any breath in their mouths.

Those who make them become like them,

so do all who trust in them!'

Psalm 135:15-18

We will become what we worship. Tom Wright brilliantly rams this point home by revealing the truth of this Psalm in our modern context:

"Those who worship money define themselves in terms of it, and increasingly treat other people as creditors, debtors, partners or customers rather than human beings. Those who worship sex define themselves in terms of it (their preferences, their practices, their past histories) and increasingly treat people as actual or potential sex objects. Those who worship power define themselves in terms of it, and treat other people as collaborators, competitors or pawns. These and many kinds of idolatry combine in a thousand ways, all of them damaging to the image-bearing quality of the people concerned and the lives of those they touch."

Surprised by Hope, pg 195

Idolatry is something real and very much alive among us, and so it becomes less of a trivial issue when we open our eyes not only to its existence, but they very real and present damage that it is causing to people around us.

The Tune of the Vltava

There are some truths that can be said about me. I like travel. A lot. In particular, I like cities. Hence with very little provocation, I will head off to nose around some European capital. Each to their own addiction. Furthermore, I'm the sort of guy that will somehow feel some connection to a place that I plan to go to. There will be some monument, some person or just something that will draw me on a small pilgrimage towards a place. Hence, attractions that would, say, lead me to the business district of North Paris are not particularly uncommon. I will find something that ties me with some area of interest, usually theological, mathematical, scientific or historical. I suppose whatever takes my fancy...

Well, I've just got back from Prague, which was a lovely city, but dragged up a pilgrimage that has thus far been unrealised - one of particular musical interest. Now, this has a lot to do with the complete lack of things required to be musical, things like talent, an ear for music or much of a degree of arsty-ness (there is good reason I studied Engineering...), but I have been training myself very slowly to appreciate music, and in this regard, a certain Czech composer has a strong grip on me.

That composer is Betrich Smetana, composer of Má Vlast. When I was younger, I heard a part of that symphony called Die Moldau, which I then found out was a tone poem describing the River Vltava in Prague, and it became the first piece of music I ever connected to, that I felt I understood, I could see the river as I listened to orchestra playing. It felt very special, and has remained a favourite piece of mine ever since. So to actually see the Vltava for myself, almost to see if the picture painted for me by Smetana was true, was a wonderful feeling, as I stood in the ramparts of Vysehrad in the South of the city looking down the river. The music was flowing through my head the whole time I was there.

Additionally, while I was at Vysehrad, there is a cemetery there that holds a number of famous Czechs, probably the most famous of them being another composer, Antoine Dvorak, whose remains lie under a rather noticeable tombstone, complete with bust and crowd of tourists around him. A little further round the corner though lies a simple monument, with the words B. Smetana engraved on them. I had the excuse myself from the others barging past, but there lay the man responsible, 150 years on, of inspiring my interest in music. And the world moves on.