Subliminal marketing in John Lewis

John Lewis Brent Cross today - no need for this

Lion King

Cinema is cheaper on Mondays than other days so we took advantage and the three of us headed off this week to see the new Lion King. Disney are currently engaged in a plan to remake in sort of live action form all their cartoons. This is the first I've seen and I thought it was okay. It's still not live action. Apparently the opening shot is the only live action shot in the movie.

Rather than slavishly follow the original script they have shown some flexibility which seems wise. Perhaps the main problem is that it is not likely that the new film will outstrip the original. It is simply a different form of the previous one, something like a remake. Often it is as good sometimes, other time the task is impossible (how can anyone top Rowan Atkinson's original Zazu?).

My DNA

Probably need to click to see this

Lord's Day July 28 2019

Really good Lord's Day. I am tempted to wonder if things are improving. Of course, there were plenty of people missing for reasons good and bad and we were rather a small number at the start of the morning service but lots of encouragements too. Three women were there who have begun to attend more recently and it was good to talk to them and get to know them a bit better. It was good to have a local family present who almost never come to us. I also had a good chat with someone who attends but is unconverted but edging closer, I hope. We have at least three apparently unsaved people who regularly attend with family members. I preached from 2 Peter 1:21 in the morning. It is good to be covering such ground, as basic as it is. In the evening we carried on in Matthew 26, Gethsemane this time, You are bound to feel you failed with such a subject but I tried hard. One factor in the evening was the presence of a whole family, including three younger children and a Venezualan lady from Galicia in Spain who is a believer but has no English (she is the first person I have met who used her phone to translate - speaking into it in Spanish and letting it speak in English).

Day off week 30 2019

I did take a formal day off last week and want to record it to encourage myself and other ministers to take it seriously. I chose Thursday, which turned out to be the hottest day of the year, etc. As we are now in the holiday season I spent the morning preparing for Sunday as I had rather frittered parts of the first three days of the week. The day was then dominated by two activities. First, I went with Eleri down to the Hilton on Park Lane for tea. This is not our usual patter. This was a kind gift from members of the church who arranged it in celebration of my turning 60 this year. Getting there was tough in the heat but then we sat in the lovely and cool lobby at the Hilton and then went into their Podium restaurant where we enjoyed open sandwiches, scones, beautiful cakes, tea and a champagne alternative. Very nice indeed. We then headed home and binge watched most of the BBC drama Keeping Faith. Can't recommend this to everyone due to the swearing but it is an amazingly good drama on its own terms. In Faith Howells they have created a very real flawed but attractive figure who is compelling. The supporting cast are brilliant too. The drama is recorded in Welsh and in English. My Welsh is insufficient to enjoy it. Eleri tells me, however, that because the Welsh one needs to be shorter to allow for S4C adverts there are minor plot differences, which is always interesting. Good day then.

10 New names for London Underground Stations

1. Baking Street

2. Swiss Hottage

3. Kilburns

4. Charredwing Cross

5. Sprayswater

6. Hotting Hill Gate

7. Templeture

8. Furn'cechurch Street

9. Searsden

10. Sultry Docks

Midweek Meeting July 24 2019

Despite the heat it was great to see eight of us (eventually) gathered to pray and to look at God;'s Word. We began with Psalm 131 - very brief but full of good stuff. We then discussed what to pray. Always loads - health, visa, an asylum application, people in danger, people in need, people struggling, old friends and new, babies coming sooner and later, a new PM, Sunday sermons, Beach missons, camps, etc, etc. A priviege to be there once again.

Lord's Day July 21 2019

THE CURSE OF SELF-CONFIDENCE

I felt it was a very good day yesterday. I seemed to be able to pray well, which is not always the case I confess and the preaching was clear and to the point I hope. The only hiccough was missing the second hymn in the morning but that is not big deal (I had listened to most of the Keswick meeting on Radio 4 that morning and thought there was too much singing and not enough time for the "talk" as they called it, perhaps it was an unconscious protest on my part). Numbers were not great in the morning or evening - it's that time of the year. However, it was nice to have an old Filipina friend with us and another who hope to come regularly in future plus a local Nigerian lady who came for the first time last week. It was also to see a fomer Muslim member back after several weeks missing owing chiefly to a family crisis. In the morning we were saying goodbye to the Saywells who have been with us during their time at Childs Hill. We will miss them. Reuben is going to be working in Maidenbower Baptist. We had communion before the evening service and then I preached on Matthew 26:30-35 to ten people. The sermon was chockful with illustrations which we were all happy about I think. I recently started a sermon illustration blog, which may grow to a decent size. See here.

Preview Lord's Day July 21

Yellow

There is a yellow themed party here in Aber this afternoon.

One makes the effort. Happy birthday Sibyl!

When I was 5

We're helping our oldest grandson celebrate his fifth birthday.

I remember what I had when I was five in 1964 - a Triang two wheel scooter.
I should add that I remember being in the kitchen of what was then our new home and seeing the scooter still in parts in its cardboard box. My dad then put it together. I am now 60 and my dad is long dead but there is an unfading picture in my head of being 5 and watching the scooter appear at my father's hands. He has set eternity in ourhearts.

Midweek Meeting July 17 2019

We did something unusual for us last night  - we combined our church members meeting and midweek meeting.  There are snags with doing that and we have avoided doing it before now. Anyway seven of met to kook at Psalm 134 and then to pray. This was followed by the members meeting. We still managed to finish by 9.35 so pretty good. Psalm 134 is a great psalm. We had not looked at it before.

That controversial St Augustine quote

A quote from St Augustine has apparently been labelled hate speech by Facebook. The offending line appears to be "men are hopeless". The quote is part of Augustine's exposition of Psalm 51. On the psalm he writes

I acknowledge my transgression, says David. If I admit my fault, then you will pardon it. Let us never assume that if we live good lives we will be without sin; our lives should be praised only when we continue to beg for pardon.
But men are hopeless creatures, and the less they concentrate on their own sins, the more interested they become in the sins of others. They seek to criticise, not to correct. Unable to excuse themselves, they are ready to accuse others.
This was not the way that David showed us how to pray and make amends to God, when he said: I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me. David did not concentrate on others’ sins; he turned his thoughts on himself. He did not merely stroke the surface, but he plunged inside and went deep down within himself. So he did not spare himself, and therefore was not impudent in asking to be spared.
Do you want God to be appeased? Learn what you are to do that God may be pleased with you. Consider the psalm again: If you wanted sacrifice, I would indeed have given it; in burnt offerings you will take no delight. Are you then to be without sacrifice? Are you to offer nothing? Will you please God without an offering?
Consider what you read in the same psalm: If you wanted sacrifice, I would indeed have given it; in burnt offerings you will take no delight. But continue to listen, and say with David: A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit; God does not despise a contrite and humble heart.
Cast aside your former offerings, for now you have found out what you are to offer. In the days of your fathers you would have made offerings of cattle – these were the sacrifices. If you wanted sacrifice, I would indeed have given it. These then, Lord, you do not want, and yet you do want sacrifice.
You will take no delight in burnt offerings, David says. If you will not take delight in burnt offerings, will you remain without sacrifice? Not at all. A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit; God does not despise a contrite and humble heart.
You now have the offering you are to make. No need to examine the herd, no need to outfit ships and travel to the most remote provinces in search of incense. Search within your heart for what is pleasing to God. Your heart must be crushed. Are you afraid that it might perish so? You have the reply: Create a clean heart in me, O God. For a clean heart to be created, the unclean one must be crushed.
We should be displeased with ourselves when we commit sin, for sin is displeasing to God. Sinful though we are, let us at least be like God in this, that we are displeased at what displeases him. In some measure then you will be in harmony with God’s will, because you find displeasing in yourself what is abhorrent to your Creator.

10 Beatles songs featuring handclaps

1. Eight days a week

2. I wanna hold your hand

3. Hold me tight

4. I saw her standing there

5. All yiiu need is love

6. I'm looking through you

7. It's all too much

8. I'll get you

9. Here comes the sun

10. All together now

Lord's Day in Bradford on Avon

I was preaching last Lord's Day in Bradford on Avon. It was a full day as they begin with Sunday School where I gave my paper on John Cennick (this time entitled The Apostle of Wiltshire). I preached on Ephesians 2:8-10 and Isaiah 42:8. It was good to be there. We know quite a few there to some extent including the previous pastor Robert Oliver and his wife Rachel. We also know the present pastor, Robert Strivens. He an his wife were with us 10 years before moving there. It is an ageing congregation but faithful and prayerful. One oddity is that we had lunch with Eleri's sister and family. With several others they no longer belong to Bradford but worship in a new church in nearby Hilperton (where I have also preached in the past). Not all the issues that led to this state of affairs have been fully resolved or seem likely to be, sadly. It was good to be there, nevertheless. The sermons are currently on the church website. Reuben Saywell was preaching here.