God created Scotland

And God Created

In the beginning, The Lord God Almighty, sitting on His throne on high, turned to His mate, the Archangel Gabriel and said "Gabby, today I'm going to create Scotland. I will make it a country of dark beautiful mountains, purple glens and rich green forests. I will give it clear swift flowing rivers and I will fill them with salmon. The land shall be lush and fertile, on which the people shall grow barley to brew into an amber nectar that will be much sought after the world over. Underneath the land I shall lay rich seams of coal.In the waters around the shores there will be an abundance of fish and beneath the sea bed there will be vast deposits of oil and gas".

"Excuse me Sire", interrupted the Archangel Gabriel, "Don't you think you are being a bit too generous to these Scots"?"Not really", replied the Lord, "wait 'til you see the neighbours I'm giving them".

Whas Like US?

As the average Englishman moves about the home he calls his castle, watch him enjoy a typical English breakfast of toast and marmalade invented by Mrs Keiller of Dundee, Scotland; see him slipping into his national costume, a soiled raincoat, patented by Charles MacIntosh, a Glasgow druggist; and follow his footsteps over the linoleum flooring invented in Kirkcaldy, Scotland.
On The Road Out he goes - along the English lane surfaced by John MacAdam of Ayr, Scotland (known as the MacAdamized road), smoking an English cigarette, first manufactured by Robert Croag of Perthshire, Scotland. He hops aboard an English bus, which is using tyres invented by John Boyd Dunlop, of Dreghorn, Scotland and later completes his journey by rail. (A reminder the James Watt of Greenock, Scotland invented the Steam Engine). At the office he is presented with the morning mail containing adhesive stamps invented by John Chalmers of Dundee, Scotland; and periodically during the day, he reaches for the telephone, invented by Alexander Graham Bell, born of Scottish parents.
At home in the evening, our English cousins wife is preparing his national dish of roast beef of old England - prime Aberdeen Angus, raised in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. This sets the patriotic heart beating a little faster, and he enters the dining room whistling "Ye Mariners of England" written and composed by Thomas Campbell of Glasgow, Scotland. After dinner there follows a scene typical of English domestic bliss. Young Albert is packed off to Boys Brigade, founded by Sir William Smith of Glasgow, Scotland; Ted goes to the Scouts, the present Chief of which is Sir Charles MacLean of Duart, Scotland; and little Ethel plays on her bicycle, invented by Kirkpatrick MacMillan, a blacksmith of Dumfries, Scotland. Mother, in the kitchen, bleaches clothes with bleach invented by James McGregor of Glasgow, Scotland. dad listens to the news on the television, invented by John Logie Baird of Helensburgh, Scotland, and hears an item about the United States Navy, founded by John Paul Jones, of Kirkbean, Scotland. Maybe, just maybe, he will remember that the radar with which the U.S. and other fleets are equipped was invented by Sir Robert A. Watson Watt, of Brechin, Scotland.
Once the children come home, Dad supervises the homework, using logarithms invented by John Napier of Edinburgh. The English course contains familiar books such as "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson, and "Robinson Crusoe", based on the life of Alex Selkirk, of , Scotland. If by now he has been reminded too much of Scotland, he may in desperation pick up the bible - here at last to have something without Scottish associations; but he is disillusioned - the first man mentioned in the bible is a Scot, James VI, who authorised its translation. Its hopeless. Nowhere he can turn to escape the efficiency and ingenuity of the Scots. He could take a drink - but we supply the best in the world. He could stick his head in the oven - but the coal gas was discovered by William Murdoch of Ayr, Scotland. He could take rifle and blow his brains out, but. of course the breach loading rifle was invented by a Scot. Anyway, if he survived, injured, he would simple find himself on an operating table, injected with Penicillin, discovered by Alexander Flaming of Darvel, Scotland; given an anaesthetic discovered by James Young Simpson of Bathgate, Scotland; and operated on be antiseptic surgery pioneered at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. On coming out of the anaesthetic, he would probable take no comfort in learning from his surgeon that he was as safe as the Bank of England, founded by William Paterson of Dumfries, Scotland.
Poor fellows only hope would be to receive a transfusion of good SCOTs blood which would entitle him to ask
"Whas like us?"
Gie few and thur aw deed !

• • 
    

james Philips obituary

I wonder if we consider the cost of ministy.  This is James Philips obituary. I met his a couple of times and also his brother George.

Pastor and theologian

Born: 11 January, 1922, in Bucksburn, Aberdeenshire.
Died: 12 March, 2009, in Edinburgh, aged 87.

JAMES Philip arrived in Edinburgh in January 1958 to take over a run-down church in Abbeyhill. He was not the congregation's first choice, nor even its fifth choice – 19 others had been approached before him, and each had declined. This was no attractive appointment.

Philip had left a fruitful ministry in Gardenstown, Banffshire. Within weeks of arriving in Holyrood Abbey Church he was walking the parish streets in the evenings with a desolate heart. Opposition to his style of preaching was palpable.
The turning point came as he stood one day on Salisbury Crags, surveying the city, and struggling with his new call. If this moribund church was going to influence lives in Edinburgh, it would need divine intervention. He walked home that afternoon with a deep sense of expectancy.
The following week Philip initiated a Saturday evening meeting with a single focus: to pray. The meeting began in the vestry but, as numbers grew, it quickly had to move into the church hall.
Prayer was to characterise the life of Holyrood Abbey Church. Jim Philip prayed with a deep sense of dependence, and of awe. In each church service he would lean forward to the microphone, his hands open, as he ushered the congregation into the intimacy he shared with the triune God; it was an experience not to be forgotten. Then, as the congregation sang the hymn before the sermon, Philip would be on his knees in the pulpit; this was no formal gesture.

Philip had a huge mind. He was a man of searing intellect and of broad intellectual reach. He preached a reasoned gospel, as had the Apostle Paul, one of the most gifted academics in the Greek world. The Letter to the Romans, the Apostle's passionate apologetic for reasoned faith, was possibly Philip's favourite Bible book, certainly his most preached.
By the early to mid-1960s, students from Edinburgh University and Moray House were piling into the gallery on Sunday mornings and evenings, soon to be joined by fifth and sixth-formers from schools across the city.
In the evenings his Geneva gown gave way to a collar and tie. He always dressed with care, even a sense of formality.
Philip's preaching appealed to nurses, businessmen, academics and blue-collar workers. All would sit with their Bibles open in front of them, engaging with the passage he was expounding. With his distinctive style – always serious, always urgent, always controlled in its delivery, he would place the passage in the context of the whole Bible, and work to apply it to the social and political trends of the day.

Where the original Hebrew or Greek was not easy to translate, Philip would explain why; he would quote, sometimes at length, from commentaries or articles to throw light on the original meaning or its application. The congregation actively engaged with him, taking notes as they expanded their grasp of scripture, and developed a faculty to think theologically.
Scores followed him into ministry in the Church of Scotland or served in mission work overseas.
James Philip was the second of three children born to James Philip, a lithographic printer, and his wife, Isabella. Aged 12, he won a bursary to Robert Gordon's College, Aberdeen. He was a keen sportsman and an able young musician. While still a teenager, he would play the organ for meetings held by the great Scottish evangelist of the day, D P Thomson.
Philip read arts and classics at Aberdeen University, graduating MA in 1942. It was in his time at university that his career path was set, but first came service in India and Burma with the RAF.
He married Mary Moffat, great-great-granddaughter of the pioneer missionary Robert Moffat, in November 1960. She had grown up in northern Rhodesia and was completing her medical training in Edinburgh. It was a strong and supportive marriage for a demanding ministry of study, writing and travel.

While vocally critical of the Church of Scotland when he sensed it was moving from the historic faith, Philip always exercised grace, and was held in esteem by churchmen of all stripes for his careful thinking and diligent work in the Presbytery.
He served in the Church's selection school procedures, for many years as a director, renowned for his scrupulous fairness. It is one expression of Philip's legacy to the Church of Scotland that his son William is presently the minister of St George's-Tron, Glasgow, and his daughter is married to the minister of Torrance. (His brother George was minister of Sandyford Henderson Memorial Church in Glasgow.)
Philip leaves a huge corpus of work, in writing and on tape. Many of his sermons are available on the web, and his writing has been translated into major languages.
The late Professor David F Wright of New College, and David Stay, on the staff of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, co-edited a Festschrift, Serving the Word of God, in honour of Philip's 80th birthday in 2002.

Read more: http://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/james-philip-1-1031284#ixzz4BeDwFaEi
Follow us: @TheScotsman on Twitter | TheScotsmanNewspaper on Facebook

Friends 1st and discernment.

Expert support

It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it, and that’s what gets results. We don’t just introduce Christians – we provide tools, education, coaching and support to make sure you’re doing the right things in the right way.

the above comes from, " Friends 1st".  What it really means is,, " We will send you letters to get you to buy products that are expensive and unnessary and we will use language to manipulate your emotions to buy it.  Words such as "Discerning" people like you George know the value of presenting yourself well, so if you spend £97 per month for four months you can have our package to teach you.  The logic is if I do not buy it then I am not discerning.  

Sadly typical of JM

Jory Micah‎ to Christian Bloggers Network

2 hrs ·

Sadly, this is a common message I get from so called "Christians."
"Show me please where in the Bible it says women are allowed to teach from the Bible. I'd like to see for myself. I believe you are leading unsaved souls down a dark path and God will not hold back His wrath from those who lead His sheep astray."

(I am shaking in my boots *eye roll*)
Women preachers are not evil; sexism in the name of the Bible is what's evil!
‪#‎SundayMorningReminder‬ #jorymicah.com

Sadly this is typical of JM. She has no consideration of God's judgment to come. She has been well warned and note the attitude,  SO CALLED Christians.  Some of us are in God's family whether she approves or not.  Indeed some of us were accepted by God and proclaiming truth long before she was born.  Some of us aquired wisdom long before she was born.  What she says shows a heart that is as hard as nails.

Another post from JM

It's easy to forget that we are all at different places in our Christian journey! There was a time when I wouldn't have agreed with many of the things I now believe & say! Learning to love & embrace everyone where they are at, even if they don't see things my way...yet! 

the above was written by JM, admittedly with a wink, but I am sure she means it.  She really thinks we should agree with everything she thinks, even when she has twisted or ignored the context or ignored passages of scripture to reach her conclusions.this one came from Facebook.

the rebel

Today guest writer Jory Micah shares some of her personal story. “I had a realization. As a woman in ministry I could accept ‘my place”‘ or I could dust the dirt off my shoulders, and do my own thing. I left my safe church job and gave up having a salary. My husband, who has always been very supportive of me as a minister, was scared. He wanted me to stay put in my safe church job. He wanted to see me succeed. I submitted to him for two years and I am glad I did, because those two years are my most valuable ministry experience. But, when God told me to go, I could no longer submit to my husband’s mixture of wisdom and fear. I had “holy rebellion” in my blood and Jesus was saying, ‘It’s time to fly, girl’.”

Note the old argument used by generations." When GOD TOLD ME"  God tells us what we need to know in the bible. When people say "God told me" that usually means they had a feeling and it was God, so do not argue I am right and there is no other view.

The opening statement about accepting her place is also a mis representation of what the bible says.  Women should be using all their gifts in the way that God has prescribed.

I would describe Jory Micah as a rebel, not a holy rebel and if she keeps going this way then it grieves me so say that one day she may face Gods judgement and find she was fooling herself and others.

last Saturday

I went to the aquarium with D last Saturday. I love her. I really enjoy her company and she has done far more for me than anyone else has ever done.  I see God in it.  She loves the lord. I love listening to her talk about her experience of the lord and I trust she enjoys listening to me talk about the same thing.