rules are rules

tea and sympathy for Nicola, but Scotland has to leave the EU with the rest of the UK.  Rules are rules.

well I did it

I did it, I am participating in the scanning.  the letter went off, ( if I can call it a letter)

appraisals

My appraisal is tomorrow.  I have hated them ever since the first one I had in my first job.  They are well meant, but I doubt if those who created this idea ever worked on shop floor.  Some of the questions are just downright partronising.  One wonders how stupid one has to be.  In a routine job one does the same thing day in day out and then in an appraisal is asked what aspect of the Job has given greatest satisfaction. What am i meant to say to that?  A stuffed letter is a stuffed letter and I send out thousand of them.

The way I see it is this

Two men are braking stones.  A man approaches the first man and asks, "What are you doing"?  He says, "Can you not see, I am breaking stones".  He goes to the second man and asks, "What are you doing"?  He says, "I am building temples. 

It is all a question of perspective.  I am building temples.

Bexit

Britain has voted to leave the EU. No country has ever left the EU before.  I expect this has come as a shock to those in power in the EU, especially the European Commission.  Pressure will probably come from Scotland for another independence referendum.  There is great anger throughout the country. It is only about one year since David Cameron and his party won an overall majority and yet he has been defeated.  He will resign as Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party before the party conference in October.  It is all change

Where is God in the midst of all this?  There is song we sang in church.

kingdoms may rise, Kingdoms may fall.
Nations refuse to hear God's call
But the word of the lord
Endureth forevermore.

Take God at his promise
Put your faith in Christ
Trust him for salvation and
e ternal life

Things that we love
last for a day
Then in the morning
Fade away
But the word of the lord
Endureth for evermore.

One way or another, God is in control.  Nothing will or can thwart his plans.

New recruits and Refugees, crisis or opportunity?

I addressed new recruits this morning.  I spoke to them on Mathew 4 from verse 12 and told them that when Jesus moved to Galilee, this  was a sign that he was the messiah.  The prophet Isaiah had fortold this and so this was a sign that Jesus was whom he claimed to be and that as he called the disciples, they were leaving the lives they had once known, giving up their regular income in the fishing industry to follow him and they would find that they had talents that they did not know they had up until then.  Likewise, as new recruits they are also stepping out in faith.  I also told them that God trained the disciples and that even a short term mission is training for life. 

Pray for them as they go to their fields and experience new situations.  They have no idea what could happen, but I told them that God will teach them new things.

Last Saturday, I attended an OM Event about refugees.  Whatever you may think, there is a major refugee crisis and some of them will be coming to this country. Indeed we know that some of them will be coming to Oswestry.  The people who led the event are all people I know who have served in outreach to Muslims.  They presented cultural issues that will come up if we meet refugees, many of whom in their own country are people who would be looked up to.  Educated people who cope with their own culture, but what for them will be a new culture, in some respects they will be like children.  To illustrate the point, one of the speakers asked us to write our signature with our other hand.  ( for most of us this would be the left hand). Signing my name is so simple.  I have done it thousands of times.  However it is very difficult with my left hand.  That is what it will be like for refugees.  Their life skills will be less effective in a new culture as they adapt.  We in turn have to love them for it is an opportunity to introduce them to Christ.  Pray for us as this unfolds.

Romans one

 It seems to me that the arguement is that God made people Gay. This is nonsense. In the widest sense of sin, God did not make any of us sinners. Adam and Eve rebelled against god and sin entered in, it was not God, so God does not make any of us Gay. It is also being argued that God must approve of a loving Gay relationship. Bear in mind that Jesus is part of the Godhead and therefore is God. He saw to it that the bible was written and all the scriptures about the practice of homosexuality have thus far been quoted in this discussion, so I am not going to quote them all again. However Romans one puts paid to the idea that God makes people Gay. There are many people who are gay and know it is wrong and have been saved and they wrestle with it like Paul wrestled with his thorn in the flesh. Many of us including myself have our thorn in the flesh. It is also argued that God wants us in a loving Gay relationship, how could a loving God want us to be alone, well Paul was not married and neither am I. Do I blame God? No, I get on with a life of service. However, if you have no conscience and think doing homosexual acts is pleasing to God, even if it is in only one relationship then I think that you should take heed of the warning in Romans one. Far from approving of it God Gave people up to their sinful desires and therefore to his wrath as we see in the following.




God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

bexit

http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/06/out-and-into-the-world-why-the-spectator-is-for-leave/