Crusader Event!

Tomorrow the leaders of Crusaders are meeting to discuss a couple of things. Firstly to sort out if we are going to follow the national organisation and change our name from "Crusaders" to "Urban Saints". This is obviously quite an important decision to make and it would be brill if you praying types could pray for us.

Our main reason for meeting is to plan for an outreach event in the new year. Over the past years our numbers have fallen to around 4 or 5 older secondary kids each week. This is due to mostly a lack of leaders and therefore a lack of resource. This makes planning an exciting program harder and last year meant that we often had to cancel an evening. With this lack of consistency a lot more of the younger people have stopped coming. Also advertising to younger, primary, kids has been rather non-existent again because of a lack of people.


The idea is to (on a Saturday afternoon) have inflatables and sumo suits etc. in the church hall where we meet. We also want games and other interesting things going on and hope to have lots of 8-12 year old's having fun and getting them interested in coming along on Monday nights. Then on the regular Mondays have a fast moving, engaging program and an atmosphere which they feel comfortable in.


There are a number of problems though:

• We will need to publicise the event well

Sadly in the past the primary schools have been very resistant to us coming in and talking probably because Pollockshields has large majority of Muslim and Seekers in the area which are resistant to Christianity.

• More support and leaders

The local Churches seem to have little or no youngsters in and there seems little ambition from the churches to improve the situation, they all seem doom and gloom about it! Also one of our female leaders has left. So now the group is run by my dad (John), Louise (19), Craig (19 & non-christian) and myself (18). While of course younger leaders is great, there is much responsibility still placed on John, also Louise (being the only female) needs to turn up every week so that girls can come.

• What to do with the existing older primary Kids

We have a small number of older kids whom probably don't want to join in with the younger guys.

These things seem to be limiting us and when planning for the afternoon and the program for the new year there seem so many problems, difficulties and at times it seems impossible. There there is no point moaning though because I completely trust that God has a plan! The victory IS the Lords and he WILL prevail. So could you pray that when we, the leaders, meet tomorrow that we would open ourselves to Gods wonders and not limit him because then we will see miracles.

As I said, we will need one off volunteers for the "Event" but we desperately need more leaders for us to see the group grow again; especially females. Crusaders is a non-denominational Christian youth group for 8-16 year olds. We run on a Moday night from 7-8:30pm at Pollockshields Church and run a games based program. The aim is to teach young people about God in an engaging way! If your interested in being a volunteer then please email me and I'll get back to you!! I have no doubt God WILL provide the children and the volunteers for he is God. He WILL make all these things possible.

Christmas

Today has been a really nice day :) It started badly though when my friend text me at 6:34am waking me up; it seems he clearly hadn't remembered Proverbs 27:14

"You might as well curse your friends as wake them up early in the morning with a loud greeting."

Things soon picked and dispite being 18 (I had assumed the big present days where in the past) I received some of the coolest gifts EVER!
Got a guitar amp, 2x Monty Python DVDs, 2GB memory card for my phone and the greatest chocolates ever: Thornton's with "Graham M.O.M." written on a footy boot!

For my brother I bought two Cd's: Snow Patrol and Daemon Rice which are just beautifully made (the Rice album "9" is a definite must buy) which we've enjoying listening too. Also there has been loads of brill food, though we suspect that the Turkey might have food poisoning! As always Church was good fun too (The minister now owes me £10 :P)

The whole day has been generally good laugh :D and I thank God for blessing me so much with friends and family who love me! I really am so fortunate. I really hope your day was as nice. Also most importantly thank Jesus for sending him son to the earth for us, I cannot express how amazing I find that! Amen

Rugger

Defined (by Graham): Rugby is probably the coolest game: It's a game of determination and strength with some skill thrown in for good measure!!

I'm an expert on such things even though I've never played the game (big regret). My expertise, in fact, comes from watching it on the T.V. and the occasional banter filled, match! This evening while watching a match, Glasgow Warriors vs Edinburgh Rugby, I have come to the conclusion that Rugby, as well as being a cool game, is also a game for Toffs (By the way, Is it just me or anyone else think they must have run out of original names when they got to Edinburgh??). Anyway, I have some extensive proof to, well, prove it!

• When Chris Patterson (Edinburgh player) stepped up to kick a conversion the whole place went silent to let him concentrate!

Now I'm a Football fan and this behaviour is unheard of. Putting the other team off is half the game! It is obvious that only Toffs would let the other team concentrate.

• Only the Private School's (and government funded private schools) play rugby

Almost none of the public schools (in Glasgow at least) play the game therefore the only people that play the game are from Private school and clearly ALL people who go to Private school are Toffs! Its science my friends!

• Its only played in the West end of Glasgow

This the the final nail in the coffin for those who choose to ignore the obvious! The West End of Glasgow is the posh bit of Glasgow. Everyone knows that and there is no point denying it! Everyone who lives there is rich and clearly very Toffish!

Therefore, after extensive research, it is clear Rugby is for Toffs. Rar Rar! Cucumber Sandwiches anyone?

*One bitter and under educated south-sider signing off*

NOTE: Please don't talk this too seriously

Christmas at Crusaders!

Today i got my new laptop! So I quickly explored the box and began to play, even reading the instructions!! To my great surprise the computer connected to the wireless very easily with a "excellent" signal, SUPERB! Sadly though after about 5Min's the connection became "disabled" which meant that I couldn't go on the net. Also I cannot seem to "see" any of the shared folders on my desktop from the laptop. So after a morning and afternoon of battling against the Microsoft evil I finally have had to give up and just plugged the laptop into the router.

Normally I wouldn't give up so soon but today I am planning and talking at crusaders. As one would expect the theme is Christmas. The talk is on the second part of "Why did Jesus come to earth?" in which ill be discussing and explaining Jesus sacrifice and what it means for us *worried face*. Thing are no helped by my computer problems making this already difficult subject harder to think about and plan. This is the last time we meet before the holidays so it's important that we give them a good time so they come back!! haha

So all your prayers would be much appreciated. Could you pray for the kids, that they would arrive safely and that they would enjoy the programme and for me as I talk; asking that the kids who have heard it all before would see something new and for the others that they would just be so interested in what God has to say. Could you also pray for the other leaders and we plan and talk. I Thank God he gives us (all of us) this great job to spread his word, what a privilege!

Wrapping!

I recently recieved this email from a friend!

This is the time of year when we think back to the very first Christmas, when the Three Wise Men -- Gaspar, Balthazar, and Herb -- went to see the baby Jesus and, according to the Book of Matthew, "presented unto Him gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh."

These are simple words, but if we analyze them carefully, we discover an important, yet often overlooked, theological fact: there is no mention of wrapping paper. If there had been wrapping paper, Matthew would have said so:

"And lo, the gifts were inside 600 square cubits of paper. And the paper was festooned with pictures of Frosty the Snowman. And Joseph was going to throweth it away, but Mary saideth unto him, she saideth, 'Holdeth it! That is nice paper! Saveth it for next year!' And Joseph did rolleth his eyeballs. And the baby Jesus was more interested in the paper than the frankincense."

But these words do not appear in the Bible, which means that the very first Christmas gifts were NOT wrapped. This is because the people giving those gifts had two important characteristics:

1. They were wise.

2. They were men.

Men are not big gift wrappers. Men do not understand the point of putting paper on a gift just so somebody else can tear it off. This is not just my opinion, this is a scientific fact based on a statistical survey of two guys I know! One is Rob, who said the only time he ever wraps a gift is "if it's such a poor gift that I don't want to be there when the person opens it." The other is Gene, who told me he does wrap gifts, but as a matter of principle never takes more than 15 seconds per gift. "No one ever had to wonder which presents daddy wrapped at Christmas," Gene said. "They were the ones that looked like enormous spitballs."

I also wrap gifts, but because of some defect in my motorskills, I can never completely wrap them. I can take a gift the size of a deck of cards and put it the exact center of a piece of wrapping paper the size of a regulation volleyball court, but when I am done folding and taping, you can still see a sector of the gift peeking out. (Sometimes I camouflage this sector with a marking pen.) If I had been an ancient Egyptian in the field of mummies, the lower half of the Pharaoh's body would be covered only by Scotch tape.

On the other hand, if you give my wife a 12-inch square of wrapping paper, she can wrap a C-130 cargo plane. My wife,like many women, actually likes wrapping things. If she gives you a gift that requires batteries, she wraps the batteries separately, which to me is very close to being a symptom of mental illness. If it were possible, my wife would wrap each individual volt.

My point is that gift-wrapping is one of those skills like having babies that come more naturally to women than to men. That is why today I am presenting:Gift Wrapping Tips for Men:

* Whenever possible, buy gifts that are already wrapped. If,when the recipient opens the gift, neither one of you recognizes it, you can claim that it's myrrh.*

The editors of Woman's Day magazine recently ran an item on how to make your own wrapping paper by printing a design on it with an apple sliced in half horizontally and dipped in a mixture of food coloring and liquid starch. They must be smoking crack. If you're giving a hard-to-wrap gift, skip the wrapping paper! Just put it inside a bag and stick one of those little adhesive bows on it. This creates a festive visual effect that is sure to delight the lucky recipient on Christmas morning:

YOUR WIFE: Why is there a Hefty trash bag under the tree?

YOU: It's a gift! See? It has a bow!

YOUR WIFE (peering into the trash bag): It's a leaf blower.

YOU: Gas-powered! Five horsepower!

YOUR WIFE: I want a divorce.

YOU: I also got you some myrrh.

In conclusion, remember that the important thing is not what you give, or how you wrap it. The important thing, during this very special time of year, is that you save the receipt.

Author Unknown (but definitely male)

C.S.Lewis

C.S.Lewis is a magnificent writer (as I'm sure many of you know) and he is most famous for the Narnia series (which I read as a child). They are filled with deep metaphors throughout the series. With his characters and plot lines running deep into christian beliefs. It's truly inspired stuff! He's also written a number of other very good books aimed at a more adult audience like "Mere Christianity" which I borrowed from a friend and finished a couple of weeks ago.

In the book he explains in a very simple way many issues which non-Christians and Christians bring up. Yet his points keep the issues complexity and he doesn't make the reader feel small, it's fantastic! Also is analogies and illustrations are god given. I would recommend to anyone who hasn't read it to get yourself a copy. Even if it's just for an adventure in language!

If you follow this link you can read the book online (I think) and I've copied one of many illustrations which I really enjoyed, he's dealing with the idea of God outside of time:

"Almost certainly God is not in Time. His life does not consist of moments following one another. If a million people are praying to Him at ten-thirty tonight, He need not listen to them all in that one little snippet which we call ten-thirty. Ten-thirty-and every other moment from the beginning of the world-is always the Present for Him. If you like to put it that way, He has all eternity in which to listen to the split second of prayer put up by a pilot as his plane crashes in flames.

That is difficult, I know. Let me try to give something, not the same, but a bit like it. Suppose I am writing a novel. I write 'Mary laid down her work; next moment came a knock at the door!' For Mary who has to live in the imaginary time of my story there is no interval between putting down the work and hearing the knock. But I, who am Mary's maker, do not live in that imaginary time at all. Between writing the first half of that sentence and the second, I might sit down for three hours and think steadily about Mary. I could think about Mary as if she were the only character in the book and for as long as I pleased, and the hours I spent in doing so would not appear in Mary's time (the time inside the story) at all.

This is not a perfect illustration, of course. But it may give just a glimpse of what I believe to be the truth. God is not hurried along in the Time-stream of this universe any more than an author is hurried along in the imaginary time of his own novel. He has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not have to deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created. When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you had been the only man in the world.
The way in which my illustration breaks down is this. In it the author gets out of one Time-series (the real one). But God, I believe, does not live in a Time-series at all. His life is not dribbled out moment by moment like ours with Him it is, so to speak, still 1920 and already 1960 For His life is Himself.

If you picture Time as a straight line along which we have to travel, then you must picture God as the whole page on which the line is drawn. We come to the parts of the line one by one: we have to leave A behind before we get to B, and cannot reach C until we leave B behind. God, from above or outside or all round, contains the whole line, and sees it all."

10 Things I'll Never Do!

Gadget Vicar claims to have "tagged" me which is clearly ridiculous as, even with his sat naved car, he couldn't catch me ;-). The idea is that I now have to write "10 Things I'll Never Do" then "tag" 10 other blogger's. The thing this is Nick was also tagged now it so I'm kinda running out of things to write about..... OR people to tag! So here goes:

1. Never wear "skinny" jeans
2. Drink Coffee
3. Win the X factor (even though everyone is "voting" for me)
4. Eat Nuts
5. Go to Space (how cool would that be!)
6. Buy an Ipod
7. Be able to play guitar like Hendrix
8. Never completely understand the thirteen dimensions of "string theory" (Side note: How can anyone believe that but not God? its mad!)
9. Go a day without making some rather not funny joke
10. Never say Never!

The Long Silence:Anon (written before Summer 1982)

At the end of time, billions of people were scattered on the vast plain before God's throne. Some shrank back from the brilliant light before them — but many other groups talked heatedly, not cringing with shame, but with belligerence.

"Can God judge us? How can He know about suffering?” snapped a pert brunette. She ripped open a sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi concentration camp. "We endured terror ... beating ... torture ... death!"

In another group a Negro boy lowered his collar. "What about this?" he demanded, showing an ugly rope burn. "Lynched, for no crime but being black."

In another crowd there was a pregnant schoolgirl with sullen eyes. "Why should I suffer?" she murmured. "It wasn't my fault."

Far out across the plain were thousands of such groups. Each had a complaint against God for all the evil end suffering He had permitted in His world. How lucky God was to live in heaven, where all was sweetness and light, where there was no weeping and fear, no hunger or hatred, no sickness or sorrow. What did God know of all that humankind had been forced to endure in this world? After all, God leads a rather sheltered sort of life, they said.

So each of these groups sent forth a leader, especially chosen because they had suffered the most. A Jew, a Negro, a person from Hiroshima, a horribly deformed arthritic, a thalidomide child, an AIDS victim. In the centre of the vast plain, these leaders consulted with each other. At last they were ready to present their case, item-by-item, leader-by-leader, to God. It was rather pertinent.


Before God could be qualified to be their Judge, He must endure what they had endured. Their decision was that God should be sentenced to live on earth as a human being, as a man. Let him be born of the most despised race, a Jew, in poverty-stricken conditions. Let the legitimacy of his birth be doubted. As a child, let him be forced to flee as a refugee, and live several years in a foreign country. Then give him a work to do, and an ideal to uphold that is so difficult that even his own family will think him out of his mind when he tries to do it. Let him be betrayed by his closest colleague, into the hands of those who hate him. Let him face false charges, be tried by a prejudiced jury, and convicted by a cowardly judge.

At the last, let him see what it means to be terribly, terribly alone — forsaken of all his friends. Let him be tortured. Then let him die. Let him die the most excruciating, end humiliating death possible, before a taunting, reviling crowd that not only verified his death but also contributed to it.

As each leader announced his portion of the sentence, loud murmurs of approval went up from the whole assembled throng. When the last leader had finished pronouncing his part of God's sentence, there was a long silence. No one uttered another word. Nobody moved.


For suddenly, everybody knew that God had already served His sentence.

Apologies, to you guys who read my blog, for the lack of interesting or insightful blog posts recently. Of late, I've been extremely busy and just haven't have time to write anything of particular interest. This week is another busy one with three assignments due and a talk on "Why did he come to earth?" to prepare for crusaders tomorrow. Over the last months I've been getting worn down so your prayers are much needed.

This Friday(8th) at 1:30 Callum Radlow's Funeral is being held at Linwood Crematorium. I wrote about it here. If you could pray for, especially, his family and friends. I know three people whom knew him well. My friend Craig (mentioned in link) but also Angus Harrison and
Craig Bradnam. Both Angus and Craig went to school with Callum and, as you would expect, have been very effected by the news.


Edit: I wrote the funeral was on Monday but it is in fact on Friday; sorry for any confusion caused.