Tuesday 15 July 2008
CHANGE OF BLOG
Don't Make Friends With Salad is departing the interweb but do not panic as it is replaced by www.anotherking.com. Please check out the new blog.
Saturday 5 July 2008
Glenmanus GO Team
Hello Faithful Readers and True Believers! I think one word can describe my posting efforts.......late. As raging as James probably is currently. I'll try and fill you all in on the ins and outs of the Glenmanus GO Team this year.
The team headed up to the North Coast soon after the end of the CY Outing. We were greeted at the manse and had a rough plan of the weeks work along with prayer. Soon after, we jetted off to our 5-Star Accomodation at Norman and Nancys where all the team was staying. You could imagine it would be stressful, but truthfully the only bad thing about it was the queue for the shower!
After our day of rest on Sabbath, our work began on Monday, giving out 3000 copies of the Anchor, with the title "Do you have a Credit Crisis?" along with smaller pamphlets on "Points to Ponder" for Portrush. God provided great answer to prayer with this as the weather always seemed to clear up as we were heading out.
Another ministry we carried out was visitation, we met with a number of older people from the congregations aswell as various Nursing Homes in which we sang psalms, gave out the Points to Ponder phamplets and enjoyed the fellowship with the older people. The Team really appreciated this as we saw the joy we were bringing to the generations that have taught us so much. One particular visit will stick in my mind for a long time, as we went to Mr Ernest Lloyds house, where he spent time talking to us and praying with us. I still struggle to find words to describe it, lets leave it at "it was some thing else".
Our other ministry was the Holiday Bible Club, being held in a local school as Glenmanus R.P is undergoing renovations. This was a blessing in disguise, the school provided a lot more space for games and the different groups as well as seperate classrooms where the children felt comfortable. We were studying "Elisha:God's Miracle Maker". So we were able to tell the 60-odd Children that came every night about how God was able to make many incredible things happen through his servant after people had faith in him.
On Thursday was our day at the Giants Causeway. We travelled down to the Causeway and sang Psalms and gave out leaflets on how the Causeway was really formed. God provided great weather for this and the team found it challenging aswell. In our Psalms we chose ones that praised God for his beautiful creation and we hoped and prayed that people passing would spend time listening.
Our work finshed on Friday morning so the team decided to hang about for abit, we visited Mr. Chips for lunch and a review of the week, then we attended Barrys, did the usual favourites, including Freak Out twice! The team then decided to go to Carrick-a-Rede Ropebridge, my first time there, we enjoyed some incredible sights and after crossing the bridge, we found a place overlooking the sea where we spent time in praise and prayer which was an amazing experience as we saw His vast expanse before our eyes as we worshipped.
I hope you've enjoyed my brief outline of the week. My first GO Team was a hectic and tiring, yet challenging and hugely enjoyable experience. Please remember the Glenmanus Congrecation in your prayers in their follow up work that they carry out.
Photos: (coming soon, some things up with the uploader thing at the minute)
Also, please leave a comment, I was struggling at times on the team to either be saying Portrush or Glenmanus Congregation?! Any help with that one?
Alastair
The team headed up to the North Coast soon after the end of the CY Outing. We were greeted at the manse and had a rough plan of the weeks work along with prayer. Soon after, we jetted off to our 5-Star Accomodation at Norman and Nancys where all the team was staying. You could imagine it would be stressful, but truthfully the only bad thing about it was the queue for the shower!
After our day of rest on Sabbath, our work began on Monday, giving out 3000 copies of the Anchor, with the title "Do you have a Credit Crisis?" along with smaller pamphlets on "Points to Ponder" for Portrush. God provided great answer to prayer with this as the weather always seemed to clear up as we were heading out.
Another ministry we carried out was visitation, we met with a number of older people from the congregations aswell as various Nursing Homes in which we sang psalms, gave out the Points to Ponder phamplets and enjoyed the fellowship with the older people. The Team really appreciated this as we saw the joy we were bringing to the generations that have taught us so much. One particular visit will stick in my mind for a long time, as we went to Mr Ernest Lloyds house, where he spent time talking to us and praying with us. I still struggle to find words to describe it, lets leave it at "it was some thing else".
Our other ministry was the Holiday Bible Club, being held in a local school as Glenmanus R.P is undergoing renovations. This was a blessing in disguise, the school provided a lot more space for games and the different groups as well as seperate classrooms where the children felt comfortable. We were studying "Elisha:God's Miracle Maker". So we were able to tell the 60-odd Children that came every night about how God was able to make many incredible things happen through his servant after people had faith in him.
On Thursday was our day at the Giants Causeway. We travelled down to the Causeway and sang Psalms and gave out leaflets on how the Causeway was really formed. God provided great weather for this and the team found it challenging aswell. In our Psalms we chose ones that praised God for his beautiful creation and we hoped and prayed that people passing would spend time listening.
Our work finshed on Friday morning so the team decided to hang about for abit, we visited Mr. Chips for lunch and a review of the week, then we attended Barrys, did the usual favourites, including Freak Out twice! The team then decided to go to Carrick-a-Rede Ropebridge, my first time there, we enjoyed some incredible sights and after crossing the bridge, we found a place overlooking the sea where we spent time in praise and prayer which was an amazing experience as we saw His vast expanse before our eyes as we worshipped.
I hope you've enjoyed my brief outline of the week. My first GO Team was a hectic and tiring, yet challenging and hugely enjoyable experience. Please remember the Glenmanus Congrecation in your prayers in their follow up work that they carry out.
Photos: (coming soon, some things up with the uploader thing at the minute)
Also, please leave a comment, I was struggling at times on the team to either be saying Portrush or Glenmanus Congregation?! Any help with that one?
Alastair
Tuesday 1 July 2008
July Quote for the Month
"Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?" Malachi 2:10
"Wickedly violating the unity of the church will stifle God's blessing... The New Testament picture of the church as a body helps us to understand this. If one organ severs itself from the rest of the body it dies... Local churches can go dead through needlessly cutting themselves off from fellowship with other Chritians. Wrong attitudes towards other true Christians who see things a little differently from us can dreadfully damage our feelowship with God: People lose contact with God through sinful attitudes towards others of God's people." John Benton
"Wickedly violating the unity of the church will stifle God's blessing... The New Testament picture of the church as a body helps us to understand this. If one organ severs itself from the rest of the body it dies... Local churches can go dead through needlessly cutting themselves off from fellowship with other Chritians. Wrong attitudes towards other true Christians who see things a little differently from us can dreadfully damage our feelowship with God: People lose contact with God through sinful attitudes towards others of God's people." John Benton
Monday 23 June 2008
June Quote of the Month
Better late than never and all that...
For this month's quote, I have chosen a verse from Luke's Gospel
A very challenging verse, and one which everyone needs to act on.
For this month's quote, I have chosen a verse from Luke's Gospel
"Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more."Luke 12:48 (ESV)
A very challenging verse, and one which everyone needs to act on.
Thursday 19 June 2008
Viva La Vida Review
Dear readers (if there are still any of you out there),
I want to apologise for the lack of posts on the blog lately. Last minute cramming for the exams has been distracting us from our more important job of blogging! I promise that you will have plenty of posts over the summer, especially in the next few weeks as posts which have languished as ideas in the back of our minds as we've tried to revise will arrive online. Now for something a little different to normal on DMFWS, an album review of Coldplay's latest work by friend of the blog Alistiar Rolleston. Glad to see he's recovered from his slagging because of his hairdryer in the Nantes Report!
Don't Make Friends With Salad
But where the album really shines is where Coldplay venture into new, unfamiliar territory. Chris has been reported as saying that there would be a lot of Hispanic influence on this new album, but for me the source of inspiration seems to come straight from Japan, with this new sound no more evident in the song "Lovers in Japan" (funnily enough), a personal favourite of mine, along with its sister track, "Reign of Love", and appearing also in "Lost?" and "Strawberry Swing" (another favourite). The opening track, "life in Technicolor", is a very well written hype track, completely devoid of any form of complex lyrics, and it’s good to hear that the band can still rely on proper musical ability should Chris ever develop laryngitis.
The singles on this album are easy to pick out, but that’s not to say the rest are just plain old fillers. The first single, "Violet Hill", must be commended on its sheer catchiness. The track is vaguely religious in a secular kind of way, and some of the lyrics seem to be pointing to the way money has become the God of this world. The title track, "Viva La Vida" also shows this vaguely religious aspect, with the lines "I hear Jerusalem’s bells are ringing" and "I know Saint Peter will call my name". But the star of that song is the drummer, Will Champion, playing not the usual kit, but only a floor tom, with a kettle drum (timp for those in the know), and what can only be assumed to be a very, very large bell. The inspired use of strings at the start of the track will certainly make it stand out on the radio and get people listening.
Chris Martin’s lyrics are as usual something that can be easily sung along to, and I guarantee that within hours of buying this album you’ll be singing along to your personal favourites like the songs themselves are old friends.
With the future of EMI basically pinned on the success of this hour of music, Coldplay really had to produce something exceptional. It’s not quite up there with the epics of "The Joshua tree" or "Absolution", but I think it’s safe to say that that’s not out of Coldplay’s grasp in the future.
Watch this space people. Watch this space."
Alistair Rolleston
Coldplay's gig at BBC
I want to apologise for the lack of posts on the blog lately. Last minute cramming for the exams has been distracting us from our more important job of blogging! I promise that you will have plenty of posts over the summer, especially in the next few weeks as posts which have languished as ideas in the back of our minds as we've tried to revise will arrive online. Now for something a little different to normal on DMFWS, an album review of Coldplay's latest work by friend of the blog Alistiar Rolleston. Glad to see he's recovered from his slagging because of his hairdryer in the Nantes Report!
Don't Make Friends With Salad
-------------------------------------------------------------
"Since Coldplay’s last album, X&Y, the Voyager 2 Space probe has travelled 1,481,020,200 kilometres. But since I promised James I wouldn’t fill this article with completely useless information, I’ll start focusing on their new album, the oddly titled "Viva La Vida or Death and all his Friends".
But where the album really shines is where Coldplay venture into new, unfamiliar territory. Chris has been reported as saying that there would be a lot of Hispanic influence on this new album, but for me the source of inspiration seems to come straight from Japan, with this new sound no more evident in the song "Lovers in Japan" (funnily enough), a personal favourite of mine, along with its sister track, "Reign of Love", and appearing also in "Lost?" and "Strawberry Swing" (another favourite). The opening track, "life in Technicolor", is a very well written hype track, completely devoid of any form of complex lyrics, and it’s good to hear that the band can still rely on proper musical ability should Chris ever develop laryngitis.
The singles on this album are easy to pick out, but that’s not to say the rest are just plain old fillers. The first single, "Violet Hill", must be commended on its sheer catchiness. The track is vaguely religious in a secular kind of way, and some of the lyrics seem to be pointing to the way money has become the God of this world. The title track, "Viva La Vida" also shows this vaguely religious aspect, with the lines "I hear Jerusalem’s bells are ringing" and "I know Saint Peter will call my name". But the star of that song is the drummer, Will Champion, playing not the usual kit, but only a floor tom, with a kettle drum (timp for those in the know), and what can only be assumed to be a very, very large bell. The inspired use of strings at the start of the track will certainly make it stand out on the radio and get people listening.
Chris Martin’s lyrics are as usual something that can be easily sung along to, and I guarantee that within hours of buying this album you’ll be singing along to your personal favourites like the songs themselves are old friends.
With the future of EMI basically pinned on the success of this hour of music, Coldplay really had to produce something exceptional. It’s not quite up there with the epics of "The Joshua tree" or "Absolution", but I think it’s safe to say that that’s not out of Coldplay’s grasp in the future.
Watch this space people. Watch this space."
Alistair Rolleston
Coldplay's gig at BBC
Monday 9 June 2008
Exams
Perhaps you too are sitting exams at the minute. If you're stressed take 10min and watch this video. Your exam can't go this badly!
Mr Bean- The Exam
Mr Bean- The Exam
Friday 30 May 2008
More Important Than Spuds
BBC News has suggested that Genetically Modified (GM) foods could be the answer to the global food crisis. In Britain, whilst GM crops are not illegal, "the regulations mean it is a hostile environment for the agri-business brigade". This creates the absurd situation that in the United Kingdom people are discouraged from experimenting on potatoes but the government has passed legislation allowing scientists to create human embryos for research. Human beings are being created to experiment on and recently our nation has plunged further down this research path by allowing the creation of "hybrid human-animal embryos after MPs overwhelmingly voted in favour of radical stem cell research" (Telegraph). Our nation allows humans to be experimented on without their permission before destroying these unborn children after just 14 days of life. I don't know alot regarding the GM Food debate but surely this means that the people of Britain now value spuds over babies. 
Part of the reason GM foods are deemed unacceptable is the effective work of pressure groups such as Greenpeace and well co-ordinated protests designed to place the issue on the agenda. Some of the most obvious examples are when some eco-protestors "chained themselves to the dairy aisle in a Sainsbury's supermarket" in 2004 (BBC) and in 2001 when "Eight people were arrested and one injured during a protest against Wales's only remaining GM crop trial. " (BBC)Is there not lessons that can be learned in the fight against abortion?
Why are people willing to take such action over fields of maize and there's no-one picketing outside Downing Street 24-7 against the murder of unborn children?
I'm not calling for the extreme and immoral actions as seen in America as protestors blow up abortion clinics and murder doctors. These actions are wrong and they weaken the Pro-life case. But surely we should be taking some form of direct action, gaining media attention and placing the issue on the public agenda. If abortion is murder why does it not seem to bother us much? There is a genocide of the unborn in our own land and we are doing so little to stop it. Maybe GM Foods is an important issue but there can be no doubt abortion is infinitely more important. What are you doing about it?
23 week old baby inside the womb, one week under the legal limit for abortion in Britain
Monday 26 May 2008
Do Muslims need converted?
A row has eurrupted in the Church of England over the campaign of a trainee-priest, Paul Eddy, "for the Church of England to work explicitly to convert Muslims to Christianity"(BBC News). The motion will be debated at the upcoming General Synod in York and has provoked angry reactions not only from Muslims but from within the Anglican church itself.
Unless I'm reading incorrectly the verse says "the way" not "a way" and "No one" rather than "Everyone". Lowe's talk of "one another's paths to God" is heresy. The Bible clearly teaches there is only one way for sinful man to be reconcilled to God, through Christ's death on the cross. Not through Islam and not through our own efforts to get right with God.
Matthew 28:19
Matthew 10:34-36
Doesn't sound like Jesus was asking us to focus on building "good inter-faith relations" instead we've been given a life saving message to spread. Our message is offensive as it tells people they are sinners and need a Saviour and Jesus has warned us that this will bring division and hostility. However ultamitely living in harmony with God and our fellow man is only possible through the Gospel which and nothing can be more beneficial for a community than the conversion of sinners.
It's really sad when professing Christians send out such mixed messages to the world. We have a responsibility and a priviledge to share the Gospel with the world and we should be making special efforts to tell the Good News to those under the delusion of Islam and not being afraid of offending people. In the past missionaries went out from Britain across the world, now the world is coming to Britain and we have a mutli-racial mission field on our doorsteps. Maybe it would help to think of it this way, if you saw someone drowning you wouldn't hold back a life ring incase of embarrassing and angering a non-swimmer, would you?
Bishop of Urban Life and Faith Stephen Lowe has said that the motion shows "no sensitivity to the need for good inter-faith relations. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs are learning to respect one another's paths to God and to live in harmony. This demand for the evangelisation of people of other faiths contributes nothing to our communities."(Telegraph)
Rt Rev Stephen Lowe, the former Bishop of Hulme and the newly appointed Bishop of Urban Life and Faith
Lowe's Bible (if he owns such an wildly insensitive book!) must be missing a few verses.
John 14:6
"Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me"
Unless I'm reading incorrectly the verse says "the way" not "a way" and "No one" rather than "Everyone". Lowe's talk of "one another's paths to God" is heresy. The Bible clearly teaches there is only one way for sinful man to be reconcilled to God, through Christ's death on the cross. Not through Islam and not through our own efforts to get right with God.
Matthew 28:19
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"
Matthew 10:34-36
"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn
" 'a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law -
man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'"
Doesn't sound like Jesus was asking us to focus on building "good inter-faith relations" instead we've been given a life saving message to spread. Our message is offensive as it tells people they are sinners and need a Saviour and Jesus has warned us that this will bring division and hostility. However ultamitely living in harmony with God and our fellow man is only possible through the Gospel which and nothing can be more beneficial for a community than the conversion of sinners.
It's really sad when professing Christians send out such mixed messages to the world. We have a responsibility and a priviledge to share the Gospel with the world and we should be making special efforts to tell the Good News to those under the delusion of Islam and not being afraid of offending people. In the past missionaries went out from Britain across the world, now the world is coming to Britain and we have a mutli-racial mission field on our doorsteps. Maybe it would help to think of it this way, if you saw someone drowning you wouldn't hold back a life ring incase of embarrassing and angering a non-swimmer, would you?
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