Alex James on Celebrity

Christmas is a great time to sit and read and let the world go by a bit.  We had a great Christmas, services were well attended and (I'm told) well received as well.   Now a bit of time to eat, drink, sleep, and read.  

Interesting read, "Bit of a Blur", the Alex James autobiography. (He was the bass player in Blur) He estimates that he spent a million pounds on champagne and cocaine, slept with dozens of fans and models, and stayed in decadent luxury around the world. Yet, at the 'height' of it all, he says, 

"This was the top of the hill. What else could life hold? It's funny, but when I look back I think that period of my life was the bottom of a pit, rather than Mount Fantasticus. I was a morally bankrupt, drunk fatso with a stupid grin and a girlfriend with a murdered heart." (Quote sanitized a bit).    

It's on page 225, if you want to verify it.  

Searching for a place of peace

Read this on the Church Times website and have to say that I think a lot of this makes sense in my situation too, it's not just an Anglican thing!  Justin Welby - who becomes the new AB of C, makes some pertinent points here.  There are people lost and looking for an alternative, will they find a place of peace that shows them another way?  

Justin Welby - he does a mean Selwyn Froggitt impression

Bishop Welby went on to say that he thought that the present moment was "the greatest moment of opportunity for the Church since the Second World War". Since the banking collapse of 2008, "all the idols on which our society was based have fallen. They've been toppled."

But, he said, "the Church needs to be a place of peace if, now that the idols have fallen, we are to show people. That doesn't mean that we all agree; it means that we love each other when we don't agree. . .

"If you look back on some of the arguments we've had over the last few months in the Church of England, it is poison to the mind of those who are outside the Church. It anaesthetises them against the gospel."

He said that the Church needed to find "a way forward" on women bishops and the debate over sexuality. "The Church at a national level has to be outward-looking and a body that is engaging, not looking inwards and consumed by its own problems. . . I am optimistic we can make progress."

Save me from myself!

Enjoying the chance to read whilst on sabbatical and find myself enjoying Alain de Botton's latest book, Religion for Atheists.  Starts from the viewpoint, "there's obviously no God", but then spends the rest of the time asking how can we be atheist and still have some of the great things that religion provides?  It's a very interesting book, he has some interesting insights as well as some frankly odd ideas.  Loved this quote from the book: 

“...we face temptations which we revile in those interludes when we can attain a sufficient distance from them, but which we lack any encouragement to resist, much to our eventual self-disgust and disappointment. The mature sides of us watch in despair as the infantile aspects of us trample upon our more elevated principles and ignore what we most fervently revere. Our deepest wish may be that someone would come along and save us from ourselves.”

Religion for Atheists, page 77. Alain de Botton

Which is interesting. 

Asked by a friend what this means.  I think it's pretty much what Paul writes in Romans 7:

 "21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being... I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!" 
I am sure to be levering this into a sermon sometime soon after my return in the summer. 

Let's Get Married

Going through Ephesians in church and the chance to preach on Ephesians 5.21-33 this week - it's dangerous stuff folks!  Wonderfully, Tim Keller publishes his book on this very passage (The Meaning of Marriage) next week.  Or so it says on the websites.  I pre-ordered mine and got sent it last week.  As a result I have had the chance to read most of it before Sunday.  A true pleasure.

Enjoyed putting this together as well.  It's a sequence of pictures and great marriage quotes that I have done for service.  All with the uplifting sounds of The Proclaimers too, can't be bad.  Take a look and see what you think. 

It is on YouTube here...   http://youtu.be/9wfjU6sIOR8

It seems God is limited by our prayer life - that he can do nothing for humanity unless someone asks him - John Wesley

Kenneth Hagin - not John Wesley.

I know, I know, snappy title for a blog entry...
But anyone know where this quote comes from?  Is it even Wesley?  I see it attributed to him all over the place but cannot find a reference for it.  Most of the references I have found on the internet are from people like Kenneth Hagin, Creslo Dollar, and others, who, frankly, are the kind of word of faith / prosperity teachers that make extremely cross. 

Thing is, I don't think the sentiment of the quote is true.  I'm all for spurring people to pray but God can't do anything unless we ask him to?!  I find that hard to accept if God is all sovereign and all powerful. 

Hence I want to find out if anyone knows where the quote is from as I think I would like to see it in context.  It's a long shot... but you never know.