Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

Except not this year. Every year I get "home" with the joys of family life; food, wine, warmth, remoteness, only to find the tradition of every year is ruined by a 400 metre long queue at Morrison's. Now, tell me if I'm wrong, but that's not the best reason to miss shopping on Christmas Eve. My parents hadn't got any nuts. "No nutss..." Which meant my mum mentioning it in her sermon on Christmas Eve morning, and a lot of "sarcastic sympathy" from the church congregation.
Of course we have some now (only walnuts, not the usual selection) but it took them (the parents) over 6 days. Not acceptable. My standards remain high when I return to my parents house, so that they know I miss them. It's a healthy thing to do. No compliments of the food at lunch means "This is really good" and so on....if you were visiting it may be a little strange for you.
Now, why did I return? One reason. Christmas. The giving and receiving of gifts, filming silly films with my two brothers, catching up with friend(s), but why? Why is this time of year clothed with reunion? I think I have the answer. This holiday signifies (whether it is the actual date or not I neither know nor care) the birth of Jesus Christ. A fascinating character who became my sin so I could have a right relationship with my perfect heavenly father. Don't worry if that means nothing to you...reunion is my focus. When Jesus was born, He started something utterly magnificent, He did not come to live, but to die. Take punishment for everyone's rebellion against God, whom everyone knew regardless of if they are in denial or not. Why did Jesus do that? Forgiveness? Eternal life? I suppose yes to both. But the primary focus of His free gift to us was God. We can be reunited with our Father because Jesus has bridged the gap, fulfilled the requirements so that any of us who believes in Jesus death & resurrection and trusts in Him for forgiveness and salvation will be reconciled. It's a wonderful thing.
This Christmas, when you are reunited with the family, or wishing you were, think about a reunion that is the most important decision you will ever make. You can be reunited with the God you once knew by asking Jesus to take your sin on His shoulders and be put right with God. No prerequisites; you can do it right now.

New Blog, New Post, Old news but feel the need...

In recently looking at the 'Political' groups on facebook.com, and my good friend **** ****** I came across a group called Stop Pure. This is an interesting topic and I will probably return to it on numerous occasions. I won't join the group because I don't agree with it; I think Pure (a UCCF run course on sexual purity with a look at the most authoritative book on the planet, which if you disobey it's teachings you disobey God himself - I would say that is inadvisable) is a good and helpful course that any Christian should attend so that they can safely ask questions without finding out the hard way.

I immediately had a look at this group and two uploaded photos of articles about this course and the recommended reading. I think the main problem people with something like this is they believe it's forcing views which not everyone has on people who haven't made a decision. This is wrong, of course, because if somebody has made a decision to give their lives to Christ then the views they want is that of Christ, so in fact they are allowing Christ's views to be told to them, not forced upon them.

The next point I took from the article in particular, which states "A pro-abstinence Christian course will encourage gay students to suppress their homosexuality" made me think about the world which knows nothing of Christianity. What is it? A commitment and relationship with an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing God who gives what He wants from you so you can commune with Him. If this God doesn't like homosexuality you should agree with such a being. Secondly, they assume homosexuality is something to suppress, rather than a lifestyle to leave. Christianity encourages other things, like sensible drinking, it doesn't encourage suppressing alcoholism because it's not something to suppress but something to deal with. Is this making sense?

It makes me passionately angry when people don't know enough about something to respond to it. If they did know enough they would agree whole-heartedly because the truth of salvation from God's wrath is overpoweringly attractive, it looks like foolishness to men (and women) until it is understood by their heart.

New Post, New Film, New Freedom

I'm not talking fence post here, I'm talking....blog. Not always as exciting, but let's see where we're going. My conviction to start a podcast hasn't got me much further than designing a 'joke time' logo. As with most people trying to find a ladder to get on the rung of, they desire the talent of entertainment. Some people told me I was funny; out of that came a crazy desire to do stand up, and look what happened. I did quite well. Until I ran out of material that is. Then I decided to pull apart the revious act, saying she wasn't funny, it was the same jokes as last time...etc. The feedback I got was that if I had a problem with her, she's a very nice person and I could have talked to her after. I didn't think she was rubbish. I said it for a reaction and no one defended her! How am I supposed to find out how my crowd are doing if they don't react? Of course their lack of response makes me think they agreed. Which I'm not too sad about. He he...

I went to see Casino Royale last night. It's quite good. Well, actually, it's very good. Indeed. I saw a certain upside to the fact that he made such a good James Bond they didn't concentrate on women the way they did with the last 21. What else? The credits at the start were focused on James rather than women, that was another plus point, I saw, because if that's what the film's based on it should be that way. It is good, but it could have stopped about 3 times before the credits finally came up. AI springs to mind in that respect. It's a must see...I really must see it...oh I did. Yes, it most definitely isn't a waste of 3 hours.

My band had their final gig exactly one week ago. Albums are for sale for £6 if you so wish (I would highly recommend it). visit: http://www.thesalvatordarlings.co.uk/

What a day

Not really, it's been pretty dull. It's been raining a lot, and I've been getting wet. Brilliant. Terry Virgo was up in Leeds this weekend, talking about grace...which was nice. I spent a lot of time enjoying his encouragement and then went home. Mark was up as well...we finally got an album. It was recorded in February and finished two weeks ago. Pathetic. It's not really a bad thing, because the album is ready for our last ever gig. Last ever. Short sentences seem to be my thing today. Listening to John Piper has made me very open to hearing more about the greatest letter ever written, only for the radio to start a series on 'Jesus is Precious because...' which isn't a bad thing but I was really getting into Romans. Phooey. Writing my blog today I'm looking a bit like this. And I can do that because of my new laptop. Anyway.



What on earth is it about Christianity that makes people so angry? I was telling 'housemate' Chris about the FACT that no one can earn their way into heaven. When someone swears at that it makes you upset. When they go on to condemn themselves to hell by saying that a Buddhist monk who 'hasn't done anything wrong' (this is a lie) it makes me angry because the very grasping of such a simple message, the same for everyone, everyone is equal in their standing with God, it does cause offense. Terrible state of affairs if you ask me. I hope you learn nothing from this. It's not even very interesting is it? Oh well...

The weekend

"Nothing happened really" the three least comforting words in the English language.

How many time have you been away, but really wanted to get back, then wanted to stay, then get back etc..and never really known what to do so sat in a hole for a while hoping someone will pick you up and move to where you're supposed to be. Well that's not really what happened to me this weekend. Firstly, I was going to be spending a weekend with my CU, which means brilliant networking, community, and sleeping in a less than comforting cabin in a sleeping bag with a sweat on every night. Secondly Andrew Satch (author of 'Digging Deeper') was preaching on Jonah, so that was fun, compelling and moving, tra-la-la. Thirdly I had my MacBook waiting for me. Which is what I is writing this on. You can see the dilemma. Going away is good, but not being where my new toy is waiting isn't. I also was going to, and did, miss Abbey. It was only a day so it could have been worse, and there was zero reception in this place so communication was not an option with anyone. Especially when you accidentally give the key to someone who disappears, and Tom really wants a shower because he's been walking in torrential rain for an hour, only he can't because there's only a bath. But that was sorted in the end. Right before Ria spoon fed me cake and custard, seasoned with salt.

The quote is from Peep Show. I'm from Rotherham, and I'm beginning to think there should be a Golden Statue of the Chuckle Brothers erected in Rotherham town centre when they die. Brilliant.

Everyone loves a good pun

While the majority of people looking for an excuse to travel down to London, and found one by the march called "Admission: Impossible" to do with raising student fee caps so that only wealthy people can get an education (the way it should be), I was travelling down to London for an entirely different cause. My Nana turned 80 on Tuesday, so we commemorated the event with a nice family reunion. Eleven Isaacson's in the same room, the first time in about 12 years. Sitting in a restaurant in the centre of London is odd enough, when you have in the back of your mind "it's nice to be here but let's try and keep the £10 per head still intact", so when the rules are turned on it's head and it's "have what you want, with red & white wine around, blah..." the uncomfortable level is turned UP. At the beginning of the meal my dad spotted Eel on the menu, when I commented "I haven't got that far down yet" it truly set the mood. Except most of my sarcasm was missed by the main guest because she's hard of hearing; not surprising at 79 years 363 days old.

Yesterday was a funny day. It always is when you spend it with 2 2-year-olds & a 7-year-old. Especially when the first thing she says to you is "you're one of my best friends" when you've only met her once before. Anyway, laughs were had all round. I did find the twins funny, they had their own little language to be getting on with which made the majority of their pointing useless. *Point* "ablahblangahree" "I don't know Josh". I was surprised when I proved myself wrong by actually being good with kids, but there you are.

I'm preaching tonight at CU. Scared isn't the word to describe how I'm feeling, but that doesn't mean to say I'm not. A provocative thought I heard last night was "You'll make more friends in two months by being interested in people, than in two years trying to make people interested in you." You can have that one for free.

Now here's a sermon illustration if I ever saw one

One the train we were looking fro streets, I mean seats, & we ended up sitting next to, what looked like, a mother & a daughter. The ticket man was asking for tickets, as they do, & the daughter asked for an adult & a child to Meadowhall single. She had a £10 note and was ready to pay. Unfortunately the vendor said "That's £13.60 please". She looked shocked, and I was in the middle of this. She looked like she was going to cry (she didn't, that would have been much worse), but she asked for returns instead, which was £14.70. That made her turn a funny green colour & she stared in disbelief at him. Then...out of the, supposed, blue...he found a cheaper return for £13.75 and she agreed to that, looking a bit hurt, swapped the £10 for a £20 and paid.

All this time I was watching, thinking 'I want to help, but I don't have any change, I don't have £4, I spent that on 2 teas'. What an idiot. I couldn't pay half, or even a third of the price, all I had was a debit card, and more plastic in the form of student ID's and that, than you could shake a stick at. Therefore not worth trying to exchange for money. It dawned on me that, perhaps, it was what God would have me do. 'You can't pay a bit of it, but you can pay it all.' What would have happened if I'd done that? Intervening to "That's ok I'll pay"

What did Jesus do? He knew paying for sins through sacrifice of lambs wasn't enough, it didn't do enough. So He paid it all...

Inspiration required

Women are funny creatures. I'm not saying this out of any experience I specifically had over the past week as my last rant about women was, I just felt led to write something. I just think they...Hold on, my housemates are playing hacky-sack and there's a 6-year-old child joining in. He's a third the size of them and they look quite uncomfortable involving him. That's funny. My housemates are a crazy bunch. One's a borderline alcoholic in denial, two are regular pot smokers, and spend more time than I do shut in their room creating crazy noises, one's small, bearded and always hyped up on coffee from working at Caffe Nero, and the other is a sedate Masters student with a good walking pace. Life becomes interesting when you're the only Christian in a house like that. Fun, but interesting.

I invited them to Alpha and all turned down the offer with lame excuses like, "I'm ill", "I'm in the library" (he wasn't, he was sitting on the sofa), "I'm spending the day climbing so I might be tired", or "I'm not here, I'm in Liverpool and you didn't ask me because of that very reason". Slightly on the annoying side, but I did get to spend the evening watching a video of Robin Williams swearing instead, with Abbey, of course. And now Adam and Chris are threatening to throw a brick through my window. How did they know I was writing about them?

After my experience the other Wednesday (being punched in the mouth), Life has continued to bless me, and others through the encouraging story it turned out to be. God is a good influence on my life. In fact church today (which was excellent - God says "You are my son, you are my daughter, and I love you. I love you.") Joel Edwards was preaching about Jesus being fascinating. Bringing Grace & Truth together. Truth is dificult and rules after rules cause hardened hearts towards Christianity, and Grace is nice, kind, and admissive of all behaviour. How do the two come together? When Jesus says to the adulterous woman "Go and live a better life". Grace & Truth inspires us to live better lives. Not out of obligation, but entirely out of love and inpiration for our creator.


Revelation 20:11 says: - Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. I am really looking forward to it.

Student life is a perpetual state of tiredness

So says Abbey. Quite precise. She's in everyday at 9 o' clock, so she's naturally tired the majority of the time, falling asleep in lectures and the like. I'm in 8 hours a week, with two 9 o' clock starts and a day off. I'm unnaturally tired most of the time. No reason. I'd like to say I'm a busy person but I've been procrastinating for the past two weeks and, even though work is starting to get done, I still manage to find time to write this.

Friday I went down to the parents. It was quite amusing, a certain dread in Abbey's eyes as she would "Meet The Parents", but it wasn't a complete disaster. We watched Donnie Darko which had plenty of F'ing, but my brother said all he heard was "PIIITTTYYYY!!" when Drew Barrymore lost her job. That made me laugh. In the morning of Saturday I did some recordings of my dad's childhood stories and I'm in the process of editing it to say "Detention with Miss Upton tastes a bit like chicken". Good clean fun. We played Cheddargorge with my older brother's birthday card and ended up with "Blue cabbage themed face box magazine cupboard shop flavoured pink-ish potato skins" to go as a greeting. We were laughing heartily, so by tea we were in good moods to completely change the lyrics of "10 in the bed" involving the little one realising the "Rollover" was of the BBC1 Saturday lottery variety and Abbey laughing until it hurt. Always fun.

Roasts are easy to do, is the general consensus of yesterday. Thank you.

What can I say?

I love my church. Absolutely, flipping awesome. For those who aren't aware of what happened the night of the 27th of September 2006, on my way to Powerhouse, I'll do a quick run down. Personally I think this will be worded better than the police statement, but who am I to judge. God'll decide.

In short, I was mugged. It could be elaborated on...In this way. Wills and I walk a good deal faster than a group of girls...Especially if it includes Lydia. It's not that she's slow, I've just noticed she walks slowly. (Sorry, Lydia) When you leave a group of about 10 there is an air of insecurity about the place. But it's not generally noticed until recollection. For example, today.

Walking to a prayer meeting the last thing you suspect is two masked thugs ask you to empty your pockets. Especially when you're only 30 seconds away from the entrance to the church. Regrettably that's exactly what happened. There were two Asians wanting my stuff, and Wills' stuff. The taller guy, was considerably taller. But quite skinny. He said "Empty your pockets". I didn't think that was a very nice thing to say, perhaps "Hello my name is Phill, I'd like whatever is in your pockets so that I can buy some drugs." I didn't want to fuel anything, but, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I said what I've always wanted to say to said "Mugger". "Why are you doing this?" I believe he was slightly taken aback; all I wanted to do was preach the Gospel to them, that's a lot more valuable. He hit me. Hard. In the face. Blood, Blood, Blood, Blood, hand to face. I thought he'd done his worst (incidentally I was right) and tried to walk past him again.

Why he tried to go in my pockets I'll never know, but I just took his hand out again and walked towards the church. Did I mention the other guy said he had a gun? I didn't believe him for a second, but that does add to the drama somewhat. Walking away was strange. It wasn't worth looking back, but I do wonder what the guys were thinking. Why didn't I just cave and give them my valuables? Why did I challenge them? It's rude to answer a question with another question, I've heard. Maybe manners are something I should work on. What was different about me? I only think that God can answer that. He took away my spirit of fear; I knew He was protecting me and the only thing that happened was 3 hours in A&E to say "Suck on some ice". No one was hurt, nothing was stolen, and my girlfriend, Abbey, was able to preach the Gospel to a police officer who was taking statements etc. An overall brilliant night.

Why do I love my church? Because in the space of 2 hours I received about 10-15 messages checking I was ok and that they were praying for me. That is love on a whole new level. I've grown again and I can't wait for what God has next in store for me.

Two blondes were walking through the woods and they came to some tracks. The first blonde said "These look like deer tracks." and the other one said: "No they look like moose tracks." They argued and argued for a while and they were still arguing when the train hit them.

Just a quick note...on my way to a cheese..

Society. I thought I'd mention something...I met my girlfriend's mum yesterday. That was surreal. Mainly because she's not the kind of mum who is polite just because you're going out with their daughter. She was good, and honest, so I knew if I was making a bad impression. I found it immensely funny when she spotted me holding Abbey's hand and her mum (Elizabeth) gave me a "look". It made my day...after that it was fine. She seemed to like me...I was myself so it would have been a bit tough if she didn't like me.

We spent the afternoon in Harrogate, and I enjoyed my first ever cup of tea from Bettys. Which was nice. Elizabeth's friend Beryl was with the party so I felt a bit out of control...but after walking through past times and various other posh shops I scoffed at just to make people think I was far above them, it was coming to an end. I could tell something was going on when we all made a visit to Bettys' toilets and they didn't come back for 20 minutes. I found out there was a little social area in the "Ladies" bogs and they'd talked about me.

Wonderful.

They came up all smiles though so the report card says..."Dishy" - said Beryl.

Now to find some cheese

Fifteen

The word of the month is: Nonce

As in nonce; one with no brain; idiot; one with nothing to think with; nonce

I saw The Princess Diaries on Wednesday. It's not a very good film. It really isn't. She's supposed to be a rubbish public speaker, but the character is far too sarcastic, it doesn't fully make sense. Apparently the books capture the character better. You'd hope the film would though. It's one of those feel good films, you watch when you're down, or with a girl. More often when you're with a girl.

In other news; I'm mighty impressed with the new iTunes. iTunes 7, I believe they called it. Quite good. Nice features like fetching artwork for you, Artwork slideshows, downloads manager, iPod status page, and an annoying little feature that messes up the audio by having it cut out or crackle like a horribly scratched record until you change the Quicktime settings to 24-bit sound. You'll be pleased to know it now works pretty much perfectly. Running Windows always creates problems.

See you in a bit!

It's eleven o clock in the morning...I didn't get much sleep

This week I've been mostly feeling the heat of Britain. Being Britain it's been a fairly unstressful time...Because there has been no heat. I haven't enjoyed a good pint in a long time. Last night was no different...The first time in a long time for having a pint of Stella and it was served to me in a plastic tumbler. Not enjoyable. Not at all.

Becky and Dot (honorary Gateway-er) are back from Wales (they've been in Northern Ireland and...Wales), so last night was spent around their living room. As per every other free evening. As much as looking at photos is fun (which it isn't) when you are in a group of 10 of which 4 have been to a party, and there are in excess of 200 photos to be looked through, there is little or no use in trying to enjoy the evening. "I wasn't there...I don't care.."? Even worse is giggles from behind a laptop that only three people can see. I'm sure some people enjoy that kind of antics, but the lads and I decided that pub was more enticing. After many (no that many) gay jokes and Anchorman quotes we returned to discover the laptop had been removed and we were able to discuss serious things like not watching Eddie Izzard. One of my favourite topics.

Some people think me and Adam are married...I was a little worried when we went into town together yesterday and, after buying important things like Xbox games and controllers, he said "Is there anything else we need to do?" That's not quite how I'd have said but it was too late. We're not married...That would be gay. Maybe I'm going a little crazy...But it's still funny.

Wedding's and all the frills

It's always a good thing...to go to a wedding of 2 good friends. That's what I did yesterday, proving myself right that it is a good thing to go to a wedding of 2 good friends. Besides an excellent ceremony, with good worship, good looks from the gride and broom, and a good talk by Dave Devenish (apostle) (don't ask why I added that), the food filled me like nothing else, good music from a ska band called "revelation", and an excellent speech from the groom himself, which is rare. (A good speech, not a speech in general.)

Mark H was back from Canadia and that made me happy. He had had about 2 hours sleep when we set off on a 3 hour coach journey to Bedford. This made him amusing. He then didn't stop until about half way through the journey home. Incredible. He told some good stories from his time in Canada, but you'll have to read his blog for that (it's one of the sidebar links). The journey down turned into delegating roles for a prospective band doing various dance covers; Dave Mullen changing his responsibility frequently from "volume controller" to "phase controller" and "general mixer", but we had decided on a number of members, making funny laughs up and down the coach.

We had to be sensible being at the front, and our church elder and his wife in front of us, but I don't think we upset too many people. The journey home caused the coach driver to stop when Zeke decided to try and get into the overhead compartments. I think he missed coaches and wanted to get the most out of the one he had for lack of knowledge of the next time he would be on one.

Since getting back from the lakes I've been relatively relaxed, making posters, meeting Adam, working from 10 hours cleaning two kitchens on my own and getting very tired (never doing that again), watching silly films, winning poker, the list goes on. I've just got back from Selby and have a very "Yorkshire" accent going round my head. Phenomenal.

One week until I die of exhaustion. Freshers are trouble...a lot of trouble.

The Lakes-son

While watching a dad ride his 7-year-old daughter around on a small quad bike outside my back door, I am reminded of my past week. It involves adventures of many a twenty, and Frau Milch is pleased to announce a come pack to politics after early retirement. That's right, I've been in the Lake District. Not just that, I've been in the Lake District with my brothers, my older brother's freind Phill, and my parents, Mum and Dad. Today you will learn my brother's names and also about what kind of things I have been doing. A little clue, I've moslty been walking.

My older brother, Sam (his name is Sam), came up from Uxbridge, West London, on Tuesday. He had a lovely six-hour drive with Phill, and when they arrived in Uldale (the tiny village of twenty people) my dog, Cassie, went crazy, my younger brother, Joel (his name is Joel), searched through all their bags for his power lead for his camera and began filming, and my parents welcomed them with a smile. My mum with a slightly larger smile, as they do. I will now, readers, give you a little challenge of working out which one is the odd one out in the above picture.

The first few days before "Sam" arrived included walking up Overwater, and Dodd Summit. We worked out later that Summit was for Egg, his name was Dodd Egg. Strange yorkshire folks and their "summit"s and "twenty"s, it gets us all in a pickle. The views from above were magnificent. If it doesn't show God's glory in that thenI don't know what does. It was truly wonderful, nature really sings quite a praise song to God. I now understand the song "if we did not praise, the rocks would cry out". The only thing I can't understand is the poeple who see this kind of thing everyday but remain unforgiven, even though the revelation remains fully accessable, and apparently 1 in 13 people in the UK is a believer so it's not like they can claim not to know the gospel. Oh well. I think I'll be making up for the Christians who don't realise they're in full time ministry. God has said "You're an Evangelist" consitantly for the past three weeks. Watch out you sceptics, and unbelievers.

Lamdon. A City of Delight, and Women in suits.

Some people say I don't have enough pictures on my blog. They say things like, "This could do with more pictures" or, "This is very boring to look at, why am I reading this if I can't pretend to read it but really just take in some random picture". Maybe one day I'll get a camera that could facilitate me with extra features for this page. For now though I think this is proving the power of words in a magical way. Yes magical.

Enough. On Wednesday of last week my parents decided to do an entirely planned surprise visit to London. It wasn't done very well because everyone involved knew about it. The upside was...Lamdon! When my brother's and I get together it becomes almost a tragedy, as Joel's camcorder is brought out, my older brother's...age, and my amazing whit, and charm, we make films as long as any sketch show about nothing, making the whole family laugh, and a few friends who promise not to show or tell anyone they exist. This year was the reworking of the weather while walking around the Museum of London, and not filming anything (therefore doing nothing) while on a tour of the Houses of Parliament. Did you know that as tradition when the Queen does the Opening of Parliament once a year a man is sent from the house of Lords to the house of Commons only to have the door slammed in his face? Truly, incredibly, British.

In other news the close knit group of Gateway and honorary Gateway members (Dot is honorary of the highest degree) is back together for one-week-only. Becky is back from sunny (and rainy apparently. Some kind of tropical thunderstorm ruined her phone. Enough about her) Mexico, Adam is frequenting Coventry and Leeds for the next few weeks, and Wills. Well...We love Wills.

Tomorrow I plan to meet with some Mormons and possibly have dinner with friends. Don't call.

A Newday

Well, this week has been quite exciting.

I've been stewarding at a conference for the youth of my family of churches called Newday, and what was the main message? "I'm coming" says the Lord. Ok then. I'm happy with that. Expectant hearts people, He came in force for 3 or 4 nights in a row. So shut up about waiting, and expect the greatest outpouring ever.

The teaching started well; the gospel message brought out of a story in Numbers. Stef Liston is good at that, because he continued to preach basically from the Old Testament about Jesus for the other three or four preaches he did. Joel Virgo and David Stroud made excellent appearances and were firing up, not just for the thousands of youth there, but also the leaders as well. It's not simple straight-forward "here's the gospel please respond" every night. Even Adrian Holloway's Gospel talk took a completely different turn; when a coffin is brought up on stage to make a valuable point about death you know there's going to be a response.

Quite amazing. A girl was healed of her dyslexia and reading problems. Before she had a reading age of 6 and needed special filters to be able to read pages of words, then she read, on stage, without glasses, straight from the bible, with no struggling at all. It was marvellous what God was doing. He entered over 230 people that night, healed about 50, maybe even more, and His spirit took over the meeting again.

The best thing about the whole event was the final night. I was stewarding on a door with a girl called Kit, and we were trying to greet everyone by name. This was made easier by the fact everyone had name badges. The teaching was about how to continue in faith after such an amazing conference - in brief: You are accepted by God, don't look for acceptance in others, continue to live for Jesus; have confidence in God, He is Lord of all, he gives strength to the weak, etc; and You will bear fuit because God say if you ask Him He will give it to you. Awesome.

On that note I left the campsite with a bad back and the prospect of working in a Football stadium kiosk that night. The upside being I wanted to share the Gospel with somebody that night. After an hour of serving people on and off and 4 hours of hanging around we got back to Leeds and walked home a girl I work with. Right there God gave me fruit, not a response in the sense of giving her life to Jesus, but in the way that I asked her if she knew the message of Jesus. She tried to say what she thought but got it wrong on the second point. I just had to correct her so she knew what the truth really was. After sharing it with her she swore at me. It was so wonderful. Gospel shared, thank you Jesus. The spirit gave me the words and it was so amazing that I said I would and I did.

I slept as well as could be expected but the important thing was I was in a real bed. Praise the Lord for He is Good.

Ria Kirke - 27/07/2006

"And remember, don't always be yourself"

Inspired by another blog, I thought I'd share an email with you.

The answers are by me, the questions aren't. It's an annoying e-mail but I found it amusing and wanted to share. Here is my blessing.

~*YOU*~
1.What Time is it now? Past your bed time
2.What is your full name? Toby Isaacson
3.Single or taken? taken
4.What does your name mean? I’m not quite sure…ask the dentist
5.Who picked out your name? My parents…not (as you may have thought) my little brother.

6.What's your nickname? Toby, makes sense doesn’t it?!
7.How old are you? Old enough
8.What colour are your eyes? Grey
9.Do you have an innie or an outie? Innie or outie what?

10.What size are your shoes? 12/13/14/15
12.How tall (or short) are you? Tall enough, some say
13.Honestly what do you like about yourself? The way I can take everything very seriously so that people don’t think I make fun of some of the things that are thrown at me.
14.What do you always get complimented on? My hair…only it’s kind of a mess so I think they might be being sarcastic.
15.What is your worst quality? Monotone voice

16.What are the last four digits of your phone Number? I only have three numbers - 999
17.Do you think you're cute? Define cute
18.Hair colour? Browny, greyey
19.Do you wear contacts? No, I keep them on my phone like any normal person.
20.Living Arrangements ? yes thank you

~*FAVOURITES*~
21.Favourite Drink? Banana milkshake, from McDonalds
22.Favourite alcoholic drink? Punch (not me!!)
23.Favourite Month? July
24.Favourite Food? Chocolate gateaux
25.Favourite Board Game? That should say bored game!! Ha ha I’m so funny!!
26.Favourite Web Site? http://www.dullmen.com
27.Favourite Clothing Brand? C&A
28.Favourite day of the Year? January
29.Favourite colours? Blue
30.Favourite Animals? Dogs, not cats, ants…(I once saw an antelope!)…Get it ant elope…Ant running off with other ant to get married without consent…Oh forget it!

~*FAMILY AND FRIENDS*~
31.Do you have more girl or boy friends? You’re assuming I have friends
32.Who's your best friend? My teddy
33.Are your parents together? Right now? No idea.
34.How often do you get together with the family? Define family
35.Do you tell your parents or your friends more? My teddy, he listens very well
36.Anything special about your parents? One’s big, one’s small…
37.Siblings and their ages? Big bro…21, li’l bro…17, teddy…45.

~*YES OR NO*~ (or maybe:p)
38.You're a flirt? Maybe
39.You're slutty? no
40.You Mean? I mean what?! I have to define myself now... I thought this was a yes no part?!
41.You like someone? I like lotsa people
42.You can keep secrets? I have a bad memory.
43.You dance in front of the mirror? I don’t like to look at myself…but yes.
44.You sing in the shower/bath? What are they?
46.You liked Britney Spears? Good brand of spear that. I recommend any primitive being to own one.
47.You've liked a cousin? Define Cousin

48.You've been in the opposite sexes bathroom? What kind of question is that?!
49.You've seriously hurt someone? Hope not
50.You've been hurt seriously? Fell down a 40 foot wall once.
51.You swear? Never!
52.You get your way? Way with what, may I ask?
53.You're willing to try new things? Indeed
54.You've cheated on a test? Again…the bad memory

~*RIGHT NOW*~
57.What are you wearing? Nothing
58.What colour are your pants? You didn’t listen to the answer I gave!
59.What are you listening to? My fan heater
60.How are you feeling? Warm
61.What are you doing? Nothing, I don’t think this e-mail counts
62.What are you eating? My tongue
63.How many people are online? I can’t count
64.How's the weather? Looking very much like my bedroom.
65.What's on your mouse pad? My mouse.
66.What books are you reading? I’m not I’m doing this e-mail

~*GIRLS ONLY *~
67.How many lip glosses do you have? Where do I begin?! Oh girls only…right.
68.What perfume do you use?
69.What's in your purse?
70.Thong or regular panties?
71.Tall or short boys?
72.Blonde or brunette guys?
74.Boxers showing?
75.Long hair or short hair on boys?
76.What do you find annoying in a guy?
77.What's the first thing you notice about guys?

~*GUYS ONLY*~
78.What kind of cologne do you use? A strong one.
79.Whats in your pockets? I don’t have any pockets
80.Boxers or briefs? Boxers
81.Blonde or brunette girls? Brunette
82.Tall or short girls? Yes
83.Piercings on girls? In the right places (and anyone taking that the wrong way is very dirty and deserves a slap)
84.Long or short hair on girls? Yes
85.Good or bad girl? Well I wouldn’t meet a bad girl because I haven’t been to prison and that’s where bad people go. Teddy told me.
86.What do you find annoying in girls? They don’t understand man things.
87.What's the first thing you notice about girls? They’re girls

~*OTHER QUESTIONS*~
88.What was the last movie you saw? The Mask…Jim Carrey, funny man.
89.What did you have for dinner? Toast
92.What movie do you really want to see? Reservoir Dogs
93.Tell us about those scars? I fell off a pram when I was 4…got a scratch all the way up my arm. The other is from trying to open a bottle with my teeth and biting the glass instead of the cap. Bad move.
95.Where is your favourite place to travel? HMV
96.What did you last dream about? That’s a very personal question…but it was something about a questionnaire e-mail…that was more of a nightmare though.
97.What was the last thing you ate? Toast
98.If you were a crayon what colour what would you be? Me colour
99.Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? 1471
100.Do you like the person that sent this to you? It just appeared in my inbox…why should I like someone who plants things in peoples inboxes?!
101.Last movie you watched? It’s still The Mask…or do you expect us to be watching a film while doing this?!
103.Are you too shy to ask someone out? If I’m in the perfect situation…Yes
104.Scary movies or happy ending? Happy…What are they there for if not to be enjoyed by me…and Teddy.
105.Summer or winter? Autumn
106.Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolla
107.Do you want your friends to write back? We’re back to this friends thing again…and Teddy doesn’t have e-mail, his paws are too big for a keyboard.
108.Who is most likely to respond? Yes
109.Who is least likely to respond? No
110.What did you do last night? Saw a play about death. I enjoyed it :)

If only I had a car

On Thursday 29th of June, I left 22Stanmore street to start my new life in a new house. With term over and Brighton on the way, however, moving into a house in Leeds when I would be there for the extent of a day didn't seem highly productive. Living with parents is quite good. No extra rent, lifts to places, food at all the right times, extra food if I feel like it, nice and slow dial-up internet...it's excellent. It took a total of three car loads full-to-the-brim-and-bursting to get all of my crap out of house A which had slowly accumulated over the year. My dad came up at about 10, and as my earlier blog Home Time... stated I have to behonest, I didn't get much sleep. My dad arrived about an hour after I thought he would but my packing was going pretty bad so it was nice to have a car to move things into. My house mate (a small yorkshire-man currently working at Caffe Nero) was getting pretty irate because I did pretty much no cleaning and left the house in a not-very-good state. I don't want to have to put up with that again so this year I will clean with joy in my heart. Like that song..."I've got joy, joy, joy, in my heart, joy in my heart, joy in my heart...".

In the midst of all of this my dad also got a flat tyre. That was good, or not so good, maybe even bad if you consider we wanted to set off when the tyre man came out. By that I don't mean he admitted for the first time to anyone that he was homosexual, but simply that he arrived from his station to fix the tyre. Right now there is a road sweeper outside the back of my house, and as soon as I started to write about him he reversed his vehicle very swiftly. I can still hear him though, you're not gone yet my pretty... He's back.

Anyway, I moved back to Leeds two weeks later, with only two car loads and a box of rubbish for my parents to deal with. i felt quite bad because I said I would transfer the rubbish from the box to bin bags but then I forgot. When we arrived at the house (Number 220 , a house modelled around Ikea) We found a fairly serious problem before we even got in. That was, my front door key was not the front door key. I had another key so we tried the back door, only it was bolted from the inside so there was no hope of rescue. We set off (me and papa) to RedBrick Properties head office of Leeds and told them the problem. A silly yound girl grave me another set of keys which...also didn't work. Back once more and this time a helpful man got all the keys together and said "here's your problem..." I thought What I've got the wrong key? You're a genius. "We had new locks put in and you're isn't a new key. It should look like this..." And showed me a complicated toothed key. FInally gertting into the house meant realising...hmm...this is a rather nice house. I could live here. Which is a good thing because I am. But after a lot of opening and closing doors and boxes I moved in. THat was that, dad and brother (who came up on the second journey) went away and I relaxed in my humble abode.

I'll tell you one thing though, I'd rather be in "my Father's house", anyday.

What is it this time?

Ok. This is ridiculous. If anyone can understand: http://harttx-n-arr0ws.blogspot.com/ please let me know.
This completely understandable either to a computer programmer or this new age of 12-year-old-text-messaging-in-any-format generation.


About 5 weeks ago, in my old house, I was rudely awoken (at half past 9 in the morning) by a man an his team of builders, in the house next to mine, in the room next to my room, and his drill. It wasn't a simple *wheeeee* it was a definite and continual *brwrr**brwrr**brwrr* -break- *brwrr**brwrr**brwrr**brwrr**brwrr* -break-...(oh they've finished) *brwrr**brwrr**brwrr**brwrr**brwrr**brwrr**brwrr*. This got me very irate. It just kept me awake and there was no real purpose. They weren't making any progress, the just kept drilling. This annoyed me so much I felt like trying to jump through the wall and giving the man a slap. As I played with this thought it developed to me snatching the drill out of his hands and drilling it into his head. I didn't you'll be pleased to *brwrr**brwrr**brwrr* know but it really was that ridicuously, absurdly aggravating.

I've moved house now, I will tell of the Shenanigans involved with that at some point soon.

Until then, pleas translate this website: http://harttx-n-arr0ws.blogspot.com/

Well...This is awkward

On my way down to London I realised I had a lot to Blog about. So I began to write things down that Needed To Be Told To The Internet. Regrettably some of these notes now make no sense to me. The top one being " Keys & Starbucks". If anyone can tell me what that might be about I'll give you a prize.

I recently moved house. Thursday in fact. I would therefore have blogged sooner if I had had the internet when NTL (idiot) had sorted out their ridiculous system. After getting a nice but dim yorkshirish man round for installation of my equipment I spent two and a half hours on hold being sent back and forth from the main customer services and house movers departments of NTL support helpline. Why? Because I moved house but they had only told the aforementioned man, not the electrical system that would have made everything a lot easier to then install and get my internet up and running. After half an hour on hold I got through to person A "I need a PIN to install the software" said I. A said "I need to set up and account, let me put you on hold for 25 minutes while I speak to a senior employee". While speaking to the latter old man I was put on hold and then someone just picked up the line and asked me how they could help. I explained the situation "I've just moved house and need a PIN". This kept going for about 2 hours. Then I thought I'm going to try again and tell the first person I get to to put me straight through to somebody not put me in a half hour queue. It worked. I got through to a bubbly woman to which I said "I'm glad you're happy, I'm just sorry I can't respond with the same chirpiness you have, I've had a bad day because of your employer." She put me through to a man who may have been called Simon. It's an educated guess but I could be entirely wrong. He said (in his reassuringly Indian accent)"You need to wait until midnight to night visit this address (address quoted but unable to type for security reasons) type in username, password and keep clicking continue." "Is that it?" I asked in disbelief. "Yes, I am very sorry I work for an idiot company" I wish he'd said that. All he said was "Very sorry it took you so long to get to talk to an intelligent person" I wish he'd said that. It was actually just a basic "Thank you for calling (idiot) NTL, I'm glad I could help (eventually). Goodbye" One thing I can't understand why some call centre employees end a conversation with "See you later" because I really won't.

So now I have the internet. Life is better when it's sunny.

Far too long

And not just a piece of string.

I have been away. This is the main reason for no post for nearly 10 days. The main reason for this is that I've been in Brighon. Actually it's more that I've been in Sheffield, London, Hillingdon (Uxbridge), Brighton, Devon, Hillingdon, London and now back in Sheffield. I would be back in Leeds but I'm in a strange transition period of house and the like; and in Sheffield I get fed a lot better for a lot cheaper.

I did all of this traveling because I felt going to Brighton was a good idea. If any of you know what was going on Brighton this will make a lot more sense to you, for those who don't I will tell you. It was the Brighton Leadership Conference with NFI (New Frontiers) and it was flipping awesome. I was going with the knowledge it would be ok. I'd heard some things from various veterans to the trip, (*I shrug*), it was mostly good.

Two main themes came out of it all: - Purity, and the Holy Spirit. Living for God, and getting as much of Him as possible. For those of you who want to know about living for God read my earlier blog this time of night is asking for it it's all good. A good analogy for living for God is that you love him and like with marriage if somebody you love asks you to do or not do something you will do it. Of course we make mistakes but you try and He's willing to help. The conviction of the Holy Spirit cuts you off from modern culture and you become different. I think this is all magnificent, and that is why I live like I do.

Getting the most from the Holy Spirit is also a good thing. God wants us to experience Him and if we don't then living for Him is not as easy. I, personally, have been baptised in water, and in the Spirit and it makes life so much more exciting. The over-flowing of Spirit from me (mainly God, actually) makes me want others to experience it too. The main sign (look for this, because it is one distinguishing feature) is that when baptised in the Holy Spirit the outpouring causes speaking in tongues. If you want it ask God for it, and try speaking in tongues as well. You can't speak without opening your mouth.

Let me just clarify you may never speak in tongues again, but biblically (which is a rather good resource on these things) baptism of the Spirit is signified by peaking in tongues. From this gifts of the Spirit will come upon you, this is all great. A great gift to have is faith.

I encourage you; get involved with God. Jesus is waiting for your requests (to forgive, bless and change you). There's only one thing you need to do, and there are no excuses because He knows you inside out.

You'll have to wait another time to hear about Devon; I limit myself to one blog a day, I'm afraid.

I love God.

Home time...

For the first time since last July I'm taking all of my stuff (and there's an awful lot of it) back from whence it came. Treeton. This is an emotional time because I've become attached to this house, I've gotten accustomed to it's features, no matter how ugly and revolting the kitchen is, and forgetting the many problems we've had, and it is a bad house especially for the money we've been ripped off. The upside is I'm going to be moving into a nice new house with cheaper rent better features (kitchen etc) and now I have to go up a hill to see any of my friends, but that does mean a downhill journey home.

My dad's coming to help with the "move" in about half an hour and I've been trying to pack but I was never sure where to start so I sense life will be slightly more tricky to begin with. My parents nicked off with my big bag and a couple of boxes which meant I really didn't know where to put anything. I still don't in fact.

I'll miss Leeds the 10 or so days I'm away from it, the people, sights, atmosphere and smell. It's not a particularly bad city, but like my housemate says "I'll probably move to Liverpool". There you have another pearl of wisdom...

I only got 5 hours sleep...Today I will die.

Txtng

I'm partial to a bit of communication by SMS. But recently I've noticed the amount of people who use exclamation marks for pretty much no reason. (!!)

For example a text message I recieved recently said something along the lines of "I'm learning guitar!". This was followed by a "woo" but the excitement I just couldn't make sense of. More than one exclamation mark confuses me further. As if they're not worked up enoguh the outlet seems to be making less room for letters, more room for emotion.

The second annoyance is shortening words. Words like late to l8, text to txt, you to u, today to 2d. Where is the sense? If it's not worth spelling it's not worth saying. People (sometime referred to as they) argue that the reason for shortening words is so that it would fit into a 10p text message, not overrunning into a second. If it's not worth it don't say it.

I have to admit that I was taught the error of my ways fairly recently and I haven't looked back. I used to pepper my messages with exclamation marks, and shorten so many words it just sounded like "kj adfnj hura qiuiuv al uja ue kj". Always causing confusion. I don't understand people who use 3 instead of E but I suppose that is an area I have never and will never experience for myself. Numbers are numbers, letters are letters. I am saved from abbreviations but with a certain knowledge meaning I can still decipher others.

This is similar to the Good News, The Way. I have been saved by grace, so that I may enter into the presence of God. But I know I was a sinner which means I can draw examples from my former self to counsel others. Jesus died for the world's sin. Give up yourself to Him right now, if you haven't already. It's worth it.

It's been a while

8 days is just about long enough to have another blog. I had a few days thinking I'd blogged a little too much so I didn't, but I'm back. I've been trying to get a job. That hasn't happened in any way the way I'd hoped. Starbucks didn't want me; the losers, and most other places didn't have work until this week. I haven't done anything about that because I enjoy being lazy. It's exactly a week until I no longer have access to the house I'm currently in, so unless I blog mid-next week (which I probably will because I will be equally without things to do) you won't hear from for a number of days...maybe even weeks.

Today is gig day. Oh how I love gig days. Not necassarily the setting up, carrying stuff, getting sweaty, waiting around for other bands, waiting around for people to arrive, waiting for other bands to get over with, packing down after we've finished, carrying more stuff, keeping a sweat on, getting home absolutely shattered, but staying up watching DVD's for no reason. But playing is good. We have 2 hours to fill and we are going to ROCK tonight.

In other news my phone decided to say "no thank you" a couple of weeks ago but I have it back all repaired now. Only without the photos, videos, numbers, settings, or messages that I used to have. Excuse me a second while I turn off a dripping tap

My younger brother (whom I call "my little brother") has made a very good website I would like to share with you. http://jimminyglinn.sitesled.com/ it's on the side bar as well (http://jimminyglinn.sitesled.com/visit is also very good). Please visit.

I will see you all tonight at Santiago's (THE GIG) tonight I trust.

Thank you and goodnight

"Rome certainly wasn't built in a day" - Mark Hardy, lead singer from The Salvator Darlings on a trip to Rome

Stop Whispering

It's been hot; and yesterday was interesting with 3 nice big thunderstorms lasting a total of 7 minutes. There were builders next door who couldn't continue because God wanted to say "Hose Pipe ban's are silly". Gig day on Friday was fun. It was sweltering but I made a vow that I would not take my shirt off and that panned out rather well. The new song went down fairly well with the crowd...Although Davy did mess up the end, but I think only he and I noticed so saved by the imperfections of others I feel.

I found an interesting artist called Regina Spektor yesterday. You should check her out, she's got some good and funny lyrics and the songs vary in style immensely.

In other news, I still haven't heard from Starbucks and therefore I have decided to give up hope, maybe some agency work will serve me well. My phone also decided to say "Err...No thank you..." When I opened the slide last Tuesday which caused a lot of commotion and so I lost everybody's phone number, and all of my brilliant photos and videos on it. Quite annoying. I spent yesterday evening with Ches Dennis and The Grate One, and told a wonderful story behind the "Chicks Dig Butch" tour. That can wait for another time though.

I made a trip to Worcester on Wednesday....Which was nice. We spent Wednesday drinking, and eating and throwing frisbees in people's eyes and just generally causing havoc...In a secluded back garden of a girl's parent's house. Thursday turned into Alton Towers day, when I told the Cuffalo yesterday he said "Why does everyone have all this free time" and then skulked on upstairs. Thursday night I met a lovely girl called Naomi.

Me: Hello, Naomi, I'm Toby.
Naomi: Nice to meet you, Toby
Me: Yes. Good....To.....Meet....You....Too.

I made a slight idiot of myself but nothing over severe.
I will also start to moderate Butch's new Blog: - "Butch Answers" Feel free to post any obscure questions you feel Butch has the knowledge to respond to.

Thank you. Good Day. Bonjour.

Far from contagious

This week I have mostly been drinking water.

Today Matthew...

Apparently, today is the end of the world. 6/6/06
What a load of tosh. I heard some "Chavs" on a train saying:
Chav 1:What are we doing next Thursday?
Chav 2:That's if we survive
Chav 1:What?
Chav 2:666, on Tuesday. End of the world
Chav 1:Oh yeah.
Chav 3:YOu know what would be really cool is if a a bombscare happened...

That's where I got confused. End of the world, signified by a bombscare. Not even an actual explosion, just a scare. Not related in anyway to the devils possible powers because it was brought on by something manmade.

Then another said something about 6 minutes past 6 on the 6th of June 2006. 2 things: Firstly if that was true I wouldn't be writing this, and secondly....THAT'S FIVE SIXES. Man my manalan. THere are so many ignorant people in the world today.

The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band on Friday was very good. Two new tracks and very impressive. Nearly two hours of music, and I feel the people I brought along highly enjoyed it. Mark (Ches Cow)did enjoy it mightily, and Charlie, who went home the next day did as well. She went to see the Goo Goo Dolls that night (I think) but compared to this they will have been rubbish.

My friend Bex came up for the weekend as well, she thoroughly enjoyed company of myself, and my friends, and my church and my band practice. All good. Church was very good on Sunday. God moved in a way I haven't seen in a long time. Revival is an exciting topic. Look it up. Wikipedia is probably a good place to start.

Thee Silver Mountain Revelries

Tonight I am going to see my favourite band. I know I shouldn't have a favourite band, it's very closed minded and it has a lot of strange connotations if you tell the wrong people. However, they are. The music has a wide range of ideas even though their style is unique and therefore I am much looking forward to this evenings entertainment.

The band has finally been called "Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra La La Band". I'll try and get a picture for my next blog. I also offered to cook for a couple of people I'm going with, so pray that goes well. I don't want to have people's deaths on my mind while I'm watching this six-piece.

In other news, I have an interview at Starbucks in Borders this afternoon. I hope I don't say anything stupid but I don't think that will be a problem. My charm and good looks got me this far...

It all seems to be happening today.

God Is Good

A funny story

I was playing poker on Sunday afternoon with some fellow church members (plus guests) and we got onto gambling. This is a very normal topic in poker. Someone was trying to point out that, in the Bible, it says not to gamble. However, it doesn't. There are implicative verses that say things like "Don't get into debt", "Be sensible with what you have", and "whatever you do don't cause your brother to stumble into sin" (this saying that if your friend thinks it's wrong don't try and force them - they think it's a sin therefore they will believe they are sinning and that is not something you want somebody to do). I went on to say that the rule about gambling had come about with the Roman Catholic church and that this made people think strange things. I finished this rant (while winning a couple of hands in the process) with "But that's Catholics for you".

There was a guy sitting opposite me, playing quite well, seeing where I was bluffing and making me become short stacked. I had not seen him before and he was wearing a bright pink t-shirt. I didn't know what his name was so asked the girl sitting next to me. She said "Jack...Do you want to know something else...He's Catholic" and then another girl on the same table (who went on to knock me out) said "He's not just any Catholic but the head of the Catholic society."

You know when you're listening to your mp3 player/walkman, and your singing along and then someone walks past from behind that you haven't seen and you immediately shut up and pretend you were at home in bed? That's a bit what it was like. I tried to cope with it by laughing hysterically for about 5 minutes. Being a man that felt like a good apology, especially with the fact that I came 9th...I am male therefore a pretty bad loser. I say things like "I don't care, I play for the fun, and it's better than my run last term where I was last practically every time..."

I'm not prejudiced in any way.

this time of night is asking for it

I feel compelled to tell all you fellow readers that, whatever it is you cling to in life, is as temporary as the day that is drawing to a close. You can't get back to it, it's not coming back, and whatever you've done is too late to change. The decisions you make with what you have will shape your the short time you have on Earth and the future. I refer to these as separate things because if all there is the life we lead right now, what use is there in anything we choose to do or not do? If we had no purpose other than keeping the human race alive (which I don't believe because we are a selfish race where we create children for ourselves not for them in their own right) then why bother. Live and die. Dust to dust.

Clinging to the answers you have found may answer for now, but and foundations you may have placed will change, move, reform and reiterate that life is full of surprises. These foundations could be money, investments in property, people, books, occult, drugs, alcohol, sex, music, pain, pleasure or even thinking. But all of these have a tendency to change over time, whether minor in attributes, as how the occult can develop in how it deals with itself in the states new technology brings, or major attributes, as drugs continue to get more and more deadly, addictive, and useless. Why should you prepare a foundation for your own life in something of moveable ground? Does a building move if the foundations slide away?

No.

It collapses. What use is a building that when you begin to live in it, it loses it's balance and falls as a bird with weak wings? A person, who relies on the uncontrollable foundation of money, may be secure for a long time, but eventually something will have to give.

Remove these changeable foundations from your life and what are you left with? Maybe a base you feel cannot change...but it can. In the world we live in, change is the only constant; apart from the unchanging, unfathomable, indescribable love of God. He loves this world so much, that after looking at this world, seeing it was very good, after the fall of man where He curses women with immense pain during childbirth, and man with the hard toil of working for a living, cursing the nations with separate tongues, he constantly promised the nation of Israel that the kingdom would come again. This is all fact.

He loves this world beyond anything we can fathom, that He sent His only son (and this is equally incredible because surely any father would die for their son) as a perfect sacrifice according to His law. We have all broken the first commandment He gave us in love. "Do not worship idols/you shall not worship any God but me" But He wants to deliver us from that, so has given us the amazing sacrifice in our place. For the penalty of sin is death. We need atonement for our sins as the Jews did, by way of sacrificing a lamb or other clean beast, and God knew that ultimately He would have to send His lamb (Jesus Christ) to be the eternal sacrifice for all who love Him.

Let's take away the foundation we trust in, this will only lead to death. Let's put our trust in the foundation that doesn't move, and is so easy to find; The One Way that builds us up in the knowledge and love of God. Jesus came to die for us, and that any who put their trust in Him may not perish but have eternal life. This foundation is far better than any security we may feel in possessions, in money, in drugs, in people, in alcohol, in music, in sex, in spirituality. This foundation does not change. God puts it right there to give you the one thing that when all else fails, He remains.

He loves you. He knows you, and no matter what you do he will never stop loving you, but until you put your full trust in the LORD you will be judged on what you didn't do (that is not giving your life back to Christ, and you should do this, it is the least you can do as he gave you life and has a purpose for you). It is so simple. God will not look on you when you die, on Earth, for all the wrong things you have done, asking for you to answer for your actions; you can receive the free gift of God the father’s amazing Grace! Jesus Christ will answer for your sins, if you only ask Him to take them away. His spirit will convict you of you sin and you will be considered clean.

Giving your life really is that, but that does not mean you will lose what you already have, but that you have let God in to use everything you have. Everything you have God has given you; and at any time God can take it away. By putting your faith in God that doesn’t mean life will be plain sailing. God wants you to grow in faith, and how can you do that unless the faith is tested? God will bear great fruit because everything happens for the good of those who love Him. There is the ultimate purpose. Grass withers and flowers fade but the Word of the LORD stands forever.

Is there any good reason why you cannot receive Jesus Christ into your heart right now? I say ‘good’, because if you want to continue to lead the lifestyle you do now…you will die, and go to hell. I have heard too many people say “I’m not ready, but one day”…why wait? What does tomorrow bring? Do you want to continue to rely on drugs? Or money? Sex? People? Yourself?

Are you willing to let go of your burdens and sins?

Are you willing to turn away and repent from your sins?

Are you willing to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour now?

Pray right now: Jesus, I believe in you. I believe you died for me, and rose again on the third day. I’m sorry I have put things as a replacement to the trust you ask of me. Please forgive me for everything I have done that has offended you in the past, and I pray that your spirit empower me right now to do the will you have for me. I pray my faith in you, from this moment, may remain strong. I belong to You now, LORD, no longer to this world nor to the enemy of my soul, I belong to You, and I am born again. In Your name; Amen!

Seek the one relationship you can trust.

Some questions to think about...

If you choke a smurf what colour does it turn?

How do you tell when you've run out of invisible ink?

If practice makes perfect, and nobody's perfect, why practice?

If swimming is so good for your figure, why are whales so fat?

If you are born again, do you get two belly buttons?

If you ate pasta and then antipasta would you still be hungry?

What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?

And finally... If a tree falls down in a forest, do the other trees laugh at it?

Oh the mysteries of life...

Women

Women are weird. It's taken me so long to work out how to deal with them... But it's impossible. They have more signals than the variations sign language has regionally, and worldwide. How come every time a girl says "I'm fine" they're not? Why does "yes" mean "no" and "no" mean "no" but sometimes "yes, really" and sometimes "yes" means "yes" as well and "I don't know" sometimes means "no" (when you think it's "yes") and the rest of the time it's "yes" but because you thought she didn't really know and that for once she was telling the truth you upset a whole number of people for taking someone's word for once?!

The Bible isn't any help on women either. I thought maybe...Seeing as God created women and has written a lot on marriage and relationships in the Bible...There would be something he'd say about that kind of thing...But no! There is not one thing said about how women think. No examples, nothing. Plenty of examples about men and their mind sets and how they mess up, but the only stories about women are the prostitutes or the mothers. No one worth seeking after, really.

You tell them all of your concern about the fact that you can't understand them, and they say "but I can read you"...And that's just silly! Of course women can read men...Men are black and white. "Yes" really means "Yes", "no" really means "no", and "I don't know" probably means he hasn't understood the question. They will try and please a woman, and they will be mistoken for liking a girl a bit too much..."We should meet up" usually means "we should meet up"...Or "I'd quite like to get to know you better, you seem nice" not "I really like you and I'm going to ask you out for real so we can start dating, courting, and probably marry, but let's start with some food". If a man likes someone they usually avoid them until they're confident enough to tell them, and it's usually too late but they don't care because they don't have to worry about it any more!

It's been one of those weeks.

Confessions of a Salivator: Countdown...

Confessions of a Salivator: Countdown...

This is good. (Not the picture, the blog, the picture, I just like...But the above blog, and hopefully below is about temporariness, so think.) Deep profound and good. It made me think. Peter Ustinov once said "It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously." and I believe to a point he is right. Some people do take themselves far too seriously, and you can see that in such a blog as the one above, he is definitely taking the responsibilities of living in Burley (which I happen to also have - although I am one of the dreaded constantly moving students of which Mark speaks) seriously. Giving up the time to truly comprehend everything he has had over the past five years. If it was himself he would not be upset to see Burley go, or in fact bothered that he's leaving one reality behind to find a new one.

I get annoyed, in a similar way, how students refuse to get attached to a place they have lived for 3 or 4 years, and don't realise the community around them. I believe this is noticed far more by church goers than the lesser beings who like to keep Sundays free, where the church truly values community. Therefore, even the students who make a decision to go back home, or travel, or go elsewhere at least, do feel that the short time in that church was good, and right, and it is hard to let it go. Those uninvolved in a church yet still a church goer will not get the same inclusiveness that the church makes available. As such I am so confused as to the amount of Christian brother and sisters I have met over the past year who are not attached to their house. That's all it is. Not a home, but a temporary living space, that gives storage space while the qualification they have been called to acquire is nothing more than a certificate.

I suppose the one thing I take comfort in is, even though there is so much movement amongst the early twenties, there is not one student who needs to feel at home in their place. Because we are not of this world. We do not belong anywhere. We should only feel attached to the lost who cannot comprehend more than their short 80 years on this fallen planet. What is after this? Judgment. All will have to answer for every decision they make, and if they have the support offered they will be with their church as they once were, whereas those who reject that support will be refused the glory. Sent to a place without the presence that even this earth experiences so regularly.

Where do we go from here? Out into the world. Showing people the truth and attractiveness that this amazing walk has taken me so far. Most will not accept it, because they have the hearts that cannot accept it. No matter what is said they will be hardened to the truth and God know who they are. But that doesn't mean that we should give up at the first hurdle. We are called to persevere in our calling, and one thing I should say is there is always hope. You may have missed or you may have planted a seed that you never see grow. But don't think that an "No" now is always that. People are fickle. People change. And there is always hope in the message that saved me, and that can or has saved you.

So I say to take your responsibilities seriously...But be ready to laugh at yourself, and your situation. As Mark did, does and I do.

Where to next?

After finishing off my silly little Nirvana report (it's only twice as long as it's supposed to be, not too serious), I have begun to study what will happen next. I have come to this assumption: A seven year Tribulation period before the glorious return of JC. This is a nice thought. I can't wait. I'd advise you to make sure you know what kind of signs there will be so you can know that God is coming. The only problem is not everyone will believe. But enough...There is no need for me to tell you all this, because I honestly don't know enough.

In other news I keep receiving a bill continually about a DVD I never ordered, I only received. This is becoming an amusement and I'm looking forward to my next envelope.

I'll go, but stay tuned....And if you're bored search for "Rhetorical response". A blog I thought was good, but I can't be bothered to link to. Maybe one day...

Home sweet home diddley-dum-doodley

I'm back in Leeds. That is all








Actually, I had a barbeque today. I am also now convinced the world was created in 6 days, and it is 6000 years old. Now I am done

Uxbridge...

Not Oxbridge, as so many people say. "Oh Oxbridge, must be very clever" no...well yes clever...but it's Uxbridge. It's a real place, not a mixture. I'm talking about my older brother, Sam. And I'm writing this on an iMac G5 (and it has a magnetic bit for the remote...why?!). And going a little crazy. The important thing is not to get over excited. He's at Brunel uni but that doesn't concern anyway. Just a quick note to say I do get around a bit. 3 locations so far.

But how many people have I met, saying... "Macs... pah!" they are idiots, who think PCs are better. How can they be? They look horrible, try and build themselves up with extra features and then come crashing down. I own a PC and know I'm in the wrong. If only I got paid for writing all of this.

In other news, I'm traveling a lot this week. Obviously from Leeds, to Rotherham, to Uxbridge, and then back to Rotherham, and then Leicester! How crazy. I don't know what's going on there but I've been told to be there which, unfortunately, is good enough for me.

Nothing further captain...

Home at last

But not for long. This<- (discovered on my brother's - who also has a blog (see right) - harddrive) is in Rome last summer. I enjoyed it a little. Today, among other interesting things like going to an arts festival after it had finished and eating too much Pizza at a puffet (either a gay buffet or pizza buffet - maybe pizza is gay...) and discovering a crazy pentecostal church in Sheffield (Hope City - rather enjoyable) I learned what a pogrom was. I will leave you in suspense until next time.

In other news My band has now got the official website http://www.thesalvatordarlings.co.uk. That's right...My band, not my band, My band. I will possibly let you know when we're playing, maybe not.Stay tuned. Must go as a fish takes to water, I want sleep.

Absence of what

For those who don't know, I'm currently listening to the album Under The Pipal Tree by a band called Mono whom I witnessed play some very good music at the Joseph's Well. This will be my last blog for a few weeks because I'm going home tomorrow, maybe Saturday. Back to my house in Sheffield to see my parents, give my younger brother (aged 17 at height of 6') a 10 day late birthday present and get cooked for once again. I am an awful cook. Sheffield is quite nice, although Leeds is better. I will, perhaps, be experiencing Hope City church on Sunday morning. Quite exciting.

In other news, I played some rather interesting blues tonight with a twist of Play that funky music (white boy) and A whole lot of love that famous Led Zepplin song. After all of that I say Old School the film for the first time in my life and I say it's rather entertaining. (The dums have kicked in - my goodness aren't Mono particularly entertaining) Almost as good as such films as Team America and Baseketball.


I heard a story of man whose business is blogging but, while trying to tell the American authorities his trade, they failed to believe him and is now refused entry into said country. How bizarre. He happens to be a friend/aquaintance of a good friend of mine (Mark Hardy 6'2", lead singer from the Salvator Darlings, also known as Ches Ventura because of his fiance). I think my thoughts have come to a standstill, may you all have a good Easter, God Bless.

Back to the grind

I've been asked to write a report of one of my least favourite song "Smells like teen spirit"

In other news over the past few months I've joined a band (wacotexas.co.uk - thesalivator.blogspot.com) gotten baptized, and not a lot else. My homework has been to "watch a film" for the past couple of monthes, which I would say has been interesting, but I haven't actually got round to it yet. Maybe I should.

I decided a while ago that I needed a job. I suppose that doesn't help my bank account the same as if I actually went out and looked but I'm close.

Good news on the house front...not that anyone knew I was looking...but I should have somewhere to stay in the summer. Which is nice.

If you choose to read my previous blogs don't hesitate to comment, but I much prefer readings. This may become a consistant thing. I suppose I may have finally got my act together blogwise. Very Nice.

Best Regards

Jimmy (this isn't my real name, but if I explained why I say Jimmy it would ruin it)