Writing on the wall!

It seems that the first full post on the new blog is going to be a book review!

A couple of years back I read an excellent Advent book by Maggi Dawn called Beginnings and Endings.  Then earlier this year I read her Lenten book, Giving it up.  Both times they’ve really challenged me to think harder about these 2 important seasons in the Christian calendar.  So when I discovered that she had a new book out I had to get a copy.

Writing on the Wall is a fascinating book, born out of Maggi’s experiences as a College Chaplain in Cambridge!  Put simply, it is a journey of discovery through the Bible and a huge swathe of the arts.

Maggi writes extremely well and to be honest, I think this book is totally wasted on a Christian audience, although I fear that this is where it will get it’s biggest reading.  The reason is that this is an absolutely brilliant exposition of the whole Bible message and it gives massive insight into all the different ‘stuff’ that has been inspired by the best selling book ever.  The sheer wealth of material covered provides the only negative thing I can say about this book, and that is that you need to read it alongside your computer so that Google can let you see/hear/read the various things that Maggi refers to.

This is a book I’d give to me non-Christian friends because it shows just a glimpse of the generations of people who have been inspired by the Bible, whilst giving an unashamedly Christian presentation of the Gospel.  Thanks Maggi for such a great read!

God’s intentions

Hopefully anyone who was in the UK in the week before Christmas managed to catch the BBC dramatisation of the Nativity which was remarkable.  I couldn’t help but notice that the writer, Tony Jordan of Eastenders & Life on Mars fame, was interviewed in the Telegraph (not a paper I would normally read except for their cricket coverage).  The interview signs off with the following comment:

“I have a distaste for people who say to me if you come through these doors, walk down this aisle, sit on that wooden bench, and sing these hymns in this order, I have got God in a little bottle under my pulpit and I’ll let you have a look,” he says. “I don’t think was God’s intention.”

I actually think that Tony Jordan has hit the nail on the head with this comment.  I don’t think that the sort of church that he describes was what God was intending when he was born in Bethlehem as a tiny, innocent baby.  Yet that is what many people think the church is like today, probably fairly!

I long for a church that isn’t like that!  I want to see a community of people that genuinely love each other, in fact sometimes I’d even settle for simply tolerating each other as it often feels as if the former is unreachable.  I long for a place where we give real answers to real questions and where we’re honest enough to admit we don’t know all the answers.  I long for a place where God is not offered in a box, but where people are encouraged to encounter him for themselves and where what they find isn’t then forced to fit the rigid doctrinal code of denominational distinctiveness!

Future

Back in December reverb10 (ht Jonny Baker) posted a series of ideas for reflecting on the events of 2010 and the first of these was to:

One Word. Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?

For me that word was ‘Future’.  From the beginning of the year until our commissioning in July our lives were dominated by thinking about the future.  A future in ministry as Salvation Army Officers and our future here in our appointment.  In many ways, of course, we are still at the beginning of that future and sometimes I have to pinch myself to remember that it is only just under 6 months since commissioning.  The possibilities are endless and are very much reliant on our openness to the Spirit’s leading in our role as officers.  Trusting in our Lord is the most important part of that and moving at His pace, helping His people here to discover His will for them and finding ways to help them grow as disciples.  It’s an incredible privilege and I thank God for allowing me to do this.

Thinking Simply

So after a lot of thought I retired my old blog – Pilgrim Soldier – because I felt it hadserved the purpose it was created for and I’ve moved on.

What I haven’t done though is stopped wanting to write and I’m still thinking about a lot of things.  One of the major things in the last few weeks has been the number of things that I’m reading – books, blogs, etc – that have triggered my thoughts.  So this new blog, Thinking Simply, is exactly that a blog about my rather simple thoughts!