Time away

There is a song I listened to for a while called 'Come away with me'. I spent a couple of days this week 'away' just reading the words of Jesus in the four gospels and doing some praying and planning.

A lot of people were given or bought J John's book called Just 10 last weekend. It's an extremely good book to give to a seeking or new Christian or indeed for any of us who might think we know the Ten Commandments but may in fact not.

I watched this in one sitting and it made sense of much of my 25 years of following Jesus. It also has quite a few pointers for the next 25 too. Can you imagine this showing on mainstream TV today?

Two questions you might like to ask if you watch it.

1. Where on the road are you?

2. Which unhelpful voices have you been waylaid by or might you be tempted to listen to in the future?

'The power of full engagement' is all about managing energy (not in a 'new-age- knit- your- own --Newbury bypass' way but energy in terms of our capacities to be effective) . The case study of 'Roger' is the story of so many men in their middle years. Well worth a read.
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I listened to this talk called 'Chosen' (scroll down to 1/8/12) which was timely for me. I loved the phrase 'unrelenting grace' that he uses. Listen if you need to be reminded that grace and blessing doesn't depend on your performance or worthiness.

Some wisdom if you struggle with singleness. This quote resonated with me having spent most of my life single..... 'coming to terms with your singleness will help you love when you marry'

I never tire of reading stories about George Whitfield.

Series 1 episode 3 of 'Call the midwife' deeply, deeply impacted me and I have been thinking about the consequences and realities of unconditional love ever since.

Seventeen of us did 'Romans in 3 hours' which was a marvellous time last Saturday. A shout out thank you to Allen for all his work. Every time he does this he reads a new commentary on Romans. This time he chose 'God is for us'. Some of our discussions centred on how to explain sin (Romans 1-3) to a culture that knows not what it is.

One day I would love to attend a TED event. There's one in Oxford.

This TED talk is an interesting one and asks the question 'What is the most important component of health?' Interesting stuff as I read the 'full engagement' book and as one thinks of all those who are suffering from panic attacks, sleeplessness/insomnia, depression and anxiety. However, instead of searching for the 'inner pilot light' just read and meditate on Romans 12:1-2