I am in Ireland for a while. Ireland is defined by one particularity which is Guinness. It is fortified in numerous minerals especially iron and was once recommended for patients who had cardiac pathology due to the good content of iron in it. Seriously. If used today it would have to be prescribed.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
98 Days [Guinness]
I am in Ireland for a while. Ireland is defined by one particularity which is Guinness. It is fortified in numerous minerals especially iron and was once recommended for patients who had cardiac pathology due to the good content of iron in it. Seriously. If used today it would have to be prescribed.
Friday, March 19, 2010
99 Days [Grey Horses]
The above photograph is of a lake in the Scottish lowlands near the town of Stranraer. I had gone on a nice long horse ride today. Horses are beautiful creatures and it is always a wonder for me to know that between my legs is over half a ton of powerful muscle.
Many people tend to be ignorant about horses and the surrounding social environment in which they are often projected in the media. Some assume you must be wealthy when you do not have to be and a posh personage. Learning to mountaineer and taking regular trips is more expensive as you progress and to a huge degree particularly in British mountaineering more posh and elitist.
Horses do attract people from many paths and backgrounds. Another misconception is that it is for girls and this is simply one of the most laughable and contributes to the fact that the majority of horse riders you see in the countryside are women. Strangely enough the most successful horse riders (e.g. jockeys) are men. Just take a stroll to your nearest stables to discover the wonders that exist in this often poorly understood world.
In short though many people laugh towards the those that pursue horse riding they themselves secretly wish they could have the muster and indeed skill it takes to be familiar around these creatures and ride them at great speed. Just watch a classic western and each time the hero and heroin mount a horse and speed away a small part of you wishes you could do the same.
Well it is time for some foodage. Well more foodage as just munched through half a loaf of bread. As my Parents always said, I do eat like a horse ;-)
Thursday, March 18, 2010
100 Days [Mum]
I did not upload a proper photograph for Mothers Day on Sunday. So in the early hours of this morning decided to photograph something interesting. It is cloudy today so that means some interesting perspectives later today. Maybe. There is some book work to be done. A lot.Wednesday, March 17, 2010
101 Days [Cadbury's]
Cadbury's has become the latest big name British industrial institution to be conquered by a larger more dominant force in the world that is globalisation. Pity.
It has made some of the most memorable chocolate bars and other delicious things that have graced the stomachs of many a British school child during those mid morning break times and after school snacks. The Flake bar has been one of high end luxury that the brand managed to market to a staggeringly successful degree with its novel and provocative television commercials during the late '80s and early '90s.
It is lunch time at the moment for me and my morning has been an interesting one. The cup was photographed earlier this morning when I got in early to relax and savour the aroma and taste of my favourite warm drink before the day began. I am going out to purchase some healthy delicious food. Namely it shall involve some potato and also some fish. Fresh fish ;-).
Many people regard the dominance of the American food industry and other aspects of American endeavour as too over powering relegating their thought and common sense to that of the envious child whenever an American company takes over a British institution.
For me America has taken whatever else the world produces and made it much much better in more than a number of situations. For example Britain invented the computer but the Americans produced Microsoft and also Apple. So I am optimistic that in time the American enthused ingenuity that runs throughout the Kraft Company shall produce chocolate that would have made Willy Wonker jealous
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
102 Days [Fold]
I took this shot tonight during a late night study session. My room wherever I go happens to be littered with numerous things to unleash my thoughts.
The above is nothing extraordinary. Of nothing that stands out but is just a simple photograph of a simple object that is easy to make and is manufactured in the thousands today. It is an adaptation on the legendary notepad that has been called the Moleskin.
Unfortunately I have nothing significant to put down here as I am tired and it is time for bed. I have no clue what is going to unfold over this coming day. However one thought that is on my mind is the thought of friendship. Not friendship to people. That other thought is for another day. Friendship for me comes from many things. Not just people.
Over the coming course of this unspecified countdown you shall discover a small opening into my world concerning the many friends depending on the context that I do possess. Sod it. I need a good old ramble.
Folding happens to everyone at some point and you often expect your friends to be there to catch you. Often times those ridiculous creatures who boast aloud that they are so close to you and the worlds best friend you could ever have often too quickly disappear through sheer convenience when things go to rubbish.
I have often times refused to depend on friends for an enormity of things often discovering as a good number of us do that the humans that help you through a crisis are those that often times do not boast aloud their friendship of you. The ones that remain quiet in the background during the good times but who mysteriously develop the knack to understand and help you out when the bad times rock towards you.
Those people are priceless and I am thankful to have more than a good number that I am acquainted with.
I often find solace in books and reading and through being surrounded and engaged in everything to do concerning books. Books are timeless and their timeless nature reminds me of those precious people whose friendships through the difficult times are timeless and never to be forgotten.
Oh for the record if anyone thinks I am having a me against the world ramble do yourself a favour by opening a window and throwing yourself out.
Goodnight. Good morning depending where you are.
Monday, March 15, 2010
103 Days [Tea Time]
I am on a tea break at the general practice I am attached to at the moment. So I decided to take a quick shot of one of the ginger nuts that is my contribution to the food.I am attached at the moment to a beautiful general practice in the Scottish Borders. The place is Stranraer. I love Scotland. A lot! I relish the sheer contrasts that you get in this enormous and underpopulated country that has had a disproportionate enormous impact on the history of the United Kingdom per head of population than any of the other three countries that constitute the Kingdom.
The doctors here are extremely good and thorough. I cannot stand medicine in London as I cannot stand cities. However being up here is thoroughly refreshing. The close personal approach and sheer professionalism that sticks to the old fashioned yet tender kind ways that many of us dream a doctor should be.
Of course it is not a perfect place as nothing is perfect in this life but the countryside possesses many facets that the often city crazed lunatic is missing out on. The city has its advantages but it often loses the plot on subjects such as fox hunting and other things in the country. Many a city slicker thinks they can understand the country based upon the odd weekend and dabbles in the NFU. However it is a different stronger healthier world in the country and I do plan to make it a huge part of my life.
I have rambled somewhat. These comments are not supposed to make any sense as they are opinion. My opinion. Not arrogance. Just opinion. So of course my opinion could well be wrong but it is still my opinion.
The above photograph is symbolic of the sheer peace that you get out here despite the usual strains that exist in the medical world. Many a city based doctor frowns upon rural medicine as a somewhat trash bin for those not big enough to make it in the city. Really? Out here rocks! Doctors get to do lots of numerous things out here and at the same time take a break to eat a biscuit in complete peace and quiet. That is priceless.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
104 [Mothers Day]
.jpg)
It is Mothers Day. In the glorious country that I inhabit which is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland! I had a lot of things to put and share concerning Mothers Day. However my laptop has so frustrated me for the past two hours that any decent thought I did have somehow has been replaced by sheer annoyance towards this little but important contraption. So I am going to have to go away and have a think then come back.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
105 Days [NHS]
This is a countdown. A Final countdown.I am under the weather today. So the above photograph is appropriate. The NHS as many of you know is the National Health Service that this great nation possesses at its disposal. Right. I need some sleep and a lot of fluids and also some good old fashioned lemon and honey and some paracetamol.
Anyway this Photo Blog is going to be kick started once again. It has been a long long time since I was last on Flickr. Lots of things have happened.
President Kennedy
Below is a classic speech. Just been listening to "My Life" by The Game. Good tune! Made me think of this speech by my favourite US President.
"This is a time of shame and sorrow. It is not a day for politics. I have saved this one opportunity to speak briefly to you about this mindless menace of violence in America which again stains our land and every one of our lives.
It is not the concern of any one race. The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one – no matter where he lives or what he does – can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on.
Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr’s cause has ever been stilled by his assassin’s bullet.
No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of the people.
Whenever any American’s life is taken by another American unnecessarily – whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence – whenever we tear at the fabric of life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.
"Among free men,” said Abraham Lincoln, “there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and those who take such appeal are sure to lose their cause and pay the costs.”
Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far off lands. We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire weapons and ammunition they desire.
Too often we honor swagger and bluster and the wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. Some Americans who preach nonviolence abroad fail to practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.
Some looks for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear; violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleaning of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.
For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly, destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is a slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter.
This is the breaking of a man’s spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all. I have not come here to propose a set of specific remedies nor is there a single set. For a broad and adequate outline we known what must be done. “When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies – to be met not with cooperation but with conquest, to be subjugated and mastered.
We learn, at the last, to look at our bothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community, men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear – only a common desire to retreat from each other – only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. For all this there are no final answers.
Yet we know what we must do. It is to achieve true justice among our fellow citizens. The question is now what programs we should seek to enact. The question is whether we can find in our own midst and in our own hearts that leadership of human purpose that will recognize the terrible truths of our existence.
We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of all. We must admit in ourselves that our own children’s future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.
Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanish it with a program, nor with a resolution.
But we can perhaps remember – even if only for a time – that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short movement of life, that they seek – as we do – nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.
Surely this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our hearts brothers and countrymen once again."
Robert F. Kennedy - April 5, 196
"This is a time of shame and sorrow. It is not a day for politics. I have saved this one opportunity to speak briefly to you about this mindless menace of violence in America which again stains our land and every one of our lives.
It is not the concern of any one race. The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one – no matter where he lives or what he does – can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on.
Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr’s cause has ever been stilled by his assassin’s bullet.
No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of the people.
Whenever any American’s life is taken by another American unnecessarily – whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence – whenever we tear at the fabric of life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.
"Among free men,” said Abraham Lincoln, “there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and those who take such appeal are sure to lose their cause and pay the costs.”
Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far off lands. We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire weapons and ammunition they desire.
Too often we honor swagger and bluster and the wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. Some Americans who preach nonviolence abroad fail to practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.
Some looks for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear; violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleaning of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.
For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly, destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is a slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter.
This is the breaking of a man’s spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all. I have not come here to propose a set of specific remedies nor is there a single set. For a broad and adequate outline we known what must be done. “When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies – to be met not with cooperation but with conquest, to be subjugated and mastered.
We learn, at the last, to look at our bothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community, men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear – only a common desire to retreat from each other – only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. For all this there are no final answers.
Yet we know what we must do. It is to achieve true justice among our fellow citizens. The question is now what programs we should seek to enact. The question is whether we can find in our own midst and in our own hearts that leadership of human purpose that will recognize the terrible truths of our existence.
We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of all. We must admit in ourselves that our own children’s future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.
Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanish it with a program, nor with a resolution.
But we can perhaps remember – even if only for a time – that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short movement of life, that they seek – as we do – nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.
Surely this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our hearts brothers and countrymen once again."
Robert F. Kennedy - April 5, 196
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Christians & Being Unworthy
Happy Sabbath Guys & Gals
No time for pleasantries. So let us cut out the mustard.
Many people consider themselevs not worthy for some particular kind of endeavour. Such can be due because they do not consider themselves experts in a chosen field. Or, that due to some impediment, they can never possess the flambouyancy of character and dynamism of a charming personality to conduct a task outside of their everyday scope to.
Such when you are a Christian should be an obsolete thought, although the constant mantra, "we are not worthy" that some of our brethren exude ad nauseam, can breed a certain backward acceptance that we can never jump to the stars, that we can never speak on numerous subjects, that due to sin we are so floored that we the better for it sticking to the pigeon holes which some mistakenly state is "Gods plan for your life", when the reverse, which is ever more beautiful, is hardly expounded often enough.
Such is due to that common human trait, regardless of persuasion, that manifests itself towards the later years of ones thrid decade in life: mental, although not intellectual wind down which accompanies supposed maturity, which is so stark to the exuberance of thought and ideas that radiates from people at the start of their third decade in life, renders the idealistic dreams and passions of youth to become empty. Such is sad.
Your parents, yes those middle aged sometimes meddlesome people, shouted aloud the eager idealism we often times fool ourselves into thinking we created for our time. What happened to them you may ask? They knuckled down - got a job, then a spouse, a mortgage and credit cards, then some children and your university debt. So of course the idealism gets lost down the drain of the complex biological ecosystem known as modern day society, and the world remains the same: people starve and die the same way and Church and the criticisms of such remain the same.
Now that Church has been mentioned you may start to wake up. Many people have grudges against certain aspects of Church. Many young people, especially those enlightened such as yourselves who are fortunate to go to university, often shake their heads in amazement at what appears to be the simple but all to common mistakes made by the Church concerning what on earth we should be about and doing for our young people. You have a point - the patronage we sometimes grant Pastors is monstrous. Some of the politics that exists and racism and prejudice and outdated thoughts and backward uneducated inspired changing methology can persuade some to moan.
Moan? C'mon how easy it is such to do from the shadows of our bedrooms and clique social circles. Coming back to being worthy every one of you is worthy. You are smart. You have ideas and you have sense (one hopes) to recognise this one simple fact: the idealism that many of you wish and seek to occur in Church and in our world is never going to happen if you yourself do not change towards such an ideal before you expect everyone else to. Of the message sent out weeks ago, only one person had the guts to step forward - how unsurprising.
Expressed another way, Ghandi, one of the most inspirational figures of the modern age, once said "be the change you want to see in the world". You be that change. You become that change. You breathe that change. You think and exist as that change. Only then does sustainable change occur.
Such is obvious, so excuse the patronising tone, but, as aforementioned, one is cutting out the mustard. It tastes bad anyway. The person who always says that they are not worthy is indeed a worthless human being who is not deserving of the talents God has given them. Remember the story? I am someone who tries his best to avoid being friends with people who criticise but can never put foot to their own ass to get on and try and do a better job.
Talents grow through trial and error but excel through wisdom. Just read the biographies of great men and women who have changed the world. They took what they had and busted their guts to see their dreams come true, which means trying out things which you are not comfortable doing. You think you work hard? Think again. If some of you wish to have a bigger impact on this world, you are going to have to work harder, no matter what you do. Stating one goes to Oxford means nothing to the starving child in the street.
There are many things you can get stuck into in our Church to make it a better place. There is a small magazine called the Hub. There are numerous other things. So is it a question of not being worthy? Or, is it a question of laziness? Only you know you, so who am I to decide - not judge, but decide.
The previous message one sent out about me considering myself not being worthy is not along the same though, though. Why you may wonder? Let me provide you with a small analogy.
If you are a stereotypical young person in Church who is asked to prepare a sermon one day on a topic which causes deep concentration from the congregation, due to the theological and philosophical complexities core to such a topic, you may, providing you are a stereotypical young person, be somewhat timid at being asked to do preach on such.
You, although having weeks to thoroughly prepare a task which you have studiously undertaken, might perhaps still feel small and timid when the big day arrives. Such is understandable as you may consider others better read and educated to expound such a theological complexity. You may thus feel embarassed to do such, and consider you being pretentious to preach on a subject you know nothing about.
But that is where you are wrong. You are wrong to assume you are not worthy, as you are worthy due to everyone being called to understand the simplicities and complexities of Scripture. Your thorough preparation alone states aloud that you are worthy, that your focus is assured and that your talents, although arguably not appropriate to the task at hand, have been used to their best to make such better. Although you may moan that you consider yourself not worthy.
That is very different to a similar young person, who possesses an intellect which if used properly can benefit many people. But, who for whatever reason, instead of diligently preparing for the sermon by studiously reading as the previous person, goes out instead to satisfy their frivilous self through whatever easy means possible, to only stroll into Church to preach a sermon, which although similar to the previous person in terms of standard, should have been of a deeper tone and understanding, courtesy of their intellect, but which is not because they have expended their talents on other things secondary to their primary objective. Whereas the previous person has.
The difference is not necessarily a waste of talent, but a loss of focus. Now you can undertand my previous message. It was not a quest to find someone more righteous than me, more theologically versed than me, more Christian than me, more Adventist than me, but to find someone who possesses a keener focus than me upon which should be our primary objective once one has the audacity to call oneself a Christian. I have lost mine to some degree, not through the complexities of life but, through a systematic presumption to do so.
You would expect any one regardless of talent who has lost focus on something to either regain that focus or, if such is beyond them at that time, to stand back and let someone else who is more focused to take over.
That is all. I know my station.
God Bless
Simon
No time for pleasantries. So let us cut out the mustard.
Many people consider themselevs not worthy for some particular kind of endeavour. Such can be due because they do not consider themselves experts in a chosen field. Or, that due to some impediment, they can never possess the flambouyancy of character and dynamism of a charming personality to conduct a task outside of their everyday scope to.
Such when you are a Christian should be an obsolete thought, although the constant mantra, "we are not worthy" that some of our brethren exude ad nauseam, can breed a certain backward acceptance that we can never jump to the stars, that we can never speak on numerous subjects, that due to sin we are so floored that we the better for it sticking to the pigeon holes which some mistakenly state is "Gods plan for your life", when the reverse, which is ever more beautiful, is hardly expounded often enough.
Such is due to that common human trait, regardless of persuasion, that manifests itself towards the later years of ones thrid decade in life: mental, although not intellectual wind down which accompanies supposed maturity, which is so stark to the exuberance of thought and ideas that radiates from people at the start of their third decade in life, renders the idealistic dreams and passions of youth to become empty. Such is sad.
Your parents, yes those middle aged sometimes meddlesome people, shouted aloud the eager idealism we often times fool ourselves into thinking we created for our time. What happened to them you may ask? They knuckled down - got a job, then a spouse, a mortgage and credit cards, then some children and your university debt. So of course the idealism gets lost down the drain of the complex biological ecosystem known as modern day society, and the world remains the same: people starve and die the same way and Church and the criticisms of such remain the same.
Now that Church has been mentioned you may start to wake up. Many people have grudges against certain aspects of Church. Many young people, especially those enlightened such as yourselves who are fortunate to go to university, often shake their heads in amazement at what appears to be the simple but all to common mistakes made by the Church concerning what on earth we should be about and doing for our young people. You have a point - the patronage we sometimes grant Pastors is monstrous. Some of the politics that exists and racism and prejudice and outdated thoughts and backward uneducated inspired changing methology can persuade some to moan.
Moan? C'mon how easy it is such to do from the shadows of our bedrooms and clique social circles. Coming back to being worthy every one of you is worthy. You are smart. You have ideas and you have sense (one hopes) to recognise this one simple fact: the idealism that many of you wish and seek to occur in Church and in our world is never going to happen if you yourself do not change towards such an ideal before you expect everyone else to. Of the message sent out weeks ago, only one person had the guts to step forward - how unsurprising.
Expressed another way, Ghandi, one of the most inspirational figures of the modern age, once said "be the change you want to see in the world". You be that change. You become that change. You breathe that change. You think and exist as that change. Only then does sustainable change occur.
Such is obvious, so excuse the patronising tone, but, as aforementioned, one is cutting out the mustard. It tastes bad anyway. The person who always says that they are not worthy is indeed a worthless human being who is not deserving of the talents God has given them. Remember the story? I am someone who tries his best to avoid being friends with people who criticise but can never put foot to their own ass to get on and try and do a better job.
Talents grow through trial and error but excel through wisdom. Just read the biographies of great men and women who have changed the world. They took what they had and busted their guts to see their dreams come true, which means trying out things which you are not comfortable doing. You think you work hard? Think again. If some of you wish to have a bigger impact on this world, you are going to have to work harder, no matter what you do. Stating one goes to Oxford means nothing to the starving child in the street.
There are many things you can get stuck into in our Church to make it a better place. There is a small magazine called the Hub. There are numerous other things. So is it a question of not being worthy? Or, is it a question of laziness? Only you know you, so who am I to decide - not judge, but decide.
The previous message one sent out about me considering myself not being worthy is not along the same though, though. Why you may wonder? Let me provide you with a small analogy.
If you are a stereotypical young person in Church who is asked to prepare a sermon one day on a topic which causes deep concentration from the congregation, due to the theological and philosophical complexities core to such a topic, you may, providing you are a stereotypical young person, be somewhat timid at being asked to do preach on such.
You, although having weeks to thoroughly prepare a task which you have studiously undertaken, might perhaps still feel small and timid when the big day arrives. Such is understandable as you may consider others better read and educated to expound such a theological complexity. You may thus feel embarassed to do such, and consider you being pretentious to preach on a subject you know nothing about.
But that is where you are wrong. You are wrong to assume you are not worthy, as you are worthy due to everyone being called to understand the simplicities and complexities of Scripture. Your thorough preparation alone states aloud that you are worthy, that your focus is assured and that your talents, although arguably not appropriate to the task at hand, have been used to their best to make such better. Although you may moan that you consider yourself not worthy.
That is very different to a similar young person, who possesses an intellect which if used properly can benefit many people. But, who for whatever reason, instead of diligently preparing for the sermon by studiously reading as the previous person, goes out instead to satisfy their frivilous self through whatever easy means possible, to only stroll into Church to preach a sermon, which although similar to the previous person in terms of standard, should have been of a deeper tone and understanding, courtesy of their intellect, but which is not because they have expended their talents on other things secondary to their primary objective. Whereas the previous person has.
The difference is not necessarily a waste of talent, but a loss of focus. Now you can undertand my previous message. It was not a quest to find someone more righteous than me, more theologically versed than me, more Christian than me, more Adventist than me, but to find someone who possesses a keener focus than me upon which should be our primary objective once one has the audacity to call oneself a Christian. I have lost mine to some degree, not through the complexities of life but, through a systematic presumption to do so.
You would expect any one regardless of talent who has lost focus on something to either regain that focus or, if such is beyond them at that time, to stand back and let someone else who is more focused to take over.
That is all. I know my station.
God Bless
Simon
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)