Random blog

 Its Halloween and we Christians are all either trying to ignore it or actively praying/speaking/posting against it.  But much as we dont like it and we know that spiritual darkness is real, I dont suppose many of us actually think that the spiritual nasties have all that much to do with our everyday lives So you will probably be as surprised as I was to know that banks in the UK now have whole departments focused on breaking the power of spells which have been cast over their customers. Im serious.  I heard it on Radio 4 so it must be true. Its all about fraud. Financial conmen (and women) usually online, who trick people using exceedingly complex psychological deception into parting with huge amounts of cash.  Their techniques are now so sophisticated and convoluted that the banks now refer to people who have been/are being conned as being 'under a spell'    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-67208755 I immediately thought that our notions of wha...

 On the weekend that Israel was poised on the border with Gaza, following a week of bloodshed and trauma and talk of vengeance, a Methodist minister friend of mine told me that in his sermon series on the ten commandments he just happened to be on number 6.  Thou shalt not kill.  Or better translated, You must not murder. Murder being the unlawful taking of the life of a fellow human being. My heart went out to my friend Jonathan.  Of all the times to be speaking about killing - the weekend when the world seemed to  be teetering on the edge of not just a Middle Eastern war, but quite possibly a world war.  Passions were running high.  Hamas had slaughtered innocents.  Israel had retaliated with bombs on overcrowded civilian neighbourhoods.  Everyone everywhere was talking about whether, and to what extent, we can defend ourselves from violence, take action to eradicate our enemies, avenge ourselves for our losses.  That week we all heard...

 Recently I have been confronted again by the story of the woman caught in adultery. In the past when Ive read the story my sympathies have always been with the woman.  I have indignantly wondered where was the man implicated in the adulterous relationship.  Why was she dragged out to be stoned and not him?  I have imagined that somehow she was an injured party in the whole business, knowing how little value was placed on the lives of women in those days.  But that is not what the Bible tells us.  She was caught in the act of adultery.  Her marriage vows broken, her husband shamed and betrayed and probably heartbroken.  Her children about to be bereft of a mother who is going to be stoned. Knowing the consequences were she to be discovered, she has chosen to follow her heart, go with her passions and risk everything.  Yes there were two people involved. But the Bible story doesnt tell us what happened to him.  It focuses on her and what ...

 Ive been going back and forth to England over the past six months, usually by plane, in an attempt to spend more time with my 84 year old Mum while she is still with us.  Recently someone challenged me to offset my carbon footprint with regards to the flights.  So I had a look into it and discovered that, to the best of my understanding, each return flight Belfast to Luton generates carbon to the tune of 8 trees worth.  Or something like that.  So this autumn Ive collected acorns and conkers and beech nuts and rowan berries and Ive been planting them in the hope that at some point, years down the line, I might have raised a copse or a wooded area to offset all the carbon Ive generated by being alive.  The problem is that acorns and conkers take a long time to germinate and sprout. Im not expecting to know whether any of them will grow at all until next year.  Maybe even the year after that.  So in effect, Im planting them in faith. This evening w...