Visit to Barter Books and not the first time! Reformation was fairly costly.

Took some time out at Alnwick on our way back from Harrogate last week.  "Barter books" is a book shop with several years of upgrading and innovative work in selling books and providing a shelter for readers and those who just want a change from the daily routine. It is based in the railway station. Apart from a bit of lunch we never bought anything. I could have.! Saw this book with its price tag near the other book keenly priced. 

For today's reflection 

Its simple. Consider any book that has had an impact on you r thinking, life and or outlook.
The book could be Harry Potter, Clockwork Orange, Pride and Prejudice or a business book.

What was it that triggered the alertness?
is it still valid? ...Or is it superseded by later events and readings.


 Now what book in the Bible are you avoiding which might want to talk to you or minister to you.>?

Have you read...The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard and considered his pointers to live in heaven now !...here on earth.

Actually I read the following some years ago and thought it A WONDERFUL STATEMENT.

"The aim of God in History is the formation of an all-inclusive community of loving persons with God himself included in the community as its prime Sustained and most glorious Inhabitant."


-The Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible.

Which side are you looking from...

A Post from 12 years ago has been getting a fair reading of late.

The post from 2006 is here.

This may be to do with some questions I posed on the Free Church friends face book page where there had been a lot of communication about baptism from a free church/various/Presbyterian prospective- as you would expect.

 I came from a Reformed background where baptism was administered to children/ babies not of the age of understanding.  In my youth I was moved to the position of believers baptism as in one believes first thereafter as a testimony in public baptism comes second. Now doctrine and influence, past, experience, and Westminster confession can all play a part in your understanding of the subject but when the Spirit of God convicts you then it overshadows teaching.  I quickly add if it is of God then it will not be contrary to the Bible.

I have heard several times that the jailer and his family were baptised so therefore it is all right to baptise children (not of the age of understanding). Yet if the jailer is working he is not now in the army, ...is he retired from the army therefore older therefore his children may well have been of the age of understanding?

Then there is the thought from the non Presbyterian if baptism is for the child /baby then what about circumcision why are the reformed churches not carrying out this act?

No doubt there is a response to this question  even although the basis of there stance is steeped in the old testament and the Westminster confession.

I have not come across many baptistic people defending the stance they take or the understanding they have on baptism. Of course maybe I have just missed them. Regarding the Westminster Confession we need to be on our guard that we do not hold the Westminster confession at a par with the Bible which we believe is the word of God. There has been many arguments about the inclusion of the Apocrypha and one danger was that it would be seen as part of the word of God and not a simple record of a part of Gods people travels.( See Haldane brothers and there stance against the Bible Society ( British and Foreign ).

Needless to say I have an issue with one part at least of the Westminster confession CHAPTER 28.

In short.

Those that believed were baptised... faith then public profession.

There will be those too who are dogmatic in the mode be it sprinkling or Full immersion. 

I am no scholar but the word implies dipping as far as I can see.

Of course we can make allowances for those infirmed etc.

Previous fairly recent post about my baptism. Summer 2018

Finally you may have hear of the person who asked two people to face each other and he laid an apple on the table (one side was eaten the other whole.)

He asked in general what do you see one said an eaten apple the other said a whole apple.  In this case they were both wrong and seeing things from a particular viewpoint.

Windows updates September

The usual  Windows 10 updates around the second Tuesday of the month are available in the usual manner.

(To see how to get these updates see here.)

The Money Charity September figures

The Money charity figures for last month.Take a few on the site Striking Numbers £19.97: The fall in Debt growth per adult in June £58,658: Average total debt per UK household in July 2018 £32,220: Average student debt for 2016 cohort in England £227.94: Increase in consumer credit, per adult in the UK, in the year to July 2018 94%: First-time buyer deposit, as percent of average salary, in July 2018 0.2%: Average interest rate on instant access savings account in July 2018 18.35%: Average credit card interest rate in July 2018 34%: Proportion of income, including benefits, spent on rent by private renters - 0.5%: Change in house prices in August 2018 according to Nationwide - £31 billion: Change in Public Sector Net Debt (excluding debt to Bank of England) in the year to July 2018

Do you have an I pad?

Do you have an I pad?

Apple have instigated its latest version of its operating system IOS 12.0  Which is now available in the UK.
Go to settings software update and it takes about 20 minutes depending on your set up and i pad.

Needless to say my i pad which is i pad 1 is stuck with no more updates.

IOS12 .00 should give you facetime with multi users.

Questionnaire results

Questionnaire results

Gender

Of the participants who took part so far, 55% are Female and 45% Male.

 Roots!

Of all the participants so far 56 % have lived most of their life in the same area in a radius of 200 miles.

Age

 

Approximate Age band?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of the participants over 40% were in the age group 45 - 60. 39% were 60 to 75.

Married and children at home

Nearly 80% were married.

Are there children under 18 at home?

70% had no children under 18 at home.

 

Church attendance

Are you a regular church goer (as in visit a denomination for worship and preaching on Sundays in a Church building or recognised hall being used for the purpose of worship)?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of the participants 90 % are regular church goers (go to a recognised building for public worship).

Nearly 5% do not want to go to such an event.

75 % are members of a national organisational church.

Questionnaire results coming out.

I am going to release some of the results of the questionnaire. However I am leaving it open for a further period to allow those who live in the Highlands and have not taken part an opportunity to complete it. Top left of this blog for the link.

 Results ( some)

Gender

Of the participants who took part so far, 55% are Female and 45% Male.

 Roots!

Of all the participants so far 56 % have lived most of their life in the same area in a radius of 200 miles.

Sunday is still a time of reflection. I know many go shopping or catch up but it is important to allow the body mind and soul to be refreshed by doing other things or not doing the usual things.

As we switch off and look at a reflection take time to wait to ponder before reading on. 

Reflecting / responding


Love /Knowledge
Light/darkness
sound/silence 
Exterior/interior
Joy/fear
Action/contemplation

There are people who are always active and there is a sense that they need to stop? There are many who seem to be permanently stopped and cannot take action?

Where do you naturally fall action or contemplation?
Is there a need for both to make a person whole?


Genesis 28 Jacob wrestling with God (read and reflect)

 For a follower the responsibility to love God and love his neighbour are the highest level of life. In a world that looks at rank, achievement, status, What do you do? Consider what are the important things for you to do?

Looking to this week... How will a reflective time like just now help you with action planning and implementing?

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Revivalists...

During these years to 1830 "phenomena began to appear in Scotland". Mary Campbell, an invalid, in Row, Gair Loch, Port Glasgow one Sunday in March, of 1830, broke out into speaking in tongues of an unknown language for about an hour. Margaret MacDonald, an acquaintance, was aided to health by her brothers, James and George MacDonald, of Port Glasgow. They wrote to Mary Campbell and the same thing happened to her. Erskine and friends, Robert Story, and Macleod Campbell, Ministers in the area, went to check out Mary Campbell's circumstances. Erskine, convinced, for the time being, put to paper "the gifts of the Holy Spirit" at the end of that same year. Erskine, later retracted his conviction that these happenings were identical to those mentioned in the book of Acts. Most interestingly, he did say "I still continue to think, that to anyone whose expectations are formed by, and founded on the declaration of the New Testament, the disappearance of these gifts from the Church, must be a greater difficulty than their reappearance could be".

Here we have an acknowledgement of a loss to some of the Christian practice of the New Testament and recognition that it was still required. He concluded more difficult to comprehend the loss of the gifts than the reappearing of them.

Revivalists ....back on the road again

The period of Revivalists is a period of interest to us even more so in these days as you read this brief history. Robert Murray McCheyne and Andrew Bonar, during their college years came "under the spell of the meteoric message of Edward Irwing before his excesses in doctrine had lead him far away from the beaten track" (whatever that means!).

This..challenged and stretched the Calvinistic views that prevailed

Irving had, as with Thomas Erskine and John Macleod Campbell been not far from the debates as they challenged and stretched the Calvinistic views that prevailed. In an era of all things mechanical, steam engines, bridges, and great advancements in construction, perhaps the Christian walk was not a simple tick box check-list, a system or procedure of sorts but something far more.

In an age where doctrine and understanding had primarily been handed over or handed down through Divinity Colleges, questioning the stance of the establishment was seen as weak faith or ungodly. Irwing, Erskine and Campbell, continued to debate the person of Christ, the nature and scope of Atonement, election and eternal punishment, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is evident that many Churchmen seeking the closer spiritual life saw something in Irwing that appealed to them, yet their education and influence did not allow them to enter in. 

Erskine: “The disappearance of these gifts from the Church, must be a greater difficulty than their reappearance could be...”

Around 50 people were meeting in Henry Drummond's house at Albury, to study the prophetic books of the Bible. Out of these meeting came, in time, the Catholic Apostolic Church. Two things that were in the forefront of concern at these meetings in Albury, were:

1. Gifts of the Holy Spirit as seen at Pentecost.
2. Expectation of the second Coming, in the near future.