What if...

I went for a walk recently with a group of friends, and one of them asked me "what if we have got it all wrong? what if there is no God and when we dies that is it?"

One answer to that is from CS Lewis book the Silver Chair. You might not know the story but at this point two children and a Marshwiggle have just rescued the Prince from the Witches underground castle, and then she turns up and tried to bewitch them into believing there is no other world to go back to. This is Puddleglum's response:

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..Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things- trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that's a funny thing, when you come to think of it,. We're just babies making up a game, is you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a play world that licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play-world. I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if the two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we're leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will be very long I should think, but that's small loss if the world's as a dull a place as you say.”

My answer to the question is that I would live this life even if there is no eternal life to look forward to. Looking at it from a totally non-spiritual basis, if the only thing that raises mankind above animals is morality, and the only moral purpose for life is to do good to others, then I still do not know a better way to "do good" than the way I am living.

As an individual I might not make any great contrubutions, but as a group of people working together as the church I see the "lost ones" of our society restored and finding value as a person, worth in society and healing in their souls.

I could be an ecological martyr- recycle all my rubbish, eat only organic fair-traded food, refuse to shop in supermarkets etc but I think I would jsut get side-tracked in doing so. It is possible to champion such causes and still be essentially a selfish/hurt/unloving/unhealed person.

I totally believe that it is only in God, through Jesus Christ, that people are able to become who they are really meant to be. When God sent Jesus to die on the cross he was not just on a rescue mission- sending out a lifeboat to populate heaven. God intends us to start our relationship with Him now, here on earth, to give us what He always intended us to have in Eden, to make us fully who He wanted us to be.

I don't celebrate Christmas

The most simple reason why I do not is that Jesus asked us to remember us in the bread and wine (communion). We take bread and wine on a Sunday, and on a Tuesday when we have a meal together a bit like the last supper (we call this agape). I don't find the need to "specially remember" at Christmas or Easter because I remember all through the year.

Other reasons are to do with the commercialism of the modern Xmas and the pagan roots of the festival. I can't find trees and tinsel and Santa in the bible, so why use them to celebrate Jesus birth? I don't think Jesus would be honoured by the drunkeness and partying that goes on in this season. Or the selfishness that sees some people in excess and others left out.

But... I am not slamming people who celebrate from a sincere heart. I think the thing is to know why you do or do not do it, and honour God in that from your own conscience.

Young Free and single!

Young, Free and Single!
sounds good doesn't it?
To be young and unattached, plenty of time on your hands and enough friends and money to really enjoy yourself. To be able to go off on holiday, date whoever you please with no strings attached and do (almost) whatever you please without any restricting responsibility or commitment...

Well, I am going to use my singleness for something even better than that!
I have vowed to stay celibate and I am going to give my life to Jesus, to building the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth and showing people life as God intended it to be.

Jesus talked about it, he said if you can live this way then go for it (full quote)

Jesus also prayed for life on earth to be as it is in heaven and he also said there is no marriage in heaven

Paul was celibate and talked about being undivided in your devotion to God. He acknowleged that marriage (rightly) brings worries with it, and he reccommended people stayed single to commit themselves to Jesus

The life I am living is "wierd" in the eyes of the average person, but that's because this lifestlye does not belong on earth- it belongs to the Kingdom of God- it belongs in heaven!

I am a celibate because I have met THE most amazing person, and He has all my love, and I want to do things with Him and for Him. I am not going to waste my life going after things that do not last. Maybe it looks like I am missing out on what the world has to offer, but you know what? I'm not interested. Heaven is going to be full of loving Jesus- and I am going to start doing that now!

Thy Mighty Love O God Constraineth Me

Thy mighty love, O God, constraineth me,
Like some strong tide it presseth on its way,
Seeking a channel in my earth bound soul,
Seeking to sweep all barriers away.


Shall I not yield to that constraining power?
Shall I not say, O tide of love, flow in?
Thy love O God at last hath conquered me,
Life cannot be as it hath hither been.


Break through my nature, mighty, heavenly love,
Clear every avenue of thought and brain,
Flood my affections, purify my will,
Let nothing but Thine own pure life remain.


Thus wholly mastered and possessed by God,
Forth from my life, spontaneous and free,
Shall flow a stream of tenderness and grace,
Loving, because God loved, eternally.


This hymn is by Emily May Grimes.
It inspires me because it talks about being completely taken over by God, and surely that is the way it should be? I always feel uncomfortable with the "God in my pocket" type of God who fits in with my lifestyle and does not change me. God, to me is totally overwhelming and awesome. God is also one who loves us completely and our experience of His love should be as overpowering as He is Almighty, it should not be warm and cosy.


Loving God and being loved by God causes us to change, he draws us into more and more of His nature so we become pure as He is pure.


The other thing about the love of God is that he does overwhelm and posess us. Some people are scared of the idea of this kind of thing, they want to stay in control, but by being out of our control and into His we find an amazing freedom we can never know any other way. It is like we suddenly become everything we were meant to be. Like a caged animal let out of its controlled environment into the wild.


Last February I went for a walk along a river in the countryside, (that is I wore wellingtons and walked along the river itself- not on the bank). The force of the water and the sense of power yet peace made me think of this hymn. It made me consider how much of my life is motivated and controlled by the force of God (the river) and how much is controlled by my own self-will (walking against the flow). It makes me think how as a fishes home environment is the river, our "home environment" can be the presence of God 'cos the Holy Spirit is with us and in us and brings God to us- even in the everyday stuff.


Most of my life I am probably a million miles from this kind of ideal love. But it is still my ideal and my aim. I am probably happiest when I get away from people and into the open with God- but I don't do it enough!