Saturday 24 August 2013

Benefits, a council house and non-stop partying. It's a tough old life being a fracking protester!, from the Daily Mail

  • One organiser said at least half Balcombe protesters are on benefits
  • Philip Lardo, 52, a druid, also has council house in Brighton
  • Police complain site is becoming a 'free festival' after anarchists from Spain, France, Holland and Poland, among others, joined the party
  • Cost of policing operation already £2.3million - likely to end up at £3.7million
  • Majority of local residents oppose fracking, but a growing number are tiring of the chaos

Support: Philip Lardo, pictured in full druid dress, is protesting at the Cuadrilla site in Balcombe but normally lives in a council house in Brighton
Support: Philip Lardo, pictured in full druid dress, is protesting at the Cuadrilla site in Balcombe but normally lives in a council house in Brighton
Each morning, 52-year-old Philip Lardo wakes up, lights a camp fire, parks his backside in a deckchair, and rolls a cigarette.
For most of the past three weeks, he’s been living in a tent by the B2036 in Sussex, where he’s spent days relaxing in the sun, or visiting the local shop to stock up on tobacco, snack food and drinking water.
At meal times, Lardo adjourns to a marquee a few hundred yards away to queue up for the home-cooked food that is served free of charge to residents of the leafy site where his tent is pitched.
‘For lunch today, we had Tuscan bean stew,’ he tells me. ‘They served it with bread and rice. It was pretty tasty, if you like that kind of thing.’
In the evenings, he likes to sit around the fire listening to bongo drums and guitar music, or — if he’s feeling energetic — wander to the local pub, the Half Moon.
It sounds, on the face of it, like an idyllic way to spend August. And, as he relaxes in the sunshine, Lardo looks every inch the happy camper. But he isn’t on what you might call a traditional summer holiday; quite the reverse, in fact. 
For, as the crowds of uniformed police officers circling warily in the distance suggest, we are at what is currently the country’s most high-profile political demonstration. Lardo is one of the several hundred protesters who have taken up residence on grass verges near the pretty commuter village of Balcombe.
They are lobbying against an operation by the energy company Cuadrilla, which has started exploratory drilling several thousand feet beneath the rolling countryside of rural Sussex.
Environmentalists fear the Balcombe site could in future be used for fracking, a controversial extraction technique in which pressurised liquid is pumped deep underground to release oil and gas trapped within shale rock.
They have therefore pledged to remain at the scene until the drilling is stopped.
The demo began quietly last month, when a few dozen concerned locals began picketing the site. They were soon joined by Lardo and other activists from across the country, including designer Dame Vivienne Westwood, and perennial activist and ex-rock wife Bianca Jagger.
The group scored a major victory last Friday when drilling was suspended altogether, on the advice of police, after several hundred new protesters arrived for a pre-planned five-day rally.
The suspension was lifted a few days later. But not before the authorities had been accused of surrendering to ‘mob rule’.
On Monday, on a day of so-called ‘direct action’, more than 30 people were arrested for blocking access to the Cuadrilla site, including the Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, whose plight helped place the demo on the front pages.
Noisy: Demonstrators making their voice heard at the drilling site on Monday
Noisy: Demonstrators making their voice heard at the drilling site on Monday
Since then, police helicopters have buzzed almost constantly in the skies above Balcombe, where more than 400 officers from across the country have been deployed.
Yesterday, Sussex Police said the operation had already cost £2.3 million, and is likely to eventually set the taxpayer back some £3.7 million.
The lanes around the usually picturesque village are now filled with riot vans, and coverage of events has helped spark a national debate about the pros and cons of fracking.
Yet at the centre of this expensive circus lie some pressing, unanswered questions. Who exactly are these well-organised eco-warriors? Where did they really come from? Just who is bankrolling their long-running protest? And have the once supportive villagers of Balcombe started to tire of the noisy activists in their midst?
Lardo makes for an instructive case study. While organisers of the Balcombe protest do much to play up its local roots, he, like most of the colourful demonstrators, has no connection to the village. Instead, Lardo has a council house in Brighton. But for most of the year, this publicly-funded property lies empty, since he chooses to live in the woods of Sussex — as a druid.
Gathering pace: The protest began quietly last month with a few concerned locals but has now become the country's most high-profile political demonstration
Gathering pace: The protest began quietly last month with a few concerned locals but has now become the country's most high-profile political demonstration
The job doesn’t always see him wearing traditional druid’s robes but it does allow him to spend weeks on end at ‘direct action’ protests.
With this in mind, Lardo spent the early months of 2013 on the outskirts of Hove, attempting to prevent the construction of a new bypass. When that protest petered out, he moved to Balcombe.
‘As druids, we revere nature and we revere the Earth,’ he says. ‘It’s where we live. Nature is our birthright. That’s why we try to save it.’ Lardo is, of course, entitled to spend his time as he wishes. But like many of fellow protesters, his activist lifestyle turns out to be entirely funded by the taxpayer.
‘Druids aren’t paid, so I am officially unemployed,’ he says, when I ask about his finances. ‘I happen to sign on. I get roughly £80 a week for that. Then, because I’ve got osteoporosis in my knees, hip and toes, I also get disability of around £100 a month.’
Controversial: The protesters are objecting to the process of fracking - a technique which involves pumping liquid deep underground to release oil and gas
Controversial: The protesters are objecting to the process of fracking - a technique which involves pumping liquid deep underground to release oil and gas
The money is deposited in Lardo’s bank account each week, as he sits in his deckchair. And among residents of the Balcombe protest site, precious few appear to be gainfully employed.
Also camping nearby, for example, is full-time protester Natalie Hynde, the 30-year-old daughter of Pretenders singer Chrissie and The Kinks frontman Ray Davies. She and her unemployed boyfriend Simon ‘Sitting Bull’ Medhurst, a 55-year-old veteran eco-warrior, were arrested on Monday for ‘supergluing’ themselves to the site’s entrance gates.
Rodney Jago, a retiree and resident of Balcombe, says that’s typical of his village’s new residents.
‘One of the organisers told me that at least 50 per cent are on benefits,’ Jago says. ‘He was quite shameless about it; didn’t think it was at all embarrassing. It’s like a free holiday for these people. They wave a placard from time to time, but basically all they do is sit in a deckchair, getting free food, while their kids run wild.’
This week anarchists from Spain, France, Holland and Poland, among others, joined the party. Their presence led police to complain that the village has turned into a ‘free festival’ for professional agitators.
One new arrival, from Malaga, said: ‘I was in London and going back to Europe when I heard about this. I’ve only recently learnt about fracking, but thought this would be fun.’
A group of French squatters, who had been living in a derelict house in Islington, North London, meanwhile said they had now moved to Balcombe because ‘the weather is really good and everyone is friendly’.
So how many of the people at the demo really care about fracking?
It’s hard to tell. But many of those involved in Reclaim the Power, a mysterious organisation whose supporters turned up in vast numbers this week, appear to have little connection with the issue.
In its literature, Reclaim the Power says it’s a coalition of ‘member groups’ that include UK Uncut — lobbyists against David Cameron’s spending cuts — Occupy London, who were behind last year’s anti-capitalist protests at St Paul’s Cathedral, and the Greater London Pensioners Association. Other members include a pro-Labour group called Disabled People Against Cuts, along with officials from the powerful trade unions Unite and the far-Left RMT, which supposedly represents transport workers.
Profile: The arrest of Green Party MP Caroline Lucas at the protest brought it to the front pages
Profile: The arrest of Green Party MP Caroline Lucas at the protest brought it to the front pages
Quite why such outfits should take a strong position (or indeed any position) on fracking, and want to be pulling strings in Balcombe, remains unclear.
Some observers wonder if they are merely ‘piggybacking’ the issue for political reasons. The Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg has decried demonstrators as a ‘rent-a-mob’, saying that ‘buses of hooligans’ had come to the village to party and cause trouble.
The most curious organisation behind the protest is surely Fuel Poverty Action, listed in the protest camp’s handbook (yes, it has its own handbook), as one of its major organisers. This group supposedly exists to campaign against high energy prices. But in the U.S., a fracking boom has helped reduce domestic gas prices by about a quarter.
So why does Fuel Poverty Action see fit to lobby against the introduction of the technology in the UK? A Reclaim the Power spokesman will say only that it sees fracking as ‘part of the way that the big six energy companies are exploiting the vulnerable in society’.
From a distance, the camp resembled a poor man’s Glastonbury, with hundreds of tents pitched around a selection of stages and marquees. Up close, the smell of BO mingled with an occasional whiff of marijuana. Residents seemed friendly, though their ranks included at least two undercover reporters.
Placards could be seen supporting gay rights, opposing the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, advertising a pro-migrant demonstration in Calais, and calling for an end to animal testing.
Shameless: When anarchists from elsewhere in Europe began to turn up, police complained the protest was becoming a 'free festival' for professional agitators
Shameless: When anarchists from elsewhere in Europe began to turn up, police complained the protest was becoming a 'free festival' for professional agitators
During the afternoon, I spotted three representatives of the local Labour party, wearing red rosettes and campaigning on site on behalf of Alan Rew, a county council election candidate.
Their presence was surely the height of hypocrisy: Labour is cautiously in favour of the technology.
The identity of the key people at the camp remains somewhat obscure. Reclaim the Power calls itself a ‘horizontal’ protest organisation, meaning it has no official leader.
Its finances are also opaque. Some chemical toilets used by protesters have been funded by Greenpeace. Free vegan meals are being provided by a non-profit organisation called ‘Veggies’. Campers seemed unsure who was funding their smart marquee tents and printed literature.
The group was originally formed by 21 environmental activists who were arrested and prosecuted after occupying West Burton coal-fired power station, in Nottinghamshire, last year.
Several are Oxbridge educated, and hail from highly privileged backgrounds. One, Danielle Paffard, studied at Wadham College, Oxford, while her father, Roger, used to be chief executive of High Street chocolatier Thorntons and stationery giant Staples.
Another is Ewa Jasiewicz, 35, a veteran far-Left activist who is best known for campaigning against the Iraq war and being a leader of the Free Gaza Movement, which in 2011 attempted to send a flotilla of ships laden with provisions to the Gaza Strip. She certainly knows how to organise a protest.
Expensive: Sussex Police said the cost of policing the protest is already £2.3million and is likely to increase
Expensive: Sussex Police said the cost of policing the protest is already £2.3million and is likely to increase
The Balcombe site boasts a media centre, a legal advice tent (the sign outside reads ‘have fun and keep us busy!’) and three restaurant tents serving vegan cuisine. Yet for all the creature comforts, it was actually staged illegally: Jasiewicz and her cronies set up their marquees, without permission, on the field of Richard Ponsford, a local farmer.
‘We didn’t have permission to move there, but we now have a constructive relationship with the farmer,’ a spokesman told me.
Strangely, when I spoke to Mr Ponsford, whose family have been tenants at the farm for 60 years, he saw things differently. ‘It’s a pain,’ he said. ‘We’re just hoping they go away without causing too much damage and leaving a mess.’
Mr Ponsford first learned that his field was being invaded when a neighbour told him several cars and vans were setting up camp there. After a three-hour stand-off, police advised him it was safer to back down and let them have the field.
Earlier this week, police arrested a demonstrator at a different site north of the main camp for allegedly threatening a landowner who asked him to cease trespassing. Little wonder, perhaps, that many residents of Balcombe are starting to grow weary of the invasion of their rural idyll.
Contradiction: Residents in Balcombe have begun to complain at the actions of the protesters with several urging them to leave
Not wanted: Residents in Balcombe have begun to complain at the actions of the protesters with several urging them to leave
Though polls show that a firm majority — perhaps understandably — are opposed to fracking on their doorstep, growing numbers also appear to be tiring of the chaos. Last week, Alison Stevenson, chairman of the parish council, published an open letter saying that it ‘strongly opposes any actions which may be taken which involve civil trespass and/or illegal acts’.
Anti-fracking posters now compete with a smattering of signs saying: ‘Balcombe is 80 per cent opposed to fracking and 100 per cent opposed to illegal actions.’
One resident, drinking at the Half Moon pub, told me: ‘People are very reluctant to criticise the protesters, or speak publicly in support of fracking, because they feel intimidated.’
Peter Cockburn, a 67-year-old retiree who supports the potential arrival of fracking to Balcombe because, among other things, ‘it might bring jobs to the village’, meanwhile compared the protest site to a third world slum. ‘There are bodies lying everywhere, all this smoke going up — and heaven knows what’s in that — and it looks like some sort of Malaysian kampong [shanty town],’ he said.
The former botanist devoted several years of his career to campaigning to save the rainforest in Borneo. ‘I did plenty to save the planet, thank you, and unlike this lot, I didn’t achieve it by sitting on my arse on a grass verge smoking pot.’


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2401253/Benefits-council-house-non-stop-partying-Its-tough-old-life-fracking-protester.html#ixzz2crgbprzI
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Friday 23 August 2013

Detroit City

Macmillan dictionary redefines ‘marriage’

Macmillan dictionary redefines ‘marriage’

The Macmillan dictionary has redefined the word “marriage” to include same-sex couples, and may change its definition of “husband” and “wife”.
The dictionary’s definition of the institution is now, “the relationship between two people who are husband and wife, or a similar relationship between people of the same sex”.
Its editor-in-chief said the organisation was monitoring changes to the use of “husband” and “wife” to see if it would change those words as well.

CAN MEN AND WOMEN BE ‘JUST FRIENDS’?

“Can men and women be just friends?”
As a single woman, I have wrestled with the question a lot over the past 10 years. 
When Harry Met Sally made the question famous, but it’s been one we’ve been throwing around for at least the last century. Society’s changing: the days of men in the field and women in the kitchen are by and large distant memories, and today, men and women are side by side in just about every arena. For the first time, men and women weren’t just meeting to get married and have babies but to become co-workers and equals in the business world. Men and woman had to learn to interact with one another outside of romantic relationships.
This is the world we live in now. From school to work to the gym, men and women mix company. But can they really be friends?
Yes, according to the Bible. But having some guidelines and boundaries is wise.
The Apostle Paul gives us a simple guide for how men and women can be friends in 1 Timothy 5:1–2, “Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, in all purity.” So, treat younger men and women as siblings, and older men and women as parents, “with absolute purity” to use the phrase in the NIV.
The church should still be exercising these boundaries in friendships today, especially between single men and women.
First, ladies:
·         Stop dating guys in your head. Don’t assume a guy wants to be more than friends until he communicates that.
·         Don’t manipulate. Don’t go out of your way to grab a guy’s attention.
·         Stop flirting. The way you interact with men should make them want to be more like Christ, not pursue you more than the Lord.
·         Don’t wear your heart on your sleeve. Your brothers around you aren’t your accountability partners. If what you are sharing with them (suffering or celebration) doesn’t bring glory to God, don’t share it.
·         Dress modestly. Don’t be a distraction to your brothers; they have enough of those in the world. 
And to the men:
·         Communicate clearly. This means all forms of communication: texting, Twitter, Facebook, face-to-face, etc. Women should not have to question your intentions every time they are around you or receive a text from you. If you intend to just be friends with a woman, let her know. I promise you she won’t break.
·         Let your actions echo your words. Don’t single a woman out unless you want to pursue her.
·         Don’t crave submission. The women around you aren’t called to submit to you unless you are their husband, father, or pastor.
·         Be a one-woman man. Not just sexually, but also emotionally. If you are dating a woman, honor her by how you communicate and interact with other women.
·         Don’t be a creep. Treat women as you would your own sister or mother. Don’t single a woman out over a season and then just disappear.

Can men and women be just friends? Absolutely, when we treat each other as our brothers and sisters in all purity, give up our own selfish gain, and honor each other as we do our own family.

Home is where the Heart is



.
I in the last few weeks, I have found myself looking for a new job, last week I had my first interview in several weeks, I was hoping to hear earlier this week if I had this particular job and I’ve made several phone calls to the employment agency that got me the interview and kept being told that they were hoping to hear by last Friday, last Friday then become they were hoping to hear last Monday then when I rang on Monday,  there was still no news and was told to call on Wednesday, when I rang on Wednesday I was told no news and to call back today, Friday.  Last night I had a dream in this dream I was talking to one of my friends at church,  and was asked was I was still staying in Southport despite the disappointment of not getting this job,  my answer was of course yes. 

I have since been offered a new job last week,  I felt I needed to contact my ex-employer this was last Friday, over that weekend The Lord reminded me several times that I needed to contact them on Monday.


On Monday morning, I decided to do an online job search, during this job search,  I saw a job advertised for my ex – employer,  I decided to bite the bullet and call them,  I spoke to my contact there, who told that they had rang me the previous Friday to see if I was interested in working for them on a 6 Month Fixed Term Contract starting on the 1st of October, I readily agreed to rejoin my ex-employer, I didn’t actually apply nor have an interview for my new job,  but because I had gained a great reputation when working for ex-employer previously they offered me this job.


Although I was secretly hoping that the interview I had the previous week would give me the job I applied for,  I had spoken to one of  my of many friends at Church last Sunday and told her that I was confident that the job I had the interview for. This week I decided that working for my ex-employer was plan b and the other job was plan a, I reviewed the evidence about both jobs,  plan a was £1,000 more a year than plan b,  and full time permanent and plan b was full time but a fixed 6 month contract, plan a was 5 days out of 7 days, and involved flexible start and finishes between 8am – 9pm, plan b is Monday to Friday 9am -5pm. I’m involved a great deal in my home church,  and I knew that if I took plan a  I wouldn’t be able to serve as much if I was working evenings and weekends.  I heard last Thursday that I wasn't offered plan a,  and once past my initial disappointment,  I thanked the Lord for providing me with his choice of job for me.

I was in my connect group (home group) last Wednesday, and previously Geoff Grice sent a Text asking us to bring a Bible Passage that has spoken to us recently,  I had prepared something from 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 however about an hour before leaving, the Lord bought my attention to this.

Habbukuk 3:17 -19 New American Standard Bible.

17 Though the fig tree should not blossom
And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail
And the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold
And there be no cattle in the stalls,
18 Yet I will exult in the Lord,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
19 The Lord God is my strength,
And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet,
And makes me walk on my high places.

I now live in Southport, Merseyside having moved here just over 2 years ago from Neath, South Wales I’ve settled here and for the last two years Southport has been my home,  and I’ve committed myself to staying here until I die or until the Lord calls me to be with Him.   I have wandered previously and made a mess of thinks, but thanks be to God who has settled me here in Southport, my heart is here because this is now my home.

I remember visiting here just over 2 years ago,  and being in a mess and my good friend Dave Gregg (one of our Elders) was speaking on a Sunday morning at my church (now) The Community Church, Southport and he quoted at the end of his message he quoted

Numbers 10:29  New American Standard Bible (NASB)

29 Then Moses said to Hobab the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are setting out to the place of which the Lord said, ‘I will give it to you’; come with us and we will do you good, for the Lord has promised good concerning Israel.

When I returned back to Neath, while I was praying whether or not to stay there or move here, the Lord bought my attention to some scriptures and because I had moved from pillar to post and back again several times, I told the Lord I would either settle in Neath or move to and settle here in Southport, the Lord reminded me of the story of Isaac and the wells.

Genesis 26:17-25  New American Standard Bible (NASB)

17 And Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar, and settled there.

Quarrel over the Wells

18 Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he gave them the same names which his father had given them. 19 But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of flowing water, 20 the herdsmen of Gerar quarrelled with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, because they contended with him. 21 Then they dug another well, and they quarrelled over it too, so he named it Sitnah. 22 He moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it Rehoboth, for he said, “At last the Lord has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

23 Then he went up from there to Beersheba. 24 The Lord appeared to him the same night and said,

“I am the God of your father Abraham;
Do not fear, for I am with you.
I will bless you, and multiply your descendants,
For the sake of my servant Abraham.”
25 So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.

Deuteronomy 8 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

God’s Gracious Dealings

8 “All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your forefathers. 2 You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3 He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.

 5 Thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. 6 Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; 9 a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.

When I moved here, the Lord made me several promises,  and give me the following scripture verses and I had some solid advice from an amazing friend in Swansea, Ralph Bettany who advised me to stay in Southport for at least 5 years and settle down rather than wandering around as I had done previously.

Ezekiel 40:4 New American Standard Bible

he man said to me, “(K)Son of man, (L)see with your eyes, hear with your ears, and give attention to all that I am going to show you; for you have been brought here in order to show it to you. (M)Declare to the house of Israel all that you see.”

Jeremiah 29:4-7 and verse 11 New Living Translation (NLT)

4 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem: 5 “Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. 6 Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! 7 And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.” 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

I would like to say a heart full thank you to my church family,  The Community Church,  Southport and my many dear friends there, thank you for welcoming me and making part of your church family, I love you all, and I wouldn’t be who I’m today without you, I would like to thank especially Geoff and Pam Grice, Dave and Su Gregg, Steve and Miriam Smith,  David and Gwen Raynor and John and Julia Sutton-Smith for your love, friendship, sound advice and your prayers.


                                     

Thursday 22 August 2013

Blackpool is 'most deprived seaside town' BBC News Report




Blackpool is the most poverty-stricken out of 31 seaside towns, the study found. Blackpool is the poorest of England's larger seaside towns, despite attracting the most visitors, a study has found.

The Office for National Statistics said it had the highest level of deprivation of 31 seaside towns analysed.Of the 31, 25 had a higher level of deprivation than the average for England as a whole.

The study, which has just been published, considered data on health, housing and employment from 2010. Among the 31, 26.9% of areas were considered deprived, compared with 20% of England overall.

Most deprived English seaside towns

Blackpool
Clacton
Hastings
Ramsgate
Margate
Hartlepool
Great Yarmouth
South Shields
Barrow-in-Furness
Sunderland
Source: Office for National Statistics study (based on 2010 data)

After Blackpool, the next most deprived towns were Clacton in Essex and Hastings in East Sussex . A spokesman for the ONS said: "Analysis has considered levels of deprivation in larger English seaside destinations, which may have once thrived on seaside resort tourism.

"There is a perception that these economies have declined and are enduring high levels of deprivation as a result of people going on holiday abroad rather than in England."  Earlier in the month government think tank the Centre for Social Justice released a report which found some seaside towns were stuck in a cycle of poverty with "severe social breakdown".


Lytham St Annes in Lancashire, Christchurch and Poole in Dorset, Worthing in West Sussex, Southport in Merseyside and Bognor Regis in West Sussex were the six towns to buck the trend with lower than average levels of deprivation.

Some thoughts for Today, Follow Jesus


Lord, I will follow You, but . . . —Luke 9:61

Oswald Chambers

I’ve just started to read a book called ,  “ Follow Me” by David Platt, David quotes this in the above book,  it’s from “ My utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers.


Suppose God tells you to do something that is an enormous test of your common sense, totally going against it. What will you do? Will you hold back? If you get into the habit of doing something physically, you will do it every time you are tested until you break the habit through sheer determination. And the same is true spiritually. Again and again you will come right up to what Jesus wants, but every time you will turn back at the true point of testing, until you are determined to abandon yourself to God in total surrender. Yet we tend to say, “Yes, but— suppose I do obey God in this matter, what about . . . ?” Or we say, “Yes, I will obey God if what He asks of me doesn’t go against my common sense, but don’t ask me to take a step in the dark.”


Jesus Christ demands the same unrestrained, adventurous spirit in those who have placed their trust in Him that the natural man exhibits. If a person is ever going to do anything worthwhile, there will be times when he must risk everything by his leap in the dark. In the spiritual realm, Jesus Christ demands that you risk everything you hold on to or believe through common sense, and leap by faith into what He says. Once you obey, you will immediately find that what He says is as solidly consistent as common sense.



By the test of common sense, Jesus Christ’s statements may seem mad, but when you test them by the trial of faith, your findings will fill your spirit with the awesome fact that they are the very words of God. Trust completely in God, and when He brings you to a new opportunity of adventure, offering it to you, see that you take it. We act like pagans in a crisis— only one out of an entire crowd is daring enough to invest his faith in the character of God.

Today's post

Jesus Christ, The Same Yesterday, Today and Forever

I had the privilege to be raised in a Christian Home and had the input of my parents and grandparents into my life, they were ...