Thought for Today

J. Hudson Taylor, "We are a supernatural people; born again by a supernatural birth; we wage a supernatural fight and are taught by a supernatural teacher; led by a supernatural captain to assured victory.

Nissan e-NV200 Combi review | Auto Express

Nissan e-NV200 Combi review | Auto Express

Nissan e-NV200 Combi is based on an electric van, and offers huge amounts of space with an electric motor

Verdict

3

Nissan should be commended for producing the first electric van, and the Combi version is easily the most practical electric car around. However the short range and bouncy ride will discourage family holidays and visiting remote relatives, so it's best suited to those who rarely leave the big city. The van version will suit business who need cost-effective transport for frequent short-distance deliveries, so like all electric cars it won't work for many, but will be the perfect solution for some.

Small electric cars like the Nissan Leaf and the Renault ZOE have been on British roads for a little while now, but the first large electric van is now available - and it can also be bought as a five-seater passenger car.

Read more: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/nissan/e-nv200/87433/nissan-e-nv200-combi-review#ixzz38PoPGlAi

Tonight: Is Britain Christian?

David Cameron believes Britain is a Christian country, but these days less than half of us describe ourselves as Christian, and only 5% of us go to church on a weekly basis.

Nadia Eweida

In ‘Is Britain Christian?’ Tonight asks if the Prime Minister is right, and if it matters if he’s not? Should we accept that Christianity needs to take a back seat in a modern secular society, or will some communities lose more than bricks and mortar?

Britain’s history, laws and traditions are rooted in Christianity. The Queen is head of the Church of England - a tradition that dates back to the Tudors. Some of our greatest art, literature and music is inspired by Christianity. But these days, less than half of us describe ourselves as Christian.

This has left some of those who continue to hold very strong beliefs feeling marginalised. British Airways employee Nadia Eweida and nurse Shirley Chaplin have both fought in the European Courts for the right to display crucifix necklaces as part of their uniform.

But it’s not all bad news for the church: in the UK, membership of Pentecostal churches has risen by around 20% over the past five years, often boosted by immigrant communities.

Read more here

Vicar in the trenches: The story of Reverend Theodore Hardy in the Great War, Robert Gore Langton, Daily Express

B

ut there was one breed of non-combatants that has been rather forgotten: chaplains.

By the end of the war there were 3,500 clergy in khaki, going about their rounds in a dog collar and representing God while all hell broke loose.

They were a mixed bunch and many were frankly worse than useless.

Padres who got the least respect were the ones who preached patriotism behind the lines and frightened the men going to the front. But some performed quiet miracles on the front line, earning undying admiration.

Perhaps the most astonishing of them all was a small, unassuming country vicar and one-time headmaster from near Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria.

He joined up as a relatively old man at 51.

He was to become the most highly decorated non-combatant of the Great War, winning to his considerable embarrassment the DSO, MC and VC.

His name was Theodore Bayley Hardy.

Read more  here

Further reading

1)     Royal Army Chaplains Department

2)   Theodore Hardy, Wikipedia

Obama’s LGBT order ‘threatens religious freedom’

Obama’s LGBT order ‘threatens religious freedom’

President Obama has come under fire for forcing all federal contractors to conform to the administration’s view on sexuality through a so-called ‘anti-discrimination’ executive order.

On Monday, the US president signed the order, which prevents federal contractors from discriminating against people who identify as LGBT, but does not exempt faith-based organisations.

President Obama had received a letter signed by 14 people including a leading pastor, the executive editor of a Christian magazine and the head of a large Roman Catholic charity, urging him to exclude faith-based organisations from the order.

Ordinary Christians in the Hands of the Extra –Ordinary God. Part 2:

Ephesians 3:10 -12 and 16 – 21 NIVUK

 So that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him…………… 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen

I

 grew up in the South Wales Valleys, were the common themes for many were Chapel, Rugby and the Colliery, the threads that would often hold those communities together would be those mentioned above, the hymns of the Chapel such as Guide me, O Though Great Jehovah would be sung with at least equal gusto on a Saturday Afternoon watching the Rugby.

I

n many ways, our lives would have been influenced and affected by the strong religious traditions of something best described as chapel culture, when we spoke of the church, we would often have of thought of the Anglican Church with their vicars etc., to many people from a chapel background the church was a strange place that could be described it’s church, but not as we know it!.

T

he traditions of Chapel Culture would be at least influenced by protecting and promoting Welsh Language and Culture, and to distinguish it against the English Language and Culture. I would say that in the Village where the Church I was raised in, half the Chapels would speak Welsh in all their services. I love Wales, its Language, Culture and its People but there aren’t The Lord who died for my sins and the sins of the entire World, and rose again in Victory and is coming back for us when He comes to reign and rule and establish His Kingdom in its full splendour and glory.

W

e have made idols of so many things in the Church, whether that be our traditions, heritage and our national or cultural identities, our churches have become monuments to past moves of God, or to the men who God raised up to move his Church forward.  The Church has become known to what we’re against rather than what we for, we fight battles and wars with society rather than supporting and encouraging society, yes there are anti-Christian influences and challenges facing us today, with the prospect of Gay Marriage and the attempts of our politicians to force change in the legal definition of marriage.

W

hen people think of Church they think of a dying religion and something that is part of the establishment. We should stand against the enemy, the devil but our weapons aren’t the weapons or the strategies of the world, see 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 .We try to convict the people we meet whose lives aren’t in accordance with scripture of their sin but we aren’t the Holy Spirit who convicts the world of sin and shows them God’s righteousness see John 16:-8-11 instead we’ve alienated those He sent us to show His Love and Compassion to.

W

hen Jesus walked the streets of the lands of Bible Times,  he wasn’t part of the establishment, whether than was the political or the religious establishment, Jesus is God’s ultimate revolutionary, he isn’t some kind of Jewish Che Guevara, he was and is the Son of God, who came as  baby, lived a normal life, then for the last 3 years of his life, bought God’s message of transformation, hope, redemption, salvation, deliverance and peace to those he meet regardless of their  sexuality,  disability, cultural or ethnic background, he raised up normal men and women, that were often the lowest and sometimes the most despised people in society, like his ancestor King David, who’s mighty men came from those in debt, distress or the discontented, see 2 Samuel 22:3, he died an agonising death on the cross, of all the tens of thousands than were crucified by the Roman and other empires, only one death made a difference, Jesus took the entire sin of the entire world from that day until he day He returns, and died as the sacrifice for not only the sins of the church, but the sins of those yet to know Him. He arose Victorious from the tomb, and entered Heaven after preparing His early disciples and sending the Holy Spirit see John 20 so that His Church may go forward and see people saved, lives transformed, hope restored and renewed and salvation bought to the ends of the earth.

T

oday, we the Church like David’s Mighty Men and the early Disciples are God’s Mighty Men and Women of Faith, who have been tasked by our Saviour and Lord to advance His Kingdom and His Church into our streets, neighbourhoods, communities, regions, nations and the nations of the world.

 

W

hen God commissioned the Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 6:8 see here for context. Isaiah 6:8-9 8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” 9 And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

T

hroughout the History of the Church, God has called and commissioned Ordinary People just like You and Me,  he’s not called the seemingly best equipped or seemingly the most talented or indeed the best gifted, when God sent the Prophet Samuel to anoint Israel’s next King he sent him to the home of Jesse in Bethlehem, and when he looked at Jesse’s Sons he saw some great and talented warriors but they weren’t God’s choice see  1 Samuel 16:5-13, God is calling the Ordinary People to rise up for Him see 1 Corinthians 26-29 but let us not be like the Prophet Jonah, who when God called him to Nineveh went in the opposite direction!

T

oday God is calling again  Whom shall I send, and who will go for us, will we say Here am I send Me, and will we be ready to Go to those who sends us and where He sends us ?

Yours in His Grace

Blair Humphreys

Southport, Merseyside

Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony.

A

fter the fractious introspection and months of angry debate about what it means to be Scottish, the people of Scotland enjoyed a well-deserved break from it all last night – as they welcomed the world.

And by the end of an exuberant, good-humoured, periodically chaotic evening – starring everyone (and everything) from a giant haggis, cabers, golf clubs, a gay wedding, 41 Scottish terriers, Rod Stewart, rousing cheers for the Queen and lashings of self-deprecation – Scotland seemed to have answered her own question.

All of the above, we can safely say, encompass what it means to be Scottish. Quite what last night’s opening of the 20th Commonwealth Games in Glasgow means for that referendum campaign, on the other hand, is anyone’s guess.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2703216/Tunnocks-Tea-Cakes-Irn-Bru-Forth-Bridge-Gretna-Green-Glasgow-opens-Commonwealth-Games-world-Scottish-flavour.html

Please read more here

'THE BONDS THAT UNITE:' THE QUEEN'S MESSAGE TO THE COMMONWEALTH

 

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The Queen spoke of the 'shared ideals and ambitions' of the Commonwealth when she delivered the message which has travelled the world in the Games' baton relay.

She highlighted the 'bonds that unite' the 71 nations and territories when she formally declared the 20th Commonwealth Games open.

In an address directed at all the athletes competing in the Games, she made special reference to the young people of the Commonwealth, saying they are entrusted with its values and future.

The message, which was kept secret until tonight, has circled the globed over the last nine months, since the Queen placed the paper inside the baton which then visited all 71 locations.

Reading the message, the Queen said: 'At Buckingham Palace last October I placed this message into the specially-crafted baton and passed it to the first of many thousands of baton-bearers. Over the past 288 days the baton has visited all the nations and territories of the Commonwealth, crossing every continent in a journey of more than 100,000 miles.

'The baton relay represents a calling together of people from every part of the Commonwealth and serves as a reminder of our shared ideals and ambitions as a diverse, resourceful and cohesive family.

'And now, that baton has arrived here in Glasgow, a city renowned for its dynamic cultural and sporting achievements and for the warmth of its people, for this opening ceremony of the Friendly Games.'

The Queen, in her role as head of the Commonwealth, sent her best wishes to the competing athletes when she addressed the opening ceremony at Glasgow's Celtic Park.

She said: 'To you, the Commonwealth athletes, I send my good wishes for success in your endeavours. Your accomplishments over the coming days will encourage us all to strengthen the bonds that unite us.

'You remind us that young people, those under 25 years of age, make up half of our Commonwealth citizens; and it is to you that we entrust our values and our future.

'I offer my sincere thanks to the many organisations and volunteers who have worked diligently to bring these Games to fruition, and indeed to the spectators here in the stadium and to the millions watching on television. Together, you all play a part in strengthening our friendships in this modern and vibrant association of nations.

'It now gives me the greatest pleasure to declare the 20th Commonwealth Games open.'

  

BARROWMAN'S GAY KISS

 

John Barrowman, the Scottish-American actor, singer, dancer and presenter, kissed one of the performers during the ceremony. 

In what was seen as a clear message to the 42 countries of the Commonwealth where it is still a crime to be gay, Glasgow-born Barrowman reached out to kiss the man before holding his hand during a sequence to celebrate Gretna Green.

Barrowman is openly gay and married.

Comment:

It’s a shame  that a wonderful celebration of the cultural variety that is the Commonwealth was hijacked by Gay Rights, although I believe that it shouldn’t be a crime to be gay,  there isn’t need to push Gay Rights into focus.  Hoping that someone’s Gay Kiss is going to pressure other countries to de-criminalise homosexually is a fallacy and foolishness. I believe that’s not okay to be gay.