Talks begin on devolution for whole of UK, The Scotsman

Carwyn Jones and David Cameron

High -level discussions about setting up a constitutional convention after the next election to create a devolution settlement for the whole of the United Kingdom have begun, a Cabinet minister confirmed yesterday.

Stephen Crabb, the newly appointed Conservative Welsh Secretary, who is regarded as one of the key government figures driving forward the devolution agenda, told Scotland on Sunday the prospect of a UK constitutional convention in the next parliament had been discussed.

Stephen Crabb

He said was one of the subjects aired in a meeting between David Cameron and the Welsh First Minister, Carwyn Jones, held at the Royal Welsh Show last week.

The move is significant with all three parties stating that they will extend powers to ­Holyrood and consider further devolution to Wales, as well 
as looking at how to devolve responsibilities to English ­regions.

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Commonwealth Games provide a 'tantalising glimpse' at a YES vote result in Scotland, Daily Express

It is a tantalising glimpse of what might become of the UK if there is a "yes" vote in September's independence referendum. Team GB would be no more.

It has proved irresistible to Alex Salmond, the First Minister of Scotland and professional sports fan, who recently spoke about a "self-denying ordinance" under which he would avoid talking about independence during the Games.

He did so with a glint in his eye for he knew such an ordinance would be impossible to enforce.

At least three times over the past week the SNP leader has raised his self-denial and three times he has gone on to break it, for he is happiest when taking potshots at Westminster, while highlighting the fact that most of the countries in the Games achieved their "independence" from the UK was too good an opportunity to miss.

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The Danger of an Exaggerated End-Time Mentality

The Danger of an Exaggerated End-Time Mentality



On a regular basis, whenever there are reports of moral collapse in our country or of wars and crises worldwide, someone will say to me, "This is it! Jesus is about to return! Everything is coming down!"

Of course, according to one system of interpretation, that could be true and the Lord could return within the next few moments or years.

The problem I have is that I've heard Jesus is coming back any moment for more than 40 years.

Could it be that we have a wrong mentality about the end of the age? Could it be that we're missing something very important?

Bible Debate: Have we misread the Bible?

Bible Debate: Have we misread the Bible?

Steve Chalke is a leading and sometimes controversial voice in the evangelical Church. In a recent article for Premier Christianity magazine he has argued that we need to rethink the way we approach scripture and cease to think of it as 'inerrant' but as a progressive 'conversation' with God that continues today.

In a series of 4 discussions Andrew Wilson of New Frontiers engages with Chalke as they address issues concerning biblical infallibility, Old Testament morality, atonement and homosexuality:

Inside a church for Born Again Christians: Speaking to God in a Manchester multiplex, Independent News Paper, 26/07/2014

Anthony Delaney is a retired policeman. Now aged 49, he grew up on a council estate in a rough part of Manchester and joined the Police Cadets at 16, which was "all about outdoor pursuits and the pursuit of girls".

Today, Delaney is "above all" a Follower of Jesus: a self-proclaimed man of the people who has successfully utilised his gruff voice and engaging, measured manner to grow Manchester's Ivy Church – a community of Born Again Christians now with more than 1,000 members meeting on a weekly basis – to more than four times its size since he joined as leader five years ago. So significant today is the congregation, that events are now held several times a week at venues across the city, including Cineworld, a warehouse and even a pub.

 

When the last census was taken in 2011, the number of Christians across the UK had fallen to 33.2 million – that was 59 per cent of the usual resident population at the time and a 12 per cent decrease from 37.2 million, 10 years earlier. The most recent self-evaluating research from the Church of England, found in the Church Growth Research Programme published in 2007, showed a sharp decline in numbers, with just 2 per cent of attendees of CoE churches in the UK at last count being between the ages of 18 and 24 – with a whopping 47 per cent aged 65 and over. In this context, the rise of the Born Agains in this largely white suburb on the north bank of the River Mersey is all the more striking.

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Further reading

Find a reason to go to war with Germany': Shocking letter documents how King George V urged his foreign secretary to justify conflict two days before outbreak of First World War

King George V

  A letter documents a meeting between King George V and Edward Grey 

  The King urged his foreign secretary to find a reason for war with Germany 

  King George V, revealed what had taken place to Sir Cecil Graves in 1933

  The discovery sheds light on one decision behind the First World War

  Sir Edward’s great-great-nephew Adrian Graves uncovered the information

Sir Edward Grey

A secret letter which documents a private meeting between King George V urging his Foreign Secretary Edward Grey to go to war with Germany two days before the outbreak of the First World War has been unearthed.

The incredible note, sent during one of the most difficult times in British history has been made public for the first time, by Adrian Graves, Sir Edward’s great-great-nephew and grandson of Sir Cecil Graves.

King George V, who had stayed away from making public declarations about Europe as his hands were tied as a constitutional monarch, said it was ‘absolutely essential’ Britain go to war in order to prevent Germany from achieving ‘complete domination of this country’.

Read more here

Further reading

Words for the Wise, Jesus at the Pool of Bethsaida, John 5 Nasb

John 5 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

The Healing at Bethesda

5 After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

² Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in ^[a]Hebrew ^[b]Bethesda, having five porticoes. ³ In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [^[c]waiting for the moving of the waters; ⁴ for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.] ⁵ A man was there who had been ^[d]ill for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He *said to him, “Do you wish to get well?” ⁷ The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” ⁸ Jesus *said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” ⁹ Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk.

Now it was the Sabbath on that day. ¹⁰ So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.” ¹¹ But he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’” ¹² They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk’?” ¹³ But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. ¹⁴ Afterward Jesus *found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. ¹⁶ For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath. ¹⁷ But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”

  Jesus’ Equality with God

¹⁸ For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

¹⁹ Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever ^[e]the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. ²⁰ For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. ²¹ For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. ²² For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, ²³ so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

²⁴ “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

Two Resurrections

²⁵ Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. ²⁶ For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; ²⁷ and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is ^[f]the Son of Man. ²⁸ Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, ²⁹ and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

³⁰ “I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

³¹ “If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not ^[g]true.³² There is another who testifies of Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives about Me is true.

Witness of John

³³ You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. ³⁴ But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. ³⁵ He was the lamp that was burning and was shining and you were willing to rejoice for ^[h]a while in his light.

Witness of Works

³⁶ But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.

Witness of the Father

³⁷ And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form. ³⁸ You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.

Witness of the Scripture

^39 [i]You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; ⁴⁰ and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. ⁴¹ I do not receive glory from men; ⁴² but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. ⁴³ I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. ⁴⁴ How can you believe, when you receive ^[j]glory from one another and you do not seek the ^[k]glory that is from the one and only God? ⁴⁵ Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. ⁴⁶ For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. ⁴⁷ But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”

John 5 The Bible Panorama

V 1–9a: PARALYTIC A man, paralysed for thirty-eight years, is healed by Jesus at the pool in Jerusalem called Bethesda where sick people congregate each day to hope for a miraculous healing. His healing is immediate and effective. He takes up his bed and walks

. V 9b–14: PERSECUTION Because Jesus heals on the Sabbath day, the Jews are offended. They criticise the man for carrying his bed on the Sabbath day and interrogate him about Jesus. Their own legalistic rules replace the true spirit of the Sabbath, which God gave to be a blessing to mankind. Jesus assures the man that he is healed and tells him to sin no more.

 V 15–18: PRESUMPTION The man tells the Jews that Jesus has healed him. Their wicked desire to kill Jesus, because He heals on the Sabbath, intensifies because He identifies with God the Father, making Himself equal with God, which they see as presumptuous blasphemy.

V 19–30: POWER Jesus claims absolute identification and oneness with the Father in the works that He does, including raising the dead, exercising judgement and giving everlasting life. His power is the power of God, because that is who He is.

V 31–35: PREPARER Jesus then refers to John the Baptist’s witness to His identity. He was a lamp who prepared the way for Christ.

 V 36–40: PROCLAMATION Jesus goes on to reveal three witnesses proclaiming who He is. His works, His Father and the body of Scripture all witness to His identity. Jesus is quick to point out that searching the Scriptures will not save you, unless you are willing to come to Him personally to receive eternal life.    

V 41–47: PURPOSE Jesus exposes the inconsistency of the people. They will not honour Him, although He comes from God, but highly esteem self-seeking people. Jesus reveals the purpose of the law through Moses, who writes about Jesus. Those who really believe his words will come to Christ. The law is indeed a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.