This time one year ago, my son was born. It was such a great day and God was most definitely in the situation with us. My wife was taken ill again with pre-eclampsia and was rushed on the Saturday (the 17th) to Inverness. I went with her in the ambulance and came home later that evening. Unfortunately, things had deteriorated in my absence and it was decided that the baby was coming out by the next day.

Cue much worry about how I would get to Inverness on time. I needn't have worried. how often is that the case. A wonderful, godly, woman helped me to arrange a lift and I felt totally uplifted in prayer throughout that day.

This last year has been amazing. He is such a great little boy. So like me and so like his mother as well. I thank God every day for what he has given me. He gave me my son and I have to say it has been a brilliant insight into how hard it must have been to give me His son.

Today was a beautiful day. Snow was falling from early on and it made the world look so good. I have been enjoying the local area so much. Photos have become something of a passion of mine and I particularly enjoy playing with the different settings on my camera.

There is one setting called selective focus and it allows me to take one photo and  see it in two different ways. Here are two different versions of the same picture

It made me think of the Lord and the way he focusses on all of us. He can see what we can't. He knows our long term future and our immediate worries. He is a truly remarkable God.

The Acts Challenge –

I have been reading a lot more of the Bible this year. I started using a new app on my phone and, I have to say, it really is brilliant. I have made a commitment to work through the whole Bible in a year and that seems to be going well. I have it timed for my morning bus ride.

I have found, though, that it isn't enough. I need to read more. There is a craving in me to read more and more of it. So, in acceptance of this fact, I have added a couple of other plans as well. A dear friend of ours is reading through Acts this month and that inspired me. I was talking to her the other say about Acts and I realised it had been a while since I had read much of the book. This was a shame. I used to love reading Acts.

Luke’s style is amazing. I find that he is a great historian and he has the skill of getting the message across without making it boring. So far, I have read the first five chapters of the book. I am trying to keep it at one chapter a day. This makes it easier for me to remember where I am. I am taking a photograph of my bible each day to show that I am doing it and to help keep me inspired.

So, what have I learned so far? Well, I have a lot more bibles than I thought. Today was the first time I used the same bible for a reading. I could have gone a lot further into it without repeating my bible but I think that would be too much. What a privilege. I have my old one from University which has seen me through some tough times. It is delightful finding old notes in there. It is even more delightful making new notes! Then there is the one I bought to take to Israel. The NIV study Bible. That one too is full of notes (not as full as I would like by the way but you get the point) and is such a great tool for my devotions and my preaching. There’s a CEV Bible on my desk at work, the Poverty and Justice Bible. I have on-line Bibles and apps to use as well. There are Good News, KJV, Study Bibles, the Message and others at home too. Wow. Some people die trying to get their hands on one and I have lots. Thank you lord.

Some verses have jumped out at me but none more so than the one in today’s reading. It came in chapter 5. Peter and the others have been preaching in the Temple. They have been arrested and thrown in prison and then they are set free by God. What does he command them to do? What would I do? Well, I would run away no doubt. God says, in verse 20

‘Go, stand in the temple courts’ … ‘and tell the people all about this new life.’

What a command. That right there is the mission statement of the church. Never mind the pithy little things we see on websites. They’re good but this is better. Is there anything more that a church should be doing? We need to be able to stand in the temple courts showing and telling people what is so great about this new life.

We don’t need a loud hailer, we don’t need to be shouting about gay people going to hell. We don’t need to be pushing people into the kingdom. People need to be shown the love that flows from us. Jesus never told us that we needed to do anything other than come to him. He is there, with open arms and we need to realise that. More importantly, we need to be demonstrating a new life. People may not have known us before we were a Christian (although some will of course) but we need them to see that what we are telling them about is a life that is different.

I am so pleased with what I am learning from Acts. I hope that the challenge is completed. I want to get reacquainted with my old friend.

I am an Anglican. I have been confirmed and I have been a communicant member of that church for all of my life as a Christian. I love the Anglican liturgy and the core principles. However, this once great church is dying on its feet. Numbers are down and the church seems to be making decision after decision that is just plain wrong.

Last year the big brouhaha was all about women bishops. As if Bishops are even Biblical! When they did get them, they were, inevitably, fast-tracked into the House of Lords. The election of  a woman to the role of bishop may indeed be inspired by the Holy Spirit but I suspect that many of the ones being picked these days are picked purely because they are women.

What's driving it even further towards the abyss is, of course, same sex marriage. Now, I have not expressed an opinion here on this blog and nor will I. It isn't a question that excites me or even seems to matter to me. However, the issue dominates all talks about the church so soon enough it may be important.

Look at this


Primates Meeting

You see? Africa will probably stick to the more conservative interpretation of the gospel and that is their right. I guess for many of them, the West telling them how to deal with an issue smacks a little of imperialism. They, understandably, don't like that idea. Perhaps they are a little blinkered in refusing such things. Only God truly knows.

The Anglican church will limp on. It will be a skeleton of its former self and that is a shame. I will miss it but I shall not mourn. It only has itself to blame

It is a freezing cold day today. The sky was a beautiful blue and there was frost on the ground as we all set out for the weekly dancing lesson. Our daughter had enormous fun with the puddles that had frozen over. Up on the top of the hills was a good amount of snow and this got me thinking about a verse I like to think about in the Bible. Psalm 51 v 7

This psalm is the one where David is visited by Nathan after his affair with Bathsheba. It is an awful psalm to here, full of pain and guilt. In the middle of this psalm is this verse. I love the image of bein whiter than snow. Is this possible? I don't know. I can't wait to find out though.

However, what has often intrigued me was the bit about Hyssop. It is something that is only mentioned a few times in the Bible. It is a plant used to cleanse people and sacrifices. It is also the plant that they used to help Jesus have a drink on the cross.

Jesus' thirst and death on the cross means we can be cleaned. He has sprinkled us with his scarlet blood and we will be as white as snow.



7 

A photo posted by Derrick Roberts (@aberchristian) on Jan 9, 2016 at 4:03am PST

I have been looking through my old Instagram pictures and I have been loving seeing some of them. I think that it is a wonderful thing to reminisce about things. The Lord tell us to remember the good deeds that he did for the Israelites in Egypt. This extends to us. All through our lives God has been there. He has always had our back as they say and there are many good things that he has done for us. 

He brought me to Scotland. He gave me a wonderful family. He has made me stop and stare at the beauty all around me. He has told me how much he loves me. He went to the cross for me and he will call me home to him one day. I think these things are worth remembering.

A photo posted by Derrick Roberts (@aberchristian) on Sep 29, 2013 at 6:03am PDT

I have said before that I live in a beautiful place. I am really blessed to live here. today I was on the way to pick up my daughter from Nursery (I missed her, her mum was like a whippet to the bus stop today). I simply had to stop and take some pictures. Like these two

A photo posted by Derrick Roberts (@aberchristian) on Jan 8, 2016 at 4:23am PST

A photo posted by Derrick Roberts (@aberchristian) on Jan 8, 2016 at 4:24am PST

One of my Bible passages for this morning (day 8 of 366!) was from Matthew 6. I love the Sermon on the Mount as I have said in the past but this passage

28 ‘And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith?

is one of my favourites.

I worry a lot about things and this passage helps me so much. God loves me and he loves you, the simplest of messages. This means that we have everything we need. God will look after us and he will make us more splendid than the birds and the flowers. What a glorious thing to know.