Here in Latvia we’re in the middle of a heatwave! Other than a thunderstorm last night during the World Cup final its been quite a while since we last saw some rain in Riga, and temperatures are sitting around 30°C (86°F) and not getting much below 20° at night! What makes it worse is that we have the humidity to match as well!
The record temperature in Latvia is 36.4°C
It’s great to have the warm sunshine at this time of year, but just now I would do anything for a nice breeze or a cooling shower of rain.
Just over a week ago I sent my application forms for Officership off to the UK and I am now waiting to hear back to see what I do next. Everyone who has talked to me about this decision has been very positive and the support I’m getting is wonderful.
Even so during this week the enormity of what God has called me to sunk in! Zoe & I spent quite a long time talking about it one evening and the truth is that my decision to follow God’s call on my life has major implications for my family. Zoe will need to change jobs every few years, Sian, and any other children we might have, will probably never have the chance to go through her education at just 2 schools and her dad is always going to be the officer!
Even bigger than that is the responsibility that is being an officer. I can’t imagine why anyone without a very definite calling would ever consider the possibility of becoming an officer. When I was still trying to come to terms with this call a large part of me was saying to God “Please Lord, anything but that!”
For the time being at least I will be a ’single-spouse’ officer and I had never considered that God might call me but not Zoe! However, if the experience of almost 5 years in Latvia has taught me anything, its that God is able to supply our every need.
So here I am, whole-heartedly offering myself for what promises to be a life of ups and downs serving God in the way that He has called me. My one prayer is that I will always manage to fulfil the greatest commandment and will “Love God with all my heart, soul and mind” so that I can serve people for Him and lead them to a deeper, intimate knowledge of their Saviour!
Since I started reading blogs I’ve found it difficult to keep up to date with the various conversations that I’m involved in across the blogs that I read. Enter coComment.com which is a very useful little site aimed at solving this problem.
At the touch of a button you can keep a track of your various conversations (although it works best when other people are signed up as well as you get told about their comments) and if you use Firefox to browse then you can even get a nifty little extension to help you along!
Its well worth a look if you like to respond to blogs you read!
I’m trying to remember the last time that I sat in silence and I’m struggling! I’m sure on holiday I sat down on my own a couple of times and sometimes while Sian is asleep in the afternoon and Zoe is at work the flat is quieter. But is it ever silent?
The road we live on is a relatively busy road as its one of 2 one way streets that many people drive along near the centre of Riga. The weather is warm, which means our windows are open a lot. We live in a building which is in regular use by the general public and has 12 flats in it. It’s rarely quiet where I live!
As I sit in the office right now there is no-one to talking, no sound of cars, in fact its almost silent, if it wasn’t for the all invading white noise of computers humming in the background, the buzz of fluorescent lights and just now the cooling unit on the water dispenser kicked in!
Its difficult to escape from the noise of modern life!
When talking about corporate worship, Patrik (see Warcry on the right) has said that only when its loud is there the freedom to choose silence, and I can understand this viewpoint. The silence we so often retreat into when worshipping in many church services is often an uncomfortable, embarrassed silence, born not of communion with God but our own insecurities.
But aside from corporate worship we also find silence a difficult thing to achieve. The world has become so noisy that it is difficult to find places where the modern world does not encroach on the silence. Luke 5:16
shows that withdrawing to a lonely place was an essential part of Jesus’ time. If it was important for Him, then how much more important is it for us to take time away from the noise of everyday life to spend time listening to God?
This seems to be a question that many people are struggling with at the moment. I’m not even sure that it is a question that can really be answered as I have a feeling that it means different things depending who we are talking to at a given moment.
It’s certainly a question I’ve been asking myself as well and out of that has come a few thoughts! As there are a number I’m going to post them as I unpack my own thinking a little bit.
If we believe that the Church as a whole is the Christian faith, then we must turn our mind first of all to the fact that we, the Church, are the Bride of Christ (John 3:29).
Ephesians 5:25-27 are verses that often tend to provoke a lot of debate because of the word “submit”, but lets put the husband/wife debate right now! These verses explain why the Church should submit itself to Christ. He loved us so much that He gave Himself up for us so that we may be sanctified and be presented to Him in splendour! What a wonderful picture that is (and incidently how many marriages would improve if the husband acted like that towards his wife).
The problem is though that all too often the Church is far more like a nagging wife, constantly complaining that Jesus isn’t doing what He said He would do. Instead of trying to please Him, we spend all our time concentrating on the things that we want to do, rather than those He wants us to do. Instead of submitting to His authority we do whatever we like and ignore the things that Jesus did!
At the same time we need to seek deeper intimacy with Christ. Too much of the time the Church spends its time avoiding intimacy with Christ. We spend so much time in doing Church stuff, that we relegate intimacy to one or two services on a Sunday, and even then we limit that intimacy to an hour or so. Few, if any, marriages survive when the partners stop being intimate. Some translations describe the sexual act between a husband and wife as “He knew his wife…” We don’t know Jesus enough! Without becoming more and more intimate with Jesus the Church is never going to be able to fulfil its task on earth.
So what is Church? Church is the Bride of Christ and we need to be proud of our husband. Let’s show how much we love Him to the world and constantly sing His praises because He has done so much for us!
So today is the 90th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme, probably the best known battle in the 1st World War. Over 20,000 British Soldiers were killed and by its end 5 months later 1.2 million were killed or wounded on both sides. This doesn’t even begin to touch the other lives that were destroyed through the loss of a husband, father, son etc!
As far as I know my family wasn’t touched by this particular battle but my great, grandfather was killed earlier in WWI leaving a pregnant wife and 4 other children.
That war was supposed to be the war to end all wars, but I’m guessing that the 20th Century was probably the bloodiest of all time, and the 21st Century isn’t sahping up to be much better. Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine, East Timor, Ethiopia/Eritrea and the Sudan are just some of the places where war is waging in the world today!
Then you take into account all the other smaller conflicts between individuals that end up destroying lives and communities as well!
The Church has a message and it is one of Grace and Reconciliation. How can we find ways of spreading it so that fewer and fewer lives are destroyed but instead more and more are liberated into the true freedom that is given through Christ’s death and resurrection?
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