That’s what the facebook message said. It was from a neighbour whom I used to live next door to.  We enjoy occasionally ‘visiting’ via facebook.  I had noticed that he was going for a job interview a few weeks ago, and now this short message that simply said ‘omg I got the job’.

So many people use that abbreviation in texting and on social media and most of us would translate it to mean Oh my God.  The question is: Is it Oh my God or is it simply oh my god.  In the mind of a sincere Christian the capital G would make the difference.  If it is intended to be a capital G then many would recoil with discomfort and even agony at the blasé use of the name of God.  We would hear mutterings about using the Name of thy God in vain.

So, who is my god or my God?  My question to you is this, when you use this expression or when you type omg exactly this way, Who is this god you are referring to?

If we claim to worship the Creator God, what the Bible calls the God of heaven and earth, or who created the heavens and the earth, then I guess we are talking about the God of the Bible.  In the Christian’s mind that would be God with a capital G.  If we would happily miss going to church to worship this God week after week, year in and year out, but would not ever miss our favorite reality TV show, then it may be, and probably is, god with a small g.  And if you then say omg then I guess it’s not such a big deal, after all; it would sound weird to say Oh my TV, Oh my Car or even Oh my Appearance or something like that.  People would call that vanity, but call it your god and that’s ok.

On the other hand, if it is omg like in omG, then I have to ask you: who is this God of yours that you so readily refer to as an exclamation in your conversation? You must be very close to this God to continually make such a reference in your texting and talking.  If you are not close to this God and are simply saying it because it sounds cool and ‘with it’ you may just be guilty of contravening the heavenly code and thus being in danger of losing your honour of being an ambassador for Him – disgraced like a modern day politician.

So hey, I have just one question.  Who is my God or god? Who is your god or God?

This annual training event continues and is a must for all ADRA agents who wish to orientate themselves to this role and to learn how ADRA will be run for this year’s appeal. Poster inserted below. Please note that the ADRA Appeal period for this year is 31st March to 15th April (provinces) 22nd April (Metropolitan). The annual fun run will take place at Crystal Palace Park; date to follow shortly. Further information about this year’s ADRA Appeal will be sent out soon to the pastors of your church.

Two significant New Year messages have again drawn our attention to youth.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has made a plea for more acceptance of the youth and he feels that it is the constant rejection of the youth that leads to them feeling that they have no place in society. This is then reflected in symptomatic behaviour like we saw with the 2011 London riots. It’s interesting though that he finds himself amongst a group of youn

g people busy packing supplies for the needy – not really, I would say, a sample of the youth involved in the London riots. These young people, who find pleasure in being involved with doing good, are surely not the ones that Dr. Williams would be referring to as ‘youth that need to find more acceptance’ by society. Or are they?

Pope Benedict, in his New Year message ‘Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God’ coinciding with the celebration of this 45th World Day of Peace, also concentrated on the youth and their role in bringing about peace. He goes a step further than the Archbishop of Canterbury and is not afraid to include the family unit, the early influences in a child’s life and t

he educational institutions as all being responsible to teach peace and tolerance.

In fact from the same source (News.VA) we can read of a very structured way of instilling an ethos of peace and tolerance. So is the Italian lay community, so to say, putting their money where their mouth is? In an article; ‘Rondine: Young People, the peace-builders of tomorrow

’ we see that in the Tuscany village of Rondine something pragmatic is happening. Young people from all over the world are coming together and while studying at one of the Italian institutions they are getting to know each other better. Here Palestinians, Israelis, and Arabs; Bosnians, Serbs and Croats as well as Africans

Indians and Pakistanis are sharing meals together, living in community and overcoming their mutual mistrust in each other. Hopefully they can return, after completing their studies, and make a difference in their countries regarding greater understanding and tolerance of those previously perceived as enemies.

I can’t help but turn to a more ancient source than the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope, even though I would hope to think that they tap their principles from the same source.

• 1 Pack of Spring Rolls skin (You can get them at the Chinese/Indian grocers, 40 pieces in a packet) Defrost or Frozen.
• 1 Head of Sweet Heart Cabbage (Shredded)
• 1 Packet of Tesco frozen stir fry vegetables
• Soya Sauce and Salt to taste
• 1 Egg, beaten for egg wash
• Oil for deep frying/Oil Spray for baking

I was interested in a clip on our local BBC newscast where they were interviewing an Ice Cream factory owner.  He had stopped production, cleaned and closed down his machines and paid off his seasonal staff a week earlier.

And now, in saying goodbye to September and hello to October the UK has been blessed with what we can call, an ‘Indian Summer’. Needless to say the late orders  started rolling in for more Ice Cream and the factory simply had to re-call its staff and restart its machines or lose the business.

So why are we so bound up in seasonal marketing? Is it purely tradition and old fashioned thinking? Do people really not have a barbecue in the winter, and yet are willing to hike for miles in miserable weather. Try for all you want to buy skewers or barbecue charcoal at one of the large grocery chains in the winter, and the answer is simply – ‘sorry but that is seasonal stock’.  How about trying to buy some Marzipan or Stollen in the middle of summer at one of the same stores and you will find it a challenge, after all, who wants to bake a Christmas Cake or have Christmas Sweets in July? OK, now that I’ve got you thinking – why can’t you buy and enjoy some Stollen in July? Who determined that?

So the question remains, is there any sense in out of season marketing? Can we dare to be different and actually create a market where tradition says there is no market? Why can I only buy a beach ball from the beach shop in the simmer and why is its door closed in the winter? I may after all, like to play with a beach ball in the winter as well and have the same fun of watching it being carried over the waves by the stormy winter wind. In fact it may be even more spectacular than in the summer and together with my purchase of a beach ball I can buy a nice cup of hot chocolate. Or does tradition and regulation prevent the same shop selling beach balls to sell hot chocolate in the winter but its OK for it to sell beach balls and ice cream in the summer?

In fact, I think nature is trying to teach us to dump tradition and see the potential of marketing both in season and out of season. Who, except the market, determines that I can brave the winter elements hiking along a Cornish Cliff, but I am unable to buy the items to have a barbecue in my well-protected back yard in winter? I think its time for us to cast aside seasonal marketing. After all, what about this advice given to a man called Timothy, by another man, commonly known as the Apostle Paul. It reads: ‘Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine’. 2Timothy 4:2

of God, are you

troubled, confused,

a fra i d, depressed,

homesick,  ill,  alone,

jobless,  or shattered?

Whatever  you  are going

through,  leave  it  to G od.

In  fact, Jesus invites you to

” Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that

labour and are heavy laden, and

I will give  you  rest.  ake my yoke upon

you, and learn  of me; for I  am meek and

lowly  in heart: and ye shall find rest unto

your  souls. For  my yoke  is easy, and my

burden  is light” Matthew 11:28-30, KJV.

If you  want us to pray a special prayer for

you click the button below &  send us your

prayer request. Make sure to put “Prayer

request”  in  the  subject heading.  All

requests will be treated confidential.

Fortunately we can take out insurance against risk. We can insure, our cars our homes, and even our lives… just in case that ‘something’ happens and someone has to carry the cost. And that is part of our caring nature, either caring for ourselves or for others, and yes, it’s not necessarily all selfishness. Show me the death that costs nothing. There is always someone that has to ‘bite the bullet’ even if you had to die today. So you either care for them financially or you don’t – your ‘self’ or ‘me’ rating will determine that. But I don’t want to ramble on about insurance because after all I don’t get paid any commission for promoting it. Talk about ‘self’!

What I have found fascinating, though, is the risk in living and how much competition there is in either confirming or denying that risk. The air travel industry would tell us that it’s safer to put our lives in their care than to walk across a busy London street. The ‘greens’, interviewed from their Amazonian hardwood bench while serving you fair trade tea from their solid oak garden table, will tell us to walk rather than drive so as to save the ozone layer. The schools and parent associations will howl about the dangers of a distant mobile phone mast while reminding those hard of hearing that the venue’s induction loop system is in operation. The vegans will make us guilty of the slaughter of animals and the health dangers of the animal products we consume while nibbling vine tomatoes grown in organic pig manure and slowly sipping their highly refined Soya shakes. The Norfolk farmers will put up posters saying we want health, not Refuse Incinerators, while they wait upon the rains to moisten their crops and systematically poison the subterranean water reserves by seeping through the toxic teabags called landfills.

But hey! It’s this very aspect that I would like to address. There is now some belief, if ever there was not, that mobile phones may actually cause brain cancer together, of course, with drinking coffee and breathing in motor car exhaust fumes, but we’re not quite sure which of the three it is. Fact is we are doing all three, but fortunately they do say that moderate use of a mobile phone would seem to be okay, and we know moderate use of coffee may be okay and I suppose a bit of moderate breathing would also be okay. And then there’s this matter around cows milk that may have a super MRSA bug-ability. This is scary stuff, but ‘Researchers said the find was “worrying” but added it was unlikely that the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bug, which is resistant to some antibiotics, could cause infections by getting into the food chain via milk’.¹

So, it would seem to me that to live is risky at the best of times. With respect to the milk and coffee issue it is interesting that as far back as 1873 someone had already, in a strange and almost prophetic letter, wagered that milk would one day become diseased and that coffee was not good. This was later confirmed by the same author in a book titled ‘Counsels on Diet and Food’.² So was it prophetic? It would seem so.

Well, is to live a risk? It would appear so, but a balanced world view and diet could go quite a distance in balancing the risk. Does that make sense?

Santuario Siracusa (Madonna delle Lacrime)

It would appear, from an article I read recently, that more and more churches are struggling with the costs involved in maintaining their village or city visibility, namely, their church steeples. Somewhere in the annals of history there was a time where you could gaze across the skyline and make your way to the House of God via a fixed point on the horizon. Then came sky-scrapers, pushing and shoving their way onto the ‘horizon scape’, yes ok, not always for the sake of visibility but more for the sake of space efficiency, even though some have become landmarks and marketing icons in their own right.

Now the cathedral or church steeple, some of them brittled by the ‘osteoporosis’ of time, have become dwarfed by commerce, only remaining visible from a few blocks away. Here and there in the villages of Europe they may still proclaim the town centre. The big question is can we afford to maintain those fragile and aging heavenward pinnacles pointing up like the historic sun worshiping obelisks of ancient times? Or will they also eventually end up in a heap of antiquated building rubble; waiting to become filling material compacted in the foundations of the next multi-
story car park?

In reflecting on this, the song ‘From a Distance’ penned by Julie Gold, first recorded by Nanci Griffith and etched into our memory by Bette Midler, came to mind. I love the story of Julie Gold, lying on her bunk bed, looking down at her beloved piano, and then scrambling to pen the words and music of this great song. Driven by a new vision of the future, she broke the mould that had encrusted her existence.

Today the internet has become the horizon for the church. Viewed ‘from a distance’ by so many that are searching for that landmark component that is missing in their lives. From a distance, and yet only the click of a web domain away, God is watching us. Through all the fighting and wars the hope of hopes and the love of loves is crying out the potential harmony – the voice of peace. So many people are surfing the soldered webs of pc-boards that miraculously contort into pages of Good News illustrated with pixels of faith in Jesus Christ.

So the question remains – is it really worth reviving those pinnacles of historical architecture that have morphed into a decaying Albatross hanging around our necks for the sake of history, or is it time to move on with new visions of the future? Is the cost of the scaffolding around the steeples better spent on the visibility of your church website? What has ‘from a distance’ become? Is it still, at whatever the costs are, a steeple on the horizon, or could it be a keyboard under your fingers?

For the early church that was superfluous because the answer was obvious – evangelism was the Three-Angels message birthed from the DNA of the historical ‘there is a God in Heaven who reveals mysteries¹ and ‘The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place’.²

Maybe then the question is – have we become punch-drunk with betterness and beasts? Knowing all about being a better remnant and spending our Christian life running from beasts – and it’s both yes and no. ‘Yes’, we have preached Dead Men do tell Tales, Beasts and Antichrist until 10 pm and then invaded the city streets with buckets of sloppy glue and Next Session posters, finally flopping into bed at 3am for three hours of sleep. And over the years we became worn out by this beastly affair. And yes, we the Remnant ‘come out of Babylon’ and become ‘not of this world’ to the point where the best and safest place for salt is in the pot, unopened lest we become caked up by the creeping moisture of the world. But ‘No’ the message remains the same and we should not try and re-write the ‘and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet which said: ‘Write on a scroll what you see’³

So what now? Have we become so gentle on the beasts and dare I say, Saturday keeping Christians’ to the point of being like all the others that at best offer coffee mornings and a place to chat. You walk through their stalls, and it’s all about your welfare now and very little, if anything, about your welfare on the day the trumpet sounds, the earth quakes and the graves start gaping.

I was blown away when I did some 1960 ‘old style’ evangelism – with only one difference – it was in some ones home and not in a big hall. Their reaction was, ‘where do you get this stuff – we want more’. I gave them my mandatory health warning: ‘It could take up to 20 sessions and it could change your life and turn your world upside down, forever’. There was no hesitation.

What then is evangelism? I am so afraid that it becomes an offend-less ‘gospel’ for a milk-fed society where doctors have learned to say ‘it would appear that you may have an illness that could be difficult to treat’ rather than saying ‘my dear friend, you have terminal cancer, but cancer can be cured’.

I thus propose to you an evangelism that is still rooted in ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says’ and ‘The word of the Lord came to: ⁴ An evangelism that confirms Christ’s testimony of ‘Yes, I am coming soon’⁵ An evangelism that is still brave enough to confer with ‘I did not come to bring peace, but a sword’.⁶ Have we become afraid of that that will turn people against us because we stand for truth? Is it time that we sit in our corner, smell the smelling salts of prophetic evangelism once more, and come out fighting, in the style that suits us best, with renewed clarity?

This, my dear friend and fellow evangelist, you need to make out for yourself. As evangelists that are part of the priesthood of believers, it would be good if we would say: ‘But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord’.

Be challenged! Be an evangelist! And don’t leave it to the pastors – you need to understand, they simply can’t do it all.