I Had aDream

Two days ago marked 50 year since Martin Luther King gave the famous 'I had a dream' speech.

Many years before this inspirational speech there was another speech that started very similar. This was the 'I had a vision' speech by William Booth.

HERE IT IS.

Trust to Succeed

As a rugby coach I occasionally have to attend coaching days with the RFU. This can be a full day in the class room or a full practical day out on the field leaning new ideas and ways to make rugby more fun.

Yesterday I had to drive to Wymondham Rugby Club for a mix session to learn a newish concept of ''Student lead'' Coaching.

The idea is to allow students to make up their own game giving them a criteria, this could be to improve any part of Rugby or general character development.

For me, I find this hard to grasp but as a RFU coach I guess I should follow and trust the guidance of the more qualified and go along with this idea.

Trusting sometimes is really hard, taking advice sometimes can be a real challenge, but sometimes we have to take the advise and trust others to direct us to a better option.

Disciples on the sea of Galilee where having a nightmare one day when they where out fishing. Along came Jesus and shouted out to them '' throw you nets over the other side of the boat..... I guess the fishermen looked at Jesus and thought the guy was joking, Why would that make any difference.

But the disciples knew Jesus and had seen him do quite a bit of amazing stuff so decided that Trusting this almost pointless advise could harm an already rubbish fishing trip.

The rest is history, they followed the advice and pulled in the biggest catch ever.

Learn Before Judgeing

One of my downfalls is picking wholes in people and having a good old moan about others. This could be anything from people believes to the way they Drive. The old saying that says people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Sadly we all at some times feel the need to moan or pick wholes in the way people do things, but lets be honest, non of us are perfect and people have different ideas and different ways at looking at things.

Chatting to a friend who was brought up in a Catholic home I stated that I find Catholic belief hard to line up with Christian Faith. I went on and said Praying to Mary and confessing to a priest doesn't line up with pray to one God and the way to the father is threw the son (Jesus).

I found myself almost Questioning the Catholic faith and moaning about the way they do things. then my friend started to explain that they don't pray to Mary, what they do is pray to god, but hale Mary was more a symbol of asking saints and angels, and others in heaven to pray for them to. (Almost asking the whole of heaven for prayers).

I then was told that it wasn't massively important to attend confession, as the bible says only Jesus can forgive us from sin and died on the cross to do so. the confession box where you can confess your sins to a priest is almost another symbolic thing where people can hear they have been forgiven rather than just knowing.

Maybe its time to start looking into other peoples reasons for doing things rather than picking holes and deciding they are wrong and you are right. The world is full of people with different views on all sorts of subjects and every person has made choices for different reasons. I'm not saying we have to agree with everyone, but we can try and respect others and us and them have the ability to change.

 

''If you live in a glass house and throw stones, then you going to have a constant window repair bill. Maybe its time stop throwing stones and start cleaning the windows''

What is a Christian?

The other day I was chatting to a friend who said that the bible is written by humans so can never be believed as truth.

I found it hard that another Christian was suggesting that they didn't believe that Jesus could have possibly been born to a virgin mother, or that he could raise from the dead.

I suggested that as a Christian surly these two major points in the bible must be believed by all Christian people as they are the fundamental events on which we place our belief (without going to far into depth on a philosophical discussion)

This got me thinking, What makes a Christian?

This could be Answered in John 11:25 when Jesus said "I  am the resurrection and the life, He who believes in me will never die". Maybe this isn't the whole answer, and I'm sure someone somewhere will what to add to it but I think its a simple explanation.

Trouble with all explanations is there is always going to be simple thinking. and just because you may believe I God doesn't mean you will go to heaven.

here's a better explanation....

 

So Is it enough to believe?

 

I'm not so sure it is. See to me things it tells us in the bible should be believed too. One of these is That Christians should attend Church (Church being a group of Christians, not a building)

 

It tells us that attending church and meeting with other Christians to share and listen to help strengthen faith and to work together for Gods good. That's not saying that going to church makes you a Christian in any way shape or form.

 

OK I'm not a model Christian, and I'm not always on the right path. but I would like to think that with Jesus in my life he will help direct me in choices and I would try my best to seek his will.

 

Christianity isn't about Perfect people, do gooders or bible bashing nutters. Its not always about Reading the bible (I listen to Christian Radio that helps with this)

 

And it definitely isn't about putting C of E on a form where it asks for your Religion.

 

Like I say, I am far from being a model Christian and there are some things I hope to change in my life. but I do believe God listens and wants to use me in time. And I also believe he has the best waiting for all of us.

So what do Christians do? ok I know what many think... they go round with tamborines singing and giving out leaflets, ask for money to fix the roof and shove the bible down you throat till you blue in the face. "Right?".... Wrong.

Sure this is a good description of some, and I do think that there is a time and a place for preaching and collecting money, or shoving the bible in people faces. but I also believe that there is a more important Job a Christian should try and do and that's know that God will create opotunities to tell others about Him, and even then its not about preaching or trying to prove, its about telling others about you experiences and why you believe.

Bear Grylls

When ever I seem to get things moving in the right direction, I do something or something happens to put you back to square one. Its like the one step forward and two back scenario.

Bear Grylls is a TV survival expert who is also Chief Scout for the world wide scouting movement. In his programme he survival techniques and ideas to survival in all sorts of situations.

What Bear does is use his vast knowledge to find his way back to safety some times using some extreme ideas and eating some pretty horrid stuff

What Bear Grylls does is use what he has, he will eat pretty much anything to keep his energy up, and will always improvise with what he has at the time.

What Bear can do is use the things around him and when facing the most cruelest of places and near impossible tastes he tries to make everything work for him rather than against him.

When faced with hard life situations I tend to panic and forces me to worry and get myself all down and give up. I get angry and start to upset people around me. It almost as if I grabbed a loose bit of rock and slid back down the rock face into the ruff sea bellow. The I find it hard to cling back onto the rock to start climbing again.

This is what Bear Grylls warns about in his programme. When you start to panic and worry nothing will seem clear. To Use the situation to you advantage is to know where you want to get too.

Instead of splashing around in the waves and not getting anywhere fast is not the ideal thing to do, OK it may keep us afloat but doesn't help us get out of danger.

Use the Waves and tide to your advantage. try and use closer to the rock face and maybe the waves will help you to start you higher up the cliff.

You know, life is bound to be a roller-coaster if you keep looking back. A life that matters is focused on where you’re headed, not where you’ve already been.      


I herd once that to fall is not to fail but not getting back up is failure. So maybe its not the down turns and mistakes we make, its how we learn by them and try to climb once more.

God Can turn our weakness into his strengths, and if we know that we have already succeeded.

Tiny Earth

Walking along the Prom the other night I couldn't help think about how lucky I was to live by the see. As I walked I watch birds Flying, boats sailing and many people walking, running and some swimming.

As I got to the I came across about 30 people enjoying the beach on a clear evening. Some where sitting chatting and some where playing beach football and a couple where enjoying a swim in the calm sea. 

I got talking to a couple of these guys and they told me they where on a week holiday from London. One lady told me that it was four years since her family had been on a beach. Another told me that her son had never seen the see so close and he was 7.

I guess for these people on the beach at 9 o'clock at night enjoying the sun setting and relaxing as the stars started to shine was some sort of Treat for them all. But Living by the beach for me and many others becomes something we take for granted, and maybe don't make the most of.

I remember Going to the Lake District and standing in the middle of Keswick town centre. I stood and was just amazed at the view of the hills all around. It was almost one of those feelings that makes you feel so small. Standing Keswick Shopping precinct and seeing these massive mountains coming up from behind the buildings. Seeing people as tiny little dots walking up the paths to the top made me realise how small we all are compared to the world we live on.

That's not all.... we are told that some planets are double, triple and even 4 times as big as the earth. So How Massive is God? 

Before we go about our business in the next couple days, maybe we should all think about are surroundings and the fact god that made the Universe as great and as massive it is also made us. Each unique. All of us made in his eyes and he has a great plan for all of us that ask him for help.