Wrestling with the Logos

I cleared off to the beach this afternoon for a while. The weather has been beautiful the last while, so I took the opportunity to have some time out on my own beside the sea, took the train up to West Kilbride.

I’ve been wrestling a bit with God the last few days especially. I seem to go through seaons when it feels like I’ve no idea what God is up to and it hurts more than I’d like to to. Equally, it also seems to be in the midst of those seasons when I get more opportunities to share Jesus with those around me. Maybe its like Goethe said, where there is a great deal of light, the shadows are deepest.

Today I needed some time out to just relax, not feel under pressure, and refocus on God. Being by the ocean (or water in general) always helps me do that. I spent a good hour walking waist-deep through the ocean, admiring the world around me, breathing deeply of the sea air and pouring my heart to God. I love how Spurgeon said it:

“The best style of prayer is that which cant be called anything else but a cry.”

On the reading front, I just finished off Jim Cymbala’s book. This month has been quite light on the recreational reading so far as I was doing a lot of reading for my essay on John’s gospel.* Now that it’s handed in I’m looking forward to some more books.

* Bibliography for essay, “Jesus Christ the Logos”

Käsemann, E. 1957 The Structure and Purpose of the Prologue to John’s Gospel.
Kelber, W.H. 1990 The Birth of a Beginning.
Martyn, J.L. 1979 History & Theology in the Fourth Gospel.
Peterson, E. 2006 Eat This Book.
Peterson, E. 2003 The Message Remix.
Stibbe, M.W.G. 1992 John as Storyteller.
Tasker, R.V.G. 1960 John.

Technorati tags: beach, Goethe, Spurgeon

Westend Coffee

Here’s the flyer we put together about local coffee shops here in Glasgow’s westend…

coffee flyer

[See a larger version of it here.]

Fairtrade Fortnight

fairtrade fortnight banner

We ran a wee stall in the library today to help raise awareness of Fairtrade (this being Fairtrade Fortnight and all). It was pretty fun, just giving out some free samples, letting people taste the goodness and sharing about how easy it is to buy Fairtrade now. Gareth did a great job getting it set up with the SRC, who pretty much provided everything, all we had to do was man it.

It has been cool for me to be researching this some more. We (being the Social Action Team from uni) put together a flyer detailing what our local coffee shops think about Fairtrade. I’ll probably post it up tomorrow.

CU tomorrow should be interesting – Tara from Tearfund is speaking on slavery and people trafficking, it’s modern day equivalent.

For more info on Fairtrade, check out the website.

Exams & Their Side-Effects

So I made it through my mini blog break, to attempt some exams. Funny story… Monday’s exam (Maths) was ok, but yesterday, I was supposed to have a Biblical Studies exam… didn’t quite make it…

I got up in the morning and was feeling all that great, but wasn’t bad enough that I was going to miss my exam. Started heading down to uni, began to feel a bit light-headed, but carried on anyway! Got about half way there before I had to stop and throw up! (Yes, I use the phrase literally here, as opposed to my figaritive ‘throw up a post’ use). Needless to say I  got in a taxi and headed back to my flat, thus missing the exam. Joy. I feel fine now though, I think I may have ate something a little dodgey! Had been looking forward to that exam actually, because I’m really interested in the subject! Have to sit it in August now.

Hope Deals The Hardest Blow

I have returned to Glasgow! The extra few days in Northern Ireland (when I was bored/stuck in the house/procrastinating revision) were completely worth it when I got to see Foy Vance play at Black Box yesterday afternoon. Quite possibly the best I’ve ever heard him!

The gig was sold out, but managed to get my name on a list at the door and sneak in anyway! The auditorium was jam packed, with just enough room to move. The atmosphere was great, the crowd was silent while Foy played, and cheering rapturously in between. A superb folk band by the name of The Winding Stair supported. Then, in his usual understated way, Foy danders up onto the stage through the crowd, and launches straight into some quality songs, using his looping gadget thing. Sang a myriad of wonderful songs, with a few new ones thrown in there… loving this line from a new song:

“Hope deals the hardest blow.”

Quite a haunting song. Get it recorded and out somewhere soon Foy! The gig had its amusing moments of course – playing barefoot to fix a technical glitch, getting given water instead of Guinness, having a moment while we all sang along with a song… ah the beauty. There is also the fact that he played for almost 2 hours, well over what he was supposed to. Not that any of us were complaining. The man just keeps getting better and better!

In other news, I will try to go blog free for the next two days… need to revise for exams on Monday (eek tomorrow!) and Tuesday afternoons.

Help!

“If Jericho be not razed, our faith is in vain.” (George Ramsay)

Discuss the claim that belief in either Jewish or Christian religious claims cannot survive if the Bible is shown to be seriously erroneous or misleading in historical matters.