Things the Modern English Church Gets Wrong

A disclaimer: I love the church. It is my home and my family. I don't want to knock the church, but we have to live in the reality that there are things we don't always get right. If we highlight the problems we can go about dealing with them as a family with a forgiving and loving approach, and we can more effectively be the hope of God on earth.

It has really started to bother me that many people in the church in the UK have become so angry with the government decisions that affect the church negatively. The approach often is 'we must change these decisions! We must make the government listen!' I am heartbroken when our government, that has stated their intention to protect our freedom, makes decisions that limit the freedom we have to fully practice our faith.

However, our reaction to these decisions shouldn't be to rally against our government, to get 'up in arms' (literally or figuratively), or to try to force the government to change its mind. We should look to the church in Acts for our example of how to react. The authorities at the time stopped at nothing to prevent the practice of Christianity. Persecution extended as far as stoning Christians examples include Stephen, and on one occasion Paul. Paul survived his stoning.

His response to this should be an example. 
Acts 14:19-20 NIV:
"Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe." He gets up and walks back in to the city, and further verses tell us that Paul returns to Lystra to preach again. Paul does not try to change the local authorities through human means, but continues following  God's command. He's not even surprised by the persecution that he experiences; and why should he be. Jesus says in the sermon on the mount:
Matthew 5:10-12 NIV
"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,     for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.     “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.    Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

So why should we be surprised by persecution. In fact, not only should we expect persecution, we should rejoice in it. Why should we rejoice in persecution. Well, on top of the reasons we are presented with in the beatitudes, we have the example of the effect on the church after the stoning of Stephen. The church becomes scattered. However, as they are scattered they proclaim the good news wherever they go. This leads to growth in the church. A modern example of persecution is the church in China. The church in China has, for many years, been one of the most persecuted in the world. It has also, for many years, been one of the fastest growing churches in the world. So, persecution leads to growth. That isn't isolated though. We will begin to see more persecution of the church in Britain. However, we should rejoice because that means we will also begin to see much more growth in the church in the UK.

So, if our government makes a decision that leads to a positive outcome for the church we should rejoice as we are blessed. Moreover, if the government, or any part of society limits our freedom and persecutes us then our reaction should be like that of the apostles:
Acts 5:40-42 NIV
"His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.  The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah."

Time Consuming

Maybe I need a bigger brush, as painting this model is taking ages.

The Emperor's Finest

My sternguard are complete, and have been inducted into my force with their first game against Charlie's chaos marines. Contrary to popular statistics about freshly painted models doing badly in their first match, my sternguard performed admirably slaying many Khorne beserkers and chaos space marines. They made especially good use of the special issue ammunition, making a mockery of armour saves. You can see the freshly painted unit below along with my brand new painting project.

Work in Progress

A few weeks ago I posted about some sternguard veterans that I was painting. They are nearly finished, and I'm just baseing the unit. I thought I'd just share photos of them.

Moar Warhammer

Charlie requested some posts about warhammer. So, I've included some pictures of a model from the sternguard veteran squad I'm currently working on. He is a work in progress. A quick rundown of how I did him is as follows:
1. Spray under-coat in white.
2. Wash in nuln oil (I realise I should have used a mixed wash for better effect with the white but I'm lazy)
3. A layer of white scar.
4. Bronzes- dwarf bronze (or its new equivalent), followed by agrax earthshade wash, followed by highlights in hashut copper (this is where someone tells me hashut copper is the new dwarf bronze).
4. The boltgun is leadbelcher, washed with nuln oil. Mithril silver (whatever that is now) is then dry brushed on top of that.
5. All paper is bleached bone (I HAVE A LOT OF OLD PAINT OKAY!) followed by agrax earthshade followed by a white highlight.
6. The purity seal wax and the blood staining on the fists is khorne red,  then mephistone red, then evil sunz scarlet.
7. Piping behind the knees and elbows is dawnstone washed with nuln oil (I do love nuln oil).

While I haven't gotten round to baseing this model, the basingI use is as follows: blackfire earth (the new texture paints are miraculous), layered on thickly. This is followed by dawnstone, which doesn't have to be neat, smooth, or even. Then, wash with nuln oil (yes, again). Then drybrush dawnstone on. Finally, drybrush a thin layer of 50:50 dawnstone white scar mix.

This is not a painting tutorial, it's an exhibition of how I paint my marines.

Oh I know what to blog about!

I had a beautiful moment of realisation just now. I have an interesting bit of news to write about. On Wednesday I went to an applicant day at the University of Nottingham, and received an excellent offer. I currently require an AAB to study MSci Physics at Nottingham. Which considering my next lowest offer is AAA* is a very good offer. Also, I remembered how much I liked the university. It's got a beautiful campus, and a fantastic physics course. I remembered how interesting the staff were and how good the research was. But, most importantly, I remembered how much I felt like I belonged at the University of Nottingham. I feel very much like it was where I should have been aiming to go all along. Therefore, I am currently leaning towards putting Nottingham down as my first choice. Probably for reasons that stem deeper than just 'liking the feel of the place'. However, the phrase 'liking the feel' is the most accurate description of my reason for deciding on Nottingham that I can come up with at the moment.

Also, please suggest things for me to write about. Otherwise the frequency of my posts will drop. Please put your suggestions in the comments box. Thankyou. 

I need to post more

I need to post more often. Also, I need to generate more focused content. If you have suggestions as to what you'd like to read please comment.

Not Much Really

I find myself with a desire to blog, but with nothing to blog about. This is unfortunate really. Exams are over, therefore I should probably discuss what I will be doing with my life for the next few months other than going to birthday parties. There are a number of video-games installed on my computer that I have yet to get round to starting let alone finishing. I should probably play the aforementioned games. Also, I have been model painting quite a bit recently, so I will be spending even more time doing that. I will probably even put up photos of models I have painted. I will ask Charlie to take the photos as he has a decent camera. I am rambling to myself by this point after completely forgetting that I have an audience. I do apologise reader. I have not finished uncompartmentalising (that's probably not a real word) my mind after exams. I do hope you've all had a good exam season. I'm glad it's over, and I can't wait to get on with the rest of my life.

Welcome Home

I have returned home to Indonesia. The concept of home in this case is convoluted. I'm not going to go into depth; I'm only going to state that in this case I'm calling Indonesia home because it's where my parents live. So far, I have been home for around two weeks and I'm beginning to get used to the heat again. It's beautiful here. Nothing quite equals waking up in the morning and being able to walk outside and watch as the clouds brush over the mountains that surround Malang.

It's warm enough to stand around outside in nothing but pyjama shorts. Much to my parents chagrin, I have often taken advantage of this fact. Don't get me wrong, tropical heat can be overbearing and oppressive at it's worst. However, it is nice to not have to carry a coat everywhere. I have also enjoyed living in my flip-flops, or thongs as the Australians have christened them (but why?!). I haven't actually left the house yet without my flip-flops on. I see very little point getting sweaty feet wearing other types of footwear. Sure everywhere else is sweaty, but not my feet.

I have managed to eat at a variety of cuisine. I believe that in these two weeks I have eaten Chinese, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Italian (yeah pizza hut isn't really Italian but what can you do), English, and American cuisine. I'm not entirely sure if describing some of the food I've eaten as cuisine is entirely accurate but as it's the most simple course of action I'm going to stick with it. Tonight I had duck and it was, simply put, really good. The restaurant we went to also serves what is, in my opinion, the best nasi goreng in malang. For the uninitiated among my readers, nasi goreng is the Indonesian phrase for fried rice.

While eating and enjoying the weather have been a large part of my vacation, it hasn't been the most important part of my return home. Spending time with people who I grew up with, and spending time with my family has been the highlight of being home. I've had the chance to catch up with Bethany and Jamen Gallagher who are really dear to me (they're Australian so I'm not sure if they'll find that last statement a touch mawkish). It's been amazing finding out what they've been up to while I've been separate from them. It has also been really rather entertaining spending time with the Buckners. I spent a lot of time with both Jon Mark and Dorothy while growing up and they matter to me a great deal; so finding out how they're lives are shaping up these days is a real privilege. Spending time with my family has also been really interesting. They are all insane. No member of my family is normal, whether it's my huskies or my parents. That's probably the reason I've missed them all so much. I've missed being with people that I know are as loopy as I am.

That concludes my holiday post. I'd like to leave you with a song you may recognise from the Nikon advert:

A social media revolution

My father recently brought to my attention how much rubbish is posted on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and even Google+. With this in mind I viewed my Facebook news feed and was ashamed to find that the social media generation was actually posting rubbish, unhelpful, boring, and quite often degrading things all over the social part of the internet.

It is such a waste. Social media is such a powerful tool, as everything we post can have an effect on a relatively large group of people. We have the power to influence not just the people we are directly connected to but also the wider network of people connected to us through friends.

If this is true, then why do we repost stupid cat videos and degrading images? Moreover, why do we continue to be mindless meme slaves subscribing to brain killing trash and subjecting others to posts that don't reflect the thoughts and passions of our generation. This repost culture its comparable to endless nyan cat ! This analogy goes further than you might expect. Bad posting is both annoying and endless.

Imagine how much better the internet would be if we posted things that were edifying, that were helpful, that actually mattered. Moreover, imagine how much better people we would be offline. We have to stop pretending that what happens online doesn't affect who we are in the real world. We have to stop filling the internet with rubbish and we have to stop being meme slaves. We have to stop this nyan cat culture.

Worlds Apart (the end of me numbering these posts as miraculous)

Administration: I have decided to stop numbering these posts and calling them miraculous for these three reasons: it's pretentious to continue doing so, my prose isn't all that miraculous, and laziness.

Post: Last lent I gave up coffee and made it my plea that God take my world apart. I made a reference to the Jars of Clay song 'Worlds Apart'. Since then my life has undergone changes, as lives do when left so long. This summer my God made it very clear that this year he was going to do some amazing things this year in both my life and the lives of people I go to school with. I fully expected to be taken out of my comfort zone, to see people's lives changed, and to have my world taken apart. However, these past few weeks I have truly seen what having your world taken apart means. I am unbelievably far out of my comfort zone.  I am in a state of brokenness, but with the joyful anticipation of being rebuilt by God. I truly anticipate that through this process amazing things can and will happen. I have no idea what those things will be, but surprises are fun and life without adventure is boring. 

Also, go listen to 'Worlds Apart'. It's a great song.

YWAM, Jon Mark, Dorothy, Kieran, Tents and Radical Servants (The miraculous thirtieth post)

I went to visit Jon Mark and Dorothy at the weekend. They are both working on the YWAM base in Harpenden. I took Kieran with me. Kieran incidentally isn't a name you get in America. Many the American on the base was struggling with it. 

Anyway, more on to the weekend. We arrived in Harpenden in the afternoon by train and were greeted by Jon Mark (he needs a haircut). We were then taken to the base and we put our stuff down and went and ate some fantastic bangers and mash. After food we helped Jon Mark tidy up some of the base that he is responsible for (he's staff now). After that, was the session (bare in mind that I may have mixed up the order of these events but, meh to that). The session contained some amazing worship and some fantastic speaking (seriously, this guy was as funny as Brian Raegan). The speaker spoke on Humility and radical servant-hood; it was rather fantastic. At the end of the meeting I saw Dorothy and an epic "OH MY GOSH I'VE NOT SEEN YOU IN AN AGE" moment ensued. Eventually after hanging out in one of the buildings Kieran and I headed to the Jon Mark's tent and fell asleep. The weekend involved a lot of catchup time and fellowship. Also, some time was spent drinking the Oval special mocha on base, which has both Irish cream and white chocolate in. I kind of wish Costa did the Oval special mocha. Kieran and I left on Sunday about midday. It was so good to spend time with Jon Mark and Dorothy for even just a weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent with them.

I'm now in Beeston, doing work experience in Nottingham University's department of Physics and Astronomy. I'm staying with my grandmother's friend's niece and nephew. They are a lovely family and it's actually really nice staying with them. The bike ride too and from the university is slightly less pleasant, but at least I'm getting exercise. I'm far too busy these days. At least I have a week off next week to just hang out with people. 

Nottingham University (The miraculous twenty ninth post)

I spend a lot of time at Nottingham University for some reason. I'm going there for work experience, for a week, soon. Today I went to one of their open days. Might I note that they have a beautiful campus. I have noted that Nottingham is the benchmark for campus based Universities; what a campus it is. They have a lake, massive swathes of green area, beautiful trees everywhere. I cannot express how pretty the campus is very easily without cliché and hyperbole. Instead I will not attempt to describe the campus further than I already have.
I attended several lectures today. The first was a nano science lecture delivered by Professor Moriarty (yes there were Arthur Conan Doyle references made), who is a very charismatic speaker. This is the second time I have heard him lecture, and I may be considering Nottingham purely based on the fact that he might be delivering my physics lectures. Another good lecture I attended was on gravitational lensing, and the mapping of dark matter. The speaker, Dr Grey, was also very good. While not quite as good as Professor Moriarty, she was still engaging, as was her subject (though I think Grandma fell asleep durning the lecture). The physics practical demonstrations mostly involved fourth year students messing around with liquid nitrogen. It was a good opportunity to interact with Nottingham students first hand, and to gain insight into university life right from the source.

A good day was had by all.

Tropical Storms (The miraculous twenty eighth post)

Well, I've been in England for over a year. While I wouldn't say that I've completely settled in, as one does not ever "completely settle in" after growing up over seas. However, I believe I'm used to many aspects of life over here, that I wasn't accustomed to when I first arrived. For example, I now am used to the weird changes of weather. Or at least I thought I was, until today. Today was unnatural warm and humid for the UK. Then, about midday the tropical storm started. It wasn't exactly a full blown tropical storm, but it was near enough that the locals panicked and several schools sent their student's home. My school bit the bullet and carried on with lessons. I am fairly sure our school will carry on with lessons during the Nuclear Holocaust. The weather has carried on being tropical all day. Allegedly there was a small twister that we were on the edge of as well. This weather has caught me out a little. In the same way, while I am used to living here, some days I am still caught out by bits of culture I don't understand.

Unruly Youths Outdoors (The miraculous twenty seventh post)

Hello readers, I appreciate that this space has been rather quiet of late. That is because I have been sitting exams. Now that I have finished bleeding from my academic pores, I feel that it is high time I began to blog again.
Yesterday, I spent all day in Ashby with some rather entertaining folk. We met up outside of Costa, after I was half an hour late. After many complaints about my inability to show up anywhere on time we headed to the Bathgrounds with promise of cake and merriment. After laying the picnic blankets out, the cake was sliced and, as Tom Wilkinson and I had brought guitars, there was much jamming. As it began to rain a decision was made to move to a more sheltered area. So, we relocated to a more sheltered area and the merriment once again commenced. It must be mentioned that Tom Wilkinson and Harry Turner commenced several matches of Yugioh. Beth Adams ended up having too much Dr. Pepper and Coke which was entertaining for the rest of us. Nothing is more entertaining than a hyperactive ginger. However, while this little shin dig was rather enjoyable, there was an element of sadness as this was really Richard's last official day with us (sadface). We will very much miss you Richard. As a side-note I shall probably do my next Friends series post about Richard. At about 3pm the vast majority of people had to catch a bus. Charlie and I went to Harry's house to play some Dragonball. I lost very badly to both Charlie and Harry. We met Harry's brother. I shall say nothing on the subject of Harry's brother other than that he is completely different to Harry. I had a fantastic day with some very good friends, and I believe there shall be more days spent with friends to come as I have another week of study leave left to fill.

Parties, Champaign and Bouncy Castles (The miraculous twenty sixth post)

Fun times and stuffs has been a touch quiet as of late. For this I apologize. I am heading into a rather hectic exam period, so I would appreciate patience as I will not be blogging much.

However, as a little light relief I shall tell you about my weekend, which, incidentally, was filled with a little light relief. Friday evening involved the usual trip to my friends house to lose at various board and card games. This was a lot of fun and a rather amusing way to end a long week at school. I inevitably lost all my mobsters in a good game of Family Business (goodness I can't say that without putting on a bad Brooklyn accent). Friday was a success, but Saturday was even more of a success.

Saturday began with a rather late wakeup. After a rather leisurely morning spent making coffee then drinking said coffee, my friend Charlie arrived at my house. After a bowl of noodles from Indonesia (funtimes) it was time to go to my friend Beth's birthday party. Might I add at this point that Charlie is now hooked on the afore mentioned noodles and is probably buying several packets as we speak. Beth's party was rather fun. Nothing beats a good barbecue. The bouncy castle was a constant source of entertainment. I lost count of the times that I was tackled into it and then pinned under a pile of sweaty adolescent bodies. The party ended as it should, with the blowing out of candle, the cutting of the cake, and a glass of champaign (or bubbly as it was referred to by Beth's mother). 

Charlie and I returned to my house to get some revision done. It came as a shock when we actually did some revision. However, after a point (that point being at about 10pm) we opted for eating pizza and watching funny internet videos. Sunday was typical, so I will not bore you with the details. However, in one respect it did differ from my usual Sunday in that I spoke to my friend Alex via Facebook chat for a good seven hours.

Monday was fantastic as it was a bank holiday. Monday was lovely as Alex came round  to do some revision. After a lovely lunch and some Kool-Aid we got stuck into a physics past paper. Upon breathing the sweet sigh of relief that is associated with the completion of physics papers we decided it was time to watch something entertaining, to eat cookies, and to drink yet more Kool-Aid. After experience the joys of a relaxing afternoon drinking Kool-Aid, eating cookies, and spending time with a friend it was time to say goodbye to Alex; in a metaphorical sense it was also time to say goodbye to a rather delicious weekend.

Friends 3: Josh Carr (The miraculous twenty fifth post)

Well he did ask, so it really is his turn. Josh is, without a doubt, my number one go to source of information on video games and the internet. I can ask him most things and he will either know, or find out rather quickly for me. Providing snippets of important information, Josh saves me the time I would have to spend trawling the internet to find the same information. Josh likes some funny music though. The kind of music I wouldn't really call music. So, we have some disagreements when it comes to music. We also disagree on the pronunciation of Deadmau5 (let's be honest it's obviously pronounced dead mau five). Josh is quieter than many of my friends, but quiet people are pretty cool and, as I have frequently been informed it's the quiet ones you have to watch out for. Despite not really enjoying the type of music Josh listens to, I must admit that I admire his knowledge of it. He also, I believe, is a musician himself, and a good one if I am correct. I am determined not to end this blog post having said the main reason I like Josh is because he's my friend, as I realize that could get repetitive. So, the reason I like Josh is that if you fiddle with the little hair he has, or even look at it funny, his immediate reaction is to go to fix it as if life on earth depended on the neutral state of his hair.

Extreme Durham (The miraculous twenty fourth post)

Well, I have returned and the holiday is nearly over. I went to Durham this holiday. I used to live near Durham and this week made me wonder why I never visited it. It is a gem in the relatively deprived North East. It was full of beautiful old buildings and a fantastic Cathedral. I am definitely going to have to apply to Durham University. I was in Durham because I was working on a physics residential for GCSE students, and being payed apparently. My food and board was also payed for, as were my travel expenses. It was fantastic to see the students engage with physics.
I am not exaggerating when I say that it was an exhausting experience, however it was very rewarding. There was some good cool down time in the evening. Also, George and I must have done alright as we were asked to return.
All in all it was good to make new friend, and to see Durham. I am already planning another trip to relax in Durham, rather than to work.

Friends 2: Charlie Makemson (The miraculous twenty third post)

I'm sorry that this post took so long to arrive; I have been busy. Here is the second instalment in the Friends series.

Charlie Makemson is a relatively new addition to the list of people I call really good friends. He's also one of those people that made me think to myself "Why did I not get to know you sooner!" He listens to some really cool bands, reads some really cool books, and also can come up with some rather quick fire comments that leave those around him in stitches. There is a lot I could say about Charlie, but one thing about him that I feel really stands out is his willingness to get to know someone he doesn't know very well. This caught my attention as I am not very good at this; I'm very glad he is good at this, or we would not be the solid friends we are today with our signature high five! I'd also like to point out that Charlie cares about his friends and is willing to put up with a lot to spend time to really listen to them. I know that he has had to put up with me and my late night intense conversation on several occasions. Charlie is also very honest! He's not afraid to tell you things bluntly for your own good. While he is sensitive when needs must, when you need to know something he doesn't beat around the bush. I genuinely appreciate this about Charlie as I have had some sound, honest advice from him on many an occasion. I'm still wondering why I haven't managed to hang out at Charlie's house as we live so close together. It was a very cool moment when we realized how close together we live; there was epic high fiveing! The one think that I like most about Charlie is that he makes me laugh... every day. Every single day he does something, or says something that makes me laugh. Thank You Charlie!

Birmingham: Team Los Campesinos! (The miraculous twenty second post)

On Saturday I went to a Los Campesinos! gig in Birmingham with my friend Dominic and cousin (ish) Sarah (funtimes). It was fantastic. I ended up with a vinyl of one of their albums, and a band T-shirt. I shall now recount the epic (or not so epic) tale of musical adventuring.
On Saturday morning I woke up at seven. "Seven O'clock on a Saturday! Really?" I hear you cry, but I did wake up at seven on Saturday. Sarah arrived at 8:30am and we proceeded to get very excited for the day to come. Dominic arrived on time at 9:45 with his mother to pick us up and take us to the train station. There was a rather awkward moment when Sarah thought a man in the street packing his car was Dominic's father, and she attempted to put her bags in the back of his car. However, we soon pulled her away from the scene of the disaster, got into the correct car, and drove to Tamworth train station. After arriving in Birmingham and walking the short distance to the bullring shopping centre we were astounded by the enormity of Birmingham. The shopping centre was massive, and had every shop imaginable. Us small town country kids felt a little out of our depth in the big city. So we walked to the frozen yoghurt stand, bought some froghurt and found our bearings. After shopping for a while, talking to a hobo, and looking for somewhere to eat we decided it was a rather warm day; the glass that the shopping centre's roof mainly consisted of was also having a greenhouse effect on the rest of the building. So, we decided to explore Birmingham a little, and we ended up looking in some more interesting shops. We headed back to the Bullring for some tea at Pizza hut (free refill drinks and free salad bar? yes please!) . Sarah, Dom, and I then set off for the concert. We found the Rainbow Warehouse where the concert was being held thanks to Sarah's map (thanks Sarah)! The concert was opened by a band called Tall Ships, who were rather good. Then Los Campesinos! came on and we were right at the front, touching the stage, a meter from the band! If you've never heard anything by Los Campesinos! then the video at the bottom is one of their better songs. We had to leave a touch early to catch the train, however we only missed two of their songs! Eventually, after a train ride filled with drunken Brummys (not a pleasant sight or sound) who were only one pub in, we made it back to Tamworth and then back to Dominic's house where we crashed until morning. A good time was had by all!