| 1 | The state of public toilets |
| 2 | The dearth of post boxes |
| 3 | The abundance of "calvaries": roadside crucifixes |
| 4 | Few evangelical churches |
| 5 | Shops shutting for 2 hours at lunch-time |
| 6 | Having to pay for medical treatment |
| 7 | Very public urinals |
| 8 | Inadequate direction signs on roads |
| 1 | Well-maintained, quiet roads |
| 2 | Lots of cycle tracks |
| 3 | Street markets selling local, seasonal produce |
| 4 | Good, inexpensive wine |
| 5 | Frequent (although basic) motorway stopping places |
| 6 | Supermarkets |
| 7 | Baguettes |
| 8 | Cheap(er) petrol |
| 9 | Free car parks at tourist attractions |
| 10 | Camp sites with individual, hedged pitches |
| 11 | The plethora of boulangeries |
| 12 | Patisseries (and their contents!) |
There are reports today that there was a small earthquake in Manchester this morning, measuring 2.2 on the Richter scale (2.2 ML).
This is not uncommon. The British Geological Survey—which operates a network of seismograph monitoring stations around the UK—says that it locates between 300 and 400 earthquakes per year above 1.5 ML. In a typical year, 40 events will have magnitudes greater than 2.0 ML and about 20 are felt by local residents.
This map, from the BGS, shows seismic activity in the Manchester area since 1777:
The BGS web site includes an interactive map that you can use to explore historical earthquake data.
Nature reports (The megaflood that made Britain an island) that a team from Imperial College London have found strong evidence at the bottom of the English Channel that a major flood separated the British Isles from continental Europe.
Their survey reveals several distinctive features typical of large-scale flood flows, the team reports in Nature today. The straight shape of the wide underwater valley, a floor grooved and gouged as if by flowing water and tumbling rock, and streamlined 'islands' of raised sea-floor between deeper channels ...
How glad I am that my eternal state does not depend on membership of some man-made organisation!
According to CBS News, Mr Joseph Ratzinger, aka Pope Benedict XVI, ...
... has reasserted the universal primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says Orthodox churches were defective and that other Christian denominations were not true churches. ...
"Christ 'established here on earth' only one Church," the document said. The other communities "cannot be called 'churches' in the proper sense" because they do not have apostolic succession — the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ's original apostles.
The Church is the "body of believers". It is comprised of those who have been saved and redeemed by the true and living God, based upon the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus upon the cross.Inclusion in the body of Christ is not by membership in a denomination, nor by baptism, nor or by dedication. It is not received by ritual, or by ceremony, or by natural birth. It is received by faith. Therefore since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, Romans 5:1; For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, Ephesians 2:8.
The invisible church is the church made up of true believers. The visible church consists of those who say they are Christian but may or may not be truly saved.
Being a member of a church on earth guarantees nothing. Being a member of the body of Christ guarantees salvation.
The true Christian church is comprised only of those who have been redeemed by Christ who died on the cross and rose again. They are justified by faith in Christ. They are not saved by false teachers, false gods, false gospels, by their works, or by their works combined with the grace of God.
They are saved by grace through faith and that through Jesus alone: Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved, Acts 4:12.
The only letter I ever want to address to 'average people' is one that says - I do not care whether you believe in Christianity or not, but I do resent your being so ignorant, lazy, and unintelligent. Why don't you take the trouble to find out what is Christianity and what isn't? Why, when you can bestir yourself to mug up technical terms about electricity, won't you do as much for theology before you begin to argue about it? ... You would be ashamed to know as little about internal combustion as you do about the Nicene Creed.
The number of abortions carried out in England and Wales has been steadily increasing from the moment it was legalised 40 years ago.
In 1968, the first year after abortion was legalised, just over 22,000 terminations were carried out. In 2006 the figure was a staggering 193,700. (Source: http://www.dh.gov.uk/)
The vast majority of abortions - almost 97% - are because of "injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman" - a broad category which covers almost every cause of an unwanted pregnancy.
And what does the BMA call for in response? To relax the rules even further and to make access to abortion even easier.
They should be ashamed of themselves.
From the London Metro, 21 June 2007. (Sorry about the poor image quality.)
It is becoming more and more apparent that so-called "junk DNA" is not junk after all.
Like so-called vestigial organs, some atheists have claimed that large portions of the human DNA is an evolutionary artefact that serves no present-day purpose.
According to a recent BBC News article, new research, part of the Encyclopaedia of DNA Elements (Encode) study, suggests "genes, so called junk DNA and other elements, together weave an intricate control network".
The researchers focussed on 1% of the human genome sequence, carrying out 80 different types of experiments that generated more than 600 million data points.
The surprising results, explained Tim Hubbard from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, "transform our view of the genome fabric".
Previously, genome activity was thought of in terms of the 22,000 genes that make proteins - the functional building blocks in our cells - along with patches of DNA that control, or regulate, the genes.
The other 97% or so of the genome was said to be made up of "junk" DNA - so called because it had no known biological function.
However, junk DNA may soon need a new moniker.
Dr Hubbard said: "We are now seeing the majority of the rest of the genome is active to some extent."
He explained that the study had found junk DNA was being transcribed, or copied, into RNA - an active molecule that relays information from DNA to the cellular machinery.
He added: This is a remarkable finding, since most prior research suggested only a fraction of the genome was transcribed."
In Excel 2003 VBA, you can use GetOpenFileName to display the standard Open dialog box. If you set the MultiSelect parameter to True it is supposed to return an array of file names from the user. It returns False if the dialog is cancelled.
One standard way of calling this function is along the following lines:
Here's the last set of books recommended by Luke Jenner. These encourage a closer walk with God and have been written to help Christians to follow the King of Books.
Now that I've listed the whole set, I must get round to reading them!
| Pilgrim’s Progress | John Bunyan | Various |
| Living the Christian Life | A N Martin | Banner of Truth |
| Holiness | Joel Beeke | Banner of Truth |
| Precious Remedies against Satan’s Devices | Thomas Brooks | Banner of Truth |
| The Bruised Reed | Richard Sibbes | Banner of Truth |
| The Pursuit of Holiness | Jerry Bridges | Authentic Lifestyle |
| Holiness | J C Ryle | Sovereign Grace |
| On Knowing Christ (sermons) | Jonathan Edwards | Banner of Truth |
| Romans (sermons - several volumes) | D M Lloyd-Jones | Banner of Truth |
| Ephesians (sermons – several volumes) | D M Lloyd-Jones | Banner of Truth |
| Studies in the Sermon on the Mount | D M Lloyd-Jones | IVP |
| Sermons of Robert Murray M'Cheyne | Robert Murray M'Cheyne | Banner of Truth |
| The Valley Of Vision (a collection of Puritan prayers) | Arthur Bennett | Banner of Truth |
| Praying Always | Frans Bakker | Banner of Truth |
| The Thought of God, | Maurice Roberts | Banner of Truth |
| The Christian’s High Calling | Maurice Roberts | Banner of Truth |
| The Shadow of the Cross | Walter J Chantry | Banner of Truth |
| Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul | Octavius Winslow | Banner of Truth |
| The Mystery of Providence | John Flavel | Banner of Truth |
| The Holy Spirit; His Person and Ministry | Edwin H Palmer | P & R Publishing |
Some thoughts about reading newspapers ...
God is sovereign. He is in control. Rulers are chosen and appointed by him (The authorities that exist have been established by God, Romans 13:1). All things are working for the good of his church (In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose, Romans 8:28). Even mundane matters are in God’s hand (I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me, Psalm 3:5; The LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore, Psalm 121:8). So what happens is not aimless, a random sequence of events. There is no need to be afraid.
Nevertheless we live in a fallen world. Man does not acknowledge God’s rule or his goodness. Don’t be surprised at the evil things that happen.
Pray for those in authority, that we may live in a peaceful and just society … so that the gospel will have every opportunity to do its good work. (See 1 Timothy 2:2.)
Give thanks in all circumstances, 1 Thessalonians 5:18.
... Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Matthew 6:25
Be discerning. Be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves (see Matthew 10:16). Many organisations have an agenda over and above reporting the basic facts. This may be explicit. More likely it is implicit, because of their owner or editor, or the people they employ. Separate fact from opinion. Test everything; hold on to the good, 1 Thessalonians 5:21
Don’t be idle or a busybody. Avoid gossip. Some “news” is useless. Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down, Proverbs 26:20. A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends, Proverbs 16:28
Paul Brown in the May edition of Grace Magazine draws attention to the Act of Union 300 years ago, commenting that the Union is probably under more strain now than it has ever been since its inception.
He points out that it was the gospel that united the nation, while also allowing for cultural divergences. He quotes Linda Colley: "It was their common investment in Protestantism that first allowed the English, Welsh and the Scots to become fused together, and to remain so, despite their many cultural divergences."
He concludes:
Ironically, the cultural divergence is much less today - by and large it is the same shops, the same music, the same TV programmes, the same secularism and consumerism, the same preoccupation with sex, money and pleasure.
Worldliness brings dissatisfaction and division.
Christ brings unity without uniformity
There are relatively few answers. In almost any profound question, the number of final possibilities is very few indeed. Here there are four:
(1) Once there was absolutely nothing and now there is something.
(2) Everything began with an impersonal something.
(3) Everything began with a personal something.
(4) There is and always has been a dualism.
For the first explanation to be true, nothing must really be nothing—totally nothing—neither mass nor motion nor energy nor personality. Think, for example, of a circle that contains everything there is; and there is nothing in the circle. Then remove the circle. That is the concept of absolute nothing. I know no one who has propounded the concept that all that now is has come out of such absolute nothing.
The fourth notion, of eternal dualism, has never stood under close analysis, for men naturally press on behind the dualism and its particulars towards a unity by which to comprehend the duality.
The impersonal beginning, the notion that everything began with an impersonal something, is the consensus of the modern Western world and of almost all Eastern thinking. Eventually, if we go back far enough, we come to an impersonal source. This view is embodied in the notion of the uniformity of natural causes in a closed system.
However an impersonal beginning raises two overwhelming problems which neither the East nor modern man has come anywhere near solving.
First, there is no real explanation of the fact that the external world not only exists but has a specific form. As I look at the Being which is the external universe, it is obviously not just a handful of pebbles thrown out there. What is there has form. If we assert an impersonal beginning then we have no explanation for this.
Second, and more important, if we begin with an impersonal universe, there is no explanation of personality. The assumption of an impersonal beginning can never adequately explain the personal beings we see around us; and when men try to explain man on the basis of an original impersonal, man soon disappears.
But the Judeo-Christian tradition begins with the opposite answer. And it is upon this that our whole Western culture has been built. The universe had a personal beginning—a personal beginning on the high order of the Trinity. That is, before “in the beginning” the personal was already there. Love and thought and communication existed prior to the creation of the heavens and the earth,
Something was there before creation. God was there; love and communication were there; and therefore, prior even to Genesis 1:1, love and communication are intrinsic to what always has been.
(Summarized from Genesis in Space and Time, by Francis Schaeffer.)
Here's another set of book recommendations - this time tracing the influence of the King of Books in people's lives and its effect on history - again provided by Luke Jenner. No other book has had such an impact on people and nations, because no other book can show us what we're really like - and show us the remedy.
| Sketches from Church History | S M Houghton | Banner of Truth |
| 2,000 Years of Christ’s Power (3 volumes so far) | N R Needham | Grace Publications |
| Among God’s Giants (Aspects of Puritan Christianity) | J I Packer | Kingsway |
| Five Pioneer Missionaries | Iain Murray | Banner of Truth |
| Christian Leaders of the 18th Century | J C Ryle | Banner of Truth |
| God’s Outlaw (Tyndale) | Brian Edwards | Evangelical Press |
| The Forgotten Spurgeon | Iain Murray | Banner of Truth |
| Through Gates of Splendour | Elisabeth Elliot | Authentic Lifestyle |
| Shadow of the Almighty | Elisabeth Elliot | Authentic Lifestyle |
| History of Princeton Seminary (2 volumes) | David Calhoun | Banner of Truth |
| The Life of John Murray | Iain Murray | Banner of Truth |
What is the next letter in this sequence?
O, T, T, F, F, S, ...
S
One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven. Easy really!
What does the King of Books say about ...? This set of books aim to provide Biblical answers to some issues of current concern to Christians and non-Christians alike. Thanks again to Luke Jenner for the initial list.
| World Views | Does God Believe in Atheists? | John Blanchard | Evangelical Press |
| Evangelism | Today’s Gospel: Authentic or Synthetic | Walter J Chantry | Banner of Truth |
| Evangelism | Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God | J I Packer | IVP |
| Guidance | Discovering God’s Will | Sinclair B Ferguson | Banner of Truth |
| Charismatic gifts | The Final Word | O Palmer Robertson | Banner of Truth |
| Charismatic gifts | Perspectives on Pentecost | Richard Gaffin | P & R Publishing |
| Apologetics | Apologetics to the Glory of God: An Introduction | John M Frame | P & R Publishing |
| Evolution | Darwin on Trial | Phillip E Johnson | IVP |
| Evolution | Objections Sustained: Subversive Essays on Evolution, Law and Culture | Phillip E Johnson | IVP |
| World Views | The Divine Challenge | John Byl | Banner of Truth |
| Charismatic gifts | The Charismatics and the Word of God: A Biblical and Historic Perspective on the Charismatic Movement | Victor Budgen | Evangelical Press |
