This believe it or not is a true news story from Reuters, how embarassing - Irish police have
solved the mystery of a Polish recidivist who clocked up 50 traffic offenses on different addresses and who was never caught, after one officer noticed his name meant driving license in Polish.
An internal police memo cited by Irish papers Thursday said officers taking details of Polish traffic offenders had been mistakenly using "Prawo Jazdy," printed in the top right corner of the driving license, as the holder's name.
"Prawo Jazdy is actually the Polish for driving license and not the first and surname on the license," the police memo dated June 2007 said. "It is quite embarrassing to see the system has created Prawo Jazdy as a person with over 50 identities."
A police spokesman declined to comment on the reports.
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Let there be light
The joy of having a Blackberry is the endless information that can be yours at the touch of a button, and forget even having to go to the bother of opening up a web page anymore as the joy of the RSS feed is upon us. (Reading that last sentence has made me realise that I really, well and truly, am a geek, although let me continue) With the acquisition of my new Blackberry, I downloaded myself an RSS reader and it really is quite addictive, this sounds like proper rock and roll, addicted to information, it starts of with maybe a bit of BBC news, BBC sports news and the weather, but before I knew it, it was Recipe of the day, dictionary.com’s word of the day and quotes of the day which were gaining my undivided attention. But in amidst my RSS dependence comes this, which really was quite interesting and made me think.
“In the beginning there was nothing. God said, 'Let there be light!' And there was light. There was still nothing, but you could see it a whole lot better.”
The quote was made by an American talk show host/comedian but when I thought about it, it just made me realise that although in my humanity I may not understand much of who God is or why he does what he does, which in many ways adds to the mystery and beauty of my faith, God is a God of logic, and does things that make sense. As we read in Genesis chapter 1 after God created the heavens and the earth, God did make light, which surely helped with the making of everything that was to come. The truth is, God in his divine nature would have been able to make everything in the dark, but chose not to, which just gave me this lovely glimpse of order being part of the way God does things. Reaffirming my belief that things don’t just happen by chance, they happen because God planned them to happen that way.
“In the beginning there was nothing. God said, 'Let there be light!' And there was light. There was still nothing, but you could see it a whole lot better.”
The quote was made by an American talk show host/comedian but when I thought about it, it just made me realise that although in my humanity I may not understand much of who God is or why he does what he does, which in many ways adds to the mystery and beauty of my faith, God is a God of logic, and does things that make sense. As we read in Genesis chapter 1 after God created the heavens and the earth, God did make light, which surely helped with the making of everything that was to come. The truth is, God in his divine nature would have been able to make everything in the dark, but chose not to, which just gave me this lovely glimpse of order being part of the way God does things. Reaffirming my belief that things don’t just happen by chance, they happen because God planned them to happen that way.
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
How ironic
Become like me, as you were once like me, but then you became like I once was, so now you need to sort yourself out or alternatively - Galatians 4:8-21.
There are no surprises to see that Paul’s concern for the Galatians in verses 8:21, primarily regards rescuing them from the Judaizers false gospel. It seems to dominate this passage, as it does the rest of his letter. I love the irony in that Paul became like a Gentile in his pursuit to win the Galatians over, but the Christians in
On a practical note for some consideration, Paul urges the Galatians to regain some of their lost joy, as they seem to have mislaid it somewhere while trying to carry out their legalistic rituals and not keeping the main thing the main thing. This made me think about two things a) how free in Christ am I? b) Does my relationship with Jesus generate joy or have I lost it, or did I ever have it in the first place?
So what is this freedom in Christ/from the law all about? According to John Piper freedom from the law does not result in self-gloryfing lawlessness, he goes on to explain that becoming like Paul, and being free in Christ therefore free from the law means that we must allow Christ to be formed in us! Earlier in the letter (2:20) Paul gives us a big clue on how to ‘get some’ of this freedom, he writes, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Dying to self and allowing Christ to live in us is pretty difficult. I depend on myself quite a lot and I feel we all have a little in-built desire regarding our own self importance. Allowing Christ to be formed in us means that we have to rely completely on him, proper Christ shaping only comes with us genuinely abandoning ourselves to him.
Now I must go and have a ponder at the joy that my relationship with Jesus should bring me……….
Thursday, 13 November 2008
The importance of the Spirit
Something tells me the apostle Paul is somewhat annoyed. We can tell that he felt strongly about the issue at hand due to his willingness to first personally then publicly attack Peter and his thoughts and actions regarding justification, let’s not forget this guy has previously walked on water with Jesus….
So after publicly rapping Peter on the knuckles in Galatians ch2, Paul sharply turns his attention back towards the recipients of his letter “the foolish Galatians” (Paul’s words not mine) in chapter 3.
So much of chapter 3 is parcelled up by teaching regarding Jewish law and its role in our reconciliation with God. Paul is explicit in his argument that justification comes through faith and faith alone. I find it very interesting that in pointing back to the Old Testament in defence of his argument, Paul recalls that it is Abram’s act of belief in God rather than any participation in Jewish law which brings about his righteousness in the eyes of the Lord (Genesis 15v6). I think we can safely say Paul is teaching us that if we want to enter into a right relationship with God and receive the promise of Spirit we do it by having faith in Jesus Christ.
What really interests me, other than the obvious, being - the assurance of my salvation through believing in Jesus Christ, is God’s ‘promise of the Spirit’ to all who believe. What is the promise of the Spirit and what exactly does it involve. Is it more than an impartation from God, where all we have to do is sit back and say “ok now it’s over to you”.
I think our job is much bigger than this. Paul explains in verse 23 that one of the main reasons for the law (before the arrival of Jesus) was to lead those who followed it to the promised Messiah. On the flip side then, one of the main reasons for God promising the Spirit must surely be to help in our process of becoming more like Christ, therefore leading us to a greater understanding of the character of Jesus and how we apply this to the way we live.
For the devout Jew, the law was their life, which gets me thinking that in the new covenant, the promise of the Spirit and how we interact with the Spirit must be an incredibly large part of our lives, or in fact maybe it is to be what God wishes we devote our entire lives to.
For me, now, i think i am going to go and have a litle look at my daily inter-action with the Spirit, i think i need to pay this area a little more attention. Ill let you know how i get on.
So after publicly rapping Peter on the knuckles in Galatians ch2, Paul sharply turns his attention back towards the recipients of his letter “the foolish Galatians” (Paul’s words not mine) in chapter 3.
So much of chapter 3 is parcelled up by teaching regarding Jewish law and its role in our reconciliation with God. Paul is explicit in his argument that justification comes through faith and faith alone. I find it very interesting that in pointing back to the Old Testament in defence of his argument, Paul recalls that it is Abram’s act of belief in God rather than any participation in Jewish law which brings about his righteousness in the eyes of the Lord (Genesis 15v6). I think we can safely say Paul is teaching us that if we want to enter into a right relationship with God and receive the promise of Spirit we do it by having faith in Jesus Christ.
What really interests me, other than the obvious, being - the assurance of my salvation through believing in Jesus Christ, is God’s ‘promise of the Spirit’ to all who believe. What is the promise of the Spirit and what exactly does it involve. Is it more than an impartation from God, where all we have to do is sit back and say “ok now it’s over to you”.
I think our job is much bigger than this. Paul explains in verse 23 that one of the main reasons for the law (before the arrival of Jesus) was to lead those who followed it to the promised Messiah. On the flip side then, one of the main reasons for God promising the Spirit must surely be to help in our process of becoming more like Christ, therefore leading us to a greater understanding of the character of Jesus and how we apply this to the way we live.
For the devout Jew, the law was their life, which gets me thinking that in the new covenant, the promise of the Spirit and how we interact with the Spirit must be an incredibly large part of our lives, or in fact maybe it is to be what God wishes we devote our entire lives to.
For me, now, i think i am going to go and have a litle look at my daily inter-action with the Spirit, i think i need to pay this area a little more attention. Ill let you know how i get on.
Monday, 27 October 2008
In spirit and truth or genre and tempo
So after the rant in my last entry, I feel that I have had lots of time to mull over what it was that I was ranting about and properly consider just how important my ranting was.
Honestly, probably not that important at all, in-fact possibly a little childish. Each human being has been uniquely created and therefore we are very diverse, with many different things that will float our boats.
Recently I was given the Kings of Leon’s new album ‘Only by the night’ as a birthday prize, and its great. I must say in the beginning I did have a little dilemma with an album that contained a hit single called ‘sex on fire’, but having got over that hurdle the album is musically fantastic. Something tells me though that most Chopin and Tchaikovsky lovers will probably disagree with me on that point, and most likely hate the kings to the core. What is quite interesting is that there is probably Chopin lovers and Kings of Leon lovers alike in many of our churches today. So how then are we meant to come to a compromise regarding the style of music we use in our corporate praise as a congregation, so that we are sympathetic to everyone’s likes and dislikes?
The answer is quite simply this; we don’t compromise in order to keep everyone happy. We can’t compromise to keep everyone happy because quite simply it’s not about us! In critiquing the liturgical model of his national church and indeed many other churches Soren Kierkegaard argued that God is the audience in worship. Fuzz Kitto (http://www.spirited.net.au/) explicates Kirkegaard by saying that the congregation are the performers in worship.
We are not the audience, and worship does not happen for our entertainment. Worship is for God alone!
So is suppose the big question is does God prefer the Kings of Leon or Chopin? Something tells me though there may be bigger issues on God’s agenda, things such as the state of the hearts of his people and the sincerity of their praise! Maybe if we spent more time getting these things right then we could move on to things that are a little less important in due course.
Honestly, probably not that important at all, in-fact possibly a little childish. Each human being has been uniquely created and therefore we are very diverse, with many different things that will float our boats.
Recently I was given the Kings of Leon’s new album ‘Only by the night’ as a birthday prize, and its great. I must say in the beginning I did have a little dilemma with an album that contained a hit single called ‘sex on fire’, but having got over that hurdle the album is musically fantastic. Something tells me though that most Chopin and Tchaikovsky lovers will probably disagree with me on that point, and most likely hate the kings to the core. What is quite interesting is that there is probably Chopin lovers and Kings of Leon lovers alike in many of our churches today. So how then are we meant to come to a compromise regarding the style of music we use in our corporate praise as a congregation, so that we are sympathetic to everyone’s likes and dislikes?
The answer is quite simply this; we don’t compromise in order to keep everyone happy. We can’t compromise to keep everyone happy because quite simply it’s not about us! In critiquing the liturgical model of his national church and indeed many other churches Soren Kierkegaard argued that God is the audience in worship. Fuzz Kitto (http://www.spirited.net.au/) explicates Kirkegaard by saying that the congregation are the performers in worship.
We are not the audience, and worship does not happen for our entertainment. Worship is for God alone!
So is suppose the big question is does God prefer the Kings of Leon or Chopin? Something tells me though there may be bigger issues on God’s agenda, things such as the state of the hearts of his people and the sincerity of their praise! Maybe if we spent more time getting these things right then we could move on to things that are a little less important in due course.
Wednesday, 24 September 2008
All things bright and beautiful; all instruments great and small - What’s the bible got to do with it?
It really winds me up that some people think certain musical instruments shouldn’t be used in congregational Christian worship today. I could probably cope with constructive criticism and direction from those that attended churches with praise bands made up of harps, flutes and lyres, but in reality there are not too many of said congregations about today.
Don’t get me wrong, this is not an attack on the organ, I really don’t mind the organ, in-fact I have the pleasure of working with, and listening to one of Glasgow’s finest every Sunday morning, but yet I do not think it is the overarching definitive answer to all our needs concerning ecclesiological accompaniment, in the same vain I don’t really think there is any one particular instrument which could hold such esteem.
Some though would have you believe that the group of prophets in 1 Samuel 10:5 were descending from on high with a stringed instrument, a tambourine, a flute, a harp and a mighty large church organ as well, but as we read that is not the case. The prophet Isaiah when writing about the night when a Holy festival is kept tells us that gladness of heart may actually be associated with the flute, don’t think these are my words just because I’m Northern Irish, have a read at Isaiah 30 and see what you make of it.
So what guidance does the bible give regarding the instruments we should use when meeting to worship God. My personal opinion, if you asked me right now to answer such a question would be that I don’t think there is any such definitive list. I would believe that more emphasis should be placed on our spiritual condition when we come to glorify God, and the attitude that we have during our worship, rather than the instruments that are present. I will however attempt to give this a little bit of attention over the next few days and see what the bible tells me. Anyone reading this, if you have any thoughts, and want to drop me an email at beattietim@hotmail.com or leave me a comment on here, I would be very interested in your opinion.
Thursday, 18 September 2008
7:36
The truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
7:36 . Galatians 1 . 23/08/09
So what does the film 'a few good men' have to do with the first chapter of the book of Galatians. This film deals with a group of US Marine attorneys trying to uncover the real reason behind why a code red (this is when a soldier who fails to keep up to standard is "trained" (or rather bullied) by other members of his unit until he is up to it, the correct terminology is called hazing) was ordered on a particular soldier, who died because of his attack. Tom Cruise (in the scene we are using on tuesday night) wants the truth and pushes Jack Nicholson, the high ranking officer, until he eventually gives in and the truth is uncovered.
Galatians chapter 1, indeed the whole book is also directly linked to important truth finding (of a slightly different sort I might add, but truth fighting nevertheless). The truth Paul is concerned with uncovering is the truth regarding the Gospel. A gospel which Paul firmly believes is directly from God, the story of Jesus which brings freedom to all who trust in him.
The new Christians in Galatia where facing a dilemma. They were struggling to understand who was telling them the truth about God? Paul, who had introduced them to the Gospel of Christ, had said that faith in Jesus was the basis for their relationship with God. But he had no sooner left town than and a group within the new church started teaching that faith in Jesus had to be accompanied by circumcision in order for God to accept their worship.
Who was right? Who should the church believe?
7:36 . Galatians 1 . 23/08/09
So what does the film 'a few good men' have to do with the first chapter of the book of Galatians. This film deals with a group of US Marine attorneys trying to uncover the real reason behind why a code red (this is when a soldier who fails to keep up to standard is "trained" (or rather bullied) by other members of his unit until he is up to it, the correct terminology is called hazing) was ordered on a particular soldier, who died because of his attack. Tom Cruise (in the scene we are using on tuesday night) wants the truth and pushes Jack Nicholson, the high ranking officer, until he eventually gives in and the truth is uncovered.
Galatians chapter 1, indeed the whole book is also directly linked to important truth finding (of a slightly different sort I might add, but truth fighting nevertheless). The truth Paul is concerned with uncovering is the truth regarding the Gospel. A gospel which Paul firmly believes is directly from God, the story of Jesus which brings freedom to all who trust in him.
The new Christians in Galatia where facing a dilemma. They were struggling to understand who was telling them the truth about God? Paul, who had introduced them to the Gospel of Christ, had said that faith in Jesus was the basis for their relationship with God. But he had no sooner left town than and a group within the new church started teaching that faith in Jesus had to be accompanied by circumcision in order for God to accept their worship.
Who was right? Who should the church believe?
This Tuesday night (23rd) we will be taking the first chapter of Galatians apart trying to understand more about what this gospel Paul is talking about is, and what it should mean to us. Feel free to come along every other Tuesday evening (we meet every fortnight) at 7:36pm.
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