God loves an Atheist

Hello again,
                 I can't deny that life as a Christian is pretty full on, study, worship and prayer take up quite a large part of my daily and weekly life, I can't begin to explain the hours and hours I spend contemplating my faith and future life as a Priest in the Church of England. One of the many of the things I have learnt over the last few years is how people respond to my vocation. I would describe it as a calling from God, as would many faithful Christians however I am sure some people may accuse me of  just wanting to add another extreme to my adventurous trawl through life. Many people think it quite incredible that I get through the first 37 years of my life, displaying no real hunger or desire for faith, and then suddenly find the love of Jesus and become nothing short of a religious nut case to the point of following the path to wearing a long black dress and rather large crucifix. Others, namely atheists have very eloquently described it as 'A load of bollocks' and enjoyed greatly taking the mickey out of me and ridiculing my belief offering up nothing short of insults and generally being offensive.

This is not always the case, occasionally someone wants to actually get into a debate, about the existence of God, and do so in a respectful and thoughtful way. I try and engage likewise.

But this is not really a blog about criticizing atheists or debating the matter, more a blog of following the teaching of Jesus, when he said, 'Love thy neighbour as thyself, there is no other commandment greater than this'. However  it is rather difficult to love someone that is so strongly against the thing that you believe in the most.

I also very much see why Atheists are Atheists.  Matters such as, was the world  made in seven days? Noah and his Arc and all them animals, The Virgin Birth and people living to long and rather unbelievable ages, and so on. I understand all that, but through learning and understanding I realize these matters are not as simple as Atheists would like to make them. Okay some honest questions, Do I believe the world was made in seven days?  Answer No !
Does that make me an Atheist?
 Answer No !
Do I believe Jesus was the Son of God?
Answer, Yes!
Does that make me a Christian?
Answer No!

I quite like the irony of the above advertisement, but more importantly, I find the Atheist argument that it's all scientific, one of the most profound reinforcements of my Faith. So we have existed for thousands and thousands of years, And our world has developed scientifically beyond all imagination, and still the the proof of how we came to be does not exist just as Atheists would argue the proof of God also has not been proved and therefore doesn't exist.

But I build my faith on experience, understanding, reading, and watching the world.
I understand that The Bible warns of persecution, I read the the deep, dry, denseness of the Bible and I am confused, I read the stories of miracles and I believe, Do Atheists not believe in miracles?
 I understand the teaching of Jesus, and I believe it, the value of love, the importance of morality, to try and do good things, although I fail frequently, but also to understand that when I do fail, It's okay.
By observing failed relationships, infidelity, children not experiencing the love of a parent, drug abuse, racism, debt, greed, materialism, cruelness of tongue, jealousy, anger to name just a few reminds of the alternate pathway to following Christianity.

I,m not saying Atheists are all these above, and I am not saying all Christians aren't all the above, but the following Jesus as the way and the truth, helps me more than I can ever express in one of my blogs.
The most powerful conversion of  St Paul is also an event that sustains me and keeps hopeful. Paul refuted Christ he simply did not believe, and then on the road to Damascus he converted he became a follower of Jesus and went on to be the most significant of all the early Christians. And his conversion convinces me that any single person who wants to find the love of Jesus Christ can. He will forgive you for all your sins, no matter how minor or significant that may be.

I do believe God loves Atheists, I am trying to love Atheists and if Jesus is for losers, than I am a loser !

May God kindle in us the fire of love.

                                                                  Alextheanglican.

The Fat Robin....

Hello to one and all,

                               I don't really remember as a child having quite the same zest for nature as I have acquired over the last ten years or so, My first recollection of the garden really only came when I buried my cheap leather football that was probably hand woven by a dreadfully underpaid worker in somewhere like Indonesia or Thailand, through the bottom right hand corner window pane of my parents treasured  and blossoming green house, which I recall made me slump to my knees in utter despair only to quickly  rise again and to run has far away from the crime scene as physically possible. 
I recall making with an old friend potions in his garage that we planned to force feed to his sisters and teachers who offended us for the most pathetic reasons imaginable, we gathered, leaves, slugs, dog poo, yes dog poo from his garden, and somehow poked into one of those 'pop' bottles that had a returnable value to the shopkeeper down the road! We would add to the ingredients pretty much anything we could find in his Dad's garage, so white spirit, out of date paint, nails, screws,petrol, wood stain and pretty much anything else we could find that would bring a long slow and painful death to his beloved sisters. Part of of plan was to let it mature like a single malt whiskey and so somehow that was always our get out clause for never carrying through our infantile plan for homicide!


My next recollection of nature was at the age of about ten. A trip to Whalley scout camp, with a large number of boys I didn't like and my first trip away from 'Mummy' and 'Daddy'. It was not a trip that holds too many happy memories. I knew a hike was planned the following morning and I was anxious about the large gaping hole in my Wellington boots that my parents had deviously chosen to do nothing about. That evening was one of sharing a tent with 5 or 6 flatulent boys, taking nonsense and occasionally flashing their genitals to our 'rival' campers in some sort of tribal war dance. It was only a matter of time before we were reprimanded for our bad behavior and I was humiliated the following evening by leading the camp in a rendition of Ging Gang Gooley Gooler Watcher! But before  the singing the hike was upon us and everybody was excited about wading through rivers, going up dale and down yonder, except for me of course. I broke down in tears as the prospect of a flooded wellie and a wet sock,  it was too much for my to contemplate and so was sent with an overweight boy, to go and do some modelling with marzipan, with a lady who we had to address as Auntie! I recall making dozens of fruit models and gorging with the 'fat kid' on marzipan until I 'oiked' all over Auntie who was surprisingly supportive.

I don't recall science or nature at all at primary school,  the best I can muster is playing marbles in the drains, playing roly poly on the hill and being convinced dandelions made me incontinent!

I recall a school trip to Malham, It rained and I didn't like it. My parents idea of exploring nature was to go for 'a run' in the car. They would find the most awful twisting country lanes, whilst my parents puffed on tobacco, with the windows up that made me feel sicker than a boy stuffing his face on marzipan, I would be absolutely at the point of spewing all over the vinyl seats in my Father's metallic blue, Austin Marina, when we we found a gap in the road where we would sit on unstable deckchairs whilst my mother deposited horse manure in the boot of the car that would 'Be wonderful for her roses'. We would stay much longer than necessary whilst my Dad had a kip, before we would eventually set off home finding the longest route possible. The only treat of the day would be to find a village store, that sold square ice creams!

Not wanting to trawl through every outdoor experience I shall move on, and slowly but surely as I go older I started to enjoy being outside more and more. It probably started with a trip to Mull on the West coast of Scotland, watching wild seals, deer, red squirrels really caught the imagination and on returning home, decided I needed to get out more and so I decided to get a dog. I named him Fletcher after Andy Fletcher from Depeche Mode!

More trips to Scotland followed and I promise you I have seen some of the most  stunning places  Britain has to offer, trust me we live on  a beautiful island!  In 2013 I took part in the three peaks challenge to raise funds for Teenage Cancer Trust, Along with some colleagues in just about 24 hours. we climbed Ben Nevis, Scarfell Pike and Mount Snowdon  It made me aware of what one could achieve with some hard work and dedication. It also made me think about the vastness of the space that we live in, how small are we in scheme of things?

Often people talk of mountains, and wide open space as being spiritual, and it is although I didn't experience it up some Britain's finest peaks. But I do love being out with my dog, Sometimes i feel like the pied piper as the crows follow me with my big bag of scraps as all food waste go straight to the hungry birds. I take great satisfaction that after me and the dog are on the return leg of our stroll, the scraps have all gone, and the Robin seems slightly fatter than the last time I saw it.
These day I go to Malham, it rains and I love it!
And among all that, I pray, I feel comfortable praying outside, alone, with the dog, the birds, with the occasional glimpse of the deer or a fox and most importantly with God. 

Doing what i,m doing, you will not be surprised that prayer has become an important part of daily life, Morning and Evening prayer is conducted in a very structured way and is lovely to know that you are praying alongside fellow Christians worshiping Jesus and giving thanks.
But individual private prayer among God's creation, alongside, the seasons, the lambs, the calves, the flowers, the rain, the wind, and the scenery is very cathartic and spiritual. Being disturbed by the occasional runner, isn't unbearable. I talk out loud, I think of the day ahead, or the day behind, I get things off my chest and pray for family and friends, colleagues and those I don't know. It is simply a space where I find time to be alone (pretty much) in thought and prayer with our savior Jesus Christ.

May I encourage you all to find time to be with God.
Be blessed, all of you.
Alextheanglican!  

alextheanglican: S.H.O.P.P.I.N.G that's Shopping

alextheanglican: S.H.O.P.P.I.N.G that's Shopping: Hello and Happy New Year. After spending a considerable length of time observing members of the human race spending their children's inhe...

S.H.O.P.P.I.N.G that's Shopping

Hello and Happy New Year.

After spending a considerable length of time observing members of the human race spending their children's inheritance on gifts and expensive luxuries  I can't really say I have noticed  an upturn in smiley faces and scenes of loving joy, but I have this year picked up on the apparent 100 mph society we now appear to live in. Take my own retail excursion through the month of December,

The Thursday before Christmas at about 7.40 am I found myself transfixed by the shelf fillers in my local Supermarket. I now accept that if one chooses to beat the rush and shop early in the morning you have to allow for the almost unbearable traffic of delivery cages, pallet trucks, gossiping staff and the in-store cleaner, guiding his Nu Nu around each isle ensuring your shopping experience is as uncomfortable as physically and mentally possible. However after all that I still  managed to find myself trapped in the grocery department between a elderly man paying great attention to the loose carrots and some burly warehouse lads unloading what appeared a life long supply of brussell sprouts. I found myself transfixed as they discussed the "vegetable industry" and built a 6ft x 6ft stack of green balls! "They will all be f***** gone by dinner", the confident greengrocer  conveyed to his less experienced colleague in a slightly less than professional manner.
Interesting, I thought to myself, all those sprouts gone by dinner!

I had been recommended by the power of advertising the local Aldi store, and so I ventured there earlier in the month to see what all the fuss was about. Well I certainly couldn't complain at the prices but once again, the early morning battle against metal and cardboard was particularly distressing and I found myself on more than one occasion considering abandoning my trolley and heading down the road to the upmarket retailer Lidl. If it wasn't for my desire not to lose my "trolley pound coin" I can assure you I would have beat a hasty retreat much sooner.
After finally completing my shopping and filling my trolley full of non branded food that looked very much like branded food, I headed for the till point and after I had let a a man in a rush through before me with a packet of bacon and an air freshener it was joyously my turn. In all my days I have never seen such precision engineering, I had barely put my fragile eggs and soft fresh loaf on the back of the conveyor and the friendly lady was up and running. In Sainsbury's I am usually allowed the time to gently pack my bags, with freezer stuff in one bag, tins in another etc  but my word, I couldn't believe the speed by which she shovelled my shopping into my basket, It looked like it had been picked up by a JCB digger and dropped from a great height, I was stunned into silence, I didn't know if I should applaud her speed of service or be appalled that my yoghurt pots had been so badly distorted there had gone from tubs to tubes!

And so I ventured into my home town of Burnley seeking inspiration for gifts for my dear wife, and after completing my fourth circuit of the precinct I realised that most of the shops had gone, I found myself walking around the 99p shop looking for absolutely nothing, I walked into WHSmith and walked to the newspaper stand, turned round and promptly walked back out only to  be marginally impressed that a stationers had now extended it's range to overpriced pix and mix! I wandered into to bargain card shop and bought my wife an expensive looking card for a price that should put the very expensive card shops to shame. I was most impressed that not only did I get a expensive looking card but I also got a very durable paper bag to put it in!
After losing the will, on my annual shopping trip to Burnley I took refuge in Boots and their extensive  3 for 2 range, where it took me probably a good forty to fifty minutes to find the best value for money package deal, I think I picked up scented coat hangers on more than one occasion only for wisdom to intervene! I spoke to a heavily perfumed woman in a Doctors outfit, who served me with my request for my wife's favourite smelly liquid. She spoke to me like I understood the value of spending over the odds on some odory water!

 And so to bring the curtain down on a busy month, we fought the biggest battle and went to The Trafford Centre to join the swarm of human beings spending bucket loads of cash on all the stuff the shops couldn't sell before Christmas, and after joining a queue that was only marginally shorter than the opening of a new ride at Alton Towers It didn't take long for the Trafford Centre adrenalin rush to grind to a staggering, painful, agonising  halt.
With a family all wanting to visit different shops it didn't take long for the novelty to wear off and when the kids was nagging for dinner at twenty past ten in the morning I concluded it was going to be a somewhat testing time of my life.
However a Nando's lunch did lift the spirits and after my dear wife and I gorged on a chicken combo, and unlimited spurts of fizzy ice I felt more like a lie down than taking on the next leg of the bustling thronging experience of Manchester's premium indoor shopping centre.

And amongst all this buzz and madness, all this giving and receiving, where did Jesus fit into all this?
Well he did, just about! I love my job, but retail and the Christian Christmas festivals are not a match made in heaven!
But among all the hustle and bustle, the carol concert, the school production, the Arden youth choir, the Christingle service, excited children, church on Christmas morning and a lovely day with my family I just about got it. As we settle into the new year and our resolutions fizzle out, and our credit cards creek, our thoughts turn to spring and summer holidays, I really see the importance of space and time for and each other.
As Jesus taught us, we must love one another and so we must be prepared to slow down the pace of life and  get things into perspective. If your worn out on the 1st of January 2013 where will you be on 31st December 2013? Please do all you can to find time for yourself and to enjoy the love of your friends and family.
In Christ with you all.
Alextheanglican