97%

Came across this amusing post whilst catching up on Bagga's blog today. (yes its been weeks since i've had the time to sit down and go through my blog roll...shocking!)

Baggas: "According to Oxford professor Richard Swinburne it is 97% certain that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead based on sheer logic and mathematics, not faith."

Now I do find that rather amusing, having studied maths at Ox, but I'm prepared to take a tongue in cheek look at it and not take it too seriously. I'm just glad that faith is based on who God is and not just what he has done for us.

If there's anything I've learning from my time in the "dreaming spires of Oxford", it has to be that Mathematics is an awesome tool that can be found in most if not all areas of life (e.g. science, nature) but without a Creator God, a God who created Mathematics, much of what it describes and defines would be meaningless. It takes the Creator God to turn it into something meaningful.

Btw. I love the cartoon on his post Very funny!!

London bombings...

Every one is talking about the London bombings right now. I've only had time to read/watch the bbc news and chat to a couple of friends. Its wierd for me being here in Hong Kong, 6000 miles from home, and to see and hear 2nd hand about what is going on.

Read the BBC post here to catch up...

I have quite a few friends who work in the city. I've only heard from a few of them so far, but it seems several had close misses.

• One friend who works in Canary Wharf usually goes through Liverpool Street station - one that was bombed. But on that day decided to go into work early to finish something off.
• A distant relative was travelling in London and stopped off in Charing Cross to have breakfast, if he hadn't done so, he would have been travelling on the affected tracks around the time of the bombs.
• [updated] Looks as if the sister of a lady I know from church is quite badly injured...praying.
  

Watch this space for updates as I hear from more people...

Celebration of Discipline: Simplicity

*Warning* This post is going to be slightly abstract and quite possibly confusing, because I'm rather tired right now!

This study is certainly getting deeper each chapter. The quote below from Foster's 6th chapter conveys a radical point of view.

The Spiritual Discipline of simplicity provides the ... perspective. Simplicity sets us free to receive the provision of God as a gift that is not ours to keep and can freely be shared with others.

If a gift is given to me, I'm supposed to keep it and enjoy it right? But with God, his gift is so great that actually I can't possibly keep it all to myself. Its such a big gift that simply by giving it away, I still get to keep it! There is enough to go round.

By simplicity, Foster means things such as:

• Not getting carried away with being important
• Getting rid of addictions
• Being generous rather than keeping
• Appreciate creation
• Don't oppress others, rather affirm them
• Seek the kingdom of God

Quite a heavy checklist if you look closely enough!

The central point for the Discipline of simplicity is to seek the kingdom of God and the righteousness of his kingdom first and then everything necessary will come into its proper order.

Ah ok, this is a much better principle to guide the checklist above. It makes it a bit easier to follow. If you keep this principle in mind, and focus on it, then I don't think you can go wrong with the Discipline of Simplicity somehow. Much easier said than done... good luck with it!

Celebration of Discipline: Study

He that to what he sees, adds observation, and to what he reads, reflection, is in the right road to knowledge, provided that in scrutinising the hearts of others, he neglects not his own. [Caleb Coulton]

For the 5th CoD chapter, Foster dives into the discipline of study. I love his opening quote [above] by Coulton. I think it pretty much sums up this chapter. As Foster says, "the mind is renewed by applying it to those things that will transform it"

Foster gives us four steps that he believes form the basis of study:

1. Repeitition - "Regularly channeling the mind in a specific direction"
   
2. Concentration - centering our attention on the subject in order to comprehend what we are studying
   
3. Comprehension - it is the knowledge of the truth that sets us free
   
4. Reflection - "defines the significance of what we are studying"
   

I often struggle to concentrate. There are times when I find music useful to concentrate - such as when I'm in the office and need to block out all other forms of distraction. But there are times when music gets in the way and I'm distracted e.g if reading or praying.

I think there is one more step I would add though - "regularity". It doesn't form the basis of study, but it does enables study to flourish. This is my biggest problem though. My life doesn't easily fit into a regular pattern, so its hard to make a regular slot for study. But I've certainly found it very rewarding when I have. There are some amazing gems in the 'old Bible if you dig down under the surface. (understatement of the century!)

I have to end this posting with my favourite quote of the chapter:

To read successfully we need the extrinsic aids of experience, other books, and live discussion

I think the CoD blog ring is a pretty good form of modern day 'live discussion'.

Celebration of Discipline - Fasting

Recap from last week's post on prayer:

I'm setting myself some targets to get on with prayer...30 minutes each day.

Well, I managed it for the first few days, though I was a bit silly and always left it to 12am ish just before I went to bed! Then I got a little slack over the weekend which isn't good. Am gonna try and keep it going this week though. There's no reason why I shouldn't be doing it anyway. Think I'll try and take the dogs for a walk each day in the early evening and fit it in then!

Moving on to this weeks topic of "Fasting". Foster gives us a good explanation and history of fasting in bible times. I particularly like,

"The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast." Matt 9:15

I agree with Foster that its one of the most important statements on fasting in the New Testament. It assumes fasting will happen, and gives a mandate for it to happen - because the 'bridegroom aka Jesus' has left. It makes Christ the focus for the discipline as/when it takes place.

"Fasting must forever centre on God. It must be God-initiated and God-ordained."

So what's the big deal, why is it such an unfamiliar thing? Why is fasting no longer (or was it ever in Western society?) a cultural norm? Foster mourns,

"Have we become so accustomed to 'cheap grace' that we instinctively shy away from more demanding calls to obedience? 'Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross.'"

Crumbs! He's hit the nail on the head. For me at least, this is a challenging statement. What areas of cheap grace do I wallow in? Reaping the benefits of a Christian life, but ignoring the hard-slog it also is at times. I think fasting will 'bring out' those items of cheap grace in me and help expose them, so its time to find out.

Smuggleablity Of Suitcase

Smuggleablity Of Suitcase 005
Originally uploaded by Dave Kenworthy.

My brother is coming out here to Hong Kong to visit me in a couple of days time. Its good to see that he's started packing already (I'm a really last minute packer!) But judging by this photo, it looks as if my sister would really like to come to!!

Lantau Waterfalls

Monday being our day off, we decided to head out to Lantau Island (one of Hong Kong's largest inhabited islands) to visit the area where my friends used to live and also to see the waterfalls!

So we get to the bottom of the waterfalls, dump our bags, and attempt to climb straight up it to the top. As with most climbing expeditions, once you get to the top, you then have climb another harder section to get to the real top, and so on. So, finally, having reached the 'real' top we soaking in the view - 'literally'.

Hong Kong is renown, like many other places in Asia (Bangkok for one), for freak, full-on rain storms. (None of that UK drizzle I'm used to!) Of course, we ended up with a massive downpour, while we were at the top. So unable to get to any form of shelter, we let the elements engulf us. You know that feeling you get when you're so wet, its just impossible to get any wetter - yeah, so we jumped in, fully clothed, shoes still on... GREAT FUN! as I'm sure the photos show.

Sailing Perspective

A couple of us went sailing the other weekend.

It was the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Holiday so we decided to have our own trip out to the sea, plus we really felt like we needed a break from work.

Here's a few photos as we headed out through Clearwater Bay and on into the South China Sea.

The first ones at a slightly odd angle, but I think it helps to show what it was like on the boat once we got the sail up. It was great to dangle our feet of the side as the boat tilted into the wind. The water was so clean and refreshing, even warm - totally not used to warm water, having been brought up in the UK.

We sailed out into the South China Sea, had we kept going another 15mins we would have gone out of Hong Kong waters. But instead we turned round and headed for a quite bay to take a swim and eat lunch.

On the way back we ended up with this group photo. The sun was just starting to set so everybody has a really warm glow.

We almost left DJ stranded out in the sea. But decided life just wouldn't be the same without him if we didn't bring him home.

The internet just got smaller

Some research suggests that if you take any two random people in the world, then you can link them to each other with an average of 6 people between them. So my friend knows this guy who knows this guy who...6 people later and you've found a connection.

I've heard of all this stuff before and it doesn't surprise me, especially in Christian circles where I think its probably more like an average of 4 degrees of separation.

Here's a random one that happened to me just the other day: There's this guy who works with me in the office called Mike, or "Dr Google" as I like to call him. Mike loves using google, in fact he spends most of his day doing it. He loves searching around finding the most random things on the net. So crazy is he about searching, that he even searches for other search engines! Which is why when google told him about Amazon's A9 search, he clicked through to Bagga's blog, which was running an article about it. Mike, along with a few friends including myself, is studying Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline. He noticed Baggas was doing it too and thought "Hey cool, lets email my friends about it". So he did, and even got really excited when he noticed that a guy in Hong Kong (where he lives) was also doing it.

It just so happens that I'm studying the book with him and his friends and also with Baggas and the others at Messychristian.com Anyways, some time later... he returns to the blog to read some more, realises that the guy in Hong Kong was me, realises that he works with me, in fact sits about 10m away. Tells us all his amazing find and we all have a good laugh.

OK, so it might not sound that remarkable but was amusing at the time, to see that I'd been 'found out'! Thanks Baggas!

Celebration of Discipline - Prayer

My apologies...I'm supposed to be posting the next part of Celebration of Discipline but I'm not feeling too well at the moment. Hope to get it done in the next couple of days.

...next couple of days later...

Its been one of those weeks again, where there has been much for me to do and I also started getting a tad ill with a silly cold thingy. As a result, cultivating any sense of meaningful prayer has been a little difficult. Which is kinda ironic since the chapter we're studying in our blog group is all about prayer.

Foster starts the chapter by setting the bar high,

"Prayer - secret, fervent, believing prayer - lies at the root of all personal godliness. - William Carey"

OK, but do I really get the picture? He's saying that prayer is a crucial part of my walk with God, yet my actions this past week haven't characterised that. This is one reason why I found the following quote from Martin Luther so challenging.

"I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer." He held it as a spiritual axiom.

Axiomatics plays well with my mind since I was taught many a mathematical proof at university. They are the foundation or basis upon which a proof is constructed. They are the 'definites', certainly holding true in a particular space or field. And I agree with Luther, the same is true here. Prayer *has* to be the foundation upon which we construct our daily lives, if we want a solid, steady enriched life that follows the heart of our Maker. (note to self: I'm starting to feel rather guilty now at saying all these things but not doing them. Yikes! this is hard! And the quote below confirms this...)

"We must never wait until we feel like praying before we pray for others. Prayer is like any other work; we may not feel like working, but once we have been at it for a bit, we begin to feel like working."

Now I'm starting to understand. Prayer isn't supposed to be a struggle. Its supposed to be a delight to converse with our Maker, Creator, and Saviour, but for some reason its not. Sin is always trying to block my way into His presence; pure laziness, ignorance...the list goes on...all these things stop me getting on with it. But in the words of Stephen Curtis Chapman, "I'm diving in" its about time I got this sorted.

"I want a life of greater, deeper, truer prayer" - Archbishop Tait

I like that guy, he makes a lot of sense but its up to me to make these words real.

One last note, I've noticed a sense of guilt creep in on me this week. Each time I come to pray I feel guilty because I haven't been doing it enough, and immediately I don't feel like praying because of that sense of guilt. That kind of guilt is unconstructive. I only want to feel guilty if its going to make me do something about the situation. So this week, I'm setting myself some targets to get on with prayer...30 minutes each day. I want to be held accountable by all the others involved in this study...check up on me each day during the week and see if I've progressed.