Stuff

Just got back (well actually got back on Saturday) from a week away, great to be away, great to see friend and family but why did I agree to spend so much time driving? 24 hours in Hertfordshire, 2½ days Norfolk, 3 days Kent (with day trip into East Sussex) 730 miles this was not really a break! But it was good and I’m glad I did, could have done with a month though so we could have seen everybody we should really try and catch up with!

I couldn’t help but laugh when out in the car last night my son (almost two) decided to break into song repeating (kind of) one of the songs sung in Junior Church yesterday morning. “Our dog is a great big dog”, we don’t actually have a dog, nor do we intend to get one but hey!

Anyway on a slightly different note just got through details about Soul Net conference in Feb, anyone thinking about going?

I just DIG this!

Just found this link, thought I should share it with you! Click on the bottom right if the book to open it then watch the JCB music video, sit back and enjoy! You might want to try playing with the pencil first!

Evil continued

For all those who have been waiting expectantly for the continuation I have bad news I’m afraid, in my attempt to write an answer this is turning into a short academic paper. I am now away for a week and have not yet completed this paper. I will complete the work upon my return, sorry for the delay!

Reluctance

So I have been invited to become a reluctant blogger, I’m not sure if this is comment on the frequency with which I sometimes blog or what. I thought the first thing was to have a look at what was going on, as to be honest I wasn’t sure I should commit time to another blog, then I thought maybe that’s the point, perhaps my reluctance means I should be a reluctant blogger! Anyway the bottom line is after having a look, it all sounds quite exciting really, a community blog, the community being that of the bloggers rather than any other form of community, and so far at least a community therefore of Christians who I guess all find something helpful through blogging, this is something I want to be a part of so why not come and have a look at what is going on!

As for me I am getting ready for a few days away, this morning I shall be trying to formulate my reply to the question posed in my previous post, that’s to all those who have commented, emailed or chatted, I shall post my reply here (or at east a link depending on the length) once complete.

EVIL!

An interesting session led by one of my volunteer leaders yesterday morning on Genesis 3 on the theme of temptation. The question was raised as to whether Eve would have been tempted given time without the serpent, this led to a fairly deep discussion and the following email from one of my young people, I want to take my time over my response but thought I would put it to the masses for your comment so let me know what you think (all three of you!)

Dear Simon,

Thinking about what you said in 14 Plus today about God not creating evil, but the devil and us misusing the gift of free will, it occurred to me that neither the devil or us can have created evil. After all free will is the freedom of choice, so we CHOOSE to do evil.
According to numerous passages in the Bible, God is pure Light with no Darkness, and therefore he cannot have created evil. But for evil to be a choice something must have created it. Which begs the question, What?
God is supposed to have created everything - but if he cannot have created evil then he did not create everything and hence there must be something on a par with God to have done so. Either that, or God does have some darkness within him (the Old Testament God was vengeful).
It can be claimed that God was vengeful for our own good - but to do this he would also have to be evil. This is perhaps a lesser of two 'wrongs' situation, so even God can do evil so he must have some darkness inside him.
If this is the case then the kindly, forgiving God we worship cannot actually exist.

Please could you help explain,

Yours sincerely,

I have removed names for obvious reasons, needless to say this young person is a very deep thinker and a real asset to the group, gets me thinking too!

Nestle = Fair Trade?

I read about this yesterday on Cartoon blog and felt whilst leaving a comment would be good I would make sure I got my point across by writing about it hear. The background is this, Nestle are about to release a coffee with the fair trade mark, some people say this is great as it means that companies are finally waking up to the issue, others are not so pleased. I must admit my thoughts are possibly slightly marred after having visited a slum in Guatemala 5 years ago and gone into a family home, well a tin shack slightly under half the size of my office where a family of 6 lived, the youngest being about three months old and fed on Nestle powdered milk, mixed with the dirty water supply, approx 1/3 of the family home was taken up with a double mattress which was where the whole family slept, I have a problem with a company who can cause this kind of thing to happen. Anyway onto the Fair Trade mark, personally I’m not sure how a company the size of nestle can get away with producing a Fair Trade product, surely Fair Trade is to do with the way you do business and either you trade fairly or you don’t. What I mean is I personally don’t see how a product can be fair trade, I see that a company can chose to trade fairly and ethically or not. My argument would therefore be that the fair trade mark should surely be for a company rather that a product. I think it is great to see that Nestle are thinking about the way they do business but I think they should be looking at it as a whole rather than trying to say we are doing our bit when with the other hand they are doing a lot more damage than that one bit of good.