Passionate for the Passion

The BBC has screened a four part series on the last week in the life of Jesus called The Passion. I watched a couple of episodes and on the whole I thought it was good. The actor playing Jesus didn't grab my attention straight away, but he soon did.

It was a realistic portrayal of the events and Pilate and Caiaphas came over as more rounded figures. But it was strange that Pilate had an Ulster accent. Nevertheless I think it was a very God-centred event during this year of Hope 2008.

Hope battle

Four score years ago our forefathers abandoned a millenium of faith and hope. Leaving the shores of the Christian faith and pulling up its anchor of hope the ship of state floated off into the sea of new morality. Now today we fight a spiritual battle in that ship.

We fight on two fronts. Members of the crew are destroying each other and the elements are destroying the ship.

Just look at the headlines today. A girl is abducted in Dewsbury and looking for her amongst family is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Why? Because she is one of many children born to her mother by different fathers.

A 15 year old girl dies in Goa, on her own. She too is one child amongst many step-children. Is this the brave new world our leaders wanted in 1968?

On the world scene we face an economic depression. Why? Because none of the American banks trust each other with money any more. It used to be said "My word is my bond." Now we say "I'll do what's best for me."

O for the anchor of hope to be cast out again by our ship of state so that we can weather the storm ahead. O for our crew to rally to the flag of the Christian faith and restore order to this chaos. This is what Hope 2008 is all about.

2008 - what a start!

We've been looking forward to it with hope for the last 18 months and 2008 has started very well.

At my church, Ingleton Methodist Church (IMC) we saw a tremendous response to an appeal to come out for prayer from our speaker, Martin Coates. Most of the people in the congregation of about 120 went forward. The prayer started about 11.50 a.m. and people were still being prayed for when I left at 1.15 p.m. How exciting!

At Westhouse Methodist Church, just a couple of miles away, at the same time 11 people were being baptised as believers, aged between 8 and 75. The 75 year old was a guy who lives in our village who was recently converted. What next?

And personally, through all this, I still feel miserable. What a life! Thanks be to God for the grace He gives to go in with it.

2008 at last!

It's been a long time coming and yet now it's here. Will 2008 be all that we have prayed and longed for it to be over the last 18 months. I hope so.

I started this year by watching a TV Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams.

It ended on note of hopelessness and I realised how important it is for the church to bring hope to this hopeless world.

Jesus is our only hope and we need to point to him.

Hope 2008

Last night Audrey organised a meeting at IMC about Hope 2008. She invited folks from St Mary's CofE, who sent their best men and women - only three, but the best three they could send. Ingleton Evangelical Church was invited but did not reply or attend.

Colin Hardicre spoke about the ideas behind Hope 2008 and showed a DVD and PowerPoint. Then I led a question and answer session, and a praise time. I felt anointed.

I think this meeting was a watershed for our church. We are at last seeing how we can make prayer and evangelism the main thing. As Andy Hawthorne says on the DVD - "Let's make the Main Thing the Main Thing."

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