Good morning 2011

Well, its a new year. I have to say that last year could have gone a little better and I am hoping for a much better one this year. Looking out over a fresh new year I have to say that this year does have the potential to be one of the best in my life. It is going to be very busy and it is going to be a lot of hard work but I am confident that the benefits will be huge.

So what does 2011 have in store for me? Well for one thing I plan to continue this blog and have some interesting plans for things to do, watch this space for what I hope to be some very interesting posts this year. I am also planning to start studying towards my first theological qualification this year and am hoping to be accepted on to a training scheme in Canada in September, again keep a look out and I will post updates. There is a new Bible study class in my Church I will be helping to run and the quest for a new job to start in March too. So far a busy year planned and hopefully it will be a lot of fun and a very exciting journey.

In addition to this I have my ongoing Soldier's Challenge, an upcoming Lent fast and likely a few more ideas like that to boot. I will also be embarking on my first structured personal Bible study and will likely be using thoughts and ideas from that on here from time to time. There are some ideas I left hanging last year that will be picked up and some interesting thoughts that I will be following too. There is all this and much more planned too.

So that leaves me with one final thing to talk about in this post, New Years Resolutions. I wonder how many people make these and actually stick to them for the whole year. Well last night, actually just a little before mid night I was reading a blog written by a blogger called Suz at Saved to Serve. It is worth checking this blog out, it is one of the many great blogs out there that I follow. In this post however she is challenging herself to stick to these resolutions of William Booth's this year instead of making up her own. I have been inspired by this post to forget my ideas for New Years resolutions and also attempt to stick to these 6 resolutions for an entire year;

I do promise - my God helping -

1. That I will rise every morning sufficiently early to wash, dress, and have a few minutes, not less than 5, in private prayer.

2. That I will, as much as possible, avoid all that babbling and idle talk in which I have lately so sinfully indulged.

3. That I will endeavor in my conduct and deportment before the world and my fellow servants especially to conduct myself as a humble, meek and zealous follower of Christ, and by serious conversation and warning endeavor to lead them to think of their immortal souls.

4. That I will read no less than four chapters in God’s Word every day.

5. That I will strive to live closer to God, and to seek after holiness of heart and leave providential events with God.

6. That I will read over this every day or at least twice a week.

“God help me, enable me to cultivate a spirit of self-denial and to yield myself a prisoner of love to the redeemer of the world.”
“I feel my own weakness, and without God’s help I shall not keep these resolutions. The Lord have mercy upon my guilty soul.”
                                        (William Booth at age 20)

These are 6 powerful and difficult resolutions to stick too and I will surely need Gods help to achieve them. But in attempting them, even if I fail, there is sure to be much progress made and a huge amount of benefit to be made from doing it. So I will try to keep you all up to date with my progress in this new challenge for this New Year.

So Happy New Year to all of my readers, I hope that you all had a great time last night whatever you chose to do, but most of all I wish you a God filled and God blessed New Year, may all His plans prosper in you this year.

Self-control

Advent Challenge Day 18

This challenge is now complete, please feel free to browse all of the 

completed tasks via the Advent Challenge tab.

So, Advent. We all know about Advent, its the run up to Christmas, we hear the prophesies and stories about the preparation for Christ, we light candles and open our chocolate filled calendars. But what does Advent really mean, where does i come from and why do we celebrate it in the way that we do?

The word Advent comes from the Latin Adventus which translates as "coming", however the word Adventus is the Roman translation of the Greek word Parousia which is used to describe the second coming of Christ. The reason that this word is used is because Advent is not just a time where we remember the waiting and build up to the birth of Christ, but a time where we remember that we ourselves are awaiting Christs return.

In the western Church Advent is the beginning of the liturgical year and begins four Sundays before the 25th of December, this means the beginning of Advent falls anywhere between the 27th November and the 3rd of December. In the western Church the colours used in the time of Advent are either purple or blue, purple being more traditional and blue coming in to favor due to its ties to the feeling of hope. In the eastern and Orthodox Church the colours associated with Advent, or the Nativity Fast as they call it, are red or gold.

Advent calendars were the product of the Germanic countries and Lutherism, as far as I can find out it was pretty much common practice in Germanic countries from about the 17th century with the first commercially produced printed calendars coming late in the game in about 1903. I can not find out a date for the first chocolate calendar but the idea of receiving a small gift behind each door has progressed far in the time since the first printed ones were produced. These days it is common to find many different types of calendar, my favorite being the Lego calendar where you receive a piece of Lego every day over lent, pretty awesome right.

There is much more I could tell you that I have learned about Advent, from the fasting to the Advent dolls often displayed in Norther England for luck. But to do so would vastly increase the length of this post, but I would advise you to look it up yourself, there is some very interesting reading to be done. So what is the next task? Well that is to be task number 5.Pray for those who don't have anything this Christmas. Check back tomorrow to see how that goes, but until then, Merry Christmas.

Christian fasting

When it was first suggested to me to blog on this topic I didn't really know much about fasting as a Christian. I was under the impression that it was a case of not eating for a period of time. On further study however it is so much more than that. Fasting is not Biblically required in any way. Although there are cases in the Bible of Christ and His followers fasting there is no commandment for us to fast. Even so fasting can be useful for Christians in drawing closer to God.

Fasting is not all about giving up food and starving yourself. It is possible to fast by giving up any worldly thing that distracts you from God. Choosing to give up television or the internet for a period of time in order to spend more time praying is as much fasting as not eating for a period of time. The aim is not to punish yourself or suffer because of the fast, but to grow closer to God. It is about showing that we are serious about our relationship with God in that we will give up something of the world for a period of time in order to spend that time with God.

I did look into some of the rules for fasting that are used in various Christian denominations and to be honest I was surprised by what I found. There are many ways of fasting that even though you are "giving up" food you are still able to eat. For example in the Catholic tradition a partial fast allows you to have one meat meal per day and two small meals not containing meat providing the two smaller meals are not greater than the large meal. Other rules include just giving up dairy, not eating meat or only eating during the hours between sun set and sun rise. There are many different methods of fasting and this leads to a huge amount of flexibility. This flexibility come mostly from the fact that fasting is not something we have been told we must do, we have not been given guidelines to follow in this. Therefore we are able to fast in what ever way works best for us in order to commit to God and spend time in fellowship and communion with Him.

So fasting, there are no hard and fast rules. We are all aware of the time of Lent and giving something up as Jesus fasted in the wilderness. This is a kind of fasting, and some people do go to the level of giving up food and fasting for lent with caveats such as only eating plain foods or only one meal before sunrise. Whatever the method of fasting there should only be one reason to do so, in praise and honour of God, as a method of exalting Him and growing close to Him. It should not be done as a show of faith or a way of proving how good a Christian you are. Fasting is a private choice made by someone in their walk with God in order to concentrate more fully on Him.

Acts 14:23   

    Paul and Barnabas handpicked leaders in each church. After praying-their prayers intensified by fasting-they presented these new leaders to the Master to whom they had entrusted their lives.