Far too much internetting

Well in between playing bejeweled on facebook and idly reading a variety of blogs and websites I am starting to go boss-eyed. So I need to go do something constructive, like reading! :) I'm still enjoying The Stripping of the Altars.

I want to start incorporating some extra cleaning now that Christmas is over, the things that get missed like the inside of cupboards, etc.

If you like to do a big project then here are a couple of links to a New Year cleaning plan (Hat tip to Sandra):
2010 New Year's Cleaning Grand Plan
Complete text: Grand Cleaning Plan

I'm not sure if I am going to go all out for a grand cleaning plan or just put in a couple of 15 minute projects a day. Depends whether I'm feeling overwhelmed or not. If the weather stays bad and I can't get to church/the village during the week (I do a bit of voluntary work at church on the phones and sometimes in the coffee shop and I help out at Grandma's) then I can plunge into something major but if things start to clear up then I think a bit here and there would be better.

Well, now I've bored you all with my cleaning plans, here is some excerpts from a song our Music Group leader sang this morning:

Still Your Soul in Silence by Don Francisco

So many turns, so many ways, so many voices cry
Standing at the crossroads watching time go flashing by
Indecision paralyses, it's the fear of choosing wrong
But waiting is a step itself and you're wondering too long
So again you search the scriptures and again you ask your friends
But last of all the One Who knows the beginning from the end
In the clamour and confusion, and the blindness of your choice
Still your soul in silence, and listen for His voice.

That is quite beautiful and I feel a deep truth to these words. "The fear of choosing wrong", I think that is a little of where I was at yesterday. Christianity is vibrant and varied, but at the heart of it is Jesus Christ - He is the One we all seek; and if we do genuinely seek then we will find. At the end of the seeking, we will know that our seeking is actually the Lord drawing us - as the Good Shepherd the Lord finds the lost sheep and carries him home.

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV)

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. John 6:44 (NIV)

See I'm still on the internet! Must go xxxxx

Happy New Year - Aliens - The Circumcision and Naming of Jesus Christ

World's longest and totally random title for a blog post contender! :) So Happy New Year dear blogfriends.

Well, last night we woke the girls up at midnight as we had promised. Squidge was upset that the moon wasn't actually blue. My Mum and Dad rang to wish us Happy New Year and to ask us if we could see the strange red lights in the sky. So we all went outside. It was ethereal. Amongst the fireworks red lights floated eerily across the sky. "It's aliens", I said, as a joke, and the girls ran inside screaming. We found them huddled terrified on the sofa. I set them right, poor little mites, lol. The lights were some kind of firework lanterns with little parachutes. They were floating from the hills behind the village. So pretty.

It's now eight days since Christmas Day (Christmas Day is counted as Day 1). In the life of Christ this is the day that He was circumcised and officially named. His name means YAHWEH saves, He is the great I AM.

flickr

On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived.
Luke 2: 21 (NIV)

Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him. Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.
Romans 4:8-14 (NIV)

Almighty God,
whose blessèd Son was circumcised
in obedience to the law for our sake
and given the Name that is above every name:
give us grace faithfully to bear his Name,
to worship him in the freedom of the Spirit,
and to proclaim him as the Saviour of the world;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. (BCP)

Jesus, the Name above all other names.


p.s. Dr Who's on tonight! David Tennant's last Dr episode!!

Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College

Nine Lessons and Carols is a popular format in churches today for their Carol service:

The format was based on an Order drawn up by Edward White Benson, later Archbishop of Canterbury but at that time Bishop of Truro, in Cornwall, for use on Christmas Eve (24 December) 1880. Tradition says that he organized a 10 pm service on Christmas Eve in a temporary wooden shed serving as his cathedral and that a key purpose of the service was to keep men out of pubs on Christmas Eve. From wikipedia

THE Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was first held at Kings College on Christmas Eve 1918. Here is the service booklet with the history, lessons to be read and order of service. From the booklet:

"‘The main theme is the development of the loving purposes of God …’ seen ‘through the windows and the words of the Bible’."

"The centre of the service is still found by those who ‘go in heart and mind’ and
who consent to follow where the story leads."

Jesus walked through whispering wood:
‘I am pale blossom, I am blood berry,
I am rough bark, I am sharp thorn.
This is the place where you will be born.’

Jesus went down to the skirl of the sea:
‘I am long reach, I am fierce comber,
I am keen saltspray, I am spring tide.’
He pushed the cup of the sea aside

And heard the sky which breathed-and-blew:
‘I am the firmament, I am shape-changer,
I cradle and carry and kiss and roar,
I am infinite roof and floor.’

All day he walked, he walked all night,
Then Jesus came to the heart at dawn.
‘Here and now,’ said the heart-in-waiting,
‘This is the place where you must be born.’

THE HEART-IN-WAITING
KEVIN CROSSLEY-HOLLAND
from Selected Poems
Enitharmon Press 2001

I am listening and watching on BBC2 right now! It's beautiful.

Here's Angels from the Realms of Glory from 2008:

Jesus is Lord!

Jesus is Lord! Creation's voice proclaims it
For by His power each tree and flower
Was planned and made
Jesus is Lord! The universe declares it
Sun, moon and stars in heaven
Cry, 'Jesus is Lord!'

Jesus is Lord! Jesus is Lord!
Praise Him with hallelujahs
For Jesus is Lord!

Jesus is Lord! Yet from His throne eternal
In flesh He came to die in pain
On Calvary's tree
Jesus is Lord! From Him all life proceeding
Yet gave His life a ransom
Thus setting us free

Jesus is Lord! O'er sin the mighty conqueror
From death He rose, and all His foes
Shall own His name
Jesus is Lord! God sent His Holy Spirit
To show by works of power
That Jesus is Lord

by David Mansell