Is this the middle of summer?”

Midsummer’s day has arrived – hopefully a token of warmer days to come, but not too hot we hope for comfort’s sake! Although midsummer brings us the longest daylight hours, it doesn’t seem to us that this is the middle of summer! Very little of our summer appears to have arrived yet, but we do hope it will last a while.

Just as midsummer’s day is not like the middle of our summer, midday doesn’t feel like the middle of the day either, even though the sun is at its highest overhead. For most of us in this part of the world much more of our day comes after midday, even stretching to midnight sometimes, and that’s not the middle of the night either!

We know that “mid” does not always mean “middle” or centre. But halfway or “the middle” is often a significant point to reach in projects we plan, in journeys we make, in holidays we enjoy, in books we read, and so on.

In a book I love to read the middle point is very interesting. The book is the Bible. It’s a big book with 1,189 chapters and 31,102 verses. The middle verses are the first two in Psalm 103. They say, “Bless the Lord O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all His benefits.”

It’s easy to forget about God and how good He is to us. This Psalm reminds us of how He cares for us daily, providing what our bodies and minds need. It also reminds us of His love in providing eternal salvation to our souls when we put our trust in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you done that? This midsummer why not take time to read this Psalm and reflect on all that God has done for you?

Written by a Guest Blogger

All photos courtesy of Unsplash

Lesson from 'The Sun'

Recently, I heard a quote from a preacher who lived in the 1800s. His name was Charles Spurgeon. He loved the Bible and preached thousands of sermons from it. But more importantly, he loved the God of the Bible and believed in Him. 

I heard a quote about the Sun. Charles Spurgeon believed it was a significant part of God’s incredible creation. 

It is an incredible fact that the Sun, which our planet orbits, is 15 million degrees Celsius at its core and a mere 5,500 degrees Celsius at its surface. This vast, enormous ball of glowing gas produces more energy in 1.5 millionths of a second than all 7 billion humans will use in one year. Yet when we consider our planet, the poles are frozen, and the equator is almost too hot to live on, but we live on bands of the earth with the right temperature for life. If our planet was closer to the Sun, we would all burn up; if we were further away, we would all freeze. God has placed the world in precisely the right position for life. 

Does the weather affect your mood?

What was the first thing you noticed this morning when you got up? Maybe I should reword that. I am not thinking about your beautiful spouse or children. My question really is – did you notice if it was sunny or rainy? Did the weather annoy you or concern you?

Some summers are really a bit of a non-event. I’ll not go into the precise statistics, but it seems that often summers come and go with little evidence that we actually had one.

Life is like that for a lot of us. Some people feel that it has passed them by. The dreams of yesterday never quite became the reality of today. The wish list remained just that – a wish list. If only.  Life need not be like that. I believe that God’s desire for humanity is to lift our gaze from the mundane things of life and to give us hope, but more of that in a moment.

Power - The big debate

All photos courtesy of Unsplash 

Power. We all use it in the form of electricity, gas, petrol, diesel and without these sources of power our lives could not go on. 

As the years have gone by mankind has devised more and more ways of finding power. It was in the last century that science developed nuclear power. Whether we are  talking about nuclear fission or nuclear fusion the numbers are immense and the energy released when matter is converted into pure energy is enormous. 

In 1945 the first of two atomic bombs was dropped on Japan. It was only then that the general public saw the incredible effect of nuclear fission. It was calculated that the blasts that levelled Hiroshima and Nagasaki each had an energy release equivalent to 10 million tons of TNT.

The Bloggers Daily Diary - Wednesday

Some of you may be aware that I have the delight of broadcasting on the radio each week. I was thrilled today when my brother in law called me to discuss a new possible radio venture that he has been asked to be involved in. I may get involved if I have the time and if the producers like the type of material I am already producing.

I already have a couple of slots and I really enjoy being involved. One contribution I have is to a program broadcast on Vintage Radio, a local community radio station broadcasting out of the YMCA in Birkenhead. This is called 'Letter from Liverpool'. It's only 10/15 minutes long. The main broadcaster for this program is Ernie Harwick - if you go to Vintage Radio and click on 'Schedules'  and go to Saturdays. The program is called 'Ernie Hardwick Kaleidoscope'. They are usually about an hour long and are on a Saturday at 12 noon and again at 1900. 

The main program I work on is called "The Living Hope Show". This started off on Liverpool Hope University Student Radio and after that opportunity was withdrawn I was invited to take it over to Vintage Radio. The Living Hope Show is broadcast on Saturdays at 0830 and then again at 1530. Why don't you join us one day and have a listen? Just click on www.vintageradio.org.uk at the right time and you'll be ready to go.

My third outlet for radio material is in the USA. This sounds grand but it was really a bit of a co-incidence as to how it happened. I did some video podcast recording for a while for Digital Sojourner, a US based Christian on line resource. They in turn passed my name to a new Internet Christian Radio Station called Hope Stream Radio. My slot is just for five minutes or so once a week - it's called 'Life Questions'. You can access some of the material by clicking this link - 'Life Questions'.

My programs are composed of a number of items:

Life Questions - this slot looks at Bible answers to the big questions of life.

The Lawyer's Case for Christianity - this is an ongoing item which looks at the message of Christianity as explained by one of the greatest evangelists this world has ever seen. Hopefully people get a clear idea of what the gospel is all about!

Truth U Can Trust - this slot is made up of short bible readings.

Did you know? - in this piece I look at things that, possibly, we are not always aware of to see how that might influence our thinking about God, life and spiritual matters.

Interesting Lives - sometime I get the opportunity to interview people and find out what they have done in their lives. I am overdue to interview a dear friend of mine who is now 100 years old. Watch out for this interesting interview that spans 1915 to 2015. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since this dear lady, Grace Michael, was born.

Book Reviews - I try to review a book now and again as I really enjoy reading. Hopefully some of you will enjoy some of the books that I have found to helpful!

Music - we play a cross section of music with Christian lyrics. Most of the music would be from the Jim Reeves, Pat Boone, Cliff Richards and Elvis era but we have started to include some more modern songs as our audience is changing. It was traditionally in the over 50's bracket - which I don't think is old; your view on that will depend on how old you are!

So there you have it; a little précis of the radio work I am involved in. I will look out for you and hope to enjoy your company some day. Any feed back will be appreciated and listened to.