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

Is it the soft option to be a Christian?

Being a Christian is not necessarily an easy option. Believe it or not it takes backbone and courage to stick to what you believe when the majority of people disagree with you. It would often be easier to go with the flow and accept the status quo but to be truthful, that would be a betrayal of my conscience.

I often give public talks in Liverpool City Centre. Street preaching is not socially acceptable but it is legal as long as you don’t cause a breach of the peace or are inflammatory in the language that you use to express yourself. The downside is that you are exposing yourself to ridicule. If you take the liberty of expressing your views in public you have to be willing to listen to what other people have to say and be prepared to defend your viewpoint.

There is always a courteous way to present your point of view but it is important to be honest and above board so that people can trust what you say. In the holy scriptures, the apostle Paul was very keen to make it clear that he was never deceitful or crafty in the way he communicated the message of the gospel. This is what he says - ‘But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God,’ 2 Cor 4. 2.

17 scientists who believe in God (there are more)

All photos are courtesy of Unsplash 

Being a Christian is not necessarily an easy option. Believe it or not it takes backbone and courage to stick to what you believe when the majority of people disagree with you. It would often be easier to go with the flow and accept the status quo but to be truthful, that would be a betrayal of my conscience.

I often give public talks in Liverpool City Centre. Street preaching is not socially acceptable but it is legal as long as you don’t cause a breach of the peace or are inflammatory in the language that you use to express yourself. The downside is that you are exposing yourself to ridicule. If you take the liberty of expressing your views in public you have to be willing to listen to what other people have to say and be prepared to defend your viewpoint.

There is always a courteous way to present your point of view but it is important to be honest and above board so that people can trust what you say. In the holy scriptures, the apostle Paul was very keen to make it clear that he was never deceitful or crafty in the way he communicated the message of the gospel. This is what he says - ‘But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God,’ 2 Cor 4. 2.

He had made it his practice to be open and clear when he preached about Jesus. If the message of the Bible (and the gospel of Jesus Christ) is true (and I believe the facts points to this being the case) then it can be scrutinised and investigated honesty.

What Albert Einstein really said!

 

All photos courtesy of Unsplash

Albert Einstein is supposed to have said, ‘Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.’ From these words, many people have got great comfort and encouragement, and rightly so. However, there’s every indication that this quotation is, in fact, a fake as far as Einstein is concerned. The quotation is not in any definitive, authenticated list of Einstein’s many sourced sayings or quotable quotes. Actually, the first written reference you can find to it is in a book written by Matthew Kelly, published in 2004, nearly half a century after Albert Einstein’s death in 1955. 

 

However, at the same time, there are quite a number of genuine Albert Einstein quotations about spiritual matters. Let’s have a look at some of them for a few minutes. The first area we’ll look at is Einstein’s view of the universe and its creator. 

Climate Change

 

All photos courtesy of Unsplash

I’m sure you’ve noticed that commenters on weather conditions in the UK over the last few years increasingly include such words as ‘brightest, coldest, driest, dullest, hottest, stillest, wettest, or windiest’. Even the most sceptical among us must surely recognise that extremes of weather are unmistakably the order of the day. 

 

Most people put this climate change down to global warming – currently running at about 1.5 degrees Celsius per century. Over the same time scale as this so-far relentless increase in temperature, the global carbon dioxide level has risen by over 22% and is still increasing, in fact, accelerating! As this is due to human activity, the story would seem clear – carbon dioxide is a so-called greenhouse gas that causes a temperature increase and that, in turn, results in a disturbance of the earth’s weather systems. Really, something should be done about it. However, some people are still not convinced.