Confirmation

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I have been thinking a lot lately about confirmation and baptism and trying to come to some solid conclusion about what I think of it all. This has been sparked by my own baptism (last year) and confirmation (in a few hours). I’ll be standing tonight with 6 teenagers who are doing something pretty great. To stand in front of family and friends and declare that they love Jesus and want to continue loving him forever is special and shouldn’t be taken for granted. But tonight is something different for me. The issue is really what purpose confirmation serves when someone has been baptised as an adult. I have already made those promises for myself quite recently. I feel a little like tonight is special for those I’ll be standing with but almost obligatory for me. So you may be asking why I’m doing it. The honest answer is that I couldn’t think of a reason not to. Standing and declaring that I turn to Christ is a great thing and I think we should all say it as often as possible.

 

I would love to hear other thoughts on this???

Age is just a number

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Some friends of mine recently had birthdays (3 in the space of a week). While 2 of them lament the beginning of their 20’s I am reminded of the words of Regina Spektor’s On the radio –


This is how it works
Your young until your not
You love until you don’t
You try until you can’t
You laugh until you cry
You cry until you laugh
And everyone must breathe
Until their dying breath

I say enjoy it my friends! 

The year behind me

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This year has been perhaps the greatest and worst year of my life so far. So its quite a big task to write about it. Hopefully in the near future I’ll figure out how to do that but for now let me say I am glad it is over – although the wait for results is going to be long….

Having reached the end of a tumultuous year I need to give a big thank you to everyone who has loved, prayed for, supported and encouraged me this year. You have made this year a little easier and a great deal better – I hope I can return the favour sometime. And enormous thanks and praise to our our great God who has blessed me with the gift of wonderful friends – I hope you all know who you are!


“Two are better than one because they have good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up.” Ecclesiastes 4:9-10



Good stress relief

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My favourite things to do to relieve exam/study stress –

1. Go for a walk with a good friend to UB’s for coffee – surprisingly this is less about the coffee and more about the walk and company
2. Watching something good on tv – at the moment the viewing of choice is The West Wing
3. Have a nice hot bubble bath – due to the lack of a bath this is yet to happen but I’m looking forward to enjoying the bath at my folks place on the weekend

Any other suggestions???

Shout-out to our church fathers!

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So I have spent the last few days studying for exams and yesterday was a day of Church History study.


While I am still trying to ‘connect the dots’ of knowledge into a solid picture of the 1st – 4th Century Christian church I do know that we owe a lot of thanks to the men and woman would fought so hard for the truth.

Take for example the great Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria in the 4th century. He spent 42 years fighting his cause, 17 of them in exile – he was exiled 5 times! His cause was something that caused great instability in the East of the Roman Empire. And it basically boils down to something we take for granted – that God the father and God the son are consubstantial.
Athanasius was eventually vindicated in 381AD with the adoption of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, which is a creed we still say in our churches today. Sadly this happened 8 years after Athanasius died.
So I guess my point is this – praise God for our fathers who did great things!

The Niceno-Constantinopolitian Creed (aka Nicene Creed)

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible;
And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father, through whom all things came into being, who because of us men and because of our salvation came down from the heavens, and was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man, and was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried, and rose again on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures, and ascended to the heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father, and will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, of whose kingdom there will be no end;
And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and life-giver, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is together worshipped and together glorified, who spoke through the prophets; in one holy catholic and apostolic church. We confess one baptism for the remission of sins; we look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come. Amen.