Paul Long's Ramblings

I am 50 today ... And today I went to see my GP to have 4 stitches removed. This was the result of my having (a week ago) a whole mess of large unsightly skin tags (and a strange large growth on one of them) removed. Not that I am that vain but two were very near my eye and was very distracting to quite a number of people ... Two of the largest were sent for testing ... and one was diagnosed as just a skin tag and the other ....seborrheic keratosis (at least that's what I think he said) which my GP thought was rather funny and wonders if the test results were wrong. Reason being it was something usually associated with old people. Of course it got funnier when I told him and the nurse (who was there to remove the stitches) that I turned 50 today. I try to think in terms of older and not old so this funny test results did not help... *sigh* 50 is not old, 50 is not old, 50 is not old :-) Went for a 3 day break with my wife and returned yesterday. Needed the break so badly as ...

Spent a couple of hours writing out my Pastor's notes based on Jeremiah 20:7ff especially verse 9. The result? I scrapped the Pastor's notes and had to put this in its place ... Published:  13:00 GMT Standard Time - Tuesday 12 March 2013 MUSLIM MOB TORCHES 178 CHRISTIAN HOMES IN  PAKISTAN  OVER BLASPHEMY CLAIM Project(s):  00-345 Country/Region:  South and East Asia,  Pakistan “ We are facing the punishment of being Christians in Pakistan . ” Shamim, whose home was destroyed in the attack Hundreds of Christians have been left homeless in  Pakistan  after a 3,000-strong mob of Muslims torched their houses and shops and a church over a false blasphemy accusation against a Christian man. Attackers add fuel to the fire, destroying another Christian home The Christians of Joseph Colony in the Badami Bagh area of Lahore had fled in fear of their lives ahead of the violence on Saturday (9 March), after hearing calls fr...

For the 19 March 2013 bulletin Excerpted from:  Parables and Passion: Jesus' Stories for the Days of Lent John Indermark  PROVE IT! Rich Man and Lazarus     Luke 16:19-31 Have you ever played a game called "Prove It"? It's not a board game or video game. You can't order it from Milton Bradley or Nintendo. It's one of those games we play in relationships, adapt-able to all ages. Children often play it. "If you think you can climb the tree as high as I can prove it!" Sometimes it has a darker side, used to exclude someone who is on the outs at the moment. "If you're really my friend, you won't play with Robin—'cause I don't like her." As children mature, the game gets more sophisticated. The love of parents becomes the target of the testing. "If you really loved me, you'd trust me and let me stay out later..." ..."Prove it" has two major problems in human relationships. It is a g...

For the 3 March 2013 bulletin My pastor's notes this week is an email from Susan Shore (a Wycliffe Missionary) I have been reading through the book "Jesus on Trial" by James Mongomery Boice and Philip Graham Ryken. Once again their comments about the three hours of darkness struck me. This was definitely not an eclipse, as am eclipse only lasts a few minutes. Apparently Tertullian, an early Christian apologist, referred to this darkness when he reminded his heathen readers that the "wonder is related in your own annals and is preserved in your archives to this day." This testifies to the historicity of the darkness. But that is not what struck me.  From page 105-6: "Those dark hours represent a gap in the narrative, a time about which we know almost nothing. But there was much going on before the darkness descended. Jesus had prayed for the soldiers who were crucifying him. He had spoken words of promise to the believing criminal hanging beside him. He ha...

For the 24 February bulletin I am leading worship this morning and will be playing a video during service.  The lyrics of the song in the video can be found below. It is a song by a group called Celtic Thunder.  CHORUS:  All God's creatures got a place in the choir, Some sing low and some sing higher, Some sing out loud on the telephone wire, Some just clap their hands or paws or anything they got, now. REPEAT CHORUS Listen to the top where the little bird sings, And the melodies, and the high notes ringing, And the hoot-owl cries over everything, And the blackbird disagrees. Singing in the night time, singing in the day, And the little duck quacks, and he's on his way, And the otter hasn't got much to say, And the porcupine talks to himself. CHORUS The dogs and the cats, they take up the middle, Where the honeybee hums, and the cricket fiddles, The donkey brays, and the pony neighs, And the old gray badger sighs. ...

For the 17 February bulletin Ash Wednesday versus Valentine’s Day? The season of Lent began today (at the time of writing this) with Ash Wednesday which happens to fall on 13 th February. But I would suspect that for most of us, the more significant date that we would remember is the next day, 14 th February, Valentine’s Day. (In all fairness, though, Ash Wednesday falls on different dates each year). It struck me this morning that Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day do have something important in common. The connection may seems a little off tangent but let me try to explain. Ash Wednesday begins a 40 day period of prayer and fasting to remind us of the frailty of our humanity and the need to repent of our sins. It points us to the fact that we have an avenue for forgiveness because of what Christ has done for us on the cross. The cross while a reminder of the gravity of our sins that required Christ to suffer and die, is also at the same time a celebration of Christ’s love...

Sent to me by a Jewish joke list. I found it very funny but also make me a little envious And then a little rebuked about my workaholic tendencies ...