7 things....

I don't usually do stuff like this on here, but a Relay worker has asked me, so I feel under obligation.

7 things to do before I die:

1) Understand the Relay budget.
2) Go to theological college
3) Write a novel. I have the plot in my head, I just need to write it.
4) Star in a proper professional musical production of something
5) Parachute jump
6) Live in Northern Ireland again
7) See a really good friend come to Christ

7 things I can't do

1) draw
2) sport of any nature
3) hide what I am thinking from showing on my face
4) Keep to 30 miles an hour on Aigburth Road
5) Play my guitar by plucking/ play bar chords
6) Ask people out - like girls I mean. Seriously, I just can't do this; if I ever get married it will be because some feisty young lady asks me.
7) Live in London. Sorry, but I am not going there, even for the Gospel.

7 things I say most often

1) I can't be having that/doing with that
2) I was loving it
3) I love you, but get lost
4) I forgot.
5) er...eh...um...
6) Thanks for coming. Goodbye.
7) Sorry, I did that wrong. Again. Even though you asked me not to. Sorry.

7 films I watch over and over

1) Evita
2) Shrek
3) The Sound of Music
4) The Muppets Christmas Carol
5) Dead Poets Society
6) Top Gun (although not for years)
7) Moulin Rouge

Gosh - what a girly list - how embarassing!

7 Books I love (the Bible is taken as read I'm afraid)

1) Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
2) The Shadow of the Wind by someone Spanish
3) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
4) Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
5) Good news to the Poor by Tim Chester
6) Future Grace by John Piper
7) The Secret History by Donna Tartt

7 Songs I listen to the most

1) Can't get you out of my thoughts by the Dum Dums
2) Don't stop Movin' by S Club 7
3) The Message by Nate James
4) Bohemian Like You by the Dandy Warhols
5) Change your world by Martyn Joseph
6) Car Wash by Rose Royce
7) Break Me by Jewel

There. Now don't get your hopes up - there isn't lots more personal stuff coming, that's it.

Woah....

Two in one day. But this spurred me...

Mind blowingly awesome and humble post on evangelical outpost today about people fighting with other Christians.

Serious dudes and dudettes - read it.

I must say, it's very flattering...

...when people come to your blog asking you to post. One feels most appreciated. Sorry I haven't blogged in a while - I suppose it is because I have been doing a lot, and not thinking much.

Anyway, I was at a conference this weekend giving a seminar on prayer. The irony.

And the thing I learned, and the thing I said (although I think it was a rather garbled myself) is that prayer is just trusting the Gospel. That's it. If we are trusting the promises of the Gospel, we will pray.

You know, so often we live the Christian life as if God has said, trust grace to be saved, but follow some rules to keep going. When in fact that is the Galatian heresy. God says, trust the Gospel to become a Christian, and trust the Gospel to stay a Christian. So when Jesus says "pray" - he's just saying; live out your trust in me. If you trust that by grace God has made you a Christian, raised you to new life in Christ, planned out an eternity of perfection for you, if you believe that God in his grace has done these things, do you think that you should...er...um...talk to him?

You know, sometimes people ask - does prayer "work"? The more I think about prayer, the more I think it's a slightly rude question, and indeed, one that I am not surprised the Bible really doesn't address. "Does it work?" is a question you ask of a machine - a car or a toaster. Not of a person. I don't say "does talking to you work"? That's just a bit rude - "do I get what i want from talking to you?" would be a pretty ignorant question and indicate something of a dysfunctional relationship with you.

No - God says, I'm your father, I love you - trust me. And if you trust me, you'll talk to me. It seems to me that, like so much else, prayer is all about grace.