These Lively Oracles

Sometimes I sit in church and look around at the people. I just watch who comes in and sits down and who comes in, leaves their coats down and goes out again. I see young parents preoccupied with their children and choir singers and musicians fussing over their music and instruments. What they all have in common though is that they are all looking around for some friends, family and acquaintances so as to acknowledge them and wave to them. I do not know the people well enough in this church to see who does not like who. I’m sure there are some like that. But I’m not looking for those scenarios. I remember at another church I attended a very good friend of mine, Frank was his name, came in with his family and sat in the row directly in front of us. We all smiled and greeted each other and then Frank, with a twinkle in his eye, asked his wife to swop seats with him. His wife looked up at him curiously and asked, “Why?” Frank replied, “Because when the Pastor asks us all t...

There is an urban myth connected with Sir Edmund Hillary. It was he who conquered Mount Everest in 1953. The myth says that the New Zealand born man had previously tried to climb the mountain in 1952 but that the expedition was turned back before reaching the summit. Hillary returned the following year to complete the task with his Sherpa Tensing Norgay. Apparently on the descent from the top Hillary is supposed to have turned and looked back and said “I climbed you because you have not grown. But I had”. Life is replete with stories of people who could be known as “overcomers”. And church history provides us with countless examples of it. I love to study the history of the church. Not so much doctrines, beliefs or practises. But I love to study the church lineage and see where our beginnings were. Kind of like a family tree for churches. Each church fellowship was born out of another church. In 1735 two young brother preachers boarded a ship for the New World, now known as...

I love this time of year. The cool clear nights allow me to sit out in my back garden and gaze up at the night sky. I have always loved astronomy. I’m not very good at it but I enjoy it anyway. When I was younger I just used to look and see if I could identify any of the constellations. But now as I am older and know a bit more about The Heavens I find myself wondering about the distances and depths of space. Every year, around late September, there is a very familiar star pattern appears in the sky. It is the constellation of Orion and it is very easily identified as having three bright stars in a row. This is known as Orion’s Belt. Orion, along with some other star constellations are mentioned in the Bible… Job ch9: (9) He made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades… Amos ch5: (8) He made the Pleiades and Orion Other ancient lore tells of the legend of Orion. He moves up from the horizon around September time and then makes his journey across the Autumn and Winter night sky ...

I have some very distant memories from my childhood. One memory is of my parents walking me around the city centre when we came across an old man who was playing music while sitting at the side of the street. We call them “buskers” nowadays. This was an old man who was sitting on a chair. He was wearing a long coat and had a cap on his head. Intertwined between his legs was a carpenter’s saw. The saw was bent at a peculiar angle and he was drawing a violin bow across it. And it made the most beautiful warbling music. As he vibrated his leg it caused the music to produce a vibrato sound which made it all the more hypnotic. And it was beautiful. It was just a distant memory in the depths of my mind when for some strange reason it connect with another distant memory from my childhood. In this memory I was a small child and I was being shown around my Dad’s workplace. He worked in a very large timber yard. There were acres and acres of wood piled up and ready to ship out to the vario...

Many years ago I was sent to work on a particular job. It was to install overhead lighting in a large department store. “Should be easy enough”, I thought. ”I’ve worked on several jobs like that”. And in my mind I was thinking out the basic processes that I had encountered before. Easy job. Run the cables and pipework along the overhead steel beams. Consult the drawings for where the lights are to be situated. Hang the lights down from chains that have been screwed into the ceilings. Dead easy. Everything is in straight lines and everything is squared off. Alas. It was not to be. This building had been built as a wedge shape and none of the beams were parallel. They ran out like the lines of a fan. But the aisles of the store were all straight lines and right angles. All my plans and measurements were criss-crossing everywhere. What I finally had to do was make my measurements on the floor between the aisles and then the apprentice was up on the scaffolding with a plumbline...

I remember one time sitting having my lunch in a large company that I worked for. There were about 6 or 8 of us sitting around the table drinking tea and eating sandwiches. I still remember the nicknames of some of the guys there - The Clipper. Chunky. Snoopy. The Biscuit Man. One guy, “The Clipper” (he was called this because his main job was clipping cables around the structures) said to me, “Right now. We all know that you’re a Christian. Right?” I looked at him and nodded. He went on, “How come we never see you saying grace or praying before your meals, or anything like that?” I replied, “How do you know that I don’t say grace before my lunch?” He said, “Well I’ve never seen you praying or heard you saying any grace before you eat”. “That’s because I wasn’t praying to you”, I replied. A couple of the other guys just looked at The Clipper, then sniggered and nodded. Whilst it is true that we should lead a life of testimony that reflects our devotion and dedication to Chris...