For those who are interested the Bogle Band will be publishing extracts from the recordings we’re making for our new album. We’d love to hear from you. The guys hope to get some time together over the next few weeks to showcase some of the ideas in our songs. If your interested go to the iTunes store and clock on podcasts then do a search for Bogle Band. I’ve podsted up a little free Christmas present for anyone who’d be interested in downloading it. let me know what you think. Its called missing you.

I think U2 sums things up for me this year.So many people think that they can do nothing to change the world. the fact is we can. We can start in our own neck of the woods. We can take up the opportunities that come our way and it is possible to create new ones. Just have a look and see what love has done. Click here

This year at St Andrew’s I believe we have had a wonderful opportunity to develop our prayer lives. The theme of Advent has centred around four of the great phrases from the Lord’s Prayer. “Your Kingdom Come! ” This has challenged all of us to see how subversive the prayer really is. It is a call to live in such a way that we set up an alternative way to live. To live forgiveness, to see that life centres around more than material things, and to discover that trials and challenges in live can become our sources of strength. Last week two teenagers turned up at the church they had heard about the little church in Dindigul that has a vision to build a small primary care centre for the woman of the region who need anti-natal care. “We going to have a three day silence to raise money for the building of the little clinic” they said. On the 3rd day when they broke their silence at the school service they had raised over three hundred pounds. their idea of silence got me thinking about all the times when we keep an inner silence. I posted a mediation about this last week. Here is the final version. It may provoke some thoughts for discussion.

The church was quite magical. In the darkness the small lights shining were light stars shining in the darkness. We’ve had a really interesting Advent here in Bo’ness this year. So many people have worked hard and contributed to the whole period of reflection. Friday was quite a special day. The labyrinth was really outstanding. It was written by Maggie Lane and laid out under the direction of Rae Manger. It proved to be an amazing experience for those who walked it. If you did I’d love to hear your comments on the experience. I really hope hat more and more of the congregation will begin to grasp the power of living our lives immersed in prayer. We need to understand that prayer is not just what you do when we come to church or go to the prayer meeting. Prayer needs to become a way of life so that every action of every day turns into a prayer.

 Its a strange feeling looking back over the way things grow and develop. I feel so privileged to have been part of something so dynamic as the Vine Trust. You know when I first mentioned the idea of starting up a Trust to help change the world, I never believed in my wildest dreams it would involve two medical ships in the Amazon and seven children’s homes in various parts of Peru. God often  takes small insignificant things and makes the significant in a most unusual way. It was just about this time of the year 22 years ago we got started with the Vine Trust and Branches. Its strange but in those days the Branches shop was the focus of attention. The Vine Trust was simply a mechanism through which to dispense with the profits of Branches. It might be of interest to some people to note that the inspiration for Branches came from the Balmore Trust. This Trust was set up the Rev John Riches who was my New Testament Professor. Today it still carries on doing excellent work. Little did I think that some 22 years later the Vine trust would have been so successful in highlighting the plight of Abandoned Children in Peru and also in taking medical care to the remote parts of the Amazon. The above pictures tells the story of Amazon Hope 2. I for one want to thank God for allowing us to be part of something that is really quite incredible. Today i hesitate to think what World Without Walls is going to look like in 22 years, but I’m sure it also has an amazing future. Let us all keep on dreaming dreams. You never know with God where you’ll waken up . It could be the Amazon or a rural Indian village or it might just be seeing the hand of God on the lives of the least expected.

Before the bang

The big bang

There still was something

Not nothing

Something

Perhaps Someone

Moved

Made a move

And broke

The silence

And so we move

In a world of noise

But we inhabit

Our inner world of silence

We know how to

Keep things from each other

To protect ourselves

To protect others

Silence becomes

Our truth

So much hurt locked away

In silence

Mobile prisons

On the move

In shops  and cars

On mobile phones

Speaking words

But living silence

Dying to tell

But telling no one

Silence becomes

Our Truth

And snow falls

And songs are sung

We laugh and cry

The candles burn

It’s another “Silent Night”

We conceal our pain

With great diplomacy

We turn many away

In Silence

We hide our saddness

There’s a knock in the dark

And the prison shakes

A door is opened

And a baby cries

And breaks the Silence

Of our inner prison.

I didn’t realise that I haven’t posted anything for nearly a week. Well later on today we’ll be making history in St Andrew’s. We’re going to have a wedding as part of the service. One of our elders Lesley Stewart will be getting married. Its going to be a grand occasion. I believe quite a few of the congregation will be wearing kilts.It will also be a bit of a sad occasion because we will be making a presentation to Maggie Lane. Maggie has been my probationer minister for the past 14 months. We’re all missing her around the church. Anyway tomorrow we’re going to dedicate this wee movie to Maggie. And as if all this is not enough we’re delighted that we’re going to have Kevin and Marlyn Brett with us for the day. Kevin has kindly agreed to preach tomorrow evening. Ken was one of the senior pastors at Hillsongs in Australia, and i believe he is just about to take up a new challenge with a new congregation after being Brian Houston’s right hand man for around ten years.

We had an interesting service this evening looking at four Advent Meditation centred around Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. We were exploring how we can create in our homes opportunities to live out the meaning of these words. Last year we made the following video clips to help explore these themes.

Tomorrow is the second Sunday in Advent. I’ve chosen four great phrases from the Lord’s Prayer as our themes for Advent. I guess I’d like all in St Andrew’s Bo’ness to see the importance of prayer being at the centre of the vision we have as being a community that is seeking to live an alternative way from the world around us. Last week we looked at “Your Kingdom Come!” For those who are extra keen you can get the whole sermon by  clicking here. This week we look at “Forgive Us Our Debts”. We put together three meditations around the topic. I hope to use the three clips in the service, to help us reflect upon our personal debt, then to think about our corporate responsibility to the poor and the need for third world debt to be eradicated and finally to realise the need for all of us to receive God’s forgiveness for our own personal wrong doings. Here is another of these videos focussing on the challenge to think differently and see what love can do.Regular members of the congregation will know that I’ve set myself a challenge to play a U2 song to fit into every sermon until the end of the year. I don’t know about anyone else but I’ve been having great fun 

  I must confess that I was somewhat astonished to read about the Pope offering Indulgences to the faithful. I thought this aspect of the Roman Catholic Faith had somewhat disappeared. However it would appear not to be so. The following article outlines the Pope’s offer of reduced punishment in Purgatory if pilgrimages are made to Lourdes during a specific period in the year 2008. It sounds quite bizarre to me. Hear is the article . This got me thinking about Indulgences and how it was this very topic that brought about the Reformation. Tom Ascol writes an interesting article on the topic, its worth reading. The point I think the Pope has missed is that we are saved not by our own actions but by the Grace of God revealed to us in Christ. ( But I’m sure he must know this? ) Further, our acts of gratitude to God should they be pursued and promoted like some commercial deal? You know do this and you’ll get one free! How naive does the Pope think people are? What power does any human being have over the eternal destiny of a soul. For me this is the very topic that the much maligned film The Golden Compass is exploring . (The danger of power when it is concentrated within individuals and also Institutions, whether they be religious or atheistic.)I don’t wish to be seen as bashing the Roman Catholics, but the view I have expressed, I suppose is the reason that I am one who stands on this side of the Reformation. I’ll stick to Jesus alone and I’ll trust his death on the cross for my eternal salvation.