I’ve been working on the sermon for church later today. There is going to be a bit of a tie up between the morning service and Sanctuary First. I’ve been reflecting upon that great little text in 1 Corinthians 16.9 where Paul says this ” a great door of opportunity has opened up for me, but i face many adversaries. I going to be encouraging every one of us to make the most of our life opportunities. We can’t live our lives in regret. never can we live our lives in fear. Too many people over the years have held back from the call of God on their lives because they could only see the obstacles rather than the opportunities. So tomorrow will be “Open Door Sunday”

I think the evening service has the potential to be really interesting. One of the themes we will be looking at is the living dead that inhabit the church. Here’s a sample of the material we’ll be reflecting upon.

A scene of first aid - blue lights flashing emergency noise soundtrack - someone being brought back to life. Paramedics flat on the ground - receiving the breath of life from a passer by. The point is that the church is facing an emergency. The scene depicts the struggle for the Christian who is slipping back into the world. The church is called to be like the rescue ambulance seeking to strengthen Christian life. However the church is dying no longer able to carry out rescue missions.The passion for renewal and revival is now outside the church in the most unexpected places. God is Emerging in the lives of people who would normally pass by.

GET REVIVED OR DIE? - ALBERT BOGLE
(The actor pacing up and down looking at the audience then at the paramedic flat on her back Desperation can be detected from the voice)

They’ve got to wake up!
You better wake up!
So much to do
It’s absolutely ludicrous
I can’t believe what I’m doing
I can’t believe what I’m saying
I can’t believe what I’m seeing
This is a crisis.

Religion is dead
Church is dead But I,-
We need something to believe in

Imagine
Para medics being resuscitated
By the patients
If you where told that
You’d laugh in disbelief
But we’re living in an upside down world
How did the church get into this state?
Something happened!
Something terrible is happening
The world has gone crazy
And the Church with it

Oh what ever happened to you?
Why have you stopped talking?
Why have you stopped explaining?
Why have you stopped believing.?
It was your job to bring us back to life
To bring us hope
Salvation
Meaning and purpose
But you lost
Your heart
Your passion
You got side tracked
into alternative programmes
You stopped believing people were sick
You became sick yourself
believing lies
You got caught up in a counterfeit world

You’ve got to wake up
Start coughing
Breathing
O Please just start
Living again
Loving again
Singing again
Caring again
Healing again
Believing again

I’m the outsider here
I’m not into rescue
I need to be rescued
I’ve got my own problems
My own plans
But people like me need help
Children need love

Don’t look at me like that
You look dead
I’m not like you
I’m the outsider here
I’m not a Church
I can’t do it your way
I’m into relationships
I like it minimalist
Not too complicated
O Please wake up
Strengthen the things that remain

Song - Bob Dylan – From the “Slow Train Comin” - When You Gonna Wake Up

Its the second day in the new year and war seems to be round the corner for the Palastinians and the Israelis. Have a look at this Rueters web page my heart goes out to such people caught up in the middle of years of mistrust and injustice on both sides.

I’m wondering where Tony Blair is in all this? I thought he was the special emissary in the middle east? I haven’t heard his name mentioned once in the news. I wonder of Israel and Hamas are escalating all this because they will find themselves brought round the bargaining table when Barack Obama is sworn in as President of the USA later on this month?

I’m sure if the Palestinian homeland question could be resolved and Israel’s right to exist agreed, we would see a huge shift in the whole relationships between East and West. I often think that we’ve not moved on a great deal over the years. We are still fighting over who own and controls land.

Meanwhile here’s a song from Bono PEACE ON EARTH

This post is going to be all about lights at Christmas. Its truly wonderful how a candle can light up the darkness. I know it sounds like stating the obvious but to me it is always full of wonder. I think to myself so where did the darkness go? Of course its still there but the light has brought another dimension so that your eyes see things that otherwise would be hidden. Every Christmas there is always something or someone I see in a new light.

WE SEE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

Last night I wa at the Dockers Welfare Social Club to listen to the Songwriters Christmas Song Competition. It was a great night organised by Stephen of “We See Lights“. It was great to hear a load of new Christmas songs. If you want to hear what some of them sounded like click here

CHRISTMAS LABYRINTH

I think the labrynth at St Andrew’s Parish Church Bo’ness is one of the most spectacular Christmas Light experiences you will ever come across. It was written by Maggie Lane who was our probationer minister during Christmas 2006.  A team of people still run with it and have created quite a wonderful Christmas encounter. It was designed to encourage us to make a journey to follow the star like the wise men of old to find the child i the manger who is the Saviour of the world.

there will be different stations for you to stop at on the journey giving you an opportunity to participate, to think, to pray.  Music will accompany you on your journey. You will be given an MP3 player to guide you through   your journey. the journey can be done 15 minutes or it can take you longer depending on how long you choose to stay at each station.

Word has got out this year and I believe we had a a good number of people going through the experience yesterday. So if your reading this and you can get over to Bo’ness between 2pm-4pm and 6pm -8pm today then I believe it will be an experience you’ll remember for a long time.  The thing I find encouraging about this is to see  people of all ages going through the labyrinth. If I  can get a hold of one of the tracks from the MP3 player I include it in my next post.

On other thing, I said I’d mention something about the other projects in India. take a moment to pray for those who suffer from the dreaded disease of leprosy.  Mount Zion Church in Chennai have been helping a group of people who suffer from leprosy who live together in a colony outside the city. Its about 40 miles from their church but they go every second week with food and money to help them. Last year you may recall we had an appeal in the town of Bo’ness to send them blankets.  Please keep this group of people in your prayers this Christmas. We sent £400.00 on Monday for the support of this community. A small amount but it wil go a long way to feed people with rice this Christmas.

Over the years there has been much speculation about Joseph the father of Jesus. Many writers have tried to think through what it must have meant for Joseph to have taken on such a role knowing that Jesus was such a special child and not his own.

Joseph is a bit of a mentor for all Dads, but especially those who are caring for children they are bringing up as their own. The great thing is that he did it and did it successfully. I’m sure there are times when those who are in such a role feel a bit like an outsider and may even feel what they are doing is out of place. What an encouragement to be reminded that God entrusted his Son Jesus into the hands of another. Here’s a great song written by one of the Bogle Band Colin Jamieson and sung by Iain. I hope you enjoy it. Joseph As you listen take a moment to pray for all who are members of blended families. Christmas can be one of the most enjoyable but also one of the most stressful times if you are in such a position. However learning to trust God can be an amazing step forward in all family disputes.\

JOSEPH

I’m known to my friends as Joe
But do they really know me?
I doubt it.
Okay People know our names
but they don’t really know us.
I’m a carpenter
I make things
I like working with wood.
When it comes to understanding
Women - well
that’s a different kettle of fish

I didn’t think I could deal
with the problem I found myself in.
It has been a difficult one
This whole situation about
Mary’s pregnancy
Freaked me out!
video

I was ready to walk away .
Then, the whole thing changed overnight.
I had a dream and the next thing I knew
I had a change of attitude.
I now know I can work at this
Make it work
I’m a worker by nature
I think God knew that
“Work it out ,“ he said
Work it out Joe!

Do you know how difficult it is to take photograph of a flag flying. I think I must have pressed my iphone thirty odd times before I captured a few pictures that I liked. This is taken from the top of the church tower looking down the Forth to the Bridges.

I’m looking forward to hearing and reading some of the childrens’ stories as they begin to get posted on the blog. So here are the questions: At what time and date was the flag raised up on the Flag Pole? (Guess a time if you need to) Tell me a little  bit about St Andrew and tell me why it is important to celebrate using St Andrew as our Patron Saint. The child that writes the best story and gets the time closest to the actual for the flying of the flag will win £5.00. We had the local paper taking some pictures today of our preparations of the big day on Sunday. So lookout for the picture when its published in the Journal

I climbed up the Church Tower this afternoon and Rae filmed my weekly podcast looking out over to the Forth Bridges. It’s quite a trek climbing up the narrow stairway that leads to the top of the tower. As you climb you are confronted with the dust and the cobwebs that are to be encountered on the stairs. Its a kind of parable often to get to the real view of life you have to fight through the cobwebs of past generations.

It was well worth the climb to look out over the Forth and see the whole of the land unfold before my eyes. I pray that God will help us see the opportunities that we have as a congregation to serve Bo’ness and Scotland.

We are also having a quiet day on Saturday in the church. its a chance to talk about the Holy Spirit to a group of people who have been part of the Alpha Course. I think we all need times of quiet reflection in order to grasp the wide panoramic view of life that God wants us to have. Pray is key to understanding the view.

I remember seeing this cover on the front of Time Magazine in June 1971 and thinking, God is doing something in our generation. It really was exciting times. These were the days of Christian outreach cafes and Christian rock concerts. Today we’d refer to this kind of stuff as “Emerging Church”

You may recall an article I posted in October 2007 about my past life as a singer with the Living Stones in the 60s and 70s. This was an interesting rock band because we were among he first Christian Rock musicians in Scotland. Here’s the title track from an album we released in the early 70s entitled  “Jesus Music” The song was written by Jimmy Sommerville our bass player. the recording was poor it was one of the first albums released under the GRF banner . A few years later Greenbelt Festival was established and we had the joy of playing at that first Greenbelt. i think there was around 4000 people attended.

We were not the first but we were among a number of young Christians trying to engage with the 60s revolution. This all came back to my memory today because I received an email from Arthur Blessitt highlighting a movie that is going to be doing the rounds in the States in the near future all about his life. We were really quite a busy band playing all over the show, we even played with Arthur Blessitt at the famous Greene’s Playhouse in Glasgow. I’m sure there must have been well over 2000 people in attendance that day
THE CROSS

He is quite an amazing servant of God. His ministry has revolved around literally carry the cross all over the world for the past 40 years. I wish his movie about his live much success. I planned to meet up with Arthur in india last year. Unfortunately his plane was flying into Chennai while my plane was leaving the runway. Well maybe one day we’ll meet up again.

I was speaking to someone at the end of last week. We ended up talking about the fact that God often uses the things in our lives that we are ashamed of to make us into better people. The cracks and the scars still remain but they make us more valuable.

I told the person this story. When I was a young minister i used to take my daughter out on some of my parish visits. One day an elderly lady gave SJ a present. It was a dolls cup and saucer, one that she had when she was a little girl. It must have been at least 80 years old.

Well we took it home and duly put it on a safe shelf in the house. SJ was warned it was something she should keep - it was really too fragile for play. Well one day she stood up on a chair grabbed the cup, and of course the whole thing came tumbling down fell on the floor and the saucer broke into pieces. You can imagine it was tears all round. We gathered up all the pieces and put them in a bag and forgot about them. A few months later i was relating to someone the story of the broken saucer. the lady told me that her father loved fixing things and she was sure he could piece together the saucer, which he duly did.

The story doesn’t finish there. I was telling the story as an illustration of God’s patience and kindness in one of my sermons. A member of the congregation, Ann Mahoney was taken on with the story and she wrote some words inspired by the sermon. When we were recording an album of songs another member of the congregation, Ian Walker wrote a tune to fit the words and Ian sang the song on the album. Well it doesn’t finish there. A year or two later I visited a member of the congregation who was in hospital nearing the end of his life. I noticed he had been listening to some music through his earphones. “So what were you listening to,” I asked. “The church praise album,” was the reply. He then continued, ” I’ve been playing the song, ‘Broken Lives Worth Mending ‘ over and over again all day. You’ve no idea the comfort I’m getting from it.” He continued, “Its such a comfort to think that God thought I was worth fixing”

And all that happened because i took SJ on a parish visit. Makes you think how all our lives are inextricably linked to each other and to God.

Here is a simple little prayer I wrote earlier this week for the service tomorrow evening. At Sanctuary First our aim is to try and lead those who attend into a deeper experience of worship. The video clip was put together by Rae Manger who works as a staff member in our creative media team. Take time to see the close connection between words and music and how we have used the idea that less often can mean more.

Broken1.mov

Creating a worshipful atmosphere is something that Christians have been exploring down through the centuries. Later on this evening we hope to explore the theme of the mystery and majesty of God as described in Isaiah chapter 6. We’ve got a smoke machine and a burning flame all as part of the props tomorrow. I’ll get some pictures of the sanctuary as we prepare to encounter the peace of god

When we encounter the awesome presence of Almighty God we discover that we are no longer in control. Indeed the holy presence of God makes us aware of our human frailty and our shabby lives. In the presence of Almighty God none of us can stand up to his scrutiny

In this chapter Isaiah has an amazing life changing encounter with God. The thing to notice is the sublime presence also reveals our sinful and twisted nature. I hope the service will make space for the power of God to work bringing forgiveness and healing into many lives.

 Do you know something I think it is about six years since we’ve played a gig in public so I’m looking forward to remembering all my words. Vagabond Shoes was the title of a song we wrote a few years ago. It was all about what it was like being a disciple of  Jesus. You had to put up with a lot. You were always out on the road. I guess you felt like a band of brothers. Playing in the Bogle Band was a of a similar experience. Sometimes you feel this bond, I think its all about voices harmonising and feeling and share the same space.Here is a fascinating and spooky fact I have never noticed before. My father was called James so I am James’ son. For over 21 years I’ve written songs with a “Jamieson” who happens to have the same birthday as my father,  and whose mother thinks we have the same  personality streaks.  Now tomorrow night my son will join the Bogle Jamieson partnership to perform at the Carberry Festival and guess what he has James in his name as well. I’m really looking forward to getting the chance to sing  again some of the songs we’ve written the  new ones as well as  the  old ones.  I think its going to be a really good night. We thought we’d base the set around swapping songs, one generation of song writers talking to another and telling the stories about the songs. So if your reading this get down to Carberry tonight for 8.30pm and enjoy what I can only describe, what will be a unique experience. I ‘ll try and get some pics to post on the blog tomorrow. Oh one thing more i think it will be a really good gig because I’m looking out some old footage of the band and also some video clips to compliment the songs. I’m glad that Rae Manger who I collaborate with when making these video clips, will also be around to give the techie support. And a big thanks to Craig Hannah an ex Bogle Band member who was down at carberry with Stephen tonight rigging up the PA. The picture above was poster from a Bogle Band Concert way back since I don’t have a current pic of the band this will do.

 BT are the main sponsors for this years Isle of Wight Music Festival. They have also been the sponsors of a national Battle of the Bands Competition. The  competition aims to provide a platform for the rising stars of the UK music scene  to perform in front of a massive audience of both potential fans and the cream of the UK music industry. The competition was judged by an expert judging panel who selected Scottish band “We See Lights” as the winner  from ten regional finalists.  The  final took  place  at the top of the BT Tower on Saturday 31st May. The judging panel included Isle of Wight organiser John Giddings and BT’s Matthew Dearden.Matthew Dearden, director of home phones says “BT”s new Battle of the Bands competition not only offers a once-in-a-lifetime chance for an unsigned act to appear at the famous Isle of Wight Festival, but extends a helping hand to aspiring musical talent, exposing the eventual winner to an audience of thousands. So why am I telling you this, well I guess I’m  just a proud father  pointing out that his son plays in  ”We See Lights”and  I’m   one of the bands biggest fans.