Quick update on my Theology Degree:

Ive got two weeks left until i get home and two essays to write before then. My first essay is about Gregory of Nyssa and i’m not sure what the other essay is on yet. But i think i’d better find out soon.

The course has been amazing this term. To begin with it was very challenging to my faith but over the last month i have adapted the way i think to allow myself to study everything, but not take everything to heart. Something that has really helped with this has been getting involved in Exeter Network Church. Ive made some really good friends there and am feeling really supported by lots of people.

Please pray that:

I would get lots of work done over the next two weeks

I would continue to form really good relationships with people (i’m not very good at that one)

God would keep my heart soft and open to him speaking to me

ps.

If you use Outlook or any other email client you can get my blog including these updates sent directly to your computer. The feed can be found here.

I have hard so much recently about Primark,

For those who don’t know, Primark are one of the UK’s biggest budget clothing retailers and to give you an idea of its market strength, their sales grew by 8% this year alone.

But im not interested in that number. Im interested in these numbers.

84 hour weeks, 7p an hour wages in Bangladesh and 60p a day wages in India.

This had led me to some seriously tough questions, as much as i think i know where my clothes are made the reality is that most of the time i have no idea. I hear so much about the positives and negatives of Primark and i want to manage the amount i spend on clothes but also have a clean ethical conscience to know that my clothes were made fairly. So i want to start a discussion?

What do we do about companies like Primark who sell us cheap clothes but don’t have the best record on ethical practice?

Is it better to spend less and give more to help the situation or spend more on clothes and avoid the problem altogether?

Lets talk about this issue. Where do we stand as disciples? How do we interpret the teachings of our Rabbi Jesus on this difficult issue?

Comments please…

(I was inspired to write this by a link on the Simple Pastors blog – click here to check it out. All the statistics come from there)

Ive been thinking a lot recently about what it means to be a disciple. So over the next few posts i’m going to be dealing with something of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus in the world today.

Have you ever noticed everyone and everything in this world wants to be complete? We convince ourselves that only if we had “this” or “that” then we would be complete. But its more than that. We are part of a impatient society.

But theres something different about a disciple

We are works in progress.

We are the people who have to change our minds and change our hearts. You see, Jesus calls us to become more like him and that means changing our aims and priorities too. It means examining our hearts and accepting that we may not have it all together as we think we do.

God has been teaching me that i am not complete. He is changing me all the time. As much as i think i’ve got everything sorted and worked out, God usually has a better plan, but that’s no bad thing. One thing that encourages me about all this change is that the disciples in the Bible never stopped changing. Take Peter (my favourite disciple) when following Jesus he made mistake after mistake but he was just doing what a disciple does, learning as he followed.

And were just the same, changing and living. We are the people who make mistakes and learn from them. That makes you and i a work in progress.

So next time you take a closer look at yourself, remember, you are a work in progress.

I don’t know if you’ve seen this or not. Its a program called The Worlds Strictest Parents and you can currently watch some of series one and two on BBC iPlayer. I have been watching it when each episode has come out and its amazing. They take two rebellious teenagers and put them with a strict family and watch the transformation that takes place. Most of the teenagers come from single parent homes or past family difficulty.

I couldn’t say that i agreed with every style of parenting but for me it shows the damage, anger and hurt so many young people struggle with because of family background. Don’t get me wrong, i’m not saying that every single parent family or situation where things haven’t quite worked out can never be a success but there just something about this program which makes me question what it means to be a parent.

This episode really impacted me in that it stands out from the others. In most episodes, there’s a lot of shouting and anger. But there was something different about this family. The teenagers went out smoking (which is illegal in Alabama) and everyone was expecting the family dad to just explode with anger but he wasn’t angry. He was just sad.

The thing i loved about it was that this dad loved his kids, he really, really loved his kids and he wanted the best he could give them. But more than that, he loved these teenagers too and for them to go and disobey him broke his heart. His love was unconditional, and limitless and it didn’t stop just because these kids went against him.

Have a watch of the episode here.

All i can say it that i hope i’m a dad like him.

I’ve had one of those months where I could only find the strength and energy to just get through my course. Let alone write a blog, update my facebook or tweet about every single thing I’m doing.

Not that any of those things are wrong but sometimes life just gets on top of you. A good friend once sat me down and shared with me something called life-shapes. He told me all about something called D2. Part of the rythm of life. Starting something with incredible enthusiasm and then realising it’s a lot harder than you expected. That’s D2.

I’ve just been crawling out of that, learning to rely upon God more closley and letting him humble you on the way.

So my prayer is that God would teach me. Maybe the most important charisteristic of a disciple is that they’re learning the way, on the way…

I’m back, expect alot more coming this way soon!

I found this on You Tube the other day. If you haven’t heard of Shane Claiborne before, he’s an american pastor/disciple who has written a lot about living as an ordinary radical. I first read his book “The Irresistible Revolution” about 2 years ago and i was challenged by the questions he asked and the ideas he laid down.

Anyway, this is an awesome talk about radical discipleship, have a listen and tell me what you think.

You can buy Shane’s book here

I just found this on YouTube and i’d completeley forgotten what i looked like.

I might go back to short hair again. Looked good.

Although obviously the point of this is Hope 08 and being a revolutionary!

(does blogging have two g’s, i’m not sure)

I have been thinking over the last few day about why i write this blog. I thought it might be good to explain those reasons and explain the vision for it.

So here we go…

1) I want to start a discussion about being an ordinary radical and living a disciple for Jesus today. What does it mean to be an ordinary radical? What is a disciple anyway?

2) I want to share the thoughts and challenges that come from being a theology student including asking for advice and support at times

3) I want to inspire people with stories of the amazing things that God is doing in the world through testimony and honesty

4) I believe that together we can challenge and love the society around us, so i hope to comment on changes in our world today and ask how Christians should respond

5) I’m going to share updates about my life and work and include some reviews of great books or movies i’m watching and share the blessings around!

Hopefully if i stick to these, it wont become a self centered diary of my life

I just thought i’d write a quick post about Matt Redman’s new album. The first thing to say is that, its AWESOME.

The thing i love about Matt’s albums is that he can always bring us back to what means to worship God. There’s something about finding this worship which reaches above the challenges of life and remind us that God reigns even when the world seems to think its all gone wrong.

Id really recommend it.

click here to buy it online from Illuminate Books

or have a listen now using Spotify

And if your the music type then you can find the chords on Matt’s website

Comment with your thoughts!

I’m loving studying theology at Exeter. Even though its only been a few days I’m feeling really challenged by the course. Not only is ancient greek a more difficult language than i expected but this week i have been getting to grips with how we can define Theology. Good stuff.

I thought i would share this thought,

In a lecture on Tuesday, we talked about the Greek words for love. Unlike in English, the Greek language has four words for Love. Eros, Philia and Storge and Agape.

The thing which most stood out to me was agape. Many of us will have heard that it means, unconditional, or self sacrificial love. And you’d be right. It does mean all those things. But on Tuesday i heard something amazing about it.

There’s something about this Greek word. Deep in its meaning. This word agape is about a story. The word came to mean a story of unconditional love. When we speak about agape love, its a love that always has existed, that always will exist and which knows no boundaries. So when we speak about God’s love we speak about agape.

Thats a God who has always loved us, who will always love us, and the best bit is that the God who loves us also wants to know us personally.

αγάπη – love itself