In Romans 9 it says, “For this is a word of promise: ‘At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.’ ¹⁰And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; ¹¹for though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, in order that God’s purpose according to His choice might stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls, ¹²it was said to her, ‘The older will serve the younger.’” Jacob and Esau were two brothers and God decided to lower Esau and raise Jacob, not because he favoured Jacob, but simply because this would bring God the most glory. In the same way, when I was “not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, in order that God’s purpose according to His choice might stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls,” God put His mark upon me.

So what about those who haven’t been called, who don’t bear God’s mark, whose names aren’t in the Book of Life? Does God not love them? Of course he does. He just hasn’t called them to salvation. His glory shall be shown by using them as examples of what He has saved us from.

(NB: Just because someone is not called, does not stop them from being responsible for their fallen state and sinful behaviour.)

So how is this fair? If God calls some to salvation but not others, how is He a Just God? What about those people he didn’t save?

Was he able to save them?

Yes he was.

Did he want to save them?

Yes he did.

Was it the best thing for God’s purpose to save them?

No it wasn’t.

So where’s the justice?

Well, I’ll agree; it isn’t at all fair – not because God has decided to condemn some, but because he decided to save some. I deserve less-than-nothing, yet he decided to save me, in spite of my fallenness and shame, so that His power, His majesty and His glory would be proclaimed.

As mentioned in my last post, I recently went on a beach mission. As also mentioned, many people didn’t see the need for Christ in their lives. One potential factor for this could be that we, as Christians, weren’t able to explain to them what God has done for us. We could tell them that Jesus is the only way to heaven but, when it came to how Christ has transformed us and what he has done in our lives today, many of us couldn’t give a satisfactory answer. For some people, telling them that they need to accept Jesus to gain eternal life is satisfactory, but what about those people who don’t necessarily believe in heaven or aren’t worried about what happens after they die? Is our Jesus relevant to them and to their lives today? Essentially, people want to know “why on earth are you a Christian? I can understand the getting in heaven thing but why, on earth, are you a Christian?”

1 Peter 3:15 says that we should “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have”. More often than not, we aren’t ready with an answer for our faith – and we clearly should be. To avoid the awkward situation of not being able to explain why you’re a Christian, and for your faith to grow, I am writing a series of posts outlining some of the reasons that we are called to be Christians. My list does not promise to be comprehensive. Indeed, my suggestions are only intended to make you seriously consider why you are a Christian. The best place to get that reason for the hope that you have is in the Bible – go there and find out why God has called you and set you apart.

However, even if I feel a lot older now I’m still relatively young. I’m a long way off my alloted 3 score and 10 years, I still have all my own teeth, I can walk without a zimmer-frame and I still have most of my youthful charms. However, the Bible says that “even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:30-31) Even if we have our youth, our strength, whatever possessions we own, whatever relationships we may have, they are all fleeting and worthless if we do not wait on the LORD, for he alone can satisfy.

I was recently in Llandudno on an evangelistic mission trip and I met a lot of old people (seriously, if you go to Llandudno you can’t miss them, they’re everywhere!) who happily told me that they’re too old to change, they’re too old for this relationship with Jesus thing, they’re too old to accept God’s love for them. What they didn’t understand was this verse in Isaiah – if even I, young as I am, cannot rely on myself and need God to renew and lift me up, then so too do they as older folk.

It is my prayer that as I grow older I would become older and wiser, not old and foolish, that I would understand how important these words of Isaiah are. It is my prayer that we all would wait for the LORD for our strength, that we would run and not be weary, that we would walk and not faint.

Earlier I was talking with some people about the question of kisses at the end of text messages. Should a christian leave kisses at the end of a text? It’s not something I had thought about a whole lot prior to today. Indeed, I generally go for two, unless I’m in a rush or it’s wholly inappropriate (i.e. I don’t know the person very well) in which case I don’t leave any. It seems like a harmless formality which hurts nobody. The argument against this is that it might “give some people the wrong idea”.

Reluctant to let go of my traditions, I have trawled the internet in an attempt to find an answer to whether kisses at the end of a text are appropriate or not. I searched for “should a christian leave kisses on the end of a text?” After a 0.3 second wait, I got 3.75 million results. Not one of them answered my question. And so, as they say, when google fails you, try the Bible.

“Greet one another with a holy kiss.” – Romans 16:16

“Greet one another with a holy kiss.” – 1 Corinthians 16:20

“Greet one another with a holy kiss.” – 2 Corinthians 13:12

“Greet one another with a holy kiss.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:26

“Greet one another with a holy kiss.” – 1 Peter 5:14

Wow. So it sounds a lot like the Bible is encouraging us to stick holy kisses at the end of texts. Sadly, the footnotes of my beloved ESV study bible tell me that this was purely a cultural thing (akin to shaking hands today). Were we to take the ‘holy kiss’ up again we’d probably have to take up other practices of the time to avoid being hypocritical, like foot-washing.

So what has all this taught me? Well, not a lot to be honest. I haven’t come up with anything conclusive but i have had some thoughts and ideas; here they are: Though I don’t think that leaving kisses at the end of a text is the unforgivable sin, there probably is something in what has been said about it having the potential to lead some people on who don’t understand social conventions and are a bit weird.

Either way, regardless of whether it’s edifying or not, I have decided that there are better things we could be putting in our texts than kisses. Imagine if, rather than leaving the letter x at the end of a text we all said something that strengthens, encourages and builds-up. And so that is what I plan to do. From now on, I plan to put bible references at the end of my texts rather than kisses. Every day I will find an appropriate verse which will become my text sign-off for that particular day. I’m not trying to show-off, I just think it’s a more Godly way of doing things. Let’s look at it this way: Imagine if, instead of sitting about in zeste, drinking coconut hot-chocolate (though it does taste superb i must say) deliberating whether kisses are holy or sacrilegious, the Church was concerned with social action, building one another up and glorifying God. Wouldn’t that be so much better than petty, pharisaic legalism?

Anyway, those are my thoughts. I’ll leave you with my verse for today: Romans 15:13.

“May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

…which leads me nicely on to the topic for today: the top 10 methods of procrastination. And here they are: (in no particular order)

1. Youtube. Youtube was made for procrastination. I have wasted so much time recently watching things on youtube, from Scooby Doo to John Piper to adverts that never made it to air. Here’s a really funny video I came across recently which will hopefully brighten up your day in the midst of your revision.
2. Food. Snacks prevent absolutely any revision from being done. Apple pies are now my best friend.
3. Going to the toilet. Is it just me or do other people use the toilet when they’re bored too? Having said that, it is possible that the increase in toilet activity is linked with the extra food.
4. Trying to solve the Rubik’s cube.
5. Attempting to lick your own elbow. Before you tell me, I know it’s impossible, but don’t try and tell me you haven’t given this a go in the middle of the library on a boring revision-filled afternoon.
6. Sleep. I had a nap this afternoon! That would not happen at any other time of year.
7. Revision timetabling. Standard.
8. Practicing your autograph. I don’t do this so much as I used to but it’s good to have it as a fall-back.
9. Testing just how far your chair can lean back before it falls over. Surprisingly far!
10. Writing a blog post entitled “Top 10 ways to procrastinate”  (You all saw that coming a mile off didn’t you?)

The main problem with procrastination is that we feel guilty for not working.We feel as though we should be an eager beaver working all through the day and the night, which really reminded me of a couple of verses from Ecclesiastes. “What does man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labours under the sun? All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.” [Ecclesiastes 2:22-23] Revision may so often seem like toil and stress (which is why we procrastinate) but this is just because, as humans, we’ve got our priorities all wrong. Revision in itself is not a bad thing. Work in itself is actually a good thing – it was there in the Garden of Eden before the fall. Work is not a punishment. Work is a gift. Toil is a punishment. If we didn’t work “all our days” and then “even at night” perhaps we would see revision in a new and better way. It wouldn’t be toil – it would be work. By the same token, youtube, sleep and even the Rubik’s Cube are not inherently evil – we just need to make sure that they remain firmly within their place. With a bit of artistic liscence, I have quoted a part of Ecclesiastes that just follows these verses, and which I think would make our lives much better and more joyful if we (myself included) understood them and put them into practice:

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to revise and a time to blog, a time to learn and a time to lie down, a time to work and a time for facebook, a time to labour and a time to sleep…”

“Excuse me mate. How’s it going? Are you going to vote for me for charity president on Thursday? Just look at my shirt!”

“Why? Did you get it from a charity shop?”

“Erm, well, no.”

There’s your answer.

And apparently I am a…SOCIAL REALIST.   The full results can be found here. “Warm-hearted, popular and conscientious. Tend to put the needs of others over their own needs. Feel strong sense of responsibility and duty. Value traditions and security. Interested in serving others. Need positive reinforcement to feel good about themselves. Well-developed sense of space and function.” Apparently.

To be honest it all sounds pretty positive…that is until you get to the careers that suit me – “Home economics, nursing, teaching, administrators, child care, family practice physician, clergy, office managers, counselors, social workers, bookkeeping, accounting, secretaries, organization leaders, dental assistants, homemakers, radiological technologists, receptionists, religious educators, speech pathologists.” Why is this website giving me only girl’s jobs? Does it not know that my dream is to become a WWE wrestler?

It gets even worse…scroll down and there’s a Myers Briggs Personality Indicator thing which essentially tells me that I have no personality. I’m not exactly extreme; each of the four categories is only one notch off the centre.So let’s look at what it tells me I am:

Extroverted – (how much you like to be around people). So apparently I’m an extrovert. I would disagree. Though I think that if I had the choice, I’d rather spend an evening around other people, I certainly couldn’t do it all the time. I need my own personal space. If I had to choose between permanent isolation and permanent social interaction, I’d choose isolation in an instant. That said, I do prefer spending time with other people. To be honest, most of the people taking a personality test on the web are probably not the most social people so I guess that it might be in comparison with them that the website decided to label me as extroverted.

Sensing – (how you process information). I’m not entirely sure what this means but it’s the opposite of intuitive. I’ve never really thought too much about the way that I process information so I’ll trust that the website’s right on this one.

Feeling – (How you make decisions). Apparently I decide things based on how I feel rather than what I think. Apparently this is also a very feminine approach.

Judging – (How you structure your life). This may surprise some people as I appear to have quite a chilled, laid back, “it’s all cushty” approach to life but I’m actually more of a planner than other people see me. It may look as though I don’t know what’s going on but really I have it all planned out – sort of.

So that’s what www.41q.com says I’m like. Feel free to take the test and leave your results in a comment. And don’t forget to see how some of my family got on; my brother, my other brother, my other brother’s other half.

In the end though, I guess I was simply too lazy to post anything like that. Nonetheless the whole April Fool’s Day thing got me thinking: Are April Fool’s jokes, practical jokes, banter etc, glorifying to God? Some people would say no. Some would say yes all the time. Then, there’s a third group who would say that, provided it doesn’t harm people, it’s ok. This may well seem like something of a cop-out answer but it is scriptural. Ephesians 4:29 says “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” If what we’re saying is causing others to crumble or stumble, then that’s not cool. There is, however, I believe, a time and a place for laughing at other people’s expense:

(i) if they’re definitely going to take it as a joke, and they’re likely to come up with a witty comeback anyway, that’s generally ok and can actually be a way of  strengthening friendship ties, rather than destroying them. Let me make it absolutely clear that casual flirtation does not fit in this category and is unacceptable – this is banter that may seem to be bringing you closer together but is not healthy or wholesome.

(ii) the other scenario in which laughing at other people’s expense is acceptable is if it’s to humble them. Probably too often I use the disclaimer “I’m just keeping him humble” but it does fit sometimes. If somebody is being boastful or prideful, a gentle dig could be what is needed – though not for everybody.

So, I guess what I’m saying is that banter can be used for fun, to build up the weak, without causing people to crumble or to stumble, but can be used to humble. Banter should not be mumbled – it should be clear and outright; you don’t want the jibe to be hidden. Banter should not be used as a form of a grumble, and should not cause a rumble. Basically, what I’d like to iterate is that our speech should not be “corrupting”. This may well be obvious but a gentle reminder is always nice. All that we say should “give grace to those who hear”. All our April Fool’s jokes should be (a) full of Christ’s grace and (b) funny. Happy April Fool’s Day!

My aim for this blog is to share both some of my deeper insights as well as my more random musings. I will try to be  both open and honest. I intend to be both informative and entertaining. Should I fail to match any of these criteria, I will of course be open to constructive criticism – for example, feel free to drop me a line, akin to “Hello Nathan, how are you? May i firstly say how much i like your blog. However, much as i admire your blog, i feel you went a little far when you wrote about the role of women within the postal service. Though i would agree that there is a sharp divide in gender roles, it is my opinion that…”  These sorts of comment would be more than welcome. Hate mail is not appreciated.

Alright, now I’m just rambling. I’ll shut up. I’ve said all I wanted to say and nobody got hurt. I hope to see you back here again when I will have posted something a little more substantial.

p.s. The name will change when I (or somebody else for that matter) can come up with something better.