A New Light For The World?

A New Light for the World?
Acts 13:1-12
27 September 2009 (posted 6 Oct 2009)
Audio available online here

Introduction: Marching orders


In ch. 13 the focus shifts to Paul, operating out of the church in Antioch. Chapters 13 and 14 are a unit. The mission, the message, the man. This week, the first 'M'.

1. God commissions the church's deliverate mission to the nations (vv1-4)
- divine
- deliberate

V3 - the 'others' send them, but v4 - the Holy Spirit sent them.
Acts 13 encourages us to make bold and deliberate plans for the spread of the gospel.

'gossiping the good news of Jesus'

2. God will prosper the church's deliberate mission to the nations, despite opposition (vv5-12)
- the word proclaimed
- the word opposed
- the word triumphant

Conclusion: Confidence!

Over 2000 language groups do not have the Bible in their own language. 15k more professional practitioners of the occult in France than gospel workers. The need is great.
Take note of the spread of the gospel in the last century - Nepal, China, Iran, S.Korea

Cambridgeshire

A couple of weekends ago The Husband and I travelled to Cambridgeshire for the day. It was lovely. Not that far out of London (around 1 1/4 hours to the centre of Cambridge) it was beautifully quiet countryside.

There were two aspects to the day: firstly, a trip to a vineyard (Christmas present from Sister-In-Law-The-Elder); and secondly, a trip to visit the Vicar and family who have relocated to Cambridge for three years 'to pursue matters more cerebral' (as a thank you motion to the departing DoF at a former client once put it).

The vineyard trip was most enjoyable (although I would not recommend The Activity Superstore
through whom it was arranged .... it took about three attempts to get through to book, with messages not returned at all when I was informed they would be ... then we couldn't book very far in advance..... then the start time given for the day was half an hour earlier than it needed to have been ... all in all - quite disorganised).

Anyhow, we visited Chilford Hall.
After a brief history of Chilford Hall itself (apparently the man behind the Little Chef chain was behind its development as a conference centre), we had a very pleasant tour (total group about 20-30) followed by a tasting session and nice lunch. Normally my taste extends only to Pinot Grigio, but we found a couple of other wines which were quite pleasant. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that my palate can detect some differences between wine (although quite slight differences, and I still marvel to think that a whole industry has grown up around the ability to describe a wine as 'clean and toasty finish, hints of melon, lychee and grapefruit on the nose'.....). We particularly liked 'Chilford Medium 2006' made from Mueller Thurgau and Reichensteiner grapes - an 'award winning medium [is] made distinctive by its rich medley of fruit and floral aromas'.
Things we learned:

• tilting the wine at a 45 degree angle: as white wine ages the colour moves from clear to greeny to yellow to deep yellow (for red wine, the progress is watery, purple, darker purple, brown).
  
• your tongue tastes as follows: tip - sweetness, back - bitter, sides - acidity
• swirling the wine round the glass and watching the 'legs' gives an indication of alcohol content - the slower the descent, the higher the alcohol content.
• taste buds - there are 10k on the tongue, but 10m in the olfactory bulb behind the nose...
  

Sermon notes: Psalm 119:153-176

Having an afternoon of sorting things out in the office/study/office (I think that it varies, depending on how much work stuff I've brought home with me .... at the moment - office).
The urge to procrastinate is being diverted into the more useful pursuit of revisiting last week's sermon notes (26 July 2009)... (bold are the headings on the handout, normal font denotes my scribblings!)

Preacher: WTT

Psalm 119: 153-176

Introduction
The psalmist makes it clear to us that God's Word is refreshing, reviving, re-energising. Some repeated phrases:
9 x 'I love Your Law'
10 x 'Your Law is my delight'
8 x 'I meditate on Your Law'

1. A painful awareness of weakness
A deep consciousness that enemies are forever present

- personal vulnerability
v.23 - princes plotting against me
vv67, 95, 110, 150

- debilitating frailty
God in His Greatness brings frailty upon the psalmist, to keep him clinging tightly to Him - vv 92, 71 & 75 - the 'adversity gospel' (not the 'prosperity gospel')

- enduring sin
despite the psalmists protestations - vv. 176

2. A rich appreciation of the Word
'clings to the dust'
The psalmist is like a sick man with a recurring ailment - he knows where to go in the medicine cabinet - God's word is an all-encompassing elixir.

- safety
vv9,11 - WTT's first memory verses
- life
vv156, 159
- liberty

- truth
vv96,97,32,44 - coming to the living God is not restrictive - the Genesis 3 lie
- wisdom
v162
- permanence

3. An urgent appetite for the Word
The psalmist is passionate v131

Christian meditation is not like Eastern meditation - rather than emptying your mind, you should fill it - with the Word of God.

A bit like a cow - ruminate! Meditation in order to obey.

A lovely weekend...

Friday didn't start on a brilliant note, being aware that I would need to work for at least part of the day, rather than take the day off as planned. Having been overtired from a fortnight's flitting between Berkshire, Surrey and Dorset, I failed to get to sleep until 3am the night (morning?) previously .... watching 'Snog, Marry, Avoid' is not a good way to pass the time, for future reference....
After a break of c. 8 months, The Husband and I decided to get a cleaner again - working on 3 hours a fortnight which seems manageable. The cleaner was punctual, efficient (although it took about 6 hours for the fumes to clear after she left... I do worry about the state of her lungs) and created some order in the flat which was therapeutic for us both. A pleasant mix between wanting to be very helpful, and telling me exactly what she needed to clean properly ;-).
We found her via Opal Cleaning.
Good friends (KAB) round for dinner and board games (The Husband cooked 'Pork Belly with Prunes and Apricots' - a recipe of his own design which involved marinating the Pork Belly in ground coriander, garlic, sweet chilli, all spice etc.). We played Puerto Rico after dinner which was good fun (by which of course I mean, 'I won' - the victory dance was suitably amusing, apparently).
Saturday was a lazy day - Asda, breakfast/brunch, to the aquatics shop (6 black harlequins now grace our tank) then to Harry Potter (v.g.) and back for lamb steaks accompanied by the nectarine chutney I made a couple of months ago.
Sunday started well (excellent sermon on Ps119 from WTT, followed by roast pork shoulder) and ended with me travelling down to Deepest, Darkest Dorset so that I could be there in time for a 9am meeting on Monday.

Indian chicken ... (murgi musallam)

This weekend saw Sister-In-Law-The-Younger (SILTY?) leave London for the Promised Land in the North to complete her university studies after a year's internship. As such, she (and Mumsy) stayed over on Saturday evening. I wanted to cook something a bit nice for Sunday lunch, and a bit Indian, so that we could try out the mango chutney (recipe to be posted) which I had made earlier in the week.
I was wanting to cook 'murgi musallam' - as set out in the recipe here.
I think that it worked quite well - I susbtituted butter and a little olive oil for the ghee, and chopped the chicken breasts up instead of cooking them whole. I also stirred through (on the advice of The Husband) half a tsp of ground cumin and a tsp of ground coriander towards the end.
Served with leftover saffron rice (rescued from SILTY's freezer) and plenty of fiery mango chutney. Yum!

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 medium-size chicken

2 tbsp yoghurt

2 medium-size onions

1 tsp salt 8 raisins ½ tsp coriander, grated or powder ½ tsp ginger, grated or powder

4 cloves of garlic, grated or chopped

8 whole black peppercorns

2 cinnamon sticks, about 4in

4 cloves

2 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)

4 cardamoms, peeled and sliced

4 almonds, peeled and sliced

Pinch of powdered saffron

Method

1 Marinate the chicken with the yoghurt, one onion (grated), salt, raisins and all the spices, except the cardamom , almonds and saffron. Leave for up to an hour.

2 To cook the chicken, heat 1 tablespoon of ghee and about 2 tablespoons of water in a pan, add the meat, and cook covered until it is tender, removing the lid until most of the liquid has evaporated.

3 Remove all the marinade and mash to make a paste. Meanwhile, fry the chicken slowly with the other tablespoon of ghee until it is nicely browned.

4 Rub the marinade paste over the chicken and cook for a few minutes more on a low heat, adding the cardamom, almonds, saffron and one onion (fried).

5 Serve hot with pilau rice.

Fridge cake.... possibly

During the aforementioned lunch, I suddenly remembered 'fridge cake' which I last made when I was about 13/14 years old. I remember biscuits, butter, possibly golden syrup, all bashed up and put in a foil-lined tray in the fridge to chill with some melted chocolate on top. So.... I texted The Sister - but she had no recipe for it.
She did, however, have a recipe (from her mother-in-law) for 'No-Bake Chocolate Crunch' which seems very similar, and will be tried out tomorrow (in amongst the Bank Holiday spring clean, aquaerobics, charity shop trip, cooking hushpuppies etc. etc.).

4 oz marg
3 oz sugar
1 tbsp syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp milk
12 oz digestive biscuits (apparently you can't buy these in the States - how odd!)
3 oz raisins
3 oz of cooking chocolate - melted.

1. Melt: marg, syrup, vanilla essence, sugar, cocoa, milk
2. Bring to the boil.
3. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
4. Add the crushed biscuits and raisins.
5. Pour into a shallow 7" square tin.
6. Cover with melted chocolate.
7. Chill.

Fish pie

Prompted by a rather delicious Sunday lunch at Sister-in-law the Younger's today, this is the recipe for Fish Pie which I have used recently. Taken from 'Easy Living' -

Serves 4-6
Prep 30 mins
Cooking 35 mins

Mashed potato to cover (make more than you think you will need, as it is difficult to spread across the top of the pie dish)
500g (1lb) firm white fish fillets
250g (80z) smoked fish fillets
600ml (20 fl oz) milk
1 bay leaf
4 black peppercorns
50g (1 3/4 oz) butter
1 small onion, chopped
2 tbsp plain flour
250g (8oz) small uncooked prawns, peeled
Pinch of cayenne pepper
2 tbsp chaopped flat-leaf parsley
20g (3/4 oz) butter

1. Make mashed potatoe, head oven to 180C / Gas Mark 4
2. Skin fish, remove bones, flake into bite-sized pieces.
3. Into the saucepan: white fish, smoked fish, milk, bay leaf, peppercorns - over a medium heat and summer for 5 minutes.
4. Strain the mixture, reserving the fish and the milk.
5. Melt butter over a low heat, add the onion and cook for 7 mins, stirring lots, until soft and translucent.
6. Add flour, stir well, cook for 1 minute.
7. Slowly whisk in the reserved milk, and bring to the boil, whisking frequently, and cook until smooth and thickened. Allow to cool.
8. Add the prawns, cayenne pepper and parsley to the bowl containing the fish, and pour over the sauce.
9. Add milk if appears too thick, season with salt and pepper (I tend to leave out salt)
10. Spoon the mixture into pie dish.
11. Cover over with mashed potato. Fluff with a fork. Dot with additional butter.
12. Bake for 30-35 mins / until golden and bubbling.

Serve with something green (mmmm, petits pois, green beans!). When I made this for the Husband's parentals, I added tarragon to the mashed potato, which I think worked.

Tagine? Ah, yes, tagine!

I was right, it seems:

see the definition of a tagine here

Lamb tagine in the slow cooker

I've called this 'tagine' because it tastes Moroccaan, and it's suitably catchy. Lamb with Moroccan seasoning and couscous is somewhat of a mouthful.

Anyway - here goes:

2 onions
2/3 carrots,
Vegetable stock (one cube + enough hot water tSo cover the contents in the slow cooker)
Lamb chops (one pack - c. 5 small chops)
Seasoning to taste (in my case, generous shakes of:)
- ground coriander
- ground cumin
- cayenne chilli pepper
- crushed, dried chilli flakes
- a bay leaf (The Husband says all seasoning begins with bay leaves)

This needed to be in the slow cooker for 12 hours - so I popped it on low.

About 20 minutes before eating, add couscous to the slow cooker. Leave to absorb the juices. Add more seasoning and stir in.

Nice, nice, nice. Lamb falling apart. Would work well as a cold meal (e.g. for packed lunches).

Next time, I might trim some of the fat, or sear the meat first - a little on the greasy side, but only a touch.

Mmmm ... Beef Stifado

First day back at work today, The Husband and I went via the Rose of Waiting to pick up some provisions in advance of a big on-line shop next week.

We picked up 'Beef Stifado'. Gorgeous!

A little hunt on t'internet produced a variety of recipes, including this one.

One to try, methinks...

Food blogs

I stumbled across a list of food blogs in the Times recently online, reproduced here

Paper Anniversary weekend

We started Saturday with a nice bacon sandwich and then off to pick up Josh and Cara (the Vicar's children) to take them to the Zoo. The first time we tried this we got caught in traffic and didn't make it in time, so took them instead to the Natural History Museum (giving rise to the catchphrase "we're going to see the DINO-SAWRES" repeated ad infinitum thereafter).
We then rearranged for last weekend, but ended up going to North Shields instead to visit family at short notice.
So, third time lucky (not that I believe in luck, of course) - off to London Zoo we went. The last time I went was about 7 or 8 years ago, when I was still living in North London. It looked much better this time (I remember the tigers looking very sad then, and elephants looking unhappy) and was a lot of fun (if a little tiring).
Back to the East End, stopping off at McDonalds where we bumped into the ever-wonderful Dorothy (from church) who also knows the kids well, and we had a good old chat.
We dropped the kids off and after a chat, headed back to the flat via B+Q to buy a sink plunger and other assorted plumbing instruments to tackle the standing water in the bathroom sink. By the time we'd finished trying to sort that out (The Husband was successful later that evening - clever boy!) we decided to ditch dinner out (and have Chinese takeaway instead) and head straight to the theatre to see Joseph + TATD which was quite entertaining (although I didn't think Gareth Gates was particularly good - too much of a pop singer, not enough of a West End voice). The cast must have a phenomenal amount of energy!
Back home on the train (amused by overhearing a conversation about tracing family trees - "he was Jewish!, no he was Asian!"), getting off in Blackheath, due to a lineside fire near home, we ended up getting a bus back most of the way, and then wandering back home on foot when the bus took an unexpected turn.

Big long words

The Husband is going to be scheduled for a forward sliding sagittal split osteotomy ... to correct his severe Class II Division II malocclusion.

Fruity chutney

This weekend was the first one 'in' for a while, so I had time to cook properly.

As we had a pot of stem ginger in the cupboard (which has been there since I-don't-know-when) and a mango, beginning to go off, I decided to look on the BBC Good Food website where I found this recipe.

• 900g plums
• 2 Bramley apples (about 550g/1lb 4oz)
• 450g pears
• 1 large mango
• 900g muscovado sugar
• 500ml bottle cider vinegar
• 2 medium onions (not red)
• 85g chopped stem ginger (from a jar of ginger in syrup, or crystallized)
• 3 garlic cloves , finely chopped
• 1 tbsp mustard seeds
• 1 rounded tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp crushed dried chillies
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cinnamon stick

1. Halve, stone and chop the plums (about the same size as you would for an apple pie - not too big, not too small). Drop them into a large saucepan. Core, peel and chop the apples and pears in the same way. Peel, stone and chop the mango. Put all the fruit in the pan.
2. Stir sugar, vinegar, onions, ginger, garlic, mustard seeds, coriander, crushed chillies and salt into the pan, then drop the cinnamon stick on top. Heat slowly for about 20 mins, giving an occasional stir, until the sugar has dissolved. Now leave the chutney to simmer at a steady pace, without a lid, stirring occasionally until reduced and thickened, but still with a nice balance of syrupy juice. This will take about 1½ hrs. You don't want to cook it until all the liquid has gone, as it will thicken once it cools. Discard the cinnamon stick.
3. Using a heatproof jug, pour the chutney while still hot into sterilised jars. It will keep for about a year in a cool, dry place.

Notes:
This smelled quite vinegar, but apparently (I don't eat chutney, so have to go by The Husband's comments) doesn't taste too vinegary. It is rather nice apparently.

"Chef has made French cakes"

... and they were marvellous indeed. We'd organised the usual pastries / biscuits to go with the workshop I was running this afternoon, and then facilities said "Chef has made French cakes". They were quite delicious. I think that they were petits fours. In any case - they've just gone onto my 'would like to make list'.

However, not this evening. This evening is prep for Hocus Pocus, tidying the flat and making ginger cake.

Just over a month to go until the trip to the States. Beginning to get excited.

Lent

Some thoughts from The Husband on Lent (originally published here)

WHAT are you doing for Lent?

Do you feel you ought to give up chocolate, or you must quit smoking (again): that you should sacrifice?

But those feelings of `ought-itude and must-ness', this slavery to should, are not what Lent is about. Lent is about the historical event of a man going into the desert of Palestine 2,000 years ago, a man just like you and me.

With one difference. He was the proof that we never need to be alone because someone loves us more than we could ever imagine. Someone loves us so much that God became a human being, just like us, and lived and died so we could know how much God loves us, and so we might come to know Him.

What are you doing for Lent? Why not explore the evidence for Jesus and see if it's worth taking the risk of trusting Him? You won't regret it if you do.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Try:

Reading a gospel here; or

Taking part in a short Christianity Explored course - see here.

Or talk to me ;-)

Lamb biryani

I've just tracked down The Husband's favourite dish, which I shall have to attempt at some point...

Madhur Jaffrey's lamb biryani.... I found the recipe here.

Calvin in 2009, and other semi-resolutions

The Husband and I have decided that this year:
- we will be reading through Calvin's Institutes (there's a handy reading plan on t'internet)
- we will be picking up on learning the Westminster Shorter thingamebob, via notecards stuck to the fridge
- we will be walking more.

These aren't resolutions though, oh no. Then we stand a chance of making sure that we do these things....

Stott on 1 Corinthians

Mr Pye has blogged a useful summary of John Stott's "Calling Christian Leaders" which covers 1 Cor 1-4 here.

1 Corinthians 4:1-21: A Gospel of Power (5)

Sermon notes: Sunday Evening 31 August 2003 (posted 20 September 2008 as I trawl my sermon notes box for 1 Corinthians notes in advance of the new term starting).

Dominant issue is power in the church. Problems in Corinth - failure to live with the cross at the centre.

A) Genuine Christian ministry is apostolic in its authority, vv1-7, 14-21
The underlying issue is that the Corinthian church is in danger of parting ways with the Apostle Paul - v3 - judging Paul, v6 gone beyond what he has written to them, v7 they think that they are v. special, boasting of selves v18 arrogant.
v1 apostles - servants of Christ and stewards of mysteries of God.
cf. ch. £ the Apostles inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Responsibility of Christian ministers is to follow in line of apostles' teaching - not adding, not taking away.

B) Genuine Christian ministry is apostolic in its nature, vv8-13
The ministry that looks weak and foolish = God's ministry.
We live in the overlap of ages (between the First and Second Coming).
v8 - mocking - if they had this, they would be in heaven and he would be there with them.


Isaiah 53:3 - v3 he was despised and rejected by men ... Apostles treated like Christ.
Philippians 2:6-8 - did not count equality with God something to be grasped ... humbled to the point of death.

Church in Corinth wanted to leave the Cross out of the message and out of lifestyle.