New job

The government in their infinite wisdom has decided to modify the way doctors train and create a new process called "Modernising Medical Careers" (MMC). So, for the last few weeks I have been beavering away at my application so that I can join this new system. If I do not get into MMC, I have no job in August - no pressure then!

It seems that most of the known world have decided that they want to join MMC too, so there are many more applicants than there are jobs. I'm up against stiff competition, but I'm hoping that God has it all in hand. We're hoping to stay in the area we live now, but with MMC, I have the potential to end up anywhere in the country. Therefore we'd be very grateful for your prayers that we can stay in our local church, where all our Christian family are and where we think God has plans for us. Thanks very much, God bless...

Various pics of Ireland people (mostly Lorna!)

 

New Pictures

Happy new year everyone! I hope yours was as enjoyable as mine (in a pub in Donegal, Ireland!). I've tried out the new digital camera and have posted a few landscapes on pixmania.co.uk's site, so please check them out and let me know what you think...

Ireland

Around Essex

Just click on "Diaporama" for a slide show.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everybody! I hope and pray that you have blessed and peaceful celebrations and a fulfilling New Year.

God bless,

Pete

It's Christmas!

PG wodehouse

For some unknown reason, every time the festive season begins to loom, I always dig out my favorite books - my collection of PG Wodehouse. I can't imagine a better way to spend some time off than with one of his novels or anthologies. For me, Blandings Castle has to be his ultimate creation, closely followed by Jeeves, however, I can be equally entertained by Mulliner, Psmith and the like.

For the uninitiated, Wodehouse was an unparalleled comedy writer, who excelled at creating brilliantly convoluted plots with thoroughly lovable characters, all delivered in beautifully constructed prose. These stories are such excellent escapism, both the Kaiser and one of recent Nigerian Presidents were reputed to take to their beds to read Wodehouse when the tide turned against them! There are thousands of biographies about Wodehouse on the net - try the Wikipedia one for starters. For a taste of his writing, try What Ho! An anthology containing a selection of his best stories.

Labels

Well, you'll be excited to know I have updated all of my bloggings so far with labels, which was no end of fun!

Looking through my old posts, I realised I never updated the blog about my exam progress. I passed the whole of my MRCP (hooray!) and I'm now planning to start the anaesthetics exams (FRCA) in June 2007. Must be some kind of lunatic to sit all these tests...

New Treo

For those of you are familiar with my obsession wth my Palm Treo smartphone, you'll be relieved and delighted (I'm sure) that there are several new Treo models on the market. The Treo 680 is a straight upgrade of the 650 (my current phone) as far as I can tell. The best thing about it - no aerial! Hallelujah indeed my friends. The Treo750v is a Windows based phone which to my eye looks pretty much the same as the 680. For any of you who may like to find out more check out the links below...

Palm's official website: Treo 680, Treo 750v

Treo 680 review and Treo 750v review

Christmas, and those who have none...

At this time, with all the festivities and excess, my mind seems to subconsciously switch itself to thinking about those less fortunate. Maybe God is using my blessings to help me focus on others. It's a good time to review my charity donations. One I recently have started to support is Compassion, which enables me to sponsor a child. Mine is called Mateo and he lives in Equador. For anyone who is not involved in this kind of thing, I can't express how much of a blessing it is. When I first received my information pack about Mateo, about where he lives, what he enjoys doing and so on, I was moved to tears - it's such a privilige to be involved even in such a small way in this little chap's life. Hopefully, by supporting him, I can show Godly Christian love to someone who has so much less than myself. I'm not sharing this to blow my own trumpet - indeed I am so very blessed and so very hopeless at sharing it around - but in the hope that others may read it and consider doing the same (if they don't already do so). We are called to support the poor as Christians, and this really is one of the ways we can do so. Let's not forget (however cliched it sounds) that celebrating Christmas is about the birth of Jesus who has given us the gift of life.

Digital Camera

As part of my gadget portfolio, I feel compelled to share with you my latest purchase (an early Christmas pressie). I am awaiting in barely contained excitement the delivery of a new digital camera, what the magazines define as a "superzoom" or "prosumer camera", the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50 (snappy title I know).

Hopefully I'll be able to take some nice pictures once I've worked out how to use the camera, so watch this space for arty landscapes and the like!

Best man

Well, the best manning went ok - the speech was short but amusing enough to keep people entertained, and Jon and Suzanne seemed to have a lovely time. In fact everyone seemed to. There's something about a Christian weddding that just blows me away - I think the fact that the couple are binding themselves not only with legal and emotional contracts but also with a commitment in front of God, asking Him to be centre of their relationship is a very powerful thing, making these occasions an excellent witness of our faith.  I pray that the non Christians at Jon and Suzanne's wedding will begin to notice God's presence in their lives.

Steve's blog

My mate Steve has finally succumbed to temptation and joined the blogging community! Well done Steve! He has a lot more interesting stuff than me to say too, so get on down there and visit his blog at http://champerton.blogspot.com/. Meanwhile, I have the pleasure of preparing for my mate Jon's wedding - he's asked me to be best man, so I have a write a speech. This very difficult task has been made easier by the book "The Best Best Man" by Jacqueline Eames - if anyone out there is faced with this task I'd encourage you to get the book - it makes life a lot easier.

I have glasses

The official announcement - I now have glasses - here is an
updated pic of me in my specs (not that you probably care!).



 

God wants to breathe life into us...

Did October really disappear so quickly?
A while back , we met with some friends for dinner, and afterwards we prayed. One of our friends had a message for me - that I should remember Ezekiel 37. This talks about a vision the prophet had, when he was walking through a valley which was covered in the bones of the dead. To cut a long story short, God gave these bones life - through Ezekiel prophecying to them, God's Spirit brought them together into people, and then organised them into an army. I thought about that for a while, and even told my small group. Many of the members of that grouphad recently been in Kenya, where, to my surprise, they had also studied Ezekiel 37! To me, thatconfirmed that God wanted us to think about this passage. However, with the business of theworld, I put it to one side, and forgot about it.
This morning, as I was reading my Bible and my Bible notes (Closer to God, from the Scripture Union), again Ezekiel entered my mind. I realised I had neglected that message. The more I think about it, the more I feel that God wants me to use it to build up my church, St Andrew's. I feel God wants to tell us that he is breathing new life into us - some of whom have become a bit dry and worn, like those bones (and I don't deny that I may be one of those!). He does this because He loves us, and He wants us for His army - not an army of destruction, but a force who are strong with The Spirit, working to show our community His love and grace, and bringing people closer to Him.

Argh!

Feeling tempted to do stuff that goes against God? Well, we're in a war here and God's not left us without weaponry...

"Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

Ephesians 6:17

Bearing that in mind, here are a few verses that I use when I'm feeling attacked by temptation:

"But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it."

1 Corinthians 10:13

"Shun youthful lusts and flee from them, and aim at and pursue righteousness"

2Timothy 2:22

"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."

Ephesians 4:32

Reading matter

Anyone read "The Purpose Driven Church"? I'm really enjoying this great book - given me lots of ideas, but really challenges what we go to church for. It really makes me wonder, are we too comfortable? On this note, I've also been (trying) to read some theological articles in www.bible.org regarding crucifying sin - giving it up to God with His Spirit's help. So often I find that I try to do it on my own - earn my way into heaven. So often, we're told in society to rely on our own strength to achieve. Actually, The Bible says that we can't do it on our own - we need God's help. How do we do this? Through recognising our failings for what they are and telling God about them.

1 John 1:9-10, 2:1-2

If we claim that we're free of sin, we're only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won't let us down; he'll be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we've never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.
I write this, dear children, to guide you out of sin. But if anyone does sin, we have a Priest-Friend in the presence of the Father: Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus. When he served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good—not only ours, but the whole world's.

The Message
Also try:

Bible.Org - ABCs of Christian Growth
Bible.Org - Of the Mortification of Sin

Holiday Pics

Here is a link to my our photos of Sorrento, including Pompei and Vesuvius as well.

Still alive!

I am officially still alive. Good news - I have a job in August, in anaesthetics, praise the Lord! He has gone all out and answered my prayers, despite my sulkiness over the past few months. Thanks to all who have been praying for me (I know there are some at church who have been praying for a long time, bless you). This new job means a new and hopefully more sensible rota, so I'm hoping to get back into contributing a bit more at church, maybe leading some worship again. I think first, I need some down-time however, just to get back on track with God.

Away

Sorry I've been away for so long - currently going through some busy and rather difficult times. I'm looking for jobs in a rapidly shrinking market, and trying to revise for the final (and hardest) part of the MRCP. Consequently I won't be around much for the next few weeks. Just a quick thought before I go - it's amazing how easy it is to forget God's grace when things get stressful - He's been with me all the way through my life, and when I should be looking to Him the most, I still try and rely on my own endeavour. It reminds me of the words to the song 'Only By Grace' - "Not by our human endeavour, but by the blood of the Lamb". We just need to try and remember that in our hearts in the hardest times, and remember that God never said we wouldn't suffer (indeed, Jesus said on many occasions we will suffer as Christians) but He did say he would be with us in pain and in joy. On that note I think I'll head off, thanking God for blessing me with Lorna, who also promised to be with me during good and bad times and who is a constant joy and blessing to me! I should also remember that a few hard exams and job worries are nothing compared with the suffering many are going through. I pray they will know God's presence during their hard times.

More on Abdul Rahman

Amnesty International

Adnkronos International

CNS News

BBC News

Apparently, the court think Mr Rahman may be insane and not fit to stand trial under Sharia Law. However, he says:

"They want to sentence me to death and I accept it, but I am not a deserter and not an infidel. I am a Christian which means I believe in the Trinity."

Quite a sensible sentence for someone who is supposedly mad!

The international reaction has been interesting. The US says they do not want to interfere but are concerned. Italy, Germany and Canada show some courage by more forcefully condemning the situation.

In the UK, Alan Simpson, Labour MP said:

We have to be saying to the government of
Afghanistan that it is not the role, the function or the presumption of the UK
government to have a presence in Afghanistan to defend an administration that
conducts and complies with laws that are brutal in terms that would be judged by
the outside international community, and would not be accepted by the Muslim
community if they were used in reverse.