Sunday 30th October, 2011

Even More Mobility
 

I left yesterday's blog with a question relating to the extra hour in bed. I did take advantage of the extra hour and got up at around 9am GMT.

Today, I decided to try dropping the Morphine tablets, leaving only Paracetemol as a pain killer. Today, I have had virtually no discomfort from my hip, so I will try dropping the evening tablet as well.

I had a pretty lazy morning, watching the amazing HD pictures of the first Indian formula 1 Grand Prix. Lots of enthusiasm, lots of colour, typical of modern India.

Chris joined us for roast lunch at The Hatch. I spent most of the afternoon working on arrangements for the 2012 South East Region Swimming Championships. Even though the competition is not until May 2012, club coaches are desperate for information now.

I have managed to wear out the rubber piece on the end of one of my crutches, which means that crutch slips on smooth surfaces. Tomorrow, I need to go to A&E to get it fixed.

This evening, Sue and I went to church. I walked into church without crutches and without a stick.

Over the last two weeks, I have been explaining why I am a committed Christian. So far, I have explained that I believe that creation is the result of Intelligent Design, which of course implies the existence of a designer and that I am convinced that Jesus Christ was a historical figure and there is overwhelming evidence that he rose from the dead. So what remains is the answer to the question, "So what?".

This requires much more of a leap of Faith.

When I was young, I went to church and was even baptised without any understanding of the Christian Faith. On 4th September, I talked about Holiday Club. Around 30 years ago, I first went to St. Mary's to see my children taking part in a service at the end of a Holiday Club. The story around which the week was based was Jonah and the Whale. I literally walked into church through the mouth of a whale. I was intrigued and, although I had not yet made a commitment to Jesus Christ, I started to go to church.

A few weeks later, one of the preachers, John Maley, spoke primarily to children. He used a glove puppet of a hedgehog who wanted to know why Jesus Chris was never referred to as the Hedgehog of God, but always as the Lamb of God. For the first time, I understood. Before the coming of Jesus, the Jews used to sacrifice lambs to attone for the things they had done wrong. God sacrificed Jesus Chris to attone for everything that we do wrong.

What was the nature of Jesus Christ? Some people simply believe that he was a "Good Man" setting an example for us. Actually that conclusion is not possible. The claims he made, to be the Son of God are not consistent with simply being a "Good Man". There are three possible conclusions:

(1) He was a conman, a criminal, in other words BAD
(2) He was insane, in other words MAD
(3) He was who he claimed to be, in other words GOD

I have come to accept that Jesus Christ was who he said he was. Once I came to that recognition, I had a choice, to become a Christian or to ignore Jesus Christ and accept the consequences.

This is beautifully summed up in a presentation called Two Ways to Live, which explains this choice much better than I ever could. [Follow the link to see a simple presentation]