I backed Boris

Ken out; Boris in. As predicted by YouGov, backed by the Evening Standard (who were pretty ruthless towards Ken) and voted for by 1.1 million Londoners - including me.

What were we thinking? Isn't Boris just a gaffe-prone buffoon with a line in funny TV appearances? The BBC has an interesting bio this morning, and includes this quote from a friend of Boris's:

"The bumbling quiz-show host isn't the real Boris at all. I suspect he's tired of that clownish persona and wants to show us the real Boris - orator, leader, heavyweight thinker. Those qualities are there in his personality; they just don't come across on telly" - journalist friend Lloyd Evans

It is of course true that Boris might mess up. Given that he's a human being it's inevitable; and as a politician the halcyon glow will not last more than a few months. It does feel good to have backed the winning man in an election, and I look forward to London's success being built on the three core values of economic freedom, justice and comedy for all. Go on Boris!

Boris wins!

Boris Johnson is the Mayor of London.

Let me come back to this in the morning...

Great news

Bring on the house price crash I say. The average house price in London is £350,000 (11 times the average London salary). Just think: in 3 years or so, I might even be able to get on the housing ladder!

Album review: Come Weary Saints

Sovereign Grace Music have released their latest album, Come Weary Saints. If you're a Christian who never struggles with trusting God in difficult circumstances or develops your deepest knowledge of God through your prosperous sunshine-and-lollipops life, then (a) this album isn't for you; (b) go and read the Bible some more.

For the rest of us, this is a very welcome addition to the pantheon of worship music available to the church. With some notable exceptions (such as "Jesus, draw me ever nearer" by Keith & Kristyn Getty) most of the new music being written and sung is appealing to the concept that joyful = happy, which is of course only true when you're happy.

The album has some cracking songs on it, from the beautiful opening track "Hide Away in the Love of Jesus" to the retuned and chorused "Oh the Deep, Deep Love" to the haunting "Every Day".

I'm sure this album will be flying up my iTunes' "most played" list from now on. It's one to listen to when things are going well; and when your nine MSc exams are coming up in little over a week and your revision feels turgid and purposeless.

Ahem. The best thing is you can download it right now for only $9 (£4.50!) from the Sovereign Grace Music store. Get it now!

Digesting the Word (Alive)

It was a real blessing to go to Wales with 4000 others - including 2000 students - to attend the first New Word Alive conference: a conference founded on the truth of penal substitution at the Cross and distancing itself from previous colleagues at Spring Harvest.

It was apparent while we were there that the effect of the "schism" has been a lot greater than simply tightening the theological drawbridge of evangelicalism. You've probably seen the Political Compass, which plots people according to their economic and authoritarian views. It would be possible to do a similar exercise in the church, with Christians plotted according to their theological views and "stylistic" modernity. Spring Harvest's target audience was drawn from across the theological spectrum but from only one end of the style axis; New Word Alive has re-oriented the audience completely by founding itself on doctrine: it accepts people from all over the Church in terms of style, but only those who accept the truth of penal substitution.

The broad church of style was demonstrated by having Soul Survivor along to lead worship in the student celebrations. They did a rocking job, as did Stuart Townend, Phatfish and the Gettys in the other meetings. So it was very accessible, and helpful in demonstrating different ways of doing church which still focus on Jesus.

The highlight for me was definitely hearing John Piper speak on "Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer" over 2 nights. We are to value Christ infinitely and not simply to see him as 'useful' to get us into heaven. Using Romans 8, Piper demonstrated that everyone God called, he justified, and everyone he justified, he will glorify; and that everyone who will be glorified will suffer first. So the question is not "will I suffer?" but "how will I respond to suffering"?

I was given an early opportunity to respond to suffering when I had to spend 17 hours in bed with a stomach virus at the end of the conference. Somehow I doubt that's all God has in store for my future, but tomorrow has enough worries of its own.

John Piper's talks are available to download from the Desiring God website: Part 1 Part 2

Under the weather

Reading

It was rather weird to wake up yesterday morning to see 3 inches of snow on the ground! Last April we were basking in 25ºC sunshine, today it's closer to 25ºF.

It doesn't bode too well for the next week at Word Alive in west Wales, hardly a region famed for its good weather... but quite frankly with DAC Attack, John Piper and Terry Virgo teaching the Word it doesn't really matter. Keith/Kristyn Getty and the Soul Survivor band ought to take care of the music as well I would think.

Edit: looks like I'm right about the weather. Check the forecast!

Reflections on Israel

For about 15 minutes on Tuesday afternoon I wondered whether we'd make it back home at all. Stu and I stood a few metres apart, each being interviewed questioned interrogated by a shaven EL AL security agent who seemed to consider us very much guilty until proven innocent. Where did you stay? How did you get there? What did you do? Do you have a guidebook? Show me where you went in Bethlehem. Did you talk to anyone in Bethlehem? When did you buy the guidebook? But you only booked the flights 3 weeks ago. How are you paying for this trip? Why did you decide to come to Israel? How do you know each other? What does your brother do? Do you know anyone who's been to Israel? What are their names?

After 20 minutes of that, 10 minutes of bag-swabbing and then the check-in queue, we were good and ready to come home.

As the last post may have made clear, Israel is an extraordinary country. If it weren't for the fact that they get attacked quite regularly, the security they - or the Americans, $3bn a year - pay for would be paranoid and ridiculous. You can't enter a bar, shopping centre, museum or bus station without having your bag searched or x-rayed and walking through an x-ray machine. Everyone who does these searches is packing heat - in fact, we saw a young man out for a date with his girlfriend with one arm round her and one round his M16!

Graffiti at Bethlehem

The Palestinians have it rather different, of course. Faced with an 8m high wall through their territory, economic sanctions, limited power and water and even airstrikes, it's perhaps not surprising that they feel aggrieved. In saying this I'm not by any means justifying the jihad posters we saw in Bethlehem. After 6 days I'd hardly consider myself an expert on the Israel-Palestine conflict, but it seems to me that the answer lies in reconciliation, not retribution. Who was that guy who said he was the Prince of Peace...?

Anyway, back to the travelogue. Photos from the trip are here and here.

In the pools at En Gedi

At 6:30 on Easter Day, we joined thousands of other believers at the Garden Tomb to celebrate Jesus' resurrection. That is going to be hard to top until the Second Coming! By 9:00 we'd hired a car for two days and had hit the road to Galilee. We wandered around Capernaum, ate broiled fish in Tiberias, watched the sunset from Mt Tabor and had a drink on Mt Carmel (now part of Haifa). That was one long day, but the next was slightly shorter: hiking around and swimming in the pools of En Gedi, floating in the Dead Sea, and wandering around Herod's fortress at Masada.

On Tuesday we had just enough time to get the bus to Tel Aviv, find the beach and swim in the Mediterranean for an hour or so, before heading to the airport for the ordeal described above.

This has been one of the most interesting trips I've ever taken. Quite apart from the awesome experience of seeing the places where Jesus walked and the Bible was written, experiencing a culture that is a mixture of the Middle East, Western Europe, the USA and the Second Temple Period was a blast. Thankfully not literally.

The Holy Land

Jerusalem

Who'd have thought that all those Bible stories actually happened? More than that, who'd have imagined that 2000+ years later, Jerusalem is still here, alive and kicking? Stu and I are living it up over here.

On Thursday we visited the Temple - or what's left of it - and saw Jews with phylacteries praying against the Western Wall. Apparently the Shechina glory never left the place, so it's still "a house of prayer for all the nations". Appropriately, there are still people buying and selling souvenirs in the courtyard as well. We went to Caiaphas' house, where Jesus would have been held on the Thursday night; and where Peter and John would have been imprisoned in Acts 4. On Good Friday we walked the Via Dolorosa up to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Golgotha could have been. We walked across the Kidron Valley to Gethsemane, and climbed the Mount of Olives. And we hopped on a bus to Bethlehem to check out the oldest church in the world. Today we saw the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Israel Museum, which include a complete copy of Isaiah from 100AD. Tomorrow morning we'll be at the Garden Tomb at sunrise to celebrate the resurrection. Wow!

There's more to Israel than history of course. Among the more notable cultural sights, we had a Palestinian boy throw stones at us in East Jerusalem, we almost got shot crossing back from the West Bank to Israel (something that 2m Palestinians aren't allowed to do) and had Orthodox Jews rebuke us for carrying a bag on the Sabbath. (They were walking up the street, but never mind.) And who could forget the Palestinian man on the bus back to Jerusalem who was screaming with pain the whole journey - so much so the bus driver took him straight to hospital.

We've had some great chats as well. A Russian Jew called Sergei who's in the army (everyone is, for 3 years) as a bomb disposal expert told us he had to be ready - with his M16 - every second of the day for an attack. A Palestinian boy in Bethlehem called Ahmed who has to sell postcards to tourists to support his family, while also going to school. Not to mention our friend Nathaniel from All Souls who we ran into twice on Friday - once on the Via Dolorosa and once in a restaurant at night.

I think I've forgotten more than I've put down. The internet access here is too expensive and slow to write more or upload photos so more to come later... meanwhile we hope to rent a car tomorrow and Monday to go to Galilee, the Mount of Transfiguration etc. and down to the Dead Sea. Sweet!

You can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs

Following the "Double Delia" recipe, we made 3 omelettes from the following ingredients:

6 medium potatoes
2 large onions
2 peppers
8 rashers of bacon
1 block of cheddar cheese
1 small chilli
15 eggs

I don't even like eggs, but in the company of such co-ingredients it was a meal to remember.

Holy sites

2008's travel season is set to begin in 2 weeks when a friend, a flatmate and I fly off to Israel for 6 days over Easter! It should be an incredible trip, and I even took the radical step of buying a guidebook to help us. As I read it last night it struck me how bizarre some of the recommendations are.

For Jews, the Western wall (which was part of the foundations of Herod's temple) is a holy site: they started praying there after AD70 because they were afraid of accidentally stepping on the site of the Holy of Holies. Fair enough.

But why is there a long list of sites in Jerusalem and elsewhere, each of which is a "holy place for Christians"? Is that not missing the point ever so slightly...?

1 Peter 2:

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says:
"See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.

Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
"The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone,"
and,
"A stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall."
They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Christians are the holiest sites in Christianity. And that's because we have God's Holy Spirit living inside us, not because we go on a pilgrimage to the "Holy Land" (ahem).