This seems to be the popular perception of Jesus... among Christians!
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Burma "orders Christians to be wiped out"
From the Telegraph:
The military regime in Burma is intent on wiping out Christianity in the country, according to claims in a secret document believed to have been leaked from a government ministry. Entitled "Programme to destroy the Christian religion in Burma", the incendiary memo contains point by point instructions on how to drive Christians out of the state.
The text, which opens with the line "There shall be no home where the Christian religion is practised", calls for anyone caught evangelising to be imprisoned. It advises: "The Christian religion is very gentle – identify and utilise its weakness."
Its discovery follows widespread reports of religious persecution, with churches burnt to the ground, Christians forced to convert to the state religion, Buddhism, and their children barred from school.
Human rights groups claim that the treatment meted out to Christians, who make up six per cent of the population, is part of a wider campaign by the regime, also targeted at ethnic minority tribes, to create a uniform society in which the race and language is Burmese and the only accepted religion is Buddhism.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Evangelism
Listen to this testimony about a man who gave out evangelistic tracts in Sydney. It's amazing.
Clicky
Clicky
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Letter to Simon Cowell
Dear Mr Cowell,
Having greatly enjoyed watching your television appearances on both sides of the Atlantic in the past few years with "Pop Idol" and "American Idol" I would like to offer you an exclusive deal on an up-and-coming TV show which is along the same lines.
The increased materialism in our society - as typified by the popularity of glorified karaoke contests with obscene prize monies - is a concern to every practicing Christian. We are taught that the love of money is the root of all evil, and that to give is more blessed than to receive. This message does not seem to be reaching those who need it most, however: the TV-watching public. Mugs that they are, they'll watch anything billed as "reality TV"; and what could be more real than a head-to-head competition of most people's favourite pastimes?
I would like to present "False Idol".
The purpose of this TV show is to discover the real view of the man on the Clapham Omnibus (you may remember from when you lived in Britain that many of us use public transport to get around). Would that man rather be driving around Clapham in a ludicrous 4x4? Would he prefer, perhaps, to watch a football match every week? Could he do without his new iPod while he's at the gym? Or are his interests more down-at-hand, if you know what I mean?
Human societies have developed so many ways to occupy their citizens in ultimately meaningless pursuits. Let's find out which one they really couldn't do without, and which are just a small convenience.
Similar to "Pop Idol", the series will start with a group of contestants: TV, gadgets, sport, sex, money, cars and status. Every week there will be a presentation from an advocate for each contestant, but at the end of the show one will be going home empty-handed. The viewer votes by phone to decide which idol is a 90ft gold statue, and which is a chocolate teapot.
Week by week, the list of idols will be reduced until the grand finale, when a battle for hearts and minds will consume the nation in a passion of idolatry. Which will it be?
The winner of the series will be crowned with a crown that will perish, spoil and fade: FALSE IDOL! The records of everyone who voted will at this time be analysed, and to those who voted for the winning idol, an invitation will be issued to worship it more in the coming year.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to your swift reply, and anticipate a fruitful relationship in producing this televisual marvel.
Yours faithlessly
Chris Hillcoat
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Year in Review: 2006
Reading
It's nice to be home. We had a great time in Switzerland - beautiful scenery, lovely town to stay in, great weather too! My brother and I weren't too keen on the lack of snow, but we were still able to ski every day.
Anyway, it's nearly a year since I started blogging, and 2006 has been pretty eventful. It struck me, for example, that October was the only month when I didn't go abroad! Here then are some of my unashamedly hedonistic highlights, month by month. Some of the pictures have been on here before.
January:
I flew to Canada on the 2nd, and spent the first week or so settling in to life at York University in Toronto. At first everything seemed pretty normal and not as extraordinary as people had led me to believe. At least, that was until I started meeting Canadians...
February:
Still in Canada. Still freezing cold. In our "reading week" - ie. week off - Kate, Nat, Jay and I (all exchange students) went to Quebec, Montreal and Ottowa to have a poke around. Quebec was great, very French in some ways, very Canadian in others. Montreal was quite nice... more like Toronto but with a French accent. Ottowa was just cold.
March:
Developed some great friendships in a surprisingly short period of time (for me). I enjoyed attending GFC nearly every week, despite the early start and overly tall preacher! The international student office organised a day trip to the Warkworth Maple Syrup Festival - a very odd little town about two hours away. I bought some syrup.
April:
The term at York finished early in the month, and after my one exam (!), a week or so of exploring the city more, going to the pub with hall-mates and frenzied packing at the end, I left Toronto (sniff). For the next four weeks I was in the USA - starting in New York City, then flying to California where I rented a car and drove all over for a week... (continued in May!)
May:
(from April) Still in the USA, I took a 57 hour train journey across the country, and then a succession of buses to visit friends in the Midwest. On the 23rd I finally made it back to the UK! Seeing family and friends again was very nice!
June:
Southampton uni finished at the start of June, and I went away with some of the lads from the CU to Italy for a few days of basically bumming around and playing board games. Good fun!
July:
England crashed out of the World Cup, and I spent four weeks on short term mission in Poland as an English teacher-cum-general summer camp dogsbody. It's exhausting stuff, but very worthwhile and I think some of the kids were spiritually impacted by the talks and Bible studies.
August:
A relatively quiet month... started working on my dissertation but had to stop soon afterwards; worked for a week at the university on the admissions hotline; evangelised at the Reading Festival; oh, and spent a week in France with my parents!
September:
Away for two weeks in Europe (yes, again) firstly on a fieldtrip in Berlin: I got to know some coursemates a lot better than I'd had chance to before, and discovered the true face of "cultural geography"! Straight afterwards my friend Steve and I went driving around Europe for a week. I set a new land-speed personal record of 203km/h on the Autobahn (while listening to John Piper!) amongst other exploits.
October:
Started doing something called "studying" again after 6 months off. It was rather strange, as was moving back to Southampton. As you can see, the marks of Canada are still with me...
November:
Working hard at uni, both on academic and CU grounds. One day three of us went on a jolly to France to buy vast quantities of cheap wine for the CU carol service. It was also my 22nd birthday and 7th birth-again-day (is there a term for this?) during November.
December:
Lots of coursework deadlines to meet in the first two weeks, along with the CU carol services, which were a great success. I've just come back (today) from a week skiing in Switzerland over Christmas, which was both very enjoyable and rather foolish given how much work I still have to do!
All the best for 2007. I don't imagine I'll be doing quite so much travelling, but the year could turn out to be pretty interesting. Happy New Year!
It's nice to be home. We had a great time in Switzerland - beautiful scenery, lovely town to stay in, great weather too! My brother and I weren't too keen on the lack of snow, but we were still able to ski every day.
Anyway, it's nearly a year since I started blogging, and 2006 has been pretty eventful. It struck me, for example, that October was the only month when I didn't go abroad! Here then are some of my unashamedly hedonistic highlights, month by month. Some of the pictures have been on here before.
January:
I flew to Canada on the 2nd, and spent the first week or so settling in to life at York University in Toronto. At first everything seemed pretty normal and not as extraordinary as people had led me to believe. At least, that was until I started meeting Canadians...
February:
Still in Canada. Still freezing cold. In our "reading week" - ie. week off - Kate, Nat, Jay and I (all exchange students) went to Quebec, Montreal and Ottowa to have a poke around. Quebec was great, very French in some ways, very Canadian in others. Montreal was quite nice... more like Toronto but with a French accent. Ottowa was just cold.
March:
Developed some great friendships in a surprisingly short period of time (for me). I enjoyed attending GFC nearly every week, despite the early start and overly tall preacher! The international student office organised a day trip to the Warkworth Maple Syrup Festival - a very odd little town about two hours away. I bought some syrup.
April:
The term at York finished early in the month, and after my one exam (!), a week or so of exploring the city more, going to the pub with hall-mates and frenzied packing at the end, I left Toronto (sniff). For the next four weeks I was in the USA - starting in New York City, then flying to California where I rented a car and drove all over for a week... (continued in May!)
May:
(from April) Still in the USA, I took a 57 hour train journey across the country, and then a succession of buses to visit friends in the Midwest. On the 23rd I finally made it back to the UK! Seeing family and friends again was very nice!
June:
Southampton uni finished at the start of June, and I went away with some of the lads from the CU to Italy for a few days of basically bumming around and playing board games. Good fun!
July:
England crashed out of the World Cup, and I spent four weeks on short term mission in Poland as an English teacher-cum-general summer camp dogsbody. It's exhausting stuff, but very worthwhile and I think some of the kids were spiritually impacted by the talks and Bible studies.
August:
A relatively quiet month... started working on my dissertation but had to stop soon afterwards; worked for a week at the university on the admissions hotline; evangelised at the Reading Festival; oh, and spent a week in France with my parents!
September:
Away for two weeks in Europe (yes, again) firstly on a fieldtrip in Berlin: I got to know some coursemates a lot better than I'd had chance to before, and discovered the true face of "cultural geography"! Straight afterwards my friend Steve and I went driving around Europe for a week. I set a new land-speed personal record of 203km/h on the Autobahn (while listening to John Piper!) amongst other exploits.
October:
Started doing something called "studying" again after 6 months off. It was rather strange, as was moving back to Southampton. As you can see, the marks of Canada are still with me...
November:
Working hard at uni, both on academic and CU grounds. One day three of us went on a jolly to France to buy vast quantities of cheap wine for the CU carol service. It was also my 22nd birthday and 7th birth-again-day (is there a term for this?) during November.
December:
Lots of coursework deadlines to meet in the first two weeks, along with the CU carol services, which were a great success. I've just come back (today) from a week skiing in Switzerland over Christmas, which was both very enjoyable and rather foolish given how much work I still have to do!
All the best for 2007. I don't imagine I'll be doing quite so much travelling, but the year could turn out to be pretty interesting. Happy New Year!
Friday, December 22, 2006
Big money
Saas Fee, Switzerland
I've made it to the mountains. This is just a post to say that the Swiss are rather silly. Yesterday I trumped my previous record of "most ludicrous denomination of banknote to dispense from ATM" - 1000 Czech crowns, which is worth about £25. I asked for 200 Swiss francs, and low and behold I got it - in one note! That's about £70 worth of paper in one fragile sheet. Yikes. Yet it seems you can get a 1000 franc note, worth even more than €500 in one go.
Long live Mastercard...
I've made it to the mountains. This is just a post to say that the Swiss are rather silly. Yesterday I trumped my previous record of "most ludicrous denomination of banknote to dispense from ATM" - 1000 Czech crowns, which is worth about £25. I asked for 200 Swiss francs, and low and behold I got it - in one note! That's about £70 worth of paper in one fragile sheet. Yikes. Yet it seems you can get a 1000 franc note, worth even more than €500 in one go.
Long live Mastercard...
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Off again
Winter is (nearly) upon us in temperate England, and so is Christmas. I have three weeks of holiday - in which I need to write 5000 words, half a dissertation and start revising for exams. But most importantly, it's started snowing in the Alps! So today my family and I are off to Saas Fee for a week. While I'm there I'll be investigating the effects of modernistic tourism on a dynamic landscape; also studying the impacts of post-holocene climate change on glacial features.
In other words, I'm skiing for a week. Bye, and happy Christmas!
In other words, I'm skiing for a week. Bye, and happy Christmas!
Thursday, December 14, 2006
School's out for winter
The carol service was a great success! We had over 2900 people attending, who consumed 2800 mince pies, 230 litres of mulled wine, took over a thousand gospels and tracts, sang carols and heard the Gospel preached faithfully - praise God!
Since Sunday I've been very busy catching up on all the work I should have been doing while organising the carol service... never mind. As of this morning I have no more deadlines this term - just two essays to write for January and a dissertation to get on with.
Since Sunday I've been very busy catching up on all the work I should have been doing while organising the carol service... never mind. As of this morning I have no more deadlines this term - just two essays to write for January and a dissertation to get on with.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Many a mince pie
Tomorrow the CU is hosting our annual carol service(s). This year there are four services through the afternoon and evening, at a church near campus. We're hoping for about 700 people to each of the services! This week we've baked 2700 mince pies, given out 5000 flyers, stuck up 150 posters, and invited thousands of people. Roger Carswell will be preaching on "Away or a manger or here with us now?" (his title not ours!) at all of the services, which should be a faithful gospel presentation.
I've been involved in the organisation of this service since September, so it will be both a blessing and a relief when it's over tomorrow night! Please pray for the services - that many people will attend, that the message will be relevant and impact people, and that there will be effective follow-up of all enquirers (starting in January/February, in tandem with our Events Week).
Of course, celebrating Christ's incarnation is always worth whatever we put in! We sang "Hark the Herald" last week and the words of verse 2 struck me again:
Veiled in flesh the Godhead seeHail the incarnate DeityPleased as man with man to dwellJesus, our EmmanuelHark! The herald angels sing"Glory to the newborn King!"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)