the demise of pride.
Whilst 'spring cleaning' my room I have listened to an audio cassette of Scott's diary. Having recently viewed the DVD 'Blizzard' (a bizzarre attempt to recreate the conditions of the 1911 'race to the pole' between Scott and Amundsen) there are a whole raft of issues which it has raised. One of them is this matter of pride - self respect if you like. There were men on the recent documentary who were just plain whingers - unlike on the scott expedition. Even those on the 1911 trip who were not professed Christians had a good deal more backbone than any of the 21st century adventurers. Oates - of 'I'm going out and I may be some time' fame - was reported as having said, towards the end, 'my regiment will be proud of me'.

This morning's story (by J Reid Howatt - maybe one day I'll get round to putting together a collection of these stories and trying to get them republished - is encouraging Christian children to not dishonour the name of Christ in the way they live their lives. It mentions how a soldier would be very careful about what he was doing if he was in his uniform - for fear of bringing dishonour on his regiment. I wonder whether this is a feature of modern soldiery?

I daresay Daniel was proud to be brought before the king on charges of praying to the Almighty. He'd been doing it faithfully for years - at the same time as 'keeping his nose clean' regarding the law of the land. What a point to be proud at - just before you are fed to the lions. It must have seemed (at the start of the journey to the lions den) that it was all futile - now his ability to do good was going to be cut short. How the wisdom of man is shown to be foolishness and the power of God was manifested by having the head man of the most powerful empire in history (to that point) acknowledge the might of the Almighty creator.

Richard Dawkins is a long-standing fool - maybe he will have the priveldge of encountering a 'Daniel' - before it is too late for him to repent.

(my) Richard put on 'Lord of the Rings ' last night (I don't much care for the DVDs) and I saw, briefly a small army of goodies backed up by a semi-visible army who were effectively wiping out the baddies. We might seem puny, it might look like our efforts are ineffective in fighting the increasing wickedness (whether it is liberalism, islam, secular humanism or just plain old apathy) but we have to know that we ARE on the winning side and that the Lord can (and will) use our faithfulness in prayer and life to manifest His power.

Meanwhile - at my particular 'grindstone', I am Praisng the Lord for successes on the part of Timothy (now a qualified accountant having passed his final 3 exams), David (having passed his biology IGCSe with an A and also making tremendous progress in his blacksmithing course in Hereford - exam on Friday) and Lucy (confidently catching babies and learning/applying stuff related to midwifery - course finishes Feb. 2008). Philip is making friends with the new neighbours and working hard on sorting out the house he and Timothy have bought. I'm all excited about the schoolwork which lies before us until Easter. I fell more organised than ever and have almost finished the planning stage. All that and the Spring cleaning!!!

May all His faithful ones delight to fulfill their joyous duty of 'good works which God has prepared in advance that we should do' - as per Ephesians.