God made my leg grow – discuss?

Francis FinnBBC – Nottingham – Faith – God made my leg grow
God made my leg grow
BBC Radio Nottingham presenter Frances Finn has witnessed a miracle. Watch the footage captured on a mobile phone.

This story was mentioned in the sermon at church this evening. You have to watch the footage to see what happens. The event seems to take place without any hype, drama or displays of emotionalism. Just polite applause once the leg has grown.

What do you think?

Hospitality

  The chief executive at the prayer breakfast

I had breakfast with Bill McCarthy,  the Chief Exec of the City of York Council. I joined about 40 leaders from churches in the city for one of their occasional prayer breakfasts in The Spurriergate Centre organised by One Voice York. Key leaders from the city are invited to talk frankly about their expectations of the churches and we spend time praying in response.

This morning Bill McCarthy appealed to us to welcome the strangers and the disadvantaged into the city. While only four percent of York’s population is from outside the UK, it’s the fastest growing sector. He said it was important to integrate these new people into York and he asked for our help. There were leaders representing a broad range of churches from Independent Pentecostal to Roman Catholics, Mr McCarthy’s own persuasion.  There’s a longer report about the event on the One Voice site.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness

Calvary“What, I wonder, do Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and all the other professional atheists who make good money out of knocking people’s religious faith make of the behaviour of Margaret Mizen in the immediate aftermath of her son Jimmy’s murder?” 

Justin Thacker, Head of Theology at EA, writing in The Friday Night Theology 

The brutal unprovoked killing of Jimmy Mizen left me wondering if anyone was safe in this advanced corner of civilisation called Britain. Then I heard his mother speaking coherently about the love of God and of the people in her church and how she had been supported by their care. I remember hearing similar voices from close family of victims of violence here in my own country. Safety from violent and evil men isn’t guaranteed either here or anywhere else in the world. But universal access to the love of God and the power to forgive is. It’s up to me to accept it.

The Friday Night Theology is a weekly piece from the Evangelical Alliance designed to provoke discussion over the weekend. It’s usually based on a significant event in the news – so it’s topical.

The dead book society

Simon Jenkins: When it comes to kissing and telling, you cant beat this 15th-century gadget
I am baffled as to why this medium is still so derided by futurology gurus. My bulging file marked “death of the book” stretches back almost half a century. Alvin Toffler in 1962 declared in a book that the practice of smearing ink on dead trees was “the last smokestack industry” and would die. A decade ago, Geoffrey Nunberg, in The Future of the Book, declared that “if by books we mean bound printed volumes, then most books will likely disappear soon”. He wisely proffered no date.

Books on my shelfI was listening to another series of comments inspired by Cherie Blair’s memoirs as I was reading The Guardian (electronically) and came across Simon Jenkyns column. I’m fascinated by the way our thoughts so often lead us to the medium rather than the message, and here again it’s the book that’s more interesting than the memoir.

Christians were once known as the people of the book, but in their case the message is far more dynamic than the medium. As someone said recently in his observation of Christians, before he became one himself. ”

Christians are these people who are so judgemental, incredibly dull and uptight and yet they believe in something that is so insane it makes Lord of the Rings sound like a dull episode of the Archers.

 If you want to hear the whole talk it was given by Charlie Mackesy at Holy Trinity Brompton recently. You’ll love his jokes!

New Technology is still a million miles away from displacing the book – even now the only advantage of reading on screen is the immediacy – otherwise old tech print wins hands down for me.

Light five candles today

BBC NEWS | UK | McCanns mark Madeleine’s birthday
McCanns mark Madeleine’s birthdayMadeleine McCann 

Madeleine McCann has been missing for just over a year
The parents of Madeleine McCann have been marking the fifth birthday of their missing daughter with a low-key party at their family home.

 

Today is the fifth birthday of this little girl who went missing in The Algarve last year.

Let’s pray for her family and trust that she may yet be found.