Faith - One Grace of God's Love

The old Baptist Church in my hometown was more than three-quarters full one Sunday evening in 1975 when I was immersed fully clothed in a pool of tepid water right at the front of the auditorium. I was one of three who were baptised that evening by the Pastor himself. And that was a clear two years after I first believed, or trusted Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.

This baptism was a public declaration of my faith in Jesus. That occasion was actually the second of two, the first was at Westminster Cathedral in London back in 1952, when water was sprinkled on my forehead by the Catholic priest while I screamed my head off, according to my mother's testimony, trying to pass on the message that I wasn't too happy with the sacrament.

The 1952 baptism meant that Adam's sin within me was atoned for and I have become a Christian and a child of God, according to the Catholic Church. I had no choice in the matter, let alone any faith to precede the sacrament.
I write this article after spending an evening on this website after reading several articles from one particular group who call themselves "The Church of Christ." The author of this webpage, at the time of writing, has nearly 59,000 pageviews, proving to be well read and very popular. Hence my need to respond here.

There is a distinct similarity between the Church of Christ and Catholicism, namely that in both the rite of baptism plays a role in the candidate's salvation. The differences between the two groups are that the Church of Christ believes in adult baptism by submersion, with the candidate's full consent while the other is infant sprinkling, also known as Aspersion, or Affusion if the water is poured over the baby's head.
The Church of Christ claims to be non-denominational in a sense that it does not want to call itself under a specific name or function, such as Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Congregationalist or Presbyterian. They insist that their only source of authority is the Bible, and nothing else, and emphasise their sotorology (study of salvation) by strict obedience to a specific command Peter made to several thousand international Jews at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost:

Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit... Acts 2:38.

This implies, as they insist, that baptism is a work added for one to be saved, as with the Catholic Church. This doctrine is often referred as Baptismal Regeneration although I believe they are not too keen to use this terminology, as it indicates heresy.

The Church of Christ had its origins in the USA, during the early days of the 19th Century Restoration Movement, an idea that churches in America should shed it denominational leanings and return to straightforward Bible teaching and sole source of authority. Hence the Church of Christ came about in 1832 by the merger of two groups, The Churches of Christ, led by Barton W. Stone, and the Disciples of Christ, inspired by Thomas Campbell, who in 1809 published his thesis, The Declaration and Address of the Christian Association of Washington. His son, Alexander Campbell, then took over the leadership of the Church of Christ and later opened Bethany College in Bethany, West Virginia.

So to say that the Church of Christ is solely Bible based is not strictly true. Rather, its beliefs has its source from the writings and teachings of Alexander Campbell.

Alexander Campbell

Because of its popularity on this website, we would look into its teachings, and see whether the teachings of Campbell and the Church of Christ actually reflect the Bible's teaching on salvation (known as Sotorology).

In Romans chapter 4, Paul made it an important issue that Abraham was saved by faith only. For Abraham believed God and was credited to him as righteousness. King David also said that a man is blessed if the Lord does not count his sins against him. And neither these two were ever baptised.
And one has only to read the whole of Hebrews chapter 11. It is the Hall of Fame of Old Testament saints who had a faith in God so powerful that they influenced the world around them in their day. Examples such as Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, David and Solomon all demonstrated their faith because they were already saved, and none of them were trying to earn salvation by any work or ritual.

But what about circumcision? Wasn't this commanded by God for all Hebrew males? Yes it was. And does baptism replace circumcision? In a way, it does.
But again we go to Paul's issue with Abraham found in Romans 4. Here the apostle asks, was Abraham saved before or after he was circumcised? Not after, but before he was circumcised. So faith and salvation came to completion before circumcision came about.

But because the ritual of circumcision was applied afterward to eight-day old infants as part of the Covenant between God and Israel, I'm not surprised that the Catholic Church began to institute infant baptism after the manner of infant circumcision in order to enter the covenant.
So we conclude that during Old Testament times, a person was saved by God by faith alone, as Paul wrote about Abraham, and all in the Hall of Fame of Hebrews 11. After all, Rahab the Prostitute was female and a Gentile (non-Israelite), yet she was as much saved as her male colleagues. Circumcision does not save, but does baptism save?

In The New testament we have several incidences where Jesus saves through faith alone, without baptism.

Luke 7:37-50 is a story of a sinful woman whose faith led to her forgiveness of her sins. Jesus here says to her that although her sins were many, they are all forgiven. Jesus then dismisses her by saying "Woman, Your sins are forgiven, your faith have saved you, go in peace."

Then there is the story of the thief on the cross, crucified with Jesus himself. The thief asks Jesus to remember him when he goes to his kingdom. So the thief had enough faith to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. In turn, Jesus promised Paradise with him on that same day. These two, the woman and the thief were saved without baptism. They were many more, but I think these two will suffice.

The explanation, I think, the Church of Christ minister would explain why the woman and the thief (among others, e.g. the woman at the well) were saved without baptism was because these incidents took place before the New Covenant came into effect at the moment Jesus died. According to this view, God can save a person by faith alone as long as the New Covenant had not yet been ratified. After the death of Jesus, the Covenant is in force which states that one must be baptised to be saved.

If all this is true, then what about these following verses?

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him, should not perish but have everlasting life.

He that believes on me is not condemned: but he who does not believe on me is condemned already, because he has not believed in the only begotten Son of God.

He that believeth in me hath everlasting life.

And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and thy house.
(For reference: John 3:16, John 3:18, John 6:47, Acts 16:31)

These are just a few of many verses which teach plainly that salvation is through faith alone, without baptism.

Then there is the case with Cornelius and his household, found in Acts 10.
In verse 43 we read that Peter was telling them all that by believing in Jesus they will receive forgiveness of sins. Then to his astonishment, he watches as the Holy Spirit descends and settles upon all in that house. Only then does Peter decides that they should all be baptised in water.
So here is the order:
1. Peter preaches Jesus to all in Cornelius's' house.
2. They all believe.
3. The Holy Spirit fills them all, proving they are all saved, fully and completely.
4.Peter baptises them in water FOR the remission of their sins.
So let us return to Acts 2:38.
Repent, and be baptised, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ FOR the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
So does this mean that God has changed his plan of salvation from faith only to faith and baptism?
No.
For I can say for example, "I'm paying him his wages FOR the work he has done."
The money is paid because he has done his work, he has already earned his pay. I don't pay him to do the work, but because the work is already done.
When a person is baptised, it is because he has already believed and is saved. The baptism is not for the sinner to get saved but because he is already saved. As with Holy Communion or Breaking of Bread. The feast is only for believers who are already saved, not for those trying to earn salvation by treating it as a sacrament, as the Catholic Church teaches.
So what is the point of baptism in water if it does not save?
It is a public declaration of one's faith in Jesus Christ. When a person enters the water, he is fully immersed, picturing the death and burial of the old, sin-centred life. He is then lifted out of the water, picturing a new life in the Resurrected Christ.

Salvation through faith in Christ a a wonderful gift of God, a magnificent demonstration of God's love for mankind. Salvation is a gift, it cannot be earned, it's not for sale, rather it is given freely to all who believe, or trusts in Jesus.

Finally in this article I need to ask, are any in the Church of Christ actually saved?

I'm convinced that there are many who are saved. But that has nothing to do with the baptism, nor the teachings of Alexander Campbell. They are saved because they have trusted in Jesus Christ to save them. It is the same with Roman Catholics. Among the teachings of the Catechism, there are some who genuinely called on God's mercy and have received it. There are saved people in churches of every denomination. Even among Jehovah's Witnesses and among Mormons there are some who are saved, as there are among Baptists and other mainstream churches who are still lost.

The Bibles says quite clearly the everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. (Romans 10:13, Joel 2:32).
And this applies whether one gets baptised or not.

Do we believe God really love us?

Just a couple of days ago in Norway, a far right-winger who calls himself a fundamental Christian went on a mission to shoot down and killing 76 innocent people, and according to a newspaper, injuring a further 97, mainly at a little island of Utoya, 50 miles from the capital, Oslo, where the same terrorist set off a car bomb which killed seven people outside Government offices.

Anders Breivik was a nationalist who had a passionate hatred of multiculturalism, Marxism and Islam. Previous to his massacre, he had associations with far right organisations, including the English Defence League. He believed in conservatism, State Christianity, and he was also involved in Freemasonry. This was not the work of a madman who had on the spur of the moment lost his marbles. Rather his mission was planned over several years, including purchasing of a farm to buy and accumulate enough fertiliser to build his car bomb. He was intelligent, apparently well educated, an excellent planner and was pictured twice in the Daily Mail newspaper both as smartly dressed, wearing a suit and tie in one photo, and a dinner jacket and bow tie in the other.

So what's all this has to do with the love of God?

Nothing.

And that is the point of this article. Breivik wanted to restore his country to the white, Christian nation, free of Muslim immigration and Marxist supporters. And he did it with hate, not love.

And I'm pretty well convinced that this fellow had never known the love of God, nor his saving grace. He is, of course, an extreme case, as with the Muslim terrorists, but it does reflect my doubts whether those who support such right wing organisations, such as the British National Party or the more radical English Defence League had ever known the love of God, or understand the power of the Atonement made for them by Jesus Christ. Yet members of these groups maintain that their host country, whether it would be England, Norway or elsewhere should remain Christian, with Christian laws, culture and principles.

And to Breivik, to achieve this virtual Kingdom of God on Earth, blood had to be spilt, plenty of it. And the spilt blood of children who were innocent and had little or no idea of Islam or Marxism were included in the massacre.

And it's little wonder that more and more people, particularly in Western countries, see religion as something to be outlawed. If this recent killings in Norway, which can be compared with the 9/11 bombings in the USA in 2001 and the London Transport terrorism in 2005, both the work of Muslim extremists - then little wonder Richard Dawkins wrote in his book, The God Delusion:

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character of all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control- freak; a vindicative, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a mysogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. (p.31).
Dawkins then goes on about one Old Testament story about the man who was stoned to death for gathering sticks on the Sabbath - with his screams distressing his wife and children as the fuselage struck, leaving his family without bread-winning support.

Richard Dawkins

Although Dawkins uses such language, including the story of the Sabbath-breaker, in truth the vast majority of the UK population knows practically nothing of the Bible, let alone the Old Testament. This was easily demonstrated on TV quiz shows such as The Weakest Link, Mastermind and even University Challenge, where most of the Bible questions remain unanswered by the contestants. With my own leaving full time education in 1968 with absolutely no knowledge of the Bible, despite daily morning worship assembly and a weekly R.E. lesson, it is little wonder that the door of ignorance was left wide open for the likes of Richard Dawkins and his ilk to invade our minds. After all, all of Dawkins' description of God of the Old testament is also a fairly accurate description of Anders Breivik, who claimed that he was "doing God's work" in ethnic cleansing of Oslo and Utoya.

In my own personal experience, it was easier to imagine God as one punishing sin where ever it was found rather than as a God of love. This had a lot to do with both parental as well as school and church upbringing. Since my father had a tendency to look on the negative side of my childhood and not spared discipline, and in turn found it difficult to show affection (although showing affection would have been easier for him had I been female), it would have been natural to perceive God as a God of vengeance and not of love. Coupled with our Deputy Headmaster constantly wielding the cane for even talking in the corridor leading to our classrooms, and as the icing on the cake, the need to confess and do Penance every time a mortal sin was committed or spend eternity in Hell - little wonder that any spark of perception that God is love was totally quenched.

And I think this is the central thought of British life.

My wife Alex had spoken many times of her maternal grandfather's attitude of children being seen but not heard. This sort of attitude was passed from generation to generation in the UK. This attitude might have been the main ingredient for military conquest and rise of Empire, but it was the main barrier, I believe, from knowing God as a Heavenly Father. Instead, his wrath against sin had to be placated by unreserved obedience to King and Country and to conquer the heathen by subjection to God's earthly Empire.
Am I kidding? I wish I was!

I personally knew several English church-goers, younger as well as older than myself, who spoke of Empire being ordained of God. They thought well of William Blake's poem Jerusalem now sung as a popular hymn. But none of these things reflected the love of God as personal Saviour.
So the main point of this article is, how can I perceive God as a loving heavenly Father?

One, is to pick up a Bible and hold it in your hand. This is the main channel with which God uses to communicate with us. The Bible is a love letter from God to us. It tells us why we are born without knowing who he is, the fact of sin creating a barrier between him and us, and what God himself did to remove this barrier and reconcile us to himself.

So the fact that the Bible exists is in itself proof of God's love to mankind.

Then the contents of the Bible. In it we read that through sin we are separated from God, and left that way, the whole of mankind would spend eternity in Hell, separated from God forever. God's justice demanded this.
But because of God's love, he sent his Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins. Now through believing, all can have their sins washed away and be reconciled to God and enjoy his love forever.

And that leads us to why we are here. Not a product of Evolution, but created by God for the pleasure of sharing his love with us.

God is love. That is quite different to saying that God has love.
God had always enjoyed eternity past as three persons in one Godhead - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father. The Father loves the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit loves the Father. The Son loves the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit loves the Son. This interpersonal love is flawless and absolutely perfect. This makes God complete in himself, he does not need any created thing for him to love. But he created us for the purpose of sharing, or partaking in his love.
We live, we breathe, we have our being. The food we eat, the air we breathe, the heart beating are all maintained by God's love. But his greatest demonstration of his love his sending his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross to wash away our sins, and to rise again three days later.

Trusting Jesus Christ to save us cleanses us from our sins and reconciles us to God. This is the gift of salvation, a free gift of grace, which is to say, undeserved mercy. It means that instead of spending eternity separated from God in Hell, as justice demanded, the believer will enjoy God's love in his presence forever, infinite justice satisfied by the payment Christ made on the cross.

All this looks so nice on paper, or should I say, on a blog.

But in reality, much of the time I still finding it difficult realising God's love in my heart. Life is very unfair, and I must admit of my agitation over the bonuses many bankers and pen-pushing executives receive, while a drought at the Horn of Africa has put many families to starvation and suffering. In Africa, a young child cries for food, while up in Scotland a couple wins a rollover lottery jackpot of £161,000,000.
People ask, if there is a God, why so much suffering? Why so much unfairness?

But one thing I can ask: Has God himself ever suffered? The answer to that is Yes! He knows exactly what suffering was all about. And it was a twofold suffering. One was of physical pain. The pain felt while he hung on that cross. The second form of suffering was combined mental and emotional. He experience a sudden separation from his Father and the Holy Spirit for the first time in eternity. At the same time he was jeered by his enemies who surrounded him. All this because of God's love for mankind.

So despite how I feel at times, it does not change the facts.

Another demonstration of God's love is husband and wife. Paul the apostle uses this as an illustration of Christ's love for the Church. The Church is people, everyone who has trusted Jesus Christ to save them is a member of the Church, and it's open to all who have faith in Jesus.

The Bible says that the Church is the Bride of Christ, who he will present to his Father at the end of the age.

I love my wife Alex dearly. I take care of her, always making sure she is well fed and all her needs met. In no way would I wish any harm on her. That how Christ feels for his Church, only more perfect and intense. Just as Alex loves me, so the Church will grow to love Christ.

The Church is people, not the building with a steeple. That's only where Christians meet to worship. The Church is open for all believers of every nationality. God commands everyone to repent and receive the life God freely offers. God is in the business of saving, not destroying. He is building a Bride for his Son.

That where such a one as Anders Breivik got it so seriously wrong. He does not reflect the will nor the love of God. Christ will have as his Bride people of all ethnicity, black, white, Indian, Arab, Jewish, Chinese, all included, non excluded.

Something Andres Breivic would be wise to learn.

Science of Weight Loss

I felt like popping a champagne bottle while visiting the nurse who had been monitoring me for the past two years. This monthly weigh-in revealed my lowest weight ever, just over 14 stone or 200lbs. This was quite a contrast to the 19+ stone (270lbs) I was at when I first walked into her office in May, 2009. That is a loss of a little more than 70lb.
If you compare the differences between these two photos, you'll see what I mean.

In the first photo, taken with my wife and daughter, was how I looked in Spring, 2009. Because of my obesity, I was close to becoming diabetic, not to mention the high risk of heart attack. Climbing a flight of stairs always left me puffing, gasping for air.
The second shows how I look at present:

For a clearer comparison, I have included this snapshot too, taken at the same time as the one above:

I shall leave it for the reader to decide whether two years of a changed lifestyle had made an impact on my physical appearance, and maybe how vain I had became!

According to the latest statistics, obesity is one of our major health problems. Of the latest world data available, the country with the highest rate of obesity among its population is the United States, with 30.6% being overweight. That is nearly one third of the entire U.S. population. Next is Mexico, with 24.2%. Third - yes, it has to be the United Kingdom, with 23% of its population, or nearly a quarter, being overweight. So the UK lies in the top three for highest obesity rates.
On the other hand, the much-maligned Italians (of whom I am one) are often stereotyped as being the chubby, opera singing and spaghetti-scoffing Venetian gondola paddler who pinch Cornetto ice cream cones from his customers. Yet the Italians scored a modest 8.5% of its population for obesity, which places Italy in 25th position. In fact, according to these available statistics, Italy came third from bottom, which is shared by both Japan and South Korea in joint 28th position, each having just 3.2% obese. The average obesity rate is 14.1%, the closest coming to this being Canada, in 11th place with 14.3% obese.
The above statistics apply for both genders. The UK comes 1st among the men being obese with 22.1% of the British male population being overweight. Japanese males are the least obese, with just 3.4%.
Among women, the UK comes second after Slovakia, with 22.8% British women being overweight, down on Slovakia's 25.4%. Again, Japan scores only 3.8% of its female population as being overweight.
So according to the given statistics, the ratio between male and female obesity in all cases are roughly equal.
In my personal weight loss experience, constant monitoring has indicated a more rapid weight loss during the summer months, while during winter I tend to put on weight. January of 2011 was particular bad, gaining six pounds between Christmas and the start of February. Those pounds were shed by March which made me relieved to be back on track.
Personal weight loss and gain seem to correlate with outside temperatures, but the above statistics seem to indicate that temperature has little to do with it. For example, Canada has colder winters than both the UK and the USA. But it's obesity rate is less than half of that of the USA and 8.7% less than the UK.
So my conclusion, endorsed by the nurse, is that lifestyle is what determines a persons's weight.
While visiting the Kerith Centre (a local church) a couple of weeks ago, a longstanding friend gasped at my weight loss appearance, having not seen me for a period of time. Chubby in physique, he complained that he goes out for a five-mile run twice a week, but his appearance remains stubbornly chubby. He is not the only one.
After all, I believe it's the British way of life, particularly at the dining table, that has much to do with either weight loss or retention. If our restaurant trade reflect our culinary habits, it would not be that surprising. Looking at the desserts menu, one can pick out lashings of ice cream, chocolate gateau and cream, apple pie and custard, or cheesecake. These desserts have a sky-high calorie count, and they are consumed each day in a typical home, along with packets of sugary biscuits (cookies). Little wonder Britain comes third in the obesity chart.
In Italy, which came a modest 25th, ice cream (gelato) is an occasional treat, not a dessert following a meal. Yet the Italians are famed for pasta consumption.
In fact pasta, whether it be Spaghetti Bolognese, Ravioli, diverse shapes or Macaroni, it's a starter at the Italian table. Pasta is then followed by the main course, often steak or fish with salad. Then the meal is finished with fresh fruit. Desserts are virtually unknown.
Pasta (without the Bolognese) actually has very little fat content. A typical meal has about 1.5 grammes of fat, while it has a much higher carbohydrate quota of nearly 66 grammes. Even protein in it is higher than fat, with just over 11 grammes.
Part of my new lifestyle is the consumption of cottage cheese. This is most likely the "Curds and Whey" of nursery rhyme fame. I normally have it in brown bread, often toasted. Two of its nutritional values are the protein casein which is recommended by both dietitians and body builders alike. The other is a high level of Calcium, which is not only responsible for strong teeth and bones, but combined with a healthy level of Vitamin D, it slows down fat storage in the body.

Cottage Cheese

Earlier this year, an experiment was carried out by Professor Ame Astrup of the Nutrition Department of the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University at Coperhagan. A group of men were put on a carefully prepared diet which included consumption of cottage cheese, with calcium levels peaking at 2,000 mg for a week. Results showed a higher level of fat in the stools. When the candidates had the cheese withdrawn and the calcium level reduced to 500 mg, there was significantly less fat in the stools.
A healthy level of cholecalciferol, or Vitamin D, is essential for the Calcium to block the absorption of fatty matter into the bloodstream. Because the main source of Vitamin D is from sunlight, we Brits suffer a disadvantage with our climate, particularly in the winter.
Therefore, food with a level of this vitamin include egg yolk, oily fish (sardines, herring, tuna, salmon), liver, margarine and fortified breakfast cereals, the latter normally have five micro-grammes of the vitamin.
So by personal experience and its end result would be:
Breakfast - Cereal fortified with vitamins, especially cholecalciferol, toast with cottage cheese, tea or coffee without sugar or just one teaspoon.
Lunch: double toasted cottage cheese sandwich with fresh fruit, tea or coffee.
Evening: Pasta with bolognese made with half-fat sausages or similar. Fresh fruit. A mug of tea without sugar.
Snack at other times. Cottage cheese or marmite toasted sandwich I find delicious. Low-fat fruit yogurt is good, so is an apple. I tend not to buy oranges or other citrus fruits because, to tell the truth, I find peeling off the rind irritating to the finger nails, and the size of the fruit is much smaller than it was when first spotted at the supermarket shelf!
Therefore, in addition to cottage cheese, I drink every morning a glass of pure grapefruit juice. Not from concentrates, but straight from the crushed fruit. The advantage with this is that it comes with the original fruit bits in the juice.
But whichever diet style one may find most suitable, one should never go for hours without eating. Hunger will turn someone to raid the larder and find the foods with the highest calorie content most appealing. Also hunger causes the body to go into emergency mode, and would more likely store up fat to preserve its resources.

But regulating what I eat is only one half of the story. The other is intense exercise. Visits to the gym at Coral Reef Waterworld in my home town of Bracknell has become a regular habit, along with going out for a run, normally with a partner. Here we both agree that talking while running help take our minds off the exercise.
But for me it's the gym that I find more beneficial. There I use the arc cross trainer, a rather new-fangled gadget related to the elliptical cross trainer, but gives a more challenging workout.

The Arc Cross Trainer

I must admit, working out on this machine is very tedious, especially if it's for a full 60 minutes. But with the wall television playing the music of Magic Radio, this greatly helps the time go by.
So what is the benefit I achieve in such an exercise? Generally it is mainly an aerobic, fat and carbohydrate consuming exercise which resembles a skiing motion with which I can burn up to 1,030 Kilo-calories on a good day.
To get an idea of this exercise, I would like to look at the science this workout involves, and how it relates to weight loss. It involves three energy creating systems which kick in as soon as I start riding the machine.
When I mount the machine and begin riding, I set the resistance to cardio level, which means much energy is spent keeping the machine in motion. For the first few seconds, my body remains in the "at rest" condition. This is the anaerobic stage, the first of the three systems, which means that the energy source on which the muscles need to contract in exercise must be immediately available. The energy is gotten by the breakdown of Adonesine Triphosphate (ATP) to Adonesine Diphosphate (ADP). The availability of ATP is absolutely necessary for the release of energy to enable the muscle to move in the first place. When at rest, the ATP resource remains constant, allowing us to move about and carry on with our businesses as usual.
But after about 15-20 seconds of intense exercise on the cross-trainer, I begin to gasp for air, the heartbeat accelerates, and this stage is the same as when I sprinted as a child, I'll get puffed out, often with a burning sensation at the throat. It is at this stage that the ATP resource runs out, and the remaining ADP is reconverted to ATP to conserve supply, else the muscles would freeze up.
At this stage the second of the three systems in the body kicks in. This is known as the anaerobic glycolysis system with its by-product, lactic acid. What happens here is that ATP is produced with a fast-action call on the sugar reserve, or glucose. Up to the present the exercise was anaerobic, which means that above-level requirements of oxygen was not needed.
But the reserve of ATP in the muscles is very small, and after a few seconds of exercise, I start gasping, as this source of energy for muscle contraction is exhausted. This is when the main fat and carbohydrate burning system starts to kick in, the aerobic system which demands extra oxygen. After a further few seconds my breathing settles, the heart beats fast to get this extra oxygen to the muscles to created the energy needed to continue with the exercise.
Why have I gone into this detail, even if much simplified, science of physiology?
I believe, according to my own experience, that after sprinting as a child in the school playground, the "puffed out" stage meant the end of the exercise, when actually I could have carried on. I guess the throat burning sensation was what I found demoralising. If only I knew something about aerobics back then!
I have seen other people use the machine, or the elliptical that was at the gym before the arc was installed, and I wonder whether the gentler, less resistant use of the machine was the "cautious" attempt to keep the aerobic energy creating system as minimal as possible in fear of "hitting the wall" long before the duration of the exercise had been met.
But as I found by experience, one can keep on exercising under heavy resistance for what believe to be a heck of a long time, but not feel to worse for wear as the extra oxygen supply, along with fat and carbohydrate resources keep the energy supply burning up those calories.
But this does not come overnight. One must train by starting short and light and gradually work up in both duration and resistance. It takes time and patience. No one can just get on this trainer and knock up a full hour on a high resistance. It took me over a year to get to the stage I'm now at.
But once this stage in training has been achieved, it is a joy to see these excess pounds come off.

Lord Sugar at the Kerith? Thanks, Ascot Baptist...

Jeff (name changed) appeared suddenly at Bracknell Baptist Church during late summer, 1978. He was tall, extraordinary good looking, had longish hair, wore a orange satin silk shirt which was open at the neck to display a silver cross on his chest, and played his part well as a proud strutting peacock. He certainly performed well as a group of young ladies, including his future wife, swooning over him and baying for his attention as any female fan of a well known pop idol such as David Cassidy, Englebert Humperdinck or Cliff Richard, would have done a decade earlier.
In turn he boasted of his university degree and his prospective career as a Computer Programmer at a high tech company, one of several that had set up office to trade in what would become the Silicon Valley of Britain, straddling across the M3 and the M4 motorways (freeways) branching out of London.
But Jeff did not only attract the unmarried ladies in the church. He also caught the attention of the Elders, or Deacons as they were called in those days. In next to no time they were swayed by his charm, confidence and high level of education. He became the only unmarried house-group leader, a status looked with seriousness in those days, with conditions that the leader should be married and have full control of his children. (For those not in the know, a house-group, sometimes called cell-group, or as today, life-group, is a group of church members who meet at a private home during the week. Usually the leader is the host himself, but that was not always the case. We hosted house-group on several occasions, and allowed the guest leader to continue in his duty as normal.)
But the bane of all this was during singles evening, when we all met at a deacon's home on Sunday evening, after the service. This particular elder, who moved away from Bracknell during the late 1990s and no longer at the church, was a devout Englishman and a Tory, and I believe, a devotee of, or at least sympathetic with the school tie and the class system. It was through him, in the late 1970s that my delusion with Englishness has had it roots, along with a rotten sense of self-esteem.
Activities were organised at his home to strengthen fellowship and our spiritual health. One activity was tennis. Who arranged it? Jeff. And who learned the intricate switching of the church heating system? Jeff. And who organised other group outings or activities? Jeff.
When I offered to take on a responsibility, I was told that I was not capable of it. How did he know?
"You don't look confident" was his reply. "You're not even sure of the task, aren't you?"
And not to mention that my speech and accent in no way convey confidence!
What a put down! And how all this made me feel small and insignificant.
And that despite that on one evening Jeff was actually called a big-head by the Pastor himself, right within earshot. More than once as well.
All this was the theme of my last blog, Come on, Lord Sugar... where I demonstrated the consequence of the British class system and how it could influence the local church back in the '70s and '80s, a period when I was still looking for my personal destiny.

Kerith Centre

But in this blog, which could be considered as a follow up to my last one, I want to portray the positive side of having fellowship with Christian believers. Most of my friends were and are Christians.
But should the reader get the impression that I was a castaway in the fellowship, this wasn't true. There was Derek, who told me that he was impressed with my knowledge of the Bible and the faith I had in it. A lovely complement. After moving to Milan as part of his employment contract, he invited me over twice, in 1981 and again in 1982. He hosted me for a few days both before and after a stint of backpacking around Italy, including Sicily.
Also in 1981 a new friend, Geoff, arrived at Bracknell. He took up employment at the same company as Jeff. He also took up residence with two other graduates, Jon and Tim. Geoff was keen to learn to play squash, and it became a custom that every Tuesday Geoff and I would pair up and play squash together. After this, we walked back to Jon's house, where he lodged, for a coffee and toast. It was here that Jon, Tim and Geoff became good friends, much to do with teasing each other. Jon came down one late evening with a hot water bottle, a specific Englishman's companion when bedding on a cold night. It became the butt of constant joking and laughter, but it bonded friendships.
Tim was to play an important role in my life. In fact, I can credit him for changing my life altogether. An accountant, he played rugby, became a coach then team manager of a football club and a devout Christian, Tim was the one who directed me to my destiny. In more ways than one. Aside from wrestling with each other and trying out our physical strength, he also become my house-group leader, and he was the one who would open the door to let a little of the Alan Sugar in me to come out, after being shut in for so long after being told many times of my incapability.
Tim eventually left Bracknell Baptist Church, the forerunner of the Kerith Centre, and joined Ascot Baptist Church, of a town three miles from Bracknell. But by then he was already Chairman of Bracknell Saints Football (soccer) Club, consisting of players both from Bracknell and Ascot Baptist Churches. While still at Bracknell, Tim became involved with a hospital therapeutic broadcasting station, Radio Heatherwood. (Heatherwood being the name of the hospital.) In truth, it was a cable service, not a proper radio. But after become team leader for the Friday Crew, in Spring, 1981 he invited me up to give it a go as a Presenter. From that first Friday evening I became hooked, and I was to be presenting for the next five years, during that time Tim had moved on, mainly due to his temporary work location, and team leadership was thrust into my hands by the Chairman of the League of Friends (which owned and ran the station).
It was on one occasion that Radio Heatherwood began to run low on funds. So I made the decision to run the 1984 Bracknell Half Marathon, collecting sponsors from both Bracknell Baptist Church members and window cleaning clientele. As a result, the funds were raised which restored the station's financial balance.
It was also then I began to get to know two more Christians, Keith of Ascot Baptist and Gareth from Warfield Parish Church (of the Church of England). Gareth, who worked in a Bank, moved into Tim's house which, like Jon's, was also near my bachelor's apartment. All committed Christians, we had something in common between us.
So there were times when Tim, Gareth, Keith, sometimes Paul (another Christian from Ascot Baptist) and I went out cycling together, both in the UK and abroad. One of the most remarkable trips we did together was Holland, Belgium and Germany, one long circuit which linked all three countries.

With my Christian mates

Then in 1986, I completed another half marathon, which in the same race was a friend from the Reading Life-saving Club. He was the one who introduced me to the sport of Triathlon, a multi-discipline race of American origin, consisting of swimming, cycling and running, normally in that order.
I handed the reigns of leadership of the Friday broadcasting crew to my successor, another Christian, this time from Bracknell Baptist, and joined Thames Valley Triathletes, one of the UK's largest triathlon clubs which was based in Reading, and soon after I was training with them and competing in triathlons across Southern England. Venues included Swanage, Bournemouth, Winchester, Newbury, Farnham, Arborfield, Reading, Hampton Wick, East Grinstead, Romford and Eastbourne.
It was at Winchester of Summer 1986 that while competing in one event, something of a vision took place in my mind. There was no triathlon in my area, whether in Bracknell, Ascot or any other locality.

Winchester Triathlon, inspiration for the Bracknell Triathlon

As I was pondering on this, the penny dropped. Do I need sponsors to finance a triathlon? No! It's paid for by the competitors themselves, but capital must be available to kick start in the organising.
And that's when I raised the issue with Tim at his home. He was at first sceptical but he did suggest holding a mini event over at the nurse's pool at Heatherwood Hospital.
But I preferred the idea of an event for Bracknell, based at the pool at the Sports Centre. When Gareth arrived home, I shared the vision, and he was more keen, but equally cautious, and suggested we share the idea with Keith.
So a few days later, all four of us were at Tim's home. When we told Keith our prospective vision, he jumped with enthusiasm and began to spout that we must get this and we must get that and this and the other...
Whoa! We have the biggest obstacle to tackle first, hiring the swimming pool.
I turned up at the Sports Centre Administration Office without an appointment one weekday morning during the Autumn of 1986. I had to wait as a man in a suit was being seen to, amidst a group of faces all smiling and nodding of approval. Luckily for me, it was an issue which had nothing to do with pool hire. When it was my turn to sell my idea of a triathlon in Bracknell and that we would like to hire the Competition Pool for the occasion, I was told flatly, no. But I suppose "No" really meant "Wait" and I explained with detail how the event would be organised, the details of the cycle and run routes, and any other connecting matters would be submitted in due course. The Administrator then called in the General manager. The three of us talked and discussed the idea, and eventually the Manager offered us one lane of the pool for a certain Saturday in June of the following year. I was excited! Single lane feeds are possible if the field is very small or the swim leg is short. Arborfield Triathlon used this method. But the deal would be signed only after I submitted everything they asked for.
Soon afterwards, I contacted Tim and Gareth and told them the news. Tim, Gareth, Keith, along with Dan and John and I met at Tim's home, and a Committee was formed, of which I was Chairman. I began to draw up what could be called a constitution - all in the Committee must be born-again Christian believers and each attend a church of their choice. Tim, Keith, Dan and John attended Ascot Baptist, Gareth at Warfield Parish and myself at Bracknell Baptist. All members of the Committee, except myself, were members of Bracknell Saints Football Club, hence we named the Triathlon after the name of the Committee - Bracknell Saints Triathlon.
We targeted the field to 300 competitors. I also drew the plan for the cycle and run routes, both highly complicated, easy-to-get-lost circuits, the run route being the one used by the Bracknell half-marathon. I contacted the Police to submit the routes to them, and I received their approval. The St John Ambulance was also arranged, the officer of this came to visit me at my home. But most important of all, the event had to be sanctioned by the British Triathlon Association (BTA) a move which would make the difference between success or disaster.
When entry forms were dispatched, using the BTA-affiliated club master list, together with our event listed in the BTA annual event guide, entries began to come in, which I registered on Tim's desktop Computer. Soon I had to return to the Sports Centre Administration, and by explaining the situation, they were willing for us to use the whole pool, which was divided into four lanes, with six swimmers per lane, giving a feed of up to 24 swimmers in the pool at any one time.
The entire Committee - all Christian believers - sacrificed a day's holiday from their jobs to help me set up the two courses the day before the event. Along with the colour-coded swim hats, direction arrows, trophies, finisher's medals, tons of paperwork and everything set for the event the next day, we were so excited that we failed to see that a disaster was looming! We were short of volunteers for stewarding, or marshaling.
And sure enough, when the competitors arrived, about 260 of them, there were no pool marshals, so each swimmer was left to count his own laps in the pool, leaving the door wide open for cheating.
But worse of all, some of the carefully placed direction arrows were torn down, leaving the run route difficult to navigate, some of the runners getting lost and the event would have come to ruin had not a few friends stepped in and saved the day by getting a result.
Afterwards, I went home thoroughly dejected. I lay on the bed for a long while. Utter failure.
Then suddenly, as if by inspiration, I telephone the Sports Centre Administration and there and then booked up the pool hire for the following year, 1988. Hope flooding back into my soul.
I found it so amazing that after the failure of our first triathlon event, all Committee members were raring to give it another go. Some months later, we had our first meeting at Tim's house and each committee member were assigned specific tasks, and I asked them all to be dedicated to their position, and not switch from one to the other as with the previous event. The set up was as follows:
Keith, then a Porter, and Dan, a Financial Advisor - Marshal Coordinators. They were responsible of making sure there were enough stewards to guide the competitors, and to assign them to specific positions along the two routes.
Gareth: Time keeping coordinator. In charge of the three timekeepers.
Tim: Entry tabulator, Programme publishing and Results.
John: Assigned by Keith to be in charge of the drinks station located on the run route.
Myself: Event promoter, take in entries of all competitors, relate to all serving bodies, e.g. St John Ambulance, Police, Commentary Caravan, Market stall, Palmers Scaffolding Hire (for the bicycles to be attached to a horizontal rail by the handlebars, leaving the front wheel just a tad above ground) as with the BTA and Media publishing (Bracknell News, Bracknell Times, Reading Chronicle, national Triathlon and Running magazines, BTA Event guide, national and international.)
All six of us made up the Bracknell Triathlon Committee spanning social class and professions. Not only this being a good model of a church, we also worked together in harmony and even allowed a joke and some laughter during our pre-event meetings.
To cut a long story short, the 1988 event was a flying success!
Two of the big changes were of the two routes. The cycle route was simpler, faster and safer in relation to the traffic. The run route was an out and back system, although I had to make it safe by creating a small circuit after Gareth warned me of a potential danger of tired runners finishing being hit head on by fast cyclists fresh out of the pool.
Also Paul, who accompanied us on our bikes to Holland, took care of the Registration Station we set up just outside the pool changing room.
We staged the Bracknell Triathlon every year for seven years. What I found so encouraging was that the majority of competitors forgave us for the fiasco of our maiden event and despite almost doubling the price of our entry fee, the field swelled in size, reaching more than 360 by 1990. Also the coffers at Bracknell saints Football club began to swell - and that's despite paying fees to organisations such as the Rotary Club and to the charity, Wells for India, for sending volunteers as marshals. One Triathlon club even made our event their annual Championships. News of it spread through the international Triathlon media as far as the USA and Australia.
But what's behind all this?
The love and dedication of fellow Christian believers, mainly from Ascot Baptist, who caught the vision. It took sacrifice, taking time off work, working into the night, even the need to spend our own money if necessary. But most of all, I believe that they lived up to Jesus' own mission:
A bruised reed he will not break, neither will he quench a smouldering flax.
Back in the seventies and early eighties I was a bruised reed or a smouldering flax. I was of average or below average educated among a church of graduates. I felt small. God felt differently. He inspired some of his own people to fan this smouldering ash to a blazing fire. But not merely that I feel good about myself, but rather that I could benefit from his love and on rebound, learn to trust in him more and to honour him better.
Just this Sunday I visited Bracknell Community Church (after leaving it to join Ascot Baptist in 1990). Gareth and Keith were there, and after the service I chatted to them both. With Simon Benham as present Pastor, I can see great hopes for this church for the future. I wish it all God's blessing.
Lord Alan Sugar started his career as a seller of flowers at a street stall.
I would never be like him, but it's good to see a little bit of him in me come alive.
Thanks to the support of other Christian believers.

Come On, Lord Sugar, They're Not That bad, Are They?

Ben and Catherene Mullany, both 31, from Pontardawe in South Wales, strutted along the Caribbean beach of Antigua like two proud peacocks as they enjoyed their two-week honeymoon in July, 2008. They where white, middle class and oozing high levels of education, professionalism and in turn, wealth. Their wealthy exuberance were further enhanced by staying at the £330-a-night Cocos Hotel. This would have added up to £4,620 on accommodation alone. On top of this, there would have been the cost of the air tickets, travel insurance and pocket money. I believe that the total cost of the holiday would have been greater than the annual income of many of the locals, many struggling day by day to make ends meet. Then again, their strutting should not have come as a surprise. Ben was once in the Army, followed by a stint as a Police Officer before becoming a student Physiotherapist. His bride, Catherine was a Paediatrician.
Then in the early hours of July 27th, the day they were due to fly back to the UK, two would-be robbers burst into their bedroom. They were suspected as being 23 year old Kaniel Martin and Avie Howell, 20. They shot the sleeping couple each at the back of the head. Catherine was killed instantly. Her husband Ben survived the ordeal, but died a week later at a UK hospital.
The gang got away with just their mobile phone.
Envy struck again.
Maybe, had this couple spent their honeymoon in the UK - sure, at times they would have been bored, stuck in their hotel while the heavy rain clattered on the window panes from outside, then wrapping up warm as they strolled along the wind-swept shingle beach, watching the grey, murky seawater churn on a strip of exposed sand while picking at the hot cod and chips from the large paper wrapper - then who knows, at present Catherine would have had a child crawling across the lounge floor of their home while breastfeeding her newborn. And afterward, after Ben comes in from work, their memories would have relished on their washout of a honeymoon, how it strengthened their bond between them.
Yes, it can be difficult at times to bury my face into a pillow and soak it with my tears over their fate.
Or the case of Gerry and Kate McCann.
Gerry was a Consultant Cardiologist, while Kate was also a Doctor. They with their three children flew to Praia du Luz in Portugal for a holiday during late Spring, 2007. One evening while the children were asleep, they enjoyed a bite at an eatery, close to their apartment. It was then, on 3rd May, that their eldest daughter Madeleine disappeared, presumed kidnapped.
The Media was on the case for weeks to follow. Both the BBC News and the newspapers spewed out article after article on the case of missing Madeleine. It was not surprising that I felt my sympathy dry up after repeated hearings and readings. Then one evening I was browsing the Daily Mail online, and one of the commentators under the McCann article wrote words to this effect:
If Madeleine had been the daughter of a single mother working as a Tesco Shelf-Stacker somewhere up North, this case would have been long forgotten!
I had fully identified with this writer. The British Establishment have a reverence for the higher standing, don't they?
As in the case of the 2012 London Olympics. Again, according to the Daily Mail article published a couple of weeks previous to this, 250,000 of the UK's public applied for seats at the 80,000 seat athletic (Track & Field) stadium. Of these, 36,000 were allocated, leaving the rest - 44,000 to private sponsors.
In all, these sponsors contribute £1.4 billion to the Games. If this seem a large contribution, it will be dwarfed by the £12 billion of taxpayer's money. (In this article, the Imperial billion is used, which is 1,000,000,000,000.)
Of some of the sponsors, head of FIFA, Sepp Blatter and his colleagues will enjoy a £1,500,000 mega-freebie and at the same time stay at the May Fair Hotel at a much reduced price, while competitors themselves were unable to secure their families with accommodation.
Even the Government is giving freebies to it VIPs and dignitaries. The Department of Culture, Media and Sport had spent £750,000 for 9,000 seats at the stadium. This equals £83.33 per seat.
Newspapers have labelled the ticketing ballot "grossly unfair" to the British public, whose taxes makes up the largest proportion of funding, yet Lord Sebastian Coe, 1980s Olympic 800 metre champion and Tory MP, says that the ballot was seamless.

Track & Field Stadium

Is it another way of showing class favouritism?
Staying with sport, this article was written at the start of the 2011 Wimbledon Tennis season. Our star is Andrew Murray, the only Brit who stands a chance to win the Grand Slam at the men's singles final. Murray may be Britain's only hope, but unfortunately for the English, Murray is a Scotsman. The only Englishman ever to win the Grand Slam was Fred Perry, a son of a coal miner, who in 1934 defeated Australian Jack Crawford.
As the story goes, the officials would not present the trophy to a coal miner's son. So he was told to lift it himself. But the officials were much happier to present the runner up prize to the upper/middle class Australian. By 1936, Perry felt so betrayed by the fierce snobbery within the All England Lawn Tennis Club that he defected to the USA.
Nowadays bankers makes a good example of the Middle classes, the backbone, so we read in the newspapers, that holds Britain together and acts as a power engine for its economy. They are generally hated by the public for their pre-credit crunch greed, but still given adoring respect by the Establishment.
One good example of this was Sir Fred "The Shred" Goodwin, former head of the Royal Bank of Scotland. At his present age of 52, I take it that he was one of the 1980s City Yuppies, and therefore one of "Thatcher's Children". (Yuppie is the acronym for "Young Urban Professional." - now generally obsolete.) Goodwin as head of the RBS brought the Bank to its knees, and it would have gone bust had it not been bailed out by the taxpayer. Yet for this dramatic failure, he was knighted in 2004 for "Services in Banking". He resigned in October 2007 and is the recipient of a £700,000 pension pot.
There were many MPs in Parliament who lobbied to have Goodwin stripped of his Knighthood, but as far as I know, the Establishment had allowed him to keep it.
So it was of little surprise that by watching The Apprentice a couple of weeks ago, that I felt a smidgen of satisfaction when Lord Alan Sugar swore at contestant Jim Eastwood for bringing his task to ruin for the rest of his team.

Lord Alan Sugar

Perhaps what makes The Apprentice so entertaining is the way Lord Sugar takes these contestants down a peg or two when faced with failure. And in view of the whole nation, which I think, enjoys blaming them for the economic mess, the Recession and spiralling inflation with which we all suffer. A man in a suit is an easy target, isn't it?
But it is one thing to point the finger at the Establishment. It is quite another to see class discrimination and favouritism within the churches.
Neither the Establishment nor the public need to be reproved for class favouritism. They don't need such reproof. What they need instead is individual conviction of sin and the need of the Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Salvation is their need, not mere reproof. But Christian believers are very different. They uphold Jesus Christ as Saviour and their Lord, but I have still seen class favouritism among English churches. Plenty of it.
On a personal front, the attitude shown among Christian believers leaves a lot to be desired. Back in the 1970s and the 1980s, I was a member of what was Bracknell Baptist Church, the forerunner of the present Kerith Community Church. Members of my age were very forward with their University degrees, especially when communicating with the opposite sex, or seeking favours or responsibilities from the Elders. They tended to rate class as a more personal importance than their love and commitment to Christ. Youth leadership were chosen by the elders apparently by their level of education rather than of spirituality, as some discredited Divine Creation in favour of Evolution, therefore calling God a liar (for declaring that He made everything in six days when actually to them this was not true). Oddly, I found that nearly all the graduates who joined our church in my younger days believed in Evolution, and held their degrees and social class as high priorities.

We are one in Christ. No class favouritism here

Here I'm in danger as playing the judge. Everyone is accountable to God, and to God only, not to any of us. Therefore I have no right to act as a judge. God alone will judge us all.
But we believers need to take heed of what the Apostle James wrote to believers who were snobbish in his day. In chapter 2 of his letter, he wrote how bad it was to pay honour to a well dressed man who enters the assembly, and then treats a man in unbecoming clothes who also walks in with scornful disrespect. He calls this murder and therefore no better than a physical killing. Snobbery, class favouritism, honouring the rich, showing disrespect to the poor, shunning humble tasks - all these things are classed as murder and should not be seen among Christian believers.
Rather, we should put Jesus before national or class superiority. I would say that being filled with the Holy Spirit will dispose of such attitudes.
After all, we shall all die, and then all these things we be done away with. They are not eternal.
I bet Ben and Catherine Mullany would have wished to have walked along the cold, wet windswept beach in the UK with their raincoats flapping in the breeze instead of the warm, calm sunny tropical Antigua's beach lapped gently by the turquoise blue sea.

Prayer Is Hard Work

I called round to Tim's house one weekday evening sometime in the 1990s. Soon he served up a meal, as he often did. While sitting on one of his armchairs, I began to tuck in.
"Daddy!" cried his young daughter, "Uncle Frank did not say grace!"
I blushed slightly, expecting my mate to walk into the room scowling, for I perceived as showing a bad example to his children. Instead he had a big grin and said words to the effect, "Saying grace before meals is all religion, isn't it?"
I was relieved. The guy understood.
When I first became a Christian in 1973, I used to say grace before meals at home, before I flew the nest. It was done as an attempt to win my agnostic parents into God's Kingdom. Then on one occasion we all sat at the dinner table and after giving thanks (the only family member to do so) I immediately protested to my mother,
"Mum, you know that I don't like garlic!"
And began to pick them out.
"YOU HYPOCRITE!" My father shouted across the table. "It just goes to show what a hollow sham all this thanksgiving really is."
We both looked into each other's eyes. I knew full well he was right. Religion. After that I never said grace before meals again, except as a guest at a Christian's home.
But grace before meals is only a small portion in what is sanctimoniously called prayer. What is prayer? Truly, it means "Having a chat with God" which is a result of a good relationship.
But as a child, prayer was something quite different. While in English the word carries a religious ring to it, in the Italian language the meaning was more blunt. The Italian for Prayer is Pregare which literally means "to beg." Even in classic English, much now archaic, the original meaning of the word "pray" was used in the context, "I beg you" For an example, a request like this was most likely used,
I pray you allow me more time to repay the loan.
From my childhood days, prayer was about religion. As with grace before meals, we were taught to pray at morning assembly, something which I had to do from age five to 15, when I left school and was able to put all that pretence behind.

At junior school we were told to hold our hands together (as shown in the above illustration) and shut our eyes. Of course, I believed that if I posed otherwise, then it's not prayer. This stayed with me well into adulthood and even after my conversion. During school assembly we recited the Lord's Prayer every morning, starting with Our Father, which art in Heaven... with some feeling that God was not my Father, and in those days he wasn't. We also subconsciously associated our image of God with the strict, cane wielding Deputy Headmaster, who would cane a pupil for just talking while filing through the corridor to our classrooms. Little wonder there were a growing number of atheists particularly among the boys. I was more than glad to ditch this religious stuff the moment I walked out of the school premises for the last time in 1968.
To recap, Prayer was no more than Recital. At the Catholic Church with which I grew up, prayer was more to do with reciting the Lord's Prayer, the Hail Mary and the Act of Contrition. These were set prayers, and I had to be mindful not to get the words wrong. More devoted Catholics had the Rosary, a string of beads with which a set prayer was recited at the handling of each bead.

A traditional Rosary

A silver Rosary opened out to show its structure. A prayer is recited with each bead held.

Recital prayer is the binding force of every religion. Hindus, Muslims, Judaism, Buddhism, Roman Catholicism, even Church of England services. It is relatively easy to recite a prayer at a set time and place. It is easy for a priest to instruct a penitent to recite two "Our Fathers" and eight "Hail Marys" with the aid of a Rosary each day at 10.00am and 3.00pm.
But supposing all recital prayer is removed from our Christian lives altogether? What then? Church prayer meetings?
Going to a prayer meeting is something totally different from a lifetime of recital, especially in non-formal churches such as Baptist or Pentecostal. In these there are no fixed prayers. One imagines sitting for a hour or more, wondering what on earth is he going to pray about. It does not excite enthusiasm.
Dave Rogers, an elder at Ascot Baptist Church and a personal friend of mine, could not have been more spot on. Standing at the front, he unreservedly announced:
Prayer is hard work!
And so it is. The big issue here is what to pray about. And how to keep on praying for a full hour long after you have run out of ideas.
Furthermore, I tend to feel put down when I read or hear of the likes of Martin Luther or John Wesley so patronisingly declare that one cannot be spiritual, nor care much for God's affairs unless he prays for up to four hours every morning! Whew! Fine for a full-time minister living in a much slower, agricultural world than the fast paced service/industrial world we live in today which takes up the greater part of our working day.
Various aids were put out to help us in our prayers. One of them originated from Bill Hybels, Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, near Chicago. He formulated ACTS, taken from the name of the New Testament book. It is an acronym, and when the code is unscrambled, we get this:
Adoration
Confession
Thanksgiving
Supplications
Although this formula, no doubt have been a help for many in their prayer lives, it is a formula. Therefore there is a tendency to turn this aid into another religious format by believing that this is the way to go about it. And this in particular when it was shown to have worked with certain or even with many individuals.
So what is prayer to me?
Personally, I find spontaneous prayer more functional than set prayer meetings. Spontaneous prayer is turning into prayer a thought that have dropped into my mind. Setting out to work in the morning, often whether its sunny or dismal, it's good to thank God for this new day, thanking him for keeping me alive to see this day in human history. Counting all that I have and thanking God for them. This kind of thanksgiving exceeds grace before meals by a long shot. Along with thanking God for food and drink, I can thank him for good health, a roof over our heads, our clothing, my spouse, my job - without we would not be able to eat - our tax credits, our holidays, and everything we have - computer, TV, cooker, microwave oven, washing machine, tumble dryer and all other utilities as well as niceties which grace our home with little luxuries.
Along with thanksgiving there at times a need to confess my sins. It is this that at times puts me off prayer. Confessing is something I feel I need to "clear the air" before settling down to prayer. Then again there are supplications, asking God for things. I don't feel it's wrong to complain to God that we are hard up and we could do with some financial uplift. Often enough, this problem resolves itself, often with an offer of extra work, or a backpayment from a client just returned from holiday or other absence.
Then there is intercession, to me the most difficult form of prayer. Difficult due to the intensity of love for this other person or group of people. It is much easier to pray for someone I love than it is for someone I don't love.
All these can be spontaneous prayer. I'm lucky enough as a self-employed worker to stop what I'm doing and start praying if such a thought drops into my mind. For those at work for an employer, this could be much harder to accomplish. Although I don't have this kind of experience, maybe jotting down on a piece of paper the passing thought before it's forgotten does not sound a bad idea.
Then my friend Dave Rogers, along with the other church elders, spend time in prayer and Bible study each morning before doing anything else. This requires being shut alone in a quiet room, undisturbed. This is praiseworthy and demonstrates a high level of self-discipline. With me, because I tend to be less strong on discipline, so far I have accomplished the Bible study bit, reading a chapter each morning. Whether this is right or not, I rely more on spontaneous prayer than fixed times.
And I should say here that the will and ability to pray comes from God in the first place. True prayer is a gift of God, not human strength, and therefore not recital. But how one conducts his walk with God is a matter between each person and God. No one in the church should judge or criticize an other's walk with God.
Prayer is hard work. Especially in fixed times. Talking to God in one sense is like talking to a parent or a friend. But when the other person replies straight away, when one finishes prayer, all there is is silence. It takes faith to believe that God has heard (paid attention) to prayer.
But for believers in Jesus Christ, having a chat with God is as essential as breathing.

Tut Tut, Naughty

Herodias was ambitious. She was fed up of her husband Philip's domineering attitude. Always had to be submissive to him as Tetrarch, or governor of Ituraea, a region north-east of Israel bordered on the west by the River Jordan, an area occupied by Syria today. To the west of the Jordan River was Galilee, which included the west coast of the Lake of Tiberias, governed by Philip's half brother, recently divorced Herod Antipas, and apparently childless. These two brothers were the sons of Herod the Great, who not only governed the whole of Israel and Judah, but he refurbished the Temple in Jerusalem, and also built a shrine enclosing the sealed entrance of the Cave of Machpelah close to the town of Hebron (see my blog The Stone Bible, 1st February, 2011) - before he died following the slaughter of the Innocents in 4BC.
Where her husband Philip was authoritative over his own household, Herod Antipas had a much more malleable character, a personality she can wind around her little finger. So after a massive bust up, she left her husband, and taking her beautiful daughter, settled into Herod's palace.
For some reason historians cannot seem to agree on, Philip could not gainsay his half brother. Instead he remained at his palace alone and defeated. Soon after, Herodias married Herod and began to rule over his house as well as over the region of Galilee.
Then John the Baptist called out to them as they passed by in their chariot, saying that it was unlawful to marry someone else wife while her husband was still alive.
Herodias was furious! How dare this itinerant preacher tell her what was right and what was wrong. She ordered Herod to arrest him and thrown into the palace prison, to await execution. At least Herodias succeeded in having John silenced, if not her conscience.
I suppose Herod would have wanted a super injunction if the law courts were able to hand it out in those days. Herod rather liked John, and was willing to have him talk in his presence. He certainly would not have wanted the general population outside muttering and tut-tutting over his misdeed. He felt guilty and exposed. But unfortunately, his conviction of wrongdoing failed to result in a conversion. Had it, Herod would have sent Herodias packing, and he himself making a journey to Jerusalem to sacrifice a sin offering at the Temple.
I guess this is the outcome of State religion, in force in Israel up to the Crucifixion. God through Moses had set up this State religion - with the Law, detailed instructions on how to live, along with animal sacrifices and a special set form of worship. These applied to every Israelite, regardless of whether the person wanted to love or honour God or not. It was a disastrous failure. God himself knew this from even before such a covenant was ratified. The Law and state religion does not save, rather, it condemns. It causes one to judge another, and to compare one person's character and actions with another, even if nobody is actually "white" (having a spotless character), if someone else is "black", then even if the one judging is "grey", in front of the "black" person, he'll appear as "white".
That was how State religion was lived out in at the time of Herod, John the Baptist, the Pharisees and soon after, Jesus Christ himself.
The Pharisees were so notorious in judging and finding fault in others that both John and Jesus denounced them for their hypocrisy.
Finding fault, judging and making comparisons gives the person doing these things a sense of superiority, or a sense of self righteousness, with a deceptive idea of reaching Heaven after death by self effort.
It was easy for Israel as a whole to exalt itself on a national level, this sense of moral and spiritual superiority. During the time of Christ, no Jewish person would enter a house of a non-Jew, or Gentile, no Gentile was to enter the Temple area of Jerusalem, and they were made to stay away from the Jewish home.
Even the Apostle Peter, leader of the early Church, had difficulty in direct communication with the Gentiles. With the case of the Roman Centurion Cornelious, Peter had to have a special vision from above before he was convinced that the Roman men who arrived were sent by God. And even at Cornelious' house, Peter said that it was an abomination for a Jew to enter a house of a non-Jew. Charming! Cornelious could have shown him the door.
Even some time later, while Peter was at last settling down to dine with Gentile Christians, he suddenly rose and left the room when news of Jewish believers from James were about to arrive. Paul had to rebuke him, and he did so in public too.
On the national level, England seemed to have taken over from Israel in morality and national superiority. No greater proof of this than William Blake's poem Jerusalem which asks whether the feet of Jesus Christ once trod this green and pleasant land. Despite that there is no historical truth that he ever set foot here, this did not stop the poem from being put to music in 1916 by Sir Hubert Parry to create a patriotic hymn sung as an alternative to the National Anthem.

William Blake

Jerusalem is still sung at sports venues, particularly at Rugby matches, at the Ladies Institute, and at the wedding service of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, in front of a worldwide audience of around two billion viewers. In Parliament there was a debate whether Jerusalem would become the official anthem for England, but nothing of this had so far been declared.
The statement, Our God is the God of England, I actually heard right here at Ascot Baptist Church during the early 1990s. I was the only one who disputed the statement. Most of the others in church at the time seemed to have accepted.
Jeremy Paxman backs this up in his book, The English - A Portrait of a People. In it, Paxman interviews performer George Formby, to which he replied that Englishness is very deep spirit of St. George. The idea of St George is to fight against evil. (P.81)
Paxman discusses how the English believed that they were a covenanted people of God which began to peak in the 18th Century, in very similar pattern to ancient Israel. Sir Edward Hine, for example, in 1879 delivered a lecture in Chelsea advocating the crackpot belief that Britain was Israel (literal bloodline) and America was the lost tribe of Manasseh, arriving into the British Isles centuries after the "Ten Lost Tribes" were led away to Assyria as told in the Old Testament.
The nation as a whole now rejects this idea, but still hold to its form. In my schooldays morning assembly always had a Christian element, and that's despite the rise in atheism, particularly among the boys. I have seen over the years the decline in the belief in God, let alone commitment, yet upholding its Christian roots and morals. Very much like ancient Israel.
One example I would like to quote here is the case of Donald McGill, (1875-1962) an artist who designed the saucy postcards sold at British seaside resorts. In 1953 he had his entire stock confiscated from a shop at Ryde, Isle of Wight, the result of churchy bureaucrats who wanted to keep control of public morality. In 1954 he appeared in Court and was fined £50, a lot of money in those days. He escaped prison by a narrow margin. But soon after, his saucy postcard business began to flourish across the nation. The public found those cards amusing, and refused to have their morals controlled. And the attempted ban did not result in any conversions to Jesus Christ as Saviour either.

Into more modern times, I can name three married celebrities who each betrayed their wives by sleeping with their mistresses. Each of the three attempted to hide their misdeeds by getting an injunction from the Law Courts. This means that they have their privacy protected from the Media. In other words, they can err without the public knowing anything about it.
These were public figures. One was the BBC correspondent Andrew Marr, who actually asked for his injunction to be lifted. In 2003, Andrew Marr traveled to the Galapagos Islands to advocate Charles Darwin for the BBC Greatest Briton of All Time competition, which by public voting, was won by Winston Churchill.
The second was Royal Bank of Scotland boss Fred Goodwin, who slept with a work colleague, and it is thought by many that this misdeed was connected to the banking crisis which brought along the credit crisis and eventual Recession in 2010.
But the most dramatic was the case of Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs, who ordered an injunction after betraying his wife Stacey to sleep with Imogen Thomas. The injunction was a failure due to the many Twitter posts revealing the footballer's identity. When Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming revealed the footballer's identity to the House of Commons, Speaker John Bercow rebuked him, saying that Giggs' privacy should be respected.
But to me who don't follow football, where Ryan Giggs would have remained an relative unknown, except for those into football, now has become infamous across the nation. It was so unnecessary. For news of adultery among celebrities means little to us now. Giggs should have realised that the nation hardly tut tuts any more.

Andrew Marr, fan of Charles Darwin

Yet journalists such as the Daily Mail columnist Amanda Platell still advocates Britain as a cultural superior nation due to its Christian heritage, despite its departure from anything Biblical or spiritual. In this weekend's paper she criticized First Lady Michelle Obama who, with her President husband Barak, was visiting Britain, and was giving an emotional talk to some students at a London girls school about "Triumph over Adversity". Platell responded with these words:
Perhaps someone should have explained to the First Lady that this is Britain and we don't tend to go for all that schmaltzy, heart on the sleeve drivel.
Wow, I wonder how many people reading this turned to Jesus Christ for salvation?
Now let me get real here. There is only one message all Christians should deliver. That is to repent and believe in Jesus Christ and be saved from separation from God and eternity in Hell. There is no other way to Heaven other than trusting Christ and him crucified.
Enough of this idea that just because one is British or English and was baptised in a church as a baby, one can work his way to Heaven. And don't be deceived by the sight of coffins containing war casualties passing through Wootten Basset after their heroic deaths in Afghanistan. Unless they were converted to Jesus Christ while still alive, they would now be in Hell. War death does not save one's soul.
When in Athens, Paul looked at all the pagan altars surrounding him, most if not all had occult influence. But instead of lobbying the Government to have them demolished, as we would probably have done, he just heralded the Gospel of Christ. It was the same when the Apostle was at Ephesus. He did not talk against the Temple of Diana which dominated the city. He just preached the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and faith in him for salvation.
It is not the adulterous acts committed by celebrities that sends them to Hell, it's not trusting in the Saviour. Lobbying against an occult shop about to open in the High Stret will be of no benefit whatsoever. Rather, such actions would cause Christians to be seen as miserable fun-spoilers, and further alienate the unbeliever from the local church.
We as Christians now have only one message: Repent and be baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall receive remission of sins.
Who knows. If Herod Antipas heard such a message, he might have repented after all. Poor John. He told the governor that this act was wrong and he paid with his life.