life without walls

work

stuart brown — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 15:35:30 +0000

My amazing wife is beginning a new work venture, very exciting / busy times in the home currently. anyone interested in jewellery please follow this link.

a prayer

stuart brown — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:52:44 +0000

God, our Creator, thank you for the gift of Jesus. He walked among us embodying your creative and life-giving Word in his body, his life, his words, his deeds, his sufferings, his death, and his resurrection. When we see him loving the outcast, forgiving the sinner, confronting the hypocrite, and teaching the crowds a new way of life, we see your heart, your compassion, your mercy, your character. To know Jesus is to love him, and to love him is to know him, and to know and love him is to know and love you.
So help me, Lord, to be among your disciples who come to you to be taught.
Help me, Lord, to be among the poor in spirit, to see and know that your kingdom is my homeland even now …
Help me, Lord, to be among those who mourn, to join you in your sadness for all that’s wrong and broken in this world, and in joining you, to find true comfort.
Help me, Lord, to be among the meek, those who find strength in weakness and power in vulnerability, to never fear lack or want, because when I have your love, I have all the world.
Help me, Lord, to desire justice, rightness, goodness, fairness, cleanness, clearness, and integrity more than I hunger for food or thirst for water … and so let me find the truest fulfillment and satisfaction.
Help me, Lord, to be among the merciful. Help me to be a true friend to those who are hated, misunderstood, rejected, excluded, disregarded … just as you, God of Mercy, are. When others fail – when they fail me – help me show the same mercy you show to those who fail you … including me.
Help me, Lord, to be among the pure in heart. May your pure light shine in my heart and dispel every shadow, every layer and fold that conceals or pretends. Since it is only the heart that sees you, remove from my heart everything that keeps me from seeing you.
Help me, Lord, to be among the makers of peace. Many build walls. Many sow fear and distrust. Many spread rumors. Many inflame conflict and profit from it. Help me to be even among them an agent and messenger of your peace and reconciliation, and so bear your family likeness, God of peace.
Help me, Lord, not to fear being among the persecuted, but rather, to rejoice in having the honor of standing for your restorative justice and rightness, so I will see that your kingdom is my homeland, even now.
Help me, Lord, to be among those who suffer wrong well and with grace. Help me not to resent it, not to fear it, not to seek to escape it. Instead, help me to find joy in it … when others insult me, make my life more difficult, or falsely malign me because of you. Help me to see through the momentary, light trouble to the lasting and weighty reward, even now, for your kingdom comes by suffering rather than by making others suffer.
So help me, Lord, to be among your disciples who come to you to be taught. I am a limping, broken sinner and beginner, far from these realities, but this is where I want to go. In your mercy, lead me in this path. Amen.
(a meditation on Matthew 5:1-12)

From Here.

quote

stuart brown — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 19:40:07 +0000

“The finger of God never leaves identical fingerprints.”

STANISLAUS LEC

the end?

stuart brown — Wed, 25 May 2011 20:05:36 +0000

rapture

rights!

stuart brown — Fri, 20 May 2011 16:34:48 +0000

On today’s news

stuart brown — Mon, 02 May 2011 10:42:25 +0000

Initial response to the news today.

here.

Japan, pics

stuart brown — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 18:55:43 +0000

Pictures found in the carnage of the disaster in Japan. (from here)

tick the box [or make your own box to tick]

stuart brown — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:27:33 +0000

taken from here:

On being counted

- or standing up to be counted

The workings of Government are very closely interwoven with the gospel story. Tax collectors and soldiers, courts and politics are all there. Did you ever think what the Christmas story would have been like if Caesar Augustus had not decided to hold a census? No journey to Bethlehem and no stable, for a start. In the wider Bible, censuses are regarded with some suspicion, as a symptom of people placing their trust in human strength rather than in God, and in more modern times, they are often regarded as intrusive prying by the state. They are, nonetheless, incredibly valuable tools for understanding society and hence for making sure that government plans bear some resemblance to the real world.

And why am I saying this? Well, there is a census due in the United Kingdom on 27 March 2011, though the advanced publicity has been muted in order to save money, and you may not have heard. The questions asked are not the same throughout the UK, but are shaped to meet the perceived needs of the various countries. You are asked about your knowledge of Gaelic in Stornoway, but not in Southend, and in Northern Ireland, you are asked what your religion is. And of course, that isn’t about whether you are a Muslim or a Hindu, it’s about whether you’re a Protestant or a Catholic.

The government isn’t really interested in which church you go to on Sunday (or whether you go to any church at all), but it does want to know what community you belong to. Unfortunately, I think that this is effectively helping to reinforce the sectarian divide that runs through all of Northern Ireland, from the structure of the Northern Ireland Assembly to the colour of the kerbstones. You may be an agnostic, it seems, but you must be a Catholic or a Protestant agnostic. Many folk, however, would prefer to see Northern Ireland move away from this obsession with the two communities, and would rather not reinforce the sectarian divide.

Interestingly, failing to answer the religion question at all is subject to no legal penalty (unlike the rest of the census questions). If you disregard the provided denominational slots in order to write in a truthful answer of ‘Christian’ or ‘Agnostic’ or whatever, then the census enumeration has to accept such an answer, even though it gives away nothing about your community. Maybe now is the time to be thinking about the best answer to give to the religion question, rather than simply giving the answer that is being sought.

Chris Morris.

Chris Morris used to be a statistician and is now retired. Last year, he did a MPhil in Reconciliation Studies at the Irish School of Ecumenics, and he is currently working on matters to do with fuel poverty.

Foy

stuart brown — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 19:13:26 +0000

I am looking forward to hearing one of my favourite musicians tonight. If you have never heard of Foy Vance check out the video clips below.

smaLL

stuart brown — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 20:19:55 +0000

from here.

AMAZING>