Merry Christmas!

It is now the last hour of Christmas Day in Northeast Scotland. There is a chilled wind that sucks the heat out of my body, but there is no rain or snow to make it miserable this time of year. I had a busy, although wonderful, week leading up to Christmas. Last night I enjoyed three different Christmas Eve services. At two of them I spoke about Jesus as the reason for the season. I shared a reading that I had presented last year at the same services. But this time I was able to tweak it a little bit. I now pre-sent it to you to reflect on as Christmas still lingers in the air. Before I forget, I hope you have had a very special Christmas. Remember, Jesus is the reason for the season!

JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON 

A thousand times in history 

a baby became king;

but only once in history

did a king become a baby. 

  That King is the Great King Jesus. 

   A thousand times in history

     people served their king;

     but throughout history, 

    there has only been one King 

     who serves His people.

             That King is the Great King Jesus.

   

A thousand times in history

 people sacrificed their lives for their king;

but there is only one king 

  who sacrificed His life for His people.

  That King is the Great King Jesus. 

A thousand times in history

 death conquered a king;

  but there is only one King 

         who has conquered death.

    Even now He bestows life 

      in all its fullness on His people. 

      That King is the Great King Jesus. 

Every Christmas blessing to you and yours, 

Sabbath Rest: Holy, Holy, Holy Is the LORD; Busy, Busy, Too Busy Am I

This past June 16th, I 

celebrated three years 

of being back in Scot-

land and being minis-

ter of the congregation

of St Fergus Parish 

Church. It has been a 

great three years. I do

not want to be any-

where else, either in 

Scotland or the USA. 

This is where the Lord

has placed me for the 

time being. The issue 

of the place where God

wants me is not the is-

sue I really struggle with.  

The issue I really struggle with the most is that of God and time, especially how I use my time. I am a poor steward of the time the Lord has given me. I desire to stand before the face of God  and give an account of wise stewardship of the time He had given to me to use for God's Kingdom and glory.  It is too easy for me to slack off and waste time, focusing on myself rather than the glorious Lord God and His kingdom.

I have also noticed that I run out of steam by Sunday afternoon. By Sunday afternoon after the service at St Fergus Parish Church or by Sunday evening after conducting a service at another church I am visiting, I feel wasted and empty. I admit that there are times I feel far from God. At times it seems to me that He is so far away. At such times I really don't know how I can make it into the coming week, especially to conduct worship services and preach one or two times the following Sunday and do everything else I am called upon to do. 

It is in times like this that I sense the LORD God's holiness. Even after delivering two three-day seminars on God's holiness the past two years, I still can't define the holiness of God. All that I can say is that the LORD is holy, holy, holy, and I am not. What I can say about myself is that I am busy, busy, busy. I have been seeing over and over my need for deep rest that only the LORD grants. I am becoming increasingly busy, especially over the past year. I have been hearing over and over the Lord calling me to Sabbath rest. This means that for a twenty-four hour period I shift the focus of my spiritual eyes from my efforts to resting in what God has done on my behalf through Jesus Christ of the Cross and the Empty Tomb. 

Daily I face the reality that I get out of tune over a short period of even three or four days. I get out of sync quite quickly. I realise that I am listening to different music and seeing that I am out of step with the LORD. Jesus becomes a fading memory rather than Lord of my life. I lose trust in the Cross and Empty Tomb of Jesus Christ, which is the very heart of the Gospel. I become frustrated with small details of my life and forget about Jesus as the ascended King of kings and Lord of lords who sits at the right hand of the Father almighty. I then have little or no interest in being filled with the promised Holy Spirit and Jesus' promise to return to take His people home. My heart becomes calloused,  empty and deadly cold. I rebel against God, seek the glory of my own name, build my own kingdom, and do my own will.

The descriptions of me above reveal why I need a God-ordained and Holy Spirit-inspired Sabbath every seven days. I view Sabbath as much more than a day off. I do need days off, but they are not Sabbath rest days for me. Days of Sabbath rest are necessary, personally constructed, and divinely appointed times that we all need. Sabbath rest is at the very heart of our Sovereign Lord's reality in which we all dwell. The LORD God instituted Sabbath rest for our pleasure and flourishing, and, at the same time,  as a way of glorifying and enjoying God. Long have I neglected it and even rebelled against it. I have come to realise how famished and impoverished I am without it.

It seems that the past two or three years, the Holy Spirit has been weaving Sabbath rest into the very fabric of my soul. I still ponder whether a Christian should observe the Sabbath on Saturday or on Sunday, or every seventh day, whatever day that is. But after all this, I have been going with the seventh day as my Sabbath. Saturdays and Sundays are days of work for me. I want a full twenty-four hours of Sabbath rest. Sometimes I start my Sabbath rest when I finish my pastoral duties on Sunday at St Fergus Parish Church for the day. But many times I preach at a Sunday evening service at another church, At those times I begin my Sabbath rest upon giving the final blessing to the congregation. It is important that my Sabbath rest include a seven or eight hour sleep at night.

For this posting I have had to organise my thoughts on Sabbath rest that were churning about within my mind, yet not expressed in any thoughtful way. It has been good for me to struggle with this for a time and get it down on paper, that is, on screen. I hope to write more on Sabbath rest in my next in a posting in the near future.

Blessings to you and yours,

A Jelly Babies School Assembly

The familiar
Bassetts Jelly Babies box 

The different colors and shapes
of Jelly Babies

I was at St Fergus Pri-
mary School the other
morning to do a school
assembly for the 100 or
so students.

Planning and putting on
a Christian-themed as-
sembly for primary aged
students is not one of my
strongest suits in my cal-
ling to pastoral ministry,
but it is an important part
of my calling as a pastor.

I do about seven or eight assemblies a year. Preparing for and doing them is a challenge, but I do enjoy the challenge of being asked to do an assembly. All across Scotland, fewer and fewer pri-
mary and secondary schools are allowing ministers and youth workers to come into the school to
do an assembly. But the Peterhead area, where I am, is an exception, although some schools are
putting up restrictions. It is up to the head teacher. The two head teachers I have known at St Fer-
gus Primary School are themselves active members  in congregations. Two years ago I was given
15-18 minutes, but now I am given five to ten minutes. In a lot of schools, it is even less.

The week before Easter I was part of a chaplain team that put on Easter-themed assembly in the
Peterhead Academy, a big secondary school in the area. We were given 15 or so minutes for five
morning assemblies. The team chose to show a powerful and short video about Jesus on the
Cross as the Suffering Servant. We opened each assemblies with a crowd-breaker using Jelly
Babies in small packets that we threw into the assembled students. One of us then  addressed
the students about the history and meaning of the Jelly Babies.  The video about Jesus on the
Cross as the Suffering Servant than followed. The assembly ended with a short message on in-
viting Jesus into one's heart.

I liked the idea of using Jelly Babies with the secondary students, but expected I would have
to use them in a different way for the primary students at St Fergus Primary School. I found
out how many classes there were (five) and how many students there were in each class (be-
tween 20 and 25). I had found a store where I could purchase Jelly Babies. They come in
boxes of 50. I knew I had to have about 120 Jelly Babies to cover the students, teachers, and
staff. So I bought three boxes.  

I had no experience with Jelly Babies until just a few months ago. I have had a sweet tooth
ever since I was a young tyke. I have enjoyed Gummi Bears and jelly beans, but nothing in
my life prepared me for Jelly Babies. They are a soft sugared candy that are shaped as ba-
bies in a variety of forms, flavors, and colors. Each of them is coated with confectionary
sugar that can be licked off, revealing the specifics of the different colored baby shapes.
Since their first appearance in 1864, Jelly Babies have been produced by different manufac-
turers.  It is said that they took on Christian significance when Bassett's took over produc-
tion of Jelly Babies in 1953.

There are six different colors, each having their own shape and personality, if sweets can
have personality. The strawberry-flavored red baby is called Brilliant. It has a 'B' on its
chest that stands for the blood of Jesus. Then there is Bubbles, the yellow lemon-flavored
baby. It has a necklace that represents the treasures and riches that Jesus bestows upon us.  

It is hard for me to distinguish between the red Jelly Baby and the pink one. The latter one
is called Bonny. The raspberry-flavored Bonnie is suppose to be a baby, representing our
need to be born again. There's the lime-flavored green Jelly Baby named Boofuls. It is cry-
ing because of worsening conditions in the world. The black Bigheart, the blackcurrant one, represents the darkness that is in the world. My favorite one is the orange Bumper. It is car-
rying a bag, encouraging us to be prepared to walk with Jesus. 

The assembly seemed to go very well. I had a lot of frenzied interaction with the kids as I
asked them all types of questions about their favorite colors of Jelly Babies. One teacher
told me her favorite sweet is Jelly Babies. She appreciated learning about the meaning be-
hind the different shapes and colors. I had fun, too, and felt relieved it had gone so well.
We had fun, and I was able to share a little more about Jesus. I handed out Jelly Babies
to each class, asking each teacher to come up to take a bag of the sweets for her class. I
went home to finish off the half of a box of Jelly Babies that was left over. Since I never
knew about Jelly Babies until a few months ago, I am now making up for lost time. You
know, they are rather good.

Blessings to you and yours, 

UK Election Day: Waiting for the Results

As I work on this post, it is the last hour that the polls will be open for eli-gible votes to cast their ballots in the 2015 Gen-eral Election in the Uni-ted Kingdom. By the Uni-ted Kingdom, I mean England, Wales, 

Scotland, and Northern Ireland, that together form the United King-

dom. By General Elec-

tion, I mean forty-six mil-lion eligible voters in 650 local constituencies casting their ballots for candidates who are seeking to sit in the House of Com-mons as Members of Parliament. All kinds of buildings are used as polling places. Here in St Fer-gus, votes are cast at the village hall. They are all open from 7 in the morning until 10 at night. Exit polling is not allowed until after the polls close. The full results of the election will not be announced until tomorrow morning.

The government in the United Kingdom is a Parliamentary form of a Constitutional Monarchy. There is a Monarch, at this time Queen Elizabeth, who is Head of State. The Prime Minister, the leader of the Majority Party in the House of Commons, is the Head of Government. It is different in the USA: the President, now President Obama, is both the Head of State and the Head of Government.  

In the General Election, voters cast their ballots for candidates running for a seat in the House of Commons where they, as Members of Parliament, represent their respective constituencies. When the General Election was called five months ago, Parliament was dissolved. Thus began a limited period of campaigning for seats in Parliament. Some Members of Parliament (MPs) decided to stand down and not return to Parliament. Others seek the right to return to their seat. Almost all face challengers who fight it out for the seat of the constituency. Voters cast their ballots for candidates for MP. No ballots are cast for Prime Minister. The candidates were campaigning for six hundred and fifty seats, one for each of the six hundred and fifty constituencies in the UK. 

The Prime Minister (PM) is the leader of the party that wins a majority of seats in the House of Commons. The leader of the party that assembles 326 of the 650 seats is the PM. That leader will be asked by the Queen to form the government on her behalf. If no party reaches the majority of seats, the Queen will usually ask the party with the most seats to form a coalition with another party to reach the majority number. This is what happened in 2010, the last General Election, when the Conservative Party had the most seats, but did not have the 326 seats needed for the majority. Their leader, David Cameron, assembled a coalition government by asking the Liberal Democrat Party, the party with the third most seats won in the election, to join with the Conservatives. The Lib Dem's leader, Nick Clegg, assumed the Vice Prime Minister responsibilities and other Lib Dem MPs took positions in the government with the Conservatives. 

That was then, this is now. For the last five months Cameron and the Conservatives have been in a tight race with Ed Miliband and the Labour Party. For the past few weeks it has been neck and neck, with both parties polling in the low thirties. It has been called the closest and tightest UK General Election in modern times. It has been too close to call. Polls reveal that the Undecided votes are at about 40%. I have read that undecided voters tend to vote for stability and with what has been work-ing. In past General Elections, Undecideds have had the tendency to break for the Conservatives. This might be just what the Conservatives need to remain in control of Parliament. Another factor in the Conservative's favour is the rise of the Scottish National Party (SNP) in Scotland. In the past, Labour could always count on the fifty or so Parliamentary seats in Scotland going to Labour. But with the rise of the SNP in recent years, it is expected those seats will go to the SNP, not Labour. This can only hurt Labour's chances of getting the 326 seats needed to take back control of the House of Commons. 

There are six parties that are major players in these elections: The Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems, the SNP, and the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). I expect that the Conservatives will receive the most seats and Labour will have the second most seats. It seems to me that Conservatives will not be able to receive the majority of seats, and thus a Coalition government will have to be formed by David Cameron or whoever the Conservative leader might be. I expect the the Lib Dems will lose a large number of seats and will not be able to be part of a coalition government with the Conservatives this time. It doesn't seem like the two parties are fond of each other anyway. Labour, I foresee, will receive the second most votes. I can't see the Conservatives and Labour ever forming a government together. UKIP is a far right political party that the Conservatives could work with. The only problem is that, despite political success in elections two years ago, I doubt UKIP will win anymore than one or two seats, if that, in the elections. I am eager to find out how the Conservatives do seat-wise. It might be that they will have the most seats, but be unable to form a coalition gov-ernment.  

If David Cameron and the Conservatives are not able to form a Coalition Government with one of the other parties, would the Queen then ask Labour, whom I anticipate will have the second most seats, to form a Coalition Government? I expect SNP to explode from 7 seats in Parliament to over 50 seats in this election. They will be the biggest winners. But I have heard it said that Labour would ever ask the SNP to join with them. But will they change their mind if they have an opportunity to gain control of Parliament? It would be ironic if the SNP (that sought independence for Scotland) would now enter into the very heart of UK government! It will be interesting to see what happens. I do favour that the Conservatives would be in control of the government. The New Labour economic policies of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have led the UK into economic crisis. Miliband and the Labour party would only continue with those woeful economic policies of their Labour predecessors. Since 2010 Cameron and the Conservatives have halved the national deficit. The United Kingdom has recovered their place as the fifth most powerful economy in the world. However, the debt, the largest in Europe, is exploding, not receding.  In terms of economic and social policy, Cameron is a left of centre Conservative. I know I can't vote or have a say in the election, but I would like to see a more right of centre Conservative as Prime Minister. Here's hoping. I can't wait until tomorrow morning to hear the results of the election. 

Peace to you and yours, 

A Morning at St Fergus Primary School

At 10:15 one morning not long ago I was part of the school assembly at St Fergus Primary School. About 110 young boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 12 marched into the gymnasium for a 20-minute assembly. They sat cross-legged on the floor with each class in a line, seven or eight lines deep. Most wore the distinctive uniform of the school: the boys were clad in blue trousers and white shirts and the girls wore dark skirts with white blouses. Both the boys and girls of the Primary 7 students, the oldest at St Fergus Primary School, donned ties. Seven or eight teachers and assistants sat on narrow benches along the walls. 

The assembly that I participated in at St Fergus Primary School was not like the school assembly pictured above. The one pictured above may not have been religious in any way. The primary and secondary schools in Scotland and England are becoming increasingly closed to assemblies with religious themes of any kind. Great Britain, like the rest of Western Europe, has become secularised and closed to anything smacking of organised religion. But the schools here in North East Scotland have generally remained open to assemblies addressing Christian content. Unfortunately, it seems that even here in this area, the doors of the schools are becoming closed shut to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The present Head Teacher and her predecessor are both active in evangelical churches in Peterhead, just down the road from St Fergus. The present Head Teacher has invited me to do four or five school assemblies a year as well as the Christmas Assembly and End of Year Assembly at the Church. I have been asked to do more, but conflicts with other commitments have prevented me from taking up the offers.

The greatest challenge I face in ministry is talking to Primary School students. Well, as I think about it more, perhaps talking to teenagers is just a bit of a greater challenge. I relish speaking to groups of adults at church or other functions, but put me in front of a group of children and teens, I break out in a cold sweat. I am aware that I have a tendency to drift to speaking in a manner that is wordy, cerebral, and abstract. That doesn't go down well at all with young people.  I have been doing assemblies and other activities with the kids for two and a half years. I sense they are fond of me. I certainly am fond of them. I keep being invited back. But still I get stressed as I prepare for an assembly. It has been a growing time for me in which I learn about myself, the children, and God. The assembly went well. I interacted with the students and had their attention. It came to about 12 minutes that I had with them. I ended by praying a blessings over the students and the school staff. It went well.

I could write much more about this aspect of my ministry here in St Fergus, but I have been working on this for nearly two weeks now. I want to keep posting  on a regular basis, and so I am posting this with hope of moving on to more postings.  

Blessings to you and yours, 

Four Congregations Worshipping as One

On Sunday, February 8, the four Church of Scotland (C of S) congre-
gations of the Peterhead Grouping met together for a morning united
service at one of the Peterhead churches. St Andrews, Trinity, and the
Old Parish Church are the three Peterhead congregations in the Peter-
head Grouping. Little St Fergus Parish Church, the congregation I pas-
tor, is the fourth congregation of the Grouping. The village of St Fergus
is about three miles north of Peterhead.

Peterhead is a town of 16,000 people and has more than its fair share
of churches. I've heard it said that there are thirty three or so different congregations. Over half are Brethren fellowships. Peterhead is a key
centre of the Brethren. This larger area of North East Aberdeenshire
has been referred to as the Bible Belt of Scotland. The Church of Scot-
land has been the national church in the land. So it is not surprising
that there have been three Church of Scotland congregations. There
may have been more earlier in the last century.

But the Church of Scotland has been in steep decline all across the
country since the 1960s and 70s. Two of Peterhead's C of S congre-
gations are feeling the strains of smaller congregations that are growing older. Younger people
rarely turn out for worship at these churches, but go to more energetic non-denominational con-
gregations in the area, if they even attend church at all. I have heard it said that ten years ago,
no one would have thought seriously that the three churches should merge as one. There would
have been massive walkouts from the churches if the uniting had been done.

But two summers ago, the four churches (the three Peterhead churches and St Fergus) met
together and seriously discussed the plan to bring together the three town churches. Since
then representatives of the four churches have been meeting together to take further steps
to do just that. The Peterhead Working Committee is waiting on architectural and engineer-
ing analyses in order to decide how best to move ahead or drop the plan. The situation looks
bleak to some people; others are being cautious, waiting to see what develops; and a few are
more optimistic. The people in the three town churches see the serious challenges before
them, yet put their trust in the Lord who will guide for them and provide for them.

We have had six united services over the past two years. These united services were held
in one of the four congregations of the Peterhead Grouping in February, July, and Novem-
ber. On the Sunday that there was an united service, the congregation of the other three
would not have their own Sunday service, but would go to the church where the joint ser-
vice was to be held. Except for one or two times, turnout was not that high. Some people
chose to stay at home. But on February 8, we were pleasantly pleased by the turnout. We
at St Fergus Parish Church had 15 there, quite a surprise! Altogether there were about
180 people at the service. It was so nice to see. The spirit of the congregation was unlike
I'd ever sensed in other united services, let alone other church services.

I took the lead on planning the service. It was nice to be in front of a large congregation
that responded to those of us up front. Here were four congregations who were together
worshipping Jesus Christ as one congregation. I was up front with the other two leaders
and we enjoyed the full brunt of the beautiful singing of hymns with full gusto. It was a
service I will always remember. A lot of people commented on how there was such a
nice spirit there and that they enjoyed it. That's so great. I will write more about the ser-
vice in my next blog posting.

As always, blessings to you and yours,

An Ongoing Tale of Three Churches

This won't be a long blog posting. I just 
need to get something written down to 
share with you. It has been a hard and 
busy time for me since the beginning 
of December. I expected things would 
slow down during January, but I was hit 
pretty hard in the face with things to do. 
I enjoy all that I do as the minister of St 
Fergus Parish Church. But I am also the 
lone full-time minister among the four 
Church of Scotland congregations of the Peterhead Grouping. 

Peterhead is the big town just three miles 
down the road from St Fergus. St Fergus 
is a village of 700 or so people; Peterhead 
is a large town of 16,000 people. It is the 
white fish capital of the European Union. 
St Fergus Parish Church is a Church of Scotland Congregation. There are three 
Church of Scotland congregations  in Peterhead. The St Fergus Parish Church
has always been the smallest of the four Parish Grouping churches. Now all three town congregations are without a minister. Only tiny rural St Fergus has their own minis-
ter: me. Only one of the four congregations, one of the congregations in town, has experienced any growth during the last five years. 

A year and a half ago, the elders of the four churches of the Peterhead Grouping met to 

look into uniting the three Peterhead congregations. An overwhelming majority voted 

to take the initial steps to joining three congregations into one. For over a year a com-

mittee has been meeting to work through that process. As the minister of St Fergus, I 

have been a part of that committee even though St Fergus Parish Church is not a part 

of the three other congregations coming together. As you might have imagined, 

the committee has has had to make its way through countless obstacles, difficulties,  

and challenges.

It is within this context that Proverbs 3:5-6 comes to mind. It has been an important 
lighthouse in my life for over forty years. These verses cut right to the heart of the mat-
ter as I seek to work out God's will in my life. As I and my colleagues deal with these 
critical issues of uniting three congregations into one, Proverbs 3:5-6 shows me the 
way: trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understand-
ing. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. I do 
not have any indication of the road ahead. I and my colleagues assigned the task of 
preparing for union of the three Peterhead congregations do so by focusing on Jesus 
and His kingdom and committing our way to the Lord, trusting in Him. 

It is important to me that I get this posted today. I have many other things that I need
to do. It is necessary that I get this posted because it has been a long time since I did a 
posting. As much as I seek to avoid maintaining a blog, it is something I firmly believe 
the Lord has called me to do. I am again recognising that it is a matter of obedience to
the Lord. I submit this now and look forward to preparing the next posing that is 
more timely. 

Blessings to you and yours,