Galatians 4

Preached Sunday on the first part of Galatians 4 at Church on the Corner in Islington. Thanks for the warm welcome from everyone at the evening service - it was my first visit (we've been attending the morning service since we came to London in September). I felt like the evening went better than the morning. It's one of those funny things...I can't really explain why. I did make a rather desperate request for prayer after the morning because I was feeling a bit lifeless. I guess the Holy Spirit showed up in response, and I experienced his power at the evening meeting.
One of the most exciting parts of the passage for me was that when Paul says God has made us "heirs" - he means that in Jesus we are heirs of all of God's creation. I connected that to our view of the city, and challenged us to see the church as the rightful inheritor of the city.

Our stuff is here...sort of

It's in the country, at least. We heard from the shipping company that our stuff arrived in port on Tuesday. However, we also found out that it'll be another 3-5 weeks before it clears customs and gets delivered to us. Aaaarrgghh!

Drawing Studio

On Saturday afternoon, Andi and I walked next door to Arlington House. They were hosting an open drawing studio. Professional artists joined homeless residents of Arlington house and members of the community in creating a room full of drawings. Tables, walls, and even the floor were covered in paper. Markers, pencils, charcoal, and paints were scattered around the room. Andi had a great time doing butterflies (where you fold a sheet of paper in half to creat mirror images of the paint). We learned from one of the guys that you can then use the 'butterfly' to create multiple prints on the wall if you use enough paint. Really cool. Andi had no problem getting right in there and drawing. But I found it very difficult. I couldn't think of what to do, and I kind of froze up. It was like I wanted to put something down, but every idea I had just seemed stupid. I like the freedom children have to express themselves.

MySpace

So I finally did it. I didn't really want to. Maybe it's 'cuz I'm getting older and stuck in my ways, and I feel overwhelmed every time I go to it. But I have resisted joining MySpace. But now I have friends in the states as well as friends here who use it to keep in touch.
So today I joined MySpace. I promptly discovered that although Tim and I have known each other for 20 years, I am not his friend. At least not according to MySpace. I also learned that I only have one friend, and his name is Tom. I visited Tom's page to learn about my only friend. My only friend Tom has 122 million other friends. Now I'm really jealous of my only friend Tom. I think I don't want to be Tom's friend anymore as he makes me feel inadequate with his 122 million friends. So even though I've known him for 20 years, I'm going to invite Tim to be my friend. If he wants to be my friend, maybe he'll replace Tom as my only friend. Tim only has 46 friends...I'm not too jealous of him.

Meditation

Last Thursday I went to a "Silent Meditation" at a church in the area. I don't know why, but I expected the meditation would somehow revolve around a piece of scripture or some Christian theme, or something. To my surprise, it was more of a Zen Buddhist mediation, complete with brass gong on the altar and instructions to empty our minds. I stayed on even though it wasn't what I had expected because I had already made a scene once when I came in (I was...ahem...late). So I focused my thoughts on Jesus and sat silently for 20 minutes while all the muscles in my back tightened up and I got a searing pain in my right shoulder. At one point, I opened my eyes because I wanted to look at a cross...but I couldn't even find one in the church building. I should mention that it was a really good exercise for me, I haven't sat that still or been that silent, focussing only on Jesus, for quite a while. The experience highlited for me the hunger for spiritual experience in Camden, along with the void of Christ-centered spirituality.

Finished Table

Some of you had asked about the table now that it has glass on it, so here it is. I thought about clearing it off, but the glory of the glass is that it allows us to USE the table, so I thought I'd show it in use. The wooden chairs are the old pub chairs we were given last weekend.

Gallery

As yet Unknown art gallery in Camden's Stables Market is a great little place, tucked away in the catacombs of the market. I met the owner Ryan last week while helping a friend unload new furniture stock for his shop. Today I stuck my head in to check out the gallery. He's got an impressive collection of pieces on display at the moment, mostly paintings and photographs - some from artists I've seen before, but most from people I'd never heard of. The thing I love the most is Ryan's desire to help new artists get established. When I stopped in, he was working on a painting representing the takeover of religion by pop-culture. Hopefully he'll put it up on his site when it's finished.

Weekend Update

This has been a lazy weekend. After family movie night on friday evening, I met up with some friends again at the Spread Eagle. Saturday Andi and I walked up to the park to meet a friend, and while there we also saw a family from her weekly football training. Saturday afternoon Johnny and Becky had us over for ribeye on the grill! OH BABY.
Today was laying back and watching a really tight Ravens game - week three against the Browns. Thanks Andrew for recording it for us. You don't know how much we look forward to getting your packages.
Oh, and we now have a dinning room table and CHAIRS! The glass top arrived for the table on Friday so we could start using the table, and today my friend Mark dropped off some old chairs that were left over from when his church used to be a pub. Thanks bud!

Arlington House

On Friday I stopped by Arlington House, the men's hostel right next door to our building. They have a room set up for the public to come in and learn about the history of the building...and it's fascinating. At one time it was the largest hostel for men in the UK, providing housing for over 1000 people. Over time the number of beds have been reduced and the rooms enlarged. Read about the history of Arlington House and its connection to Irish immigrants here. Novas Group currently runs the hostel, and you can read about their plans to redevelop the building and reconnect to the community here.