TheLionRampant.net

After lamenting that we have no income last night, I signed up today for being a James Tait Black reader. I did it last year and it’s really not worth it for 50 GBP - but regardless we need the money, so I signed up. I have to read 9 fat biographies by 1 December and write a short write-up on each one and then shortlist one for the Prize. I just started one by Hanif Kureishi, My Ear to His Heart, a biog/memoir about his father. So far it’s good and more interesting than a lot of stuff I read last year.

In other news, I went to a meeting today about teacher training and it’s starting now and is cool and scary all at the same time! They do things differently here. In Scotland for your first 2 years at university you do 3 subjects and then (if you’re good enough) can work on a few subjects for an honours degree. So TAs teach tutorials, which supplement the thrice-weekly lectures, for these first- and second-year students. At Edinburgh there are three modules for literature: English lit, Scottish lit, or American lit. (I will probably apply to teach American lit when it comes to that point). I met with my ‘teaching mentor’ and I’ll be sitting in on her tutorial a week on Friday (on Blake). Then 2 weeks after that, I get to take a tutorial and be observed and have my first time teaching COLLEGE students - YIKES! It’s on Keats - you know ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ author? I can pretty much do whatever I want, but we did talk about a number of things I should cover, and the purpose is mainly to get the students talking rather than to talk at them.

So that’s what’s new. We have no money and we need some so I’ll be reading 9 books and learning to teach some undergraduates and going to the library or my office and coming home with a headache in the dark (especially once the time changes!). Thankfully somehow God provides for our needs.

In theory it looks just like the old one (for now at least), but it has many more cool features, and the smilies are back. Enjoy.

This afternoon, after my normal full day of lectures I was required to attend a biannual lecture on evangelism. The lecture was to focus on youth evangelism, and was delivered by ‘Iver’, who, as everyone who’s anyone knows, is the minister of the Free Church in Stornoway. His lecture was entitled…
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Ok, first off, it has recently come to my attention that there are more people who read our blog than the 3 people who post comments with some regularity. So if you are one of those people who reads but never comments, please say something once in a while, cuz sometimes I begin to wonder if this is worth it.
Cheers.

Secondly, and much more importantly, I was reading another blog where the dude was trying to compile a list of the top 10 objections to Christianity. This is an incredibly important thing for Christians to be aware of. If we want to engage with our culture (which we do, even if you didn’t know) we need to know where we are likely to meet resistance. Also, when I’m preparing a sermon, I try to keep in mind and respond to potential objections from skeptics, and it would be helpful to have a somewhat exhaustive list to reference.

I think one of the problems with attempting to compile such a list is that people don’t share a common worldview today. While there are many ‘post-modern’ types that reject absolute truth, there are also many people that still cling to the modern ideology where scientific fact is the absolute standard. And then there are people who take some of both or make up something totally different.

So with all that in mind, here are my thoughts on why western people today reject Christianity.

1) The exclusive claims of Christianity. It’s fine if Christianity does it for you, but don’t try to impose your beliefs on me.
2) If there is a God out there, we can’t possibly know anything about him/her/it/them.
3) The Bible cannot be verified by science, or cannot be reconciled to the historical evidence, or whatever else you choose as your standard.
4) The Bible is full of errors and contradictions.
5) Christianity is not intellectually respectable. It may have been OK for primitive people, but we have moved beyond that now. Modern people are more sophisticated and can’t be expected to believe in the miracles, etc. of the Bible.
6) The morals in the Bible are unrealistic. How can you really expect people not to have sex before marriage?
7) Christians are hypocrites.
The Christian understanding of an all-loving God is incompatible with a God who sends people to hell.
9) I’m a good person. I’ve never killed anyone.
10) The problem of evil.

That’s what I’ve come up with off the top of my head. Please leave comments and tell me why you think people object to Christianity, or what reservations you may have yourself about Christianity. If you can’t think of 10 reasons then just post a few. Usually when I ask for comments I get none, and when I post something that I think is boring everyone comments. But please, really, comment on this. I really want to know and this is important for Christians to think about. If you know someone who has a bunch of objections to Christianity, point them to this post.

Thanks!

Hi - here’s a disjointed blog since it’s midnight, but comprises what we’ve done this weekend.

Friday, B came to my wee office to study with me. We did laundry and more studying when home that evening. Stayed up till 2 watching Return of the King.

Sat, took the bus that was supposed to be a train to the Scottish Borders to visit a classmate. Lots of fun, an obscene amount of food (inc. free range eggs and pumpkin-size apples grown on the farm and fresh salmon, salad, savory chicken pie, apple tart, wine, etc etc) for lunch, saw Flodden Field and saw some drunk old dudes playing darts at the pub. Got home late. But fun times were had by all and the weather was fab.

Sun, walked to church in heavy rain - took all day to dry out. church, met new Canadian people - she’s a classical singer, he’s a PhD student in maths (that’s how they say it here). cool stuff. Lunch at church to support the youngins. Picked up our umbrella and took tea w/ the Courts. Walked home and made apple crumble, cleaned the flat. church. Hung out with Hays, new people, and Randalls until 10.15. Tired now.

We are looking at moving. We are too frustrated with our flat. Anyone want to buy us one? I have lots of meetings this week. Bryce goes back to classes Tuesday and has tests and essays to do - the “fun” never stops. We are going to a Halloween party at the Hays Saturday. It’s cold in Edinburgh. Please pray for our stamina, the autumn slump is coming on. And we need to find a lovely, new, cheap flat too.

Hello! We have returned from our trip to the Isle of Skye (and most of the rest of Scotland–it’s a very wee country). Here’s a quick update on our trip, I’m sure Ash will fill in the details later.

We left Friday afternoon just in time to hit traffic on the Forth Road Bridge. We got to the Crockett’s just after 9 and hung out with them for a bit before going to bed. We set off Saturday morning and drove through the Cairngorms to Inverness. Its a great drive, unfortunately it was pretty cloudy so we didn’t get to fully enjoy the scenery, but it was still good. After a stop for some groceries, etc. in Inverness we headed west along Loch Ness, towards the west coast. We stopped to take a couple pictures at Urquart Castle:

Loch Ness was very cool, although I was the only one in our car that saw Nessie (but it didn’t get me out of doing the dishes:(). From there we continued to Eileen Donan Castle (featured in The World is not Enough, pictures to come). From there it was a short hop over the infamous Skye Toll Bridge (?6.50 each way, the most expensive toll bridge per foot in the world!) and then an hour more to Kenselayre, where we were staying. It was a long but good drive. When we arrived we had some dinner and went to bed early.

Sunday morning we got up and drove about 20 minutes to Uig to go to church. I have to say I was a bit disappointed in the church service. It was okay really, but I was hoping to experience a very dour highland Presbyterian service. The minister at Uig Church of Scotland is youngish and appears to be doing some different things to wake folks up, which I’m sure is good and necessary, but meant that we didn’t get any Gaelic hymns or anything like that. Maybe we’ll go to the Free Church next time. Everyone at church was really friendly though. After church we had some lunch and Jonathan wasn’t feeling well so Ash and I grabbed the car and went for a drive. After stopping at the only store that was open on Sunday, we drove along the northeast coast past the Old Man of Storr (a cool teardrop-shaped rock that looks like it’s teetering on the edge of a cliff) and Kilt Rock (picture soon!). We then took a one-lane road over this peak (don’t remember the name) were we had a great view of the coast and mountains (Ash says: This was a great drive and highlighted for us by the Randalls on our road atlas as a ‘must see’). It was raining and sunny at the top and there was a great rainbow that followed us down the other side. We drove back and spent the rest of the night taking it easy.

Monday morning I woke up with a terrible kink in my neck and since Ash had a bit of work to do we stayed in a took it easy all day while the Hays went exploring north and south of where we stayed. We began the Lord of the Rings marathon that evening by watching “Fellowship of the Ring” (thanks to the Hamlins for sending us the whole set–you rule!!!).

Tuesday it rained all day, but you can’t let rain get in your way in Scotland. If you did you’d never do anything. So the four of us set out in the car for the west part of the island. Right at the tip is Trumpan Church:

Back in the day the Macleods massacred the Macdonalds while the Macdonalds were at church. It was raining really hard when we were here so we didn’t stick around too long. We then drove to Dunvegan Castle, which is the seat of the Macleod tribe to this day. Since everyone who’s anyone in the Free Church is a Macleod we thought we should pay homage, but we didn’t really feel like it when we got there, so we left. We took the long way back home and spent the evening with some warm soup and the Two Towers.

We awoke early this morning (Wednesday), cleaned up and set off by 9:45. We decided to take the slighty less direct route home (not that there is ever a direct route anywhere in this country) which took us through Glen Coe. On our way out we discovered that it had snowed overnight, at least on the mountain tops:

Glen Coe (literally “The Valley of Weeping”; pictured below) was amazing! It was the site of another massacre that happened back in the day.

And so, after another 6 or so hours in the car, we finally made it back to Edinburgh.

It was a great, relaxing trip. I now feel like we’ve seen most of Scotland, but I’d like to go back to everywhere we saw this week in the Spring when it’s green. (Ash says: We’re thinking of training to walk The West Highland Way next spring or summer - a 95-mile trek from outside of Glasgow to Fort William, which is just north of Glen Coe).

So…I guess that wasn’t really a quick update. Oh well. I’ll have more pictures in a few days, but I’ll leave you with two more for now.

The sky in Skye is really cool:

And no trip in Scotland would be complete without a lot of sheep:

We’re off to the Isle of Skye tomorrow night! We’ll be driving up to the Crocketts late that evening, spending the night, and driving from Banchory to Skye Saturday morning! It’ll be cold and wet, but thoroughly enjoyable! We’re very excited to get away for a few days, go walking, watch DVDs, read bunches, and see the magnificent scenery. Stay tuned for a trip update and pictures next week!

Thought you might get a chuckle at our early North American history. The excerpt is from M’Donald’s ‘Emigration to Canada’ (1823):

?I am sorry to say, that so little respect is paid to the Sabbath here, and must state an accident which happened in the course of my journey. Sailing a little late on a Saturday night in a steam boat, I landed at the end of my voyage, and stopped all the next day, till Monday morning.?Something having gone wrong with the boiler, the engineer and others began to mend it, and continued repairing it all Sabbath day, and after finishing their job went ashore, and commenced hard drinking; which they continued till they got quite intoxicated. Thus one sin leads to another. As the engineer was returning to the boat, he fell into the river and was drowned. I saw his corpse got on Monday morning. His name was Bruce?. (26)

Somehow the last sentence just made me laugh (nearly outloud) in the National Library today.

Yes, I have an office. I am now officially a PhD student. I have a little attic office up four flights of stairs in a ridiculously hard-to-find room - take three flights of stairs, then find the tiny fourth floor stairway off to the side and then begin trying to open doors at random to find study room 18, which after some help from the lovely cleaning lady, I found my office door (along with a few others) behind a locked door. Crazy old flat buildings. All is well except that the student who has been in the office left all her stuff there - and I mean all: shoes, duvet, books, papers, kettle, can of sardines. Yeah. fun. But hopefully she will take all her crap away and I will then snag the desk by the window! I can now be productive having an office to go to. Yippee!

from Edith Schaeffer’s _The Art of Life_
WHY MUST WE SUFFER?

Affliction must be recognized as something we all need to deal with. There is no place to go for a vacation from the abnormality of the universe, from the effects of the Fall upon every area of life, and from the conflict of the ages. Persecution and affliction are a normal part of the Christian life. We need not be surprised or ashamed when our work, our family, our church, or our individual person is hit by some form of affliction. Satan does not fight against himself. So when those in the midst of false religions seem to be having an easier time than Christians, it should not be surprising. The criterion of living a growing, fruitful Christian life in a close walk with the Lord is neither to be “abased” nor to “abound.” Both situations present temptations, but both can be places of victory. We are too easily turned toward thinking of what we can “get” in the way of happiness by being a Christian, and fail to remember a conviction and willingness to be used by God at tremendous cost.

We cannot compare our own pattern to someone else’s to discover whether
or not we are in the Lord’s will. God has individual and very diverse plans for the lives of His children, and Satan’s attempts to turn us aside are also diverse. Poverty can be an attack, but so can affluence. Hardship can be an attack, but so can ease. And when we face the death of a love one, the attempt to twist us into bitterness can be an attack, but so can be a false covering up of sorrow.

Tremendous victory is only possible in the face of a tremendous battle. Our desire should be to help each other find victory in hidden places and “overcome him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb” in very practical moment-by-moment happenings in our day-to-day lives.

We do not live in a fatalistic universe. The infinite, personal Living God has done what are minds cannot grasp. If we could understand all that God, we would no longer be finite and human. To demand this is rebellion against remaining in our own place as His creatures, akin to Lucifer’s demand equality with God. We are to bow to the truth which God has given us, with the amount of explanation He has given us. We need to be willing to let God be God, and to stay in our place as human beings. It is not necessary for us to say something like: “It was God who sent the terrorists into that building and chose my husband to be the first one shot, riddled with seven bullets, and thrown down the stairs.” God does not ask us to place any such explanation upon a situation in which Satan’s emissaries are striking out against the work of the Lord in His servants. The death of martyrs must not be placed anywhere but where it belongs: in the battle by which Satan is trying to stamp out the spread of true truth.

There is a battle going on that is real. History is taking place. This is not a puppet show, but a cause-and-effect history. We must acknowledge that we can’t understand everything, but that we do have much help and comfort in the Bible. God is sovereign and all-powerful, and the victory is His.

Prayer
Dear Jesus, give me the strength to overcome the trials, temptations, afflictions, and persecutions that I face daily. Whether these involve being abased or in abounding. I thank You that I have been called to take a part in the “battle of the heavenlies.” Give me wisdom from Your Word to encourage others in the victory that comes through faith in You and Your shed blood. Amen.