Up all night, home all day.

I am taking a day off work today as I am Ill. I have been up all night coughing and spluttering and looking after the two boys.

This is somewhat interesting and I have to ask, what place does suffering from the fall have in the life of the Christian?

Disease, illness, death. All these things are symptoms of the fall, of the cursed Earth on which we live and of the cursed existence that we eek out.

But what of the believer? We are free from the curse, we are born again and, yet, we still suffer from the curse. It is interesting that Jesus' earthly ministry involved his relieving suffering whilst proclaiming the coming of the kingdom. As though the two were linked, that the coming of the kingdom would be signaled by relief from suffering.

Nowhere in the NT (please correct me if I am wrong!) do we see any prayer or wish that suffering or persecution should cease. What we see are prayers that the saints would endure the suffering and the persecution with joy and with Godly hope of what is to come.

I'd write more but I really need a cup of tea and some sleep.

2007 going going

Monday the 10th was the day of the Old Testament examination at LST. These exams are real exams, with questions and written answers. My usual examinations these days consist of computerised multiple choice or Cisco configuration examples - vastly different!

5 questions, 45 minutes.
One question on OT timelines (put these OT events in order..)
One question about a minor prophet. (Haggai, as it happens, convenient*)
One question about the covenant in Genesis 17
One question about Malachi's canonical issues
One question about the genealogy in Ruth 14

All in all, not too bad.

*This was very convenient as in the previous week I had presented an overview of this very same book. Imagine my delight when it appeared in the examination!

So, that's it for LST in 2007. I have manged to complete a whole term. That's two essays, one theological reflection and an exam. Next term is full of doctrine and discipleship.

This blog has now become a requirment of my LST church work placement. This is a new incentive to actually do something here!

OK so here it is again. I know I last posted to this thing quite a long time ago. Well since then, I have almost finnished my frist term at LST (yippee!) and I am still alive (wow!). Quite a bit has happened since then, so here it all is.

LST has been fantastic, it's amazing how little I know about Theology. I have encountered an interesting learning paradox. The more I study at LST, the more I realiase how little I know about Theology but the more I learn. I'll leave it to the reader to re-write that in greek.

I managed to complete the OT Essay and handed it in on time. I just have the NT essay, and a few other things to complete before the end of term and then I can relax and re-decorate the bedroom for the boys!

On the 18th of November I was greatly blessed to be asked ot preach at my church (Twynholm Baptist). I preached on 1 Kings 18 and Romans 1 - especially relating to idolatry, not the creation of a graven image made of wood or gold, but the way in which people worship a god on Sunday who overlooks their sin during the rest of the week. Praise to God that he gave his blessing and some people were moved by the spirit as a result. I am still quite in awe of this, that our most Holy God would use me, a sinner, for his works.

We are now in Operation Christmas Child mode at Twynholm. This is a mad time of year when thousands of shoe-boxes full of gifts arrive at our church for us to check, pack and send off to whateve rcountry they will end up in to give to the children there. I could go on, but I am at work and I should do some.. work!

Well that will do for now.

Fun on Mt. Carmel

I preached this sermon today at Twynholm, the response was a blessing. It is interesting to see how different people react to the content of sermons, sometimes taking away points that I did not even think of. Praise be to a God who can use the rambling of fools to His own ends!

Today St Ethels @ Four Church have a stall at Parsons GReen summer fair. Originally my church, Twynholm Baptist www.twynholm.org was going to have this stand but it happened to coincide with the wedding of Lee Wilder and Grace Dryden, two friends of mine and members of our church so we're doing wedding stuff instead. We said we would provide free food to give away and so a trip to ASDA later and we have materials for 240 free hotdogs.

Last year we gave away free Chicken and Rice with plenty of drinks as well as lots of gospel tracts, books, bibles etc. A fantastic day. It looks like it will be a nice warm and dry day so I think they will do well.

It's fantastic to serve our God with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Ephesians 2:8-9

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

This is Leigh's blog, I am Leigh Porter. I am a Christian saved by God's amazing grace, born of God.

A friend of mine suggested I start a blog. I really do not like blogs and do not read any, I do not expect anybody to read mine! It's here so I can make notes about what happens in my life especially as I work towards going to London School of Theology to study part time.

I have an interview on the 25th of July, more soon!

Ephesians 2:8-9

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.