Here it is

This is my 1000th post.

I have been blogging since 2006. So that's 125 posts per year, or just over two a week. Not too prolific, not too silent.

(I have deleted quite a few posts that were defamatory or otherwise inappropriate, and I'm not sure if they are included in the count or not.)

My intention with the blog is to show that the life of a normal mundane man can be varied and exciting - an adventure with God.

I started just with an update of my life to that point. The I followed on with the adventures of conceiving in relatively old age, church ventures, the ups and downs of faith, the ups and downs of marriage (many of these posts have been deleted), and so on.

The current adventure is the total falling out with our Vicar, which is pushing us out of our town and into a new region. On the one hand this is absolutely terrible; full of stress and anxiety. On teh other hand the open unwritten blank sheet future is very interesting to watch as it starts to be made known. We are really stepping out of the boat at this time!

My blog has also charted how I have changed from being completely opposed to the acceptance of homosexual realtionships on the grounds that the scripture reveals these to be contrary to the will of God (i.e. sin), to being fully accepting of gay marriage on the grounds that the scripture DOES NOT oppose them - it's just that we have unwittingly read them through homophobic lenses, not helped by biased and inaccurate translations made by homophobic scholars.

There's also a couple of posts about how I became tolerant of abortion: it is still always a sin requiring the blood of Christ but tolerating it is frequently the least sinful option.

And my current theme or campaign is to draw people's attention to Gaza. As Christians we tend to side with Israel: God's chosen peolpe in the land he promised them. But God is a God of justice, and he states that "Judgement begins with the house of God" (.... this is where I can't find the verse I have always remembered, so I have probably made it up - but its still true). And the things Israel is currenlty doing are heinous crimes, for which god will judge them. And at a time when the worls is outraged by apparent Russian involvement in less than 300 deaths in the MH17 incident, why is the world not outraged by the much greater number of innocent deaths in Gaza?

My blog is not just to tell a story. It is to encourage people to greater faith in times of hardship and to see the working of GOd in every crisis of life ... which I know can be very hard! But it is also to move on from that passive acceptance of God's actions and on to a more active call for justice. We are not called to simply accept God's forgiveness. We are not called to simply to accept God's forgiveness and avoid sinning; we are called to DO good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Justice for homosexuals
Justice for women
Justice for the oppressed