Martha's Marvellous Munchies

The final study in the Tenants of the King booklet focused on a passage from Romans 13, about submitting to the governing authorities.  As I read through the study, it seemed less about submitting to authorities, and more about engaging with and challenging them.  So I found Ephesians 5:8-16 instead. For me, this passage sums up the kind of things that churches can do. For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light.  Live as children of light - for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.  Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.  Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.  For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light.  Therefore it says, 'Sleeper awake!  Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.'  Be careful then how you live, not as unwi...

I'm scared.  Are you? When a group of scientists releases a report on climate change which basically says "Sort it out now.  Or else." that's pretty scary. When we hear that species are going extinct at a rate of thousands per year , that's pretty scary. When you see pictures of the amount of plastic in the sea, that's pretty scary too. Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters Even when we're doing our best to help the environment, we're aware that the whole way we live is unsustainable.  Just by living in a centrally-heated house, with running water and electric lights, driving a car and eating imported food, we are using more resources than any other humans in history.  But - even given a 12-year deadline - there doesn't seem to be any easy way to change this. It's all scary.  But fear often stifles us, not stimulates us.  How do we get away from our fear? Jesus on the Lake Rembrandt: The Storm on the Sea of Gal...

I begin to see why people don't have a theology of the environment.  It gets very messy very quickly.  We thrashed our way through Romans 8:18-23 for our second Tenants of the King Bible study, and wrestled with such unanswerable questions as: What is creation waiting for and when will it happen?  Do our sins cause environmental problems?  If creation is being redeemed along with us, what does that mean?  Does "a new earth" mean a completely different one, or one which is the same but renewed? Well!  Can I just go and recycle a few tin cans in peace now? Let's go back to the basics.  We humans are part of the universe.  We can't live without it, but we also persist in regarding ourselves as separate to it.  If you picture "the environment" do you include bridges, skyscrapers, oil refineries?  Probably not.  But they are all just as much made of bits of the earth as rocks, rivers and trees. Image credit: Pixabay So why d...

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth... all things have been created through him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ... For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. from Colossians 1:15-20 Our first Tenants of the King study focused on this poetic passage from Colossians 1, which talks about how Jesus, the Son of God, is supreme over everything.  The study encouraged us to consider what we believed about the relationship between Jesus and creation, and what creation is made for. Because I rather like my plastic cup analogy from my last post, I'm going to use it again to explain some of the themes from this study.  A plastic cup belief is one that we've pi...

Are you a compostable consumer? We're all pretty well biodegradable when it comes down to it, of course.  In 500 years' time there won't be much left of our bodies.  But the archeologists of 2518 will have plenty to go on to reconstruct our habits - from life's first disposable nappy and squeaky toy, to final toothbrush and mobile phone, plastic commands our destiny. Now that's changing. Plastic-free has suddenly become mainstream.  My friendly catering catalogue offers an eco-friendly range to cater for "the more socially-conscious modern-day consumer" (the what??) and we are all being urged to refuse straws and rethink our packaging. But why? Just a few years ago, most of us would look at a bulging bag full of dirty plastic plates and cups after a party, and think, "What a waste."  Then we'd throw it in the bin and go, "Oh well, can't be helped."  We knew it wasn't great, but we believed there wasn't rea...

Ten books that shaped my life in some way.  Now that wasn't a problem.  I scanned the bookshelves and picked out nine favourites without the slightest difficulty (the tenth took a little longer). The problem was that, on the Facebook challenge, I wasn't supposed to explain why .  Nope.  Having picked out my ten, I couldn't let them go without saying why they were special to me. These books are more than a collection of words by an author.  They are particular editions of those words - taped-up, egg-stained, dust-jacketless and battered - which have come into my life, been carried around to different homes, and become part of who I am. How to Be a Domestic Goddess Well, every woman needs an instruction manual, doesn't she? Nigella's recipes mean lazy Saturday mornings eating pancakes, comforting crumbles on a rainy night, Christmas cakes, savoury onion pies and mounds of bread dough.  If you avoid the occasional extravagance (20 mini Bundt tins...

Um, hello?  Is this thing on? Testing... testing... Ah, good.  Can you all hear me now?  It's been so long that I've almost forgotten how this works. Right then, the boys are back at school and it's on with the blog!  Here are a few highlights of what we got up to while they weren't at school. The great outdoors The weekend before the holidays, we headed to the Peak District to climb Mam Tor.  This takes about ten minutes from the car park, so it's not as strenuous as it sounds.  There are beautiful views from both sides of the ridge.  Just make sure you don't overbalance into a gorse bush like I did (ouch!) Our National Trust membership got put to use again, as we returned to our local favourites.  The boys explored the maze at Calke Abbey and played giant Connect 4 on the lawn at Sudbury Hall. We also visited somewhere new: Bradgate Park, near Leicester.  We were most impressed - it's a beautiful spot, with deer roam...