Black Country news and blogs Sunday 24 August 2014
Vic the Vicar
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Can’t make it to church – August 24 
Vic the Vicar 24 Aug 14
Our Gospel reading deals with a situation which many of those in Church are probably familiar with, the ‘wannabe leader’.
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Morning Prayer – August 23
Vic the Vicar 23 Aug 14
Psalm 68 Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered; let those that hate him flee before him.
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UK Shoplifting (and need for Foodbanks) growing exponentially
Vic the Vicar 22 Aug 14
Shoplifting has gone up in the UK by 7% and the stuff being lifted is food.
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Daily Quiet Time or Prayer or . . .
Vic the Vicar 22 Aug 14
Office or study or .
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Morning Prayer – August 22
Vic the Vicar 22 Aug 14
Psalm 51 Have mercy on me, O God, in your great goodness; according to the abundance of your compassion blot out my offences.
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Made me smile: A game to try after the port’s been passed . . .
Vic the Vicar 21 Aug 14
Peter Ould posted his ‘Steps to break through a liberal’s theological nonsense’.
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Amnesty Internation and Gaza
Vic the Vicar 21 Aug 14
A challenging image and a testing question – especially for us as Christians as we seek to bless Israel and yet stand with the words of Micah, Leviticus and many other places calling upon us to live with humility seeking justice with mercy and loving…
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Spare some change mate?
Vic the Vicar 21 Aug 14
Sitting on the pavement harvesting the change Changing the reality? Not, really! They sit clocking up the cash To pay for drink, or hash Or to feed some need that they don’t need at all You give them Platitudes! You give them your change rather than …
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Morning Prayer – August 21
Vic the Vicar 21 Aug 14
Psalm 56 Have mercy on me, O God, for they trample over me; all day long they assault and oppress me.
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Iraqi Christians: Pray – Act – Give
Vic the Vicar 20 Aug 14
Says it all…
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What is being ‘Christian’ all about?
Vic the Vicar 20 Aug 14
“Now that’s a very good question,” I thought to myself as I struggled to find a reasonable answer and, reasonable or not, I gave one anyway – and this is how it goes: “In my book Christians are people who, recognising the distance between them and …
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Morning Prayer – August 20
Vic the Vicar 20 Aug 14
Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Teacher of the Faith, 1153 William and Catherine Booth, Founders of the Salvation Army, 1912 and 1890 Psalm 119.57-80 You only are my portion, O Lord; I have promised to keep your words.
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Morning Prayer – August 19
Vic the Vicar 19 Aug 14
Psalm 48 Great is the Lord and highly to be praised, in the city of our God.
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The ‘the rising tide’
Vic the Vicar 19 Aug 14
I have a most interesting conversation with another cleric at a funeral this morning.
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PSA – An introduction to Christus Victor
Vic the Vicar 18 Aug 14
As I am reading I am also looking for little snippets to add to the knowledgebase of those whom I seek to pastor (and those I seek to stimulate into study – who should be one and the same).
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Start the week with a bang: 1812 Overture
Vic the Vicar 18 Aug 14
This is one of the most exciting versions of the 1812 Overture I have ever come across – definitely not one for purists (and needs headphones or somewhere away from people as it’s LOUD) but it is one of those things that feeds and excites the …
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Morning Prayer – August 18
Vic the Vicar 18 Aug 14
Psalm 44 We have heard with our ears, O God, our forebears have told us, all that you did in their days, in time of old; How with your hand you drove out nations and planted us in, and broke the power of peoples and set us free.
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Can’t make it to church – August 17
Vic the Vicar 17 Aug 14
It’s been a heavy week this week, one in which we have seen Christians put to death for their faith in the Middle East; a week in which Christians have won the ‘most oppressed and acted against people’ award – and no one is celebrating.
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Home and Away: Christians facing attack . . .
Vic the Vicar 17 Aug 14
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Gravitational Cognisance:
Vic the Vicar 16 Aug 14
Anyone who has watched cartoon will be familiar with characters walking off high places and continuing their progress in mid-air until they realise solid ground has gone as, looking down, the begin to plummet to the ground.
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Made me Laugh: F_lying Scot
Vic the Vicar 16 Aug 14
I have to say that this looks just a little too contrived to be true but it’s one of those images that, regardless of your politics or nationalistic zeal, appears to bring a smile to the face of all who see it: And, as we have seen before, there are …
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The Kocho massacre
Vic the Vicar 16 Aug 14
Wherever you look today you will find reports of Islamic State fighters putting to death many (up to 100 according to some reports) Yazidis in the village of Kocho some 30 miles away from Mount Sinjar.
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Morning Prayer – August 16
Vic the Vicar 16 Aug 14
Psalm 41 Blessed are those who consider the poor and needy; the Lord will deliver them in the time of trouble.
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Morning Prayer – August 15
Vic the Vicar 15 Aug 14
The Blessed Virgin Mary Psalm 98 Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvellous things.
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Morning Prayer – August 14
Vic the Vicar 14 Aug 14
Maximilian Kolbe, Friar, Martyr, 1941 Psalm 37 Fret not because of evildoers; be not jealous of those who do wrong.
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Made me laugh: A day at the Zoo
Vic the Vicar 13 Aug 14
Had a day out during the holidays and so we decided to take the children to the When we got there it was amazing that we managed to find a parking space and get in, the place seemed quite deserted.
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Teechers I have known: Colin Chapman
Vic the Vicar 13 Aug 14
There are many teechers in the world.
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Morning Prayer – August 14
Vic the Vicar 13 Aug 14
Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down and Connor, Teacher of the Faith, 1667 Florence Nightingale, Nurse, Social Reformer, 1910 Octavia Hill, Social Reformer, 1912 Psalm 34 I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall ever be in my mouth.
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Church: A place of safety
Vic the Vicar 13 Aug 14
An increasing problem in Church, it seems to me, is not that of personal sin but the fact that leaders are increasingly encouraging their members that they are ‘somewhere safe’ with regard to their faith when it is obvious that many are very far from…
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Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA) – the beginning of a journey
Vic the Vicar 12 Aug 14
My understanding of the cross and Jesus’ place on it comes down to something like this: Jesus, the Christ, died on the cross in the place of sinners – as a substitute for them.
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Morning Prayer – August 12
Vic the Vicar 12 Aug 14
Psalm 32 Happy the one whose transgression is forgiven, and whose sin is covered.
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Made me smile : The US and . . .
Vic the Vicar 11 Aug 14
Iraq Or Gaza Or .
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What We Owe Beheaded Children
Vic the Vicar 11 Aug 14
Posted on August 8, 2014 by Lori Stanley Roeleveld What unspeakable horror of which we must now speak.
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Pray for Christians in Iraq
Vic the Vicar 11 Aug 14
I think these words from the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Iraq, His Beatitude Louis Rafael Sako, sum it all up wonderfully.
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Morning Prayer – August 11
Vic the Vicar 11 Aug 14
Clare of Assisi, Founder of the Minoresses (Poor Clares), 1253 John Henry Newman, Priest, Tractarian, 1890 Psalm 27 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid? …
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Acts 29 and Mars Hill Church
Vic the Vicar 10 Aug 14
I was quite surprised and exceedingly saddened to read the statement from Acts 29 in which they distanced themselves from Mark Driscoll and the Mars Hill Church of which he is a part.
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Can’t make it to church – August 10
Vic the Vicar 10 Aug 14
Today’s readings bring the probably familiar ‘Jesus walking on water’ into contact with the beginning of the story of Joseph and his brothers (as they sell him into captivity and pack him off to Egypt) and both fit nicely with the Romans, ‘He who …
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Archbishop speaks regarding Iraq
Vic the Vicar 10 Aug 14
Statement from Archbishop Justin on Iraq Friday 8th August 2014 The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, issued the following statement today on the situation in Iraq, shortly before he travelled from the Philippines to Papua New Guinea.
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ePetition: Christians in Mosul
Vic the Vicar 9 Aug 14
PLEASE READ, RESPOND and PASS ON Christians under serious threat in Mosul, Iraq Responsible department: Foreign and Commonwealth Office We the undersigned call upon the UK Foreign and Commonwealth office to take decisive and immediate action to …
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ISIS continues to murder and. . .
Vic the Vicar 9 Aug 14
BREAKING: ISIS JUST EMPTIED NINEVEH PLAINS – 200,000 ARAMEAN CHRISTIANS FLED By Orthodox Christian News in Orthodox News Aug 07,2014 ⋅ 0 Comment(s) ⋅ Tags: Aramean Christians , Disaster , Iraq , ISIS , Persecution , Syria World Council of …
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Morning Prayer – August 9
Vic the Vicar 9 Aug 14
Mary Sumner, Founder of the Mothers’ Union, 1921 Psalm 20 In times of trouble, may the Lord answer your cry.
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Help Christians forced to flee their homes
Vic the Vicar 8 Aug 14
Open Doors partners in Iraq have responded rapidly as Christians flee intense persecution in Mosul from militant Islamic group, ISIS.
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Morning Prayer – August 8
Vic the Vicar 8 Aug 14
Dominic, Priest, Founder of the Order of Preachers, 1221 Psalm 17 Hear my just cause, O Lord; consider my complaint; listen to my prayer, which comes not from lying lips.
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Iraq – ‘A Christian holocaust’
Vic the Vicar 8 Aug 14
In a CNN interview with Jonathan Mann, Mark Arabo, says: “Christianity in Mosul is dead, and a Christian holocaust is in our midst .
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At the cross where I first saw the dark!
Vic the Vicar 8 Aug 14
Of course the words of the Isaac Watts hymn are, ‘First saw the light,’ and yet it is surely the darkness, the fruit of sin harvested and made obvious in the separation that Father and Son experience, that illuminates! How odd to think that the …
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Qaraqosh: A place to be concerned and praying for
Vic the Vicar 7 Aug 14
Reports are flooding in regarding the conquest and expulsion of the residents of the ‘entirely Christian town’ of Qaraqosh (located between Mosul and Arbil) by IS and associated forces.
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Morning Prayer – August 7
Vic the Vicar 7 Aug 14
John Mason Neale, Priest, Hymn Writer Psalm 14 The fool has said in his heart,‘There is no God.
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Canon Andrew White: “The governments and media of the world may have forgotten us . . . “
Vic the Vicar 6 Aug 14
It is a tedious seasonal metaphor, now clichéd to the point of political hollowness, but these “Arab springs”, once hailed as the founts of liberty and democratic dreams, have become long, cold winters of turmoil, suffering, persecution and mass …
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Reaching the lost and ‘The Lapsed’
Vic the Vicar 6 Aug 14
Every Sunday, without fail, the Churchwarden would approach the lectern to lead the church in its intercessions and would, without fail, encourage those present to, Pray for the lost and the lapsed.
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Morning Prayer – August 6
Vic the Vicar 6 Aug 14
The Transfiguration of our Lord Psalm 27 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even my enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh…