Silence

In the silence of this moment
I hear a little voice
The words are very quiet
But I hear every one.

Betrayal

I was recently listening to an album by a man called Dustin Kensrue. He's the lead singer in a heavy metal band called Thrice, who are fairly popular both here and in the States. He has recently released and album of acoustic/country(ish) music and I was listening to it in the car on the way home from the gym.
I was struck by the second verse of the last song on the album:

"The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak;
I want to kiss your lips but I kiss your cheek."

I don't know if this guy is a Christian (one of his other songs says something like: "I've been with Susie, I've been with Sally, I've been with Mary and her sister too"?) but those lyrics are clearly based on biblical analogy.

I instantly identified with the sentiment.

How many times do we, despite wanting to "kiss his lips", betray Him like Judas and kiss His cheek?

My Brother's wedding... and that suit...

My brother's wedding was amazing! The best wedding I have been to ever! (I may be a little biased of course, and I am not including my own wedding cos that goes without saying!)

My brother composed and recorded the both the entrance and exit music and even managed to slip in a little joke as the music titles (Unfortunately only portuguese speakers would get it!)

They both looked so happy throughout the whole service. He hid his nerves well ;)

My dad and Emily's dad (Josh's father in law) conducted the service as they are both vicars, each carrying out the role specific to their child in the Anglican ceremony.

My favourite part though was the fact that once the actual marriage ceremony had been completed, Josh and Emily had communion together. They wanted their first meal as a married couple to be communion, so from their very first moments together as man and wife God is in the centre.

I have never been prouder to be part of my amazing family.

The speeches were also very good. He had 4 friends make speeches as he did not have a best man, and his own speech apart from including the usual thanks and gifts, etc included a very frank and honest declaration of his love for Jesus and a simple explanation of the gospel for anyone there who wasn't a christian.

At that point I realised that my little brother is actually very grown up...

And the suit? Well, it was a little tight around the middle but I just about managed to make it fit!

Wedding bells...

Today my brother josh is getting married. He is marrying a lovely girl called Emily (not that having two Emily Boxalls is going to get confusing or anything... Thankfully one is considerably younger than the other!)

I hadn't thought much about today before. I knew my brother was getting married and I knew I would be going and that it might be fairly stressful with the children and everything but never really considered the actual fact that my brother will now be married and essentially I will be gaining another sister.

I went to the wedding rehearsal last night and I saw how much work Josh and Emily have put into the ceremony and the reception and I felt very proud of my little brother and last night I struggled to get to sleep for a while as I was excited for him. It almost felt like the night before christmas as a child...

I wish them both a beautiful day and a wonderful life together and I know that God will be joining in their joy.

I just hope my suit still fits!

Holiday

I am currently on holiday at the moment. Well, a holiday with the children at my in-law's house in Dunstable (Luton by any other name!)

I'm pretty sure holidays are for relaxing... Not so apparently. Despite my in-laws having had 3 children of their own, their house is no longer child proof and so I have spent the last two days running around after my children trying to stop them breaking things...

I brought a stairgate with me and installed it myself (probably the main problem). There was a big banging noise this morning as it crashed down the stairs, narrowly missing one of the children.

All in all, so far I've not relaxed much, but I will be taking my children to the zoo tomorrow and that should be good. (who knows, maybe there'll be an unfortunate encounter with some lions and my holiday will be much more relaxing! Only joking...)

At least I'm getting some time to play my guitar!

Laters.

The Humans Are Dead

I found this on YouTube and thought I'd share it... What would the world be like without humans?

Harry Potter and 3 year old clarity

I am so often amazed by the way my children challenge me. Like so many people I have been looking forward to reading the new Harry Potter book. I like the fact that it is no longer embarassing for adults to read children's books in public (maybe we should read more children's books. I'm particularly fond of "The very hungry caterpillar", but people gave me strange looks when I was reading it to myself on the bus into town the other day...) but that is an aside.

Having bought the new book on the day of its release (not at midnight I hasten to add!) I started reading it. So far I have been hooked and to be honest almost didn't right this in favour of reading another chapter...

I was left to look after Emily, who's 3 1/2 years old, at lunch time the day before yesterday. She wanted to watch Cbeebies while eating her lunch. As a conscientous (and at times a little lazy) father, instead of argueing with her about etiquette, good manners and the fact that eating should be done at the table unless you live in a cave, I told her she could sit on the sofa eating whatever sticky sandwich she had asked me for, in front of the TV. Hey, Mummy wasn't there, she could have a treat ! ; )

Anyhow, I sat down at the table, and as there was no polite company around, I sat there eating my sandwiches and reading Harry Potter. After a short time I realised Emily was watching me. I looked over to her and she said: "Daddy, why are you not reading your Bible at the table?" I replied simply: "Because I'm reading Harry Potter at the moment." "Is Harry Potter your Bible?" she then asked. I had to explain that it wasn't and then explain that the Bible is a much more important book than Harry Potter.

It got me thinking though. In all honesty, I am not very often as excited about reading the Bible as I have been about Harry Potter. There are times when that excitement comes back, lik for example the other week I heard Mike Pilavachi speaking on finding Jesus in the Old Testament and that got me excited about reading the Bible again (Have a look at Psalm 22 as a prophesy of Christ's crucifixion, hundreds of years before crucifixion had even been invented!), but in general I struggle to get excited about reading God's word.

I should read the Bible more often. Afterall, "lumos" is so disappointing when compared to raising the dead!

Personality DNA

Apparently I'm a benevolent creator. Allegedly this means I am very empathic and like to create things of beauty.

I also apparently am very obsessed about the way I look and the way I dress.

Makes me sound a bit like a girl...

Boxall family on ITV news...

We've been on the news (again). Watch and laugh!



I'm still trying to work out which "luxuries" we've got to cut back on!!!

Injustice...

I'm sure we have all heard the stories of slavery and oppression, of political prisoners being tortured and of women and children who are raped or murdered in Africa. If you are anything like me you probably thought those stories were horrible, atrocious and evil. But then again, if you were anything like me, having never ben to Africa, the stories remained simply that: stories. Like a movie that can be turned off and that maybe real life isn't as bad as the stories...

My mind was changed yesterday. I met a lady called Niki. She was from Nigeria and was in her late 40s. She suffers from severe depression and cries a lot of the time. She asked me to speak with her. The conversation turned to family and she told me the following:

"I grew up with my uncle and aunt from the age of 10 as my parents were killed. When I was 13 my uncle raped me. I hadn't even had a period yet so I didn't know I was pregnant until I was 5 months gone. I was about 7 or 8 months pregnant when my aunt woke me in the middle of the night and drove me to a building in the middle of nowhere where they cut my baby out. I heard someone say "It's a boy" and I heard him crying. They took him away to another room and my aunt took me home. A few days later I asked my aunt what had happened to my baby and was told never to speak of it again. I was then beaten so badly I dared not mention it again. I grew up and moved away to England, but when I was old enough I decided to ask my aunt what had happened. I had arranged travel plans to go to visit her but then found out that she had recently been killed in a car crash. I knew it was too late. Now I'll never know what happened to my little boy. I still hear him crying. Everyday I hear him crying and I can't get his voice out of my head. I hope he is alive. I stare at every black man I see hoping that one day one of them will recognise me and then I would know. Everyone tells me to forget him but I can't forget. How can I stop loving my little boy when every day I hear his cries?"

I didn't know what to say.

I still don't.

But the stories are not stories any more.

They're real.

Weight loss...

I have recently been trying to lose weight again. For a week and a half I did very well. I lost 9 lbs in 10 days... (I always lose weight fast when I first start dieting).

Then I had a bad day at work. I got home and ate a big pizza. And garlic bread. And Hanky Panky Pie.

It amazes me how the smallest of things can throw me completely out. The reason I ate badly that day basically comes down to the fact that I forgot to take my eggs to work. Consequently I ended up eating 4 slices of white toast covered in marmelade and butter. Then I missed lunch due to dealing with a prisoner.

I went to work the next day feeling fairly guilty about the bad stuff I'd eaten the day before when on the way I heard Him say: "I don't care how you look. I'm proud of you and I love you."

I felt much better after that!

Action Child

I have recently become involved with a Christian charity/organisation called EAB (Evangelical Action Brazil). They work in the North East of Brasil, based in the town of Patos. Their main activities, as stated in their website is the following:

As well as a full range of activities traditionally regarded as ‘spiritual’ (church planting, evangelism, etc), EAB’s integrated approach means it is active across a vast range of social and community projects. Whilst EAB will always respond to urgent need (for example, relief work during epidemics) its ongoing work is geared to long-term, selfsustaining solutions, preferring projects such as job creation schemes or reinforcement education which give some of the poor of Northeastern Brazil a genuine perception of God’s love, the opportunity to sustain a higher quality of life, and retain personal dignity.

One of their projects, and the one I have just bcome part of, is called Action Child. There are many children in the North East of Brazil whose parents cannot afford for their children to attend school, to have medical and dental care and sometimes they cannot even afford to feed them enough.

Action Child is a project whereby schools are set up in the various towns around the Northeast. Many of the children who attend the schools are then sponsored by people, mainly from the UK, by paying £15 a month. What this money allows is for every school to have adequately trained, paid and legally registered staff.
Each child has a nourishing meal every day.
Back-up medical and dental care is provided when needed.
The children receive spiritual guidance in a loving Christian environment.
Poor families can benefit from social worker support.

They are an amazing organisation and have recently had a massive increase in the number of children sponsored, which is great! If I've got my fact straight, they have increased from about 53 sponsored children to about 150 in about 18 months. They now have 20+ schools open in various places across the region. The best thing about this organisation is that 100% of the money donated/sponsored goes to the project!

Sponsors are encouraged to write to the child they are sponsoring and the children are asked to write every 6 months, and will sometimes write more often. The great thing about this project being fairly small, at least when compared to Compassion International, is that sponsors are able to sends gifts over to their child, both in the form of money or actual physical presents. This enables sponsors to have a much more personal relationship with the child they are sponsoring, even if they never get to meet them.

My role now is to translate the letters and emails which are sent from the UK over to Brasil, as this will hoepfully free up the office staff over in Brasil to get on with the other projects run by EAB.

Anyway, look into the organisation, they do amazing work, and if nothing else, please pray that their work continue for many years!

Mysterious Ways...

God definitely moves in mysterious ways...

Take, for example, the ministry of one "Dave The Horn Guy". (www.davethehornguy.com)

He is an accomplished songwriter, and worship music director at a large chugrch in California until he felt God call him to do something radically different. He felt called to unleash the creativity God had given him into a brand new venture.

Here's what his website says about him:

Enns holds multiple music degrees. At 31, his full time musical efforts have found him to be a Billboard recognized songwriter, a studio musician, an orchestrater of over 200 songs, a regular giggin’ trombone/piano player, singer, and a founder/producer of an award-winning urban acappella group. He’s combined these experiences with 25 chromatically tuned bulb-horns, custom made from a top-of-the-line German horn maker to create “Dave the Horn Guy"

He now lives in Colorado and travels America performing at youth events, baseball games, big events and even the Jay Leno show!

Check out these videos:

I too blame the sun...

I got sunburnt on saturday at the police family day.

I then topped it up on sunday at the barbecue...

I blame the sun.

Becky blames me... Something about not enough sun cream...

God and Poker...

I am often amazed at the things God does, the places He turns up and the situations He changes.

I was in Luton this bank holiday weekend. I decided it was high time I spent some time with my cousin and my childhood friends, so I set off on the coach, leaving Becky to look after the kids for a few days (I did have her blessing, so no need to worry!).

Anyhow, the plan was to go see the carnival on bank holiday monday, but, due to heavy rain and the fact that the main road the procession was meant to walk down was flooded, it was cancelled.

I spent some of the afternoon with my Uncle and Aunt instead and then set off to Jude Smith's house for a friendly game of poker. (There was no cash on the table, only plastic chips! Hmm, maybe next time we could play for real chips, of the potato variety... although they may get a bit cold...)

Anyhow, after a bit of a chat and a rerun of a classic Gladiators Final (Eunice won!) we set up the table for the game. Well, it was more of a wooden trunk thing in the middle of the room, but it was exactly the right size!

No game of poker is complete without whiskey (apparently) so we all had some proper whiskey, Glenfiddich I believe (none of this JD stuff, Jeff would not allow it!) and started playing.

Some time into the game, someone mentioned that the only other thing missing was cigars, so, there was a break in the game while cigars were bought and smoked.

During the break a guitar turned up. I can't remember who got the guitar out, but it ended up on my lap. Someone had an oldish Survivor Songbook out on the table too.

Someone asked me to play an old Matt Redman song. I can't remember which one now, but before I knew what was happening, we were all singing song after song. I was playing Acoustic Guitar, Jeff was playing drums on the guitar case, my new friend Hairy was playing classical guitar, Jude, Kate and Ali were all singing beautiful harmonies.

I could feel God there. He was sitting with us. Singing with us. We finished singing one of the songs. I still can't remember which song it was but when the song ended, no one spoke. There was a silence. A Godly silence and I fell in love with Him all over again.

I love it that He came and sat with us while we played poker, drank whiskey and smoked cigars. I love it that He sang with us as we found ourselves worshipping Him. I love it that He loves us.

What a night!

P.S. I lost the poker game!

3 year old questions...

Emily, my 3 year old daughter, just asked me a question.

She said: "Daddy, did God make Jesus?"

I wasn't quite sure how to answer that...

Starving Jesus - Part 1

I've been reading this very challenging book recently. It's called Starving Jesus and is written by Craig Gross and J.R. Mahon (both of xxxchurch.com fame).

The book addresses many issues that New Community Church has been focusing on addressing since January when all the recent changes were brought in, and I have found it very useful:

The two authors start by saying that there is a conversation that is heard, whispered by many christians, all around the world. The conversation generally starts with questions like:

"Where is the love?", "Why are we stuck in the pews?", "Why is Sunday the only time we see christians?" and "Why is everyone such a hypocrite?"

Every now and again someone stands up and says "Church sucks, let's get out of here and make a real difference." They are usually silenced or ostracised by the masses of comfortable christians surrounding them. I am trying not to be one of those comfortable Christians, happy to go to church on Sunday, and then forget about Him for the rest of the week. I have been getting better at this. I find that most weeks I manage to talk to God most days, and that makes such a big difference to the way I see others, but I am by no means perfect (as most of you are well aware!) and sometimes I find I have a week where I become my main focus. I can only promise I'm working on this...

Anyhow, The book goes on to say that, as a whole, christians run from sin. We are not at ease talking about sex, drugs, alcohol. We don't like to admit that there is cheating, lying and stealing going on all around us. And because we won't talk about it, most of us don't do anything about it.

I have had conversations with people about all the different people I deal with in my work as a police officer. I meet rapists, drug dealers, prostitutes and robbers. I meet drug addicts and alcoholics, and I'd like to think that, although I am seen by them as the enemy, I try to treat them like Jesus would (although still doing my job, which may well involve arresting them...), but tat is not the point. When I speak to people about them, so often I hear people say "All they need is Jesus." I've never seen them out on the streets...

Are we having too many Bible Studies? Are we having too many Worship Services? Are we too busy telling each other how much we love each other and not taking that love out the building?

1 John 3v18-19 says: "Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other, let us really show it by our actions. It is by our actions that we know we are living in the truth..."

My actions show I am not always living in the truth. At home I am often selfish. I often watch television and let my wife run around clearing up, using the excuse "I go out to work, she doesn't" I know I'm wrong every time I say it. I often play guitar in the bathroom when the children are in the bath, just so I can say I helped bath them, when actually, Becky is the one who washes them, gets them in and out, dries them and then gets them ready for bed. I am trying to change my ways.

The authors of the book say that we, as christians, should do "anything short of sin" to take Jesus to the world. This means that maybe we should be leaving the building behind, leaving the Bible studies, leaving the music and stepping out where no one has been before. Jesus did everything but sin to show his Love.

He served Humanity by giving His life and all He asks is for us to do the same for Him. Are you honouring His actions? All He wants is for us to grab the people around us and serve them, in any way possible.

Are working for Him or for our own ends? We don't need to be super spiritual to serve Him. We don't need a theological degree or a leader's role to serve Him. We are all the same in His eyes. We ALL fall short of His glory. His glory. Not ours.

On that point, so often we work so hard to show everyone what good christians we are, how together we are, instead of admitting our brokenness and sin to one another and then getting on with salvation!

Paul always encourages me on this point. Paul, ie Saint Paul, admits openly to his fellow christians in Roman 7 vv14-20 that he is a sinful man. "I sold into slavery, with sin as my master" he says. "I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead I do the very thing I hate." He goes on to say "No matter which way I turn, I can't make myself do right"

Imagine that kind of honesty in church? Imagine the church leaders standing up in front of the church and openly admitting that they have a problem with greed, pornography, alcohol or lust. Think how much freer we would be to serve others if we didn't have to work so hard to keep up the veneer of the perfect christian.

We are here to serve. We are here to be His body. Let's not forget that.

It reminds me of a song by Casting Crowns. The chorus says:

"But if we are the body

why aren't his arms reaching?

why aren't his hands healing?

why aren't his words teaching?

and if we are the body

why aren't his feet going?

why is his love not showing them there is a way?"

I know it's been a bit rambly, but hopefully, I've managed to explain roughly what the book's first chapter has helped me think about.

You can download the whole of the first chapter of the book at www.starvingjesus.com if you would like to read more...

See you all soon.

Louis Theroux and the Westboro Baptist Church

Last sunday I watched a programme on TV which truly upset me. It was called "America's most hated family"
Louis Theroux, a well known documentary maker went to live with the congregation of the Westboro Baptist Church, in America. The church believes that America is being punished by God for its sins. They do not stop there though. They have made it their mission to picket soldiers funerals, denouncing the soldiers as sinners and "fags". They preach hatred and death in the name of God and I just cannot get my head around that. How can someone claim to know God, claim to know the Bible and still preach that God is a god that freely kills people. They claim that all natural disasters are caused by God and are sent to punish people and that anyone who dies in unnatural ways was obviously punished by God and is therefore in Hell.

This goes against everything I have ever learnt or experienced about God. Isn't the Bible's most famous verse John 3:16? God so loved the world..." Why would a God who so loved the world kill people who he loves? Why would He send his Son Jesus to die for us if he is only going to later punish us anyway?

Louis Theroux let me down a little by not being able to argue his points biblically as he obviously did not know enough about the Bible to compete with the random verses the Pastor of the church was using to preach from.

I made the mistake of visiting their website (www.godhatesamerica.com) and I felt compelled to pray for them. That is what I urge anyone reading this to do. Pray that God will reveal Himself to them with all His love, His mercy and His grace. It fills me with such sadness to see so many people filled with so much hate and so confused. It just goes to show that the enemy is still at work in the world today, but unfortunately for him, we know the battle is already won!

Worship Central

I went to worship central again on Saturday. What a fantastic day! Not only was the worship and teaching amazing as usual, but I also got to know two more people from church much better!

5 of us went up to London, leaving at the unearthly hour of 7 a.m. We all drove up in Mark's BMW and had a very comfortable trip up there. We got there shortly before 9. Andy needed the toilet and had to battle with what I can only describe as a very efficient member of HTB Door Staff! After a bit of friendly banter (and several threats!) he was finally allowed to use the toilet in Church House, across the car park from the main building...

We then proceeded to that most sacred of restaurants - McDonalds. The food was exquisite! Well, I'll refrase that. The food was eaten.

The morning session started with worship led by Mr Tim Hughes followed by an interview with Mike Pilavachi, Nikcy and Pippa Gumbel. I had never noticed quite how posh the Gumbels really are!!!

Lunch was spent sat on a bench in the church garden where I had a lovely chicken caesar wrap.

I went to two seminars in the afternoon. The first one was led by Lex Buckley and was about women worship leaders. She spoke at 300 miles an hour, but when I could keep up, she was passing on very useful information.

Then there was a seminar by Mike Lloyd. He was excellent as usual, speaking on the true meaning of the resurrection. I would relay what he said, but his talk had 12 points and it would just take too long. I reccommend reading his book, Cafe Theology.

The evening session started at 6.30 after after a delicious hot chocolate in a soup bowl and a slice of chocolate cake!

Lex Buckley led the worship and Mike P spoke on humility. His message touched a lot of us out there and for that I thank him.

Anyhow, as usual the evening ended on a high and we all came back, Mark and I discussing the resurrection in the front, while the other three, Andy, Sue and Pete dozed off in the back, sleeping like little babies. I'm hoping they were simply tired and not bored of the conversation!

It was again an excellent day. Time to book the next one!

Alex

Free hugs!

The following video is great! Everyone needs a hug every now and again:

Tomorrow

Tomorrow I am going to Worship Central in London. It's going to be great! I genuinely cannot wait!

More on that on Sunday probably...

Inclement Weather

Today it has rained.

It has also hailed.

And also Snowed.

There was also a splash of sunshine...

...and blustery winds.

It could only happen in England!

Ebay

Isn't ebay amazing? I just found this:

What more could I want? A fully grown, real Spider-man costume!

I could be a real super-hero!!!!

If only I had the £40 it costs...

Good intentions...

Sometimes I find myself very frustrated with myself. I start every week with the best intentions to go to the gym every day, to not miss a workout, to make sure I eat healthily every meal, and yet as soon as there is the smallest set back, I give in and slip straight back in to my old habits.

Yesterday I decided I would do a heavy leg workout at the gym in the morning and that I would have some healthy eggs on toast for breakfast to give me that early morning protein boost and get my metabolism going for the day.

Then I ended up finishing late at work. I got home at 2 in the morning, went to bed and got up at 10 o'clock. I groggily made my way downstairs, filled a cereal bowl with frosties, had a cup of very nice coffee and then realised that there was no way I could get to the gym, do my workout and still be back in time to pick Emily up from Playgroup...

And I'm still sat in my dressing gown...

Sugar Free Polos

Today I have learnt a very important lesson:

Never eat a whole packet of Sugar Free Polos in one sitting... Apparently Sorbitol is not only a very effective sweetener, it's also a very effective laxative.

nuff said.

Responsibility

A few weeks back I went to the worshipcentral conference up in London (oh yeah, that reminds me, I must book tickets for the next one...) and I went to a seminar entitled "The Fall and Evil". The speaker was Mike Lloyd, the tallest theologian I've ever met! Anyhow, the seminar was about why there is evil and suffering in the world. He explained that there are some staple answers given by Christians, which are "useful but ultimately disappointing" (I believe those were his words!)

The answers given are normally:

Free will - which explains human effect on each other and the environment, ie all our actions cause a reaction etc, but this does not explain ilness, disease, or death.

"The public School" answer - I.e. God causes us to suffer as He will teach us through it. This is very hard to come to terms with when God is a God of love, not suffering, and although there are times (such as in Job) when God may allow an individual to suffer, at no point will he cause the suffering.

Adam and Eve - They rebelled against God and as a result Creation was damaged. This is difficult to understand from a non christian point of view. I mean, try explaining to a non christian (or even many christians) that the reason they are ill/or their parents or children have died is because 2 people thousands of years ago ate a fruit that they were not allowed to eat and that somehow this has caused suffering to be unleashed on the world... I must admit, I've never understood that answer myself...

Mike Lloyd put forward a very interesting suggestion:

His suggestion was that, yes, free will is to blame for the suffering in the world, but not simply the free will of humankind, but the freewill of angels. He explained that God, as a loving being, could not simply build robots to worship him (and we know the angels worship him as it is written in the Bible, just read Revelations to get a picture of the thousands of angels worshipping aound His throne). He gave them free will thus allowing them to genuinely love Him. Angels, being spiritual creatures, play an active role in the spiritual side of creation. They, like us, are linked to it and affect it. When Satan rebelled against God, disharmony was brought into creation. Lloyd explained that a good picture to use was one used by Tolkien (yes, the creator of the hobbits) in the Silmarillion, where God is singing creation into existence and the choirs of angels are joining Him. When one rebelled and sang a different tune, disharmony came in to creation and pulled it in a different direction to that which God had intended.

When God created humans He told them to "multiply and fill the Earth and subdue it" implying that the Earth needed subdueing. (is that how you spell it?)

Before their sin, Adam and Eve were very close to God and had dominion over all the creatures of the earth. They could sit with Lions without fear of becoming dinner!

Lloyd explained that Humans were given the job of correcting Creation. We were meant to be healing the sick, destroying disease, and righting the wrongs in Creation. But, instead, we turned our back on that responsibility, we created a divide between us and God and joined the rest of creation in it falleness. That is why we are able to say "it's all our fault" (Genesis 3). It's our fault because we did not do what we are meant to.

God sent Jesus, not only to bridge that divide, but to show us what we should have been doing. Jesus healed the sick and the blind, He fed the hungry and loved the rejected. He corrected Creation. He was, as a human, what we should have been from the start.

What a responsibility we have been given. We should be out there correcting creation. We should be feeding the hungry, healing the sick and making this world right.

Billy Kennedy, the pastor at New Community, Southampton, has been preaching recently on "Being the Message".( see www.newcommunity.org.uk) He is right, we should be the Message. We should be like Jesus - The Word who became flesh. The message who became flesh. He gave his all to bridge the gulf that separated us from God.

Now, we have the responsibility to do what we were made for. We must live in this world as ambassadors of God, doing what we were intended to. We must do what we can to make creation right. We must live like Jesus.

What a responsibility.

New Song

I've just finished recording a new song...

A wise man (Mr Robins!) once told me that a song should be describable in one sentence. Well here goes:

The songs about how everything we need can and will be found in Jesus and His cross.

The recordings a bit rough around the edges and the actual recording is still subject to change, but I'm fairly pleased with the song itself but am more than happy to hear any comments anyone would like to make. To listen to it, please go to http://www.esnips.com/user/aboxall and click on the songs folder. I don't know how to create a direct link to it from here !

I hope you enjoy it.

Addictions...

Yesterday I came to a fairly shocking conclusion: "I AM ADDICTED TO CHOCOLATE!" Now, you may be thinking "That's a bit girly" or "That's a bit extreme, surely he's not really addicted to chocolate, he just really likes it..." but I think it may be more serious than that!

Over Christmas I put on a fair bit of weight and can't seem to shift it. My main downfall is, as you may have guessed, chocolate. I've found that I can go weeks without it, providing I don't get a single taste of it. Once I've tasted it though, I completely lose control and will eat every bit of chocolate I can find.

A couple of days ago I had eaten healthily all day, I sat down in the evening and my wife asked me whether I wanted any chocolate. There was a 400g bar of Cadbury's in the cupboard. I opened the chocolate and gave her one row. Within 7 minutes I had eaten the rest.

The next day I had a major feeling of guilt so went without.

Then, yesterday, having had a healthy breakfast and healthy lunch, I went into work. Someone brought in some chocolate covered chocolate cookies ("Taste the difference range from Sainsbury's - Very, very nice!). I thought to myself "I'll just have one" 1 became 2, 2 became 2 kinder buenos, a small tube of mini eggs, a double decker and a big chocolate spread sandwich. All in the space of an hour.

(I didn't even feel a little sick)

It does make me wonder though. How much have I personally contributed to the world's slavery problem? (Please see www.stopthetraffik.org)

Am I any better than an alcoholic or a drug addict? I know I don't become violent when eating chocolate and I don't resort to crime to fund my "habit" but I am mistreating this body that God has given me. I am spending money on something which I really don't need.

I think I'll try to give it up.

Songs

Recently I have been writing loads of worship songs. I'm not always sure if this means I'm closer to God or that I want to be...

Maybe the two go hand in hand, and as I write and sing, through wanting to get closer to Him, then I do get closer, and so I then want to write and sing more and, in turn, I draw even nearer...

Anyway, until recently, over the years that I have been writing worship songs, I have only ever been really pleased with one or two of them. Suddenly I have found that I am writing more songs that I am pleased with than not. Maybe my standards have dropped...

I've decided to spend some time recording some simple demos of them on my multitrack and at some point I'll be able to link the Mp3 version to this website so that you will be able to judge for yourselves... That is, if anyone ever finds this page! (So far I have had the grad total of 2 visitors!)

I am becoming more and more frustrated with my lack of musical ability. I know what I want to hear and just seem unable to reproduce the sound I hear in my head... I've decided to do something about this and have started working through my many guitar improvement books which I have bought over the years. One day I'll go from being simply a "Strum-a-long" ( copyright Josh Boxall) to being a proper guitarist!

Weight Loss

Today I want to write a about something which has plagued me for several years now: "Weight Loss".

I was never fat as a little boy, in fact I was fairly skinny. I remember being amazed that one of my friends weighed 32 kgs when all I weighed was 27. Now I weigh almost 4 times that!

I joined the police in 2003 weighing about 16 1/2 stone. That was fairly heavy. I could still carry my weight quite well and was able to pass the police fitness tests, which were much harder then than they are now... But, nevertheless, I was still fat.

In March 2004 I started a diet. By October I had losst 2 1/2 stone and by Christmas I had lost another 6 pounds. My waist went from being a 42inch waist (almost 44) to being a 34 inch waist. I could run to level 11.3 on a bleep test, which is fairly good.

My weight fluctuated between 13 st 6lbs and 13 st 12lbs for the next year and a half. Recently however I have become complacent. I didn't learn that I could no longer eat whatever I wanted and still maintain the shape I was in. Round about the time my third daughter was born, in September 2006, I weighed about 14 st 6. I have since put on about a stone and a half. I weigh almost 16 stone again. The heaviest I have been for a very long time.

I went for a run today. I hardly made it to twenty minutes.

Today I have started doing something about it.

Tomorrow morning I will weigh myself and find out exactly how much I weigh. Next Sunday I will update you with my progress.

See you soon.

PS: The feet in the picture aren't mine!

Catchup (not Ketchup)

Over the past nine days I have been very busy. I went to another Worship Central Conference up in London and it was very very good. If anyone is interested in finding out more, please go to their website, www.worshipcentral.org.





I then had to go back to work, which was fine.





The fence panel blew down again. Well, I say again, it was actually the fence panel next to the one I replaced last time. I didn't buy a new fence post this time. I didn't buy a new fence panel either. A few strong nails and a couple of swear words later (mainly when missing the nails...) and the fence appears as strong as ever.





I'll test it out in the next storm...

More DIY ineptitudes...

Sunday evening I bit the DIY bullet again and tried to carry out some fairly simple plumbing. I had to disconnect the wahing machine as someone was taking it away. We were getting a new one, you see.

I turned the taps of under the sink to stop the water flow and then disconnected the pipes from the back of the washing machine...

Suddenly I was being sprayed with a jet of water so strong it could rival a fire engine's pump. I was soaked, the children were screaming, the dog was barking and the poor lady who had come to collect the washing machine was left holding the baby while Becky rushed around trying to find towels to mop up the lake that was threatening to engulf not only our kitchen but the whole of our ground floor.

I finally found the tiny little valve which turned the water off. It was hidden under the sink, through a tiny little hatch and down some stairs leading into a small basement room which was guarded by 3 tigers and a hungry elephant... Well, it was quite hard to find anyway...

So I disconnected the old washing machine, leaving the kitchen sink and the dishwasher out of commission for a couple of days.

The new washing machine arrived. It looks awesome. I decided to attach it, but this one only has space to attach one pipe, whereas the last had 2... I worked that puzzle out but then had to connect the exhaust pipe to the U-bend under the sink...

Unfortunately I had given away a vital part of the U-bend to the lady with the washing machine. I hadn't realised that at the time, so had to replace a whole U-bend.

So, a job that should have taken 5 minutes, took almost two hours and included a trip to B&Q, a new U-bend, a lot of water and stress levels going through the roof.

Sometimes I think I should just leave these things to professionals... I'll stick with playing guitar...