Life and thoughts of MJ

Nice post breadbin :) loving the contributions, just to make you feel like you have friends, I have some comments to submit ‘if i may’…

I would add (I’ll work out how to post a response soon) is that as I’ve got older, I’ve learned that the lines between faith and non-faith are a lot more complex than who claims to be a Christian. 

For example, sometimes you get people who’ve been attending church all their lives, always calling themselves Christian, but who are complacent about their faith - they are ‘culturally Christian’ but have never grappled with what it truly means. Meanwhile, I’ve increasingly been encountering people who aren’t conventionally Christian because they struggle with some kind of doctrine, but they do so from a point of having deep integrity and a desire to seek out truth. Often they seem to be seeking out a real and authentic faith over what they’ve previously encountered, their patch of uncertainty is acting precursor to developing real faith.

When the definitions who does and does not have religious faith are seen as ambiguous, it makes things a lot more complex - with that in mind, i’ve certainly seen relationships where supposed non-Christians act a lot more integral than so-called Christians, living up to Christian principles they’ve committed to despite not being decided whereas cultural Christians can overlook these things willy-nilly.

Of course, I’m making some generalisations there, but thought I’d spit out some thoughts your way… Boo-yaka!

Our old house in Wales up for sale! Tempting!

• Question: Thank you for answering my question so thoroughly :D. I wholeheartedly agree with what you say about "trying" to gain religious faith, I think one instinctively believes, or doesn't, its not a choice, so trying to do anything else is dishonest. I am an atheist though, so I was wondering whether a Christian point of view might be different (let's please ignore that I'm hugely generalising here!). I will say however, that I don't agree with your justification for your answer to the first question. - Anonymous
• Answer:

  Yeh, I realised it was rather a FULL answer having written it but alike yourself, guess there is much to say on the matter. Thank you for your response. Some very good points which contribute nicely to this. 

  I think to an extent belief is instinct but I think under an umbrella of religions there is often a huge impetus towards the use of self-control or self-motivation to believe; even Jesus asks a question which arguably sees him questioning what appears to be of instinct, ‘My God, why have you forsaken me?’ appear to be words that scream “I’m really not that sure, my God, what is going on?”. But then that is my interpretation of it.

  Anonymous asked you:

  I personally don’t think you can fall in love with someone based on facts like whether someone likes football, or without knowing them inside out and sharing the same moral values. Whether that be through a religious faith or learning from a role model etc.. As long as two people share a similar moral compass, I think they would be able to recognise, respect and admire that in each other, the reason behind how they came to have similar views I think, is ultimately irrelevant.

  With regards to the comment on football, that was a generalisation. We often share things that we like, have a passion for or it can be that we share similar drives for a passion. For example, I love football but I have some good friends who like Basketball and though it’s not my favourite sport, their drive for it is very relatable to me and I consequently gel well with them, similarly with someone who appreciates something like dance for example.

  It is important to know the person we love because it means that we are able to understand their moral reasonings and their general reaction to aspects of life and that response is important to how we react to that person. 

  Absolutely, I think the compass analogy is a good one here. The often quoted; religions are all walking up the same mountain towards a similar goal and I think that is very relevant in allowing us to be close to someone, especially to be able to love someone. The one thing with this is that most religions, Christianity included in this one, would find it hard to say that we share similar beliefs and so that is okay. Of course the revelation that Jesus is Christ and Saviour means that he is the only way. And so for a Christian to then say that it’s okay as long as they have similar goals would be rather unaccepted as a viewpoint. So for Christians, the reasoning behind a view would actually be rather significant because if your philosophy is that Jesus is the way, the truth and the light then someone who doesn’t recognise this doesn’t really full understand 

  Sure there is more to contribute to this so please do. That is frustrating with a word limit. If you do want to discuss it further then please do write to me further!

• Question: What would you do, if you fell in love with a girl who wasn't religious? Would you want her to try and gain faith? Or do you think you would never fall in love with someone who doesn't share the same beliefs as you in the first place? - Anonymous
• Answer:

  

  I had this question today, I thought it was a brilliant one so thank you whoever sent it!

  It’s best to deconstruct this a little and get 2 main questions and I believe they are better in this order:

  1. Do you think you can fall in love with someone who doesn’t share the same beliefs as you in the first place?
  2. If you did, would you want them to gain faith?

  Firstly, this is a difficult question to answer. Often we find people from different backgrounds fall in love with one another. Yet, they may well share faith of a similar kind. I don’t want to dwell on this too much though because this isn’t entirely relevant. 

  I know from personal experience that just because someone differs on what we call our ‘faith’ or ‘beliefs’ it doesn’t mean that we can’t fall head over heals for that person. They may well be someone we come to really like, appreciate and admire for their beliefs and faith, of whatever kind that is. 

  In addition to this I’d say that I, like countless others, have experienced falling in love (in the very general sense of the word) without hardly knowing them and it just being because; “I love them” and it is particularly difficult to explain why. It could be because of some base reasoning i.e. “She is well fit” or “She likes football”. Or it could be a more fundamental reasoning, perhaps even considered spiritual; “we connect on some kind of deeper level”. I think it is hard to argue with either of these because they are both valid reasons. Base Reasoning because we’d have hardly survived as a human race without it and fundamental reasoning because there is a real significance to the benefit of self with regards to spirituality.

  So I would say ‘yes’ in answer to that first question.

  Secondly, would I want the person to gain faith? Well that is something which is almost explicit with faith of any kind. It is certainly accepted as being almost expected as someone with faith to share it with others. When it is said, “would I want her to try and gain faith” I think my answer would be “no!”. 

  This is my reasoning behind the answer. I think that to be of faith, of whatever kind that is, it means to be respectful of the faith and to want to share it with others. I think at no point is there a means of expectancy for others to have to ‘try’ the faith, as in a ‘try before you buy’ kind of ideal. 

  In addition to this I think that everyone has faith. Whether that be in their football team, in the trains (yes, countries outside the UK can trust their train service!), in clockwork or in God; we have faith in order to do things. I have faith that as I press keys on this laptop, the computer shall respond and write as I wish to present it. So I think that when we say wanting someone to try and gain faith, I think that it comes too heavily loaded in the sense that we are implicitly indicating that the person with faith should be imposing the faith they have on the person without faith and I think that those who follow belief systems would not expect someone to push faith. 

  So what should that person with faith do? Well I think that like with any kind of belief that we have; the belief that our car will start in the morning on our way to work, our belief that when we order a coffee we will get a coffee; these are things that we can explain to others, we can suggest to others but if I was to say unequivocally that “Your car will start in the morning” then I am making a claim that is over my head and your own, I think that in suggesting someone to ‘try and gain faith’ we are taking a position of authority that doesn’t really belong to us and I think that this is important to the freedom of people.

  So this went on far longer than expected! Sure very few will get this far, so if you have, “WOW!” and “THANKS!!!” :D

  Do feedback on this, would be good to spark debate! 

  MJx

Greek yoghurt anyone???!

A song I wrote this eve. Again, a rough draft on garageband! lemme know wat u think! :O)

A short recording I did this afternoon, needs some work but let me know what you think

Nirvana - Polly

Acousticover by MJx

Another acoustic cover: ‘Let your love be strong’ by Switchfoot

Recorded it last night, bit of a cold (my excuse) but loving the song atm hence the add!

Hope you enjoy,

MJx

What in the world is God waiting for? The fulfilment of the great commission

Ross Paterson writes about the need for the church today to be like the Antioch church we read of in Acts (11, 13 & 14). Biblically strong and challenging to the church; is the church in the right place? Should it be doing more with overseas mission? Well according to Paterson, yes it should. I think I’d have to agree!