David ( Jake) McQuillan

My friend David McQuillan passed away just before I left for Istanbul in August past. I knew him since I was a boy and met with him regularly during the months before his death. He was 53 when he died.I wrote this poem about him while in Istanbul.

David is gone, gone gone.
My friend is gone, gone, gone.
His craic is gone, gone, gone.
His laughter is gone, gone, gone.
But his spirit lives on, on, on.
In Christ he lives on, on, on.
And his addiction is gone, gone, gone.
And all his pain is gone, gone gone.

He will be missed by many and may God bless his wife and child.

Clifford Patience

I just heard today that my good friend Mr Clifford Patience passed away a few weeks ago. Clifford was ninety four and a half! A great age to live to in relative good health- he was driving a car up until a few years ago. He became a Christian  when he was eighty nine and continued to have a strong faith until the time of his passing to glory. I am thankful that we were friends and will miss our many chats.

Mr Ivor Fenton

I'm giving thanks today for my friend Iver Fenton who was buried today at the cemetery in Dollingstown, Northern Ireland. Ivor was a Christian and a gentleman as well! He was also fond of rugby and has rightly been described as being larger than life. I first knew him thirty years ago then lost contact until a few years ago when my wife and I met up with his wife and family at the New Wine conference in Sligo. I already miss his big smile but I'm thankful that we were friends. Thoughts go to his lovely family.

Things to be thankful for today; books, computer, rooms,birds, paint, cups, plants, a guitar, Tersteegen hymns, friends, family, animals, health-to name a few. Praise your name for them all.

A trustworthy God

The verse 'Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding' is perhaps one of the most well known verses in the Bible.  In the Bible God is also described many times as being such things as a Rock, a Fortress, a Shelter, a strong Tower and  even a shield.

One of the most famous hymns is 'Rock of Ages, cleft for me ,let me hide myself in thee'. God is that Rock in which we can trust. He will not move away. He will not blow with the wind but will be there tomorrow and be there in a thousand years. We can trust him because he is good and though our circumstances are stormy, though our situation is a disaster we can fully rely on him to help us through.

I thank God because he is good, he  can be trusted and will not blow and sway with the wind.

Begone, unbelief, my Savior is near,
And for my relief will surely appear;
By prayer let me wrestle, and He will perform;
With Christ in the vessel, I smile at the storm.

Though dark be my way, since He is my Guide,
‘Tis mine to obey, ’tis His to provide;
Though cisterns be broken, and creatures all fail,
The word He has spoken shall surely prevail.

His love in time past forbids me to think
He’ll leave me at last in trouble to sink;
Each time He has helped me lies clearly in view,
Designed to assure me He’ll pilot me through.

Since all that I meet shall work for my good,
The bitter is sweet, the medicine food;
Though painful at present, ’twill cease before long,
And then, O how pleasant, the conqueror’s song!

John Newton

Trains

Our holidays the last few years have involved taking long train journeys from Scotland into London and then after a few days taking the Euro star to France -Paris the last few years, this year Paris then onto Dordogne by coach. They have been great. For that I'm truly thankful!


A railway or railroad train is a connected series of vehicles for rail transport that move along a track (permanent way) to transport cargo or passengers from one place to another place. The track usually consists of two rails, but might also be a monorail or maglev guideway.
Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate locomotive, or from individual motors in self-propelled multiple units. Most modern trains are powered by diesel locomotives or by electricity supplied by overhead wires or additional rails, although historically (from the early 19th century to the mid-20th century) the steam locomotive was the dominant form of locomotive power. Other sources of power (such as horses, rope or wire, gravity, pneumatics, batteries, and gas turbines) are possible.
The word 'train' comes from the Old French trahiner, itself from the Latin trahere 'pull, draw'.[1]

Dordogne

Just back from a pleasant holiday in the Dordogne region of France with my good wife Wilma. The weather, food and company were all excellent.We also managed to squeeze in a few days in London where I visited John Wesley's house and chapel on City Road and where I was able to stand on his famous pulpit which came originally from the old Foundry. He was a great man along with his brother Charles!

Dordogne (French pronunciation: [dɔʁ.dɔɲ]; Occitan: Dordonha) is a départment in south-west France. The départment is located in the region of Aquitaine, between the Loire valley and the High Pyrénées named after the great river Dordogne that runs through it. It roughly corresponds with the ancient county of Périgord.
History‹ The county of Périgord dates back to when the area was inhabited by the Gauls, it was home to four tribes, the name for "four tribes" in the Gaulish language was "Petrocore". The area eventually became known as the county of Le Périgord and its inhabitants became known as the Périgordins (or Périgourdins). There are four Périgords in the Dordogne: the "Périgord Vert" (Green Périgord) with its main town of Nontron, consists of verdant valleys in a region crossed by many rivers and streams; the "Périgord Blanc" (White Périgord) situated around the department's capital of Périgueux, is a region of limestone plateaux, wide valleys and meadows; the "Périgord Pourpre" (Purple Périgord) with its capital of Bergerac, is a wine region; and the "Périgord Noir" (Black Périgord) surrounding the administrative center of Sarlat, overlooks the valleys of the Vézère and the Dordogne, where the woods of oak and pine give it its name.


Dordogne RiverThe Petrocores took part in the resistance against Rome. Concentrated in two or three major sites are the vestiges of the Gallo-Roman period – the gigantic ruined tower and arenas in Périgueux (formerly Vesone), the Périgord museum's archaeological collections, villa remains in Montcaret and the Roman tower of La Rigale Castle in Villetoureix. The first cluzeaux, or artificial caves either above or below ground, are found throughout the Dordogne. These subterranean refuges and lookout huts could shelter entire populations. According to Julius Caesar the Gauls took refuge there.

Since the Guienne province had returned to the Crown under the Plantagenets following the re-marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, Périgord passed by right into English suzerainty. Being situated at the boundaries of influence of the monarchies of France and England, it was to oscillate between the two dynasties for a long time. Over three hundred years of struggle until 1453 and the end of the Hundred Years' War were to tear apart and, as a consequence, model its physiognomy.

With the end of the Hundred Years' War, the Castillon plain on the banks of the Dordogne, during the calmer periods of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, saw a development in urban architecture. The finest Gothic and Renaissance residences were built in Périgueux, Bergerac and Sarlat. In the countryside, the nobility had the majority of our 1200 chateaux, manors and country houses erected. In the second half of the sixteenth century, however, they experienced attacks, pillaging and fires as the Wars of Religion reached a rare degree of violence in Périgord. At the time, Bergerac was one of the most powerful Huguenot strongholds, along with La Rochelle. Following these wars, Périgord, fief of Henry of Navarre. was to return to the Crown for good and suffer henceforth from the sudden political changes of the French nation, from the Revolution to the tragic hours of the Resistance. We also encounter the memory of its most illustrious literary figures: Bertran de Born, Michel de Montaigne, Etienne de La Boetie, Brantôme, Fenelon, Mahle de Biran, Eugene Le Roy and Andre Maurois; its great captains: Talleyrand, Saint-Exupery, Biron... and even Josephine Baker. A number of ruins (La Chapelle-Faucher, I'Herm...) have retained the memory of the tragedies which took place within their walls. Several of our castles and châteaux are open to visitors and some of them such as Bourdeilles and Mareuil, house remarkable collections.

In addition to its castles, chateaux, churches, bastides and cave fortresses, the Périgord region has preserved from centuries past, a number of wonderful villages which still have their market halls, dovecotes, tories (stone huts), churches, abbeys and castles. Saint-Leon-sur-Vezere, Connezac, Saint-Jean-de-Côle, La Roque-Gageac and many others are real jewels of architecture. As for the old quarters of Périgueux or Bergerac, restored and developed into pedestrian areas, they have regained their former charm. A number of small towns, such as Brantôme, Issigeac, Eymet and Mareuil, have withstood the often brash changes of modern times. A special mention should be made in this respect to Sarlat and its Black Périgord area.

Just back from the Dordogne with my dear wife for a pleasant week's holiday. It was a truly restful time along with good food and company.

Dordogne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from the former province of Périgord, the county of Périgord.

During the next thee decades the departmental borders were changed several times.




In 1793 the communes of Boisseuilh, Coubjours, Génis, Payzac, Saint-Cyr-les-Champagnes, Saint-Mesmin, Salagnac, Savignac, Saint-Trié and Teillots were transferred to Dordogne from Corrèze.
In 1794 Dordogne ceded Cavarc to Lot-et-Garonne. Later in 1794 (albeit during the subsequent year under the Republican Calendar in use at the time) Dordogne gained Parcoul from Charente-Inférieure.
Following the restoration, in 1819, the commune of Bonrepos was suppressed and merged with the adjacent commune of Souillac in Lot.

In 1870, shortly after France had been attacked by Prussia in a war which the enemy was believed to be winning, a young aristocrat called Alain de Monéys was savagely tortured by a crowd of between 300 and 800 people for two hours on 16 August in a public square in the village of Hautefaye in the north-west of the department. After this he was roasted. Details of the incident remain unclear: the leading participants appear to have been drunk and before the introduction of mass education most of the witnesses would have been unable (and possibly unwilling) to write down what they saw. But at some stage the victim died, and following a trial four individuals identified as culpable were in their turn condemned to die by guillotine. The sentence was carried out in the same public square on 6 February 1871.

It was suggsted that the victim had reported the (bad) news about the war in a way that implied support for the enemy, although subsequently it became clear that his patriotic credentials were beyond approach. It was also suggested that the mob had been antagonised when he called out, "Vive la République!" (Long live the republic) at a time when the patriotic villagers valued the imperial regime which the Prussians were even then in the process of destroying.

The incident was widely reported at the time and has been extensively researched subsequently. This summary leans on the work of Alain Corbin,[1] a historian specialising in the nineteenth century who has carefully and objectively analysed the incident and the mass-psychology behind it.

The Bible

What a great book the Bible is! How it has spoken to me over the years. It has encouraged me, corrected me and guided me. The greatest thing it has done has revealed to me Christ and the way of redemption and salvation, the forgiveness of sins and a future hope after death. It tells me also that I should not keep this message to myself ,but rather share it with all to whom I have the opportunity.

Romanos writes:
True man lives in the Word of God, and that Word is everything to him, and it makes him a child of the Kingdom, it makes him a disciple of Jesus. And Jesus and the Father come and live with him there, making him one of them by giving him the Spirit to live inside him. The Word of God is everything to him, it is his home, his food, his covering, his companion, his teacher, his protection, his inheritance. He is never without it, whether the Book is in his hand or not. The Word of God becomes his words, becomes his thoughts, becomes his actions. It is his strength, it guards his purity, it is his defense against all the lures and snares of the enemy. The Word of God proves His unalterable faithfulness to him and in him, and makes him faithful to God. The Word of God never leaves him, never leaves him alone, becomes a hedge around him, and makes him a hedge around the Kingdom in which he lives with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

1.The bible is Like a Double Edged Sword:1.Hebrews 4:12: -”For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
2.Like Fire:1.Jer 23:29: – “”Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?”
3.Like Hammer:
1.Jer 23:29: – “”Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?”
4.Like Lamp and Light:
1.Ps 119:105: – “Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.”
5.Like Food:1.Mat 4:4: – “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
2.1 Pet 1:25-2:2:”But the word of the Lord stands forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you. Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.”
6.Like Seed:1.1 Pet 1:23: – “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.“
7.Like Mirror:1.James 1:22-25: – “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.”

The Bible (from Koine Greek τὰ βιβλία ta biblia "the books") is any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the contents and the order of the individual books (Biblical canon) vary among denominations. The 24 texts of the Hebrew Bible are divided into 39 books in Christian Old Testaments, and complete Christian Bibles range from the 66 books of the Protestant canon to the 81 books of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Bible. The Hebrew and Christian Bibles are also important to other Abrahamic religions, including Islam[1] and the Bahá'í Faith,[2] but those religions do not regard them as central religious texts.
The Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, is divided into three parts: (1) the five books of the Torah ("teaching" or "law"), comprising the origins of the Israelite nation, its laws and its covenant with the God of Israel; (2) the Nevi'im ("prophets"), containing the historic account of ancient Israel and Judah focusing on conflicts between the Israelites and other nations, and conflicts among Israelites – specifically, struggles between believers in "the LORD God" and believers in foreign gods, and the criticism of unethical and unjust behavior of Israelite elites and rulers; and (3) the Ketuvim ("writings"): poetic and philosophical works such as the Psalms and the Book of Job.
The Christian Bible is divided into two parts. The first is called the Old Testament, containing the (minimum) 39 books of Hebrew Scripture, and the second portion is called the New Testament, containing a set of 27 books. The first four books of the New Testament form the Canonical gospels which recount the life of Jesus and are central to the Christian faith. Christian Bibles include the books of the Hebrew Bible, but arranged in a different order: Jewish Scripture ends with the people of Israel restored to Jerusalem and the temple, whereas the Christian arrangement ends with the book of the prophet Malachi. The oldest surviving Christian Bibles are Greek manuscripts from the 4th century; the oldest complete Jewish Bible is a Greek translation, also dating to the 4th century. The oldest complete manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible (the Masoretic text) date from the Middle Ages.
During the three centuries following the establishment of Christianity in the 1st century, Church Fathers compiled Gospel accounts and letters of apostles into a Christian Bible which became known as the New Testament. The Old and New Testaments together are commonly referred to as "The Holy Bible" (τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια). Many Christians consider the text of the Bible to be divinely inspired, and cite passages in the Bible itself as support for this belief. The canonical composition of the Old Testament is under dispute between Christian groups: Protestants hold only the books of the Hebrew Bible to be canonical; Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox additionally consider the deuterocanonical books, a group of Jewish books, to be canonical. The New Testament is composed of the Gospels ("good news"), the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles (letters), and the Book of Revelation. The Bible is the best-selling book in history with approximate sales estimates ranging from 2.5 billion to 6 billion.

My grandfathers and father- in -law who fought with the Allies

Today I've posted some photographs of my relatives who fought for freedom during the two World Wars. The first two are of my grandfather Moorhead who fought in both of them. In the first photograph it looks like he was a corporal in WW1 and a relatively old man in WW2. He was about 45 during WW2- I couldn't believe that such a realatively old man would be fighting on the front line. In WW1 he went off with four of his brothers and were known in Newry as 'the patrotic family'.





My grandfather Kenny fought in the Boer War in the medical division as well as WW1. In the first photograph he appears to be wearing a Russian uniform while he was a POW held by the Germans. Below are also his WW1 medals and dog tag. One story I heard about him was that he escaped several times from the Germans but was recaptured.





My Father- in -Law John Jackson was a young Army Captain in WW2. He served in Burma and the Far East. I'm really proud of them all and thankful what they did for those who would come after them.




John Moorhead as a young corporal in WW1











John Moorhead as a private in WW2





William Kenny WW1 POW

WW1 Medals and dog tag

Capt John G. Jackson

THe heroes of the Allied forces who gave their lives to save Europe and world freedom.

Bought the 'Band of Brothers DVD and watched this scene. Truly grateful for their great sacrifice. Thankful many survived it and will remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives.Impossible to appreciate their deeds with dry eyes.

The Prayer of St Patrick- The Deer's Cry

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through the belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.
I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth with his baptism,
Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,
Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,
Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.
I arise today

Through the strength of the love of Cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels,
In hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In prayers of patriarchs,
In predictions of prophets,
In preaching of apostles,
In faith of confessors,
In innocence of holy virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.
I arise today
Through the strength of heaven:
Light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.

I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me:
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's host to save me
From snares of devils,
From temptations of vices,
From everyone who shall wish me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone and in multitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,
Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul.
Christ to shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that there may come to me abundance of reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness,
Of the Creator of Creation.
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Being alive

I'm thankful I am alive today! I could have been famous, wealthy, happy,influencial or even the strongest man alive but if I was dead my life would naturally would be over-I would not be breathing,I could not love, see, feel or smell any of the wonderful things God has given us in this world. Seize the day, live each day as if it were your last. Be thankful for it to the saviour and maker of the universe. I have a young friend who last week rescued a man while he was trying to hang himself. Sam heard a woman scream and after being told what was happening he broke down the front door of the house and cut the 18 stone man down! A hero indeed. Hopefully the man will one day appreciate what Sam did.

-

Immanuel:God with us.

Can I say I haven't got round to writing this blog for quite a while. However it doesn't mean that I haven't been thankful , though of course not thankful enough.
Thinking of Christmas and my birthday today I can't help thinking of the blessing of God being with us, of God becoming Man in Christ and though that fully experiencing our angst, pain, suffering as well as the many good things, fully understanding our need of friendship and our need of God.
I want to thank you Lord for being my friend through thick and thin, through good times as well as bad and for never leaving or forsaking me.