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.

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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.

Central Heating

A central heating system provides warmth to the whole interior of a building (or portion of a building) from one point to multiple rooms. When combined with other systems in order to control the building climate, the whole system may be a HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system.

Central heating differs from local heating in that the heat generation occurs in one place, such as a furnace room in a house or a mechanical room in a large building (though not necessarily at the "central" geometric point). The most common method of heat generation involves the combustion of fossil fuel in a furnace or boiler. The resultant heat then gets distributed: typically by forced-air through ductwork, by water circulating through pipes, or by steam fed through pipes. Increasingly, buildings utilize solar-powered heat sources, in which case the distribution system normally uses water circulation.

In much of northern Europe and in urban portions of Russia, where people seldom require air conditioning in homes due to the temperate climate, most new housing comes with central heating installed. Such areas normally use gas heaters, district heating, or oil-fired systems. In the western and southern United States natural-gas-fired central forced-air systems occur most commonly; these systems and central-boiler systems both occur in the far northern regions of the USA. Steam-heating systems, fired by coal, oil or gas, feature in the USA, Russia and Europe: primarily for larger buildings. Electrical heating systems occur less commonly and are practical only with low-cost electricity or when geothermal heat pumps are used. Considering the combined system of central generating plant and electric resistance heating, the overall efficiency will be less than for direct use of fossil fuel for space heating.

History
The Summer Palace of Peter the Great in St. Petersburg, one of the first buildings to incorporate the modern-type hydrologic central heatingSome buildings in the Roman Empire used central heating systems, conducting air heated by furnaces through empty spaces under the floors and out of pipes in the walls — a system known as a hypocaust.[1] A similar system of central heating was used in ancient Korea, where it is known as ondol. It is thought that the ondol system dates back to the Koguryo or Three Kingdoms (37 BC-AD 668) period when excess heat from stoves were used to warm homes.

In the early medieval Alpine upland, a simpler central heating system where heat travelled through underfloor channels from the furnace room replaced the Roman hypocaust at some places. In Reichenau Abbey a network of interconnected underfloor channels heated the 300 m² large assembly room of the monks during the winter months. The degree of efficiency of the system has been calculated at 90%.

In the 13th century, the Cistercian monks revived central heating in Christian Europe using river diversions combined with indoor wood-fired furnaces. The well-preserved Royal Monastery of Our Lady of the Wheel (founded 1202) on the Ebro River in the Aragon region of Spain provides an excellent example of such an application.

The Roman hypocaust continued to be used on a smaller scale during late Antiquity and by the Umayyad caliphate, while later Muslim builder employed a simpler system of underfloor pipes.

By about 1700 Russian engineers had started designing hydrologically based systems for central heating. The Summer Palace (1710–1714) of Peter the Great in Saint Petersburg provides the best extant example. Slightly later, in 1716, came the first use of water in Sweden to distribute heat in buildings. Martin Triewald, a Swedish engineer, used this method for a greenhouse at Newcastle upon Tyne. Jean Simon Bonnemain (1743–1830), a French architect, introduced the technique to industry on a cooperative, at Château du Pêcq, near Paris.

Angier March Perkins developed and installed some of the earliest steam-heating systems in the 1830s. The first was installed in the home of Governor of the Bank of England John Horley Palmer so that he could grow grapes in England's cold climate.[5]

Franz San Galli, a Polish-born Russian businessman living in St. Petersburg, invented the radiator between 1855-1857, which was a major step in the final shaping of modern central heating.Wiki

I'm especially grateful for it on a day like this -but also for the Oil Man , and the Oil distributer, and the tanker driver, tanker mechanic, sales person, heating engineer etc ,etc,etc.Thanks to them and the God who made them