All the way my Savior leads me;
What have I to ask beside?
Can I doubt His tender mercy,
Who through life has been my Guide?
Heav’nly peace, divinest comfort,
Here by faith in Him to dwell!
For I know, whate’er befall me,
Jesus doeth all things well;
For I know, whate’er befall me,
Jesus doeth all things well.

All the way my Savior leads me,
Cheers each winding path I tread;
Gives me grace for every trial,
Feeds me with the living Bread.
Though my weary steps may falter,
And my soul athirst may be,
Gushing from the Rock before me,
Lo! A spring of joy I see;
Gushing from the Rock before me,
Lo! A spring of joy I see.

All the way my Savior leads me
O the fullness of His love!
Perfect rest to me is promised
In my Father’s house above.
When my spirit, clothed immortal,
Wings its flight to realms of day
This my song through endless ages—
Jesus led me all the way;
This my song through endless ages—
Jesus led me all the way.

Chris Tomlin – Unfailing Love

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side;
bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
leave to thy God to order and provide;
in every change he faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend
through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
to guide the future as he has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
all now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
his voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart,
and all is darkened in the vale of tears,
then shalt thou better know his love, his heart,
who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay,
from his own fulness, all he takes away.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
when we shall be forever with the Lord,
when disappointment, grief and fear are gone,
sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored,.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past,
all safe and blesséd we shall meet at last.

A revolution just happened in this little heart of mine.

I've been reading a book called "Counterfeit gods" lately about idolatry and how to defeat it, along with the book of Galatians. Turns out that those two go really well together, and I've found the book very helpful in understanding or adding to some of the things I had been pondering from the apostle's letter.

One thing that struck me in particular was the fact that very often we tend to put a lot more of our energy and thought into things that aren't in line with the gospel, and that we aren't as JEALOUS of the gospel as we should be. I can be very bold in proclaming it, talking about it, but don't exactly live it out and/or care about the fruits of the Spirit. Paul says, "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit." (Gal 5:25). In the battle against idolatry, only one thing will do: fighting by the Spirit.

As I started Counterfeit Gods, I asked the Lord to show me one what my hidden idol was. It's scary, for when sin is revealed it usually isn't very pretty, but I also prayed for the grace to overcome it, and for help to replace it by something good. I was thinking about that stuff this morning, then opened the Good Book and almost randomly came across psalm 36. For the first time, verses 1 and 2 had a different tune to them:

"An oracle is within my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: there is no fear of God in their eyes. For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin."

I stopped for a moment and asked, "God, is this me?"

After a few moments, I realised that perhaps, yes, this was one of my hidden idols: flattery. I think so well of myself. I want people's approval all the time. I want them to think I'm amazign, humble, godly etc. I want... "I" "I" "I"... me me me, all about me.

*Sigh!!

Honestly, I don't believe we all act like this everyday but certainly some of the decisions I make are influenced by my self-centredness. "Are you so foolish?, says Paul to the Galatians, "after beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?" (3:3), "You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge in the sinful nature ... Those who belong to Christ have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desire." (5:13a; 24). What an idiot I've been. I am shocked that I wasted so many minutes and energy fearing for my own image and reputation more than God's.

It's a battle, and in this battle I must heed Paul's words to continue in persevering in the power of the Spirit for the sake of the gospel. I must be BOLD about this. I must desire godliness, joy, freedom and serving God more than people's acceptance, false perfection and all the bling bling in the world. Because "If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ." (Gal 1:10b)

I'll end this post with those words from Tim Keller, which I find both a challenge and a 'massage' for my heart and mind.

"Jesus must become more beautiful to your imagination, more attractive to your heart, than your idol. That is what will replace your counterfeit gods. If you uproot the idol and fail to plant the love of Christ in its place, the idol will grow back."

"Rejoice in the Lord always"

This cannot mean "always feel happy" since no one can command someone to always have a particular emotion. To rejoice is treasure a thing, to assess its value to you, to reflect on its beauty and importance until your heart rests in it and tastes the sweetness of it. "Rejoicing" is a way of praising God until the heart is sweetened and rested, and until it relaxes its grip on anything else it thinks that it needs.

Tim Keller, Counterfeit gods.

"What an idiot I've been! Here is what I've been looking for all my life. The blessing of God! I looked for it in the approval of my father. I looked for it in the beauty of Rachel. But it was in you. Now I won't let you go until you bless me. Nothing else matters. I don't care if I die in the process, because if I don't have God's blessing, I've got nothing. Nothing else will do."

Tim Keller's version of Genesis 32:26b. Extract from Counterfeit gods, p.106

Snow is pretty. I'll give you that.

But snow can be very painful too! I had a bit of a stressful experience yesterday while on my way to Stansted airport and got stranded on my coach for the whole day because of humongous snowfall. For hours we didn't know where we were going (actually we went literally 'nowhere' for 8hours) only to end up completely stuck in a small bus station. Finally, we all decided to leave the coach and walked to the nearest train station, dragging our big suitcases on dark, cold and non-gritted pavements. Lots of frozen toes. All very dramatic (I'll spare you the bit when trains got cancelled and my phone credit ran out when I most needed it) but thank God I was able to make it back to Oxford eventually.

So, I guess I won't be spending Christmas in France this year, but I'm still looking forward to celebrating the King of Kings coming to earth!

I saw this earlier in my Twitter newsfeed and felt encouraged: "God, who foresaw your tribulation, has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain."-CS Lewis. I look at snow and I see something pure, beautiful, untouched, spotless. What a great reminder, especially at this time of year, that Christmas is all about Jesus - about him coming to live among us to die to wash away our sins, to make ua white as snow. Untouched. Without stain. Fully Forgiven. All through Christ.

I'm obviously disappointed about all the last-minute changes, but confident that this is part of God's makeover plan. :-)

I just realised that I've never posted any photos of Marseille on any of my blogs.

I'm not good at taking pictures (or maybe just very lazy) so here's a link to someone else's travel diary - I was quite impressed as I saw it and thought they did a really good job.

I grew up in the Northern part of Marseille, one knows as "dodgy". For a long time Marseille to me only rhymed with danger, stolen cars, unsafe streets at night, drug dealers, constant fear of being mugged/attacked/bullied into giving your clothes or money, busy and crammed buses, rude comments if you look up or turn around when honked at, peeking through the window to watch the neighbours fighting, the list goes on. Not that I got involved in all of these, but lots of people I knew did.

But there is another side to Marseille - the cute old villages, old men playing "boules" in the summer, loud/chatty/funny and generous people, the pretty seaside with beautiful white rocks, gorgeous sand beaches and colourful fish, the markets abounding with delicious colours and smells... It's a culture, dare I say a world, of its own. La Provence.

I sometimes struggle to find the balance between appreciating such beauty and yet not turn my eyes away from the reality of a place that is broken and hurting. If you have a minute to spare, pray for the people of Marseille

Enjoy the photos. :)

 http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Tourism-g187253-Marseille_Provence-Vacations.html

Facebook connections map the world

The map above is the result of his attempts to visualise where people live relative to their Facebook friends. Each line connects cities with pairs of friends. The brighter the line, the more friends between those cities.

After tweaking the graphic and data set it produced a "surprisingly detailed map of the world," he said in a blog post.

"Not only were continents visible, certain international borders were apparent as well," he wrote.

"What really struck me, though, was knowing that the lines didn't represent coasts or rivers or political borders, but real human relationships."

However, large chunks of the world are missing, such as China and central Africa, where Facebook has little presence.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11989723