Blackdog's Blog

Feeling small

2008-09-07T23:29:00.004+01:00

Here's something to make you feel small, but not in a bad way. Consider these things and think how much greater and more complex God is than these things:

There are approximately 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms in your body.
In the world today there are approx 6,602,224,175 (6.6 billion) people
Our planet revolves around one sun, a star. That sun is one of approx 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) stars in the milky way
The current estimate as to the number of galaxies in the universe is approximately 125,000,000,000 (125 billion)

Make me a Christian!

2008-08-19T12:45:00.003+01:00

I've been watching a documentary here in the UK called 'Make me a Christian'. The basic premise is that a group of unlikely volunteers are put through a two week programme entailing church like Christian activities. The volunteers are all expected to tow a line, and leave their normal lives aside for the duration. The group are comprised of homosexual, gothic, ladies men, a pregnant & living together couple, an Islamic Muslim - to name a few. You get the idea.

Anyway, I watched the show with my head in my hands, totally embarrassed. Why? Not that I particularly disagreed necessarily with the beliefs of the mentors, God bless them (although I did on some issues). What made me cringe was their idea of being a good Christian was singing songs led by two acoustic guitars on a mountain, washing peoples feet in public, retreating to a forest and trying to make nettle soup in the rain... etc.

Now I know the intentions are good, and I'm probably a bad man for being a critic, but please, this isn't hard. How can people relate to Christianity, when it's presented in ways that are quite frankly, weird and irrelevant? Oh but Jesus washed peoples feet - yes I know, He did it because they wore sandals and walked around dusty roads. What would have been a cultural modern day equivalent would be washing someone's shop windows, handing out free tea & coffee. The only part of the documentary the volunteers seemed to respond to was working in a soup kitchen, cooking food and showing someone that they cared about them - magic.

I've blogged before about wanting to get my hands dirty, but whatever that looks like has to be relevant and practical. It's not hard to show God's love to a world in practical need. It's simple as if they're hungry, feed them, thirsty, give them a drink etc. Sorry to be negative about this, but I was half hoping that I'd watch that show and see some new relevant examples of practical modern day Christianity. All I saw was dogmatic, judgemental and irrelevant. If it were presented to me in that way, I'd run a mile as well!! Fortunately I know that Jesus is alive today, and He's not safe, He's dangerous.

To bring it home, I suppose what we're working out in this band is how can we make our music relevant. Does it stand up against commercial standards? It needs to, in fact it needs to be better. We (the church) need to be paving the way, setting the standard. It's time to put what we know in to practice in real ways, practical ways. Let's not sit back and beg God to change the world, we are the answer, we can make a difference through our Christ purchased appointment, and only with Gods help.

New Website

2008-06-21T23:38:00.004+01:00

So I'm working on a new Bluetree website, I've never really been able to devote much time to this site, it's always a little bit here a little bit there, but the new site is going to be proper bo.

We've a few idea's that we hope people will like: a members area where you can interact, be the first to get news, special downloads, sheet music, secret gig info, etc.

Have to say I'm not much of a fan of these blogs, but there will be something "blog like" in place of these. You may ask 'why not get a nice flash website'. And the answer is, we want as many people as possible to be able to access the site - people in schools, hospitals, work places - more often than not these days, saavy tech departments are locking out flash content. So the flash will be kept to a minimum. But anyway, if you don't know what flash is then forget about what I just said.

If you're a technobod, then the site is being written in PHP and pure CSS, with a minimal bit of decorative flash.

My question is this - what bits of the site do you hit and what are you interested in seeing that isn't here...? Comments on an email to webmaster@bluetreeonline.co.uk

Rick like's to...

2008-06-04T20:56:00.002+01:00

Ok, here's the rules:

Go to Google and type in quotation marks your name and then "likes to" (eg. "Rick likes to"). Type in the first ten things that come up and repost in your own note. Here's mine:

Rick likes to keep Delaney Forest Products on jobs within a 150-mile radius
Rick likes to Dance on Thursdays
Rick likes to go to southern California to do shows with BIGFOOT
Rick likes to spend any spare time that he has with his young daughter
Rick likes to stay at Casa Balam
Rick likes to call his programs "scrapbook documentaries," incorporating lots of old films, home movies, postcards, old photos and memorabilia of all sorts.
Rick likes to eat out, but he noticed that drinking quickly boosts the bill. Drinks are now limited to once a month with a two-glass limit.
Rick likes to spend time with his wife and children and is an avid fan of the Boston Red Sox
Rick likes to write code, mentor, teach and consult.
Rick likes to focus his can-do attitude where it can help the most.
Rick likes to think of his work as 'that foreign guy at a party, who you don't completely get his jokes, but you laugh anyway

Ok that's eleven I know but the last one was funny so I posted it anyway

I love you even though your socks smell

2008-05-28T16:25:00.004+01:00

Relationship is one of the things we're put on earth to do (and I'm not really talking marriage here), and as we get closer in to each others lives it can get tricky, even painful, as you go through a process of discovering the less appealing parts of each others personalities. We've all got smelly socks (or something like that) which we do our best to hide, but as you let people in to your life, sometimes the smelly things have to be talked about.

You've probably heard the stories of the man who's wife divorced him because he left the lid off the toothpaste all the time. Sometimes it can feel like the lid is the biggest problem in the world, but when you step back a little you'll see it's really trivial. There's a good song that I'll not name, but it has one line in it that I detest strongly, and although I detest it, it's true, and it says that the enemy wants to make mountains out of mole hills in your life.

Personally I'm seeing a few things in my own situation that have somehow been blown way out of proportion, and I'm feeling good now I realise I can just stand on them and move on to a place of blessing. Also, I'll do better at keeping a lid on things.

Apathy

2008-04-15T20:27:00.003+01:00

There's a degree of irony in the subject of this blog and the fact that I was far too chicken to get up and give the word to Mannafest on Saturday about apathy. So second best, I guess I'll blog about it. Sorry folks, I'm a total turkey when it comes to speaking in to microphones.

Boydo and Jordy were singing rescuer by Johnny Parks (great song), and part of my reaction was 'what do I need rescued from, I'm fine, my relationship with God is progressing, I'm not affected by sin issues in my life' - then came the small voice of God reminding me of my need to be rescued from apathy, from my nonchalant, probably arrogant attitude to my relationship with God.

The truth is, we all need to press in and fervently follow our father. It's not OK to think, I'm alright Jack - because I know Jack and he told me it's not alright. What does that look like - prayer and the word mainly. I need to read my bible more, it's the source of inspiration, insight, security, wisdom and revelation (this list goes on and on).

Spending time praying is vital as well. Sorry it's so obvious that sometimes it's easy to miss. You can't have a relationship with someone unless you converse with them. Mother Teresa was asked by a reporter what she talks to God about when
she prays, her answer was that she says nothing, she listens. The reporter thought a moment and asked, 'well what does God say'? She replied, 'nothing, He listens as well'. There's a great truth in that, we need to get ourselves in to a place where we hear the heart beat of God, and spending time in His presence is enough.

Blogging

2008-04-04T19:16:00.005+01:00

So I guess I'm not convinced blogs are the way forward. Good news is that there is a new website slowly working it's way to fruition, got some cool new features like the backstage area, so watch this space.

The mighty Mills

2008-01-30T00:21:00.000Z

Hey, the mighty Paul Mills, who produced our album Greater Things (available in our online store now folks, check it out, also on iTunes!) is over to visit this week. It's so good to get some time with him. I've never met anyone so humble - he's even more humble than ME!! Seriously - I didn't think that was possible after I won my humility award.

Really looking forward to this Sunday, we're going to be recording the Sunday service, almost as a test of what can be achieved in church. Can't wait to see what happens, I have a feeling God is cooking something special up.

Anyway, onwards to bed. Mia is crying a river, hopefully she'll sleep... all the fun of fatherhood :)

Dirty hands and a clean heart

2008-01-24T00:05:00.000Z

This phrase has been on mind lately. I've been thinking a lot about people who aren't yet involved in a relationship with God. Looking from the outside in, it must be easy to feel inadequate, and until you've righted yourself sufficiently, you can't darken the door of church.

Actually, I'd love it if church started becoming the complete opposite of this. I'd love it if church started being more proactive, people getting their hands dirty. I'd love to have more opportunity to get my hands dirty. Still not sure what that looks like, if you know, do tell.

The song God of this City was written in a bar in Pattaya, Thailand. We went there as part of a missions trip to Thailand. Our expectations were none, we hadn't done this sort of thing before - I'd personally never been to Asia before that time. Did we have some 'heart' for Thailand prior to the trip? Not particularly! Sorry, no offence Thailand! We just hadn't experienced it.

The truth is, when you worship in a place, you start to see God's heart for a place. One of the most revelationary moments of my life to date has been playing a worship set in a strip club and hearing God say "I'm the God of this city". These people are oppressed and exploited, they're sold and forced to do the most derogatory acts - and in the midst of them God says 'I love these people'.

We look with our eyes and we see the wrong, but when we look beyond the situation and we see the true beauty and value in someone's existence, we see what God loves without condition. The things I've seen, I've been helpless to change - that's the truth, I am totally powerless to change anything by my own strength. In spite of all this - God, give me the opportunity to be part of the change, to resound your voice that says 'I love you, without clause or condition'. To renounce condemnation of the world and say that despite the dirt, despite your history, there is a new way - there is a banquet and you are invited.

That's my God.

Orchestra shots

2008-01-13T00:31:00.001Z

Thought some photos always make a blog look good to start off with, here's some shots by Josh Galbraith of the Christmas Special, New Irish Orchestra & choir gig at CFC Strandtown...

New blogs

2008-01-12T18:41:00.000Z

Oook, here's them, blog!? Here's me, aye alright then.

The other boys are setting theirs up now so that's going to be interesting, whereas this post...is not. But the next one will be better.