New half term at Cheeky Monkeys

Soundtrack to the evening: Yet more mystery hammering on the walls by the neighbours.  (At least it's not too late at night!)

Well a new half term brings a new series to Cheeky Monkeys, and we're making a start on Christmas!  Early?  Maybe, but we're doing it in quite some detail, one teeny, tiny chunk at a time.  And to help us go, we have a fabulous (if I do say so myself) visual aid.

Each week we will pull a mystery item from the sock which will give us a clue about the story of the day.  But to tantalise you a little, here's a sneaky peak:

Now that should get you guessing...

Sunday Selection

Well, what a Sunday!

J* taught us this morning from 1 John 4.7-21.  I loved his financial illustration: God's love is like the gold standard - it's backed up with the real deal of Jesus' death for us.  The world's love is like an empty promissory note with nothing behind it.  He challenged us with what it means to love one another.

This evening D* took us through the second half of Colossians 1, how we too often have too small a view of Jesus and so are tempted to dilute Jesus.  But if we attempt to add to Jesus we in fact take away from him, and to move away from the gospel IS to move away from Jesus.  He also revisited the tree illustration just for us: rather than being on a journey for journey's sake, we should think of ourselves as a tree:

First we are deeply rooted into the gospel.  And like tree roots in soil, we are not to remove ourselves from it!

Second, we are strengthened so as to be better able to weather the storms of life.

Thirdly, we bear fruit.

The deeper rooted we are, the stronger we are and the more fruit we bear.  And like a tree, the longer we are rooted in, the more fruit we bear, so hang on in there, stick with the gospel and don't try to add to Jesus because to add on is to move away.


They both said loads of other brilliant things too, and it was great to see God speaking through the preaching of His word.

We learned a new song this evening from RESOUND worship, who have a fantastic array of church-friendly music for you to peruse and acquire.



*This post is based on my notes and recollections of the day, and doesn't come with any express permission from either of them.  Any and all errors are my own.

Pre-Christmas ponderations

Soundtrack to the afternoon: O Come, o Come Emmanuel

No baking to be done today.  Shocker.

I am being outfaced by a blank piece of paper as I try and decide what to do with LARS in the run up to Christmas.  I've got a few ideas pinned down on paper for December, but Advent Sunday is currently defying me.

Do I go for:

10 Bridesmaids?  (I know... only 6 on show here...)

Or how about:

Going up the mountain of the Lord? (Again, I know...)

Or something else... A bit more ruminating and a nice hot coffee should help the brain along nicely.

What's exciting you from the Bible?

Soundtrack to the morning: The Sacrifice by Dolly Parton

The plan for today involves honey vanilla ice cream made from the yolks left over from yesterday's yummy pavlova.  The pavlova disappeared in record time (I'd rather not say how long; it's a bit embarrassing), and went down a storm with everyone's favourite fruit bat (Vicar-boss Jr).

I have to finish off the church magazine which the lovely D:Team have been contributing to and guest editing this month.  Then I can crack on with some Sunday School materials.  On Monday I got 6 LARS sessions written, which caused a small amount of brain meltdown, hopefully I can manage an equally productive day today, but without the burbling.  The church mag is an interesting project, and is reminding me that I tend to write in just one style these days; finding the journalist's voice is proving quite taxing!  The other day I came across the bit in my computer where I keep random bits and pieces I've written over the last several years.  Some of them I don't even recall writing, and some of them have quite impressed me - is that terrible?

Well, the sun is shining and fooling Mr Catty into thinking that it's warmer than it is.

He's now lying behind my chair and wheezing in a way that reminds me of my own attempts to do PE at school.

What's exciting you from the Bible this week?

I've been collating answers to this from various people including Vicar-boss.

After a final series on Leviticus from our lovely curate (now lovely ex-curate, I suppose), I'm still being stunned at how the Bible ties itself together in a way that no human mind could ever come up with.  Paddling and swimming, and all that jazz.

How about you?

Recipe for a Thursday afternoon

Soundtrack to the morning: Explode by BOSH

Onions: browned and smelling delicious
Potatoes: cooked in stock

Can you tell what it is yet?

Well once the nice man from the supermarket brings a collection of food (in about a 1:4 ratio of carrier bags to items if previous deliveries are to be taken as a template), they can get thrown together with some extra bits and bobs to make a corned beef hash.  The second in just over a week, and hopefully a tad more successful than last week's tasty-but-sloppy corned beef hash stew.  Throw in a variety of pickles and sauces and a side order of Bible and you have a recipe for an afternoon with my lovely D:Team.

Last week they impressed Vicar-Boss (and me!) with their ability to recall from flash cards the story so far.  Let's see how you can do:

Those who trust in Jesus receive spiritual blessings from God.  Those blessings include:

Being chosen and adopted

Being redeemed

God revealing his (previously mysterious) plan: to bring all things under one boss: King Jesus.

Have you guessed it yet?  Yup, we're in Ephesians 1, and now it's time to go and crack on with the next part: God's amazing goodness in not leaving up to anything we have to do.  What a relief!  I'd be rubbish if it were up to me!