Many years ago now a wise old Elder told me "In church life, everything is noticed, nothing can be hidden." She was exaggerating to make a point but she HAD a point! and not only about church life.
First there was "Email-gate". Email traducing opposition MP's and ministers sent by a former Prime-ministerial advisor becamse public. Don't these people realise that there is no such thing as personal email?, and that once it leaves your email program your email passes through systems accessible to strangers and that you should email nothing you wouldn't be happy to see in the newspaper the next day?
Then there came the filming of police action against protestors during the anti-G20 riots last month, some footage taken on professional or "official" equipment, some simply on mobile phones. It is deeply ironic that the equipment used to help the authorities maintain control should now be used to challenge the authorities about how they do so.
Meanwhile the street cameras multiply, and advertising company Phorm want to monitor individual's surfing of the internet to serve up highly specific advertisements when we go on-line. The UK government's failure to censure BT or Phorm for secret trials of this technology resulted in legal proceedings against it by the European Commission.
We are being watched! Am I alone in finding that scary?
But I've always known that I am watched, and not just in church. God *always* has his eye on us. Read the wonderful Psalm 139 to understand what that means. He sees me through and through, my thoughts and hopes and dreams are utterly transparent to God, far more so than to me at times! And that is good news. Because, while God watches, and sees with absolute clarity and truth, he also loves, supports, forgives, blesses. To be truly and utterly known and truly and utterly loved is the great gift of God to his children, and it is to be found nowhere else. That other wise elder of the church, St. Paul, summed it up so beautifully in Romans 5:8 "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." He knows and yet he dies - for me! Amazing!
1 comment:
139, always been my favourite and will be my funeral psalm (omitting verses 19-22 of course), and this has been a great source of comfort to me over the years. That is why it is so easy to talk to Him
Thank you for introducing me to the word traducing, and even better the fact that there are Traducianists. How do they feel about sperm donation I wonder.
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