Kingdoms Collide            Word on the Week                     11^th November 2023.

The 11^th hour on the 11^th day of the 11^th month in the year 1919 the first armistice day was held in the grounds of Buckingham Palace.   Optimistically, it was to commemorate the war to ‘end all wars’!   It is now known as Remembrance Day in the UK and is held annually at the Cenotaph in London.

This visual reminder of the horrors of war has not stopped the warring human tribes from their propensity to slaughter each other!   Armament factories are never out of business!    Politicians, asleep at the wheel, fail to spot the Putin’s of this world until it is too late.

It is easy to see the faults in others but this blog is concerned with another Kingdom, a heavenly one.   It is identified on earth by its founder saying “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (St Matthew 16 verse 18).    The gates of the city being the strongest part of its fortification but they are not strong enough to keep hell from being taken!

We pray, Thy Kingdom come.   So how is the kingdom to come?   Who is in the draft?  God has called all his children to participate in the work of the kingdom.   Everyone who has been brought into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ has been drafted into the ministry of church-building (2 Peter 2 verses 3 to 9).

The Lord has given us the leaders we require to carry out these works of service.   They build up the people of God until they become mature in the faith not tossed about by every wind of teaching.   Now expressing the truth of redemption in Christ out of love we build up the whole body as each part does its work (Ephesians 4 verses 11 to 16).

What are some of the hindrances to the Biblical vision of church?   For some it has become the spiritual version of going to a concert.   They get a high.   They experience ministry professionals at work but have little commitment to the health of the church or to its work in the world.   Their relationship to the church is self-focussed i.e. what can I get out of it!

There is also that incongruous worshipper, the ‘sermon sampler’.   I would fall into this category thanks to the immobility of old age and the convenience of Zoom!

Rightly executed the sermon takes the Bible portion and nourishes the hearers.  This enables the Kingdom of God to advance as repentance and forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus is proclaimed in all nations by church-goers who testify to its reality in their lives (St Luke 24 verses 45 to 48).

AI at Bletchley Park                 Word on the Week                 4^th November 2023.

This week the great and the good showed up at Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, the home of the UK principal centre of Allied code-breaking.  It became famous after WW2 having previously been kept secret.

Its purpose today was not so much code-breaking as understanding where Artificial Intelligence is leading us.   Its progression from a tool of trade for writers, whereby it does the research, to one which generates the ideas itself is progressing by leaps and bounds.

Elton Musk, the owner of X (formerly Twitter), wishes to create a market place for free speech where ideas can flourish but now sees his ideas being overtaken by GAI.   This stands for ‘Generative Artificial Intelligence’ a tool that will think for you!

In fact, such rapid strides are being made that he was forecasting the end of work as we know it, humoid robots taking the jobs!    The driverless car, which successfully navigates city traffic, illustrating the point he was making.

I asked GPT for some information on the tunnels of Gaza which are key components in the Israeli Hamas war.  This is part of what I got from ChatGPT: –

The tunnels in Gaza are an extensive network of underground passageways used for a multitude of purposes. They are mostly dug using manual labour and often hidden from plain view. The tunnels have played a crucial role in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine as they are used for smuggling weapons, transporting supplies, and launching attacks.

The Israeli military considers the tunnels a threat to national security and has frequently targeted them, leading to further deaths and destruction.

In summary, the tunnels in Gaza are a complex network with both civilian and military uses, shaping the region’s history. However, they are also a source of danger and conflict, causing casualties to residents and being at the centre of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.

This is an abbreviated version.   I asked for 300 words and got them!   The more obvious places where it can help humankind are in medicine where it can hunt down the cancer cells and leave the healthy ones to function.

When it comes to robots we have a unique opportunity for humans to play god!   Now the potential moves from the paranoid dictator to the rogue humoid robot.  But –

‘The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created…and he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Colossians 1:15/20).

It is good to remember that Jesus reigns over all and will return to set all in order.