The week started with hurricane Ophelia and ended it with hurricane Brian!
Ophelia came at us from the South producing some of the highest wind speeds ever recorded and Brian came out of the West laden with rain!
It is hard to get into perspective the force of Ophelia. It produced the biggest wave ever recorded off the Irish coast. It measured 17.81 M (58.4 feet) or the height of a six storey building. The mooring buoy which recorded this data was torn from its moorings some time later. Four other buoys were cast adrift. They are managed by the Marine Institute and help to validate the weather forecast models run by Met Éireann providing guidance to the national emergency planning efforts.
The storm passed straight up the country, from South to North causing devastation in its wake. The wind speed recorded at Fastnet lighthouse, as it was about to hit the southern shore was 190 km (118 mph).
Along with hurricane-force winds, the storm has caused red skies in England and wildfires in the Iberian Peninsula! Cyclonic winds kicked up dust from the North African Sahara, spraying sand into the English sky. From there, the desert dust scattered the sun’s rays into longer wavelengths, giving the sky an eerie, somewhat-apocalyptic hue.
The wildfires in Spain on Sunday were fanned by powerful winds as Ophelia brushed the coast. At least 32 people have been killed, and the sky was filled with a toxic mix of ash and smoke.
Back in Ireland three people died in storm related incidents and almost 300,000 properties were without power. Public transport came to a halt and the schools were closed on Monday and Tuesday. The countryside was strewn with fallen trees and the sound of the chainsaw was everywhere. Any loose corrugated iron roofing was removed by the gale; the sheets of iron being tossed around like giant playing cards.
Just when things were getting back to normal Brian has arrived. He is more like what we are accustomed to – plenty of rain and a gentler storm force wind!
There has been a lot of sky gazing this week as people tried to read the weather signs. Some, of a more prophetic inclination, were looking for “great signs from heaven” as St Luke puts it in his Gospel (Chapter 21 verse 11).
In St Peter’s first sermon he quotes Joel’s prophesy in full. In it he predicts the coming of the Holy Spirit without any limitations and “wonders in the heavens above and on the earth below”. Some of these are mentioned and will precede the return of the Lord. The quote ends with the invitation “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (verse 20). Then comes the explanation for his modern audience.
The Lord, the God of Israel, whom St Peter now knows as Lord and Christ ‘this Jesus whom you have crucified’ offers salvation to all who repent and are baptised (verse 38)!
This offer of forgiveness of your sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit is available today.

This week some of us attended a lecture hosted by Iona Institute on how the sexual revolution is succeeding and how it is failing. After almost 60 years of its existence this seemed to be a good time to review it.
Most commentators on the subject reckon that it commenced with the decoupling of sex from reproduction. This was made possible by science producing a contraceptive pill. This promised freedom but introduced a new type of bondage. Men, never the brightest when it came to taking responsibility for their actions, now had a let out passing responsibility to the woman.

Selfishness has increased the distancing between the sexes. Women have gone for careers liberating them from what was considered to be the more menial household tasks postponing ideas of marriage or childbearing till the biological clock begins to chime. Men have largely done nothing! This lethargy having a negative effect even in Christian circles with marriage being postponed in a most ungodly way.

Many young people find this climate presents an opportunity to look inside and answer the question ‘Who am I’.
It is said to produce authenticity as people are true to what they are. Gay marches display this happiness, confidence and pride at being able to let it ‘all hang out’.
There is the claim to an overarching freedom coming out of all this typified perhaps by Madonna’s statement, ‘I am my own experiment, I am my own work of art’.

These sort of claims rest uneasily with the disclosure this week of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment of over 44 budding Hollywood stars hoping to get a role in his movies. You might say ‘that’s America’ but we have the unleashing of porn from the top shelf in the newsagents to the bottom shelf to the laptop in the bedroom.

This degradation of women turning them into objects for consumption polluting the minds of men making stable relationships even harder to achieve.
We also have more revelations of pedophilia, often by powerful people, on little boys and girls. Indeed, it is the children and those most vulnerable – the unborn – whose lives are now at risk. Perhaps the ultimate feminine freedom is the much sought after ability to legally kill the unwanted baby in the mother’s womb.

For the Christian freedom means something different. It too starts by looking within and recognising the selfish mess and the hopelessness of making our own rules. In turning to Christ we acknowledge our helplessness and in Jesus find all we need even the repentance that leads to the forgiveness of sins (Acts Chapter 5 verse 31).

Trading marriage for a career is never going to give the love and security that Christian marriage offers. Careers can and often come unstuck just when you need them most as more youthful staff compete for your position. The employment agreement is as weak as the living together deal. It does not compare with the marriage covenant with vows made before God in the presence of many witnesses. It has an everlasting element to it “till death do us part” which is unique.

Christian marriage, as opposed to the other forms available today, provides the space for true freedom in Christ, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (St John Chapter 8 verses 31/32).

Last Sunday America was rocked by the actions of a lone gunman, Stephen Paddock.
His attack on an open air musical festival in Las Vegas took the lives of 58 and injured somewhere in the region of 500 others.
In what was a carefully planned shooting Paddock equipped himself with 23 weapons out of the 43 stored in his arsenal at his house. His Philippian girlfriend had been sent home on a holiday and $100,000 transferred to her bank account. He had reconnoitred the site and picked the 23 floor of the Mandalay Hotel with rooms overlooking the festival to give the best view of his target.
The stage was set for the ensuing massacre. A number of his guns had been fitted with ’bump stocks’ converting semi-automatic to automatic weapons. In the corridor leading to the rooms he had placed surveillance equipment so he could see if anyone was coming who might upset his plans. He even had brought his hammer to break the glass in the windows! This 64-year-old retired accountant may not have been a successful gambler, for that was one of his passions, but he was calculating when it came to killing!
This motiveless massacre is different from similar events in the past. They have been mostly staged in schools where the shooter had been preoccupied with violence or mentally ill.
A US professor was interviewed on air this week as to the possible cause. He commented that it was easy to attach motive had the gunman been black or from the Middle East but much more difficult in the case of a mature white male. In his researches he understood there to be a lack of significance among the white American male. This was possibly caused by a dilution of their rights and loss of power which had been usurped by immigrants.
These feelings of inadequacy may have been compensated for in part by the accumulation of powerful weapons.
It is a sad reflection of our world today that the only power many people rely on comes out of the barrel of a gun. There was a time that we too had not looked to Jesus and his resurrection power for the here and hereafter.
St Paul’s advice to Titus puts it well. “we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Chapter 3 verses 3/7).

The difference Jesus makes – the goodness and loving kindness at the cross applied to all who believe – once enslaved now liberated with a future in heaven.

The death of Hugh Hefner this week brought to an end the evil genius that created the Playboy empire. Apparently he died peacefully in his mansion. He was 91 years old.
Reared in a strict Methodist home he showed little regard for his upbringing. His father refused his request, on commercial grounds, for funding his wish to found a magazine. His mother gave him financial support.
The magazine became the emblem of the sexual revolution. It sported a nude photo of Marilyn Munro in its first issue establishing the commodifying of women to drive its sales. The magazine with its playboy rabbit logo took pornography from the back streets to the boardroom. It laced its issues with interviews with famous people and received civil liberties awards!
At its peak in 1970 it sold over 7 million copies. This enabled Hefner to diversify into other avenues such as movies, cable TV, clothing, jewellery, clubs, resorts and casinos. His club franchise, with girls dressed in the infamous rabbit outfit, spread his form of sexual exploitation (he called it liberation) to many countries.
His own mansion in Beverly Hills, California, became renowned for its parties, a more enduring part of his Playboy Enterprises.

His legacy is that almost single handedly he created an immoral climate which has spawned an endless flow of pornography via the media and internet. He realised that the interest had to be fed to keep it growing. Among other things he supported same-sex marriage stating, ‘This a fight for all our rights. Without it, we will turn back the sexual revolution and return to an earlier, puritanical time.’

Jimmy Carter, whose Christian profession is well known, famously admitted in a Playboy article that he committed adultery in his heart many times (St Matthew Chapter 5 verses 27/8). Whilst applauding his honesty without mentioning the remedy of genuine repentance, all is in vain. It required an admission of guilt before God and a turning to Christ whose death for such sins offers forgiveness (2 Corinthians Chapter 7 verse 10).
When Job was trying to make his case that he was righteous he reminds God of the covenant he had made with him not to look lustfully at a girl (Job Chapter 31 verse 1). Job was mindful not to covet. He probably recalled the commandment widens it to coveting anything that is owned by someone else (Exodus Chapter 20 verse 17).

Job was probably the opposite of Hefner. Had he lived in our times he would have appreciated St Paul’s comments to the people in the church at Colosse: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth…. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming” (Chapter 3 verses 2/5). Indeed, for Hefner it may have already come.

This annual farming bonanza, the largest outdoor event of its kind in Europe, got more than its fair share of rain during the three days. The middle day was subjected to a deluge which would have terminated any normal show but with the fighting spirit of Anna May McHugh and a multitude of water pumps the grounds were open for business on the third day!
Anna May has become a legend in her lifetime. She first joined the organisation in 1951 becoming its Managing Director in 1973 – a position which she still holds. Back in 1931 the first event cost £9 to host. This year the costs will exceed €5 million! Her biography comes out this year and is aptly called “Queen of the Plough”.
Our new Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, is an urban man, unfamiliar with country ways. When his motorcade of 4 x4’s entered the parking field, in the words of our humorous journalist, Miriam Lord, “as the vehicles turned into the top corner of the field, the large media contingent moved as one towards him, like a herd of cows heading for milking!” Highly descriptive but somewhat less that flattering to her colleagues in journalism.
The event has grown from its original farm focus to showcase what rural Ireland can do. It has developed a commercial side where deals for the latest in farm machinery are done. This year just under €36.5 million was spent during the three days of the event! This generates a tax take of over €6.6 million for the National Exchequer!
For all this we depend on the fertility of the soil.

Jesus was familiar with its importance. In his parable of the soils he lists four types; the compacted soil of the roadway, the arid stony ground with shallow soil, the thorny ground where the seed was choked by the weeds and the good soil which from one seed could produce heads of grain thirty, sixty or one hundred seeds in return. Clearly it paid to look after the soil!
Jesus explained the parable. The seed is the word. It is always good. It is the soil which is the problem. The first soil was a hardened roadway. The seed did not penetrate and the birds (Satan) snatched it away.
The second soil receives the seed with joy – immediate growth. But the stony ground doesn’t produce root growth and it cannot survive the storms of life.
The third soil already has thorns growing on it. The seed roots but cannot compete with these emblems of sin. Jesus names two sins, the cares of the world and secondly the deceitfulness of riches rob the farmer of a harvest.
The fourth soil has been prepared to receive the seed. It takes root and yields a harvest corresponding to each seeds potential (St Matthew Chapter 13 verses 3/23).

We are the soil. The fourth soil is different. The difference is it understands what is happening when the word is proclaimed. This understanding equates to a conversion so out of one seed comes many as the word of God takes root in prepared hearts.
Which soil are you?

The flags are flying all along the Liffey proclaiming the forthcoming clash of the titans this Sunday. Co Mayo’s Green and Red evenly spaced between Dublin’s Blue and Navy announce the final of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.
The venue, Croke Park, Dublin, will be well prepared to receive its 73,500 capacity crowd. The weather forecast is good and the teams are ready. To add to the drama the finalists of 25 years ago take to the field in a commemorative parade, to be joined by the survivors of the finalists of 50 years ago. Thus the proud heritage of the game is honoured and the bonding through sport demonstrated as a prelude to the match.
Also on the field this year will be a colour party of the defence forces while overhead the Air Corps will stage a flypast. Local girl Amelda May, fresh from her performance in Las Vegas where she sang at the McGregor v Mayweather fight, has been chosen to entertain the crowd!
The smart money is all on Dublin winning. If they succeed they will have won three times in a row. The other side, Co Mayo, have not won since 1951. They have been in the final a number of times but the prize of the ‘Sam Maguire’ Cup has eluded them. One of the survivors from that winning team recommended, as part of the team’s preparation, prayer and a trip up Croagh Patrick – Mayo’s holy mountain!
Many a true word is spoken in jest and ‘The Sunday Game’ has taken on the mantle of a religion. Not so much on its own but by adding it to existing customs. This has had the effect of binding the population to the exclusion of the other. There will be few immigrants in Croke park!
One brave sole was Frank Higgins. A keen GAA supporter Frank became a Christian and as a witness wrote the text “John 3:7” on a large banner and brought it with him to the matches always standing in a prominent place behind the goal. The consistency and sincerity of his witness bore fruit and became the subject of many articles, tracts and he had a half hour programme on his life broadcast on the national television station.
Jesus takes the Pharisee Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council, who had asked him to explain the expression ‘born again’. Going into his knowledge of the prophets Jesus quotes Ezekiel to show that the cleansing that comes from a repentance which precedes and is part of the Spirit’s work of changing the stony heart into a heart of flesh marked out by the way it loves others (chapter 36 verses 25/26 and 1 John Chapter 3 verses 9/10).
This only added to Nicodemus’s confusion which Jesus addresses by taking him to the incident when Moses stopped a plague of snakes by having the people look in faith to the Serpent on a pole for the cure. In the same way Jesus said his being lifted up on a pole, viewed in faith, would be the remedy for the blood-poison of our sin (St John Chapter 3 verses 9 to 15).
Follow Frank’s advice and look in faith to Jesus.

The equinox tides of September, washed the upper reaches of the beach, eradicating the last traces of holiday-makers’ footprints. When we saw this we understood that Summer was over! The winter storms that deposited the sand could with equal ease remove it leaving the harbour full of seaweed and pebbles.

Sand is in the news. According to a recent United Nations report on the world consumption of aggregates we are consuming twice as much sand as natural erosion can produce. Our love of concrete has created this shortage as builders and developers continue to concrete over the world!

Sand and gravel quarries are being worked out. The two million tonnes scooped out of Loch Neagh annually cannot go on indefinitely. Sea sand, whilst good in texture, requires to be washed to remove the salt. Even when washed it retains some chloride which rusts the steel reinforcing bars causing spalling.

What about the Sahara Desert? Surely there are enough deserts in the world to keep the cement mixers going for a long time? Unfortunately, desert sand is the wrong texture. It has been blown by the wind making it too smooth and rounded to make concrete.
Research has been carried out by Irish and Welsh authorities into sand extraction from the Irish Sea. This would provide us with a partial solution but care is required not to disturb the underwater ecosystems. The European Union is taking measures to protect the spawning and nursery beds of fish and shellfish. These will curtail the areas available for dredging or sucking sand from the seabed.

The bible takes the smallness of a grain of sand and uses it to indicate the vastness of the number of grains on the seashore. It prophesies that Abraham’s descendants would become a multitude which is what his new name ‘Abraham’ means. It likens his descendants to the sands of the seashore Genesis Chapter 22 verse 17.
According to St Paul, if you are a believer sharing Abraham’s faith, then you too are one of these grains of sand – one of the great crowd from every nation that cannot be numbered (Galatians Chapter 3 verses 7 to 9).

Jesus makes use of sands instability for building upon. At the conclusion of his Sermon on the Mount he summed up his hearers into two groups. Likening his teachings to a new house he said the builders should build it on a solid foundation of rock (himself) and it would stand firm.
On the other hand, those who continued with the old house (probably the Pharisees, their followers and the Temple) were building on sand and, in due course it would fall, which the Temple did around 40AD (St Matthew Chapter 7 verses 24 to 27).
So put your ‘grain of sand’ to good use by following Jesus teachings!

It was back in the mid 80ies at a lecture to the Insurance Institute on Extreme Weather that I first heard of the seas warming. This produced rising sea levels which caused consternation in places like London where the Thames barrier was installed to protect the city against tidal surge. The lecturer ended with the cryptic advice not to buy a house for your retirement at the seaside!
Since those innocent days we have been fed by a stream of information on ozone holes and the greenhouse gases that cause them. The countries who are the biggest polluters are also those who have shown the least concerned. They are China and the USA although, since ‘Hurricane Harvey’ devastated Houston and half of Texas last week, there may be a change in attitude by the US!
We also received a taste of extreme weather as the storm hit the Inishowen peninsula in Donegal. The flooding destroyed houses, bridges and broke up roads in its path. Our disaster pales into insignificance when compared with the storms that swept across Nepal, Bangladesh and part of India this week killing many in its wake.

We can empathise with poorer countries who contribute little to creating the problem yet, as in Ireland, many of their people live in danger on the coast.

Those who believe the Bible can take some comfort in the fact that all this has happened before. In Noah’s day the 40 days of rain was accompanied by rising tide levels as the ‘fountains of the deep’ were broken up (Genesis Chapter 7 verses 11/12).
After the flood came the recognition that man’s evil heart had not changed but Noah’s altar of atonement created a ‘pleasing aroma’ and formed the basis of the covenant. Now instead of the curse there would be the promises of continuity. We can be sure that the sun will rise tomorrow, not because of the ‘balance of probabilities’ but because of God’s promise “As long as the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Genesis Chapter 8 verses 21/22).
The sign of the covenant is the ‘rainbow’; “I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth”. It is there to reassure all living creatures that there will never be a flood which will destroy all life again. In addition, this is to be an everlasting covenant (Genesis Chapter 9 verses 13/16).

St Peter predicted in the last day’s scoffers would come and cast doubt on the Lord’s return because of this continuity that exists. They choose to forget the flood. But heaven and earth will pass away by fire and St Peter asks in view of this, “what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?” He concludes, “But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter Chapter 3 verses 3/13).
Climate-change will herald Jesus’ return. We are to be ready.

Apparently ‘mindfulness’ has crept out of the Parish Hall and into the university curriculum! Of all the mind games foisted on us from the East this cousin of Buddhism is the most recent.
Initially it seemed to be designed for those who could not manage the lotus position in yoga. It offered similar benefits without having to get onto the floor. Emptying one’s mind sounds a good idea if your thoughts are evil but like all these exercises that go inside, you will not find much solace there.
Having turned our back on the Bible the search for wisdom looks at other cultures for answers to such things as stress reduction and anxiety. This has led companies like Google and Vodafone to offer mindfulness to their employees.
Of course some may have already encountered it at University where it is listed as a part of leadership development. Having found problems from being led by the head they are now trying to lead from the heart! Emotional intelligence is part of the mindfulness course.
It may seem harmless enough to expel all thoughts about the past and future from your mind and dwell on the instant presence – except that it is not possible! The effort to obtain an altered state of consciousness where all will be sweet and light is simply part of the sinful global network that would replace or eradicate Christianity.
We need to waken up to such practices and where we have been involved repent and confess them. Christ died bearing our sins including all our efforts to change our nature without him.
Faith in the death of Christ to completely cleanse our sins rests on his word, “if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” 1 John Chapter 1 verses 7 to 9.
Christian ‘therapy’ is simple. We are to keep short accounts with God. That is the time lapse between committing the sin and acknowledging it should be minimal. When it gets drawn out you get like David, “when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.”
Then David stopped covering up his sin – “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin” (Psalm 32 verses 3 to 5).
Is it possible to confess your sin in private to God and not articulate it to those you love and trust? Of course it is – but it doesn’t work like that!
It is the speaking of it out loud to a trusted friend that defeats the devil and assures you of the God granted forgiven-ness. No sin is too small and no sin is too big – each causes a separation between you and God.
Don’t go within for forgiveness and peace go to the Lord.

The refrain, taken up by the crowd following the carnage created by the terrorist’s truck ploughing its way through Barcelona, had a note of defiance which may have masked the truth. “No tine por” Catalan for “I am not afraid” may have been more of an aspiration as many had taken refuge in the buildings on the Ramblas in fear for their lives.
After killing 13 people and injuring over 100 the truck was abandoned on top of the famous Joan Miró ground level mosaic designed to welcome outsiders from all nations to the great city. Perhaps it was a random gesture by the driver although the fact that he escaped would suggest that the terminal point of the horrific journey was planned to facilitate his getaway.
Fear must have featured in the terrorist’s hideout when some of the gas cylinders, to be used in bomb-making, prematurely exploded. The explosion alerted the police to the location which was previously unknown and the dead body of one of the gang was found in the rubble of the partially collapsed building.
After the explosion the cell may have activated their plan B which resorted to the low technical tactic of driving vehicles at people.
A second attack took place in the neighbouring town of Cambrils. Five men in an Audi drove through the town hitting pedestrians. It was 1.00 am on Friday morning. The police intercept the car and shoot dead its occupants. Some of the dead were wearing suicide vests to instil fear in the police. These turned out to be fake.

If you had no Bible there is plenty to be afraid of, plenty of situations to fear. David records similar events in the Psalms. He writes or rather sings about the folly of fear when believers have God to protect them – “They were overwhelmed with dread when there was nothing to dread” (Psalm 53 verse 5).
David also sings about the security which he found in his faith. “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? He then sings of the House of the Lord as the place where he feels secure, a place of relationship where he could gaze on the face of the Lord all the days of his life (Psalm 27 verse 1 – 6).
This longing is something which many would love to satisfy in these troubled times. St Paul was able to recognise that we, the believer in Jesus, are the Temple of the Holy Spirit and subject to God’s protection (1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 16/17).
St Paul had been in prison in Philippi. He had plenty of memories of hard times in the city. What is absent from his writings is any sign of fear. He didn’t sing “I am not afraid” but as he was able to write, as David before him that his security was in the Lord.
“For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ” (Philippians Chapter 3 verses 8/9).