dream to go 9 - objects of my affection

“What would I buy if I won a million pounds?”

Give yourself a break for five minutes and have a go. Go on… what would you buy? Make yourself a list. Try to make it honest. What do you think you’d really do?

-pay off the mortgage?
-a round the world trip?
-a party to end all parties?
-give loads away?
-leave your job?
-invest it and live on the interest?


Once you’ve written your list…

…and only then…

…..c’mon, stop reading now and go back and do it!

OK, now take some time to reflect on your list.

-What does it tell you about yourself?

-What priorities does it show?

-Does it reflect the things and people you care about?

We spend money on the stuff we love. That’s pretty obvious. But Jesus also said that we’ll love the stuff we spend money on.

“Wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

That’s kind of scary, but also kind of cool.

Where do you want your heart to be? Put your ‘treasure’ there.

Where you spend, save and give, that’s where your heart will be also.

So… Where’s your heart?
Where do you want your heart to be?

What really matters to you?
What do you want to really matter to you?

What do you care about?
What do you want to care about?

“Wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Happy Christmas shopping.

by richard w

Five things I probably never knew about you

If you read blogs, you'll know that there one of those memes going around, where someone writes five fascinating and little known facts about themself and then tags five others to do the same.

I no longer have my own blog, so I thought I was immune, but Malcolm has tagged me.

The thing is though...

1. This is a community blog.
2. I'm an awkward begger.

So here's how I'd like to do it. I'll write my five things as the first comment on this post. and then I tag everyone else in any way connected with Dream to add their five things as a further comment. OK?

It does mean that we've "broken the chain" and are therefore probably cursed with the flatulance of a thousand camels, but there's nothing like shared adversity for a bit of group bonding.

Don't forget to include your name and which bit of Dream you connect with.

richard w

Season's Bleatings

Time for me to join the Christmas rantings in blogworld - I love reading Mark's annual rant about the cattle shed.

My rantings too are not about Christmas per se, but the kitsch traditions around it. I'm not a huge fan of Christmas carols simply because they are so often UNREAL in their portrayal of Christmas, and more to the point, of Christ himself. Some are blatantly hangovers of the values of bygone eras (e.g. the Victorians).

So I'm going to wade in with some of my own "season's bleatings" - here are my rewrites.

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed
The little Lord Jesus lay down his red head
Smeared with blood and mucus from the afterbirth
The little Lord Jesus lay down on the earth.

The cattle are absent, the baby awakes
It's time for a breast feed, what a racket he makes
The stars in the bright sky looked down where he lay
The real live Lord Jesus, kicks around on the hay.

And my number one rant target, Once in Royal David's city, which in parts is little more than a plea by Victorian parents to subdue their naughty children. Well here's my version:

"Christian children all must be
Wild and fearless, just like He." (excuse the bad grammar)

A Christmas card Victoriana Jesus IS NO USE TO ANYONE. This glossy, slick, unreal Jesus is no saviour to the real people I meet day by day. I need a real Saviour who will climb in and get his hands dirty with MY dirt, and yours too.

Please give us back the REAL Jesus! Anyone else is no Saviour to anyone.

Rant over. I better head off to the carol service now.
(Oh, I mustn't forget a dozen teatowels and a lobster outfit for the nativity play.)

by RichardL

(P.S. If you have views to share on all things Christmas, why not add them to the conversation on the Christmas story over on the new Bible reading DREAM blog?)

dream to go 8 - bible reading 2.0

by richard w


Final update on this post - 3 days in, over 20 peopel signed up for the daily email and 31 comments so far. Great start!

Update: 13 people signed up so far, so we're kicking off today (11 dec)! We're going to use daily emails plus this new blog for comments. The new blog address will change over the next week once it's integrated with the main Dream site. Really looking forward to this - btw anyone is welcome to say "I want to join in too!"

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Orignal post: I find it really difficult at times to keep to the spiritual discipline of daily bible reading. Which is kind of worrying as it’s my job and I get paid for it (if you know what I mean)!

Some of the reasons include…

1. I’m lazy and undisciplined in lots of other areas too


2. I’m busy and find it much easier to live life by the ‘urgent’ rather than the important.


3. The bible is difficult. It’s frequently confusing, frustrating or frankly boring. It’s simply not the ‘instruction manual for life’ (no index and diagrams), the ‘book of inner calm’ (I often feel far from calm after reading it) or the 7 keys to enlightenment/health/wealth that it has been sold as.

But it is life changing. It is the “story we find ourselves in”. The amazing, baffling, intriguing and somehow living account of the journey of the people of God centred on the event and person that gives meaning, hope and purpose to everything.

So I find that when I do keep to that discipline, the irritations and questions as well as the inspirations and answers to lead me into the presence of God – if I’ll let them.

And then I also find that it’s a relational thing. That reading on my own is OK, but actually a thoroughly modern idea. That somehow the sparks become flames when the story is allowed to inhabit the community that I am a part of.

So here’s an idea. An invitation to boredom, frustration, intrigue and danger.

How about some of us read it together. Every day!

We’ll encourage each other and share our insights, reflections, questions and frustrations.
We’ll argue and search for answers and enter the story together.
We’ll keep the invitation open so that others join in along the way.
We’ll agree not to focus on guilt or regret when we miss a day, because that’s pointless.
We’ll see how it goes and give up if that seems right.

Here’s the plan so far

1. I’ll set up a new and very simple blog. ‘Dream Lectio’ (based on the ancient monastic practise of meditative reflective reading)


2. Every day I’ll post a very short bible passage on it. As it’s advent, we’ll start with Matthew and work our way through the New Testament.


3. Occasionally we’ll also post a particular tool or approach to bible reading and study.


4. Those of you who are really into blogs and use a newsreader can access the thing that way, others can opt to have it arrive in their email inbox each day.


5. Whenever anyone has a thought, questions, insight, frustration, etc they can add it as a comment on that day’s post, for others to read and respond to. Ground rules are that nothing is too simple to ask or to outrageous and heretical to express. Everyone’s contribution is valuable.

For the geeks among you, this is Bible reading Web 2.0 style!

Does this sound like a go-er? Louise and I are going to do it at home anyway, so let us know if you want to too. I reckon we need six of us to make it worth doing online.

dream to go 7 - I regret to say

You’ve heard the interview, “I have no regrets” they say, “in fact, if I could do it all again I wouldn’t change a single thing”.

What?… hello!… you honestly have no regrets?!

I’ve got loads of regrets. If I could do it all again, I’d change tons. There are times when I’d love to “do it again” because I messed up really badly, and people I care about were hurt.

This is the life I live, and maybe the life you live too?

-My kids will need therapy one day because alongside being a brilliant dad, I’m also screwing them up.

-My relationships are a mixture of my caring trustworthiness and selfish insensitivity.

-My ‘work’ blends of visionary enthusiasm and apathetic mediocrity.

-My dreams weave together noble aspirations and egotistical ambition.

I’m a messy person inside and out, muddling my way through a messy life in a messy world.

Maybe that’s one of the reasons why I’m following Jesus.

Because I need forgiving a lot.

I need his offer of a fresh start often.

I need to hear him say…

-Get up, your sins are forgiven
-Neither do I condemn you
-I have come to make all things new
-It’s the sick, not the healthy who need a doctor
-Father forgive them, they don’t realise what they’re doing

I’m banking on him to transform the mess in me and you and our world, like he said he would. And in my better moments I realise that he has started doing that already.

That even… no especially in the mess he’s very near.
It was his first sermon…

Repent and believe, for the Kingdom of God is near

World Aids Day

By Judith

“The best time for the church to respond to Aids was 20 years ago.  The next best time is now”.  Anon

“AIDS is not demanding something new of us as Christians but rather we really become the people we are called to be.”  Kurai Chitima, a pastor in Zimbabwe.

December 1st is World Aids Day.  Tearfund have launched a 9-year project called “Work a Miracle” -  Stop Aids.  All together!  

It’s a bold vision – to stop the spread of Aids by2015 in more than 40 of the poorest places on earth.  

The detail can be found at www.tearfund.org .  
You may like to look at it and decide to ‘buy’ into it.  Even if you only have 5 loaves and 2 fishes to offer – God can work a miracle!