Would you die for a stranger?

On Wednesday the 19th. November 1997, the M.V. Green Lily ran aground on Bressay, near Grut Wick. After loading a cargo of approximately 3000 tonnes of frozen fish, bound for Las Palmas in the Canary Isles, the Croatian-born captain decided to set sail in foul weather, in spite of warnings from the Harbour Master not to leave the port at Lerwick, Shetland. Shortly after leaving the harbour, the ship suffered engine failure in a force 9 gale forecast to reach force 11 imminently and was left drifting in 50ft. waves, eventually running aground off Bressay.

April Fool’s Day

Have you ever fallen for an April Fool's joke or prank? I know that, as a child, some classmate was always pulling a prank on someone, with the rest of us in on it, watching that poor soul make a fool of themselves by believing the prank. There have been some rather dubious April Fool's Day pranks on a national scale. Maybe you even fell for one of these April Fool’s Day hoaxes yourself.

On 1 April 1957, the British news show Panorama broadcasted a three-minute segment about a bumper spaghetti harvest in southern Switzerland. The crop's success was attributed to an unusually mild winter and the "virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil." The audience heard Richard Dimbleby, the show's highly respected anchor, discussing the details of the spaghetti crop as they watched video footage of a Swiss family pulling pasta off spaghetti trees and placing it into baskets. The segment concluded with the assurance that "For those who love this dish, there's nothing like real, home-grown spaghetti."

Ramadan - Fast or Furious

A number of years ago, a Danish minister sparked outrage after claiming Muslims fasting for Ramadan could pose a danger in the workplace. 

Integration Minister Inger Stoejberg, an immigration hardliner in Denmark's centre-right government, questioned in a blog post published Monday how "commanding observance to a 1,400-year-old pillar of Islam" was compatible with modern labour markets. 1

Is it fair to critique Islam and its practices like this? I do not think that because someone's faith is based on tenants and beliefs that were established long ago, that automatically makes them invalid for today. Surely, the reason for accepting or rejecting a set of beliefs or morals has to be the basis upon which they were founded—in other words, the validity of their origin and the genuineness of the statements that claim to be true. 

In this blog, I'm not seeking to undermine other people's faith but to establish the genuineness of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. I believe that the word of God, the Bible, can be verified to be a supernaturally produced document. The 40 different writers were given God's word, and within the pages of the Bible, God has left evidence on record so that we might understand the validity and genuineness of this document. 

In summary, a book written over 1500 years by 40 different authors who lived in various countries, cultures, and centuries or even millennia is quite an outstanding feat. The majority of the writers had no contact with one another. Yet, they produced a document that, from beginning to end (Genesis to Revelation), has a standard of uniformity that is impossible purely by human management and organisation. 

I will leave you with a quotation from the Holy Scriptures that will demonstrate why Christians believe that salvation comes not from religious practices such as fasting, praying, or other religious rituals but by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ alone. 

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by (grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. 

The Bible - Ephesians 2:4-10

1. Evening Standard 24/5/18

Surviving on the Lusitania

 

In 1915, the Lusitania was the largest and fastest passenger in the world. It belonged to the Cunard Steamship Company and regularly sailed between Liverpool and New York, taking about a week each way.  

Edward (known as Teddy) Bond, then aged 40, was a cabin steward on the Lusitania, having worked on Cunard ships since he was a boy, and by then, he had worked his way up (via being a waiter) to the 1^st class cabin section, as had his father (also Edward) before him. Teddy had married his wife Mary in 1909, and the Bonds had, a few years before 1915, moved with their family into 29 Donaldson Street, a nice street with a Welsh chapel (now Crete Gospel Hall) at one end.