2 Peter 1v3

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, (ESV)

We see that by God's power we have everything we need to live and more than that to live Godly lives, in truth once we have turned from Simon's into Peter's through faith and are growing by the work done in us by Christ's sanctifying work which leads to and is guided by a greater intimacy with God, we find that the exercising of our works of faith is amplified by His divine power which is infinite both in strength and duration. It is sufficient, no more than sufficient, for anything we need and again we see that it is based on and comes by intimacy with him, and again it is not initiated by ourselves but by his calling us. And what does he call us to ‘to his own glory and excellence’ in other words echoed elsewhere to be perfect as He is perfect.

I want to stress again that this perfection is not something we can claim as being a result of anything we do for we are clothed with Christ's righteousness it is 'HlS OWN glory and excellence’ which he gives to us freely not something we become in and of our own strength. It is his glory It is his excellence. This should give us a sense of responsibility in that we need to recognise our own unsuitability and inability to attain, but it should give us a sense of comfort and peace and joy knowing that He does this work for us, this should free us to do the work He calls us to knowing that it relies not on our own strength but his, if we move forward trusting in Him he provides the acceleration and power to reach His goals. 

The fact that He chooses to use us as part of achieving His will and proclaiming His presence in this world should give us a sense of awe and joy that surpasses any fear, pain and sadness we may feel in this temporary abode that will soon be over as we pass into our eternal home bathed in his Glory and grace.

Crash!!!

For those who haven't been following elsewhere, I upgraded to a new mountain bike a week and a half ago. I've done a few short rides on it, and it is a lot nicer than the entry level MTB's I had (which have been passed on to other entry level riders), much easier to get up hills and over obstacles, and definitely a lot smoother on the rippled dirt roads. (Some say it better be for the money I paid for it)

Specialized Camber Carbon Comp

After some patching up

Unfortunately, though there are days off this week, I won't be riding (much), because of what happened on Saturday morning. The damage to me:. grazed face, broken pinky finger, cuts on nose from glasses, the glasses have some deep scratches on the lenses. The helmet also has a deepish impact 'injury'. There are some grazes on my knees and forearms, and my right shoulder has been aching as if it's had a good hard bump. The bike as you can see looks almost perfect but I have managed to put some scratches on the handlebars and lever mounts.

Yup I haven't washed the bike yet, I'll do it later today.

What happened? Well I don't remember.... but the GPS tracks I have give some circumstantial evidence.


The green line above is speed and the grey line is altitude, as you can see going down hill at nearly 40Km/h suddenly drops to 0 then I continue a bit more down before turning around and coming back up. This doesn't show time linearly so I can't really see gaps where I was stationery but actual riding was 34 minutes and I got home almost an hour after I left. It is also apparent, based on the speed up the hill, that I rode home, but again I don't recall that. Also I came home with some toilet paper I didn't leave with so someone must have helped me, also looking this morning I must have drunk from my juice bottle but I don't remember that. In fact I only start remembering in sequence properly after I got into my friend Alan's car, who took me to the doctor.

The rubber ring on the shock which gets pushed up and records maximum depression was pushed up quite high which indicates that I probably rode into a hole and got thrown forward hitting the dirt with my face. For what it's worth this is a section of track I know fairly well I've ridden it dozens of times as I nearly always start MTB rides down this hill.so I really don't know what unexpected obstacle I might have hit. Maybe I'll take a (slow) ride or walk there to see if there is any evidence of what might have happened.

So some lessons learned?

• Always wear protective gear, judging by the impact on the helmet without it I would have a cracked skull, without the glasses my eyes might have been damaged. With a full face helmet my face wouldn't have got grazed (or at least not as badly).
• There are some good people out there, the unknown person who helped could just as easily have been someone who took advantage of my unconscious/addled state and robbed me, but I came home with everything I left with as well as the tissue that had been used to mop some of my blood off my face and arms.
• I'm only human, broken and frail both in the physical/mental sense and the spiritual sense.

Despite what many may think, that it was just good luck or fortune that I came home relatively safely, I know there is a God who cares for me, and who had this incident in His plan, and that He works only for the good of those He has chosen. I don't know what exactly the purpose of this is, and I may never know. I have peace about that, there is no point fretting about why God does things, we may never understand His purposes completely and who are we to question Him, who created all from nothing, when He chooses pain to refine us more into his likeness. Whether this was beneficial for me or whether it is beneficial to someone else at my expense matters not to me. I can only thank Him for working through me and perhaps I will know the blessing this has brought when I meet with Him in glory.

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 ESV)

2 Peter 1v2

May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. (ESV)

As I said last time we so often gloss over the greetings and miss out on much value that God has for us in both the heart with which the greetings are toned and the teaching that is in them, last time we saw how the words of Peter in v1 put his stamp of apostolic authority on what he is about to say but also highlights the equal value of those he is writing to ‘A faith of equal standing with ours.’ And the humility with which he is about to appeal to the readers recognizing the foundational truth that righteousness comes by Christ alone and not any work of their or our own.
To this he now adds that his desire for the readers is that we may continue in grace and peace, that such grace and peace would be multiplied to us in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
It is often said that grace is the active work that is done for and to us that we don’t deserve, in the sense we are looking at it now it is specifically the fact that Christ works in us through sanctification which builds upon itself in a multiplicative way, the more we receive grace the more we realize how much more we need, it’s a bit like looking through a keyhole and seeing something of what is happening but not getting the whole picture but as Christ works in us we become more perceptive of our blindness and failings and thus need more and more grace shown towards us to lift us up, in a sense God gradually pulls us through the door so that we get to understand more and more of His Glory and understand better the disastrous effect our sinfulness had on that relationship, and yet because we see more of his glory and receive more of His grace, in the fuller awareness we cannot help but leap in joy and praise as what lays behind us becomes comparably insignificant.
Peace is I think both the peace that denotes the restoration of the relationship between ourselves and the Godhead as well as the effect of that peace on our brothers and sisters around us, peace in this sense is not a quiet cessation of hostilities, but a joining of enemies that results in a greater work spilling exponentially over into the hearts and minds of those around us, who see mortal enemies now able to live and work in harmony. We see different parts joined together in a way that works as a whole, we see broken parts being supported by other parts, many also broken but in different ways. And the lifeblood flowing through this wonderful organism is Christ’s and at the centre of it is the cross.
All of this has it’s root founded upon the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, we cannot leave this out, without a foundation no building can stand when the storms come, it will wash away from underneath or it will blow over as it has nothing to keep it on the ground, it will crumble as the ground shakes as walls come apart. The weak walls even when cemented together cannot hold under pressure if they have no grounding that transmits its strength up the heights and breadth and width of the structure. It’s also important to note that a foundation is not just a simple laying of a border and a slab but the very design of the building on top of it is taken into consideration, it is no use simply building the outer wall and then building other load bearing walls inside, eventually the floor will cave in and these other walls will collapse, God has created a design in the foundation that we must not waiver from, or we will fall into destruction, we cannot simply willy-nilly put up a wall where God did not design for one to be, it’s also a bit pointless not building a wall where God designed one to be as it will leave a gap in the structure that would be important when the roof or the next level is put on. We need to ground our faith on the plan and purpose of God and not try to twist it to our own ends.
As you will see later this is all important introduction for the warning which is to come in this book, we need to grow in our knowledge, we must not run around in ignorance, it will lead to many being pulled around by false doctrines, we need to dig into God’s word and see where he has planned for us to stand, rooting ourselves, and allowing ourselves to be built upon by the next layer or generation of believers as the builder builds His temple the Church. And all of this whilst we seem to be busy applying our own strength is amplified by God’s strength as he provides all that we need to accomplish His purpose and plan.

2012 94.7 err 93.47 or something like that

This year the race was slightly shorter than the last couple of years at around 93.5 Km instead of 97.4 Km that didn't however translate to a shorter race time wise though. I finished the race in official time of 3:48:06, which is slightly more than last year, I was hoping for 3:30 but the new route off the M1 highway towards Hillbrow was slightly more taxing on the legs, and the wind and the heat on the N14 highway sapped the strength, the biggest knock comparing my stats to last years ride was definitely the N14.

Although it was evident from my heart rate that I am slightly fitter (HR dropped faster on the downhills where I just tuck up and let gravity pull me down ... fast) I'm still in need of improving my climbing abilities, and perhaps shedding a few more Kg will help there too.

Having said that, if like me you're are somewhat of a  sadomasochist who loves pain and enjoys a challenge, and the satisfaction of having completed something fairly hard, the race was fun, meeting up with some of the other club members at the finish and sharing 'war' stories after riding mostly alone in the race, and getting advice from some of the (much) more experienced guys was also entertaining.

Naturally I will be back next year to give it another go, at my age and level of fitness, I don't expect to be winning any races it's all about the personal challenge and the reward is in the satisfaction of knowing that just a few years ago I couldn't even ride 7Km before being completely exhausted. Hopefully also what I have achieved will be an inspiration to other couch potatoes to get out there and do something healthy for a change.

Anyhow here is a photo of me at the start courtesy of  Action Photo It usually takes a week or two for them to sort through and find all the photos and link them to the race numbers but if you are interested in purchasing photos of me (or others) you can find them at www.actionphoto.net follow the prompt icons 'South Africa' - 'Cycling'- 'Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge 2012' you will need the race number of the person in my case that is 9961.

Last and definitely not least if you haven't already done so please go to http://www.justgiving.com/Jeremy-Pointer and donate towards Martin House, donations will be open until 18/02/2013 so please show your generosity and support this worthwhile cause.

94.7 Training update and fund raising reminder

Well it's a week to go till 94.7 Cycle Challenge which is just tapering and keeping the legs going, I hope that by taking the advanced 94.7 fittrack program I haven't overtrained - it has been hard work but I have managed to almost keep up the required workload. I'm just under where I'm supposed to be. This weeks rides are supposed to be an hour each at varying intensities but since to work or back takes about 39-45 minutes I will tweak the number of rides or intensity without working too hard.

One important thing to note is that the fittrack graphs are related to heart rate and length of training time, and although distance/speed is recorded it is not factored into the fitness points, so my 78.2 score may seem better than others but I might exert my heart more riding slower than someone who is actually stronger or lighter than me and therefore rides significantly faster.

So given that I still struggle uphill and I'm not exactly light at ~97KG although advance says a time between 2h45 and 3h15 should be achieved I'm setting my target at a more realistic 3h30, whether I've overtrained and might bonk, well we'll see, either way it has been and will continue to be fun. I have managed to break the 1000Km per month barrier in September and October, I might have done so in August but I caught a cold and decided to rather rest and get better than ride and possibly make it worse (that gap can also be seen in the drop in the above graph. I have ridden 401Km so far in November.

To give you some idea of my progress the below is a graph of distance ridden per month since Aug 2009 which is when I started cycling, months in which there was no or little riding where due to colds and or flu.

A reminder (especially for those who voted) since it's a week to go I'm riding to raise funds... yes I know it's a UK based organisation but so far I've only had one donation and since all the voters voted the same way I expected some would be happy to donate, I will be putting in a donation of my own after I get paid at the end of the month, but I'd really like to see some others helping. 

http://www.justgiving.com/Jeremy-Pointer

2 Peter 1v1

Simeon Peter a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ. (ESV)

It has been said before but it bears repeating, we so often gloss over the greetings as mere formalities but as they form part of God’s Word they are full of richness of meaning and this is no exception, we need to repeatedly ask ourselves when reading scripture, why did the author  write these specific words, when enquiring like this we can dig out a lot more application than just taking them on the surface value.

So why does Peter start off by recalling to our minds that this is Simeon or Simon that became Peter, one of the main reasons is to establish his authority as a witness to Christ,  as we will see later this will be important when the question of  the true gospel is raised in regard to false teachers. I think also there is an element of identifying with the readers that there was a change that took place in his life which stems not from his own work but that by the righteousness of our God and saviour Jesus Christ. He was Simon, which means ‘hear’, who Christ made into Peter which as most  know means  rock. He heard Christ and believed and was given the Christ’s nature as a solid rock, a foundation stone, we all receive Christ’s nature when we hear and believe. He is showing us that he is also just an ordinary man empowered by God, no different in quality from anyone else, highlighted in the phrase ‘faith of equal standing’. His authority and righteousness stem not from himself but from Christ, and when we believe the same applies to us we become a stone that others can build upon in their belief or that those who refuse to listen will stumble over.

The next words confirm his authority as a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ’ but again raises the recognition that being an apostle whilst of significant importance is not a reason to be a dictator or  considered a superior standing, more importantly the emphasis is on himself  being a servant of Jesus Christ. And who does Jesus Christ serve, well as Christ himself pointed out he serves believers by becoming the scapegoat, by taking on human flesh, and facing temptation as we do, by washing the disciples feet, and ultimately being the sacrifice that takes the penalty in our place. This is the picture of biblical leadership we see pictured in every God designed relationship - that of servant leadership, we lead by considering other needs above our own and serving, we love one another by obedient service to our leaders, the biblical shepherd does not herd the sheep by frightening, cajoling and chasing them, but by going first, preparing the way, and calling them to follow, which when they recognise the voice those who belong to him will do. Likewise we are to be one anothers servants. Given the recognition or title or job of elder, or deacon, or Sunday school teacher, or youth leader or treasurer or whatever is not an entitlement to lord it over others but a privilege and responsibility to serve others, and ultimately to serve God through acts of ministry he enables us to do.

‘A faith of equal standing’ shows also that there is no difference in the readers faith to that of Peter, the basis of that faith is the same, there was not anything in Peter’s experience that made him better or made it more sure. Our faith is just as sure, our faith is based on the same infinitely stable and solid ground of Christ, it is not based on how we feel, or how we think, or how we behave though these are indicators and evidence of our faith, it stands on Christ alone.

I’ve already said it but we can never hear the story enough that it is not by anything we do that makes us righteous in God’s eyes, it is the work of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ, it is his righteousness that clothes us, the very word translated ‘obtained’ in greek ‘lang-khan'-o’ denotes the casting of lots, not something that we can earn by our effort  or even reach out and take but rather something is given to us due to circumstances beyond our control, in this case the implication being it is God’s choice. (sneaking a look ahead at vs 3 ‘who called us to his own glory and excellence’)

So in summary Peter points out that we can have confidence in the words he writes because they come from God and not from him, that our faith is of equal standing which is based on Christ work and God’s own choosing  and therefore we can have confidence in it and that this faith works itself out in us being servants of Christ and of one another.

Charity 94.7 Cycle Challenge Martin House

In case you haven't been following I have decided to dedicate my Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge to raise funds for Martin house. I've set up a JustGiving Page (http://www.justgiving.com/Jeremy-Pointer) to provide a means to recieve your donations. Read more about why there  Please give generously but wisely according to your means.

Alex With an Owl

Alex enjoying the 2012 Paralympics

Enjoying Biscuits

Derek, Alex, Louise aaand Big show!!

Me crossing Nelson Mandela Bridge 2011 94.7 Cycle challenge