What Christmas means to the parents grieving over the killing of their 11-year old son

On 1 May 2009, 11-year old Sam Riddall was tragically killed in a hit-and-run incident. Today, four days before Christmas, the hit-and-run driver responsible for Sam's death was given a hospital detention order.

But what possibly can Christmas now mean to Sam's parents Martin and Rachel Riddall?

Martin Riddall gave the following statement outside of the court this afternoon:

In four days time we celebrate Christmas and it’s going to be our first Christmas without our Sam. It’s going to be very hard for us indeed, because we still miss him very much.

At Christmas we remember that God sent his son Jesus into the world to bring peace. It’s the same God that is giving us the strength and helping us to forgive Hannah for the terrible thing she’s done to us by killing our son.

It’s not easy, it’s not going to be easy. But with God’s help we know that it is possible.

For Martin and Rachel Riddall, Christmas means that "God sent his son Jesus into the world to bring peace."

When we think of Christmas, we remember the birth of Christ. At His birth, the angels sang, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." (Luke 2:14)

Jesus came to bring peace because there was no peace between God and man. Man had rebelled against God and become His enemy. When Jesus came into this world to bring peace, He chose to take the punishment of God for our sins on Himself by shedding His perfect blood on the cross. Trusting in Christ's work for us on the cross is the only way that we can have peace with God again. That is why peace is the message of Christmas.

Consider the following verses from the Bible:

"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5)

"For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven." (Colossians 1:19-20)

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:1)

Once you have asked placed your faith in Christ and have asked God to forgive your sins, you will receive His peace. And you will also be able to forgive other people even for the very worst crimes.

"Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." (Colossians 3:13)

Because Christ has forgiven us, we can forgive others and live in peace with God and man. This is the meaning of Christmas for Martin and Rachel Riddall. God offers us peace through Jesus Christ. What does Christmas mean to you?

(Click here to see the news story along with a video of the Riddall family statement on the SkyNews website.)

The Innkeeper

In Luke 2:7, the Bible makes the following brief statement about the birthplace of Jesus Christ:

And she [Mary] brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

No room in the inn for the Messiah. But there was room somewhere with the animals in a stable or in a cave maybe.

Have you ever wondered if Jesus returned to visit the place of His birth? Maybe even to meet the innkeeper who did not have room in the inn that night but who provided an alternative shelter for Joseph and Mary and Jesus. Here is a beautiful poem by John Piper which imagines what such an encounter between Jesus and the innkeeper could have been like.




The original poem can be found here.

In the footsteps of John Wycliffe

Over my first term break, I was able to visit the town of Lutterworth in Leicestershire.

This was where John Wycliffe lived and where he became the first person to translate the Bible into English.

John Wycliffe was born in 1324 near the village with the name Wycliffe in Yorkshire. At the age of 16, he enrolled at Oxford University and studied philosophy and Christianity. He was ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic Church at the age of 37 and ministered in Lutterworth. But he questioned some of the Church's doctrines and criticised the corruption of the clergy. He wanted to make the Bible understandable to all those who did not know Latin or the original biblical languages, so he translated the Bible into English for the first time, some 200 years before the time of the Reformation. John Wycliffe thus later became known as the "Morning Star of the Reformation." Wycliffe and his followers, known as the "Lollards", preached the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins by faith in Christ's substitutionary death on the cross throughout England. Wycliffe said: "The gospel alone is sufficient to rule the lives of Christians everywhere...any additional rules made to govern men's conduct added nothing to the perfection already found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

In Lutterworth, you can still see the church where Wycliffe preached, the Parish Church of St. Mary:

This is what it looks like from the inside:

And this is the pulpit Wycliffe is said to have preached from:

The church also has a Wycliffe memorial, which shows Wycliffe preaching:

The inscription below reads as follows:

SACRED TO TE MEMORY OF

JOHN WICLIF

EARLIEST CHAMPION OF ECCLESIASTICAL REFORMATION IN ENGLAND;

HE WAS BORN IN YORKSHIRE IN THE YEAR 1324;

IN THE YEAR 1375 HE WAS PRESENTED TO THE RECTORY OF LUTTERWORTH:

WHERE HE DIED ON THE 31ST DECEMBER 1384;

AT OXFORD HE ACQUIRED NOT ONLY THE RENOWN OF A CONSUMMATE SCHOOLMAN;

BUT THE FAR MORE GLORIOUS TITLE OF THE EVANGELIC DOCTOR

HIS WHOLE LIFE WAS ONE IMPETUOUS STRUGGLE AGAINST THE CORRUPTIONS

AND ENCROACHMENTS OF THE PAPAL COURT;

AND THE IMPOSTURES OF ITS DEVOTED AUXILIARIES; THE MENDICANT FRATERNITIES,

HIS LABOURS IN THE CAUSE OF SCRIPTURAL TRUTH WERE CROWNED BY ONE IMMORTAL ACHIEVEMENT,

HIS TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE INTO THE ENGLISH TONGUE.

THIS MIGHTY WORK DREW ON HIM, INDEED, THE BITTER HATRED
OF ALL WHO WERE MAKING MERCHANIDISE OF THE POPULAR CREDULITY AND IGNORANCE:

BUT HE FOUND AN ABUNDANT REWARD IN THE BLESSING OF HIS COUNTRYMEN, OF EVERY RANK AND AGE,

TO WHOM HE UNFOLDED THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE.

HIS MORTAL REMAINS WERE INTERRED NEAR THIS SPOT: BUT THEY WERE NOT ALLOWED TO REST IN PEACE.

AFTER THE LAPSE OF MANY YEARS, HIS BONES WERE DRAGGED FROM THE GRAVE, AND CONSIGNED TO THE FLAMES:

AND HIS ASHES WERE CAST INTO THE WATERS OF THE ADJOIINING STREAM.

Although John Wycliffe heavily criticised the Catholic Church and sought to show the people that the truth is to be found in Scripture and not in any church tradition, he was never excommunicated nor did he ever leave the Church. In 1428, 44 years after Wycliffe's death, Pope Martin V had his remains dug out of the grave, burnt and thrown into the river Swift, hoping to erase the memory of Wycliffe from history. But instead, a chonicler by the name of Fuller observed: "They burnt his bones to ashes and cast them into the Swift, a neighbouring brook running hard by. Thus the brook hath conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn; Severn into the narrow seas; and they into the main ocean. And thus the ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrine which now is dispersed the world over."

Today, there is a Wycliffe Memorial in Lutterworth, which was erected in June 1987 and displays the following Bible verses:

"Search the scriptures." (Jn. 5:39)
"The entrance of thy words giveth light." (Ps. 119:130)
"Be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." (Heb. 6:12)
"Be thou faithful unto death." (Rev. 2:10)

Today, there are over 100 English translations of the Bible. The town of Lutterworth is also home to the British headquarters of the Gideons International, and thus a centre for Bible distribution around the world.

Can I trust God?

Since starting my studies at Bible school, I have been virtually inundated with lessons from the Bible. While I have been gaining a lot of factual knowledge, much more importantly, I have been blessed by being able to apply what I have been learning to my own life.

In my class on the Pentateuch, I was particularly gripped by one question that kept cropping up: “Can I trust God?” It has been amazing for me to see how often this is the question that is asked in the first five books of the Old Testament.

It starts with the very first human beings, Adam and Eve, to whom God had given just one commandment: “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:16b-17). Everything else was allowed for them. But, as we learned in class, once Eve was temped by Satan, she doubted the sovereignty and majesty of God, the holiness of God, the goodness of God, the motive of God and the integrity of the word of God. Eve’s problem was that she now doubted the only One who could help her! Both she and Adam chose to believe Satan’s lie that God was trying to keep something good back from them and therefore ate of the forbidden fruit. Immediately afterwards, they realised what a terrible mistake it was not to trust God. It changed their – and our – lives on earth forever bringing sin and pain and a threefold death (physical, spiritual and eternal). If only they had trusted God!

Later, we see Abraham, who in many ways was a great example of faith, asking himself the same question: “Can I trust God?” He demonstrated great faith by following God’s call to the Promised Land, but once a famine hit the country, he decided to take matters into his own hands and flee to Egypt, showing that he did not believe God would take care of him. Once in Egypt, he felt compelled by fear to lie about the identity of his wife, again without entrusting the matter to God. And he repeated this same sin later in his life. But God was taking care of him all the time. As he grew old and his wife Sarah bore him no children, both he and Sarah again did not trust God, but instead devised their own plans to have children through their handmaid Hagar. But God had earlier promised him that his children would be as many as the stars in heaven. And God kept His promise. Sarah gave birth to their son Isaac when she was 91 years old and Abraham was 100 years old. Nothing is impossible with God!

And then when we move on to Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, and read we story of how God brought the Israelites out of Egypt back to the Promised Land, we see how God miraculously intervened on behalf of His people to show Himself as mighty and glorious, but again and again, the people of Israel forgot what God had done for them and murmured and complained. How could they not have trusted God in simple matters when they had seen His mighty hand work wonders among them over and over again?

But then it comes down to us, you and me. Have we ever asked ourselves, “Can I trust God?” If we are Christians, maybe we would not say it out loud, but we show it by our thoughts and actions. How many times has it been true in our lives that we thought that God could or would not take care of us? How many times have we tried to take matters into our own hands without trusting God? And how often have we seen our own plans ultimately fail only to realise that it would have been better to trust God? Surely, if you know Christ as your Saviour, you will have experienced God’s love and power and goodness in your life. From my own life I can say that God has been good to me beyond measure, despite the fact that I have often failed Him. I cannot understand why God would want to shower His goodness on me, all I can say is that He is an amazing, wonderful and faithful God! And yet, there are times when I struggle to trust Him, when I ask myself this very question, “Can I trust God?” But every time I ask myself that question I must come back to the answer, “Yes, totally and absolutely!” Who else can I trust if not God? I can see God’s faithfulness to His children all through His Word and all through my own life as well as in the lives of others. May we learn to trust Him more and more for the praise of His glory.

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. (Psalm 42:5)

07/08/09 10:11:12 - A snapshot in time

Yesterday, at 10.11 a.m. and 12 seconds, the date and time was 07/08/09 10:11:12. Sky News asked viewers to take a snapshot in time at this precise moment.

Here is my snapshot of what I was doing then:



I was just sitting at work, translating a text from German to English for the Statistics Department of the Deutsche Bundesbank.

The story of John Calvin

500 years and 19 days ago, John Calvin was born (10 July 1509).



Most people - including myself - don't know much about this man, even though he had a tremendous impact on history. But his life story is very interesting. I found the following two-part documentary on Calvin on the German TV channel "Deutsche Welle (DW-TV)". They are about 30 minutes each but well worth watching in my opinion.

The faith of Abraham

God's Word tells us that is was Abraham's faith in God, not his works, that made him righteous in God's eyes.

And [Abraham] believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness. (Gen. 15:6)

What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. (Rom. 4:1-3)

Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. (Gal. 3:6)

But what about the following verses?

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. (James 2:17)

But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? (James 2:20-21)

It is interesting to note that Abraham seems to play a central role in the faith/works debate.

What I also found interesting is that, in this context, the main example from Abraham's life here in the book of James is Abraham offering his son Isaac upon the altar. James says that it was this act that justified Abraham. But what kind of an act was it? Was it only works-related? Did his faith even matter?





Let us for a moment imagine the scenario that God tells Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice, but Abraham says no. For one thing, it would seem then that he could not have been justified by his works. But what reasons could such a (hypothetical) decision have had? I see only two possibilites:

1) Abraham did not really believe that God's will was good for him.
2) Abraham did not want to obey God.

Of course, these are just hypothetical statements, but we can see how closely the faith of Abraham would have been related to his works. And we also see this in another place in Scripture:

By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. (Heb. 11:17-19)

Abraham had the faith that God could raise up his son Isaac from the dead. He truly believed that God could do this. What a demonstration of his faith! But wait... It doesn't say that Abraham believed that God would raise his son from the dead. Only that "God was able to raise him up". God gave Abraham no guarantee of this. God did not say to Abraham: "Sacrifice your only son Isaac and then I will raise him up again." He just said: "Sacrifice your only son Isaac." Period. So although Abraham had complete faith in God, it was still the greatest demand God had ever made on him. Isaac must have been Abraham's greatest treasure in life. And now God wanted to take that treasure from him. So, in addition to Abraham's faith, we see a second aspect in his life: his obedience to the will of God. Without his faith and obedience, Abraham never would have had any works to show. Abraham's works were a direct result of his obedience and his obedience was a direct result of his faith. It all belongs together. Therefore we can say that Abraham was justified by his faith, and at the same time we can also say that he was justified by his works.

But the question we should ask ourselves today is: Do I have that kind of faith? Do I completely trust God and am I convinced that His will for me is good and that He can do all things? That nothing is impossible to Him? Even the things that seem so impossible in my own eyes? And am I willing to obey God even though it costs me everything? Even though He wants me to give Him all the things that are most precious to me in my life?

Can we say that we have the faith of Abraham? I know I still have a lot to learn from his faith.

Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!

29 April - The day I was in the White House and saw Obama

This was my first visit to Washington, D.C. and it was an unforgetable experience. And yes, I actually got to go inside the White House and see President Obama - no kidding! Although maybe not quite the way you think, so let me start from the beginning of my Washington adventure...

I arrived in D.C. just after 12 pm and found plenty of free parking close to the Jefferson Memorial.



As I had never been to Washington, D.C. before, I didn't really know where I was and how I would get to the places I wanted to see, but I knew that the Washington Monument was one of those places, and thankfully, that can be seen pretty much from anywhere.



After I got there, I made my way to the the War Memorial which is between the Washington Monnument and the Lincoln Memorial.







Then, on to the Lincoln Memorial...









From there, I made my way to the White House and passed the U.S. Federal Reserve.



Since I work for the German counterpart of the Federal Reserve (the Deutsche Bundesbank), I thought I might try to get a look inside. So I started making my way towards the steps. But I didn't get too far before a security guard stopped me. I told her that I work for the German central bank and was just wondering if it was possible for me to take a look inside the Federal Reserve building. The security guard said that, yes, if I had my Bundesbank ID card with me, someone might be able to show me around. But unfortunately, I had left my ID at home and so I couldn't get in. :-(

But not to worry, the real highlight was yet to come - the White House. This is the first glimpse I got of it:



I walked up closer to the White House and passed by the White House Visitor Center where I asked if it was possible to get inside the White House, but I was told that U.S. citizens would need to contact their senator first and would probably have to wait for at least two months, and foreign nationals would have to contact their embassy to get permission. So I pretty much gave up on the idea...

Then, as I walked towards the White House, I noticed some helicopters landing and a dad saying to his kids: "Do you see the three helicopters? The President is in only one of them..." (Oh, really? Not in all three of them?) As the helicopters disappeared from sight, I went as close as possible to the White House to take some more pictures:





I thought this was the front of the White House, but soon found out that it was actually the back of it.

Just a few minutes after taking these photos, I was taken by surprise... There was the sound of motorbikes and before I knew what was happening, there was a motorcade with the "Beast" passing right by that road where I stood to have my picture taken! "How crazy is that?", I thought. "I just arrive at the White House during my first time in Washington, D.C. and President Obama passes right by where I am standing!!" I quickly took out my camera to get video footage of the Beast. "Perfect!", I thought. Only once I was sure that it was all over did I press the button to stop the video recording. However, in all my excitement I had not pushed the button properly the first time, and so I only started recording once it was all over!! As I was to find out later, it wasn't President Obama but Vice President Biden who was inside the Beast.


After all the excitement and disappointment with my recoding skills, I went around to the front side of the White House, where I met up with a friend from college who works there for the Secret Service.



And thanks to him, I was even able to go inside the White House! That was so cool because I thought there would be no way of me getting to have a look inside! Here's a photo of me in one of the rooms inside the White House. (I can't remember the name of the room, but it's on the ground floor facing the U.S. Treasury.)



I thought I'd better not post the photo of me sitting at the desk in the Oval Office or I might get in trouble... ;-)

After that, we went up the old post office tower from where you can get a good view of the city. On this photo, you can see the distance I walked from the Washington Monument to the War Memorial to the Lincoln Memorial:



Down the tower and towards the White House again, near to the spot where I first saw the helicopters and the motorcade, and guess what I got to see next... The President's helicopter "Marine One" bringing him back to the White House from an appointment in another state!



So I did get to see the President after all! Although it was a bit difficult to make him out through the tainted windows... ;-)

I was also able to see other places, including the Capitol, but they were no longer a big deal anymore after my White House experience...



So that was Washington, D.C. in about five hours. This may be something I will be talking to my grandchildren about... =)

25 April - Pretty Place

On 25 April, my friend Olaf and I drove up into the mountains, along the South Carolina-North Carolina border, to the "Fred W. Symmes Chapel" which belongs to the YMCA in Greenville, SC. It is better known as "Pretty Place" and below you will see why...





There is an inscription on the beam that can be seen at the top of the above picture, but even with the use of flash, it's not possible to see it on the photo. But it reads as follows: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills". These are the beginning words of Psalm 121:

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

What a wonderful Psalm to remind us that God is bigger than all our problems! And what a perfect place to illustrate this truth. We may see mountains of problems all around us, but the cross stands above them all. With Jesus as our Saviour, we can know that we are secure in the almighty hands of God, no matter what happens.

16 April - Bellevue Baptist Church

The day after visiting the Gideon headquarters, I had the chance of visiting Bellevue Baptist Church in the Memphis area of Tennessee.





I had actually never heard about that church before, but once I heard that it was the church of well-known preacher Adrian Rogers, I was interested in taking a look. (I had heard him on the radio a few times and found him to be a very good preacher.) Bellevue Baptist Church is located just across the road from Mid America Baptist Theological Seminary in Cordova, TN, and it is the biggest church I have ever seen. The auditorium seats over 7,500 people and the church membership exceeds 20,000.





Since there is not enough room for all members to attend a service at the same time, there are three identical services at different times every Sunday.

But there is so much more to the church building than just the big auditorium. There are many different Sunday school rooms for different age groups. Below are some photos I took just of the rooms for the youngest age groups (in fact, these are not the actual rooms, just the entrances that lead to the rooms).





Then there is a welcome centre, a library, a bookstore and giftshop, a collection of historical items of the church and probably several other rooms that escaped my notice.



Outside the church, there is a lake, a massive parking lot, sports and athletic fields and a beautiful garden.



And then there is one more thing that Bellevue Baptist Church has become known for - three huge crosses that can be seen from miles away. The centre cross is 150 feet tall.



And this shows what is most important about the church and about any Bible-believing church - the message of the cross. It is here where justice, mercy and grace meet.

Adrian Rogers is also the founder of Love Worth Finding Ministries.

15 April - The Gideons International

Nashville, Tennessee is the home of country and gospel music. What I did not know until recently was that it is also the location for the headquarters of The Gideons International. For more than 100 years, the Gideons have been placing and distributing God's Word all over the world. My father was a Gideon and I have also been one since 2006. So, when I found out that I would be travelling by Nashville on my road trip, I just had to stop by the headquarters of the Gideons!





The plaques outside the main entrance display three different Bible verses:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Holding forth the word of life. (Philippians 2:16)

Christ died for our sins. (1 Corinthians 15:3)

The first verse from the Gospel of John are probably the most translated words in the world.

On the other side of the Gideon headquarters, there is an "International Court" with a wall bearing plaques of this verse in all of the languages that the Gideons distribute their Bibles in.







It is not a coincidence that this verse is the most translated piece of Scripture - it contains the most important truth people need to know. That God loves everybody. That He gave His only Son to die on the cross to take the punishment for our sins which we could not pay for ourselves. That, by placing our trust in Christ, we can have our sins forgiven, our relationship with God restored and the assurance of eternal life with God in heaven. Martin Luther called this verse "the Bible in a nutshell".

This verse is the reason why the Gideons exist and distribute Scriptures - so that people can find salvation and new life in Jesus Christ. And in doing their work, the Gideons believe the following promise of God which is also displayed in the entrance inside the headquarters:

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11)

Today, there are some 280,000 Gideons in 185 countries. And God's Word is going out in the world. On average, more than two Bibles are distributed by the Gideons around the world every second of every minute of every hour of every day! And, as God promised, His Word does not return void. The Gideons have witnessed in their ministry that God's Word has had the power of changing countless lives, giving people hope and a future through Jesus Christ. You can listen to just a few testimonies from such people here. It can change your life, too!

14 April - Creation Museum

On 14 April, I had the chance of visiting the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky.



This museum offers a refreshing alternative to most other museums which attempt to make their exhibits fit into the theory of evolution, also known as Darwinism. This approach looks at the wonders and the findings of biology, physics, astronomy and geology and claims that everything, including life, just happened by chance without the involvement of God or a higher power.





However, the very first verse of the Bible state very clearly: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." (Genesis 1:1) The Creation Museum shows the differences of the theory of evolution and the biblical account of creation and demonstrates how creation does not contradict science, but rather how science confirms the truth of God's Word.

Visitors in the Museum are taken through the "Seven C's of history" - creation, corruption, catastrophe, confusion, Christ, cross, consummation.



A more detailed explanation of these points can be found here: http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2004/0519_7CsBooklet.asp

If you come to visit the Creation Museum, be prepared to have your traditional views challenged and/or get a better understanding of the history of the world we live in from the teaching of the Bible. Prepare to believe.



I also absolutely recommend visiting the planetarium and being amazed at the vastness of the universe and the greatness of God who created it all and is still interested in us humans on our tiny little planet earth.

For more information about the Creation Museum, visit http://www.creationmuseum.org/. The Creation Museum is part of Answers in Genesis, a Christian ministry of scientists who believe in the truth of God's Word. Answers in Genesis provides many excellent resources on its website: http://www.answersingenesis.org/