LS007b - Closer Than a Brother II - Higher Than a Friend

Hey everyone!

I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I can't complain. Not when I'm learning to trust Jesus more and more with each and every passing moment of my life and learn to live "in the now" as it were. This is instead of getting trapped in my memory palace being pulled between two places at once with either past regrets or future hopes.

Today, I want to continue on with something that I posted at the start of the year, how Jesus sticks closer to me "than a brother" (Proverbs 18:24) and I want to dive a little bit more into what that means for me going into the next month of this year and beyond...

LS012c - The Unbiased Kingdom Addendum

Hey everyone!

I must say that my posts that I made on presenting an unbiased picture of the Kingdom of Heaven has really got me thinking that I need to sow this into the ethos of this very blog. It was very thought provoking so if you haven't read it, find part one here, and part two here.

These are just some final thoughts to sow it all together...

Off the Scale #9 - Giacomo Puccini's O Mio Babbino Caro

Hello,

Welcome to the ninth edition of Off the Scale and I'm glad you're enjoying this series because I'm certainly having fun scouring the archives of classical music to bring you some of my favourite pieces.

As I've mentioned already, I'm not reviewing these pieces, just putting across that, for me, classical music is at the forefront of my musical tastes so it needs to be celebrated. What better way for me to do this than with a piece starring my all-time favourite violinist; André Rieu...

SC002 - Social Media (Or the Erstwhile Need for Acceptance)

Hello everyone,

Seeing as I've only made one post with a more social commentary-type feel to it, I thought I'd add another with the focus this time being on social media.

Now, before you retaliate, I'm not here to belittle social media nor its users, just to offer some thoughts on social media's place in society because, whether you agree with it or not, it is indeed here and here to stay...

LS012b - The Unbiased Kingdom Part II - So That Freedom Flows

Hello everyone!

I'm glad I opted to take this one further as the more that I delved into the issue of forgiveness and offences, the more I realised that there was to unpack. In reality, there was far too much for one post so I've done another one to follow this up some more.

If you haven't already done so, go back to part one here and if you're up to date, then let's crack on...

LS012a - The Unbiased Kingdom Part I - May Not Offences Stay

Hello everyone!

Following on from my post on forgiveness earlier this month, I thought I'd flip the issue around and take a look at what it actually means in our daily lives to be so forgiving all of the time.

It's often said that forgiveness can be a bitter pill to swallow because it, in a sense, is the equivalent of us swallowing up the wrong that someone caused us. The trouble with that analogy is that it is far too often accurate a way for how some of us deal with offences.

Let's zone in closer to this and see what we can figure out together...

Off the Scale #8 - John Ceiriog Hughes' Ar Hyd y Nos

Hello everybody and welcome to the first Off the Scale of 2018!

I've been a little busy lately so this has unfortunately slipped back in my list of priorities until now. Please bear with me because I want to try and make this a regular Monday thing for my fellow classical followers.

I've been listening to this one just this morning (Saturday as of writing this), so I hope you all will enjoy it as much as I do...

LS011 - Think Correctly, Live Correctly

Hello everyone!

We're already three weeks into this new year and I don't know about you but I sure am excited about where this year will go for me now that I'm into my new season. There have been plenty of up's and down's along the way, but such is life. Yet I know that through it all God has been and is with me so no matter what the rest of this year contains, I have what I need to overcome every obstacle I am yet to face.

What seems to be coming out an awful lot lately is a seeming inability to allow people to think for themselves, for one only has to pay heed to the mainstream media and other such voices around to see that there are always opportunities to be told what we are to be thinking about certain things.

Today, I'm going to offer some opinion on how society likes to tell you what to do or think instead of leaving you to question more and hopefully uncover more the more that you dig...

LS010b - Whipping Up a Firestorm (Or the Benefits of Friendship)

Hello everyone!

I didn't really know what I was going to post today, just that I was going to write something. So upon seeing the heading for the last post, I quickly decided that I want to take a look at the value of recognising those in your life who actually are there when you need them...

LS010a - Fire For Effect (Or The Curiosity of Friendship)

Hey everyone!

I really enjoyed the last post because it addressed head on an issue that, as I admitted in said post, I have been struggling with for some time until then.

This being my eleventh post in my lifestyle category, I wanted to make sure that I continue to represent my faith in as pure and non-judgemental attitude as possible. I am, after all, representing Kingdom purpose as a believer on Christ.

Today, I wanted to take a quick look at the value of friendship and how we are to appreciate those who are in our lives rather than taking them for granted...

LS009 - Forgiveness - The Only Way

Hello everyone!

This is my tenth post in my aforementioned coding system so if a lifestyle update is not what you want to read then feel free to skip this post and wait for the next content.

As you could no doubt tell from my last post yesterday, I was in quite an angry state and needed to let off some steam. This led me to thinking about the true nature of the healing power of forgiveness so I thought I'd add my opinion on why it's so important whether you are a Christian or not...

LS008 - The First Crack of the Whip

Hey everyone!

We're into the second week of the year now and I've just finished a short course on jobsearching skills and, whilst I think initially it was rather pointless and a waste of my time, the truth of the matter is that this is a side-effect of walking with what I am walking with at the moment.

You all know my story by now and I've posted some very, very strong content on the subject of anxiety and depression but only now am I really starting to see just how much of myself has been affected by dealing with this for as long as I have...

LS007a - Closer Than a Brother I - Dearer Than a Friend

Happy New Year, everyone!

I know we are at the end of our first week of this brand new year and so I might be just a tad late with my wishes for this upcoming year, but it doesn't matter because I want to wish you all the best for this next season.

I've just recently started my new journal and one of the thoughts that struck me when I texted a friend recently is that there is no point returning to old ground when you are meant to travel on new ground...