Living on an Island

   What is it like living on an Island approximately 550-600 miles from the nearest point of land? Well, the first thing I can say is that it is not a good place to get Island fever better known on the mainland as cabin fever! Bermuda has been my home for the past three years plus and I must say that it has been a great experience. When you add our time here with the time spent in the Bahamas you come up with a little over six years surrounded by nothing but water! Shortly after moving to Bermuda an elderly bishop in a sister church made the comment; “You know that Bermuda is built on an ancient volcano.” He then we on to say; “Every night we pray that God will keep the lid on it.” It was comical but certainly made one think of how far we are from our neighbors should an Island wide emergency occur.

   What is it like to live in Bermuda? Well, I always like to tell our visitors that one of the most beautiful things about the Island is our beaches. There is nothing like the pink sand on a Bermudian beach. One of the great challenges about living here is getting to the beach! There is nothing like driving on the Islands roads. First, unlike Canada and the US we drive on the left side of the road. To make driving a bit more interesting we keep our roads very narrow, very twisty and as an added bonus we don’t really have any places where one can pull off the road!! The top speed limit on the Island is supposed to be 23 mph! Because Bermuda only allows one car per household there is an abundance of motor scooters. The increasing number of scooter has resulted in what Bermudians call the “third lane.” What is the third lane you ask? Well, the third lane is that narrow space of pavement between two lanes of traffic travelling in the opposite direction! Due to the lower speed limits you might think that we seldom if ever have any serious accidents. WRONG! There are lots of accidents and many of them are fatal. Why? Well, no one abides by the speed limit, there are no real passing zones and that third lane has a nasty tendency of becoming narrower and narrower. If you happen to live off Island and are planning a vacation to Bermuda you don’t have to worry about driving a car on the left side of the road with no pull-overs. The reason for this is that we don’t allow foreigners to drive cars on our Island. You can’t even rent a car here. Have no fears though because we will rent you a motor bike! Plan to rent a bike? Make certain that your insurance is paid up!

   Next time I will tell you about shopping in Bermuda.

Your Friend:

Rev. John

Living on an Island

   What is it like living on an Island approximately 550-600 miles from the nearest point of land? Well, the first thing I can say is that it is not a good place to get Island fever better known on the mainland as cabin fever! Bermuda has been my home for the past three years plus and I must say that it has been a great experience. When you add our time here with the time spent in the Bahamas you come up with a little over six years surrounded by nothing but water! Shortly after moving to Bermuda an elderly bishop in a sister church made the comment; “You know that Bermuda is built on an ancient volcano.” He then we on to say; “Every night we pray that God will keep the lid on it.” It was comical but certainly made one think of how far we are from our neighbors should an Island wide emergency occur.

   What is it like to live in Bermuda? Well, I always like to tell our visitors that one of the most beautiful things about the Island is our beaches. There is nothing like the pink sand on a Bermudian beach. One of the great challenges about living here is getting to the beach! There is nothing like driving on the Islands roads. First, unlike Canada and the US we drive on the left side of the road. To make driving a bit more interesting we keep our roads very narrow, very twisty and as an added bonus we don’t really have any places where one can pull off the road!! The top speed limit on the Island is supposed to be 23 mph! Because Bermuda only allows one car per household there is an abundance of motor scooters. The increasing number of scooter has resulted in what Bermudians call the “third lane.” What is the third lane you ask? Well, the third lane is that narrow space of pavement between two lanes of traffic travelling in the opposite direction! Due to the lower speed limits you might think that we seldom if ever have any serious accidents. WRONG! There are lots of accidents and many of them are fatal. Why? Well, no one abides by the speed limit, there are no real passing zones and that third lane has a nasty tendency of becoming narrower and narrower. If you happen to live off Island and are planning a vacation to Bermuda you don’t have to worry about driving a car on the left side of the road with no pull-overs. The reason for this is that we don’t allow foreigners to drive cars on our Island. You can’t even rent a car here. Have no fears though because we will rent you a motor bike! Plan to rent a bike? Make certain that your insurance is paid up!

   Next time I will tell you about shopping in Bermuda.

Your Friend:

Rev. John

What Happened to the Word of God?

  A matter that is of great concern to me is how the church for the past number of years has been viewing the Bible. I had a minister in a sister denomination say to me that; “the Bible is not the Word of God but the Word of man.” I had someone say that they don’t read portions of the Bible especially in the Old Testament because they simply don’t agree with what is being said. Then, there are those who love to pick on the Apostle Paul and they will say with a laugh, “well you know that’s Paul and we all know what Paul is like.|” What about the overused claim, “that statement is simply a matter related to its time and really doesn’t have anything to say to us today.” Then, there is the coup de grace; “very learned people today tell us that certain statements mentioned in the Bible disagrees with modern science. And we prefer to accept modern science” Wow where does that leave us? If we are going to accept the words of specialists over Biblical statements and creeds then we might just as well toss the Bible out or rewrite it completely. I don’t know of a man or woman of science today who will tell you that a virgin birth is possible, that the miracles recorded in both the Old and New Testament are possible and certainly the resurrection of a dead body is possible. So whose word will we accept? We have literally torn the Bible up into little bitty pieces some of which we accept with modification of course while other pieces we will discard as totally unbelievable and therefore non applicable.

   I believe and I was brought up in a church that believed that the Bible in total is the Word of God. Whether it is the Apostle Paul that is speaking or Jesus it is one and the same; “God’s Word.” The Old Testament is every much the Word of God as the New Testament and so we cannot make the claim that we believe in the God of Love as proclaimed in the New Testament but we have problems with the God of Justice found in the Old Testament for they are both one and the same God. I tend to agree with a colleague in a sister denomination who once said; “I prefer to believe the words of those who were closer to the actual event than someone who is writing about it today.” I am one who still believes that the Bible is the inspired, infallible and inerrant Word of God. We have to recapture the wonder and awe of God’s Holy Word and start living by it rather than playing with it.

What Happened to the Word of God?

  A matter that is of great concern to me is how the church for the past number of years has been viewing the Bible. I had a minister in a sister denomination say to me that; “the Bible is not the Word of God but the Word of man.” I had someone say that they don’t read portions of the Bible especially in the Old Testament because they simply don’t agree with what is being said. Then, there are those who love to pick on the Apostle Paul and they will say with a laugh, “well you know that’s Paul and we all know what Paul is like.|” What about the overused claim, “that statement is simply a matter related to its time and really doesn’t have anything to say to us today.” Then, there is the coup de grace; “very learned people today tell us that certain statements mentioned in the Bible disagrees with modern science. And we prefer to accept modern science” Wow where does that leave us? If we are going to accept the words of specialists over Biblical statements and creeds then we might just as well toss the Bible out or rewrite it completely. I don’t know of a man or woman of science today who will tell you that a virgin birth is possible, that the miracles recorded in both the Old and New Testament are possible and certainly the resurrection of a dead body is possible. So whose word will we accept? We have literally torn the Bible up into little bitty pieces some of which we accept with modification of course while other pieces we will discard as totally unbelievable and therefore non applicable.

   I believe and I was brought up in a church that believed that the Bible in total is the Word of God. Whether it is the Apostle Paul that is speaking or Jesus it is one and the same; “God’s Word.” The Old Testament is every much the Word of God as the New Testament and so we cannot make the claim that we believe in the God of Love as proclaimed in the New Testament but we have problems with the God of Justice found in the Old Testament for they are both one and the same God. I tend to agree with a colleague in a sister denomination who once said; “I prefer to believe the words of those who were closer to the actual event than someone who is writing about it today.” I am one who still believes that the Bible is the inspired, infallible and inerrant Word of God. We have to recapture the wonder and awe of God’s Holy Word and start living by it rather than playing with it.

What Happened to the Word of God?

  A matter that is of great concern to me is how the church for the past number of years has been viewing the Bible. I had a minister in a sister denomination say to me that; “the Bible is not the Word of God but the Word of man.” I had someone say that they don’t read portions of the Bible especially in the Old Testament because they simply don’t agree with what is being said. Then, there are those who love to pick on the Apostle Paul and they will say with a laugh, “well you know that’s Paul and we all know what Paul is like.|” What about the overused claim, “that statement is simply a matter related to its time and really doesn’t have anything to say to us today.” Then, there is the coup de grace; “very learned people today tell us that certain statements mentioned in the Bible disagrees with modern science. And we prefer to accept modern science” Wow where does that leave us? If we are going to accept the words of specialists over Biblical statements and creeds then we might just as well toss the Bible out or rewrite it completely. I don’t know of a man or woman of science today who will tell you that a virgin birth is possible, that the miracles recorded in both the Old and New Testament are possible and certainly the resurrection of a dead body is possible. So whose word will we accept? We have literally torn the Bible up into little bitty pieces some of which we accept with modification of course while other pieces we will discard as totally unbelievable and therefore non applicable.

   I believe and I was brought up in a church that believed that the Bible in total is the Word of God. Whether it is the Apostle Paul that is speaking or Jesus it is one and the same; “God’s Word.” The Old Testament is every much the Word of God as the New Testament and so we cannot make the claim that we believe in the God of Love as proclaimed in the New Testament but we have problems with the God of Justice found in the Old Testament for they are both one and the same God. I tend to agree with a colleague in a sister denomination who once said; “I prefer to believe the words of those who were closer to the actual event than someone who is writing about it today.” I am one who still believes that the Bible is the inspired, infallible and inerrant Word of God. We have to recapture the wonder and awe of God’s Holy Word and start living by it rather than playing with it.

What Happened to the Word of God?

  A matter that is of great concern to me is how the church for the past number of years has been viewing the Bible. I had a minister in a sister denomination say to me that; “the Bible is not the Word of God but the Word of man.” I had someone say that they don’t read portions of the Bible especially in the Old Testament because they simply don’t agree with what is being said. Then, there are those who love to pick on the Apostle Paul and they will say with a laugh, “well you know that’s Paul and we all know what Paul is like.|” What about the overused claim, “that statement is simply a matter related to its time and really doesn’t have anything to say to us today.” Then, there is the coup de grace; “very learned people today tell us that certain statements mentioned in the Bible disagrees with modern science. And we prefer to accept modern science” Wow where does that leave us? If we are going to accept the words of specialists over Biblical statements and creeds then we might just as well toss the Bible out or rewrite it completely. I don’t know of a man or woman of science today who will tell you that a virgin birth is possible, that the miracles recorded in both the Old and New Testament are possible and certainly the resurrection of a dead body is possible. So whose word will we accept? We have literally torn the Bible up into little bitty pieces some of which we accept with modification of course while other pieces we will discard as totally unbelievable and therefore non applicable.

   I believe and I was brought up in a church that believed that the Bible in total is the Word of God. Whether it is the Apostle Paul that is speaking or Jesus it is one and the same; “God’s Word.” The Old Testament is every much the Word of God as the New Testament and so we cannot make the claim that we believe in the God of Love as proclaimed in the New Testament but we have problems with the God of Justice found in the Old Testament for they are both one and the same God. I tend to agree with a colleague in a sister denomination who once said; “I prefer to believe the words of those who were closer to the actual event than someone who is writing about it today.” I am one who still believes that the Bible is the inspired, infallible and inerrant Word of God. We have to recapture the wonder and awe of God’s Holy Word and start living by it rather than playing with it.

What Happened to the Word of God?

  A matter that is of great concern to me is how the church for the past number of years has been viewing the Bible. I had a minister in a sister denomination say to me that; “the Bible is not the Word of God but the Word of man.” I had someone say that they don’t read portions of the Bible especially in the Old Testament because they simply don’t agree with what is being said. Then, there are those who love to pick on the Apostle Paul and they will say with a laugh, “well you know that’s Paul and we all know what Paul is like.|” What about the overused claim, “that statement is simply a matter related to its time and really doesn’t have anything to say to us today.” Then, there is the coup de grace; “very learned people today tell us that certain statements mentioned in the Bible disagrees with modern science. And we prefer to accept modern science” Wow where does that leave us? If we are going to accept the words of specialists over Biblical statements and creeds then we might just as well toss the Bible out or rewrite it completely. I don’t know of a man or woman of science today who will tell you that a virgin birth is possible, that the miracles recorded in both the Old and New Testament are possible and certainly the resurrection of a dead body is possible. So whose word will we accept? We have literally torn the Bible up into little bitty pieces some of which we accept with modification of course while other pieces we will discard as totally unbelievable and therefore non applicable.

   I believe and I was brought up in a church that believed that the Bible in total is the Word of God. Whether it is the Apostle Paul that is speaking or Jesus it is one and the same; “God’s Word.” The Old Testament is every much the Word of God as the New Testament and so we cannot make the claim that we believe in the God of Love as proclaimed in the New Testament but we have problems with the God of Justice found in the Old Testament for they are both one and the same God. I tend to agree with a colleague in a sister denomination who once said; “I prefer to believe the words of those who were closer to the actual event than someone who is writing about it today.” I am one who still believes that the Bible is the inspired, infallible and inerrant Word of God. We have to recapture the wonder and awe of God’s Holy Word and start living by it rather than playing with it.