Jewish Roots of our Faith / 8 Mile

 Jewish Roots of our Faith
In January 2008 Michael Cohen visited Christ Church to talk about the Jewish roots of our faith.  Here's my review of what happened last time.  Michael made a return visit yesterday.  Again he provided teaching from the point of view of a Messianic Jew, one who had found his faith and his roots after growing up in a secular background.  My notes on this one are not so good, I am in the precess of ending my caffeine addiction (on medical advice, but that's another story).  As a result my concentration is not what it should be and I missed a number of key links.  I have however asked for the recordings so that I can study them properly when my brain chemistry has recovered.  The attendance at this event was rather sparse.  I don't think it received the publicity it should have done. 
Michael was our preacher a Christ Church this morning and spoke to us from John 14:23-29, but mainly verse 27. He started with a question "How full of peace is your heart today?" and went on to talk about 'shalom' and its meaning of completeness.  Later there was a reference to Romans 8:38-39 "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  It is only one of two places where Paul says he is convinced of something. The sermon will be here soon.

8 Mile
My quest to get fitter and perhaps cycle to work took a small step froward this afternoon.  I investigated the back roads of Stock, to determine if there is a way around Stock Hill.   There is.  Small Gains Lane, Well Lane and Common Road which brings you back onto the B1007 (Stock Road).  Today at the end of Well Lane I returned home via Mill Road and a 'freewheel' down stock hill, where I kept up with the traffic.  It's a nice cycle, although there was a slight danger of decapitation in Small Gains Lane as there were workmen replacing cables and one was alarmingly low!  The distance was 8 miles exactly (according to google) and so the longest yet.  My time was about 44 minutes easily inside the maximum of one hour for the whole journey.  More importantly my recovery time was about the same as the cycle time, so I would need another 45 minutes before I started work (and probably another shower!).