"Thinking Eternally, Acting Locally." - Neal August
It took me about 30 minutes to climb to the top but I spent nearly 6 hours up there. Definitely worth the trouble of climbing!
This nice road runs right between the mountain and the University.
Here is the University.
Here is the “Arthur’s Seat” part of the mountain. I would have loved to have stood on top of it but I am only a visitor to this country. Arthur and I are both Welsh.
These are pics of the glorious view from the mountain.
When I saw these sights I immediately prayed to God, thanking Him for creating such wonders.
I mentioned to someone how amazing it was for God to spend millions of years creating, carving these volcanic mountains up and down so that we could experience them. The person I mentioned this to said he believed the earth was only six thousand years old.
I took more photos from this mountain than I did anything else on my whole trip.
I actually met a nice Scottish bloke on this mountain. He was attending the school and frequently climbed up the mountain. His pic is on the NicPics blog. We stood and talked for three hours and I did a little witnessing.
I actually witnessed in number of places while I was in England. I never intended on doing so but I would be sitting in a pub "having dinner" and I would get in conversations with the locals and some tourists about the Faith. They would see me reading the Bible or reading a theology book and start asking me questions. Of course I got punished for my evangelistic method but it worked.
I noticed recently that the 2005 Oxford Study program for my seminary plans to do some witnessing while they are there. I think this is a good idea. I certainly hope that they do this the right way. Allow me to make some points.
1) I assume that street preaching will not be a part of this witnessing. From a practical standpoint I do not know how a group of young Americans staying in England only for a few weeks will go down with the locals when it comes to witnessing.
2) Even if they are successful, where will you send the new believers? You can't invite them to Travis Avenue and they cerainly need to be a part of a good Christian fellowship in their own country.
3) Therefore, I suggest that the leadership of this evangelistic Oxford endeavour make contact with an evangelistic church in the local area of wherever in England you plan to witness and assist that church with their evangelism. This way, the local believers will be front and center above the "3-week missionaries" and, when successful, the new believers will have a church group to become involved in.
These points are so obvious that I know the leadership of this evangelistic Oxford endeavour are already thinking along these lines.
This view made me want to go out and buy insurance.
Night falls on Arthur’s Seat.
I am planning to go back to Oxford this summer. I plan to visit some colleges there and look into the possibility of taking doctoral classes.
I know of at least two seminaries that will be there this summer and I am not yet sure when I will be in Oxford, so I do not know which group I will be running into. I do know that a many Baptists from around the world will be in Birmingham for the BWA Centennial. Perhaps I should hang out with them. Heck, I will hang out with any believers that will let me go to the Eagle and the Child. Hey! That’s every believer except the Southern Baptists! Hooray!
[Editorial Note: The author of Panis Circenses is not currently imbibing alcohol while he is in seminary and will not be doing so while he is in Oxford this summer. The above reference to the Eagle and the Child and the famous catch-phrase by Homer Simpson was meant in jest. Even though it is only blinkered philistine pig ignorance that makes some believers hold their cultural traditions above and beyond the Word of God and deny biblical mandates, forcing others to heed to the local hypocrisy of power hungry despots, I do not indulge. No, not me.]
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