Nahum and Nineveh #AtoZChallenge

In my 2013 A to Z post I wrote

Jonah preached God’s word to Nineveh.  Nahum announced Nineveh’s annihilation.

Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment.  John 13:34 “Love one another.”

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Nineveh was a city, which was living in disobedience to God. The story of Jonah and the big fish (or whale) is well known. Jonah had heard (Letter H) God and was running away from the task God had asked him to do. He boarded a ship, which was heading in the wrong direction. A severe storm arose, but Jonah was asleep. When the sailors learned that Jonah’s disobedience was the reason for the storm, Jonah asked them to throw him overboard. A large fish swallowed him and took him much closer to Nineveh!

The next part of the story is less well-know. Jonah’s message to Nineveh was that God was going to destroy the city because of the wickedness of the inhabitants. They repented and God had mercy on them. And Jonah sulked!

Nahum is another Old Testament prophet.

The new commandment, which Jesus gave to his disciples, is a very important message in the New Testament of the Bible.

Thoughts about Thursdays

I have been posting something on this blog on Thursdays for longer than I care to remember. I’m not sure how I picked the day. Perhaps it picked itself.

In this post I am thinking about Thursdays in literature, Thursdays I remember and Thursdays in the Church calendar.

In the literature with which I am most familiar there is the Nursery Rhyme in which ‘Thursday’s child has far to go’. G K Chesterton wrote a book entitled The Man who was Thursday: A Nightmare. Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy couldn’t get the hang of Thursdays. Thursday Next is a character in a series of books by Jasper Fforde. On Twitter, which is a haunt of writers if not a source of great literature, #ThursdayThoughts and #ThursdayMotivation may encourage those five days a week workers, who need a boost before Friday.

The Thursdays I particularly remember are ones where train travel went wrong. Years ago there were two Thursdays in a row when this happened to me travelling with my children. On one occasion we had to leave the train at an unfamiliar station in South London and decided to continue our journey by bus. It took at least an hour longer. Fortunately it was on a day out and not a journey with luggage for a holiday. As far as I recall it was the following Thursday that the express train we were travelling home on was delayed by a broken-down train ahead of us. These are relatively minor inconveniences.

Thursdays have often been a busy day for me. There is an opportunity to socialise in the morning. For many years there was a prayer meeting in the afternoon. Sadly that has not restarted since the lockdowns for Covid-19.

Maundy Thursday is the first of two days in the Church calendar, which are always on a Thursday. (The other is Ascension Day.) I have mentioned Maundy Thursday in a number of earlier blogposts: Palm Sunday, and three of my posts for the Blogging from A to Z in April Challenge in 2020 when my theme was Easter, Letter H, Letter I and Letter W.

On Maundy Thursday one year hubby and I were delayed on a train journey. As the delayed train we were travelling on pulled into the station where we had to change trains we saw the train we should have been able to catch set off without us. As there is an hourly service on that route, that was our delay. Fortunately it was a lovely sunny spring day and we enjoyed sitting in the fresh air watching trains.

This year Maundy Thursday is on 6th April. I will be spoilt for choice with a coffee morning, an organ recital in the afternoon by our organist and choirmaster, and a service in the evening. I may not manage all three! I am publishing this post in advance due to the Blogging from A to Z Challenge beginning on 1 April.

How do you feel about Thursdays?

New year, new activities

This year has begun with two of the groups I belong to – a choir and a writing group – needing to make decisions about the future. I believe that there will be a positive outcome for both.

My blogging has not yet included a book review, mainly because I haven’t been reading as much as usual. For the last few years if I had an idle moment, I’d pick up a book. Recently I have been picking up my knitting instead.

I have also been neglecting my piano-playing, which I enjoy. Perhaps I need to schedule a time to play.

Last year I heard a sermon based on the passage from Isaiah about God doing a new thing. New things are now being launched by the Church I belong to. My blog is perhaps not the place to write about them in detail, but I can say that it is encouraging to see new things happening after all the difficulties of the lockdowns. Perhaps you might pray with me for a blessing on all new, God-led initiatives by Churches.

Crocus buds January 18th

As snowdrops and other spring flowers are showing signs of new life, may that also be the case in our lives and communities.

After being stuck with my family history research, I have begun to find some interesting things, which should lead to a writing project some time in the future. Details of people’s lives are interesting, whether they were prospering or had times of adversity. Finding a writer on each side of my family (although not necessarily an ancestor in the direct line) has been interesting. One was a clerk and the other a printer and writer.

My posts for the next two weeks are almost ready. Those of you, who follow my blog for the book reviews should not be disappointed!

(For more of my photos, please click here.)