Sunday shopping!

One of the items in the recent UK Budget was the proposal, by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to relax restrictions in Sunday Trading.  This was in spite of a pre-election commitment made "on behalf of the Prime Minister." when, in April, a representative of the Conservatives wrote to campaign group Keep Sunday Special saying: “I can assure you that we have no current plans to relax the Sunday trading laws."

I seem to recall that, when the regulations were relaxed, in 1994, it was on the basis that we should have a "continental Sunday"!  However, having spent a considerable, and increasing, amount of time in France over the past twenty years, and some time in a number of other countries in continental Europe, I see no indication of "Sunday Trading" being the norm!   Indeed, apart from some of the larger supermarkets, one would have great difficulty in finding any shop open on a Sunday in 'my' part of France - and even they usually only open in the morning.

It is interesting, is it not, that medical and physiological experts have 'discovered' that human beings need one day in seven in which to relax, in order to avoid physical and/or mental breakdown.  They probably spent hundreds of thousands of pounds, sterling, on the research that led them to that conclusion.  They only needed to read the written Word of the Creator: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days you shall labour, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to YHWH your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days YHWH made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore YHWH blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." (Ex 20:8-11).

Isn't it interesting that all of the other important time markers in human life are clearly based on astronomical and terrestrial constants. The day, for example, is the duration of one rotation of the earth on its axis; the year is the duration of one orbital revolution of the earth about the sun; the month is the approximate interval between new moons; the seasons are marked by the equinoxes and solstices.

But the week has no astronomical basis whatever! Yet we order our lives in a seven-day cycle, doing certain things on Monday, certain other things on Tuesday, and so on through the week. Furthermore, the common pattern is one of six normal working days, then a day of rest or change, then six normal days again, and so on, with the special day regarded as either the last of the seven preceding it, or the first of the seven following it.  This is strong evidence to support both the existence of the Creator - and His creation!

However, I must make one observation.  That concerns the number of people, certainly in the areas in which I have lived in the UK since 1994, who cannot wait for the worship service to end - so that they can get round to their local supermarket to purchase the items that they 'forgot' to buy on Saturday; or that they just couldn't be bothered going out to buy!  That number includes, I regret to have to say, many who would class themselves as true disciples of Jesus!

If those who seek to worship God are so readily caught up in the 'god' of consumerism, then we have little about which to complain if the world not only opens its shop doors on the Lord's Day, but even insists that we (if we are in the retail business) work on that day!

Perhaps if believers were to so organise their lives that they had no need for Sunday Trading, then there would not be sufficient business to make it worthwhile for shops to open!  Jesus said: "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." (Matt 6:24; NIV).   Some need to heed the words of that great leader of the Children of Israel, Joshua: "... choose this day whom you will serve, ..." (Josh 24:15).   On the Day of Judgment, it will not be George Osborne, or David Cameron, to whom we will have to answer, but Almighty God Himself!  

Now that's maybe a thought worth pondering!

He knows - and that's enough!

It is no secret that 2014 was a difficult year for my family and me.  My younger daughter's having been diagnosed with the most aggressive type of cancer in one of her breasts was, of course, the major issue, and we are so grateful to God that she has completely recovered; and to many praying, and well-wishing, friends who supported her (and us!) through so many months.

The other issue of some importance has been our search for a suitable property in S.W. France, in order that we might fulfil the tasks to which we believe the Lord is calling us in that area.  It was only a couple of weeks ago that we were led to an appropriate house, at a price we could afford, and in the very commune (village) that we had, long ago, decided would be the place in which we would like to live if we were ever to make a more permanent move to France!  Hallelujah!

At the moment, my Bible reading for my personal devotions (aka "Quiet Time) is in John's account of the Gospel story.  It contains a well-known record of an event - one that is also recorded by each of the other evangelists.  Up on a mountain-side, Jesus looked at the thousands who had come to see, and hear, Him.  Then aware that they must be hungry, He turned to Philip (one of the Twelve) and asked, "How are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?" (John.6:5).   The somewhat pessimistic response was that, even if they had the full wages of a manual worker for about seven months, it wouldn't be enough to provide even a mouthful for each of the crowd!  By the way, if we take the current UK 'living wage' as £8.00/hour (a little above the recommended amount for those living outwith London), and base it on a 40-hour week, that comes to a staggering £67,200!  We can well understand why the only practical solution, as far as the disciples were concerned, was to send the people away to the surrounding villages in order to purchase provisions for themselves! (see Mark 6:36).

By the time John was writing his account of that well-known episode in the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus, he had realised that Jesus had asked the question only in order to test Philip for, "He Himself know what He would do." (John 6:6).  He planned to perform a miracle, and feed the entire company of some 5,000 men, plus women and children, until each was fully satisfied - and have a basketful of fragments, left over from the meagre rations with which He had started, for each of the Twelve!

Last year, I read one of the biographies of George Müller.  Here was a man who often rested in the comfort of those words that John wrote about Jesus.  During the middle part of the 19th century, he cared for literally thousands of orphans in the city of Bristol.  He had no regular means of support, and he never once was know to make an appeal for funds, yet all of the needs of the orphans - and the cost of building specially-designed houses - were constantly met.  The staff in the homes often faced desperate situations but, as they began to pray about the particular difficulty, their leader would always say: "The Lord is testing us.  I don't know what we'll do, but He knows - and that's enough!"   On every occasion, the need was met - often in quite amazing ways.

Sometimes, you and I face situations that seem to be impossible - whether an aggressive cancer, or a much lower budget than had been anticipated for the purchase of a house.  The challenges seem so great, and we are unable to see any resolution of the problem.  We can do no better than to continue to place the matter before the Lord.  He Who fed a hungry multitude with so little can also meet our every need.  You and I may often be perplexed, but He knows - and that's enough!  The poverty of my resources is more than matched by the provision of His grace.

An open letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Dear Mr Osborne,

Although I make no claim to be an economist, I think that I have now grasped the main points of your latest Budget, as they pertain to me - a teetotal pensioner with a very modest occupational pension, who does not play Bingo.

 

I am delighted to know that I am now able to deposit £15,000 in my ISA.  Unfortunately, the £50+ that it currently holds is about as much as it is going to have for the foreseeable future.   With that £50, I am probably still better off than many of my fellow senior citizens!  Even if I did have the level of savings that you appear to consider to be quite normal, the interest rate on the ISA that I do have is so low as to make it little better than placing my £15k in a sock, and hiding it under the mattress!

 

You have also ensured that I have greater freedom with regard to my 'pension pot'.  Regretfully, along with many others, my bed is already well made, and I must sleep thereon.

It was interesting to see that you have raised the personal tax allowance.  However, as far as I can see, you have not raised it for those of us who are receiving a state pension.  I am still awaiting the documentation from my occupational pension provider, but I suspect that the very small increase in my state pension will be, effectively, swallowed up by the fact that I will have to pay more tax on my occupational one.

 

All in all, I regret to have to say that I was not, at a personal level, the least bit impressed by your Budget.  Perhaps I missed something - and, if so, I trust that someone will enlighten me - but my personal verdict is a great 'thumbs down'.  This is one 'grey vote' that you will not have!

 

Kind regards.

 

[Now all that I need is for someone to direct Mr Osborne to my blog!!!!]

This is equality?

I have never made any claim to be an economist!  Helping to manage our household finances is sufficient for me.  However, I sometimes wonder if it should not be a basic requirement for the high office of Chancellor of the Exchequer that (s)he be fully qualified in money management!

Yesterday's U.K. Budget announcement did contain some welcome news.  I am happy that the planned increase in fuel tax has been abandoned - although I would be even happier to see the price of diesel back below that of petrol (as it is in, as far as I can make out, the rest of Europe, if not the world!).  Saving 1p off a pint of beer isn't going to affect this teetotaller one iota - but I am sure that it made some others a little bit happier (and it did replace a planned 6p/pint increase!).

However, one announcement left me confused.  A couple who earn up to a combined total of £300,000 per year (yes, that is three hundred thousand!) will soon be entitled to as much as £1200/year to help with their nursery-care costs - to a maximum of £6,000.  Now, unless a working couple have the time, and stamina, to bring a child into the world every year for five consecutive years, no-one is going to be receiving that maximum.  However, if a couple are earning up to £150,000 each, surely they can afford to pay nursery costs without expecting me, as a pensioner, to subsidise them!

At the same time, families with one working parent earning more than £50,000 per year, will soon be losing their Child Benefit Allowance!

This new deal is, we are informed, in order to enable more mothers to go to work!  That raises some additional questions:
1.  Where, with unemployment at its current level, are most of them going to get a job?
2.  Is not the full-time care of children a 'job'?  Or is it only so if one is caring for other people's children as a "nice wee earner"!?
3.  Is not the best carer of children, in the vast majority of cases, their natural, biological, mother?

If this is Mr Osborne's idea of equality, then heaven help us all.  The present Coalition Government certainly won't!