I’ve been a Christian for over 30 years and I’ve usually found that people in general do not really understand what a Christian is. They have various ideas which may be partly true but there are many misunderstandings and misconceptions about it so I’ve begun a series of talks. In the first one I try to define what is at the core of being a Christian. Here are some excerpts ….

Firstly I’ll tell you what I don’t mean: it’s not a system of behaviours or a set of rules or even the worship of a god, although some of those things may be apparent in my life.

Remember “religion attempts to relate humanity to supernatural or spiritual elements”

The overriding factor in being a Christian is having a changed life. You can’t be born a Christian. You can’t even be brought up or trained to be a Christian. At some point in your life you have to go through a change which is actually a spiritual experience. You have to have a revelation of something you did not know or realise before. The Bible calls it being “born again”. So what does it mean to be born again? This is where the genes come in….

To hear more and understand what I mean about genes, watch this talk at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pdNukbEZ8A

In March this year we braved the snow to film the Above Rubies Ladies’ Retreat near Reading UK. Nancy Campbell’s theme was The Glory of the Home. It was a refreshing change to hear Biblical truths boldly expounded which are now so contrary to the world’s way of thinking.  The home should be the heart of family life. God has called women to be “homemakers” but the world has tried to get them out of the home, doing other things. Nancy calls us back to the home to make it a place of glory where the children can be safe and content. There is some thorough Bible study on the Hebrew meanings of various words connected with house and home. Activities in the home such as mealtimes, prayer, worship, decoration and fellowship are given their rightful place. The home is a dwelling place, a resting place both for ourselves and for the Lord. There is nowhere we would rather be!   A set of 6 CDs or DVDs is available for purchase through our website Shop page. The sixth disk contains several testimonies from ladies on various aspects of their lives in the home. Here is the first session in full to get you interested! https://youtu.be/ltz1S7ifc2Q

It’s coming up to the time when the church celebrates Pentecost – the event which happened in Acts Chapter 2. The scriptures record that the 12 apostles were all with one accord in one place. They were obeying the last command of Jesus before He ascended to heaven – not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the Promise of the Father – the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He said they would receive power and be witnesses to Him in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. As they waited they prayed and suddenly a sound of a rushing mighty wind and tongues as of fire appeared and sat on each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other (unknown) tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. At this time there were Jews from various nations gathered for the Feast. They heard the apostles (Galileans) speak in their own languages declaring the wonderful works of God. Then Peter explained this phenomenon as a fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy and proclaimed the gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection to the crowd. They repented and were baptised and that day 3,000 souls were added to the church. If the Holy Spirit had not given them the ability to speak in other tongues none of this may have happened. It was a miraculous breaking of the language barrier. There are around 7,000 distinct languages in the world and thanks to many dedicated bible translators some of them now have at least a portion of the Bible translated but many still do not. People need both the Bible and good Christian teaching in their own language. Since we recorded Roy Godwin’s teaching in 2014 his five sessions on Prayer and Blessing have been dubbed into 7 different languages – Swahili, Turkish, French, Welsh, Portuguese, German and just recently Farsi. More are to come and we rejoice that the teaching is reaching more people, causing growth in local churches around the world!

Modern technology can be used for good or bad purposes. It used to be said “the camera never lies” and a picture would serve as accurate documentary evidence of an event or person but things have changed in recent years. We can no longer trust any image we see to be a true representation of reality. At PDT Media we have found green screening (or Chroma key) is a useful way of superimposing your subject onto a virtual background and so creating a more interesting and relevant composite picture. You do need a large area of green though. The one you see in this picture can be folded up and packed into a circular hoop. We also have Chroma curtains which we use for some scenes. Green is used because it does not contain any skin tone and provides the best contrast. When editing you have to isolate one area from the rest. Blue can also be used but green is better but you must warn your subject not to wear green. Any clothing that matches the background too closely will also key out, punching a hole in your subject’s body, or making him invisible altogether. In the use of the green screen we seek to enhance the basic image in order to communicate more effectively to the viewer the message we are bringing. So when David is talking about Jerusalem we can transport him to that location and thereby bring to life what he is saying.