Andy B Podcasts and Stuff

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Andy B is a champion multi-tasker. When you look after children, or the home, it’s just something you become quite good at! 

You also get very good at it, when operating a lorry mounted crane with 7 controls – and you’re using 5 of them at the same time – and while offloading an abnormally large item, with pedestrians who seem to be rushing to their own end, and ignoring any number of safety warnings, barriers and people you’ve put in place to keep them away from what you’re doing! That one might just have been more specifically a regular situation Andy B encountered as a truck driver – it may not something you’re likely to encounter when you’re popping to the shops!

But, that multi-tasking skill is something we’ve all learned to do during Covid. In a family situation it can be a really useful skill to learn. But, in the workplace, it becomes less so. And when it comes to spending time with God, being able to multi-task becomes a real issue.

With Zoom meetings, and online church, it’s become super easy to not actually be in the room.

Zoom meetings are on in the background, rather than the reason you’re actually tuning in in the first place. Because you’ve already tuned out and are writing those far more important emails instead. Or just ordering your dinner for the night on your phone.

And when it comes to spending time with God we can easily try to text and pray – to literally be praying to God, or reading the bible, or watching the church service. While, the whole time, never really tuning in.

Granted, it’s very easy to be distracted when you’re in a church service physically, whether that’s the dodgy parking you saw in the church car park that terrified you, the overly strong perfume from the woman in front, or the rustling of sweet wrappers, or maybe that one is just me?!? Really, why would I want to share if I brought them in and you didn’t!

But, when we’re not exactly in the physical room, it’s so much easier to not be in the room at all. Which means that we need to re-learn how to concentrate, and be in the moment and focus.

 And when it comes to our time with God, we need to re-learn how to put the phone away and on silent and how to actually listen to God, without trying to multi-task our way to the bits we’d rather hurry up and get to!

Just a thought…

Andy B

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The word ‘change’ can often conjure up our worst nightmares.

It means letting go of things. And learning new things.

It means we won’t be able to use that remote control from memory – we’ll have to stop and look for the buttons we want, that are no longer there, because now they’re in a different position, have a different shape and have a different word – so we walk over to the TV and turn if off by hand.

You know, that kind of change!

But change doesn’t have to be bad. In fact, change is great. Just like the weather and the seasons. We don’t want 12 months of summer, or 12 months of winter. Otherwise, crops wouldn’t go, we’d get fed up, and things in the world would not be so good.

So change is a necessary part of our life, and change is something we should celebrate. Unless it’s the TV remote, then it’s a whole other thing to work out!!

Just a thought…

Andy B

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Sitting in my lounge one morning, and I could see lovely, beautiful, skies out of one window. Turn my head, and a window on the other side of the house only showed dark, ominous looking clouds.

And life can be like that. Depending on where we’re looking, or even how we’re looking at it, things can appear very different based on our perspective.

And we can choose how we wish to see life.

We can’t do anything about surprises happening, be they good or bad. But, we can prepare ourselves better for the vast majority of things we face, each day.

But, sometimes, when we’re feeling really low; when we’re having a really rubbish day, it can be as simple as lightening our shoulders by simply changing our perspective.

Just a thought…

Andy B

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WiFi networks have become such an important part of all our lives, whether we’re even aware of that fact or not.

It doesn’t matter whether you make use of them – they, just, are!

It can be really tough finding a good network though, so you can ‘get online’. There can be problems with security – with open (and often, free) networks; download speeds determined by location, how many users are logging on and a whole host of other variables.

It can feel, sometimes, just as technically challenging to pray to God too. But it really isn’t.

His network is always secure. It is always ‘up – and never crashes. It has unlimited upload and download speeds, and there is no fair use cap if you use it too much.

And no matter how many users are online at the same time, you can guarantee to be heard.

So, where do you need to take time to pause your day, and spend a little quality time on the only network that you can be sure of?

Just a thought…

Andy B

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It's been a while since we last filmed, or published an Episode of Marriage Matters. Well, we're back!

This week we look at "In Sickness and Health", and share a couple of times that sickness part has been put to the test!

Andy and Jo

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It’s been a while since a couple of things happened. 

The first is Andy seeing his own face, without a beard. 

The second is filming any new material for the BerryBunch.

With a house move completed successfully, and the BerryBunch Studio, Mk. 3 up and running, and Andy was stroking his beard and pondering how he had arrived at a place where he could actually stroke his own beard!!

Growth can be messy, just like growing a beard. But without the mess, it’s hard to really grow.

Just a thought…

Andy B

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Life can be full of challenges!

Sometimes it is the difficulty of making, what should be, a really simple decision. But, with age, comes wisdom. And with wisdom comes arrogance. Without God’s intervention, we’d be doing life on our own. Wait, don’t we do that anyway?

The good news for those of us who love Jesus, is that when He died, rose and again and ascended to Heaven, Jesus didn’t leave us on our own to figure things out.

Because He loved, and loves, us so very much He left us with the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is also, mercifully, named Comforter. And He truly cares about all the details!!!!!

Which means if you are struggling to decide whether you should dispose of your lovely, solid pine table and chair dining set, the Holy Spirit – who knows of your my stubbornness to trust that God really does care about the details – will speak through, perhaps, your oldest son with wisdom to rival even King Solomon.

Just a thought…

Andy B

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Introduction

Andy B and Jo jump right in with Song of Songs, the book in the bible all about marriage. And in this book, we are warned more than once – ‘Do not awaken love before it’s time’. 

This is a gentle way of telling us about intimacy in relationships and the best time to awake this kind of love is when we are married. 

Find out why this is important as Andy B and Jo discuss intimacy in and out of marriage. 

#RealTalk – ‘Don’t awaken love before it’s time’

Promise me, O women of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and wild deer, not to awaken love until the time is right. (Song of Songs 2:7 NLT)

Andy and Jo take a look at Song of Songs. This is God’s instruction on all things marriage, dating and sex. They talk through the effects of erotic literature, pornography and nudity on TV, and whether this is something that is good or bad for us.

There is so much pressure on people either to get married, or conversely, to avoid marriage and become another member of the ‘hook up society’.

With increasing access for all ages to extreme, and violent, pornography, and children under 10 learning how to have sex and being indoctrinated to think that it is no big deal to engage in sexual encounters, Andy and Jo talk through God’s plan.

It’s easy to focus on the negatives, but God desires husbands and wives to enjoy each other sexually. He designed it to be as pleasurable as possible for those in marriages. And it just gets better with both time and practice – all part of God’s plan for those who commit themselves to lifelong marriages as a husband and wife. 

Homework!

Read Philippians 4 v 8-9 and meditate on it.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

Andy and Jo

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As a Stay-At-Home-Dad for more than 15 years I’ve thoroughly loved everything with caring for my family and our home.

But since catching Covid a little over a month ago, discovering an issue with my heart, getting through a lung infection and adjusting to a whole host of medication to keep me healthy until the heart issue can be resolved, it has taken a lot out of me.

The most challenging part is being on blood thinners. Because there is so much I can’t do, or need to seriously question whether I should do that, or not.

My family are great, and have been doing everything to make me feel valuable and loved, despite me doing virtually nothing around the home for nearly 5 weeks. At the time of writing, I’m still doing everything I can to ensure my heart rate remains as low as practicable, which further restrict what I can actually do.

But, today, for the first time in more than 7 weeks, I changed the bedding on Jo, and my, bed.

I can’t tell you how chuffed I was to be able to accomplish this seemingly small thing. And when you can’t do something, that ‘thing’ becomes an ever greater obstacle.

But. And this is a big but! When we can’t do what we normally do, it opens up to us the possibility of doing different things. And that can be immensely beneficial.

While there are things that are, God willing only temporarily out of my reach right now, there is still plenty I can do!

So, where is God asking you to step forward, and “Do What You Can When You Can?”

Just a thought…

Andy B

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We all have ways of coping with difficulties and stress of life. That goes for the good stuff too.

We, each of us, have ways of processing what comes our way each and every day.

But, sometimes, the daily grind have a negative effect on our ability to cope with the very things we ‘know’ we should be able to easily deal with.

Much like the filters on a car, their function degrades as they do their job until, eventually, the need replacing to keep everything working properly.

Where are you carrying burdens? Where are your body’s physical and emotional filters getting worn out, and you know they need replacing.

God is the expert mechanic – go to Him, and let Him, as the one who designed you as you are, help you deal with those things that you know are simply slowing down your ability to live well.

Just a thought…

Andy B

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