I’ve just added a link to the Tyndale Tech blog.
Wonderful stuff, giving updates on technology and mining the riches of God’s word.
Its already been added to my Google Reader – why not yours?
aussies preoccupied?
Now, don’t get me wrong – I love cricket. I can sit down and watch every minute of 5 days of a test match, and enjoy it. I like going to the games, I like reading about the games. But not to the expense of everything else
In these recent days, I have begun to despair of the Aussie preoccpation with fluff and bluster. Check out this from today’s SMH webpage:
TODAY’S TOP 10 ARTICLES
Cricket chiefs wilt under fire
Testy tourists must now get back to work
Arrogant Ponting must be fired
Bucknor’s head served up on a platter
India tour back on
Qantas crash danger: jet loses power
Hair tells Bucknor: I know how you’re feeling
With the game ablaze, a dramatic move to douse flames
Black day for cricket when we walk away
Welcome to no wear
More most viewed articles
Cricket chiefs wilt under fire
Testy tourists must now get back to work
Arrogant Ponting must be fired
Bucknor’s head served up on a platter
India tour back on
Qantas crash danger: jet loses power
Hair tells Bucknor: I know how you’re feeling
With the game ablaze, a dramatic move to douse flames
Black day for cricket when we walk away
Welcome to no wear
More most viewed articles
8 out of 10 of the top read articles are about whether the Australian cricket team will get to keep playing cricket this summer, and whether they are good sportsmen or not. [Somehow, as an aberration, something about people nearly dying in a plane crash nearly made it into the top 5!]
How do we get a word in sideways about God’s grace in Jesus? Hmm…..
resolutions for the new year
I was encouraged by this post by John Piper heading into the new year, so I reproduce the list here for your edification (and mine!):
1. At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about me.
2. Instead of the accustomed idea of a mindless and endless evolutionary change to which we can neither add nor subtract, I shall suppose the universe guided by an Intelligence which, as Aristotle said of Greek drama, requires a beginning, a middle, and an end. I think this will save me from the cynicism expressed by Bertrand Russell before his death when he said: “There is darkness without, and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendor, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing.”
3. I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities. I shall not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil parentheses in my existence, but just as likely ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.
4. I shall not turn my life into a thin, straight line which prefers abstractions to reality. I shall know what I am doing when I abstract, which of course I shall often have to do.
5. I shall not demean my own uniqueness by envy of others. I shall stop boring into myself to discover what psychological or social categories I might belong to. Mostly I shall simply forget about myself and do my work.
6. I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their “divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic” existence.
7. I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of Lewis Carroll, the “child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder.”
8. I shall follow Darwin’s advice and turn frequently to imaginative things such as good literature and good music, preferably, as Lewis suggests, an old book and timeless music.
9. I shall not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested, “fulfill the moment as the moment.” I shall try to live well just now because the only time that exists is now.
10. Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life on the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the architect who calls himself Alpha and Omega.
Filed under life
the cast of christmas reassembles for easter
Take the wise men to the Emperor’s palace.
Wash their hands in water.
Get them to say something about truth.
Does anyone know any good Jewish jokes?
The one about a carpenterwho thought he was a King?
The one about the Saviour who couldn’t save himself?
The shepherds should stand with the chorus.
They have a big production number -‘Barabbas, We Love You Baby’.
Mary? She can move to the front.
We have a special section reserved for family and close friends.
Tell her that we had to cut the manger up.
We needed the wood for something else.
The star I’m afraid I can’t use.
There are no stars in this show.
The sky turns black with sorrow.
The earth shakes with terror.
Hold on to the frankincense.
We’ll need that for the garden scene.
Angels? He could do with some angels.
Avenging angels.
Merciful angels.
He could really do with some angels.
Baby Jesus.
Step this way please.
My! How you’ve grown!
an extraordinary Sunday of community
Last Sunday was an amazing experience at church. 400 or so people from church gathered for a meeting in the afternoon. These people are volunteers for the Carols by Candlelight event that St Paul’s is hosting next Sunday.
As the meeting came to a close, a couple of cracks of thunder, the heavens opened, and hail the size of golf balls pounded the site. Everyone gathered outside to watch their vehicles in the carpark get their own golf-ball like dimples. (It was over in 10 minutes, and the sun came out!).
As the meeting came to a close, a couple of cracks of thunder, the heavens opened, and hail the size of golf balls pounded the site. Everyone gathered outside to watch their vehicles in the carpark get their own golf-ball like dimples. (It was over in 10 minutes, and the sun came out!).
The same storm killed the power, not only of St Paul’s, but of all of Castle Hill. All of our electric amps and keyboards, powerpoint screens and microphones were rendered useless. So, as 5pm church approached, our musos rose to the challenge. They ditched the songs they had been rehearsing all afternoon, and worked out songs that they could lead with just acoustic guitars and pianos, and that enough people would know how to sing without words on a screen. They pulled it off beautifully. Pray-ers, bible readers and the preacher rediscovered the lost art of voice projection, and the congregation cooperated by moving seats to reduce the range.
The ante was upped for the 7pm service. At about 6.15, we realised that light in the building was fading fast. Again, people sprang into action, finding and setting up candles on the stage. The noise was stripped right back, but the singing was fired right up. The candles flickered, punctuating the night as the preacher wandered the stage speaking God’s word into the darkness.
And the text for the day?
For you were once darkness, but now you are a light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Ephesians 5:8-9.
For you were once darkness, but now you are a light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Ephesians 5:8-9.
God is awesome, and it was great to see the fruit of His Spirit as people bound together to serve each other and to praise His holy name. Unforgettable.
christmas is really for the children
Christmas is really for the children.
Especially for children
who like animals, stables,
stars and babies wrapped
in swaddling clothes.
Then there are wise men,
kings in fine robes,
humble shepherds and a
hint of rich perfume.
Easter is not really
for the children
unless accompanied by
a cream filled egg.
It has whips, blood, nails,
a spear and allegations
of body snatching.
It involves politics, God
and the sins of the world.
It is not good for people
of a nervous disposition.
They would do better to
think on rabbits, chickens
and the first snowdrop
of spring.
Or they’d do better to
wait for a re-run of
Christmas without asking
too many questions about
what Jesus did when he grew up
or whether there’s any connection.
Steve Turner [http://www.rejesus.co.uk/expressions/steve_turner/poem2.html]
get you thinking…
An excellent series of thoughtful and measured posts on the first few chapters of Genesis here:
http://reflectionsinexile.blogspot.com/
Worth a look.
Filed under theology
the way, the truth, the life
I am the way to God: I did not come
To light a path, to blaze a trail, that you
May follow simply in my tracks, pursue
My shadow like a prize that’s cheaply won.
My life reveals the life of God, the sum
Of all he is and does. So how can you,
The sons of night, look on me and construe
My way as just the road for you to run?
My path takes in Gethsemanae, the Cross,
And stark rejection draped in agony.
My way to God embraces utmost loss:
Your way to God is not my, but me.
Each other path is dismal swamp, or fraud.
I stand alone: I am the way to God.
I am the truth of God: I do not claim
I merely speak the truth, as though I were
A prophet (but no more), a channel, stirred
By Spirit power, of purely human frame.
Nor do I say that when I take his name
Upon my lips, my teaching cannot err
(Though that is true). A mere interpreter
I’m not, some prophet-voice of special fame.
In timeless reaches of eternity
The Triune God decided that the Word,
The self-expression of the Deity,
Would put on flesh and blood – and thus be heard.
The claim to speak truth good men applaud.
I claim much more: I am the truth of God.
I am the resurrection life. It’s not
As though I merely bear life-giving drink,
A magic elixir which (men might think)
Is cheap because though lavish it’s not bought.
The price of life was fully paid: I fought
With death and black despair; for I’m the drink
Of life. The resurrection morn’s the link
Between my death and endless life sought.
I am the firstborn from the dead; and by
My triumph, I deal death to lusts and hates.
My life I no extend to men, and ply
Them with the draught that ever satiates.
Religion’s page with empty boasts is rife:
But I’m the resurrection and the life.
D.A.Carson, The Gospel According to John. Leicester: IVP, 1991: 492-3.
where I live
McMansions, mortgages, and the stress of materialism – we’ve got the lot!
Check out this SMH article.
Filed under materialism, stress
In Anticipation 