Piper’s Biographic lectures are some of my favourite listening when I go out for a walk.

I loved this story that a man recorded of George Whitefield’s.

“I’ll tell you a story. The Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 1675 was acquainted with mister Butterton the actor. One day the Archbishop said to Butterton, “pray, inform me Mr. Butterton, what is the reason you actors on the stage can affect  your congregations with speaking of things imaginary as if they were real, while we in the church, speak of things real, which our congregations only receive as if they were imaginary?”
“Why my Lord,” says Butterton, “the reason is very plain. We actors on the stage speak of things imaginary as if they were real and you in the pulpit speak of things real as if they were imaginary.”

Therefore, added Whitfield, I will bawl, I will not be a velvet mouthed preacher.”

[I was about to write “do we,” but really… I ought to ask myself this question first & foremost]

Do I shy away too much from emotion? A relationship with God is fundemantally a relational and personal thing: have I allowed it to become too much of a head thing & not enough of the heart?

I’m not a Whitefield (who is? the guy preached up to 1000 sermons a year!) but that doesn’t mean I ought to shy away from the emotional truth of the gospel.

Something to think about.

 

I love my work for a whole bunch of reasons. Who wouldn’t love it when you’re job is to share the most life-changing news with people full-time?!

I also love the people I work with, and particularly my boss.

Here’s just a couple of reasons from monday.

1: We were having a staff development day, and I started the day joking about how I’d told me wife that we’d be going to a favourite restaurant for lunch, just to stir a little. So what does he do? He actually takes us there!
Just to top things off, his lovely wife also took Shona & the twins there too!

2: During the work part of the day we worked through a leadership profile thing not unlike Myers Briggs. It was fantastic. It’s a lovely affirmation to see that different areas where we do things reflect different skill sets we have. It’s also great to see new ways that we can work together, using each other’s skill sets effectively.

3: After all of this, despite the fact that it was his day off, he came around & fixed up our front door lock, taught me how to replace washers in a tap, then helped me fix a towel rail too!

What’s almost as good as telling people the good news about Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection? Having a boss who displays what this actually means to him in the way he lives his life!

A nice challenge for me to live up to.

Oh, I better not forget the food!

Nice

 

So I dropped about 28 kilograms (almost 62lb for the Americans amongst us) since last December.

It hasn’t been the easiest thing on earth, but at the same time it wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be. The big question is where I go to from here? I’m expecting that maintenance might actually be trickier than loss, because you don’t have the victory to record every week as you go along. Can you keep as focussed when victory just means remaining stagnant?

We’ll have to see….

I owned Micro Machines when I was a kid. Those things were awesome.

This is pretty cool.

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/64585891″>Micro Mayhem!</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user3543932″>Stoopid Buddy Stoodios</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

As they get older, I want to open my kids to a broader range of music.

Also, as I get older, I find myself enjoying the reminiscence that comes with pulling out those CDs I bought when I was half the age I am now.

But I’m a different guy.

I still love old school rap, and it’s not all foul mouthed…. but a fair bit of it is. I don’t love the music because of the words, but that doesn’t change the fact that a fair few of them are dodgy.

Would I be happy for my kids to hear everything I own? Would I be happy if I heard them singing along to some of the stuff? If I decide that I’m going to throw out the music that is particularly rude (there goes Rage Against the Machine’s Killing in the name…) does this mean I also have to revisit my DVDs? I really like Pulp Fiction!  

Or is it important to acknowledge that these elements that we don’t like are still part of the world that we live in, and that part of becoming a discerning individual is learning what to focus on, and what to ignore with our ears?

It looks like PE can step out of the cross hairs for the moment. No rash judgements…. but no promises either.