Breakfast like a ....

We were given an interesting snapshot of the breakfasting habits of the 'youth' in Sandwell at eXcel last night: 

4 had a sausage roll yesterday

1 had nothing 

1 had coco pops (I think my memory is right on that ...)

1 had toast 

1 had a packet of crisps 

Guilt within

Though we have abandoned the ancient categories, we still have a profound, inescapable sense that if we were examined we'd be rejected. We have a deep sense that we've got to hide our true self or at least control what people know about us. Secretly we feel that we aren't acceptable, that we have to prove to ourselves and other people that we're worthy, loveable, valuable...

...You may psychologize it: I have a complex, my parents didn't love me enough. I'm a victim, I have self-esteem issues. But there's no escaping the fact that we all have a sense we're unclean. 


[p73-74 King's Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus]

Death is ...

I was born into the Carnival. I've done all my living, sleeping, playing, growing, and throwing up at the Carnival. When I die, I won't escape it - not that I'd want to. Death is that black stripe above my head on the measuring board. When I've reached it, then I can go on the gnarly rides. 

(p1-2 Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl: Wide-Eyed Wonder in God's Spoken World)

Brushed your heart today?

Mark 7:1-23:

... the washings and efforts to stay clean and free from dirt and disease that were used by religious people in Jesus's day were a kind of visual aid that enabled them to recognise that they were spiritually and morally unclean and couldn't enter the presence of God unless there was some kind of spiritual purification. 

If you're going to meet up with somebody who is particularly important to you - for that big date or important job interview - you wash, you brush your teeth, you comb your hair. What are you doing? Getting rid of the uncleanness, of course. You don't want a speck or stain on you. ... The cleanliness laws were the same idea. Spiritually, morally, unless you're clean you can't be in the presence of a perfect and holy God. 

Jesus couldn't have agreed more with the religious leaders of his day about the fact that we are unclean before God, until for the presence of God. But he disagreed with them about the source of the uncleanness, and about how to address it.

[p 71-72 King's Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus]

Mad Marvels

In preparation for our new motiv8 series I watched these:

Not in your wildest dreams would you come up with this stuff!
Yet God spoke
and it was!

Not impossible

Commenting on Mark 6: 

(Jesus) is not merely the healer of afflicted individuals or the rescuer of endangered disciples; he is the one who is not bound by the rules of normal experience of what is possible and impossible. The Gospel of Mark (The new international Greek testament commentary) p263

Catch 22

Mike started our new series in Isaiah last Sunday.
Isaiah 36. And from the lips of an Assyrian military man a vital question for Judah and for us: 

On whom are you now depending?  (v5)

Option 1: Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die (Isaiah 22:13)

Option 2: Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Or what account is he? (Isaiah 2:22)

Option 3: Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other (Isaiah 45:22)

Mike also produced a nifty map for us too.  

Tiredness signs can kill

BBC Headline: Dozing driver hit sign warning sign about tiredness ...

learning is not the key

...the risk-averse are rarely emboldened by data. 

Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix p31

what a difference half a century makes!

A person born in 1492 could have witnessed in their lifetime: 

• an extraordinary flowering of artistic imagination concerning form and perspective in painting, sculpture, literature, architecture;
• the Reformation led by Luther and Calvin, ramifying out into almost every subculture and presaging the way religious difference would be formulated for centuries thereafter;
• the invention of the watch, enabling an unheralded fine-tuning in the measurement and coordination of daily time periods;
• observations of space and experimentation with lenses that would lead to the creation of the telescope; and
• the dissemination of the first newspaper, initiating the effects of widespread information-sharing within a community. 

Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix p30

Churches Helped

Harbouring desires for safety?

The safest place for ships is in the harbour,  

but that's not why ships were built. 

quoted on p29 of Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix.

theology so good you can watch it!

I am very excited about this next term in our 14-18 year old youth group (motiv8). 

We will be adapting the study material produced for this DVD:

notes from the tiltawhirl is an awesome DVD. 

Theology that you can 'watch', again and again! 

Paul Tripp says this of it:  "Combining stunning visuals with an entertaining and engaging text, Wilson yanks you out the numbing sameness of your frenetic pursuit of what quickly passes and leads you to care about and inquire into things that are transcendent. Don't watch it once. Watch it over and over again. It's just that powerful and important."

 

 

Say no more! 

Or open your mouth to declare His praise! 

Psearle Psalms

Jane and I have been thoroughly enjoying our Easter present to each other! 

Matt Searles's album Now and Not Yet 

If you have not listened online to this. DO IT! 

And then buy it.