Today’s McCheyne bible reading has this line in it from Isaiah 30:15 : “in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” This made me think of the post from a couple of days ago where I quoted Unvield face saying “I have had so many times of frustration in my life, getting irritated that thigns were going wrong, that stuff broke, that I wasn’t achieving things that I planned – and all along it was not Murphy’s law but... Read more
Some people are still finding my short series on blogging of a while back quite helpful. For example Musterion has used it in his redesign. If the interest is there, I will gladly continue: Let me know what areas of blogging mistique you would like me to shed some light on and I will do my best. For now, here are the links to the series part 1: How to be a successful BloggerPart 2:Content of a BlogPart 3:Making Google... Read more
Unveiled Face has a great post about Ecclesiastes 12 and futility also citing Romans 8, and 1 Peter 1 he says: Wow! Only in Christ can we see two amazing truths: (1) That God himself subjected all of creation to futility, and (2) that in Christ, this futility itself is redeemed – futility becomes hope, just as the pains of a woman giving birth are joyful pains of hope – so long as her focus is on the future! These... Read more
In what may seem like a digression from my series on the church I now plan to spend some while speaking about teamwork. A couple of previous posts may help to give useful background, firstly one on barriers to community, and secondly one on the one-anothers of the bible. These posts are part of a theme on the importance of teamwork to the church, which is itself the thing that will change the world. Why is this so important? Because... Read more
It is important to note that the churches in Acts were led by teams. This was such a crucial thing to Paul that there was an occassion when he refused to preach when a door was open to him because his team were not with him. This point is so vital that I intend to dwell on it for several posts, in a sub-series “leadership teamwork that changes the world” For today suffice it to say that the bible nothing... Read more
Eternal Perspectives in a tongue-in-cheek way accuses me of being obsessed and says that the NASB and ESV are very similar. This prompted me to choose a passage of scripture and illustrate the way different translations have translated it. I will do this in order with more literal and/or difficult English first and less literal and/or paraphrased English last. This roughly represents the spectrum of versions we are fortunate enough to have. And lest anyone think I am totally obsessed,... Read more
“..he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith” Acts 11:24 A good church starts with good leaders. There simply isn’t any substitutefor a good man who is filled with the Spirit and trusts his God. Leaders must have the gentle servant heart that Barnabus demonstrated.They must not be self-seeking. They must care, and have learnt exemplarycharacter. If your leaders do not reflect Jesus to you then there issomething very wrong. Leaders cannot rely on their... Read more
Well, thanks to everyone for their suggestions and help for me in this unique opportunity I have been given to interview the ESV translation committee. Here are my choice of the questions submitted and quite a few more of my own thrown in for good measure! Watch this space for the answers coming soon….. 1. It is of note that the group of scholars who wrote the ESV include some great giants of evangelicalism. I wonder how important to the... Read more
The Gad(d)about:: “In the blogging world, however, we are all separated by a common audience. Warnock, UK preacher and popular Evangelical blogger, has earned his portion of it. I have not. Warnock writes with authority because he is educated. I attempt to write with authority because I’m foolish and have little better to do. The whole experience of getting caught up in that ‘blog shower’ was like transitioning from the bleachers to the Indy 500 in my little Nissan Sentra... Read more
I have been reading “The seven habits of highly effective people”. LikeDavids response to Seligman, whilst I take thebible as my authority, I will gain wisdom from any source that contains it. Covey’s first habit is “be pro-active” which is essentially aboutexcercising leadership of yourself initially. His message seems to be asfollows- Its time to take control. Instead of blaming the world around you, and theexperiences you have had, recognise the responses you have made are whatenslave you. What makes... Read more
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