there is a great principle of ministry that you can see glimpses of in the life of Jesus: Teacher does, pupils watch. Teacher does, pupils are involved and do it with Him. Pupils do and teacher watches. Pupils do by themselves and report back to teacher. Then later the pupils find their own pupils and the whole scenario begins again. In this passage in Mark 6.6-13 we see Jesus sending the disciples out to try [...]
i am busy reading 'the life of Pi' having already watched the movie and there are definitely some interesting thoughts on religion in it - while i don't necessarily agree with everything written so far, this piece i found absolutely profound: 'And that wasn't the end of it. There are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God, as if Ultimate Reality, as if the sustaining frame of existence, were something weak and [...]
so by now, anyone that is interested [and possibly some that aren't] knows that tbV and i will be heading to Oakland, California just across from San Francisco [come visit!] in the short next while to be working with Relational Tithe/Common Change and you also have an idea of what that is all about and how it works... but a lot of people have been asking about the specifics of what each of us will [...]
'For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.' i mean, that's quite an intro already, right? and possibly carries a profoundly deep message in terms of really getting our minds around the fact that David, altho he had messed up horribly, still ends up at the feet of God, rather than simply trying to hide or run the other way... [...]
in the space of a week we go from the craziness surrounding the public 'investment' into the news, gossip and views surrounding the Oscar Pistorius case [where everyone had an opinion, a judgement, a Barry Bateman courtroom tweet to retweet and an emotional or political response] to the 3am [in South Africa] screening of the Academy Awards Oscars ceremony which is a few minutes away from starting... there seems to be a lot of similarity [...]
this was our wedding day and as one does, we had an original authentic replica of the Aragorn sword from the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy that our friend who ran our drum circle [as one does] brought with him for the occasion... the question 'do you want me to bring my authentic Aragon sword replica?' has only one correct answer and you figure out the details later... so we took this picture: and [...]
well i thought everyone who was interested had an idea of what we are doing next but having explained our next moves three times to people in the last few days i figured it wouldn't hurt having another explanation up - for those of you who have heard this, you can skip this one... from June 2011 to Dec 2012 the beautiful Val [tbV] and i were working and living with the Simple Way in [...]
Continuing my sharing of positive news: Anyone who has heard Nick Vujicic speak or seen him on a video will have been deeply inspired... Nick's Wikipedia page gives a brief intro to this giant of a man: 'Nicholas James "Nick" Vujicic (born 4 December 1982) is a Serbian Australian evangelist and motivational speaker born with tetra-amelia syndrome, a rare 'disorder characterized by the absence of all four limbs. As a child, he struggled mentally and [...]
i love Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis - it's usually good, but every now and then it's this: [For another great Pearls before Swine strip involving nationality pun play, click here]
in the light of the Oscar Pistorius case and other heavy negative stories that are filling up the newswaves, it is good to be reminded of some of the good stories that are taking place out there: 'At the end of January, eight days of rain left the people of Limpopo reeling. The district of Vhembe was one of the worst hit areas. Homes were damaged, water pipes broken and uprooted, and at least eight [...]