It's hard to beat playing 12-player halo in one's loungeroom until the wee hours - except of course by going to sleep and sleeping in enough to make you able to rationalise it the next morning. That's not going to happen. *psyches himself up for a halo hangover*
I knew the "all-nighter" was never going to happen.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Monday, May 15, 2006
ignorant cardboard
Who of you has watched John Saffran vs. God? I watched some yesterday, and found it quite funny. Then I watched the episode where he visits the exorcist. After watching, it took me about 10 minutes before I moved out of my seat, which affirms what I believe about ignorance being the greatest work of Satan over Western society. Nobody acts like that.
It makes me recall something from a C.S. Lewis essay that was read to us at Connect one night this year. Part of the vibe was that there is no such thing as a mortal human being - after God's final judgement we will eternally be either a creature of unimaginable glory or of unimaginable horror, according to whether we are saved or not. We aren't this yet, but we have been given a deposit to guarantee it. We who are saved have the Holy Spirit of the living Jesus in us, whose glory our eyes can't see except in changed lives and hearts, which rightly point us to God as the source of these. But the glory of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us would be all too evident to the demons in the world (and why should there be fewer of those in the world now than there were when Jesus walked the earth?), and that would fill them with terror. Something interesting to ponder... Satan is scared of us. Why else would he attack us with a curse of ignorance? If we were aware of all He did, then surely we would be far more effective tools against Him in Christ's hand than we are now.
P.S. If my rants ever turn heretical, please tell me.
It makes me recall something from a C.S. Lewis essay that was read to us at Connect one night this year. Part of the vibe was that there is no such thing as a mortal human being - after God's final judgement we will eternally be either a creature of unimaginable glory or of unimaginable horror, according to whether we are saved or not. We aren't this yet, but we have been given a deposit to guarantee it. We who are saved have the Holy Spirit of the living Jesus in us, whose glory our eyes can't see except in changed lives and hearts, which rightly point us to God as the source of these. But the glory of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us would be all too evident to the demons in the world (and why should there be fewer of those in the world now than there were when Jesus walked the earth?), and that would fill them with terror. Something interesting to ponder... Satan is scared of us. Why else would he attack us with a curse of ignorance? If we were aware of all He did, then surely we would be far more effective tools against Him in Christ's hand than we are now.
P.S. If my rants ever turn heretical, please tell me.
comfort
"As for God, his way is perfect;
the word of the LORD is flawless.
He is a shield
for all who take refuge in him."
- Psalm 18:30, NIV
Who can deny it, when He brings good out of all situations?
the word of the LORD is flawless.
He is a shield
for all who take refuge in him."
- Psalm 18:30, NIV
Who can deny it, when He brings good out of all situations?
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Saturday, April 29, 2006
cardboardwagon
Bandwagons are fun to jump on. If you want to, you can imagine yourself doing some James Bond-esque manoeuvre involving a fast car, a ridiculously intense situation and a perilously attractive foreign national, but that's not necessary.
[space]:http://spaces.msn.com/cardboardsword
[space]:http://spaces.msn.com/cardboardsword
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Sunday, April 23, 2006
help
could you please pray for me?
tiredness is distractingly high
motivation is inexplicably low
apathy is dangerously present
tiredness is distractingly high
motivation is inexplicably low
apathy is dangerously present
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
rhetorical cardboard
I was struck on the weekend by the image of my grandfather's loneliness, brought about by my grandmother living in a nursing home because of dementia. She's not at home anymore, physically or mentally. How could he hold up under that... with going to see her every day; seeing her make so little sense and forgetting her grandchildren and talking about people who died years ago as though they were still alive and being unable to function properly after being so sharp for so long, then going home to a house that is empty for the first time in more than fifty years? And why, oh why, do I want to be in his shoes?
Monday, April 17, 2006
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
for evermore
the king of chaos overruled;
by light, the darkness ever fooled;
delight: the blazing longswords still
and ringing yet of conquest's thrill.
the vanquished foe becomes no more,
and victory crowns glory's door
for evermore.
the king of glory, saints surround;
such light, for glory does abound;
no night: the glory never fades,
it sings the kingdom's accolades:
from start of days the king foresaw,
that bitter death would this day fall
for evermore.
the king of mercy seated nigh;
by blood, the fallen lifted high;
a flood: the saved who stood in faith;
their hope confirmed, they see his face.
all joy on earth will never draw
the like of this joy, without flaw
for evermore.
by light, the darkness ever fooled;
delight: the blazing longswords still
and ringing yet of conquest's thrill.
the vanquished foe becomes no more,
and victory crowns glory's door
for evermore.
the king of glory, saints surround;
such light, for glory does abound;
no night: the glory never fades,
it sings the kingdom's accolades:
from start of days the king foresaw,
that bitter death would this day fall
for evermore.
the king of mercy seated nigh;
by blood, the fallen lifted high;
a flood: the saved who stood in faith;
their hope confirmed, they see his face.
all joy on earth will never draw
the like of this joy, without flaw
for evermore.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
cardboard criminal
[before]
[after]
In my defence, I'd only just woken up.
$608 and rising.
(if you need a receipt, talk to me)
$608 and rising.
(if you need a receipt, talk to me)
Sunday, April 02, 2006
for the cardboard waits with eager longing
FWA 06 - who would have thought? When you mix a handful of Christian nerds, a life giving message and a lot of pegs, you'd expect something remarkable... but I never, despite my eager excitement, could have imagined just how much life would be given.
Now, I feel the need for a formula:
Sleep Requirement: S(T) = N(w) + ALσ(n) exp(F(t)Φ(t)) / s(t+T)
where F(t) = food consumption over time
Φ(t) = fun acquisition over time
s(t) = sleep acquisition over time
σ(n) = general spading activity per camp attendee
L = teaching quality factor
A = arbitrary personality constant
t = time since start of camp
T = time since end of camp
N(w) = formula writer's nerd factor: function of formulas written
Watch this space, I'll write soon.
Now, I feel the need for a formula:
Sleep Requirement: S(T) = N(w) + ALσ(n) exp(F(t)Φ(t)) / s(t+T)
where F(t) = food consumption over time
Φ(t) = fun acquisition over time
s(t) = sleep acquisition over time
σ(n) = general spading activity per camp attendee
L = teaching quality factor
A = arbitrary personality constant
t = time since start of camp
T = time since end of camp
N(w) = formula writer's nerd factor: function of formulas written
Watch this space, I'll write soon.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Thursday, February 23, 2006
of greater worth than cardboard
There's an illness I've noticed that we Australians can suffer from, and I hereby choose to call it LCS - Lonely Culture Syndrome. Our culture is so far removed from it's roots that we experience a distance from the world around us. It is the result of being surrounded by countries with non-European cultures, and being so far from the European cultures from which many of our ancestors came. They brought with them what they could when they settled here but that could only go so far, and even today with seemingly limitless electronic communications connecting us to the rest of the world, Australia remains geographically isolated from the cultures that seem familiar to our own. I speak from my experiences - England felt like home when I went there, because it was familiar, yet it was so, so far away from home. Being home now, I know I am home but I do feel a long way from anywhere. I think that since we feel distant, we become detached. The events of world history, and even the events of today, can feel like stories made up specially for TV so stressed-out business people can imagine that there's worse things going on when they get home after a 12hr day at the office. I felt very sobered walking around Berlin, where events of huge world significance occurred even in my own short lifetime. Those things actually did happen, right there. That stretch of the Berlin Wall is not a replica. People actually died because of decisions made in that building. And in Dachau, about 60 years ago, there was a pile of dead bodies outside that building when the Americans came along and liberated the concentration camp. It is stunning, and alarming, just how unreal it felt just because it was so real.
Why am I writing about this now, when it's late and I could be sleeping? Because I believe I have found the reason for the notable absence of some spiritual gifts in our churches. Have you ever stopped to think why we see no miracles these days? Or like me, do you simply think that miracles these days are limited to what may seem, to the untrained eye, to be coincidences? Let me ask you: what has changed about God since Jesus and the Apostles walked the earth, since the blind received their sight, the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed, the deaf heard, the dead were raised and the poor were preached the good news? Has God's Spirit been weakened? Is the Spirit sleeping? Has it taken longer than expected for Jesus to return, so that God is economising the Spirit's power so it'll last out until that day? Surely not, for we well know that the Spirit is alive and active in our churches and amongst our brothers and sisters, renewing lives from the inside out, giving gifts and bearing fruit, and guiding through prophecy and the understanding of the Scriptures. So why don't we see healings, conversions by the thousands in a single day, or even the raising of the dead, in many of our churches?
- Matthew 17:20
I hear stories from missionaries of miraculous things happening in Africa and Asia, of the sort I would expect only to find within the covers of the Bible. For instance, the story of a girl being rescued from the clutches of a demon that was levitating her above the ground. I think to myself when I hear of things like this, "Wow! Isn't it amazing what God does over there?"
I spoke with a girl tonight, the sister of one of my friends. She grew up in an Anglican church, and so knows solid doctrine when she hears it. She now goes to a church that runs a healing ministry, where people are actually healed, and where this ministry is founded on biblically solid teaching. And I think to myself as I hear her speak, "Wow! Isn't it amazing what God is doing at that church?"
What kind of a reaction is "Wow!" anyway? I know what it's not - an expression of expectant faith. The Holy Spirit that works through missionaries to cast out demons in Africa is the same that transforms the hearts and minds of Christians in Sydney. The Holy Spirit which heals people in the Blue Mountains is the same that prophecies through the ministers at St Barnabas Broadway every Sunday. So why am I surprised, as though the Australian Customs people were so strict that demons just don't get into Australia, or as though healings can't happen when we have so many good doctors around? Why is my first reaction, "Wow!", without even a hint of "Well of course... if Jesus did it, of course His followers will do the same"? You see, it's not a "Wow!" of joy, it's a "Wow!" of suddenly-uncovered disbelief, because it is an almost completely foreign concept to me that this stuff actually happens now. And it's an even more foreign concept that it can happen here, right here in Sydney, at St Barnabas, in the EU, in the Terraces, through my ministers, my friends or even myself. In my world, I don't expect to see the power of the Most High at work in much more than a good run of green traffic lights... but it's not my world. In my world, the greatest spiritual battle is often to stand up against the temptation to let my Christianity be ignored as I talk to non-Christians (I don't belittle this battle, it's a huge and a very important one)... but again, it's not my world. In God's world, there are demons, who have a very powerful and treacherous master in Satan, but there is also the Almighty Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who made demons tremble, who made the sick well, and who has defeated death, and there is the Holy Spirit, who Jesus sent to live in us, to teach us all things and to empower us with His power to do the things He did. God's world is this world, the one we live in, even this geographically, historically and culturally isolated country Australia, and He is the same here as He is anywhere else in it.
- John 14:12-17
Do you believe in Him? And if so, do you believe Him? When you approach Him in prayer and ask Him for something, do you expect to be given it? I know I have trouble believing that he will even help me to understand what I read in the bible; the thought that I could pray for healing, or ask someone to pray that I be healed, and that such a thing would be given, is mind-blowing to me. I find that as hard as I try, I cannot believe it, and so I dishonour the Lord and sin against Him by not believing what He said. So I'll start by repenting of my disbelief, and asking for the increase of my faith. I'll ask Him to teach me to come before Him the same way the beggars, blind men, cripples and lepers did - expectantly and earnestly trusting in His love and power. I will ask for a Christ-like heart, so that the desires of my heart will match that of His and the things I ask for will be pleasing to Him. I will take Jesus at his word - that when I ask for anything in His name, no matter how ballistically out-of-this-world my request is, and no matter whether it's a missionary in Africa who asks or just little old me, He will do it. He will do it, because it brings glory to the Father, and because He said so.
Do you believe Him?
Why am I writing about this now, when it's late and I could be sleeping? Because I believe I have found the reason for the notable absence of some spiritual gifts in our churches. Have you ever stopped to think why we see no miracles these days? Or like me, do you simply think that miracles these days are limited to what may seem, to the untrained eye, to be coincidences? Let me ask you: what has changed about God since Jesus and the Apostles walked the earth, since the blind received their sight, the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed, the deaf heard, the dead were raised and the poor were preached the good news? Has God's Spirit been weakened? Is the Spirit sleeping? Has it taken longer than expected for Jesus to return, so that God is economising the Spirit's power so it'll last out until that day? Surely not, for we well know that the Spirit is alive and active in our churches and amongst our brothers and sisters, renewing lives from the inside out, giving gifts and bearing fruit, and guiding through prophecy and the understanding of the Scriptures. So why don't we see healings, conversions by the thousands in a single day, or even the raising of the dead, in many of our churches?
He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.
- Matthew 17:20
I hear stories from missionaries of miraculous things happening in Africa and Asia, of the sort I would expect only to find within the covers of the Bible. For instance, the story of a girl being rescued from the clutches of a demon that was levitating her above the ground. I think to myself when I hear of things like this, "Wow! Isn't it amazing what God does over there?"
I spoke with a girl tonight, the sister of one of my friends. She grew up in an Anglican church, and so knows solid doctrine when she hears it. She now goes to a church that runs a healing ministry, where people are actually healed, and where this ministry is founded on biblically solid teaching. And I think to myself as I hear her speak, "Wow! Isn't it amazing what God is doing at that church?"
What kind of a reaction is "Wow!" anyway? I know what it's not - an expression of expectant faith. The Holy Spirit that works through missionaries to cast out demons in Africa is the same that transforms the hearts and minds of Christians in Sydney. The Holy Spirit which heals people in the Blue Mountains is the same that prophecies through the ministers at St Barnabas Broadway every Sunday. So why am I surprised, as though the Australian Customs people were so strict that demons just don't get into Australia, or as though healings can't happen when we have so many good doctors around? Why is my first reaction, "Wow!", without even a hint of "Well of course... if Jesus did it, of course His followers will do the same"? You see, it's not a "Wow!" of joy, it's a "Wow!" of suddenly-uncovered disbelief, because it is an almost completely foreign concept to me that this stuff actually happens now. And it's an even more foreign concept that it can happen here, right here in Sydney, at St Barnabas, in the EU, in the Terraces, through my ministers, my friends or even myself. In my world, I don't expect to see the power of the Most High at work in much more than a good run of green traffic lights... but it's not my world. In my world, the greatest spiritual battle is often to stand up against the temptation to let my Christianity be ignored as I talk to non-Christians (I don't belittle this battle, it's a huge and a very important one)... but again, it's not my world. In God's world, there are demons, who have a very powerful and treacherous master in Satan, but there is also the Almighty Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who made demons tremble, who made the sick well, and who has defeated death, and there is the Holy Spirit, who Jesus sent to live in us, to teach us all things and to empower us with His power to do the things He did. God's world is this world, the one we live in, even this geographically, historically and culturally isolated country Australia, and He is the same here as He is anywhere else in it.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
- John 14:12-17
Do you believe in Him? And if so, do you believe Him? When you approach Him in prayer and ask Him for something, do you expect to be given it? I know I have trouble believing that he will even help me to understand what I read in the bible; the thought that I could pray for healing, or ask someone to pray that I be healed, and that such a thing would be given, is mind-blowing to me. I find that as hard as I try, I cannot believe it, and so I dishonour the Lord and sin against Him by not believing what He said. So I'll start by repenting of my disbelief, and asking for the increase of my faith. I'll ask Him to teach me to come before Him the same way the beggars, blind men, cripples and lepers did - expectantly and earnestly trusting in His love and power. I will ask for a Christ-like heart, so that the desires of my heart will match that of His and the things I ask for will be pleasing to Him. I will take Jesus at his word - that when I ask for anything in His name, no matter how ballistically out-of-this-world my request is, and no matter whether it's a missionary in Africa who asks or just little old me, He will do it. He will do it, because it brings glory to the Father, and because He said so.
Do you believe Him?
Sunday, February 19, 2006
long time no cardboard
Well, so much for the plans of updating the blog while I was overseas! I guess I was too busy writing novels to send back home every few days.
But I'm back...
...albeit slightly detoxed from my blog addiction.
Hopefully this will be a positive step forward in my life, allowing me more time to have a life and freeing me somewhat from the mundanity of a life consisting of staring at my computer screen waiting for nothing to happen.
Yay for fresh air and sunlight!
But I'm back...
...albeit slightly detoxed from my blog addiction.
Hopefully this will be a positive step forward in my life, allowing me more time to have a life and freeing me somewhat from the mundanity of a life consisting of staring at my computer screen waiting for nothing to happen.
Yay for fresh air and sunlight!
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