December 2009
21 posts
Christmas number one for the rest of us
For those who can care less whether RATM or Joe got to number one here’s a nice alternative by Coffey Anderson.
(I can’t find a better youtube clip than this so skip the guitar lesson and go straight to 0.40. Or look for Worship Unplugged vol.1 on Spotify and hear the whole album.)
For all the geeks →
Trying to make a poster for a sermon on regret I found this.
Wallpapering your iPhone →
Scroll down for some biblical artwork specially designed for your amazing mobile. My favourite is number 2.
Second best at Christmas
In the film Shadowlands CS Lewis invites his American friend Joy and her son to share Christmas dinner. She agrees on condition that there be cranberry sauce. In the next scene we see Douglas her son looking quizzically at a plateful of turkey and a spoonful of strawberry jam- austere postwar Britain meant settling for second best even at Christmas.
Perhaps this Christmas you’ll settle for second...
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John Stott on sowing to the flesh
Reflecting on what Paul means in Galatians 6:7-8
To sow to the flesh is to pander to it, cosset, cuddle and stroke it instead of crucifying it… Every time we allow our mind to harbour a grudge, nurse a grievance, entertain an impure fantasy or wallow in self pity we are sowing to the flesh. Every time we linger in bad company whose insidious influence we know we cannot resist, every time we...
Anne Atkins on Depression →
A thoughtful three minutes on the variety of feelings we have in response to tragedy or suffering which we now lump together as Depression. Towards the end, having described her own experience of grief, she gets to the gospel at which point she either laughs or cries with joy- either way it’s very moving.
One for the stocking →
Better make mine XL.
Me Church →
“you know financially Cherie and I don’t give a lot to the church… but we sure would like to know who does”
I could put up loads from Igniter Media but here’s just one more- my favourite.
The Incarnation: "Our God contracted to a span" →
And the reason for it contracted into a helpful poster from the Resurgence.
(It’s a slow loader so stick in there)
Plastic Jesus
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Really sad video of what many people mean when they call themselves Christian. By Igniter Media.
9 Readings and Carols
Every year I wish someone would gather together the traditional Christmas readings. It’s too late for me but if you’re planning a Carols by Candlelight and need the readings here they are for you.
FIRST READING :: Genesis 3
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees...
Basil!
Andrew Brown gets the whole Vogelenzang business into perspective on Comment is Free
It does seem clear that the Vogelenzangs take a rather Fawlty-ish attitude to their guests: more tactful hoteliers might avoid discussions of religion at breakfast or at the very least consider that their guests had paid for lodging, not for theological correction or advice on her prayer life.
Fawlty Towers is...
Retooning the nativity →
A funny little Christmas video from Igniter Media.
(Not sure who the narrator reminds me off more- Biggins or Norton?)
Number 9: You shall not give false testimony... →
Here’s an article ostensibly about technology but, it seems to me, a good application of what happens when we break the 9th commandment.
Mark Driscoll on How to Prepare a Christmas Sermon →
Sometimes the Christmas season can be the toughest for a preacher. Why? Because while the incarnation of Jesus Christ is amazing, communicating it afresh year after year can be trying.
Here’s one for my minister friends who have a brilliant illustration but can’t quite work out how to make a message from it.
The League of Moveable Type
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I can’t see how this can last long but if you love font you will love this. I’m using Chunk a lot.
A man in the street →
Life before google →
Apropos of nothing really. We just started saying it at teatime.
Alan Partridge on racism →
Preparing for Sunday evening’s sermon on Jesus: Son of Adam I started thinking about the absurd song Melting Pot by Blue Mink and particularly this brilliant version by Alan Partridge in the Travel Tavern.
Second half is here
Last minute provision
I’ve just come back from taking a school assembly and wanted to let you know about a small way in which God provided for me exactly what I needed.
My plan was to take in a Children’s Bible and read the nativity story. To spice it up I printed and laminated 17 pictures which corresponded to the words in the story. So for example when it described Bethlehem as ‘noisy’ I held up a picture of the Mr...
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Cherishing Church
Thanks for coming to the blog to read this- I really appreciate your interest- but stop reading this and click on the following link to Amazon and type the word ‘Church’ into the search bar. (Then come back).
What did you find? If the search engine threw up the book Memoirs of the Second World War you typed in ‘Churchill’ by mistake- go back and try again. The rest of us found How to Stop...