Lady wisdom

At 9:13am on the 30th of May, 2009, Sophie Olive Britton was born.

Sophie is the french form of the name Sophia which is the Greek word meaning wisdom.

In the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament, wisdom in personified as a woman.
Proverbs 4:5-9;

"Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you.
The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.
Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her.
She will place on your head a graceful garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown."

Then in Proverbs 31, there is an extensive description of a wise and virtuous women. The description climaxes in verse 30;

"Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised."

It is our prayer that little Sophie Britton will become a woman who so prizes wisdom, and so displays wisdom that the Glory and Grace of the Lord will shine forth for all to see.

Superman

They'll say there is a Superman;
You may see him flying high.
They'll invite you to their wonderland;
you'll feel comfortable inside.

You'll stand and watch the evergreens
believing summer's come.
You may hug and kiss their beauty queen
believing age undone.

As our vanity twists and turns
They rise up across the world
Whilst they fire of pride still burns...

You'll hear the voice on MTV;
say reach up for the stars.
But there's no time to guage reality
when your eyes are fixed on Mars.

As our vanity twists and turns
They rise up across the world
Whilst they fire of pride still burns...

But I know he's coming.
'Cause I've seen the empty tomb.
Yes, I know he's coming...

I know he's coming.
'Cause I've seen the empty tomb.
Yes, I know he's coming.
'Cause I've seen those graveclothes.
I know he's coming...

Top Five - reasons to like McDonald's

I know, I know... There a plenty of reasons to dislike Macca's.
It is fat laden, sugar boosted, calorie dense food that promotes obesity (especially amongst children to whom they advertise most aggressively).

But here are a few guitly reasons to love Macca's;

1. 24hr service - A quick cheeseburger meal at 1am after finishing a shift at work hits the spot perfectly.

2. Drive thru - what would a road trip be without one stop under the golden arches?

3. Free WiFi - staying connected shouldn't be this cheap!

4. The big Mac - special sauce is so special.

5. The controversies - is soft serve ice cream really made from pig fat? Is it really apple or choko in the pie? Can you really become fat, depressed, develop liver dysfunction and heart disease from just 1 month of eating?

New Life

Woke up this morning, and I got myself out of bed.
I put this shirt on, then I went downstairs.
I made a coffee. I made some toast and vegemite.
Read the paper, and then I closed the front door.

I got to work and sat down at my desk.
I made a phonecall; she said that she was depressed.
I made a coffee and looked at my pile of work.
I thought to myself, what the hell is all this worth.

I saw my boss and he said, "Phil you are a drag."
He said, "This company will not tolerate your crap."
I made a coffee as I gathered up my stuff,
then walked out of the office to get me a new life.


He walked the dusty roads; He led a band of lowly men;
Washed their feet and told them stories of the King.
He died a brutal death; they say He'd done to wrong.
Then He came back again, it was to give me a new life.

Death

Death comes;
it's dark spectre rising
swooping, diving
creeping, writhing.
The end is near.
We wait in fear.
A fog
closes in around us.
Final breaths.
3...2......1........
Silence screams.

Wait upon the Lord

Psalm 147:10-11


He does not delight in the strength of the horse;
He does not take pleasure in the legs of a man.
The LORD favors those who fear Him,
Those who wait for His lovingkindness.


My hairy, scrawny legs could never be conceived of as attractive by anyone, so it is with some relief that I find this passage in scripture.
Less flippant, of course, is the meaning of these verses. Here we have the powerful emphasis that God delights not in the independence, but the dependence of man; God takes pleasure in the way we acknowledge our poverty when we receive from His riches; God favors those who realise the awesome majesty of his power by fearing Him and who trust in His mercy by waiting for his kindness.
These verses are so offensive because they assume that humankind's greatest achievements are unimpressive before God (cf. Isaiah 40), that any attempts at self-glorification on humankind's behalf are idolatrous and that God rightly thwarts them (cf. Genesis 11).
This is the God-centredness of God that demands God-centredness from His creation.

Top Five - reasons to love coffee

Coffee is one of the oldest and most important world commodities. It is mysterious and powerful.

Reasons to love it...

1. The smell - earthy, rich and pervasive. Wafting enticingly from cool coffee houses.

2. The kick - invigorating, energising and kinetic. Just what is required on these winter mornings.

3. The taste - bittersweet, bold and smooth. Always different; evolving, elusive.

4. The fellowship - warm, stimulating and intriguing. Minds come together over the dark brew.

5. The commodity - grown in some of the world's poorest places. When a fair price is paid, much good can be achieved.

A return to Blogging

Why bother with blogging?

As you can tell, I've not written a post for months and it may have seemed this blog was never to be revived (the way of most non-serious blogger types I'm told).

Should one blog for the sake of dialogue? Sure, and there are many great examples of this cyber discourse, debate and interraction.
Should one blog for the sake of ones readers? Sure, if you have something creative and/or important to say and people have demonstrated a desire to hear.

I have a sense that neither of these reasons apply to me and my blog.

So what bother with blogging? (I ask myself, since as I have already admitted, there may be no readers out there!)

My answer is that I found, when I was blogging, that my reading was more thoughtful, and my roaming daily thoughts were forced to develop with greater clarity. So... the blogging goes on.

Yancey on Easter

I've been reading (somewhat haphazardly) with a mate from church Philip Yancey's The Jesus I Never Knew. I really think that, in terms of accessibility, clarity and comprehensiveness [is that a word?], it is the best book about Jesus I have read. Here are some of Yancey's thoughts on this most magnificent 3 days we are about celebrate.

On the crucifixion:

The balance of power shifted more than slightly that day on calvary because of who it was that absorbed the evil. If Jesus of Nazareth had been one more innocent victim, like King, Mandela, Havel, and Solzhenitsyn, he would have made his mark in history and faded from the scene. No religion would have sprung up around him. What changed history was the disciples dawning awareness (it took the Resurrection to convince them) that God himself had chosen the way of weakness. The cross redefines God as One who was willing to relinquish power for the sake of love. Jesus became, in Dorothy Solle's phrase, "God's unilateral disarmament."
Power, no matter how well intentioned, tends to cause suffering. Love, being vulnerable, absorbs it. In a point of convergence on a hill called Calvary, God renounced the one for the sake of the other.*

On the resurrection:

There are two ways to look at human history, I have concluded. One way is to focus on the wars and violence, the squalor, the pain and tragedy and death. From such a point of view, Easter seems a fairy-tale exception, a stunning contradiction in the name of God. That gives some solace, although I confess that when my friends died, grief was so overpowering that any hope in an afterlife seemed somehow thin and insubstantial.
There is another way to look at the world. If I take Easter as the starting point, the one incontrovertible fact about how God treats those he loves, then human history becomes the contradiction and Easter a preview of ultimate reality. Hope then flows like lava beneath the crust of daily life.
This, perhaps, describes the change in the disciples' perspective as they sat in locked rooms discussing the incomprehensible events of Easter Sunday. In one sense nothing had changed: Rome still occupied Palestine, religious authorities still had a bounty on their heads, death and evil still reigned outside. Gradually, however, the shock of recognition gave way to a long slow undertow of joy. If God could do that...**

*Philip Yancey. The Jesus I Never Knew. pp. 205-205. Zondervan, Michigan, USA (1995).
**Philip Yancey. The Jesus I Never Knew. pp. 219-220. Zondervan, Michigan, USA (1995).

Precious

Isaiah 43:4

Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
and because I love you,
I will give men in exchange for you,
and people in exchange for your life.

This verse comes in a sequence of prophecies regarding God's overwhelming faithfulness to his people, and His promise of restoration. Clearly God is speaking of His people Israel, but those who have inherited the promise in Christ, who was given 'in exchange' for us, are equally the object of this verse.
The reality that we are (I am) precious, honoured and loved by God is of extraordinary importance in providing context to all I have been and will be in the future.
In a world in which people are abused, rejected and made little of, the Gospel of this God carries massive healing power.

Top Five - Opening songlines...

I love listening to song lyrics. The first lines of a song can be poignant, witty or funny. They can instantly create a scene or tone. Here are some of my favourites.


1. Dave Matthews Band, Dreamgirl:

I would dig a hole all the way to China
unless of course I was there
Then I'd dig my way home
If by diggin I could steal... the wind from the sails
Of the greedy men who rule the world

2. Counting Crows, Round Here:

Step out the front door like a ghost into a fog
Where no one notices the contrast of white on white
And in between the moon and you the angels get a better view
Of the crumbling difference between wrong and right

3. Bruce Springsteen, Born in the USA:

Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering up

4. Eagles, Take it easy:

Well, I'm running down the road
Tryin to loosen my load
Ive got seven women on
My mind,
Four that wanna own me,
Two that wanna stone me,
One says shes a friend of mine

5. Bryan Adams, Summer of '69:

I got my first real six-string
Bought it at the five-and-dime
Played 'til my fingers bled
It was summer of '69

Other worthy contenders:
U2, Where the streets have no name.
Pearl Jam, Daughter.
Jon Bon Jovi, Blaze of Glory.
Bruce Springsteen, Thunder Road.
Cold Chisel, Khe Sanh.

Top five - smells

The sense of smell is a powerful thing indeed. Some smells bring pure joy, others connect you with past experiences, and still others build anticipation of good things to come.
These are my top 5 smells:

1. The smell of the dirt as the first heavy drops of rain from a thunderstorm beat down.
2. The smell of sizzling garlic in a wok.
3. The smell of freshly cut grass on a summers day.
4. The smell of freshly ground coffee.
5. The smell of jasmine flowers.


Oh there could have been so many others...

The River

I come from down in the valley
where mister when you're young
They bring you up to do like your daddy done
Me and Mary we met in high school
when she was just seventeen
We'd ride out of that valley down to where the fields were green

We'd go down to the river
And into the river we'd dive
Oh down to the river we'd ride

Then I got Mary pregnant
and man that was all she wrote
And for my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat
We went down to the courthouse
and the judge put it all to rest
No wedding day smiles no walk down the aisle
No flowers no wedding dress

That night we went down to the river
And into the river we'd dive
Oh down to the river we did ride

I got a job working construction for the Johnstown Company
But lately there ain't been much work on account of the economy
Now all them things that seemed so important
Well mister they vanished right into the air
Now I just act like I don't remember
Mary acts like she don't care

But I remember us riding in my brother's car
Her body tan and wet down at the reservoir
At night on them banks I'd lie awake
And pull her close just to feel each breath she'd take
Now those memories come back to haunt me
they haunt me like a curse
Is a dream a lie if it don't come true
Or is it something worse
that sends me down to the river
though I know the river is dry
That sends me down to the river tonight
Down to the river
my baby and I
Oh down to the river we ride


This is a more haunting exposition of the slavery to nostalgia that is present in so many lives than the satire of Glory Days. Here the protagonist is trapped in the present by the memories of his youth (things which seemed to important), but ironically it is the very choices of his youth that have reaped his present disappointment. All he has are his dreams which are but empty shells of true fulfillment. The hopelessness is profound (is there a faint allusion to suicidal thoughts? - "Is a dream a lie if it don't come true, Or is it something worse that sends me down to the river"). The apparent nightmare of his current life nearly overwhelms him.
How can this slavery to the past be overcome? Can our dreams of a real fulfillment become true?

Green on Baptism - III

Green surveys the baptisms of John and Jesus in the Gospels as to their relevance to Christian baptism. He summarises:

"The baptism of Jesus, then, while being unique, has much to teach us about Christian baptism. It is the pledge of the Spirit. It is the mark of Sonship. It is the call to the path of the servant. It is commissioning for ministry.
These are all aspects in Christian baptism, but Christian baptism takes us farther still. It catches us up into the baptism of Jesus, no less. And this baptism has three mighty strands woven into it.
First, there was the 'baptism' of repentance in Jordan, administered by John, with which Jesus willingly identified himself on our behalf.
Second, there was the 'baptism' of the cross, where he dealt with the sin of the world and made possible the justification of the ungodly.
Third, there was the 'baptism' of the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit came powerfully on him and equipped him for ministry.
And we are caught up by baptism into all of this. We go down with Jesus into the water of repentance. We claim for ourselves the justification he won on Calvary. And we look to the Holy Spirit to fill us and equip us for ministry."

-Baptism; It's purpose, practice and power. Michael Green. pp27-28. Paternoster, USA (2006).

wines worth trying

It has been a few months, but this selection for January is a good summer taster!

Four Sisters Wines - Grapes blended from multiple areas.
2006 - Pinot Noir-Chardonnay NV

This is a crisp, refreshing sparkling white. It has a tasty balance of sweet and sour fruit which makes it oh so easy to drink. Enjoy!