t is almost inconceivable that the King of All That Is should have paid a royal visit to our planet. This little story, oddly reminiscent of Madeleine L’Engle, is from J.B. Phillips’ New Testament Christianity:
Once upon a time a very young angel was being shown round the splendours and glories of the universes by a senior and experienced angel. To tell the truth, the little angel was beginning to be tired and a little bored. He had been shown whirling galaxies and blazing suns, infinite distances in the deathly cold of inter-stellar space, and to his mind there seemed to be an awful lot of it all. Finally he was shown the galaxy of which our planetary system is but a small part. As the two of them drew near to the star which we call our sun and to its circling planets, the senior angel pointed to a small and rather insignificant sphere turning very slowly on its axis. It looked as dull as a dirty tennis-ball to the little angel, whose mind was filled with the size and glory of what he had seen.
onathan Coulton is an excellent troubadour of the digital age. A friend took me to see him in London a year ago: brilliant. His song Shop Vac has been set to a ‘kinetic typography animation’ by Jarrett Heather. It is exceptionally cleverly done and well worth watching.
Of course, the song by itself is worth a listen – a good satire of suburban culture.
his is something that has been nourishing me the last few days. The song is The Prodigal, and the animation is by Chris Powers. You can find more of his animations here.
Telstarpparently Google have been testing cars that drive themselves, and not just down back streets. I guess the 1950s were right about the future after all.
Our automated cars use video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to “see” other traffic, as well as detailed maps (which we collect using manually driven vehicles) to navigate the road ahead.
But it’s not just Google. There are other groups testing out automated cars. Advocates argue that this is the way to increased safety on the roads (not to mention productivity during the long commute to work). Brad Templeman has some figures.
f you haven’t come across the Paxman/Russell Brand interview, do have a look. It’s not entirely clear that Brand isn’t the interviewer. Paxman seems taken aback — pleasantly. But the real treat is Brand’s insight into contemporary culture. Is he Dan Strange in a wig?
ichard Baxter’s book The Reformed Pastor is a book I try to read every few years. He opens with a plea for pastors to examine their own conversions. This gospel passion carries on throughout.
This passage about the privileges of full-time pastors is my favourite from the book:
Others are glad of the leisure of the Lord’s day, and now and then of an hour besides, when they can lay hold upon it. But we may keep a continual Sabbath. We may do almost nothing else, but study and talk of God and glory, and engage in acts of prayer and praise, and drink in his sacred, saving truths.
Our employment is high and spiritual. Whether we be alone, or in company, our business is for another world. O that our hearts were but more tuned to this work! What a blessed, joyful life should we then live! How sweet would our study be to us! How pleasant the pulpit! And what delight would our conference about spiritual and eternal things afford us!
To live among such excellent helps as our libraries afford, to have so many silent wise companions whenever we please – all these, and many other similar privileges of the ministry, bespeak our unwearied diligence in the work.
n December 1st, 2010, there will be the opportunity for Christians across the UK to declare that they are not ashamed of Jesus. Often Christians are excluded from public debate or asked to leave religion at the doorstep. But Christianity, which grew up rejecting the Emperor-centric world of the Romans, unabashedly claims the right to speak to all of life.
Not Ashamed is a campaign to celebrate this and for individual Christians to declare that they are not ashamed of Jesus.
Jesus Christ is good news not just for individuals or for the church but also for our nation as a whole. He is the only true hope for our society.
ome really beautiful photography from Dan Eckert. It’s time lapse photography, but the camera moves, which makes the photography much more three-dimensional.
t is almost inconceivable that the King of All That Is should have paid a royal visit to our planet. This little story, oddly reminiscent of Madeleine L’Engle, is from J.B. Phillips’ New Testament Christianity:
