Saturday blog-sweep

 Some interesting books for pastors

The State we're in

Attack at dawn

Joseph Scriven

Joy comes with the morning

When small is beautiful

Saturday blogsweep

As Jesus sleeps

How to pray for a loved one with a mental illness

May your heart break gently

Number your days: Or why books remind me of death

An answer to Richard Dawkins question

We need restorative rest

The first Joel

I am still on Joel and included Rev 9 in my Sunday sermon and I also tell the story of a wonderful answered prayer..

The answer was connected geographically to Aldersgate Street.

A conversation today with someone who commented that locusts with faces indicates that it's humans that are the reality of evil and the demonic in the world.

I am reading 'The Lord is my courage' and it observes that the temptations can be summarized as:

'Have More. Hurt Less. Rule Faster' (p23)

There is a scene from Frozen Planet 2 of Orca's hunting a seal and it's stunning film-making. It's also a picture of the flicks of the enemies tale can so easily can consume us.  

Fresh hope

 I am preaching through Joel this month so have been thinking a lot about locusts.

This is a new song we are introducing this weekend.

Preaching through Joel requires one to ponder 'the Day of the Lord' and a lot of ink has been used on such matters. When I ponder such things, I am grateful for Simon's book called 'And the Lamb Wins' but I've given my copy away to someone....

I'm reading Scott Saul's book 'Beautiful people don't just happen' and in it he says this:

'...when we catastrophise about the future, when we imagine the very worst for ourselves and for those we love- the thing we must do again and again is to talk to ourselves more than we listen to ourselves'

For ten years, I've said to Mrs C I wanted to be in a community choir. I've finally joined one. 

This is one of our numbers.