I have recently had the opportunity to take a few days off work, and was able to finish a book I started an age ago – Tim Keller’s excellent Counterfeit Gods.
In many ways this is a book length treatment of the topic of my last post (Why things in this world aren’t enough). Keller combines rasor-sharp cultural observation and analysis with warm and wonderful Biblical exposition making this a must-read as far as I am concerned.
But be warned – this might be a painful read as our own idols are exposed. He spares no punches for those of us who make an idol out of doctrinal accuracy, or popularity, or security etc. etc. A helpful reminder of keeping the main thing the main thing. And a sermon series waiting to be ‘borrowed’…?
I think we sometimes have a sense in which we have discovered things that our forefathers never experienced. As we read the latest Tim Keller we are thrilled by the way he incisively undermines the idols of our day. But as we dig into some of the great writers of the past we find the same truths – albeit in a different language.
I am currently thoroughly enjoying reading through Wise Counsel, John Newton’s letters to John Ryland Jr – a young minister he took under his wing. They are wonderful examples of encouraging, Biblical, pastorally sensitive writing – how I wish there were more letter (or even email) writers of this ilk today.
Here is a wonderful section from Letter 26 (1 July 1779) where he explains (in a warning especially useful for those of us who are pastors) why a book will never satisfy completely – and then he broadens the principal out.
The hymn books will be with you soon, how soon I know not. Your hungry curiosity will not be long in appeasing. When you have read the preface, twirled over the pages, run your eye down the tables of contents, and have the book by you, you will feel much as you do about any other book that has been lying by you seven years. At least I have often found it so (but perhaps your heart is not just like mine). I have longed for a book, counted the hours till it came, anticipated a thousand things about it, flew to it at first sight with eagerness as a hawk at its prey; and in a little time it has been as quiet, as if placed upon the upper shelf in a bookseller’s shop.
Whatever we can see with our eyes, and touch with our hands, shrinks upon trial, and will not fully answer the expectations which the prospect raised. It quickly ceases to be new, and then we secretly say to ourselves, Is this all?
Only look at a door newly painted, how bright and glossy it appears! But the gloss soon fades, and in a little time it needs painting over again. This may serve for an emblem of all that is within the house, of all that is in the world… It is not so with things that are unseen, and which faith alone can perceive. These grow upon our view, and their excellence heightens, the more we are acquainted with them.”
I thoroughly commend the book which seems to be most readily available from the Banner of Truth.
There is a good review of the whole book written by a friend of mine here.
This is another of those geeky posts. But since a couple of people found my entry on Updating FlipShare Software helpful, I am sharing this little solution because I haven’t been able to find this anywhere else on the web, and I am sure that it is a common problem…
The current European version of the FlipShare software will not allow you to change the default location where the video files are stored (I believe this is possible in the later US version, but I don’t seem to be able to download that). For me, this gives rise to two problems. Firstly, my c:\ drive is rather full – and videos take up lots of space, so I didn’t really want them there. Secondly, I try not to keep ANY data on my c:\ drive, since Windows periodically dies and needs re-installing, so I consider it good house-keeping to keep my data in a separate partition where it isn’t effected by the death of Windows so easily.
Here’s the solution – symbolic links! Windows Vista introduced this concept (which has been around in the Unix/Linux worlds for ever) – and very helpful it is too. Effectively you fool anything running higher than the operating system (i.e. programs!) that a directory exists in a certain location, when in fact they live elsewhere. (For more information on Symbolic Links follow this link).
Here’s a step by step guide.
Locate your FlipVideo files. They should be in the c:\users\yourname\videos\flipshare data\videos
Choose your new location for the files – for example d:\flipvids
Move all the video files from their original directory to the new one NB make sure you aren’t running the FlipShare software while you do this!
Delete the original videos directory
Your now going to need to get a bit geeky and do some things at the command prompt. You must make sure you use ‘Run as administrator’ when you run the command prompt – since you need admin privileges to carry out this trick.
Change directory to your videos directory – by typing something like
cd c:\users\username\videos
Now you need to check what the ’short’ file name is for your flipshare directory. To do this, type
dir /x
This fifth column in will reveal the ’short’ version of the ‘FlipShare Data’ directory. It will probably be something like ‘FLIPSH~1′.
Now you’re going to create the symbolic link. Type the following:
(obviously use YOUR username, the correct short name for your ‘FlipShare Data’ directorym, and whatever location you have moved your video files to). It should then report ‘Symbolic link created for…’ followed by your directory information.
That’s it! Once the link is created, you can browse your videos in explorer as you could before, or via the FlipShare software itself.
Hope that is of use to someone else out there. I was pleased finally to get this working how I wanted!
PS I have only tried this in Vista, but believe the same idea should work in Windows 7 too.
There has been a great deal of talk recently from our Coalition government about working together “for the national good.” This phrase, “the national good” seems to be trotted out every few minutes – as if there has been some dictat from on high that this is the preferred sound-bite of the moment.
What puzzles me, is what they mean by the phrase. It may well be a naive position, but surely in an elected democracy the ruling party should always be working for “the national good”? Is this a backhanded-dig to suggest that the previous government was not working for “the national good”? Or, (much less likely) is it a tacit admission that in the past they themselves have not always been working for “the national good”?
The idea seems to be that in a coalition you can’t have it ‘all your own way’ (in terms of your political beliefs) and so some new standard needs to be applied which both parties can agree on – hence, “the national good.” If this is the case, then one could argue that it is a tacit admission that single-party policies are not in “the national good.”
But theologically the interesting question is how you define “the national good” when you have taken God out of the picture. If there is no external, objective standard of “the good” then you are left at best with a subjective personal view. Which is why some people get upset by some decisions the government makes (which adversely affect them) and others about different policies. At the end of the day, the only real criterion in a God-less world is ‘what seems right to me’, or perhaps, ‘what seems right to the majority’.
The trouble is both me and the majority can be wrong. Where does that leave “the national good”?…
This is slightly off the usual track here, but I had the great pleasure of catching up with an old friend at the weekend. And amongst other things, I heard that he had designed a rather groovy range of Christian clothing. Check it out here – my order is (almost) in the post…
Just a quick post to say I cannot commend this highly enough…
I have been reading this book in my daily devotional times recently and it is all that you would expect from Dale Ralph Davies as he tackles the first 12 Psalms. He handles the text carefully and brings it to life vividly and with pastoral sensitivity.
Tomorrow I will be having my first ‘annual review’ with two of the leaders in the church where I minister. It is useful to pause and take stock from time to time, so here are three reflections on how the year has gone…
Prayerlessness. I am saddened by how poor my prayer life has been: by how often I pray as an ‘add on’ rather than soaking everything I do in prayer; how quick I can be to criticise and how slow to pray; how shallow my prayers often seem. Please pray with me that I would become a man of prayer. I am seeking, with God’s help, to make changes both in my family life and in my ministry.
Study-boundness. I have been surprised how easy I have found it to ‘hide away’ in the study. I am an extrovert and a people-lover – so I had expected to spend more time than I have actually managed out and about with people. I am convinced that the work in the study is vital – but I am also convinced that we need to be spending time with people to understand where they are coming from in order to apply the Bible more effectively. Please pray with me that I would get the balance right.
Tendency to under/over-work. One of the greatest challenges as a pastor is that you manage your own time and that there are few ‘hard’ measurable outcomes (apart from a sermon here, and a talk there etc.). At the same time, the kind of tasks that we are involved in will all suck up as much time as is available – that goes for both study and for time with people. I seem to have oscillated between spending too much time working (and not enough time with family etc.) and not enough time working. Finding that middle path is challenging. Please pray with me both that I would understand my identity in Christ is not bound up in how much or how little I do, but also that I would have a godly desire to work hard as for the Lord.
I’m sure that I am not alone in these failings. Why not pray for your own pastor in each of these areas – that God would equip them and give them wisdom as they seek to shepherd His people.
I have just returned from a holiday in a well-known wine-growing region of France, but that is not why I am enthusiastic about vine-work. Rather, it is because I have just finished reading The Trellis and the Vine.
Others are far more able to give comprehensive reviews than I am, but a few summary observations:
I love the focus on people and gospel growth (=maturity as well as conversion) rather than structures
I love the emphasis on the ‘team’ nature of ministry – the role of the whole body of Christ to be involved in disciple-making – though using different gifts and with certain individuals particularly set apart for the work of teaching
I am challenged by the changes which would need to take place in order to effectively disciple the few (and the reactions that might be provoked)
I was helped to re-consider Matt 28:19-20 as a commission to disciple more than a commission to go (though the former may involved the latter in certain contexts – not least the context in which it was originally given)
I was reminded of the need to be a ‘talent-spotter’ – in terms of those with the gifting and character to be fellow vine-workers
I was also profoundly thankful for the way in which some of these principles have been modelled and taught to me as I have worked in various churches. I can still hear a former colleague encouraging me to “Feed the hungry” which is a very T&V injunction. I am thankful for the gospel-heartedness of the church where I was an apprentice who not only invested in me for the 4 years I was with them, but were prepared to contribute towards the funding of my training even though I was heading into ministry in a different denomination. And of course, I am thankful for my current minister who encouraged me to read the book.
So the bottom line – definitely worth a read if you invovled in paid Christian ministry, and also worth a read if you aren’t!
So I have been meaning to post some thoughts on the new BBC sitcom, Rev, but was waiting until I had watched the first three episodes to make fair comment.
But two of my friends have beaten me to it. Glen Scrivener highlights the importance of not being too earnest. He reckons the moralism is punctuated by fairly blunt sex gags and fails to deliver any real edge. He also makes a point which I heartily agree with – we must learn to take God very seriously, and ourselves not too seriously.
Stephen Watkinson in a Facebook Note (so you may not be able to read this link if you are not a friend? Not sure how FB works in this context) observes that the writer seems to know more about the Church of England than about God. He also bemoans the caricature of a ‘charismatic’ (in week 2) and the sub-Biblical virtue of doubt (by this I don’t think Stephen is advocating certainty on all things – but surely at the heart of Biblical Christianity are a number of very important things that we can be certain about.
All I would add to this, is that I love the title character’s prayers – which seem conversational and real and not ‘polished’ – which is surely how we should address our Heavenly Father. And there is also a degree of reality about the ‘on call 24/7′ nature of the ‘job’, and the variety of characters the church seems to attract – which is certainly true in every church I have been a part of. And there is some humour that arrives out of this truth.
One of the things I love about the information revolution is the way it unleashes folks creativity to a wider audience. Here is an excellent video which clearly explains the message of the Gospel in words and pictures.
