We had a friend staying this weekend, who’s a music teacher and a worship leader (indeed she played at our wedding), and she was relating a story about a conversation she’d had with one of her students. Said student spotted the bible on her piano, and said something like “Miss – so do you use […]

At home group this week, Proverbs 19:21 was mentioned – which is, from the NIV, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord‘s purpose that prevails”. Interestingly, one of the people had a different version of the bible, and her version simply said; Man proposes, God disposes. I suspect a […]

Are we turning into a country of criminals? I don’t mean to be sensationalist, but I am amazed every single time there’s an outcry against speed cameras. I cannot for the life of me think of any reasonable argument against there being a system that automatically fines you if you break the law. The speed […]

Sunday’s reading was all about the transfiguration, and it got me to thinking about Peter’s response to the revealed glory of Jesus. Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters – one for you, one for Elijah, and one for Moses. (Mark 9:5, NIV) The classic evangelical take […]

For anyone preparing to go to a Bishop’s Avisory Panel on Selection, I’ve got some top tips for helping the process go as smoothly as possible. This is not to do with ‘passing’ (see the second tip), but just some small things I either wished I knew, or was glad I did know! So, in […]

There’s a short article in this week’s Church Times about vicar’s who blog, or rather how few there are. This got me to thinking that I should blog with pride – the only reservation I have is that if anyone finds my blog and chooses to wander back in time, they’ll find a whole load […]

Had a couple of programming discoveries at work in the last week or so. The first is Dev-C++, a free IDE for Windows. I’ve got Visual Studio as well, but this seems like a really good environment (not least of which because it’s free). The second discovery was Simple DirectMedia Layer (or libSDL) – a […]

As shown by the sudden leap in the number of reviews, I’m enourmously enjoying my easyDVD membership. When the little orange envelope flops onto the letterbox, and I tear it open to see what the title is, and Yes it’s a film I’ve been wanting to see for ages. Of course a millisecond’s thought shows […]

Oh happy day – parliament have voted to ban all indoor smoking. At long last I’ll be able to go out to pubs and restauants without having my evening spoilt by second-hand smoke, and I can come home without my clothes and hair stinking of burnt tobacco. I have the tiniest slither of sympathy for […]

I actually love this time of year – yes it’s rainy and cold still, but every morning it’s just a little bit brighter in the morning, and you can’t help feeling the overall thrust the weather is taking is towards warmth and sunshine once more. This morning, as I walked to the station, I wouldn’t […]