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Showing posts from February, 2007

So Tim remembers that, too

When I was a kid we were all scared of the next Ice Age. Makes you think, doesn't it... Made Tim think. http://www.challies.com/archives/002397.php I tell you what I think. I don't think the world - either the physical world or the world of men - will end by freezing, roasting or exploding. I think it will end when Jesus the King returns and brings it to an end. What do you think?

Monergism.com

has always been such a treasure trove of resources, but boy, did you need a treasure map ! Now it's been redesigned. http://www.monergism.com/

Maker of Titanic movie uncovers amazing truth after 2000 years !

Yes. It doesn't ring true, does it. One the one hand we have James Cameron. He's an excellent movie maker, but if you want to know the truth about the Titanic disaster nobody ever suggests you watch Leonardo diCaprio's antics and take them seriously. On the other hand we have the scholars and academics who say that the names on the ossuary are common, the place is wrong and the inscription can be read to say other things anyway, it is so bad. Like the daVinci Code, it raises the whole issue of what our society believes and where it gets its information from. I like TV and film, but they are entertainment media. That colours and controls the way they present things and what they choose to present. It's a bit like the way the media present evangelicals. Of course they will present the people who do crazy stuff, writhing and falling and screaming and so on. Five people going bananas is far more viewable than a thousand people listening calmly to someone explain something

A trip to the cinéma (aptly spelt in Welsh, sinema)

Last night we took the kids for a half-term outing to the cinema to see The Night at the Museum (VOSTF - version originale, sous-titres français) We went to the big 20 screen cinema in the heart of town because while our splendid local cinema (to which we have never been!) has the film, we wanted to watch Ben Stiller in English. VOSTF - we noticed that the couple behind us were deaf - they spoke to each other in sign language - and the subtitles are great for them. The film was super. Good old fashioned rubbish with a bit of derring-do and a subplot of old enemies being reconciled by fighting a common peril, and of no-good Dad makes good in the end. One stupid little detail irritated me. Do Museums of Natural History really have dioramas of Roman cities and the Wild West? Perhaps they do in the states. Anyway, compared with the rest of the stuff in the film, that was easy to believe... The queues outside the cinema were huge! I expect some people were queuing for Odette Toulemonde , a

Well the man came and levelled the driveway

His brief was to lift the gravel, lay more limestone chippings to level the drive, then spread the gravel back over the top. 7 cubic metres of limestone, for which he had already been paid 1000 euros. He came, he dug, he dumped, he levelled, he spread, he rollered and now it is all looking level and nice and pink. There isn't actually enough gravel to cover all the driveway. He reckons that before the houses in front were built there was plenty, and that the heavy vehicles have probably spread it all over greater Pessac. However he also reckons that the gravel isn't vital - it just makes it look prettier and cleaner, and to dump a lorryload of gravel over the top would cost 600 euros, so I said we would consider it once the houses are finished. And we will. And I know what our answer will be. Maybe the neighbour behind will want it done. I am not bothered. We have gravel at the end of the driveway by the house anyway. And I quite like the pink.

Bordeaux' Metablog

http://notrebordeaux.com/

CUs in Britain - can Tony help?

There's an e-petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/CULeaders/

Another letting-go dream, after all this time?

Yesterday I wrote a "chatty letter" to the church back in North Wales, and last night I had an odd dream. I was walking round a village, just a typical village, bumping into church folk, hugging and saying a tearful farewell. Then I found myself wandering round a ship where I bumped into John, a good friend with whom I worked at Honeywell 1980 - 1982, and we said our fond farewells. It's a strange thing, the human mind, eh? I woke up in the bath tearfully hugging Catrin's teddy-bear. (not really)

Enregistrements pirates (Philippe Delerm)

Someone recommended this author to me, and I am really enjoying this book. It's a collection of short texts, each one either two or three pages long, and each is an observation or a reflection of something quite particular. e.g. receiving a text message, watching a lady walking the dog, a town square on a warm summer's evening, etc. Every one a gem, and the texts are short enough to make it a good idea for your first book in French. So far all very harmless, too. A celebration of the little things in life that make you smile. Here's a piece by him, in English, about Monet's garden at Giverny. http://giverny.org/gardens/fcm/delerm/index.htm

The huguenot cross

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Many Christians in France wear a huguenot cross as a pendant or as a badge. These pages will give you an explanation: http://www.huguenotcross.com/hucrhiandme.html http://3mousquetaires.blogspot.com/2006/12/la-croix-huguenote.html

Alister McGrath on Dawkins

http://www.citychurchsf.org/openforum/Audio/OF_Alister_McGrath.mp3

Verse of the day

2 Co 4:6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness,"made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 2 Co 4:6 Car Dieu qui a dit : La lumière brillera du sein des ténèbres ! a brillé dans nos coeurs pour faire resplendir la connaissance de la gloire de Dieu sur la face de Christ. 2 Co 4:6 Oherwydd y Duw a ddywedodd, "Llewyrched goleuni o'r tywyllwch", a lewyrchodd yn ein calonnau i roi i ni oleuni'r wybodaeth am ogoniant Duw yn wyneb Iesu Grist.

Oh well - it's not only me who does French howlers

http://www.linternaute.com/humour/perles/bac.shtml

It is me who go this afternoon

I keep getting this wrong. I say C'est moi qui va cet après-midi instead of C'est moi qui vais cet après-midi . I think part of the problem is Welsh, where you conjugate the verb with "who" and not with "me". But also I think part of the problem is English, where formal English does one thing and informal another. Consider: It is I who am going this afternoon - correct I think, but hopelessly formal ! It is me who's going this afternoon - incorrect, but far more common. How to fix it in French? I am simply going to avoid saying "C'est moi/lui/elle/eux" etc. After all, it's a construction I don't use much in English. I should be able to avoid it in French, and then one day maybe I can reintroduce it and get it right.

All went OK

During the after service discussion a couple of us talked a bit about something we had sung - the translation of "Shine, Jesus, shine". You who speak French consider the conjugaison in the following: Seigneur, par la clarté de ton amour, Chasse l'obscurité qui nous entoure. Jésus, toi la lumière qui nous éclaires, Vérité qui nous guides et qui nous libères, Brille sur moi, brille sur moi. OK. Should it be Toi qui nous éclaires or la lumière qui nous éclaire ? Either we drop the s or we introduce commas. Same thing with the next line. However, when we discussed this we decided that the whole translation is a bit... Anyway. We are not going to change it. To illustrate the difference this makes imagine a hymn that went : "Father-like he tend and spare us, Well our feeble frame he know, in his hands he gently bear us, rescue us from all our foes..." It would be wrong. It would sound wrong. It would cry out to be corrected.

Today's duty list

Although I am not preaching I am still on duty. This morning it's the PowerPoint (as usual, we project our hymns) but also I am leading the service. This is a good thing because even in English I am not the warmest, most jovial personality you'd ever meet°, and I find it much easier to preach, when you have a script or at least an outline to follow and something (hopefully) of great import to say. So this morning I can concentrate on trying to convey that sense of quiet, happy, reverent, confident expectation that is so important. Hmmm. (Help!) This afternoon we are taking the preacher up to Blaye, which will be good. Last time we talked all the way which is not a good idea with me because I cannot drive and talk at the same time. I was quite relieved by the recent findings that suggested that driving and talking on the phone, even with a handsfree, is unsafe. I always knew it. For me driving and talking to my passengers is unsafe! Anyway it was good to get to know our friend a

Oh we do miss these big hymns

This is a new one from Stuart Townend and Keith Getty: Speak, O Lord, as we come to You To receive the food of Your Holy Word. Take Your truth, plant it deep in us; Shape and fashion us in Your likeness, That the light of Christ might be seen today In our acts of love and our deeds of faith. Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us All Your purposes for Your glory. Teach us, Lord, full obedience, Holy reverence, true humility; Test our thoughts and our attitudes In the radiance of Your purity. Cause our faith to rise; cause our eyes to see Your majestic love and authority. Words of pow'r that can never fail— Let their truth prevail over unbelief. Speak, O Lord, and renew our minds; Help us grasp the heights of Your plans for us— Truths unchanged from the dawn of time That will echo down through eternity. And by grace we'll stand on Your promises, And by faith we'll walk as You walk with us. Speak, O Lord, till Your church is built And the earth is filled with Your glory.

Look what was in Time magazine !

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1583921,00.html (Thanx Bixbys)

And iambic pentameter par excellence

When I was a boy there was a TV programme called "the Flaxton Boys" - a treasure hunt where the clues were contained in Thomas Gray's "Elegy written in a country churchyard" and the theme music was the first movement of Prokofiev's Classical Symphony. I loved both immediately. Surely John Masefield owes a huge amount to Gray. Incidentally you can sing any 4-line strophe iambic pentameter poem to "Woodlands" - "Tell out my soul"... Try it! The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea, The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, And all the air a solemn stillness holds, Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds: Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower The moping owl does to the moon complain Of such as, wandering near her secret bower, Molest her ancient s

Ah bon. I can look out tomorrow.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/6386389.stm

Today is the English Class

I take the top set, and they are really good. So today we will begin by chatting over the week - how their studies are going, etc. Then we'll read together from Matthew chapter 6 in the NIV . We'll discuss the words and structures used and people may want to discuss the content of the passage. Then we'll listen to something from the BBC Learning English website. Their Weekender programme has things about the right length, and I am torn between an article about " affluenza" and one about learning languages as an adult. Then there's some time that hasn't been fully planned where we can discuss any grammar or pronunciation issues that have arisen, or practice with tongue-twisters, or whatever.

The Baptist church in Pessac

On Wednesday I did something I had been meaning to do for ages - I contacted Bob Bixby of the Baptist church in Pessac. Everyone else in our UFM / MPEF / FAC team had met him, and it's the Daveys who live in Pessac ! So I thought this situation ought to be remedied. I knew of him through Joy's blog, http://karagraphy.com/ , which pointed me to the Bixby Family Blog ( http://rbixbyfam.blogspot.com/ ), and to the sites of Bob and Tim Bixby who pastor churches in the USA ( http://www.wordcentered.org/welcome.html , http://weblog.wordcentered.org/ , http://www.clevelandparkbible.org/ ) . The lads fall in the reformed baptist end of the Christian spectrum (Bob's church is fond of the 1689 confession). He knew of me because apparently if you google "church Pessac" you get the Daveys. Hmmm. Anyway, yesterday we spent a couple of hours together. He showed me some of the materials he uses in French. I always find that invaluable. Their home is above the church rooms i

French and preaching and Bible studies

Yesterday was good for reflecting on French. It began with great encouragement. Mr Bixby said "You've been how long in France ? And you are doing what ?" He said that he generally tells people that it'll take four years before they can do much at all except converse one on one. Well, he really helped me to feel encouraged at the progress so far and to feel that it is worth while battling on. I told him that I always preach from full notes in French and very seldom depart from my notes. Like that I can check the grammar and the genders, and I can eliminate most anglicisms. Of course, the Thursday evening Bible Study is another matter. There it's the old Socratic questions and discussion format. (If Socrates were alive today he'd be ... well he'd be very old for a start..) However that does mean you can't have full notes. And that you say coronation instead of couronnement , and entrônement , for which, apparently, no word exists - so I claim the roya

It was hard, but it's behind us

The other night there was some programme or other on the box about a family moving from Britain overseas to some unlikely, awful place - perhaps Italy ? Spain ? Greece ? Anyway Pat watched it with the kids and at one point Gwilym got quite upset. It was the part of the programme where the children started school and had their struggled with the language and culture and everything. It's good to have that behind us, and the children have our utter admiration and gratitude for their courage and determination.

So hang on - we're pulling the troops out of Iraq and sending Prince Harry instead?

or is there something I am missing here.....

OK - time to get the gnashers inspected

We got a letter from our health care organism yesterday, stating that because we come within the 30 - 54 age range ( ha ha! not for much longer, eh? ) we are eligible to get our gnashers* inspected free at a gnasherama§ of our choice, without even paying in advance and then reclaiming the money ! I had long pondered the advisability of getting someone to pass a glance over our gleaming fangs¤ so now's our chance. And theirs ! glossary * - gnashers - a familiar word for teeth § - gnasherama - this word does not exist in English, but is coined# here to mean a dentist ¤ - fangs - this word usually means the teeth of animals # - coined - to make up a word

A new blog hits the blogosphere

Our good friend Mark has designed his blog to serve the local community as well as the church where he is pastor. It is bilingual because the use of English may encourage local folk to take a look. http://goodnews25700.typepad.fr/ I especially like the way they have thought about the blog and its purpose and gone straight for that. Cracking ! I haven't checked, but 25700 is probably the postal code for their town.

Brief word on podcasts / Covenant Seminary

Podcasts? Ace ! I use iTunes. It's easy and free and takes no time to manage. It also does nearly everything I want it to for the church sermon recordings. And no messing! Podcasts are great because you can get such a variety of useful and helpful things. Here are some of the ones I am subscribed to : White Horse Inn, Renewing your Mind, Desiring God Sermon Video, Christ Church Deeside Sermon Podcast, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, 10th Presbyterian Church, All Things Considered, Digital Planet, Discovering Music, Documentary Archive, In our Time, Newsnight, Ten O Clock News, From our own correspondent, Smartphone Show, De Quoi je me Mail, Loïc Le Meur, Papous dans la Tête, Obviously that's a lot, and the problem is that in busy times I find them building up, so for news casts I only ever keep one month's worth, for documentaries only the ones that are relevant, interesting and short, and for Christian podcasts I only keep the best and most useful. All these criteria I usuall

Raclette !

Well we've been saving our Smiles from Géant (a bit like Green Shield Stamps in a way), and then last week I noticed that we had enough to order this raclette gizmo, so I did it quietly on the internet. The voucher came yesterday so I scuttled off to get the thing. The family were very pleased. We also had a voucher for 27 euros, thanks to a 'buy one, get one free by means of a voucher' scheme that Géant ran the other day, when we had bought two of everything we normally buy one of. Thus it was that I emerged from the supermarket with the gizmo itself, a big pack of cheese (smells a bit), some bacon, some belly pork, some courgettes, some cauliflower, etc. etc. and paid 9 euros - about 6 quid in total. Coincidentally we had invited the students round for the evening, it being half term for us and them. Thus it was that we did the first go at raclette with 8 little pans and twelve people. Three of them don't like cheese so they ate other stuff while we happily smothered

Global swarming

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/21/whornets21.xml&DCMP=EMC-new_21022007

France's turbulent past

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6372379.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6372947.stm France is a country that has known occupation in the relatively recent past. The government has been moved from Paris to Bordeaux, I think three times : once during the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, once in 1914, and once at the 1940 invasion. I often walk past the house where deGaulle spent the night before flying from Mérignac to London to continue the struggle from there. The second BBC article shows that things are not always as cut and dried as they appear. Certainly the French word l'Etat has a very different feel from the English The State . L'Etat is glorious, strong and honourable. The State is sinister, scary and tolerated almost as a necessary evil.

Sarko is in the lead, but Ségo is coming up on the inside lane...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6377503.stm You can watch a BBC video about her TV programme last night (which I didn't watch!)

One of Bordeaux' wartime heros

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristides_de_Sousa_Mendes

Bible de Semeur (Sower's Bible) available for download in html form

http://visionneuse.free.fr/download.htm Together with various other translations. Gwilym is helping me with the flatpack wardrobe. He's really doing well at all those awful repetitive tasks, like tacking on the backboard etc..

This has to be the reason they invented MP3 players

http://www.covenantseminary.edu/worldwide/default.asp

Maps of WWII

http://www.linternaute.com/histoire/magazine/atlas/seconde-guerre-mondiale/carte-europe-1939.shtml

A quiet day - a long blog to read

Today will be a quiet day after a hectic weekend. I have just one meeting at lunchtime, the group of men reading through "Preaching the whole Bible as Christian scripture". Before I go I have to read the chapter set and ponder it! I have a wardrobe to build. In fact I have three, but the first one took me nearly all day, though that did include putting the framework together twice; once wrong, once right. I have a family at home to spend a little time with. All are now out of bed and some French cartoon is on the TV. But I began the day by reading Gary Brady's blog. He's an old college friend who was also the best man at our wedding (well, second-best man to be precise, but let's not reopen old wounds...) His prolific blog www.darbygray.blogspot.com provided this great link http://www.bibleplan.org/

Zion, the city of God (John Newton) best to Abbot's Leigh

Isaiah 33:20,21 : http://www.johnnewton.org/Group/Group.aspx?id=37273 Some years ago I decided that you could memorise hymns pretty easily by reading each line quickly and looking up from your book to sing it. After a couple of goes you have got the hymn in your head (and I like it because it is a nice easy lazy way to learn something. Anything easy and mechanical - that's me!) This is perhaps my favourite hymn. Abbots Leigh is a good strong tune, and I once sang it to audition to join a choir - I thought the arpeggios and octave leaps were a good idea. Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our God! He, whose word cannot be broken, Formed thee for his own abode: On the rock of ages founded, What can shake thy sure repose? With salvation's walls surrounded Thou may'st smile at all thy foes. See! the streams of living waters Springing from eternal love; Well supply thy sons and daughters, And all fear of want remove: Who can faint while such a river Ever flows the

August 1914, by John Masefield

(It's a long time since I posted a poem) How still this quiet cornfield is to-night! By an intenser glow the evening falls, Bringing, not darkness, but a deeper light; Among the stooks a partridge covey calls. The windows glitter on the distant hill; Beyond the hedge the sheep-bells in the fold Stumble on sudden music and are still; The forlorn pinewoods droop above the wold. An endless quiet valley reaches out Past the blue hills into the evening sky; Over the stubble, cawing, goes a rout Of rooks from harvest, flagging as they fly. So beautiful it is, I never saw So great a beauty on these English fields, Touched by the twilight's coming into awe, Ripe to the soul and rich with summer's yields. * * * * * * * * * * * * * These homes, this valley spread below me here, The rooks, the tilted stacks, the beasts in pen, Have been the heartfelt things, past-speaking dear To unknown generations of dead men, Who, century after century, held these farms, And, looking out to watch t

Dessine-moi mon berger

This weekend the young people have had a camp-in at the church. It started on Friday evening and finishes this morning. On Saturday I did the moment spi ( moment spirituel ) on dessine-moi un mouton , starting from John 10:27, linking to 2 Tim 3 and James 1 - on hearing the shepherd and following the shepherd. This morning I am preaching on dessine-moi mon berger , also known as Psalm 23. We get our boy back after the service.

Saturday morning

The theme for the Young People's camp-in was dessine-moi un mouton , based jointly on a message a few weeks ago from John 10:27 and on Le Petit Prince . I was doing the moment spi this morning, so we did dessine-moi un mouton from John 10:27 - about hearing the shepherd and following the shepherd, lurching into 2 Tim 3 and into James 1. They had worksheets and they split into groups and it seemed to me to go OK. Then down to the centre for the English Class.

Sarko vs Ségo - how they measure up

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6357899.stm

Friday evening

Well it was a mad dash to Catrin's school, where we were due at 5 for a meeting of volunteer parents to host an American child on a visit in June. I got on the tram more or less when I should have, but there was an intervention on the part of the pumpers (the firemen did something somewhere) and stopped all the trams - so I was a couple of minutes late. But not as late (thankfully) as the man in charge. They'd be crazy to put a child with us - but you never know. Then a mad dash up to the church where the young people's camp-in was beginning. A bit of last-minute sorting out, a spot of running here and there, the odd phone call ... and the weekend got underway.

On the tram

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My morning meeting was cancelled today, so I went into the student centre early, got off the tram too stops too soon, chatted with the guys on the Assemblies of God Bible stand at Victoire, then walked to the centre through the streets, just enjoying the time. Here are two shots from the crowded tram. The driver has lots of room !

"Safe sex"

Have you ever thought what an inditement the very phrase "safe sex" is ? The Bible can celebrate sex because of the security of the marriage covenant. Our secular culture apparently sees sex as dangerous and urges the use of "protection", and does nobody ask why ? Well, some people do, it seems... http://www.challies.com/archives/002376.php

Salad days are back !

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The birds are singing. The rain has stopped (or at least paused). It's warm in the sun. And look at the supermarket lettuce aisle !

Pat and the kids have a fortnight's holiday.

Whoopee ! Even though I will not be on holiday myself, it will be as good as a holiday because I will not have to get up at 6am every morning. Hoorah !

The city was beautiful tonight

I arrived at the city centre just as twilight turned deep blue. It promised to bring an even deeper light as the time went on. The street lights and floodlights on the town-hall and cathedral added their amber glow. Lovely.

Well my friend the plumber came today

It's not a water leak. Thankfully ! It's a simple blocked drain. The one that carries the washing-up water. Well, I say "a simple blocked drain", but it appears that our drainage system is rather complex, with plastic ventilators in strange places and a great big water outlet just by our front window, handy if anyone ever wanted to put in a pool... We poked all manner of stuff down it, but it cleared not. Perhaps soda ? Perhaps one of those flexible thingies ?

C'est ici, le pays de Galles

http://www.french.visitwales.com/

The 50 countries where Christians are most persecuted

http://www.odusa.org/Display.asp?Page=WWL2007

Thanks, Joy.

misc http://www.stupidvideos.com/video/just_plain_stupid/Do_You_Seak_English/ There's a lot of talk here about l'humour anglais, which is seen as very funny and extremely odd. I think this video qualifies perfectly as l'humour anglais.

BBC Prime Europe

Since we changed internet provider to Free we can receive some English language TV. Until a few days ago we got BBC World news channel (it suddenly disappeared!) but we still get Sky News, Al Jazeera and BBC Prime Europe. BBC Prime Europe shows the best in British television as a showcase to the world. Now you have to guess which programmes. I'll post a comment in a while to say what they show.. (Cheats will find that BBC Prime Europe has a website)

Flatpack Wednesday

Today being my day off, I have spent it basically assembling a flatpack wardrobe. One done, three to go. We got them from IKEA and though they are not the classiest or strongest wordrobes you ever saw they're pretty big and they were really cheap. We even had them delivered, and I was so glad when I saw the delivery men struggling into the house with them. And would you believe it - no screws or parts missing ! So far..

Place de la Victoire

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Yesterday Fiona and I met up at Victoire for a questionnaire with a chap. I was quite taken with this square just behind Victoire; the sunshine, the shadows, the riot police van. On Place de la Victoire itself they park the riot police van behind the arch not to spoil the view too much. (I have never seen any trouble at Place de la Victoire, obviously the vans work!) Later we walked to the student centre down the tramline and suddenly we both stopped, transfixed, rooted to the spot outside this boulangerie. After spending too long looking in the window we entered to find that one of the proprietors is partly Scots. As usual, the part with the kilt. What are they like? Mind you, what am I like, taking a photo of the bakers! The guy seemed quite pleased with our admiration, though.

Over half the computers sold in France now are laptops.

http://www.linternaute.com/hightech/breve/ordinateur-portable/9009/54-des-ordinateurs-achetes-en-2006-sont-des-portables.shtml 54%, in fact. Why do you think this is? My guess is that it is due to the falling price of laptops and the growth of wi-fi internet connections. Certainly the students all seem to have laptops and to lug them round almost everywhere.

Some cracking quotes from P T Forsyth

Thanks to Carl Trueman for these great quotes : If one sign of a great theologian is his ability to sieze hold of the imagination of his readers witha single line, to disturb them, to fascinate them, to make them think, then Forsyth ranks near the top. Here's a few to start the week: `None but the great theologies of redemption are adequate to the great tragedies of the world.' `An undogmatic Christ is the advertisement of a dying faith.' `The peace of God is not a glassy calm but a mighty confidence.' `The seat of revelation is in the Cross, and not in the heart.' `Look to the Gospel, and it will see to the experience.' And a particular favourite of mine: `Half gospels have no dignity and no future. Like the famous mule, they have neither pride of ancestry nor hope of posterity.' Every one a cracker. And speaking of crackers, I would be very grateful if someone could explain what name Ligon is short for..

"I'll have to have lunch at school tomorrow"

Oh. Why? I am going to a réunion of solidarité . Oh. What's that? I don't know. Oh. OK.

Rain !

Boy, can it rain here ! The whole garden now is just one big sea of mud. It's like a perpetual national eisteddfod ! Amazing. And the rain comes down in all directions - horizontally, whatever. This morning it was coming down solid in little lumps. Our chimney has a sort of roof on it, but some of the hailstones jerked sideways at just the right moment and made it down the chimney anyway. And today was the day the EDF men came to move our electricity wire. There they were, up their ladders, while the wind whistled round and round their boilersuits and the rain soaked them through. One of the chaps says "normalement à Bordeaux il pleut tout le temps". I think you can work that one out. Reminds me of Swansea. They say if you can't see the tower of the Brangwyn Hall then it's raining. If you can see the tower then it's about to rain.

Our church in North Wales now podcasts its messages

http://christchurchdeeside.org/sermons.xml

Don't give up !

http://www.e-n.org.uk/3727-Evangelism-the-long-haul-pays-off.htm

An interview with Lyndsay Brown of IFES

http://www.e-n.org.uk/3714-God-will-open-many-doors.htm (When I was a student, Lyndsay was a travelling secretary with UCCF.)

OK. Preaching this morning

I was hesitating between Ephesians 4 : 1 - 15 and Psalm 139. In the end I decided to preach on Psalm 139 because Ephesians 4 touches too much on church policy (who does what to whom and when), and I don't want to go setting agendas or anything like that while the pastor is away - or even to give the appearance of so doing! I am about to listen to my MP3 of Psalm 139. I will also read a bit from John, the call of Nathanael. I'll listen to the MP3 really to iron out pronunciation and to ensure liaisons are in the right place. I was talking to people in the English class yesterday about the moment when you move from thinking about rules to when your ear tells you what's right (for example for the sound of walk ed , spott ed , answer ed ). My ear is getting there. Slowly. However, I was told recently that my pronunciation is getting worse . So I have increased the amount of French radio and TV I listen to to try and help that. And this morning I will try to take my time and enu

For any teachers or students of French

Carambars are a kind of chew bar that have jokes (awful jokes) on the inside of the wrapper. Follow the link to find lots of jokes in French. http://www.linternaute.com/humour/dossier/06/secrets_carambar/blagues/1.shtml

Catrin's birthday party

is today... She's ten on Monday. Pat is very brave indeed. She has 7 girls coming for the party - and no adult help! I am at the student centre. She says, "Gwilym will help, and the girls won't mind someone who makes a moose of her French..." Yes... Quite... See her blog later for a report on how things went, and maybe some photos. Who knows? www.pat-in-france.blogspot.com

An offer from Desiring God (John Piper)

http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/420/ This book used to be called 'The passion of Jesus Christ", and the year of Mel Gibson's The Passion we gave away lots of copies at Deeside.

Bethinking

One good thing about email lists is that they remind you to look at things you have ignored for too long. Like the Bethinking website. It's a bit trendy in design, but there's some cracking stuff there. http://www.bethinking.org/index.php By the way - been trying to get hold of my plumber friend all week! I'll get him this weekend I am sure. Meanwhile it has rained SO MUCH in Bordeaux that the whole garden is one big swamp now. I think we might just have badly draining soil... Oh well - there's plenty of other jobs for him to do here...

Oh !

http://theresurgence.com/mdblog_2006-05-24_death_by_ministry

Survey to establish the number of believers in China

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6337627.stm

Smoking is actually on the increase in France

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6321845.stm

Mere Christianity audiobook

available as a podcast from iTunes music store via Apollos.ws. 5 hours worth of MP3.

Michael Haykin puts the record straight

http://mghhistor.blogspot.com/2007/01/puritanism-real-thing.html

Random book meme

... from www.exilefromgroggs.blogspot.com The following are examples of launch, guide and summary questions: Launch: What observations did Nicodemus make about Jesus in verse two? Guide: How did Jesus respond to these observations? Summarise: What can we conclude from this dialogue about our human abilities to understand spiritual matters? The questions on the book of John in the Appendix are mostly launch questions. You will find that as you actually get into the discussion of a passage you will be able to improvise most of the guide and summary questions. Evangelism for our generation , Jim Petersen (what long sentences!) HERE ARE THE RULES: 1. Grab the book closest to you. 2. Open to page 123; go down to the fourth sentence. 3. Post the text of the following three sentences. 4. Name the author and book title. 5. Tag three people to do the same. Consider yourself tagged....

Story of a Kingdom

http://www.sok.org.uk/sok.html

The photo Blogger didn't want to publish

Image
Some people came for a meal on Monday night. They brought some Chinese food, which was nice. They also brought some snails. This grotty photo was taken with my phone. A mercy really.

Dickie drew my attention to this

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2007/02/the_ten_deadly.html He's got a point, hasn't he. In fact he's got ten.

This could be interesting !

I think we have a little water leak in our front garden, just by the front door. Not much, but there's a dip in the level of the garden that (I think) reflects the run of the pipe underneath, and a small puddle there. I noticed it on Thursday when all the snow was melting and wondered if it was the melting snow. But now it hasn't rained for a while and we still have our puddle. Please pray for me as I try and establish : 1) who I contact about it 2) if it's a leak, whether our house insurance will cover it 3) whether it's the responsibility of the water company anyway up until the house (or just to the boundary of the garden) We have a secret weapon - a chap in another church who used to be a plumber and who just loves fixing things. Maybe I should ring him first... He's expecting a call from me anyway. This lunchtime the Pessac lads meet up for the first time with Graeme Goldsworthy's book.

Two things that encouraged me

At church this morning: 1) the guy was preaching from Jesus' words in John 10:27 - 30. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one. His big point was that despite the seemingly feeble and ephemeral methods we use, such as words, preaching, explanations, etc, Jesus works that way and his people respond. And no sheep will fail to follow because of language barriers, or inadequate explanations, or whatever. 2) A chap passing through visiting one of the team here is serving with a mission in the Philippines. Someone asked him how long he had been there, and he said "Three years". That's twice as long as we have been here (and a bit more), yet soon we will have been here for three years. And how much will our French have improved,

This could be really useful

for people who use laptops, USB keys, or both : http://www.goodsync.com/ Thanks, Fieldy!

Nice one, Fieldy

http://davidpfield.blogspot.com/2007/02/do-you-really-trust.html

Towards an eclectic Christocentric Biblical theology

Warning - this post is extremely self-indulgent. I am writing as if my opinion matters when it is perfectly clear that neither mine nor yours is of any consequence at all. If this post starts to annoy you just skip it. Last night I couldn't sleep very well. One or two little things bothering me just now - so I turned my mind to reflecting on the exciting times I've lived in. For example I became a Christian in 1978. At that time the rediscovery of the local church was in full swing. It was great! In the 50s and the 60s when you became a Christian it was just you, God and Billy. And Billy quickly left town. So the important thing was your quiet time. It was you and God. Guidance was individual. You went to church, sure, but the people there often thought you were a real freak because you believed the things you read in the Bible. Amazing! Then in the 1970s the local church moved right to the heart of our thinking. Churches seceded from their denominations. New churches were begu

Chris Wright - an upside-down world

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/january/30.42.html Cracking. Thanks, Dickie, for drawing my attention to it. One quote: Paul saw Thessalonica as a radiating center for the message in Macedonia and Achaia. Oh for Bordeaux to become a radiating centre for the message in Aquitaine and beyond. One question: Did Israel fail in her mission? If so, what are we doing here? Or could it be that despite many and repeated failures on Israel's part, God's plan succeeded and Israel succeeded in her mission, too!

Phwa phwa phwa phwa

This was the comment of Mrs Davey-de-France when I told her about this article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/01/njan01.xml The snow that fell a week ago is still lying on the roofs of the houses and in shaded parts of the gardens and streets. By the way, you know that the Telegraph, the Times and the BBC, among many other newspapers , including French ones, send out their headlines by email each morning?

Now this is starting to get confusing

I had received notice to fill in a tax return. "They" don't send me the form because I've done it on the internet for years. "They" know I've lived in France for over a year now and that I pay French income tax, but there we are. But it gets so confusing: British tax year: April to April, French tax year follows the calendar year. French tax system, you declare the income of your household. British system is individual taxation. British system, I can offset ministerial expenses against my income tax. French system, there's a "lower threshold" for expenses and we don't reach it. What really got me was that there didn't seem to be a spot to say that this income was taxable in France rather than Britain. Mind you, I had the same thing with the French declaration - there I had to declare my income in Britain and tell them how much tax I paid. Very confusing for me. I just hope I got it all right. If this turns into the "Reformed I

Biblemap.org

http://biblemap.org/ What a good idea !