Around 17 years ago I kept a daily journal. My memory told me I kept it for over twelve months writing every day and then let it diminish to zero.
Reality tells me that I kept for around 8 months on a daily basis, but that there are over 350 entries including a false start in 1999, another false start in 2000 but some consistency from late 2001 to near the end of 2002 and then sporadic entries for the next couple of years.
[The following is the text of a sermon preached in our church on Sunday 24th February 2019]
Who remembers the television show “This Is Your Life”?
My first recollection of it is being hosted by Mike Willesee in the 1970s.
My deep research into this on Wikipedia informs me that it began in 1975 with Mike Willesee. Digby Wolfe hosted the second season in 1976, then Roger Climpson to 1980. It was rested for 15 years until the Mike Munro era until 2005, and finally Eddie McGuire hosted a very short season in 2011.
Late last year I saw a quick-and-easy paella being made on a TV show. Thinking it didn’t look too hard, I tried using the same recipe and came out with a tasty bunch of chicken and chorizo with cooked vegetables and half-cooked rice.
My second attempt was to ditch that recipe and opt for something from somewhere on the www. There are about as many paella recipes as there are grains of rice in Spain so it was a matter of choosing one and running with it. This second recipe was an improvement over the first but I can’t remember where I got the recipe.
Late last year we became aware of a couple of books by New Zealand author, Richard Brunton. He has written two books, The Awesome Power of Blessing and Anointed for Work.
They’re both more like booklets but pack a stack of helpful information and encouragement about, well, blessing and anointing.
They are both available as free downloads from his website, and can be purchased as paperbacks.
Do yourself a favour and get them both - if you want to.
I have two resolutions:
One of our vehicles was nearing the end of its useful, economic life and so we began the process of searching out a suitable replacement.
The vehicle to be replaced was a Mazda Tribute - a 3.0 litre gas-guzzling SUV that has transported us safely but expensively for the past seven years. It was bought second hand in 2011 when it had around 60K on the clock and we’d taken it up to around 255K in those seven years of ownership.
[The following is the text of a sermon preached in our church on Sunday 9th December 2018]
A few weeks ago when I was first praying and journaling about what I would preach on today I was impressed with the idea of speaking on destination and journey. I was pointed towards Acts 7 which is Stephen’s speech to the Sanhedrin before he was stoned to death. A deal of that speech talks about Abraham, Jacob, Joseph and Moses and their journeying with God – often physical journeys, but whose physical journeys mirror their spiritual journeys.
Appropriate leading up to Christmas:
Around a year ago (?) one of my daughters bought a mechanical keyboard. I’d never given much thought to keyboards but had gone through a few over the years. The first computer I used that wasn’t a dumb terminal hanging off a mainframe was an IBM XT. It came with the very solid keyboard complete with key clicks. You knew when a key had been pressed.
My early home computers (mid 1990s through to early 2000s) were also desktops with, presumably, sturdy keyboards, but I can’t remember what they were like.
