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One quote I have appreciated for many years was penned by Jim Elliot on 28th October 1949. He wrote, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

I think I first came across that quote in the early 1980s. Shortly afterwards I bought a copy of The Journals of Jim Elliot compiled by his widow Elisabeth Elliot but have only managed to read a relatively small portion of that work.

One of my stronger childhood memories is of visiting my paternal grandparents for the weekend, waking up earlier than mum and dad, going upstairs to where my grandparents were already up and about and being given a couple of pieces of bread with butter and tomato jam. Yummo.

Since we have a reasonable crop of tomatoes coming on at the moment I thought I’d turn some into tomato jam.

I did make tomato jam around 10 years ago but didn’t have the recipe accessible so went searching online…

Nothing to do with Sgt. Pepper, but all to do with home coffee roasting.

My first home roast was on 7th November 2003. I had given up smoking around 3 1/2 months earlier, and had been retrenched for the second time a month earlier so had some time on my hands to take up something new.

My first roast was of a Sumatran Mandheling, 80 grams in a popcorn popper. The roast was too dark because I hadn’t been able to identify the cracks as the beans heat up and make cracking sounds - firstly as the water in the beans heats and expands, and secondly as the coffee oils do likewise. This gives rise to the expressions ‘first crack’ and ‘second crack’ in coffee roasting parlance. As a generalisation all roasts should pass first crack. My ideal roast is somewhere between the completion of first crack and very early second crack depending on the intended brewing method. For plunger/moka pot/Aeropress/Swiss Gold one cup filter anything just after first crack is fine. For espresso machine extraction, anything around the first snaps of second crack (or just before) is where I aim.

My wife and I currently read the daily devotional The Lord My Portion by Watchman Nee after dinner. The devotionals have been extracted from some of his later writings. Of the 280+ entries so far this year a few have raised our eyebrows, most are pretty good and helpful, and a few are extraordinary for their incisiveness and clarity. One of the later is from October 2nd. We first heard this read out at a church we were attending last year and it prompted me to buy the book.

I’m currently reading a book entitled The Holy Spirit of Promise by J.Oswald Sanders first published in 1940.

Oswald Sanders was New Zealand-born and served as the general director of the China Inland Mission (later renamed to Overseas Missionary Fellowship). He was born in 1902 and died in 1992. He was a prolific author between the 1930s and the 1990s. One of his better-known works is Spiritual Leadership (1967).

One chapter (chapter 12 of 16) in The Holy Spirit of Promise is entitled “The Administrator of the Church”. A story that Oswald Sanders relates in the early part of this chapter struck me and so I reproduce it in full:

After a deal of consideration and prayer, I will be voting “No” in the upcoming referendum about a “Voice to Parliament” (Voice).

It’s not a decision I’ve arrived at lightly. Let me outline some of the reasons behind my decision:

1. The idea of a Voice that advances the ideas or aspirations of one (small) portion of the population without allowing all other members of society the same opportunity is inherently racist. If aboriginal people have a separate Voice to the federal parliament and executive government then why not any and all other groups? This seeks to divide the nation and promote the interests of one group over all others.
2. I do not believe the federal government is serious about meeting the needs of the poor or disenfranchised. If the federal government was genuinely interested in seeking to remedy issues faced by aboriginal people then they have wasted the past 15 months since their election. The government already has effective and fully funded aboriginal voices in parliament. I understand there is something like eleven current members of parliament who are of aboriginal descent. The government could form a bipartisan subcommittee of these members to consult and advise on aboriginal issues. A genuine, elected Voice is only a parliamentary subcommittee away.
3. There is a federal department called the National Indigenous Australians Agency whose role is “committed to implementing the Government’s policies and programs to improve the lives of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.”¹. As I understand it, the federal government currently pays something like $35 billion for assistance to aboriginal people. This is in addition to society-wide services. If the gap between health and educational outcomes is so wide between aboriginal people and others, how about an audit of the $35 billon currently being spent to determine if those funds are (a) being spent in accordance with their funding agreements; (b) achieving the outcomes that should have been indicated in these agreements. What’s the bet that billions are being wasted on duplicate administration, greedy lobbyists, ineffective programs, and lining the pockets of middlemen (and women)?
4. As I understand aboriginal culture, no one mob can speak for another. If that is the case then how can a Voice comprising 24 people possibly represent or lobby effectively and appropriately for the hundreds of mobs around Australia? It would be the equivalent of asking all local councils in Australia to elect 24 representatives who will make decisions and representations to federal and state governments concerning funding, priorities and services for all LGAs. It is in no way conceivable that the 500+ local councils would receive fair representation because each LGA is different in terms of perceived needs, demographics, aspirations, socioeconomic base and future outcomes. Local issues need to be understood and dealt with on a local level.
5. Whether or not you believe the Uluru Statement from the Heart is one page or 26, the 26 pages surely provide insight into how the Voice would seek to advise parliament and the executive government on matters that affect aboriginal people. It is clear that both a treaty and financial reparations will be on the agenda.
6. I believe and understand that the government has expressed sorrow for its past actions towards aboriginal people. Equally, the government has extended a hand towards reconciliation. These measures need to be accepted and forgiveness granted for us to move forward as a nation. Continually being made to indicate if you feel sorry for events in the past will never lead to healing. Forgiveness sought and granted is the only way that progress towards one nation can be achieved. A Voice, treaties, reparations and “truth-telling” will only continue to tear at the wounds of the past.
7. Finally, a society will never achieve equality of opportunity by mandating inequality in its founding document.

I’ve been gradually reviewing and revising the packages I use to complete particular tasks and the way the underlying data (my data) is being stored.

Where possible I prefer to have my data stored on systems I own in something like plain text format, and retrievable or at least accessible through a number of means.

The types of tasks I have in mind, the primary package I use to access this data and some backup packages are listed below:

My most recent Linux distribution and Window Manager change was back in December when I landed on Debian Testing running OpenBox for my Window Manager.

I ran in to a couple of Debian update issues recently which required me to roll back to a prior kernel. Whilst I resolved that issue, I decided to look at some alternative distros and reconsider my use of WM.

I ran openSUSE Tumbleweed for a month-or-so. It was fine, but I had an issue with LightDM where I was unable to choose alternative WMs from the menu (OpenBox, Qtile, Xfce). I was stuck with OpenBox. Clearly I could disable LightDM and use startx, but it was less than ideal.

What follows is my assembling of a number of outlines of the book of Isaiah from a variety of sources. The point is that there are many variations between these sources. The only real commonality is that chapters 1 through 39 are pre-Babylonian exile and chapters 40-66 are post-exilic.

From Executable Outlines

• I. The Assyrian Period - Conflict And Victory (1-39)
  • A. Prophecies Concerning Judah And Jerusalem (1-12)
  • B. Prophecies Concerning The Nations (13-27)
  • C. The Source Of True Deliverance (28-35)
  • D. Historical Interlude (36-39)
• II. The Babylonian Period - Hope For Troubled Times (40-66)
  • A. The One True God Versus Idols (40-48)
  • B. Salvation Through The Suffering Servant (49-53)
  • C. The Future Glory For God’S People (54-66)

From ESV Study Bible

• a. Introduction: “Ah, Sinful Nation!” (1:1–5:30)
• b. God Redefines the Future of His People: “Your Guilt Is Taken Away” (6:1–12:6)
• c. God’s Judgment and Grace for the World: “We Have a Strong City” (13:1–27:13)
• d. God’s Sovereign Word Spoken into the World: “Ah!” (28:1–35:10)
• e. Historical Transition: “In Whom Do You Now Trust?” (36:1–39:8)
• f. Encouragement for God’s Exiles: “The Glory of the Lord Shall Be Revealed” (40:1–55:13)
• g. How to Prepare for the Coming Glory: “Hold Fast My Covenant” (56:1–66:24)

New Bible Commentary

• 1:1-31 A situation of crisis
• 2:1-4:6 God’s Ferusalem and man’s
• 5:1-30 The bitter vintage
• 6:1-13 The prophet’s call
• 7:1-12:6 Storm and sun: Assyria and Immanuel
• 13:1-23:18 Messages for the nations
• 24:1-27:13 God’s final victory
• 28:1-31:9 The Assyrian crisis: God’s help or man’s?
• 32:1-35:10 Salvation and its dark prelude
• 36:1-39:8 The supreme test for Hezekiah
• 40:1-48:22 Night far spent in Babylon
• 49:1-55:13 The dawn on redemption
• 56:1-66:24 The glory and shame of Zion

Search the Scriptures

• 1 Introductory. God’s controversy with his people.
• 2-4 Prophecies of judgment, lying between two Messianic oracles.
• 5 The Song of the Vineyard. A series of woes. Vision of an invading army.
• 6 Isaiah’s call.
• 7:1-10:4 Events connected with the alliance of Ephraim (i.e., northern Israel) and Syria against Judah, and prophecies arising out of them, some Messianic.
• 10:5-34 Assyrian invasion of Judah, and its results: (a) for Assyria, (b) for Judah.
• 11-12 Messianic prophecies.
• 13-23 Prophecies against the nations, except 22:1–14 (Jerusalem) and 22:15–25 (Shebna and Eliakim).
• 24-27 Prophecies of the Day of the Lord, in its twofold aspect of world judgment, and deliverance for Israel.
• 28-33 Prophecies connected with a proposed alliance with Egypt. Some speak of judgment, others of deliverance and of Messiah’s coming.
• 34-35 Vengeance upon Edom, contrasted with the salvation of the redeemed of the Lord, as they return from exile.
• 36-39 Historical.
• 40-48 The glad tidings of Israel’s redemption from captivity through the agency of Cyrus. The supremacy of Jehovah over the nations and their gods. 42:1–7 The first of the ‘Servant’ passages.
• 49-57 Messages of encouragement and comfort, with rebuke of those who practise evil.
• 58-66 Rebuke of sin. Visions of Zion’s glory. Prayer for God’s intervention, and God’s answer, that the people will be sifted. The true Israel will inherit ‘the new heavens and the new earth’, and those who refuse to turn to God will be destroyed.

Thompson Chain Reference NKJV

• I. Refers chiefly to events leading up to the Captivity, 1–39
  • (1) Exhortations and warnings of Divine Judgments, mingled with predictions of better days and the coming of the Messiah, 1-12
  • (2) Prophecies respecting surrounding nations,-Assyria, Babylonia, Moab, Egypt, Philistia, Syria, Edom, and Tyre, 13-23
  • (3) Writings concerning the sins and misery of the people, promises of salvation, a song of Confidence in God, and his care over his vineyard, 24-27
  • (4) Chiefly woes pronounced upon Ephraim and Jerusalem, especially for trusting in foreign alliances, 28-31
  • (5) Promises of a Righteous King, and the outpouring of the Spirit, the exaltation of the Righteous, and the turning of the wilderness into a Garden of the Lord, 32-35
  • (6) Hezekiah’s deliverance from the Assyrians, and the lengthening of his life, 36-39
• II. The second part of the book contains predictions, warnings, and promises which refer to events beyond the Captivity, and reach on down the centuries through the Christian dispensation. This portion of the prophecy is especially rich in messianic references, 40-66.

A couple of years ago I wrote about using Search the Scriptures (StS) as a part of my daily Bible reading regimen.

Between April and June 2021 I used StS when reading the first nine chapters of Luke across 25 daily studies, and the first 26 chapters of Genesis across 19 studies.

At the time I quite appreciated the discipline of answering specific questions based on the passage. I will often make notes on passages I read but this may take the form of observations about the text, or some historical or contextual information. It may be some reflections on how I see the passage relating to or affecting me, or (rarely) a prayer that forms in response to my reading. The point is my discipline of writing in response to the passage is variable and not always intentional or focused. StS offers an alternative because if I seek to answer the two or three questions more than superficially then I need to reread parts of the passage and give some thought to the issues that the questions seek to raise.