Archive for December, 2011

Christmas

Sunday, December 25th, 2011

Motherandchild

Joseph went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to the town of Bethlehem in Judea, the birthplace of King David. Joseph went there because he was a descendant of David. He went to register with Mary, who was promised in marriage to him. She was pregnant, and while they were in Bethlehem, the time came for her to have her baby. She gave birth to her first son, wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger—there was no room for them to stay in the inn.

There were some shepherds in that part of the country who were spending the night in the fields, taking care of their flocks. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone over them. They were terribly afraid, but the angel said to them, Don’t be afraid! I am here with good news for you, which will bring great joy to all the people. This very day in David’s town your Savior was born—Christ the Lord! And this is what will prove it to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

Suddenly a great army of heaven’s angels appeared with the angel, singing praises to God:

Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom he is pleased!

When the angels went away from them back into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us.

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and saw the baby lying in the manger. When the shepherds saw him, they told them what the angel had said about the child. All who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said. Mary remembered all these things and thought deeply about them. The shepherds went back, singing praises to God for all they had heard and seen; it had been just as the angel had told them.

Luke 2

The Beatbox Nativity

Saturday, December 24th, 2011

Contemporary yet scriptural, dear reader, I give you TyTe and The Beatbox Nativity.

and, for those who like their greatest story ever told live and unplugged, the Nativity Rap live and on location.

TyTe (aka The Reverend Tyte) is a vicar at Uplyme Church in England and was a professional beatboxer before being ordained seven years ago.

 

 

It ain’t Master Chef but…

Monday, December 19th, 2011

Noodle mix

At this time of year, when the Yuletide finishing line is in sight but there’s still a week to go, I still have to rise early for work whilst the rest of the family slumber. The last thing I want to do in the morning is make a packed lunch but our budget is tight so I can’t have cafe lunches everyday either.

Today, I didn’t need to make a lunch as my group boss laid on a fantastic barbecue to welcome his teams to the newly relocated offices.  Not only that but he made sure that all the leftovers were offered to staff to take home, rather than chuck perfectly good food away.

I’ll often take fresh food for youth group to guzzle or to put non-perishables into the food bank.  With youth group done for the year, I grabbed a couple of cooked steaks to bring home, where I sliced them as thinly as possible, mixed the meat with slivers of onion, cabbage, capsicums and carrot and bagged portions to freeze.

When I next cannot be bothered to make a packed lunch, I’ll simply grab one of these bags from the freezer and a packet of instant noodles from the larder so I can whip up a slightly more appetising and healthier version of a pot noodle.

Like I said, it ain’t Master Chef but it’ll fill a gap.

It’s not what you do that scares me, it’s what you hide.

Thursday, December 8th, 2011

Dm1

It’s not what you do that scares me, it’s what you hide is a fine example of why I continue to read – and be challenged by – Donald Miller writes.

picture props: austinwoods14

Achieving spiritual efficiency through prayer macros

Thursday, December 1st, 2011

Simply arrange with God ahead of time that when you recite the prayer macro, it will be understood as a recitation of the longer prayer in full.”

A great morning coffee splutter from the funny if not quite scriptural Achieving spiritual efficiency through prayer macros.

(Hat tip to Tony Jones.)