Stuff Michael Meeks is doing
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- Up earlyish, off to Park Street,
Finagle a Bagel for breakfast, then a short wander
around Boston Common ( up too early ). A chap was
feeding the squirrels who were eating from his hand,
and swarming all over the place - 10-15 of them;
watched people ice skating on the paddling pond,
most interesting to have time to just watch people.
Admired the memorial to the civil war, and the
'black rank and file' who volenteered and fought for
nothing. Big banner on the guilded government house
saying "The govenor supports the Patriots" - a fairly
safe politial gesture I guess.
- To Church, excellent hymn How firm a
foundation and a great Gordon sermon on
1 Corinthians 3:18-23
- The context of the passage
- I Corinthians written in response to the church in Corinth's
need for answers to many pastoral questions (about which they
wrote) but he goes 7 chapters without starting on these, the
most important issues they havn't asked about - the reports of
divisiveness, quarrels and rivalries he heard about from some
of Chloe's household One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another,
"I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas"; still another,
"I follow Christ."
1 Cor 1:11-12
- The divisions point to a lack of love, which should
characterize the church. Countering this is the main thrust
of his letter.
- Winston Churchill commented: When you have an important
point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver.
Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a
third time - a tremendous whack.
- Paul sets about disowning his groupies following this
strategy that - these divisions are offensive to him, and far worse
offensive to Christ, demeaning to the Church and set the wisdom of
men above that of God, etc. over and over from different angles.
- All things are yours
- A totally wrong model of Christian leadership, Paul
expands
Matthew 20:25-28 - no lording it over people.
- Teachers and leaders in the church are not there to have
their ego's stroked, for their personal enrichment,
affirmation etc. but only to serve.
- Christ is the head of everything, for the sake of
the church
Eph 1:17-23
- So - what are Apollos, Paul, Peter - only your servants,
all things are yours they are yours, loving you like
parents and giving themselves for the Church.
- So then no more boasting about men, and unpacking
vs. 22 ... the world or life or death or the present or the
future -- all are yours.
- The world is yours
- God gives everything, not just teachers and leaders,
but 'the world' - at a minimum all people.
- Even the hostile pagan authorities belong to Christ,
the King's heart is in the hand of the LORD, he directs it
like a watercourse
Prov 21
The authority that persecutes you is
God's servant to do you good.
- The meek have inherited the earth through Christ.
- An anecdote about a youth pastor in a group with whom
Gordon used to pray, very poor, with only 3 sets of clothes,
and an old rust bucket for a car, but who never complained.
One day Gordon asked him Why arn't you worried by your
poverty - I mean, we are, and we seem to have more than you.
And he said, Don't tell anyone hence no attribution My
Father is the owner and president of one of the largest
conglomerates in America, I don't let him do anything - but if I
have a need, he's got it all.
- We have a Father that has it all, we own the world
through him, from the snow capped crag to Fort Knox.
- So then why boast about men ?
- Life is yours
- In his book God Is Not Yet Dead,(Penguin) Vitezslav Gardavsky
wrote:
The terrible threat against life is not death, nor pain, nor
any variation on the disasters that we so obsessively try to protect
ourselves against with our social systems and personal stratagems.
The terrible threat is that we might die earlier than we really do die,
before death has become a natural necessity. The real horror lies in
just such premature death, a death after which we go on living for many
years.
- Are we going through the motions without emotions, or do we know
Jesus who came that we might have life & have it abundantly
John 10:9-11.
- Death is yours
- Death - the problem that makes a mockery of human philosophies.
- don't grieve like the rest of men that have no hope
I Thes 4:14 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life.
He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever
lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
John 11:25-26
- As Paul said For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain
Phil 1:21
- The present is yours
- If life seems out of control, if you made your bed and now
you get to lie in it, if you're reaping what you sowed, Jesus
can change the circumstances.
- If you're in great danger, just believe in him who can
rebuke the storm and bring a complete
calm
- The future is yours
- Jesus owns it - he knows, as was said to
Jeremiah
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD,
"plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you
hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and
pray to me, and I will listen to you.
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."
-
Therefore as it is written "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord"
Back to the office, processed wedding
related E-mail, phoned Julia - who seemed happy, which
is good.
Chatted to various people hard at work here still -
Alex with a demo tommorow, Jon with an evil dependency monstor to
grapple with, Jeff with a bug count to shrink etc.
Fooled around on the web, updated the wedding list,
to track invites vs. replies vs. confirmations - the wonders
of gnumeric.
Back to the barracks - watched some appalling Manga
animation with Radek, bed.
My content in this blog and associated images / data under
images/ and data/ directories are (usually)
created by me and (unless obviously labelled otherwise) are licensed under
the public domain, and/or if that doesn't float your boat a CC0
license. I encourage linking back (of course) to help people decide for
themselves, in context, in the battle for ideas, and I love fixes /
improvements / corrections by private mail.
In case it's not painfully obvious: the reflections reflected here are my
own; mine, all mine ! and don't reflect the views of Collabora, SUSE,
Novell, The Document Foundation, Spaghetti Hurlers (International),
or anyone else.
It's also important to realise that I'm not in on the Swedish Conspiracy.
Occasionally people ask for formal photos for conferences
or fun.
Michael Meeks (michael.meeks@collabora.com)
