It's almost ENTIRELY the Sun.

How many of us have actually looked at length at the evidence for "Anthropogenic Global Warming"? Anyone? Not many, and that's fair enough because it is very very complicated stuff. We rely on those we believe know more than us to inform us about the science, right?

Read this article with an open mind.

Do you know better than these people?

As I've intimated before, we are being led up the CO2 garden path.

Quite amoosing...

The other day my beautiful wife enjoyed a yoghurt made with "organic" milk. Presumably from an organic cow. So what's an organic cow, then? I've had a look at the manufacturer's website and an organic cow is a relaxed cow. A chilled out cow. It has lots of room to roam. Its life would seem to be stress free. If an organic cow gets ill it's treated with homeopathic and herbal remedies and offered counselling (OK, I made up the last bit...). These are happy cows - not the grumpy, miserable, fed up, grouchy cows that supply our regular milk...

Is the milk is delivered in organic lorries driven by organic drivers? Hmmm, is the driver's ciggy made with organic tobacco? Hang on, just going to Google to see if you can get organic tobacco...

...of course you can!! What was I thinking? You can get tobacco grown without the use of harmful chemicals. FANTASTIC! (Surely this defines irony?)

"Organic fags - better for you and the environment"

Grace...

When I about 21 I knew everything. Dunno what's happened in the meantime! Actually, I do know. I've been shown grace. "Shape up or ship out" is great until it's you who doesn't "shape up", right? I want another chance when I make a mistake, not to be written off. As I'm shown grace, I find that I'm naturally more gracious to those around me.

An occasion that blew me away was when I was to lead the worship at a men's conference years ago, Friday night and then Saturday. I was late for the Friday and missed the slot completely - someone else stepped in for me at the last minute. The thing was, though, when we arrived and walked in I shot a look at the Pastor who just waved, smiled and shrugged. I felt such grace toward me. His simple act still informs my actions to this day.

I heard Steve Chalke on the radio - a lady was trying to badger him into giving a yes or know answer to a complex question. Then he said this:

"The problem with black and white answers, with premature black and white answers, is that they crush people."

How right he is. We're not to crush people but love them. More and more I see that one rule does not fit all, that each person presents a unique set of circumstances, and as I've said before, we are not in possession of all the facts. No wonder he said not to judge...

Dual monitors!!

So Tommy and I were sitting in my "Office" ("Dump" to some...) and he suggested I have two monitors instead of one. I thought, "Wow, it'll look like CSI!!". So I started looking into it, and, I have, incredibly, managed it!

I bought a dual monitor 64Mb ATI Radeon 7000 PCI card from Ebay for £20. PCI, y'see, because ours is quite an "old" PC and that's all its got. The nice checkout guy at PC World said to me, "Are you sure you've got PCI Express?", to which I replied, "Erm, ah, uh, dunno, good point, praps I'll go and check..." and we don't. Not even AGP. It's a wonder I manage to even read my emails with such lamentable graphics capabilities.

Anyway, the double bonus is not only the ability to, "Increase my productivity" as Tommy said (I can hear my wife sniggering already...) but also to improve the quality of the vids I record for Youtube (acoustic guitar tuition) - which this new card has done as well.

So, job done, and I feel all clever. Clever me :-)

Dentist

I had to go to the dentist this morning and I was pretty nervous. Last time I went it was e needle job and you KNOW how I feel about needles! I did feel more peaceful going this time though. I was worried as a chunk had broken off one of my teeth and I was imagining what might be necessary - multiple injections, drills, hammers, chisels...

...as it turned God let me off AGAIN - NO NEEDLE!! PHEWEEEEE!!

He's very good this dentist (my wife, Ali, posted about him on her blog), puts you at your ease, nothing's a big deal (said I had really nice teeth!) - the last dentist made everything sound like a big deal, very scary...

My "really nice" teeth are all clean again, yay!!

I ask you??

Just returned from a Preschool Funday. Last year there was a balloon race - the kids put their names on and the balloons sail of into the sky, you know the sort of thing...

This year there wasn't one. Someone on the committee had said that the balloons weren't environmentally friendly.


AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good morning?

My alarm radio came on at a quarter to seven this morning. I'm used to this but today my day began with hearing a report about East Congo; I'm not sure there has been a report that has left me more affected. Such cruelty, such hate, such evil - I am still in a bit of a daze after what I heard. I'm not about to rehearse it here but you'll probably find it here.

I'm forcefully reminded again that this world is in a desperate state. It's not good enough simply to not think about it. We are called to think about it, pray about it, cry out to God, "HOW LONG LORD?"

As I've grown a bit older I'm noticing a subtle but important shift in myself. I have it very good. God has been very, very good to me and if he never gave me another thing I would still be embarrassed with all his blessing to me. Not long ago, I would have said that, yes, I wanted Jesus to come back, but not quite yet - I'm having too good a time!

Now, as my awareness of the world around me increases and I dwell on its true state - I say, NOW!

Debate: Does organic produce taste better?

That's that settled then :-)

Klestrol

Had some blood taken the other day for my cholesterol test. I have to say I'm not expecting great news when the numbers come back - I was almost surprised the nurse got it to go up the needle!! I don't know if the nurse spotted signs of stress but she asked me, "Are you OK with needles?" - I replied, "It depends how quick you are...", which reminds me...

...I don't like needles. At all. When Ali was a hospital doc she ever so kindly volunteered me to be a practise pin cushion for med students. Thanks baby. It's OK, I thought, face your fears, get it out the way...

So I pitch up and as they start jabbing me I realise that they've NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE!! Thanks for the heads up darling... I take a hit to the right arm, then a hit to the left, right again and then this young boy of about 8 takes aim and he's coming at me waving the needle about like it could go ANYWHERE... my mouth goes dry, my palms are sweaty and I...pass out. Ali woke me with a kiss, (too little too late if you ask me) the 8 year looks really guilty and then I have to get a friend to pick me up as now I'm not allowed to drive. Right.

So, my advice to anyone out there with an irrational fear is simply to face it and wonder why you bothered.

I still fear needles. Wierd, huh?

Imagine what it would be like...

...if there were no sin.

We are so used to sin that we don't notice its effect around us.

Let me get you started and then you have a go:

My bunch of keys I carry around - would I need them?
The bank I went to today - what would that look like? (Would there even be a bank?)
The bus shelter?
Our church building with it's electric shutters and alarm system?
PIN numbers?
Internet security?
Car radio codes?
Police?
Litter?
The list must be endless...


You see where I've gone with this...what do you think?

Spiderman 3

I went to see spiderman 3 on Monday with our two boys and a couple of friends. Nowadays when I watch a film like this I try to look at what it's saying about us as people. God created all of us in his image and aspects of this come out all over the place in our lives. This can be in our creativity, our love, our yearning for justice, our built in perception of good and evil etc...

Here are three bullet points from the film:
> The "evil" that comes is from outer space in the form of an unexplained black stuff. Within the story there was a need for an outside agency to provide this - as if there's not enough around as it is (see above post...)?
> Society's need for someone to save us - sound familiar? Who will save us? Spidey can only save us from crime - Jesus can save us in all areas of our lives.
> Spidey forgives but only in the light of new knowledge providing extenuating circumstances. This is not really forgiveness is it? Forgiveness is saying, "I give this over to God in all its blackness." We are never in possession of all the facts about someone and so are never in a position to truly judge. Only God is in possession of all the facts.

Finally, I loved the fact that we could tell whether he was Evil Peter or Good Peter just from his fringe!!

Nice one :-)

This makes me laugh and laugh!