I missed a week! Sometimes space for writing on this blog just gets squeezed.

Well what’s new? No snow in Stockholm, it’s been a very strange winter here so far but still a ways to go. In fact it has been so mild that some of the trails that get bedevilled by ice are fine for running again.

The snowboarding journey is, pardon the pun, an up and down affair. Having hit the highs of learning a new technique I went to the nearest big resort for a days practice. I had high expectations which, along with me, hit the hard ground of reality. It wasn’t no progress, just that I didn’t suddenly become the pro I was clearly dreaming about. We pick ourselves up and we’ll have another go. I’m determined to conquer fear, master moves that feel like I’m learning to ride a bike for the first time and get to the point where I can have more fun!

Enough of this and on with the links.

You Should Read These

1. I’m trying an experiment on Chat GPT – want to join in? AI and whether it should as opposed to will have an overlap into church will be a live conversation for a while. This from Chris Green comes at it with an open enquiry.
2. ‘Without the Holy Spirit We May as Well Burn our Bibles’. Pretty much.
3. Interesting times that Leviticus gets an airing on Tyler Cowen’s blog. Times haven’t changed that much that the comments aren’t full of snark and bile. Or that many educated people have a very poor grasp of the Bible and no grasp of hermeneutics.
4. Forgiveness. Beautiful from Maria Popova. Worth listening to the short poem read by Nick Cave.
5. A Rare Alignment of 7 Planets Is About to Take Place in The Sky. One for the skywatchers. You have a month to get ready!
6. Ten Must-See Museums Opening Around the World in 2025. The new V&A in London looks cool, but also exciting to see new museums in Benin, on migration and BBQ! Head to Kansas for that last one.
7. The winners of the 2024 Lyttle Lytton Contest for the worst opening line of a novel.

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You Should Look At This

One for the Twitchers: Bold Parakeet Biting a Lizard’s Tail Wins SINWP Bird Photographer of the Year Contest.

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You Should Listen To This

These boys are good!

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You Should Watch This

An oldie but a goodie.

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This Week’s Postings

Plugging away:

• The water of life
• What is your heart set on?
• Entertaining or engaging?

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From The Archives

How do you know that God loves you? Because Christ died for you. How do you know that you love God? Because love pours out of your heart for the things that God loves and God loves the church! The church is the object of His love. You cannot love your brothers and sisters by being on your own. Because you have nobody to love. And you cannot love people if you do not commit to them. You might like them, you might learn from them, but you cannot love them. Jesus commits to us and asks us to commit not just to him but to His bride, His body. All in.

The glory of the local church

I hope you enjoy your weekend. Do let me know if there’s something here you appreciated or if you see something you think would be worth sharing, let me know!