Pilgrim's Progress

My Butcher is a Raving Pentecostal

>> Canada Files: Day 063

See for yourself! This is Sign of the Day #5.

(If that doesn't mean anything, the shop name sounds a bit like someone speaking in tongues!)

Great Free 3D Tools

News this morning of another great giveaway - Caligari Truespace 7.6 is now FREE!Acquired by Microsoft to compete with Google Sketchup\Google Earth. It was a free version of Truespace 3.2 that got me into 3D art originally.

Click here to download (software, manual and training videos).

This software used to cost $600 ... go get it!

Worth a Thousand Words?

>> Canada Files: Day 053

A picture is worth a thousand words, they say. Well how about a picture made up of a thousand words? A Wordle word cloud shows up the main words in a block of text. The bigger, the more often it occurs. Above is a summary of the last 25 blog posts.

And this is Mark's Gospel:

And the Psalms ...

I Shall Lack Nothing

>> Canada Files: Day 052

I'm definitely in "Phase 2" now. The novelty has worn off - the novelty of being in Canada, soaking in the new cultural experience, the novelty of doing exciting new things in creative worship, of meeting new people and so on.

My last post hinted that I was having to dig deeper. For the last couple of weeks it's been harder to find a tangible sense of God's presence anywhere - at home, at church, at GOHOP. So what then?

From the best bliss that earth imparts
We turn unfilled to Thee again

All of this has led to a renewed call to seek God again, not for his "benefits" but simply for his presence.

So on Tuesday, I went for a long walk, up the escarpment, along into town and down again - about 6 miles I think. The photo above is a panoramic view from the escarpment. And the prayer inside me was "Lord, I'm coming to find you." Nothing dramatic happened, but the next day, on my usual half hour walk to the prayer house, I felt an inner "thaw". I found the first verse of Psalm 23 playing round and round in my mind, over and over, getting richer all the time:

The Lord is my Shepherd
Therefore, I lack nothing.

And so this is Phase 2. I felt challenged that my spiritual food was not to be the buzz of doing creative worship sessions, but simply of seeking God persistently until I found him.

A Prayer O Lord our God, grant us grace to desire Thee with our whole heart, that so desiring, we may seek and find Thee; and so finding Thee we may love Thee; and loving Thee we may hate those sins from which Thou hast redeemed us; for the sake of Jesus Christ. St. Anselm

Clear Blue Skies?

>> Canada Files: Day 041

The weather is really great at the moment (I guess I've just alienated any UK readers!). The air is warm and the sky is clear and a light breeze keeps things cool.

But in other ways, the "weather" seems quite overcast, both inwardly and outwardly. Life seems pretty much "in the raw", with a lot of people going through a lot of stuff, both in the prayer room community and elsewhere. And the internal battles are still there (funnily enough!).

I'm having to "dig deep" at the moment to live once again from the deeper streams of faith, and not from the tangible delights of meeting God face to face. But then a lot of folk here are doing that too.

So it turns out that my 6 years in Liverpool area, in parish ministry, living alone, facing real life etc. have been a vital preparation for this new phase.

Maybe there's a lesson here - if your circumstances require you to remember everything you've learned, and raise your game, then you are growing and moving forward. If you can afford to let it go, then you're not.

A Prayer Stand with me, O God, at the storm's eye; Anchor me in the unshakeable things, Refresh me from the deeper streams Feed me with your living words. Amen.

Happy Canada Day!

>> Canada Files: Day 036

He Shall Have Dominion

>> Canada Files: Day 036

I learned the other day that Canada's full name is "The Dominion of Canada". The founding fathers took this name from Psalm 72:8 - "he shall have dominion from sea to sea." And today is "Canada Day", formerly called "Dominion Day".

Much of what we're praying for at GOHOP is for the Lord's glory and dominion to be re-established here, and in the nations.

The above image came out of this, and it was connected with Malachi 3 - "The Lord will suddenly come to his temple."

A Prayer Lord, on this day, Dominion Day We pray that you will reveal your glory in your church and in the land again. May you subdue the nations under your godly rule again.