too good not to share

I know I'm always pushing Stott-isms on you...but this one was so good I couldn't keep myself from yet another plug for my favorite theologian.

I've never heard anybody address the Kingdom in this way...

Taken directly from my daily-email-dose-of-Stott:

The Kingdom of Heaven (cont'd.)

60. Total blessing and total demand

When Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God he was not referring to the general sovereignty of God over nature and history, but to that specific rule over his own people which he himself had inaugurated, and which begins in anybody's life when he humbles himself, repents, believes, submits and is born again. God's kingdom is Jesus Christ ruling over his people in total blessing and total demand. To 'seek first' this kingdom is to desire as of first importance the spread of the reign of Jesus Christ. Such a desire will start with ourselves, until every single department of our life -- home, marriage and family, personal morality, professional life and business ethics, bank balance, tax returns, lifestyle, citizenship -- is joyfully and freely submissive to Christ. It will continue in our immediate environment, with the acceptance of evangelistic responsibility towards our relatives, colleagues, neighbours and friends. And it will also reach out in global concern for the missionary witness of the church.

--From "The Message of the Sermon on the Mount" (The Bible Speaks Today Series: Leicester and Downers Grove: IVP, 1978), p. 170.

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--Excerpted from "Authentic Christianity", pp. 43-44, by permission of InterVarsity Press.

rugby goes to paris

2007 is a Rugby World Cup year, and the England v. Tonga match landed on Mick's birthday. Even though he had the tickets long before we met, I got to go! Yay! :)

We went. We saw. We took some piccies! There aren't as many as I would normally take, but I was so preoccupied with being the tour guide that I didn't take the time to get my camera out that often.

England beat Tonga quite legitimately, but while there are other final scores of 103-8 being put on the tally board, we couldn't agree with a fellow England fan that the England-Tonga score (36-20) meant that we "stuffed 'em".

Now, who's impressed with my incredible picture-posting speed...given my recent performance?

i don't get it

I read a excerpt of this article during my morning commute today.

It does make it sound more like family members are pressuring them than they are seeking advice from psychics themselves...but still...I'd have thought phrases "devout catholic" and "psychic advice" would never really come into contact with each other.