James's Weblog

Immortal, Invisible, God only wise

Wed, 20/06/2012 - 13:13 -- James Oakley

Next Sunday (24th June), at our 10.30 service, we will sing the hymn Immortal Invisible. It's well known.

And, it turns out, mis-known.

I simply copied the words from the recent hymn book, Praise!, to insert on our service sheet. The version they include is copyright to Jubilate Hymns, but what struck me was that there were more changes here than just modernised words. The last two verses contained (between them) some of the thoughts of the last verse most of us sing, but were clearly two entirely different verses.

Blog Category: 
Hymns and Songs

Who strikes the Shepherd?

Wed, 20/06/2012 - 12:26 -- James Oakley

In our Christianity Explored group last week, we were discussing Jesus' predictions of Peter's denials, and of his own suffering, death and resurrection, as a prelude to a very good session on Jesus' resurrection.

One of the members of the group asked a question about a detail that I had never noticed before in Mark's text:

Blog Category: 
Zechariah
Mark
Theology

Circumcision and Baptism

Thu, 14/06/2012 - 13:15 -- James Oakley

Reading Bruce Waltke's commentary on Genesis, he has a fine couple of paragraphs on page 264 where he explores how the sign of circumcision relates to baptism today. I agree with nearly everything he says, and it's so helpful that I thought I'd put it here in case it's helpful for some:

Blog Category: 
Genesis

What was wrong with using Hagar?

Wed, 13/06/2012 - 13:12 -- James Oakley

Last Sunday, I explained that Sarai and Abram attempted to solve the problem of their childlessness through Sarai offering her maid, Hagar, to Abram as a second wife.

I said that, even though we find this unacceptable today, in that day and age this was a socially acceptable way to raise an heir.

The problem with doing this was not that it was socially unacceptable but that it did not arise out of their trust in God.

Blog Category: 
Genesis

Site upgrade

Fri, 01/06/2012 - 17:10 -- James Oakley

Regular visitors to this site will notice that the layout has changed a little.

That's all that many of you will want to know. Those of you who are technically minded, however, may wish to read on.

The site is developed with Drupal. Drupal is currently on version 7, and the first release of version 7 was on January 5th 2011. That's 15 months ago. Drupal 6 is still fully supported, and will remain so until the final release of Drupal 8 (12-18 months away - probably). There's therefore no rush to upgrade a site from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7.

Blog Category: 
Technology
Drupal Planet

Genesis 15 follows on from Genesis 14

Tue, 22/05/2012 - 10:32 -- James Oakley

I'm studying Genesis 15, in preparation for this Sunday's sermon.

Yet again Bruce Waltke is very helpful.

Here is one paragraph (from pages 239-240). The details he highlights probably won't make it into the sermon, unless they're crucial to the flow of thought in the chapter. But it's important that we see how the promises God makes Abraham in chapter 15 are precisely those that he needed after the events of chapter 14, redefining his protection, his reward and his allies.

Blog Category: 
Genesis

Télépéage - version 2

Thu, 19/04/2012 - 18:18 -- James Oakley

(Last updated 16th July 2016)

Back in September 2010, I posted on my experience (as an Englishman) procuring and using a Télépéage gadget for use on the French motorways. I wrote that post just in case it happened to help someone. Since then, it has become more than 3 times as popular as any other page on this website and the last time I checked it was #3 on google.com (searching for "telepeage" from the UK). It would seem that it has been helpful.

Since then, two things have happened. First, there are now 80 comments on that post. Lots of those comments are people asking questions, and lots of the same questions come up again and again. Second, a new UK-based player has entered the market as a "midddle-man" for obtaining these Télépéage gadgets.

So I thought it was time to repost my original post, bringing it up to date, and including an FAQ section at the end. That way, I can close the original post to new comments, and people can read answers to the most common questions without having to trawl through 80 comments to get there.

Blog Category: 
Other

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