James's Weblog

I owe to my friend John Goulding the following observation:

In Jonah 4, God provided a plant to shield Jonah from the heat. The verb "to provide" is a key-word in Jonah - it's מָנָה (manah). The worm that ate the manah / the provided plant was a תּוֹלָע (tola`). That's not a common word in the Old Testament (39x). 27 of those are in the book of Exodus, where the usual meaning is (by metonymy) the purple die made from a particular type of worm. But one is Exodus 16:20.

In case you missed it, Drush has evolved recently.

Quick primer for beginners follows. (Although, if you haven't heard of Drush, the chances are this post was not written with you in mind. I blog about many subjects, and there aren't many readers who are interested in all of them!)

Drush stands for Drupal shell - it's a very powerful shell environment for managing Drupal sites using the command-line shell.

It's Advent.

It's widely acknowledged that there are some TV shows that are timeless, and deserve to be watched at Christmas time. The film It's a Wonderful Life, various editions of Dickens' Christmas Carol, Raymond Briggs' The Snowman, and so on.

It is less widely appreciated that there is TV that deserves to be watched each Advent.

With a hat-tip to Ian and Peter (you know who you are), here is my suggestion

I'm a believer in paying for things. "Don't steal" - it's one of the ten commandments.

That means, if I want to use a stock photo on a website, on a flyer, on a poster, it should be with the copyright-holder's permission. It's their photo, and it's up to them to decide if I may use it. If I use it without their permission, it's theft.

This week, I'm wrestling with the book of Ecclesiastes, in preparation for preaching on chapter 12 this coming Sunday.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the strife will not be long;
This day the noise of battle, the next the victor’s song.
To him that overcometh a crown of life shall be;
He with the King of Glory shall reign eternally.

(Apparently, Stand up, stand up for Jesus was originally written not as a hymn, but as the conclusion in a sermon on Ephesians 6:14)

Jesus said: “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Luke 18:17)

There's much debate as to exactly what that means. Jesus couldn't mean that adults have to be like children in every sense, as we could never be short enough. (Well, most of us couldn't — you know who you are.)  In what sense “like a child”?

I had a really interesting conversation this last week on the subject of what proportions of sermons here should be on which parts of Scripture. (I said that I try to aim at 1/3 each of Old Testament, Gospel, and rest of New Testament - after using some weeks for the occasional topical series).

THE Church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies and authority in controversies of faith; and yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain anything contrary to God’s word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another. Wherefore, although the Church be a witness and a keeper of Holy Writ: yet, as it ought not to decree anything against the same, so besides the same ought it not to enforce anything to be believed for necessity of salvation.

Yesterday, I had two very interesting conversations after church services, which set off the following thoughts. (What follows is not something I said to either person, although it might have been helpful if I had done).

Red Letters

Many English Bibles print the words of Jesus in red.