for i am convinced...

Palm Sunday - Courage and Faith

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 02:15:26 -0700

I've just given the 8am Holy Communion Service talk at HTB on Palm Sunday, and here's the talk!

Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem
Matthew 21: 1-11

I’m one of those people who when I’m reading really likes to be able to picture the scene in a story. Like when Homer describes morning as the “rosy-fingered dawn.” Or when Bronte describes the dark and formidable Wuthering Heights house. You almost feel as though you were there and could shake hands with the characters.

ready, willing and able...

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 09:39:50 -0800

I've just done the talk at the midweek communion service here at HTB and here's wot I sed...

Luke 13: 31-end

Jesus' Sorrow for Jerusalem
At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, "Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you." He replied, "Go tell that fox, 'I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.' In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!

get well soon...

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 04:04:08 -0700

aw, does anyone else feel really saddened by Top Gear's Richard Hammond's very nasty car crash? I often seem to distance myself from news stories, but this one has got me really sad... Get well soon Hamster!

no crawling please, we're Christians...

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 07:06:34 -0700

Well, last night was the first Clark pastorate social of the summer holidays. We hit the Thames for a pub walk (that's walk, NOT crawl... hehe) - I'd totally recommend it for any pastorate social! Here's the link to the tour company for anyone who'd like to do the same thing www.walks.comWe met at Blackfriars tube by our tour guide who had the biggest boomiest voice in boomy-voicedom. Six English pounds later and we were herded off along the South Bank seeing the Tate Modern, Shakespeare's Globe, inbetween some really great pubs.

ithaka...

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 13:45:00 -0700

as time goes by...

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 17:15:37 -0700

Well it's been 4 days now since barbeques were mothballed, tin foil taken down from windows, torches put back in storage, name badges sentimentally retained and sand beaten from trainers, jeans, tops, socks, hair, armpits, bikinis, pockets... Yes, believe it or not, it's only 4 days since Home Focus ended. And yet it feels like a lifetime ago...

it's a mere flesh wound...

Mon, 03 Jul 2006 09:01:57 -0700

"For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12 :10)

Physically, I’m a fairly weak person – being a weakling hasn’t hindered me massively in life, besides getting into a few fights with bottle tops, and having to go to the office next door to get them to open my jar of marmite in the morning… the only time it did cause a bit of a problem was when I was growing up and was having those all important play fights with my brother and sister, both of which are bigger and stronger than me. We’d have our battles to prove who was the strongest… They became rather like that scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail when Arthur is fighting the Black Knight who was immortalised by the words “it’s a mere flesh wound” despite both his arms and legs being chopped off…

your grace...

Mon, 05 Jun 2006 16:20:18 -0700

I spent a lovely weekend in the Sussex countryside this weekend and spent a lovely hour and a half in the sun on my own, lazing, sleeping, and reading. I spent a lot of time thinking ahead to the future, and at the plans that God might have in store.

tanks for the memory...

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 14:14:29 -0700

Aw, today was a sad day in the office - one of the HTB Homebase fish was taken poorly, and it looks like he's on his way to the big gravelled tank in the sky.

Fred (pictured left in healthier days) seemed to be having difficulty remembering which way up he was supposed to swim, and although fish are renowned for having even shorter memories than a teenager who...er...who er...wotsit...what was I saying? Nah, it's gone...

slow to chide and swift to bless....

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 15:37:38 -0700

I had a chat with Tuffers yesterday about encouragement. I’ve noticed on About Life that lots of people are so encouraging, and really go straight to the point. I think that’s so brilliant.

In Romans 12, we are told that encouragement is actually a spiritual gift, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage…”

i've experienced taggage

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 12:01:36 -0700

Well, it was going to happen, but it appears I've been tagged...
Mike Tufnell www.aboutlife.com/tuffers undertook a very shiny pioneering approach for this, and told us his answers through a sound file. Not to be outdone, I was going to tell you mine through the medium of dance, but there's just not enough space in my living room, so you'll have to make do with the old fashioned reading malarky...

please can I have...

Wed, 29 Mar 2006 13:00:08 -0800

I've been going through a bit of a test of patience the last few days… it's not relevant to go into why I've become as impatient as a six year old on Christmas Eve who wants a bike and has seen a bike shaped present cunningly hidden in the corner of the garage. But impatience is definitely one of my weaknesses.

perfection reflection

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 16:52:31 -0800

"Sometimes is never quite enough
if you're flawless then you'll win my love."(Perfect, Alanis Morrisette)

I got to thinking today about this human desire for perfection; for the perfect body, the perfect relationship, the flawless performance, the A* project at work. We bend over backwards, burn ourselves out and sacrifice other priorities in order to achieve whatever goal it is that we are searching for. And if what we consider to be perfection isn't attained, it's almost as though all our hard work was for nothing... "I may as well not have bothered at all."

terrible twos...

Sun, 19 Mar 2006 13:25:17 -0800

This weekend I did two things for the first time...

1) I went inside a power station over near Bristol. Donned hard hat did I, and with anti-static boots protecting my size 5's I fearlessly went where no Clark had been before. Off I went inside some very huge and scary looking buildings with big whizzy generator thingies, which had spinny barrells and noisy steam producing exhaust pipe-like wotsits.

when did it stop being fun and start being scary?

Thu, 16 Mar 2006 15:50:54 -0800

I was reading my "Word for Today" this morning (fyi, this isn't a thesaurus in diary form... though that would be kinda cool... there's so many great words in the English language that are underused).

For those not down with the word on the street, "Word for Today" is a daily devotional written by Bob and Debby Gass - there's a picture of our Bob in the little magazine. He's got that sort of staged reassuring look that says "Oh hi there buddy - you've just caught me in my big leather chair in my study, flicking through this here wholesome book" whereas in reality he's actually thinking "for the love of humanity, will you hurry up and take the picture - I've been sat here for 2 hours on the same page, with this same look, and I'm rapidly losing the will to live."