CD Notes From Last Night

Just some notes that I didn't manage to put up last night for your reading pleasure.

• Here's something of interest worth checking in terms of the top 50 goals in Premiership history.
• JC Ryle is someone I have a great deal of respect for and his book on Holiness is a landmark in my appreciation on the subject. Someone referred me to an article he wrote on being a parent and that too has been of great to realign my approach to the task of being a father for it to be more in line with scriptural instruction.
• Andy Crouch is the senior editor of Christianity Today who has put together a book on culture. Trevin over at KP has interviewed him and also recommended an excerpt from the book for me to consider. Makes for good reading at least. Keep up to date with the interview as things progress.
• If this notes thing is to work I'm going to have be honest about the sites that I visit and the things that interest me. It's not always directly related to Christianity. As you know I love football, so whatever I get in terms of things worth reading and reporting I'll report here. This has come out after the various sites that I've visited in the aftermath of the BBC's decision to cast Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor. I would have otherwise left it alone, but after reading this article from the Daily Telegraph I could not stay away from the subject. My thoughts? It's quite something that a programme should capture such interest and that's tribute to the work of outgoing executive prooducer Russell T. Davies and the current Doctor David Tennant. The return of the Doctor back in 2005 wasn't a guaranteed success but the ability to pitch the stories and get an audience to latch onto the programme new and old was brilliant. I don't have to agree with everything about it - the fact is that people continue to love it and watch it in their millions. What I like about Doctor Who is that it's a fascinating character-driven concept, ever since I got into it back in the 90's I was fascinated by the different characterisations of essentially the same person and how that conveyed itself in various circumstances. I have never really taken it seriously as a children's programme even though with Tennant and now Smith it's blatantly obvious that their target audience remains younger. I wish I had posted some stuff on my thoughts about the Doctor before. I have been impressed by Tennant's portrayal and think it's right that he's making the move now. It makes a lot of sense. I don't quite know yet what to make of the new guy - I haven't seen him before. The challenge will be to establish a substantially different Doctor to Tennant's portrayal as Tennant was distinct from Christopher Eccleston's characterisation. It was easier for Tennant because of the age and look thing, that distinction isn't as clear between Smith and Tennant. There is also the issue of the personality that Smith will impose on the character to convey someone who has lived 10 times before and yet looks young, fresh and spruce. It's exciting times for the programme and as was commented on someone else's blog the interest should keep people going through until the series returns to its usual weekly slot next year. By the way I really enjoyed reading the Telegraph article - it's a good insight from a fan about what the show is all about especially in terms of the key character and I do agree with the writer's final comment in terms of the Doctor now needing to regain a sense of mystery and shrouded in darkness that marked out Hartnell's and Tom Baker's portrayal and would have worked if they wanted it with Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Christopher Eccleston. We wait with baited breath.
• My sister Ruth lives in Ghana so I found this news of interest. I wonder sometimes if these things really will make a change? For my sister's sake I really do hope so.
• I wasn't even really paying attention to this blog entry by Tim Chester, which makes a change for me because the more I read You Can Change and remember the impact of Total Church, the bigger surprise it is that I don't pay attention. There was something about it though that just got me thinking about this free will argument. What could we ever freely will for when in a loving relationship with the Creator of the universe? What would we want to exercise the free will to do? A real heart felt love relationship with the epitome of love - what do I want? Sometimes I think the free will argument is a smoke screen put up by people deflecting attention from God's design in making us in His image.
• I'm not the world's biggest fan of the emergent agenda, but monitoring their progress is of interest to me. So this link to more articles may be illuminative.
• I don't blog from Jonny that often, but this concept grabbed my attention - I'd be interested to seeing how that would work in the context in which I work. Then again things may be changiing in this area ... (sounds ominous doesn't it?)
• This is a quality article about the nature of Christians moving from the ghetto mentality to believing that we're actually called to make a difference to those around us.
• I want to take blogging a bit more seriously in 2009 in more ways than one, or more accurately for more blogs than one, so it will be well worth my while studying this in detail and seeing if I can understand it and make head or tail of it!
• Silence has been a spiritual discipline that's been frowned upon in certain circles and lauded as almost as critical as prayer itself. 2008 got me into the benefits of praticing purposeful silence - not the emptying of the mind like other meditative practices - just appreciating the lack of noise to attune to what God may or may not be saying. Driscoll's entry on his journey to silence maybe of help to quite a lot of us who are similarly guilty of filling our lives with noise.
• I'm interested in football, not just Liverpool, football as a whole. So the recent trials and tribulations of the 'world's richest club' has been of interest. I would give Hughes more of a chance to establish his kind of team. If you are going to sack him in the summer, what it's important not to do is give him money to spend on players who mayve surplus to requirements. Signing Wayne Bridge is a quality signing and like Wright-Phillips will actually give him a platform to show what a quyality left-back he is (possibly even better than Ashley Cole especially defensively). Although the reported wage (£100k per week) for the player is exorbitant The talk of signing Scott Parker is very interesting. It would add both a little bit fo steel but also some passing flexibility in the middle of the park. It doesn't give them a battling midfielder in the mould of Vieira or Mascherano, but it will definitely allow Stephen Ireland more freedom. I hope that Hughes makes the most of the opportunity he has to turn the club around.
• I know some people who wouldn't agree with this quote. It's an important basis on which to do business with people especially in the hope of sharing the gospel with them. For the many developments in my faith and changes and the way I've been stretched, I still agree with this statement and think it's the basis on which faith and repentance makes sense.
• How can Playboy being in trouble not be good news?
• While I'm making my way through some other stuff it won't hurt me seeing if there are any sites worth checking on the top 100 as recommended by the Guardian.

For His Name's Sake
Shalom
dmcd