Stuff Michael Meeks is doing | |
This is my (in)activity log. You might like to visit Collabora Productivity a subsidiary of Collabora focusing on LibreOffice support and services for whom I work. Also if you have the time to read this sort of stuff you could enlighten yourself by going to Unraveling Wittgenstein's net or if you are feeling objectionable perhaps here. Failing that, there are all manner of interesting things to read on the LibreOffice Planet news feed. Older items: 2023: ( J F M A M J ), 2022: ( J F M A M J J A S O N D ), 2021, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, legacy html
- Up very late; large cooked breakfast. Off to Anglsey Abbey with Kate and Matthew, wandered around the gardens - very pleasant. Back home. M&K left for London.
- Did a little work, much pain-filled packaging action. A pleasant cheesy lunch.
- Listened to an interesting Gordon sermon;
- Palm Sunday, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, how Solomon rode into Jerusalem on his Father's, the King's mule.
- Jesus on the other hand, arrived on one which no-man had ever ridden (cf. Mark).
- Solomen's first priority was to build a temple for God; which was filled by the Holy spirit.
- Jesus' 1st went to the new temple & overturned the money-changers tables, who had turned it into a den of robbers, and rejected it. It was then that the leadership determined to find a way to put him to death.
- But, Jesus would yet build his temple - the people of God; the Holy Spirit, given at pentecost - making believers themselves temples of the Holy Spirit.
- Back to spiritual gifts - 1 Cor. 12 vs. 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. - at least 20+ gifts. The gifts are not about us, but God, Jesus continuing his ministry, still at work amongst us.
- Gifts are not static; they are the 'love languages' (cf. Dr. Chapman) of Jesus showing his love through the church. We get tunnel vision seeing some gifts almost to the exclusion to the others. Some churches / denominations take eg. Teaching, Tounges, Healing, Evangelism to extremes, and miss the others.
- You can't be a free-lance christian / spouse - you have to do it with others;
- Some say: I must be the 'tail bone' of the body of Christ, to be sat on - but Paul only mentions the big, useful parts, of the body.
- Looking at 3 gifts;
- 'those able to help others'; a very general term. Paul helped in his writing, hospitality, financial assistance; things that need to be done - need help.
- 'gifts of administration' - a nautical term, steering the ship; a leadership gift, making things happen. Servant leadership.
- vs. 8. 'message of wisdom / knowledge' - the terms are used very much interchangably in scripture, sometimes used contrastedly as here. Charles Spurgeon: Wisdom is the right use of knowledge; there is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool.. Wisdom sometimes used as 'skill' - Job expects people to gain wisdom with age. If anyone lacks wisdom he should ask God who gives generously. Biblical wisdom is un-common sense.
- In 1 Cor. 3:16-23 the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. The wisdom of this world doesn't know what to do with the cross.
| The world's wisdom | God's wisdom |
|---|
| You have to believe in yourself | He who trusts in himself is a fool. Prov 28:26 |
| You need to forgive yourself | He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them he is the one who finds mercy Prov 28:13 |
| The squeaky wheel gets the grease | Philippians 2:14 do everything without complaining and arguing |
| Buy now pay later | Romans 13:8 Owe no-one anything, except to love one-another |
| Get the other guy before he gets you | Romans 12:21 do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good |
| If he hasn't changed by now, he never will; you can't teach an old dog new tricks | That may be true of old dogs; but it's not true of new creatures. If anyone is in Christ he is a new creature, the old has gone, the new has come. 2 Cor 5:17 |
- The gift is the message not keeping it to yourself, but sharing it; make love your aim and so earnestly desire the greater gifts. (1 Cor 14:1
- Challenging indeed.
My content in this blog and associated images / data under images/ and data/ directories are (usually) created by me and (unless obviously labelled otherwise) are licensed under the public domain, and/or if that doesn't float your boat a CC0 license. I encourage linking back (of course) to help people decide for themselves, in context, in the battle for ideas, and I love fixes / improvements / corrections by private mail.
In case it's not painfully obvious: the reflections reflected here are my own; mine, all mine ! and don't reflect the views of Collabora, SUSE, Novell, The Document Foundation, Spaghetti Hurlers (International), or anyone else. It's also important to realise that I'm not in on the Swedish Conspiracy. Occasionally people ask for formal photos for conferences or fun.
Michael Meeks (michael.meeks@collabora.com) 