Ramble for Kirwan Uniting Church Keep in Touch newsletter 8 November 2020

The Mater told me today what time I have to roll up on Tuesday (8am). The usual stuff about not eating after midnight (do I splurge on a big dinner on Monday, or a light supper?), only water after 6am. No alcohol for 24 hours before the op or 24 hours after an anaesthetic. Bring an overnight bag. Which in the old days (in this context, I’m not sure when the old days ended) for me would have included a bible. I have lots of bibles on my shelves and scattered around the house. Do you know, I don’t read any of them. Nor do I take one of them with me when I go to church or to hospital or visiting. But I always have a bible with me, something which didn’t even happen in the old days. That’s because I use a bible app on my phone and iPad, and on my iMac and laptop. More versions than Harry Potter, Greek and Hebrew side-by-side, listen to Hebrew pronunciation, spoiled for choice for commentary at the swipe of a screen or click of a mouse. “Ah”, you say, “but you can’t scribble in the margin or underline a passage!” Yeah I can, easy peasy, with a keyboard or a digital pen, I can even make the margin note look like my own handwriting (not too much like my own handwriting or I wouldn’t be able to read it). And whatever I note on one device, immediately pops up on all of them. www.olivetree.com There are others, Logos and Accordance, they’re stupidly expensive. And if olivetree is too pricey for you (it needn’t be), there’s www.biblegateway.com, completely free. I sometimes leaf through a hymnbook, but more often than not I read those online too. No analogue hymnbook can keep up with the prolific output of “Jesus is my boyfriend” Hillsong ditties anyway. I mention this, because God’s Word Written is more widely available than ever its been. Live in a country where possession of a physical bible will land you behind bars or worse? No problem, an anonymising browser and a VPN (Virtual Private Network) connection and the world and The Word is your oyster. Every nano-second of every day, God’s Word is whizzing across the globe at gigabyte speed, in every language to every nation. And into space! Isaiah 55: 
... my word that goes out from my mouth:
    it will not return to me empty,
    but will accomplish what I desire
    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ramble for Kirwan Uniting Church Keeping in Touch pew sheet 25 June 2023.

  (I wonder if they've missed me? 😊) Well, we’ve lived in our little cottage for six months now. We love it, it’s comfortable and homely, and very “us” - you know what I mean by that. Maudie the German Shepherd loves it, she can cavort around the yard all day long, fetching balls which Leisa throws morning and evening, and making me chase her for those same balls during the day while Leisa is at work to pay the mortgage. I think that the cockatiels love it. It’s difficult to tell. Holly, the hen bird, would never let on, and Glimfeather, the cock bird, would chirp happily in a Force 4 cyclone. I’m sitting on the front deck as I tap this, looking up at Castle Hill right behind us. It’s not perfect, of course. The irrigation points leak, and the system is counter-intuitive in the extreme to programme. The bathroom slopes alarmingly to one end. It’s on one of the busiest roads in Townsville. That’s not such a problem for me until I put my hearing aids in. Maudie loves it most of all
Read more

Ramble for Kirwan Uniting Church Keeping in Touch pew sheet 1 January 2023

  Our new pad has an electrically operated gate for our cars to come in and out (to our electrically operated garage, which is being used for storing assorted unopened and part-opened boxes for the time being.) The pedestrian gate opener is obstructed (on purpose, for security reasons) by a padlock. So how do parcel deliverers, meter readers and bearers of mulled wine (thankyou Robin   😊 ) gain ingress? Well, they press the groovy wi-fi connected camera doorbell which rings my and Leisa’s iPhone, wherever we might be in the world, displays their pic and allows one or both of us to tell them that we’ll be right down (if the dog is safely in) or ignore them if we’re in Woop Woop so that they can leave goodies at North Ward or JCU PO. Except it’s not connected yet. Give me a day or two to understand the accompanying installation instructions. Two well-known instances in scripture of Jesus, as it were, pressing the doorbell, are in Revelation 3: “Behold I stand at the door and knock.” And
Read more

Ramble for Kirwan Uniting Church Keeping in Touch pew sheet 12 February 2023

  While there’s still time to dash out and buy a card, let me remind you that it’s Valentine’s Day on Tuesday. It’s also Gail Mumme’s and Shirley Nuss’ birthdays, so you can buy them a card for each occasion. Just remember that it’s traditional that a Valentine card should be from an anonymous admirer. On the first Valentine after we started going out, I composed a poem and faxed it to Leisa, or rather I faxed it to the firm of structural engineers for whom she worked. It was entitled, “The Poet’s Plea to a Civil Engineer”, and dealt with the pain of separation. I lived in West Sussex, while Leisa lived and worked Mon – Fri in London. The poignant last two lines are: If things don’t get better, I’ll jump in the sea, Sir, So build me a tunnel from Sussex to Leisa.   A few weeks later, she flew to Egypt on holiday, and I composed another poem on the inauspicious topic of a Romanian Airways Tupolev. Since then, the Muse has largely left me.   Poetry makes up a large part of the Bible. In
Read more