Archive - June, 2009

Glastonbury 09

June 29, 2009 in music with 1 Comment

14Over the weekend we managed to catch a bit of the Glastonbury Festival on T.V. The highlight for me was Bruce Springsteen who headlined the Pyramid Stage (pictured after the festival) on saturday evening, though i was really impressed with Blur, who headlined on sunday night. Over the weekend other artists who played were Neil Young, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Crosby Stills & Nash, Lily Allen, Fleet Foxes, Spinal Tap, Tom Jones, Bon iver and loads more. Check out the full list here.

The 2 week clean up will have begun this morning involving an estimated 500 paid staff alone picking litter, and several more doing other jobs across the 600-acre site.

About 150,000 people are at the festival at any one time and are expected to leave behind 54 tonnes of cans and plastic bottles, 9.12 tonnes of glass and 11.2 tonnes of discarded tents. There are also 193 tonnes of “compostable material”.

There are 66.77 tonnes of scrap metal, 0.25 tonnes of plastic sheeting, 41.76 tonnes of cardboard, 10 tonnes of dense plastics and 400 tonnes of wood.

The Green Police were out in force this year, trying to stop people “peeing” on the ground and upsetting the water table.
But inevitably several revellers managed to go undetected.

The festival website instructs: “Use the toilets provided – don’t pee just anywhere, the ground really can’t take it. Remember there are 150,000 people at the Festival and all that urine goes straight into the water table and into rivers and streams for miles around.

“It isn’t good for the ground and it isn’t good for the fish! If you are caught peeing you run the risk of being expelled from the Festival, or at least being very publicly ridiculed by the Green Police! There will be more toilets than ever and they will be a lot cleaner too.”

Smokers are also encouraged to use “butt bins” as one cigarette can contaminate up to eight litres of water.

Fascinating………

I have some thoughts about ‘worship’ at Glastonbury roaming around my head, made clearer by some comments in Church last night. More on that later….

Michael Jackson dead at 50

June 26, 2009 in music with 6 Comments

The release of BAD was when i first paid real attention to Michael Jackson. Moonwalker was the first movie i ever saw in a cinema, stuff like the video above blew me away as a kid and yet i was never a huge fan of Jackson after the mid 80′s peak. Such has been the reach of his fame that over the last 30 years anyone listening to music must have encountered him & his music. Tonight it has been reported & since then confirmed, that Michael Jackson has died aged 50 from a heart attack. Despite all the other nonsense, the man was a genius. It’s tragic news!

Eric Lewis

June 25, 2009 in music with 1 Comment

Just Do Something Chapter 2

June 23, 2009 in Books with 3 Comments

just-do-something ‘The Will of God in Christianese.” If God has a wonderful plan for my life, why doesn’t He tell me what it is? DeYoung lists the questions that are commonly a part of adult life regarding education, careers and relationships etc etc and then says this “I’d like us to consider that maybe we have difficulty discovering God’s wonderful plan for our lives because if the truth be told, He doesn’t really intend to tell us what it is. And maybe we’re wrong to expect Him to.” John highlights this point in his post here

I had gotten to this point when i had to set the book down and really think about what i had just read. In part this is why my blog post has been a little late but this statement went against a lot of what i have been routinely fed for much of my adult life, so it was a lot to consider. DeYoung goes on to explain which has obviously been helpful.

DeYoung then explains God’s will of decree first. To understand it better i love the line he ‘steals’ from Augustine, “The Will of God is the necessity of all things.” This can get confusing for some who rightly question why God allows certain things to happen to certain people. When DeYoung says “God knows all things and sovereignly superintends all things” i can’t help but think that most Christians would say ‘amen, we agree’ but in difficult times may not be able to say it with such assurance. So, if the will of decree is how things are, then God’s will of desire is how things ought to be.

God clearly has desires for our actions to be pleasing in his sight, DeYoung quotes Matthew 7:21 which is a helpful passage here but with a sobering message; “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” As i pondered this i saw clearly a picture of us fumbling around crying out to the Lord for his will & direction and yet never having carried out anything that was ‘pleasing in his sight.’

DeYoung closes the chapter by referring to a book by Gerald Sittser a few years ago. I won’t type out the full text on this but he basically quotes a section of the book. The Sittser quote explains ‘Our responsibility’ to discover ‘God’s plan for our lives.’ It then says that ‘if we make the right choice we will receive his favor, fulfill our divine destiny and succeed in life.’ I am glad that DeYoung clarifies this and whilst he is nicer than me i will call this way of thinking something that borders on insanity!

“Trusting in God’s will of decree is good. Following His will of desire is obedient. Waiting for God’s will of direction is a mess.”

Thats probably a good place to leave this post, i get quite frustrated & angry having been around people who have and are messing their lives up with ‘waiting for God’s will of direction.’ So, i will shush will the going is good…….

Gary’s thoughts
John’s thoughts
Buy the Book here

Authentic……..

June 19, 2009 in supersimbo with 1 Comment

authentic ad spot This little image (left) has appeared on the right side of my blog today, you may have noticed? To explain; Last month we had a visit from Michael Ward who, in a morning managed to re-shape my thoughts about these guys. On their Blog, they say this “We are a creative Christian communications company aiming to resource individuals on their journey of faith.” I like that! So, because of the fact that i like what they are about and as a result of a few conversations, over the coming weeks and months i hope to promote and discuss the products they create and distribute in the UK & farther afield.

First things first though, you have to check out the online version of their catalogue, here! Perhaps this is what has drawn me in, the hard copy is so much better than looking at it online, but you should get the idea. Simply put, i have not seen a catalogue in the ‘Christian’ retail trade that comes close to being as creative or eye catching as this one. Its a brilliant piece of work. So, hats off to the team for that!

In the meantime, watch this space, next week should see a related post, review or perhaps rant! Who knows, i have to be honest after all :)

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