Readingthenewtestament-inthegreekoriginals

While this may not be the most interesting blog ever, it certainly beats watching the films reviewed below.

I was recently looking at the way the early church read Greek, and discovered that not only were the NT works read aloud to a congregation, BUT also even when read privately, by benefactors, pastors etc. It was normal to read the texts aloud because the texts were written in continues script, without division even between words.

Tryspeedreadingthissentenceandyou
willsoonrealisethatyouhaveto
vocaliseittoyourselfwhetheraloud
orattheveryleastinternallyand
probablyinarathermonotonevoiceto.















(A Greek private letter from the 3rd century, Memphis, Egypt and something called VHP I 1 Fol XVIb, a folio of Zach 13:4-7)

Audio stream of my recent sermon!

As you may have seen on my homepage, I have managed to generate an audio stream of my most recent sermon - preached in 'die Arche' Church, Tübingen (17.07.2005).

You'll need Real Player to hear it. The links are below, but first a few words.

As I only had one day to prepare the talk, I didn't bother trying to preach in German. In fact I agreed to do the sermon only if Anja could translate for me, and I think you'll agree, she did a fantastic job. Probably it was for the best, as now those who don't understand German can follow it.

So what is it about? In short: meditating on the bible. I'm trying to answer the question of how we get scripture deep into our hearts so that it changes us from the inside. You know, I enjoy simply reading the bible, but I LOVE meditating on it. Wherever I am, whatever I'm doing, to lovingly turn scriptures over in my heart, maximising my delight in God ... can't beat it. In fact, I think the primary goal of bible meditation is first of all the enjoyment of all that God is, and especially all he is for us in Christ. The practice of bible meditation will help us towards this goal.

As I make clear in the message, Anja designed a bookmark that bullet points all the methods of bible meditation that I cover. I sped through quite a few, so it is a valuable reference to have. Here it is (though some of you may need a German-English dictionary!):

The idea is that you can stick it in your bible, and use it to help you meditate on the texts. And, of course, you are welcome to print it out and stick it in your own bible if you so want. Copyright police most definitely will not be knocking on your door if you do ...

So, if you want to have a listen to the message, click below.

And you choose:

Both High quality, and Low quality versions are available.
Hint: If you use a dial-up modem, then by all means try the 'High quality', but it may not work. Just click the underlined 'high' or 'low', and wait for about 40 seconds ...

Hope you enjoy.

And one more ...

For those of you who would now try to be clever, and ask 'How do you know Driving Miss Daisy was boring if you slept through it?' (see previous post) I respond as follows. I didn't actually fall asleep through it, I said that 'most' probably do. I personally couldn't fall asleep as I was in a mixed state of shock, bewilderment, disgust and disbelief (that an award winning film could be no more interesting than watching a boring coloured paint dry). I kept myself going by willing an Alien invasion or Terminator's guest appearance - sadly none of which happened. To be honest, I feel like I should get an Olympic medal or something for managing to finish it without slipping into a deep trance state.

But what is really sick is that it won 4 Oscars! Now, this heads my personal 'unanswered questions' list (perhaps more than any even on your list, Sonia), towering over all the other mysteries of the universe. How can you answer this? It just plain messes with my head. I suspect we will find that it will be a question that causes even the fastest super-computers of the future to crash just like an old Spectrum 48k. And if ever we are invaded by a super-intelligent race of football pitch sized brain Aliens, just ask them how that film managed to get so many awards, and they will probably die instantly, or perhaps explode.

Crucial film review

This just may save a couple of hours of your life ...

As I wasn't given the chance in my 'complete profile', I feel ethically obliged to answer the following, and it just may save an hour or two of your life: What is the worst movie I have ever seen? That is easy: Mona Lisa Smile.

Maaaaan. What the heck was that? Watching that was like someone had screwed open the top of my head and poured Domestos in. What can I say? Quite simply, all copies should be incinerated. It battered my intelligence with such ferocity that I could barely find my way out of the cinema, and my eyes had become so glazed over that I wanted to sandpaper my retinas. Actually, I tried to get out of the cinema but the film had anaesthetised my legs. And my brain. So, dear Mona, I'm not smiling. Nuff said. (A close second is 'Driving Miss Daisy', which is about as exciting as being asleep, which is what I guess most probably are after about 30 seconds of watching it).