Georgia’s hands were sweating. She was fifteen minutes into her math final when she began to panic. This exam was worth most of her grade in the class. She understood math—even liked it—and usually did really well. Her constant problem was that she wasn’t a strong test-taker. Her grades never reflected her understanding of the material she studied.

But on the way home on the bus, Georgia’s good feelings started to fade. “What exactly is an ethical compromise anyway?” she thought to herself. Should she tell her teacher what she did or move forward and forget about the whole thing?

If you don’t wish to discuss that – just tell me what your homepage is. Mine is my email.

But that doesn’t mean I fail to bring you the latest of the goings on in my office… enjoy.

A few things today. Firstly – Bible reading is going well. Spoke to a friend of mine about Old Testament stuff and he mentioned the fact that the reason to read a lot of the Old Testament is actually so you know what bits of the Old Testament really don’t matter all that much… and there are quite a few things in the section I’ve been reading that fall into that category. Now – I am sure a lot of people will shoot me down for saying this but I think there are far more important things than how many were in the family of Reuben at a certain point in history.

Having said that there are a lot of important things in there too. Like how God is pretty powerful and it’s not wise to rub him up the wrong way (I just checked the biblical accuracy of that statement with Sian and she said it may be a bit of a understatement but it’s ok…) Also a lot of the ‘fine detail’ is kind of a glimpse into how to live as a community. Like the going to war thing, and returning stuff to people if you borrow it, and the whole gleaning thing, and lots more. It’s all good stuff.

Moving on. Are you with me?

I’ve read a couple of other things recently that I wanted to mention. The first (in fact both) come from a book called “Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture” by Michael Frost. He’s Australian. I think. But the book is quite American. I’m enjoying it but this paragraph struck me as amusing though:

I don’t think it’s too simplistic to conclude that reality TV works because it offers a fragmented and disconnected Western audience the opportunity to vicariously enter into a pseudo-community via the television or the radio.

It has to be said that there is nothing simplistic about that. Are you with me?

The other thing though is a bit more serious. Frost writes this:

Why are we obsessed with the singular event rather than seeking the rhythm of a community churching together?

It is a question I keep asking at the moment. A question about community and a question about church. A question about why the two things so often, for me, feel so far apart… church is so often about an event (or a few events during the week) and so often not about the way that we live our lives together. I’m going to come up with some answers soon…

Finally – I just want to say – are you with me? It’s weird. At first I thought it was only Rob Bell who said it all the time. I am a bit of a fan of Rob Bell and often listen to his teaching when driving to school. But he asks “Are you with me?” quite often. I remember one talk he gave and the whole way through I was just thinking “No Rob, I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about” and he kept asking me if I was with him. But then Mars Hill got a new teaching pastor – called Shane Hipps or something like that… and he started doing it so I thought it was a Mars Hill thing but then one of our lecturers at School of Ministry started saying it too… I guess it’s like their version of me saying “erm” all the time.

So that’s me – I’m jumping on the bandwagon – next time I preach I’m going to try it.

Are you with me?

It’s a great way to start the week. Every time we meet we grapple with the serious issues facing the church and the world today. It is a time of reality, honest and hash browns. It’s special.

(also – follow easterlive)

This weeks thought, therefore, is slightly on the flippant side than the deep side… The beginning of Numbers 12 (did I mention I moved on to Numbers?) says :

Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife (he had married a Cushite).

It’s almost like the writer realises he forgot to mention the whole marrying of a Cushite and that it was kind of key to the dispute between Miriam, Aaron and Moses.

Beyond that, I’ve got nothing.

How are you all?

Don’t say I never give you anything.

It’s another short one and goes out to another certain someone…

It’s a short one this week… and it goes out to a certain someone… enjoy.

I have to say it’s going to be a struggle keeping up with this one. So much of me wants to say it’s great to read all the detail about how the Levites should work and how and what sacrifices should be made and to learn in more depth about the ways of the Israelites as they strived to create their way of living as community but I have to be honest – I don’t find it very interesting.

In other news – I have an iPhone. And the great thing is it has been provided by the amazing Helen (off of Facebook & York) without a charge (well – there is a kind of charge but I’m going to talk about that more when I’ve paid it)

But the even greater thing is that it came about because Helen was… actually… I’m going to let her explain. Quote:

I was inspired by your note about living simply a while ago…made me think about holding on to all things (possessions, time, expertise) more lightly. And the more we share our needs/wants with each other, the more we allow other people the chance to help! That for me is the bigger deal…

It kind of ties in with some things I’ve been thinking over lately. And a talk by Rob Bell that I heard the other day. He spoke about the need to be willing to ask for stuff! And that we shouldn’t apologise when we ask for things. I’m not really sure he meant things like iPhones. I think he probably meant slightly more important things (like the example he gave of when his very pregnant wife woke up in the middle of night unable to breath and he needed to ring someone to ask them to come look after his other kid)

A lot of the time I want to help people, I want to be better at being a Christian but I’m not sure I put myself in a position to do this. Now – I know it’s my responsibility to do that so I figure if I start using the places I hang out (Facebook, my blog, Java Lounge etc) more effectively then I will (hopefully) begin to see more opportunity to be helpful. But also by expressing my needs (and sometimes wants!) in those places then I can also provide other people with the opportunity to help… to provide for those needs.

So – you can but ask. Feel free to use this place to ask for stuff (and by stuff I mean stuff you need…) I can’t say I’ll have it or be able to give it but if you’re in need then you’ve gotta ask.

The sheriff in a southern town is guarding the courthouse against a mob that is about to storm it by force, in order to capture a black prisoner and lynch him even before his trial. If the mob is frustrated, many people may be killed in the ensuing riot. Should the sheriff deliver the prisoner to the mob?

Sequels so often fail to live up to the expectation, to build on the success of the initial blockbuster. I guess this is partly because we all imagine what will happen next and, no matter how big the budget, a film can not reach beyond the dreams of our mind.

It is with this in mind that I release the much anticipated episode 2 of The Hoyland Podcast.

I know you’ve all been waiting for it. In this episode you get to see a bit of the variety of my working day.