Cinderella, playing in the ashes

I think I'm in the groove of my college routine now. Long days, yes, but generally the early start is enjoyed reading a book in a nice spot (a café, Nick's place, Suds' place, a park). That's after a bike ride, of course.


The real reason I wanted to make this post was to tell you something that one of my dear lecturers said today. I'm not even sure I understand it.

It's kindof a Cinderella discipline. You're playing in the ashes, by the fire place. But there's a pumpkin outside and a fairy god-mother on the way.

I think the discipline he was talking about is the study of the structure and argument of 1 Corinthians. (i.e. No one's come up with much to-date, but the whole discussion might come and steal the show, reshaping the way we read the letter...) I dunno. But I loved the little picture he painted.

I also love Baklava from just down the road.

Over at the MTS Tasmania Blog: A New Australian Church Planting Network

Last night I enjoyed an evening listening to Al Stewart's dream for an Australian network of church planting networks. Super cool. Nick and Mikey were there, along with a bunch of people from across the country. This is a movement worth watching and being involved in, I reckon.

I've said a few words about it on the MTS Tasmania blog - a cool blog, which I've been invited to write for occasionally.

This is unrelated. It's from my reading in a cafe near college. The eagle-eyed might heart-warmingly notice a way-way-old-school flier that I'm using as a bookmark.

Shiny Happy Study Ideas?

Ok, so I'm calling in a favour from you all here.

I'm just about to start college for the year and am trying to put the finishing touches on my study to make it a place that I really want to go to and spend time in. So here's the question:

What should I do to my study to make it an awesome, happy place to be?

Comments?!

Ribs!

Just wanted to share something little with you: At long last, today, I made Jamie's pork ribs on the barbie (from Jamie at Home). Definitely my culinary highlight for quite some time. (Although Kate's recent foray into the world of making banana bread is something pretty special, too).


Noah was out at the shops with Katie, so Lily had to give me a hand at the BBQ. A special moment in father-daughter life :)


I bought enough pork and made enough marinade for another go on Tuesday night. Woohoo!

It Takes a City...

Dan put me onto a sermon by Tim Keller (from Manhattan) with the provocative title, It Takes a City to Raise a Child. I won't try to summarise it, but let me put it this way: We all have a pretty clear idea of what's meant by the tag, "a great place to raise kids", and it doesn't involve inner-city living. Well, Keller applies the blow-torch.

You can stream the sermon from the Redeemer website for free.

In other news...

Last week we ducked away to a friend's apartment in Mona Vale (Northern Beaches) for a few nights. It was fantastic. Within walking distance of the beach we just spent a whole bunch of time relaxing, paddling, swimming, re-applying sunscreen, reading, looking for crabs. Delightful.



Tuesday was my first day of College for the year - my final year! It was a one-day intensive on Textual Criticism. (i.e. How we figure out what the original text of the Bible was; what errors have crept in over time; how can we peel them away, etc., etc.)

My summary: you really can trust your English bibles, people.

Ahead of starting college I finished all of my (college) Summer Assignments. This was a big one:


If I had to single-out the doctrinal heart of Moore's degree courses, I'd say it's Calvin's Institutes (we read the whole thing over the course of the degree). The highlight of this Summer's reading was his stuff on prayer.

Speaking of which, please thank God for our great summer break. Please pray that we don't get impatient with our last year up here, but rather throw ourselves into these last months in Sydney with a real spirit of generosity and eagerness.

Fads for a week of study

This week has seen two more holiday fads take hold:

1. Bible college is definitely a time to really wrap your head around tricky doctrines. And for some time now I've been wanting to take a thorough look at infant baptism. Rather conveniently, my doctrine essay this year will be on the topic. So this week I've had my head in the books. Some guys I've read so far include Karl Barth, Robert Reymond, Broughton Knox... oh yeah, and the Bible ;)
2. Contrastingly, I've been watching a video podcast called The Wood Whisperer. It's outstanding. I just want to build stuff and I've decided I need a plunge router. The guy reminds me heaps of Jason, but a Jason who is nuts for his workshop instead of nuts for computers and all the rest. Anyway, check out the wood whisperer if you're remotely interested in building stuff with timber.
   

A Holiday of Fads

On our return from Hobart, this was the sight of our backyard... well, the plant that had taken over half of it.


Our tomato plant had been going gang busters. So we basically ate tomatoes flat-out for a few days. Happily, our basil followed the tomato vine's lead. Bring on Jamie's mothership tomato salad!


So the first fad (for me at least!) of our return to Sydney was definitely gardening. It was pretty relaxing and really satisfying to make the garden bed out the front actually look presentable (it had become a mess).

Right now I'm watching my rockmelons (!) and eggplants germinate on the window sill. As a Tasmanian I'm actually thrilled at the very prospect of growing rockmelons... I was sharing my enthusiasm with a Queenslander; she didn't even flinch. What's the big deal? Rockmelons. That's the big deal.