T-shirts #8

This is the first one that I've actually done since I started the blog. The others were all from a year ago when I should have been listening to an intensive at QTC.

Here'sa my latest work. Fresh from the sewing machine this morning:



Phew! Just did a quick search and I did spell 'Driscoll' right.

Seriously messed up

I was sitting there, thinking this thought which was, in a way, quite sinful. And then, suddenly, it hits me that my wife is about to start teaching her Scripture class. I hurriedly start praying for her, the kids and the truth of the message that she'll be teaching them. All the while, I'm feeling very weird about making such prayers, because of the immediately preceding thought.

Such contradiction in such a short space!

So after I pray, I want to continue thinking along the sinful lines that I had been previously. I genuinely wanted to. I really needed to distract myself with something productive to give that thought room to leave.

Jesus, I be a messed up follower.

Joel Olsteen's latest

Check the original here.

What happens when a society loses trust?

The poor get exploited.

Psalm 12 goes:

To the choirmaster: according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.

Save, O LORD, for the godly one is gone;
for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.
Everyone utters lies to his neighbor;
with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.

May the LORD cut off all flattering lips,
the tongue that makes great boasts,
those who say, "With our tongue we will prevail,
our lips are with us; who is master over us?"

Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan,

"I will now arise", says the LORD; "I will place him in the safety for which he longs."
The words of the LORD are pure words,
like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times.

You, O LORD, will keep them;
you will guard us from this generation forever.
On every side the wicked prowl,
as vileness is exalted among the children of man.

The Psalm seems to be saying that the end result of lies and deception in a culture is that the poor and the needy are exploited and oppressed. Particularly so, if you (as I do) see the Psalm chiastically (sp?), with v5a as a sort of interpretive key.

If the first casualty of war is the truth, the first casualties of the absence of truth are the vulnerable.

And yet, God's response isn't to cut off the lips of the wicked, as requested. They keep on. What he does do, is to speak into the situation himself. But his words are true. Truth that will guard his people for the duration, until the day when he will finally give David what he prayed for.

Brothers and sisters speaking the word

We must keep a close watch on ourselves and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing we will save both ourselves and our hearers.

You know what I hate?

When you're inspired with interesting thoughts on an idea, and then decide to go research the net to see if it's been talked about in other place, and then you read some up-themselves people talking about how passe it all is and then you lose inspiration.

>:-(

Back now...

And I'm alive. :) Pretty unscathed, just a knock or two.

Scored a goal from half-way, but the team went down 4-1. I just smacked it as hard as I could, nice and low. It was straight at the keeper, swerved about 1mm, or perhaps 1pm, and he didn't keep it out.

Such are the things that make a night like that ok.

Oh, and the fact we had Tim Moore. And Tim Moroney. Do I like all the Tims I play soccer with, or is it just these two? Could it be that I have a genetic pre-disposition to enjoy the company of Tims who play soccer?

Or is it that Tim bought me a beer?

Right, I'm off then.

To play 6-a-side soccer. I've finished my final assignment (Huzzah!) and am now officially free. (Except for the sermon prep I have to do that I've not had a chance to do properly yet)

So, who thinks it's a good idea to play soccer after doing 2 straight all-nighters?

I'll let you know how I get on in a few hours...

I need an extrinsic telos

Now you're all thoroughly confused.

My wife watched on in amusement today at my behaviour in the pool. Usually unable to swim laps for enjoyment, it seemed to her that I had found a method of doing so. This being the appearance on the outside, I was actually just playing with my ball.

A tennis ball.

The game is to stand at one end of the pool and throw the ball in order to hit the section of the pool wall showing above the water, like so:
See, it's not that easy, eh?

So, after each attempt I would swim to the other end of the pool to fetch said tennis ball, which mostly hit the water before the wall, or overshot the wall. My wife found this very amusing, given that neither can I run for any given length of time unless there is the prospect of a soccer ball being at the end of one of the next 20 strides. Upon retrieval of said ball, the process was repeated, but facing the opposite wall.

This activity led to much philosophical speculation about the nature of our marriage and the differences between men and women, enjoying the process not the goal vs the telos but not the journey, etc, but we'll just keep that between ourselves.

Do you chase balls like a puppy?

The first all-nighter...

Now that wasn't so bad, was it? Now for just one more and the year is finished...

Ps. I don't recommend handing in 100% of one of your assessment for one ACT unit in the space of 20 hours.

Things I've said to my wife

Don't think of me as a nice guy who doesn't like you.

Think of me as an arsehole who loves you.

Just when you think Richard's a genius...

... someone else has already thought of this as a word.

That's ok Richard. I still think you're a genius.

I had an awesome idea for a post!

I had it 2 days ago. I've been trying to remember it ever since.

Just sit back and pretend you're enjoying the enlightenment and savvy of a witty and pithy post.

Stop the Melbourne Cup?

This article was interesting to hear coming from someone other than the usual Christians I hear ranting about this topic. I also think

The comment by Zibethicus, however, is really worth a look. Scroll down after skimming the article.

The righteous sufferer

In many of the psalms of lament or complaint the speaker uses the first person singular (‘I’, ‘me’, ‘my’) and frequently asserts innocence and/or faithfulness to YHWH. Who is the ‘righteous sufferer’? Why is the person suffering? Consider various answers.
This was my brief for my last assignment. There've been plenty of (some dodgy) answers given since the start of textual criticism. Mostly because they decided that most psalms were written post-exile. Here's the last paragraph of the essay. (Full essay available to masochists via email upon request)

How shall we then read?

The strength of the argument for a representative king shows us that not all parts of all psalms can be directly appropriated by Christians, but in the light of the Christ’s reign. The strength of the ‘everyman’ argument is not found in its power to explain the origin of the psalms, but to describe their function. The individual laments came to be collected and used centrally partly because of their empathetic value. That many of them came from David in no way lessens their value for the everyman. In fact, for those who hold David dearly, it increases it. Individual laments are not open windows into that great man’s life, but portraits and self-portraits of it that the everyman can gaze at. Depending on the portrait he might see Christ, himself or both, and be instructed.

Hmm.... perhaps posting excerpts from assignments isn't the best idea after all. That didn't really make sense, did it?

Who do YOU think the righteous sufferer is?

How to be a good lover

According to 1 Timothy, it comes from:

A pure heart
A good conscience
A sincere faith

I could psychoanalyse this stuff and demonstrate just how each of these are absolutely necessary for real and true love, but perhaps I'll do a Paul and just say them, and leave it for you to ponder.

Perhaps you could share your wisdom with each other in the comments about how it works...