40 Bicycles

For those of you who might be wondering, I can confirm that I am still alive, even though I have not blogged an awful lot of late. Other things have been taking my time. I have written the beginnings of a very basic analysis of some aspects of a Christian critique of globalization, which I might post soon. God-willing, I will also be returning to my series on Wright when enough free time presents itself. Most of my evenings and weekends are occupied with various offline activities at present. I believe that it is important that my priorities are correct and I think that there is always a danger of blogging taken precedence over embodied fellowship and shared times of prayer. I would love to be able to have enough time to devote to both activities, but such a luxury is not always afforded to me. This evening Elbert and Annewieke, Peter and I started reading the Bible through. We take it in turns to read aloud and while others are reading we listen with our own Bibles closed. A number of other young people in our church hope to join us in this in the future. The difference in the manner in which the text hits you when you are hearing it, rather than seeing it, is very interesting. I find that I am far better at noticing parallels when I hear the text read. For example, this evening I heard the connection between Genesis 4:24 and Matthew 18:21-22 for the first time, along with many other things. I kicked myself for not recognizing it before. In other news, Mark is settling in extremely well at university. Thank you to all of you who have prayed for him. He has had the opportunity to share his faith with a number of non-Christians, including a Muslim who wants to start a Bible study with him. He has settled in well in the university Christian Union and has found a church where he feels at home. I would appreciate prayer for my Granny at this time. She has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. She moved into accommodation just across the road from us a few months ago and it has been a real blessing having her so close at this time. Please pray for her to have strength to deal with the pain. Please pray that she would know God's presence with her through this difficult time. God has been so good in various ways in her situation over the last few months and we have no doubt that His hand will continue to be seen in the situation in the coming months.