Adam White

Check out this video of the potential future of home entertainment…

This is obviously not real at the moment but is a product in R&D at Microsoft. If your first reaction is that it will never work and it is just another one of those crazy ideas that will never actually work know this; a man named Johnny Lee is working on this project. If you don’t know who Johnny Lee he is famous for using a Wii remote for a number of new and amazingly genius purposes. Check out these videos (you won’t regret it):

For more from Johnny Lee check out his YouTube channel

Posted by Adam under Personal | 2 Comments »

“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” – 1 Corinthians 13:7 (ESV)

What does it mean that love bears, believes, hopes and endures all things?

This is most likely referring to our relationships with each other and how we should be. It means we should not give up on those we love; we should trust them; we should hope for the best and perservere through all things for the one we love.

Let’s perform a little role-play to better illustrate this point: Let’s imagine a situation where someone you love appears to have let you down. For example, you have asked them to come and pick you up from work in the evening. 30 minutes after they were due they still haven’t arrived.

What do you think? There is a gap here which your brain must fill.

You have two options: You can either think the best (there is heavy traffic and they can’t get to you or something really important has come up which they have no choice but to deal with) or you can think the worst (they have forgotten you or are putting less important things ahead of coming to get you).

Which one of these two extremes you choose to believe will heavily affect your relationship. One of them fills you with negativity and disrespect. The other fills you with peace and love.

Which of these two will you choose to fill the next gap you face? Will you choose to think the worst or will you choose to bear with them even though they are late, believe that there is a very good reason they are not there, hope that they will come and get you when they can and endure while you wait?

I know what I am going to try and do!

This was based on a the last talk from Nothpoint Ministries‘ Staying In Love sermon series.

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There are different levels of love. You can have romantic love, love for friends and family love. But what does a love of God feel like?

I struggle with loving God. To me love is a warm fuzzy feeling you get deep inside. I might get this occasionally for God when things are going particularly well but it is intermittent and based on feelings.

I was listening to a talk by Andy Stanley today and he said something that really struck me: “Love is a verb, not a noun”. Basically, when we talk about love we talk about being in it or that we’ve found it. We talk about it as it is a something we get for someone.

What if we were to think about love as a verb; something we do?

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” – 1 John 4:7

What if, in order to understand what love really is, we need to do it first? Rather than waiting for the fuzzy feeling of love for someone before selflessly helping them why don’t we love them by selflessly helping.

I believe that this is what loving God is really all about.

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“”Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.” To this John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.” – John 3:26-30

In the ESV version that last sentence is translated as “He must increase, but I must decrease.” The reason behind this statement is so amazing and so challenging to all of us.

John the Baptist has gone ahead of Jesus and had been baptizing in His name for a while before Jesus started His ministry. During this time John had gathered himself a collection of his own disciples. However, as the truth of who Jesus was started to become known people started to leave John and followed Jesus instead.

Imagine this. One day you are working hard for God and people from all around are following you and looking up to you. Then they all start to leave to follow someone else and you are left with nobody.

The natural impulse in this situation is to feel negative and bitter and either resent the people for leaving or be envious of the man they have chosen to follow instead.

However, these people left to follow Jesus. The messiah. The lamb of God. The Christ.

John knew what he was on the Earth for. It was to prepare the way and then hand over the limelight to the son of God. This he did with great joy and gladness.

He knew that he must decrease in order for Jesus to increase.

This is the challenge for all of us Christians: How can we decrease ourselves more and more so that Jesus can be increased? Where are we being looked up by other Christians where we need to give the glory to Jesus.

It is so easy to take pride from leading a good Christian life and having people admire you for it. But it is not us that people are called to follow; it is Christ.

We do you need to humbly decrease so that Jesus can be joyfully increased? I can think of plenty of places for me!

This was loosly based on yet another John Piper talk. Listen/read the whole thing here

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“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” – John 3:14-15

Whenever I had read this verse in the past I had always glossed over the fact that Jesus compares himself to a snake. The snake in the bible is most famously used to portray Satan in the garden of Eden. This does not make the snake a good animal to compare yourself to.

So why does Jesus compare himself to a snake in this scripture?

First let’s understand which snake he is referring to:

“They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.” – Numbers 21:4-9

This is the snake Jesus is referring to and as soon as I read this passage my heart lept. This snake that Moses put on a pole was put there so that all who look upon it will be healed. Sound familiar?

Everytime Jesus talks about being “lifted up” he is referring to his death and resurrection (see also John 8:28 and John 12:32). So what he is alluding to is when Jesus is crucifed and dies for us, anyone who believes in him and “sees” him for who he truely is will be saved. Just like those that look at the snake will be healed.

I find parallels in the bible like this absolutely amazing. It always increases my faith when I see Jesus alluding to old testament passages which actually talk all about him. It’s amazing that if you read the old testament in light of Jesus it is revealed to say so much more. God is amazing!

This post was based on a talk by John Piper. To listen/read the whole talk visit desiringgod.com

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It’s fascinating to hear what non-Christians think about church and how shocked they can be when they encounter a service that isn’t all vicars and latin. Here is a clip from the Chris Moyles show on Radio 1 after he stumbled on a modern service on the BBC one Sunday morning.

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“This is where I get the image that prayer is a wartime walkie-talkie, not a domestic intercom. It exists for advancing the mission, not for calling the butler to turn up the thermostat. Not that God is opposed to practical, nitty-gritty daily prayers. He simply wants all of them to relate to the mission of your life—that his name be glorified, that people live for fruitful ministry” – John Piper

I heard this tonight while listening to a preach by John Piper.  It really made me stop and think: Do I use prayer for selfish things in my life or are my prayers all about God and the advancement of His kingdom?

It’s so important not to fall into the trap of me, me, me prayers and to remember that it’s all about Jesus. We are to pray everything in His name and to only pray for things that will glorify the father.

“Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” – John 14:13-14

His preach then led into three practical teachings about prayer:

1. Set aside a set time each day, and don’t leave prayer to chance.
2. Combine prayer with reading the Bible and take what you find in the Bible and turn it into prayer.
3. Pray in concentric circles and make the aim of each circle the glory of God.

This third suggestion is my favourite but needs a little more explanation:

“You can work from outside in, or from inside out. For example, pray for your own soul, then for your family, then for your friends and colleagues, then for your church, then for wider ministries and the global mission of Christ, and then for the political leaders of the land.” – John Piper

If you want to listen/watch the full message from John Piper or read a transcript of the preach you can find it on desiringgod.org

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Instead of watching The Apprentice tonight or every soap that the TV throws at you, why not watch this instead. You won’t regret it…

http://deathisnotdying.com/eventvideo/

Don’t think about it, just do it!

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Where critics in the past have lambasted M. Night Shyamalan films I have stood against him and liked his films: The Village may have had a predictable twist but I still found it gripping and entertaining. Lady in the Water might have been a very strange and silly film but I remained gripped and terrified at times.

Now comes The Happening and the critics have been at him again. However, for the first time I have to agree with them. This was awful!

The basic plot is that people in North East America start killing themselves and a small band of survivors (centered around Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel) try and escape what is happening. At first it is thought to be a terrorist attack or maybe a government experiment gone wrong but the truth is far less scary!

There are a number of problems with this film:

1) I have never witnessed such wooden acting in a mainstream film before. Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel can act because I have seen them in other things however you wouldn’t believe that if you saw this film. The delivery of some of the lines is laughable. I found myself cringing in some of the more “emotional” moments.

2) The “enemy” of the film had no threat whatsoever. Whenever people were attacked there was no sense of threat or danger. It just happened. The only real threat in the film was a crazy lady we meet nearer the end of the movie but that threat was over and finished with in no time at all.

3) You weren’t given time to care for the characters. Apparently there is some marriage problems between Mark and Zooey (I can’t remember their character names as I didn’t care enough about them to notice) however it is handled so badly by the director that I was never sure what was going on. An illicit dessert between Zooey and a man called Joey which happened before the film starts is the cause of some marital issues I think but it was all so unbelievable I didn’t care.

4) The director has forgotten how to direct! M. Night Shymalan films are normally full of fantastic camera shots however they are noteably absent from this. The closest he gets to his normal style is a couple of close up shots of faces where some incredibly bad acting is going on (Zooey, you are guilty of this on a numbeer of tearful occasions).

The only thing that stops this film from getting a lower score was that while it failed to engage with me it was very short and didn’t annoy me while I was watching it. Come on M. Night Shyamalan. You can do better than this!

[3/10]

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I had the opportunity to visit my parents on the bank holiday weekend and I managed to convince them to come out for a walk on the Sunday afternoon. It was helped by the promise of a pub half way along but in the end they really enjoyed themselves.

We visited a village called Pyrford near Guildford, where our walk took us through the village, over some fields, over a golf course and along the Wey Canal. It was a beautiful day too and was well worth it. My parents even seemed keen to go on more walks next time I visit.

Posted by Adam under Walks | No Comments »