James's Weblog

Here's a simple tech tip for you.

You're signed up to some mailing list. It could be for special offers from a business you shop at. It could be a newsletter for a charity. It could be just about anything. In comes something that you think is particularly helpful. You think "I'll forward this to my friends".

Just pause before you do so.

All (well, almost all - I'm sure there are exceptions) mailing list software will rewrite any hyperlinks within the email.

Sometimes I hear it said that Old Testament ethics can be summed up in the command to fear God, and New Testament ethics can be summed up in the command to love God.

Related, it is sometimes observed that the Old Testament summary of the law is ten sentences that prohibit ("Thou shalt not" - those making this point usually do so quoting the old fashioned way of putting that), whereas the New Testament command is two sentences that are about love ("Love the Lord your God with all …; love your neighbour as yourself".)

As I've been studying the individual messages to the 7 churches (Revelation 2-3), I've been very struck by the way Jesus addresses both each church collectively, and also the individuals within it.

Take the message to Ephesus (Revelation 2:1-7) as an example.

"Mum, why did that man say that Jesus was a potato?" So asked the three-year old girl.

Did I say that? Well, not exactly. But it was something like this:

We were looking, a few weeks back, at John 12:23-33 during our all-age service. Jesus has been approached by some Greeks (who were not Jews) who asked his disciples if they could have the chance to meet Jesus, too. Here's what Jesus said in reply:

A techy post - we haven't had one of those here for a while.

The Problem: Apache 2.4 timing out

I noticed occasional timeout messages coming back from monitors keeping an eye on Apache 2.4 on a server. (Centos 7.2.1511 and Apache 2.4.6 if it makes any difference).

Here's Paul Gardner (paid link) on Revelation 1:

3 times in the book of Revelation we get this phrase - “Who was, and is, and is to come”.

“Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne” (Revelation 1:4)

“‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.’” (Revelation 1:8)

I'll put this up here, because this may be of help to someone else at some point, but I'm a bit tentative about doing so.

In working on preaching from Revelation chapter 1, I found it helpful to make an audio recording of the Greek of that chapter. Once I'd got to know any vocabulary that I had to look up at first, it gave me an easy way to become more familiar with the chapter, at the same time cutting through the risks of being over-familiar — you have to concentrate while listening to this.

One of the most glorious truths is the real hope that God offers his people. It's a real, substantial hope of a future on a renewed earth, with renewed bodies, free of suffering, with God himself living among us.

Where might we look in the Bible to see this renewed-earth future promised?

One of the most glorious truths is the real hope that God offers his people. It's a real, substantial hope of a future on a renewed earth, with renewed bodies, free of suffering, with God himself living among us.

Where might we look in the Bible to see this renewed-earth future promised?