Sitting is Killing You?

I came across this rather worrying graphic. Is a job sitting at a desk starring at a computer killing me? Maybe I should take up jogging while on the computer...


Via: Medical Billing And Coding

Smart Phones on the mind...

So at the weekend Claire (my fiancee) signed up to a new contract with 3 and got a shiny new HTC Desire S in return. Now not only is she better looking, of higher "cool" standing and more talented than me, she now is more technologically advanced than me...

The world of phones has changed massively recently, and where we once were gasping at the fact that phones had colour (remember how blown away you were by this), we now expect them to do everything from emails, tell us where we are, entertain us, be a substitute for our debit cards (about to be introduced), take brilliant photos and many other things.

The world wants us to believe that these things will change our lives completely and fulfil our wildest dreams. I'm not sure they will but i do like the idea of getting emails on the go and playing a bit of Angry Birds during long journeys... (as well as a variety of more pious reasons).

Matt Giles (writer of "The Grace Of My God") has written an interesting blog on the topic and given reasons why he's given up his iphone. You can read it here

I like John Piper's idea of the Bible App arresting our focus on our smartphones... hopefully that'll happen with me if I get a smartphone... You can read Piper's thoughts here

All in all i guess with most things, a smartphone is a neutral thing that can be a good thing but without self control can quickly be a God thing too. Hopefully if i get one it won't become one for me!

oh and p.s.  if i do get one and I start to do that classic "not listen properly to conversation as i'm starring at my smartphone and flicking randomly" then you have permission to tell me off good and proper!

Erasing Hell...

So it seems Francis Chan will be wading into the Hell debate with his own book. A nice controversial title and a little promo video to accompany. I really enjoy Francis Chan's stuff and his humility shines constantly through his books/videos/talks. I like a lot of the points he makes about this whole hell conversation and looking forward to purchasing the book when it come out in July.

Check out the video and see what you make of what he says...

Beautiful Things

Beautiful Things from Studio B on Vimeo.


In St Petersburg I struck up a conversation with a student about God, Jesus, the bible and his thoughts on the whole matter. He seemed to give me the classic answers of Jesus being a good teacher, agreed that there was something different about Him and what He taught, and generally seemed to think Jesus was a pretty brilliant person. Why I've remembered this conversation above the many others I've had was how he asked me "what difference does believing in Jesus make in a christian person life? What radical changes in their lives have taken place?"

The amazing thing about the God, is that He's in the business of actually changing us, of making us new. The 2 Cor 5:7 verse proclaims this boldly...

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here"

I'm sure we all have stories we can tell about what Christ has done in us & in others and I love how the video above shows this...hopefully the video above will make you smile and reflect on how wonderful it is that God is actively at work in us and it making us more like Christ each day.

Day (i'm not sure anymore) of Recording

Today we had another day of recording (i've lost count of how many days we've done so far) and the songs are now all starting to take shape. It's been great hearing some of the ideas people have come up with for the 7 songs we're doing. We now tracked all drums, bass, rhythm and the majority of electric. Keys are also in the process of being recording atm. May try and give you all a sneak peek of some of what we've done at some point, in my opinion it sounds brilliant! Hopefully can start taking preorders at some point soon! Big thank you to all who have put in so much effort already and those who are working away at parts at the moment, it's a privilege working with such talented people.

Monday Football Thoughts

My favourite football blogger pretty much sums up my frustration and disappointment with this season here

While we certainly weren't the best team in the league, we had clear chances to turn us from being from nearly men to actually winning something. Yet once again Arsenal fans are left watching our rivals gloat over us... (2 man utd fans in my house ensure this...)

So what will the summer bring? Well the rumour mill will begin that Captain Cesc will leave, The founder of Compare the Meerkat will leave us to return to the homeland, and i'm sure some young french "next big thing" will be linked to us

What would I like? I'm switching between if Cesc leaving with do us good or not, deadwoods need to be removed quickly and we need a backbone as a team again. The Verminator's return should help this process but it would seem that major investment is needed.

We lost 2-1 to Aston Villa, a team without it's manager and yet seemed to be much more up for a fight than we were. Let's hope that the team regains it's confidence with a successful summer and some fresh faces who are up for the new season...

All I Have Is Christ (Animation)

This is simply a stunning piece of work... I love the imagery of how Jesus on the cross takes the wrath of God & of the person running towards Christ. Hope you enjoy this and it stirs something in you.

St Petersburg

So for the past week i've been in the city of St Petersburg with Sean, visting Dave and Hannah Henson. It was great to finally see what's happening @Hope Church after hearing so much about it.

The trip was rammed with things to do, including: Pastor meetings, 3 church services (got to do some bi-lingual worship, a real treat), their first ever Alpha, a discussion group on the doctrine of election, and many other things. Was great fun being part of Hope Church for a week and catching some of what's going on at this vibrant church.

We spent a lot of time with the Henson family who are simply fantastic. They're clearing doing some amazing work as they seek to help build Jesus's (bilingual) church in St Petersburg. I'm so glad we're supporting this wonderful family as a church.

I stayed with Phil & Julia Pike who looked after me over the week. It was always nice to be greeted with a warm welcome and an even warmer cup of tea when arriving back, so a big thank you to them as well.

I learnt loads, met with some brilliant people and got a glimpse of what life in St Petersburg is like... So all in all a fantastic trip!