ITV's Daybreak had a revealing piece this morning on Michael Carroll, who won over ÂŁ9 million on the National Lottery in 2002, spent it all, and found he was miserable and suspicious.
Amazing to find at the end that he still buys lottery tickets: I’m trying to come up with an answer as to what’s going on in his mind that leads him to chase an idol he’s discovered is worthless.
Maybe Tim Keller’s insight in Counterfeit Gods sheds some light. He's talking about a famous US millionaire and writes: “[he] knew money was an idol in his heart, but he didn’t know how to root it out. It can’t be removed, only replaced. It must be supplanted by the one who, though rich, became poor, so that we might truly be rich.
“When you see Jesus dying to make you his treasure, that will make him yours.”
Lurpak, the spreadable people, have just released this billboard ad. There's a huge one on Waterloo station that thousands walk past each day.
We've blanked out the ending, and my question is: if you could complete the sentence, and have thousands read it daily, what bubble of false hope would you like to burst?
I'd love to make first prize being able to use a large tub of paint to change the wording on the Waterloo station ad, but that'd probably get me into trouble…
PS You can find where Lurpak say salvation can't be found here and if you understand what they're talking about, please do let us know because we're slightly confused!
"A law which will end up hauling vicars before courts."
Rod Thomas, chair of the evangelical group Reform, was on Radio 4's Today programme in a short debate about the proposed legislation making religious buildings available for same-sex civil partnerships.
It's well worth listening to the points he made here.
A great line from the new blockbuster western True Grit, out in UK cinemas this week:
“You must pay for everything in this world, for there is nothing free—except the grace of God.”
More than 60 homes and 4,000 acres of land in western Australia have been destroyed by bushfires.
You can read the full story here—what’s notable is what caused such widespread devastation:
“The fire … started when sparks from a power tool accidentally ignited grass in a back garden.” (Not sure they needed to include the word “accidentally” in that sentence!)
It’s that kind of experience James must have been thinking of when he used it as an illustration for something equally dangerous:
“Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue is also a fire … it corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell” (James 3 v 5-6).
Millions will hear the king speak this week in cinemas—but one man really did hear the king speak.
A 94-year-old retired policeman, he heard King George VI through a window, practicing his Christmas speech for the following morning over and over again.
How exciting to be able to listen to an actual eye (and ear) witness of the King, sixty years later! Unsurprisingly, the media are full of it, like here.
Course, many of us did that this morning anyway - just we were listening to eyewitnesses of the King of kings.
“We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead." (Acts 10:39-40)
Which makes the prospect of a sermon on Sunday seem all the more exciting!
Great quote in a comment piece on the newly-released films Biutiful and Hereafter. Both movies (starring Javier Bardem and Matt Damon) tell the stories of men who know that there’s life after death, and what it’s like.
But they keep this knowledge to themselves, which is absurd:
“Information of cosmic significance, which could bring succour and hope to millions, not to mention really irritate Richard Dawkins, is dealt with as a private and personal matter.”
The writer’s talking about two made-up film characters: what struck me is that when Christians are told that faith should be simply “a private matter”, they’re being told to do exactly the same thing.
Here’s the coffee-break conversation.
“I see someone else reckons they’ve had their phone tapped.”
“Yes, it seems like every C-List celebrity is on some tabloid’s hacking list! Do you think privacy is important?”
“Well, of course. We have a right to privacy, to be able to have things other people can’t pry into.”
“Yes, good point. There are quite a lot of things about me I wouldn’t want my nearest and dearest knowing, let alone splashed across some national newspaper. Though ultimately we can’t really keep anything at all private, can we?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, God knows everything about us. We can’t keep things private from him. He even knows the secrets of our hearts. And Jesus said that one day they will be made known for everyone see (Luke 12 v 2-3). I find that quite a sobering thought, really. Don't you?”
And (hopefully!) we’re off…
