mgpcpastor's blog

Footy Tipping 2023 – NRL Round 8 / AFL Round 6

Gary Ware

April 20, 2023

Adelaide have paid a lot of money in order to host more Gather Rounds in future years. Of some interest is that all the non-Melboure based teams won games (except Gold Coast), and the two Melbourne based winners beat Melbourne based teams.
Overall results were about average. Curiously four of last year’s top eight teams are currently outside the top eight, it’s not likely that will change for more than one of them this round. That’s a bit more of a change than the AFL ladder has experienced for a while.

The NRL also has four teams from last year’s top eight outside the top eight, but it’s the NRL. That’s expected.

(Draws count as correct)
NRL (last round 5/8; season tally 32/40)
Penrith
Parramatta
Cronulla
North Queensland
Redcliffe
Manly
Easts
Melbourne

(Draws count as correct)
AFL (last round 6/9; season tally 28/45)
Fremantle
Port Adelaide
Brisbane
Geelong
Adelaide
Carlton
North Melbourne
Melbourne
Collingwood

Radical Is Neither Being Located With The Left Or Right, But Being Located In Jesus (via Willimon and Hauerwas)

Gary Ware

no comments

April 19, 2023

Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon wrote Resident Aliens in 1989.
Their analysis of both Christian and secular culture continues to be insightful and useful.
If the situations appear to have changed in the thirty something years that have passed, it is only that they have increased and strengthened, not that courses have altered.

Here they evaluate the “right” and the “left” in a way that does not look to dismiss two “houses” but rather observes a problem for Christians who don’t realise that there are not actually two houses, but one house, the house of humanity’s worship of itself as being the answer to its own problems.

That which makes the church “radical” and forever “new” is not that the church tends to lean toward the left on social issues, but rather that the church knows Jesus whereas the world does not. In the church’s view, the political left is not noticeably more interesting than the political right; both sides tend toward solutions that act as if the world has not ended and begun in Jesus. These “solutions” are only mirror images of the status quo.
Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon, Resident Aliens (Expanded 25th Anniversary Edition), Abingdon, 2014, pg. 28.

Sri Lankan Lunch At Foodie Bar Mount Gambier

Gary Ware

no comments

April 18, 2023

My Anglican colleague here in Mount Gambier hails from Sri Lanka, so his commendation of the menu at local restaurant/cafe Foodie Bar as being authentic carries all the weight I need.
Today I shared two meals with my daughter at lunch time and both were delicious.
We had the Sri Lankan Rice and Curry (featuring four vegetable curries: beetroot, dhal curry, green beans, and tempered potatoes – with some beef) and the Lankan Paratha (featuring dhal and chicken curries, along with a generous supply of paratha bread).
The only trouble was they were so delicious I’d want to order them again next time which makes exploring other menu options a bit of a challenge.

I Serve A Risen Saviour / He Lives – Sunday Songs

Gary Ware

no comments

April 17, 2023

I Serve A Risen Saviour / He Lives is my favourite Christian song.
If anyone thinks the lyrics wander over into sentimental subjectivity over reliance on biblical revelation I simply sing all the louder and interpret every concept presented in the song the way the Bible tells me they should be interpreted.
I also don’t know much about sheet music, but I know that when a high note has one of those inflections over it it make sure you have a lung full of breath and let it rip as long as you can hold it.

I like this YouTube rendition for a few reasons: it’s congregational, it’s uptempo (people sing hymns too slowly), and it is very well led.

The lyrics:
1.
I serve a risen Saviour
He’s in the world today.
I know that He is living,
Whatever men may say.
I see His hand of mercy;
I hear His voice of cheer;
And just the time I need Him
He’s always near.
Refrain.
He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart.
2
In all the world around me
I see His loving care,
And though my heart grows weary,
I never will despair;
I know that He is leading,
Through all the stormy blast;
The day of His appearing
Will come at last.
Refrain.
3
Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian,
Lift up your voice and sing
Eternal hallelujahs
To Jesus Christ the King!
The Hope of all who seek Him,
The Help of all who find,
None other is so loving,
So good and kind.
Refrain.

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