| to shame or encourage? |
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| 11:25pm 28/12/2008 |
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mood:  determined music: none
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“you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view” - obi-wan kenobi
a point of view is a powerful thing. i’m thinking in particular about the examples of famous missionaries such as hudson taylor, jackie pullinger and brother yun. i think of their lives and feel ashamed at all the things i haven’t achieved. and then there are famous scientists, businessmen and so on, all of them showing qualities i long for but never attain. an easy point of view to take is the view from below looking up. these people of great stature and renown look very big and scary from down here, and i feel very small. but i’m reminded of the israelite spies in the land of canaan, who saw the giant inhabitants and were afraid. and saul’s army who looked up at goliath and refused to fight. and the answer is simple - shift your point of view. if you look from God’s perspective, looking down from infinitely high above, everyone’s pretty much the same height, physically and morally. and all of us are much smaller than God! we all need the same grace.
so should the examples of hudson taylor and others cause me to quake in fear or sulk in misery, or i should i use their success to fuel my own enthusiasm, an encouragement that any of us insignificant people can be made significant by the transforming power of an omnipotent God working in us from the inside out?
the latest star wars films, and the force unleashed game, throw a whole new point of view open on darth vader. they help us to understand how someone so good can fall so low.
the manger and the cross of Jesus show us how such fallen people as you and me can rise up higher than we ever deserve.
-- from matteaston.net |
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| listening to God |
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| 10:23pm 25/09/2008 |
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mood:  excited music: delirious
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just had an awesome small group, thinking about listening to God.
i'm feeling really challenged to shift my paradigm of life, if such a thing is possible! would be great to be listening to God the whole time and hear what to do even in the little things! i've realised that my current attitude to activity is very selfish, hence not really bothering to listen to God in case he wants me to do something!
i realise that change is hard, but i do want to make an effort to listen every minute of the day, and hopefully this will biff the passivity out of the way, and the change will be self-sustaining! |
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| passivity journal strikes again! |
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| 10:35am 22/09/2008 |
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mood: hopeful music: none
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so I was meant to be keeping a passivity journal. sadly I've been too passive..
so here it is. today I have read my bible and I'm going to help out at church with the computers and go into college for my viva, which is scary. then fairy and I are going rock climbing!
in general a good day. I do need to pray and maybe write in my prayer journal, then I'd have done all the things I'm meant to do in a day! |
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| homework |
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| 02:20pm 08/01/2008 |
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mood:  confused music: lecture, not music!
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gosh physics is complicated!
-- imported from matteaston.net |
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| a new year |
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| 01:28pm 02/01/2008 |
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mood: determined music: only that in my head...
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so this is the start of a new year. i’m looking forward to it very much, hopefully getting stuck into my phd and hopefully church will keep moving forward and getting more and more exciting. this year is a year of HOPE across the country, which is a great mission, aiming to bring hope to many people who are in need.
God spoke to me on sunday about priorities. the passivity issue is effectively just an issue of having incorrect priorities. i dislike the whole “new year’s resolution” thing because it seems a little contrived, but the new year is at least as good a time as any to start something new. i’m going to keep a private prayer journal as well as a public blog, so i can look back over it and see how God has answered my prayers. i’ve done it before and was amazed by the experience, so i’m now going to make it a priority.
-- imported from matteaston.net |
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| friends |
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| 06:08pm 10/12/2007 |
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mood: cheerful music: the simpsons
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i met with mark, my friend from the good ol’ uni days! he’s studying in london too so we wandered around trafalgar square, which is incidentally a really nice place to be. it was great to see mark again, and it reminded me of all my uni friends and how generally rubbish i am at keeping in contact! so i now resolve to make more effort, to be less passive in dealing with old and new friends, and to call up friends and catch up and stuff. am looking forward to it!
-- imported from matteaston.net
N.B. i forgot to change the default picture on my blog page so it looks like i'm pretending my friends are all skater chicks! i'm not... honest! |
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Read 2 - Post |
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| new website |
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| 04:31pm 04/12/2007 |
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mood:  accomplished music: soul survivor 2000!
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so here’s me playing with iWeb ’08. in general i don’t like web design software because it generates messy code and uses loads of images and stuff, but this is so easy to use and nice looking, i may have to keep using it!
we’ll see how it goes.
if you’re reading this on livejournal, the new site can be found at http://www.matteaston.net
note: i haven't managed to set up syndication on my blog without creating a whole new user, so this is a copy and paste job at the mo! |
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| passivity |
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| 09:34pm 02/12/2007 |
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mood: determined music: none - listening to cars and guns!
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hi all! here beginneth my passivity journal!
we talked about passivity at our church small group this week, and i need to be active about not being passive! i've decided to keep a log of when i've been passive and when i've been active. the activity of keeping a log is the first step to not being passive, because i actually have to do something! fun!
today i was sitting in church and didn't feel like going to talk to anyone. then i realised that was passive and i'd have to write it down, so i went and talked to someone, and it was actually ok! i still found it hard, but it was the right thing to do. as i keep going with this i'm hoping it'll get easier.
i didn't do everything on my to do list this weekend, but it did do more than i would usually do. |
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| climate change? |
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| 05:48pm 15/06/2007 |
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mood: optimistic music: none, for my external hard disk is still broke
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what do you think of climate change? does it matter what we think?
please discuss! |
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| 11:06am 10/05/2007 |
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gosh, it's a long time since i posted! |
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| *gasp* |
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| 08:58pm 03/02/2007 |
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mood:  bouncy
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21st july!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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Read 2 - Post |
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| groovy baby! |
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| 05:13pm 17/01/2007 |
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mood:  geeky music: none, 'cos work's boring.
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ooh, lookit, new posting interface! that shows how long since i used livejournal...
i've got a website! it's very exciting. i bought a domain and everything. check out www.matteaston.net!
the only problem is i don't have anything to put on it...
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| bad news |
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| 08:16am 07/12/2006 |
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mood: hopeful music: none
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we've just heard that farrah's sister, serena, has got cancer again. this is a bit of a bummer. she really doesn't want to have chemotherapy again, and we don't believe she should have to. we believe God is calling us to pray for a miracle, so she can be healed and not have to go through the nightmare treatment again.
if you are a person who prays, would you please find time to pray for serena; pray that she would be healed by God, and quickly, so she doesn't have to suffer the ordeal again. pray for strength for her and her family, and pray for faith in all of us to believe God can heal her. if you want any more information, do get in touch with us.
thanks. |
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| wild wadi |
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| 05:45pm 18/11/2006 |
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mood: bouncy music: adams family theme tune (in my head)
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we went to wild wadi today. it's a water theme park and it was so much fun!! we went round loads of slides and flumes and there was this huge slide called the jumeirah sceirah (read "scarer"). we had to climb for ages to get to the top and it took less than 10 seconds to come down again! you come off the slide at one point and fall through the air! re-entry into the water was rather more painful for men than women, if you get my drift... according to their advertising you go up to 50 mph, which is crazy!
seriously, it was so much fun. and little harry enjoyed splashing in the pool, and almost enjoyed the swim-seat we bought him. he went with us round the lazy river and enjoyed that too. we've had such a great time here, and we're not looking forward to our return to the frozen wasteland of surrey! |
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| photos from dubai |
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| 09:21am 16/11/2006 |
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mood: artistic music: none
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i've uploaded some photos from dubai using picasa. farrah's put them onto facebook too; if you look at her profile you should see them. let me know which you think is better!
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| facebook |
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| 05:44pm 13/11/2006 |
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mood: complacent music: none, sadly
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hi guys. seeing as i linked livejournal from facebook, i should probably link facebook from livejournal. not sure where to put this, so i'll post it for now.
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| TURTLES! |
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| 04:57pm 11/11/2006 |
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mood: bouncy music: only fools and horses theme tune
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i saw a turtle today!we went snorkeling and saw cuttlefish and angel fish and a reef shark and barracuda and a puffa fish and so many others! then we saw this turtle! it was so amazing, a beautiful animal and lovely to watch. we followed it until it dived deep at the edge of the reef and we couldn't see it any more. i love turtles! |
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| dubai is cool! and very hot! |
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| 01:48pm 09/11/2006 |
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mood: happy music: none, except the sound of happy babies!
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hi geezas! greetings from sunny dubai! farrah and i are out here visiting my sister elle, her husband ben and their little son harry. he's gorgeous! we're not sick of him yet after three days ;o)
it's a bit muggy here but very warm, and much nicer than the -2 degrees we had in england last week! enjoying having a holiday from work, it's our first proper holiday since the honeymoon over a year ago. but then, our friend paul pointed out that last month was his first proper holiday since his</emph> honeymoon 12 years ago, so we musn't complain!
just signed up to facebook as well, it's really good. can't believe they give you unlimited photo storage! no more flickr, i reckon. took me a while to remember my oxford alumni address, though. oops.
it's really funny, i had a prophetic dream a while back. it was about sitting here in dubai typing my livejournal on elle's computer. i was confused at the time because i hadn't yet signed up to livejournal, but now it makes sense! not a particularly helpful prophecy, i guess, but good to know God still has an interest in me! |
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matteaston's journal
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