God made wine to make us feel better

Psalm 104:14-15 - You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart.

See Lionel's post on The Sola Panel: What's wrong with drunkenness?

Photo from Mister Tim's Photostream on Flickr.

What does the Bible really say...

...about the end of the wicked? Try this Hell Quiz. And check out this post on Doug's blog.

Unmentionables

These are almost as good as Happy Bunny!

Conversations

I don't know how to say this
I don't know how to stand
I don't know where to put my feet
Or where to put my hands

I've got them in my pockets
My fingers are freezing cold
They're wrapped around a ticket stub
That's four weeks old
And I don't know how to say this

I think we've figured out
This world is bigger than you and I
We've exhausted our wealth of knowledge
And have no more answers for mankind

We've had every conversation in the world
About what is right and what has all gone bad
But have I mentioned to you that this is all I am
This is all that I have

I'm not trying to judge you
That's not my job
I am just a seeker too
In search of God

Somewhere somehow this subject became taboo
I have no other way to communicate to you
This is all that I am
This is all that I have

We've had every conversation in the world
About what is right and what has all gone bad
But have I mentioned to you that this is all I am
This is all that I have

I would like to share with you
What makes me complete.
I don't claim to have found the Truth
But I know it has found me

The only thing that isn't meaningless to me
Is Jesus Christ and and way he set me free
This is all that I have
This is all that I am

- Sara Groves

Faraday Institute now on YouTube

Click here.

In other news:

Those in the Birmingham UK area might be interested to know that on Saturday, 27th September, at 4.0 p.m. in the George Hotel, Lichfield, the Institute Director (Professor Denis Alexander) will be in debate with Prof. Steve Fuller (Prof. of Sociology at Warwick University) at the Lichfield Literary Festival on the subject of Intelligent Design. This is a somewhat counterintuitive debate in that Prof. Fuller, an agnostic, is an ID supporter whereas the Director, a theist, is a critic of ID. Hopefully the exchange of views will clarify rather than further obfuscate a topic perennially surrounded by a thick fog of confusion.

I wish I lived in England!

Anastasia Grace

On the weekend, Matt and I finally made it down to Canberra to catch up with Tim and Tegan and to meet our gorgeous new niece, Anastasia. I've only started to become clucky in the last few years, but for now, I'm definitely happy to just be an aunt! I enjoyed cuddling Anastasia and changing her clothes twice (I left the nappies to Tim and Tegan!), but it's good to give her back when she starts screaming! Well, I guess I can't really give her what she wants in that situation anyway...



She's such a sweet little baby - very snuggly. She takes her sleep very seriously, and it can be difficult to wake her up for a feed! Even though she's hungry and makes little sucking motions with her mouth, she just doesn't seem to want to wake up the whole way!






It's lovely to watch my big brother Tim with his little daughter. He and Tegan both seem to be adjusting very well to parenthood! It's amazing how well they're doing on so little sleep.


It was also lovely to see Matt with Anastasia. She's so tiny in comparison to him!




I can't wait to get down to Canberra again! It's such a shame that it's a 3 hour drive and petrol is so expensive. I want to watch my little niece grow!