Review of Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers

The Bible is symmetric. It opens with the story of a garden (Genesis 1) and closes with a story of a garden (Revelation 22). The reader observes the loss of the initial garden (Genesis 3) and the regaining of a garden (Revelation 21). God is ordered. God loves bookends.

And one hopes that Christian publishing also has ordered bookends.  Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers does not have ordered bookends.

The book opens boldly with the opening sentence in the Introduction (copying here the capital letters):

"THIS IS A BOOK ABOUT the heart of Christ" (page 13)

and closes with:

"This is a book about the heart of Christ and of God" (page 225)

The turning point in the book is Chapter 14 (page 127): 

"But our study focuses on the Son of God. What about the Father?"

All-in-all, a fair section of the book is about the Father, so why the bold opening statement? Is it simply an editing error?

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There were some moments where I found the book uncomfortable:

- Chapter 10 considers a sermon from the year 1740 that Jonathan Edwards presented to children of his church. Ortlund's selective focus upon one part of that sermon - that was one-sixth of the sermon - distracted from the whole message of the sermon. The selectivity suits Ortlund's thesis yet leaves the reader wanting.

- Chapter 17 adds further to the question of what the book is about. That Chapter opens with a statement about what the book is about. Where one has understood from the introduction that the book is about: "the heart of Christ", Chapter 17 advises that "THE MESSAGE OF THIS BOOK is that we tend to project our natural expectations about who God is onto him instead of fighting to let the Bible surprise us into what God himself says".  

And, "fighting" seems to be a very poor choice of word.

- On page 182 there is a puzzle. What exactly is meant by 'to help the gospel'?: 

"Galatians teaches that we are made right with God based on what Christ has done rather than what we do. To help the gospel, therefore, is to lose the gospel" 

Shalom,

Ozhamada

Note: this links from my Goodreads account

A Bible Study; Exodus Chapter 19

 Study 22 June 2024 - Exodus 19

1. Open in prayer

2. Read out loud: Exodus 19:1-2

1. A time to reflect:

1. At what stage is the Exodus journey?

2. What distance are Israelites from the starting point of the journey?

3. What have the Israelites experienced to date? (focus on those events that are of a nation-building nature)

2. Turn to Numbers 1 - which is dated to the same time in history as Exodus 19. How does Numbers 1 help unpack Exodus 18 (that is, how does Numbers 1 show how Moses acted on Jethro’s advice?)

   

   From pexels.com; free and unattributable

   
   

3. Read out loud: Exodus 19:3-13

1. Read Exodus 19:6 together with 1 Peter 2:9: Could it be said that the charge upon Christians is different from the charge upon the Israelites?

2. Exodus 19:9: what assurance may have Moses gained from God’s witness to the people?

3. Exodus 19:10-13: What preparations must the people make? Why are these preparations necessary?

4. Read out loud: Exodus 19:14-24

   

   Image from: https://inspiredscripture.com/bible-studies/exodus-19#gsc.tab=0

1. Describe the morning of the third day - could there have been any doubt of God’s presence?

2. Why is consecration of the people so important (reflect on God’s presence and the purpose of God’s presence as evident of Exodus 20)?

3. What are the roles and responsibilities of Moses and Aaron? (see Zechariah 4:14)

1. How do Moses and Aaron complement each other?

2. How do the roles of Moses and Aaron assist Israel to achieve its objective of a “kingdom of priests”.

3. What other pairings of the roles of Moses and Aaron are evident in the Old Testament?

4. What does Zechariah 4 tell us of what God intended of the roles of King and Priest.

5. Close in prayer

Review of A Town Like Alice

A Town Like Alice was one that was long held on my to read list. It was certainly a pleasure to secure the book (from a Street Library) and to complete reading the whole of the book.

It is a wonderful story of courage, redemption and initative. It is a worthy account of growth out of hardship. It is a romance yet at the same time it is the story of the start of a commuinity. It has the right mix of history and fiction.

There were some irregularly used words:

almoner: a British social service worker

amal - a baby's nurse

chummery - the building in which un-married British Army officers were quartered

lariats - rope used for lasso

pexels.com; free and unattributable

Two reflections: 

Risk to women: at the centre of the novel is the meeting of the main female and main male character in Japanese controlled Malaya. The main female is part of a contingent of women who were prisoners of war. The women are at risk due to lack of a permenant camp - and lack of interest of Japanese guard. Their continual march is unsettling. When the final of their guards is lost to them (he dies) the prisoners of war, through the main femal character, achieve a wonderful risk mitigation response. They settle in a village and await for Allied success of winning war.

Privacy: in today's world where privacy is at risk it is quite a treat to be reminded of the outback radio days.At one point in the novel it is indicated that over 350 households were listening in to an un-folding drama.

Shalom,

Ozhamada

Note: this links from my Goodreads account

Review of Rise Warrior Rise - Awaken Your Soul

Rise Warrior Rise - Awaken Your Soul troubles me. It troubles as I’ve long known the risk of such a book. Let me explain with an illustration from a church service…

Many years ago, I was at a Christian church in Sydney. There was a children’s talk at the fifteen-minute mark of the service. The children’s talk was offered by a man. The man was dressed as a chef. He wore the full chef outfit including the toque. The talk he offered was about making a cake. He demonstrated how one made a cake by starting with a bowl. To the bowl he added flour, then sugar, then oil. Next, he added some chocolate and a dash of vanilla. At that point he stirred the mixture and spoke of how God has given us a wonderful recipe of how to live our lives.

Then the story turned.

The chef next added soil to the bowl, and then worms, and then some cut grass. He then added some pencil shavings and some finger nail clippings. 

And then he stirred the mixture. He delivered the main point of his story:

That which God provides – the sweet cake mixture – is spoiled by us when we try to add to God’s message. We all tend to want to create our own recipe for life and in doing so we deviate from the maker’s design and end up with a mess.

That’s the trouble of Rise Warrior Rise.

It is a recipe that makes a mess. Its odd combination of 'friends are like undies' (p113), and adoration of Krishna (page 323) - the cut grass and the finger nail clipping. 

As a result of the collection of such oddities the book is like a cruise liner that promises tropical island passage yet never leaves a filthy working harbour.

From pexels.com; free and unattributable

And, then there are the slights – “every children is born good” (page 58) – which is a sensitivity to the Christian recognition that only God is good - and, the notion of praying without any indication of whom to direct prayer (page 85).

And, the peculiar language; “giving everything up to become full-time practitioners” (page 125) when it should be “giving everything else up to…”; “divorce too is contagious” (page 125) as if divorce is a disease.

The book needs a stronger structure and deep hooks to science. It jumps too quickly from thin references to research findings to opinion. Where the book could offer some engaging consideration of  the subject matter it never rises above the surface. 

The book is not psychology - as its classification on library shelves would suggest - but pop psych.

The book’s blurb promises “cutting edge science” yet the reader gets potpourri. 

Avoid this book and stick with a best seller from within the same genre, one like Think and Grow Rich.

Shalom,

Ozhamada

Note: this links from my Goodreads account. I indicated a 1 star rating (out of 5 stars)

Clarifying for "not ideal"

I was pleasantly surprised that a contribution to a community Facebook discussion led to many additional comments. In reading the comments I recognised that my inclusion of the expression “not ideal” had not been understood as I intended.

 The contribution was in respect a local development. The development is on the corner of Finlayson Street and Rosenthal Avenue opposite The Canopy, Lane Cove. The development is jointly being completed by St Andrews Anglican Parish and Traders in Purple. You can read about the development here.

 

Image of the site; from this link

In my contribution to the community Facebook discussion, I identified that a single house would be sandwiched between two high-rise apartments. While it is not ideal that a house is sandwiched in this way (e.g. the home owner would be at a loss for any future sale to a developer of a multi-story apartment), I had a different intent on using the expression “not ideal”.

The Facebook contribution

For, the Council had planned the area that developers contribute to public walkways and public space. A development opposite the site that partially fronts Finlayson Street indeed includes such walkways.

So, the sandwiching of one house is not ideal in that it effectively evaporates any hope of pedestrian thoroughfare between Finlayson Street and Burns Bay Road. Such pedestrian amenities would have been a very positive addition to those already installed in the earlier Finlayson Street development.

Here is some background:

A.The Lane Cove Local Environmental Plan 2009, which is the current Plan, allows for: “j) Public pedestrian areas within developments as well as communal access ways within multi-unit developments are to provide non-slip pavement surfaces.” The Plan is linked here.

 B.Across Finlayson Street is a multi-story apartment block of address: 2-22 Birdwood Avenue and 11-15 Finlayson Street, Lane Cove. It was developed to DA: 2013SYE105 (DA13/194).

Reviewing the DA13/194 documents, one reads of the intent of providing pedestrian links. All of these pedestrian links were built. I find the pedestrian links quite pleasant to use. They include valuable additional public space – including seating spaces. The DA includes these comments about those pedestrian links:

 “pedestrian through-site link from Coxs Lane to the west of the site

Rosenthal Street to the east of the site. A north to south link through the

development site from the central courtyard to Finlayson Street is also proposed.”

“The pedestrian through site link would clearly provide a benefit to the future

residents of the subject site.”

“Pedestrian pathways run parallel to the site along Birdwood Avenue, Finlayson

Street, Rosenthal Avenue and Coxs Lane.”

Shalom,

Ozhamada

Privacy Policy easter egg

An Easter egg is a message, image, or feature hidden in software, a video game, a film, or another — usually electronic — medium. The term used in this manner was coined around 1979 by Steve Wright, the then-Director of Software Development in the Atari Consumer Division, to describe a hidden message in the Atari video game Adventure, in reference to an Easter egg hunt. (Wikipedia, accessed 11 May 2024)

pexels.com; free and unattributable

A Privacy Policy was written with an Easter egg. The Easter egg was a prize – a bottle of wine.

This week Tax Policy Associates Ltd, a non-profit company in the United Kingdom revised their Privacy Policy this week. The revision arose three months of publication of the policy. The revision arose as someone had detected the Easter egg and claimed the prize. The sentence that first read: “We will send a bottle of good wine to the first person who reads this”, has been amended to record the claim:

From: https://taxpolicy.org.uk/legal/

The notion that nobody reads such policy terms is spot on. All too often we are asked to accept terms and conditions, privacy policy, contractual terms and the like. While we have the opportunity to click- through to another screen and read such documents, we all too quickly accept the terms.

And, the wine was a bottle that would retail in Australia for approximately AUD120. Not a bad drop, and aged eighteen months aged in French oak barrels.

You can learn more about the story here: 

Shalom,

Ozhamada

#privacy #PrivacyMatters #PrivacyProtection

Note 1: See my other posts on privacy here and here.

Note 2: Thank you to the reader who shared a story of a USD10,000 reward hidden in a travel insurance policy.

Club not likely to share patron information overseas?

I'm curious as to whether the Club members of a Sydney Club will ask some questions of their management and directors. The City of Fairfield RSL Memorial Club Ltd (Fairfield RSL) has indicated that they are "not likely to share [club member and visitor] personal information with overseas recipients" yet it seems that such data has been subject a cyber incident where an offshore party has access to personal information.

The OutABox cyber incident has been a shock to many Australian Clubs and Club patrons. Many personal information records became available. Have I been Outaboxed, was offered to allow patrons to check whether there data had been leaked.

pexels.com; free and unattributable

Central to the incident was the access the offshore developers had to Club data. That access is explained here in an extract from Have I been Outaboxed:

Outabox contracted an offshore team of developers from the Philippines to build their software systems. While this outsourcing strategy is common in the industry, what followed was far from standard practice. The developers were granted unrestricted access to the back-end systems of gaming venues, including access to raw data containing facial recognition biometrics, driver's license scans, club membership details, and more. The developers were directed to back up all the data off site, possibly against the knowledge of the operating venue. Shockingly, Outabox provided little to no oversight, allowing these developers free rein over sensitive consumer information.

Fairfield RSL was one of the venus where Outabox systems are installed as identified on this link:

Fairfield RSL Privacy Policy (available on this link) states that the Club is not likely to share personal information with overseas recipients. Where the Club contracts with third parties to provide services it contractually requires the third party to keep your information confidential and secure:

That Privacy Policy was current at the time of the Outabox cyber incident - from September 2021 - as evident from this extract from the Privacy Policy:

Shalom,

Ozhamada

#privacy #PrivacyMatters #PrivacyProtection #outabox #cybersecurity