Sunday, December 7, 2003

TT of the day: Greg Sharples
OK. Right now this seems just to be another version of the "featured otaku member" thingy or whatever that is.

But I guarantee you, I was already thinking about doing this of my own accord. You don't necessarily have to believe me though.

Anyway...

GREG SHARPLES



Originally from: Bristol
Lives: Next door to me :p
Did TT because: God prompted him to do so, and then gave him a perfect opportunity to do so, at New Wine 2003.
Been a Christian for: 4-5 months
Greg is best known for: Extravagance, Best TT Chef of 2003- particularly curries, Sweatbands, Long blond-dyed hair (unfortunately now shorter and dark brown)

OTHER PHOTOS:






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CHILLI!!!
Today we made a Chilli for lunch. Here are my reflections on what makes an Exceptional Chilli. (ie. you add this to your standard Chilli to get a better one :p)

Carribean Hot Pepper Sauce
Sun-Dried Tomato Paste
Tomato Puree
Beef Stock/Gravy Granules
Worcester Sauce

And if you don't know what Worcester Sauce is, I want nothing to do with you. :p
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Saturday, December 6, 2003

What am I doing right all of a sudden????
Just yesterday I recived three PMs to tell me that people agreed with what I was saying.

What!?!?

I've recieved something like 10 PMs in total in the last month and a half of me posting again.. and recieved them very sparcely when I was posting back in uni.

Why the sudden change?

Not that I think it'll last
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Friday, December 5, 2003

Pondering....
..I dunno whether I'm going to go to all of the whole night of prayer tonight.

I'm absolutely knackered- I just need a day or two's rest and a good night's sleep. And spending all night and early morninh praying at church isn't going to help that, I think.

Eh.. I'll have to see how I feel later.
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Wednesday, December 3, 2003

*Reads Guestbook*
Oh my word..

How many people did I bless that night? Man. It's all coming back to me. It kind of feels like I was drunk or something. Although I wasn;t. heh.

The things I get up to due to sleep deprivation..

One more point

Me, Jude and Dan (Greenfield) went shopping yesterday. The original idea was that Dan would buy me a new hoodie and I'd get him something too. Jude happened to be around too at the time, so I ended up buying Jude a Jumper-coat thingy, Jude bought Dan a hat, and Dan bought me a hoodie. And we all spent in the region of £12.50-£16.99. Jude and Dan were the two extremes, and I was £15, in the middle.

That and we only took about 50 minutes, including walking between shops and paying. Shopping with blokes is fun, because we iz efficient :p. We get the job done quick and then go laze about for the rest of the afternoon.
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Tuesday, December 2, 2003

Crrrrrayyyzeee??!?!
This friday, St. Toms is having a whole night of prayer.

"Whole night?" you say.. "Whole night? In what way?"

Well, in the way that it starts at 7 in the evening.. and ends at 7 in the morning. And it doesn't stop in between, except maybe for the odd ten minute break.

Man. once I went to a half night of prayer- that was 7 pm til 1 am. And that was something. There was kind of a "core group" of people left at the end, who hadn't left after 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 hours, but were staying til the end. I was in some kind of weird trancey state of mind at that point. The building just didn't seem real, I was that tired.

You know what the crazy thing is?. I'm actually probably going to go to this whole night- and I'm probably going to stay until the end. This'll be the second week in a row when I've not slept for a whole night then..

Maybe I should just fast from sleeping, once a week..
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Sunday, November 30, 2003

w00t! w00t! w00000t!!!
That's right: w00t.

why w00t?

Well, I feel a whole lot good today. You may think I mean "a whole lot better".. and I guess that's right, but to be honest I haven't really been feeling that bad of late. More confused, unsure what to do.. unsure of much really.

Today I feel a whole lot clearer.

And tomorrow- I have two "eating meetings". I'm metting Gordon Crowther at lunch - he's the main man involved in starting up the church plant for 18-35s back in Stoke. The core team is going from sheffield (where I am now) to Stoke (my hometown!!), so naturally I thought I'd get involved.

Then for dinner I'm metting Daniel- my accountability partner. Not Dan, Daniel. He's quiet insistent on that, because "Dan" means "judge" whereas "Daniel" means "God is my judge". But I figure that one of the twelve sons of Israel was called "Dan", so it's OK.

Anyway yeah. My normal pattern of where I eat isn't being adhered to tomorrow. It also means I'll be back really late and have hardly any time to be online and to generally work at stuff.

On a completely unrelated note I've now changed my screen name to "Dan C Lucking" on AIM. So don't bother harassing DeusExMachina92. On another unrelated note, my old screen name is up for sale. Any buyers? :p

(yes. I said "sale" not "free giveaway".. heh. I aim too high)

(Take me seriously and I will kill you)
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one extreme to the other..
In all my readiness to shut up out of "wisdom", it seems as though I missed a prompting to actually say something

meh.. I have so far to go.
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Saturday, November 29, 2003

A need for change?
I've been thinking.

which is dangerous..

anyway. I don't like my AIM name. In my eyes it's the last remaining trace of the period when I was "Deus Ex Machina". I actually love that name. It's original-ish.. though there were enough of them on AIM for the "92" to be necessary.

BAck to the point- it's not the name I don't like, it's the point behind it. Mitch said he thought it was ironic because to him it means "God comes from Society". To me it's vaguely ironic because it means "God from Machine". But it's bitterly foul to me because it means "an unexpected solution to a seemingly unsolvable problem". Now, it may be the case that God wishes to use me in that way. But I am NOT the solution, I am merely his representative.

When I picked that name I had no objections due to my lack of faith. I thought it was cool. I thought I was cool. Now I think it doesn't matter if I'm cool- there are more important things. I'm already justified by god- I could have an AIM name that everyone would make fun of, and still I am justified by God. I don't need a name to do that for me.

There is only one Deus Ex Machina, and it's not me.

Well.. what do you guys think?..
DeusExMachina92- stay, or go?
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oh my..
er..

this could hurt.. but it will strengthen. I've been unbroken for far too long.

It's been so long since I've felt genuine- or even imagined, pain at my iniquity. I recognise my sinfulness but at times I'm just not all that sorry about it.

I NEED to change that. Too long I've thought "it just doesn't come naturally for me to show weakness.. softness, maybe, but rarely weakness".

I'm a fool. Nothing more. When I am not weak, I am not strong. For it is not my strength which makes me strong but the strength of THE LORD. If I make myself to be any more than a weak, messed up, fragile little being then the armour of God has no effect on me because Armour is built for the sole purpose of strengthening something which is weak. Without weakness it becomes useless.

I need to go deeper, much deeper. So deep that it hurts. So deep that God's holiness is evident to me in such a big way that I can't help but hate the state I'm in. I want that. Not for the sake of it, but because without it I am nothing. When I seem to be something, I am in fact nothing. When I seem to be nothing, I am in fact made into something.

To live, I must die, but if I live then I am dead.
To find strength I must become weak, but if I am strong then I will be weak.
The humble will be crowned, the self-exalted will be humbled.

Kingdom logic. It's damn messed up in our terms, and yet it makes so much sense to me right now!!

You see, it's not about what you do- it's about who you're with. Dying to find life is not about going to kill yourself but in denying your own life and completely submitting to Christ, putting ALL hope and trust in him. Becoming weak to find strength is not about going without food, or other things which physically weaken us. It's about becoming BROKEN to the point that we NEED God's strength, and that we are dependant on him.

I need breaking.
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