Month: <span>January 2004</span>

Whatever happened to the old fashioned virtues of professionalism and hard work? In a world awash with a variety of means of communication, how come so few actually manage to communicate effectively, if at all?

Watched a program on TV a couple of nights ago. A couple bought a house from Germany to be erected in England. The workmen and house arrived from Germany by 7:00am. What were they waiting for? The British crane driver!

Sadly, incompetence seems to be ingrained into the current British work ethic. Poor communication, poor work, no pride in a job well done, no responsibility taken for failure or resolve to do better next time.

Does anyone take pride in doing a professional job to the best of their abilities any more? I am waiting to be convinced, but I am not hopeful.

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Titus 1:1 ‘… for the sake of the faith of God’s elect …’
This is an interesting comment. What does Paul mean by it? He is telling us that this is his prime reason for being an apostle. He is working for the sake of the faith of those who have trusted Jesus Christ as Saviour and are born again of the Spirit of God.
How come then, that we do the opposite? We backbite and tear down. We condemn our brothers and sisters in the Lord for every minor misdemeaner or failing whilst cheerfully ignoring our own hypocrisy.

Our aim in our relationships should be to work ‘for the sake of the faith of God’s elect’: that means seeking to build up, not tear down, to restore, not condemn, to look to ourselves before criticising others.

In other words, ‘do unto others …’ – shouldn’t we all expect our Christian family to work for our spiritual well being? So, let’s all work ‘for the sake of the faith of God’s elect’.

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What’s the difference between fruit of the Spirit and gifts of the Spirit?
I would say that the fruit of the Spirit are character traits which should differentiate Christians from the unregenerate person. The gifts of the Spirit are abilities given on a one by one basis to believers for the common good of the body of Christ in order to build us up.
Whilst it is expected that we manifest all the fruits of the Spirit, we are not expected to be endowed with every gift. What we are expected to do, however is to make use of gift God gives us.

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But as for you…
I’m beginning to realise just how much this phrase is used in the Bible. So often we look at situations and other people and bewail our lot in life, when what God wants of us is to live for Him through the situations. Whenever I begin to look at things around and moan or feel sorry for myself, God says ‘as for you..’

As for me, I must continue in what God has already planned for my life – nothing to do with jobs, vocations, personal circumstances, but all to do with living through every situation as the godly man my Creator made me to be. As for me, I must continue in the study of God’s word and the application of it to my life and by His Spirit live it out.

Just as with Job, the end result isn’t the material blessings, but rather our Heavenly Father being able to say of us ‘have you considered my servant?’

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Ah, the joys of stumbling! 😉 It must be hitting critical mass now, a little like Googling, only more eclectic (or something). Visiting the broad spectrum of web sites out there, good and bad is great for the web designer looking for ideas. There are fashions in web design, just as there are with everything else. At the moment pastel colours seem to be the ‘in thing’ – nothing in your face or using dark colours (unless it’s for a heavy metal or gaming site).

The benefit of stumbling is that you see sites that you wouldn’t have chosen yourself. I reckon on a ratio of 1:10 good sites to bad, but its worth the clicking through just to get to view the good stuff and see what the good designers are doing.

So, what have I done, then? I’ve simplified the pages on this site, with less breaks between sections. The logo now drops the ‘p’ down into the body, which links the two sections together. I was determined not to put a banner the whole way across the top, so I used a small bar of light blue to go under the page title along with the logo, to which I have added another pale bar. Faster downloads for all!

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