One of my children came downstairs, after being in their room for ages yesterday, with the following list of verses. They had obviously spent a long time going thru a bible looking at highlighted verses and choosing, as they put it, their “favorite ones”. I think its a pretty good list, actually, and I am grateful for the grace of God at work in this dear child of mine despite all their father’s failings and imperfections. Nothing that I could hope to ever accomplish with the blog will be of more lasting worth than anything positive that I can play some small part in building in the lives of these children of mine. Here is the list (also available in NIV and NLT) which brings tears to my eyes:

Psalm 20:7
7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Proverbs 1:8-9
8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction,
and forsake not your mother’s teaching,
9 for they are a graceful garland for your head
and pendants for your neck.

Proverbs 11:3
3 The integrity of the upright guides them,
but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.

Isaiah 26:4
4 Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

Isaiah 40:31
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.

Ezekiel 33:11
11 Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

Joel 2:32
32 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

Matthew 15:18
18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.

John 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world, [1] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Ephesians 4:32
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Philippians 2:3
3 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Hebrews 4:16
16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

James 1:22
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

1 John 4:20
20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot [2] love God whom he has not seen.

2 John 1:6
6 And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.

Genesis 49:25
25 by the God of your father who will help you,
by the Almighty [3] who will bless you
with blessings of heaven above,
blessings of the deep that crouches beneath,
blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

Genesis 15:1
15:1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”

Genesis 1:27
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

Following just over a month of this self-imposed near-total break from my online life (obviously not including my paid work!) what have I discovered?

1. WordPress’s auto-publish feature is bullet-proof and a real gift
2. You hardly missed me as a result of 1. and my kind guest bloggers. Indeed, traffic remained pretty high considering it was August.
3. Phil Moore is better than I am at explaining why digital fasts are so important.
4. A week is definitely not long enough It took me much longer before I even began to experience digital withdrawal symptoms.
5. It really is hard to stay away from the Internet for several weeks. My “fast” wasn’t total as the weeks drew on. I did scan-read Twitter, Facebook and a couple of blogs a little towards the end. I also started to write this post 20 minutes or so before my deadline,  and last week even wrote a couple of tweets ready for publishing later when my wife had gone away (the observant may have noticed that they appeared in my Twitter stream and were quickly deleted!) I also and scanned and deleted most of my accumulated emails on the same day. Finally, I started an Omnifocus to-do list to capture a small handful of ideas for things to blog about when they began to hit me about a week or so ago.
6. The harsh truth is that I really don’t care about what my readers think about me as much as I thought I did (despite 5)   I trust I will continue to remember this and make sure that I take more care over being kind to my wife and children than I do over looking after you all!  Funily enough, I somehow suspect that the more I focus on pleasing my God and family, the more benefit I may be to you in any case.
7. Learning more about how to not believe your own publicity is a vital result of such a break.  I can’t improve on what I said about this last year. Running a blog can appear to be self-serving at first glance. There has to be a good balance, however, between arrogantly pushing oneself forward, and on the other hand hiding whatever one can share with others under a bushel.  I am not sure I always navigate that tightrope entirely correctly, but, you have to believe me that I know that of myself I have nothing to offer you.  I will not ever apologize for shouting about my savior, and his death and resurrection for us. I know that if I can point you towards him, and to good resources that will help you in your spiritual journey I will have fulfilled one of the roles that God has for me in this life.  It is not the most important one, however.  That is clearly being a husband and father, which is much harder than helping at least some of people who read this blog for a few minutes a day.
8. I remained really quite busy with secular work, preached three times, was on the radio once, and yet removing the digital piece resulted in me now feeling remarkably rested and refreshed. I may need to find some ways to lessen some of the burdens I carry.  Perhaps I need a secretary or something!
9. Just hanging out with the kids in the evenings watching TV, playing Scrabble & Risk with them on the iPad, and being beaten at chess by my 11 year old son is a whole lot of fun. I need to carve out more time to do this better even with the blog up and running. If I could be a better husband and father and a worse blogger that would be fine with me.
10. Having a break has made me itch to write again, and I have really enjoyed writing this post.  I won’t be giving up permanently any time soon!

We’re home again! The reunion was sweet, although the three of us are rather tired. I worked today, while both Henry and Tamasin spent some time sleeping. Unfortunately, none of us slept a wink on the plane!

This was the longest I’ve been away from my dear wife, and the longest I have been in America. We even found ourselves talking about “restrooms” and “strollers” and “pacifiers”—words for which most of my English friends would need an interpreter. Sadly I gained about 3 kg. during the last two weeks, so I’m afraid I was right about the poor diet I would likely be subjecting myself to. We wanted quick food, so that meant fast food, and on a few occasions, “eat as much as you like” deals. So all that walking didn’t do any good—thanks, I guess, to all those hot dogs and “freedom fries”! I missed our own English chips—which have nothing to do with either what Americans call “chips” OR what they call “fries.” Our chips are apparently like American steak fries or pub fries, and oddly, that was one of the first foods I craved on my return home! Far superior in taste, but probably equally as fattening. It’s now time to revise my food intake habits, I suspect!

I’ll share a couple more videos, and maybe a few more photos and reflections, but for now I’m about to go to bed in an effort to stave off the jet lag that is likely to hit me like a brick when tomorrow morning I have to start work at what will feel like 4 a.m. to my body!

On Tuesday we visited Disney’s answer to Universal Studios. It’s not as big as its rival, but has lots of rides and shows. Fantasmia lived up to its reputation at the end of the day. The Tower of Terror set a mildly horror-based scene which was an irritating distraction to the real basis of the ride—a crazy, randomly generated sequence of rapid rises and drops in a demented elevator. It was a real hit and the ride that we have repeated the most times (except for the Universal roller coasters). The best thing about it is that it was a new ride each time we rode it and therefore you couldn’t predict when you were going to plunge or be launched with equal violence!

The Rocking Rollercoaster is good, but not as scary as any of the top three Universal ones. We enjoyed the backlot tour, and some of the shows—especially the two stunt shows and the Star Wars ride, which was surprisingly rough.

We only needed one Fastpass during the whole day, which was for the roller coaster. The lines were short, perhaps partly because of the rain, which didn’t put us Brits off. Tamasin said, “Now I don’t feel as homesick!”

Saturday was Sea World day and the Mardi Gras. Tamasin described it as follows in her diary:

Today we went to Sea World. Sea World is joined up with Discovery Cove (the place with the dolphins). Sea World was really cool. They had a roller coaster (it was easy but fun) and a water ride. I got so wet I had to buy a new top. There was loads of shows, including a dolphin and whale show, an otter and sea lion one, one nothing to do with animals but called itself a circus, another with big massive killer whales (we got soaked).

Henry said:

Today was great coz we went to Sea World to go on a few rides and shows and rushed off to the Mardi Gras! I collected 34 beads that you have to catch.

We learned an invaluable lesson today about vacations in Florida. You really can’t do it all, and you actually don’t want to. Having spent a stimulating and enjoyable day at Universal Studios yesterday, we took someone’s advice and decided to have a day at a waterpark before hitting Islands of Adventure tomorrow. The idea of a less full day in-between parks is very sensible.

On the way into the park, we were feeling excited, and only mildly apprehensive at the sheer height of the slide rides. We made a plan to go on all of them one-by-one. That plan evaporated when we got up close to some of the rides. We loved the ones we did go on, including one that took the three of us together in a “boat thing” and dropped us down a steep slide. We planned not to scream, since being stiff, upper-lipped English people it seemed somehow inappropriate. All three of us kind of screamed in a not totally terrified way on the way down, however, as we just couldn’t help ourselves! So much for being among the stiff upper-lipped English!

Sadly I have to report that I was one of many guests who just couldn’t bring myself to be shut into an area which looked disturbingly like a coffin, and then have the floor disappear from under my feet, dropping me vertically onto a ridiculously fast slide. My embarrassment at knowing I’d have to admit my fear to you was outvoted by some deep-wired self preservation drive that told me I was far too high up to throw myself down, or let someone else do so, even if there was a slide there! So, I have to admit that I didn’t do even the “easier” version of that terrifyingly fast and high slide! I turned back and walked the walk of shame down the steps. Tamasin and Henry both did the version without the coffin, so they are officially braver than me.

Anyway, we enjoyed the slides we did do, the wave lagoon, and a “Lazy River” which is basically a set of circular rapids which pushes you around allowing you to pretend you’re able to swim really fast! We also tried unsuccessfully to teach ourselves beach volleyball.

So, after a relaxing day, which offered me much time for quiet reflection while sunbathing, we are all the more ready to hit the serious roller coasters and other rides offered at Universal’s Islands of Adventure tomorrow.

We made it!!

Tamasin said:

In the end, when we finally arrived in Orlando, it was about 5:15 p.m. We went to our hotel, grabbed some food. and went to a sort of party with an outdoor swimming pool. It was great.

Henry said in his diary:

We’re here. I’m at the hotel and I have just been to its huge lovely swimming pool. It’s past 10, but in England it’s 3 in the morning. Tomorrow we’re going to Universal Parks, and we’ll keep going there until the week is up. But we have a whole other week, so we’ll then go to Disney Parks.”

We’re sitting at Gatwick, having enjoyed what I fear may be our last healthy meal for a couple of weeks! We ate a fruit salad, a chicken, bacon and salad sandwich, and fresh fruit yogurt between us. I may be wrong, but my image of Orlando doesn’t include healthy salads being available. Tamasin is particularly worried that we may be forced to eat hot dogs all week. Henry and I just want to make sure we find a good steakhouse.

I was surprised at how I had a moment of sadness saying goodbye to the other half of my family. I have traveled so often, but this is the longest I will have been apart from Andrée since I met her in the spring of 1993! She is amazing, and got up early so I could drive to Gatwick, and then as we got out of the car, she took over for the trip around the M25 to church. She is a great wife, and I felt guilty leaving her as we headed for our holiday of a lifetime. We realized that by the time she gets home today, she will have done a complete circuit of London’s orbital motorway, sometimes called the world’s largest car park. There were no traffic issues today, and we were glad to hear she made it to Enfield in time to grab a McDonald’s before church. I’m just glad we’ve left them all healthy!

Henry wrote in his first diary entry:

“Well, here we are at the airport ready for our nine-hour flight to Disney in around two hours. I think things I’m looking forward to most are seeing the shuttle take off, the spaceship simulator and swimming with dolphins.”

Tamasin meanwhile was refreshingly honest:

“So here we are at the airport waiting for the plane. Me and Hen have to do a holiday diary—how boring. I’m sitting here in Gatwick airport writing in it ‘yawn yawn’. It’s 9-51 and the plane goes at 11-40, can’t wait. The things I’m most looking forward to are swimming with dolphins and all the water parks. We’re gonna get soaked.”

Yep—that’s right! This post marks the return of Warnie. I just can’t keep away any longer! Not only am I returning to reasonably regular fresh blogging, in less than 12 hours I’ll be jumping on a plane and living the “American dream” for two whole weeks! After much careful thought, I’ve also decided that you’re going to be allowed to share in this dream vacation.

We’re staying the first week at the Universal Resort and the second week at Disney. Internet access permitting, you’ll be able to read a day-by-day account right here. There are three of us going—me and two of my kids, Tamasin and Henry. We all figured this was as good a chance to enjoy ourselves together as we are likely to get this side of Tamasin becoming a teenager, which is not far off. I can’t believe that the baby I held in my arms only a short time ago is now doing her best to organize me for this trip, and has even put together some flat-pack furniture on her own!

We’ll share our personal thoughts and, hopefully, some photos and video. Blogs are intensely personal things, so you will forgive my indulgence. If nothing else, my wife and three younger kids will be able to follow along with what we’re getting up to. Incidentally, Andrée deserves a medal as big as a pancake for holding the fort at home. But she doesn’t really like all those rides and things anyhow, and says she will be quite happy.

If you’re looking for serious theology over the next few days, go visit challies.com, although, thanks to my editor, the last few of my “top 30 posts” will be making their appearance in-between the Florida epic travelogue.

If anybody has any last-minute travel tips for an Orlando vacation, now is the time to e-mail them to adrian.warnock@gmail.com. I may even share the best here!

The first tip is, I am told, choose the time of year carefully. February seems like a good month. The weather forecast suggests most days it will be upwards of 27C. (That’s 82F for you Yanks!) But the crowds should not be too big, and it should not get unbearably hot. Importantly, it’s also well outside hurricane season. So since Gordon Brown won’t be anywhere near Gatwick when I am taking off or landing, we should return in one piece.

First up, let me wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR, and may 2008 bring rich blessings to you and your family!

Beginning tomorrow, and for the next month or so—during my extended blog leave—I have arranged to highlight the thirty most read posts of all time from this blog.

These posts were selected on the basis of the number of visits to the individual post pages during the second half of 2007. Much of this, of course, reflects the extent of traffic sent from Google on certain subjects, but that, in turn, has been influenced to some degree by the number of people linking to those posts. Thus, this is hopefully a good measure of popularity among regular readers who blog themselves, as well as first-time visitors from Google.

Where two or more posts from the same series, or very much the same subject, could both potentially have made the top 30, only the most popular one did so. Links to the other related posts will appear in that post on the day the post is highlighted. Each post will be lightly edited by my editor, Annette Harrison, and the first few paragraphs—including a new introduction—will be reposted here, with a “Read-more . . .” link taking you back to the original post. By the time we get to the end, we will have re-published all thirty of these most popular posts. A list will be generated at the end of this post as each one is announced.

I hope this exercise will alert you to the fact that on most of the blogs you visit there is a large catalog of archived posts which may still be of interest today. I have had feedback from some readers of this blog that when they are researching a certain subject they have found the “Search This Site” feature quite useful in locating some of the things their favorite bloggers have had to say in the past on that subject. I certainly find that feature quite useful myself when visiting other bloggers’ sites.

I hope you enjoy this republishing of some of my best bits! Some of these posts were more widely read than I ever expected, and many of my own favorites will make a reappearance while I’m spending January reflecting, recharging, praying, enjoying my family, planning for the year, and reading, as well as continuing in my secular job.

I will be on a retreat with other core team leaders from Jubilee Church beginning on the 11th of January through the 14th, which will come at the end of our customary church-wide week of prayer and fasting. I will also be away on business for a few days in January, which should also give me some additional much-needed personal time.

From the 3rd through the 18th of February I will be traveling with my daughter, Tamasin, and my son, Henry, to Orlando, Florida. We have never been to Orlando, and are excited about spending time bonding together as a smaller unit of our family. We will enjoy some hospitality from a close online blogging friend, Jesse Phillips, for some of the time. I’m sure I’ll post some updates on our trip while we are in Florida, and thanks to the kindness of my editor, written transcripts of my previous audio interviews with John Lanferman (the leader of Newfrontiers in the USA) and Mark Dever will also appear during February.

Please pray for me during this time that I will come back refreshed and raring to go with all my responsibilities, and particularly for the next phase of blogging as I press towards reaching the goal of completing five years of writing a blog in April 2008!

In the meantime, keep coming back! In addition to the republished material, I may not be able to resist posting some new material during this time. In any case, there will always be interesting headlines appearing in my sidebar from the Warnie Winners, and Annette will be highlighting other interesting posts from around the blogosphere.

Everyone needs a break from time to time, but I hope that the things I have set in place over the next six weeks will mean that you feel it’s almost as though I haven’t gone away at all. Please bear with me as I may not answer my e-mail as frequently as usual during this time.

As of January 2008, these are the thirty most widely-read posts on my blog:

30. How to Use the New Google Calendar, Including Outlook Synchronization

29. Interview—Josh Harris on Being Discipled by C. J. Mahaney
28. Who is Adrian Warnock?
27. Best Blond Joke in the World Ever!
26. 25% Off Logos Bible Software from Libronix
25. PSA—Precious Gospel or Divine Child Abuse?
24. Interview With Rob Rufus
23. Interview with Wendy Alsup, Deacon at Mars Hill Church—Seattle
22. Interview With Albert Mohler—Radio Host and Theologian
21. Adrian Interviews Mark Dever
20. Twelve Literary Features of the Bible
19. Adrian Interviews Justin Taylor
18. Kim Riddlebarger Contradicts John MacArthur
17. Interview With Dr. Sam Storms
16. Who Are Your Favorite Well-Known Living Preachers?
15. Massive Collection of Sovereign Grace mp3 Messages Made Available Free
14. Terry Virgo on the Future
13. Tom Wright’s Response to John Piper
12. “The Toronto Blessing”—When The Church Seemed To Be Going Mad
11. The Atonement: Wright Attacks Both Sides of the Debate
10. I Don’t Want Balance! I Want It All!
9. Tope Koleoso—Thanksgiving Sermon on the Importance of Gratitude
8. Interview with C. J. Mahaney
7. What is a Reformed Charismatic?
6. Dr. Wayne Grudem—Highlights and Reflections
5. Steve Chalke and “The Lost Message of Jesus”
4. Sam Storms, John Piper, and John Bunyan Versus Wayne Grudem, Al Mohler, and Mark Dever
3. The ESV: A Bible Translation for Everyone?
2. Blogging, Discernment, and a Book by Tim Challies
1. Interview With Mark Driscoll

The past twelve months have been relatively stable for us as a family. It is the first year for awhile that none of us have started a new job, or a new school (although Joel did move up from the school’s nursery class to reception). We have not moved, and we certainly haven’t moved church. We intend for this stability to continue, God willing, for years to come. Certainly we hope that our children will see out their schooling from our current home somewhere in North London.

Of course, the top story of the year from our perspective has surely been the birth of George Nathan Warnock, who was born just one day before the tenth birthday of the first of our five children, Tamasin Joy Warnock. He has been a wonderful addition to our family, and it has been a joy to watch his siblings play their part in caring for him.

Ours is a busy home, and mostly a very happy home as well. One person holds the household together more than any other, and that is, of course, my absolutely gorgeous wife, Andrée . We have had twelve years together, and I seem to pile more work in her direction with every year. With our seemingly ever-growing family, the people-carrier is now full, so I really do think that five constitutes a full quiver for us. This time, no one even seems to be asking us, “When is the next one due?” So don’t be expecting any more Warnock babies—we certainly aren’t!

One family event this year which we all have appreciated, being a technology-loving family, was of course, deserting the Microsoft operating system. We delight in being a little bit different in our family, and going against that particular grain has been a real joy! It is one way in which we are all allowed to apostatize! Time slots for our Macbook have to be ordered in triplicate a week in advance. (OK, so we aren’t really that organized, but probably should be!). Even Mrs W can get withdrawal symptoms, however!

I tried to express my gratitude to my better half in a post I wrote when recovering from my knee surgery earlier in the year entitled “Thanks to Those Who Keep My Life Going on as Normal”. She will never fully understand how much she means to me, nor just how much I rely on her. As a good friend of mine recently said when his own wife was away, “My life is just rubbish without her!” With my frequent business trips and all the drains on her time, none of it would really happen if it wasn’t for the sacrifices she has made to be an old-fashioned full-time Mum. It is no wonder many people stop at two children as it really is hard to imagine how both of us could manage to go out to work.

Next year we will see our eldest go to secondary school, which is shocking and makes me feel very old. Before that, however, we are looking forward to some uninterrupted time together, and also spending time with our extended family over the Christmas break. Much as I love blogging, you will no doubt excuse me if I don’t spend the holiday season with you! Not that I have finished yet, as there are several more days of “Review of the Year” posts to get through first, so keep coming back as you hopefully begin to wind down towards a rest on Christmas Day—unless, of course, you are the one cooking that Christmas dinner, which here in Britain often looks very much like a copy of the U.S. Thanksgiving dinner). Have a nice time with your family, but I hope you will enjoy reminiscing with me for a few more days about the year that was.

Tamasin—”Why did you come all the way from America to look at all these dead people when there are plenty of living ones in our country as well?”

Henry—”That statue over there is supposed to be an angel! More like a demon, showing off its breasts like that. Disgusting!”

Tamasin and Henry of Darwin’s tomb—”What’s he doing in a church? Surely he’s not welcome here?!?”

Charis—My legs are all shaky (after climbing up then down St. Paul’s 400+ stairs).

Observant readers of my blog will have noticed that I didn’t post any larger photos of Rob Rufus when I spoke about Together On A Mission and interviewed Rob Rufus. One reason for this was that the snapshots I took while we were together were ruined in my hurry as I had the camera on the wrong setting. As a result the color was all wrong and I thought they were beyond salvation.

Well, my MacBook and the wonderful iPhoto software came to the rescue. I have never been able to understand photography software (although Picasa from google was reasonably easy) and so was thrilled to see Tamasin and Henry master it in no time. They took one of the following two photos each and were able to repair them admirably. At moments like this a father is proud of his kids and a relatively new MacBook owner is proud of his laptop!

1. Children are a blessing
2. Learning to cope with partners who travel
3. Out of the mouths of babes and infants
4. A simple faith
5. Children are a gift
6. My son’s trust in Jesus
7. Which came first the chicken or the egg?
8. Blogging for the children
9. A Warnock family joke
10. Tamasin awaits…
11. How to treat your wife?
12. Christmas through the eyes of a 4 year old boy
13. Valentines Day – Urgent Reminder
14. Out of the mouths of babes…(Tamasin).
15. Out of the mouths of babes…(Henry).
16. Out of the mouths…
17. What are the most important things in life?
18. Rip Uncle
19. A personal Christmas message and season greeting…
20. My Story part 1
21. My Story part 2
22. The Simple Gospel in 10 points
23. Why I love a Simple Gospel
24. Tamasin’s children story – The Sornocks
25. Poems about school colours and bedtime
26. UK Mother’s Day Poem: My Mum is
27. Henry Warnock’s first story
28. My Story part 3
29. Tamasin’s art
30. My whatever the famous whatever – by Tamasin Warnock
31. 10 years on and still in love
32. The Gigantic blogger – by Henry Warnock
33. Setting life goals
34. What is love?
35. Teaching kids about life’s knocks
36. Children’s book review: most of all Jesus loves you
37. Nonsense poem
38. My Story part 4
39. A Christmas poem by Tamasin
40. Father Warnie
41. Mother Warnie
42. Warnie Junior
43. Running the race
44. My father the slouch
45. Tamasin again
46. My dads most embarassing moment
47. Crazy Adrian
48. Goalie Adrian
49. My wife the cake decorator
50. Birthday boy
51. Happy Birthday Tamasin 9 today
52. 4 reasons why blogging has been light
53. My fifth reason not to blog
54. A family at play
55. Enjoying London’s green belt
56. Tamasin’s lauches her own website
57. Totally Tamasin (updated today!)

Tags family

My first born is nine years old today and quite the young lady. Fortunately, however, she is not too old for a new cuddly toy friend! My responsibility as a husband and father takes the prime call on my time, so no more blogging for me today!

Over on Together for the Gospel Al says of CBMW: “Randy Stinson does a great job as executive director and Lig as hairman”. I reckon that it was a deliberate mistake and was a joke at poor CJ’s follicularly-challenged state (ie CJs bald and Lig isnt!)

I am enjoying their blog more than ever go read its much more interesting than mine is at the moment, especially as Tamasin and Henry have been hijacking it!