Today I thought I'd tell you a little about an integrated approach I've set up to make use of the online social networking websites, and also to share with you some different ways you can access the content of this blog. Basically I have tried to ensure that a few of these sites will work together for me, that each of them, therefore, will offer you another way to follow the blog, and, where possible, point you to other material I think you should be reading before mine.

Before I get into all of that, let me first name and shame one of my real-world friends. Ian Jukes, who hosts this site for me, committed a cardinal sin using one of these social tools. I caught him calling me “The Warlock.” Now I can tolerate all kinds of misspellings of my name—I have been called Adrian Wamoch, Warnick, Warnack, Warnoc, Warnok, and all kinds of other things. But Warlock, I have always hated, for obvious reasons! So call me anything, just not Warlock, all right? For some reason the nickname that has always stuck to me has been “Warnie,” which I think was something to do with “Arnie.” The thing is, with this blog it’s not so much that “I'll be back!” as “I will never go away!”

On the subject of Warnies, I have made a significant change to the Warnie award system. I have decided that, as of today, I will award mini Warnies to specific articles that I like. Thus, the practical effect is that the Warnie Winners box in my left sidebar will now also include posts from other blogs and sometimes newspaper articles that I have come across and liked. If you spot one of your posts in the Warnie box, you are entitled to say, “One of my blog posts was given a Warnie today.” From time-to-time, I will still issue a Warnie to an entire blog, and from then on, all posts published on that blog will appear in the Warnie Winners box. Those blogs are also entitled to wear the “Warnie Winners” badge. That box is a great place for you to keep up-to-date on what's going on across the Christian blogosphere. You will find all the posts from such places as Tim Challies, the Pyromaniacs, and Terry Virgo, among many others. It is worth saying that you can subscribe to the Warnie feed in a newsreader, and from now on the Warnies will also appear on Twitter.

The observant among you will have already noticed that I have now joined the ranks of the Twitterers. Thanks to something called Twitterfeed, you can also read my blog headlines over there. Twitter has an option to allow you to export all your “tweats,” so you can find them at Twitter, here on the blog, in my Facebook profile page, and at my rarely used myspace page.

In addition, I use a program called MoodBlast to send some of my brief thoughts to both my Facebook status line and Twitter at the same time. There is also an option within Facebook that allows me to automatically import my external blog posts as Facebook notes.

Last, but not least, there are a whole range of ways people can read the blog using my RSS feed. All you need is an online or offline newsreader and you're on your way. There is no doubt that my own favorite way to read other people's blogs is by adding them to Google Reader. Google Reader allows you to subscribe to many blogs and scan their headlines each day looking for something interesting. If you want, you can befriend someone and share your favorite links with them. A few people have started doing that with me, and it sure helps me to find things to share (and as a result, put in my sidebar). You have to add someone as a friend to your GoogleTalk list in order to do this. Just search for me by my e-mail address — adrian.warnock@gmail.com. If you share blog posts with me like this, then they are just one mouse click away from receiving a post-specific Warnie!

When it comes to social networking sites, you very quickly have to make a decision. Are you going to befriend only those you know well offline? Or are you going to befriend a broad range of people, including many you have “met” only through cyberspace? It probably won't be a great surprise to you to find that I've taken the second approach.

If you are a regular reader here and want to connect with me on any of the above services, feel free to do so. It's always nice to know who's out there reading the blog, and to interact with some of you as time permits. At the moment I can still manage to answer the vast majority of my e-mails and online “friendship” requests. There are a few, of course, that do slip through the cracks, but if you send your e-mail again, the chances are good that I'll see it the second time around! This is truly a privileged position for me to be in—being able to connect to so many people, and yet not find myself swamped as those who are famous often are. I have enjoyed and benefited so much from my online friendships, some of which have eventually resulted in meeting face-to-face. So go on, don't be shy! Add me as your friend—just don't call me Warlock!

Hi, Andrée here!

People often ask if Adrian ever sleeps; well here's the answer . . .

It’s my blogoversary today. Five years is a long time. At the moment I can only think of a handful of other Christian blogs that I still read from time-to-time that were around back in 2003. Here are some of them, with dates they began in brackets (where I know them):

• Tim Challies (June 2003)
  
  
• David Wayne (December 2003) now at Jollyblogger
  
  
• Joe Carter (October 2003)
  
  
• Josh Clayborn (? Date) now at In the Agora
  
  
• Hugh Hewitt (? Date)
  
  
• The Bluefish Project (August 2003)
  
  
• Cindy Swanson at Notes in the Key of Life (October 2003)



• Neil Cox (October 2002)
  
  

If you know of a Christian blog I’ve forgotten and which started sometime in 2003 or before, drop me an e-mail. Also, if you have been reading my blog—even intermittently—since those early days, why not drop me a line, too!

I thought it would be a bit of fun to have a look at how the design of my blog has changed over the years. Perhaps it’s surprising, but there has been a gradual evolutionary note to my design changes. Rarely have I made a radical overhaul overnight. If you would like to join me in memory lane, I have shared a few links below, thanks to the Way Back Machine. April 2003 is a lifetime ago in blog time!

• April 2003 — The initial design was really quite simple. I would spend much of the next few years messing it up and then trying to fix it!
  
  
• January 2004 — I embraced a Spiderman design using a drawing by my child. At the top of this page you can also see a list of links to a larger number of old blogs than I listed earlier. The best thing is that the links will take you to the old versions of those blogs—lots of fun!
  
  
• April 2004 — The spider’s web remained, but was alongside what was supposed to be a funky psychiatrist’s couch!
  
  
• July 2004 — A rather plain design, with the sidebar on the right and a truly awful background color, although the psychiatrist’s couch remained.
  
  
• April 2005 — By now a navy blue banner had appeared, which would remain for quite awhile in differing formats. I rather like the short endorsement quotes in this design.
  
  
• September 2005 — the psychiatrist’s couch has finally gone, replaced instead by my face superimposed alongside the tower which houses Big Ben.
  
  
• April 2006 — Three columns have now arrived, a concept which remains today, and Big Ben and my face have become separated.
  
  
• June 2006 – Big Ben and my face are reunited in the photo I still used until two weeks ago, when it was replaced with the current photo. The blue banner is clearly on its way out as it has shrunk dramatically.
  
  
• April 2007 — The site is now beginning to look fairly similar to what you see today, although it’s still a bit more scrappy.
  
  
• June 2007 — The navy banner has finally gone, although I couldn’t quite let it die, so a line remains, which I have yet to remove today. This is the final design at my old URL. Shortly after this snapshot was taken, I took the plunge and ditched http://www.adrian.warnock.info/ in favor of http://adrianwarnock.com/. Shortly after that move, the last few tweaks were made to bring the design to what it is today.

I am not currently of a mind to make any dramatic changes to my design. But I thought I would give any budding designers out there a chance to offer my blog a birthday present. I reckon it might be time I got myself a logo to replace that persistent blue bar and the current “adrianwarnock.com” title. So this post also announces a competition to design me a logo — feel free to submit as many drafts as you like via e-mail. There is, however, no guarantee I will use any of them. No prize is being offered, except the reward of knowing I might use your logo, although I will, of course, acknowledge any winner in a blog post here. So if you think five years of blogging deserves a better logo than my current plain text, now is your chance!

Imagine my delight to read this post on my darling wife's blog. It was very kind, slightly cheeky, and brought real joy to my heart. It is easy to feel disconnected from the real world while at a conference. But just in case I needed a reminder of the fact that my real delight is back at home with my family, the surprise of seeing such lovely words from my delightful wife was more than adequate.

Family really does come first for me, and so should they. I am so thankful to God for Andree and for all she does to enable me to do what I do, and to care for the precious five children. I hope that being here will help me to be a better husband and father when I get home. If I didn't believe that, I would not be here right now. I look forward to seeing them real soon!

Lambs, snow, mountains, and streams. It sure beats sitting nose-to-bumper in London traffic!

This was a truly awesome journey, which I made to the accompaniment of Handel's Messiah. Somehow the music seemed suitably grand and majestic for the scenery.

Amazingly, I had my first sighting of sheep at the very same moment that "Behold the Lamb of God" began. A lump appeared in my throat. Somehow the baby lambs looked so innocent. How amazing that the innocent Lamb of God would willingly die for me!

We have now arrived at the countdown of the top ten most popular posts of all time with readers of this blog. No. 10 appeared on July 19, 2007, and of all the posts I have written, this one is probably my own personal favorite. It is a rallying call to a kind of Christianity that is not ashamed to embrace the best from many different backgrounds.

The last four words of the above title are not new to me, but they are certainly resonating with me at the moment — "I Want It All!" Why should I have to choose, for example, between being enthusiastic about theology and being charismatic?

I know what some of you are thinking as you've been reading my posts on the Together On a Mission conference. You're wondering why it is that someone who is so enthusiastic about what was obviously a very charismatic conference can also be deeply committed to defending and understanding biblical doctrine. I know it's hard for some of you to believe, but it really is the same me who wrote all those posts on the atonement who also was so deeply touched by this latest conference. For those of you who have never met one, I am indeed that rare breed — a Reformed Charismatic.

Too often, however, the temptation for me is to downplay one side of that equation or the other in order to appear "balanced." When I am with the charismatics, my reformed doctrine often appears alien to them, although in the UK, Newfrontiers offers a major exception to that with over 200 churches that are broadly reformed and charismatic. When I'm with the reformed, I'm tempted to soften my charismatic viewpoint and not speak too much of the things I have seen and experienced. Why is it that on this issue, as on so many others, the Church seems to be split in half? Why can't we be both radically reformed and radically charismatic? Why do we see a conflict and therefore try to play down both in order to be "balanced?" I don't want to be balanced, I want it all!

On the one hand there are those who care about theology enough to study God's Word in detail, weigh scripture against scripture, study great theological minds, and preach intellectually stimulating messages that would stretch even a PhD in Theology — which, incidentally, I am certainly not! Why is it that for the majority of us, if we want such a feast for our minds, we must sacrifice certain other things? Why are some leaders in the Church committed to theology almost exclusively? Is even great theology so captivating that it is the only need of the Church? I don't believe it can be, or God would have given us a Bible that was a systematic theology and not the one we have, which is essentially a collection of lots of stories with a few doctrinal portions.

Read more . . . I Don't Want Balance! I Want It All!

No. 28 on the list of most-read posts on this blog appeared on September 2, 2006, and was written in response to a request for a short "biography" of myself. That post provided a brief introduction to me, and included links to a number of posts I had written sharing my story so far. I am publishing the original short post here in its entirety. I really must get around to bringing my story up-to-date in 2008!

I have been asked to write a short "biographical" piece, so thought I would share it here. I am also slowly working my way through telling my story.

Adrian Warnock blogs at http://adrianwarnock.com/. He runs the Warnie Awards which recognize blogging excellence, and the Blogdom of God—a widely varied list of blogs written by Christians.

Adrian is a regular preacher at Jubilee Church in London, UK - which is part of a reformed charismatic group called Newfrontiers. He is a medical doctor trained as a psychiatrist, and now works in research. Adrian is married and a father of five children.

It's time once again to review another year's worth of blogging here at my place. I have made it something of a tradition to look back and reflect on the year that has passed. I have done this previously in December 2006, 2005, and 2004. The format is simple: I highlight some of the posts that I remember most, or enjoyed writing the most over the year. This time I will break it down into a series of posts.

This year I began January's blogging—after extending my customary Christmas break slightly longer than previously—by taking up my autobiographical story with a post entitled My Story Part Five—Learning to Value Being, Not Doing. I did not return to my story again this year, so this remains surely the longest running, as yet unfinished, series on my blog. I am sure that I will eventually return to this and catch up to the current day. In that post I talked about the value of silence and reflection.

In one of the shortest, but most personally challenging posts of the year, in the second post of 2007 I shared some Reflections of a Returning Blogger, citing Scripture that said few words were wiser than many. I suspect this contributed to a trend this year on my blog to shorter posts and, hopefully, to more careful consideration of what I say.

I also spent a few days in January on an interview with Wendy Alsup, a deacon in the Mars Hill Church—Seattle, where Mark Driscoll is pastor.

In February I began what would be an extended series on preaching with two posts that quoted the Together for the Gospel Statement Article 4, John Piper, and Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Expository Preaching.

I also mentioned that I had just heard a new book on the atonement would soon be released—Pierced for Our Transgressions. Little did I know then just how much I would be focused on that subject this year. I shared the audio of a talk I had given late in 2006 for Jubilee entitled What is the Bible?

I remember being stirred to ask Should We be Optimistic or Pessimistic About the Future? and challenging my readers to find a quote I was sure I had once read from Spurgeon. That readers' challenge remains open and can be answered via e-mail on reading Spurgeon's Prediction of a Future Revival. I did manage to find one quote where Spurgeon asks the question Will More Be Saved Than Lost?

It was also great to publish the news that I was able to play a small part in restoring the works of Charles Simeon to a larger audience.

I seem to have been somewhat distracted from my posts about preaching, and only quoted C. S. Lewis on the Need for Plain English Preaching all month. I did quote one of my greatest living hero's impressions of one of my greatest preaching heroes of the past—I am speaking, of course, about John Piper on Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

In March I returned to the subject of preaching, and there were a significant number of posts which culminated in Ten Conclusions About Expository Preaching. In the middle of this I wrote about The Risks and Rewards of Using Technology in Sermon Preparation.

I posted about the T4G Articles 5-6—The Attributes of God and the Trinity, which included the audio of another talk I had given at Jubilee late in 2006.

One of the traditions of this blog is that every now and then I engage in a gloves-off debate with the Pyromaniacs. In March, one of these was summarized in a post I entitled Am I a Thrill Seeker?

If I remember correctly, that debate with the Pyros was, at least in part, sparked by possibly the most controversial post of the year anywhere in the Christian blogosphere. It was published over on Desiring God, and my reflections on it were entitled John Piper Hears The Voice Of God. I also remember the call that went out that month for Prayer for an Exhausted Mark Driscoll.

March was a hectic blogging month, but nothing would prepare me for what was to come in April, especially as I had written many of my forthcoming posts on atonement in a single sitting and thought I would have a quiet time as my editor faithfully published them all for me. That, however, must wait for the next installment of this year in review series.

For me, once I have prioritized my own personal inner life and relationship with God, then my dear family, a clear third place in my affections is given without a moment's doubt to my local church. Family does come before the church, but of course our church is like an extension of my family and we all love being a part of it. It is hard to believe that it was as long ago as 1995 that we first joined our current church.

This past year has been another amazing one for all of us at Jubilee London. Serving as part of the core team and a regular preacher in this vibrant, multicultural, growing church is one of the biggest privileges of my life. It is no wonder that so many of our leaders and people are saying things like, "I have no intention of leaving." I know, for us as a family, we currently believe that we will be here for at least twenty more years, and are thrilled at the prospect. Why would we want to go anywhere else?

Who could forget our international giving day or the day we turned our main service into church in the park, or for that matter, the day the whole church got an invitation to a wedding? (Sadly I missed both the last two of these events, with the latter happening while George was being born.) The memorable events went on—Alpha, new small groups, clusters of small groups meeting together, men's and women's days, and of course, lots of different kinds of food from all over the world. People becoming Christians, getting healed, and yes, a couple of them dying very well, still full of faith in the Jesus that has now welcomed them into heaven. These wonderful memories will go on and on, but they just keep growing as more keep getting added!

Over the course of the last year we were also thrilled to have a number of well-known preachers visit us. I am humbled that I am still asked to share God's Word with the congregation. I preached ten times this past year, and all the audio and notes are available on the pages of this blog as follows:

• How to Define Revival and be Revived Personally


• Reviving Prayer (1 Kings 17:1 to 2 Kings 2:14)


• The Reviving Power of God's Word (Psalm 119)


• Resurrection Hope—An Easter Sermon (1 Corinthians 15)


• Missional Bible Study (Psalm 119)


• Abraham—The First Missional Believer


• Jacob—The Missional Rebel


• Alive Together With Christ (Ephesians 2:1-10)


• The Christian's Warfare (Ephesians 6)


• The Risen Jesus (Revelation 1)

Many of you will never get to visit our church, although, of course, we would be happy to welcome any of you! But you can visit with us by listening to our messages available as a podcast or at Jubilee Church's website.

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.

It's that time of year again—the time when I reflect on the year that has been. I'm going to follow a structure in my reminiscing which will be as follows:

1. In this post I will think about my own personal life, and in particular my relationship with God.
   
   
2. In the next post I will consider my family.
   
   
3. Then I will consider my church.
   
   
4. Finally, I will spend some time reviewing the blog.

This order truly does reflect the relative priority I place on each aspect of my life.

I find this whole process sets me nicely in the mood to then switch off totally over Christmas and into January. Although I myself will continue my break, beginning on January 1st, thanks to my editor, Annette, we will be publishing a particular series of posts that I have already written and sent to her.

You will notice that there is a clear omission from my list—my job. This is because I don't like to mix my work and my blog. I'm keen to keep my professional life entirely separate from this hobby I carry out in my spare time. This is not because I don't enjoy my job—I very much do. It's just wise to keep some boundaries of separation between the multiple domains of my life.

I am a very busy person, although I'm sure I would have it no other way. If I have some spare time, I tend to fill it with something. I'm not a great believer in simply staring blankly into space! I try to make time for entertainment and relaxation also. Managing my competing responsibilities is all about making the most of every second available to me, and where possible, recycling time or effort so it benefits me in more than one way. Thus, I try not to re-invent the wheel, and find that things I'm thinking about in one aspect of my life often pop up in another area in a surprising way to help me there.

As I end the year, I am painfully aware that the person who can get squeezed out at times is the One Person who makes it all possible, and who is my top priority. I can honestly say that this year I have been better at taking time to pray and truly listening to what God has to say to me personally in his Word than I have in the past. But I do need more extended times when I forget all my other responsibilities and focus only on him. January will be a month very much devoted to that goal, alongside the responsibilities that I cannot lay down for such a season. I am looking forward to a weekend retreat that will help greatly, and by not blogging for several weeks, I will have some time to accomplish this on a daily basis.

If I don't make sure that I am connected to God, filled by God, thrilled by God, and empowered by God, I simply can't get those things done which God intends for me to do. Being well-oiled by the Spirit of God makes all the difference to everything else I do. I very much notice the negative effects on every area of my life when I have rushed this, or when I am shamefully treating God like just another drain on my time.

The good news is that although I am now, like many of you, in real need of a rest, I end this year significantly less worn out and weary than I think I was at this time of year in the last few years. While 2007 has been busy, I have been better at pacing myself and taking time out when I needed it. I still do far more than I sometimes think I ought to be doing. But I'm learning to say "No!" and, where possible, I've handed over things I don't have to do myself.

When we know we are doing God's work, then we can be confident that he will give us all we need to accomplish that work. I wear many hats, all of which he has given me—blogger, writer, doctor, father, husband, preacher, church leader, coach, friend. I need to make sure that I take off all those hats more often and just get before God in prayer as his son.

If you can spare some time, please do pray for me that 2008 will be a year when I learn how to pray more effectively than I currently know how to, and live in more obvious and active dependence on the One to whom I owe everything.

May God help me to continue all I do in the power that his Spirit supplies.

I am thankful today. It may not be my holiday, we may not have anything even remotely like it here in the UK, but as I said last year, I am very glad of the reminder this American holiday represents.

I know that at times I still have a sinful tendency to focus on things that are not going the way I want them to rather than to be thankful for everything that has gone well. I know that even after all these years of growing as a Christian, there are times when self-pity, criticism of others, and ungratefulness rear their heads. I know that in the corner of my heart their lies an area as yet not cleaned by the grace that is washing me day-by-day and making me more like Jesus. That area stubbornly refuses to learn that I am not the center of the universe. Neither will it accept that minor inconveniences to me are not worth getting upset about. It must continually be reminded that if I just learned to actually be more sincerely thankful rather than merely mouthing the words "thank you" in a ritualistic manner, my world would actually be a better place. So apart from all the other reasons I have to give thanks, my own selfish interests would be better served!

The truth is, we all find it hard to say a simple "thank you."

My dear readers, I do want to thank you today so much for your patience and ongoing interest in these voluminous and persistent writings of mine which threaten to encroach upon your coffee breaks on a daily basis! I do value the time you invest. I appreciate your interest in the matters that interest me. I am grateful to God for his grace, which has meant that some of you find that investment of time to be at times helpful to you.

* * * * *

One of the interesting things about blogging is the way it seems to go around in cycles. I suppose it's partly because of the way blogging obviously reflects the rest of our lives. I know that, for me, my blog is just an extension of me. Many times my friends have to stop me when I'm talking to them and say, "Adrian, I've already read that on your blog!"

So it felt rather strange when I realized the odd coincidence that this Thanksgiving I'm again returning to a theme that was bubbling up in my thinking at the same time last year. This culminated in a post just days after Thanksgiving titled "Making a Minor Tweak to My Comments Policy."

Interestingly, I had the same internal conflict then I find I have right now. On the one hand I was upset about some of the comments I received on the blog, and on the other hand I was thankful for many of the comments—"especially from those who disagree with me." The real problem I face is that sometimes it's really hard to decide which comments I am happy to publish and which ones I am not. It's difficult to set any clear set of rules that can be understood by both me and you, my readers. Tone is in the eye of the beholder, as my recent debate with the Pyromaniacs clearly demonstrated.

Last December I realized that my earlier tweak had not been enough, so I made a major change in how I would deal with comments here. I now feel that the change I made last year is no longer adequate. It served me well this past year, but now it's time for another radical change. My big problem moving forward is that, with all my other responsibilities, I am so busy that something has to give. I have decided that the time I spend making the often agonizing decision about whether or not to publish a comment (and which I probably sometimes get wrong) is going to have to be freed up.

So, at least for now, beginning today, I will no longer publish comments made on my blog posts.

What does this mean? Firstly, for the vast majority of you, it will make little or no difference. I know that only a tiny proportion of my readers even read the comments, let alone add to them. For some of you, though, this will be disappointing. Does this mean I am no longer interested in your feedback? Absolutely not! Does this mean I will stop reading e-mails sent to me? No! In fact, by freeing some time, it may even make it more likely that I can respond to an e-mail privately, or if appropriate and with the permission of my correspondent, on my blog itself.

I will still, as time permits, try to interact with those who disagree with me. I am not retreating into some kind of bunker! From time to time, I will also probably post a link here to such a post and answer it. I may even frequent the comment sections on other people's blogs.

Why am I doing this? It's mainly for my own sanity. It's because I need to reclaim the time I currently devote to scratching my head in deciding whether or not to publish comments. I feel responsible for the words which appear here in the comments section. I obviously do not have any similar responsibility for what people might post elsewhere. I may well find myself quite happy to read even quite critical comments made elsewhere, whereas reading the very same words as a potential comment for publication here would make me anxious about whether or not I should accept it.

I am grateful for my interactions with you, my readers, which have helped me to understand so many things more clearly. It is therefore with some sadness that I now pull the plug on comments. Because of my current time pressures, it is better to stem the flow of comments now than to wait until I am engulfed in a major comment storm at some point in the future.

If you have made any comments you want to save for the future, please go in and copy/paste them, since at some point fairly soon I will be removing all the old comments also.

The following verse has influenced this decision, and I hope will continue to influence my blogging in these post-comment box days:

"The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out." (Proverbs 17:14)

UPDATE
Not everyone is happy with my decision, as this post over at Peter's blog demonstrates.

People who know me well know that the football genes have skipped a generation. I am, of course, referring to the original game of football as invented by us British and called "soccer" by only one nation on earth (i.e. the USA). To the rest of the world it's just 'football'.

My father and brother love football and support Tottenham. My eldest son, Henry, has caused some consternation by rejecting this club and defecting to Arsenal instead. My brother and father are disgusted

But perhaps I should remind them of another defection that occurred decades before. I seem to remember that when I was a boy we supported another team, one which miraculously made it to the 1st division for just one season, if I remember correctly. That team was Brighton and Hove Albion! When their success ended I became disillusioned with football altogether, whilst the other members of my family simply switched teams! So guys, was that defection to a better team any worse than my son doing the same thing?

Of course, with us living in London the rivalry between these two teams is great. A friend of mine also challenged my son about his support for the 'reds' rather than the 'blues'. The typical boy arguments of who is better ensued. My son had the perfect reply to the Tottenham fan. To understand this, as you can see above, the logo of Arsenal includes a gun, and that of Tottenham, a bird.

Henry simply asked, "Who would win a battle between a canon and a bird?"

The results of a match between Tottenham and Arsenal a couple of months ago would seem to bear this out!

UPDATE

Adrian then . . .

Adrian now . . .

Hi! It's Mrs.W here again! The stage of life I am in currently involves spending a lot of time caring for my lovely 7 month old baby, George. He is now clapping his hands, rolling over, and sitting up. He also has his first tooth! He is such a cute little boy, and we all love him to bits. But he is also very vulnerable. He needs to be watched and cared for all the time, for he has no idea at all how to look after himself and keep himself safe. In Jesus' time I believe many children would die before reaching adulthood. Jesus made himself that vulnerable for us.


He Chose This Way

There are so very many things
That I will never know
But most of all I wonder why
You chose to stoop so low.

A birth amongst the cows and hay
Your earthly life began
Your babyhood and toddler days
Were all part of the plan.

You walked and talked and laughed and cried
And played as children do
But as you grew you never sinned
Because you were God, too.

Why did you choose to be a child
When you're the King of all
You suffered pain and took my shame
While I cared not at all?

You broke the power of sin and death
And freed me from the law
You rose again to give me life
And joy forever more.

What can I say but 'thank you, Lord'
What can I do but praise?
And by your grace to seek your face
And love you all my days.

— Andrée Warnock

We had a lot of fun with our American visitors over the weekend. Some of my kids and I went to London with them on Saturday. We visited St Paul's, the Westminster area, and the Tower of London, which we reached by boat. It was a great day, whose highlight for me was surely the following quotes:

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).

The British and the Americans are at war once again. This time it is a more localized conflict than the War for Independence which, for a nation who has a history of over 1000 years, is really just yesterday. Fortunately the weapons of this latest war are words, although these are, of course, more deadly than nuclear bombs. (Proverbs 18:21)

We have American visitors at the moment. My kids are confused. They can't understand why a room that has a toilet and no bed or bath gets called a restroom or bathroom. But that is nothing compared to what I have just discovered. I mean, an innocent conversation about a lorry overturning on a motorway/highway met with blank looks from my friends. So I tried calling it an articulated lorry, an HGV (heavy goods vehicle), even the odd-sounding word "motor truck" (on Google's recommendation), and, of course, my favorite description of this type of vehicle—the juggernaut. None of this helped AT ALL. The blank looks continued.

The only way we could communicate was for me to say—'OK, so you are at Walmart. A vehicle arrives to deliver goods for them to sell. What do you call it?'

The astonishing answer given by these two otherwise sane American girls (who are, incidentally, Christians of marriageable age and available—apply by e-mail to me for prescreening!) was "A TRACTOR-TRAILER!"

My wife and I are not just laughing out loud (LOL) or ROFL, we are CRYING! To me a tractor is a farm vehicle which tows plows, or yes, a farm trailer! Since when does an all-terrain farm vehicle have eighteen wheels?! Wikki is very clear in its definition of a tractor, and it sure isn't something you would see very often on the roads.

Please, please, please, somebody help us! Give us a sensible name for the vehicle we have agreed to call (in the meantime) a big vehicle that is liable to jack-knife at midnight when the Warnocks are on their way home from holiday!

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!