In a nation known for its secularity, I really like coming across little surprises like this.

New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione has welcomed the release of a new Police Bible, created especially for the State’s serving police officers.

The Police Bible includes information on Police ethics, service, integrity and leadership as well as police prayer, and photos of officers in the field. It is thought that eventually, the bulk of the State’s 20,000 officers will have a Police Bible in their possession. Scipione, who is grateful for his new Bible, said, “I believe the Police Bible will impact on generations of Police officers to come.
 
“Every officer who graduates from the Academy in Goulburn is offered a Bible and I would like to think an officer who receives one of these special Police Bibles will one day sit in my seat”, Scipione said.

“They are especially important in our line of work,” he added. “Our officers have a great deal of respect for our Chaplains, and what better way to build on that relationship than to share the Gospel?”

Source: Christian Today via Australian Prayer Network

Posted via web from Preposterousness

Yep, that’s the best I could do as a title for a post about the some of the stupidity surrounding how the world is “going green”.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for Biblical conservation…but I’m fairly sure what we’re doing isn’t close.  There’s endless examples I could use to approach this, but I’m going for one that got me particularly annoyed…and I don’t annoy easily.

Let’s look at the ongoing process of banning plastic bags here in Australia.

On the surface, a noble gesture. And one I support in principle – I’ve been using green bags for 7 years now.  But does all the hoo-hah surrounding a ban really reflect advances in environmental policy when there is still so much waste being allowed?

A work colleague / friend / fellow cynic in my company’s IT department and I were discussing the bag thing last night, while working out what to do with respect to our printing technology requirements (bear with me here…I promise this won’t get too techy…cos I wouldn’t know what I was talking about anyway, unless it’s accounting techy, in which case I could bore you so far beyond tears that the resulting dried up carcass would be worthy of a major Egyptian archaeological discovery…but that’s another story or 10).

Anyway…printing.

Me: “We can buy new printers for less than the replacement toners…where’s the eco-sense in that?”

Friend: “I bought 5 new printers for home last week as I needed a table for my printer as well as replacement toners. It was the cheapest way to achieve all that … but at least I didn’t use any plastic bags to get them home, so all is OK, right?”

What the????

It’s enough to make you cynical (oh…wait…)  I’m not even vaguely annoyed at my friend, by the way.  I’m annoyed at the fact this is the most economical option.

I understand the political system always has (and always will perhaps ?) use these tiny-yet-ultra-visible actions in order to pat itself on the back … plastic bags affect everyone, while the “printers are wasteful” lobby groups don’t have a lot of traction just yet.

(Note I’ve deliberately not talked about good corporate citizenship here either…feel free to open that discussion in the comments, if you care).

When it all comes down to it, please be assured that I love the earth, and take my role in looking after it in accordance with God’s word seriously (ie: I’m not anti-green…but I could well be anti-the-world’s-view-of-being-green).

I guess I’m just not sure if these moves of good intent ever really lead to change.  What do you think?

Are symbolic gestures ever effective?

Twitter is abuzz with the word of God.

And I love it.

In amongst all the frivolity and great conversation, God’s word is being spread.

For example, in just one day, we have the exciting new daily #Twiblestudy from Ragamuffin Soul and #28dayCP from WithoutWax.  Thanks to both Los & Pete (times infinity) for hearing God’s voice in using the interwebs for His purposes yet again.

This reminded me of something I’ve been doing, unknown to pretty much everyone.  I don’t think I’ve even told Diane !  Not intentionally, it just hasn’t happened (I don’t think)…Diane will surely tell me if I’m lying here.

Since January, I’ve been using YouVersion to read the Bible online in a year, using the cool tools on their site for journalling, note taking, etc

So if you don’t know about it, do yourself a favour and give it a gander.

(You can stop laughing Diane…I am not Molly)

Reading the whole Bible is something I’ve done before, and many people have done it before. This is just a new and fresh way to do it.  On the other hand, a blogger friend of mine is doing something which just blows my mind.  He’s reading the entire Bible in 90 days !  This is awesome in and of itself, but on top of that, he has one of the most challenging jobs I can imagine.

In the past, this kind of challenge would probably make me try to go one-up.  These days, with a more transformed mind, I’m just so happy for him and pray that God blesses him beyond belief through the encounter.

I’m learning. Slowly.

So tell me…

Do you read the Bible as much as you’d like?
What tools do you use?
Do you remember how to use a pen?

That last question is actually more serious than you might think…

I use handwriting about twice a week, and only because in church I’ve not taken out the phone to use.  I might have to start though.

Another pastor has started phonotaking (oh yes, let the word-coining continue) for the last couple of weeks, and he is front & centre in the church so I no longer have an excuse… Considering I hardly ever read a paper-printed Bible these days either (remember, YouVersion, but also this), it’s about time I guess.

So over the past few days, I managed to convince Diane (her blog is coming…) to join me in presenting a little tiny snippet of our story in our inimitable style . (Trust me, it’s inimitable…you’ll find out if you try).

We spoke a lot without really saying much.

Or did we…

This got me thinking about some discussions, blog posts, tweets and just stuff in general that have been floating around lately.  Don’t freak…it’s ok; I do that sometimes…

Authenticity refers to the truthfulness of origins, attributions, commitments, sincerity, devotion, and intentions.

This is taken from the header of Wikipedia’s summary on authenticity.  It barely touches the surface, but I don’t think it intends to go deep…there’s a lots of pages below to navigate.  But read the Bible first. And maybe this too.  I’ll stop with the reading links now.

It’s easy to hide behind the written word, it’s much harder on film.

Yes, I know there’s always the actor factor to consider, but I’m no actor, so what I see in those videos reflects more of the real me than you could ever get in my writing.  I think it creates a better connection than just having my words here in various fonts.

Of course, it may have the effect of completely alienating people too…but I’d rather have any illusions of who I may be shattered early in my (blogging) life.  I like me, and the me I am becoming, despite the occasional pain of the journey.  God is bigger than the pain, and how I deal with it determines whether I dive deeper into Him, or just stay dog-paddling on the surface of His immensity.

An unexpected side effect of all this is that I’m now examining every area of my life and minimising the possibility that someone might be getting the wrong impression of me.  Starting last night at our church pastoral leaders meeting, continuing today at work (speaking of which, it’s AGES since I did a ‘work’ post…), and ending…when I die I guess…!

I’m tired of the fascades I see so many around me wearing.  I want real.

Jesus is real : imitate Him

And yeah, more videos will follow…but for the moment, here’s us…

now…

real.

What do you mean you didn’t know we were Mogwai martians??