Updates

 Just now updating my blog. 

Besides being away from it for too long, many of the links were obsolete. I've just got rid of a lot of them. I had a very long list of links to other blogs that I used to follow, a lot of them no longer existent. Rather sad. I spent many hours at sites such as Next Wave, etc. I'm surprised that archaeologists weren't using my site to study the history of the Internet!

Also I've added links to a couple of my more recent books.

I should issue a disclaimer: I don't have an obsession with rats. It isn't lost on me that two of my recent series include "rat" in the title. Only the most recent series features actual rats. Had I written Rat Queen first, I wouldn't have named the earlier series Rats in the Cellar. That one isn't about rats at all, but only as a metaphor.

Limerick Time

Reinventing the Wheel

  when willie reinvented the wheel

  we all laughed and called him a schlmiel

      then it so happened

      that he took out a patten

  now it's his licence fees that make us reel

French

  A lass named Polly McKenzie

  Took French, because it was trendy

     When asked to romance

      a gentleman from France

  she went into a parles vous frenzie 

  Parisian life he offered, she took it,

  but now, she's a pity to look at

      'cause dear Polly, poor wench

      all she'd learned of her French

  was 'silver plate' and 'mercy bucket'

The Perfect Program

The Perfect Program

  A world where it doesn't rain

  save there are umbrellas for all

  Where, only on the house of the evil doer,

  would a tree ever fall

  Where bad people look gruff and mean,

  but good men all stand tall

  ...in your dreams, maybe

  A life of harmony and love that begins with just one kiss

  Where all is well that ends well,

  and ever after we'll live in bliss

  When good things come to those who wait,

  with never even a miss

  ...only on TV

 No matter the problem,

 we're sure there's always a way

  Nothing but nothing is impossible to those who dare to say

  'Human brawn and whit, my friends,

  will surely save the day'

  ...hee hee hee

  A Chicken in every pot,

 a pot on every table

  Justice for all, and a job

  for everyone who's able

  I'll just wave my wand

  and make the economy stable

  ...vote for me

   What we do will save the world

  from poverty and despair

 We'll right all wrongs and adjust the scales

  so everything is fare

  We'll punish the bad, reward the good,

  and show the poor we care  

  ...wait and see

      ...just wait and see

  Well, we abolished humanity because it's bad

Some said, 'Oh my! Why, that's so sad!'

  But really, it's the only choice we had

  ...for a perfect world, you see

The Shechinah

This is a project that I've been working on for close to half my life. At least the very first chapter - or module - is based on a set of notes that I came up with about 1993, to teach to a small group of co-workers, the staff of a slum day care centre in an obscure corner of Bangkok. The inspiration for it came a few years earlier than that, during my time of founding a couple of churches in Southern Thailand (Prachuab province), as something that would both help new believers to be grounded in the faith, as well as go onward to be leaders, teaching others what they've been taught. 

As I was slowly working away at it, it grew, first, to a set of three or four study outlines that I used to teach a class at a Bible Training centre where I was at the time (CFTI). Later, after I had added more modules to it - still in the form of study outlines - I published it as Tishbyte Foundational Bible Study Series. 

More recently, I have rewritten it in long form, but adding discussion questions, and using a lighter outline format at the start, that doubles as a table of contents. Thus, the TOC doubles as an outline for reviewing, or simply using for teaching notes.

The blurb probably describes it best:

“How can I be a better Christian?”

By getting your focus off yourself, and falling in love with God’s plan to dwell among humanity. That, indeed, is what the whole Bible is all about: GOD DWELLING AMONG HUMANITY.

In this book we explore and observe how the whole of the Bible is saturated with that desire of God’s heart. That, by itself, should change your life and motivate you to become a part of what God is accomplishing in the world today.

My hope is, once you’ve done a thorough study, aided by this book, you will not only have the motivation, but also the tools to move forward and assist in establishing God’s Kingdom wherever you are, as the Breath of God energises you.

This is not about getting you to join any particular movement or church group. The idea is to to enable you further - where you are right now - by sharpening your understanding of what the Old and New Testaments are really about, and motivate you to fall in love with the Kingdom of Jesus, the Messiah, who is the Shechinah - the dwelling of God.

This study series in one volume can change your life, and give a new direction. If you’re already going in the right direction, it’ll give you all the more “oomph” you need.

Further to that, while I do feel that Seminary and Bible School education is valuable, I also honestly believe that if one were serious enough, stuck to it, and went through this - preferably as a part of a group - one would come away with the tools to lead, mentor, pastor, or engage in whatever aspect of the five-fold ministry God has called one to. That's not to say that it replaces any need for human input - it doesn't. We're called to build one another up and to be accountable to one another; but at least this should serve as a vital tool. 

For the purpose of expressing where I am coming from, and where I got all this, I've also written a very long bio, which you can find on my website, titled, My Journey So Far. In the front page of my website, It's introduces as My Very Long Bio (warning: very long). Indeed, as of my last update, it's reached the length of a novella.