James Ogley

Sermon: I will send you to fish for people (Mark 1.14-20)

James Ogley — Sun, 13 May 2012 12:56:41 +0000

Preached this morning at St Francis’, at the 9.15 service. The text was Mark 1.14-20 and, it being the second Sunday of the month, it’s a break from our regular series – currently on the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Download the sermon in Ogg Vorbis or MP3.

I posted a Wordle with some thoughts as I prepared earlier in the week.

Pound-shedding Update: Week Four

James Ogley — Sat, 12 May 2012 17:42:52 +0000

Image by Flickr / puuikibeach

This week’s update is a day later than usual and it’s in incredibly small degree of change from the bonus update on Monday. In the intervening time, there’s been a day when I was unwell that will have balanced out the meal out we enjoyed. So here’s the all [un]important numbers:

Weight: 13st 3lb
Wii Fit Age: 30

Weight unchanged then. In fact, so much so that my BMI reading was identical to last time.

On to the next week.

Word as Wordle: Mark 1.14-20

James Ogley — Thu, 10 May 2012 08:50:03 +0000

On Sunday, I’m preaching from Mark 1.14-20 and here it is as a Wordle:

This is one of those moments where the English text can be somewhat misleading though. On the face of it, this suggests that, after Jesus himself – who of course is the principle actor in this narrative – the key themes are “come” and “followed”. However, in both these instances, it is a case of different Greek words being translated using the same English words. In the case of “come”, the Kingdom of God is arriving but the TNIV renders it “has come near.” In the case of “followed”, while Simon and Andrew followed Jesus, Mark phrases what James and John did as “went away after him” but again, the TNIV renders this as “followed him.” However, the “direction” in which James and John go (οπισω – after or behind) is the same direction that Jesus calls Simon and Andrew to come. (Of course, Jesus says come but they go – the verb cannot be the same here.)

So we can see, the call of Jesus goes to James and John as it does to Simon and Andrew as it does to us. It is a call to discipleship, to follow him – and so to be part of a movement that involves fishing, searching, looking for others who will also join it.

Pound-shedding Update: Bonus!!

James Ogley — Mon, 07 May 2012 10:38:20 +0000

Image by Flickr / puuikibeach

That’s right, lovely reader, a bonus set of pound-shedding data! Am I good to you or what?

Okay, perhaps best not to answer that.

Anyway, I did an extra weigh-in yesterday so there are new numbers:

Weight: 13st 3lb
Wii Fit Age: 31

The Wii Fit Age is unchanged from Friday but I dropped 3lb. That’s probably largely down to the fact that I did a lot of walking on Saturday.

It means that 2½ weeks in, I’m 1lb down which is a good start in my view.

Pound-shedding Update: Week Three

James Ogley — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:39:08 +0000

Image by Flickr / puuikibeach

This week’s numbers:

Weight: 13st 6lb
Wii Fit Age: 31

I’ve almost given up already on caring about my weight because I know from my clothes that I’m getting slimmer – they are feeling gradually looser. Nevertheless, the competitive part of me wants to beat the goal I set myself so I’ll press on.

Go Vote!

James Ogley — Thu, 03 May 2012 10:46:52 +0000

Vote Green!

Pound-shedding Update: Week Two

James Ogley — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:48:22 +0000

Image by Flickr / puuikibeach

This week I’ve deviated slightly from the rules so I was expecting a gain in weight. We had a guest overnight on Wednesday and ordered a curry. That’s allowed. I had a couple of beers with it (because, you have to, right?). That’s not. So here’s this week’s numbers:

Weight: 13st 5lb
Wii Fit Age: 31

I also today had a large lunch in anticipation of light dinner. Normally it’s the other way around so like-for-like, that’s probably more like a return to the starting weight of 13st 4lb. My Wii Fit Age is still a good few years below my actual age so all-in-all, I’m satisfied this week I think.

Update: I did a 25 minute work-out which resulted in me losing the 2lb I’d gained in the last week. It also meant that my legs were aching so I did badly on the balance tests it gave me so my Wii Fit Age went up to 39!

Vision

James Ogley — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 10:28:34 +0000

Last night was our Annual Parochial Church Meeting, my first as Vicar of St Francis’. At the meeting, we launched the new Vision Document and strap-line for the parish.

You can download the audio, the document and my presentation here. The audio is, as always, available in Ogg Vorbis or MP3 format.

Sermon: Gifts of the Spirit Overview

James Ogley — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:23:42 +0000

Preached yesterday at St Francis’, Luton. The text was 1 Corinthians 12.1-11. Last week, I posted some thoughts as I was preparing.

You can also see the accompanying presentation as a PDF.

Pound-shedding Update: Week One

James Ogley — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:52:15 +0000

Image by Flickr / puuikibeach

Well, this hasn’t gone according to plan. Four days of extreme discipline. No chocolate, cake, crisps, beer, wine, sweets of any kind, biscuits has resulted in weight gain of 6lb!

Here are the extremely perplexing numbers:

Weight: 13st 10lb
Wii Fit Age: 29

No, I don’t understand either!

Update: I left it five minutes and did another body test, this revealed a weight of 13st 9lb and Wii Fit Age of 28. Go figure!

Update 2: It turns out that I’d put the Wii Fit Balance Board on a bit of a slope in our living room today (that’s another story!). I moved it back to the flat bit where it had been on Monday and retested:

Weight: 13st 3lb
Wii Fit Age: 27

That’s more like it.