I've now found partners for the start up phase of the web project I've been designing for the last 15 or so months and am ready to start development work. 

My partners have deep expertise in designing and running customer development tests (because I will be sufficiently correct about my customer's problem to start the project but wrong about the details) and using what we learn can develop a minimum viable product (the most basic version of the website that demonstrates that the concept works) - a process that takes around 3 months.

From there, God willing, we can demonstrate the path to growth and seek serious investment, enough to fund a small team of Ruby and/or PHP developers. As such I'm now actively seeking seed funding ($60+k) to get this first phase off the ground. I've begun discussion with an angel investor about their potential involvement but if you have any other suggestions on where else to look I'd love to hear from you.

Over the last 14 months I've been working full time on my main project - the design of new web-based economic infrastructure that will, God willing, enable a new type of transaction and give individuals greater access to the global economy. 

Concepts like this are never finished, but the core and UI design have sufficient integrity and stability to commence web development of the alpha version. I'm therefore in the process of building a small, core team web developer / project / process people who can work with me to turn my designs into an architecture & system design, build an alpha version (probably in PHP / mySQL) and manage the input of a team of external developers.

This is essentially a non-commercial, zero budget project and as such I'm seeking people who are passionate enough about helping others to freely give their time. If we're successful, however, there will no doubt be kudos and some degree of financial reward, depending on the extent to which our users appreciate our efforts and give back to us.

If you're interested in participating in this project as a core team member, external developer or you'd like to offer other input that I haven't anticipated here (or if you know someone else who might), please contact me at . 

I'm still greatly impacted by Rick Warren's tweet on trust and obedience, a month after he sent it.

I'm increasingly convinced that trust and obedience are the sum total of both our life in Christ and our obligations as Christians. What I see in myself and in those around me, however, is conditional trust and obedience - 'I'll obey God if it will make me happy' or 'I'll obey God when it makes sense [to me] to do so'. Of course, this is not trust or obedience at all, it's saying that we know better than God:

Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. Proverbs 26:12

If trust were easy and obvious, if we could see all of the steps that God was going to take to fulfil his promises, it wouldn't be called trust - it would be called foresight. If obedience clearly lead to personal happiness - if there were no perceived cost in obeying God - it wouldn't be obedience, it would be obvious self-interest and selfishness would be our logical goal.

Trust and obedience is about clinging to the sovereign LORD at all times but especially when all hope seems lost, when life is bleak and relationships dry. Trust is saying to God:

'I can't see what you're doing but I'm going to accept that you are in control. I'm going to accept that you're the sovereign LORD who controls all things and works all things for your glory'. 

Obedience is saying to God:

'I'm going to put aside my selfish, short-term and corrupted desires and accept your commands, to trust that the way you designed me and the world around me is best for you, others and myself'.

How else can we understand the trust and obedience displayed by the 'roll call of the faithful' in Hebrews 11:1-40, none of whom received God's promise in their lifetime, or the command to us that follows it?:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1–2

Jesus, the one person who perfectly trusted and perfectly obeyed the Father, did not chase his own happiness but endured the shame of our sin on the cross. And we are eternally grateful.

There is more to trust and obedience, however, than personal cost. In trust and obedience there is freedom & joy in living our lives as God designed them to be this side of heaven:

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.

The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.

The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.

The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous.

They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.

By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
Psalm 19:7-11

In trust and obedience there is certainty to rely on His grace - there is no need to impress God by performing great deeds, making impressive sacrifices or committing violence:

With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?

Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil?

Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:6-8

In trust and obedience there is peace - we don't need to plan God's work for Him nor must we anticipate the whim of an imperfect or changing god. Abram (Abraham) did not orchestrate his role in God's plan, God alone decided to call Abram. And God called Moses and all other prophets, gave kings their power and took that power away, sent His messiah and called His disciples. He planned our salvation before time began - God has not required human input to formulate His plans. Our responsibility is to lay our lives down before Him and obedient as He directs us:

And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? Deuteronomy 10:12

Trust & Obey. Trust & Obey. Trust & Obey. Trust & Obey. Trust & Obey. Trust & Obey. Trust & Obey. Got it?

People often cast God as a genocidal maniac who destroys nations at a whim, making him unworthy of worship. Consider, however, these three passages about the land that the LORD promised to the Israelites. Firstly, consider God's words to Abraham as he stood on the very piece of land that was to be given to his descendants:

Then the Lord said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." Genesis 15:13–16 (NIV)

Then in Leviticus, His instruction to Israelites on how they are to live in the land:

'Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things, for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.

'Everyone who does any of these detestable things—such persons must be cut off from their people. Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the Lord your God.' " Leviticus 18:24–30 (NIV)

And the Lord's word to the new generation when they were poised to enter the land:

After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, "The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness." No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.

Remember this and never forget how you provoked the Lord your God to anger in the desert. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the Lord. At Horeb you aroused the Lord's wrath so that he was angry enough to destroy you. Deuteronomy 9:4–8 (NIV)

Putting these three passages together, is it not evidence of God's perfect justice? Even though Abraham was standing in the promised land, God did not give it to him there and then because it belonged to the Amorites whose sin was not yet sufficient to warrant their ejection from it. Nor were the Israelites to receive undue favour, indeed they were exiled from the land twice because of their own sin. In other words, God is not a God who smites countries and turfs them out of their country at a whim, His judgement of people and peoples in the Old Testament are rooted in His perfect justice.

While in this example God's perfect justice is clear, why is it not spelled out for all instances of His judgement in the Old Testament? Surely this is because we are expected to know enough of God and his character to trust that He alone is holy and perfect in His holiness:

For I will proclaim the name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God!
"The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.
Deuteronomy 32:3–4

When we judge God (or anyone else), we do so with our impure motives and imperfect information. The very good news is that God does not judge us in the same way - He judges all people (and peoples) fairly, with perfect motives against perfect information:

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Hebrews 4:13

The bad news, of course, is that we are not righteous - our secret, sinful lives will be uncovered and laid bare in front of Christ who will judge all mankind. If we understand this, we will react as Isaiah did when he stood before the LORD in a vision:

"Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." Isaiah 6:5

Or as John saw in his vision of the end times, the Lamb being a name for Jesus Christ:

Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.  They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!  For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” Revelation 6:15-17

But this is not the end of the story. Because we cannot stand before Him, God, in His deep love and extraordinary mercy, acted on our behalf. 

... Jesus Christ; who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Philippians 2:5-8

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. John 3:16-18

Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgement, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Hebrews 9:27-28

So where do you stand? When your life is laid bare by God's perfect justice, will you be paying for your sin or have you placed your trust in Christ, accepting his gift of mercy and salvation? 

The other day Rick Warren tweeted something that impacted me greatly:

Trust & Obey. Trust & Obey. Trust & Obey. Trust & Obey. Trust & Obey. Trust & Obey. Trust & Obey. Trust & Obey. Got it? Deut 9:23

Deuteronomy 9:23 says this:

And when the Lord sent you out from Kadesh Barnea, he said, “Go up and take possession of the land I have given you.” But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You did not trust him or obey him. (NIV)

The context of this passage is that the Israelites, having experienced first hand God's great saving power in their escape from Egypt, failed to trust that the Lord would give them the land of Canaan as He promised. Rather than relying on God's promise and strength, they compared their own strength to that of Canaanites and rebelled against the Lord's command to take the land. As punishment, all of the Israelites - except two faithful people in that generation, Joshua and Caleb - died in the desert.

Perhaps they failed (and we fail) to appreciate the link between trust and obedience. We sin because we lack trust in God and His promises. We take matters into our own hands because we think we know best. We do what we want because we fail to understand the depths of God's goodness and generosity. Specifically:

We chase money rather than the Kingdom because we a) don't trust God's promise to meet our needs (Luke 12:22-31) and b) fail to acknowledge that money has no lasting value (Luke 12:16-21)

We look for sexual gratification outside of marriage because we don't trust the goodness of God's gift in marriage. (Gen 2:24-25, Prov 18:22, 1 Cor 7:2-5, Heb 13:4)

We seek pleasure and comfort now because we don't trust in the surety and goodness of the the rest (heaven) that God has promised us. (Heb 4:8-16, Rev 21:1-4, Don't waste your life)

We allow our lives and conversations to be consumed with things that do not last (work, real estate, sport, tv, etc) because we do not believe that our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:18-21, 2 Cor 5:16-17, Col 3:1-3, 2 Tim 4:9-10)

We try to clean ourselves up after sin because a) we don't believe God that we can't clean ourselves (John 14:6, Mark 2:5-12)  and b) we don't have confidence (ie. don't trust Him) that Christians are already made clean. (Heb 10:19-22, 1 Cor 6:11, Rom 5:6-11)

We allow our behaviour to be shaped by the fear of man rather than the fear of God because we do not trust the Lord to sustain us through and reward us for suffering (Mark 10:28-29, Matt 10:28-33, blog article)

We fail to share the gospel because we don't believe that God takes sin seriously and has promised to judge the world. (Heb 9:27-28, Luke 6:46-49, Rom 1:18-22)

Trust & Obey. Trust & Obey. Trust & Obey. Trust & Obey. Trust & Obey. Trust & Obey. Trust & Obey. Got it?

"Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in [Jesus]. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved praise from men more than praise from God." John 12:42-43

I'm listening to a sermon by JR Vasser (as a guest speaker at The Village Church) called 'Freedom from the fear of man' in which my approval-seeking sin is being brought to painful attention. Speaking of these leaders mentioned in the passage above, JR says:

"These men wanted the glory that comes from men and the fear of man - they feared rejection, they wanted to maintain acceptance and approval, they wanted notoriety and attention and the thought of losing it was enough to say no to the God of the universe."

Ouch. It also contains possibly the clearest explanation of the difference between religion and Christianity that I've ever heard:

"Jesus is our saviour and he's also our model [for our behaviour]. Now you can't get those two flipped, right? There's an order to that. He's our saviour and then becomes our model. Now for some of us, maybe we've reversed that. And he's become a model. And your understanding of religion or your understanding of Christianity is that you try to live like Jesus. You say 'I try to live a good life, I try to live like Jesus' - well listen: The reason Jesus died the death he died is because you and I couldn't live the life he lived. Are you with me? ... We're not perfect; we're sinners, we're fallen. We need him to die in our place to bear the judgement for our sin and we put our faith and trust in him and we are justified - declared right before God - and now we realise that we're working from God's acceptance, not for it."

Brace yourself and listen:  direct link to the MP3 |  transcription |  list of sermons |  The Village Podcast

More of JR Vasser's sermons (from Apostles Church NYC) can be found here:   list of sermons  |  podcast

In response to my post on the Lexham English Bible, Jonathan kindly pointed me to the New English Translation (NET) bible.

Where the LEB provides some useful minor notes on translation decisions, the NET bible translation and study notes are quite extensive. Plus it covers the whole bible - the LEB is New Testament only.

The NET bible is available to view online or as a free download in a variety of formats.

Logos have just released The Lexham English Bible (LEB) which will be very helpful to any Christian seeking a deeper understanding of the New Testament.

The key benefit of the LEB is that it reveals the decisions made by translators in the bible text itself, allowing you to discern which of the text is (what the preface describes as) 'a fairly literal translation' of the original (NA27) Greek, and what are:

   - supplied words -  words that the translators added so that the Greek meaning made sense in English, and

   - idioms - phrases that are modified for English meaning (as a literal translation of the Greek would make no sense to us).

In other words, the LEB helps English speakers like you and I get one step closer to the original Greek, rather than be susceptible to any translator's bias. Logos call it 'your second bible', intended to support your understanding of your primary translation - NIV, ESV, etc - and I look forward to using it in this way.

Best of all, the LEB is made available under a very generous license and is available as a free download.

It's not new, but the Dawkins-Lennox debate on The God Delusion is compelling viewing. 

In his closing remarks, Professor Lennox explains the central tenet of the Christian faith, the historical event of Christ's resurrection. In response, Professor Dawkins says: 

"Yes, well that concluding bit rather gives the game away, doesn't it? All that stuff about science and physics and the complications of physics and things ... all it comes down to is the resurrection of Jesus. There's a fundamental incompatibility between the sort of sophisticated scientist which we hear part of the time, from John Lennox, and it's impressive and we are interested in the argument about multiverses and things. And then, having produced some sort of a case for a kind of a deistic god perhaps, some god the great physicist who adjusted the laws and constants of the universe, that's all very grand and wonderful and then suddenly we come down to the ressurection of Jesus. It's so petty, so trivial, it's so local, so earthbound, it's so unworthy of the universe."

Professor Dawkins then compares this with Darwin's achievement:

"... [that] wherever you see the organised complexity that we call life, that it has an explanation which can derive from simple beginnings by comprehensible, rational means. That is possibly the greatest achievement that any human mind has ever accomplished."

Is this not an unusual juxtaposition? Jesus' death and resurrection is so simple we can ignore it, but Darwin's thesis is so simple, it's possibly the greatest achievement that any human mind has ever accomplished. Clearly Professor Dawkins has little time for matters that do not require human intellectual achievement to arrive at them, regardless of whether they are historically accurate. Judging from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, this is not a new argument:

Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.  1 Corinthians 1:20–25 (NIV)

As for the charge that Christ's death and resurrection is unworthy of the universe, Professor Dawkins misses the point. The point is that Christ's death on a cross is unworthy of God:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

     did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,

     taking the very nature of a servant,

     being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,

     he humbled himself

     and became obedient to death -

         even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

     and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

     in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

     to the glory of God the Father.

     Philippians 2:5–11 (NIV)

Jesus, in spite of being God, humbled himself for us and died on the cross in our place! This is the single most important event in all of history, far outstripping the creation of the universe and all that Professor Dawkins holds dear. He who has ears, let him hear.