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It’s not very often that I finish a book in under a day, unless it’s in the New Testament, and even then there are a couple which take some time.  But this weeks Monday holiday + rain + family occupied + work staying in the office, all added up to the perfect time to at least start a book I’d picked up in the US.  I didn’t expect to finish it the same day.

Son of Hamas is the story, so far, of Mosab Hassan Yousef, the eldest son of Sheik Hassan Yousef one of the founders and leaders of Hamas.  Hamas is a Palestinian Islamic resistance movement in the West Bank and Gaza, and listed by the USA, EU and others as a terrorist organisation.

Mosab grew up in Ramallah, about 10km north of Jerusalem and at a young age began to fight back against the Israeli authorities.  As a child he saw his father arrested and jailed for months at a time and he himself was eventually arrested by the Israelis, eventually reaching a point where he agreed to spy on Hamas for Shin Bet (Israeli Internal security service).  His involvement with the Hamas leadership made him a valuable asset to Shin Bet and over the ten years he was working for them he prevented many attacks and assassinations by Hamas. During this time he was impacted by the teachings of Jesus Christ and eventually accepted the truth that Jesus is Lord and his saviour.

The book is a great testimony, helped me to understand some of what has been happening in the Middle East and motivated me to learn more about Islamic beliefs and Middle Eastern history.

Son of Hamas Facebook page

We’ve just started a teaching series on the book of Acts in church today.  I created a Wordle out of all the text in Acts 1 – 28 just for interest.  Wordle is a free online tool for creating “word clouds” out of a selection of text. The frequency of a word in the text being ‘wordleised’ determines it’s size in the resulting Wordle.

Interpret it below:

What impressions do you get when visualising the entire text of Acts in a Wordle?

Having a coffee and conversations about the Lord, His Word, life and technology? You might be a Digital Disciple.

I met Gabe Taviano at BibleTech 2010 and Digital Disciples is something he started up last year to inspire the coming together of like-minded Christians who are involved with digital technologies in some way. Groups are meeting across the US and also the UK. I am planning on initiating a group for Cairns in Australia once Im back in country.

Its really about meeting face-to-face in local gatherings but also connecting with other Digital Disciples through a global network.  I like that there isn’t a focus on any area within the digital world – its not just for technicians, software developers , photographers or videographers – it’s for anyone interested in meeting monthly to share some scripture, prayer and conversation about the digital world.  Another opportunity for like-minded people to connect.

If you’re in Cairns and this is of interest to you, contact me on twitter @cdsmythe

Digital Disciples global website – http://www.digitaldisciples.net/

In my Bible reading this morning in Matthew, it struck me again this ability we have to choose to obey Jesus, or not. After Jesus was baptised and tempted in the wilderness He was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee and came across Peter and his brother Andrew who were casting a net out into the water. Im assuming they were after some bait fish or something as they were fishermen and not likely to be making a living out of what could be caught just there. I dont know if they saw Jesus getting baptised or not. I dont know if they even knew or had heard of Jesus.

We are told that Jesus said to them “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people!” (Matthew 4.19) Maybe a bizarre offer, but their response was to immediately follow Jesus. I assume that I would do the same – I mean, really, this is the Lord Jesus Christ, creator and sustainer of the whole universe and if I was there and He said that to me, Im sure that I could not make a choice any different than Peter and Andrew!

Later on Jesus meets Matthew the tax collector and says “Follow me!” – what does Matthew do – exactly what Jesus said, he got up and followed Him. Yeah I think, Id do the same. Between these two events Jesus tells demons to leave two blokes and they do, He also tells the wind and the sea to calm down and they do, he tells a paralysed man to walk home and he does. Jesus is Lord. His word is powerful.

But then these two blind guys are met by Jesus (Matt 9.27) and ask to be healed. He heals them and then tells them not to tell anyone about it………actually in the HCSB it says “Jesus warned them sternly, “Be sure that no-one finds out!” Three other guys leave their jobs when Jesus simply says “Follow me”, and yet these two blind guys get a stern command and………dont do what Jesus says but instead spread the news about Jesus through the whole area. What a contrast to the last few commands we read about.

The message for me in all this was simply, to obey Jesus. Build my house on the rock, on the solid foundation of His Word. Rather than assume I’d be like Peter, Andrew or Matthew and just obey uncontrollably I need to remember that like all of us, I have a choice and need to make the wise one in everything.  Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.