8richardlane

8richardlane

Percy Jackson and Pleiades

In the first chapter of the bible we read: “And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,and…

The English Patient

The movie ‘The English Patient’ has long been one of my favourites. It has one scene relating the story of Candaules and Gyges. The Ring of Gyges features in Plato’s Republic as does his famous allegory of the Cave. It…

Blog update

Riding on the Clouds blog is almost 2 weeks old and I’m taking this moment to comment on the process and reflect on the goals and direction. I had a ‘family blog’ about a decade ago (8lanefreeway – ‘the freeway…

A Call for Leaders

Marcus Loane’s book about the origins and traditions of the church in Sydney is entitled “Hewn from the Rock” and he quotes Isaiah 51:1 at the start. “Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look…

Greatest Media Launch ever

Here is the 3rd part of the Christmas 2021 sermon: 3rd Trimester: Angelic broadcasts good news of miracle birth (Luke 2:1-20) 3rd trimester…Christmas day arrives. And here we see that the living God of Israel works his creative kingdom design even through…

The Dad who learnt not to box God in

Here’s Part 2 of my Christmas 2021 sermon: 2nd Trimester: Dumb Dad bursts forth in benediction (Luke 1:57-80) Luke doesn’t have us follow Mary home…but instead has us stay with Elizabeth and Zechariah for the birth of John the Baptist. Zechariah…

Nothing is impossible for God

I preached this sermon last Christmas 2021. It is based on Luke 1-2 and divided into three parts…and I’ll post each part over the next 3 posts. Part 1   Mary visits Elizabeth – A visit to the hill country “Greetings, O…

Hunchbacks and cheese

I’m still setting up this blog site and getting used to things. So this 2nd post is a short note about the word for cheese in 2 Samuel 17:29 and the ‘rugged’ (NIV) or ‘many-peaked’ (ESV) mountains of Psalm 68:15.…