Dan Kingsley .com

Just a quick update to say my abseil last weekend went really well. Thank you to everyone who sponsored me! So far I have rasied a massive £862 for Christians Agaisnt Poverty. You are still able to sponsor me now if you want – http://www.justgiving.com/dankingsley

Photos from the day can be found within my photos – the link is at the top.

The day worked out really well, it didn’t rain that much (apart from at the start), so I managed to do my abseil without getting wet – bonus! It was also cool to chat to some people who are currently working for CAP since I start my internship with them in September.

I’ve just watched a video from the Google I/O demonstrating a brand new, seriously amazing product!

They started off by describing it as: “Email if it was created today!” Basically email is just an electronic version of normal mail, and is really quite a way behind current Internet technology, so Google has decided to put an end to that and create a new platform that works from within the browser and will change the way we think about online communication!

Google wave allows for so much more than what you can imagine! I may well update this post at some point next week with a bit more info about it, but for now, I recommend watching the following video (if you have an hour or so) to find out lots more:

Simply, the following is what Google Wave allows you to do, plus a lot more I’m sure!

• Google wave works a lot like email and instant messaging type services, allowing users to send each other messages and reply instantly or at a later date. The advantage of google wave over such services though, is that you can edit not only your messages, but the messages of anybody within your wave. This works in the same way a wiki would work. This allows you to edit somebody’s spelling mistakes for example, but more usefully it allows you to build on what somebody may have written.
• Another cool feature is something called playback. It allows you to invite somebody new into your current conversation, and that person is able to look back over your conversation. They can see when edits were made and by who. This feature is very useful if you just forgot to send the original message to somebody and they need to find out what and when things were said.
• Google wave is able to have extensions made for it, allowing you to near enough do anything. A twitter extension has already been made allowing you to view your twitter feed from within google wave as well as send a new tweet. The chances are once Google wave is released there will be extensions allowing you to view normal email, facebook and many other social sites and I’m sure much much more as well!

These are just a couple of the cool features available, watch the above video for more!

Since I got back from Spring Harvest I must have been asked the question: “Do you know anything about Spring Harvest and Word Alive, and what happened?” My answer to that question 4 weeks ago was… “yeah I think it was something to do with Steve Chalke saying something in a book about something that Word Alive didn’t like.” The most unhelpful answer ever! This topic is pretty old since the split happened back in 2007, but I thought since lots of people have asked recently, I would write something quickly on it.

OK, I realise a lot of you how read this blog probably don’t know anything about this, or just couldn’t care less! Fair enough, you might learn something if you keep reading… or just stop reading now

For people who are interested, and don’t know much about this topic. Spring Harvest is an inter-denominational Christian conference which happens over Easter over 3 weeks in both Skegness and Butlins (normally, weeks sometimes vary) which attracts about 55,000 people. Word Alive was a large student Christian conference held the week before (normally) the first week of Spring Harvest at Skegness. It was jointly organised by Spring Harvest, UCCF and the Keswick Convention. Word Alive normally attracted about 2000 people. So far no problems! In 2007, it was announced that Word Alive would be relaunched (as New Word Alive), to be held in Pwllheli rather than Skegness, and would no longer be part of Spring harvest. Now this is when people ask why?!

The simple answer (that both sides agree on) is that disagreements over Spring Harvest leadership team member Steve Chalke’s view of the atonement played at least some part in the split. That’s slightly clearer than my waffle of a statement I first came up with. There is no way I can go into this topic in massive amounts of detail, or really explain properly why Chalke disagrees with Penal Substitutiary Atonement, but I will do my best to give you a basis to find out more if you choose.

OK firstly, what is Penal Substitutiary Atonement:

Penal substitution is a theory of the atonement (how God can forgive our sins), especially associated with the Reformed tradition. It argues that Christ, by his own sacrificial choice, was punished (penalised) in the place of sinners (substitution), therefore satisfying the demands of justice so God can justly forgive the sins.

The debate all started when Chalke compared  God’s act of punishing Jesus in our place to a “cosmic child abuser”, in his book, The Lost Message of Jesus.

Steve Chalke has since come to confirm his view on penal substitution. In the recent book, The Atonement Debate. He says:

“Though the sheer bluntness of my imagery shocked some, I contend that, in truth, it represents nothing more than a stark unmasking of what I understand to be the violent, pre-Christian thinking behind the popular theory of penal substitutionary atonement. Thus, whilst having great respect for many of those who hold what, I readily concede, is currently regarded as orthodoxy within modern evangelicalism, I will attempt to set out through this essay why I believe it to be biblically, culturally, and pastorally deficient and even dangerous.”

Back to the split between Spring Harvest and Word Alive, UCCF said the following:

“Steve Chalke has made his dislike of penal substitution very clear by likening God’s act of punishing Jesus in our place to a cosmic child abuser. In good conscience, we simply could not allow Steve to teach during the Word Alive week. We’re very sad that after 14 years of fruitful ministry, Spring Harvest has decided to end the Word Alive partnership because we feel unable to shift on this position.”

It is interesting to note here, that it was Spring Harvest that initiated the split, not Word Alive, but it was Word Alive who refused to allow Chalke to speak during their conference.

For a bit more information on Chalke’s view check out Adrian Warnock’s site here where he has multiple posts with Chalke’s view on the topic.

OK, so I’m not going to go into a massive debate about whether Chalke is right or wrong because it would make this post even longer, and I’m by no means informed enough. But my view on Penal Substitution is pretty strong, and I do believe that we all deserve punishment for our sins, and that Jesus did die in substitution for us, and therefore allowing us to have our sins forgiven! (i.e. I disagree with Chalke). I might write a post at some point explaining and backing up why I actually believe this, but I’ll save that for another day. I would also like to say though, that I do still highly rate Chalke as a Bible teacher, but I believe he is doing an amazing job in this country with all the work that he is doing, but for him to disagree on such a core doctrine really surprises me!

I’m not going to lie, I nicked some of the general info about spring harvest, word alive, and penal substitution from Wikipedia.

I’m well aware of my lack of updates recently. I started off well when I re-launched my website, and have since gone down hill rapidly! This has been due to my 5 exams a couple of weeks ago, and now, my 30,000(ish) project which I need to get done within the next month or so. If your interested in my project, keep an eye out on www.elec.dankingsley.com.

This post is mainly to say though, that once I have finished all my work, and graduated from Uni, I will hopefully have lots more time over the summer period where I should be able to help out with some website/graphic design again. I have already got a couple lined up, and so I just thought I would mention this now so people have advance warning! Just head over to the contact page and get in touch! My bulk of time will be from July to September, but should also be able to keep up some continuous work (which I can probably do in the evenings) from then on.

This is just a short message really. Sorry I havn’t posted much recently, I have just got back to York after being at Spring Harvest for the last few days over Easter. I had such an amazing time, got challenged a lot, worshiped God, and come back with a ton of notes from all the talks and seminars which I will need to work my way through. So I will hopefully have another update at some point outlining some of the things I got from the week.

The following video was shown during one of the seminars, and I thought I would share it with you… enjoy!

Next year, I am doing an Internship with a charity called Christians Against Poverty (CAP). I am very excited about this. All interns are given a target of raising £2000 either before or during their internship, so I thought I would take this opportunity to ‘throw’ myself off a cliff and climb down it… abseil! I will be doing the abseil in Bristol on the 6th June!

I don’t really expect to raise all £2000 in one go – yet that would be amazing if I do, but getting about half of that would be great, so PLEASE sponsor me generously

CAP is an amazing charity (www.capuk.org) – “Christians Against Poverty is a national debt counselling charity working through a network of centres based in local churches. CAP offers hope and a solution to anyone in debt through its unique, in-depth service.” CAP aims to show God’s love in action by providing sustainable poverty relief through debt counselling, advice and practical help. Check out the website if you want to know more – but they really are great!

I’m not going to take any credit for this whatso ever. I just found the following article on a blog by a guy from America called Bob Hamp. He works for Gateway Church in Texas. His blog can be found at http://www.bobhamp.com/ which I really recommend you visit – even though he has only just started it recently. Below is the article:

Thinking Differently.  Thinking Different.  Thinking Differently

It seems like a small difference, but these phrases reflect much more than simply good or bad grammar.  The difference between the two is the difference between freedom and bondage.

An adjective (different) describes a person place or thing.  An adverb (differently) describes an action. To think different, implies a change in the content of our thoughts.  The action would be described this way.

“Don’t think this…think that”…“don’t wear this outfit…wear that one”

The implication is to change the content, information, or data in your mind.  A woman’s perogative, right?

To think differently implies a change in the way we think.  The action would be desribed this way.

“Open the eyes of my heart that I might see the power you have extended to me, in Your Son, Jesus”

Now, using the adverb instead of the adjective,  we are not trying to change the thoughts in our mind, rather, we are making an overall change in the way that thoughts get in, and what we do with them once they are in.  Hmmmm.

Certain kinds of thoughts can only enter in through certain ways of thinking. You cannot apprehend falling in love through objective reason and logical deduction.  You might be able to describe things that happen when you fall in love through those cognitive processes; but to actually experience it…well, cognition is simply not the channel upon which love is broadcast.  The irony is, that one who logically deducts the concepts of love may consider himself to know love.

Paul says that spiritual things are spiritually understood.  This means that the kinds of  things God is broadcasting may not be fully apprehended by observation, reason and deduction.  The irony is, that one who logically deducts things about God and theology may consider himself to know the things of God.

Jesus invites us to think differently when He says “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”  The word repent, literally means “to think differently…”.  Sadly we often hear this as Jesus admonishment to think different.  We hear this as if He wants us to change the content of our minds.  ”Stop stealing, start praying, stop cursing, start giving”.  Exchange the bad content for good content.  Change the Knowledge of Evil for the Knowledge of Good.   If we think different, the best we can hope for is that, once again, we can try harder.

If we think differently, it is as if we change the lenses over our eyes, and the filters over our ears.  If we see things differently, it is almost impossible to do things the same.  Hear Jesus words differently:

“Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand”…”Change the way you take in reality, because the realm of God, has come among men…”

Think differently. He is near.

I just thought I would post a quick update to let you know what is going on in my life regarding Uni work! I have just finished my last term of lectures, and am currently on my Easter ‘Holiday’. I say holiday… actually its just 5 weeks in which I need to revise for my 5 exams (which are all in the first week back after Easter, the week starting the 27th April) and also carry on working on my project (www.elec.dankingsley.com).

I am staying in York for most of the holiday since I seem to revise better in the library at uni, but I have a nice break over the Easter weekend since I am going to Spring Harvest (a Christian conference held every Easter for those of you who don’t know what it is).

So yep, its a very work based holiday

So, today, Google has launched its Google Maps Street View in 25 cities across the UK.

If you don’t even know what Street View is, watch the following YouTube video:

Use Street View to:
	View street level photographs
	Take virtual walks; pan, rotate and zoom through cities around the world
	Find shops, restaurants, parks, hotels and more

Google has launched Street View in the following 25 cities in the UK:

Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Coventry, Derby, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Oxford, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Southampton, Swansea, York.

It allows you to view 360 degree images of most of the city! Quite exciting really… great for having a look around somewhere before you go!

For example, the following is the street view at the University of York, have a look around!

For more information, check out the BBC article at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7952317.stm

I have been working on the back end of my website for the last couple of days in the few spare minutes that I have had. I have added a couple of cool little features.

1. I have added my status update – imported from Facebook and Twitter. My status is normally the same in both of the these places (as explained in my previous post), and so I thought it made sense to have this imported alongside my blog for those of you who don’t have Facebook or use Twitter!

2. Music Currently Playing. I started using last.fm ages ago, but I have recently (last week) installed a couple of plug-ins to allow the music that I play in iTunes and Spotify to be added to my profile at last.fm. This creates a list of music I have recently listened to. I therefore also thought it made sense to have this displayed on my blog. I will automatically update every 2minutes. I had to do a bit of editing of the code for this last.fm plug-in to enable it to display exactly as I wanted on my site. For example I needed to add a small amount of code to check if last.fm knew the album, and if not, then not to display the it.

3. I also added a random photo generator to display six random photos from my collection.