If we were to talk less and pray more, things would be better than they are in the world

John Owen, The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power [Christian Focus, 2004], 362

He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days. But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. (Genesis 7:23-8:1 ESV)

Here we see the earth covered in water, every living thing blotted out except in the midst of the water there is a big box floating with a family and lots of animals in it. They've been in this box for what must have seemed like ages and just have with them the food God told them to bring. I wonder if they were beginning to think God had forgotten them? God could have let them perish as the rest of mankind had but no - God remembers Noah as he has promised him and makes the waters subside revealing his creation once more.

We are all at the mercy of God - we are his creation and he can do with us what he will. God chose to save Noah and his family in order to restart the human race, Noah trusted God and did what he was told - resulting in his salvation whilst all else was destroyed.

Putting it simply, everything was headed for destruction, but God remembered Noah and rescued him.

What difference will it make remembering that we are all at God's mercy to do what he will with?

Will you trust God in the midst of destruction?

God won't forget us even if his promises seem a long time coming and it feels as if he has.

• Disable anything that will write to the database

  • Update the my.cnf files for all servers to support circular replication, by adding log-slave-updates and ensuring you have unique server ids and the auto increment values are suitable. Then restart mysql to pick up the config changes.

  • Ensure your existing replication is up-to-date using: SHOW SLAVE STATUS

  • Stop replication on both existing servers using STOP SLAVE

  • Create a backup of the database from the server that will be just before your new server in the circle using: mysqldump --master-data=1 -a -c -Q {db} >  {filename} 

  • Add the userids for replication to your new server.

  • Transfer the backup to your new server and import it.  

  • Change the master config on the new server to point to the server before it in the circle, using the values from the database backup (head -30 {filename} should get you them) and start the slave using: STOP SLAVE; CHANGE MASTER TO MASTER_LOG_FILE='mysql-bin.00001', MASTER_LOG_POS=764,MASTER_HOST='{hostname}'; START SLAVE;

  • Update the master config on the next server in the circle to point to your new server using the command above, taking the values for the log file and position from your new server using: SHOW MASTER STATUS

For a while I've been following the updates on a new plugin for Wordpress - Artsy Editor which gives you a completely clean page in which to write your post with easy access to the formatting options through a popup which appears intelligently when you select text, as seen in the image above. You can also drag an image into the editor to upload and insert it where you are typing. All in all it works really smoothly.

In the new release of Wordpress 3.2 there is also a similar full browser editing feature included called distraction-free mode. It works pretty well and but it doesn't have drag and drop uploading and it's formatting bar feels more cluttered. While you are writing both options provide you with a completely clear page in your browser when you move your mouse with the distraction-free editor you get a full toolbar appear, where as in Artsy Editor, the interface stays very minimal until you select the text or click on one of the controls. The Wordpress distraction-free view pulls in the editor css specified by your theme for the editing section in the page, where as Artsy Editor allows you to choose a background and font from a list of choices - which works well as the whole page takes on the background colour not just the editing section as the wordpress view does. The other major advantage in Artsy Editor for me is in the ease of publishing (I'm very prone to leave drafts sitting around for months) - when you move the mouse from editing, the one button it shows is to Publish (you can hover over it to save draft, preview, view HTML or send to trash).

The distraction-free editor isn't that far behind and I can see it improving in the coming releases, but for me I prefer the streamlined interface of Artsy Editor, particularly it's drag and drop image handling.  Try out the uncluttered interface of Artsy Editor for yourself at the website!

Here's a few articles I've read recently that are helpful and challenging:

In Reminders Are More Effective Than Rebukes, Tullian Tchividjian reminds us of the need as Christians to regularly remind each other of who we are in Christ, rather than focusing on our sin and that we re-focus on Jesus for "because of Christ’s work on your behalf, God does not dwell on your sin the way you do"

A prayer for strength for one of those days: Dear Lord Jesus, it’s looking like one of THOSE days ... Am I whining? Yes I am, Lord, but I’m bringing my bad attitude and my very busy day to you.

10 Things That Keep Us From Mission looks to be a challenging series on the Resurgence and well worth following.

In Speaking with Contempt, Tim Keller warns against the natural temptation to respond to criticism with self-righteous contempt towards the critic.

I need to be told by those around me that every time I sin I’m momentarily suffering from an  identity crisis: forgetting who I _actually_ belong to, what I _really_ want at my remade core, and all that is_ already_ mine in Christ.

Tullian Tchividjian - Reminders are more effective than rebukes

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Drawn in pencil, photographed with iPhone - post processed in Camera+ and Iris.

So to celebrate my 30th, with thanks to my mum, here's 30 photos of me, one for each year: