Crossword solution

This is the solution to the mini Bible crossword which appeared in issue 96 (June 2010).

Click to show or hide the solution.

	D		D	E	V	I	L
D	I	D		L			I
	E		L	I	V	E	D
	D	I	E		I
L			V		L	I	E
I		L	I	V	E		V
E	V	E					I
D		D		V	E	I	L

A taster article from the latest edition:

Sound bites

THIS issue is intended to be a bit of a challenge. It is supposed to be both a challenge for you to read and about how you read. Some of the ‘longer’ articles are split into pathways to follow over a number of pages and the issue contains a higher proportion of smaller articles.

We have become more and more used to information being presented in small bite size chunks. Not so long ago if someone asked you “What is the currency of Egypt?” or “When was the battle of Carchemish?” it would require a trip to the bookshelf and the family encyclopaedia. For really tough questions it might even mean a trip to the library. Not now. Information, in many parts of the world, is so easily obtained – largely thanks to search engines like Google and internet services like Wikipedia who make it their business to make information available in seconds (or milliseconds). There are huge advantages in having information at your fingertips. But, and there is a big but, easy access to information can lead to us thinking we actually don’t need to know anything. After all why know something if you can find it out when you want? Immediate access to information can, if we are not hugely careful, rule out truly deep conviction. Our personal convictions can end up being skin deep (or only as extensive as our access to our internet connection).

Increasingly we live in a world where the shorter and catchier the message, the better it is received and the more likely we are to remember it. Politicians try it; advertisers get paid to do it; we get sucked into the world of the sound bite. More and more we want there to be less. We want our information processed for us. We like our thinking to be done for us. Yet this is not what God requires of us. We need to be able to think deeply about spiritual matters on a long term basis and let this consistent thinking change us as individuals.

Relatively speaking, sound bites are easy. Slogans and bits of information are fine (and sometimes fun), but when it comes to eternal truths is this as far as we go? Do we go beyond our own spiritual sound bites? What about genuine thought about the truth of the Gospel and its implication for our life?

This is the challenge of this issue. Understanding of truth takes time and effort. We all need to consider how we think about spiritual matters and how willing we are to give effort to seek for spiritual treasure.

“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.” (Proverbs 25:2)

Edward carr – Editor

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