The Mullen Family Weblog is about to make its debut. Remember, you heard it here first. (It may seem like cross-promotion to mention another blog that is on the same site and written by my family, but the blogging world is shameless.)

I promise to return to more substantial posts, namely the series on George Herbert, as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the technical side of blog-making has taken more time than the writing side. I also have a few ideas about the song “Before the Throne of God Above” and the New Testament’s quotations of the Old Testament that I’d like to get to soon.

I have always marvelled while watching a skilled photographer or graphic designer practice his trade with Photoshop, retouching a photo or creating graphics that are not just images but art. Because of my work with the Vintage, their trade has become more familiar, but it is still only slightly less mysterious than alchemy. One cannot learn a trade for which he does not own the tools, and the difficulty is that a program like Photoshop—or especially the entire Adobe Creative Suite—is very expensive. For someone who is a professional, the cost is merely a necessary investment; for someone who only wants to make their personal photos look better and to do some graphics work for churches or friends, it is prohibitive.

But not any longer. Tonight I discovered The GIMP. The GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program, a GNU image editing program. I doubt that it’s quite as feature packed as Photoshop, but its price tag doesn’t pack quite the same punch either. The GIMP seems to have as many features as an amateur could ever need: layers, brushes, palettes, selection tools, curves, filters, paths, transformations, and more. In short, it’s far more powerful than the puny image editors that ship with Windows. Especially important for an amateur: the program is well documented, and there are several free books and tutorials to teach you how to use the program. And it is available for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux.

I hope that the graphics and photographs that I produce will soon be of a much higher quality, thanks to the GIMP. And you can get the GIMP too.

On his deathbed, George Herbert sent the manuscript of The Temple by messenger to his friend, Nicholas Ferrar, and asked him to consider it for publication. After explaining the origin of the poems in his own spiritual devotion, he asked Ferrar to judge whether the book should be published. “Desire him to read it,” he said, [Read more »]

George Herbert (1593-1633) was a seventeenth century British poet. Having graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, Herbert attained some distinction as a orator and as a member of Parliament. In 1630, however, he left his political career and took holy orders in the Church of England. For the remainder of his short life, he served as the rector of the church in Bemerton. He was known there for his holiness, his devotion to God, and his devotion to his parishoners. His chapel, later the subject of his magnum opus, he rebuilt in large part at his own expense.

In addition to his more basic duties as a clergyman, Herbert wrote many poems during his service in the church. Those poems are collected and arranged in his primary work, The Temple; or, Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations. From standing outside the church, to entering its doors, through a tour of the building, Herbert uses the church and other things as prompts for his poetic meditations. His poems explore the mystery of man’s relationship to God through Christ. As Herbert himself described it on his deathbed, The Temple is “a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed betwixt God and my soul, before I could subject mine to the will of Jesus my Master; in whose service I have now found perfect freedom” (Isaak Walton, The Life of Mr. George Herbert).

As I read Herbert’s poetry, I intend to write from time to time brief devotional remarks which will include his poems and the Scripture passages on which they are based. You can search for all future posts about George Herbert.

One can read Hebert’s works online, read literary criticism about Herbert’s works, read Isaak Walton’s biography of Herbert, or examine other resources from Luminarium. Herbert is usually classified as a “metaphysical poet.” The metaphysical poets were a group of seventeenth century poets, such as John Donne, Richard Crashaw, and Andrew Marvell among others, who were characterized by the use of unusual and sometimes paradoxical metaphors, wit, and sophisticated argumentation. Though many of them, especially Donne, wrote excellent religious poetry, since his work is exclusively religious, Herbert is the great churchman, theologian, and servant of Christ among the metaphysical poets.

For the church class A Survey of Bible Doctrine, I suggest that you read William Shakespeare’s Othello as we study hamartiology (doctrine of sin). For those who are interested, when we conclude the study of the doctrine we’ll look at the play to see how literature helps us understand the truth of the Bible. Below are a list of resources to use and questions to consider when reading the play. [Read more »]

I will never enter another Barnes & Noble again. [Read more »]

Last night the summer drama ministry team from Bob Jones University came to my church for the Wednesday evening service. They presented a play called Journey to Gehenna. The performance was very good, as one would expect from a BJU team. However, the skill with which the drama was written and its clear, pointed message were really what stood out to me. This leads me to consider how drama can be an effective tool for communicating the gospel. [Read more »]

I have a new friend: the Stuffed Puppet Monkey. He’s smart, talented, considerate, very fuzzy, and fun to hang around with. He came in the mail today from Regular Baptist Press as a part of a package for my church’s Vacation Bible School. Until his gig at the church is over, he’s rooming with me. His new website isn’t available yet (It will be located at http://blog.stuffedpuppetmonkey.com/.) so he asked me to host his gallery. Take a look at the Stuffed Puppet Monkey gallery.