spending attention

Don't waste your life: video

2010-06-10T11:39:00.000-07:00

Healthy Food - Unhealthy Choice

2010-06-10T10:16:00.000-07:00

Dietrich Bonhoefferonce said that "to say that man can live on bread alone (food alone) is a decietful thing".

here is a couple of examples concerning healthy food i'm sure but unhealty decisions

Eve looked at the tree and saw that it was good for food
Esau sold his birthright for a plate of stew

Here's howJesus responds

Matthew 4

1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."

4Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."

John 4

31Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something."
32But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."
33Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?"
34"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. 38I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor."

This isn't a post or unhealthy,just a reminder that:

Matthew C6 v25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

Beware of the Me Monster video

2010-06-08T10:16:00.000-07:00

Watch this video clip of Brian Regan

looking at the Cross: "But a body hast thou prepared for me."

2010-06-08T02:07:00.000-07:00

John Owen the English Puritan, wrote "by a "Body" then is meant the human nature of Christ. the general end of His having a body was that He might therin and thereby yeild obedience, or do the will of God; and the especial end of it was, that He might have somewhat to offer in sacrafice unto God...1. to manifest that the offering of Christ was to be to death, as was the sacrafices of old. 2. because as the covenant was to be confirmed by this offering, it was to be by blood, whcih is contained in the body alone. 3. to testify that His sacrafice was visible and substantial, such as truly answered the real bloody sacrifices of the law. 4. to show the union between Him that sanctifieth by His offering and them that are sanctified thereby; as "the children are the partakers of flesh and blood, He also took part of the same, that He might taste death for them."

The words of Jesus in John Chapter 14 v31 "but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me..."(NIV)

we often think of the Cross as God's love action towards the world and of course that is true. but we are in danger of making the achievement of the cross all about us. but when we read here the words of Jesus, that while Jesus went to the cross in willing obedience to the Father will and action of preparing a body for Jesus. Jesus did so, to show the world His love for the Father.

The cross show us the willingness of the Father and the willing obedience of the Son salvation. we were enemies unaware of such willingness and action and even now we are saved we stand back in amazement recognizing the cause of our salvation took place without us, but for us.

Wayne Grudem: Does political involvement distract from the Gospel?

2010-06-08T01:07:00.000-07:00

In the month of June Wayne Grudem will be travelling throughout the UK with the Christian Institute, answering that very question above for more information go here for Grudem tour .

Do You Want to Become a Better Counselor?

2010-06-05T15:40:00.001-07:00

David Powlison’s counsel:

You will not go wrong if you plunge into Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

Master it.

Be mastered by it.

Work Ephesians into your thinking, your living, your prayers, and your conversation.

The Bible is vast and deep, and human life is diverse and perplexing. But in a pinch you could do all counseling from Ephesians. It’s all there: the big picture that organizes a myriad of details.

—Seeing with New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition Through the Lens of Scripture (P&R; 2003), p. 17.

sudden in a minute

2010-05-22T16:01:00.000-07:00

"let no man think that sudden in a minute all is accomplished and the work is done. But with thine eairliest dawn thou should begin it scare where it ended in the setting of the sun"

C.S. Lewis: “Three Kinds of Men”

2010-05-10T08:49:00.000-07:00

C.S. Lewis: “Three Kinds of Men”

C.S. Lewis’s short essay, “Three Kinds of Men,” from his collection of essays, Present Concerns (pp. 9-10):

There are three kinds of people in the world.

The first class is of those who live simply for their own sake and pleasure, regarding Man and Nature as so much raw material to be cut up into whatever shape may serve them.

In the second class are those who acknowledge some other claim upon them—the will of God, the categorical imperative, or the good of society—and honestly try to pursue their own interests no further than this claim will allow. They try to surrender to the higher claim as much as it demands, like men paying a tax, but hope, like other taxpayers, that what is left over will be enough for them to live on. Their life is divided, like a soldier’s or a schoolboy’s life, into time “on parade” and “off parade,” “in school” and “out of school.”

But the third class is of those who can say like St Paul that for them “to live is Christ.” These people have got rid of the tiresome business of adjusting the rival claims of Self and God by the simple expedient of rejecting the claims of Self altogether. The old egoistic will has been turned round, reconditioned, and made into a new thing. The will of Christ no longer limits theirs; it is theirs. All their time, in belonging to Him, belongs also to them, for they are His.

And because there are three classes, any merely twofold division of the world into good and bad is disastrous. It overlooks the fact that the members of the second class (to which most of us belong) are always and necessarily unhappy. The tax which moral conscience levies on our desires does not in fact leave us enough to live on. As long as we are in this class we must either feel guilt because we have not paid the tax or penury because we have. The Christian doctrine that there is no “salvation” by works done to the moral law is a fact of daily experience. Back or on we must go. But there is no going on simply by our own efforts. If the new Self, the new Will, does not come at His own good pleasure to be born in us, we cannot produce Him synthetically.

The price of Christ is something, in a way, much easier than moral effort—it is to want Him. It is true that the wanting itself would be beyond our power but for one fact. The world is so built that, to help us desert our own satisfactions, they desert us. War and trouble and finally old age take from us one by one all those things that the natural Self hoped for at its setting out. Begging is our only wisdom, and want in the end makes it easier for us to be beggars. Even on those terms the Mercy will receive us.

Do You Ever Fast for More of God’s Power? by John Piper

2010-05-10T08:42:00.000-07:00

“While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them’” (Acts 13:2). In telling us this, it seems that Luke wants us to learn that one way to know the mind of the Spirit at crucial junctures in ministry is to spend time in worshipful fasting.

Loren Cunningham, general director of Youth With a Mission, described his experience in praying and fasting for three days with 12 co-workers in 1973. As they prayed, the Lord revealed that they should pray for the downfall of a demonic force identified to them as the “prince of Greece.” The same day in New Zealand and Europe, YWAM groups received a similar word from God. All three groups obeyed and came against this principality. Within 24 hours, a political coup changed the government of Greece, bringing greater freedom for mission activity in the country.

If this seems foreign to our experience, could part of the reason be that fasting is foreign to our experience? And could fasting be foreign to us because we are so far from the whole New Testament pattern of living in and by the supernatural power of the Spirit of God?

Test yourself: Jesus said to his disciples, “When you fast, do not be like the hypocrites…” (Matthew 6:16). He did not say if you fast, but when you fast. In another place, he was asked why his disciples were not fasting, and he said, “The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast” (Matthew 9:15). In other words, he fully expected that fasting would be part of our spiritual warfare when he was taken away from us.

How are you doing? Let us beware lest we pass judgment on the experiences of others who are pressing in on God for all his fullness, when we may not even be doing the ordinary things appointed in the New Testament in pursuit of the Spirit’s power in our lives.

Consider this: if you are not fasting, it is perhaps because you do not feel any fervent longings for God’s power in your life. In other words, you are pretty content with the way things are going in your fruitfulness for God and the way his glory is manifested through you. This contentment with present experience, this lack of strong longings for more of God, and more spiritual power, and more breakthroughs for his glory is one reason God withholds his greatest blessing. He has told us, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). The absence of fasting probably means the absence of deep longings for God’s power. And the absence of deep longing is one reason he waits.

This is why I have asked some of you—those who feel drawn from the inside, not pressured from the outside—to fast all day on Wednesdays for the next four weeks. Our aim is simply to give heart and body to the prayer: “Lord, show us your glory.” I am praying for many of you to feel the expectant joy I do in these days of looking (with Stephen) “into heaven” for the glory of God.

Hungry for what Stephen saw,

Pastor John

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I wonder if you can BIC that

2010-05-10T05:38:00.001-07:00

An Interview with Greg Gilbert on “What Is the Gospel?”

2010-05-07T13:23:00.001-07:00

TGC Reviews: "What is the Gospel?" by Greg Gilbert from Crossway on Vimeo.

Tim Keller on reading proverbs and community

2010-05-07T13:21:00.000-07:00

proverbs community and the culture

Trevin Wax reviews N T Wright's new book

2010-05-05T11:00:00.000-07:00

Trevin Wax reviews N T Wright's new book

The Spectacular Failure of Atheism

2010-05-03T13:38:00.000-07:00

Doug Wilson in the Huffington Post:

[I]f the universe is what the atheist maintains it is, then this determines what sort of account we must give for the nature of everything — and this includes the atheist’s thought processes, ethical convictions, and aesthetic appreciations. If you were to shake up two bottles of pop and place them on a table to fizz over, you could not fill up an auditorium with people who came to watch them debate. This is because they are not debating; they are just fizzing. If you were to shake up one bottle of pop, and show it film footage of some genocidal atrocity, the reaction you would get is not moral outrage, but rather more fizzing. And if you were to shake it really hard by means of art school, and place it in front of Michelangelo’s David, or the Rose Window of Chartres Cathedral, the results would not really be aesthetic appreciation, but more fizzing still.

If the atheist is right, then I am not a Christian because I have mistaken beliefs, but am rather a Christian because that is what these chemicals would always do in this arrangement and at this temperature. The problem is that this atheistic assumption does the very same thing to the atheist’s case for atheism. The atheist gives us an account of all things which makes it impossible for us to believe that any account of all things could possibly be true. But no account of things can be tenable unless it provides us with the preconditions that make it possible for our “accounting” to represent genuine insight. Atheism fails to do this, and the failure is a spectacular one. Nor does atheism allow us to have any fixed ethical standard, or the possibility of beauty.

Praising God for the family of God and Father´s discipline BY TIM CHESTER

2010-05-03T01:59:00.001-07:00

Praising God for the family of God and Father´s discipline

21 April 2010Leave a comment

by Tim ChesterWe were due to arrive home last Friday, but like thousands of other people (including Marcus Honeysett) my wife and I are stranded by the volcanic ash cloud. We were visiting a couple sent by our church to the Middle-East. Having negotiated all the dangers and difficulties of travel through a recent war zone with no dangers and no difficulties, we ended up stranded in Istanbul. Discovering that UK airspace was closed, we booked an extra night in the hotel. But when it became clear the skies were going to be closed for some time we got a plane to Barcelona in Spain with a view to travelling home overland. But we arrived at Barcelona train station to find there were no trains to France due to a strike. So on Sunday we queued at the coach station and eventually bought the last two tickets to Paris leaving on Thursday and then we booked the Eurostar train home for Friday. I feel a bit like the apostle Paul in Acts 16 – setting off for Asia and then sending his first prayer letter home from Europe.

A couple of reflections.

1. We praise God for the worldwide family of Christ. It is a great privilege to have these global connections. We are staying on the outskirts of Barcalona with Jonathan and Clare Skipper, squeezing into their apartment with their two young children. Our only tears throughout our “adventure” came when they sent a text saying “our house is your house for as long as you need it”. They have been wonderful hosts, generously letting us impose on their hospitality without complaint. (Sadly I have to inform you, though, that they are not unknowingly entertaining angels – Hebrews 13:2!) Compare our experience to those of the travellers sleeping in airports or the woman I saw yesterday in tears of frustration, camped out in a cafe in Barcelona train station, and you realise what a blessing it is to belong to Christ´s family.

Jonathan is an NTI student and works for GBU, the Spanish Christian Union movement. Please repay their hospitality to us by praying for Spain where there is great resistence to the gospel.

2. People asked us before we left whether we were worried about travelling through a recent war zone. The answer is that we weren´t worried for our safety. Our friends assured us it was safe and we were able to trust God for our security. We went through many armed check points, but we were only stopped because the soldiers manning them were bored and interested in the foreigners visiting their country. Plus, of course, our friends live there and we were only visiting.

But we were anxious before we left. My wife was worried about committing a cultural mistake. I was worried about our rather complex travel plans going awry – missing connections, have the wrong paperwork, miscommunicating with our driver, that sort of thing. Of course I didn´t anticipate a volcano would prevent us completing the last leg of the journey! We were talking about the idols that make us fearful with our friends, little knowing God would strip me so thoroughly of the control I idolise. So one of the no doubt many purposes God has for this volcanic ash cloud has been to discipline me and help me trust his soveriegnty more.

Yet his discipline has been so kind and gentle. By his grace I have hardly fretted or got frustrated. And we really don´t deserve your sympathy. We spent a lovely day sight-seeing in Istanbul and due to availability issues our hotel upgraded us for free to a suite. And now we´re enjoying a few days in the beautiful city of Barcelona. It´s not exactly heroic suffering for the gospel! I was able to shadow Jonathan for a day to get a window onto his ministry and meet up with two fine Catalan leaders who are planning to plant a church in the centre of Barcelona.

Francis Chan and Evangelicalism’s “Middle Road”

2010-04-30T01:46:00.001-07:00

N. T. Wright Leaving Durham, Appointed to Chair at St Andrews

2010-04-29T03:07:00.000-07:00

N. T. Wright Leaving Durham, Appointed to Chair at St Andrews

From the announcement:

The School of Divinity is delighted to announce that Dr N. T. (Tom) Wright, currently Bishop of Durham, has been appointed to a Chair in New Testament and Early Christianity at St Andrews. He will take up his duties on 1 September 2010. The Head of School, Professor Ivor Davidson, says: ‘Tom Wright ranks among the most distinguished New Testament scholars in the world, and his profile as a churchman, writer and communicator is simply outstanding. I am delighted that he will be joining us at St Andrews, where he will further enhance the long-established reputation of the School of Divinity as a major international centre of biblical and theological scholarship.’

Update: Statement from Bishop Wright:

This has been the hardest decision of my life. It has been an indescribable privilege to be Bishop of the ancient Diocese of Durham, to work with a superb team of colleagues, to take part in the work of God’s kingdom here in the north-east, and to represent the region and its churches in the House of Lords and in General Synod. I have loved the people, the place, the heritage and the work. But my continuing vocation to be a writer, teacher and broadcaster, for the benefit (I hope) of the wider world and church, has been increasingly difficult to combine with the complex demands and duties of a diocesan bishop. I am very sad about this, but the choice has become increasingly clear.

What Causes God To Love Us?

2010-04-27T02:42:00.000-07:00

The fathers determination to save us flows from his very nature as love.

"God is Love" ( 1 John 4 vv 8-9) . As an eternal act of the will of God, his choosing us can't be caused by anything but who he is, because in eternity there wasn't anything else that could cause his love. And although his determination to save us expresses aa his character, it most explicitly expresses his love. Yes, his saving us expresses his rightenousness, holiness, wisdom, goodness, truth - everything that he is. But it most especially declares that God is love" Page 61-62

From Kris Lungaard's Book "Through the Looking Glass"

How does the serventhood of Jesus apply to my listening?

2010-04-21T08:38:00.000-07:00

Spending Attention

Growing up do you remember being told to pay attention to many things, pay attention at school, pay attention to what I am saying, pay attention to what you are doing? And those other comments, such as what are you wasting you time on that for? And why are you spending your time doing that when this needs doing? Paying attention and spending time.

I don’t read news papers that often but I do regularly watch the news and there always seems to be something new every day. I guess when we look at a week of news papers we see how time passes, we may of spent money on the news paper, but we also spent time reading it, with money we can perhaps draw some more, but not time, when its gone its gone. So if would be far better for us to realise that we spend our attention, so what are we spending our attention on?

Luke chapter 10 vv 38-42 is about what it is to be a disciple with a servant heart and there are several clues in the text for this. But before we get in to it, let’s understand the background. By the way the text is written it seems that this is the first meeting between Jesus, Martha and Mary, we know from John chapter 11, that He has a good relationship with these two probably starting here. But why does Luke put this account here, why does he tell us about it. It says also in the Gospel according to John that Jesus did many other things that are not written down, but those things that are written are there so we would believe.

Luke includes this, he has written it down for this reason,- he wants us to be spending our time in attention to what Jesus is teaching about spending our time in attention to what Jesus is teaching.

Back at the beginning of chapter 10, Jesus sends out the seventy-two, and they were told by Jesus to pray to the father asking for labours for the harvest, Jesus sends out seventy-two people and tells them to ask the father for more, well how big is this harvest?

They also were to say to the people they met “the kingdom of God has come near to you” that was there message. Jesus anticipates that they will not always be well received and he says to them, move on, wipe the dust from you feet and say “nevertheless know this, the kingdom of God has come near,” Jesus says to his disciples that rejection has consequences. “I tell you it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.”

So before we even get to this account with Jesus, Martha and Mary we already have this account of those who pay attention and those who do not. Chapter 10 vv 23-24 “Then turning to the disciples He said privately, “blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” Now there are plenty of examples of those who do not see and do not hear, such people Jesus says elsewhere are deaf and blind, that may not sound very nice, but it does explain why there are some people who are prepared to be attentive to what Jesus is saying and obey it, while others are quite happy to just let it drift from their minds with great ease. And Jesus after he has finished speaking will often say let him who has ears, hear.

So we have messengers spreading this message for people to give their attention to, then the privilege of seeing and hearing what prophets and kings longed to see and hear. And now an account of sisters, one spending time in attention to Jesus’ teaching and the other preoccupied unnecessarily. So what is it to be a disciple with a servant heart?

Listening, Martha hasn’t listened to herself.

Have you ever invited someone over for dinner and then not spent time with them? Well Martha’s preparing dinner for Jesus; it’s not as if she is needlessly busy, right? Well not according to Jesus. I don’t want to over stretch the point but Jesus is on the move, time with Him in this sense is limited, He’s on his way to Jerusalem to be crucified.

Have you ever invited someone around or had the opportunity to be with some one and there your guest, you’ve done the inviting and then someone else, a friend, family member robs all the time with that person. I mean don’t you find it interesting that when Martha has had enough; she doesn’t go up to her sister and say can I have a quiet word. No she goes straight to Jesus.

Now the fact that she calls Jesus “Lord” shows us that she could be quite aware of who he is, and yet she hasn’t stopped, sat down and listened to His teaching, here she has the Lord in her home, and she is just not listening to herself, she doesn’t listen to herself about what she knows of Him. Martha is not listening. So she asks Jesus this question v40 “…Lord do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?

Now she is looking to Jesus for a positive answer, for Jesus to agree with her,and perhaps say "you know what Martha yoour absoultely right, mary please go and help your sister" and yet what Jesus wants to show her is that in life there are very few real necessities.

Listening, Mary sits and listens.

Mary understands living in the culture that she does that hospitality is a cultural norm and rated as one of the greatest values of such a society.

So has she just momentarily forgotten? No I don’t think so; she has simply chosen that which is better. It says that when Jesus came into the house Mary sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching.

It’s the action of a disciple; to sit at the feet is a disciple’s posture before the Lord when being taught. And between the busyness of Martha and the busyness of Mary we see who puts priority on what. In both Martha and Mary we see activity and attitude, we see where they are spending their attention, and Jesus doesn’t side with one sister over the other so as to make it a personal thing, he simply says that Mary has made a better choice. You see the emphasis is not on Mary being a better disciple than Martha, but rather when Jesus is in you company, be with Him. Now here’s what we need to see and understand, Jesus is teaching and Mary is listening. When Jesus speaks, he doesn’t need to be listened to just because He is speaking, he needs to be listened to because he is telling us what we need to hear.

I mean we listen to some people, and they just like the sound of their own voice, or others who talk about meaningless things. Jesus does not talk about meaningless things and he isn’t talking just to hear the sound of his own voice. There are things that he has told us in his word that we would have never known if he had not of told them to us. There is revelation when we listen to Jesus, our need to see and hear is greater than his need to speak, but he does speak to us.

Mary recognises the worth of spending her attention here listening to Jesus, having spent her time in doing this, because it is the one necessary thing. Some of us live by our diaries, having to balance the work that we do with the servantness we render in spending time in this one necessary area. Our businesses you see identifies value, we place things in certain order, we prioritise, so the time we spend in our attention to whatever it is that has our attention, has value to us. Whether that be a little value, simply because it just needs doing or great value because so much of ourselves are invested in it, our career, our plans, our family, our church. But we refer to Jesus, telling us that there is one thing that is necessary, choosing the good part, the good portion, that which is better, and that will not be taken from you.

So what are we spending our attention on? Jesus said Mary has chosen, chosen what is better. She consciously makes a decision to listen to Jesus.

So How do we listen?

If we start to listen to Jesus, because we have made a decision to do so, It shouldn’t take us long to realise that Jesus is speaking, that which we need to hear and if we need to hear it. How do we listen?

I understand that listening happens in two main ways, if someone comes to you and starts talking, your time becomes occupied by them and listening becomes imposed on us. However if we choose to go to a church service, convention we go to listen, listening becomes self imposed. So how do we listen? It is often said that some preachers can keep someone else’s attention while others cant, but if we love the way someone says something more than the content, or we go to listen because they are easy to listen to, we have preconditioned our listening.

If we listen whilst thinking of something else, or if when we are listening we are thinking about what we are going to say next, were a bad listener and we are basically talking to ourselves, do we do we this, I think we do, we are bad listeners and basically selfish. And the reason we don’t spot these issues is because we think we are better listeners than we really are. So what are we spending our attention on, as we come to listen to Jesus teach? What made Mary a good listener was that she let go of all other preoccupations and served Jesus with her full attention, Martha recognised Jesus was in her presence, but she is spending her attention elsewhere. The other thing that made Mary such a good listener was the fact that she knew that she was listening to one who told her what she needed to hear, her listening was of greater importance that Him speaking.

So let me leave you with this question, are we a good disciple with a servant attitude as its seen here? In the form of spending our un-preoccupied attention with Jesus and listening.

Seven Habits of Highly Evangelistic Christians

2010-04-21T08:13:00.000-07:00

Thom Rainer, President and CEO of Lifeway, argues that the secret to being an evangelistic church “is really no secret at all. Ultimately evangelistic churches see more persons become Christians through the passionate efforts of highly evangelistic Christians.”

And what characterizes these highly evangelistic Christians? Read on (bold type added for clarity).

1. They are people of prayer. They realize that only God can convict and convert, and they are totally dependent upon Him in prayer. Most of the highly evangelistic Christians spend at least an hour in prayer each day.

2. They have a theology that compels them to evangelize. They believe in the urgency of the gospel message. They believe that Christ is the only way of salvation. They believe that anyone without Christ is doomed for a literal hell.

3. They are people who spend time in the Word. The more time they spend in the Bible, they more likely they are to see the lostness of humanity and the love of God in Christ to save those who are lost.

4. They are compassionate people. Their heart breaks for those who don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. They have learned to love the world by becoming more like Christ who has the greatest love for the world.

5. They love the communities where God has placed them. They are immersed in the culture because they desire for the light of Christ to shine through them in their communities.

6. They are intentional about evangelism. They pray for opportunities to share the gospel. They look for those opportunities. And they see many so-called casual encounters as appointments set by God.

7. They are accountable to someone for their evangelistic activities. They know that many good activities can replace Great Commission activities if they are not careful. Good can replace the best. So they make certain that someone holds them accountable each week either formally or informally for their evangelistic efforts.

Kevin Deyoung

Religious hedgefund managers

2010-04-21T02:23:00.000-07:00

A hedgefund mananger according to one is nothing more than a risk suppressor. That while they can supress the risk by spreading out their capital. It seems the latest lesson they have learnt is that even when you don’t put all your eggs in one basket, you can still loose the lot through the inability of preventing the unknowable.

“So Paul, standing in the midst of the Aeropagus, said “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ” To the unknown god” what therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.” Acts Chapter 17 v 22-23 (italics added)

The men of Athens were nothing more than religious hedgefund managers, by having an altar to the unknown god they were simply trying to surpress the risk of offending the one God whom they know that they have overlooked. Hedging then in the religious sense is trying to do works of righteousness as a means of pleasing God. The default mode of the human heart when it comes to God is to try and please Him with an offering of our own. But what could we ever give God?

It is possible for a Christian to fall into the trap of living their spiritual life as hedgefund managers, that is that everytime we sin, we try and do a good work as a means of self-justification, as a means of balancing out the scales as it were. How do we break this cycle? look at what God has done in Christ Jesus.

The stoics and Epicureans whom the Apostle Paul addressed on Mars Hill, wanted for themselves peace and security. however they went about it in a totally different wayfrom each other . There need was to know the truth and logically they should of understood if they paid any attention to Aristotle’s logic and even Socrates, that through asking questions they could probe the depths, at least a little of their lives. what they needed however was the truth that provided the way. When Jesus said “I am the way…” the very statement proclaims that all other tired ways are wrong. when we base our life on the limited amount of knowledge that we have, we are nothing more than a religious hedgefund manager, making decisions based on a limited amount of knowledge that we cant be sure of anyway. When Jesus said “I am the way, truth and life…” we simply need to ask this question of ourselves, am I likely to know more than Him?

John Piper on what happens to infants who die?

2010-04-20T02:37:00.000-07:00

What happens to infants who die?

I think they're all saved. In other words, I don't buy the principle that says that children born into "covenant families" are secure, and children born into "non-covenant families" aren't. I don't go there.

My reason for thinking they're all saved is because of the principle in Romans 1 where Paul argues that all people know God, and they are "without excuse" because they do not honor him or glorify him as God.

His argument is that they are without excuse because they know things, as though accountability in the presence of God at the Last Judgment will be based, at least partly, on whether they had access to necessary knowledge.

And God says they've all got access to knowledge, because they can look at the things he has made and see his power and deity. But they suppress that knowledge instead of submitting to it, therefore they're all condemned.

So I ask the question: OK, is the principle being raised there that, if you don't have access to the knowledge that causes you to be held accountable, therefore you will not be accountable? And I think that's the case.

I think babies and imbeciles—that is, those with profound mental disabilities—don't have access to the knowledge that they will be called to account for. Therefore, somehow in some way, God, through Christ, covers these people.

So that, in a nutshell, is why I think all children who die in infancy are elect and will be, through Jesus Christ, saved in ways that I may not know how, as God honors this principle of accountability.

Mark of the Messenger

2010-04-19T11:35:00.000-07:00

How to Avoid Assuming the Gospel
In Marks of the Messenger: Knowing, Living, and Speaking the Gospel (IVP, 2010), J. Mack Stiles sets out something I’ve heard Don Carson say a number of times: “Losing the gospel doesn’t happen all at once, it’s much more like a four generation process too:

The gospel is accepted —>

The gospel is assumed —>

The gospel is confused —>

The gospel is lost.”

How do you know if your church is beginning to assume the gospel? The answer, Stiles says, is when you no longer hear the gospel. He asks a series of diagnostic questions:

Was the gospel in the sermon Sunday morning?

Could the uninitiated hear that sermon and come to real faith in Christ?

Are gospel principles governing organizational decisions?

Do you hear the gospel in people’s prayers?

Does your fellowship encourage you to say the gospel? And then is it more than just a memorized sketch? Sure, it may follow the form of “God, Man, Christ, Response,” but is it in people’s own words?

Furthermore, do you see it in their actions? Is the gospel lived out?

Is membership based on a true commitment to the gospel or just because someone wants to join an organization—or maybe write an expose?

The healthy evangelist is asking these questions and looking for answers so as to guard the gospel. Here is the critical test.

Could you have preached that sermon if Christ had not died on the cross?

Could you have developed that leadership principle had Christ not been crucified?

I’m not saying be impractical—the Bible has much to say about being practical—but make sure that the practical is tied to the message of Jesus. Otherwise we are on the road to an assumption that will lose the gospel.

(p. 41, my emphasis)

May God give us grace to be men, women, and children of, by, and for the gospel!

MARKS OF THE MESSENGER

2010-04-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

A few enthusiastic endorsements from J. Mack Stiles’s new book, Marks of the Messenger: Knowing, Living, and Speaking the Gospel (IVP, 2010): marks of the messenger

D. A. Carson:

I do not think I have ever read a book on evangelism that makes me more eager to pass it on than this one—better, that makes me more eager to evangelize than this one. Like its author, the book is irrepressible. Better yet, it is faithful to Scripture while overflowing with that least common gift, common sense. Read it, practice it, then buy some more and pass them out.

Mark Dever, from the foreword:
Not only is this book one of those rare encouraging books on evangelism, but it is one of those even more rare instructive books on evangelism. Think Packer [Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God] or Metzger [Tell the Truth: The Whole Gospel to the Whole Person by Whole People], only with more transparent passion and punch.
Thabiti Anyabwile:

Mack Stiles is the most gifted evangelist I know. And this book is saturated with biblical truth and personal wisdom.”

C. J. Mahaney:

Mack loves people who need the gospel. If you, like me, want to grow in evangelism, I highly recommend Mack’s book.

By the Word of His Power

2009-12-24T13:57:00.000-08:00

Always running out of time

2009-12-24T13:01:00.000-08:00

Busyness Identifies Value

When we are busy it allow us to see what we consider to be the most important. For instance if we do one thing while something else needs doing, we have put a value of importance on both jobs with one always coming out on top. What if the thing we should be busy with is the most important to someone else?

The Christmas Story

2009-12-22T03:59:00.001-08:00

That's Christmas (Short Film) HD from St Helen’s Church on Vimeo.

Not The Gospel

2009-12-21T06:13:00.001-08:00

The Prosperity Gospel from The Global Conversation on Vimeo.

Religious Hedgefund Managers

2009-12-18T14:32:00.000-08:00

Christmas Story

2009-12-18T11:56:00.000-08:00

God With Us

2009-12-18T02:34:00.000-08:00

God with us

Preaching on Isaiah 7:14, C. H. Spurgeon closed with this flourish:

“God with us.” It is hell’s terror. Satan trembles at the sound of it; the black-winged dragon of the pit quails before it. Let him come to you suddenly, and do you but whisper that word, “God with us,” back he falls, confounded and confused. “God with us” is the laborer’s strength; how could he preach the gospel, how could he bend his knees in prayer, how could the missionary go into foreign lands, how could the martyr stand at the stake, how could the confessor own his Master, how could men labor, if that one word were taken away? “God with us” is the sufferer’s comfort, the balm of his woe, the alleviation of his misery, the sleep which God gives to his beloved, their rest after exertion and toil. “God with us” is eternity’s sonnet, heaven’s hallelujah, the shout of the glorified, the song of the redeemed, the chorus of angels, the everlasting oratorio of the great orchestra of the sky.

The Trellis and the Vine

2009-12-10T01:05:00.000-08:00

A Book Every Pastor and Elder Should Seriously Consider Reading a post from Justin Taylor

A steady stream of books cross my desk week in and week out, and I try to be careful not to “oversell” a book, even if I’m enthusiastic about it. But here’s one that everyone involved in any form of church leadership should very seriously consider: The Trellis and the Vine, by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne (Matthias Media, 2009).

Mark Dever writes, “This is the best book I’ve read on the nature of church ministry.” David Helm says, “If I could put only one new book into the hands of every person preparing for ministry today, The Trellis and the Vine would be it.” (You can go here to read the full endorsements as well as seeing some sample pages.)

It’s a provocative, challenging, encouraging book. All the elders at our church are ordering copies to read, and I’d encourage pastors and elders out there to do the same.

I have to admit I didn’t know what a “trellis” was when I first got the book. It’s the structure, often latticework, that shapes and supports a growing vine. In the image for this book, that’s the invaluable, essential role of programs and structures. But the heart of ministry is planting, watering, fertilizing, and tending the vine—preaching the gospel in the power of God’s Spirit so that people will be converted and changed, growing in maturity in the gospel. Trellis work is easier, less personally threatening, more visible, and often looks more impressive. Vine work is personal and requires much prayer.

Marshall and Payne seek to answer questions like:

What is the vine for?
How does the vine grow?
How does the vine relate to my church?
What is vine work and what is trellis work, and how can we tell the difference?
What part do different people play in growing the vine?
How can we get more people involved in vine work?
What is the right relationship between the trellis and the vine?
Again, I’d highly recommend the book. Below is a video of Mark Dever talking about the book, and reading an excerpt that especially hit home with me when I first read it:

Interpreting God's ways

2009-12-07T15:10:00.000-08:00

Interpreting God’s Ways
The next time we are about to accuse God in our hearts, or the next time we are tempted to complain about God’s dealings with us, let us consider the wisdom of Jeremiah Burroughs.

I beseech you to consider that God does not deal by you as you deal with him. Should God make the worst interpretation of all your ways towards him, as you do of his towards you, it would be very ill with you. God is pleased to manifest his love thus to us, to make the best interpretations of what we do, and therefore God puts a sense upon the actions of his people that one would think could hardly be (The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, 224, emphasis added).

Prayer

2009-11-19T15:07:00.000-08:00

Be Careful How You Pray by Kevin Deyoung

Have you ever had a friend or child or spouse who wanted something so bad they were positively miserable without it? Maybe your husband is unhappy with his job and can only think of landing something else. Or maybe you have a friend who simply has to be married. Or maybe your child is despondent because he didn’t make the basketball team and probably never will.

How should we pray in these situations? Would you ask God to provide a new job? Would you petition him for a spouse? Would you quietly ask for six more inches for your son? How would you pray?

Here’s Jeremiah Burroughs’ (1599-1646) answer:

Therefore for my part, if I should have a friend or brother or one who was as dear to me as my own soul, whom I saw discontented for the want of such a comfort, I would rather pray, “Lord, keep this thing from them, till you shall be pleased to humble their hearts for their discontent; let not them have the mercy till they come to be humbled for their discontent over the want of it, for if they have it before that time they will have it without any blessing” (The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, 159).

In other words, if people think they can’t live without some thing, they’ll still be miserable even when they get the thing they wanted so badly. Burroughs goes on to suggest:

There are many things which you desire as your lives, and think that you would be happy if you had them, yet when they come you do not find such happiness in then, but they prove to be the greatest crosses and afflictions that you ever had, and on this ground, because your hearts were immoderately set upon them before you had them.

So be careful how you pray. As Tim Keller (or was it that spirit of Jeremiah Burroughs?) has written, “We never imagine that getting our heart’s deepest desires might be the worst thin that can ever happen to us” (Counterfeit Gods, 1).

James 3v9

2009-11-12T02:59:00.000-08:00

Portrait of a struggle

2009-11-12T02:47:00.000-08:00

Portrait of a Struggle

Here’s a new DVD set, filmed at a conference, I’m happy to recommend: Paul Tripp’s Portrait of a Struggle—Fallen World: What to Think, When to Resist .

Here’s a brief description:

Why are the normal things of everyday life such a struggle?

Why is communication so difficult?

Why do relationships end up disappointing us?

Why do all of us struggle with anger?

God has chosen to keep his children in relationships with flawed people in situations in a broken world. But we do not need to be discouraged; God is using all of this to do wonderful things in us and through us.

Don’t give way to ugly anger. Don’t be paralyzed by discouragement. Come and watch a portrait be painted of a much better way.

The teaching is excellent.

And here’s a short video clip of Tripp talking about the content (not a clip from the DVD itself):

Prayerlessness is unbelief

2009-11-09T07:58:00.000-08:00

A Post By KEVIN DEYOUNG
Prayerlessness is Unbelief

Prayer is essential for the Christian, as much for what it says about us as for what it can do through God. The simple act of getting on our knees (or faces or feet or whatever) for 5 or 50 minutes every day is the surest sign of our humility and dependence on our Father in heaven. There may be many reasons for our prayerlessness—time management, busyness, lack of concentration—but most fundamentally, we ask not because we think we need not. or we think God can give not. Deep down we feel secure when we have money in the bank, a healthy report from the doctor, and powerful people on our side. We do not trust in God alone. Prayerlessness is an expression of our meager confidence in God’s ability to provide and of our strong confidence in our ability to take care of ourselves without God’s help.

Too often when we struggle with prayer we focus on the wrong things. We focus on praying better instead of focusing on knowing better the one to whom we pray. We focus on our need for discipline rather than our need for God. Almost all of us want to pray more frequently, and yet our lives seem too disordered. But in God’s mind our messy, chaotic lives are an impetus to prayer instead of an obstacle to prayer.

You don’t need to work and work at discipline nearly as much as you need faith. You don’t need an ordered life to enable prayer, you need a messy life to drive you to prayer. You don’t need to have everything in order before you can pray. You need to know you’re disordered so you will pray. You don’t need your life to be fixed up. You need a broken heart. You need to think to yourself: “Tomorrow is another day that I need God. I need to know him. I need forgiveness. I need help. I need protection. I need deliverance. I need patience. I need courage. Therefore, I need prayer.”

If you know you are needy and believe that God helps the needy, you will pray. Conversely, if we seldom pray, the problem goes much deeper than a lack of organization and follow through. The heart that never talks to God is the heart that trusts in itself and not in the power of God. Prayerlessness is unbelief.

Prayerfulness, on the other hand is an evidence of humility and faith, which is why God loves it when we pray.

Humility

2009-11-05T12:45:00.000-08:00

C.S.Lewis in his book "the srewtape letters" is the fictional conversations via letters between two demons. here below is really something quite eye opening when it come to humility. it concerns one demon addressing the other about a Christian young man who they refer to as their subject.

"your patient has become humble; have you drawn his attention to the fact? All virtues are less formidable to us once the man is aware that he has them, but this is especially true of humility. Catch him at the moment when he is really poor in spirit and smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection, 'By jove! i'm being humble,' and almost immediately pride- pride at his own humility - will appear. If he awakes to the danger and tries to smother this new form of pride, make him proud of his attempt - and so on, through as many stages as you please. But don't try this too long, for fear you awake his sense of humour and proportion, in which case he will merely laugh at you and go to bed."

Lewis defines humility as SELF FORGETFULNESS, why not think that statement through while reading 1 Corinthians Chapter 4

Full Of Something Good

2009-11-02T15:23:00.000-08:00

Full of something good
“One who is full loathes honey, but to the one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet” Proverbs 27v7

There really is no need for us to be hungry after the things of the world, and “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied”. I want to suggest that to be satisfied by Christ, in Christ, alone; is to be full, and when we are full even the most desirable things of this world will loose there power to be tempting. James in his first chapter shows us that the strength of the temptations we face, are only ever as strong as our inward desire for us to be full on them. But the one who is full in Christ will loath even the sweetest of things.

This is a wonderful Proverb that we can meditate upon; and as we do we will recognize that it has a sting in the tail. That is those who neglect Gods’ word and turn only to the bread of this world for life, will fill there life with bitter things that cannot sustain. This Proverb as all the other Proverbs has come to be known as wisdom literature, and the best description of wisdom that i can give you is that it is the application of the knowledge that has been given to us. It is about making wise choices in advance, based on the knowledge we have from God’s word. So having read this Proverb, what wise choices are we making in advance of what lies ahead of us?

Proverb chapter 7 v 2 says “keep my commandments and live, keep my teaching as the apple of your eye”. We have good reasons to be constantly attracted to the word of God; and have a great affection for what we hear. In conclusion then God has given us everything we need to live a life that is pleasing to Him in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, what this looks like in practice is people always making wise choices in advance so that they can present themselves as a living sacrifice before Him, and this means that we do not feed ourselves on the bitter things of life but constantly look to the Lord for He alone is all sufficient and satisfying.

A Passion For Life

2009-11-02T07:38:00.000-08:00

A Passion for Life has begun... from A Passion for Life on Vimeo.

WHAT GOD CAN DO

2009-10-21T01:54:00.000-07:00

Perspectives from Peacemaker Ministries on Vimeo.

The Spectacular Failure of Atheism

2009-10-20T15:35:00.000-07:00

The Spectacular Failure of Atheism

Doug Wilson in the Huffington Post:

[I]f the universe is what the atheist maintains it is, then this determines what sort of account we must give for the nature of everything — and this includes the atheist’s thought processes, ethical convictions, and aesthetic appreciations. If you were to shake up two bottles of pop and place them on a table to fizz over, you could not fill up an auditorium with people who came to watch them debate. This is because they are not debating; they are just fizzing. If you were to shake up one bottle of pop, and show it film footage of some genocidal atrocity, the reaction you would get is not moral outrage, but rather more fizzing. And if you were to shake it really hard by means of art school, and place it in front of Michelangelo’s David, or the Rose Window of Chartres Cathedral, the results would not really be aesthetic appreciation, but more fizzing still.

If the atheist is right, then I am not a Christian because I have mistaken beliefs, but am rather a Christian because that is what these chemicals would always do in this arrangement and at this temperature. The problem is that this atheistic assumption does the very same thing to the atheist’s case for atheism. The atheist gives us an account of all things which makes it impossible for us to believe that any account of all things could possibly be true. But no account of things can be tenable unless it provides us with the preconditions that make it possible for our “accounting” to represent genuine insight. Atheism fails to do this, and the failure is a spectacular one. Nor does atheism allow us to have any fixed ethical standard, or the possibility of beauty.

Preview

2009-09-16T02:44:00.000-07:00

COLLISION - 13 min VIMEO Exclusive Sneak Peek from Collision Movie on Vimeo.

Is Christianity good for the world?

2009-09-15T03:09:00.000-07:00

Just finished reading this book, as the front cover says it's a debate. each taking their turn to put their reasons for what they believe over into the others court. if this was a tennis match it would be a great one. on the back of the book it says this "The gloves come off in this electric exchange,originally hosted by Christianity Today, as leading atheist Christopher Hitchens [author of God is not great] and Christian apologist Douglas Wilson [author of letter from a Christian Citizen] go head to head on this divisive question. The result is entertaining and provocative- a glimpse into the ongoing debate"

This book is only sixty seven pages long and is worth reading more than once.

Here below is a sneak peak of the film:

The Pressure of the Ordinary: a helpful window in the walls the devil builds.

2009-09-10T03:20:00.000-07:00

C.S.Lewis in his book the Srewtape Letters shows us the subtleties of the devil’s workings, how the devil distracts you from the things of God by getting you to be content with ordinary life as we know it to be. The opening chapter of the book tells of a man who was an atheist and his thought started turning to the things of God, so the devil put a suggestion in to the mans head that is was time for lunch, But God’s instruction was that it was much to important to leave until after lunch, to which the devil replied “quite, in fact much too important to tackle at the end of the morning…and by the time I added” much better to come back after lunch and go into it with a fresh mind,” he was already half way to the door. Once he was in the street the battle was one. I showed him the newsboy shouting the midday paper, and a No: 73 bus going past, and before he reached the bottom of the steps I had got into him an unalterable conviction that, whatever odd ideas might come in to a man’s head when he was shut up alone with his books a healthy dose of real life, (but don’t ask him to question what he means by real) (by which he meant the news boy) was enough to show him that all “that sort of thing” just couldn’t be true.

He is a man who was persuaded away from the thing of God by the pressure of the ordinary, I want to suggest to you that if you are not in that all encompassing relationship with God, where He means more to you than all else,the reason why your relationship with God isn’t what it ought to be, may not because you are necessarily rebelling with all your might, but that you have simply submitted to the pressure of the ordinary. In other words you have allowed the devil to re-interpret your life for you; and only by coming back in to God’s word can your life in the great scheme of things have the right interpretation. Because whatever interpretation you have on life will always inform all the choices you make.

Did You Know?

2009-09-08T13:55:00.000-07:00

The Shack

2009-09-05T01:58:00.000-07:00

The Shack, Fiction, and Non-fictional Characters

Trevin Wax reviews The Shack, finding it better than some have said, and worse than others have said!

I thought this was an insightful point with regard to the challenge of using non-fiction characters in a fictional book:
When you deal with non-fictional characters, you inevitably open yourself up to criticism.
Let’s say you meet an author who wants to use your grandparents as the main characters in a novel. The author tells you that the narrative will be fictional, but that your grandparents will have the starring roles. Sounds great! you think.

But when the manuscript arrives in your hands, you discover that the story does not accurately represent the personalities of your grandparents. The relationship between them is all wrong too. Grandma berates Grandpa. Early on, they run off and elope (which is totally out of character). At one point, they contemplate divorce.

When you complain, the author responds, “Remember? I told you it would be fictional.”

“Yes,” you say, somewhat exasperated, “I knew the story would be fictional, but I thought you would get my grandparents right. The grandparents in your story aren’t anything like my grandparents.”

“Who cares?” the author responds. “It’s a work of fiction.”

“Well, I care,” you say, “because people will put down this book thinking that my grandparents were like the way you portrayed them.”

My biggest problem with The Shack is its portrayal of God. I understand that the book is a work of fiction, not a theological treatise, and therefore should be treated as fiction. But the main characters are the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These are actual Persons. To portray God in a manner inconsistent with his revelation to us in Scripture (and primarily in Jesus) is to misrepresent living Persons.

When people put down The Shack, they will not have a better understanding of the Trinity (despite the glowing blurbs on the back cover). They will probably have a more distorted view of God in three Persons.

Doing right badly, doing wrong well

2009-09-04T11:35:00.000-07:00

The Distinction Between "Doing the Right Thing Badly" and "Doing the Wrong Thing Well"

A helpful post here from Doug Wilson. An excerpt:

A fundamentalist woman in a sun bonnet and a gingham dress, who gets a wicker basket to go pick blueberries, so she can bake her man a pie, with a golden crust, the kind he likes, may be a little bit hokey for your tastes, and certainly for mine. But at least she is trying to achieve an effect that the Bible says women should strive for -- she wants to be modest and discrete. She is not trying to achieve an effect that the Bible never urges women to strive for, as in "edgy." Or "provocative, but not too skanky for an evangelical." She may be playing the instrument badly, but at least she is playing the right one. Suppose the Bible tells women to play the piano. This does not make every woman an accomplished pianist, but I do have respect for every woman who practices the piano, blunders and all. But the women who show up with a leaky concertina they got at Goodwill are trying to do something else. In other words, let us make a distinction between doing the right thing badly, and doing the wrong thing well. And, as Herodotus might say, so much for the fundamentalists.
And this:
The Bible calls upon women to be sober (Tit. 2:4) and discrete (Tit. 2:5). They are to live in a way that provides no occasion for others to speak reproachfully (1 Tim. 5:14). Their demeanor should be characterized by shamefacedness (1 Tim. 2:9) and sobriety (1 Tim. 2:9). It is important to note that the word translated shamefacedness is aidous, which does not denote an Islamic browbeaten demeanor. That said, neither does it constitute an invitation to go ahead and buy a halter top that is two sizes too small. The word is not that elastic, unlike the halter top. In this same verse, the ESV says that women should wear respectable apparel. The word is one of those judgment-call words.

Who makes the judgments? The Bible says that older women should teach younger women how to achieve that effect, an effect we can sum up with the word respectable. Strikingly, it does not call upon the younger women to push the envelope until the older women finally say something critical about it. Again, the older women are to help the younger women try to achieve a modest respectability. The younger women are not called upon to demand the older women prove that something or other is not positively disreputable. According to the Bible, respectability is the goal. This means that the wife of the country club president is being worldly as she tries too hard to be respectable, with results that are too flashy. And she shouldn't do that -- she is playing the piano poorly. But a woman who is schlepping around the supermarket in sweat pants is playing the concertina, and it doesn't matter if she is playing poorly or well.ght

No answer for nudity

2009-09-02T12:48:00.000-07:00

What people wear and how they wear it is vast, but we are at least glad they are wearing something. but imagine for a moment that you are sat down with others in your family, lets say of almost every age bracket, watching a film. as you are watching you know that there is about thirty seconds of nudity coming up. what do you do?

The nudity is what some would call soft as it is only pitcures of bear skin and nothing more. what's your next move? do you skip over that part? tell the children to close their eyes? or once it has passed pretend it hasn't happened and leave it as that?

Imagine for a moment that your child has just been invited into the school production, where they are told for a very brief moment they are to appear nude. will you allow them to have a part in the production?

if the answer is no, which we hope it would be,then to tell your children to close there eyes when a nude bit comes in the film; while you continue to watch it becomes a big problem. while on no uncertain terms would you allow your child to appear that way are you not endorsing it for others by watching it in the first place?

There is no answer that we can give to our children for us watching anything with nudity in, with out us condemning it and endorsing it at the same time.

that almost famous question that goes something like this "would we still sit here and watch this if Jesus was in the room?" the answer is yes, because where can we be where his presence is not? so if we do sit there and watch it we are there at that moment relating to Jesus as Lord.

now while its true we all fail, training to be Godly is exactly that, hard training where we go against our flesh on a daily basis, even in the moments where we relax and watch a film.

How is your English

2009-09-02T01:28:00.000-07:00

Reason for the name

2009-09-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

The main difference between a window and a wall i want to make is the difference between seeing through something and not. As C.S Lewis points out, "the whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it It is good that the window is transparent, because the street or the garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the garden too?...a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To see through all things is the same as not to see."

Now if there are walls in people's way of understanding, then a Christian worldview is putting in a window so that we can see through and understand better the world in which we live. so instead of us only ever explaining what we can see, we give people the provision to see for themselves.

The main windows and walls posts will be here soon; and while we may not cover all issues in this series, you will hopefully be left with the ability to see all things through the Gospel window.

2009-08-27T09:47:00.000-07:00

In the near future we will be looking at the importance of a Christian Worldview, how to have a reasonable understanding of the world we live in without being incosistant. The importance of being able to not look at the world and interpret it through the world's eyes but rather through the Gospel. Teaching ourselves and others, including children; especially children to unpack what they see and look at its ingredients and see it for what it really is. Then to build up from the bottom a consistent and clear understanding of the world they live in.

Tea Time Teaching

2009-08-25T03:46:00.000-07:00

When we sit round the table for tea we hopefully give thanks for what we are about to receive. But how is this understood by our children, are we just being polite to God or is it something more?
even when we eat our tea we are relating to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, we are to remember even when we eat that "for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."Colossians Chapter 1 v 16-17
As we remember this, giving thanks becomes a teaching event, not just a general thank you as we consider God's goodness, but rather an event to acknowledge again that we have a providing God. without which we would have nothing, therefore we become at tea time conscious again that God is in control of all and in Jesus Christ all things are held together. we can learn how to cook from an unbeliever, but we cannot learn how to appreciate how we come to eat what we do.
so tea is no longer a provision from mum or dad, because mum and dad recognize that they too are dependents.

Harvest field

2009-08-19T07:47:00.000-07:00

We Become What We Worship

2009-08-14T11:42:00.000-07:00

This book isn't a light read but the reader,if effort is made is rewarded by good clear writing and a explanation that will move all to worship God as He is and not how we might concieve Him to be.

Greg Beale's
We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry.

Here are the endorsements:
"This thoughtful examination of a surprisingly significant biblical theme will richly reward all who read it. . . . It offers that rare combination of careful, insightful exegesis and perceptive application from which not only biblical scholars but all Christians can benefit."
—Frank Thielman, Presbyterian Professor of Divinity, Beeson Divinity School

"We Become What We Worship is biblical theology at its best, weaving together Old and New Testament texts into a unified message. Beale's work is original yet traditional, profound yet simple, exegetical yet 'hyperexegetical,' sometimes provocative yet always profitable, for the scholar yet for every serious Christian. His message that we resemble what we revere, either for ruin or for restoration, is convincing and convicting."
Bruce Waltke, professor of Old Testament, Reformed Theological Seminary

"This is an original, brilliant and most satisfying treatment of a theme central to biblical understanding, but often misunderstood or ignored in the modern church. This book requires careful study but it repays far more than it requires."
David F. Wells, Andrew Mutch Distinguished Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

"This stimulating and in-depth study on idolatry is vintage Greg Beale. Beale argues that we become like the idols we worship, and he makes his case through a careful intertextual study of the Scriptures. Insights abound as Beale unfolds the biblical text. We are reminded afresh that idolatry is the root sin, and that it is so heinous because it robs God of the glory and praise and honor that he alone deserves."
Thomas R. Schreiner, James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament Interpretation, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

"Nothing else comes even close to this authoritative analysis of the destroying power of idolatry and its comparison to the renewing power of true worship of the one real God. Beale's relentlessly thorough coverage of the biblical material, using a purposely maximalist approach, gives the reader a close look at every possible reference to relevant passages, no matter how obscure or tangential, so that no stone is left unturned in demonstrating how idolatry--ancient or modern--ruins people's lives. Any biblical preacher or teacher would benefit from this book."
Douglas Stuart, professor of Old Testament, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

"This profoundly insightful study of idolatry brings into the spotlight a topic of exceptional significance. Illuminating a wide range of biblical passages, Professor Beale skillfully elucidates the life-defining and transforming nature of worship, both true and false. Everyone who reads this book will be deeply challenged to reflect afresh upon the way in which what we revere shapes not only our present lives but also our future destinies."
T. Desmond Alexander, Union Theological College, Belfast

When heaven is silent

2009-08-14T09:06:00.000-07:00

when heaven is silent is a really good book, please don't as i was be put off by the title or may be the title speaks right into the moment that your in. you can get a copy of this book from,www.10ofthose.com go ahead and give it a read. It is written by a man who lost his son and who writes with a great deal of care for those who are experiencing a silent heaven.It's a book that will take you mind and stretches it in regard to how we think about God. He has also written another very good book call "don't just stand there pray something", his writing in both books is jargon free and very readable.

Religious Hedgefund Manager

2009-08-13T13:09:00.000-07:00

religious hedgefund managers

A hedgefund mananger according to one is nothing more than a risk suppressor. That while they can supress the risk by spreading out their capital. It seems the latest lesson they have learnt is that even when you don’t put all your eggs in one basket, you can still loose the lot through the inability of preventing the unknowable.

“So Paul, standing in the midst of the Aeropagus, said “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ” To the unknown god” what therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.” Acts Chapter 17 v 22-23 (italics added)

The men of Athens were nothing more than religious hedgefund managers, by having an altar to the unknown god they were simply trying to surpress the risk of offending the one God whom they know that they have overlooked. Hedging then in the religious sense is trying to do works of righteousness as a means of pleasing God. The default mode of the human heart when it comes to God is to try and please Him with an offering of our own. But what could we ever give God?

It is possible for a Christian to fall into the trap of living their spiritual life as hedgefund managers, that is that everytime we sin, we try and do a good work as a means of self-justification, as a means of balancing out the scales as it were. How do we break this cycle? look at what God has done in Christ Jesus.

The stoics and Epicureans whom the Apostle Paul addressed on Mars Hill, wanted for themselves peace and security. however they went about it in a totally different wayfrom each other . There need was to know the truth and logically they should of understood if they paid any attention to Aristotle’s logic and even Socrates, that through asking questions they could probe the depths, at least a little of their lives. what they needed however was the truth that provided the way. When Jesus said “I am the way…” the very statement proclaims that all other tired ways are wrong. when we base our life on the limited amount of knowledge that we have, we are nothing more than a religious hedgefund manager, making decisions based on a limited amount of knowledge that we cant be sure of anyway. When Jesus said “I am the way, truth and life…” we simply need to ask this question of ourselves, am I likely to know more than Him?

Remember

2009-08-13T11:20:00.001-07:00

Please Remind Me
Please remind me

The famous Dr Johnson of London said “People need reminding more than they need instructing” his point being that we all have a tendency to forget frequently. We forget the things we need to remember and we remember the things we’d rather forget. It’s not that we need to be instructed all over again, but we do need to be reminded.

This is certainly true when it comes to our Christian life, we have been instructed in the truth, we have understood the truth and deep down we believe the truth. But unless we are constantly reminded of that truth, how we live doesn’t always mirror with what we say we believe. The church (the body of Christ) has been described in many different ways, the new humanity, a new culture and I guess what is really being said throughout all these books that have been written is that the church is distinctive, Christians are distinct from any other group of people in the world. The main thing we are to learn is that we are a culture and not a club, you see in a club you join by choosing to go, why do you go? Because the club that exists is involved in the very thing that interests you and you join for that very reason. Whatever your interest is, it can be and often is separate from almost every other part of you life and it doesn’t take you long to realise that actually everyone else in this club is the same, they all have the one same interest as you, that’s why they belong to the same club. But the life they live outside the interest you share is not the same; they are driven by completely different motives than you. Therefore it becomes clear when we read our bibles and understand truly believing who we are in Christ, we are not motivated by the same desires as those who do not belong to the body of Christ.

What happens then, when Christians have the mentality and behaviour that seems to portray the church as a club and not a new culture that is diametrically different from the world in which we live? The simple answer is this, we become like the world because we have lost all distinctiveness as a people of God. How then do the leaders of the early church through the word of God deal with this situation? By calling us to remember the things we have already been instructed in.

Paul in his first letter to the Thessalonians is constantly reminding those Christians at Thessalonica. He makes the statements like “for you yourselves know…” or “as you know” or even just “you know” for means of encouragement at a time when that is exactly what they need, Paul in his letter isn’t engaging in re-instructing these Christians but rather simply reminding them of what they already know. At a time when this church was going through much affliction due to those opposing the Gospel by opposing those who believe it and live accordingly to it.

Second Peter chapter one is a wonderfully eye opening passage of scripture that clearly shows the importance of remembering. The first chapter begins as usual in most cases with the greeting from Simon Peter, he moves on to the qualities of God’s divine power in the Christians life, which is the true knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and then in verse nine Peter makes it very clear that it becomes obvious when believers have forgotten that they have been cleansed from their former sins. He then states what to remember and why, therefore he says this is why I am always ready to remind you. At the beginning of chapter three as he continues to speak to this church he says “this is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder”. It seems clear from these two examples and many other examples that we have not looked at that being reminded is a crucial part of the Christian life, once we are reminded we do remember when we were first instructed in the things of God.

Amnesia is distressing. Sufferers forget what they have done, what they were doing before being interrupted, and what they were about to do. Everyone has memory lapses, but clinically severe lapses cause crises of identity. If the church has forgotten, Peter cannot be referring that these Christians are not intellectually aware, that the truth hasn’t gone in to their very being, but rather individuals in the church have lost there identity as Christians. So the reminder that is brought, that is to stir their sincere mind up is a re-focusing on the eternal truths of God’s word.

If our focus has changed from the one true living God to a subordinate and less worthy affection then of course, a loss of identity will occur, all the distinctiveness that marks out a Christian from the rest of the world has be tainted and marred by those lesser affections. Having lost our identity the next thing to change is our behaviour for the simple reason that what we believe affects the way in which we behave. This then leads to a further change in priorities that we hold on to which then results in that life obviously displaying that it has forgotten that it has been cleansed from the former sins. How does Peter approach these Christians in this sort of state, tell them to try harder, to pull their spiritual socks up, no. He simply reminds them of these divine qualities that they have from their Father in heaven, all things pertaining to a life of godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence.

Consistent focus for the believer is vital for living the Christian life with joy and encouragement, but the focus that we are to have is not just of the future but also of the past. The first commandment is a commandment calling on the memory of God’s people.

Busyness

2009-08-12T09:06:00.000-07:00

HOW BUSY ARE YOU?

Have you ever considered what makes you busy? Are busy people busy because they have lots to do or are they busy because the things you do are self imposed? Here are some ideas people tend to live their life by.

“God helps those who help themselves” actually God helps those who cannot help themselves. Jesus said “ come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest”
“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”
3. “Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today”
4. “There are no gains without pains”
Busy Doing

Everybody has the same amount of time in the day, but every bodies day is different. For some of us our time is filled, by who we work for, by our hobbies, by the service we give to God. Some of us perhaps are busy doing nothing and others hoping they would be busy doing something.

Busyness Identifies Value

When we are busy it allow us to see what we consider to be the most important to us. For instance if we do one thing while something else needs doing, we have put a value of importance on both jobs and one always come out on top. What if the thing we should be busy with is the most important to someone else?

Wasteful Busyness

No of us think that what we do can ever be classed as wasteful busyness because what we do is considered important to us. But what if the thing we are busy with to day can be left till tomorrow, or the next day or even the next month?

Busy Resting

We probably don’t consider resting as something we should be busy with and yet resting is something God prescribed to Elijah when all he wanted to do was run away from everything.

“Hurry Sickness”

The cardiologist Meyer Friedman said and I paraphrase, “have you ever been irratited when you should of left ten minutes ago? Or because there was a queue at the supermarket till? Or even because someone took their time to get to the point they were making? [if the answers yes] you suffer from “hurry sickness”. The funny thing about hurry sickness is that sufferers often think they’re okay while those who are immune are portrayed as being sick.”

X-ray questions for the diagnosis of busyness

Do I regularly do more than I have to each day when there would be nothing wrong with leaving it?
Do your family or friends complain about not getting enough time with you?
If you find this week you have got a free evening, are you already planning how to fill it?
Do you have time to do things for fun that don’t need finishing”
Do you have enough time to read God’s word, and pray on your own and with the family?
If your in a family or household, do you eat together at least once a day?
If the answer is “yes” to the first three and “no” to the last three, then maybe you have a busyness problem.

GENERAL THEME TAKEN FROM TIM CHESTER’S BOOK

Full of something good

2009-08-12T09:05:00.000-07:00

Always on duty to help

2009-08-12T01:38:00.000-07:00

This will put a smile on your face if nothing else. I am sure that this child was told if your ever in need of help you know who to call.

Shaping Our Parenting Part one

2009-08-11T12:19:00.000-07:00

Shaping Our Parenting

1. What is it that makes a good parent? Well it depends who you ask.
According to culture then, what makes a good parent?
What a parent does? What attitudes they have?

2. Who sets the aims and objectives for our parenting?

3. It what way do you believe your parenting has been affected by friends and family?

4. How is our parenting shaped by our children’s behaviour? Or is our parenting shaping our children?
Our children could always be coming under reactive parenting to their own behaviour rather than pro-active parenting. It is good to respond to our children with both instruction and correction, but could we be more pro-active in this area?

5. How much of our parenting is directed towards behaviour?
It’s possible for us to always find ourselves trying to change the behaviour by addressing the behaviour, rather than the cause of the behaviour.

THE GOSPEL

The pitfall for us would be to consider the Gospel as supplemental to our parenting rather than fundamental

Have a look at 2 Timothy Chapter 1v5 and 3v14

How has Timothy’s upbringing given him confidence in the Gospel?
What is the wonderful point to teaching the scriptures to our children?

Read Deuteronomy Chapter 6v1-7

Teaching the scriptures here highlight three important levels for us, which are
1. They are taught intentionally
2. They are taught formally
3. They are taught informally

What do we consider our children need the most?

These are some question not to make us feel that we are failing but to encourage us to think through how we are parenting.