‘Introducing God’ 2.0
Introducing God is back – in version 2.0. The updated series was launched at Village Church Annandale on Friday night.
Learn about the course here (just in time for Jesus Brings). And John Sandeman has a story at Eternity Newspaper.
An Unspiritual Church
“‘Spirituality’ is a term of great confusion today. Both inside and outside Christianity, people use the word in ways quite different to the Bible. This not only confuses Christians in what to expect from the Spirit of God but also confuses non-Christians about the work of God’s Spirit and the teaching of Christianity. For when Christians, in our confusion, misrepresent God’s word it is no surprise that non-Christians do not understand our message.”
– In his weekly column for the Cathedral, Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen looks at what makes a church ‘Spirit filled’ – and what doesn’t.
Challenges Gospel Ministers can expect
“What challenges lie ahead? The race this new generation is called to run will include several unavoidable challenges that will demand the highest level of biblical fidelity and theological courage, matched to keen cultural sensitivity and a deep love for human beings caught in the maelstrom of late modernity. …”
– Albert Mohler identifies several key challenges for all who are called to preach Christ.
I’d like an argument please
“Mortimer Adler, How to Read a Book:
You must be able to say, with reasonable certainty,
‘I understand,’
before you can say any one of the following things:
‘I agree,’ or
‘I disagree,’ or
‘I suspend judgment.’
For those who don’t do this, he says:
There is actually no point in answering critics of this sort. The only polite thing to do is to ask them to state your position for you, the position they claim to be challenging.…”
– Read the full (but brief) post by Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds.
Why are you doing what you are doing?
“A friend sent me a postcard once from his holiday destination with the inscription ‘Why are you doing what you are doing?” I asked myself that question recently while I was sitting in a lecture at the Australian Command and Staff College at Weston Creek, where I am posted as chaplain…”
– Moore College graduate Peter Friend, inaugural Chaplain at the Australian Defence College, shares why he is doing what he is doing. (Good point for prayer too.)
Scam alert
From Presiding Bishop of the Church of England in Southern Africa, Desmond Inglesby (pictured) –
“It has come to our attention that that there is a scam going around that attempts to use the identity of Bishop Desmond Inglesby and the Church of England in South Africa. …
The premise of the scam is an invitation from Presiding Bishop Desmond Inglesby to speak at a conference or seminar. It asks at the end to please begin correspondence with these people to an email address that looks like it belongs to the Presiding Bishop.”
A Trolling Tragedy
“The very recent and very tragic death of Charlotte Dawson has brought the terrors of cyber-trolling to the forefront of Australian hearts and minds yet again…”
– The Australian Church Record calls for “more virtuous social media interaction” in the wake of a terrible tragedy.
A relentlessly agreeable God?
“What would it be like to live in a world where no one ever disagrees with us? Initially it would seem idyllic, perfect even! …
What about a world where God never disagrees with us?”
– Mel Lacy at Oak Hill College in London asks the question (PDF) in the latest issue of Cross†Way.
The False Teachers: Pelagius
“Pelagius believed that man had not been entirely corrupted by Adam’s fall and that he could, by his own free will, do works that pleased God, and thus be saved.”
– In his new series on The False Teachers, Tim Challies turns to write about Pelagius.
Confidence in God and the word he has given us
“In the last few days Steve Chalke has done it again.
The 58 year old Baptist minister who pastors the Oasis Church in London is no stranger to controversy. He ignited a debate about penal substitution with his book (co-authored with Alan Mann), The Lost Message of Jesus in 2004. That book provoked a series of responses, the most substantial being Pierced for our Transgressions, edited by, amongst others, Dr Mike Ovey, the redoubtable Principal of Oak Hill College London. Then around this time last year, Chalke published in support of monogamous homosexual relationships with a two part article on ‘The Bible and Homosexuality’.
Now he has published an article questioning the truthfulness of everything in the Bible…”
– Moore College Principal Mark Thompson looks at Steve Chalke’s latest foray into controversy.
Sufficiency
“After spending the last 37 years of my life being a Christian pastor, 26 of those years training others to be pastors and missionaries, I have reached this conclusion…
– David Cook, Moderator General of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, writes about the sufficiency of Scripture. (You may need to scroll down – now updated but originally published on 17 February 2014.)
Happy 70th Birthday to Tyndale House
“70 years ago today, with the War still raging, Tyndale House was purchased for just 4,500 pounds Sterling to be established as a residential centre for biblical research.
Since then many hundreds of scholars have been supported and equipped through Tyndale House to serve the church. Around 300 PhD theses have been substantially written in our library. The Bible translations alone that have been produced by scholars who have spent time here have reached millions, and the impact of scholarship from Tyndale House has been global. We’re thankful to God for this and look to him for the future.”
– from an e-mail from Tyndale House in Cambridge.
A young Broughton Knox, then in the UK, was convinced of the worth of such an institution. According to the minutes of the meeting of the group that set up Tyndale House, the motion that it be a residential library and not simply a library, was moved by DBK.
See this video introduction to Tyndale House.
Why Follow Jesus?
“At the end of the rather amazing narrative in John 6 Jesus asks the twelve remaining disciples, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’
The context was that 5000 were following him at the beginning of the day but now the last of them has drifted off and only the original twelve remained.
Peter replies for the twelve, ‘Lord, to whom can we go?’ And his reason was, ‘You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know that you are the holy one of God’…”
– Bishop Paul Barnett reminds us who it is who has the words of eternal life.
The False Teachers: Arius
“This morning I am setting out on a new series of articles that will scan the history of the church – from its earliest days all the way to the present time – and pause to examine some of Christianity’s most notorious false teachers. …
We will begin this morning with one of the very first, and certainly one of the most dangerous, false teachers: Arius.” – Tim Challies begins a new series.
Paul’s Missionary Journeys
CleverWhat we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…