The Dry behind the Fence
“For those with water on tap and a weekly pay cheque it is worth considering the food on our plates, the fresh produce of a morning breakfast and the meat and three vegetables to which we are accustomed. All of this while dressed in cotton, looking forward to the heat of summer giving way to winter’s woollen warmth.
While many of us enjoy the privilege of another evening meal, the food bowl of our nation and region is struggling. While we drink freely, the farmer is on the verge of buying drinking water. While we eat, people on the land are spending what they often don’t have to buy fodder for the stock they may be unable to keep…”
– It’s very tough on the land, and Rick Lewers, Bishop of Armidale, encourages us to pray for rain and to be mindful of the farmers.
Calvin on ‘testing all things’
“I have long known that 1 Thessalonians 5.21 was one of Luther’s favourite verses. At least it is one which he keeps quoting again and again – ‘Test everything; hold on to what is good’. It is an encouragement to avoid both credulity (accepting without testing) and censoriousness (in the sense of always criticising and never settling on and delighting in the truth).
Luther’s words have often stiffened my resolve to avoid the censorship of ideas just because they are different from my own or seem to clash with my present convictions. …”
– Dr. Mark Thompson, Principal of Moore Theological College, writes at Theological Theology.
A slippery Bible?
Adrian Reynolds (Proc Trust) on the discussion between Steve Chalke and Andrew Wilson, shown on Premier TV in the UK –
“This is actually a helpful episode, because Andrew draws out from Steve what he really thinks… This is liberalism and nothing more.”
Related:
- Steve Chalke or the repentant Rosaria? Whose religious experience? – Mike Ovey.
- Confidence in God and the word he has given us – Mark Thompson.
- Restoring Confidence In The Bible? Let’s Start With Confident Pastors, Seminary Professors and Church Leaders – Colin Adams.
Frozen my way
“In 1624 a cathedral Dean wrote: ‘No man is an island, entire of itself, every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.’ which ends with the famous lines ‘And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.’
The relationship of the individual with the community is one of the ongoing tensions of life. To what extent is the individual sovereign and how much is the community sovereign?…”
– Phillip Jensen writes in his weekly column for the Cathedral.
An appreciation of Gerald Bray
“Three decades ago, in January 1984, the Church Society’s theological journal, Churchman, was relaunched under new leadership. At a moment of crisis within the Anglican movement, when confusion reigned about the authority and interpretation of Scripture, some were beginning to ask: ‘When does neo-evangelicalism become simply a new form of the old liberalism?’ (CEN, 6 May 1983). The Church Society council turned to a young tutor at Oak Hill College, Gerald Lewis Bray, to take a lead as Churchman’s new editor…”
– Andrew Atherstone commemorates 30 years of editorial oversight of Churchman by Gerald Bray in this appreciation. (PDF file.)
Steve Chalke or the repentant Rosaria? Whose religious experience?
“Who’s the most unlikely convert you have ever met? Of course, given the ravages of sin in our hearts and minds any convert is nothing short of a miracle, a new creation that only the original creator can bring about. All the same, there are some whose place in life seems to make it especially hard to hear the gospel, and when someone in that position does become a Christian, one stands amazed at the power of God’s grace in encountering them and bringing them home to himself.”
– Mike Ovey at Oak Hill College asks whose religious experience counts.
John Piper’s pleas to Pastors about money
Excellent advice from John Piper about the danger of loving money.
An Atheist becomes an evangelist… sort of
“Last week, sitting in a little pub in Dorset and about to sip my pint of Doombar, I was approached by the local vicar. He’d officiated at my daughter’s wedding last year and knew I was a Green, although he probably doesn’t know I’m an atheist.
He asked me if I had heard of the Diocese of Salisbury’s initiative called ‘Carbon Fast’…
I’ve never thought of myself as an evangelist, but now it suddenly makes sense.”
– Jenny Jones writes in The Telegraph.
More on the Carbon Fast here. And some thoughts from the Apostle Paul here and here.
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.
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.)
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.
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.)
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.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…