For What it’s Worth…

Our preacher said, on Easter, that Jesus just swooned on  the cross and that the disciples nursed Him back to health.  What do you think?

Sincerely,

Bewildered

…

Dear Bewildered:

Beat your preacher with a cat-of-nine-tails with 39 heavy  strokes, nail him to a cross; hang him in the sun for 6 hours; run a spear through his heart; embalm him; put him in an airless tomb for 36 hours and see what happens.

Sincerely,

Eutychus

See: 1 Cor 15:3-4

Preaching on Hope this weekend and in my research found a very blackly humourous website called despair.com – some of it is downright nasty but they had some great comments on blogging!  I post this as an occassional blogger myself… [Clayton wanted to get this as a T-shirt!]

Anyway, this is not the point of this post.  They have a great little short film on the site that is very thought provoking – I recommend it for a serious ponder.  Have a look at it – I think it is worth 6 minutes of your life – http://despair.com/more.html

Let us know what you think.  C

Worldliness; Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World,  edited by C J Mahaney,  has been sitting on my desk for a few weeks.  I decided that since it’s a collection from a number of authors,  I’d take it chapter by chapter,  rather than review the whole thing.  Chapter 1, Is This Verse In Your Bible, by C J Mahaney establishes the premise for the entire book.

“Today, the greatest challenge facing American (read “Western”) evangelicals is not persecution from the world, but seduction by the world.”

Quoting a Charles Spurgeon sermon from 1860, Mahaney demonstrates that the greater the distinctiveness between the church and the world, the greater the church’s witness. When the church and the world are indistinguishable, the church tends to fail in its mission.

The recent two talks on evangelism are now available to download in PDF and MP3 format.

How do we see evangelism the way God sees it – as part of his mission in the world that he graciously draws us into?  And how do we make the most of the opportunities we have to share the good news of Jesus?

Talk 1 is The Privilege of Evangelism from 2 Corinthians 5.
Talk 2 is The Practice of Evangelism from 1 Thessalonians 2:1 – 13.

Download the PDFs:
The Privilege of Evangelism
The Practice of Evangelism

Download the audio:   
The Privilege of Evangelism
The Practice of Evangelism

This is not a book review, as much as a notice of intended reviewing!

Voddie Baucham’s new book What He Must Be: if he wants to marry my daughter doesn’t seem to be available in Australia yet since it was only published 3 weeks ago.  With the poor state of the Australian dollar I’m reluctant to buy too many books online at the moment, so I’m keeping it to the bare necessities from Amazon, B & N, ChristianBook.com & Monergism Books!

Anyway, being that I’m a father of a daughter, the title of this book grabbed my attention instantly. (OK, so Heidi is only 3, but I like to be prepared!).  I’ve listened to a talk by Vodide Baucham about this topic (in fact, with this same title) and his assessment of what’s wrong with much of how relationships are established today is very sharp.  He doesn’t shy away from pointing out the dangers and pitfalls in common relationship patterns and behaviours, likening the exclusive intimate relationships between teenagers and young adults to going shopping without any money – “either you’re going to leave frustrated or take something that doesn’t belong to you!”  I’m pretty sure I’m going to like the book!

No doubt you’ve seen the comments in the media about the advertising campaign supported by the British Humanist Association and others, announcing “There’s probably no God.”

I think one of the wisest reflections on these attempts to deceive the public comes from the British theology thinktank Theos.  Their spokesman said, “Telling someone ‘there’s probably no God’ is a bit like telling them they’ve probably remembered to lock their door! It creates the doubt that they might not have. “

Anyway, if you want to have a go at making your own mock bus ads to combat the efforts of the Humanist Association, you can now do it on this site, just for fun!

Hi there – I thought that again the more silent partner should speak…

I would like to recommend two books that have helped me in recent times.  

The first is Atheism Remix by Albert Mohler Jnr.  Mohler is the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the US of A and is a theologian who likes to mix it with issues raised by the intersection and clash of Bible and culture.  In this little book [only a bit more than 100 pages, and small ones at that] Mohler goes head to head with the New Atheists – guys like Richard Dawkins [The God Delusion] and Christopher Hitchens.  He looks at the emergence of the New Atheists and why they are different [and more of a threat] to the older variety.  He looks at their arguments and two notable critiques of their ideas.  This is a very helpful little book as it lays out the debate in a simple, understandable manner.  Recommended for those rub shoulders with those who have read [or seen - "The Root of All Evil" showed as a documentary] Dawkin’s especially.

Registration forms available now!  Download.

Who are you?  Really?  Come on a journey through the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and get to the bottom of your real identity!
Basement Camp 09 is for students in years 8 – 12 at school and costs  $140 per person.
Please make sure your registration form is returned with your money by Sunday April 12.
See you at Encounters Conference Centre, Victor Harbor at 1:30 PM on April 20th!

If you’re learning our memory verses with us, you might like to use the computer desktop images we’re producing to help keep the Bible passages in front of you
Our first passage is Philippians 4:8.  Download the desktop image for your computer below.

Download: 1024 x 768,  1280 x 800,  1600 x 1200,  1680 x 1050,  1920 x 1200.

If you don’t know how to change your desktop background go here for Windows and here for Mac.

My copy of Ancient-Future Time was given to me by Lyndon Sulzberger, Rector of Christ Church, North Adelaide.  I think  Lyndon was politely trying to suggest my education in matters such as the ecclesiastical calendar is somewhat lacking!

Robert E. Webber (who died in 2007) was Emeritus Professor of Theology at Wheaton College and seems to have been motivated in his writing by the conviction that contemporary Evangelicalism is impoverished due to its insufficient rooting in early Christian traditions.  Indeed, it was this conviction that led him to take part in issuing “The Chicago Call” in 1977 stating that evangelicals had lost touch with church’s liturgical roots.  Here he seeks to take Christian spirituality back to its origins in Jewish spirituality which he feels will enrich the life of the modern Christian; “For the Jew to commemorate the past is not merely to recall it as a past event but to commemorate it in such a way that it gives the present new meaning.”  The book is therefore a call to what Webber calls “Christian-year” spirituality, where God’s saving action is presented to us time and time again through the practices of the Christian year celebrated by the church in its first centuries; in Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Pentecost.  The discussion of each of these historical events concludes with a prayer from one of the Church Fathers or the Book of Common Prayer.

This picture is really just a way of directing you to our friend Nathan Tasker’s blog.  He posted this picture last month, but his blog is actually quite serious!

Nathan is a singer songwriter based in Nashville, but has lots of friends at Trinity Hills.  He’s helped us celebrate lots of great occasions; Christmas services, special public events and the launch of a new gathering.

Head over to http://nathantasker.typepad.com/like_you_blog_me/ and check out Nathan’s reflections on music, life, American experiences (and chick flicks!).

If we are actually speaking truth … why isn’t anyone listening?

I’ve been reading Branding Faith by Phil Cooke.  To some in the church, the idea of branding is anathema,  but I suspect this is mostly due to misunderstanding the concept.  Branding is part of the reality within the church exists.  Cooke quotes a study which found that one in four babies, speaks a brand name as their first word!  This study, by British Market Research Bureau  is also quoted in a slightly alarming 2003 article in the SMH.

At the heart of the challenge laid out in the book is Cooke’s distillation of the definition of marketing: The art of surrounding a product, organisation or person with a powerful and compelling story.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is a powerful and compelling story, we don’t need to find it, or create it, just tell it!  The task seems to me to be local churches finding answers to the question, “how do we tell the powerful and compelling story of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our communities?”

I thought that as Clayton’s name was all over this blog and it claimed to be from “two guys”, I, the silent partner, had better speak up.

I have been working on “lust” this week – to be precise, before I get buried under your pastoral concern, I have been working on what Jesus says about it [Matthew 5.27-30] and why it is NOT GOOD.  Funny enough, the Basement group last night looked at the same passage last night.

What struck me this week was that sin can kill ‘Christians’.

Many of us love the great doctrines of grace, atonement,  predestination – and we rest our assurance on the work of Christ for us alone.  I stand ONLY on what Jesus did and NEVER on what I do.  But Jesus tells us that unless we are radical [in the sense of getting to the root] in dealing with our sin our eternal fate may be a bit hotter than we anticipate.  Does Jesus expect perfection – well [the good Anglican answer] yes and no.  Yes – “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”.  No – this is a goal we will not reach this side of judgement.  BUT IT MUST BE OUR GOAL

Tomorrow night at 5 PM Church I’ll be baptising Jemima, one of our youngest 5 PMers!
What exactly is it that we’ll be doing?

At the very end of Matthew’s gospel, we read the Jesus’ words “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:17 – 20) There are approximately 100 uses of the group of “baptism” words in the New Testament. What do we make of this somewhat strange little process?

Baptism is part of being a disciple of Jesus.
Don Carson says of Jesus’ words in Matthew 28, “the New Testament can scarcely conceive of a disciple who is not baptised or who does not receive instruction.” Wearing a fire-proof suit and a helmet won’t make me a racing driver, but if I’m a racing driver, I’ll wear a fire-proof suit and a helmet. That is to say, while someone isn’t made a disciple of Jesus simply by teaching them what Jesus has said and baptising them, someone who is a disciple of Jesus will be taught about Jesus and baptised.

Pastor and author Kent Hughes tells the following story: A number of years ago, a church in Dallas, Texas suffered a terrible split. Each of the two factions into which the members had drawn filed a lawsuit to claim the church property. A church court assembled to hear the case.
During the hearing, it was revealed that the conflict had begun at a church dinner when one of the church elders had received a smaller slice of ham than a child seated next to him. Sadly, this slight was reported in the city’s newspapers. Imagine how all the people of Dallas laughed about that situation! Such a display of disunity brought great discredit not only to what was left of that church, but also to Jesus Christ.