In a recent interview, Christopher Hitchens, the fervent atheist and author of God Is Not Great, showed he has a much clearer understanding of what it means to be a Christian than the Unitarian minister interviewing him.
Marilyn Sewell: The religion you cite in your book is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I'm a liberal Christian, and I don't take the stories from the scripture literally. I don't believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make a distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?
Christopher Hitchens: I would say that if you don't believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you're really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.
Marilyn Sewell: Let me go someplace else...
Full interview: HERE
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Colin Buchanan Kid's Concert
Get you tickets asap for the Colin Buchanan Concert at Cathcart Trinity Church, Clarkston Rd Glasgow on Wed 10th March, 6.30pm. Tickets - 0794 0954 105
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Broken Down House (2)
Some more words of wisdom from Tripp....
We all tend to be quite adept at ignoring our own sin while being highly sensitised to the sin of others. It is hard for us to receive the loving criticism, confrontation, and rebuke of others because we tend to think of ourselves as more sanctified than we really are. (p35)
There will war in your heart between what the Bible has to say about you and what you like to think is true about you. ... That is why we get defensive when someone points out our sin and weakness. I become defensive when what people say about me doesn't agree with my view of myself. It feels like I am being misjudged.
This is why I need to remember constantly that the Bible is the world's best diagnostic tool. (p36)
No matter what I face in this fallen world, my greatest problem in life exists inside of me and not outside of me. (p37)
So yes, you are a sinner... But you are more than a sinner. You are also a child of grace. (p41)
Grace will confront you with the fact that you are much less than you thought you were, even as it assures you that you can be far more than you had imagined. Grace will put you in your place without ever putting you down. (p42)
The power that God gives me is not a thing. God gives me a Person. To provide for me the strength I need to live in the way he has designed, God gives me the only thing that can truly help me. He gives me Himself. The Spirit of God unzips me and gets inside me, enabling me to desire, think, do, and say the things that fit within the boundaries of his plan and purpose for me (See Galatians 2:20 and Ephesians 3:20). (p46)
My identity as sinner daily confronts me with how deep and pervasive my need actually is. My identity as a child of child confronts me with how expansive my potential actually is. (p47)
We all tend to be quite adept at ignoring our own sin while being highly sensitised to the sin of others. It is hard for us to receive the loving criticism, confrontation, and rebuke of others because we tend to think of ourselves as more sanctified than we really are. (p35)
There will war in your heart between what the Bible has to say about you and what you like to think is true about you. ... That is why we get defensive when someone points out our sin and weakness. I become defensive when what people say about me doesn't agree with my view of myself. It feels like I am being misjudged.
This is why I need to remember constantly that the Bible is the world's best diagnostic tool. (p36)
No matter what I face in this fallen world, my greatest problem in life exists inside of me and not outside of me. (p37)
So yes, you are a sinner... But you are more than a sinner. You are also a child of grace. (p41)
Grace will confront you with the fact that you are much less than you thought you were, even as it assures you that you can be far more than you had imagined. Grace will put you in your place without ever putting you down. (p42)
The power that God gives me is not a thing. God gives me a Person. To provide for me the strength I need to live in the way he has designed, God gives me the only thing that can truly help me. He gives me Himself. The Spirit of God unzips me and gets inside me, enabling me to desire, think, do, and say the things that fit within the boundaries of his plan and purpose for me (See Galatians 2:20 and Ephesians 3:20). (p46)
My identity as sinner daily confronts me with how deep and pervasive my need actually is. My identity as a child of child confronts me with how expansive my potential actually is. (p47)
Monday, March 01, 2010
Broken Down House
Broken Down House - Living Productively in a World Gone Bad (Paul David Tripp, Shepherd Press 2009)
Currently reading this book - excellent pastoral insight in a very readable format. A few quotes that may inspire you to order for yourself....
The world you live in is a lot like a broken down house. Every room has been dirtied and damaged by sin. Not one part of it shines with anything like the pure glory that was so evident when it was first made. Sin has left this world in a sorry condition. You see it evereywhere you look. (p17)
Sometimes you get tired of the effort it takes to live in a broken down house, and you just want to quit. At every point and every moment, your life is messier and more complicated than it really ought to be because everything is so much more difficult in such a terribly broken world. (p17)
You often find yourself dreaming of what it would be like to live in house that needed no restoration, and you wonder if the job will ever be completed. You want to hold onto the promise of everthing eventually being fixed, but it's hard. You want to rest, but there's work to do. You want to escape, but you can't - this is your house and you have to live in it. (p18)
Currently reading this book - excellent pastoral insight in a very readable format. A few quotes that may inspire you to order for yourself....The world you live in is a lot like a broken down house. Every room has been dirtied and damaged by sin. Not one part of it shines with anything like the pure glory that was so evident when it was first made. Sin has left this world in a sorry condition. You see it evereywhere you look. (p17)
Sometimes you get tired of the effort it takes to live in a broken down house, and you just want to quit. At every point and every moment, your life is messier and more complicated than it really ought to be because everything is so much more difficult in such a terribly broken world. (p17)
You often find yourself dreaming of what it would be like to live in house that needed no restoration, and you wonder if the job will ever be completed. You want to hold onto the promise of everthing eventually being fixed, but it's hard. You want to rest, but there's work to do. You want to escape, but you can't - this is your house and you have to live in it. (p18)
God is not satisfied with the state of this house, and he calls us to share his holy dissatisfaction. In our hearts he wants dissatisfaction and hope to kiss... He wants us to face how bad things really are, not as survivalists, but as restorers. (p20)
Do you wish you didn't have so many problems on your plate? Does it bug you that even the easy things in life don't turn out to be nearly as easy as you thought they would be? Are there problems in your past that still haunt you? Do you regularly face difficulties you sought to solve, but which still lie open and festering? Have you ever envied someone else's life? Have you ever wished you could start over in some area of life, but you know you can't? Have you ever felt too weak and unqualified to deal with what is confronting you? Does your life seem to move too fast for you ever to be able to catch up? Has there ever been a day in your life that was fundamentally problem free? (p24)
...the Bible is a book about this world. It is a gritty, honest book. When we read Scripture, we face the world as it actually is, in big screen high-def detail. God doesn't pull any punches. He doesn't paint over any cracks. He doesn't flatter or avoid. There is no denial of what is real and true.
The sights and soundas of the Bible are familiar. They are the sights and sounds of the very same broken world you and I wake up to everyday. (p26)
Last week your boss gave you your walking papers, or your teenager rebelled in your face, or you were diagnosed with a disease, or a tree fell on your garage, or your best friend gossiped about something you said in confidence, or your aging body ached, or your church disappointed you again, or you pulled your back out, or your vacation proved to be more work than retreat... you learned that someone stole your identity, or you felt drawn to something you knew was wrong.
Last week you encountered the world as it really is: broken. How did you do? (p31)
More quotes to follow...
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
The Gospel According to Brian
Brian McLaren is a leading figure in the Emergent Church movement. Claiming evangelical credentials he has steathily being distancing himself from evangelical beliefs for many years now - with the encouragement that others should do the same. His latest book continues this trend away from Biblical foundations...
Kevin De Young has reviewed the book HERE.
Anyone wanting to know where questioning and ditching unpopular Biblical doctrines ends up taking you - or who has a pastoral concern for protecting the church from false teaching should take time to read it.
As De Young says....
Brian McLaren is on a quest—“a quest for new ways to believe and new ways to live and serve faithfully in the way of Jesus, a quest for a new kind of Christian faith”. On this quest, McLaren raises and responds to ten questions.
Some may be thinking, “What’s wrong with this new kind of Christianity?”
Well, as it turns out, pretty much everything.
Kevin De Young has reviewed the book HERE.
Anyone wanting to know where questioning and ditching unpopular Biblical doctrines ends up taking you - or who has a pastoral concern for protecting the church from false teaching should take time to read it.
As De Young says....
Brian McLaren is on a quest—“a quest for new ways to believe and new ways to live and serve faithfully in the way of Jesus, a quest for a new kind of Christian faith”. On this quest, McLaren raises and responds to ten questions.
Some may be thinking, “What’s wrong with this new kind of Christianity?”
Well, as it turns out, pretty much everything.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Paying God Forward
At the heart of the Gospel is the truth that salvation is a gift – it cannot be earned and we certainly don’t deserve it. Grace is the heartbeat of the Christian’s relationship with God – Jesus has done it all, as an old hymn says…
Nothing either great or small -
Nothing, sinner, no;
Jesus did it, did it all,
Long, long ago.'
It is finished!' yes indeed,
Finished every jot:
Sinner this is all you need -
Tell me, is it not?
Till to Jesus' work you cling
By a simple faith,
'Doing' is a deadly thing -
'Doing' ends in death.
Cast your deadly 'doing' down -
Down at Jesus' feet;
Stand in Him, in Him alone,
Gloriously complete.
God’s love & acceptance of us is not conditional on any moral attainments or spiritual performance on our part – it just is, or rather, it just is in Jesus. Paul in Romans 6:1 anticipates the objection that inevitably follows such a statement – so if salvation isn’t about what I do – then let the sinning commence! But among the many reasons and motivations for giving ourselves to Christ-like living let me highlight the idea of ‘Paying God Forward’.
Why do (good) parents look-after, care for and love their children? Because they are hoping for some kind of payback or some reciprocal benefit from those children? Of course not, they love, care & attend because it instinctive to do so – their motivation is love rather than quid pro quo. Actually any notion of quid pro quo between parents and children is a pipe-dream. How could children ever really repay the hours of time, sacrifice & effort devoted to them by parents?
No, good parents devote themselves to their children unconditionally – with no agenda of self-gain. They do, however, extend their love and care in hope – the hope that rather than being 'paid back' they might be ‘paid forward’. That is, that their children will mature and grow-up to extend to others (e.g. their own children in turn) something of the love, care and kindness that has been shown to them.
So with God – the Christian life is not to pay God back (impossible!) but to pay Him forward. To show to others something of the love that Christ has shown to us – and like good human parents, God our Father is never so pleased and honoured when we do.
Nothing either great or small -
Nothing, sinner, no;
Jesus did it, did it all,
Long, long ago.'
It is finished!' yes indeed,
Finished every jot:
Sinner this is all you need -
Tell me, is it not?
Till to Jesus' work you cling
By a simple faith,
'Doing' is a deadly thing -
'Doing' ends in death.
Cast your deadly 'doing' down -
Down at Jesus' feet;
Stand in Him, in Him alone,
Gloriously complete.
God’s love & acceptance of us is not conditional on any moral attainments or spiritual performance on our part – it just is, or rather, it just is in Jesus. Paul in Romans 6:1 anticipates the objection that inevitably follows such a statement – so if salvation isn’t about what I do – then let the sinning commence! But among the many reasons and motivations for giving ourselves to Christ-like living let me highlight the idea of ‘Paying God Forward’.
Why do (good) parents look-after, care for and love their children? Because they are hoping for some kind of payback or some reciprocal benefit from those children? Of course not, they love, care & attend because it instinctive to do so – their motivation is love rather than quid pro quo. Actually any notion of quid pro quo between parents and children is a pipe-dream. How could children ever really repay the hours of time, sacrifice & effort devoted to them by parents?
No, good parents devote themselves to their children unconditionally – with no agenda of self-gain. They do, however, extend their love and care in hope – the hope that rather than being 'paid back' they might be ‘paid forward’. That is, that their children will mature and grow-up to extend to others (e.g. their own children in turn) something of the love, care and kindness that has been shown to them.
So with God – the Christian life is not to pay God back (impossible!) but to pay Him forward. To show to others something of the love that Christ has shown to us – and like good human parents, God our Father is never so pleased and honoured when we do.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
MUSINGS FROM MULLIN
From A View From The Foothills - the diaries of Chris Mullin, MP for Sunderland and a junior minister during the Blair years. Have been struck that a number of his observations on politics could also be applied (good or bad) to the church... I post them as no more than food for thought.
WESTERN CHURCH LEADERSHIP?
What kind of politician am I? Had I been asked when I first went into Parliament, I might gibly have replied that I saw it as my mission 'to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable'. But over the years I learned that there is a more to politics than that. If you are to stand a chance of changing very much for the better, you have to be capable of forming a government and to do that you have to take with you a swathe of the comfortable. It follows, therefore, than in an age of majority affluence, any serious politician has to spend a fair amount of time attending to the needs of the comfortable. (p.xii)
EXACTLY HOW THE CHURCH FEELS
To Harrow to deliver my 'Why Politics Matters' speech to about 50 sixth-formers.... Most of the questions were depressingly predictable. (Sample: 'Why is New Labour so obsessed with gays and fox hunting? Answer: 'We're not, but you seem to be.') (p.154)
MANAGEMENT SUFFOCATION
A valedictory message from one FCO Ambassador - Perpetual re-examination, renaming and reprioritising take their toll. Too much of our effort has gone into managing and studying ourselves with the result that the tools of our trade have rusted and bilateral relations have been downgraded. Substance is giving way to process. (p.517)
THE COMMITMENT-PHOBIC GENERATION
My agent, Kevin Marquis is quoted: 'When I joined the Labour Party, aged 19, I was one of the youngest members. I am now 41 and still one of the youngest.' (p96)
WHERE DID THE THEOLOGIANS GO?
The Cabinet, say Bruce (who has been a fly on the wall at Cabinet meetings for eight years), is composed mainly of people who are average. I challenged this on the grounds (a) that he and I were average and (b) that the world is forever being screwed up by brilliant people. He immediately conceded. 'What I mean is that so many of them have no discernable politics.' Those Bruce rates include Margaret Beckett, David Blunkett, Alan Johnson, John Prescott, John Reid and Jack Straw. The rest he dismisess as managerial types - capable, efficient, but without an idealogical anchor. (p526)
WESTERN CHURCH LEADERSHIP?
What kind of politician am I? Had I been asked when I first went into Parliament, I might gibly have replied that I saw it as my mission 'to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable'. But over the years I learned that there is a more to politics than that. If you are to stand a chance of changing very much for the better, you have to be capable of forming a government and to do that you have to take with you a swathe of the comfortable. It follows, therefore, than in an age of majority affluence, any serious politician has to spend a fair amount of time attending to the needs of the comfortable. (p.xii)
EXACTLY HOW THE CHURCH FEELS
To Harrow to deliver my 'Why Politics Matters' speech to about 50 sixth-formers.... Most of the questions were depressingly predictable. (Sample: 'Why is New Labour so obsessed with gays and fox hunting? Answer: 'We're not, but you seem to be.') (p.154)
MANAGEMENT SUFFOCATION
A valedictory message from one FCO Ambassador - Perpetual re-examination, renaming and reprioritising take their toll. Too much of our effort has gone into managing and studying ourselves with the result that the tools of our trade have rusted and bilateral relations have been downgraded. Substance is giving way to process. (p.517)
THE COMMITMENT-PHOBIC GENERATION
My agent, Kevin Marquis is quoted: 'When I joined the Labour Party, aged 19, I was one of the youngest members. I am now 41 and still one of the youngest.' (p96)
WHERE DID THE THEOLOGIANS GO?
The Cabinet, say Bruce (who has been a fly on the wall at Cabinet meetings for eight years), is composed mainly of people who are average. I challenged this on the grounds (a) that he and I were average and (b) that the world is forever being screwed up by brilliant people. He immediately conceded. 'What I mean is that so many of them have no discernable politics.' Those Bruce rates include Margaret Beckett, David Blunkett, Alan Johnson, John Prescott, John Reid and Jack Straw. The rest he dismisess as managerial types - capable, efficient, but without an idealogical anchor. (p526)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)