The mission of the church

Check out this definition of the church’s mission.
‘The Church’s commission, which is the foundation of its freedom, consists in this: in Christ’s stead, and so in the service of his own Word and work, to deliver to all people, through preaching and sacrament, the message of the free grace of God.’
That’s it.  That’s the mission [...]

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Pollutants or Prayer? What changes the climate?

Ok, I’ll get off the subject soon enough.  Just a little test for us all, inspired by Heather’s comment.
“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My Name humble themselves, [...]

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How can I be sure of climate heaven?

Imagine you’re in a conversation with someone of another religion.  At some point you might ask them: “Are you sure of heaven/Valhalla/getting beamed to the mother ship?”  (delete as appropriate).
This is a good question because no other god actually saves.  They might talk a big game but they can’t be counted on to do the [...]

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The world uniting to save itself

the coming carbon race must be driven by a collaborative effort to achieve collective salvation.
From the Guardian editorial, today published on its front page and shared among 56 other international publications.
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We’ve got the whole world in our hands

Walking through a London train station yesterday I had to weave my way through hundreds of protestors.  Their favourite placard seemed to be this one:
photo from here
The message reads: Our climate is in our hands.  And at least 20 000 gathered in the capital to remind us of this: we’ve got the whole world in [...]

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Robbie Williams on the scope and effect of the atonement

If Jesus really died for me /             Then Jesus really tried for me
Bodies
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How do you say the first line with conviction without the second line sounding like a well-meaning but ineffectual gesture?  That’s at the heart of the debate between limited and universal atonement.  Well put Robbie.
Pity the song’s rubbish.
I like the way Peter put [...]

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Anthropogenic?

There’s a mouthful of a word.
Perhaps we’re aware of the term ‘anthropogenic’ to describe climate change?  The climate is changing – climate always does – the question remains, is man (anthropos) the cause (genesis)?
A lot of people say yes.  Some say no.
This guy says “maybe… some… but that’s not really the issue.”
[...]

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Flavia Cacace is Astroboy

Few people will know both Astroboy and Strictly Come Dancing.  But for those who do… the comparison cannot be denied.
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God’s Eye View

Some say Google have gone too far – publishing all our books, taking all our pictures, messing with the space-time continuum…  But I’m grateful for these images.
The Cross
 
Crossing the Red Sea
 
 
Noah’s Ark
 
The Garden of Eden.
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Isn’t the cross picture amazing?
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All created by these people.
Who also produced this

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If we have food and clothing we will be content with that…

A 2007 print media campaign for Cordaid: ‘People in Need’. 
 
Go here for full images.  H/T Mark Meynell
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Razor tongued journalism

Enjoyed reading this far too much.
Every night, [Simon Cowell, creator of The X-Factor / American Idol] paces the empty corridors of his monochrome mansion, worrying whether he has calibrated correctly the mix of trainwrecks/ugly nightingales/Iraq-based backstories, or whether something – somewhere – is askew. Will one mistimed child teardrop in episode three be the Toto [...]

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Jesus is LORD

I’m watching Lionel Richie sing ‘Jesus is LORD’ at the concert to commemorate a JW turned Muslim.
What the?
 
UPDATE:  Just found out the song is ‘Jesus is love’.  Lyrics here.  Still interesting.

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Chicklit is not porn for women

Chicklit and chick flicks are not pornography for women, pornography is pornography for women.
Ros Clarke writes on the two-fold error of saying popular romance functions as porn for women. 
A) One in three visitors to porn sites are women.
B) Stop dissing romance – it’s at the very heart of the gospel!
She says it much better though – [...]

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“My Body Hell”

Last night I caught the end of a wonderful documentary about Marlie Casseus from Haiti.  She suffers from a rare disease called Polysostotic Fibrous Dysplasia.  A 16-pound growth overwhelmed her whole face to point she could barely breathe and was about to go blind.
She was ostracized by her community – many considering her to be [...]

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How to sum up evangelicalism worldwide

John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge describe the spreading evangel in their Saturday Times article:  “God is back: How Ned Flanders won the evangelical crusade“.
Virtually everywhere in the developing world fiery preachers are preaching a faith that would appeal to Ned Flanders: live your life according to God’s law, read the Bible as the literal word of [...]

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Comedy and Christianity audio

Here tis
Lots of other posts on the topic here.
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Comedy leftovers – Self lightly, God seriously

 
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Here’s the audio of my talk on the subject
All this began here.
Then I had some initial thoughts on the usefulness of comedy here
There’s an excellent CS Lewis quote here
Here is a very expanded early version of the talk: part one, part two, part three, part four.
Then some follow up thoughts on blasphemy here and here.
 
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One more thing on blasphemy…

… Interesting that the city clerk of Ephesus did not consider Paul to have blasphemed Artemis, their goddess. (Acts 19:37)  Along with strong and clear proclamation, Paul was obviously respectful in a way that gained the notice of the pagans.
Just something to bear in mind as we speak about other religions.
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Comedy leftovers – blasphemy

After my comedy and christianity talk I was asked a question on blasphemy.  I had a Romans 2 quote up my sleeve which a) wasn’t much of an answer and b) I forgot on the day.  So here are a few extra thoughts.  To be honest I don’t really know about blasphemy – any ideas [...]

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Comedy and Christianity – draft 4

…And so idolatry is not the way back to paradise, and neither is worldly success and neither even is biblical religion. All those ways are ridiculous. Here is the way back to paradise – it’s the LORD Jesus Himself.And this is the very deepest irony of the bible – the very deepest irony of the [...]

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Comedy and Christianity – draft 3

As I close let me highlight three ways the bible says we try to get back to paradise, all of which the bible ridicules.
First is we redefine God. It happened as soon as Adam and Eve disbelieved the LORD. The devil said ‘Are you really going to let the LORD be God?’ And we constantly [...]

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Comedy and Christianity – draft 2

Here’s my central contention:
Comedy is serious. And Christianity is comedic.
Now maybe that’s a shocking shift in perception for you – in some ways I hope it is. But that’s my contention: Comedy is serious. And Christianity is comedic. The bible is comedic. The Christian message is comedic:
I mean that in two senses.
In the classical sense [...]

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Comedy and Christianity – draft 1

I’m giving an evangelistic talk on the above subject on Thursday.  I have way too much material and I’m toying with tackling it from a totally different angle – but, well.  Here’s some stuff that I have at the moment and maybe you can help me.  I’ll lay out what I’ve got in installments and [...]

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CS Lewis on Comedy

On Thursday I’m going to speak about Comedy and Christianity (see here and here).
The Screwtape Letters is itself a wonderful argument for the positive Christian use of comedy.  In fact I once heard John Cleese read the book on tape – hilarity itself! 
Lewis’ book consists of the letters of Screwtape, a senior demon, to his [...]

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Chasing after the wind

Matthew Syed in the Times today.  He writes about cyclist and Olympic Gold medalist Victoria Pendleton.  She has spoken of the tremendous let-down that follows even world-beating success.
…The Great Britain cycling team have always been up front about their raison d’être: winning Olympic gold is everything, all else is detail.
Pendleton worked harder than ever in [...]

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Comedy and Christianity

You thought the Busey Builder was disturbing.  What about this?

I fear that anyone who comes expecting either Reverend Horse-Teeth or actual comedy will be sorely disappointed. 
Nonetheless, the date and the title is set.  It’s an evangelistic gig.  The big question is – what on earth should I say?
Help gratefully received.
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We all have our creation stories

Just watched this documentary on the Large Hadron Collider: “The Big Bang Machine.” (BBC4) presented by Brian Cox.
 
Here’s an extract from around 4:20 – 7:20.   
Physics is stuck and the only thing left to do is recreate the universe as it was a fraction of a second after the big bang.  That’s [...]

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Why the West needs winning.

Thinking about the last post…
Why does Matthew Parris see God as the hope for Africa but not for Europe?
Well his diagnosis of Africa’s problems boils down to this: too much crushing passivity and collectivism.  And so…
Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the [...]

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All scientists are believers

Don’t believe me?  Check out this article which seeks to explain the fine-tuning of the observable universe.  (source: MetaCatholic).
Here’s a representative quotation:
Physicists don’t like coincidences. They like even less the notion that life is somehow central to the universe, and yet recent discoveries are forcing them to confront that very idea. Life, it seems, is [...]

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Sending our Man to the seat of power

I’m giving this short talk at a prayer meeting tonight
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in [...]

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