Tuesday 21 February 2012

Tuesday 14 February 2012

Free Sex - Who Pays?

Some cuddly thoughts for Valentine's Day here! A report by the Jubilee Centre (you can find it direct here) about the financial fallout of sexual sin would not be news to the writer of Proverbs: 

20 My son, keep your father’s command
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. 
21 Bind them always on your heart; 
fasten them around your neck.
22 When you walk, they will guide you; 
when you sleep, they will watch over you; 
when you awake, they will speak to you. 
23 For this command is a lamp, this teaching is a light, 
and correction and instruction are the way to life, 
24 keeping you from your neighbor’s wife, 
from the smooth talk of a wayward woman. 
25 Do not lust in your heart after her beauty 
or let her captivate you with her eyes.
26 For a prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread, 
but another man’s wife preys on your very life.
27 Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?
28 Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? 
29 So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; 
no one who touches her will go unpunished. 
30 People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving. 
31 Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold, 
though it costs him all the wealth of his house. 
32 But a man who commits adultery has no sense; 
whoever does so destroys himself. 
33 Blows and disgrace are his lot,
and his shame will never be wiped away. 
34 For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, 
and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge. 
35 He will not accept any compensation; 
he will refuse a bribe, however great it is.

Friday 3 February 2012

Churches Helping Churches

All of us are addicts


    If anything threatens your identity you will not just be anxious but paralyzed with fear. If you lose your identity through the failings of someone else you will not just be resentful, but locked into bitterness. If you lose it through your own failings, you will hate or despise yourself as a failure as long as you live. Only if your identity is built on God and his love can you have a self that can venture anything, face anything. . . . An identity not based on God also leads inevitably to deep forms of addiction. When we turn good things into ultimate things, we are, as it were, spiritually addicted. If we take our meaning in life from our family, our work, a cause, or some achievement other than God, they enslave us. We have to have them.

Thursday 2 February 2012

Who is this man?


He's the King of Kings,
He's the Lord of Lords,
He can heal the sick, 
He can calm the storm,
He's the Son of God, 
He can save us from sin
and He calls us to follow Him. 

Jesus met a man covered in disease, 
Knew he needed to be clean.
Jesus just touched him the disease was gone! 
(Only God could do that!)
Who is this Man?
He's the King of Kings ...

Jesus and his friends caught in a storm.
Lookin’ like they’re gonna drown.
Jesus yelled: “QUIET!” and the storm was calm. 
(Only God can do that!)
Who is this man?
He's the King of Kings ...

Jesus on a cross was crucified. 
Darkness covered all the land.
After three days Jesus rose again.
(Only God can do that!)
 Who is this man?
He's the King of Kings ...

(after final chorus)
Yes He calls us to follow Him. 
Are you gonna follow Him?

© 1998 Plainsong Music Ph: 1800 688874 www.plainsong.org.au    

He Must Be God


Lyrics to He Must be God


1. Jesus healed a paralysed man Who was brought to him.
Jesus healed him, so he could show: He forgives our sin.


How cool is that!
How cool is that!
He told the man to pick up his mat 

He must be God
If he did that,
How cool is that!



2. Jesus calmed a terrible storm While he was at sea.
Jesus calmed it, so he could say "Fear not, trust in me."



How cool is that!
How cool is that!
He spoke a word - the waves went dead flat 

He must be God
If he did that,
How cool is that!


3. Jesus fed a very big crowd Who'd no food to eat.
Jesus fed them, so he could show He's all that we need.



How cool is that!
How cool is that!
From all the bread you'd almost get fat 

He must be God
If he did that,
How cool is that!



© 2003 Words: Bryson Smith Music: Philip Percival Emu Music Australia Inc.
emu.mu • emumusic.com.au 

The sin of doing good


taken from theresurgence 
    Sin is the despairing refusal to find your deepest identity in your relationship and service to God. Sin is seeking to become oneself, to get an identity apart from him. . . . Most people think of sin primarily as “breaking divine rules,” but .... the very first of the Ten Commandments is to “have no other gods before me.” So, according to the Bible, the primary way to define sin is not just the doing of bad things, but the making of good things into ultimate things. It is seeking to establish a sense of self by making something else more central to your significance, purpose, and happiness than your relationship to God.

Wednesday 1 February 2012

Parables in the Old Testament

The evidence from the Old Testament indicates that parables are reserved for times of judgement. The singer of Psalm 78 says that he will speak a parable or dark saying (Psalm 78:2) and then he goes on to speak of Israel's sins and judgements that fell on her because of them. Nathan tells David a parable because of David's sin and God's looming judgement on him (2 Samuel 12:1). Gideon's son Jotham told a parable to the men of Shechem because they had chosen the mass-murderer Ambimelech to be their King, and he was prophesying that they would come under judgement for killing all of his brothers (Judges 9:1-21). Ezekiel tells the parables of judgment against Israel (Ezekiel 17, 24). Corresponding to this, Jesus tells his disciples that he is speaking in parables because Israel is again in a time of judgment. He appeals to the prophecy of Isaiah and the impending judgment in his time to explain the situation (Isaiah 6:9-12) (p87-88 The Victory According to Mark)