The reality of death

The Programme & Talk Notes is available. As are these three talks:

1. The Shadow of Death: Exploring the experience of death (David Field)
2. People of Dust: The biblical doctrine of death (Steve Jeffery)
3. Yet Shall They Live! Christian faithfulness in a world of death (Steve Hayhow)

Classical, Christian & Cool?

Radio 4 Minutes

(Radio) 4 minutes of comic genius. Enjoy. 

Gospel perspective adjustment

Here's a perspective on life not often heard (I expect) in the Scottish Parliament:

And here is another perspective: 

“Let me entreat you to be far from the thoughts of leaving this land. I see it, and find it, that the Lord hath covered the whole land with a cloud in his anger; but though I have been tempted to the like, I had rather be in Scotland beside angry Jesus Christ, knowing He mindeth no evil to us, than in any Eden or garden on the earth.” [Samuel Rutherford]

More strong words from a Scot who was entranced by the person, the works and the promises of Jesus Christ.

Prior to 25 weeks here is how you do it ...

Lions Down Under

Looks like this must have been a load of fun to film:

How could they do that to a baby?

That is what people are saying after a newborn baby boy in China seems to have been flushed down a public toilet. 'How could the parents do that to a baby?'

But we should know exactly how they can do that to a baby. We are doing worse, not in extremely rare cases, but to a fifth of babies here in the UK:

In 1967, the Abortion Act came into force, resulting in a huge surge in the number of abortions performed in the UK. The ratio of abortions to life births increased from 1 in 46 in 1966 to 1 in 3.8 in 2010. That's right, for every four children that make it as far as the delivery room, one was deliberately killed in the womb. Next time see a handful of kids playing in the park, spare a thought for the one who never got the chance. [this comes from Steve Jeffrey's blog post: The Truth about Life Expectancy]

And all off this hot on the heels of the conviction of Dr Kermit Gosnell in the States. The moral high ground is not geographically located in the 'West' on this one. 

A Case Study in Conformism

Brendan O'Neill writes perceptively in this article about the intellectual and rhetorical landscape of the last decade's so called 'debate' over same-sex marriage. You might say he writes bravely even. And that, really, is his point. 

In the course of his piece he quotes Christopher Caldwell's paper 'Gay Rites':

 ‘Public opinion does not change this fast in free societies. Either opinion is not changing as fast as it appears to be, or society is not as free.’

Mmmm.  

Counterfeit Gods

Looking forward to this.

Demons defeated

Nice animation of Mark 5:1-20. I'll be using this at eXcel on Wednesday. 

Science Fiction

I was reading about idols as objects of mockery this morning in Jeremiah 10:15. 

And then this video shows up on my youtube page.

Huh! The idol of history (amongst others) gets what is coming!

Joseph Poulton Interview

Joseph on ITV Calendar! Nice advert for CATS!

click to link to the video ( I couldn't work out how to embed it!)

reMARKable

Easter Sunday 10.30am

Magical!

If you haven't seen it already, go and see CATS! 

It is on tour at the moment. And at it's The Grand till the weekend. 

Mr Mistoffelees is especially Magical! 

Nice one Joseph Poulton! 

You can see him in action behind the scenes here:

corrupt beyond all hope?

So long as we are aware that we are wicked, we are not corrupt beyond all hope. Our present dissatisfaction with ourselves is a good sign. We have only to be careful that we do not get too disheartened and abashed to do anything about it. (p27 Creed or Chaos? )

snow chance

I couldn't resist building this when clearing the path this morning. 

Baptism won't save you

Or is anyone hearing this who is relying upon his or her baptism? I do not care whether you were baptized as an infant or whether you were grown-ip - it make not the slightest difference, if you are relying upon it. 

If you think that the act of baptism is the thing that saves you and puts you right, whatever you may be doing with your life, you are in the identical position of the Jews. As they relied on circumcision you are relying upon baptism, whether it is sprinkling or immersion, or anything else you make like - mode, again, it does not matter. 

Anyone who relies upon it, and upon it alone, is in the position of the Jew who was relying upon circumcision. [see Romans 2:25-29]

 (p156  Romans: 1 to 3: 20 - The Righteous Judgement of God An Exposition of Chapters 2 - D.M Lloyd-Jones )

helping parents not to parent

The view seems to be that it’s just about all right for women to give birth, but after that can we please separate them from their young as soon as possible, for the sake of the economy?

Peter Hitchens at his spicy best giving the 'narrative' of how men have again stuffed up women, but this time with the help of women (feminism). Read the article here.

Dave Thomas is to thank for putting me onto it in his own piece responding to the recently proposed £1200 'gift' to working mums (it is here and well worth a read). 

Does God care what we eat?

Emma Scrivener on 4thought. 

Does God really care what we eat?

Singing with saplings

This morning's car journey was huge fun. I just massively enjoyed singing along to Songs for Saplings Vol 1 (we got through 7 songs in a 20 min journey). 
Truly these CD's are one colossal blessing ... fun and formative. Child friendly but in no way childish. 
In days of unsteady economics an investment truly worth making (digital download is $5 per album! So not even an investment - A BARGAIN!).  

Dave Thomas has helpfully blogged about the whole series.