Splat!

Rob had a photo appear briefly on the BBC website!

I worship the God of my fathers

I've just been put onto this book by Mark Driscoll on being a dad.
I have not read it yet, but I'd be suprised if it wasn't full of great insights and biblical truth.
And in any case it is only a 48 page pdf . And it is free! So not much to lose then.

HT: Pete

US eh?

Laziness: identifying characteristic #4

Irritating to others

As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes,
so is the sluggard to those who send him.
Proverbs 10:26

(Future Men, Ch 7)

Red with envy

All being well (?) my brother should have been doing this today.

I am looking forward to seeing his photos.

Laziness: indentifying characteristic #3

Foolishness

All hard work brings a profit,
but mere talk leads only to poverty.
The wealth of the wise is their crown,
but the folly of fools yields folly.
Proverbs 14:23-24

(Future Men, Ch 7)

Dropping clangers

'...theological writing that is not marked by love is but a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. It dishonours Christ. It does not build up the Church. It lacks the spiritual maturity and theological wisdom that expresses itself truthfully, clearly, precisely, and with a love that bears all things, believes all things, endures all things, and hopes all things. Therefore, Ecclesia Reformanda hopes to acknowledge legitimate Reformed diversity, and to serve as a forum for charitable, patient listening and debate that seeks to enable the community of God’s people to discern together the truth of God’s Word.'

I'm still reading er. What they are aiming for sounds very good, very healthy and very needed.

The Koran

I missed this Sunday Times article in which Sebastian Faulks, apparently (!) no lover of Christ, talks about his recent experience of reading the Koran.

It’s very one-dimensional, and people talk about the beauty of the Arabic and so on, but the English translation I read was, from a literary point of view, very disappointing.

There is also the barrenness of the message. I mean, there are some bits about diet, you know, the equivalent of the Old Testament, which is also crazy. But the great
thing about the Old Testament is that it does have these incredible stories. Of the 100 greatest stories ever told, 99 are probably in the Old Testament and the other is in Homer.

With the Koran there are no stories. And it has no ethical dimension like the New Testament, no new plan for life. It says ‘the Jews and the Christians were along the right tracks, but actually, they were wrong and I’m right, and if you don’t believe me, tough — you’ll burn for ever'. That’s basically the message of the book.

“Jesus, unlike Muhammad, had interesting things to say. He proposed a revolutionary way of looking at the world: love your neighbour; love your enemy; the meek shall inherit the earth. Muhammad had nothing to say to the world other than, ‘If you don’t believe in God you will burn for ever’.”

Bog standard ridicule and caricature of the OT.
But interesting to read an unbeliever's take on the Koran and praise for story!

Pause and rewind and can we see that again in slo mo.....?

'There is no single chronological order in human experience. Different people learn of events in different order, and this order may affect the significance of events for them.' (p10)

'Furthermore, control of time is an important interpretative technique in narrative. Narrators have frequently found it useful to guide readers by allowing them to anticipate certain events in advance and by encouraging them to reflect on them afterwards, thereby making possible a richer experience of these events than a strictly chronological account would provide.' (p10)

'Narrative is always selective, based on some interpretation of what is important. A completely objective chronology would not only be bound to clock time but would also have to devote equal attention to each minute of the day, which no narrator does. Nor would we listen long to such an account.' (p11)

'The narrative world which the reader must comprehend in order to appreciate the literary work does not begin with 'the days of King Herod' but stretches back at least to God's promises to Abraham.' (p18)

2-1

Well done England!

It is normal to be perfect

Sin is a disease, for it is not essential to mankind, nor an integral part of human nature as God created it. Man was never more fully and truly man than he was before he fell; and he who is specially called 'the Son of Man' knew no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; yet was he perfectly man. Sin is abnormal; a sort of cancerous growth, which ought not to be within the soul. Sin is disturbing to manhood: sin unmans a man. Sin is sadly destructive to man; it takes the crown from his head, the light from his mind, and the joy from his heart.

('Healing by the Stripes of Jesus' in 12 Sermons of Comfort and Cheer by CH Spurgeon, p4)

The sun was in my eyes

Laziness: identifying characteristic #2

Making excuses (that may well appear very 'rational' to him at the time!) to put off doing what needs doing now, or to justify work not done:

The sluggard says, ‘ There is a lion outside!’
or, ‘I will be murdered in the streets!’
Proverbs 22:13

but at the end of the day....

A sluggard does not plough in season;
so at harvest time he looks but finds nothing.
Proverbs 20:4

(Future Men, Ch 7)

Dot....Dot.....Dot

I have just started looking at the beginning of Luke with the help of Tannehill. He says some very helpful things though it has to be said that (at the moment) I am just finding my feet in this gospel!

'The reporting of unconnected events does not make a story, for a story is more than a string of incidents. In stories of the traditional kind, events take on meaning because they reveal purposes at work and represent movements towards fulfilment of a major purpose or obstacles which block fulfilment. Luke-Acts has a unified plot because there is a unifying purpose of God behind the events which are narrated, and the mission of Jesus and his witnesses represents that purpose being carried out through human action.' (p2)

Not EVEN the NHS can help here!

1. God in Infinite Mercy, Treats Sin as a Disease

'With his stripes we are healed'

'In great mercy he looks upon us with pity, and for the while treats our ill manners as if they were diseases to be cured rather than rebellions to be punished. It is most gracious on his part to do so; for while sin is a disease, it is a great deal more. If our iniquities were the result of an unavoidable sickness, we might claim pity rather than censure; but we sin wilfully, we choose evil, we transgress in heart, and therefore
we bear a moral responsibility which makes sin an infinite evil. Our sin is our crime rather than our calamity: however, God looks at it in another way for a season.'

('Healing by the Stripes of Jesus' in 12 Sermons of Comfort and Cheer - CH Spurgeon)