Is there a cure for Foreign AIDS?

An older man to younger men

This is a very stimulating 10 mins! 

Aging & Work: The Stages of a Mans Life from Canon Wired on Vimeo.

This is Jesus ... This Week

This is Jesus. 

And Katie will be there as a college guest. 

5 Ways to make your kids hate church

Rugby Union?

You'll be able to Calcutta the atmosphere with a knife come 5 pm today. 
Big day! 

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.

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.

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)

ears to hear

...by preaching in parables, Jesus is issuing a new sort of calling. He called Simon, Andrew, James and John by the sea [Mark 1:6-20] and then Levi [Mark 1:13-17] and then chose the twelve [Mark 3:13-19]. Now that those callings have been issued, He is teaching by the seashore, issuing a general call for those with ears to hear. (p86 The Victory According to Mark).

Social Media and the Christian

Some thoughts from Doug Wilson:

Vocabulary of LOL from Canon Wired on Vimeo.

Or John Piper's perspective: “One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the Last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time.” 

It smacks of ...

Smacking is in the news again this side of the pond thanks to Corrie. 
On the other side of the pond it seems that smacking is also taking a good hiding in Christianity Today. This is in the wake of some high profile cases where children have been murdered by their parents.
This blog post, in response, is one of the best I have read in a while on the smacking debate. All 'Evangelical' Christians should read it!
It begins: 

Knives are necessary to cut meat and bread. Every once in a while, knives are used to kill people. Can we all agree knives aren't the problem? Please? Pretty please?
The abuse of a thing does not invalidate its proper use.

It all puts me in mind of Goldie Lookin Chain's immortal song: 'Guns don't kill people, rappers do; I saw it in a documentary on Radio 2'. 
Anyway ... they are right. The Bayly Brothers not Goldie Lookin Chain. We in the UK need to hear what they are saying and seek God's help to act faithfully. 


HT Steve Jeffrey via Facebook.