Archive for Life
May 17, 2008 at 04:47 PM · Posted under Life
Newbigin's characterisation of the fundamental difference between "fundamentalist" and "liberal" conceptions of spiritual truth and certainty set me thinking. (Essentially that liberals tend to be mired in subjectivism and the personal impact of belief and overlook the 'out there' reality that belief corresponds to, while fundamentalists tend focus almost exclusively on the 'out there' reality, with less thought of 'owning' the truth).
One result seems to be that the children of fundamentalists grow up more convinced of the truth of the gospel than committed to it. Unfortunately truth that was known but not loved was the basis for the most obnoxious manifestation of religious barbarism the world ever saw: it was the position of the pharisees who colluded to crucify Jesus.
What's the difference? Being convinced in your mind doesn't impact the heart or behaviour. Everyone knows, intellectually speaking, they're going to die - but almost everyone lives as though they're immortal.
Or to illustrate it another way, in Prison Break Season 1, both Michael Scofield and Paul Kellerman were certain of Lincoln Burrows' innocence. But Scofield was also committed.
In a world that has rejected truth, only those who love truth will have the courage and drive needed to speak it graciously or live it hopefully.
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May 09, 2008 at 02:34 PM · Posted under Life
When talking about the pathway to our contemporary western skepticism about truth.
...it seems to me that the fatal step was taken when it was supposed that there was available to us a kind of certainty about truth which could excuse use from the duty of taking personal responsibility for our beliefs.
Truth to Tell: The Gospel as Public Truth, Lesslie Newbigin
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April 24, 2008 at 06:19 PM · Posted under Life
... or mostly*, at least.
An excellent year, an excellent crew. And plenty of weather.
And no shower. (I'm rather proud of that. I managed to resist the lure of warm, free flowing, cleansing water at Hunter's Yard - making it the first Walrus Cruise I've been on without having a shower for about 8 years. If you've never been on the Walrus Cruise you won't understand what I'm talking about.)
Josh H - if you're reading this, I'm waiting for you to send me a link to your log blog.
* My washing machine has been groaning from a fairly continuous onslaught since my return: my Walrus fleece is the only outstanding garment requiring its attention.
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March 27, 2008 at 05:39 PM · Posted under Bible, Life
I'm reading through Integrity - Leading with God watching with a local pastor who is graciously making time in his busy schedule to correct, challenge, exhort, rebuke and encourage this arrogant young jerk. It's sobering reading - I've grown up in an ecclesiastical tradition which is high on abstraction and low on application. Integrity is quite the opposite: Jonathan writes with remarkable clarity as he highlights my favourite sins and failures, as well as the ones I hadn't even noticed. And rather than leaving me wallowing in a soup of navel-engrossed self-pity, he is challenging, insightful and hopeful in his application.
I've actually overcome my natural reverence of books and antipathy towards marking them in anyway and every chapter thus far has sentences underlined and notes in the margin. It's that good. And that relevant.
A few choice quotes thus far:
- Integrity, then, means a coherence in every area of life. (p19)
- When leaders at any level fail to live with integrity, the fallout is deadly serious. It poisons community, destroys trust, torpedoes a coherent and unified mission and, most seriously of all, betrays the cause of Christ's gospel and dishonours the God whom we serve. But when Christian leaders live their words, keep their promises, serve their community - in short, show us Jesus Christ - then Christian community is built and Christian mission in enhanced. (p20)
- Sincerity, consistency and reliability: failure to demonstrate integrity in these ways is quite possibly the most serious obstacle to any form of Christian ministry and, indeed, in the growth of God's work (p34)
- the greatest motivation to live a life of integrity arises from a sense of gratitude. (p36)
Buy. Read. Apply.
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March 13, 2008 at 08:45 PM · Posted under Life
That’s it really. She breathed her last about 3.20am on Tuesday 4th March. Now she’s with Jesus.
It’s hard, but it’s not like I won’t see her again.
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March 12, 2008 at 06:00 PM · Posted under Life
I bought a bed recently. In Havant. I walked into the shop, looked at the bed. Then I said to one of the employees: "May I purchase one of those beds please?" A rudimentary reading of my face would probably have shown that this was the first bed I've ever bought.
He took my order. He told me when it would be delivered. And he delivered it. And not once did he point out that it (a) didn't include a mattress, (b) he sold mattresses, (c) he could sell me a mattress.
I'd been brought up believing that most people have beds and mattresses in pairs: one bed with one mattress. I'm still wondering why he never offered to sell me one...
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October 27, 2007 at 11:13 AM · Posted under Bible, Life
3 top tips on bluffing your way through a bible study:
Rephrase the question
Everyone else will assume that you know the answer - that the answer is so obvious to you that you think someone else should have a chance instead…
e.g.
A: Who is this passage written to?
B: (Pauses) To put it another way, who is the author addressing in this passage?
Caveat: You do need to actually understand the question - otherwise you’ll look as though you’re trying to take over the bible study.
e.g.
A: Who is this passage written to?
B: (Pauses) Or, to put it another way, who is writing this passage?
Use long words
Particularly useful when someone tries to get you answer a question you don’t know. Say: “I was considering the X implications.” Where X can be soteriological, eschatological, didactic, ecclesiological, hagiological, epistemological, apocalyptic or any other word that sounds intimidating and that won’t be understood.
e.g.
A: What is Paul’s response to the captain of the ship?
B: Sorry - I was just pondering the apocalyptic implications of this passage.
Caveat: If your study leader or anyone else in the group understands the word, you will find yourself in hot water.
e.g.
A: How would you go about teaching this passage?
B: I was just considering the didactic implications…
The “Precious thought” response
You may have missed the question. You may have been asleep. You may have not even read the passage. So you pause, look upwards, smile slightly and say: “It’s a precious thought, isn’t it?”
e.g.
A: What are the backgrounds of these Corinthian Christians?
B: It’s a precious thought, isn’t it?
Caveat: If the topic in hand is judgement or sin related, you will sound harsh or sinful.
e.g.
A: Would you agree that one of the major problems faced by young people growing up in today’s culture, not far removed this Corinthian one, is the high degree of sexual immorality?
B: Yes. It’s a precious thought, isn’t it?
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September 10, 2007 at 07:48 PM · Posted under Life
David, my brother, and Richard, one of his friends from Uni, had a combined birthday bash on Saturday. Paintball & barbecue, held in an area of woodland owned by some friends of ours. (It was the same location and equipment he used for his stag do in July).
Except that girls were invited.
Our little sis, Emma, who is a mere 14 years of age, turned out to be a predictably fearsome fighter. She was a smaller target than the rest of us, but no less aggressive.
Alison, Richard’s wife, clearly knew how to handle a gun.
Pip - David’s wife - was the big surprise. She’s more or less vegetarian. She works in Human Resources. She is calm and peaceable. But on Saturday she had a gun in her hand. And we found that she was not immune to that almost universal human craving that results from holding a gun.
For most of the games the teams were fairly evenly matched - the only exception was a game where the team I was on (red) managed to come round behind the blue team and shoot them all before they had a chance to shoot any of us. By the third minute of the game, only the red team were left in play. That was a good game… :)
But not all the games went that way… I’m still recovering from the bruises.
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September 05, 2007 at 07:24 PM · Posted under Life
Last night I applied to join Gideons International - the organisation that is world-famous for stuffing hotels, hospitals and many more places with bibles.
Gideons operates in more than 180 countries worldwide & distributes 63 million bibles each year. It was founded in 1899 in America, 50 years before the first British branch which was started in Portsmouth in 1949.
Update
For the uninitiated, the title is a reference to AYBABTU.
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