2008 Winner of NYC Tropfest

 

Watch. It’s good.

Thinking about church, why can’t we continue to preach the gospel fearless and show stuff like this (maybe not this exactly, but you get my drift)?

Prophets are never, ever liked.

Check this out – here is a collection of clips from Peter Schiff the American economist who from 2006 has been predicting the current economic crisis and predicting it based on the exact reasons for which it has recently colapsed. 

Check out how people treated him back then. Actually, considering how much of an absolute disaster the past 2 months has been note the responses of his critics at 1:20, 3:05 & 7:05

Study break

I’ve been sitting at my desk this morning studying OT textual criticism. So, I’ve been reading lots about how we get our OT text – how many variations are there in the Hebrew, where has the actual text come from etc, etc. Sort of cool, but in another sense kinda dry. 

So, whilst studying I’ve been listening to a bit of Michael Card. He is basically one of the best Christian singer/song writers who has ever lived. People are turned off him, cause his sound does have an 80’s feel to it. But regardless of that – his songs are great. 

He has one song written for his kids – all the advice he wants to give them. It has a killer first verse;

“Reject the worldly lie that says,
That life lies always up ahead,
Let power go before control becomes a crust around your soul,

Escape the hunger to possess,
And soul-diminishing success,
This world is full of narrow lives,
I pray by grace your smile survives.”

It makes for a nice study break from the hebrew text : )

Damn it feels good to be a gangster (the new Christian ghetto’s)

 

I was browsing through the job section of the Sydney Morning Herald this morning, checking out the Education section….no I’m not having 2^nd thoughts about staying on at college…I was just, you know, surveying the field.

But what I came across unsettled me. A surprisingly large amount of independent Christian schools who were advertising positions with the following proviso’s.

“Applicants must have a personal commitment to Christ based upon a reformed evangelical understanding of the Bible”

or

“Commitment to a local church and the ethos of Christian education is essential”

and my favourite;

“The applicant must be a committed Christian who regularly attends a protestant church and is able to obtain written references from their church minister” (there was no reference to any ability to be able to teach or show expertise in educational practices…..but you needed a permission slip from your minster)

 

I sat their reading the paper thinking; what are we doing? Are we deliberately creating ghetto’s?

Is anyone else worried about this?

Now, I’m all for ministry within schools, in fact I am currently looking to move into School Chaplaincy when I finish college.

But reading these job advertisements there seems to be a culture of fear regarding ‘outsiders’ – anyone who is not an evangelical Christian. And I’m sure that isn’t just coming from the school, I bet a whole bunch of parents are championing this Christian ghetto as well. God forbid their children may end up in a school where there is a teacher who doesn’t believe in the total authority of the scriptures, or who questions Calvinism, or who…wait for it…..isn’t a Christian!?!?

I wonder what we think will happen if our children are taught year 8 mathematics by an agnostic?

Are we afraid that their faith will crumble?

Are we afraid they will be ‘brainwashed’?

May I make a suggestion?

My suggestion is that we have created for ourselves a very small view of the Gospel and a very powerless view of the Holy Spirit.

Truth is, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a ruggard and long tested truth. It has shone through the hypocrisy of the institutionalised Middle Ages, it has fuelled the abolition of slavery and driven the pursuit of equality amongst races. It has stood up against a Nazi regime and continues in the modern day despite being labelled out-of-date, fundamentalist and irrelevant.

The Spirit of God is very, very powerful. He works in His way, in His time to transform us to be more like our king Jesus Christ. This doesn’t mean we become perfect, it means we come to know God better and we come to face more and more suffering – because that is what it is like to be like Jesus.

If the Gospel is bigger than any one culture, time or fashion and the Spirit is more powerful than we can ever imagine why are we afraid that our kids may come in contact with a non Christian teacher at their high school?

Why do we think that somehow an agnostic yr 8 maths teacher could derail God’s plan for our son/daughters life?

 

When I was completing my education degree I was prac teaching at French’s Forest High School. My ‘master teacher’ hated Christianity and every week would put another argument forward to disprove or discredit my faith. And I tell you what, it rattled me and challenged me and put me on the back foot. I did question my faith, I did question the whole strange concept that someone rose from the dead, I did question whether the church was just an organisation of control.

And you know what? God never let me go. The mighty Spirit of God – my inheritance, my seal of eternal life and my counsellor used every week of that torture to make me more like Christ. I praise God for my non-Christian teacher.

 

Sure it feels good to be a gangster in a Christian ghetto, but have we really thought through why we are doing what we are doing?

I Was Captivated

…and I’m not talking about Stasi Eldredge’s book. 

Yesterday, for 5 hours I was glued to the t.v watching CNN & NBC captivated by the counting of votes and waiting eagerly for the ‘important moments’ – Obama taking Pennsylvania and later Ohio……

My friend Dave said watching the election results is a bit like watching test match cricket – Occasional action with extended discussion over and over about the same event. But we still love it.

Now, I’m not fooled into thinking this will change the world as we know it. Who knows, it may not even make a difference to the US – although I’m sure it will somehow. 

Rather I was captivated but the elevation of a leader who lived with integrity, spoke with confidence and promised change. He was humble in regards his ‘enemy’ and bold in regards his vision for the future. 

 

 

I don’t know what reality will look like in the future for the US. But I know that for 5 hours yesterday I was like a pig in mud.

 

Have we slipped into misguided expectations?

I’m worried about a phrase that is popping up in our Christian circles.

I’m worried because on the surface it sounds so good and so right. Yet as I hear it more and more I am becoming unsettled because something doesn’t seem to fit.

 Here is the phrase:

“We are going to win this city for Jesus”

 

Sounds good doesn’t it? Yes, it sounds brilliant. It seems to fit with the great commission to go make disciples of all nations. It seems to fit with the call to shine brightly in a dark world. It seems to fit in a lot of ways.

 But my question is this: Does it give us false expectations?

 Let me explain:

When I hear large groups of people being urged to win the entire city of Sydney for Jesus it gives the impression that perhaps, we may be able to convert our city into a Christian city. A city where most if not all go to church and where the norm is to follow Jesus. A city where following Jesus is the ‘thing to do’. Dare I say it, the popular thing to do.

But consider the following verses;

“God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things and the despised things – the things that are not – to nullify the things that are” 1 Cor 1:27-28

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” John 15:18

“…join with me in suffering for the Gospel, by the power of God” 2 timothy 1:8

“All those who want to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” 2 Timothy 3:12

The list could go…..

There is an expectation that is given to us in the pages of the New Testament about being a follower of Jesus. You will be considered foolish and weak and you will suffer. You will be misunderstood, misheard and it will be as if you are  ‘aliens and strangers’ in this world.

I love the idea that we get out and tell people the Gospel. That we love the people in our city and that we shine as a light of Christ-like love.

But if we have the impression that if we do it well enough Christianity will become the norm, the thing to be a part of, then we are very misguided in our thinking and we have not yet grasped what it is to ‘be like Christ’ in a world that denies the Father.

I think this is particularly relevant for the youth of our church, whom by their very age and life stage want to be part of the majority and for whom the promise that one day being a Christian will put them in the majority – in this creation – is not just a false promise, but a false impression of what it actually means to be a follower of a God who suffered and died at the hands of ‘the wise’.

 Let us fire up our youth for declaring the Gospel.

 

But let us tell them that they will suffer. They will be in the minority and they will be considered fools, for which ‘the world is not worthy of them’.

 Let us declare the Gospel boldly and be prepared to suffer boldly.