oakleys.org.uk

I’ve been enjoying reading all of James Cary’s posts on the subject of baptism. His most recent post on infant baptism is paticularly fine and worth reading. It’s refreshing to read some clarity on this.

There are now about 5 posts on this subject, all worth a read.

Linking my two previous posts. That is:

Environmentalism as religion

Romans 1: A Fair Exchange

Really we shouldn’t be surprised by the way we treat the environment. Here is the heart of human sin

“They … worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.” (Romans 1:25)

Romans 1:18-32: We, the human race, have suppressed the knowledge of God that we all have. We all have it because God has made his existence, deity and power known in his creation. The creation is his conscious handwriting intended to communicate to us. We have done so effectively, such that Paul can say we all knew God. The problem is not ignorance, it is culpable suppression of what we know.

God’s temporal judgement for this is to hand us over to self-harming sin. The human-race is constantly attempting to self-destruct; Romans 1 interprets this as God taking off the reins.

I always enjoy reading David Field’s posts on topics such as global warming and the environment.

The post he put up this morning, entitled A Collective Madness is particularly enjoyable. He is quoting two paragraphs from The Spectator, but I particularly enjoyed the phrase

“Environmentalism has become the new religion.”

I find Genesis 19:14 one of the most sobering, and scary, verses in the whole Bible.

“So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, ‘Up! Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city.’ But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.”

Tragic

But surely that’s just the Old Testament, right?

I get so many bizarre search-engine queries leading to hits on my websites that there are too many to mention.

But one of my favourites has to be the one from today: the person searching for why do pitta breads last so long who ended up on the website for Edible Words

Each to their own!

Yes, I’m back in Jonah 1 again!

What happens if we take the view that Jonah represents Israel?

We see Jonah called to preach God’s mercy to the nations, to Assyria in particular. He refuses. Much as Israel has been called to be a light to the nations but has taken that on with reluctance, to say the least. Jonah 1 holds up a mirror to the nation of Israel, and challenges her to be a light to the nations, a light to her enemies.

I found David Field’s recent post on how they, as a family, applied their thinking on infant baptism immensely helpful.

Specifically, it’s worth asking:

• If we know Jesus will get there in the end, do we need to be impatient with others? Especially given Jesus is patient with us.
• Is baptism a purely personal thing (something “I have to do” because of “my relationship with Christ”) or is it about church membership?

• When we are in the position of needing to find a church to attend, it will never perfectly fit our ideal church in every respect. So what do we let go of for the sake of other things we value?

Thanks for sharing your thought with us, David.

I was asked one very specific question after my last sermon on Luke 21.

I developed one implication that the temple was to come to an end, which is the implication developed in Ephesians 2. The era of Jewish national privilege has closed, so that in the new creation none of us will have a second class spot – specifically, no Gentiles will be penalised for being Gentile.

After the service I was asked why, if this is the case, I still hold that there will be a distinction in the roles taken by men and women in church life.

In November and December 2007, I preached a series of 3 sermons on Luke chapter 21. You can read the transcripts on this site, should you wish to.