oakleys.org.uk

Before you read this post, see my post yesterday about a funny coffee shop you could imagine me running…

“What conclusions would you draw, if you saw such a price label, about my intentions in selling this particular coffee?”

Let me suggest a few.

Imagine, if you will, that I start to run a coffee shop. Not one that sells cups of brewed coffee. One that sells packs of freshly roasted coffee beans, to be ground at home and turned into a cup of the very best.

Here’s the price label on a 250g bag of single-origin, know-the-farmer-personally, roasted-yesterday Guatemala.

“Price: £5.
For those who cannot afford £5, the price is £2.
Those who cannot afford £2 may pay £0.50.”

What a funny kind of shop I would be running.

Thanks to David for posting the executive summary of the Adam Smith Institute’s report on fair trade.

Which gives me a prompt to introduce the Cup of Excellence competition to those who haven’t met it.

Neil’s post distinguishing between judicial death and natural death is most enlightening.

A common question. Which leads some people to try and argue that the faithful in OT times would have known as much about Jesus as we do today. They argue this to avoid being open to pluralism, relativism. inclusivism or rose-by-any-other-name-ism.

Here’s what I wrote in a recent e-mail on this matter – just in case it helps anyone.

God is working his purpose out,
As year succeeds to year;
God is working His purpose out,
And the time is drawing near;
Nearer and nearer draws the time,
The time that shall surely be,
When the earth shall be filled
With the glory of God,
As the waters cover the sea.

Hmm. Not sure.

It’s often been said that the golden calf is a breach of the 2nd commandment, rather than the 1st. That is: It’s not worshipping another God. It’s worshipping the right God in the wrong way – by use of images. In support of this is Aaron’s declaration: Behold, your God who brought you out of the Land of Egypt.

But I wonder.

The contrast between Moses up the mountain and what goes on as the people below get bored is striking.

Many will remember the furore when Prince Charles stated, many years back, that he wanted to be not “defender of the [implied, Christian] faith”, but simply “defender of faith”.

Some of the problems of that should be obvious.

I had a great afternoon at Blenheim Palace on Saturday, listening to Doug Wilson talk about

• The gospel and your church
• The gospel and your family

• The gospel and your government.

What does we conclude from this?

. Israel defeats her enemy (Exodus 14:1-15:21)
. . God provides water (Exodus 15:22-27)
. . . God provides food (Exodus 16)
. . God provides water (Exodus 17:1-7)
. Israel defeats her enemy (Exodus 17:8-16)