Christian Life

I’ve been doing some work on Mark chapter 1, and what I’ve found is really exciting!

Hello everyone!

Some of you may have wondered why I took a two week break from posting as I didn’t let on much. Others will have seen the issues clearly. Personally, I’ve valued having a couple of weeks to give serious thought to some of the issues that were raised with me. It’s easily to be cheaply dismissive or (equally easily) blown here and there by everything everyone says. I wanted to be neither, but to listen and think with care.

I’ll be taking a 2 week break from posting on this site from now.

Comments still welcome of course – especially in response to this post. I had a really useful conversation with two good friends yesterday about the tensions of blogging. Specifically, what we were talking about was how blogging sits with serving the church in pastoral ministry.

• Is it wise for a minister of a local church to blog?

• How is that changed if I am, more precisely, an assistant minister?

I’m preaching a series of 3 sermons on Luke chapter 21 in November. They make a series, but numbers 1 and 3 are 30-minute sermons to adults, whilst number 2 needs to stand alone as it is a 10 minute talk on Remembrance Day with all-ages still in church.

I could give sermon number 2 a title: “The war to end all wars”.

But that’s about as far as I’ve got with any of it.

What I’m really looking for at this point is some help. What should / could I read that would help me get the broad direction right. And the details. And the contemporary applications. Books. Papers. Articles. Blog posts. ... all those are welcome.

Suggestions please!

The discerning sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth. (Proverbs 17:24 )

I find myself having this thought over and over again.

Popular evangelical Christianity is frequently confused as to how to identify / seek / encourage / authenticate the genuine work of the Holy Spirit.

Thanks to Neil Robbie for pointing me to this one.

How do you come up with a policy for a church on paedocommunion that allows for:

• difference of opinion on the issue, and

• clarity on how responsibility and government are apportioned between church and family?

Well, Neil pointed me to the policy adopted by Trinity Presbyterian Church in Birming ham, Alabama. Very helpful indeed.

Sacerdotalism is not a view that the sacraments do something. Rather it is

“the belief that grace is imparted in a mechanical or magical fashion through the instrumentality of the sacraments. In other words, the sacraments dispense grace ex opere operato, the way a hot iron burns.” (Page 85)

We deceive ourselves if we think we can do without the sacraments altogether.

— Jonah sent to Nineveh (1:1-2)
—— Jonah goes to sea – boards a ship (1:3)
——— Jonah in the belly of the ship; the sailors cry to their gods (1:4-6)
———— Jonah tells the sailors that he worships the one true God (1:7-10)
———— The sailors worship the one true God (1:11-16)
——— Jonah in the belly of the fish; Jonah cries to his God (1:17-2:9)
—— Jonah back on land (2:10)
— Jonah sent to Nineveh (3:1)

Corroborates my suspicion that Jonah’s ministry to the sailors is very important to these chapters

I’m delighted to see James Cary’s post showing what a consistent Calvinist he is.

How do we react when we meet those who hold Arminian views? (Or, indeed, are clearly Christians yet oppose the doctrines we subscribe to in any of a thousand ways).

Is it

• Some Christians have managed to escape what God wants them to believe, so we get frustrated at the mixed nature of the church

Or