Ours is a thinking religion

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

Ephesians 3: 20-21 (NIV)

"We should also contemplate God's power. The beginning of the doxology (v20) is in essence an invitation to consider how great God's power is. Again we see how much Christianity is focused on the mind. Ours is a thinking religion. Its goal is not abstract reasoning or academic pursuits separated form practical doing, but an informed mind that shapes life. The message of Ephesians requires heart, mind and hands. Christians need time for reflection, for remembering, for searching into matters too deep for knowledge. The suggestion not to bother with subjects too grand for comprehension is ill-advised. In being stretched by what is beyond us we grow. Inquiry after the unknowable God provides the wisdom and knowledge we need for life.

"Christians need a regular schedule of reading, thinking, discussing and praying that informs them about faith and life and helps them grow a soul. Most of us think we are too busy for such time-consuming exercises, but the inner being is not strengthened by osmosis. Our busy schedules are often filled with secondary - if not needless - concerns. Some activities may need to be laid aside, but the contemplative part of faith is not one of them."

Klyne Snodgrass, Ephesians (NIVAC: Zondervan, 1996), p.190. 

Why do bad things happen to good dogs?

Not for this reason ...

(For the tear-jerking back story, start here)

HT: CS

Calvin and Hobbes: making sense of life?

Thanks to BW

Costly sacrifice is the surest sign of true faith

"Just as we cannot have Christian ethics without Christian beliefs, so we do not genuinely believe if we are not living our faith.  In The Religious Affections, Jonathan Edwards observed that costly sacrifice is the surest sign of true faith.  He wrote:

'Passing affections easily produce words; and words are cheap; and godliness is more easily feigned in words than in actions.  Christian practice is a costly, laborious thing...  Hypocrites may much more easily be brought to talk like saints, than to act like saints.'

"Hypocrites seek maximum press with minimum effort.  They shy away from anything that demands a price. If you want to know whether your faith is genuine or not, consider how much it costs you.  Do you resist temptation? Love the people you are with? Give your best to others?  Those who believe in Christ - who have placed their whole weight on the promises of gospel - will naturally look for ways to share his love."

Michael E. Wittmer: Don't Stop Believing, p. 174. 

Reality 3:16

It's (probably?) not too late to sign up here to enrol for this year's new season of Reality 3:16, which is held in the '3:16 House' in the grounds of Portrush Presbyterian Church.  The first teaching day is this Saturday, 21 September.
This Christian apologetics and worldview course is designed to encourage and "equip people of all ages and backgrounds to understand the Christian faith in the face of present-day doubts and questions" and to help and enable them to trust and share the Gospel in the face of unbelief.  
For the first day, Prof Stephen Williams (Union Theological College) will be examining the character, influence and legacy of Charles Darwin; John Kirkpatrick (Portush PC) will outline the Biblical marks of an effective apologist; and yours truly will be unpacking the foundational doctrine of 'Biblical Revelation' against the prevailing cultural winds of modernity and postmodernism (don't worry - I'll try not to make it as boring as that sounds!), with plenty of opportunity to ask questions and discuss all the issues raised in each of the sessions.
For more information about all of this, do check out the course website, and maybe we'll see you there?

30 years ago today ...

A little memory from 15 September 1983 ...

"And from our sports desk ..."

Dear...    

oh dear ...    

   oh dear!   

To see ourselves as others see us

With thanks to BW










In poem  "To A Louse, On Seeing One on a Lady's Bonnet at Church" (1786), Scottish poet  Robert Burns famously wrote the following (updated for contemporary comprehensibility!):

And would some Power the small gift give us
To see ourselves as others see us!
It would from many a blunder free us,
And foolish notion:
What airs in dress and gait would leave us,
And even devotion!

So, who was at yesterday's wedding?

Among others, this man (and my wife)!

Lovely, down-to-earth guy!
For more, see here!

Jesus' Story of the Two Lost Sons - in the Key of 'F'

Came across the following apparently anonymous retelling of the famous parable - care of Alan Wilson's blog. Humorous, but refreshingly insightful...

"Feeling footloose and frisky, a featherbrained fellow forced his father to fork over his farthings. Fast he flew to foreign fields and frittered his family’s fortune, feasting fabulously with floozies and faithless friends. Flooded with flattery he financed a full-fledged fling of “funny foam” and fast food.

Fleeced by his fellows in folly, facing famine, and feeling faintly fuzzy, he found himself a feed-flinger in a filthy foreign farmyard. Feeling frail and fairly famished, he fain would have filled his frame with foraged food from the fodder fragments.

“Fooey,” he figured, “my father’s flunkies fare far fancier,” the frazzled fugitive fumed feverishly, facing the facts. Finally, frustrated from failure and filled with foreboding (but following his feelings) he fled from the filthy foreign farmyard.

Faraway, the father focused on the fretful familiar form in the field and flew to him and fondly flung his forearms around the fatigued fugitive. Falling at his father’s feet, the fugitive floundered forlornly, “Father, I have flunked and fruitlessly forfeited family favor.”

Finally, the faithful Father, forbidding and forestalling further flinching, frantically flagged the flunkies to fetch forth the finest fatling and fix a feast.

Faithfully, the father’s first-born was in a fertile field fixing fences while father and fugitive were feeling festive. The foreman felt fantastic as he flashed the fortunate news of a familiar family face that had forsaken fatal foolishness. Forty-four feet from the farmhouse the first-born found a farmhand fixing a fatling.

Frowning and finding fault, he found father and fumed, “Floozies and foam from frittered family funds and you fix a feast following the fugitive’s folderol?” The first-born’s fury flashed, but fussing was futile. The frugal first-born felt it was fitting to feel “favored” for his faithfulness and fidelity to family, father, and farm. In foolhardy fashion, he faulted the father for failing to furnish a fatling and feast for his friends. His folly was not in feeling fit for feast and fatling for friends; rather his flaw was in his feeling about the fairness of the festival for the found fugitive.

His fundamental fallacy was a fixation on favoritism, not forgiveness. Any focus on feeling “favored” will fester and friction will force the faded facade to fall. Frankly, the father felt the frigid first-born’s frugality of forgiveness was formidable and frightful. But the father’s former faithful fortitude and fearless forbearance to forgive both fugitive and first-born flourishes.

The farsighted father figured, “Such fidelity is fine, but what forbids fervent festivity for the fugitive that is found? Unfurl the flags and finery, let fun and frolic freely flow. Former failure is forgotten, folly is forsaken. Forgiveness forms the foundation for future fortune.”

Four facets of the father’s fathomless fondness for faltering fugitives are:

1) Forgiveness
2) Forever faithful friendship
3) Fadeless love, and
4) A facility for forgetting flaws."