Catching up on some visual theology with the second of the Good Book Company’s charts, this time showing David’s rise to the throne compared to Saul’s sad path to ruin.
Author: David Thomas
Dying for death
Dr Peter Saunders from the Christian Medical Fellowship calls Christians to pray in the light of a coordinated bid to change end-of-life and assisted suicide laws, pro-euthanasia lobbyists are planning in the UK over the next few weeks.
Pride isn’t fussy
A while back I posted this on negative pride, the idea that those who have a low opinion of themselves seek to be the centre of attention because of it. I came across this quote from Tim Keller this morning which I think is helpful in this regard.
the opposite of thinking highly of ourselves is not thinking less of ourselves, but thinking of ourselves less.
The more I look at myself, whether it’s with boastful or degrading thoughts, I will reinforce my belief that I am the centre of my universe. Pride isn’t fussy in that respect, it’ll let me live as the hero or the villain as long as I’m centre stage and playing the lead role.
It’s only as I think less of myself and look more to Christ that I’m truly able to defeat the pride of my heart, by allowing him to rule it.
Memorising God’s Word
Spend a few minutes thinking of all of the things God’s word is profitable for – teaching, reproof, correcting, training in righteousness, equipping, comforting, upbuilding, counselling, encouraging, …
But though we might be convinced God’s word is more to be desired than gold and that there is great reward in keeping it, the first step in doing that – actually knowing it, is something we can struggle with.
In her post over here, Jean Williams lists practical tips to help us memorise God’s Word under the following headings:
Prepare – survey it, visualise it, see it, carry it
Repeat – read it, say it, write it, hear it, walk it, sing it
Recall – reread and check it, reflect and pray it, use it
Reinforce – trace patterns, know why, learn with others, study it, teach it
Review – forget it, review it
Jean also gives ideas for memorising the whole of the Bible.
I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. – Psalm 119:11 How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! – Psalm 119:10312 guidelines for Facebook
Following on from his recent articles on Facebook, Tim Chester lists 12 guidelines to consider in using social networking.
- Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t say were the people concerned in the room.
- Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t share publicly with your Christian community.
- Ensure your online world is visible to your offline Christian community.
- Challenge one another if you think someone’s online self reflects a self-created identity rather than identity in Christ.
- Challenge one another if you think someone’s online self doesn’t match their offline self.
- Use social networking to enhance real world relationship not to replace them.
- Don’t let children have unsupervised internet access or accept as online friends people you don’t know offline.
- Set limits to the time you spend online and ask someone to hold you accountable to these.
- Set aside a day a week as a technology “Sabbath” or “fast”.
- Avoid alerts (emails, tweets, texts and so on) that interrupt other activities especially reading, praying, worshipping and relating.
- Ban mobiles from the meal table and the bedroom.
- Look for opportunities to replace disembodied (online or phone) communication with embodied (face-to-face) communication.
Aiming for awe
What are the goals for our ministries? To build bridges, to get people in, to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, to teach to living Word of God, to encourage the fellowship that already exists in Christ, to bring disciples to maturity. Over here Paul Tripp reminds us that whatever other goals our various ministries have, we are to aim for nothing less than awe filled worshippers of the living God. Tripp concludes:
a church must turn people back to the one thing for which they were created: to live in a sturdy, joyful, faithful awe of God.
This means every sermon should be prepared by a person whose study is marked by awe of God. The sermon must be delivered in awe and have as its purpose to motivate awe in those who hear. Children’s ministry must have as its goal to ignite in young children a life-shaping awe of God. The youth ministry of the church must move beyond Bible entertainment and do all it can to help teens see God’s glory and name it as the thing for which they will live. Women’s ministry must do more than give women a place to fellowship with one another and do crafts. Women need to be rescued from themselves and myriad self-interests that nip at their hearts; awe of God provides that rescue. Men’s ministries need to recognize the coldness in the heart of so many men to the things of God and confront and stimulate men with their identity as those created to live and lead out of a humble zeal for God’s glory, rather than their own. Missions and evangelism, too, must be awe-driven.
Fatherhood: the core of the universe
It’s Father’s Day in the UK tomorrow and we’ll be thinking about holy fatherhood tomorrow morning from Ephesians 6:4 and Colossians 3:21. In his post here, Glenn Stanton picks up on Lewis’ words that because our God is a Father, fatherhood is at the core of the universe. What are the implications of our God, the Eternal Father? Stanton says this means
that the universe is not a dark, empty, impersonal place. Just the opposite. At its core, it is an overwhelmingly warm, relational, personal place. This explains why broken and unhealthy relationships, loneliness, and abandonment are among the most painful of human experiences.
God’s essential Fatherhood also means the devil
loathes our fathers and those of us who are fathers. He recognizes fatherhood’s power. He recognizes each earthly father’s iconic nature. He realizes the pain it causes God and his image-bearing creatures when fatherhood is corrupted. And this delights our mortal enemy.
It’s worth reading the whole article, whether you are a father or not.
Objectives of men’s ministries
Earlier this week I pointed to the series of blog posts on gospel centred men’s ministries that the Good Book Company are currently running.
Today they list and explain five steps to take for initiating successful gospel shaped men’s ministries within the church. Clearly a lot of these are transferable to any ministry.
- Church leaders need to own the vision
- Appoint a key man as leader
- Some structure must exist
- Make sure that those involved share the objectives
- The whole church must recognise the importance of men’s ministry
They then list the generic objectives that should underly any men’s ministry. None of this is rocket science but its always helpful to have these things in view.
- Encouraging and developing the knowledge of God and His Word in ways that foster Christian discipleship.
- Encouraging and equipping men to fulfil their roles as men in relationships with others.
- Encouraging and equipping men to share their faith and the gospel to bring others to Christ.
An evening of eschatology
Tonight at church, we are having a question and answers session on the first half of the book of Revelation, which we’ve been studying on Sunday mornings and at home groups during previous months.
There are some good questions and I’m hoping this will be a helpful evening. Studying Revelation can leave us somewhat confused and yet we’re told
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near – Revelation 1:3
The video above shows how Evangelical Christians with differing views on how to interpret much of the Book of Revelation, can maturely discuss their differences. It’s two hours long but honestly it’s better than an Agatha Christie Miss Marple – and you don’t have to sit through adverts!
Should saints have a Halo?
There’s a helpful article here from Rich Clark on How to Respond to the Video Game Crisis. Video games are often demonised by those who have little exposure to them, and glorified by those who feel twitchy without a games controller in their hands.
Video games can certainly distract us from our gospel commission, but so can many other things. Rich sums up his article like this:
Yes, video games are contributing to our crisis of a pervasive entertainment culture. Much of what we watch, listen to, and play encourages escapism. But the problem isn’t so much with the medium as with the naïve and thoughtless ways we indulge ourselves. Neither blindly chasing “cool” video games nor stubbornly rejecting every new form of entertainment can protect us from our sinful disposition. What we choose to play, we must learn to responsibly engage.
WHATEVER IS COMMENDABLE 
