This is what every Amazing Event boils down to
All we were given was a chance, thought Polly. No miracle, no rescue, no magic. Just a chance.
From Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett
Mr Pratchett is the finest expositor of religion (true and false) that I have ever read.
22 May 2011
tags: god,
humans,
quotes
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How can they say this stuff in church? I wish more people would say this stuff in church!
Peter Rollins on ‘Pyro-theology’ at Mars Hill Bible Church
24 February 2011
tags: faith,
god,
love
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In which I get all devotional with my bad self
I woke up this morning with Break It Down Again by Tears for Fears playing in my head.
Not a bad way to wake up at all. One particular lyric stuck in my mind:
And all the love
And all the love in the world
Can’t stop the rain from falling
My next thought was from Jesus’s sermon on the mount:
[Your Father in heaven] causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
These two thoughts rushed together. All the human love in the world — it’s a nearly infinite amount — is nothing compared to God’s basic care for humanity: sunshine and rain. God’s love for us is utterly unfathomably great. No wonder the apostle Paul prays that we would be strengthened so that we could begin to understand it for ourselves.
13 May 2010
tags: god,
music,
video
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Greg is at it again
In the book I’m now working on (Jesus Versus Jehovah?) I’m offering an alternative interpretation. Over and against their polytheistic ancient Near Eastern neighbors, ancient Jews emphasized that there is one sovereign Lord over all creation who rules all of history. They thus tended to view God as a supreme ancient Near Eastern monarch king who had ultimate authority over all subordinate angelic and earthly rulers. As a good monarch king, Yahweh takes responsibility (though not moral culpability) for all that transpires within his “court” (the world), including events he himself abhors.
I’m not very widely read, but I know that a number of people have written books to address the apparent contradiction of the violent, angry God of the Old Testament compared to Jesus in the New Testament. It may just be that I am a fan, but I think that the book Greg Boyd is working on now could turn out to be one of the more important Christian books. The way we understand God and God’s character has massive implications for the way that we relate to the world and the gospel that we share. This book might even revolutionise our understanding of God’s ways and God’s plan. Greg is an excellent teacher with the ability to help us ordinary folks understand complex ideas without our brains hurting.
Unfortunately, the book isn’t done yet, so for now, go read the whole article
19 March 2010
tags: books,
god,
greg boyd
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Is it still there?
‘Being born without object permanence [the idea that things continue to exist even when you can’t see them] means that, whether we’re conscious of it or not, almost the first thing we learn in our lives is that something can exist even if we don’t see it.’ And then Jim Barringer goes on to talk about how this paves the way for humans to believe in God. (via Larry Shallenberger)
24 November 2009
tags: children,
god,
humans
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The way it actually is
The power of the gospel lies, not in the offer of a new spirituality or religious experience, not in the threat of hellfire (certainly not in the threat of being ‘left behind’) which can be removed if only the hearer ticks this box, says this prayer, raises a hand, or whatever… but in the powerful announcement that God is God, that Jesus is Lord, that the powers of evil have been defeated, that God’s new world has begun. This announcement, stated as a fact about the way the world is rather than an appeal about the way you might like your life, your emotions or your bank balance to be, is the foundation of everything else. Of course, once the gospel announcement is made, in whatever way, it instantly means that all people everywhere are gladly invited to come in, to join the party to discover God’s forgiveness for the past, an astonishing destiny for the future, and a vocation in the present.
—Tom Wright in Surprised by Hope
It is said that people generally listen to things that reinforce their own points of view. Surprised by Hope by Tom Wright is that kind of book for me. It has reinforced and invigourated the theology that I grew up with. It has reassured me that the things that are in my heart to do really are at the heart of the gospel. It has inspired me to do the work of God’s kingdom like almost nothing else. It has also challenged me to know what I really believe about God and God’s kingdom, because everything we do flows out of what we really believe. (The apostle John said something like that in one of his letters.)
READ THIS BOOK! (maybe even if you don’t think it will reinforce what you believe).
15 November 2008
tags: books,
god,
kingdom of god,
quotes
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John Piper's spectacular
This morning I listened to an interview (i.e. puff piece for his new book Spectacular Sins) with Dr John Piper. The interview finished and iTunes appropriately chose Pipe Dreams by Travis
I read it all, every word
And I still don’t understand a thing…
Three things stood out to me in this interview:
1. The insanity of his understanding of God If God is like the god that John Piper describes, active rebellion against him is the only righteous position to take.
2. A very interesting insight into Judas’s betrayal of Jesus Judas was a man to whom Jesus gave authority to cast out demons. He not only lived with Jesus, he ministered healing and freedom to people with the authority that Jesus gave him; yet he chose the money over the relationship and the power.
3. John Piper and I have the same heart At the close of the interview he said that the reason he wrote the book was to enable a faith that could handle the really big, life-shattering bad/evil events that people too often have to live through.
I want to enable that same robust faith in people. That is what motivates me when I tell a woman that her friend’s child didn’t die because God killed them. I want people to know the God who triumphs over evil, not a god who invented evil and who uses it at a tool to make people glorify him. When I tell people that science and Scripture are not at war it is because I want students to know the God who isn’t afraid of the fossil record and the unravelling mystery of DNA. When I embrace a partially open future it is because I believe in a God whose infinite wisdom and insight and power is actually infinite enough to give human beings a true free will.
John Piper and I believe nearly opposite things about the nature of God. I see his theology as based on a logic so convoluted that it could only be suited for designing Russian motorway junctions. He boldly characterises many of my core beliefs as weak, spineless and false. (I’m talking about the beliefs here, not my holding of them. I don’t think John Piper knows I exist.) Both of us are convinced that our opposite beliefs offer better, more helpful and truer answers about the condition of the world and the nature of God.
Yet the marvellous thing is that we are both motivated by love for God and an earnest desire to see God’s kingdom come on earth. I have been writing this post in bits throughout the afternoon and evening, and the more I think about it the more I am shocked and humbled by the generosity of God. As far as I can tell he lets both of us stay in his family. He gives both of us meaningful work to do for his kingdom. It is conceivable that He even calls both of us his friends. That would mean I probably should think about calling John Piper my friend, even though that doesn’t fill well with thing number one.
I’d rather call him a heretic and overturn his URL, but I don’t think God offers that as a valid option.
20 October 2008
tags: faith,
god,
greg boyd,
kingdom of god
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9 years
Nine years ago, we lost our baby.
Teifion was born, weighing in at the perfect seven pounds seven ounces but never breathed a breath. Teifion died a few days before his birthday.
I held him in that hospital room and whispered ‘Life to you, Teifion,’ but none came. Yeah, I know that I should have expected that much, but remember that bloke Lazarus in the bible? Well, he’d been dead for a while as well…
Keep reading
8 September 2008
tags: faith,
god,
grief
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The Mustang 3
‘God is in control,’ is what we Christians like to say when things get hairy, when we are worried about something that is important to us. What do we really mean by ‘God is in control’? I’d like to think about it in relation to my Mustang.
Was God in control of my choosing a Mustang for my first car? Did he decide before the world was made that I would choose a Mustang? If he did decide that, did I really choose a Mustang? Did God in his sovereign wisdom ordain that my father should fall in love with 1967 Mustangs and then own one in his early 20s so that when I was a teenager he would return to his love of Mustangs and begin restoring them so that I would fall in love with Mustangs instead of Camaros? Was God thinking of me when my car went through its stations on the Ford assembly line in 1965? Was God in his infinite wisdom invisibly directing the actions of every owner of that car to make sure that it achieved the proper state of disrepair by 1990? Did God have the designs of the Mustang stored away in his mind since before the foundation of the universe? Does that mean it was his will that Mustangs should handle so badly on wet roads with corners? Did God cause Henry Ford to start a automobile manufacturing company with me in mind? When God created the world did he place a certain bit of iron ore in the ground specifically to be discovered and used in the manufacture of my car? Was God supervising the rubber plantation which provided the material for my car’s tires to make sure that it was exactly the right quality (or lack of quality) rubber? Did God do all that so that he could tell me to sell it after a couple year to finance two mission trips and thus build my character and enable selected Russians and Venezuelans, which he chose before the foundations of the universe, to be saved?
Does that mean free will is an illusion and even the words I am typing now were ordained by God? Even if I type the word %&*@? Did God decide that I wouldn’t actually type the word I was thinking?
Or does it mean that I should go through mental and scriptural contortions to maintain the concept of free will even though God already decided it? If I manage to tie myself in those knots will I be able to get job at the circus?
Maybe God didn’t actually choose all that stuff, he just knew it was going to happen and allowed it? I was going to stay with Mustangs and avoid bringing up Hitler and 9/11, but doesn’t that make God in all his infinite wisdom, infinitely cruel? Seriously, no matter which way you spin it, it makes him cruel doesn’t it?
Or maybe God’s not in control the way I thought he was at the beginning of this post and I need to go look at scripture again without the ‘benefit’ of the phrase ‘God is in control’.
28 August 2008
tags: god
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