'test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.' [1 Thessalonians 5.21-22] this is one of my favourite verses in the Bible - to be faithful to it, the verse is speaking specifically of prophecies, but i have found that it is a generally great life principle to extend to all things - hold on to the good, let go of the evil/hurtful/untrue. so when it comes to giving a [...]
i posted a Bonhoeffer quote the other day on the book of facings and the tier of twit that got an insanely hectic amount of likes on it, and despite it being a deliberately Christian statement, a fair amount of those likes were from people who would not label themselves as such: 'Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God's will.' [Dietrich Bonhoeffer] clearly what Bonhoeffer says [...]
a short while ago two South Africans sparked an international discussion about racism, guilt and responsibility when they printed and distributed forty t-shirts with the slogan 'I benefited from apartheid' written on them: well-known political satirist Jonathan Shapiro [aka Zapiro] came up with this minimalistic but powerful cartoon which expressed his take on the matter: are they right? yes, for sure, i definitely [...]
In Mark 4 verse 1 to 20 Jesus tells the parable of the sower and the seed that confuses His disciples so much that He has to sit with them later and explain it a little more clearly to them - and even today it seems we have different ideas of what He was saying or what He could be meaning so i guess it makes sense to wrestle with it and see what makes [...]
so probably close to 15 years ago i wrote a challenging email to a couple of friends of mine about some aspect of following Jesus... a week later i did the same... at some point i told someone about it and they asked to be added and so i added them... pretty soon i started spam-inviting people from the typical cheesy group Christian emails that used to hit my inbox and some of them decided [...]
next up, we see Jesus select the 12 who He designates as apostles and makes some very interesting choices... so take a look at Mark 3 verse 13 to 19 to see the next post on unity, not denominationalism go here.
i don't feel very strong right now. i feel wronged. badly done by. hurt. betrayed. disappointed. and yet again and again it comes back to me that the call is on me to forgive. pride. ego. self-righteousness. my idea of "justice". all these things rally against me, trying to convince me that i am in the right [maybe i am] and that the other should approach me [maybe they should] and seek peace and restoration. [...]
brett is sad. he has just read another facebook status of someone who has clearly had a dispute with a friend of theirs. instead of going directly to that person, face to face, one on one and with much hope, love and positive anticipation seeking restoration of the friendship, and a righting of the wrong, that person has decided to air their frustration and anger publically for everyone to see. another cringeworthy facebook status. brett [...]
a little while ago i put a general request out on facebook to see what fun and creative things people were doing or have done for Christmas in terms of using the season as a way to reach out to those who are less fortunate than us or considered by the world as 'the least of these' and this bunch of great opportunities emerged... [i don't normally allow smiley faces on my blog, but we [...]
i have no idea why i start this in my cartoon voice, but if you can get past that [i do, quickly] then it is a continuation of the gospel of Mark, and a look at the first 6 verses of Mark chapter 3. Jesus does a really great thing. And the 'christians' respond in anger because He didn't do it 'the right way' - wow, this one took my by surprise a little - [...]