let’s face it – Christians are not among the most loved and respected people when it comes to those outside of the church and i have often wondered why this is and so i started thinking about some of the core basics of this religion and suddenly it makes a lot of sense. when you look at what Christians intrinsically fundamentally believe (i’m not talking how some of them act or those who claim to [...]
wow. i am not a big cry'er. not because "i'm a guy so i don't cry" - just cos i don't cry really i love crying, i think it's really manly and necessary and releasing and all that so it sucks that i don't more often - i ask God from time to time to let me cry more but so far no good - last time i can remember crying was the second time [...]
so yes it's lateish thurs nite or feels that way cos i am weirdly quite tired and tbV is upstairs working hard cos she has to get thesis changes to her people before she goes away... which is tomorrow - my lovely wife has a whole weekend of secret plans (at least til sun when we mite be back for the grand prix or at the very least enGAGE church service and world cup final [...]
‘Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.’ [romans 13.8] i love that verse. i have been reading romans for quite a long time now and i just keep getting stuck on that verse any time I am near it the continuing debt to love one another – what a cool way to be in debt – and the idea [...]
do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good i really struggle to ‘get’ how people have such issues with Jesus-following when the basics of what it is all about is gems like that – love God, love people, look after orphans and widows, forgive those who wrong you, look after the land you’ve been given, share this love message... i do sadly understand how people can have issues with christians and a [...]
at our enGAGE gathering last nite, MJ reminded us of this vineyard song where the chorus goes something like: Bring me back to the place where i love the cross Bring me back to the place where i’m on my knees Bring me back to an undivided heart Oh Jesus, bring me back to You it's a fantastic reminder of a phenomenally good place to return to regularly
busy reading ‘Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture’ by Michael Frost and have little bits of paper and elastoplasts stuck within the pages where i really thort it was profound or spot on (if it was my book it would be folded pages but it’s not – it belongs to the theological library of stellenbosch which has absolutely no relevance so shut up already) and this was one of those pages: From the chapter [...]
so i suspect this will be a recurring blog theme cos like an incessant ‘are we there yet?’ passes through the long-holiday-journey hourglass of eternal automobile moments, so seems the latest bottle of 2010 SA choice wine - a somewhat bitter-sweet cabinet with subtle hints of preach, cynicmon and sulktana – and so quite possibly the remedy is to keep on writing ‘shutuporleave, shutuporleave, shutuporleave, shutuporleave’ as continuously and in as varied an array of [...]
i write a weekly thort for the week aimed at challenging Christ followers to actively live out what they believe - longer than my normal blog posts but i think this is important reading, living. Dear friends This week’s thort is specifically aimed at people living in South Africa but feel free to relate it to your specific context – i just feel after this week that God is calling up people who will speak [...]
so last nite we had another incredible time with enGAGE – our church congregation – i preached a talk called ‘The Crit of the Hippo’ – crit being and assessment, a mark, an evaluation... and hippo being a really big creature... so The Big Evaluation essentially... and of course the words ‘crit’ and ‘hippo’ combining nicely to form the word ‘hypocrite’ of which the original meaning was simply actor – so being someone you are [...]