For me, Christmas is a reminder that Love came down. Love got its hands dirty. Love got involved. Love interrupted the normal flow of things. Love reached out specifically to all of those that society, culture, religion and government pushed to the sides. Love allowed itself to be interrupted while on mission. Love called out injustice. Love refused to accept the status quo. Love turned over tables in the face of greed and extortion. Love [...]
Robert is a friend that tbV and i met once in Americaland at a protest of sorts and have since become strong online friends and co-appreciators of Pearls Before Swine and other shared forms of humour as well as sharing in a hunger for following Jesus - he has been married to Heather for close to 18 years and while this is more of a story than a 'one thing to learn' piece, there is [...]
my friend Rob takes the advice on how to create a strong marriage thing in a bit of a different direction with this solid advice: Lock the escape hatch and throw away the key. With no way out we are left to work through our challenges together and become the purposed display or shadow of Christ and his bride to the world. On a practical level: - Give yourselves to the process of holiness more [...]
an excerpt from this week's thort for the week that i send out with some ways you can really have a great Christmas... The bottom line is you can get creative – i will share a few ideas here but it doesn’t take a brain scientist to work this out – look after the poor, needy, lonely, sick in some way this Christmas and share Christ’s love in action... [1] Present-giving – as our main [...]
so last week at enGAGE (sun eve congregation gathering at stellenbosch vineyard church) we had over 40 people there including a bunch of first-timers and roymond preached up an elijah storm in his first ever preach on the firetruck in the desert and your buckets capacity... at the start of the service i challenged the congregation to be more committed in terms of choosing to hang with us more regularly (attendance can be a bit [...]
so i quoted Anne Rice the other day and this is a further explanation of where she is at which explains it a little bit more - i really like her last line... [from http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/30/anne-rice-leaves-christianity/?hpt=Sbin] Anne Rice leaves Christianity Legendary author Anne Rice has announced that she’s quitting Christianity. The “Interview with a Vampire” author, who wrote a book about her spirituality titled "Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession" in 2008, said Wednesday that [...]
some more Erwin McManus from the book 'an unSTOPPABLE force' - From the chapter ‘Friction Traction’ On Multiculturalism: ‘The gospel, as presented in our time, has been crafted in such a way that would only bring Christians to Christ.’ ‘Evangelism for much of the church has not been among unbelievers but focused on receivers – people who already accepted our worldview.’ ‘The “great sociologist” Rodney King once said, “Can’t we all just get along?” The [...]
i remember some kids song that went 'love your neighbour as you love yourself, oh-oh love your neighbour, but don't get caught' and thinking as i write that, i may very well have added the 'don't get caught' on to what was a nice kiddies song of which i still have the tune playing in my head... so maybe scrap that... but it brings to mind the one thing that is hugely on my mind [...]
