This article first appeared in The Mercury on 27 June 2011 [and arrived in my inbox this morning] Hope n. the feeling that events will turn out for the best. I recently attended a small birthday party and Hope showed up. I wasn’t necessarily expecting her to be there, but that’s Hope for you; she always arrives when you least expect her. She appeared suddenly and silently. It was almost as if she ‘spirited’ into [...]
so a quick recap then: # everyone has sinned and as the bible says "fallen short of the glory (or high standard) of God" # the wages/punishment/outcome of sin is death (both now in various areas, but also spiritually and eternally at the end) # on Easter Friday, the man many believed had come to save the world is lying stretched out on a cross, dying an agonising death. # one of the statements Jesus [...]
so ja, last nite we had a theatresports show at kalk bay which was all cool and delightful and a bunch of fun (except maybe the two quite morbid but particularly brilliant dramatic one minute challenge games we played - whole nother level) and then i started driving back home to the beautiful val as i do... when i came to a roadworks part of the road but with no one manning (or womenning) it [...]
so, once we get past the mindless comments of people responding to the blog title and not actually reading it, what am i on about? if you haven't read my other blog about the christians choosing to become atheist (http://brettfish.wordpress.com/2010/09/13/a-theist-walks-into-an-atheist-bigbang-its-a-steel-atheist) i would suggest you begin there, cos this is a (s)equal of sorts... so in the context of finding out that one of my church peoples had turned atheist over the varsity holidays, i have [...]
'a theist believes in at least one god, but denies the existence of many gods' [the skeptic's dictionary] whereas an atheist denies the existence of god completely and 'at heist' is just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but that's not important now... a theist and an atheist - so vastly different and yet the difference between them is nothing... or 'a space' to be more precise... [disclaimer: oh [...]
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
[to the tune of 'I am Spartacus' and yes it's okay that most of you don't know who that is but let google be your friend - ignorance away!] so this last week tbV and mself had been invited to speak at the national Scripture Union staff conference held at Rocklands campsite in Simonstown. as we interacted with them on the first night and during the next day this one lady stood far out from [...]
i don’t understand existers. you know, people who exist. who go thru the motions. have a job, maybe have a family, have some kind of church life (or not) but that’s it. no huge hunger for more – meaning of life – changing the world – world domination (in my case, for Jesus) – adding to someone, or some community’s life or meaning. it’s like they don’t even care. How do you not even care? [...]
i have a friend called Roy (or Conrad Roy) he is one of the new students who was in our church enGAGE this year and is now part of our leadership team for next year i really like Roy, for a number of reasons: he says ‘awesome’ a lot. now i don’t like it when people say ‘awesome’ a lot because i personally have reserved the word ‘awesome’ for God cos it seems a travesty [...]
so TBV (the beautiful Val, my lovely wife) and i arrive at a pastor's breakfast this morning and as we walk upto one of the pastors there he looks at her and says says something along the lines of, 'So you have to put up with this hey?' or some other kind of jesty vibe dunno-what-to-say-so-let-me-open-my-mouth-and-see-what-spews-forth witty reparte'... he was trying to be funny and it was fine... but a little while later they were [...]