Updates from rich w RSS
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08:01:09 pm on June 20, 2009 |
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12:14:27 pm on March 30, 2009 |
I guess i’m trying to balance in my mind:
God: inventing the concepts of time, space, matter and life (creation)
Vs
Me: scribbling on a piece of paper or writing a little song about girls (creation?)I’m not trying to say human creativity isn’t important or god-infused, i’m just wondering if we overstate it sometimes. After all, isn’t human creativity just a new combination of things that already existed before in a new/surprising way?
What do people think?
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12:49:51 pm on February 23, 2009 |
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02:22:45 pm on February 9, 2009 |
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02:17:11 pm on January 9, 2009 |
“FROM THE BBC:
An atheist campaign claiming “There’s probably no God” has been reported to the advertising regulator.
Posters with the slogan appear on 800 buses in England, Scotland and Wales, as well as on the London Underground.
But organisation Christian Voice has complained to the Advertising Standards Authority saying they break rules on substantiation and truthfulness. The British Humanist Association, which backed the campaign, said it was not taking the complaint seriously.
The adverts contain the slogan: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life” and (interestingly) they set out with an ambition to raise £5K via http://www.justgiving.com/atheistbus but rapidly raised over £140K.
More interesting still is the premis that if God exists it is a cause of worry that would destract from life’s joy. For me, it is a pertinant challenge to the Christian faith and one worth thinking about. It echoes what a lot of people I know say about faith – maybe it’s time we admitted that the Jesus message of abundant life isn’t getting through to normal people.
Completely uninteresting is the complaint.
Petty.
But completely uninteresting.
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06:54:00 am on December 22, 2008 |
The good news is that watching this video makes your life better.
The even better news is that, the more you watch it, the better your life gets.
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10:55:24 am on December 17, 2008 |
A few years ago I bought a book from a second hand shop called “why christians crack up”. I’ll be honest with you: I still haven’t read it. However, what feels important here is that it sung with enough penetrating truth that I wanted to read it. Having been brought up a christian and having been in some way part of uk christian-sub culture ever since leaving home, I can testify (as i’m sure many of us can) that christians are often highly strung and do indeed crack up.
Whilst the book continues to daunt me with it’s drab 70s cover and small type, I read this article in the NY Times and it seems to be hinting at the same phenomenon:
‘In a paper published in the August issue of The Journal of Anxiety Disorders, Chris Miller and Dawson Hedges of Brigham Young University estimate that as many as one million Americans may suffer from a moral-anxiety-cum-mental-illness known as “scrupulosity disorder.” They define it as obsessive doubt about moral behavior often resulting in compulsive religious observance — and they warn that it can lead to depression, apathy, isolation and even suicide.’
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/magazine/14ideas-section3-t-008.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
I was very much trapped in this mindset and only by some twists of grace did I slowly escape into a faith more confusing but more balanced.
And whilst I think headspace is a place which at its best heros balanced christianity, I am increasingly tuned in to notice this odd phenomenon in christians/sermons/churches: depression, huge feelings of inadequacy, guilt, “we must work harder”, “we are such bad christians”, “i had a period away from the lord but now im back” (you can get away??), denouncement of faith, and on and on for ever…
I’m struggling to formulate any big point but what I mean rests somewhere between – “oh my goodness this is a big problem for christianity in the uk and could be part of the reason churches are heamoraging” and “what a strange irony that the whole basis of our faith is the removal of guilt yet we often, in its outworking, entrench guilt deeper in our souls”
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11:11:13 pm on November 28, 2008 |
According to http://gospel-tract.com/, “The Gospel tracts that we present to the world in Christian evangelism speak volumes about who we are and how we value our church and God. Each Christian tract must be attractive enough to survive the trip home and then it must deliver the salvation message of Jesus Christ clearly and quickly. These tracts are excellent for Christian outreach, evangelism, short term missions trips, summer missions trip and Spanish missions trips. Please be assured that each one of these gospel tracts will be gratefully received and read, and as God uses them, we will see many come to know the salvation of Christ Jesus. Share the good news Gospel of Jesus Christ. All of our Christian evangelism tracts are printed on glossy paper (needed for bright colors) and all have God’s plan of salvation. Remember that a great portion of unattractive outreach handouts with no color will never be read, and in the end, they will cost more per convert than the more attractive Bible tracts. And to give out a tract without God’s plan of salvation is just a waste of time and paper!”My favourite bit is either the whole concept of “cost per convert” or the stark reality that the transforming power of an omnipotent creator is put at risk if we don’t print in colour.
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06:07:22 pm on November 10, 2008 |
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10:35:40 am on November 4, 2008 |
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11:10:00 am on October 13, 2008 |
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12:10:00 pm on September 28, 2008 |
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09:18:06 am on September 4, 2008 |
From http://www.psfk.com:
“For anyone who wants to get on the bandwagon of uber popular video game Guitar Hero, but doesn’t want to subject their ears to secular music, check out Guitar Praise. Released by Digital Praise, who’s company motto is “Glorifying god through interactive media” the video game lets you play along with Christian rock favorites. Other titles by Digital Praise include Dance Praise, and Dance Praise 2 The Remix – Dance Dance Revolution clones. Very interesting re-interpretation of pop culture for the growing Christian youth market.”
http://store.digitalpraise.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=72
I for one think this would be a good use of the ample headspace budget.
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08:17:53 am on July 22, 2008 |
I think one of the starkest tensions in faith is between being content and always striving.
I rather brashly assert that most christians are torn to shreads by unessesary guilt becasue they focus so much on their we-have-not-arrived, worst-of-sinners, do-not-abuse-grace imperfections that they completely ignore the glory-unto-glory, love-wider-than-the-sea, abundant-life flipside.
The truth is probably more balanced but, either way, the tension remains.
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03:20:47 pm on July 9, 2008 |
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09:44:29 am on May 29, 2008 |
Knowing fully that it’s a stupid question that isn’t worth answering, I was thinking the other day: what miracles would Jesus be doing now if had been born in an outhouse in Hackney thirty years ago?
In this land of plenty, surely he wouldn’t be giving us MORE food or wine?
And what about healing? Would it really be that impressive beyond the whole freak-show-ness of it? Would the actual impact of healing a blind man be any more impressive than cataract opperations or pharmaceutical treatments of heart burn?
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09:36:07 am on May 21, 2008 |
“Arguably the funniest website I have ever seen” is how my friend billed it as he posted on my facebook wall.
So enjoy (or be mortally offended by) another triumph of the world wide web presenting a window into the tapestry of human perspectives on christian faith/morals.
Imagine it, only a decade ago views like this would be confined to his (or her?) immediate community.
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09:10:17 am on April 15, 2008 |
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10:47:10 am on March 27, 2008 |
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10:21:26 am on March 19, 2008 |
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04:44:16 pm on March 13, 2008 |
The four biographies of Jesus in the bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) all contain a description of Jesus’s execution and tell us seven of the things he said as he was dying.
They say you can tell a lot about someone by their dying words. (More …)
