Month: July 2014

Rachel Held Evans- We need feminism

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I’m not a feminist, but I agree with much of what Rachel Held Evans writes in this powerful article,

We need feminism…

Because feminism is the radical notion that women are human. 

Because, worldwide, more girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century. (source) 

Because nearly 1 in 4 American women between the ages of 18 and 65 has experienced domestic violence. (source) 

Because the U.S. State Department estimates that between 600,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year, and eighty percent of them are women and girls trafficked for sexual exploitation. (source) 

Because girls like Malala Yousafzai deserve an education and should not be threatened with violence for pursuing one.

 

Read the full article here

Six Ways Your Phone Is Changing You- Tony Reinke

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Did you know your smart phone is changing the way you think, the way you relate and the way you worship? A thought-provoking article from Tony Reinke.

 

Six Ways Your Phone Is Changing You

July 19, 2014

 

 

Six Ways Your Phone Is Changing You

Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at Macworld Expo 2007, and I got my first one a year later. I can’t remember life without it.

For seven years an iPhone has always been within my reach, there to wake me in the morning, there to play my music library, there to keep my calendar, there to capture my life in pics and video, there for me to enjoy sling-shooting wingless birds into enemy swine, there as my ever-present portal to Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

My iPhone is such a part of my daily life, I rarely think self-reflectively about it. That’s precisely what concerns David Wells, 75, a careful thinker who has watched trends in the church for many decades.

Wells asks Christians to consider the consequences of the smartphone. “What is it doing to our minds when we are living with this constant distraction?” he said recently in an interview. “We are, in fact, now living with a parallel universe, a virtual universe that can take all of the time we have. So what happens to us when we are in constant motion, when we are addicted to constant visual stimulation? What happens to us? That is the big question.”

That’s a huge question. What is life like now because of the smartphone? How has the iPhone changed us? These self-reflective questions may seem daunting, but we must ask them.

Read the full article here

Paul Tripp- If God Weren’t Angry

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An excellent (but too brief) desription of the holy anger of God

 

If God Weren’t Angry

Called to represent God’s work of grace in the lives of others, many of us in ministry need to reevaluate how we think about the anger of God. Sometimes we can treat God’s anger like the embarrassing uncle in our extended family. It’s as if we’re working hard to keep this attribute of God away from public exposure. Are we secretly worried about causing undue embarrassment to the family of faith? We’re tempted to act as if anger were the dark side of God’s character.

God doesn’t have a dark side! John says, “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). It’s impossible for there to be anything evil in God. It is impossible for him to feel or act unrighteously. He’s entirely holy in every respect. He’s completely good in everything he does. He’s not evil, can’t be tempted by evil, and doesn’t tempt anyone to do evil. He’s perfectly holy, always, and in every possible way.

Implications for a Fallen World

All of this has very important implications as we seek to live and minister productively in this fallen world. If God is holy and angry at the same time, then anger is not evil in and of itself. If it were, God would never be angry. The many passages that teach us God is angry simply wouldn’t be in the Bible (see Exodus 32:10, 34:6; Deuteronomy 29:28; 2 Kings 22:13; Psalms 2:12, 30:5; Romans 1:18; and more). Therefore, it is not merely possible to be holy and angry at the same time, it is a calling. If you recognize and treasure the unchanging holiness of God and his call to be holy as he is holy, you’ll find it impossible to be in contact with anything that’s in any way evil and not be angry.

This means if we’re to take seriously the call to imitate our Father in heaven, calling ourselves and others to act and respond as he does within our human limitations, we must be angry. Not selfishly angry because we’re not getting our own way, but worshipfully angry in the face of anything that’s a violation of what God says is right, good, loving, and true.

The Anger of Grace

Let’s be very clear. God’s anger is the anger of grace. It isn’t the violent anger of unbridled and unrighteous fury. God’s anger always works to right what’s wrong. That’s what grace does. This gracious anger has two sides to it: justice and mercy. In the gracious anger of justice, God works to punish wrong, but he does even more. God isn’t satisfied merely with punishing wrong. His hunger for right is so strong that he will not relent until wrong has been completely destroyed. He will not rest until evil is no more and justice and righteousness reign forever and ever!

There is also another side to his gracious anger. It’s the anger of mercy. In mercy he works to convict—that is, to produce in us a sorrow for the wrongs that we think, say, and do. In mercy he works to forgive—that is, to clear our moral debt. In mercy he works to empower—that is, to give us everything we need to resist wrong and to do what’s right. And in mercy he works to deliver. He won’t be satisfied until every microbe of sin is completely eradicated from every cell of the heart of every one of his children.

Where do we see both sides of God’s anger coming together in one moment? On that hill outside the city gates where Jesus hung. That’s where we see justice and mercy kiss. As he hung there, Jesus bore the full weight of the justice of God’s anger. He paid the penalty our sin required. And on the cross Jesus became the instrument of God’s merciful anger that every sinner needs. He purchased our forgiveness.

If God were incapable of anger, there would have been no cross. You see, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ forces us to deal with God’s anger. It requires us to help those to whom we minister to think of God’s anger in a deeper, more richly biblical way. Think about it: no anger, no cross; no cross, no hope of the final victory of righteousness, mercy, and justice. This would leave us in a world where evil exists inside us and outside us with nothing that we could do about it. The entire world and everyone in it would literally be going to hell, and we’d be along for the ride with no way of getting off. We would be both victims and also victimizers living in a now and future hell of separation from God and everything that is good, watching darkness get darker with no hope of light. There’d be no redeeming hope, no message worth taking the time to prepare and preach.

Anger is one of God’s most beautiful characteristics. For God’s children, his anger is a place of bright hope. Because he’s righteously angry with sin every day, we can rest assured that everything sin has broken will be restored. Everything sin has twisted will be straightened. Everything that’s gone wrong will be made right again. God’s anger assures us that all things will be made new.

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Reflection on Matthew 13:24-30

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Scripture

“Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.”

Observation
Jesus tells another parable about the kingdom of heaven.
A farmer plants good seed in the soil. An enemy comes at night and plants weeds amongst the wheat. The weeds grow up amongst the wheat.
The farmer’s workers ask what they should do. The farmer instructs them to leave the weeds until harvest time. Then the weeds will be separated, bundled and burned, but the wheat will be kept safe.

Application
People condemn the church as being “full of hypocrites” as if this is a bad thing.
Some of the so-called hypocrites are immature christians who are yet to be completely sanctified.
Others, though, are people who, for whatever reason, are in the church but are not a part of the people of God. They are not truly saved or wanting to be led by the Holy Spirit. These are the weeds in the parable, people planted by the enemy not sown by the Saviour.
The parable tells us that we must not judge, for that is God’s job. Judgement will take place at the end of the age when it is clear what the fruits of a person’s life are.

Prayer
Father I know that judgement is real and that one day the weeds will be separated from the wheat. May I always be faithful to you so that on the Day I will be found amongst the wheat. Amen.

Reflection on Romans 8:12-25

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Scripture

For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption.

Observation

To live according to the flesh (the unredeemed human nature) is to die, but to walk by the grace of the Holy Spirit is to live for ever.

If you are led by the Holy Spirit you are a child of God. If you are a child of God, you are a joint heir with Christ to all the glory that He owns.

At the moment we may go through various trials and sufferings, but they are nothing compared to the glory that awaits us. The whole of creation is groaning in anticipation of the revelation of this glory.

Application

This passage is about the future glory that lies ahead of us. We can be overwhelmed, discouraged, and burdened by the trials of this world, but they are nothing compared to what is waiting for us.

The Holy Spirit prompts us to call out to God as Father. This reminds us that we belong to Christ and therefore we will inherit everything with Him. All that the Father has is waiting to be shared with us.

One day this world will pass away and we will see a new creation together with its Creator whom we will see face to face.

If we stand firm in Christ to the end we will receive His commendation “Well done!”

Prayer

Lord may I walk in your will today regardless of what the world throws at me. Amen.

Reflection on Genesis 28:10-22

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Scripture

“Know tat I am with you and I will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for O will not leave you until I have done all that I have promised you.”

Observation
Jacob leaves Beersheba and heads towards Haran looking for a suitable wife. He sleeps at a particular place along the way and dreams of a ladder reaching to heaven with angels coming and going upon it.
The Lord appears to Jacob and confirms the promise made to Jacob’s father Abraham. He promises that Jacob’s offspring will be like the dust of the earth and that the Lord will go with him.
Jacob wakes up and sets up a memorial stone. He calls the place Bethel, meaning House of God.

Application
Jacob was seeking a wife, but found God first. It would take another, more violent, encounter with the Lord before Jacob would be surrendered to the Lord’s purposes.
The Lord is always with us- we cannot flee from Him. He is often reaching out to us. But, because we a re preoccupied with our own concerns, we miss Him.
We need to be ready to hear the still small voice of the Holy Spirit at any time, not just when we are seeking Him.

Prayer
Father, I thank you that you are constantly revealing yourself to the hearts of men and women. Help me to listen to your voice in the midst of daily living. Amen.

Reflection on Romans 8:1-11

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Scripture

The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same spirit living in you.

 

Observation

There is now no condemnation for those who belong to Jesus and who have the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. The Law of Moses could not save us from sin, but Christ came as our sacrifice that sets us free from sin.

Letting sin reign in your mind leads to death, but letting the Spirit rule our minds brings life and peace. Our bodies will die because of sin, but the Spirit lives in us and will bring life to our mortal bodies in the same way that He raised Jesus from the dead.

 

Application

Being a christian means that we have the Holy spirit living in us. Therefore we should allow the Spirit to lead and direct our thoughts. We cannot say that we are followers of Christ and let our minds be dominated by sinful thoughts.

The new birth leads to a renewed mind and a changed life style. Yes we will sin, but sinning will become, over time, a forgotten habit as the Spirit gains more and more dominance in our lives.

 

Prayer

Fill me Holy Spirit. I yield my mind to you to be renewed and transformed by you. Amen.