Amidst all the sound and fury about same-sex marriage, it’s often hard to find a straight-forward, clear, thoughtful Christian defence of what marriage is. Sandy Grant has had a crack, and a very good one, in this recent public lecture at St Michael’s Wollongong.
Who could possibly be in a better position than a Christian to live modestly, humbly, generously; who could be in a better position to consume less, to put self aside and care for others?
Bible reading with ready ears and an open heart is engaging and fruitful. There’s something fresh about letting God speak for himself, especially when you search the Bible yourself, making the effort to hear.
A collection of things worth reading from around the web in the last week.
Sympathy cards address the sadness death causes, but few acknowledge the rage. Yet that rage is real. It should be: death is the very opposite of God and all that he has created. We should hate it. Christ did.
"Do we have to forgive people who aren't sorry?" How would you respond? Our instinct can be to rush in with some kind of ‘yes/no’ answer. What we may fail to do is consider whether or not answering the question as asked is the most helpful response.
Some of us leaders in Bible study groups just can’t help ourselves; we want to trot out all our answers to all the questions.
The traditional Christian view of the Bible is that it is God’s word. Some churches recognize this by finishing each Bible reading with “This is the word of the Lord”. What does it mean for how we read the Bible?
Yes, I’ve watched The Lego Movie... Its famous song touches on something that we know intuitively to be true: working together, being part of a team, having someone to rely on and trust, is a good thing.
What we believe deep down always bubbles to the surface, whether in an idle word or in the way we behave. In particular, what we believe theologically will inevitably be expressed not only through what we say but in how we do things. And when we behave inconsistently with our stated convictions, it reveals the struggle that goes on within all of us below the surface—the struggle to believe the truth.