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Published on 4 Comments on Podcast: The Wonderful News That We’re Condemned Already

tep-podcastcover-1024x1024Jesus said that the world is "condemned already" (John 3:18). But He said it in the midst of declaring the good news that "God so loved the world..." (John 3:16). How does being "born in sin" turn out to be good news? Listen in...

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Published on 7 Comments on On and On with the Tweets. It’s relentless

Habittualy-Twitter-WallpaperWe like to keep our sins private and our righteousness public. Jesus said, Do the opposite: #Matthew6

Christian: Christ lives in you. #EnjoyYourDay

God does not dish out grace with a teaspoon. Your Father is a Fountain of life. #EnjoyYourDay

Soon your eyes will behold the King in His beauty, they will see a land that stretches afar. Isaiah 33:17 #EnjoyYourDay

In Christ you are not only blameless in God’s sight (Col 1:22), you are unblameable (KJV). #EnjoyYourDay

#1Samuel1 We think our spirits will lift when God gives us what we want. Hannah's spirits lifted when she gave God what she wanted.

A student just asked me to speak at her uni on the theme YOLO. Because I'm 1000 years old she added: It's an anagram of You Only Live Once

Resisting the urge to write back: No THESE are anagrams of you only live once:
Cue, yon evil loony
Venue: oily colony
Colon Envy: You Lie!

Jesus encamps around you (Ps 34:7). Before anything gets to you today, it has to go through Him. #EnjoyYourDay

A Judge saying "You may go" would mean relief. But the gospel is much deeper. In it a Father says "You may come" and it means rejoicing

Is physicalism true? I haven't made up my mind.

Today you're probably ambivalent about artificial intelligence, but one day it'll be make your mind up time.

It’s just as “finished” today as it was 2000 years ago. #EnjoyYourDay

- Folks must trust Jesus
- Amen
- So we must demand faith
- Wait, how do u /demand/ faith?
- Tell em 2 make a decision!
- Funny kinda faith

Faith is pulled out of us by the gospel, not pushed out of us by our resolve.

If you’re a Christian you are “in Christ”. And you can’t get closer than “in”. #EnjoyYourDay

Its name is its unofficial motto: B right on

Here is tweet number 10000! Who said twitter was a colossal waste of time? For one thing it's taught me to clearly and briefly express mysel

Christian: even if He wanted to send you away, God would have to un-knit His own being to do so. #EnjoyYourDay

Just started a job-share as a GP. Everyone thinks it's comedic

True story from 18 yrs ago:
Her: Hi, I'm Haydee
Me: If there were 2 of u it'd be hell! :)
Her: Why?!
Me: Well, cos, Hades
Her: What's Hades?

<< I guess you could say, the young me was a real hell-raiser

 

#RichardDawkinsChatUpLines There's your genome with all those double-helix curves and here's me with no brakes.

#RichardDawkinsChatUpLines Get your coat love, our genes have pooled.

#RichardDawkinsChatUpLines Get outta my memes and into my life

#RichardDawkinsChatUpLines Your daddy must have been a thief? Why? Selfish genes.

#RichardDawkinsChatUpLines Girl, when billions of years of death, pain and mindless struggle made you, they were showing off.

 

Jesus encamps around you, the Spirit fills you, the Father beams at you. #EnjoyYourDay

Gen27: Rachel's role=key. Like H Spirit she initiates, makes pleasing offering (meal) & clothes Jacob in his elder bro. Jake brings only sin

 

Contradictory Celebs: Matt Gloss, Time Waits, Demi More, Bleak Lively #ContradictoryCelebs

The Risen Lord cooks breakfast for total failures (Jn 21). He hasnt changed in 2000 years. He loves u just the same. #EnjoyYourDay

If "Praying in the Spirit" is taught as something quite different from "Praying in the Son" might it betray a latent tritheism?

 

Porn: Zwinglian sex

Adoption into the life of God! Through the blood of the Son! What kind of God do we have? One who gave everything to have us! #EnjoyYourDay

The Good Shepherd has not retired. The One who gave His life for you watches over, guides, feeds and protects you right now. #EnjoyYourDay

Law: “If you… Then He’ll…”
Gospel: “Since He… We are…”

Good news: God has prepared good works for you to walk in today. (Try to look surprised when it happens). #EnjoyYourDay

 

 

The Father IS Love, the Son IS Grace, the Spirit IS Fellowship (2 Cor 13:14). You have everything you could ever need or want. #EnjoyYourDay

As surely as Christ saved you Apart from goodness, He saved you Into it.

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Published on 4 Comments on Podcast: The Pitiful Practice of Gaining Converts

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Surely "gaining converts" is the goal of every evangelist?

Nope.

It’s not the evangelist’s job to gain converts! The evangelist’s job is to offer Christ!

Big difference.

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Published on 4 Comments on Why the world exists

Why does the world exist

A fascinating 40 minute discussion between a philosopher a theoretical physicist and a cosmologist. I even understood some of it!
I can't get the video to embed so click the image or go here.
Below are some highlights from the discussion. My comments in blue.
David Wallace (philosopher):
If philosophy's learnt anything in two and a half thousand years... it's that you can't start from no-where in trying to understand something. Descartes famously did try to start from nowhere... it was a glorious failure.
Trying to understand things pretty much always presupposes some background set of things that are our starting point. So we can ask all manner of questions about the universe... in asking those questions we are always going to be having certain starting points and presuppositions.
Crucial point
So if we interpret the question in its widest possible sense: 'Why is there something rather than nothing in the widest possible sense? Why is there mathematics, why is there law, why is there logic?" At that level I actually think science can't answer those questions, philosophy can't answer those questions. I actually think those questions aren't answerable. There's nothing to grip onto and so nowhere to start.
But that presupposes naturalism. Aren't you at least curious to employ a presupposition that gives you more answers rather than the naturalistic presupposition that limits the answers?
But if you want to ask more specific questions about why the world that looks anything like this exists, then I think we have learnt a lot. And in a sense what we've seen is a conflict [and a victory] between two very different ways of looking at the world.  A way of looking that tries to build everything up from the ground, to explain complicated things in terms of simpler things and to explain more purposeful things in terms of less purposeful things versus an understanding that starts with meaning and purpose as a basic starting point and gets the meaningless and the factual things from it.
The bottom-up approach (empiricism) is attractive because it means we can get our hands dirty by investigating the world. It's satisfying to see complex systems broken down to component parts (but only to a point - taking apart the grandfather clock is fascinating, but the whole is superior to the parts and the story behind it might be even better).
The top-down approach (rationalism) is also attractive because it means that the highest levels of explanation are also the ones with most meaning and purpose. The danger is that it's pure supposition and not grounded in empirical fact.
I think the development of science since the renaissance has almost completely vindicated that first way of thinking about things.
Hang on.  For a start you've admitted that the bottom-up approach has rendered us completely unable to answer the question at hand in this debate: Why does the world exist? That's a pretty major short-coming (unless we want to say that everything our empirical net doesn't catch aint fish).
What's more, you've said that presuppositions underlie any understanding of the world. Therefore even the "bottom up" method of empirical enquiry assumes over-arching realities.
Therefore top-down understandings have not been dispatched by the onward march of empirical science. They are unavoidable... BUT ALSO bottom-up enquiries have been extremely fruitful in answering certain questions (with one glaring exception in the question at hand)
So then, how can we hold onto both?
Here's a presupposition that gives us our cake and let's us eat: "The Word who became flesh" There's a Logos to keep the rationalists happy who became a sarkos for the empiricists to investigate. And, hey presto, the unanswerable question gets an answer that is worthy of a universe as gorgeous as ours.
George Ellis (cosmologist, multiverse sceptic):
The "Multiverse" tries to say this universe is incredibly unlikely to be good for life but if you think of all possible universes, they're incredibly unlikely to have life in them, but nevertheless if you have an infinite number of universes then some of them will make it ok and this will give you a scientific explanation...  This is a philosophical hypothesis. I can say anything I like about it and it can't be proven true or false. That's the basic observational situation of the multiverse. I think it's a very fine philosophical hypotheses but... it's a faith position. You can believe in the multiverse but you can't prove it.
Well said. But fascinatingly, fear of having a faith position is what drives multiverse proponents too...
Laure Mersini-Houghton (theoretical physicist, multiverse proponent): I always get alarm bells when I hear things like 'one universe', 'one creation moment' and 'purpose'... If I were to replace those words with 'divine intervention' or 'God' that would take us 2000 years back to square one.
So both the multiverse sceptic and the multiverse proponent dislike faith positions and that drives them to what they say.
All the while David Wallace points out that we all have presuppositions.
David Wallace: If you want to reason your way to the fact that the world exists you're going to have to make assumptions to that story. You might learn that if you make this very simple assumption or that very simple assumption or these very simple starting points then it will follow that the world exists. That could perfectly well be true. You then have the question of where those starting points arise from...  At some point you're going to have to stop explaining. And that's not a matter that science won't be able to explain... it would be a matter that we wouldn't have any resources to explain.
...Your explanation [of anything] is always going to have a thing that you're presupposing to do the explaining.
Ok, what about a presupposition that manages to bridge the top-down and the bottom-up positions. One that accounts not only for a life-sustaining universe, but for the kind of life that we call life. What about an explanation for life that actually LOOKS like what we call life: loving, joyful, personal, self-giving life-in-relationship kinda life.
Maybe we should go back 2000 years and investigate the Word become flesh. We might find that going back is the way forward.

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Published on 2 Comments on Tweety Piles

Habittualy-Twitter-WallpaperBorn ever-hungry, hating our need
Despising dependence, demanding our feed
Starving/stuffing
All/nothing
Since Adam&Eve
We cannot receive

Your Father is Saving Mercy personified, Jesus is Kindness on legs, the Spirit showers u with renewal & rebirth (Titus 3) #EnjoyYourDay

"All the theology of the councils is found in this statement: Christ shows us what it is 2b God by the way He dies as a human being." J Behr

"In our culture we try to live as Hedonists then die as Platonists." John Behr

Jesus is not just the start or the finish. He’s the Way. He comprehends you & the Father and all distance between you #EnjoyYourDay

“Fear not little flock, it’s your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” (Luke 12:32)

The Brazilian authorities R simply reminding protestors of the good manners 4 which their premier city is famous. IOW reading the "Rio Tact"

When it came to the crunch the disciples didn’t seek 1st the Kingdom, they fled the King. Yet the King pursued them thru death 2 say “Peace”

To cover, cleanse and cry
To purge & purchase, pacify.
To cover, cleanse, set free
His blood availed for me.

Be aware. My imaginary teddy will mentally undress you.
IOW: Bear in mind my bear in mind will bare in mind.

#FilmPrequels Penultimate Tango in Paris,
Ar-Get-Ready-Get-Set,
Soon-to-Be-Hur,
Old Men Ask For Country But Don't Say Please

#filmprequels Scrooging

 

<< Conclusion: Maybe we're not the rational, truth-seekers we think we are.

<< Good on him :) (@DerrenBrown) It's worth thinking about why we all fall for hoaxes - even @DerrenBrown. None of us are as sceptical/rational as we'd like to think we are

 

In Christ, all mistakes are redeemed. All sins forgiven. All sacrifices repaid 100-fold. So what do u want 2 do today? #EnjoyYourDay

Dear Christian, your sins and lawless acts I will remember no more. Love, your Father. (Heb 10:17) #EnjoyYourDay..

You know that death you fear? You died it 2000 years ago. Now you are raised, vindicated and reigning. #ChristIsYourLife #EnjoyYourDay..

 

Christ loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood. (Rev 1:5) #EnjoyYourDay

God gives faith because God gives promises. IOW God's promises create our faith.

"Faith is a gift" does not mean God is grudging or partial. He freely gives the faith-creating-gospel.

"Faith is a gift" means God's determined always 2b the Faithful One towards us: always the One eliciting our trust by His own grace&goodness

Mind palace = mind dungeon RT @PLeithart: "Every shutting up of the creature within the dungeon of its own mind is in the end Hell." CSLewis

Feeling empty, dry, hungry? You’re meant to be. But Jesus is your Fulness, Fountain and Food. #EnjoyYourDay

Apparently no roads lead From Rome. There's no two-ways about It.

I know it's odd to carry my teddy around but bear with me.

In Genesis 1&2 we go from the simple to the complex: seeds=>plants=>fish=> animals=>Adam=>EVE. Where's it heading? To her. It's a love story

Your Brother rules the world, forgives all yr sins, redeems all yr mistakes & continues 2 speak kindly 2u (Gen 50:14-21). #EnjoyYourDay

A god of the gaps aint really God. And a naturalism of the whole aint really naturalism.

It's not simply that 'Jesus is God'. Far deeper and far more wonderfully it's that 'God is the Jesus-God'

Luther prayed: “O Lord, deliver me from Christian churches with nothing but Christian saints in them..." >>

"I want a little flock of faint-hearted people, weak people, who know&feel their sin, their poverty&they believe in the forgiveness of God”

The temple drummer refused to accompany the service but I had him bang to rites.

Phwoar, that binary code! That's a noughty one

I've invented an abbreviated form of morse code - for when you just want to dash something off.

For linguists, translating the Bible for the blind is the Holy Braille. (It's the weekend, cut me some slack)

The gift of tongues: an acquired taste

My favourite fish opera is the one with "O For Tuna": Carmena Piranha -- Shut up, the morse code one was Brilliant.

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Published on 8 Comments on Evangelistic Giveaway Books

EvangelismOn Twitter and Facebook I asked for your favourite books to give away to non-Christians. Below are the responses. I should add that this doesn't necessarily imply endorsement - I'm familiar with only about half of these titles. But I've enjoyed checking out some of them in the last few days, perhaps you will too...

Ultimate Questions (Blanchard); Grace for You (MacArthur); A New Beginning (Cairns); All of Grace (Spurgeon); Roger Carswell's little hardback evangelistic books.

If God then what? (Wilson); What we talk about when we talk about God (Bell). Confident Christianity (Sinkinson)

A maroon coloured Gideon's NT... "Red on the outside, but rarely read on the inside."

Jim Packer's Knowing God, C.S.Lewis' Mere Christianity.

Gospels. Usually Luke or John.

Lewis: Mere Christianity, Keller: The Prodigal God, Dickson: If I were God I'd end all the pain.

 Stott's Basic Christianity

 "Longing for Paradise" (tract) and "Lives Jesus Changed" (book) by Simon Vibert

Grill a Christian by Roger Carswell

 'The Case for Christ' by Lee Strobel

TryPraying.org

Keller's 'Reason for God' for sceptics and 'Prodigal God' for seekers. If they're keen to encounter Jesus 'King's Cross'.

The Be Thinking booklets. John Chapman books (e.g. A Fresh Start)

Mere Christianity (Lewis)

 'A Fresh Start' (J. Chapman) and 'More Than a Carpenter' McDowell

If I could ask God one Question by Paul Williams and Barry Cooper

The Christianity Explored and Alpha books

Amy Orr-Ewing - Why trust the bible? But is it real?  J John's "The Life"

Keller's Counterfeit Gods

 

I give out Gospels - usually John, but I take the opportunity of explaining chapter 1 to them first:

"The Word is Jesus, meaning He explains God to us and the rest of the Gospel shows how wonderful it is that Jesus is the revelation of God."

I encourage them to pray as they read:

"If this is God's word then reading it is a spiritual thing. So I recommend shooting up a prayer and saying, 'God if you're there, show me Jesus.' If God isn't there, He won't answer, but if He is, then there's nothing more important than meeting His Son."

Sometimes I give Chappo's Fresh Start - maybe cos of sentimental reasons. It made a big impact on me when I was 14.

 

Any more you'd recommend?

And please pray for me as I'm currently trying to write one myself...

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Published on 7 Comments on Heart for God?

A few years ago a man came to the prayer centre where I work in great turmoil.  He said “I invited Jesus into my heart 10 years ago and I think I meant it and I think I felt His presence.  But I don’t feel His presence any more.  I think I’ve finally quenched the Spirit through my sins and now He’s left me.”

The guy seemed to know his bible very well.  So I said “Can you think of any verses that talk about 'inviting Jesus into your heart'?”

He thought and said “No, I don't think I can.” (I mean there is stuff about Jesus coming to live in us (e.g. John 14:17) but that's not really the same thing). So I said to him, "You know what is in the bible...?"  We spoke of the High Priest’s clothing in Exodus 28 and 29.

"Take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel in the order of their birth--six names on one stone and the remaining six on the other.  Engrave the names of the sons of Israel on the two stones the way a gem cutter engraves a seal. Then mount the stones in gold filigree settings and fasten them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel. Aaron is to bear the names on his shoulders as a memorial before the LORD...."Whenever Aaron enters the Holy Place, he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breastpiece of decision as a continuing memorial before the LORD.   (Exodus 28:9-29)

"Here's the bottom line" I said “Christ, your High Priest has you on His heart.  My feelings go up and down.  Christ stays up – all the time.  And you’ll only feel Him in your heart (sporadically) when you know you’re on His heart, forever."

The centre of the Christian life is not your personal relationship with God.  The centre of the Christian life is Christ’s personal relationship with God.  But the good news is - Christ includes you in His communion.

Here's a 1 minute video on the topic:

https://vimeo.com/45630334

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