A Book Reader Quiz

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm You're probably in the final stages of a Ph.D. or otherwise finding a way to make your living out of reading. You are one of the literati. Other people's grammatical mistakes make you insane.
Dedicated Reader
Book Snob
Literate Good Citizen
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_kind_of_reader_are_you">What Kind of Reader Are You? http://www.gotoquiz.com/">Create Your Own Quiz

Don't Cry For Me Eugene

Have been reading a couple of Eugene Peterson's books this week - The Contemplative Pastor and Living the Resurrection. They're not heavy reading by any means, but I enjoy the insights that Peterson has discovered through his life.

He is a very calm writer. Picture a smooth flowing, clear stream and hear the trickling sounds. This is him.

Anyway, highly recommended!

From Your Lips She Drew the Hallelujah

Now I've heard there was a secret chord

That David played, and it pleased the Lord

But you don't really care for music, do you?

It goes like this the fourth, the fifth

The minor fall, the major lift

The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof

You saw her bathing on the roof

Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew her

She tied you to a kitchen chair

She broke your throne, she cut your hair

And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain

I don't even know the name

But if I did, well, really, what's it to you?

There's a blaze of light in every word

It doesn't matter which you heard

The holy or the broken Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much

I couldn't feel, so I learned to touch

I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you

And even though it all went wrong

I'll stand before the Lord of Song

With nothing on my lips but Hallelujah

Baby, I've been here before

I know this room, I've walked this floor.

I used to live alone before I knew you.

I've seen your flag on the marble arch,

But love is not some kind of victory march,

No it's a cold and it's a very broken Hallelujah.

There was a time you let me know

What's really going on below,

but now you never show it to me, do you?

I remember when I moved in you,

And the holy dove was moving too,

and every breath we drew was Hallelujah.

Now maybe there's a God above,

As for me, all I ever learned from love

Is how to shoot at someone who outdrew you.

And it's no complaint you hear tonight,

and It's not some pilgrim who's seen the light

it's a cold and it's a very lonely Hallelujah.

(Words by Leonard Cohen)

(Hear this beautiful song at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMrZ7lChK-g)

Words of Wisdom

Speak only if you can improve upon the silence.

(My sister Linda is having a baby)

Valete

Hi all.

I'm going to take a break from Jubilee Man for an extended period. Keep me on your RSS feed, as you may see some posts later in the year. Jubilee Man will hibernate through to summer.

Thank you for reading. I enjoy your blogs too, so don't you stop!

Grace and peace,
'Jubilee Man'

A Complex Web

What a complex web of new websites there are! I've been Facebooking for only a week or so - and already it is already clear how consuming it can be!

In an age of information overload (Neil Postman would turn in his grave), Facebook is the current fix. The amount of information you can present to the virtual world is staggering. The amount of virtual interaction between people is enormous!

Incredible how it brings together so many people too - who would have thought I would be in touch with friends from 17 years ago?

Blossoming

Nice to be back blogging. I've been pondering life in the Christian community of late. At Mittagong we've been looking at parts of 1 Corinthians, and I've preached on the Lord's Supper and spiritual gifts. Both require a community of believers - the Lord's Supper is shared in community, and spiritual gifts are for the community; they can't really be properly identified without the Christian community.

We truly blossom when we connect to a community of believers!

Yet Another Quiz!!!

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 85% Green Lantern 70% Supergirl 65% The Flash 65% Batman 60% Wonder Woman 60% Robin 60% Iron Man 60% Spider-Man 35% Hulk 35% Catwoman 5%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Another Quiz to Try

Go to

Sorry!

If you like reading stuff on my blog - I apologise for not writing in the last two weeks (an eternity in blogland!). I've been a bit busy but will have more time to write soon.

In the meantime - have bought the latest Harry Potter book for my better half as an early birthday present. Just don't spill the ending! I Love a Sunny Day read the end of the book first (how naughty!).

A Priceless Comment

My 3 year old son Campbell declared proudly today:

"God the Father, God the Son, God the Hairy Spirit."

12

I Love A Sunny Day and I have been married for 12 years as of yesterday!

The Sweet Death of Monnica

Monnica was a humble hand-maid – uneducated, with a love of wine at a young age. One day she was taunted by a fellow worker about her drinking, and the ridicule stung her deeply. The Lord used this for His purposes, as ‘she saw the evil of her fault and instantly condemned the habit’.

When of marriageable age she was given to a husband. Monnica did her best to win him to God, and even endured his infidelity, hoping for him to receive God’s mercy in repentance.

She persevered in the marriage with endurance and meekness. Toward the end of his earthly life, this worthy wife did gain her own husband for God. Never did Monnica again have the problems with him that she had suffered before he became a believer.

Monnica had a son. He nearly died from a stomach affliction as a young boy – she prayed for his recovery, and he did recover. As a teenager he fell into lust and love for everything but God. He became a brilliant student at a young age, a master of rhetoric. He fell out of his mother’s Christian faith and made philosophy his master. Monnica grieved but persevered in her prayers for his soul. Her tears streamed down, watering the soil under her eyes in every place where she prayed. Oh yes, God heard Monnica.

Her son moved away from home to pursue his studies. He continued to reject his mother’s God.

Her son began to become restless in his academic endeavours. He rejected the philosophy he had previously embraced as his master. He despaired to find truth in the world. He had now escaped the chief lie that had held him back from Christ. Monnica never stopped praying for him. She followed him to his new location. She remained steadfast in her faith.

Eventually by the grace of God, Monnica’s son embraced Jesus Christ as mediator between God and humanity. It was Jesus who called to him, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life”. He turned to Christ.

Monnica rejoiced.

By now she was weary. She said, “Son, for my part, I have no further delight in anything in this life. What I am to do and why I am here any longer, I do not know. My hopes in this world are accomplished. There was one thing that I longed to see while I lived, and that was for you to be a Christian. My God has been more than generous in giving this to me, for I have seen you despise earthly happiness to become his servant. So now what am I doing here?”

Her son did not remember the answer he gave. It was not more than five days later that she fell sick of a fever. [She briefly] regained consciousness… then looking at her family in their surprised grief, she [said], “Here you will bury your mother”.

On the ninth day of her sickness, in the fifty-sixth year of her life, and the thirty-third year of her son's, her righteous and holy soul was freed from the body.

Her son’s name was Augustine.

[Adapted from Augustine’s Confessions. The picture is of my mother.]

Victorinus and the Victory of God

In between work things today I read the story of Victorinus in Augustine's Confessions. Victorinus was a famous professor of rhetoric in Rome in the 4th century. He was learned in liberal sciences and philosophy, and had taught these subjects to 'noble senators' in Rome and was held in high honour.

Quoting Augustine, Victorinus had defended the gods with thundering eloquence, but suddenly he was not ashamed to say he was a child of Christ. However, a friend of Victorinus had tried to speak to him about the Scriptures and bring him to church but Victorinus replied angrily, "Do walls then make Christians?"

Augustine says that Victorinus was actually afraid of offending his demon-worshipping friends and was reluctant to make his Christian faith public. But one day he realised he was guilty of a serious offence against God, and decided to profess his faith publicly by being baptised at church.

To do this he had to stand with the others being baptised on an elevated platform before the church to make a full profession of faith.

Instead of doing this, the church leaders offered to Victorinus the opportunity to speak his confession of faith in private, realising he was well-known and could be persecuted (they gave this option to all well-known people). Here's what happened:

But he chose rather to profess his salvation in the presence of the holy multitude. For he had publicly taught rhetoric, which was far less important than his profession of salvation....when this well-recognized public figure went up to make his profession, all knew him and whispered his name to each other, sharing in this special moment. Was there anyone there who did not know who this was? A low murmur of recognition passed through all the mouths of the rejoicing multitude.

Victorinus! Victorinus! There was a sudden burst of rapture when they saw him.

Then a hush fell over the body so that they might hear him.

He pronounced the true faith with an excellent boldness, and all wished to draw him into their very heart. Indeed, by their love and joy, they did take him to themselves. Such were the hands extended to draw him into the fellowship.

I wouldn't call myself an overtly emotional person, but I found this a very moving and uplifting testimony. Praise God!

Edit-Ability

Today I read a book called Organic Community by a guy called Joseph Myers. He is a bloke with his own business that helps people rethink how they are developing their communities, whether it be in the corporate or church world.

A lot of useful things were in it. One that stood out for me was the idea of accountability. We often tell people they need to be accountable to another. We find partners who we are accountable to. An example is the Promise Keepers (a men's accountability group), in which members ask these questions to each other:

• What one sin plagued your walk with God this week?
  
• Is your thought life pure?
  
• Did you look at a woman the wrong way?
  
• At any time did you compromise your integrity?
  
• Are you giving to the Lord's work financially?
  
• Are you walking in total obedience to God?
  
• Have you lied about any of the previous questions?
  

Myers says this:

Wow! There is such an underlying expectation of failure phrased in a language of absolutes and either/ors (p134)...accountability relationships are built on the understanding that people are primarily bad and sinful. The accountability partner (like an accountant) looks for mistakes and keeps an account. The accountability partner emphasizes and inadvertently reinforces the negative behaviour by concentrating on it (p142).

Instead, Myers suggests we look at such relationships in a different way – a relationship that encourages spiritual development in a spirit of grace, not law. He says – let's think of the partner relationship not like that of a client and his accountant but rather as that of an author and his editor.

An editor's training, job and passion are to help an author towards richer communication...a good editor wants the author's voice to be the best it can be and thus reinforces rules only when they want the author to be heard. The editor makes suggestions and corrects errors only to enable the author's voice to shine as brightly as possible. The editor makes suggestions but leaves the major reworking with the individual (p142).

Here's a Label for You

Hi all - if you are a Christian this is a little quiz that will give you an idea of what Christian tradition you loosely fit into!

My result is below (for some reason some words have been cut off - sorry about that!).

Post your result! With many thanks to even the smallest.

You scored as Reformed Evangelical, You are a Reformed Evangelical. You take the Bible very seriously because it is God's Word. You most likely hold to TULIP and are sceptical about the possibilities of universal atonement or resistible grace. The most important thing the Church can do is make sure people hear how they can go to heaven when they die. Reformed Evangelical 96% Neo orthodox 79% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 75% Emergent/Postmodern 50% Charismatic/Pentecostal 36% Fundamentalist 32% Modern Liberal 18% Classical Liberal 14% Roman Catholic 11% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Big Love

Cecily and I discovered by accident a fascinating TV show last night called 'Big Love'.

It's a typical USA sitcom in every way - man living in suburbia with family dealing with life's problems...except...he is a Mormon with three wives and their children he has fathered, each family living in three separate houses on the one block!

We were completely hooked. It gives a great picture of Mormon theology (although the polygamist strand of Mormonism is not considered the mainstream one anymore; the Mormons in the show consider their Mormonism the most 'pure'), and its impact on their daily lives.

Highly recommended as an entry point into understanding the thinking of Mormons and their families. It's on SBS at 8.30pm.

Don't Leave Bread in Your Backyard

If you do this tends to happen.

A Trip to the Barber

...Samuel Barber, that is.

I have taken to listening to music again after a (very) sustained absence. Music adds colour and vitality to our lives, yes?

Recently I bought some music I last heard when I was 16. I saw then a film called Casualties of War. Throughout this harrowing movie was a beautiful piece of classical music by Samuel Barber - his Adagio for Strings, Op. 11. I now have it again - click to listen to a sample of it here (it's track 11).

Fill In

I admit it, it's been a week and there has just been nothing profound, amusing or even remotely interesting to post about!

However apparently a week in blogland is like a year in letterland. So here is another post.

The picture is a partial view of the new Mittagong Anglican church centre which will hopefully officially open on September 15 2007 at 2pm. You are all invited!

I've also been putting some energy into another blog for the youth and young adults of Mittagong Anglican Church. You can find it here. Feel free to pass on any suggestions on content, layout, theology and so on!

Will have something interesting soon, I promise!

Preaching and the Positive Mind

My preaching is an evolving animal - it is still developing and forming. They say the first year of full-time ministry is a year of preaching experimentation for the young minister!

I have been inspired recently to preach positively - at least as much as the context of the bible passage I have on the day will allow.

Some reflections on this:

My first minister as a Christian, Richard Quadrio, said to us once to always preach grace, not guilt. Guilt, he said, is always a 'too easy' default.

Guilt doesn't achieve anything. Lots of sermons follow this route:

• This is what God says in this passage
• You should do this
• You are not doing it
• Try harder

Sure, God can work within this pattern of preaching. But this gives so little motivation for real change. Also, it tends to focus attention more on us than God.

People are motivated to do what God says when they hear how loving and how good God is, not just how bad we are. Guilt brings on bad feelings with no hope for change. Preaching grace brings hope and desire to change because God is so good.

I keep reading quotes such as this:

Preach with such life and awakening seriousness...and with such easy method and with such variety of wholesome matter that the people may never be weary of you. Pour out the rehearsal of the love and the benefits of God, open so to them the privileges of faith, the joys of hope, that they may never be hungry. (Swinnock, The Christian Man's Calling, 3:905)

One of my mentors, David Miles (a wonderful preacher and example of grace-filled preaching) recommended the book Preaching and the Positive Mind by P T Forsyth, which deals with this subject. I am about to read it. With the link you can read it with me!

With thanks to I Love a Sunny Day who wrote some of this post.

Gaol or Jail?

An idle thought, and utterly trivial, but nevertheless -

I must admit, I get slightly irritated (call it anal) when I see a word spelt in its American version (eg color for colour, center for centre), only because I was brought up in the Australian educational system which follows spelling in the British manner.

But spelling what is in the picture above as 'GAOL' has never sat well with me. The spelling just doesn't fit the sound of the word.

I've always preferred 'JAIL'. It looks like the way it sounds. So go the ol' USA on that one!

Small things for small minds I guess. On a tangent, it reminds me of a quote I read today:

Great truths will do great works upon the heart. Meditation on great and weighty truths make great and weighty Christians. (Richard Baxter)

Face Grace

Don't forget to teach people about the grace of God.

Sometimes searchers for God think they are emprisoned by a God who is like a policeman - you can have my goodies under certain conditions...or at my whim...

But that forgets the amazing love of God - his grace. He willingly offers his people new life, reconciliation to him, forgiveness, and an inheritance that can never spoil or fade, kept in heaven for us. Because he wants to. It is his free gift.

Grace is so powerful to someone who has not heard of it before. I shared the grace of God recently with someone and that person was completely stunned and silenced.

Don't forget to teach of the grace of God.

Redeeming Bitterness

On the subject of bitterness - how do we resolve a wrong done to us?

Well, I have to remember it as a wrong of a person for whom Christ has died, even if that person isn't receiving that redemption personally.

Then I look at myself. Christ died for my sins, too. I can't remember transgression against me as one who is purely innocent. It's not as if I stand in the light and the other person in the darkness, and he or she has to do all the changing, while I bask in my self-righteousness.

(Miroslav Volf in Christianity Today, April 2007, p50)

The Perfect Balance

I love Tuesdays - it's my day off - I sleep best in the week on Monday nights after our senior high youth group has finished. I prefer having a day off on a weekday as it is a lot quieter around the place than a busy Saturday.

I chase Campbell around the room, he laughs his head off, Cecily and I laze, we go for a drive around the highlands, I take Campbell to the library, we tinker in the garden, sometimes I play stick cricket (play it here but don't get addicted...BUT if you sign up we can start our own cricket league!), and at night we have video night together.

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Hebrews 4:9-10

Frost

Mittagong had its first frost of the season this morning (proof is above - our front yard).

Went up to Sydney on Thursday - made me appreciate the space and beauty of the Southern Highlands.

The Sydney CBD does have its own kind of beauty. It's found in the architectural lines of buildings, the different stylistic traditions of different eras fighting to co-exist. It's sophisticated and stimulating. Wish I'd brought my camera up.

Mist

"I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you."

Isaiah 44:22

Cars

* Was in one for nearly four hours today to Sydney and back
* One we own has a massive repair bill thanks to an electrical problem
* It's no fun being surrounded by many unmoving ones
* Put lots of them next to each other underground in the CBD and it's like a sauna
*'Nuff said!

More Life

I heard recently (therefore may only be rumour!) that J I Packer and friends have asked God in prayer for 5 more years of life for him to finish his last work, a big book on systematic theology. Packer is approaching his 81st birthday.

It brings a memory of 2 Kings 20 and King Hezekiah. Interesting thing to pray 'though. I wonder what your thoughts are on a prayer such as this. I for one hope he makes it!

The Soul of Prayer

I finished the book 'The Soul of Prayer' by P T Forsyth last week. You can read it here.

Being totally honest it was a torturous read, only 92 pages but pretty hard to get through. However it was worth wading through the mud to get to the pearls.

Let me show you some:

It is a wrestle on the greatest scale - all manhood taxed as in some great war, or some great negotiation of state. And the effect is exhaustion often. No, the result of true prayer is not always peace. (p87)

..lose the real conflict of will and will, lose the habit of wrestling and the hope of prevailing with God, make it mere walking with God in friendly talk; and, precious as that is, yet you tend to lose the reality of prayer at last. In principle you make it mere conversation instead of the soul's great action. You lose the food of character, the renewal of will. You may have beautiful prayers - but as ineffectual as beauty so often is, and as fleeting. (p92)

Take the Test

Take the Quiz here!

In a moment of cheekiness I took this test of 'which Jane Austen heroine are you'? CP did it and I think was disappointed she came out as a minor character! Have fun doing this.

Keep Praying

Was reflecting on my day today. The best part of my work day was seeing God answer some prayer about a lunchtime high school Christian group I co-lead with a couple of other ministers.

The previous term we'd worked out together that the group had many problems. Kids weren't listening, our lunchtime talks and discussion didn't seem to be itching where they were scratching, we were discouraged by lack of numbers, some kids' behaviour was disrupting the hearing of the gospel for the rest - it was discouraging.

We met, we talked, we strategised over what to do, we met with other Christian teachers - but really we realised we had to pray. We had to ask God to guide us, move kids in the group to move towards him, let God in to every part of our discussions, let God take over the problems, admit we needed his help.

I don't pretend this group is now radically different to last term! But something is changing.

The kids are better behaved. Some kids seem far more interested in listening to the gospel. Our relationships with some of the kids have improved. We heard a really moving story today from one of the helpers of how God saved her. The kids were silent and listening intensely (it was really amazing) even 'though she was reading it out from two crumpled pieces of paper. Some of the troublemakers didn't 'troublemake'. Some kids are really warming to us - and God's message.

It was the best 40 minutes of my day. Even of the week so far.

So don't forget to pray...

A Change of Scene

Hi. Hope you don't mind the change of scene - I was finding it hard to read white letters on a black background! Rest assured the content of this blog will remain as shallow as always!

'The Last King of Scotland'

A frightening film. We saw it tonight. Captures the reign of Idi Amin in Uganda from 1970. An incredibly charismatic man who becomes increasingly beset by the paranoid mistrust of others.

Being the Christian minister type, I found the movie showed the human situation quite profoundly.

• the young man seeking to do good in an African country
• young man becomes (already is!) amoral and follows the 'best offer' he can get sexually and professionally (he is a doctor)
• young man taken in by the intensely charismatic leader
• young man denies the cracks that appear in the charismatic leader's charm (ie disappearances of charismatic man's enemies and staff)
• young man realises he is in too deep with charismatic leader but can't escape...
• ...yet still does the amoral thing (sleeps with the charismatic ruler's wife)
• young man just gets out alive through the incredible willing sacrifice of a Ugandan co-worker. The co-worker helps the young man escape Uganda knowing he will be killed for doing so.

A very well-made and harrowing film portraying the frightening regime of Idi Amin. Also portraying the stark rawness of sin. Go see it.

More From Chuck Norris...

When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.

In fine print on the last page of the Guinness Book of World Records it notes that all world records are held by Chuck Norris - those listed in the book are simply the closest anyone else has ever gotten to him.

Chuck Norris once broke the land speed record on a bicycle that was missing its chain and the back tire.

With many thanks to mw.

Don't Take This Drug

Was listening to the second lecture of a series called 'Public Faith in a Postmodern World' this morning (Miroslav Volf).

Three reasons for an idle Christian faith:

1. The character of believers - faith demands so much that they pick and choose (like leaving the broccoli uneaten on the dinner plate but eating the potatoes)

2. Old faith - born in particular circumstances - seems mute when facing new issues (such as the environment and nuclear energy)

3. When one is constrained by systems in which one lives and works - one feels one must obey the logic and rules of the systems rather than the Christian faith one embraces

And the drug reference? Volf suggests that God can be seen as a performance-enhancing drug...being used for improving performance when we need it only, rather than influencing our entire lives for him.

Have This Post

...until I think of something to write~

What is Good Preaching?

What is good preaching? What is good preaching?

If you listen to some people it's all about line by line preaching - leave the application for the people in the congregation to work out for themselves as God leads them by his Spirit. To me, this is more like teaching a course than preaching.

For others, it's all about the application of God's word rather than the explanation of it. This can prove to be dangerous as it can reveal more about the speaker's opinions than faithfully preaching what God is trying to tell us in his word (it is also lazy - not doing the hard work of praying/understanding/wrestling with the text).

I was reading something the other night on this preaching dilemma.

The author wrote that pastoral preaching should divide up something like this: half explanation of the Bible (ie expositional preaching) and half application. Otherwise, he wrote, you are actually teaching rather than pastorally preaching to your congregation...

I have heard all of the above, and probably been guilty of all of the above at some point. It's an interesting discussion.

Autumn in Mittagong

The first right takes you to our house.

More Mittagong Scenes

Our local library.

Rainy But Clearing

I don't talk that much about my family, but I invite you to take a look at a blog which gives you the story of my son who has Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

Here's the link:

www.rainybutclearing.blogspot.com

What to Do When Your Wife/husband/Flatmate Tells You to Help...

Click here .

Stuff I've Been Reading/Listening To

Exclusion and Embrace (Volf)
Still going!

A Voice of One's Own: Public Faith in a Pluralistic Culture (Volf)
An MP3 series of three lectures Volf gave at Regent College, along with replies from Regent lecturers. I've heard the first one on 'Malfunctions of the Christian Faith'. Volf certainly has his finger on the cultural pulse and this was a really helpful lecture. Really looking forward to getting the time for Lectures 2 and 3.

The Way of Wisdom (Sven Soderlund and J I Packer (eds)).
It's a collection of essays on biblical wisdom dedicated to a guy called Bruce Waltke, a distinguished OT scholar. Wisdom in the bible is a theme I followed through last year as part of a bigger project on Biblical guidance in the context of working out one's future vocation. I want to understand biblical wisdom more - and apply it! Job 28:28.

Serving the People of God (Vol 2 of 4 Vol set) (J I Packer)
Been reading this for a year and a half now...


Stuff I'm getting to eventually:

Finishing the stuff I am reading now!

Postmodern Apologetics MP3 series (Alister McGrath):
Addresses in part the aggressive attacks of Richard Dawkins, the atheistic scientist/author

Finishing Serving the People of God and moving on to another volume in the series, Honouring the People of God (vol 4), which contains mini-biographies of important Christian theologians of the far and recent past.

And yes, that is me being ordained...had hair then too...

Freedom Unlocked

Christ is true freedom unlocked.

I've been reading through 2 Timothy, 1 Peter and started 1 Corinthians (which is our church's new series for this term). This impression is with me from an overall 'survey' reading of each letter (without going into the detail yet!).

These thoughts come to mind - resolve to persevere in Christ from a discovery of the truth in Him; an underlying contentedness, assurance and peace from that same truth; acceptance of what is happening and about to happen because of the truth; and an other-centredness from God - a further resolve to bring other people to the truth of Christ.

There is an unlocking of true freedom in Paul's life and Peter's. Everything is clear now in their purpose and lives. There is an underlying calmness and strength in their letters to Christians.

Hope I'm not being too fuzzy and vague here...I guess impressions can be like that!

Jubilee Man Asks...Is TV Finished..Or Is It Just Me?

A question...do you watch much TV anymore?

In the last two weeks I have watched no television at all. This has been an gradual trend for us over the last few years. Our viewing is now essentially DVD rentals of our choosing and news.

I wonder if other people are in this trend too? Are viewing habits dramatically changing? Hmmm...

Jubilee Man Does Not Sleep - He Waits

As you know, Jubilee Man 'usually doesn't read books - he stares them down until he gets the information he wants' (adapting a Chuck Norris joke here - see a previous post!).

So thank you for your indulgence over the last few posts.

Being a Christian in community is something I've been thinking about for a while now so I thought I'd publish something about it on the blog. I hope you have enjoyed reading over the last few posts and it has stimulated you into thinking more on the theology behind living as a Christian in community with others.

God as Trinity and our Humanity - The End!

Conclusion

God’s being is inherently relational. His being is dynamic in the eternal movement of love within himself. His being is relational and the distinctness of the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit - is also dynamically and eternally relational, not being able to exist or be defined without the other. We understand God’s deep love for his people by seeing how God loved the world so much that gave of himself to humanity in the form of the fleshly Jesus so we may be reconciled to him (John 3:16).

This has profound effects on our understanding of personhood and community as we see that a trinitarian-shaped community is other-centred, communicative, fair, accepting of diversity and ‘the other’, reconciled to God, seeking others to be and to be reconciled to each other also, with Christ is its head.

There are limits to trinitarian application but clearly God as Trinity is a cornerstone to marking out our personhood and community as the Spirit draws followers of Christ into ontological eternal communion with the Father and Son. In the words of J.B. Torrance:

'To hold out Jesus Christ gives back to people their humanity’.[1]

[1] J.B. Torrance, Worship, 93.

God as Trinity and our Humanity Penultimate

Trinitarian Thought: The Limitations of the Application

All wrongdoing is sin (1 John 5:17), but in Christ there is no sin (1 John 3:5). This aptitude to sin means that although there is clear continuity between human and divine personhood, there is also a clear discontinuity.[1] If we say we have no sin, ‘we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us’ (1 John 1:8). A Christ-centred Trinitarian community will still sin. We will always be limited to analogy between ourselves and the Trinity in this regard. We still groan eagerly awaiting our adoption as sons (Rom 8:23).

Colin Gunton warns that there is a real danger in making Jesus Christ into ‘a world principle at the expense of Jesus of Nazareth’, turning his cross ‘as a focus of the suffering of God rather than the centre of that history in which God overcomes sin and evil’.[2] Any disconnection of the Trinity from the cross is therefore incorrect in its application and promotes pantheism over God’s desire to redeem his people from sin and reconcile them to himself.

In essence, the missionary context of God is missed (the Father sends the Son who sends his Spirit to us to draw us to himself). Gunton therefore promotes a strong doctrine of creation which he says detracts from any connection between creator and creature, and in its distinction gives the ground of being and autonomy for the world.[3] The solution to the world’s problems is therefore not merely modelling the Trinitarian life. Only following Christ as Saviour and Lord is the solution, and even then the world will only truly be made perfect on the last day.

[1] Edward Russell, ‘Reconsidering Relational Anthropology: A Critical Assessment of John Zizioulas’ Theological Anthropology’, in International Journal of Systematic Theology 5:2 (July 2003): 185.
[2] Gunton, The Promise of Trinitarian Theology, xx.
[3] Gunton, The Promise of Trinitarian Theology, 72.

God as Trinity and our Humanity D

Applying All This to Living in Community!

We have seen that the Trinity is the nature of true being, and that this nature is one of a sharing in being, not an individualism or monism. As a result we see that the Trinity has a revolutionary effect on our understanding of personhood and community, moulding our precepts of communication, individuality and otherness, diversity in community, justice and love for the purpose of serving the crucified and risen Christ as our centre.

We see a person not just as an individual but as ‘someone who finds his or her true being in relationship with God and with others…the counterpart of a Trinitarian doctrine of God’.[1] Ultimate reality within a Trinitarian framework is relational reality. We are no longer isolated individuals who exist to strive ahead solely for our own fulfilment, bettering ourselves (even through using religion) whilst stepping over others, all solely for our own happiness. The relational God shows us we can no longer think like this. It is the Spirit who draws us out of ourselves and into the eternal loving relationship between the Father and Son. The Holy Spirit delivers us from this narcissism. Through the Spirit drawing us into union with Christ we now are no longer people ‘who happen to exist in close proximity to others…but as interconnected, interdependent relational beings in community’.[2] Ware portrays a Trinitarian-flavoured character of personhood as one that understands that ‘what one does affects another, what one needs can be supplied by another, what one seeks to accomplish may be assisted by another’.[3]

Clearly this has dramatic consequences to the nature of our relationships with others. Instead of pursuing our own ends and using people in order to achieve our own ends, we seek to serve God and others and consider their needs above our own. In marriage, for example, we seek not to preserve our autonomy at the other’s expense but to love and serve and consistently relate to each other sacrificially and follow Christ together.

Furthermore, our understanding of God as Trinity makes us appreciate diversity amongst each other. Whereas communities are usually accustomed to diversity being discouraged and unappreciated (remembering in the introduction above Gunton’s harrowing example of babies being aborted in the womb, as their parents cannot be bothered enduring their baby’s predicted ‘differences’), a Trinitarian understanding of relation helps us instead to embrace diversity. We have reconciliation with God; God has allowed this to be so in the earthly life, death and resurrection of his Son. Therefore we are called to be at peace with others and be reconciled (eg James 3:181 Peter 3:11; 2 Peter 3:14). There is a unique quality to each person that in community we appreciate and embrace, due to our own participation in the eternal relationship between the distinct persons in the Trinity. Reconciliation ‘removes our alienation from others in a postmodern world’ and enables us to be in dialogue with others including those different to us (eg homosexuals) as we share with them the love of God in the gospel.[4]

As God has gone out of his way to communicate with us through his word, so too we understand that within a Trinitarian understanding of personhood and community, communication with others is of great importance. Communication is vital for relationship and mutual love within an understanding of personhood and community. As God communicates himself to us perfectly through the earthly life of Christ and through the Spirit, so too do we see the essential nature of communication within a community of love and other-centredness.

In a community moulded by the relational self-giving nature of God as Trinity, relationships within the community require faithfulness and constancy and perseverance. As sin breaks down the analogy between our relationships and God’s inner relationship and being, a commitment to serving the community with justice and fairness is required. It is injustice and unfairness that breaks down relationships and destroys them.[5] Systems that provide mercy and justice to preserve the other-centredness of a community are essential.

Clearly God as Trinity has a dramatic impact on our understanding of personhood and community. As we participate in the eternal relationship and fellowship between the Father and the Son through the Spirit, we understand that ‘personhood precludes individualism and separation or self-sufficiency and self-existence’.[6] The community is to model the Trinity in its own relations, to be other-centred, giving, communicating to each other and loving each other with justice and fairness and appreciating diversity within it as the gospel is shared and we seek others to be reconciled to God. In this Trinitarian-shaped community all accept their need for each other, ‘while enabling all to be truly themselves’ and be free to serve with Christ as the head.[7]

[1] J.B. Torrance, Worship, 27.
[2] Bruce A. Ware, Father, Son and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Role and Relevance (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2005), 134.
[3] Ware, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 134.
[4] Doyle, ‘Conflict’, 8-9.
[5] Knox, Selected Works Vol 1, 164.
[6] Zizioulas, ‘The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit’, 47.
[7] Gunton, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 17.

God as Trinity and our Humanity C

Further evidence of the love of God to us is found in the open access we have been given to God the Father through the Son in the power of the Spirit. By grace we are offered the opportunity in Christ through the Spirit to participate in the eternal communion between the Father and the Son.[1] God the Father has wonderfully shown us himself through giving his Son to us in Jesus’ incarnation, death and resurrection.

There also lies an indivisible wholeness between the persons of the Trinity. The Trinity is involved in ‘mutual sharing’ of each other. They are ‘relations that depend on each other for their meaning’.[2] They ‘receive from and give to each other their unique particularity’.[3] The Trinity relates not just with itself but in itself. The Father, the Son and the Spirit ‘contain each other with co-mingling and without separation’. There is an ‘eternal movement of love’ between them.[4] The Father cannot define himself as Father without the Son. The Son is not known as Son without his relationship with the Father. The Spirit cannot proceed from nothing – he must proceed from someone. The internal Trinity defines itself by the other in it. This is also important in informing our ideas of personhood and community to be discussed shortly.

The Father is truly knowable through the earthly life, death and resurrection of the Son. Despite there being a hierarchical ordering of roles within the Trinity in the Bible, we see that there is no ‘inferiority’ between the persons of the Trinity. Each share divinity equally through their union, in one relational being. The Father sends the Son. The Son obeys the Father. The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. This ‘order’ is within the Trinity itself and shows us the love of God in saving us and the roles that each in the Trinity play in this, as the Son, in love, obeys his Father for our sake and the Spirit shows us this loving bond. Although ‘seemingly’ inferior to the Father, the Son reveals to us a powerful witness of depths of the love of God to us in his equal divinity. This is not a dictatorial Trinity with the Father as the one source of life. That the Son would voluntarily submit to his Father and become flesh to show us the Father is evidence of this. Likewise the Spirit, bonded mutually to the Father and the Son, draws us to the Father through the Son in love for us; the Spirit is the bond of love between Father and Son.

When God acts, it is personal for him. For example, Jesus dying on the cross on our behalf is an act of God in himself. The offer of justification by faith is a personal act of God himself. This God is a personal God who is personal in his actions. What we see of God in the bible is what we get – a God of unyielding love who seeks us out for relationship, whose very being demands relationship and sharing within himself and for us. God is personal God as witnessed in his relational being and mutual indwelling relations. He offers to each human being ‘a relation of unique intimacy, of participation in his divinity’, through his personal offer of reconciliation of us to himself through Christ.[5] Through sending his Son into the world for our salvation (John 3:16), God reveals that ‘he will not live alone without us…God loves us more than he loves himself’.[6] T.F. Torrance states this powerfully:

God loves us because he loves, because his loving is the primary act of his Being, because his loving is his very being.[7]

[1] J.B. Torrance, Worship, 8.
[2] David S. Cunningham, ‘The Trinity’, in The Cambridge Companion to Postmodern Theology (edited by Kevin J. Vanhoozer; Cambridge Companions to Religion; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 189.
[3] Gunton, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 16.
[4] T. F. Torrance, The Christian Doctrine of God, 170.
[5] Letham, The Holy Trinity, 459.
[6] T.F. Torrance, The Christian Doctrine of God, 244.
[7] T.F. Torrance, The Christian Doctrine of God, 244.

God as Trinity and our Humanity B

The Trinitarian God

‘No sooner do I conceive of the one than I am illumined by the splendour of the three’.[1]

Looking into the heart of God through the earthly life of Jesus reveals God’s unity in ‘triunity’, and ‘triunity’ in unity. God at his very heart is relational. Let me explain.

This is seen in the very language the Bible uses for the relationship between the different persons of the Trinity. God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matt 28:19, 2 Cor 13:14). In the language of the Trinity we see already a family relationship between Father and Son. A father is only known as a father through the relationship he has with his child. The relations between the persons in the Trinity belong to who the persons actually are.[2] For example, the Father is the Father only in relation to the Son. The Son gains his identity as Son only through his relationship to the Father (eg Matthew 11:27, John 8:19). The Spirit is not an ‘independent impersonal energy force’ but a personal being – the ‘Spirit of the Lord’ (Acts 15:9), the Spirit of love (Rom 15:30) and truth (1 John 4:6, 5:6) - who shows his love to the Father and the Son through glorifying them and through giving believers access to the Father in Christ through him (eg John 15:26, 16:13).

The foundation of this relational oneness in God is his being. The being of God is not an impersonal substance but shows us the internal relationship of God himself. It is a relationship showing us that God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). The nature of his divine being is revealed as eternal togetherness. His real being is in fact a sharing in being between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is relational within his very being. As Knox writes, the subject matter of theology is ‘not God, but God in his relationship, for the essence of God is in eternal relationship’.[3] The Trinity ‘has his being in loving communion’.[4] In his very being God chooses to be for others. This God is not the egocentric ‘I AM’ but the ‘I AM’ who is defined by his otherness.[5] This is the personal being of God within himself that seeks out others – including us! - in love.

There is also ‘otherness’ within the trinitarian God. There are three distinct persons within the one personal being of God. The Bible shows us that the Trinity is ‘an eternal communion of three persons in undivided union’.[6] The three persons that are one God are eternally relating to each other in love.

For example, between the Father and the Son there lies a unique relationship (Matt 11:27, John 1:18, 17:25-26). This relationship ‘is described as one of mutual love, mutual self-giving, mutual testifying, mutual glorifying’.[7] Clearly the Son submits to the Father’s ‘fatherhood’. Jesus only tells the world ‘what I have heard from him [the Father] (John 8:26). Jesus is sent to Earth by the Father (John 8:42, 12:49). Jesus’ authority to ‘lay down his life’ and ‘raise it again’ is a charge received from the Father (John 10:18). The Son honours his Father (John 8:49). The Father loves the Son (John 15:9). The Son abides in his Father’s love (John 15:10). As mentioned above, the Spirit is also a personal being who shows his love to the Father and the Son through glorifying them and through giving believers access to the Father in Christ through him (eg John 15:26, 16:13).

This is the language of clear affection and love between distinct persons in the Trinity. Here there is a God of relation. Within Him is a family relationship of Trinitarian giving, with the honouring, loving and willing submission of the Son in love to the Father and the Father’s corresponding pleasure in his Son (Matt 3:17), with the Spirit as the bond of love between them.

The being and the distinctiveness of God complement each other as we see God is love. The being of God has no being other than in relationship. This will be vital in informing our ideas of personhood and community.


[1] Gregory of Nazianzus in Robert Letham, The Holy Trinity in Scripture, History, Theology and Worship (Phillipsburgh, New Jersey: P & R Publishing, 2004), 463.
[2] Letham, The Holy Trinity, 461.
[3] David Broughton Knox, D Broughton Knox Selected Works Volume 1: The Doctrine of God (edited by Tony Payne; Sydney NSW: Matthias Media, 2000), 154.
[4] James B. Torrance, Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace (The Didsbury Lectures 1994; Carlisle, England: Paternoster Press, 1996), 26.
[5] T. F. Torrance, The Christian Doctrine of God, 135
[6] Letham, The Holy Trinity, 462.
[7] J.B. Torrance, Worship, 119.

My Daughter (the Eldest)

My Younger Son

God as Trinity and our Humanity A

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows
And did it my way![1]

The well-known song ‘I Did It My Way’ reveals an individualism that marks out Western culture. God as Trinity has been ridiculed and swamped by the dominance of reason since the 18th century enlightenment. How could there be one God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit? He must be one only (if there even is a god at all!). The idea of God as being one but not three has in part laid behind individual western theories of the person.[2] A self-centred model of ‘personhood’ is now in operation. This individualism has caused separation and isolation as individuals seek their own advancement. Loneliness is a feature of Western society which has become ‘pre-occupied with self-expression, self-fulfilment, self-realisation, and self-esteem, leading at times to the self being equated with God’.[3]

At the same time sameness has dominated our culture. Diversity is no longer appreciated or desired. Babies are ‘killed in the womb because we don’t want to bother with those that are different’.[4] Our world is marked by ‘deep alienation from God and each other’.[5]

Humanity’s problems are not limited to the West. Global humanity is alienated from God, and as a result human freedom can be secured ‘only by assuming total autonomy in a manner that excludes the total authority of God’.[6] Without God the drive for total autonomy has become the way for individuals to deal with other individuals.

The world is deeply confused about the nature of human life, because it is ‘confused about what personal being truly is’.[7] Theories of personhood and community have now become important topics of discussion. How can the Trinitarian nature of the God of Jesus Christ inform our understanding of personhood and community? What are the benefits of the analogy between the Trinity and ourselves? What are the limitations of the analogy? To do this we first need to consider God as Trinity.

[1] Final verse of Frank Sinatra’s I Did it My Way (Lyrics by P. Anka, J. Revaux, G. Thibault and C. Frankois; Dec 30, 1968).
[2] Colin E. Gunton, The Promise of Trinitarian Theology (2nd edition; Edinburgh, Scotland: T & T Clark, 1997), 93.
[3] David Broughton Knox, ‘The Gospel and Society’, in D Broughton Knox Selected Works: Volume 3 The Christian Life (edited by Tony Payne and Karen Beilharz; Sydney, NSW: Matthias Media, 2006), 155.
[4] Colin E. Gunton, Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Edinburgh, Scotland: T & T Clark, 1997), 15.
[5] Robert C. Doyle, Conflict: Christian Reconciliation against its Trinitarian and Evangelical Base (paper given at St Andrews Theological Seminary Faculty Colloquium, Manila; 21 July 2000), 2.
[6] Lesslie Newbigin, ‘The Trinity as Public Truth’, in The Trinity in a Pluralistic Age: Theological Essays on Culture and Religion (edited by Kevin J. Vanhoozer; Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997), 1
[7] Gunton, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 13.

My Older Son

Embrace This Book

I've finally started reading a book called Exclusion and Embrace by Miroslav Volf. I would love to just publish the whole book on this site, it is so helpful for Christians! Copyright may be a slight issue, however...so some quotes from what I have read so far:

• Postmodernity creates a climate in which evasion of moral responsibilities is a way of life. By rendering relationships 'fragmentary' and 'discontinuous', it fosters 'disengagement' and 'commitment-avoidance'. (p21)

• The self-giving love manifested on the cross and demanded by it lies at the core of the Christian faith...the incarnation of that divine love in a world of sin leads to the cross. (p25)

• Christian communities, which should be the 'salt' of the culture, are too often as insipid as everything around them. (p37)

• At the very core of Christian identity lies an all-encompassing change of loyalty, from a given culture with its gods to the God of all cultures. A response to a call from that God entails rearrangement of a whole network of allegiances. (p40)

Things I...

My beautiful wife has come up with a list of things that have shaped her life and things she wishes she cared more about. Here's my off-the-cuff equivalent list using her categories:

Things I think about a lot - and which have shaped my life

• Discovering new things from God through his word


• The underdog, the not-so-popular, the dysfunctional personality type, the 'worker bees' as opposed to the elite, the oppressed, the strugglers, the left behind, the marginalised


• Respect and dignity for those that fall within the above list


• A need for structure and order


• Researching anything and the process of learning new things


• Listening and giving space and time to people to present their true selves and shed their defensive layers


• Aesthetics (ie trying to make things look good!)


• Making systems work better

Things I think about a lot - but about which I haven't done very much

• Making people aware of the importance of overseas Christian mission
• Making my day more efficient
• Making friends with parents at my kids' school
• Walking more
• Fixing my rear bike tyre (8 months now)

Things I don't care much about - but they shape my life anyway

• Detail


• What I eat


• Housework


• Mobiles


• Getting kids in and out of cars

Things I wish I cared about a bit more

• Saving money


• Maintaining any kind of neat garden


• Housework of any kind


• Keeping in touch with people from the past

Things I thought I didn't care about, but it turns out I did

• Other people's manners


• What people think of me


• Baldness!


• Computers and cars


• Being interrupted


• 'Cave time'