Alright, all I am going to say is that this guy is a legend! Here is a meaty blog by Tim Keller of redeemer church in Manhattan on what it is to present the Christian faith to those who are immersed in or governed by an amoral society like Manhattan NYC or here in London england.
Take the time to read it. Follow this link..
Simon
Friday, June 27, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Heart Scarring
Have been ruminating ‘muchly’ on something and recently was reminded again of it while reading something with the wife. Unforgiveness is a deadly cancer that eats away at the heart. The more there is the more rampant the cancerous effect. I may be oversimplifying here but one effect of cancer is that it literally decays tissue making it cold and hard where before it was warm and soft. So it is with unforgiveness, bearing a grudge, harbouring a hurt however you want to define it; it makes cold the heart, hardening it and removing its capacity to love and feel. Bitterness rises up and can literally take possession of your soul. The burden can be incapacitating.
Read these words
Every person, if they have been around any length of time, would have to admit to the reality of this truth. Relationships are torn apart by the effect of this cancer, any relationship. There is no ground that unforgiveness fears to tread. Marriages, brothers and sisters, parents and children, work mates, fellow members of the church, you name a relationship unforgiveness has had its destructive way there.
The God of grace revealed in the bible is so aware of this and unequivocally calls us to remove the dreaded effects of unforgiveness from every area of life. Christ states that God can’t forgive us if we are unwilling to forgive others. That is how fundamental forgiveness is to living well as a Christian. Fortunately, God empowers us as we look to the indescribable magnitude of God’s forgiving heart towards us in the death of Christ to reciprocate to others such forgiveness. He also gives us His Spirit to fill our heart with the love, grace, and strength to offer forgiveness where it seems impossible.
Don’t die inside, don’t lose the capacity to live life, don’t be ruled by a destructive master! Forgive!
Read these words
How heavy is a glass of water? That depends on how long you have to carry it. A minute is no problem and after an hour your arm might ache. But after 24 hours you’ll probably be in bad shape… It is the same with a grudge; it can get so heavy it stops you from living.
Every person, if they have been around any length of time, would have to admit to the reality of this truth. Relationships are torn apart by the effect of this cancer, any relationship. There is no ground that unforgiveness fears to tread. Marriages, brothers and sisters, parents and children, work mates, fellow members of the church, you name a relationship unforgiveness has had its destructive way there.
The God of grace revealed in the bible is so aware of this and unequivocally calls us to remove the dreaded effects of unforgiveness from every area of life. Christ states that God can’t forgive us if we are unwilling to forgive others. That is how fundamental forgiveness is to living well as a Christian. Fortunately, God empowers us as we look to the indescribable magnitude of God’s forgiving heart towards us in the death of Christ to reciprocate to others such forgiveness. He also gives us His Spirit to fill our heart with the love, grace, and strength to offer forgiveness where it seems impossible.
Don’t die inside, don’t lose the capacity to live life, don’t be ruled by a destructive master! Forgive!
Explanations
Not even certain that anyone is out there in the world of cyberspace dedicating any time to reading this little blog at the moment; this is understandable as it has been far too long since I posted here. I hope I am back and will once again resume my additions to these musings more often.
Not exactly sure why it has been such a while since I have dedicated time to this blog; time itself is the central issue though, in this and pretty much every other thing. One thing I have thought about a lot in recent weeks as a Christian is how my ‘normal life’ tends to get in the way of pursuing depth in my ‘spiritual life.’ This is an absurd distinction to make as my ‘normal life’ should flow from the depths of my ‘spiritual life’, my relationship with Christ I mean. But, that is how it feels!
Juggling work, family, marriage, physical fitness and whatever else in the 21st century does not seem to be at all conducive to pursuing intimate closeness to Christ, which, of course, is the bedrock of Christianity. I think this may be the underlying cause of a real dearth of depth in Western Christianity, and is something I may comment on more completely in the future.
Anyway, my apologies, I have not committed the time I had intended (and you know what they say about good intentions) and now must step this up again. Meanwhile, I will just have to ‘sacrifice’ time in some other section of my life… I will ask my wife if she is willing to hand some over…mmm!
Simon
Not exactly sure why it has been such a while since I have dedicated time to this blog; time itself is the central issue though, in this and pretty much every other thing. One thing I have thought about a lot in recent weeks as a Christian is how my ‘normal life’ tends to get in the way of pursuing depth in my ‘spiritual life.’ This is an absurd distinction to make as my ‘normal life’ should flow from the depths of my ‘spiritual life’, my relationship with Christ I mean. But, that is how it feels!
Juggling work, family, marriage, physical fitness and whatever else in the 21st century does not seem to be at all conducive to pursuing intimate closeness to Christ, which, of course, is the bedrock of Christianity. I think this may be the underlying cause of a real dearth of depth in Western Christianity, and is something I may comment on more completely in the future.
Anyway, my apologies, I have not committed the time I had intended (and you know what they say about good intentions) and now must step this up again. Meanwhile, I will just have to ‘sacrifice’ time in some other section of my life… I will ask my wife if she is willing to hand some over…mmm!
Simon
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Marriage for Holiness not Happiness (Part I)
Speaking at a couple’s wedding in 3 weeks and have been reading a book I read before my own marriage to help me with my preparation. It is called Sacred Marriage and it poses the question, “What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?”
This is a question of fundamental importance that actually enables us to work through all the externals and marriage and get to the biblical reason for marriage. To get married without any relationship to God seems almost impossible for me as it denies a basic biological maxim. Males of the species mate with many of the females in order to ensure the continuation of the gene. This ensures that ‘the strong survive.’ Without God we are just animals, why commit your life to just one person if there is no other ‘divine’ reason for this relationship?
Well here is a quote to chew on, and I may place a few more on this blog in the coming weeks:
‘We need to be called out of ourselves because, in truth, we are incomplete. God made us to find our fulfilment in Him—the Totally Other. Marriage shows us that we are not all there is; it calls us to give way to another, but also to find joy, happiness, and even ecstasy in another.’
This is a question of fundamental importance that actually enables us to work through all the externals and marriage and get to the biblical reason for marriage. To get married without any relationship to God seems almost impossible for me as it denies a basic biological maxim. Males of the species mate with many of the females in order to ensure the continuation of the gene. This ensures that ‘the strong survive.’ Without God we are just animals, why commit your life to just one person if there is no other ‘divine’ reason for this relationship?
Well here is a quote to chew on, and I may place a few more on this blog in the coming weeks:
‘We need to be called out of ourselves because, in truth, we are incomplete. God made us to find our fulfilment in Him—the Totally Other. Marriage shows us that we are not all there is; it calls us to give way to another, but also to find joy, happiness, and even ecstasy in another.’
An Everlasting Kingdom
Here’s the picture. A bold Spirit-filled young Jew stands before the great King of the Babylonian Empire declaring that the God he knows will reveal to him the dreams that have been haunting the King leading to sleepless nights and haggard appearance. It seems the dreams were about the future Kingdoms of the earth and their end…well all except for one.
For at the end of the dream a ‘rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces’ appeared setting up an everlasting kingdom.
Oh how well I know this Rock, He is the firm foundation upon which the ‘house’ of my life is built! His name is Christ. Read these words spoken by Daniel, the fearless Jew in the story, so many years before this great Messiah came to dwell among us stating what His great power would achieve
“[In that time] the God of heaven will set up a Kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.”
I know the King of this Kingdom. I have experienced His kingdom-destroying power. I have tasted of the Eternal power that can transform a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. What a wonderful thing to think that I am a warrior in this kingdom, I am called to advance this kingdom by force. A force unlike the force used by nations of the world and other religions—the force of a Spirit-Empowered love, a Christ-like love that has the power to transform culture.
Do you know this king, are you in His Kingdom, or are you a rebel adamantly denying the longing in your heart to bow the knee and give your life to such a one as this? Big Question!
For at the end of the dream a ‘rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces’ appeared setting up an everlasting kingdom.
Oh how well I know this Rock, He is the firm foundation upon which the ‘house’ of my life is built! His name is Christ. Read these words spoken by Daniel, the fearless Jew in the story, so many years before this great Messiah came to dwell among us stating what His great power would achieve
“[In that time] the God of heaven will set up a Kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.”
I know the King of this Kingdom. I have experienced His kingdom-destroying power. I have tasted of the Eternal power that can transform a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. What a wonderful thing to think that I am a warrior in this kingdom, I am called to advance this kingdom by force. A force unlike the force used by nations of the world and other religions—the force of a Spirit-Empowered love, a Christ-like love that has the power to transform culture.
Do you know this king, are you in His Kingdom, or are you a rebel adamantly denying the longing in your heart to bow the knee and give your life to such a one as this? Big Question!
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