we can.Be - Who Says?

I flogged this from we can.be but now can’t find the original link.
You say: “Nobody really loves me”
God says: I love you
(John 3:1 6 & John 3:34)
You say: “I feel all alone”
God says: I will never forsake you
(Hebrews 13:5)
You say: “I’m afraid”
God says: Don’t have a spirit of fear
(II Timothy 1:7)
You say: “I’m always worried”
God [...]

Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams critique of the use of violence.

The archbishop also criticised the use of violence as a political solution. He said it could too easily be “a quick discharge of frustration. It serves you. It does not serve the situation. Wherever people turn to violence what they do is temporarily release themselves from some sort of problem, but they help no one [...]

NT Wright - Emperors and Angels - A Reflection On Christmas

Isaiah 9.2–7; Luke 2.1–20a sermon at the Midnight Eucharist, Christmas Eve 2006
by the Bishop of Durham, Dr N. T. Wright
Sing a song of Christmas, of emperors and angels;
Sing a song of Christmas, of darkness now past;
Sing a song of starlight, of shepherds and of mangers;
Sing a song of Jesus, of peace come at last.
And don’t [...]

Sound-byte Christianity

More interesting stuff from Jesus Creed.
Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin.
One of my major struggles with every day average Christianity is that it has a tendency to be shallow. If we don’t bother to stop and think through our little sayings and other Christian cliches then we can do some real damage. I was interested [...]

Missional Jesus 4

Continuing the Missional Jesus series from Jesus Creed.
Missional Jesus 4
The missional Jesus enlists others in his mission; and one can see this as an evangelistic summons into the work of the kingdom by attachment to Jesus. A good place to see this is the fuller story of Peter’s conversion in Luke 5:1-11.
What I love about [...]

Missional Jesus 3

Continuing the Missional Jesus series from Jesus Creed.
Missional Jesus 3
With Mary and John Baptist now watching from the sideline (as it were), Jesus becomes the center stage as we work our way through the themes connected to Missional Jesus.
No better place to begin that Luke 4:16-30.
1. Missional Jesus publicly announces the centrality of himself to [...]

Where, we ask, is God today?

I came across this great hymn by Kim Fabricius over at Faith and Theology.
Where, we ask, is God today?
(Tune: Emma)
Where, we ask, is God today –
in the gaps that science leaves,
gaps that close as knowledge grows?
Such a God is on reprieve.
Where, we ask, is God today –
in the private place of prayer,
where we find security?
Such [...]

Missional Jesus 2

Continuing with the series from Jesus Creed.
Yesterday we looked at Mary. Today we look at John the Baptist’s understanding of the mission of God. The principle text, of course, is Luke 3:1-18. How did J-B understand the mission of God?
How often do we think of John the Baptist? Really. Now the big one: Do we [...]

Missional Jesus 1

Over at Jesus Creed, certainly one of my long time favourite blogs, Scot McKnight has started a series called Missional Jesus. His question is: How did Jesus understand the missional life? This, of course, involves two missions his mission and ours. We will learn that his mission is our mission because his mission is God’s [...]

The order of missiology and ecclesiology

One of the key changes in my thinking over the past few years has been how I have understood missiology and ecclesiology, particularly in regards to how they should relate to each other. Of course I didn’t begin to think about them in those terms, earlier on the issue was more simply described as ‘what [...]