“These people say, ‘The time has not yet come for the LORD’S house to be built.’” Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?"
“... my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. (Haggai 2:2-4,9)
You know I am not a consistent blogger, but I have just made a commitment to stop blogging until I ensure my church website is *very* good. Mission is more important than my private thoughts. (I'll will still blog on Solapanel occasionally because prior commitments trump present ones)
Here's the work site. Check out our church site ... it was great in its day but is now in need of an overhaul.
http://www.jannalianglican.org.au/modules/content/index.php?id=34
It may(?) have a new address when the work is finished. We hope to give it a new look, have downloadable resources and (hopefully) options for paying for things online. Will you keep me to my commitment? 'See' you when I'm done.
Friday, 30 January 2009
Thursday, 29 January 2009
A 'Theologian' Saved By God
Here are a couple of highlights from Eta Linnemann who as a Biblical Professor (!) put her hand up at a Christian meeting to pledge a commitment to Christ for the first time. It is a beautiful read. There would have been great rejoicing on that day.
When she started as a student ...
"I started attending when he [Bultmann] was at chapter 12, and I do not remember what he had said concerning chapters 12-14. But I still remember what he said when he came to chapter 15:1-5, where Paul said:
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some of them have fallen asleep.
When Professor Bultmann came to the next verse, he said, “Here Paul is not at the usual height of his theology because he is speaking of the resurrection of Christ as if it were a historical fact.” Thus I learned as a young student in my very first term that we were not allowed to think of the resurrection of Christ as a historical fact. This great professor had said it, so it had to be. After all, how could I, as a young student, know more than my professors!"
And after she gave herself to Christ, she had a new perspective and is one of the feistiest anti-theological-establishment writers that I have read.
"The god of historical critical theology is like the statue of three monkeys: one is covering the eyes, the next covering the ears, and the third covering the mouth—seeing nothing, hearing nothing, speaking nothing—and as the hands are always occupied, doing nothing. But now I became aware of the living God! And in the same moment I became aware that I had been a blind teacher leading my blind students. I repented of my wrong teaching. I also realized that, despite all my years of study, I knew nothing of God. But through the grace of God, my reaction did not lead me to despair but to the conclusion that now I must get to work learning about this God."
Read her whole story ....
PS. Here is what Alex said on Gordon's Blog. Alex and Gordon, I hope you don't mind me repeating this.
Good ol' Eta Linnemann! She knows what she's talking about, having been a student of Bultmann and a famous professor of New Testament exegesis herself. Her [PhD thesis] "Gleichnisse Jesu" ("Parables of Jesus") received seven(!!!) editions and was translated into several languages (there were also at least two editions of the English translation). In the early 1980s she became a Christian, revoked everything what she had written before her conversion and forbade any further editions of her earlier works. Since then she writes one book after another on the failures of historical-critical exegesis. All her former German colleagues call her mad, of course.
When she started as a student ...
"I started attending when he [Bultmann] was at chapter 12, and I do not remember what he had said concerning chapters 12-14. But I still remember what he said when he came to chapter 15:1-5, where Paul said:
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some of them have fallen asleep.
When Professor Bultmann came to the next verse, he said, “Here Paul is not at the usual height of his theology because he is speaking of the resurrection of Christ as if it were a historical fact.” Thus I learned as a young student in my very first term that we were not allowed to think of the resurrection of Christ as a historical fact. This great professor had said it, so it had to be. After all, how could I, as a young student, know more than my professors!"
And after she gave herself to Christ, she had a new perspective and is one of the feistiest anti-theological-establishment writers that I have read.
"The god of historical critical theology is like the statue of three monkeys: one is covering the eyes, the next covering the ears, and the third covering the mouth—seeing nothing, hearing nothing, speaking nothing—and as the hands are always occupied, doing nothing. But now I became aware of the living God! And in the same moment I became aware that I had been a blind teacher leading my blind students. I repented of my wrong teaching. I also realized that, despite all my years of study, I knew nothing of God. But through the grace of God, my reaction did not lead me to despair but to the conclusion that now I must get to work learning about this God."
Read her whole story ....
PS. Here is what Alex said on Gordon's Blog. Alex and Gordon, I hope you don't mind me repeating this.
Good ol' Eta Linnemann! She knows what she's talking about, having been a student of Bultmann and a famous professor of New Testament exegesis herself. Her [PhD thesis] "Gleichnisse Jesu" ("Parables of Jesus") received seven(!!!) editions and was translated into several languages (there were also at least two editions of the English translation). In the early 1980s she became a Christian, revoked everything what she had written before her conversion and forbade any further editions of her earlier works. Since then she writes one book after another on the failures of historical-critical exegesis. All her former German colleagues call her mad, of course.
A Sharp Word on Theology
The concept of "theology" is not used univocally but equivocally. The word has a different sense in historical-critical theology than it has among evangelicals. We are accustomed to speaking of Bultmann's theology, or Barth's, or Moltmann's, or Jungel's. But which of us would speak in the same sense of Spenser's theology, or Wesley's, or Moody's, or Spurgeon's? Did the latter group somehow fail to make a theological contribution? Of course not. But they did not develop their own theology. That is, they did not construct a theology that could be named after them, containing specific, subjective divergences from the word of God.
It is only at the cost of a considerable independent divergence from God's word that a theologian's achievement wins renown in the current setting. The person who takes every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor 10:5) and loyally subordinates his thinking to God's revelation constructs no such theology. That person also no longer faces pressure to make a name for himself. For him it is enough if the Lord says to him, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
Eta Linnemann, Biblical Criticism on Trial (Grand Rapids: Kregel; 2001) , 117. The bold font is part of the original.
It is only at the cost of a considerable independent divergence from God's word that a theologian's achievement wins renown in the current setting. The person who takes every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor 10:5) and loyally subordinates his thinking to God's revelation constructs no such theology. That person also no longer faces pressure to make a name for himself. For him it is enough if the Lord says to him, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
Eta Linnemann, Biblical Criticism on Trial (Grand Rapids: Kregel; 2001) , 117. The bold font is part of the original.
Sunday, 25 January 2009
Biggest Pork Pies Told in Sermons #1
There have been many of them. Leaving aside the theological dribble, it's the illustrations that can feel so right and yet be so wrong.
I remember being at a convention full of thousands of young people in the early nineties. We had Bobby Ferris' song , 'Don't Worry Be Happy' played for us. You know the one. Don't worry, be happy etc... After we all sang and whistled along with with the song we were told that Bobby Ferris, after making this song famous, killed himself. It was a powerful illustration of the unliveability of a 'no worries'-pollyanna attitude for people without God.
The illustration was brilliant - but it was not true at all!!!!! In fact Bobby Ferris is alive and well and still performing now.
Read the following http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/mcferrin.asp to find out more about how this world wide rumour perpetuated.
This has been pork pie #1 that I have heard in a sermon. I'm still haunted by how powerful the illustration was and yet how much bologne it was as well.
It was harder back then to verify the truth. We didn't have wikipedia. ;)
I'm sure we've heard plenty of porky pies in sermons now and then.
(nb. comments with names of offending preachers will be deleted).
I remember being at a convention full of thousands of young people in the early nineties. We had Bobby Ferris' song , 'Don't Worry Be Happy' played for us. You know the one. Don't worry, be happy etc... After we all sang and whistled along with with the song we were told that Bobby Ferris, after making this song famous, killed himself. It was a powerful illustration of the unliveability of a 'no worries'-pollyanna attitude for people without God.
The illustration was brilliant - but it was not true at all!!!!! In fact Bobby Ferris is alive and well and still performing now.
Read the following http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/mcferrin.asp to find out more about how this world wide rumour perpetuated.
This has been pork pie #1 that I have heard in a sermon. I'm still haunted by how powerful the illustration was and yet how much bologne it was as well.
It was harder back then to verify the truth. We didn't have wikipedia. ;)
I'm sure we've heard plenty of porky pies in sermons now and then.
(nb. comments with names of offending preachers will be deleted).
Saturday, 24 January 2009
Beautiful
I spoke on physical appearance the other week at church. I only scratched the surface. One area I touched on was on how we all (and women in particular) should adorn ourselves with good deeds rather than expensive clothes, how we should seek our esteem from God and not others.
I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God. (1 Timothy 2:9-10 )
No less than six new women volunteered to teach scripture on that week alone! It may be a coincidence or it may be that God strengthened the decision they had already made. But it did remind me that people at our church serve God in so many ways and that (in particular) there are many truly beautiful women at our church.
May all God's people dress and accessorise themselves with good deeds as befits those who profess to worship God. There is great dignity for all human beings when we walk his way and not our own. Christian men grow stronger as their bodies grow weaker and Christian women grow even more beautiful.
I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God. (1 Timothy 2:9-10 )
No less than six new women volunteered to teach scripture on that week alone! It may be a coincidence or it may be that God strengthened the decision they had already made. But it did remind me that people at our church serve God in so many ways and that (in particular) there are many truly beautiful women at our church.
May all God's people dress and accessorise themselves with good deeds as befits those who profess to worship God. There is great dignity for all human beings when we walk his way and not our own. Christian men grow stronger as their bodies grow weaker and Christian women grow even more beautiful.
Sitting on the Dock of the Bay
Otis Redding's song, 'Sitting on the Dock of the Bay' is one of the best songs ever written. I've probably heard it a hundred times but I haven't really reflected on the words. I find myself humming it when I'm enjoying myself with my family watching a sunrise, watching the storms roll across on a Sydney summer night, enjoying God's creation, delighting in life ...
I think I've totally misunderstood the song and confused its almost joyful tune for its miserable lyrics. But maybe that's the point.
Sitting in the morning sun
I'll be sitting when the evening comes
Watching the ships roll in
And I watch 'em roll away again
[Refrain]
Sitting on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
I'm just sitting on the dock of the bay
Wasting time
I left my home in Georgia
Headed for the 'Frisco bay
'Cause I had nothin to live for
And look like nothing's gonna come my way
So I'm just...
[Refrain]
Look like nothing's gonna change
Everything still remains the same
I can't do what ten people tell me to do
So I guess I'll remain the same
Sittin here resting my bones
And this loneliness won't leave me alone
It's two thousand miles I roamed
Just to make this dock my home
The song was released as a single in 1968 and went quickly to number one in the R&B and Pop charts. Sadly Otis Redding died a year before it was released. Apparently it was the first posthumous single released in the US charts.
Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises. (Ecclesiastes 1:4-5)
I think I've totally misunderstood the song and confused its almost joyful tune for its miserable lyrics. But maybe that's the point.
Sitting in the morning sun
I'll be sitting when the evening comes
Watching the ships roll in
And I watch 'em roll away again
[Refrain]
Sitting on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
I'm just sitting on the dock of the bay
Wasting time
I left my home in Georgia
Headed for the 'Frisco bay
'Cause I had nothin to live for
And look like nothing's gonna come my way
So I'm just...
[Refrain]
Look like nothing's gonna change
Everything still remains the same
I can't do what ten people tell me to do
So I guess I'll remain the same
Sittin here resting my bones
And this loneliness won't leave me alone
It's two thousand miles I roamed
Just to make this dock my home
The song was released as a single in 1968 and went quickly to number one in the R&B and Pop charts. Sadly Otis Redding died a year before it was released. Apparently it was the first posthumous single released in the US charts.
Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises. (Ecclesiastes 1:4-5)
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