Divorce

 
It’s only February and already this year and I already know of 3 Christian couples that are separated and in the process of getting divorced. The latest one came via an email announcement this morning. Each time the news has stopped me dead in my tracks, and forced me to do some soul searching. What do you say to  someone who tells you that they’re getting divorced? In New Zealand the divorce rate is about 1 in every 3 marriages (according to Statistics NZ).

Unintended Consequences

I’m a self confessed bargain hunter. I use a website called Betterworld.com to buy all my books. In most cases they are the cheapest. I say cheapest because they sell a lot of 2nd hand books and charge $4 (Free in the USA) to ship internationally as opposed to $12.50 from Amazon.   The site sells itself as environmentally friendly, saving books from landfills and buying carbon credits for every book sold. It also raises money for literacy in the third world. But yesterday I read an article that really made me think twice about it. You can read it here.

Cut and Dry

I wish issues today were easily resolved. I’m slowly realizing that many of the problems out there are far more complex than I had first thought.
What do I mean? I mean that the issues of abortion, crime, poverty, AIDS, divorce, the recession etc are not as clear cut as we make them out to be.

Living for God’s Glory – Joel Beeke

I’ve never liked the terms Calvinist or Reformed, when they are placed before the word Christian. The first makes you sound like the follower of some guy other than Jesus Christ. The second makes you sound like a Christian who has just been released from prison. The system of theology refered to as Calvinism often takes a lot of flack for its tennets. Often, just for a laugh, I read “the contemporary calvinist” blog which posts some of the more obscure criticisms. They range from the “Calvinism is a heresy and all calvinists are going to hell” type criticisms to the well thought out Arminian responses. Love him or hate him, Calvin has been very influential in shaping the Church. People are still arguing over his doctrinal tennets 500 years later. If thats not significant I don’t know what is.

Blogthru the NT – Part 3 (John)

Continuing on my blogthru series of the New Testament I’ve come to the book of John.Its definitely one of my favourites because its so different from the the synoptics. John has a different emphasis to the other evangelists. His Christology is explicit all the way through. He does not wish to leave his audience with any doubts as to Jesus’ identity. I want to pick  up on a few themes my reading of John.

Jeff Beck

My Dad and I went to see Jeff Beck in concert on Tuesday. All I can say is WOW. I had no idea guitars could make such strange and interesting noises. I’ve been playing guitar for a long time, and I’ve seen many greats. But no one plays like Jeff Beck. For those who have no idea who this guy is, he was one of the members of the 60’s blues group “The Yardbirds”. The band famed for cultivating two other great names in rock, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin). Beck’s playing earned him two standing ovations from the crowd. Not bad considering the average age of the crowd was 50 plus. If you get the chance to see Beck take it. He is one of the true maestro’s of rock.

Blogthru the NT – Part 2 (Luke)

I’m going to continue posting some gleanings from my current bible reading programme. I’ve just finished reading Luke. I know that I havent posted on Mark yet. Maybe I will one day, but not today. Luke has very different emphasis to Matthew. While this may reflect the needs of the early church (as form and redaction critics might say) I doubt it is the sole reason for the differences. While I’m not keen to get into a discussion on the synoptic problem, I am aware that Luke was not writing history as a detached observer. Had his own intentions for writing. But this doesn’t mean he has written fiction. Ironically the more affected someone is by the events that have taken place the more they want the truth to be told. We have only to look to the Holocaust survivors to see that (see Blomberg 1997). Luke also needs to be analysed in terms of its other half: the book of Acts.

Reclaiming the Church – John Cobb

Recently I was sent a copy of John Cobb’s book by Trip Fuller of “Transforming Theology Blog” fame. Cobb, a united methodist, shares some of his concerns the growing “sickness” of mainstream and oldline denominational churches. Having read a few books of this nature, (e.g The Courage to be Protestant – David Wells & The myth of a Christian nation – Greg Boyd), I had very low expectations for this book.