Christian Learning & Reading

Bush and Jesus

Fri, 14 May 2004 10:06:46 GMT

http://religiousleft.bmgbiz.net/bushandjesus.html

Can the position of President / MP or whatever ne mixed with Christianity?

For posterity

Thu, 13 May 2004 09:27:24 GMT

I am posted this here for posterity, its an email I sent to someone in the church after the church family meeting a couple of weeks ago.

Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 16:21:01 +0100
From: Robert McGovern <rob@tarasis.net>
Reply-To: Robert McGovern <rob@tarasis.net>
Subject: last nights meeting
To: geoff goode

Hi Geoff,

Its Rob, of Rob & Bob fame, just wanted to say that from my point of you I
think you are on the right track. The morning welcome needs to be more
welcoming .. no more inviting, less cliquey feeling, that has something to
appeal for a younger generation and in a way less connected to the "church".

How that would work I don't know. I am struggling to think about it at the
moment.

One idea I like, not directly related to the morning but to maybe an evening a
week or sunday afternoon, is a spin off of something they had at Spring
Harvest. They had a session called Just Looking, which was for non-christians /
people not of faith and others to come along and ask questions and interact
with others over a coffee / tea / whatever. Effectivily its a drop in which
would be there for the community. A chance to over a warm cuppa to some of the
homeless around BH, or a place where those feeling lonely can chat to someone.

The most important thing though is that it shouldn't have the hidden agenda of
converting people or bringing people into the church. Its has to be about
showing love, care and compasion for the sake of showing love and caring
because Jesus / God shows us those things; otherwise it will simply fail. If
people ask, answer but otherwise it should be the actions, attitudes and
behaviours that speak.

Would I want to be involved with something like that, definitly. Not sure I
qualify yet though ;)

One thing I chickened out of asking Steve / Brian at Xmas, and I regret that
now, was asking for permission to use the Church Center as a place to sleep for
as many of the homeless that are around BH as could fit in.

This all came from a realization. I had just come back from Brighton and it was
a bitterly cold night. As I got off the train I bumped into Haiden (Claire's
bf) and a couple of other homeless youths that where heading to the railway
tunnel for warmth. I chatted for a bit and went on my way home and into the
warmth. I spent the next hour in bed feeling very quilty but talked myself out
of going back out to find them as I didn't know where they would be.

I hit upon the idea of using the church center as a place for warmth and
possible soup for them to sleep. I figured that you would need need at least
one person that all night as a "watchman" type just to make sure that stuff
didn't go walking or the place didn't burn down. Seemed like a great idea but
there was a slight fly in the onitment and that was I was going back to
Northern Ireland for chirstmas; it had been booked for ages. If I wasn't
willing to lead the idea and do the role myself how could I expect anyone else
to, so I again talked myself out of it.

I am planning on being in BH this christmas and fully intend proposing the idea
this year.

Hmm, sorry about that ... not sure where that all came from. I'll stop rambling
now, esp if memory serves I think you said last year at one point you don't
like email :)

Take care

Rob

PS

As a slight aside I am crawling forward. I found Spring Harvest (we went for
week 2 at Minehead) a big help and through a combination of factors ended up
having God / Jesus touch my life. One thing for me though, is that while I will
accept God as my father and Jesus as my brother; I will never willingly call
myself a Christian as I do not like the religious connatations that go with it.

links to look at

Wed, 12 May 2004 10:29:25 GMT

http://www.thenazareneway.com/ -- I am a little intriguied by this one and a little hesitant

http://www.lifeofchrist.com/teachings/

http://www.twopaths.com/jteach.htm

http://a1.nu/christian/

interesting looking site

Mon, 26 Jan 2004 14:30:38 GMT

http://www.emergingchurch.info/index.htm

Came across this site today, after hearing a talk yesterday by Stuart Murray-Willams on the churches mission and Evangalising. So I went of to google to find some things he had written and came across this article:

http://www.emergingchurch.info/reflection/stuartmurray-williams/index.htm

if you have a few minutes, give it a look in

resources to check out

Mon, 26 Jan 2004 14:24:00 GMT

http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Christianity/Periodicals/?il=1

A life without TV

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 11:39:20 GMT

Recently, we re-organized our house, rooms swapped location where the upshot was that there was no-longer a good place for the television. So I persuaded my wife ... well we discussed it ... that we should no longer have the television, at least for a year.

TV is incredibly bad, it is both compulsive and compelling ... you might catch a minute of a program and suddenly its a hour or 3 later. Programs are designed to catch us and keep us watching, often regardless of the actual content or relevance of the program to our life. I stopped watching TV regularly in these last couple of years for exactly that reason, while I enjoy escapism like Alias, B5, BSG, 24 the rest of the content is not relevant to my life though it can be interesting. For instance, must be nearly a year ago now, we caught a program on how the use of coloured lenses can help some people see better (they had a particular problem or disability don't remember now what it was). It was incredibly interesting but what was the point of it? Has watching it helped me in any way? Did I really learn something from it? Ultimately no.

I should say that my alternatives to TV are not much better, listening to music, surfing the web or playing computer games. Those I need to control in possible a similar way and in time I will.

Interestingly when we where at our Applied Christian Studies course last weekend, I bought a book called "Amusing Ourselves To Death" by Neal Postman. The books is a study on how the medium of media (first the telegraph and now television) has affected our (well specifically American) lives. To borrow a bit from the book:

"...culture in which all public discourse increasingly takes the form of entertainment. Our politics, religion, news, athletics, education, and commerce have been transformed into adjuncts of show business."

Its a fantastic book that I consider a definite must read. I will say more on it later, for now though checkout

Amazon.com reviews of the book

Study

Sun, 28 Sep 2003 21:09:32 GMT

Just finished our first weekend of study for the Applied Christian Studies (Level 3) course that is being run in London (among many other places in the UK). Its quite interesting and I shall write more about it tomorrow, time for sleep now.

quote from Bob (wife) and JP (from church)

Sun, 28 Sep 2003 21:05:24 GMT

"Your a Christian in denial" quote from Bob (wife) and JP (from church) - 19th September 2003

Never a truer point ...

Fri, 12 Sep 2003 16:35:24 GMT

We went to an Alpha / evangelical meeting in St. Johns park last night. One of the local churchs (Mid Sussex Christian Center) has quietly decided to erect a large tent in the middle of St Johns park (with police & council permission). Over the next 4 evenings they are doing worship, prayer and talking about Alpha and coming to God / Jesus.

I dragged Bob along last night, partly for company and partly because I knew it would be good for her. IT wasn't to bad, the speakers, one from Ireland, the other from Northern Ireland, were really good. The one from Ireland was quite interesting for he came from a background of theft, bank robbery and so on.

I went forward at the end to be prayed for, to have Jesus enter my life and soul. One thing I noted during that was his light pressure on my chest that was pushing me back and a few times I stumbled and nearly fell but I caught myself. Afterwards I talked to the one from the North for a little while.

Afterwards as Bob and I where wondering around Burgess Hill (about 9:30pm) we talked a little about the service and a little about the nearly falling. Part of my not falling was simply not wanting to give them a visible "sign" of some work achieved but the not falling actually indicates another thing. The other part it symbolises is that I am in control, I wasn't willing to trust in what he was doing and simply let go.

That is a major problem I have with asking Jesus / God to come into my life and work. I am unwilling to simply relinquish control.

The Gospel According to Mary

Thu, 11 Sep 2003 14:43:38 GMT

http://www.gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm

Some Study?

Tue, 02 Sep 2003 23:46:05 GMT

johannisberry and I are considering going to the following year long course.

Its Applied Christian Studies from a group called Anvil Trust, its non denominational.

http://www.workshop.org.uk/

Basically you do a weekend a month going to London (in our case), for 11 months and the study is quite extensive.

As the page says "The Workshop course covers an extensive range of themes in 4 units, 15 modules and 95 elements during 110 sessions."

checkout http://www.workshop.org.uk/programme/ for a lot more detail about the modules, units and so on.

johannisberry has been looking for something like this for a while and came across the prosectus for it while she was doing Festival Manchester last week (Christian week aimed at bringing help to those in need in inner Manchester, with worship, evangilism and so on) and brought it home. I had been interested in doing something like this workshop as well, so it looks like a great fit and means we can explore things together and talk about it. A shared hobby if you like :)

*chuckles* We even get a qualification of sorts if we do it:

"Having completed the Workshop course, fully and successfully, you will be awarded the ‘ABC : Certificate in Applied Christian Studies’ (Level 3). It is accredited by the Awarding Body Consortium (ABC) and by the government accrediting and standards agency the Qualifications & Curriculum Authority (QCA). This means that the qualification is nationally and independently recognised.

The Certificate is unique in being the first faith-based vocational training qualification ever to be recognised by the QCA. It may also offer you credit towards further study should you wish to pursue that path. If this is the case Workshop undertakes to do all it can to help you progress to any further study or development programme you may wish to pursue, whether Higher Education or specialist courses, full time, distance learning or short courses."

Matthew 9

Tue, 02 Sep 2003 23:34:58 GMT

Book: Matthew
Chapter: 9
Verses: 1-38
URLs: http://www.dtl.org/alt/nt/matt-1-10.htm and http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/mt/index.html

Story:

Notes:

Jesus only healed those who where brought by someone that had faith in Jesus. His healing was not done irrespective of belief. (verse 1 and earlier in matthew 8)
the crowd believed the miracle came from God
Jesus does not require sacrafice
Jesus came for the sinners, not those already repentant.
John's disciples were disgruntled that Jesus's disciples did not need to.
without Barnes notes, I really wouldn't have got verses 14-17
every healing that occured was because the person had faith in Jesus's ability.

Questions:

Possible Lessons and things:

Matthew 8

Tue, 02 Sep 2003 23:33:02 GMT

Book: Matthew
Chapter: 8
Verses: 1-34
URLs: http://www.dtl.org/alt/nt/matt-1-10.htm and http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/mt/index.html

Story:

Notes:

Questions:

Possible Lessons and things:

Interesting

Sun, 31 Aug 2003 22:49:10 GMT

Was reading the notes by Albert Barnes on the bible, while reading Matthew 8 ... and came across a reference to Luke 14:26-27

Luk 14:26 "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
Luk 14:27 "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

Barnes note on 26 leads back to Matthew but this time 10:37-38

Mat 10:37 "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
Mat 10:38 "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.

The contrast between Luk14:26 and Mat10:37 is quite a lot, yes basically they mean the same thing but the Luke version is much, much harsher and effectivly says if you wanted saved you can only love me. At least with Matthew you can still love your family, as long as it isn't more than your love of Christ.

(excerpts from NASB)

Matthew 7

Thu, 28 Aug 2003 18:47:20 GMT

(been a long time in coming - basically lots the drive, interest and will I had in doing this a long time ago - one minute yes this is what I want to do and now its bluh)

Book: Matthew
Chapter: 7
Verses: 1-29
URLs: http://www.dtl.org/alt/nt/matt-1-10.htm and http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/mt/index.html

Story:
These are more teachings of Jesus to his disciples.

Notes:
it is not enough to simply talk about God / Jesus and his religion. You must life by the tenants he has set forth. i.e. not judging, helping ones self (regarding problems - anger, upset and so forth) before you help others.
Barnes has interesting notes on 7:21 regarding the theory that God may equally give the power of healing to someone evil, as someone good. We do not know what his purposes are, nor can understand his choice of vessels.

Questions:

Jesus will let in those that are doing the will of God, how do we know what that is? (Verse 21)

Possible Lessons and things:

Chance reading

Wed, 25 Jun 2003 11:48:09 GMT

Went to loo and thought I'd read a little more of Galatians 5 & 6, but bible opened on 1 Corinthians 6 & 7 instead (Sexual Immorality & Marriage). Which is quite relevant to me at the moment.

Prayer Response, coincidence or something else?

Wed, 25 Jun 2003 10:33:38 GMT

On the way to work today I was sitting writing up some notes for a book I am working on; all I was really focusing on was Eclipse and what to cover. (okay so there where occasional glances around me). Anyways as I was writing some possible text, from out of nowhere at the back of my mind pops in the word "Galatians'. It needled me for a little till I stopped on the Eclipse stuff and the idea of reading Galatians became clearer in my mind.

Now I've never read Galatians but I did know of it as a book in the bible. I sat for a little while waiting for something else to pop in, like a verse or chapter but nothing came. In the end something did form but it felt more like my mind answering and picking random combinations. (1:17, 1:19, 2:25).

I ignored looking until we had passed Horsham, its sad but true but I feel embarrsesed to look at the bible while "in public". I don't want others labeling me, as I would likely do to others if I saw them reading it. I was very surprised to find that Galatians was in the new testament (I thought it was in the old testament) and had been written by Paul as a letter to lead them back to faith and from law. Boy did I shiver when I was reading it, esp chp 1 & 2. I cannot say more at the moment other than it touched me and that it felt like it was "talking" to me.

I'll write a little more on this later when I have explored my thoughts a bit.

Challenge

Mon, 23 Jun 2003 13:10:02 GMT

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I have been given a challenge for the week, possibly to discuss at the weekend or else next week sometime.

I asked Rachel, like I do with Christians I get to know and who have expressed knowledge or experience of speaking tongue, what the difference was between what she spoke and <insert a language that I cannot even begin to transcribe; which I dropped into immediatly>. She said it gave her goose bumps and then we got chatting about it and about what happened a couple of weeks ago at homegroup. (bursting into song). I asked about the goosebumps and it turns out she felt a kind of ... *wracks brain trying to remember* stirring (I think) we talked about a few other bits and pieces for a bit and I realised that I had a couple of "strange" words nuding at the edge of my mind and basically for 5 minutes it kept intruding into my thoughts as we talked. So I mentioned it and Rachel asked me to say them and so basically spoke for about a minute and a half. She then challenged me to pray to the Holy Spirit to see if I would be given an answer, or an inkling as to what I said.

Matthew 6

Mon, 23 Jun 2003 00:52:40 GMT

Book: Matthew
Chapter: 6
Verses: 1-34
URLs: http://www.dtl.org/alt/nt/matt-1-10.htm and http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/mt/index.html

Story:

These are more teachings of Jesus to his disciples.

Notes:

Questions:

In Mat_6:3 what is meant by left hand and right hand? Is this simply meant as an illustration really meaning both hands, or is it a parallel to friends and family.
Is the secret giving why envelopes are used in churches for giving the collection?
Mat_6:6 appears to suggest that pray should be done in private, how does this gel with the open prayer seen in churches or homegroups?
Matthew 6:6-9 seems to suggest that prayer should simply be the lords prayer because God already knows what we want and need. Like above this doesn't really Gel with any church I have ever seen.
Trouble really understanding 6:22-23. Drawing the parallel back to the idea of having a hole inside us. Do these verses possibly mean: If you are fulfilled you will know true happiness, if you aren't then how empty you must feel?

Possible Lessons and things:

Should not make our charitable acts public to be noticed.Our reward will come from "secret" giving.
Prayer should be done in private
Prayer should be succinct, using only those words that are necessary
Prayer should simply be the Lords prayer.
If you fast do so with a smile and a glad face. It is a private thing and you will be rewarded only this way.
Don't horde earthly possessions where they can be stolen, lost or destroyed. Instead invest in heaven where none of those things can happen. In a sense they last forever.
Don't worry about the trivial things of life, know that when you go to God (and live righteously) he will provide for you all that you need (even if its not what you want).
Do not spend your life thinking and worrying about tomorrow, basically look at what you can do now.

Help

Sun, 22 Jun 2003 23:16:09 GMT

Anyone recommend a verse / verses to cheer up a soul?

Cool Tool and Stupidity

Fri, 20 Jun 2003 11:15:26 GMT

Found some fantastic bible study software yesterday that is free. Don't let that put you off, it is genuinly very good, well thought out and joy to use. (Okay so I have used it loads yet but what I have just makes sense).

Its called e-sword (subtitle: the Sword of the LORD with an electronic edge), lets see it has tons of bibles (though not NIV and its brethern, it does have NASB but you have to pay 20 bucks to get it) and other material you can plugin. Cool features are EVERY word is active, click on a word and if there is a dictionary reference or some other reference then it is listed at the bottom of the page (the tabs are smart and show a bubble with an i in it if they have something about it, every verse is active, clicking inside a verse causes the commentaries section to sync with you verse, if they have anything to say, and again like the dictionary area, the tabs graphically indicate it rather than you having to dig through them all. There is a tab to allow you to compare all installed bibles on a particular verse (this is done top down), or via another tab you can constrain this to upto 4 bibles side by side.

I could go on for a bit about it, but I won't. Check it out for yourself, its FREE, better than many "traditional" software programs, has a wealth of features ....

Now the stupidity bit, I bought the NASB key when I suppose I really didn't need it. One of those times where my sense functions just fail. It was only 20 bucks, but then it was 20 bucks more on the CC. There where enough other bibles there to be getting on with.

*shakes head* maybe on day I will learn

A Spirit inside us?

Wed, 18 Jun 2003 11:24:05 GMT

The entry title is a little off, I was reading more of the History of the Bible book I mentioned the other day, I'm on the pages about the books that "nearly" made it into the bible but where not considered part of the canon for whatever reason.

One of the ones mentioned in the Gospel Of Thomas which is disliked because of its Gnostic leanings. One of the examples used is

"Saying number 70 seems to support the Gnostic idea that humans are saved by awakening to the spiritual knowledge hidden within them: 'if you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you'

Now while I dislike some of the other Gnostic ideas, I find that this one says a lot to me and feels "correct".

There are a number of people I know (including those now Christians), including myself, who felt that they where missing something. That they had a hole inside of them that needed to be filled. So the question arises, how do we feel that way? Is it simply our subconscious analysing our lives and noting we aren't content, or is it more that there is part of us that is Spiritually aware?

Looking at it and thinking about it, I am inclined to lean to the second idea, I think there is a core part of us that knows about Spirituality, about God and Christ that is constantly guiding us, knocking at our souls and ultimately giving us a connection to God. This is why saying 70 makes sense to me, it is only by calling forth / acknowledging that spiritual side that we can really "know" God and be saved. To ignore it and go with our conscious and logical side will simply doom us.

This is linked to faith, I have been told a few times now that it doesn't matter how much I read or talk to people; it ultimately comes down to taking a step of faith. I suppose its about Discarding "logic" and going with what we feel to be right. And that our notion of right, may be directed not just by God but by the "spirit" inside us.

Homegroup

Wed, 18 Jun 2003 10:58:10 GMT

Homegroup last night was quite interesting, lots of things discussed and now I don't really remember any of them. Teach me not to do a write up before I go to sleep.

We covered topics like:

Can we watch others do a bad job, that we could do well (this is related to the concept of "training" a disciple where ultimately you have to let them go)
Spending time with those that we don't really share anything with
Humility

*sigh* my human mind is failing me currently.

Came across this on Google today

Mon, 16 Jun 2003 12:00:15 GMT

A site for asking questions it seems http://www.gotquestions.org/

From the front page:

"Do you have a question about God, Jesus, the Bible, or theology?

Have you ever needed help understanding a Bible verse?

Is there a spiritual issue in your life for which you need counsel?

Just type in your question below and we'll get back to you with a Biblically-based answer within 2-7 days."

A chance meeting ....

Mon, 16 Jun 2003 11:58:43 GMT

On the train this morning on the way to work, I was reading " The Bible: A History " by Stephen M. Miller and Robert V. Huber which my wife had bought for me last week. (Its a new book only released March 2003). I haven't read a lot of it, was on page 16 when I started this morning and page 25 by the time I stopped.

Anyways, when I got onto the train at Three Bridges this morning I ended up sitting with two other people. I read 4 of the pages, and at Horsham got up to close a door on the train someone had left open and as I was returning to my seat, the black man that I had been sitting beside (and now opposite) spoke to me. He asked if I had any other christian books, I showed him the one I was reading and the Hard Questions about the Bible made Easy, that my wife has also bought me. He talked for a bit about God and the Holy Spirit and the power of the word. I don't really remember much of what he said now, he spoke very quietly but he was clearly engaged. We swapped books, he has the Hard Questions book and I have his Power Based Words by Theresa Okocha, with the intention of reading them today / tonight and swapping them back tomorrow. His idea, not mine, I just went with it (my book only cost 2.99 so it won't be a great loss if I don't get it back) as I have seen him on the same train manys a time.

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