Updating the blogroll

This is a new addition to my blogroll. Rarely have I come across a blog I instantly chime so very well with - Peter helpfully terms himself 'post-gay', has a new son called Reuben and a link to Outpost Gallifrey. Added to that, he's clearly an articulate writer and an interesting thinker. Take a look.

H/T: The eagle-eyedDJP

Judgement

If God is so Holy that He cannot look upon sin, I don't know how He can see the UK today. My heart is utterly broken that, in the service of being 'cutting edge', my government has voted to demolish some very basic notions of morality. The 'cutting edge' we now ride has excised the need for a father when having children, the uniqueness of human beings created in the image of God and reiterated that children in the womb are in one of the most dangerous places they could be.

I am ashamed to be English today, when my country which, by the grace of God, nurtured so many men and women who lived and died for Him, has so heaped judgement upon itself that we truly are calling evil good. I don't know what to tell you about how heavy my heart is, but I am honestly drawing comfort today from remembering that revival springs from the darkest of places. Come, Lord Jesus.

For more coherent thinking on this matter, go
here.

Is it just me?

Ever have a day you just felt totally alone? You see something that appears obvious to you, and you wonder why it doesn't seem to matter much to others. And you sort of dimly realize that you've already said something, so there seems little point saying anything else.

I do sometimes wonder if I make the slightest difference anywhere. I know, that's prideful at it's heart - I shouldn't be concerned about the impact I make - but none-the-less, it's disheartening to think that I'm just speaking, or typing, into nothingness.

When you speak to atheists and cultists about Christ, it's a hard, hard business, and there really isn't an awful lot of encouragement on the way. God is good, but being a witness is work, and work isn't recreation.

Maybe it makes me neurotic about doctrine - I see so many times how important it is to have your ducks in a row when speaking to unbelievers. Perhaps I come across as snotty to other Christians, and they just sort of roll their eyes at my fussiness.

What can I say? It matters. What we believe matters. And the details matter as much as the big picture, otherwise we wouldn't have a bible, we'd have a little flash-card saying 'Jesus is Lord'.

Today, I'm a bit fed up with it all, and baffled by the willingness of professing believers to just shrug at people mishandling scripture and teaching not-quite-truth. I know the same believers would have no reticence in taking a clear stand against immoral behaviour. I just don't get why erroneous teaching is less important.

A revival that isn't.

A couple of the Christian television channels here are full of the latest 'revival' going on in Florida. I watched a little of it last night. I managed about 40 minutes before my brain started seizing up, turned over to UCB, where Peter Masters was preaching and five minutes of scripture-saturated teaching started my cogs whirring again.

The 'revival' is being noticed because of some healings apparently taking place. I know nothing about their veracity, but that's really not the point. The existence of signs and wonders does not 'a revival' make. I wondered exactly what was being taught, which is why I watched, having already had a look at the main 'teacher' Todd Bentley's website.

Extempore singing and music was the constant backdrop - repeated phrases like 'fire burn' and so on. Todd Bentley walked around the stage making pronouncements about the 'fire falling' and talking about new waves and new levels. He would perhaps say a paragraph's worth of coherent, if non-sensical, speech about various mystical 'angelic' teaching. Then he would walk about repeating phrases over and over. The crowd in front of him stood, all with their hands raised, some jerking about and swaying. That was it. No gospel, not even a bible opened. Oh, I heard the word Pentecost, but that was it.

One thing that was mentioned really stood out to me - the repeated exhortation to 'not put God in a box'. Now, I know what this usually means in this context. It means "Yes, this looks really out-of-the-ordinary, but just because it's not what you're used to, don't think it's not God."

But it's been standing out to me as one of the biggest ironies in modern charismania (and I use the phrase charismania because I do have charismatic friends who are highly skeptical). Because if you were to read the websites of the people involved, you'll see that for the longest time, they have been entirely focused on healings, spectacular events, mystical stories of angels and visions, and a mass hysterical event is what constitutes 'revival'.

That's not what I pray for when I pray for the Lord to send revival to my land - I pray for the church to faithfully preach His word, to live lives that stand out, to pray and serve - and then for the Holy Spirit to bring true conversion to many people.

It's almost inconceivable to the people involved in Florida that God's power works in an unspectacular way through the simple, unadorned preaching of His word and the humble faithfulness of His people. Their God is firmly stuck in a box labelled 'big show'.

I love the Doctor, but...

You know, I love The Doctor. He's a marvellously refreshing hero, solving problems with intelligence, rather than action-hero-paint-by-numbers-brawn.

Russell T Davies is an interesting storyteller, and he knows how to wring the emotion and drama out of things that should be, by rights, absolute silliness. In so far as human stories always have things in them that will reference redemption, there is material to be found in Doctor Who that will make interesting debate and illustration.

But the Doctor is a deeply flawed character, and the amount of convolutions you have to twist into to compare him usefully to the Lord Jesus Christ just gives me a headache.

Seriously, he's an alien with two hearts who is the sole survivor of a great war in which he killed his entire race, who inspires great devotion among the people he comes in contact with, but tends to utterly destroy their lives, if not leave them dead. It's all very dramatic, and topical given that it's now a primetime Saturday night family adventure show, but really.

Is that character more exciting and interesting than an Almighty God who became a human being (while still being God) and acheived the redemption of His enemies? Come on. It just isn't necessary to jump through these 'relevance' hoops to reach people. It's nonsense.