Livinging in God's world

I came across this article in the SMH and it makes me think upon just how far our world has gone away from God's intended purposes. To actually have someone say that infidelity is a good thing for marriages, boils my blood. How many marriages have broken down because of the hurt as a result of infidelity? How deep are the scars of both men and women who are the "cheated on" party? What about the affect on children?

God's intended purposes for marriage are for unity and single minded devotion to our spouses. As a male I don't need this kind talk, as portrayed by this article. I need to be reminded of God's purposes. I know my own heart! This to me is an example of lies being put forwards as truth.

May God be gracious and give our world an appreciation of the goodness of marriage, and why we have to fight so hard to protect it!

A helpful article - "Imagine no religion"

Here is a helpful article by Micheal Jensen on religion. He is a lecturer at the college I attend. It's also interesting to read the comments in response to this. I'm always astounded by the way people argue their case. Find it here...

Remembering God's Word

I've been thinking about how to get scripture into my soul, much to the encouragement of Dave Miers, and it is something that Robyn and I seek to try to do together. So I've also been thinking about posting my verses in this blog...

But if this is something you'd be keen to have a go at, check out the follow for some good resources to get you thinking about it. Find it here

Thinking about Church Part 2

After I got the ball started with my last post, I started reading through some scriptures, jotting down some notes in my journal, and well, started to think this is harder than I thought. It's such a huge topic! But an importance nonetheless.

Anyway what are my thoughts? As I was thinking, I should work out what the Old Testament background to the church is, so I picked up the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology -- by IVP (Great resource by the way!), and read this really helpful little article by D. Tidball. He had this line: the church is the 'consequence of the character and purposes of a trinitarian God.' (p407).

Now as you look at the narrative of the Old Testament you see how this works out. God calls Abram, promises him that he'll be a great nation, and the nations will be blessed through him (Gen 12:1-3). In redeeming Israel (Abraham's descendants) from the oppression in Egypt, Yahweh remembers his covenant with Abraham and Israel's forefathers (Exodus 2:23). They were to be His people and he their God. They were called out to worship Yahweh and serve him (Exodus), in being Yahweh's 'treasured possession' and 'kingdom of priests' (Ex. 19:4-6). The reason for this choosing of Israel was not that they were impressive but because of Yahweh's love (Deuteronomy 7). What was required, was spelled out in the covenant, it was love and loyalty.

However, this is not the picture of the Old Testament people of God. They constantly fall into worship of other gods, and forsake Yahweh. So they get punished for this rebellion with the exile (cf. Deuteronomy 28 for the curses). But the prophets looked forward to the time when God would 'gather' his 'scattered people' to himself. And these people would not just come from the remnant of Israel, but from the nations (cf. Isaiah 2, Micah 4). God's purposes have been to call a people to himself. The Old testament has this huge expectation of an in-gathering of many people to God, to be in relationship with Him under blessing, in fulfillment to the promises made to Abraham way back in Genesis.

Now there is much in the Old Testament that gets picked up in the New Testament, in terms of language used to describe the people of God. it adds depth to our understanding of the church, when see it in this light. The ideas are transformed into a greater reality when seen in light of the person and work of Jesus. But we need the background of the OT. This has been very brief. Next time I'll turn to ponder what the New Testament says in terms of 'what is church?'.