Quotable: Greg Sheridan and God is Good for You – Take 2
A few weeks ago we had an initial look at a few gems from Greg Sheridan’s excellent new book God is Good for You. Here is a second look… Materialism, the most boring as well as the least accurate way of experiencing the world and recording experience, is the dominant mindset of the Western intelligentsia in our day. – Quoting A.N.Wilson (p35) Militant atheists deny any validity to the testimony of anyone in history who, through mystical prayer or contemplation or the irruption of God into human consciousness, claims any direct personal experience of God. But the testimony of this...
Read MoreQuotable: Brian Harris, The Big Picture – Take 2
Last week we looked at a few of the statements made in the opening chapters of my 2015 book, The Big Picture: Building Blocks of a Christian World View which people sometimes cite back at me. Here are a few more insights from the book which I hope you will enjoy pondering… Election is not about privilege but responsibility. We are blessed to bless. It is a biblical truth with challenging implications, but if we are to build a Christian world view we must repeatedly affirm that every God-given blessing is for the greater good of all. Brian Harris (p35) Moral instructions in the Bible...
Read MoreQuotable: Brian Harris, The Big Picture
I guess it was an inevitable question: “You have been quoting several different authors in your blog. When are you going to quote yourself?” A simple answer follows… “this week!” Here are a few of the statements made in the opening chapters of my 2015 book, The Big Picture: Building Blocks of a Christian World View which people sometimes cite back at me. I often have a sinking feeling that if Jesus were to revisit this planet, he would feel a need to birth something fairly different from the church as it currently exists. As I read the Gospels, I do not get the feeling that the Jesus...
Read MoreIn Praise of Smaller Churches: 10 Positives…
Almost every church I come into contact with (and over the years, that has been a fair few), wants to be bigger than it presently is. They look a little enviously at churches in the next size category, and imagine that if that were them, most of their problems would be solved. Their pastor (if they have one) assumes that if they were larger, they would be more respected by their colleagues and – well, let’s face it, we live in an era where bigger is usually assumed to be better. To be sure, large churches have many things going for them – and I certainly don’t want this post to...
Read MoreQuotable: Greg Sheridan, God is Good for You
Greg Sheridan’s latest book God is Good for You: A Defence of Christianity in Troubled Times (2018) is well worth the read. It starts memorably… What will it mean for us, when God is dead? Who, then, can humanity converse with, when we lose our oldest friend? The loss of Christianity, and not only of Christianity but of much other religious belief and practice, will change us in ways we cannot possibly imagine. There will be no purpose beyond ourselves and ultimately Western humanity will look in the mirror and say: I’m bored with myself. And then, out of that boredom, who can imagine?...
Read MoreQuotable: Eugene Peterson and Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places – Take 2
Last week we looked at a few key quotes from Eugene Peterson’s influential book on spiritual theology Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places. Here is a second look… Human beings are not gods; the moment we forget this, we violate the boundaries of our humanity and something is violated in reality itself. The universe suffers damage. Eugene Peterson (p42) But the fundamental inadequacy of codes of conduct for giving direction to the spiritual life is that they put us in charge (or, which is just as bad, put someone else in charge of us); God is moved off the field of action to the judge’s...
Read MoreQuotable: Eugene Peterson and Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places
I have always appreciated the work of Eugene Peterson, and was recently re-reading Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, first published in 2005 and in my opinion, one of his finest works. Here are some insights from the book… Endings take precedence over beginnings. We begin a journey by first deciding on a destination. Eugene Peterson, p1 Story is the most natural way of enlarging and deepening our sense of reality, and then enlisting us as participants in it. Stories open doors to areas or aspects of life we didn’t know were there, or had quit noticing out of over-familiarity, or...
Read MoreConsumers or Christians…
It has become common to talk about consumer Christianity. You see it everywhere. The new family at the church makes it clear that they want to test things out first – after all it may or may not be a good fit for the family, and there are lots of needs to take into account. Is the youth group friendly enough, the children’s ministry sufficiently accomodating, the preaching inspiring enough, and the music to everyone’s taste? If each box gets a bold tick, they might attend… well, attend on those weekends they are not away at their holiday cottage. New churches trying to decide if...
Read MoreQuotable: Simon Carey Holt and Heaven All Around us – Take 2
I posted on Simon Carey Holt’s wonderful book Heaven All Around Us a few weeks ago. Here is a second look at some striking quotes from the book. …for neighbor-love to have credibility, it has to be practiced where we are. Simon Carey Holt (p86) Walking is an act of awareness, a way of seeing, noticing, and being present to where we live… When I drive through my neighbourhood, my destination is elsewhere. I am focussed on the most efficient way in or out. I don’t see it. When I walk my neighbourhood I am aware of it. I notice the individual homes, the front doors and...
Read MoreQuotable: Simon Carey Holt and Heaven All Around Us
I posted on Simon Carey Holt’s wonderful book Heaven All Around Us a few weeks ago. Here are some striking quotes from the book. A good spiritual practice names the presence of God already with us. In whatever form a spiritual discipline takes, it proceeds on the assumption that the possibility of God is as real where we are as anywhere. Simon Carey Holt (p39) To contemplate is to look deeply into something in order to discern its truth. That something is life itself, its objects, contexts, routines, and encounters. The true contemplative is not a person of a particular personality but one...
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