I know I should expect it….but it still hurts.
Adam Goodes just about rips Selwoods head off (mmmm better not comment on that)…and gets nothing.
Heath Black gets cited for an incident…with NO FOOTAGE…and gets two weeks….
and this little gem from the weekend. Even the commentators…who did not even know the Fremantle players names, kept going on about how they could not believe the frees Fremantle were not getting, and the frees Brisbane were.
This aspect of the church has been misused in these ways.
1. As a manipulative tool by people seeking to exercise control.
2. As a tool for those angry, bitter and disinfranchised, as a battering ram against the established church
3. As a awful way to avoid being involved in ministry yourself by attacking others who are involved in ministry.
These above abuses do not mean we should not exercise these gift, but they should guide us and govern us to be sensitive and loving in speaking the truth. They should also inform us as to why Christians are wary of this gift being used.
Speaking the truth…in love…..
This does not mean we wont offend, the truth does offend. This does not mean we wont confront, true love confronts evil.
Practically speaking, true prophets don’t use blogs, mass email and anonymous letters to fire shots across an individual or a specific churches ‘bow’.
Thats crap, garbarge…and should be ignored or thrown in the bin without being read.
True prophets who are truly effective will generally be your friend, someone who is in relationship with you, someone you have chosen to make yourself accountable to.
Also true prophets dont have ulterior motives. They have nothing to gain, in any sense, from telling the truth. You get those who say they are reluctant prophets…but in fact they are gaining a sense of control from being seemingly reluctant.
True prophets dont pretend to have a hotline to Gods voice…they share humbly and carefully.
The church needs to be careful that it is not in a compromising relationship with the government, or in fact with any other body, which may compromise its prophetic voice. We need to speak the truth in love.
If there is anything the religious right in the US has taught us…it is that aligning itself with any political party is fraught with danger.
One thing he emphasises is the soveriegnity of God…and the election of the Saints.
But then…at the end of the message…he called for a response. Even as he was speaking it seemed to me that he was a little uncomfortable with asking for a response. It seemed a little incogruous that after explaining and preaching in detail on how we are “God’s elect”…he then called for a response….
God requires a response. His love requires a response. Maybe…..maybe when we are part of the body of Christ we look back and see we are part of ‘the elect’….but there is also a great need for us to respond to Christ….to His call on our lives…to the responsibility we have to the One who created us….and then came to share the good news with us.
The political incorrectness of the gospel is that a response is necessary…you must call upon the name of the Lord…you must choose to become part of the body. Otherwise you are outside of the Body of Christ…and will face eternity apart from Him.
Who thinks Walls has it in for Freo…
And this from Herald Sun Journalist Mark Robinson, who interviewed Mark Harvey after his interview with Robert Walls, and who obviously thought Walls was bias and out of line…
“Did Robert Walls hunt you?
You will have to ask Robert that.
There’s a school of thought Walls is going for you, and people have wondered is it because of his volatile relationship with Kevin Sheedy and that you’re a product of Sheedy?
And there’s a school of thought he’s gone for you and not, for example, said much about Ross Lyon because he helped select Lyon as coach of St Kilda, or Matty Knights because he coached him.
Do you think there is merit in that?
All I know is he went after Mark Thompson a couple of years ago.
You’ve talked to Thompson about that?
Yeah. It’s been brought up.
How do you deal with people, such as Walls, having a crack at you after just eight games coaching?
I worked with Robert on 3AW for a couple of years and he is one of the major players and he has seven or eight consortiums he has to either write for or commentate on, and he has to draw attention to those.
Do you think he was fair?
When you are a coach in your first year, I think (you should ask) how far do you go in your line of questioning.
Walls and Mick Sheahan, to be honest, smelt blood and went for it.
The timing wasn’t great. And, really, I wasn’t defensive about what had happened the previous day. I was just disappointed with losing to Melbourne and giving up a 50-point lead.
Awesome.
Saw this movie tonight at the premiere, courtesy of some free tickets I scored from “The Western Front”
It is wonderful.
Action, drama, thoughtful spiritual analogies and allegory from the master CS Lewis.
Points about the need for childlike faith, regret, not being able to take back the consequences for lack of courageous faith decisions, God’s apparent abscence, and how we deal with that.
The reward for faith, the problem with trying to take steps ahead of God….its all there.
They did a great job of interwieving the themes and high points from the novel, as we as adding appropriate ‘poetic license’ of their own.
It really does make you desire to see the next instalment, which is not really a tactic of the movie, but a reflection of the book. If you have not read the book, or seen the movie
….spoiler ahead…….
Peter and Susan are now too old for Narnia, expect Edmund and Lucy to reappear.
