As I kick off our new series at Church on Urban Legends, I am starting this week with a ‘doosey’. Namely the myth that has come upon us as churches, that having the truth is more important that love. A thought I want to emphasise is this….
Mark Driscoll is someone who has been through a lot of controversy. That is to put it mildly. His greatest strength is his ability to clearly and frankly articulate his view points….maybe that is a weakness as well….
Either way this description of the four streams of emergent thinking/church is interesting and informative. He is probably a equal opportunity offender….in that most people could get offended by something he says! But I like him, and his style, even if I dont agree with everything he says. (I also think he wears the coolest shirts)
This is a simple motion loop I made up using Ulead.
Overlayed a nice picture of a flower with a ghost motion. Then placed the same picture on the timeline and overlayed a reverse motion over it, this allowing the video to loop seamlessly.
Might use it as a background in church.
In my view Phil Baker has done a great job of dealing with this issue. He uses biblical stories as illustrations of how others have “stood in the gap” and taken responsibility for others who had sinned in their community. While many I know say, “why should I say sorry”, a better question might be, who will stand and express sorrow for past wrongs done. It does not fix everything, it does not make everything right….but it does display a fresh and new spirit..something that is needed if we are to be all we can be as Australians.
It was the 30th of April, 2006, my birthday.
Invariably weirdness descends when Freo and St Kilda play. Who will ever forget the disallowed free which saw St Kilda get up by one point in a previous Tasmanian game. No Freo fan, or present West Australian Premier will forget Longmuirs goal after the siren during the feature game on Friday Night, Channel Nine. That was also the game which prompted the ‘whispers in the sky’ controvery with Channel Nine reporter Tony Jones allegedly overhearing controversial statements from the umpires. Think back long enough to 2002 and you might remember the afro headed Ben Cunningham kicking a 50 metre goal in the dying minutes to win the game after the Saints had led all day. There is also the infamous mark that Peter Carey took in 1999, infamous because Carey was the umpire officiating in that game.
But of course the biggest nexus of all occured when St Kilda and Fremantle lined up on that fateful day at Aurora stadium.
After giving the Saints a spanking for most of the day, Freo took their foot off the pedal and the Saints took advantage, coming back to within one point in the dying seconds of the last quarter. The siren sounded, the coaches celebrated. Unfortunately no one thought to make the siren loud enough so the umpires could hear it above the sound of a few beer soaked Tasmanian fans.
A point was kicked, then disallowed, then kicked again…The game was officially a draw. St Kilda’s coach ‘cornflakes’ Grant Thomas hardly did much for his reputation when he rather churlishly suggested that the points were his teams…and the result would stand. Chris Connolly and Cameron Schwab were vigorous in their protest that they would get the four points which were rightfully theirs. After Brad Hardie declared that, “there is no way that the result will change”…in the ensuing controversial days, the AFL changed the result. For only the second time in AFL history, a games result was changed after the ‘final siren’. Luckily sanity prevailed, Chris Connolly and co relaxed, and Freo got their deserved 4 points.
Just seeking God this afternoon, needed some clarity on what God wanted to say on Sunday….I have spent four days mulling over this weeks message, it is as much for me as anyone else this week. Then God spoke to me about Watchmen Nee, and in a moment God directed me to this quote. I don’t reccomend this method as something to be practiced on a regular basis…but in this case I sensed God drawing me to this passage in his book, “A spiritual man”.
So I have my conclusion for this Sunday.
A Newness of Spirit
“We should serve in newness of spirit” (Rom. 7.6 Darby).
This too is a serious facet of spiritual life and work. An old spirit cannot inspire people: the best it can do is pass on some thought to others: even so, it is weak and therefore powerless to stimulate earnest consideration. An aged spirit can only produce aged thought. Never can dynamic life flow out from an old spirit. Whatever issues from a decrepit spirit (words, teaching, manner, thought, life) are but old, stale and traditional. Perhaps many doctrines do in fact reach another believer’s mind, but they gain no footing in his spirit; as a consequence, it is impossible to touch the spirits of others because there is no spirit behind one’s teaching. It is conceivable that the one who harbors an old spirit has once experienced some of the truths, but they have now become mere remembrances of the past, purely pleasant memories. These truths have been transferred from the spirit to the mind. Or perhaps they have just been new ideas freshly conceived in his mind, and due to lack of confirmation in life they simply do not impart the touch of a fresh spirit to the audience.
Time and again we meet various Christians who habitually convey something new from the Lord. While we are with them we feel they have just left the Lord’s presence, as though they would bring us right back to the Lord. This is what newness means; anything else is oldness. Such ones appear to enjoy renewed strength all the time, soaring like eagles and running like youths. Instead of imparting dried, corrupted, and worm-eaten manna of the mind to people, these give fish and bread freshly cooking on the fire of the spirit. Deep and wonderful thoughts never move people as a fresh spirit can.
We must maintain a fresh spirit continually. How can we face people if our inner man does not give the impression of having been newly with the Lord and newly blessed of the Lord? Anything—life, thought, experience—which has reduced itself to a remembrance of the past is old and aged. Moment by moment we must receive everything anew from the Lord. To imitate the experiences of another without ourselves having it in life is forbidden; but to copy from the relics of our own past experience is likewise ineffective. Thus we can grasp the import of what Christ enunciated as recorded in John: “I live because of the Father” (6.57). Our inner man shall remain unceasingly fresh if we momentarily draw upon the life of the Father to be our life. A stale spirit generates no fruit in work, inspires no walk after the spirit, and achieves no victory in warfare. An old spirit cannot face others because it has not faced God. To enjoy a spirit that is always fresh and new, one’s inner being must be in constant touch with God.
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