The power of an image – even a very unrelated image…

When I first saw this photo I was immediately, no seriously, immediately overcome with a cascade of emotions.  

Lurker – not on your nelly

I was called a lurker today.  I don’t think I have ever been called a lurker before.   Just to put that into context, I subscribe to a few blog sites and one of them was challenging all the ‘lurkers’, those who read but don’t participate in the conversations, to fess up and identify themselves. Which I did. But that is not the point.   They were putting the question ‘what inspires you?’ and asking all their readers to respond which, not wanting to be a lurker, I dutifully did.   Anyway, I thought my response was probably worth putting up on my own blog, so here it is…

Kody Tobler – a brave little boy

This week I had the pleasure to meet a very brave little boy and his equally brave parents.

Kody Tobler is two and a half and has not slept a night at home in his short little life. Kody was born with gastroisis. A section of his intestine was outside of this abdominal cavity. Drs had to cut it away leaving only a very short length of small intestine, so small in fact that he was not expected to last the night.

Kody is fed trough a plug directly into his stomach. he lives at the hospital and only gets to be with mum and dad, Kristy & Justin, for a few hours during the day. They would like to be able to have him at home with them and he would also like to be at home. The expense is the determining factor. At the moment they can not afford to have him at home with them full time.

They will be putting up a blog for Kody very soon. That blog will include bank account details for those who would like to help this very brave and determined young family be together. I will post a link to the blog as soon as it is up and running.

The Hope We Have In Us – I Am Not Ashamed of the Gospel

Christians need to respond to the watching and often critical world around us in three ways.

First, we must always be ready to give an answer when someone asks you about the hope that is in you. (1 Peter 3:15).

Second, we need to trust in the power of the Gospel: ‘I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for all those who believe’ (Romans 1:16).

Third, we should live godly lives before the world so that we may (by our good behaviour) silence the ignorant talk of foolish men (1 Peter 2:15).

Today we look at the second of these two responses.

We are people of the word. We believe a word; we place our faith in a word.   We are saved by our faith in the words of the Gospel; these words which are the power, the dynamic force, the story of the mighty deed of God that both provides and leads us to salvation.

The Political Compass

In light of current political events I found this quite interesting.  I’d be interested to see where some of my friends sit on this.

The Political Compass.

The old one-dimensional categories of ‘right’ and ‘left’, established for the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly of 1789, are overly simplistic for today’s complex political landscape. For example, who are the ‘conservatives’ in today’s Russia? Are they the unreconstructed Stalinists, or the reformers who have adopted the right-wing views of conservatives like Margaret Thatcher?

Black Stump Christian Music and Arts Festival

Black Stump has been running since 1985, in three venues, attracting who knows how many people. I am a bit of a recidivist, having been to all but three or four festivals.

The Poverty Question…

On Wednesday 11 August Micah Challenge and Make Poverty History joined together for a national day of action to ask our leaders The Poverty Question. We wanted to get The Poverty Question on the agenda and we wanted a response to two specific policy questions.

It worked! We got the question on the agenda.

Click here to see the response…

The hope that is in you…

We live in a world where Christians are regarded as ‘peculiar’ for just about all the wrong reasons.  In a world that is a sometimes at best ambivalent and at worst antagonistic we need to look at our response.  Christians need to respond to the watching and often critical world around us in three ways.  Today we look at the first of three responses-

Music in Church

Music in Church

We are used to using music in church and we play music in church for a variety of reasons; as a way to worship God, as a way to encourage each other, as an expression of our common unity, to fill in the gaps and sometimes just for fun.  Each is legitimate and each has its own place in the life of a community of faith.  Most people who come to church expect us to use music, they just may be surprised by the music we do use.  Let’s make that surprise a good one!

Election 2010

The Centre for Public Christianity offers us a range of material to help Christians come to terms with the complexities of making our vote count for all the right reason.  They include material on economics, education, environment, family & community, justice, refugees and even the politicians themselves.

I am are that it can all get a  bit overwhelming and voting for the donkey can start to become attractive.  We need to be both prayerful and informed on this any any significant decision.  Take a  few minutes to have a look at what they offer; something might just catch your eye.

Brian

Election 2010.