John Stott

I first heard John Stott at Urbana 67 while I was a student at the University of Waterloo. Every morning we listened to him teach for an hour from John's Gospel. Since that time I have read many of his books and commentaries and I heard him again at Urbana 70. He will be greatly missed. He died at the age of 90.

There was nothing random about Jesus.

For the past few years it has been popular to do random acts of kindness but we should remember that there was nothing random about Jesus. His acts of kindness were deliberate not random. So should we do random acts of kindness? I believe that most actions that we call random are anything but random. We plan, we decide, we do. It may seem random to others but to us it is a deliberate act of kindness.

Whose faith heals?

Last Sunday I heard Bob Craft of the Bible League of Canada preach from Luke 5 and yesterday I heard via audio book Joni Ericksen Tada refer to the same passage. Often people point out to Joni that either there is secret sin in her life that she hasn't confessed or that she does not have the faith to be healed. Joni took the passage that her accusers were using against her and showed that it says, "that when Jesus saw their faith". She then told the accuser that maybe she wasn't healed because he didn't have faith. In a society that honours individuality it does not occur to us that we are together responsible for each others lives and that includes healing. I want to say more about healing but I also wanted people to be aware that it is wrong to accuse others of secret or unconfessed sin or lack of faith when the problem may be us.

Deconstructionism

So what is deconstructionism? Deconstructionism is a way of interpreting a text by trying to dig into what the original author was experiencing at the time of writing. If that is all that it meant then I would say that would be a good thing but it doesn't stop there. It also means that there is no one way of interpreting it today. Now this is where the problem lies. Scripture is not by private interpretation according to 2 Peter who tells us plainly that holy men of God were moved by the Holy Spirit and not to the whims of culture of the day. Though they wrote in the culture of the day it was not the culture but the Spirit that influenced Scripture. It is a must that we do look into the culture of the time but we must not forget that it is the Holy Spirit who moved men to write what they did.

Freedom and Liberty

What is the difference between freedom and liberty? A. W. Tozer says that freedom is liberty with bounds. As a Christian we must curtail certain liberties so that everyone can be free.

Google and Wikipedia

I typed "truth" into google and the first entry that came up was Wikipedia. Now it is interesting how google and wikipedia define truth. Truth according to google is what is relevant and according to wikipedia it is what is the consensus. Now if truth is defined by relevance then there is no absolute truth. If truth is defined by consensus then again there is no absolute truth. However, Jesus said that He is the truth. There is an absolute truth and that means that there is an absolute authority.

Dust

I was reading in Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest from the June 18 entry and I couldn't help contrast with the Dust video I saw this past week by Rob Bell. Oswald Chambers tells us that Peter was to self confident but Rob Bell tells us that he didn't have enough confidence in himself. This new age teaching is what you might expect from Oprah or Dr. Phil but from a Bible teacher it is unbelievable. We are told over and over again in scripture not to put our trust in ourselves or in our flesh but rather to depend upon God. Peter couldn't walk on the water because he had too much confidence in himself and not in the Lord. The Lord can use a person who has all his or her confidence in Him (Jesus) and not in self.
Is Peter his own saviour or is Jesus the Saviour? Sorry Rob Bell I believe that Oswald Chambers understands salvation and Scripture.

The enemy of my enemy

Is the enemy of my enemy my friend? This is an Arabian proverb, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Sometimes we form partnership based upon a common enemy, like abortion or gay marriage. However, is it enough that we have a common enemy and not agree on the essentials of the Gospel? Sometimes I think it is important that we partner with those who have a common enemy but we must be careful that we do not call them friends in other areas as well. Just thinking.

Call to Worship

What has happened to the call to worship in our churches today? The other Sunday instead of a call to worship I saw a video on how we can have our needs met. Now that is true and it is important that people are aware of that but we must be careful not to have our focus on ourselves when we come to worship. A call to worship should turn our thoughts to our Creator and off of our needs.

The New Liberals

I have read a number of books lately that I can only describe as being written by what I have termed, the new liberals. I must say that after hearing a sermon by Paris Reidhead I cannot help but filter my thinking through the sermon called, "Ten shekels and a shirt." (see May 6 or July 5, 2009). The new liberals sound good in that they have a strong desire to reach the non-believers but their focus is on the humanistic reason for reaching them rather than upon God. Some may say, "What is wrong with that?" Listen again to Paris Reidhead and I am sure you will understand where I am coming from.