"We are men and women moving farther up and further into a greater kingdom."
This quote from a Jim Carattini emailing [A Slice of Infinity] suddenly makes deeper sense of that wonderful cry from the end of C S Lewis' 'The Last Battle' - 'further up and further in'
Up: the Christian journey is always one of being called upwards - to new heights, but needing resilience for the climb.
In: into the depths of our new country, exploring all that it has to offer, more and more true to itself (in the sense that at the borders countries are virtually the same, but each takes on greater distinctiveness as we travel further in.)
Wednesday 27 August 2008
Tuesday 12 August 2008
The Bible and Prayer
A good friend gave me a gift of a book on prayer with these words from Pope John Paul II:
"It is in prayer that the Word of God is understood, applied and lived". Personal resolution - to try praying the prayers in the Bible (eg of Paul in Ephesians) for others.
"It is in prayer that the Word of God is understood, applied and lived". Personal resolution - to try praying the prayers in the Bible (eg of Paul in Ephesians) for others.
Monday 11 August 2008
The Future's Orange - no longer
Very struck by the mailing from the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity (LICC) about the new Orange ad. The mailing is entitled Who Are You? Incidentally, their regular mailings are excellent - visit http://www.licc.org.uk
The optimistic mantra that began, ‘The future’s bright, the future’s …’ has been ditched. In the biggest global advertising campaign ever launched, Orange have introduced their new litany: ‘I am who I am because of everyone.’ It’s playing on a TV near you.
For sixty seconds, the camera pans over a range of people, a disembodied voice explaining, ‘I am my mum, and my sister. I am my best friend, Mike, who I’ve known since school’ and so on. Backed by a chilled, trance-like music track, it works. It doesn’t scream the product it’s selling, it merely gives off a vibe that emphasises how important communication is.
We are surrounded by competing voices trying to shape us, not least, ironically, the advertising world. This world is the funfair mirror of our culture, taking our desires, our aspirations, and our beliefs and slightly distorting them before reflecting them back to us. The apostle Paul’s urgent plea not to be conformed to the world (Romans 12:2) continues to be relevant to all of us; if we are not on our guard, we will find ourselves unwittingly moulded by the loudest voices, the most insistent personalities, and the most forceful events.
This week Alexander Solzhenitsyn died. His writing, courage, and independence have been praised. During the time of the Cold War, he was the darling of the West – the writer who unveiled the inhumanity of the communist system in Russia. When the Politburo could no longer stomach him, they deported him. It was a shock, therefore, when in 1979, delivering a speech at the bastion of Western liberalism, Harvard University, he placed both communism and Western capitalism on the same level: morally bankrupt, because of their insistence on living without reference to God.
Prophets are never easy to live with. They seem to enjoy flying in the face of received opinion. They rarely present their words against a chilled, trance-like soundtrack. They are what they are because of others around them, and because of what they obediently allow God to say and do through them.
We are all being shaped, all being discipled. It’s just a question of who is doing that shaping. We need to assemble the different shaping voices into a proper, biblical order of significance, so that we, in our time, can accurately ‘hear what the Spirit says to the churches’ (Revelation 2:7).
Neil Hudson
The optimistic mantra that began, ‘The future’s bright, the future’s …’ has been ditched. In the biggest global advertising campaign ever launched, Orange have introduced their new litany: ‘I am who I am because of everyone.’ It’s playing on a TV near you.
For sixty seconds, the camera pans over a range of people, a disembodied voice explaining, ‘I am my mum, and my sister. I am my best friend, Mike, who I’ve known since school’ and so on. Backed by a chilled, trance-like music track, it works. It doesn’t scream the product it’s selling, it merely gives off a vibe that emphasises how important communication is.
We are surrounded by competing voices trying to shape us, not least, ironically, the advertising world. This world is the funfair mirror of our culture, taking our desires, our aspirations, and our beliefs and slightly distorting them before reflecting them back to us. The apostle Paul’s urgent plea not to be conformed to the world (Romans 12:2) continues to be relevant to all of us; if we are not on our guard, we will find ourselves unwittingly moulded by the loudest voices, the most insistent personalities, and the most forceful events.
This week Alexander Solzhenitsyn died. His writing, courage, and independence have been praised. During the time of the Cold War, he was the darling of the West – the writer who unveiled the inhumanity of the communist system in Russia. When the Politburo could no longer stomach him, they deported him. It was a shock, therefore, when in 1979, delivering a speech at the bastion of Western liberalism, Harvard University, he placed both communism and Western capitalism on the same level: morally bankrupt, because of their insistence on living without reference to God.
Prophets are never easy to live with. They seem to enjoy flying in the face of received opinion. They rarely present their words against a chilled, trance-like soundtrack. They are what they are because of others around them, and because of what they obediently allow God to say and do through them.
We are all being shaped, all being discipled. It’s just a question of who is doing that shaping. We need to assemble the different shaping voices into a proper, biblical order of significance, so that we, in our time, can accurately ‘hear what the Spirit says to the churches’ (Revelation 2:7).
Neil Hudson
Wednesday 6 August 2008
Some Challenging Thoughts as I approach ministry in Harlow
Came across these words today from 'Working with Angles' by Eugene Peterson - a favourite author. They apply to ordination into Christian ministry but equally apply to any fresh call. And remembering that our Baptism is our fundamental ordination these words challenge all who seek to follow Jesus...
"... we are going to ordain you to this ministry and we want you to vow that you will stick to it. This is not a temporary job assignment but a way of life that we need lived out in our community. We know that you are launched on the same difficult belief venture in the same dangerous wold as we are. We know that your emotions are as fickle as our, and that your mind can play the same tricks on you as ours. That is why we are going to ordain you and why we are going to exact a vow from you. We know that there are going to be days and months, maybe even years, when we won't feel like we are believing anything and we won't want to hear it from you. And we know that there will be days and weeks and maybe even years when you won't feel like saying it. It doesn't matter. Do it. You are ordained to this ministry, vowed to it... With these vows of ordination we are lashing you fast to the mast of word and sacrament so that you will be unable to respond to the siren voices... Your task is to keep telling the basic story, representing the presence of the Spirit, insisting on the priority of God, speaking the biblical words of command and promise and invitation."
"... we are going to ordain you to this ministry and we want you to vow that you will stick to it. This is not a temporary job assignment but a way of life that we need lived out in our community. We know that you are launched on the same difficult belief venture in the same dangerous wold as we are. We know that your emotions are as fickle as our, and that your mind can play the same tricks on you as ours. That is why we are going to ordain you and why we are going to exact a vow from you. We know that there are going to be days and months, maybe even years, when we won't feel like we are believing anything and we won't want to hear it from you. And we know that there will be days and weeks and maybe even years when you won't feel like saying it. It doesn't matter. Do it. You are ordained to this ministry, vowed to it... With these vows of ordination we are lashing you fast to the mast of word and sacrament so that you will be unable to respond to the siren voices... Your task is to keep telling the basic story, representing the presence of the Spirit, insisting on the priority of God, speaking the biblical words of command and promise and invitation."
Prayers valued!
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