(considering) 8:28

Implications of the Sovereignty of God

recent posts

  • The Best Laid Plans

    So, tonight I managed to collate many of the strange paperwork things I had to do for internship. Things that had largely kept me from blogging.

    I hope in the morning to begin a stretch of daily entries, and you my dear readers can get mad at me when I don’t do them. I am aiming to do one of the “online reading” segment each morning (after I do my daily Bible), and one of my own ruminations on my thoughts for the day in the evening.

    I look forward to a new year of thinking and hopefully impelling others to think.

  • Quotes of the Day

    “Every year I am asked ‘Do I object to the celebration of Christmas?’ It’s an absurd question. As ever, my family and I will send out our Christmas cards to our Christian friends and others.”

    – Indarjit Singh, Sikh spokesman

    “To suggest celebrating Christmas and having decorations offends Muslims is absurd. Why can’t we have more nativity scenes in Britain?”

    – Shayk Ibrahim Mogra,  Spokesman, Muslim Council of Britain

    “Hindus celebrate Christmas too. It’s a great holiday for everyone living in Britain”

    – Anil Bhanot, General Secretary, UK Hindu Counci

    (all quoted in a story on Reuters)

  • The Power of Rejoicing (reflection on Phil 4:4-7)

        People often get rather anxious about life generally. Both on personal levels (will I find a good job, will I have somewhere to live, will my marriage continue, etc.) and on global levels (is global warming going to end us all, what about terrorism, etc.). Anxiousness is often thought a good and even an appropriate response to these things, and to a myriad of other problems we face in life.

    But is it good and appropriate to be anxious?

    Paul, in his letter to the Phillipians doesn’t seem to think so. Dealing directly with a situation of some stress, Paul tells his readers to “rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice”(4:4). He’s rather emphatic on the need to rejoice, and specifically in the Lord.

    There’s a very simple reason for this, as is evidenced by v.7, where it says that “the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus”. This is not to say that you aren’t to actually deal with problems (indeed, you are called to present them to God), but that the basis of the Christian life is a seeming exchange between us and God.

    We rejoice in the Lord, God will guard our hearts and minds.

    This isn’t a warm touchy feely thing, but a proper response to the lives we find ourselves in. That it works is evidenced by the many people who have gone before us in the faith, facing problems and persecutions far greater than the ones we face. It also makes sense that it would work. After all, as long as we are focussed on problems and anxieties, and specifically our relation to them, it is very difficult to keep hope, and very easy to be discouraged.

    But if we focus on the Lord, who is more than capable of dealing with all our anxieties, and has promised to keep us in Him if we but rejoice in him (meaning that ultimately, regardless of what else we may lose, we will get through even this). Our ultimate hope is sure, if our joy is in the Lord.

    The result is that our responses to the problems that face us are not going to simply be despair, resignation, or even grim determination, but an underlying joy as we realize that while these things that make us anxious might have been able to defeat us, they will not defeat the Lord if we would but face them rejoicing in Him.

    It is the Lord that guards us in the ways that matter ultimately, what is their to fear?

  • Online Reading (December 12, 2007)

    Atheism: A friend of a friend writes a fairly insightful review of Bertrand Russell’s “Why I am Not a Christian”. Many of the comments actually fit much of modern atheism.

    Technology: You can now download TV episodes on itunes. Yay! Now I can get the stuff I’ve been avoiding for a decade by not owning a TV.

    Media: Darell Bock comments on how Christians should respond to the many “documentaries” (and yes, I mean the scare quotes) produced to shake Christianity.

    CBC: Speaking of which, the CBC recently aired a documentary based on Tom Harpur’s “The Pagan Christ” (which I can buy at the Anglican book store here in St. John’s with study guides). The tin-foil-hat-wearing thesis is that history has lied about the EXISTENCE of Jesus.

  • Online Reading (December 11, 2007)

    Manners: A brilliant article by Mark Steyn on rudeness and the what it says about society.

    Environment: An Australian professor believes that there should be a tax on having excess children, to better help the planet.

    Canada: A young Muslim woman in Canada is murdered, and her father is in custody. There seems to have been a disagreement about her not wearing hijab to school.

    Epistemology: A thumping good article on Christian worldview is posted at The Gospel Coalition.

     Anger: Okay, I know that stories in the paper aren’t to be believed at face value. But if you read this story without getting angry, you are a far more gentle person than I.