Is this what Jesus had in mind? Continue reading
Tag Archives: Jesus
When Christians miss the point. (How God’s Got This)
Do you remember when Rob Bell wrote Love Wins? Do you remember how it destroyed the Christian faith and led millions to Hell? Oh you don’t remember that happening? That’s because it didn’t.
Ah…but do you remember how Noah brought about the end of the Bible and thousands of years of respect for an ancient Holy Book? Continue reading
Identity, forgiveness and Peace (Ourselves and themuns)
We want to be perfect now? Why? Because we want to be able to experience God fully now in these moments, because we want to be used by God somehow?
Or because it sucks to be you right now? Because today you are acutely aware of who you are not and how far you are from who you want to be? And it feels horrible.
Grace is difficult to offer other people sometimes. But not nearly as hard as it is to offer ourselves. We constantly point to our sin rather than to the freedom that is already ours. You wouldn’t even imagine doing this to someone else (or maybe you would) but yet it’s so easy to beat ourselves up.
Why is this? Why do we choose to live this way? Continue reading
Why I’m not a Christian
I’m not a Christian because
of what I believe about gay marriage, what I believe about predestination and election, whether I believe in evolution, whether I think Adam and Eve actually lived, I hate most worship music, what I believe about the end of the world, I said a Sinners prayer, I believe or don’t believe in an eternal pit of fire when you die, whether I identify as an Evangelical or not, which denomination I belong to, the average number of times I witness to someone a week, I smoke, I drink, I read the ESV, I go to 20 Christian conferences a year, I can’t stop looking at porn, I have a degree in theology, I think Rob Bell brings God to life for me, I think he’s a false teacher or I know the correct Christian lingo.
I’m a Christian because I believe that Jesus is up to something on Earth right now, today in the midst of all the beauty and ugliness. At work to bring Peace and Grace and love and fullness of life to everyone.
And I want you and I to be a part of that together.
I’m a Christian because of this, not that.
Nuts magazine closing: How the Church should respond.
On Monday, Nuts, the lads magazine announced that they were considering bringing their publication to a close and ceasing operations. I read a few tweets celebrating this fact and I’m going to admit it will be better for there to be one less magazine on display in shops which depicts women as just objects for men to masturbate over. Because let’s be honest nobody buys these magazines for the in-depth and insightful movie reviews.
But will it really make much of a difference? 
What the World Vision debate was really about.
The saying that “A week is a long time in Politics” can now be surpassed with “two days is a long time in Evangelicalism.” Two days ago, you could not be gay and work for World Vision, yesterday you could and now today you can’t again.
Much of the discussion centered around the children that would possibly lose out if people decided to remove their support for World Vision. Both Fundamental Evangelicals and Progressive Christians feared that donors would pull out from support because of the initial decision and that it seemed, was where any agreement ended.
Removing support for World Vision: WWJD
As the news filtered through my twitter feed last night that World Vision, a Christian charity organization had decided to allow the hiring of people who are gay, my heart sank. My heart sank because it soon became clear from some of the tweets I read that there were many who lamented the decision but mostly because there were others who were considering the removal of support, financially and otherwise to World Vision.
Oversimplifying sin. Or why sin is not what you think.
A couple of days I wrote a blog that kind of went crazy. In it I questioned the manner that John Piper spoke about porn in a sermon.
Needless to say I got a lot of flack from some people. Yet I also received a lot of comments from people who had been hurt by similar styles of talking about sin in Church. I didn’t write it for John Piper fans. I wrote it for those very people whose voice has been lost because the church has piled on more and more shame.
Reading and responding to the comments it became quickly apparent that this had become something bigger than just about a view of porn addiction. Continue reading
Why Giving Up is the Only way to beat addiction. Part 2.
If you strip it down to its core essence, essentially all addiction is about worshiping an idol.
Now I realize that the term idol has a lot of religious connotations which will put off many people, but I think that the word idol fits well here. Especially if we rethink what it means.
So let me come up with a definition of an idol that hopefully will resonate with anyone struggling with an addiction, regardless of belief. Here goes. Continue reading
Suffering and Sin. Why I Believe In An Unconditionally Loving God.
The way that the world works means that most of us don’t get anything for free. We go to work and we receive payment. We have to go to the gym to get fitter. We study for an exam and pass the test.
There is an effort required for each of those things. Work hard and you get your rewards.
This is the American dream. Continue reading
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