The Simple Pastor
By Phil Whittall, church planter, blogger & book reviewer
Dividing Small Groups is a Dumb Idea! http://t.co/rsQ1Loxb 2 hrs ago
“I have no problems admitting the extraordinary superiority of market capitalism; it is a remarkable engine of dynamism, fruitfulness, productivity, and so on. I question that not at all. But it is only a mechanism, and the problem comes in when people make it a source of meaning.”
However he sees the problems and those are telling,
“ Unless capitalism has an ethical boundary, it will always create two problems. One is the problem of insatiability, never knowing when to stop, always wanting just a little more. The other problem—you can see this very clearly in America today—is commodification. The good society draws a line between what is and what is not for sale, but, in modern America, almost everything is up for sale, including much that should not be. We need powerful faith with strong ethics and knowledge of what is legitimate to buy and sell—that’s the market at its best—but certain things are not for buying and not for selling, and we should know why.”
“Let me be clear once more: the editors of the Greek New Testaments killed Junia. They killed her by silencing her into non-existence. They murdered that innocent woman by erasing her from the footnotes.”
So the argument goes that for 60 years of so there was some sort of plot to get rid of Junias by giving her a man’s name (albeit a highly unusual one). So I thought I’d have a look at the commentaries that line my shelves to see what they said. Now I don’t actually have a vast set of commentaries on Romans, in fact due to the oddities by which I gained my books it’s a poorer showing than for many smaller books. But I found the results interesting so here they are discussing Romans 16:7:
“Having grown weary and impatient, I want to snap and say, “It won’t work,
For a while now I’ve averaged about one book every ten days, yet here we are three weeks into January and I’ve only just finished my first book of 2012. The reason for that is that Max Hasting’s monumental volume on the second world war, All Hell Let Loose, is 748 pages long so it’s like reading three books!
The volume of literature on the last great war is immense, the bibliography to this book is enormous and so it’s hard to say where this single volume work ranks. I also haven’t read many other books so have little … Read the rest
This got me thinking, is there a space for … Read the rest
“On the opposite end of the spectrum, the 10 least religious countries studied include several with the world’s highest living standards, including Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Hong Kong, and Japan. (Several other countries on this list are former Soviet republics, places where the state suppressed religious expression for decades.)”
Which just demonstrates the scale of the task ahead of us … Read the rest
This is an invitation to take part in the 2012 Lent Consumer Detox.
The Detox is attached and available here. It includes:
To get a feel for the terrain I suggest reading this article from the BBC that describes the legal disputes on behalf of those who see themselves as transgendered. In this case it is two men who live as women but who have not had any corrective surgery. Biologically and by any measure of human society they would … Read the rest
This is an invitation to take part in the 2012 Lent Consumer Detox.
The Detox is attached and available here. It includes:
“Our eighth value is that excellence honours God and inspires people. That’s a value for us for two reasons. The first and foremost is because it’s the only way to live a life that honours God. God deserves our best. Mediocrity does not honour God, nor does it reflect his character.
Let me make my case. In reading some of the multitude of posts about Rob Bell in recent days, I discovered the following.
I came across Tom Batterson who as a bookseller has read an advance copy of Love Wins and quotes from it. Let me share those quotes.
“Could God say to someone truly humbled broken and desperate ‘sorry too late?’ Many have refused to accept the scenario in which somebody is pounding on the door apologizing, repenting, and asking God
For a while now I’ve averaged about one book every ten days, yet here we are three weeks into January and I’ve only just finished my first book of 2012. The reason for that is that Max Hasting’s monumental volume on the second world war, All Hell Let Loose, is 748 pages long so it’s like reading three books!
The volume of literature on the last great war is immense, the bibliography to this book is enormous and so it’s hard to say where this single volume work ranks. I also haven’t read many other books so have little … Read the rest
Often with my top ten’s I’ve not read quite enough to make it really meaningful, when half make the list. This time more books miss out and that makes the selection a little … Read the rest
Every now and then some light reading is called for and this came in the handy form of Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman.
The basic plot is that it’s time for the end of the world and the birth of the anti-Christ, unfortunately due to a mix up at the hospital the wrong child is sent to the wrong home, yet the end of the world must come, just not where and how anyone expected.
The main characters are a demon called Crowley and an angel called Azirophale, who over the course of human history have become almost mates. … Read the rest
Stockholm Church Plant From the Breathe NetworkPosting tweet...
Powered by Twitter Tools
Running blog posts
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
Google+
LinkedIn
Picasa
