a Biblical thought...
To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. (Jude 1:24-25)
a Book thought...
That's why we pray, not necessarily to obtain what we want but to know God more intimately. (p115)
a Dave thought...
To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. (Jude 1:24-25)
a Book thought...
That's why we pray, not necessarily to obtain what we want but to know God more intimately. (p115)
a Dave thought... Although this is not a real positive article from The Age it is worth reading how many in our culture are thinking about Christianity today...
Christianity, some say, caused the crash. Not traditional Christianity, in which next-life success depends on this-life frugality, but the new so-called prosperity gospel, whose spirituality comes wrapped in worldly expectations like prunes in bacon. Devils, you might say, on apocalyptic horseback. Prosperity churches offer credit facilities for the offertory, require tithing as an investment strategy (promising huge returns) and see usury not as sin but as sacrament.
"We love the money in Jesus Christ's name!" shouts Pastor Fernando Garay from his pulpit in Charlottesville, Virginia, promising a $10,000 return on a $100 offering. "The rich," he explains to his mostly Latino congregation, "are closer to God."
But it's not just America. At Hillsong Church, not more than five minutes from where I live and a conspicuous presence on the Block, pastor Brian Houston whips his audience into a ''giving'' frenzy while religiously pointing out the credit facilities in the foyer. In Garay's words, "Jesus loved money, too!"
So in view of the over-consumption monster now blocking humanity's path - with its three snarling heads of climate crisis, financial crisis and obesity crisis, all with their big googly eyes right on us - it is worth asking: how much does Jesus have to answer for?
Consider the manger. We've always taken this straw-filled washtub to signify the infant's outsider status, his fringe cred, his underdog appeal. But perhaps - manger being, after all, the verb ''to eat'', as in munch - it is really about consumption. Like the wafer thing, you know: eat the body, drink the blood . . . it has to make you wonder. http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/did-jesus-make-us-fat-and-greedy-20091223-ldc7.html for the complete article.
Just a thought.
"We love the money in Jesus Christ's name!" shouts Pastor Fernando Garay from his pulpit in Charlottesville, Virginia, promising a $10,000 return on a $100 offering. "The rich," he explains to his mostly Latino congregation, "are closer to God."
But it's not just America. At Hillsong Church, not more than five minutes from where I live and a conspicuous presence on the Block, pastor Brian Houston whips his audience into a ''giving'' frenzy while religiously pointing out the credit facilities in the foyer. In Garay's words, "Jesus loved money, too!"
So in view of the over-consumption monster now blocking humanity's path - with its three snarling heads of climate crisis, financial crisis and obesity crisis, all with their big googly eyes right on us - it is worth asking: how much does Jesus have to answer for?
Consider the manger. We've always taken this straw-filled washtub to signify the infant's outsider status, his fringe cred, his underdog appeal. But perhaps - manger being, after all, the verb ''to eat'', as in munch - it is really about consumption. Like the wafer thing, you know: eat the body, drink the blood . . . it has to make you wonder. http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/did-jesus-make-us-fat-and-greedy-20091223-ldc7.html for the complete article.
Just a thought.
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