Good news and 4-inch nails

Cory Harrison wonders about the real freaks

I just completed an annual ritual with my 12 year old son-we attended our state fair. Once a year in Florida, for 16 days, the state fair arrives amid much excitement and fanfare. Even in a time of economic downturn, the Florida State Fair attracts about $150 million of new income for the Tampa Bay area.

If you have never been to a state fair you may not know that they were originally conceived as agricultural events - and this continues to be the heart of the event. The fair is made up of every kind of livestock, vendors selling a multitude of wares, a smorgasbord of food and over 90 thrill-packed fairground rides. It really is an incredible event!

After completing our yearly visit, as my son and I were on our way home, I found myself reflecting on a couple of thought-provoking incidents.

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The “D” word

And because of this, a man leaves father and mother and is firmly bonded to his wife, becoming one flesh—no longer two bodies but one. Because God created this organic union of the two sexes, no one should desecrate his art by cutting them apart. (Matthew 19:5 The Message)

Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution? (Groucho Marx)

According to our National Church Life Survey (Australia), Salvationists have the highest rate of divorce amongst Christian church attendees. That’s very sad and arouses my curiosity as to what lies behind this cold, hard statistic. I can’t help but wonder what it is about our movement specifically that seems to make us so vulnerable to marriage breakdown.

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Goodbye Generation

Book review | Goodbye Generation
Author: David Sawler | Reviewed by Stephanie Hung

Goodbye Generation is a discussion on the reasons why so many young people seem to be leaving the established church in Canada (for Canadian Salvationists, it is related to the ongoing Young Adult Retention Survey currently in place in the Territory). The author, David Sawler is a former youth pastor now planting churches in Nova Scotia. The book is aimed at those in any kind of ministry in the Western church - primarily Boomers and those in Generation X (born prior to 1982), and concerns the current youth and young adult generation, known as “Millenials”.

Apart from the introduction and conclusion, each chapter examines a different reason why youth decide to leave the church. These reasons are not prioritised, but general discussion and a biblical response is suggested for each. Some youth are rejecting the church due to reasons that can be attributed to misconceptions and popular theory, e.g. questions/issues in the bible, ‘life being better without the guilt’, or ‘false advertising’ done by Christians.

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Let Freedom Ring! | God help us

Joe Noland | no boundaries in the new cyberspace world

“Men feared… It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.” (See previous post for full context)

When America’s founding fathers framed the First Amendment, it was with those future “irrational fears” in mind. Furthermore, they had no idea that a “blogging” phenomenon would one day develop, taking “fear” and “freedom ” into a whole other realm, heretofore unthinkable.

As I wrote in my latest book, Lean Right, Love Left: Balancing the Body: “We now live in a highly sophisticated technical age. The internet is the twenty-first-century equivalent of the Pony Express, except that this new phenomenon ricochets throughout cyberspace with split-second timing, reaching millions instantly. It has taken gossip, innuendo and vitriolic verbal stone-throwing to new heights.”

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Missing the point

Like a star athlete chained to a dead man

The opening band played too long. The old man dancing thought he was hot stuff. A middle-aged woman thought The Salvation Army was only a charity.

A lot of people missed the point that night. I had traveled with my friends to the Hard Rock Café in Boston to see a few bands play and have a good evening. As the evening went on, I found myself wondering at how often people were missing the point. The first band played for about an hour, noticeably longer than the headliner was able to play later. There was a middle-aged man dancing the most ridiculous dance in front of groups of girls, missing the point that they weren’t interested, nor there to get with a guy 25 years older than them. And finally, the woman I talked to misunderstood me.

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Jesus’ singleness

Did he die too soon to marry?

Century after century, people have questioned whether it is more holy to remain single or get married. Many followers of Christ, clergy and otherwise, have chosen to live a life of celibacy in order to please God with their complete dedication to him.

In the rabbinic count of biblical commands, the very first command is “Be fruitful and increase in number” (Genesis 1:28). As a command, the act of marriage would be considered the desire of God for his children.

So, why didn’t Jesus obey this command?

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ThinkAloud | the cost

Putting our false prophets behind us

While God’s grace is free, it certainly is not cheap. It cost Jesus Christ His life; it will cost you everything, yet it will be the best bargain you’ve ever made.

There was no hope, no sparkling, iridescent and fully glorious hope in the world before Jesus split human history in two. The grey, heart-tugging fear of sin’s burden haunted every person who ever lived before Jesus came. Spirit-numbing despair had this sin-stained world in its tenacious grasp. Yet how the world flamed with holy brilliance when the splendour of the infinite God dwelt with trembling perfection in the person of Jesus Christ. The true, eternal and health-giving Light now shone in unrestrained glory upon every person.

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JustThinking | Risk

Danielle Strickland | recipe for confronting a culture of comfort

A parent of a young woman applying to The War College (an incarnational mission training school in Vancouver, Canada) was grilling my husband on the risks associated with her coming. I happened to overhear the conversation and couldn’t hold back. I suggested that if his daughter wanted risk she could find it in other places. Actually, if it’s risk we are after, the enemy and the world has it in a variety of colours, shapes and sizes. The real dilemma for Christians who desire to upset the culture of conformity is that most Christian programs/places or people don’t offer any risk at all.

Actually, it is commonly assumed that risk itself is ungodly. What we really need is safe, measured and balanced lives - which often, when translated, means to settle with the culture in a comfortable balance of mediocrity and compromise. In other words, as I concluded in my early life, Christianity equals boring. What a stark contrast to early Christianity in Acts or in the early church or frankly in any Christian who has lived like Jesus. Christianity itself is a risk venture of faith that confronts the conformity of the world.

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Tags: risk

Is the Bible the word of God?

Graeme Randall concludes the Bible is fallible

I once heard a dear old Salvationist soldier say, in a discussion regarding which Bible translation is best to use, “I use the King James Version. If it was good enough for Jesus to read, it’s good enough for me.”

I think many of us have heard comments like that. It highlights an issue that seems to have plagued Christians for centuries and regularly raises its head in discussions around “Does the Bible really say…” I think the questions facing us in this regard are these: Is the Bible the Word of God? If it is, how literally can we read it? If it isn’t, what is it? I don’t intend to answer all these questions in full, just raise some of the issues.

The question of whether the Bible is God’s word is not a new one. In Genesis, we read of the temptation of Eve by the serpent who said “Did God really say…” (Genesis 3:1). Let us assume for the start of the discussion that the Bible is the divine word of God, and therefore to be obeyed in its entirety. Doctrine in most denominations would seem to support this assumption. The Salvation Army Articles of Faith state “We believe that the scriptures of the Old and New Testament were given by inspiration of God, and that they only constitute the divine rule of Christian faith and practice.” This raises a number of questions for me - chiefly, “How literally can we take it?”

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Tags: scripture

I am God

Don’t stay clueless says Jonathan Gainey

In Luke 19:9-10, Jesus says something that we cannot understand unless we have at least a minimal knowledge of Hebrew and the seven exegetical teaching techniques used by first-century Jewish rabbis.

Not only would Jesus have used a play on words at times, but he would also have used the technique known today as “remez.” A remez is a clue or a hint at a passage of scripture without actually reciting the passage.

As Westerners, we want people to just come out and say what they mean. We even have a phrase for it: “Say what you mean and mean what you say.” We also say, “Don’t beat around the bush.” But rabbis would always beat around the bush. And if you don’t have a deep and thorough knowledge of the text (God’s Word), you will miss the message entirely.

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