On to a Good Thing

This month sees the return of our weekly round-up of the best things we have found on the internet over the past week.

Fighting the Monday feeling

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Public Prayers: Is the Secularist Society right?

The National Secularist Society are seeking to use human rights legislation to ban a local council praying to God before council meetings.

Here’s an unbiased report from the Press Association.

Here’s George Pitcher in the Daily Mail, using the "this is a Christian country" argument.

Here’s the National Secularist Society's take.

Here are a couple of observations:

• Christians might actually agree with the NSS stance on this. It's worth asking whether it's a good idea that councillors pray as a matter of agenda-decreed routine. Could this be a little like "collective acts of worship" in schools, where thousands of children mumble a Lord’s Prayer they don’t mean, sing a song such as “Give me oil in my lamp” they don’t like, and decide that Christianity has nothing relevant to say?
• Would it be worth saying to our friends and colleagues not “This is a ridiculous attack on our national church” but “Maybe the NSS does have a point here. After all, Jesus himself got really annoyed by people saying things they didn't really mean. In fact, Jesus often clashed with people who thought of themselves as religious, I wonder if you know that?"
• Bideford Council voted on this issue—and decided to carry on praying. So the NSS is taking them to court. It's legitimate to ask whether the NSS believes in democracy (even when people disagree with them), or not? They often use the argument that the majority of British citizens no longer go to church (see the article). But isn't that irrelevant if there is a cause which trumps democratic will?
   

Christianity in the News

Dark Destroyer to Contented Christian

Ex-world middleweight champion Nigel Benn on becoming a Christian:

"There were two places I was going to end up: a mental hospital or six feet under. And then I read the word of God, Mark 8 v 36: 'What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit your own soul?' Now I'm not chasing anything and my life is splendid."

You can read the full interview here.

The Good Book Blog Meal Deal

If you would like to be inspired and encouraged to think through how to use your meals and your home for the glory of God, why not get your own copy of A Meal With Jesus?

We know you love a bargain, so we're offering an extra 10% off our special offer price on this book - just for our blog readers. That's just £5.85 a copy!

Order online by clicking here. When you get to the checkout simply enter the code: blogmeal

Enjoy!

A Meal with Jesus

Tim Chester recently released, A Meal With Jesus. The Good Book Blog interviews Andy Kinnaird to see what he thinks about this latest book from IVP...

There's no doubting that Christians like their food, there are acres of it at every church event! But why do we need a book about it?

We need to be reminded how important it is to eat together. Not just occasional meals with close friends but the fact it is important to develop a culture of being regularly hospitable. More importantly we need to see how Jesus used meals to bring people to himself.

What’s so special about sharing a meal?

Eating together is a relational experience. There’s something about a relaxed meal that enables people to be themselves. That deepens our relationships with each other. And when we know each other better we can then serve the each other’s practical and spiritual needs in a much greater way.

So, eating together is both a faith-deepening and a mission-enhancing activity? Can you explain more of what Tim Chester says about that?

Tim takes six meal-based passages from Luke’s gospel and shows us how grace, community and mission are tied up in the simple task of eating meals together. He takes clear steps in each chapter to show how the simple act of a meal paves way for the gospel to be seen, in both the way life is lived and what is said. The clearest presentation of this is in the fifth chapter of the book where he takes us to the Lord’s Supper. Here we are shown how Jesus takes a meal and powerfully roots the reason for his mission in every day life.

That sounds quite deep! Is the book a difficult read?

Not at all! It’s one of those books that it is more difficult to put down than it is to read! One of Tim’s great strengths is his ability to take passages and bring them alive in a clear, accessible way. His passion for people and sharing the gospel through everyday life is incredibly infectious.

What impact do you think it would have on the church if we all took this call to hospitality more seriously?

Acts 2 clearly shows the early church’s commitment to being community. They were keen to serve each other with what they had and break bread together to show their unity in Christ. If this becomes our heart, then the church will be a far more open place with no-one at the margins because we’d be including each other in our lives. The church would also be far less individuality, reflecting more of the Bible and less the culture around us.

So are you up for being part of that change? ... I know of one person who completely rearranged their living room as a result of reading this book! What practical difference has it made to your life and ministry?

I’m definitely up for being part of that change. I’m trying to see myself as less of an individual and more as part of a community of believers. I have a heart to involve people in the meals I enjoy, especially people who I don’t know as well or who don’t feel part of the community yet. So now, on a Sunday, my wife and I try to cook more than we will need with the intention of inviting people from church. I see that as the start of being relational with brothers and sisters I don’t yet know.

If you’re interested in reading this excellent book too … check back later for a great blog deal!

It's Not Fair

Judging by the interviews on the radio, the watchword of those striking today over their public sector pensions is fairness.

Repeatedly over the last few days, union leaders, picketing workers and the compulsory “man-on-the-street-who-supports-the-strike” have essentially said about the changes the government are making: “It’s not fair”.

This post isn’t supporting or opposing the strike. There’ll be Christians on either side of this political dispute. But isn’t it interesting how “fairness” has become the word used to criticise policy? How deeply entrenched in our psyches is the notion that life ought to be fair?

How often do we honk our car horn at someone nipping in ahead of us, because, well, what they’re doing isn’t fair to us. Or become embittered about someone else’s promotion because we feel we’re better at our job than them, and so what’s happened isn’t fair. We want life to be fair.

And then the gospel comes along and turns it all on its head. Because it says to us: You really, really, really don’t want life to be fair. You really, really, really don’t want God to treat you fairly.

“We were by nature all objects of wrath” (Ephesians 2 v 3). Treated fairly, we would all face God’s right anger at our sin. If life were fair, we would all go to hell.

The gospel message is that life can be unfair:

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ … it is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2 v 4-5, 8).

Sinners can receive mercy instead of wrath. That’s not “fair”. Rebels can be loved by God. That’s not fair. God can treat imperfect people like us as perfect children like His Son, because His Son died in our place. That’s certainly not fair.

The best news of all time is that life doesn’t have to be fair. We live in a world where sometimes we’re treated unfairly by others; if we’re Christians, we live in a world where we are always being treated unfairly by God. And we live in a world where God calls us to respond to unfairness in life with grace, with mercy, with love.

That’s a far, far better world to live in that one where everything is totally fair. Maybe I’ll stop at a picket line on the way home and point that out…

The tyranny of entertainment

We were beguiled by the adverts and then worn down by the children. So we finally relented and upgraded to a Tivo box. You know – like a Sky+ box – but for Christians (not as much money, and not owned by Big Brother Rupert).

So we could record the shows and movies we like and watch them when we want to. We can pause and rewind programmes on the fly and access a whole new world of online content. TV heaven awaits.

Or does it?

I’ve noticed three nett effects in the 3 weeks since the Virgin Upgrade Geezer drove off:

1. Programmes now take longer to watch.

Because we can rewind – we do! Tracking back and re-watching bits that we thought were funny, or missed when someone went out of the room to brew a cuppa. Admittedly, it also allows us to fast forward through the interminable ad breaks, but still – we inevitably finish watching something after it has long stopped broadcasting.

2. We watch more TV, not less.

When previously I spotted a film I would like to see that was broadcast late at night – I just didn’t bother and went to bed. Now, I record it, and start watching after the day’s work is done, and the teenagers are snug beneath their duvets. Invariably, I am now later in bed than before, having ticked off another of my “1001 cinematic experiences to have before I die”

3. I feel an unhealthy sense of debt towards unwatched programmes.

Because we can now record whole seasons of shows, I don’t have the opportunity to miss out on an episode – I can (and therefore should) watch them all in sequence.

In short, I have discovered what I should have guessed in the first place. That another promise from the world that I would have my life enhanced and be set free by the payment of a slightly bigger subscription, and a shiny new piece of technology in my home, so easily turns into the opposite. Something that diminishes and enslaves me. Turns out that entertainment requires just as much discipline as work to enjoy it in a godly way—if not more.