Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Posted on January 30, 2009 - by Stephen Murray

Pomo Calvin

Michael Jensen has a worthwhile post on just how postmodern Calvin really was.

Posted on November 18, 2008 - by Stephen Murray

Acts29 Conference in Cape Town

If you are planning on attending the Acts29 church planting conference in Cape Town from 2-4 February 2009 then please send a confirmation email with your basic details to stephenjmurray@yahoo.com

We need to get an idea of how many people are coming. More details will follow shortly…

Posted on May 26, 2008 - by Stephen Murray

Encouraged by the Church

After a weekend where the xenophobic violence spread to the Western Cape, and Cape Town in particular, I’ve arrived at a sense of encouragment and gratitude to the way God’s people throughout the city have mobilized to take on this challenge. I must admit a bit of shame at my oft-times, overly-critical stance towards much of the South African expression of the church. This past weekend the church in Cape Town has, in NT Wright’s categories, been a signpost for the New Creation and for that God is greatly to be praised.

Please continue to be in prayer for the many churches that are currently hosting foreigners and for resolution on a resettlement plan.

Posted on May 6, 2008 - by Stephen Murray

Congregations and the Cultures

BK has some worthwhile thoughts and links on the issue of mono/multi-cultural congregations – something South Africans definitely need to think long and hard about.

Posted on May 4, 2008 - by Stephen Murray

Too Old for Passion

The Passion band are coming to Cape Town in August. Yup, Chris Tomlin and David Crowder are going to be here, but I’m too old to attend! The Facebook group says its only for people between 18 and 25! What the…? How does that work?

Posted on April 25, 2008 - by Stephen Murray

My Little Experiment – Part I

I have little experiment that I’d like to try out – but I need your help in the form of comments. Here’s what I want:

As Christians most (if not all) of us believe that striving for personal godliness is right and proper. We also know that we’ll never be perfectly godly this side of heaven. So here’s the question: Why do we pursue personal godliness when its not attainable this side of the new creation? Give me reasons – short simple reasons, and no more than three reasons per person commenting – also try not to overlap and always remember: Never write essay comments, they will be deleted. Try and stick with ‘personal godliness’ – I know godliness is broad and extends beyond the individual but I just want us to stick in the realm of the individual for now. Once I’ve got a nice long list of reasons from you peeps then I’ll write part II and explain the experiment (don’t worry I’m not going to publicly humiliate anyone or anything like that – yes not even you Sam). So what are your reasons?

Posted on March 20, 2008 - by Stephen Murray

Matt Chandler – Filling the Gap of Eternity

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV13qMpv6Z4&hl=en]

Posted on December 9, 2007 - by Odette

Check out this interview

Adrian Warnock’s blog has an interesting interview with Rob Rufus, one of the New Covenant International team leaders, regarding the word and the spirit.

Rob Rufus makes a great comment about charasmatics and conservative evangelicals that I think has much wisdom in it. He says at the end of the interview ‘…we need to be humble and realize that evangelicals have a rich legacy that we can learn from, and I think we can enrich each other.’

Take a look at the interview.

Posted on October 19, 2007 - by Anthony

Eina!

Eina!, originally uploaded by a_dOgshOw.

It’s been going around the net, but this is brilliant! Copy it and paste it to your fridge!

Posted on October 10, 2007 - by Anthony

To Judge or not to Judge…

I’ve been working on the Sermon on the Mount as part of a post grad program and have found it wonderfully satisfying as well as troubling at the same time.  Jesus’ words are both immensely encouraging and go right to the heart of hypocritical religion.  As I study it more, His words seem to stick to me as I slowly begin to realise my own religious hypocrisy.  One such text that has taken me aback is Matthew 7:1-6.  Jesus begins simply enough:  

“Judge not, that you be not judged.” 

This is his guiding principle for the text; if one of his followers displays judgment then they will be judged.  Before we go further, we need to realise that Jesus was critiquing the deficient righteousness of the Pharisees (cf. 5: 17-48) urging his followers to capture the true meaning of righteousness as putting Christ’s commands into practise.  So we have Jesus warning the disciples that if they display the same kind of critical, harsh judgemental attitude that the Pharisees did by condemning others then they are in danger of the greater judgement (see v2). This he helpfully illustrates in v3-5 where he uses the word picture of a man trying to help his brother remove the speck from his eye.  But Jesus condemns him as a hypocrite!  Why?  Because of the log in his own eye; this was the fault of the Pharisees who condemned others for their failings while not being able to see the greater problem of their own hearts, hearts hardened to God and others.  And so Jesus warns his followers to not fall into that trap of hypocrisy; Christians do not have the right to condemn a man, which is God’s ultimate job.  Ours is to love our neighbour and love God which is the sum of the Law (cf. 7:12).   

But don’t we see Jesus judging others?  The disciples are told to judge false teachers by their fruits so is this a contradiction? No, for the opposite extreme of being judgemental/condemning is just as bad a mistake.  That extreme is to suspend all faculties of critical thought and action.  This would mean to let sin go unpunished within a church community, this would mean allowing false teaching that wrecks faith to go unchallenged and that is why v6 is included in the context. It is puzzling and needs some research but the picture is that of a warning that Christians are not to give what is holy (the pearl) to what is unholy (the dogs and pigs) for they may turn and attack!  The pearl I take it is that is the Gospel message (cf. Mat 13:44-45) which must at some point NOT be given to these “animals”.  The animals come to represent those who are particularly opposed to the Gospel and its implications, who would at any opportunity seek to revile and mock Christ whenever they are given the message. 

So Jesus would have his followers love others by helping them and challenging them in their serving of God and men by not judging and condemning them.  Yet they must show some level of discrimination against serious opponents of the Gospel for the sake of the glory of God. So I take it that as we engage with non believers and believers we are to do so knowing our place, listening and loving.  Yet we cannot accept all that we hear without a critical eye or ear and must be ready to engage and challenge false living and teaching but always be focussing that critical eye to our own lives first (v5). Loving others means challenging their beliefs and life if it does not come in line with Christ’s ethic, but it’s how we do this that is immensely important!