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Sun, 29 May 2005
May 29, 2005, 14:38
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Christianity in the Media
At our prayer meeting tonight, we spent a considerable amount of time praying for our governments and, in particular, what role we as Christians should be playing in influencing government decisions. Bre’el mentioned this Globe and Mail article from Friday (on the front page, interestingly) describing how pro-family, Christian candidates have been “hijacking” Conservative party nominations across the country:
Christian activists capturing Tory races (Globe and Mail, 05/27/05)
Interesting quote from the article from a Presbyterian minister involved in campaigning for one of the successful Tory candidates: “It’s time we stopped apologizing and started defending who we are,” he said. “The evangelical community in Canada, by and large, and socially conservative Catholics, are saying we have been far too heavenly minded and thus we have been of no earthly value for far too long, on too many fronts.”
We can certainly complain about how the media doesn’t give us a fair shake and portrays Christianity as some radical special interest group (certainly a valid complaint based on the Globe and Mail article)… on the other hand, when you see stories like this, it’s hard to blame them:
Christian group ends boycott of Disney (CBC News 05/25/05)
Yep, that sounds about right, there’s no company more violently anti-family and anti-Christian than the Walt Disney company (those Mickey Mouse ears are simply substitutes for the horns of the devil, obviously…
Here’s something we need to be praying about: that we as Christians can rise up over the pointless, discrediting din of certain groups among us to clearly, articulately, and lovingly express (within the political and social structures we have) why God’s way is so much better than anything man has come up with.
- Todd
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Tue, 17 May 2005
May 17, 2005, 11:09
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Chastity
Careful Todd -
Spiritual Discipline might lead you down the entrancing road towards liturgy and the recognized need for orthopraxy!
Give me a call when you want to go Anglican - no more quazi-communion
Aaron
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Mon, 16 May 2005
May 16, 2005, 14:38
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Chastity
Is there a concept more foreign to the majority of the world than that of “chastity”? Even in Christian circles, the term kind of makes us shudder with images of goodie-two-shoes dancing around trumpeting their moral superiority over others — kind of every negative stereotype of Christians all rolled up into one word. Indeed, the church is failing badly at promoting the value and true meaning of chastity, even within Christian communities — 40% of readers of one Christian magazine said they’d had premarital sex and 14% said they’d had an extramarrital affair (that really boggles my mind).
All too often, I think the reason for this is simply viewing the reams of scripture in the New Testament as a set of odious rules which essentially run totally counter not only to our culture but, more significantly, to every natural and normal impulse we have. Maintaining chaste and pure relationships is incredibly tough (I’ve experienced it, I’m sure you have too), and it’s easy to rationalize and rebel against regulations which we may view as having only very limited and private implications (i.e. minimally impacting the church as a whole) and may feel are practically impossible to keep at any rate. We also, quite ironically, often find sexual purity to be an incredibly hard topic to talk about even though it’s probably one of the biggest commonly-experienced internal struggles faced in the Christian life.
This article from Christianity Today is really excellent at putting the value of chastity into a different context: that of spiritual disciplines. Essentially, the premise is that we need to turn chastity away from being a set of rules into a mode of worship which is intricately linked not only with our own spiritual growth but also the collective life and well-being of the church community. A quote:
“One does not avoid or refrain from something for the sake of rejecting it, but for the sake of something else. In this case, one refrains from sex with someone other than one’s spouse for the sake of union with Christ’s body. That union is the fruit of chastity.”
Read the article and comment what you think. To me, this is a great way to express why sexual purity is so important in the Christian life without reducing it to a “because the Bible says” argument.
- Todd
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Thu, 05 May 2005
May 05, 2005, 14:38
[top/funstuff]
Now that’s a meal
Again, this has absolutely nothing to do with anything, but this is so amazingly gross that I had to share it with you all:
“Eatery Offers New 15-Pound Burger”
There are some rare instances where free food is not a good thing — this may be one.
- Todd
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Sun, 01 May 2005
May 01, 2005, 14:38
[top/devotionals]
The Great Commission
Yep, it’s another prayer meeting-inspired blog… you may be sensing some sort of pattern here….
I thought I’d post the handout I gave out tonight on The Great Commission… I think it’s a really nice summary about what The Great Commission is all about and how we should respond to it from a totally Biblical perspective.
The Great Commission
In particular, this week leading up to the H2O event on Saturday, I encourage you to think about the two questions at the bottom of the sheet in your devotionals:
What would our community look like if Jesus were in charge?
If everyone in our community/family/church/nation woke up and began to carry out God’s full intentions, what differences would we see?
Obviously both questions are incredibly idealistic, but important to answer as Philpott takes a first step into the community next Saturday as part of a longer-term effort to reach outside our walls.
- Todd
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