Monday 28 February 2011

Quote of the week: Don't imitate, Re-create


Chesterton said that “We do not need a Church that moves with the world; we need a Church that will move the world.” He knew that it was a fallacy that people would ever flock to a church where nothing of substance is preached, where doctrine is avoided, where beliefs are kept quiet, where everything that happens inside the church apes what is happening outside. As he said, “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”

Friday 25 February 2011

Islam a religion of peace?

How many times have you heard someone make the claim, that Islam as a religion of peace? How many times have you heard someone claim that Al-Qaeda's terrorist activities, are the evil actions of a few extremists intent on bringing disrepute to Islam/The Quran? The recent developments in Egypt (as shown in the video below) completely blows that theory out of the water. And why may I ask hasn't this been reported in the main television channels and in the major newspapers?

Monday 21 February 2011

Was King James a Fool?

As part of the King James Quatercentenary, the parish church where I am based are holding some celebratory events which include, hopefully hosting this exciting trio. Today however as part of my own research into the life and morals of James Stuart, I begun reading Otto Scott's intriguingly titled book: James I, The Fool as King. Here is how he begins his work:

The figure of the Fool is widely misunderstood. He is neither a jester nor a clown nor an idiot. He is, instead, the dark side of genius. For if genius has the ability to see and make connections beyond the normal range of vision, the fool is one who can see-and disconnect. James Stuart was such a fool.

Ok you historians out there? Is it true that King James perfectly fits this bill because he wittingly unhinged the Reformation by
1) playing theologians against each other?
2) embracing a subtle Roman Catholicism by urging his heir Charles I on a pilgrimage to Catholic Spain?

Tuesday 15 February 2011

Quote of the week: Holy Body

...when he [Paul] tells the Corinthians to flee from fornication (1 Cor. 6:18), he says that every other sin is “without the body.” So also, 1 Corinthians 6:19 But the one who commits sexual uncleanness is the one who sins against his own body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And so this exhortation is not about doing the right number of sit ups in the morning, or avoiding refined sugar. The idea of urging the Corinthians to take up jogging never came into Paul’s head.


Via: Jogging Corinthians

Highway to Hell

Apart from the occasional Americanisms, this is a superb video of where Western civilization is currently headed at high speed. All you Greenies out there take note!


Monday 14 February 2011

An evolutionist's Valentine


Which sounds very much like Darwin knew something of the Gospel...

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you (John 15:16)

Which is a pity, given that Darwin never embraced Christ's wonderful 'invitation' and has instead led many to their destruction!

“Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! (Matthew 18:7)

All of which leads me to say, I fear very much for Darwin (and his ilk) and oh yes...            Happy Valentine!


Friday 11 February 2011

Titanic battles ahead

With the arrival of the kipling getting ever closer, Chesterton's honest advice on the task of bringing up a baby, brought me a wee shudder this afternoon.


[Anyone] who makes himself responsible for one small baby, as a whole, will soon find that he is wrestling with gigantic angels and demons.


Lord Have Mercy.

Anagram of the week

William Shakespeare = I swear he is a lamp!

Isn't the English language brilliant?

Monday 7 February 2011

D -uuuuh

Frazzled but never forsaken

When through the deep waters I call you to go,
The rivers of woe shall not overflow;
For I will be with you, your troubles to bless,
And sanctify to you your deepest distress.


The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose

I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, I’ll never, no never,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!


(Verse 4 and 7 of How Firm a Foundation)

Friday 4 February 2011

God Reveals, Man Believes

It is of the essence of Christian truth to be dramatic, to be an encounter cast in dramatic form between God revealing and man believing.


Edmund Hill (in his introduction to Augustine's De Trintate)

Thursday 3 February 2011

Don't let the kids see this


Best of all worlds

"... if we must go through what seems the worst of times, we are held in the best of all hands, inseparable from the best of all loves (Rom. 8:38-39)"


HT: Having Two Legs

Wednesday 2 February 2011

Quickest Geography Lesson of the UK

I wish someone explained this to me when I arrived in the UK.. England...  Great Britain... ooh just watch the video

Tuesday 1 February 2011

The essence of evil

The essential component of evil is not the absence of a sense of sin or imperfection but the unwillingness to tolerate that sense.


M Scott Peck