Well, Easter’s just round the corner, so what I’d like to know is what Easter really means to you. That’s what this poll is all about.
Now please understand – I’m not asking you to tell me what you think it should mean, but rather what your actual experience of Easter has been. (Don’t worry, the poll is totally anonymous. I can’t even tell who’s responded, let alone how someone’s answered.)
My memories of going to the dentist as a child are horrific – fillings put in without anaesthetic! Agony and torture. Remember, these were the days before fluoride in our water supply – which means we’re talking lots of fillings. So for me to turn around today and say that I like my dentist … either I’m smoking something I shouldn’t be, or things have changed.
Well, much of the pain has gone out of the equation, that’s for sure. But that’s not the only thing.
So, here’s why I like my dentist …
Let me ask you something – should churches be into marketing? After all, it’s the Gospel of Christ that we’re “selling”? Is it really appropriate? Should we be following secular ways?
My answer, is an unequivocal ABSOLUTELY! Here’s why:
Recently we were having Communion at church and I noticed that a woman across the aisle from me declined the communion elements as they came around. You have to ask yourself … why would she knock back this special time of just quietly remembering Jesus?
Well the most common reason is that from time to time, because of some recent sin, we feel too ashamed to participate in Communion.
Wow there’s been quite bit of discussion on the blog post about the West Wing Theology Challenge – the theological gauntlet that President Bartlet threw down to the Christian talk show host ‘Dr’ Jenna Jacobs on homosexuality. And you know what makes it all so hard? It’s this: in one respect at least, Bartlet has a real point.
I don’t mean that his conclusions are right. But his process points out an important truth. So, here (in love) is my take on it all:
I’m not much into my own birthday. But today I turn 53. Amazing!
Where have the years gone?
As I woke up early again this morning – around 3:30 am (something I’ve been doing my mother tells me since I was born – lucky mum!!) I just realised again – afresh and anew – what an incredible blessing it is just to draw breath; what an awesome blessing it is just to be alive. (I wonder whether amidst the hustle and bustle of life, that’s not something that you and I forget all too often!)
And – as it always does when I read it – this passage of Scripture warmed my heart. May it remind you too, what an awesome blessing it is today, just to be alive:
This post is about knowing why we believe what we believe. There’s a great scene in “The Midterms” episode of the TV Series The West Wing – where President Bartlet takes a Christian talk show host to task over her position on homosexuality by throwing some challenging Old Testament dilemmas her way.
According to the President, she’s being quite selective in the things she chooses to believe …
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Rwanda is a country that as you know, has been through incredible pain … and the healing process is a long one. But God is right in the middle of that!
People’s Radio Rwanda (their national, publicly owned broadcaster) airs our Christianityworks radio program each Saturday night in prime time. (That’s a bit like getting a Bible teaching program airing nationally on the BBC in the UK or the ABC in Australia). So just being on air is a miracle in itself!
That’s why what happened late last year is just so amazing!
Okay – so you’re in the middle of a famine. Almost no food to go around. Your family’s close to starvation. You have – ooh, about a half a bag of grain left. That’s all. Just enough to keep the family in bread for the next couple of weeks.
Either that … or enough to plant out part of your field with seed, in the hope that a few months down the track – if the rains come, just enough, not too much, at precisely the right time – you’ll have food galore. (That’s if the locusts don’t eat it all!)
As promised, all those who registered as subscribers to this blog by Sunday the 4th of March 2012 now have access to the sneak preview of my next book. But it is for subscribers only so when you download it, you will need to enter the password I emailed you if you subscribed by the deadline.
Some people may disagree with my analysis of our Honest Answers Poll Results – but it seems to me that the majority of God’s people are settling for second best when it comes to their relationship with Him. Why?
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