waiting

This beautiful picture and verse sent in by Jill W.

Psalm 130:6 ‘My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.’

All Authority

Resurrection is also rightly understood and as enthronement. It is the definitive declaration that Jesus is Lord. Having carried the weight of sin and evil on himself unto death, Jesus overcomes. He is risen!
The risen Jesus declares "All authority in heaven (God's place) and earth (our place) has been given to me..." The entire cosmos is rightfully his.
This truth comes with an imperative for Jesus people*, "Therefore go and make disciples of all people..." There is a sense in which the Jesus 'land' needs to be occupied.

Could it be that the God reigning in Zion is no longer localised as Temple/Jerusalem/Israel but has a different locus as Jesus/Church/World? I am getting ahead of myself though... Suffice it to say, I think that because of the Lordship of Jesus the promised land is, in a sense, rightfully understood as the whole world and the way there is discipleship to Jesus.



*I make the assumption here that this command does not exclusively apply to the disciples themselves, but is an enduring command to all Jesus people.

foreign gods

This Photo sent by Laura T. I love the way it captures movement and activity.


Jeremiah 2:25
"Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry.
But you said, 'It's no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them."

Responses to abortion

2 articles in the Sydney Morning Herald today again emphasised how devisive and complicated is the issue of abortion.

See:
whats down the hatch? and pope ignites abortion row as he visits brazil.

Land of Hope and Dreams

Grab your ticket and your suitcase
Thunder's rolling down the tracks
You don't know where you're goin'
But you know you won't be back
Darlin' if you're weary
Lay your head upon my chest
We'll take what we can carry
And we'll leave the rest

Big Wheels rolling through fields
Where sunlight streams
Meet me in a land of hope and dreams

I will provide for you
And I'll stand by your side
You'll need a good companion for
This part of the ride
Leave behind your sorrows
Let this day be the last
Tomorrow there'll be sunshine
And all this darkness past

Big wheels roll through fields
Where sunlight streams
Meet me in a land of hope and dreams

This train...Carries saints and sinners
This train...Carries losers and winners
This Train...Carries whores and gamblers
This Train...Carries lost souls
This Train...Dreams will not be thwarted
This Train...Faith will be rewarded
This Train...Hear the steel wheels singin'
This Train...Bells of freedom ringin'
This Train...Carries broken-hearted
This Train...Thieves and sweet souls departed
This Train...Carries fools and kings
This Train...All aboard

This Train...Dreams will not be thwarted
This Train...Faith will be rewarded
This Train...Hear the steel wheels singin'
This Train...Bells of freedom ringin'


Another brilliant song by the Boss! The image of a train carrying all people towards a better future is fantastic. This is 'the land of hope and dreams'. It taps deeply into American cultural resevoirs containing both christian and democratic, egalitarian language.
But does having hope and dreams of a better future necessarily lead to that future becoming a reality? If it doesn't, is the community that is created by shared hopes ultimately of any value? Why would faith simply in a better future be rewarded? Who rewards? What sort of freedom does living with hope and dreams bring, or do we just become captives to our ability/inability to act on our hope and dreams?

Unquenchable

Another great image sent through by scotty m!


1 Thessalonians 5:19
Do not put out the Spirit's fire;

Well dressed

Due to the decidedly underwhelming response to the 'Images of scripure' gallery request, I have had to seek out images myself. I have once again turned to my good mate scotty m.



Matthew 6:28-30.
"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these."

Polarity

despair... hope
judgement... mercy
condemnation... grace
darkness... light
sin... righteousness
defiled... holy
isolation... community
meaninglessness... purpose
rejected... received
powerless... mighty
slave... child
terror... love
death... life

without God... In Christ.

Phews 10: Fri, 25 May 2001.

DISLOCATED CHRISTIANITY
One word has been on my mind over the last few weeks. That word is integrity. The dictionary definition of integrity consists of three parts:
1. possession of firm principles: the quality of possessing and steadfastly adhering to high moral principles or professional standards.
2. completeness: the state of being complete or undivided.
3. wholeness: the state of being sound or undamaged.

I have tried to spend time examining the integrity of my own faith... Is there a unity between my belief and my life? Is there a unity between my internal life and my external life? Is there a wholeness in the application of my faith to my life? Is there a unity in my view of Jesus as my saviour as well as Jesus the Lord? Am I a man of integrity and am I pursuing integrity in all my words, thoughts and deeds?
In medicine, a disclocation is the the displacement of a body part, especially of a bone, from its usual fitting in a joint. I wonder whether, due to a lack of integrity, I am causing a dislocation in the body of Christ, not only impairing the function of one limb, but the function of the whole...

Great concert!!!

Just saw the dave matthews band last night in Sydney. Awesome, awesome band!
If you are not aquainted, I recommend you go out and buy an album. Start with 'Crash' or 'Before these crowded streets'.

Go check out their website via the sidebar here.

Go check out the fan site at www.nancies.org.

You must hear these guys!

Baby Moses

At my church, the ministry team are preaching through exodus.
It is a narrative that many artists have chosen to express over the centuries.
Here are some pieces.

The Finding of Moses,
Paolo Veronese - 1570-75. (left)

The Finding of Moses,
Francesco Zugno - 1740. (right)

Undone

Empty bottles on the coffee table.
Kitchen is a mess, there's no coca-cola left,
and I've seen the space between my dreams and reality,
as if I've come to terms with all the things I've done.
There's the miracle of grace;
There's the lingering taste
of last nights chinese take-away,
my existential tooth decay.
When all I am and who we are,
where we've been, our countless scars,
they haunt me, they haunt me...

Then I'm undone by you.
I'm undone by you.

Empty evenings around coffee tables;
self indulgent repartee, 'cause we all still believe
that our prejudice and hate -yesterdays editorial page-
will redeem us, that it can clean us.

But I'm undone by you.
I'm undone by you.

Empty bottles on the coffee table...
Empty bottles on the coffee table...

Golgotha and the empty tomb

I assume that Jesus and then subsequently his disciples thought of his work in both Isaianic and Zionistic terms.
On the basis of that we can say that Jesus died at Golgotha as Israel's representative and substitute, being crushed and bruised because of their disobedience and sin that brought curse under the law. This was an act of justice on God's behalf, for his promise in the law was to bring curse on the transgressors. It vindicated his covenant and promise, and the worth of his Glory expressed in that covenant. As justice is done, and God is vindicated, the cross also becomes the place of forgiveness for the transgressors.
We can also say that Jesus return to Jerusalem, clash with what the rebuilt (post-exilic) temple had become and resurrection was God's return to His people, and the reconstitution of God's dwelling place in the risen body of Jesus.
The place where the Creator God of Israel is to be met and honoured is through the death and in the risen person Jesus.

driven heavenward

Philippians 3:10-14

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Wines worth trying

For May I have chosen:

Tulloch, Hunter Valley, NSW.
2006 - Verdelho.

The weather is cooling so warm, hearty food makes the mouth water all the more. I think this well balanced, fruit filled wine would be excellent with pork chops and apple sauce.