Merry Christmas

Just a quick note to say Merry Christmas to you all. I hope you have a great time of rest and reflection. I thought I would post a cartoon my sister sent to me that is pretty amusing.

Anyway... have a good break and a wonderful New Year

The Post Evangelical

[I have added and edited this entry because I have had feedback that it may be unclear. I hope the edits add clarity. SG]

This is the latest book I have read. I firstly want to recommend that only people with a questioning mind read it. It will offend and probably anger hard line evangelicals.

Essentially Dave Tomlinson is saying that we have been bought up in a world of science. Science says there is a right answer and a wrong answer. Black and white, if you like. Evangelicals, while they debate science, actually exhibit this black and white, right and wrong approach to Christianity.

Post Evangelicals are like post modernists. Post modernists accept there are answers given by science, but they value these answers along with art, nature, spirituality, etc. They think that what seems apparent, may not actually be true and are not afraid to question it. In fact there may actually be multiple 'correct' ways to the same answer.

So when it comes to Christianity, a Post Evangelical questions the orthodoxy. They question things like the inerrancy of the bible. They question the virgin birth. And many many more things. This is not saying that the orthodox view is wrong. It is saying there is no fear of challenging the orthodox afresh.

Dave argues this can lead to a much stronger and personal faith.

For those people that feel compelled to question everything and figure everything out themselves, this is an affirming book. In many ways it is the academic version of Blue Like Jazz.

But I reiterate... if you are a hardline orthodox evangecial who knows what is "right" already, best you give this a miss. It will save you a lot of stress.

Beware women of the world

So I was searching for Christian stuff on Trademe today. There is someone trying to sell a number plate with JESUS5 for $500,000. But that was not what was really funny.

When you search for "Christian" you get all this Christian Dior stuff. I found this excellent item:

POISON - CHRISTIAN DIOR 100ML FOR WOMEN - RRP $240

Apparently it takes 100ml of Christian Dior to kill a women. It costs $240. And it even says that it is Poison on the outside.

AND PEOPLE BUY THIS STUFF!!!

Or have I missed something...

Blue like Jazz

I have been reading this book by Don Millar called Blue like Jazz. It is a really addictive book. Don essentially shares his experiences with the reader. You become part of his world, his thought processes, his memory etc. In some ways he is like a little kid who does not know what not to say. He just blurts it all out.

And it is neat. It is neat to see someone whom God has touched. And it is neat to see how God touches him.

This is not a book for the theologically correct student. It is a book for someone who walks a real life and is trying to have as best as possible swing at finding out what God wants them to be doing.

It is not quite up there with some of the other books I have read recently like Valet Elvis but pretty good. See how many spelling errors and bad edits you can find. It really is rough and raw.

Photos from TNT road trip 2005 - Part Four

Photos from TNT road trip 2005 - Part Three

Photos from TNT road trip 2005 - Part Two

Photos from TNT road trip 2005 - Part One

Productivity - a mis-directed obsession

Since the mid 1980s New Zealand has had an obsession with productivity. As a nation we have become much more productive. This has been due to better technology, better work practices, working more and focusing on things we are good at and letting lower wage countries do stuff like make our clothes.

This has been good. We have a reasonable wealthy country. We certainly have the safest country in the world to live in.

But I feel we have missed the point. We have lost the understanding about what being more productive is about. To put it simply, we should become more productive so we can spend more time doing the things we enjoy.

The aim of being more productive at work should be to spend more time with our kids. To spend more time with our partners. To be able to spend an extra week a year plummeting down the ski slopes. To spend an extra week fishing. To start that rose garden you had always wanted. Whatever pushes your button, that should be the goal. Not to produce five extra widgets an hour.

Productivity is about producing as much as possible in as shorter space of time. There are two variables. Output and time. In NZ we have held the amount of time constant and lifted the output. I would argue it is time we held the output constant and dropped the amount of time.

There are a number of ways of doing this. The way I favour is to ratchet up wages. Let's make our wages so high that it is not economic for us to make widgets. Let the Chinese make widgets. They are good at that type of thing. Let's focus on making "super widgets". Basically, let's move up the food chain.

Want some practical examples...

Make the finest paper instead of selling bulk paper pulp
Make pre-built bathrooms instead of exporting raw trees
Make pre-prepared meals instead of exporting live lambs
Make cider instead of bulk apple juice
Make ATM machines instead if PCs
Make 98% fat free beef steaks not unprocessed carcasses
ETC...

We should make it our nations aim to work four days a week. Let's actually benefit from being more productive!

The Simpson's meet iPod

The Coffeehouse Gospel

I have just finished an interesting little book called The Coffeehouse Gospel by Matthew Paul Turner.

Like most things, it is nothing new. It advocates friendship evangelism. The most important point it makes is to emphasis the use of ones ears rather than ones mouth.

Is it worth the $23.95 at Mana? I think you can get a better book for that money.

Women Warning

Found this on someone's blog. Pretty funny.

Photos from Andrew's 21st - Part Four

Some pics of me at the party!!! Bling... Bling!!!

TYG Fireworks Photos

Photos from Andrew's 21st - Part Three

Photos from Andrew's 21st - Part Two

Photos from Andrew's 21st - Part One

Love the facials!!!

Podcasts and other online sermons

I'm really getting into podcasts. Basically these are MP3s avaliable on the net designed to be downloaded onto your iPod. However you can listen to them thrugh your computer.

iTunes, by Apple, offers a window into the podcast libraries around.

If you have iTunes I would recommend two podcasts:

6.13 at Neighborhood Church and Central Christian Church Weekly Messages. These are two very good sermons.

I would also recommend the "cool sermons" I have linked on my side bar. One is from the youth ministry at Grace Community Church. This is John McArthur's church so the teaching is very solid. The other is Mars Hill which is Rob Bell's church. Tis means the teaching is quite post modern but very solid.

Anyway, check them out!!!

MORE - Simon Ponsonby

I have finally finished MORE.

MORE is a 180 page book about the desire for a more Spirit filled life.

To start with, I want to be openly critical of this book. Simon Ponsonby needs to get an editor. This book has wonderful content but it is hidden behind amazingly complex and convoluted sentence structures and words that are well outside my vocab. The middle of the book is especially bad. I had to read it with a dictionary and I was only able to read very slowly so as not to miss the point.

SIMON!!!... get someone who knows how to write for normal people to help you.

To end with, I want to openly praise this book. The content, the thought, the challenge of this book is excellent. I feel broken, yet joyfilled after reading it. The scriptural references, the unpacking of the greek and hebrew, the stories, the writings of others... they are all presented. And the logic, the reasoning is just so solid. Yet there is something extra. There is a feel of truth that seems to radiate out from what is said.

The guts of MORE can be summerised by the following two sentences I found on pg134.

"All Christians, by faith in the finished work of Christ, have drunk of that living water and have been baptised in the Spirit, into Christ. But many have no theology, expectancy or desire to know the Spirit's power for service, the deep emotional and existential immediacy with God, or the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit."

The key here is a lack of expectancy. As a church, as individuals we seem to be content with being known by God. We do not expect to be able to know God. We are content that He reached out to us. Yet He wants us to reach out to Him... to seek Him with every facet of our being. In many respects we should be discontent with our relationship with God. We should desire so much more. And God, through His Spirit, offers so much more.

This book challenges me to open the rooms in my "house" that I have kept closed to the Holy Spirit. I know this will be tough. It will hurt. I will be broken. But I do not care! I want, I long for, I desire more of God.

More

Over the last few weeks I have been reading a book called MORE: How you can have more of the Spirit when you already have everything in Christ by Simon Ponsonby.

Over the last week I have been really struggling with this book, hence the lack of updates.

This book is hard. It I really really good but very difficult to read.

Firstly it has a lot to say and it doesn't leave anything out. Most times I get to focus on it I only get through a couple of pages before my mind runs out.

Secondly it uses some very big words (ie not in common knowledge and its sentence structure, while correct, is really really difficult. I mean, I have a big vocab but the other night I got through a page and a half and had to use the dictionary two or three times. In fact my little Oxford dictionary didn't have the word so I had to Google it. Even that struggled.

I guess the problem is this book is 1cm thick but is actually worth an inch.

Anyway... once I have finished it I'll do a write up.

For all you who can't wait...

The book suggests that while we, as Christians, all have received the Holy Spirit, there is so much more He offers. We should be hungry for the Spirit in our lives and look for so much more. The work of the Spirit in our lives is limited by how much we seek His manifestation.

Pretty simple but very challenging!

Photos from TYG

I didn't take my camera through the tunnels we went through as it would have got destroyed. Ngaio tunnels are cool and I can confirm there are glow worms.