Jesus loved to ask questions, see e.g. Mark 8:17-21; Luke 2:49, 5:21-23, 7:39-44, 8:25, 9:18-20, 10:25-28, 18:18-20, 20:1-8, 24:17-19; John 4:7, 9:35-38

The GCM Collective community site has a discussion about this, and here are a few suggestions that came up:

I have found the below questions helpful in drawing out who people are – their history, interests, dreams, and faith.  I have found that asking the questions with sincere love makes people feel cared for and opens up great conversation.

I am wondering…

… What was your upbringing like?

… What is your relationship with your parents like?

… Who has had the biggest impact on your life and why?

… What are you passionate about?

… If you could do anything you wanted to what would you do?

… If you could live anywhere you wanted to where would you live?

… Do you have any kind of spiritual belief?

… Do you believe in God? In what way?

… What has your spiritual journey been like?

… What guides your life?

… What do you see as the biggest social problem of our day?

… if you could tell a group of Christians anything you want what would you tell them?

… In your opinion who is Jesus?

… If Jesus were here today would you follow him? Why or why not?

… Is there anything you would like prayer for?

Worldview questions

A worldview is the overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world. People everywhere ask four questions. (Who am I? Where am I? What is wrong? What’s the remedy?) Their worldview shapes the way they answer these questions:

I am wondering…

…what do you see as the purpose of your life?  (Who am I?)
…how do you view the nature of the world we live in? (Where am I?)
…from your perspective what is wrong with the world we live in? (what holds us back from full attainment?)
…what do you see as the remedy of our worlds problems? (How do I attain salvation?)

The same author linked to a booklet he’s found helpful:

“The Art of Powerful Questions” – http://www.theworldcafe.com/articles/aopq.pdf

And another person recommended this:  http://fieldgatemedia.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Twenty-Questions-to-Help-Me-Care-for-Others.pdf

Any other recommendations?  Mention them in the comments.

Last week I read this quote in The Week magazine.

“This is not a natural-disaster story,” said David Brooks in The New York Times. “This is a poverty story.” In October 1989, another quake of magnitude 7.0 hit the densely populated but wealthy Bay Area in Northern California; only 63 people died.

Here’s a few articles that explore this:

“The fault line in Haiti runs straight to France” explores some of the historical problems that left Haiti in such poverty.  I’m not interested in bashing the French, but, as the author states, “in few countries is there a more direct link between the sins of the past and the horrors of the present.”

“Why Tough Love is needed” explores the cultural problems in Haiti.  The country has been exploited and abused in the past.  But there is also  a culture of dependency on others, not least foreign aid.  Haiti needs material assets, but in the long term the country needs the intangible assets of skills, hard work and a desire for change.

“Haiti’s Avoidable Death Toll” makes the point that Haiti’s poverty is the result of severe corruption and restrictions on economic liberty.  Free Trade and transparent justice would dramatically improve the economy.

The conclusion, therefore, is “To Help Haiti, End Foreign Aid” (from the Wall Street Journal).  Lots of foreign money has poured into Haiti over the years, yet reports reveal very little (if any) long term benefit.  Foreign Aid can often destroy the local economy (e.g. if tonnes of food are imported, local food producers are forced out of business).

“More than a million dead” reminds us that 150,000 people die every day, and this article takes us straight to the gospel response.

The Lord has a salvation so audacious He can call earthquakes ‘birth-pains’.  (As can Paul – Rom 8:22).  Certainly they are birth-pains.  But they are birth-pains.  Jesus has a redemption so all-embracing that it will include even these evils.  It won’t simply side-step Haiti, or make the best of a bad situation, it will (somehow!) lift Haiti through this calamity and birth something more glorious out of the pain.

Finally, here’s a sermon by Mark Driscoll who visited Haiti soon after the earthquake.  I haven’t seen it myself, but I think it will be very good.

Update: My interest in these articles is not to accuse the Haitians of deserving the disaster. Of course not. But I am interested in the link between ‘natural disasters’ and human sin.  A lot of people instinctively respond to the earthquake with “There cannot be a good and powerful God.”  I think a better response would be “Humanity is deeply entangled in sin and suffering. Have Mercy O Lord.”

Neither am I suggesting that Disaster Response and Aid should not be given.  If we are tempted to think, “Oh, there’s so much sin to blame, I’d rather not give help” then that means we have entirely missed the point of the gospel.  “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”  These posts do show that Foreign Aid needs to be carefully thought about so that corruption and poverty is not maintained.  Most of all, they show us that the people of Haiti – like all of us – need Jesus Christ.

Jesus died to make you angry. Paul Tripp explains how we are delivered from wrong anger but called to feel the righteous anger of God against sin and its effects.

Not receiving it – receiving Him. Glen writes about how we need to speak of Jesus and offer Him to sinners.  Don’t offer abstractions (forgiveness, hope) but offer the person (who brings forgiveness, hope, etc).  As I’ve said before, if you’re reading this blog make sure you also read Christ The Truth. It’s much better!

A Personal Liturgy of Confession. [HT: JT] A useful resource for helping people confess sin to God, particularly where feelings of guilt run deep.  Based on some good old Anglican prayers!

Do people really like Jesus? It is often claimed – with some justification! – that people are rejecting church but are still curious about Jesus.  Well, I know what they are saying, but what happens if people are confronted with the real Jesus?

Talks by Tim Chester. If I had to stop reading all blogs except a very small number, Tim Chester’s would remain a priority.  I thoroughly recommend anything by him.  Over at Atmosphere Church you’ll find some talks by him (and others) following the “Lead 09″ conference.  Audio is available, video is coming.

Go and visit the website of Dutch chain store HEMA. Now watch what happens!  Guaranteed to raise a smile.

Are you a preacher?  Have you discovered Tim Keller yet?  His teaching on preaching is some of the best I have ever discovered.  On iTunes you can find 18 hours (or so) of preaching lectures by Tim and Ed Clowney: “Preaching Christ in a Post-Modern World“.  I’ve listened to a few and thoroughly enjoyed them.  Did I say they were free?  I’ve now discovered that you can get the handout (189 pages of goodness) from here (direct link).

3 songs have been turned into videos.  This first, “Cast All Your Cares on the LORD” (Psalm 55:22) is my favourite and has entrenched this verse in my mind!  You can find more videos at their YouTube channel, but I’ve embedded the 3 songs here (2 are after the break).

Here is 1 Timothy 4:12

And here is Philippians 4:6-7

For an excellent book, you would be hard to find anything better than “You Can Change” by Tim Chester. Available here from The Good Book Company.  Chapter 5 – on the 4 Great Truths to Live by – is available as a free download (pdf) from here.

Tim Keller’s excellent article “Talking about Idolatry in a Postmodern Age” is all over the web.   Here as pdf or here as web page.  At 4 pages it’s a great beginning article.  In it he quotes David Powlison’s longer essay on “Idols of the Heart and Vanity Fair.”  This is available as pdf here.

On the Lent Course I keep to the language of “over-desires.” See e.g. Ephesians 2:1-3; Romans 1:21-25; Galatians 5:16-18; 1 Peter 2:11 & 4:2; 1 John 2:15-17; James 1:14-15 & 4:1-4.  You will find some excellent material, reproduced from a book by Powlison, in a FAQ format, here at Theologica.

Happy Reading!

Or instead, maybe 2009 can be a year of spiritual joy as you engage with God’s Word more than ever before.

Make 2009 the year when you read the Bible lots.  Not just little nuggests, pulled from some spiritual pic’n'mix (now that Woolies has gone and you can’t get sugary pic’n'mix any more). Read it through. Big sections at a time. Enjoy the story. Discover Jesus.

Here are some good resources to get you going:

The ESV has 10 Reading Plans, including the BCP Daily Office Lectionary! (Great if you want to read the Psalms every month).  Justin Taylor explains a few of them here.  Whatever form you require – RSS, web, iCal or good-old-fashioned print-off-a-pdf, you’ll find them here.

Ron Frost was a big help to me when I read this article encouraging people to read through the Bible fast (ideally with someone else).  Do go and read it. Now. If you just want to start with Genesis and gallop through to Revelation, you’ll find reading plans (what to read each week) with a view to finish in 3, 4, 6, 9 or 12 months.

As he says on his blog:

Second,
we read the Bible boldly because it’s the best way to see how brilliantly God shows himself to be “wonderful”—that is, “full of wonder”—throughout the collective books. If we only nibble at the Bible or cherry pick our favorite books and verses, this God of wonder almost never shows up. It would be like watching an epic movie in limited daily doses of four or five minutes. The story line would only become evident after many months, with most of the important early parts largely forgotten by the time the climax is offered. But once we read the Bible in flow—in very big chunks—we start to see the same sort of miracle that the infant Jesus represented. Both the written Word and the living Word appear through humble people, in humble circumstances, and in unpretentious forms. But, over time, both the Scriptures and the Son come to be unveiled as brilliant  self-disclosures of God’s heart.

Do you need some more inspiration? Look no further than 3 excellent talks on the Power of God’s Word by Mike Reeves. I listened to them this last few days. Fantastic!  Heart-warming, Jesus-focused and very very listenable.

Finally, is this the “World’s Best Bible Reading Plan“?  Dan Edelen’s excellent piece encourages us to take a book of the Bible, read it and read it and read it, then put it into practice.  I’ll leave you with an extended quote, but read it all:

Here’s how The World’s Best Bible-Reading Program works:

1. Find a quiet, undisturbed place to read. Start in the New Testament since the New Covenant is necessary for perspective on the Old Testament. [Err, not quite, have you not been reading Christ The Truth? - Tim] Might as well begin with Matthew.

2. Read through one entire book in a single sitting. Obviously, the first five books of the NT are going to require some time. But do it. (You’re eternal. Live like it!) These books are whole units and are meant to be read as such. We need to experience their coherence. Trust me; the Holy Spirit will bring the entirety of the book to your mind in the future in a way you’ve never experienced before.

3. When you’ve read the book once, don’t move on! Read through it again. For the first five books, if you must break them into chunks, go with five or six chapters—whatever maintains the arc of the narrative.

4. Re-read that one book. Note the way the narrative and themes flow. Commit those stories and themes to memory. Note where they exist in the book.

5. Re-read that one book. Pay special attention to the way the Lord is portrayed.

6. Re-read that one book. Examine the relational aspects of the book, God to Man, Man to Man, Man to God.

7. Re-read that one book. Note the Lord’s redeeming and salvific acts within the greater arc of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration.  (This first pass through the NT assumes you have a modicum of OT understanding. After reading the OT through, the second pass through the NT will clarify things further.)

8. Re-read that one book. This time around, note all the Lord’s commands and how we’re told to practice them. Consider how they might work practically in your daily activities.

(By this point, you’ve read the same book seven times. Depending on the length of the book, it may have taken seven days or seven weeks. It doesn’t matter. This is about changing your life and relationship with Christ. This is about sixty years of discipleship. It’s not about getting through the Bible in a certain length of time.)

Now comes the hard (and controversial) part…

9. Take everything you’ve learned in this book and put it into practice. Take a month (*see comments below) to do nothing but concertedly meditate on what you’ve just read by making it real in your
own life. It might mean that the only Bible you read this month are the parts of this one book that you still aren’t getting and must re-read. Doesn’t matter—do it. (If you absolutely have to read something every day that isn’t part of this program, consider a few Psalms or a cycle of Proverbs. They’re the most suited to broken-up reading patterns since they are collections of wisdom and less unified than a book like Romans.)

10. After your month, take stock of all that you’ve learned by reading and practice. Make a mental assessment of the themes of the book and how they apply to your discipleship. If you’re confident
you’ve read and practiced this book, move on to the next one. Once the NT is finished, move onto the OT. (I realize some of the OT books are daunting in length for a single read-through. Make a concerted effort to read them in one sitting. Failing this, some of the OT books are narrative, which allows for breaks in the story. Psalms and Proverbs are easily segmented, as noted above. All prophets must be read in one sitting the first time through. A book as enormous as Isaiah is hard to partition, so consider reading it on a weekend day.)

Repeat these ten steps for the rest of your life.

Obama’s Extreme Pro-Abortion stance.

Obama’s anti-Christian policies.

What people were looking for in a President, and why only Jesus can provide.

From the incredibly insightful Cerulean Sanctum, two great articles calling on Christians to repent of our hypocrisy, stop trusting politicians to be our Saviour, and start living like Jesus.

1. On Election Eve

2. Aftermath

Here are some good quotes:

Well, conservative Christians are most definitely prolife, right? Not really. What we are is antiabortion. We are by no means prolife. If we were truly prolife then orphanages would be relegated solely to Dickens’s Oliver Twist, and nursing homes would be empty, instead of filled with our elderly parents. Again, what we are against and what we are for are not the same thing. We have to stop pretending they are.

Evangelizing the world is much tougher, especially in a post-Christian West that has been inoculated against the Gospel by Christians who talk a good faith but who live it haphazardly. Heart change only comes, though, when Christians stop talking about evangelism and actually start doing it. It’s when our walk matches our talk. When our rhetoric matches the Bible and is lived out before the world, then people might sit up and take notice. We have to stop dedicating so much time to erecting our individual kingdoms and spend more time working with the Lord to build His Kingdom His way.

So let’s look to Jesus!  Two articles from Christ The Truth will help you do this:

1. Election results – latest.

2. Sending our Man to the seat of power.

“The Peasant Princess” is a website about the new sermon series on Song of Songs at Mars Hill, Seattle.  Even if you have no intention of viewing the sermons, check it out and enjoy the quality of the site.

“Pastor: Mentor the Young Men” is a sermon / article about mentoring men (duh!).  I’ve only flicked through it, but it could be helpful for getting ministers to put the “Two-tee-two-two” principle into practice (read 2 Timothy 2:2 to make sense of that).

A series of talks by Tim Keller and Edmund Clowney on “Preaching Christ in a Postmodern world” is available free from iTunes.  [Grrr. I had to exit Linux and go into Windows XP to install iTunes in order to download these.  It reminded me why I'm happy with LinuxMint]

Have you been reading Christ The Truth recently? No? Well abandon this site immediately and go there. Your time will be far better spent

On the topic of children in church here are two from Doug Wilson and his wife.

Asking “what does the Bible say about children in worship” Doug answers “something like that whilst it is not a sin for the church to gather without the children and there are times when age specific teaching / addressing male heads of households / those who can understand etc. might be appropriate, as a norm the kids should we welcomed and included.” (taken straight from Marc Lloyd)

Nancy Wilson gives a description of what goes on at Christ Church, Moscow (Idaho).

Two things come to mind:

It is hard work keeping young children in church, especially for mums on their own (for whatever reason, e.g. husband is the curate!)

Many evangelical churches want the Sunday morning service to be accessible for newcomers / guests / visitors etc.  Having groups for children is very attractive to such people, whose children are unlikely to have been trained to sit still and pay attention for the duration of the service.  Having the whole family together for the service is a noble goal, but is it too much of a hurdle for those who don’t share such convictions, and would this make church alienating?

And on the same topic of challenging the status quo, over at Google Books you can read (in entirety) a short 22 page book called “Critique of Modern Youth Ministry“.  It argues that the idea of splitting people into age groups and tailoring activities especially for each, especially in church, is a very recent phenomenon.  It has contributed to the terrible situation we now face in which many parents leave their children’s spiritual growth to the Sunday school / youth worker.  This may be an odd thing to post, given that I’m extremely excited for Adam Rushton to be arriving as our Assistant Minister for Youth, but I know he shares pretty much the same conviction.