Curate’s Chronicles

One of 2008’s Frequently Repeated Stories was that of Global Warming. With Obama moving to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, expect to hear more and more.  But I remain a skeptic.  Partly, no doubt, that’s because I enjoy holding minority opinions (we’ll save that one for analysis some other time!).  In 2007 I read Michael’s Crichton’s State of Fear. Woven into the fictional narrative are vast numbers of scientific surveys suggesting problems with Global Warming.  Worth reading, if you like his sort of books (e.g. Jurassic Park).

Readers of the Telegraph will be aware of Christopher Booker’s repeated expose of the fake science behind Global Warming theories.  Here’s a great article to read: “2008 was the year man-made global warming was disproved.” (As an aside, his articles also frequently reveal how useless wind turbines are, a conclusion I came to over 10 years ago while doing a project on them).

Another link: “Warming, or Hot Air” contains some good scientific points:

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Overheard countless times in the last two months: “I am concerned about the poor performance of my investments and savings.”

Not heard even one time in the last two decades:  “I am concerned about my poor performance in laying up treasure in heaven.”

[From Dan Edelen at Cerulean Sanctum]

I’m about to post an article I’ve written for our church magazine, although I don’t know when / if it will be published.  But let me break my long blogging silence with a list of good articles I’ve come across concerning the election of Barack Obama to be the 44th US President.

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.

A few days ago my Dad warned me about the latest “revival” about to hit this country.  In the tradition of the Toronto Blessing and Brownesville Revivals come: the Lakeland Revival.

There’s a good chance this could be the next “big” thing to a) get some charismatics very very excited, b) confirm conservative evangelicals in their anti-charismatic prejudice.  Oh, and make us look weird in the eyes of the media.  If you want a heads up, go see this page for a criticial look from a charismatic blogger.  And while you’re there, look here and here for more wise comment from one charismatic to others.

For something far more edifying, the same author wrote this list of 100 reflections based on 30 years of being a Christian.  Some fantastic and provoking thoughts to be read. Here’s a few good ones to do with Family and Youth Work:

• We do a great disservice to families in our churches when we split them up the second they hit the lobby.
• A youth minister’s primary responsibility isn’t to teens directly but to their parents. A good youth minister teaches parents how to teach their own teens, leaving the bulk of the responsibility to them.
• We make an idol of the nuclear family if we raise it above the needs of the household of Faith.
• We spend too much time trying to keep our youth from sleeping with each other and not enough time teaching them to be husbands and wives.

Update - here’s another report from Lakeland, the sad story of a family who went with their autistic child and the abuse of religion they experienced.

This blog would have three times as many posts if I mentioned everything I came across that points to Britain being a society in free-fall.  (Here’s a good example.)  Romans 1:18-32 is playing itself out before our eyes.  Maybe I’m being misled by newspapers etc that prefer to mention bad news rather than good news; even so, the bad news is bad.

The thing about a society in collapse is that people are both culpable and victims.  Someone such as Karen Matthews (mother of the mercifully-found Shannon) has been through a horrendous time and our first reaction must be relief that Shannon has been found, and a desire to comfort the family.  Nevertheless, she has seven children by five different men, and sees no problem with this.  Mostly because she lives in a society that has no problem with it.  Melanie Phillips has a very good article about this, and be in no doubt that this is not a “oh those terrible poor people with their bad family life” rant.

I am no prophet, but it seems to me that all it will take is a financial crisis to make people realise that Mammon is no Saviour, and as the false comfort of material wealth and possessions is stripped away people are going to realise that this country is morally bankrupt.  My prayer is that, at that moment, the Church will be present in all areas of society saying “Come to Jesus and he will give you rest.  Take his yoke upon you and find life.”  Because if not Jesus then some other (false) saviour will be sought after.

I was preaching yesterday on John 10:1-15 (which is 2/3 of the Good Shepherd passage). Naturally, Ezekiel 34 was the OT reading. In both there is criticism of false shepherds who abuse and harm the sheep; in Ezekiel the particular charge is that the bad shepherds “eat the curds, clothe [themselves] with the wool and slaughter the choice animals” without care for the sheep.

Later I was reading the Sunday Telegraph and found this article about some of Iran’s clerics. The summary says it all:

“The Ayatollah Khomenei brought millions on to the streets of Iran to overthrow the decadence of the Shah. Now the late leader’s grandsons and other Iranian clerics face a backlash over their families’ fondness for fast cars, big houses and hot tubs.”

(NB the sermon is here)