Friday November 20, 2009
Be the Church?
A long time ago I was part of a church that began to say "Don't go to church; be the church." Jeff Purswell has written an article showing why this is not good theology. "Now, despite the element of truth (God's people are the church), there are all kinds of things wrong with this statement. But behind the words is obviously someone's disappointment (and possibly disillusionment) with organized Christianity. And although I'd guess that many Christians would reject this false choice, their attitude to Sunday gatherings of the church may reveal a similar apathy."
Praying Scripturally
Ligon Duncan is beginning what looks like an interesting series of blogs. It will deal with praying scripturally. "Few of us, probably, are satisfied with our private, family, and corporate prayer habits. And surely we all recognize that the Church of our day, at least in our land, is weak in the way of prayer. We do not pray often. We do not pray with Scriptural proportion, nor does our prayer much reflect the language and thought of the Bible. We do not pray fervently."
The Personal Promise Bible
After a while I hardly even know what to say anymore. "Have you ever inserted your name as you read the Bible to make it more personal? Now you can experience the reality of God's love and promises in a way you never thought possible. In the Personal Promise Bible, you will read your first name personalized in over 5,000 places throughout the New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs, over 7,000 places throughout the complete Old and New Testaments." So I could have a version of the Bible that translates 2 Peter 1:4, "By which He has granted to Tim His precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these Tim may become a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust."
The Bible by Numbers: Multiples of Eleven
Just for fun, here is a list of significant numbers in the Bible, each of which is a multiple of eleven.
15 Google Interview Questions to Make You Feel Stupid
Here are the kinds of questions you might be asked if you try to get a job with Google...
A long time ago I was part of a church that began to say "Don't go to church; be the church." Jeff Purswell has written an article showing why this is not good theology. "Now, despite the element of truth (God's people are the church), there are all kinds of things wrong with this statement. But behind the words is obviously someone's disappointment (and possibly disillusionment) with organized Christianity. And although I'd guess that many Christians would reject this false choice, their attitude to Sunday gatherings of the church may reveal a similar apathy."
Praying Scripturally
Ligon Duncan is beginning what looks like an interesting series of blogs. It will deal with praying scripturally. "Few of us, probably, are satisfied with our private, family, and corporate prayer habits. And surely we all recognize that the Church of our day, at least in our land, is weak in the way of prayer. We do not pray often. We do not pray with Scriptural proportion, nor does our prayer much reflect the language and thought of the Bible. We do not pray fervently."
The Personal Promise Bible
After a while I hardly even know what to say anymore. "Have you ever inserted your name as you read the Bible to make it more personal? Now you can experience the reality of God's love and promises in a way you never thought possible. In the Personal Promise Bible, you will read your first name personalized in over 5,000 places throughout the New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs, over 7,000 places throughout the complete Old and New Testaments." So I could have a version of the Bible that translates 2 Peter 1:4, "By which He has granted to Tim His precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these Tim may become a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust."
The Bible by Numbers: Multiples of Eleven
Just for fun, here is a list of significant numbers in the Bible, each of which is a multiple of eleven.
15 Google Interview Questions to Make You Feel Stupid
Here are the kinds of questions you might be asked if you try to get a job with Google...
Comments (12) »
1. Joanna
November 20, 2009
8:24 AM
The personal promise bible gets even better! They’ll put both you and your spouses name into song of solomon.
The christian world is getting impossible to parody! Reality is strange enough
2. Josiah
November 20, 2009
8:25 AM
Wow…it seems like the “Personal Promise Bible” must be a complete joke. We’re so individualized in the West that we’ll even take plural pronouns—inspired by the Spirit of God—and transfer them into singular names? I, like you, don’t even know what to say.
3. Reg Schofield
November 20, 2009
8:34 AM
Jeff Purswell article concerning the church is bang on. I will encourage my sons to read this article because the very points he conveyed are the ones I have been sharing with them. How many really understand what is going on during worship . My home Church has a very casual feel , a lack of the holy seems to pervade our worship. Not all the people mind you but way too many enter into God’s presence without a clear idea of how we can enter into His presence . The seeker sensitive model of worship is to blame for this . I hope to share this article with as many as I can .
4. Joy
November 20, 2009
9:54 AM
Re Praying Scripturally: I was really thankful to find a book about 5 years ago by Beth Moore called “Praying God’s Word.”
5. Travis Mitchell
November 20, 2009
10:50 AM
Tim,
Is there a place where we can find the answers to the google questions?
6. Alex Philip
November 20, 2009
11:10 AM
Travis,
If you scroll through all of the questions it will ask you if you want to know the answers. Click on that link and it will go through each question and provide an attempt at an answer.
7. Travis Mitchell
November 20, 2009
11:37 AM
Thanks Alex!
8. Dan H.
November 20, 2009
12:19 PM
Re: The Personal Promise Bible
It’s simply all about self anymore, isn’t it!!!
Amazing and sad at the same time…
Dan…
9. Dan H.
November 20, 2009
12:23 PM
Tim,
My last entry was by a carefully clicked “Preview” with absolutely no “Submit” button ever touched… Not a biggy. Just FYI…
Dan…
10. J.P.H.
November 20, 2009
2:27 PM
Reg:
I would want my church to have a “casual” worship atmosphere even were it not seeker sensitive.
As to the quote Purswell mentions, I think he misses the point. The quote is not “Don’t go to worship services at a building on Sunday; be the church.” It’s “Don’t go to church; be the church.”
Implicit in “go to church” is that idea that “church” exists in a certain place and/or during a specific space in time. Clearly that’s not the case, and Purswell would agree. He’s playing off the dual meaning of the word “church”. In one sense “church” is shorthand for “sunday morning church services”. But it also means “the fellowship of all believers alive on earth right now”. So the quote’s message is that the first definition fails to capture the magnitude of “the church”, and that if our understanding of “church” is based primarily on it, instead of the second, larger definition, that we’ve missed something spiritually.
11. Leslie
November 20, 2009
3:05 PM
My husband has to conduct interviews for people wanting to work in his department (it’s a technical field). He always asks questions like those, and for good reason. It’s not about whether or not the person knows the answer. It’s the reaction to the question that he gauges. He wants to see if the person even has an idea of how he (or she) would go about solving the problem. That kind of question has to do with determining if the applicant is a problem-solver, a thinker. He has told me that plenty of applicants will just sit there and say something ignorant like, “How can anyone even know that?” Or they won’t even attempt to answer the question. Those folks aren’t invited for a second interview.
12. david
November 21, 2009
1:04 AM
The “praying scripturally’ is really a great read.
How we have adopted a special “prayer language” (not tongues!) that has a certian inflection, tone, and special code words.
An honest prayer is so rare! That’s why I love to read the Psalms.
Anguish. Pain. Anger. Joy.
David
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