Planted by Water

I reviewed Snyders Community of the King yesterday. Below is an extract from it that I didn’t post yesterday but I think is particularly insightful; and a very relevant and important point if we consider how Christians are to engage with the world.

The temptation to accept substitute gods and counterfeit  satans is always before the Church. At various periods in history the Church has been decieved into warring against false archenemies…….In the name of opposition to these enemies Christians have been willing to put others to death; for when the Church accepts Satan’s …

This is one of the best books that I have read concerning the nature of the church. It is so right to say that the Church must be understood in the light of the Kingdom and God’s ultimate and eternal plan  - or ‘the cosmic design’ as Snyder calls it. You can safely ignore some of the wrong-headed applications. For example, having clearly demonstrated that the church is a charismatic and organic community, he goes on to defend institutionalism too much; …

We were glad to have Matthew Ling with us in the church here in Huddersfield on Sunday. He brought an excellent word about ‘Staying Near The River’ and drew out the image that Scripture uses of trees being representative of people, of us. That is certainly going to be a hit with somone who calls his blog, Planted By Water. But I wish I had heard Matthew speaking before I did my little series on ‘trees’ to start this blog off! He had some great insights …

I’m a little late for my weekend posting, as I am in charge of crowd control with my 4 kids, as my wife, Alison, is in hospital for a few days. This is just for relatively minor operation that has been planned for a while and she is doing fine - but we are all missing her! I’m in charge of washing, cooking, ironing, cleaning etc. this weekend - but that’s not the only reason I’m missing her!!

So just a quick quote …

It’s been a while since I posted some poetry. So here’s a very well-known one, by Robert Frost. It is no less brilliant and moving for being so popular. It stirs something within, and causes us to confront the irreversible nature of many choices we make in life; as well as the challenge to be a person of integrity, to refuse the way of the herd, to walk the road less travelled by. It is melancholic without being negative and miserable, as it considers that taking one choice means the sacrifice of others - a …

Reading a popular Christian magazine recently, the writer of one article described Jesus as a ‘Messianic medic’ and wrote that we as Christians are all just the casualties of war! The article made some valid points against unreasonable perfectionism in the Christian life, and the need to place sober-mindedness alongside the current popular trend of telling peope that they can be anything they want to be (witness X-Factor, Pop Idol, Fame Academy etc.). But to reduce what Christ has done and has called us to, so ridiculously so that the …