If "Cessationism" and "Charismata" Mean Nothing to You, Don't Read This

The Charismatic Movement within Evangelicalism is now a largely uncontested reality.  Turn the clock back twenty years and (in the UK at least) that would not have been the case.  Yet, as with every good thing we Christians are very capable of stuffing it all up from any and every angle.  Here are two articles I read recently.

The first a very gracious, but firm article from Andrew Wilson on why cessationism is not the best way to sum up the operation of the gifts of the Spirit for today.

The second, (pointed out by the same Andrew Wilson) I'll let you judge for yourself whether you think it's positive or negative.

Rebel Without a Cause

Anyone can break stuff. It takes brilliance/guts to make stuff and stick with it. Whether you're talking about gadgets, societies or philosopies, the principle basically is the same.  On philosophy, G. K. Chesterton observes:

“But the new rebel is a skeptic, and will not entirely trust anything. He has no loyalty; therefore he can never be really a revolutionist. And the fact that he doubts everything really gets in his way when he wants to denounce anything. For all denunciation implies a moral doctrine of some kind; and the modern revolutionist doubts not only the institution he denounces, but the doctrine by which he denounces it. . . . As a politician, he will cry out that war is a waste of life, and then, as a philosopher, that all life is waste of time. A Russian pessimist will denounce a policeman for killing a peasant, and then prove by the highest philosophical principles that the peasant ought to have killed himself. . . . The man of this school goes first to a political meeting, where he complains that savages are treated as if they were beasts; then he takes his hat and umbrella and goes on to a scientific meeting, where he proves that they practically are beasts. In short, the modern revolutionist, being an infinite skeptic, is always engaged in undermining his own mines. In his book on politics he attacks men for trampling on morality; in his book on ethics he attacks morality for trampling on men. Therefore the modern man in revolt has become practically useless for all purposes of revolt. By rebelling against everything he has lost his right to rebel against anything.”

It isn't just love that money can't buy...

No intro, just watch.



Another reason to be strong and courageous...

A Modern Creed?

Many thoughts brewing in my head, without time to write them out...

In the meantime, here is a video with a hero of mine from my student days, Dr. Ravi Zacharias, quoting Steve Turner's observational poem "Creed."

Someone has taken the audio and coupled it to a montage of images then tagged a couple of Gospel verses on the end.  You may find some of the images disturbing:

Dispelling the Darkness

The supermarkets are stocking up for Christmas and we haven't even had Halloween yet!!

Regarding Halloween, perhaps the problem is not that we don't believe in evil, rather that we have allowed ourselves to be deceived by the notion that in the face of true goodness it has more power than really does: