Up North

In a few weeks my and the other person are going up north for a much-looked-forward-to holiday. Just got home from doing some shopping for it. Camping stoves and lights and tarps and al the rest - great stuff.

The new finn album

Just got my grubby little hands on it today. Already noticed some great tracks on it. I think it will be a real "grower".

Blogger doesn't like U2

whenever i try and put U2 in my profile under interests or music it never works to become visible!. Weired and annoying...

Answer to middle east blog

Hears what the pastor at my church thinks about the matter...

The key Scriptures to consider on this matter are Romans 9-11.

Here Paul asks the question, Has God rejected Israel [because they rejected the Messiah and refuse to believe in Him]

His answer is, No.

Israel [and it is clear that Paul is speaking about actual Israel – not a spiritual Israel] has been cut out of the olive tree for a time to allow the Gentiles to come in. When the days of opportunity for the Gentiles come to an end.. then God will do a work of grace among Israel and all Israel will be saved [probably means.. a vast number of the Israelites – a major revival among them].

In talking about the future revival in Israel, the Apostle sources his teaching from chapters such as Jeremiah 31-34 and Ezekiel 36-38 – where this revival, return to faith is foretold. Along with this turning to God are predictions about a return to the land and a rebuilt nation and rebuilt Jerusalem and temple [Ezekiel 40-48].

It seems to me that the picture is something like this..

In the latter days.. the Gentiles will have had their chance..
Israelites will return to their land.. and there will be a mass turning to God among them.

I hold this view without getting caught up in the radical Zionism of some movements.

Is the current Israel the Israel of the latter days? May be.

My practical response to all of this is to pray for God to work among the Israelites ie among the Jewish people.

I believe our focus should be evangelistic rather then speculative and getting caught up in the politics of it.

Hope that gives you some food for thought.

God bless

Linton

Blogging

I'm really enjoying this blogging thing - a good way to get you thinking and a nice way of hearing what other people with similar ideas have to say. So far I am looking at a few blogs of people around perth, including: baggas.com, lionfish, thinx and philbakers blog.
If anyone knows of any inspiring ones to look at, pass them on.

The new U2 album

This is from time magazine - looks like someone has had a listen and likes what they hear. Personally I'm hangind out to have a listen and have a look at the lyrics and see what sermons are being sung this time 'round...

They are now men of a certain age, and it no longer becomes them to aspire to be things they are not. So there's no crunk-style rapping on the new U2 album, no gospel choirs or techno experiments, nothing that could possibly be misinterpreted as a sign of midlife crisis. Instead, this as-yet-untitled album is just full of confident, expansive guitar rock from the masters of the form. All the old tricks -— the Edge's echoing guitar notes, Larry Mullen Jr.'s martial snare -— still work, although Bono has lost a touch of the high clarity he had in his mullet-sporting days. He still has enormous assuredness, and the occasional cracks in his voice make the bad-relationship songs (and, as always, there are quite a few) darker and more dramatic. Custom would seem to demand that U2 start embarrassing itself one of these days. But not today.

Gospel music

interesting article here

Gospel music changing and enriching lives

The Ageing Church

Interesting blog here about some churchs' becoming old and accepting it. Sad situation.

finns

must get the new album soon...very excited

The middle east

The Israel/Palestine situation has concerned me for some time. I'm not a Geo-political expert and therefore lack the understanding of the situation. As far as I can tell, both groups want the same bit of land - the temple mount - and are willing to fight for it. The other peice which is interesting is that some "chrisitans" (high end american politians) want to fund Israels plight as they believe as Gods chosen people that Jesus will only return when they occupy the holy land. It all seems a bit inconsistant with the God we know from the bible. Firstly, God places a premium on people and the church as a body of people, I can't se him caring about this peice of land like these people do. Secondly, why would God give the land back and bless Israel when they deny his Son as Lord and Saviour? It kind of all seems a bit backward as to how Jesus behaved and acted, the whole turn the other cheek and pray for your enemies sort of thing.

anyway anyone out there with a more insightful point of view? and is there a correst christian point of view?

Grace

Grace overpowers karma. Grace rewards where rewards are not justified.

-Bono, 2000

yep - your dead right there...

He moves in mysterious ways

It all seemed like church was going to go pear shapped last night. I am the music co-ordinator and therefore feel a bit of responsibility (right or wrong) as to how church services actually run. The music team started practice late, the place wasn't setup (or so I thought), there weren't enough singers on the team and the bloke who was coming to speak had to pull out due to sickness at the very last moment.
Myself and Kath filled in for singers (which turned out to be fun), someone had taken the initiative to set up the church, and the service took to a progression of testimonies and sharring time. All in all I think it was a great time. It reminded everyone (or at least me) that the church service was about the body of christ coming and participating in worship - not just people rocking up and being spoonfed by the people up the front. There were some great themes in there about God's sacrifice of Jesus and of the simple faith that people can come to through that. It was really encouraging. God had his own plans for how he wanted the service to go...
It all in the process of a church growing a think, and i think we are starting to do that as a church better than we used to.

the finns

Heard Neil and Tim Finns new single on radio for the first time last night - good stuff. Can't wait till they tour down here later in the year - when i saw Neil Finn a few years ago it by far and away the best gig i have ever beeen too. Should be good!

Coldplay

How good are they!! I'm currently listening to the Live CD from 2003 and being reminded of why I like them. Just simple powerful music, great stuff.

Passion II

I'm currently reading a book called rediscovering your spiritual passion. So far its coming up with some good stuff. I'm finding at the moment that thinking about what your passionate about and just getting back into it really helps - as dumb as it sounds you just have to do what you know you like and you end up liking it again. Humans are so dumb sometimes.

Music

Its amazing how some people relate to music more than others, and it speaks to people differently. I lack the ability to just listen to music, I have to analyse it and think about the lyrics and what the songwriter was thinking about at the time. I therefore get a huge amount of of music and would say that it is the medium that makes me think and ponder life more than any other thing.
Being a christian there are pressures that christian music is the only place to get this music inspired thinking but I disagree, in a big way. While a lot of contemporary christian music is good and thoughtful, a lot of the time it isn't honest. I appreciate honest songwritting, people struggling with life and how to get through it. I love hearing secular (I hate that word) music and hearing someone searching for something bigger.

Passion

why do we lose passion for things which once commanded our best thougts and creative energies?
how can we reclaim that passion?