Browsing Archive: August, 2011
Posted by Dyfed on Tuesday, August 30, 2011,
In :
Politics
I’m not an expert in the
crude oil market – but then you knew that. I have suspected, though, that there
is a far closer connection between the price of oil and NATO’s military intervention
in Libya. Below is a graph showing the fluctuations in the price of oil over
the past 12 months (thanks to http://www.wtrg.com).
On
this graph I have added some major points from the timeline of the uprising
(thanks to The Telegraph). I cannot prove that there is
a connection between these two thing... Continue reading ...
It seems that a few in the
US have been connecting Hurricane Irene with God’s judgment upon New York for
the issue of same-sex marriage. God is really angry at the whole issue,
apparently, and wants to show that anger by punishing those responsible. And so,
Sodom like, he sends this awful storm to the east coast of the country and
blasts the city for its sin.
An awesome God?
What an awesome God! Right?
Wrong. Not awesome at all. In this theory, apart from appearing like an
absolute monster, g... Continue reading ...
Bishop Tom Wright’s book Surprised by Hope seems to be proving
popular among a younger generation of Christians. I read it two or three years
ago and was deeply challenged. Not that there’s anything new in it, of course,
but it was for me quite a revelation and was the starting point for the
theological reassessment that I am on.
Resurrection
For those of you who haven’t
read it, it’s a book about resurrection – for you, me, and the whole creation.
Wright builds his thesis on the foun... Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Thursday, August 25, 2011,
In :
1859 revival
For his first year in
America Humphrey Jones worked as a missionary for the Methodist church in
Racine, Wisconsin. As has been suggested previously the Methodist denomination
was at the forefront of revival in the country. The historian Richard Cawardine
puts it thus: ‘Methodism was wholeheartedly a revival movement; its churches
grew through revivals; its ministers preached revivals; its success was talked
of in terms of revivals’. In this post I want to show how Jones was immersed in
th...
Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, August 24, 2011,
In :
Random
We was robbed! A cry
frequently heard at the end of many a game of football where the manager
complains of a refereeing decision that led to his team losing the game.
Gutted! And as a Fantasy Football manager myself, I know how important these
decisions can be.
A revised table
But wait! A report has just
been published showing what the Premier League table would have looked like at
the end of the season had these decisions gone the right way. Man United would
still have won of course (excuse me... Continue reading ...
Going to church doesn’t make
you a Christian. Or so the saying goes. Well actually, it does. In a survey
published some years ago on how people became Christians, it was found that the
involvement, contact and, most importantly, the friendship of other Christians
was vital in their journey towards God.
Church involvement
Some 86% of those who had
become followers of Jesus in adulthood had had some contact with a church in
their childhood and 90% said that the involvement of a church – inclu... Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Monday, August 22, 2011,
In :
Random
Does God deserve our love? I
ask the question following a debate Helen and I had in the car on the way to
our Sunday morning meeting with church yesterday. We had a worship CD on – I forget
which one, they all sound similar these days – and one song had the line ‘You
deserve our love’ in it.
Does he? He certainly
deserves our praise, our gratitude, our time, our attention, our all – but our
love? We do love him, of course, and with a passion. But does who he is and
what he has done... Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Sunday, August 21, 2011,
In :
Random
Mae
change yn newid, as we say in Welsh. Which literally means ‘a change is a
change’. Maybe it’s an idiom that means ‘a change is as good as a rest’. Well,
whatever it means, I’ve changed my blog design and added an About page with some personal history. I'm still using Yola though - as they make it so easy for me.
Hope
you like it! Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Friday, August 19, 2011,
In :
1859 revival
Everything happens within a
context and so it was with Humphrey Jones. Leaving Wales for America a
disappointed man he had already experienced a blessing on his preaching but he
knew little of what it was to be a revival preacher. It was in America that this
experience came to him. Before we can make sense of his time there, however, it
would be beneficial to understand the context he found himself in.
A
changing church
By the time Jones had arrived
in America the church there had been change... Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, August 17, 2011,
In :
Random
In a comment on my second
post on the death penalty last week it was pointed out – quite correctly – that
the first mention of taking a life for murder appears not in Moses but in
Genesis. While the commentator suggested that we could forgo the Mosaic law he
said we could not ignore Genesis 9:6. I’m glad we can agree on the detail of
Moses so in this post let me deal with the earlier passage.MythTo begin with I would point
out that many would say that Genesis chapters 1-11 have a mythic...
It’s crucial that the
Christian is obedient to the state, right? After all it has been appointed by
God and has received its power and authority from him. Being obedient to the
state is, therefore, synonymous with obedience to God. Well possibly.
A couple of things drew me
to Romans 13 last week. The first was the whole rioting incident in English
cities and the second was a comment made on my post on capital punishment.
Traditionally the passage has been interpreted as Paul telling us to ob... Continue reading ...
Like most people I found the London
riots last week shocking. Some of the scenes were quite
frightening and the speed with which the whole thing spread to other English cities was especially
scary. Among the many things that were hard to stomach about the rioting,
however, was the way some of our elected politicians called for a stronger
imposition of boundaries and morality on the lives of others while at the same
time flouting those very same boundaries themselves. Hypocrisy is quite
unapp...
Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Thursday, August 11, 2011,
In :
1859 revival
In June 1858 a young man
arrived home from the US burning with a desire to set Wales ablaze with revival
fire. His name was Humphrey Jones; his home village was Tre’r Ddôl near
Aberystwyth; and it was he whom God used to spark one of greatest revivals
Wales has ever seen.
The Welsh Revival of 1859 as
it is widely known (despite starting in the summer of 1858!) was part of a
world-wide move of God that began in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and spread via
the Businessmen’s Revival in New York... Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, August 10, 2011,
In :
Random
In yesterday’s post I looked
at a couple of reasons why the Christian should not support the death penalty.
Today I want to look at whether we should be applying the Old Testament to our
current situation.
Applying
the Old Testament
The blanket application of
all Pentateuch law upon 21st century life is seriously ill-advised.
We fully understand their pain but the Dowler’s call for ‘an eye for an eye, a
life for a life’ must be resisted. Appealing to the Old Testament is something
man... Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Tuesday, August 9, 2011,
In :
Random
Should the death penalty be
restored as a state punishment in the UK? The argument in favour has been
brewing ever since the Dowler family called for Milly’s killer to pay ‘the
ultimate price – an eye for an eye, a life for a life’ for his murderous
actions. Recently the political blogger Paul Staines has added his voice to the
campaign and has launched an on-line petition calling for parliament to debate
the issue.
I am – and always have been
– totally against the proposal. In t... Continue reading ...
As followers of Jesus we are
a people with hope within creation and also a people who provide hope for
creation. Paul tells the Romans that we ‘wait eagerly’ for the day when we
experience the physical redemption of our body through the resurrection and
that creation itself will also experience our freedom as God comes to put right
all that has gone wrong. ‘In hope we have been saved.’ (Romans 8:24.)
Hope within creation
Because our hope is centred on
God redeeming our whole person – ... Continue reading ...
Should we be willing for
some elements of Islamic Sharia Law to be implemented in the UK? Probably not.
But do we as Christians not share some of the values at least that are codified
in this law? And if so can we not find common ground with Muslims on many
issues that trouble both our communities – despite our rejection of full
Sharia? And in light of the awful atrocity committed in Norway, is it not
incumbent on us to find this common ground and start work to build on it?
Last week saw som... Continue reading ...
The authority of the Bible
is among the most contentious issues faced today between conservative and
reforming (or emerging) churches. ‘The Bible as God’s word is true’ is a phrase
that carries a lot of baggage and while on one level I can agree with it I
would have to have a list of caveats added-on – not least my belief that it is Jesus
who is God’s word and that it is with him that any revelation of God must
begin.
But back to the Bible. Is it
authoritative in its entirety? Or to ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Monday, August 1, 2011,
In :
Politics
The military intervention in
Libya would make a good farce by now. I’ve blogged about the situation a few
times (here, and here) and was always against what started off as a
supposedly humanitarian effort to save the civilians of Benghazi. This, the
allies certainly managed to do. But consider the current situation as reported
in the British media over the past few days:- Gaddafi, once considered far
too dangerous to be allowed to stay in Libya following his defeat at allied
hands, is now so ...
Continue reading ...
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