...consists in the deification of technology, which means that the culture seeks its authorisation in technology, finds its satisfaction in technology, takes its orders from technology. This requires the development of a new kind of social order, and of necessity leads to the rapid dissolution of much that is associated with traditional beliefs.
Living far apart from each other, members of a congregation do not hold each other as their primary community. Consequently churches do not experience the deep intimacy that could characterise our times together. We might know some facts about each other, but we do not actually know who our fellow congregant really is, so we talk about trivia when we gather. We do not know how to share what genuinely matters, how to deal with the real lives and deep hurts or doubts of honest people, or how to speak the truth. Lacking sincere intimacy in congregational fellowship, we often put false pressure on worship to produce feelings of intimacy...
As far as I can remember, being a celebrity has never helped me make a good picture … or command the obedience of my daughter or impress my wife. It doesn't even seem to help keep fleas off our dog, and if being a celebrity won't give one an advantage over a couple fleas, then I guess there can't be that much in being a celebrity after all.
God never makes you suffer unnecessarily. He intends for your suffering to heal and purify you. The hand of God hurts you as little as it can. The yoke that God gives is easy to bear if you accept it without struggling to escape.
Removers this week delivered a 700-year-old church to a new location after strapping it to the back of a flat-bed truck. The Migbrag mining company paid £2 million for the removal job after learning that the Emmaus Church and surrounding village of Heursdorf, near Leipzig were sitting above 50 million tonnes of brown coal. The road trip represented a victory for the 320 residents of the East German town who had refused to leave the village unless the church went with them.
Sources: The Guardian (1/11); The Times (1/11)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2781251.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,,2202902,00.html
This faith will fight anything that gets between it and Christ. The distinguishing mark of saving faith is not perfection. It is not that I never sin sexually. The mark of faith is that I fight. I fight not with fists or knives or guns or bombs, but with the truth of Christ. I fight anything that diminishes the fullness of the lordship of Jesus in my life. I fight anything that threatens to replace Jesus as the supreme treasure of my life.
