I don't believe God chose you and blessed you so you could heap those blessings upon yourself. I believe God Chose you... because he wants to make a difference in this world. And you know what? What I think is scary about God is he didn't come up with any Plan B. That He left the church here and the church is the only group of people and the church is the only institution in the world that can bring about a change. This government cannot do it, so stop depending on the government... The church was chosen by God to make a difference. - Rich Mullins
Politics are not the task of a Christian. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
I know I'm going to annoy a few people by saying that I'm not sure Christians should meddle in politics. If we are God's Plan A for this world, then trying to change the government isn't our Job, because as Rich Mullins said, the Government cannot bring about change, only we can.
We can change the world by putting aside our petty differences and getting our hands dirty, by doing the very job we sometimes rely on the government to do. If the welfare system is failing the poorest people in our community should we rely on the government (or try to change the government) to fix the problem, or should we as a church get in there and address the problem ourselves?
If Auckland has a traffic congestion problem, should we petition the government for more roads, for better public transport systems? Or should we do something ourselves? Imagine if the local church offered to shuttle people to the nearest train station before and after work so that they didn't have to drive into work every day? Or what if we simply went out of our way and picked up a work mate and drove them to work every day?
Imagine if the entire church got organised, pooled their resources and helped shape a community focused New Zealand. The government would be powerless to bring about change because the church would have already done it. The government would have to start listening to it's people because the people would be organised and making a difference on their own.
And it would all be done without Christians getting involved in politics.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Christians and Politics
Friday, May 30, 2008
Celtic Daily Prayer
Most powerful Holy Spirit,
come down
upon us
and subdue us.
From Heaven,
where the ordinary
is made glorious,
and glory seems
but ordinary
bathe us
with your brilliance
of your light
like dew.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Silence.
To be silent does not mean to be inactive; rather it means to breathe in the will of God, to listen attentively and be ready to obey. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Suburban Mayhem
My Faith is getting back to it's roots. That is, it's going to be an occasional blog focusing on My Faith (funny that) or rather questions, revelations and insights to my faith. Don't hold your breath for much content tho....
In the meantime, if you prefer my wacky sense of humour, my taste in design and culture, do check out my new home over at Suburban Mayhem.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Inner City Snail
I'm not sure how i feel about this. I love the concept, but does it border on animal cruelty?
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Therefore Repent!
What if the religious right… are actually right?
Without warning, multitudes of Christians float bodily up into the sky.
For the immoral majority, life goes on pretty much as usual.
Except that after the Rapture, magic works - for those willing to risk demonic mutations.
And an angelic army appears to have been deployed to mop up the sinners.
But through it all, outsiders Raven and Mummy face the possibility of a bigger problem than the end of the world: the end of their relationship.
From i09:
We meet Mummy and Raven, a couple of artists who used to do an act where they dressed up as a mummy and a raven, as they are searching for a home in a world turned upsidown by the rapture of hundreds of thousands of Christians. Those left behind are divided between "splitters," people who are trying to go as Christian as possible so they'll be taken up during the Apocalypse (this includes George W. Bush), and people who are happy to live in a world free from Christians. Mummy and Raven are among the latter, and they've moved into a cozy squat left abandoned by its raptured inhabitants. Things start to get even more unhinged, however, when angels in military uniforms start machine gunning "sinners," and dogs start to talk. Plus, ordinary people are starting to develop weird magical powers — one woman can send email by attaching ethernet cables to her piercings, and Raven herself can create birds out of smoke.
As the wiccans, lesbians, and punks start to band together to fight the paramilitary angels, Raven and Mummy start to have relationship difficulties. Mummy is flirting with the cute indie rock girl at the bar down the street, and Raven is keeping her feelings so bottled up that she's become psychologically stuck. This is the great thing about Munroe's writing, always: he manages to write weirdly sweet romantic stories set against a backdrop of the apocalypse or some kind of huge technological emergency. Salgood's drawings manage to be both dark and funny, cute sketches that shade into shadowy gloom, which perfectly harmonizes with the mood of the narrative.
There's a terrifically great twist ending which despite my love of spoilers I won't give away. Suffice to say, the story stays consistently surprising and weird, and the message is never a simple "Christianity is stupid" dogma at all. Instead, the point is to be careful about what kind of paradise you wish for. You just might get it.
I might just have to keep an eye out for this one...
