life
MORNING MUSING June 3, 2011 SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE DEATH OF GOD
An unusual title for one of our musings it is true, but the tendency to make God in our own image is ever present in the heart of man. A group of men known as ‘the death of God theologians’ wrote in the late 1950’s and into the sixties. I never looked at any of their writings though I did grasp the fact that this phrase ‘the death of God’ did not imply that they were jettisoning God; rather they were critiquing the way He had become conceived and distorted in the minds of many in the western world. These men believed that there needed to be a new understanding as to Who, what, where and when God is. We all have ideas about God. It is always possible to project into Him images that come from our own selves, even misconstruing Him from our own reading of the Bible if we are religious or Christian. The amazing thing is that we are hardly aware that we do it unless He comes and opens our inward eyes. How very much we need Him to reveal Himself to us and grant us a heart receptive to His self-disclosure. God longs to make Himself known, and it is this unfolding knowledge of Him that constitutes the essence of revelation.
MORNING MUSING May 19, 2011 WISDOM AND DISCERNMENT?
I recently came across a short extract from “Could This Be Our Most Critical Need?” by A.W.Tozer. Around seventy years ago he wrote, “I have observed one significant lack among evangelical Christians which might turn out to be the real cause of most of our spiritual troubles; and of course, if that were true, then the supplying of that lack would be our most critical need. The great deficiency to which I refer is the lack of spiritual discernment, especially among our leaders.” And so he develops this thought in his usual serious and penetrating manner. I sense that these observations are no less relevant today than they were when he wrote them. There has been little change, in fact, spiritual discernment seems distinctly absent in many quarters and those with itching ears who attend the churches continue to heap up teachers to themselves who in turn lead the flocks into many a maze of confusion or sometimes, into the mists of a dreamy false spirituality.
Now we are the Children of God
Now we are the Children of God
Miltos Yiapanis
“Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the sons of God: Therefore the world has not known us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are the sons of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1John3.1-2).
MORNING MUSING April 20, 2011 SOME REFLECTIONS ON TABLE FELLOWSHIP
Readers from the Middle East and Asia will more easily grasp the phrase ‘table fellowship’ than those born and raised in the West. How often, in certain countries, we make our way into the evening meetings and are asked the question, “Have you taken your supper?” and we are expected to indicate not only that we had indeed eaten but who our hosts were! If we answered in the negative immediately our questioner would want to take care of us! Eating together with others in cheerful, warm convivial fellowship has profound meaning. Communion indeed! In many cultures the solitary meal taker is an anomaly, probably an outcast. I well remember the occasion when, during a preaching trip in India I was invited into a home to share food.