Missionary Gas

The following was received from Costa Rica:   "Greetings to everyone,  may our good Lord continue blessing you,  my name is Aldron Castillo,   married with 5 children.  I'm an ex prisoner who was in jail for 11 years,  although originally sentenced to 55 years.  While in prison I received Christ as my saviour,   and saw him doing mighty works to secure my release,  but his greatest miracle was my salvation.     Today I serve the Lord seeking to prevent crime.  My wife and I travel 8-9 hours by bus in order to testify to others of the way Christ saves spiritually and physically and can be their savour too.    We get no external help for this work either in literature or economically.  In my  country ex-prisoners carry on as before and no one believes that God could make such a great change.    A lot of time is spent in preparing materials to give to peopl...

Javier Montoya,  a Colombian pastor and ongoing Seminary student,  wrote for advice about an essay he was preparing on the book of Revelation.     It concerned the 24 elders around the throne of the lamb.      He explained how he was tackling the topic and wanted to know how to approach the subject exegetically. His email finished with a brief PS: "This week I was robed of my car with all my study materials,  computer, documents,  books and iPhone.  They abused and beat me.   But I'm well.   Thanks be to God" Seminary students,  Colombia

Cuba brings up images of cigars,  smoked filled bars,  and red coloured pictures of Che Guevara. How out of date we are was revealed in an email from a lecturer supervising MTh students on that island.    For the first time theology is being taught at this level.   Evangelicalism is outliving Don Fidel's atheism. For students it means there are no theology theses available in libraries.    Rumour had it Recursos Teológicos had some online.   Where are they?   A few hours later they were being looked at not through cigar haze but in the vibrant atmosphere of an evanglical seminary. ¡Viva la revolución!  Studying the gospels in Moyobamba

Quiet weekend,  Olwen's over to Ballymena for her mother's 94th birthday,   so I'm reheating pasta.   Managed to read a whole book today,  which says more about the publication than the reader's ability.   It's called "Tweet If You Love Jesus:  Practicing Church in the Digital Reformation", by Elizabeth Drescher.    She comments about Kirk Smith a pastor working on the US/Mexico border whose successful online ministry is based on: Starting where you are Being exactly who you are Building bridges with users Using images - photos or video clips Practicing the ministry you profess Kirkintilloch ramblers outing to Ben Ledi last Saturday

It is argued that the institution of marriage is important for the good of society. Therefore even gay marriages should be viewed as a good thing. This is a reasonable view but has significant flaws when compared with the Bible. According to the Scriptures, marriage is heterosexual in order that children might be born: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it’” (Gen 1:28).  Romantic and passionate marital love is illustrated in Scripture as a heterosexual experience. The Song of Songs, the emotions of David and the marriage of Ruth are indicative of this.  Single people, such as Christ, Mary of Bethany and John the Baptist enjoyed a fulfilling life without being married.  There were severe warnings against homosexual practices. Male rape and male prostitution were condemned (Gen 19:5; Deut 23:17-18) Judg 19:22) as were homosexual practices (Lev 18:21-22; Rom 1:26-27).  Outside of what is ...

Nowadays the most hotly debated issue in theology is justification by faith.     Last week St Andrews University hosted a 3 day conference on Galatians.   About 150 scholars and wanabees attended.    Since I fitted into the last category along with a Croatian,  a Norwegian and a one-legged lady from Texas,  I went along.   The New Perspective on justification,  ably communicated by Tom Wright,  is taken as gospel by  academics.    So there was little fighting type debate,  until,  the last keynote address. This was given by Richard Hays,  Dean and George Washington Ivey Professor at Duke Divinity School,  who spoke for an hour on "Apocalyptic Poiesis in Galatians".    An excellent speaker and erudite,  he convinced me of the dramatic narrative of the epistle.    And I was about to go home and reshape my sermons. That was unti...

A bit like Stirling Uni but less suicidal,  Nottingham University is scattered through an undulating green campus.  I recently gathered with 70 Thiseltonians for a Conference honouring the 75 year old star of modern Biblical Hermeneutics,  Prof Anthony Thiselton.   He's a likeable John Stott type figure who broke down in tears when mentioning the support of his wife and family.  During the day seven academics presented papers looking at different angles of the subject.   Now hermeneutics deals with how we communicate and understand things:  a film,  an Ibrox sign or a Pauline epistle.  It's currently the most important subject in Divinity.    Unfortunately the presentations were models of bad communication being papers read from manuscripts and not readily understandable.      But the chatting in-between was brilliant:   "We live not according to the calendar but according to t...