thoughts out !oud

a Christian’s news, views, opinions and occasional poetry …

Your love is like a beetroot stain

There are many grand, romantic, humorous and satirical quotes on the topic of love that anyone could find nowadays. It seems that we toss the word ‘love’ around quite freely – perhaps we have even diluted it to an extent – so that it becomes just something that is so abstract as to be almost meaningless or at least devalued. We say things like ‘I love Nutella’, or ‘I love my cat.’ What we really mean, of course, is simply that we really like the object of our ‘love’. Yet scripturally, love means something much, much stronger than for what we give it credit. Truly, there is no greater love, as the Lord Jesus says, than to give up one’s life for another.

CS Lewis wrote… Continue reading Your love is like a beetroot stain

Lazy Myth: Christianity oppresses scientific truth and is closed-minded, aka the Galileo case

As Christians, it seems we are forbidden to ever broach the topic of who the Western world’s fathers of science were. Heaven forbid, especially, that we mention that many of them were faithful, Bible-believing Christians and then follow this up with the bold (but factual) claim that the methods employed by modern science today, and that science as an established and sustainable institution, happened within only one period – and in one part of the world – in history: that of Europe, in the period then known as Christendom.

I made the fatal mistake of dropping this claim into a little discussion on a related topic and it wasn’t long before someone piped in with their contrary piece of wisdom: “Just ask Galileo what he thought about Christendom [sic] great… Continue reading Lazy Myth: Christianity oppresses scientific truth and is closed-minded, aka the Galileo case

Lazy Myth: Christians believe because they are told to

This Myth has at its core one main assumption: Christians blindly accept what they are told - they are brainwashed. The follow-on for this myth is that children who grow up in Christian households simply adopt - without question - the beliefs of their parents. Seriously, are there any people out there today who still hold to this myth? I know the ardent Reverend (sorry, evolutionist) Richard Dawkins has gone on record as saying that your religion is dependant on where you are born in the world. For instance, if you’re born into a Muslim household, you’ll grow up as a Muslim; if a Christian household, you’ll grow up as a Christian.

With sentiments like that, I do wonder why Mr Dawkins never had aspirations to become… Continue reading Lazy Myth: Christians believe because they are told to

Error 404s no more … blog’s up!

Phew! After a week of Thoughts out !oud dwelling in limbo, it looks as though things are back up and running as they ought to be!

Firstly, a thank you must go out to Rick of The Narrow Path who kindly leant some of his precious web developer time to help me figure out what damage I had caused my blog. Cheers, Rick! In the end, it seemed that just deleting everything off my host and reinstalling Wordpress v2.5.1 did the trick for me. (Which was by far the better option than paying my host $300 to restore my blog prior to cyclone Mathew!)

Although, the only draw back seems to be that my chosen theme no longer functions properly … so I have a… Continue reading Error 404s no more ... blog's up!

Three simple tips for creating long-lasting prayer habits

One of the questions at the end of my article You don’t have to pray … you get to is quite obvious: how do you get your prayer life on track?

When I was an elder for my church some time back, I would occasionally lead the congregation in corporate prayer during the services. Now, if you know anything about me, I’m pretty lazy, in all honesty - I don’t prepare anything to read out loud for corporate prayer time (that just doesn’t work for me, anyway) and I’d only have a few sketchy ideas about what to pray about. You know, the usual stuff - missionaries associated with our church or members of the church, a prominent disaster in the news, the health of so-and-so, etc. etc… Continue reading Three simple tips for creating long-lasting prayer habits

How to get your fear of death to drop dead

I wonder how many of us fear death? If even only on a subconscious level, perhaps? I think it would be fair to say that the majority of people really don’t give much time thinking about death. I mean, why dwell on something that is so morbid and dark, right? Wouldn’t we rather just think of the happier things in life and tend to what is present than to waste our grey matter thinking of death?

Since you’re reading this, do you? Are you scared of death? Or are you somewhat like me … not really fearing death itself but not looking forward to how it might actually take place?

At one point, I used to think that Christians had the monopoly of not fearing death… Continue reading How to get your fear of death to drop dead

You don’t have to pray … you get to!

Prayer is essential to the Christian world-view and life-style. It is the heartbeat of a Christian’s spiritual walk with God and a hallmark of his spiritual maturity. The scriptures petition us to pray; we pray predominantly when there appear to be no other options open to us, yet we ought also pray with thanksgiving when times are good. Prayer is not about getting God to do what we want Him to do, nor is it about telling God what He doesn’t already know. Prayer is much, much deeper than these shallow misconceptions of it. Oswald Chambers says of prayer:

Is the Son of God praying in me, or am I dictating to Him?….Prayer is not simply getting things from God, that is a most initial form of… Continue reading You don't have to pray ... you get to!

Heathens, heaven and hell

[The writing of this article owes itself to the inspiring and thought-provoking post, and ensuing comments discussion, The 'Innocent' Heathen? over at Duane's Mind. Be sure to check out the comments related to his post!]

You would agree that all human knowledge is finite - we can’t know everything. (I mean that as a statement - I doubt anyone could say with absolute certainty that this is incorrect.) You would also agree, based on a traditional interpretation of the Bible, that Christianity teaches the following: God is Holy; mankind is sinful; mankind is destined for Hell; God, by His Graciousness, provides a remedy for mankind’s destination; Jesus, alone, is that remedy; those that acknowledge Jesus are redeemed; the redeemed are taken into God’s Holiness in Heaven; those… Continue reading Heathens, heaven and hell

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