Phils focus

After a long break I just wanted to give my Christmas greeting to all. Possibly like many of you I have been engaged this Christmas in family debates on a variety of issues and putting the world to rights. The current scandal over global warming data was a favourite topic this Christmas. Rather than state my opinion I will simply direct you to Greg Boyds blog on this. As usual he has written a well researched and measured response to the debate that you can view here I am tentatively making a N.Y resolution to increase my blogging in 2010, largely due to several amazing discussions this blog has generated late 2009. I appreciate all the emails - do keep them coming - or add your comments and add to this simple offering. Grace and peace.

I love the bits in the bible where God talks to himself. He is seen reflecting, deciding, wieghing things up and making decisions. You see this especially in Genesis where God is chatting to himself within the trinity about how to make man, and what he thinks of each bit of his creation work. (other examples include; Gen 11:7, 6:1-8) Genesis says we are made in His image, and part of that image is the ability to reflect, to hold an internal discussion with ones thoughts and memories, reflecting on our daily experiences, drawing lessons and conclusions, drawing aside to listen to our heavenly father and making fresh plans with him. My reflections this summer have drawn me to a stronger conviction of Fathers love; of his faithfulness, and of his strong desire to pour out blessings in a new season of grace. Why should God want to bless me? Who am I that he should be mindful of me? Its not that I am more saintly or less prone to weakness, or more spiritual than others, its simply that whe

(Picking up on number 19 from my list of 'things I don’t believe in') Tonight’s episode of the TV series on Darwin related the accounts of his battle to publish his studies on evolution, causing outrage among those who held to a ‘biblical’ account of creation. Darwin, a pious man, came to reject belief in a God who would ‘everlastingly punish’ unbelievers (see point 15 in previous blog), and yet he retained his belief in a creator God who was the author of life. Darwin saw glory and majesty in the awesome developments of life on earth, and the reaction of his detractors reveals more about their form of exegesis than it does about Darwin’s precepts. His detractors (and even his dear wife) were products of their culture and believers in a the prevalent (but particularly modern) idea of Christianity that interpreted scripture to mean that mans physical body was made in the image of God, and that therefore, to accept the theory and implications of evolution would be to render their