Archive of May 2009
Reading the Bible
Posted at 4:27 PM
On the fifth of May, Lionel Windsor over at the Sola Panel challenged readers to “share God’s story”.
Get the story, know the story, share the story. Don’t feel obliged to do an hour-long intensive devotion every time you open the pages of the Scriptures. Just do it! If you get to know the stories, then when you do come to read the New Testament explaining the Old, or when you hear the doctrine of God spoken of and explained, you will find that you already know this God. You know him because you have shared his story — the story of his Son Jesus Christ.
On the same day, Glen Scrivener encouraged readers to join him in reading the Bible in ninety days.
It works out at 12 pages a day. About 16 chapters. That’s do-able right?
On the next day, Dave Bish links to Glen’s post, and adds that there’s something over at Theology Network of relevance. Ron Frost writes:
Isn’t it time for us to read the Bible vigorously, steadily, and fully?
Combine that with my aunt’s new blog about Bible reading, my realisation that I’ve probably read at most a quarter of the Old Testament prophets, the paucity of my knowledge of Scripture outside of the gospels and a few epistles, and the imminent end of my exams… I thought I’d give it a go.
So far there are two things I’ve struggled with. The first is familiar to anyone who’s tried to read the Bible from cover to cover: Exodus 21 to the end of Deuteronomy. There are easier bits in there, but after the fast-paced action that’s kept you going right from Genesis 4, it’s harder to keep going with all the laws and lists.
The second is probably familiar to anyone who’s ever tried to read the Bible while busy. We believe the lie that reading God’s word will not give us rest. Of course, sometimes it doesn’t – sometimes it makes us uncomfortable, challenges us, rebukes us – but we think that this means when we’re busy or stressed, the last thing we need to do is to read the Bible. No, it’s the first thing we should do – we need God’s perspective on our lives even more so when we’re busy! However, my problem is slightly different. I’m now on holiday, and in trying to wind down and relax, I act like the Bible won’t help me do that. So when I’m no longer busy, I think of the Bible as part of the busyness that I’m now having time off from. I believe the lie that the Bible will stop me from resting. As a result of listening to the lie, I’m not going to finish in the ninety days – but, of course, that doesn’t matter at all! Dan Hames’ article at Theology Network is helpful here:
[T]he Bible is given to us as a gift to feast on, rather than a project to complete before judgment day. We will find we go to it to savour and enjoy, and when we miss a day we might feel hunger pangs, but we could never feel guilt, fear, or condemnation. In the same way that skipping breakfast is more of a missed opportunity than a morally dubious choice, not going to the scriptures for nourishment is not a matter of calling down the anger of God, but of omitting to take advantage of his good gifts to his children.
I need to get those around me to challenge me: “Are you sharing in God’s story?” “Are you savouring God’s word?” To encourage me to keep going. Bible reading’s been low down on my agenda for too long, and I’ve noticed the results in my life. I need to remember Psalm 19:
The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever.
The ordinances of the LORD are sure,
and all of them are righteous.They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the honeycomb.By them your servant is warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
hearts & minds
A new trailer for the film I helped write the soundtrack for has been released, using my music. (Click “Play full trailer”.) If you’re in Bristol next week, it’s being shown on Wednesday and Friday.
My co-composers were Pippa Cleary and Sara Garrard, who actually wrote most of it. I just got the two scenes of violence.
Edit: Jack Vaughan also wrote the music for one scene; I don’t know him personally.
Cameron pledges shake-up of power
More rumblings about Parliamentary reform. I want to seriously think about how much devolution to local councils I think is a good idea, and how much would lead to even greater disparity of services across the country.
He doesn’t say anything about voting reform, though – keeping quiet about his opposition in order to be seen on the reform bandwagon? Either way, I’d go with some of his suggestions.
Update (26th May): Just watching Cameron live on BBC News – he’s opposed to proportional representation and particularly AV plus.
“Proportional representation takes power away from the man and woman in the street and hands it to the political elites,” he says. “Instead of voters choosing their government on the basis of the manifestos put before them in an election, party managers would choose a government on the basis of secret backroom deals. How is that going to deliver the transparency and trust we need?”
In other words, a proportional system would lead to coalition governments which are not voted for specifically by the people, which is true. Of course, under the current system a minority of people vote in the government anyway – the majority in Parliament is down to the first past the post system, not a majority of people voting for them. So more thought needed, then.
Finger Painting
New Yorker magazine’s latest front cover was painted on the iPhone. The video (and painting) is good, even ignoring the medium.
Cabinet member urging electoral reform
Health Secretary Alan Johnson wants a referendum on electoral reform. Can I encourage anyone with a Labour MP to write to them and ask them to publicly join his stance?
The system he advocates – “Alternative Vote Plus”, they call it – seems to be about as proportional as you can get while still retaining an MP–constituency link.
Also of interest is a BBC Magazine article on Parliamentary reform.
(What do you know? Watching the West Wing has made me all political again…)
Five minutes with Richard Dawkins
An interesting interview that will doubtless be seen by many, but in case you’d have missed it, here’s a heads-up. (Not sure how long it’ll stay on the BBC website, so this link may break in future.)
Nice in here, isn’t it?
Following my link to the review of Pause, here’s a critique of Christian subculture. Pause were excellent in part because the performance they gave was not idiomatic of a Christian subculture – far from it! The article’s well worth a read.
If you couldn’t have a gathered church meeting…
Tony Payne has an interesting thought experiment:
Imagine that a swine flu pandemic swept through your part of the world, and that all public assemblies of more than three people were banned. And let’s say that, due to some catastrophic combination of local circumstances, this ban had to remain in place for 12 months.
If you were the pastor what would you do?
The last sentence of the article has got me thinking particularly…
“Pause” – a review
I was planning about writing about Pause at some point, but Richard Townrow’s done a better job than I’d have done, as does Geoff Youngs in the comments. Pause was a brilliant mixed media evening of thought-provoking entertainment I went to at New Word Alive. For more, have a read of Rich’s review.
