MJ Blog

The end of the year is upon us, which basically means we get to collapse in a heap in a few weeks time to recover from a long, tough year.  Christmas is a wonderful time of year, but the current economic and political climate has taken a bit of a shine off the usual festive cheer for many people around the world.  What a wonderful time to be the church!  Isaiah 9 reminds us that our King has government upon his shoulders to which there is no end.  As the church, as God’s Christmas people, we are those who live under a different dispensation and who are able to speak hope into hopeless situations.  As Christmas people we are those who are able to speak of peace in a time of global turmoil.  Why?  Because “of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.”  As we move into holiday mode let us be those who display more and more what it means to be a people to whom “a Son is given.”

Hi,

 I promised I’d put up the titles of those commentaries I mentioned in this morning’s sermon.  I highly recommend Tom Wright’s series of New Testament commentaries, the for Everyone series, e.g. Mark for Everyone, Hebrews for Everyone etc.  They’re very reasonably priced at www.loot.co.za.  Also consider getting your hands on Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart’s two helpful books, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth and How to Read the Bible Book by Book.

Enjoy!

Paul

I’ve been asked by a number of people recently to give them a list of some of my favourite authors and books so I thought I’d put something up here in case anyone wants to get stuck into some reading.

• Stanley J. Grenz - I especially enjoy Theology for the Community of God and Beyond Foundationalism: Shaping Theology in a Postmodern Context
• William H. Willimon - check out his The Gospel for the Person Who Has Everything
• Stanley Hauerwas - Resident Aliens (co-authored with William Willimon) is a very provocative, but very readable read.  Hauerwas’ work tends to be quite dense and a bit of work to read, but worth the effort, I think
• Darrell W. Johnson - Discipleship on the Edge is the best book on Revelation I have ever read; he has some other books that are equally worth reading
• Marc Buchanan - The Rest of God, The Holy Wild and Your God is Too Safe are all worth reading, and they’re very easy reads too
• N.T. Wright - he’s enormously widely published and any of his stuff is worth getting a hold of

There you go.  Hope that helps.  To order these books online I’d suggest you visit www.loot.co.za.  Their prices are very competitive and their service is very good.

Cheers,

Paul

The fast is over and the stories are starting to filter through of the amazing things that God is doing in and amongst us.  It is so encouraging to hear the testimonies of God’s awesome provision, amazing generosity and incredible kindness to us as a people.  I’d really like to encourage you to post a response on this blog and tell us what God is doing in your life.

As some of you know I spent a week this month in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, with a group of guys from South Africa who have been travelling into that city for a few years now.  The last time I was in Abidjan was at the beginning of 2006 for a business trip and at that stage things were pretty dicey around the country.  It really was great to go back now and see that things have at least settled down and Côte d’Ivoire is starting to move forward again.  Even more exciting was to see how the church there is doing.  We spent our time with a great bunch of local pastors who really are working hard at building the church in that city.  As always on these trips you end up learning more from the local guys than you are ever able to impart to them.  One very cool thing for me personally was that I got my first real crack at preaching a full length sermon in French, which was great fun.  Everyone seemed to understand what I was talking about too, which made it even more satisfying.  Or perhaps they were just being polite… 

The Côte d’Ivoire LTT is scheduled for early April next year, which should be a really good time especially as we seem to have found a particularly good venue close to the CBD, which should enable us to draw in some key people within the city.  I’ll let everyone know the dates closer to the time, but if you’re keen on coming along next year let me know.

Hi, I’m off to the UK LTT from 14-18 April and then the France GTT in Annecy from 25-27 April.  If you’re interested in coming along with the team let me know.