The Vicar's blog about Christian living

The fellowship of his sufferings

December 23, 2007 - Dale

A news item last week reported a significant meeting between the leaders of PGI (the Communion of Churches in Indonesia) the Catholic Bishops Conference and the head of the National Commission on Human Rights (HAM). The meeting concerned the continuing actions of various groups in threatening and closing down churches in West Java.

According to the Jakarta Post (15 December 2007) report, “The Protestant and Catholic leaders submitted a list of 108 houses of worship, notably in West Java, which they said have been forcibly closed, ransacked, threatened or burned down since 2004. Perpetrators range from local officials to such radical organizations as the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) and the Anti-Apostasy Alliance (AGAP)”.

This week it was also reported that renewed violence had broken out in Northern Nigeria... Read the rest of the Article. Post a Comment.

Christian self-discipline

October 14, 2007

Selamat Hari Raya Idul Fitri! Gifts, money, holidays, traffic jams… As a new comer to Indonesia I have learnt a lot about the culture this last month. It was a fascinating month of seeing people not drink nor eat during Ramadan (but I did see some sneaking a little on the side), and then the partying as the fast is broken, seeing the men, women and children who collect rubbish lining the streets to receive food and money from passers by and now the holiday period where people Muslim or not, seem to leave Jakarta. It seems to be an all-consuming celebration for everyone.

Fasting and giving to the poor are two of the five pillars of Islam, of working hard to ensure salvation from Allah. During this period there is also the asking for forgiveness from your elders whom you have wronged during the year, again seeking insurance for a favourable hearing from Allah on the last day. The people in the city around me are very religious. Read the rest of the Article. Post a Comment

What do you see?

October 7, 2007

The way we see Jesus makes a difference to the way we see ourselves. We model ourselves on what we think he was like. This makes life difficult because Jesus is not easily understood. We can see him in different ways – some of which we understand better than others. Or at least some of which fit more easily with our own character and interests.

Was John the Baptist disappointed with Jesus? (Luke 7.18) Maybe he thought Jesus should have been more decisive and have taken action more quickly. Maybe he felt let down after all his preaching about judgment – to see Jesus not doing too much judgment. Perhaps Jesus’ activity called into question what John had been doing.

Was he satisfied with Jesus’ answer, which was all about healing and preaching the good news to the poor? ... Read the rest of the Article. Post a Comment

Partnership

September 16, 2007 - Ian Hadfield

Think about the partnerships around us; families, marriages and friendships; between organisations such as schools and businesses. Then there are partnerships between governments and even between nations such as the European Union, Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation - APEC, Association of South East Asian Nations - ASEAN and the United Nations etc. Partnerships are all around us. They function for the benefit of all involved. They require trust and co-operation.

As Christians we are in a special partnership – one that involves not only humans but the divine. Our partnership is with God the 3 in one – the role model of all partnerships where the Father, Son and Spirit work for the benefit of all with full trust and co-operation. What a great and amazing privilege that we- sinful and frail humans are able to work in partnership with the God of the universe and the Lord of history. This should make us aware of how gracious and generous God is and how much he values us... Read the rest of the Article. Post a Comment

Reading in the dark

September 9, 2007

Some of you will have read about the publication of Mother Teresa’s private letters. Apparently they spanned more than 60 years of her life and were written to her Confessors and spiritual advisors.

The discussion about her private letters raises lots of questions. The first one that came to my mind was whether we should read the private letters of someone who had asked that the letters be destroyed and that they not be published. Is it voyeuristic to read this kind of thing? Looking but not exposing ourselves to the person? ...

One of the issues debated in the discussion concerns the so-called “dark night of the soul”. Many Christians have a sense of loss or failure in their relationship with God... Read the rest of the Article. Post a Comment.

Christians without borders

September 2, 2007

Last weekend I attended a conference together with about 300 others from around South East Asia. Some were young and seemed eager to find out how the Lord wanted to use their lives in his service. Many were in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s and were already serving in a variety of interesting ways in business or the professions.

And there was a significant group of grey heads. Some were leaders or founders of Indonesian ministries and churches. Others were foreigners, some of whom had been in Indonesia for a long time.

Three things stood out for me. One was the different groups who attended representing different SEA nations. The most moving group to me was the 20 delegates who stood up representing Japan. A second thing was to see so many older Christians who were full of energy and zeal and vast experience still serving Christ with passion.

The third thing concerns an old discussion topic. Read the rest of the Article. Post a Comment.

The Open hand

August 19, 2007

Giving! It must be one of the most sensitive issues in church life. "The church is always after money," some say. Even the core members can start feeling defensive when money is the topic. But discussions about giving do not have to start arguments. They could start a revival. Christian giving is a blessing.

Giving is one of God's favourite subjects. It is also an exciting subject. There are riches in this subject that are much greater than money. Giving takes us to the heart of being a Christian. It also brings us up against a very powerful idol... Read the rest of the Article. Post a Comment.

Where is heaven?

August 05, 2007

The short answer to this is that heaven is where God is. That is what we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father in heaven…”, although the rest of the Sermon on the Mount seems to toggle between referring to “our heavenly Father”, and “our Father in heaven”. In this case “heavenly” is way of describing the kind of Father he is – one who exists in the heavens, i.e. not of the earth.

Other parts of the Bible give us the idea that this heavenly world is a place where many spiritual beings exist – including even Satan for a time (eg see Job 1). Paul says we have ascended there already (Eph 2.6) – in Christ. Read the rest of the article. Post a Comment.

What about the pearly gates?

July 29, 2007

One of the difficulties with summarising what happens after death is the wide variety of images that are used to describe it. The difficulty is made worse by the fact that many of the passages in the Bible are not focussed on us, or what we experience.

Take the pearly gates for example. Theses gates are described in Revelation 21. There were twelve of them and they were never shut. Each gate was a single pearl, and they were set in the walls of the city (three on each side). Each wall measured about 2,200 kilometres long – about from Jakarta to Ambon (the city wall was also 2,200km high!). One presumes this is not describing what was actually there, but rather .... Read the rest if the article. Post a comment.

Does anyone go to heaven?

July 22, 2007

Discussions this week over dinner at our house have raised some interesting questions about heaven. Especially about the idea that Christians go to heaven. The phrase is a well used and popular shorthand. Most of us who use it know what we mean by it. It is meant to summarise the hope we have of what will happen to us when we die.

But explaining what it is supposed to mean is not as easy as it first appears. For one thing there seems to be little evidence in the Bible that Christians do go to heaven. They go somewhere for sure – but if not heaven, where? Read the rest of the article. Post a Comment

Pray or delay?

14 January 2007

When I was in my 20s I went on a mission with a man who was a member of the Free Presbyterian Church (the ‘wee frees’ they were called). He was a godly man who prayed amazing prayers. I was very impressed by the way his prayers started. No jumping straight into requests. He took his time recounting the wonderful character of God, as he had learnt to do from his reformed heritage.

I learnt a lot from his prayers. But there was a temptation to pray for the sake of the beauty of the language. It was a tricky question. Was the prayer composed out of respect for God – to honour him by the way I spoke to him? Or was I myself the real audience? Or worse still –was I praying to the people who were listening? More... Post a comment