The Idol of Sport

Let the games begin… Australia is a nation infatuated with sport. We are tribal about our sporting teams, whether it’s: Manly Sea-Eagles, Sydney FC, The Swans, The Tahs, The Wallabies or the Australian Swim team. In Australia we follow sport like a religion – we follow sports people like gods.

Don Bradman, Cathy Freeman, Ian Thorpe and maybe even Stephanie Rice (Australia’s first gold medal today) are all god-like figures. Every week more people fill sports stadiums to worship the gods of their sport – than people gather to worship Jesus. It’s easy to idolise sport.

So much money is invested into Australian sport. Is it really a good investment?

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Jesus Life Culture Design #9

Well known Christian Musician, Steven Curtis Chapman, and well known Christian Pastor + Evangelist, Greg Laurie, both recently lost a child in tragic circumstances. This morning we watched the Chapman family on Larry King Live and some heart-felt words from Laurie to his church last weekend. The resurrection of Jesus gives Christians a hope in suffering that the world doesn’t understand:

13Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. (1 Thessalonians 4)

Latest delicious.com bookmarks. You can subscribe to them via RSS or just keep an eye out on the left sidebar. Here are the latest 10:

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Temptation to be Loved

“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is to love and be loved in return”. We all just want to be loved. But sometimes, we look for love in the wrong places. Often our world equates love with sex. In order to be really loved, you’ve got to be doing it as often as possible! 25% of Australian teenagers have had sexual intercourse by the time they turn 16 and 40% of 16 year old boys have deliberately looked for sex websites. This means that there is a great temptation for Christian teenagers to look for love in the wrong place.

Is God against sex? No not at all, he invented it! But God is against sex being done the wrong way, outside of His plans for it. The Bible calls this sexual immorality. In Corinth there was a church 2000 years ago that had people known for bizarre, Jerry-Springer style sexual immorality: A man hooked up with his dad’s wife.

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The Idol of Celebrity

We are obsessed with celebrity. When it comes to newspapers, magazines, tv shows and websites, we are more interested in celebrity stories than serious and important issues such as the recent developments in Iraq or 3rd world poverty or the latest Asian natural disaster to claim 100,000 lives.

We are obsessed with the lives of celebrities: Brad and Angelina; Britney Spears; Tom and Kate; Nicole and Keith; David Beckham and Posh Spice; Lindsay Lohan; Prince Harry and Prince William; Paris Hilton; Delta Goodrum; and Leyton and Bec.

We are obsessed with the deaths of celebrities: I can remember where I was when I heard that Princess Diana, Steve Irwin and Heath Ledger had each died.

We make celebrities out of royalty, movie stars, TV stars, sports stars, musicians, maybe even other Christians!

Here are 3 reasons to turn from the idol of worshipping other people:

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