Category: life

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Brad Pitt on God

Parade Magazine has two articles on Brad Pitt in their latest issue (here and here). Brad grew up in a Southern Baptist family but turned away from God in his late teens. Check out this quote on some of his thinking about God:

“Religion works,” he goes on. “I know there’s comfort there, a crash pad. It’s something to explain the world and tell you there is something bigger than you, and it is going to be alright in the end. It works because it’s comforting. I grew up believing in it, and it worked for me in whatever my little personal high school crisis was, but it didn’t last for me. I didn’t understand this idea of a God who says, ‘You have to acknowledge me. You have to say that I’m the best, and then I’ll give you eternal happiness. If you won’t, then you don’t get it!’ It seemed to be about ego. I can’t see God operating from ego, so it made no sense to me.

How would you respond to him? Is he right? Has he misunderstood something about God? Himself?

Comment away…

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Substitution lies at the heart of sin and salvation

I think I’ve linked to it before, but Of First Importance is one of my favourite blogs. Each day they have a quote to remind you of what is ‘of first importance’. Here’s a Stott quote from a couple of days ago:

“The concept of substitution may be said . . . to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone; God accept penalties which belong to man alone.” John R.W. Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press, 1986), 160.

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Dove Onslaught

This is the latest Dove from the ‘Campaign For Real Beauty‘.
(h/t ypulse – check out some of the stats below)

  • The average person sees between 400 and 600 advertisements per day – equivalent to more than one message for every waking minute.
  • The average US girl has the opportunity to see an estimated 77,546 commercials by the time she is 12 years old.
  • 93 percent of girls and young women report feeling anxiety or stress about some aspect of their looks when getting ready in the morning
  • This could explain why more than 70 percent of girls and young women avoid activities when they feel bad about their looks including giving their opinion, attending school and even going to the doctor.
  • 76 percent of girls and young women admit to partaking in unhealthy activities when they feel badly about their bodies
  • 58 percent of girls describe themselves in negative terms, including words like “disgusting” and “ugly,” when feeling badly about themselves.
  • Nearly four out of 10 engage in unhealthy eating behaviors, such as anorexia or bulimia.
  • More than one out of 10 girls has used cutting or self-inflicted injury as a coping mechanism.

While on the net – check out one of their previous ones: evolution AND a parody I just found… very funny!

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NYMC #14 – Preaching Christ Crucified

The National Youth Ministry Convention 07 was lots of fun! I met some great people, was reminded of some incredible truths and have been challenged to trust in God and not myself. There were just under 500 people at the convention and it was exciting to meet so many who are passionately proclaiming Jesus in their context.

The convention closed with a time of communion. The organiser, Stephen Parker, closed with a clear reminder of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This was an encouraging time – however the cross of Christ was not given the centre stage throughout the whole conference as it ought. I think that it is helpful to get speakers from different backgrounds, but there were some who share a different gospel and ought not be part of this conference if it runs again in the future.

I said it elsewhere, but what was missing most from the conference was the gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection for sins. A pastors conference ought not be an evangelistic rally, but as the troops are brought in from the battlefront, they need to be equipped and reminded of what really matters. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul outlines that which is of first importance:

3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 

Australian Youth Ministry needs leaders who will preach Christ Crucified to a dying generation.

NYMC Live Blog Summary:

Did you go? I’d love to hear your reflections…

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NYMC #13 – Graham Stanton

Graham Stanton is the Dean at Youthworks College. On Friday morning I went to Graham’s workshop on ‘Answering Difficult Questions’. It was brilliant! There were some guys sitting nearby that were expecting him to go through a list of tough questions and then give the answers. What they got was much better! Rather than giving the specifics of different questions, Graham gave a Christ-centred framework to help think through how to answer difficult questions. Here are some of my notes:

Understanding God’s Drama (Vanhoozer):

  • Creation
  • Fall
  • Israel
  • JESUS
  • Church
  • New Creation

We live in the 5th Act of the drama. Understanding the drama will help us to understand how to live in this Act (and therefore answer questions).

Principles for answering questions:

  1. Directed by God – therefore study scripture
  2. Does your answer point to Christ? – magnify Christ

A BIBLICAL RAFT TO NAVIGATE THE WATERS OF CONTROVERSY

  • How does the doctrine of creation help me to answer this question?
  • How does the doctrine of the fall help me to answer this question?
  • How does the doctrine of redemption help me to answer this question?
  • How does the doctrine of eschatology help me to answer this question?
  • The mast of the boat is CHRIST.

Being from similar tribes, we had fun hanging and chatting with Graham over a couple of meals…I also scored a free lift back to the airport – thanks!

NYMC Live Blog: #1 – Live Blogging; #2 – Getting here, #3 – Josh Griffin, #4 – My Place on MySpace, #5 – Thanksgiving, #6 – Josh Griffin Podcast, #7 – Tim Hawkins and trusting God, #8 – The danger of assumptions, #9 – Forge and the emerging church, #10 – The Skit Guys, #11 – Duffy Robbins,#12 – Tony Campolo.