Unsettled Christianity

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February 16th, 2012 by craigbenno

Cyberspace pastoral care.

I have been thinking today about the global phenomena of cyberspace within the framework of Christian community. Yesterday was a tough day for me. Old wounds revisited and new blows causing deep inner welts. Of which I wrote about elsewhere today. A number of people commented, telling me they were praying for me, and giving me encouragement.

Those words of encouragement and the commitment to prayers were very welcome and greatly needed. Tonight, I visited a friend and we also prayed for each other. While cyberspace will never replace the need for and the fruit that face to face friendships create, in many ways the Internet has created a way for deeper as well as a wider scope for what it means to be part of a global and local Christian community.

Joel, you were one of the first to say you were praying and it quickly followed with others telling me likewise. I cannot explain just how encouraging and uplifting those encounters were. I’d like to encourage us all to think about the power of prayer and just how encouraging it can be to say to someone, hey, we are praying for you.

Tags: cyber space, global community, pastoral care, prayer
Posted in Devotional, Uncategorized | No Comments »

February 3rd, 2012 by craigbenno

Pox on the flavour of Christianity.

Note: This is a departure from my normal genre of writing, and is in the format of a rant or vent….one of which I don’t apologise.

John Piper has got up my nose when he said, “God’s intention for Christianity is for it to have a “masculine feel”

I made the following comment elsewhere today:

Pipers ‘sodmonisation’ of Scripture is what happens when you cowtow to a certain theological belief system and community, in which the peer pressure to remain “one of the boys” is immense.

Seriously this guy has overstepped the mark. Joel made a great comment about his marriage improving in his recent post about leaving Fundamentalism in which he posted about a new book being released by IVP.

Shame on you John Piper! Shame! Do you really believe that God’s intention is for Christianity to have an masculine feel!

I thought Christianity was about Christ, freeing all of humanity from the bondage of sin and reconciling us back to God. I thought within the framework of Christianity we recognise that both male and female were created in the image of God. And I thought that within the glorious liberation of the Gospel that there is no distinction between gender, race and societal class / position in Christ. … H.T my blog

Piper, Driscol, et al, all remind me of a school boys club where they get a grip on each other, if you know what I mean? I think Paul’s vent to them would be….guys I wish you would go and cut all your tackle off! Such is the nature of circumcising the body. …..end of my rant!

Tags: Christ, fundamentalism, john piper, masculinity, Religion and Spirituality
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

January 25th, 2012 by craigbenno

Do you really hear.

I often think about ‘hearing’ and what it means to truly hear. The following paragraph is from this post here

My favourite verse from the Psalms is from 116:1-2. I love the Lord for he heard my voice. Because he inclined his ear to me, I will love him the rest of my days.

Often we equate hearing as being hearing what someone says and that is that. But I want to make the proposal that true hearing means more then just hearing what is said. Rather real hearing involves action. Within the framework of the Psalm, David says that he loves the Lord because God heard his voice. This means that God heard and acted on his behalf.

We also are called to be hearers of the world in which we live. We are called to act. We are called to serve. We are called to help. We are called to be part of the solution and not the problem. The question I would like to leave you with today is how well do you actually hear?

Tags: action, God, hearing, jesus, Psalm
Posted in Devotional, Uncategorized | No Comments »

January 13th, 2012 by craigbenno

Australia is the best nation in the world.

I am an Australian. I love my nation. And I think Australia is the best nation in the world. I also believe that us Aussies down under are among the best in the world. But enough of my boasting for I can hear you say, put your money where you mouth is! So….

Here are some pics of the best harbour in the world…. and of course, some of the best people in the world. At least it is from my perspective.

Tags: Aussies, Australia, Australian, down under, Humour, Manly, photography, pictures, satire, sydney, Sydney Harbour
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

December 30th, 2011 by craigbenno

No new year resolutions, only a continuum

I have decided not to make any New Year resolutions this year; instead I want to remain on a continuum of this year into the next and the year after. You can read in more detail of what that will look like here.

Part of that continuum will be to still post here as I do time to time. I want to thank you all for reading and engaging with what I have written this year and also thank Joel for allowing me to do so.

As part of this continuation into the new year, for Joel and his family, fellow blog contributors and readers: I pray that you will continue to grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. That you will continue to grow in the awareness of the riches of his grace, the power of forgiveness and share in the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit and the fellowship of believers.

Tags: Continuation from one year to the next, New Years Resolution, prayer, thanks
Posted in Devotional, Uncategorized | No Comments »

October 31st, 2011 by craigbenno

Finding Peace

I was in a rather reflective mood last night and wrote some poetry titled Finding Peace

The waves of life washing over my feet, hypnotically I stare ahead, not really noticing my feet sinking into the sands of time. It takes all my energy just to stand, against the forces against me…

and the Sea of Life.

Masses of people going to and fro, like waves on the shore. Coming and going with the tide of
societies expectation. Crashing and eroding ones sanity with the ethic of greed and consumption. The weight of the grains of more, add to the dunes of the never stable hills, on which one slides and digs into as they climb with hope of success….

What are your thoughts about peace and life?

Tags: consummerism, God, greed, life, lifestyle, Metaphor, peace, Peace walk, poetry
Posted in Devotional, Other Posts, Poetry, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

September 15th, 2011 by RodtRDH

A Must Read: Blake Huggins on The emerging church’s misuse of Deconstruction

If anyone who wishes to use the word “deconstruct” and not know what it actually mean, I advise you to shut up, and read this awesome post.

I guess Blake joins me in having an apathy towards Emergent village:

“My frustration stems from the tweets, Facebook statuses, and blog posts (and books) that I see from time to time where someone will in effect suggest that having a “deconstructive stage” was important for a while but now its time to “get serious” and start reconstructing things (faith, theology, etc.) toward some sort of “new” end. In essence, deconstruction is given a negative and overly critical connotation and is understood to be the initial step in a larger process. Doubt was good and cool for a time, criticizing and rejecting conventional religiosity was fun while it lasted, but the real work starts when you decided to start affirming and arguing core theological tenets anchored by a foundation. When I read and hear things like this I realize how unfortunate it is that the mystics and the via negativa don’t get more play in emergent church circles.”

Read the rest. NUFF said!

Misusing Deconstruction: On Belief and the Emergent Church: Irreligiousity

Tags: emergent church, postmodernism
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September 10th, 2011 by craigbenno

Confusion, pain and unanswered questions of Sept 11

It’s Sept 11 here in Australia. I wrote a piece on my blog about my confusion, pain and unanswered questions about Sept 11. My prayers and sympathies lay with all who are affected by terrorism and war.

Tags: America, Australia, confusion, globalisation, prayer, questions, Sept 11, terror
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

August 16th, 2011 by craigbenno

Why…why…why?

I’m wondering why we Christians who have the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us struggle against sin…why do we call upon society to stop sinning when they don’t have the empowering presence of the Spirit within them to do so?

Tags: my rant for the day.
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

August 16th, 2011 by craigbenno

What is the centrality of your message?

There is a vast dichotomy of areas within Christendom in which we can preach. Sin, repentance,holiness, love, mercy, grace, church, atonement, god / God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, gifts, calling, creationism, Bible etc. Yet the question has to be asked what is the core of our belief. What is the centrality of our message?

It’s an important question because if we get this wrong; we can quite frankly get the whole message wrong and therefore find ourselves preaching against Christ.

In my mind, the centrality of our message has to be the good news about the forgiveness of sin – which reconciles us with God. Therefore we need to be careful that our central message is not preaching against sin, for Christ himself became sin…and to preach against sin, will cause us to preach against Christ, who become sin so that we might become right with God.

This raises many more questions as to how are we to then preach about sin… and the answer is fairly simple; but also profound and its to preach within the context of forgiveness of all sin…

Simply put – its the Holy Spirits role to convict of sin, righteousness of Christ and the judgement of the devil….our part is to continually offer to others and to accept the freedom of forgiveness. Therefore if you have never asked God to forgive you… the question I ask is why?