Part of an interesting article from Steve Kryger, quoting D.L. Moody

It is a very sad thing that so many of God’s children are dumb; yet it is true. Parents would think it a great calamity to have their children born dumb; they would mourn over it, and weep; and well they might; but did you ever think of the many dumb children God has? The churches are full of them; they never speak for Christ. They can talk about politics, art, and science; they can speak well enough and fast enough about the fashions of the day; but they have NO VOICE FOR THE SON OF GOD. Dear friend, if He is your Savior, confess Him.

Makes me think of Colossians 4:5-6

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

… In other news, I think Steve’s “Communicate Jesus” blog could be my new favourite read!

Tim Challies gives this book a bit of a serve, but I decided recently that it might be important to read more books where I know I might disagree with the author. A good way to sharpen what I DO believe in.

So far I’ve found that I enjoy it. There are certainly some areas that are a helpful & thoughtful challenge. One such section was what Richard Mouw (the author) calls “A Hierarchy of labels.” Speaking to a Lutheran friend, they understood themselves as:
“First & foremost a human being… second a Christian… thirdly a protestant & finally a Lutheran.”
If I had my way, I would love everyone in the world to be a “Capital R” reformed protestant, and even better if they were Anglican (or at a pinch, Presbyterian), but in the end, the gospel I am preaching is not the Anglican gospel, or even the reformed gospel, but the gospel of Jesus Christ. I do think these other “labels” become important when it comes down to the way that we understand God and the way we interact with them, but I am far more interested in someone saying with confidence that they can “confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in their heart that God raised him from the dead” (Rom 10:9)
What is that fundamental label that we define ourselves by?
I guess many of the labels change depending on who we are defining ourselves to, but “Created by God” and “and a son adopted through Christ’s sacrifice on my behalf” is the bedrock for me.

………..

Changing tack slightly, do you know what label I dislike? The label “Arty!” For years I felt it was a label used to exult others while denigrating me, the uninspired drone…. then, during college, I somehow earned an element of “artiness” through my passion for photography. I think I disliked the label even more then.
For me the joy has always been finding the “art” in people’s lives. I still feel strongly, that the person committed to the sales process, the subliminal psychology that happens in brief relationships, etc, can turn service at McDonalds into art. I love to see the art of checkout staff at the supermarket, when their fingers dance across screens in a well practiced quickstep, or the crisp efficiency of the barista, extracting every ounce of beauty out of some cooked beans….
For mind, when you throw around the “arty” term, you rob the general populace of the beauty of their world, narrowing it to a world of paint, pencils, and sculptors clay. Watch Kings of Pastry and tell me you’re not watching artists!

So my question.

What’s the label that is fundamentally important to you, and which would you ditch?

Songs like “lovesick” represent rap going “mainstream.” It has a loop that is very catchy, works well on radio & has none of the political, racial, or gang-oriented themes of other rap.

It takes me back.

I’m wondering if I even need to comment on my songs? Maybe I’ll just post them.

An interesting vid of Kurt Vonnegut (If you haven’t read any of his books, you need to), speaking on the shape of stories…

One of the things I’ve always liked about Stephen King is that he was never afraid to finish a book with the line wavering between the G & the I with no clear indication of where it would end up even as it reached the end of the BE axis…

Recent results may have not gone our way, but I’m hoping the best result from the world cup is a life-long relationship between the Gumnut & Rugby Union!

Of course it’s not the most important thing that Gumnut needs to learn, I’m far more interested in him growing up to love & serve Jesus. That said, Rugby would be another great point for he & I to bond around.

I’ve heard people speak about Scripture in schools & Bible teaching at home as being “brain washing.” My two questions are this. At what point does something change from being “teaching your children about those things you believe to be true & fundamentally important,” to “brain washing your kids?”

I teach my kids that you don’t pick up snakes in the wild, you should obey your parents & be polite to others, why wouldn’t I teach my kid that it is good to be in a relationship with the God who created him?

Meanwhile, I’ll do what I can to make him a Wallabies supporter, and I suspect he’ll get roped in to being a photographer too….

What’s the passion that you hope your kids will share?

I’ve missed a couple of Fridays but I promise to be better.

Can I kick it? Yes I can!
Can I remember to post on time? Not always.

I had a look through my photos from the last two week’s travels.

I don’t think I have a single picture that doesn’t involve my kids.

Don’t get me wrong, I love photographing my kids (and I know I have a bunch of relatives who love any chance to look at them) but I also enjoy lots of other photography. I’d hate for my photography to become monochrome… A good challenge for me to think about.

In other news, I finished “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” yesterday (not a long book). Very challenging.

Are you automatically ahead in an argument if you use the term “Radical” or “Fundamentalist” about your competition?

If Christians are taking any kind of conservative stance on something (remember here, that even “conservative” has become a negative term to many… why is protecting something you believe valuable from harm bad?) they get called “fundamentalist” and they are automatically bad. If any politician suggests that really we need to take a closer look at ourselves & as whether we are making the right decisions as a country, they are called “radical” and they become bad.

I hope I bring a “radical” mindset to life, looking to shake up my understanding of the fundamental nature of things.
I hope I can be “fundamentalist” in my thinking, remembering to get back to the basics, those building blocks which shape who & what I am, rather than letting the current bee in my bonnet shape my whole world view.

But I don’t think I’ll be happy if I’m labelled as either in a conversation…

It was an ambitious plan to drive from the Central Coast to Melbourne on the Monday morning, Melbourne to Wagga on the Thursday, then Wagga back home on Saturday, but it did mean that Shona, myself & the kids got to spend time with all of my family, and we also spent a lot of time together (mostly in the car!).

We went to Melbourne Zoo, we spent time on my favourite street at one of my favourite chocolate stores, we found out that Wagga has a produce market & it’s own impressive chocolate store (which even had chocolates whose explanations included obscure references to 1980’s comedy/horror movies…. I got points for knowing who Bruce Campbell was).

The whole time was awesome.

Well, I should get back to normal blogging now, but here’s a couple of photos from the last little while.

My munchkins spent half a week with me up at the Hunter Valley before our big road trip… They’re still afraid of the dog.

Pumpkin LOVED spending time with her cousin, who was a great host (here at the Zoo)

Melbourne Zoo is pretty cool.

Gumnut is a lot more mobile & a lot more inquisitive every day.

Nice to know your son trusts you.

Annika loves her gift from the Zoo “Giraffie”, though she could be more imaginative with the name…

The Goldfinch/Smith kids together.

I LOVE this picture of Mama & Gumnut.

Pumpkin was quite taken with Uncle Andrew.