Our studies in Romans over the last few weeks have shown us how and why a society’s morality drifts away from healthy, wise ways to live. As they turn away from him, God “gives them over” to do what they want to do, and so it it is no surprise that the government is planning to begin a consultation on changing the definition of marriage to introduce same-sex marriage.

Although this is one way in which “the wrath of God is being revealed”, at the same time he provides his people as salt and light, so that, as he enables them to live by his word, they both demonstrate the counter-culture of his kingdom and exert some limited but significant influence in halting the damaging slide away from his standards in the culture at large.

Here is an opportunity to add your voice to an appeal to government to retain marriage in its current form. I would urge you to sign up today!

A new broad-based group, the Coalition for Marriage, has been formed to campaign for retaining the current definition of marriage. Launched in Westminster this morning, the Coalition will be taking several initiatives, but as a first step it has initiated a petition which states: “I support the legal definition of marriage which is the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others. I oppose any attempt to redefine it.”

You can add your name online at www.c4m.org.uk

Andrew

Thank you to them for asking me to address this topic – I think it’s the most significant social issue of our day…

Andrew

“A contented heart looks to God’s disposal [ie God's ordering of his life]. That is, he sees the wisdom of God in everything. In his submission to God, he sees His sovereignty, but what enables him to take pleasure [in his present difficulties] is God’s wisdom. The Lord knows how to order things better than I. The Lord sees further ahead than I do. I see only the present but the Lord sees a great while from now. And how do I know but that had it not been for this affliction, I should have been undone. I know that the love of God may as well stand with an afflicted condition as with a prosperous condition. There are reasonings of this kind in a contented spirit, submitting to the disposal of God.”

This is worth a moment to consider, and to pray your feelings about it to our sovereign God.

And has just got better, with their release this week of a new Bible reading app. If you have a smartphone, this could be the best thing for you since you opened the box and charged the battery. It could open up a new channel for communication with your Creator, the LORD God himself.

Here is the info (thanks to Tim Chester for the Copy/Paste…)

Who can use it?
Anyone with an iPhone (3G, 3GS or 4), iPad, iPod Touch, Android phone or Android tablet. You can download it in pretty much any country in the world – you don’t have to be in the UK or US.

How does it work?
It comes with Time with God pre-installed, so as soon as you download it, you can start using it to read the Bible. All relevant Bible text is included within the App (including cross-references) and once you’ve downloaded it, you don’t need to be connected to the Internet to use it. So you can use it on the Tube, on a flight etc. You can download additional notes from within the App which are the same as the paper edition, although they come in one month chunks, not three months.

How much is it?
It is free to download, complete with Time with God. Additional months of notes cost £1.49 in the UK (in the US it’s $1.99). These can be downloaded from the Download section of the App.

How do you get it?
If you have an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, visit the Apple App store and search for “Explore Bible Devotional” (http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/explore-bible-devotional/id482034447?mt=8).

If you have an Android device, visit the Android Market and search for “Explore Bible Devotional”  (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.thegoodbook.explore&feature=searc).

It is not possible to download this App from The Good Book Company websites.

But apparently that does not mean religion is useless, in fact, some of them argue we’d struggle without it! Which is an oddly unstable position…

Here is a compelling book review from the Guardian, which ends like this:

“What the book [Religion for Atheists by Alain De Botton] does, in short, is hijack other people’s beliefs, empty them of content and redeploy them in the name of moral order, social consensus and aesthetic pleasure. It is an astonishingly impudent enterprise. It is also strikingly unoriginal. Liberal-capitalist societies, being by their nature divided, contentious places, are forever in search of a judicious dose of communitarianism to pin themselves together, and a secularised religion has long been one bogus solution on offer. The late Christopher Hitchens, who some people think is now discovering that his broadside God Is Not Great was slightly off the mark, would have scorned any such project. He did not consider that religion was a convenient fiction. He thought it was disgusting. Now there’s something believers can get their teeth into …”

But Christ has gone that way. He has taken the heat, borne the wrath, that we may know peace in the face of judgement through trusting him. Dear Lord, in this “great” year for London, let it be a year for many to find your mercy in Christ. Please bring the fruit you promise from your word proclaimed. Help us and use us for your glory.

Andrew

http://www.flixxy.com/digital-christmas-story.htm

Enjoy!

4pm, 18th December. Elm Road Recreation Ground

Check it out here.

The Ugley Vicar addresses the Cathedral

The capital markets should exist to, and structure themselves around, serving, not being served, not getting themselves rich, but doing good. The church should be calling for that, loud and clear. Even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve.

What would that look like? I don’t know, but I’ll bet they could work it out…