Keynes’s point of departure was the economist’s standard view that money has no utility in itself, but is simply the means to acquire goods which possess utility. People want goods, not money. Keynes, however, saw the capitalism of his day not so much as a goods-generating machine as a cash-generating machine: people acquired money to get more money. What should have been a means had become an end. This disposition to value money above the things it could buy was true of both the moneymaker and the money-hoarder, but the pleasure in the possession of money took different forms in the two cases. The overvaluation of monetary gain could be seen in the fetish of cheapness. Keynes suggested that standardization, stimulated by advertising, had ‘raised the price of idiosyncrasy’. If we all consumed exactly the same thing, prices would be much lower and we would all be ‘better off ’. But variety is a good in itself.

…

But an economy which treats money as goods…, because, as Keynes said, abstract money will always seem more attractive than concrete goods. Our imaginations race ahead of our senses, filling us with unsatisfied desires, and money is the continual stimulator of our imagination, creating a perpetual sense of dissatisfaction with what we already have.

Keynes: The Return of the Master by Robert Skidelsky

May we spend our time and invest our imaginations on working and dreaming of all that God can and will do.

“And I, because of their actions and their imaginations, am about to come and gather all nations and tongues, and they will come and see my glory” (Isaiah 66:18)

Spirit, breathe into our imaginations.

1. Prepare more.
2. Leave out the boring bits. “they are the fault of the preacher not the bible.”
3. Don’t wait till Sunday to try out you sermon.
4. Ditch notes
5. Speak to the people who aren’t there yet.
6. Have an argument – Arguments are always more interesting and forces people to think about where they stand.
7. Speak to the people who are there – Preaching the same passage to different congregations demands a different talk.
8. Avoid trite application.
9. Talk about Jesus every week.
10. Listen to your own podcast – the pain will be worth it.

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Humans are amazingly creative beings. We’re constantly coming up with new ways to do stupid things. So, why would we think that the church addressed every possible heresy at these 7 councils?

Great post by Marc Cortez – he makes a fair point and has got me thinking. 

The 7 councils do stand at the heart of our understanding of heresy, but they don’t necessarily have to dictate to us how do we define heresy.

I like McGrath’s definition: “A heresy is a doctrine that ultimately destroys, destabilises, or distorts a mystery rather than preserving it.” Heresy ultimately distorts, rather than defends, the mystery of faith. It is a failed attempt at orthodoxy. It’s perhaps better, though, to accept this as a descriptive term rather than a pejorative one. Heresies don’t have to have malicious intent. They are simply misaligned with the truth they seek to give definition to. 

There is a danger when we look at using the formulations of the 7 councils as our ‘plumb-line’ for heresy, that we make the mis-step of assuming the Christian faith is “simply or even fundamentally a set of ideas.”¹ Experience of, and relationship with, The Truth leads us to seek to express this as a theological statement or set of statements. This does not detract, though, from the fact that theological formulations are secondary to the “experience that precipitated and shaped them.”² The search for orthodoxy then, is linked to authenticity.   Orthodoxy (believing the right things) cannot be divorced from orthopraxy (doing the right things). Your character must match the message. 

Defending the truth, then, is about protecting the health of faith. Ideas can be powerful things. As we grasp more of what is possible and our eyes of faith rise to new possibilities of what God’s plans are achieving, heretical teaching can rob us of the mystery and fullness of faith. They can lead us to believe the wrong things about God, which in turn lead us to live in ways at odds with, rather than in line with, the divine. 

If you’ve read McGrath’s book, or simply read the footnotes, you’ll notice I’ve basically nabbed all these thoughts from his book on heresy. Definitely worth a read if you’re interested in these things ;-)

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The Foreign Secretary and the Archbishop of Canterbury intervened last night to try to save a Christian pastor in Iran who has refused to renounce his faith to escape a death sentence. An Iranian court gave Youcef Nadarkhani, 34, a third and final chance to avoid hanging, but he replied: “I am resolute in my faith and Christianity and have no wish to recant.”

The persecution of Christians across the globe is real.

Do pray for Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani. Then act by signing this petition whilst there is still time to do so.

Update: “CSW has facilitated the sending of over 19,000 emails from campaigners to the Iranian embassy in the UK and continues to pursue advocacy on behalf of Pastor Nadarkhani.

HT The Times (you must have a subscription to view)

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HT Chris Brady (original source unknown)

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Neither can at least 30 Greek Professors by the looks of things…

Write the Greek word/phrase for the following common English words or phrases:

1. Yes
2. Chair or Seat
3. Ball
4. Cat
5. Monkey
6. Nine
7. Red
8. Cold
9. Nose
10. To jump
    Bonus: “Hello, how are you?” “Goodbye!”

After the audience [of 30 Greek Professors] had finished, I collected their quizzes. The average “grade” was 0.4 out 10 correct. Most testees could not answer any of the questions correctly, although they tried. The highest grade was 2 out of 10. Now, this audience included many scholars who had written best selling Greek textbooks and grammars. Of course, I won’t name names!

Makes me feel an awful lot better!

We’re experts at filling out paradigm charts. We love to explain the historical role of the digamma in irregular verbs. We can nerd on an on about proclitics and enclitics (ok, maybe not, but you get my point ). What we lack is simple proficiency in Greek.

Daniel R. Streett is on a roll over at καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

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So let’s not reach for ‘fridge magnet phrases’ – let’s be poets and wordsmiths whose quest to find fresh expressions is itself an act of worship… It’s about having discernment, knowing when to use a phrase and when not to. I’d err on the side of “not”, even if just for a personal exercise. When tempted to slip into fridge magnet ‘praise phrases’, let’s choose instead to try harder, dig deeper, and craft a more beautiful, fresh and unique way of describing our beautiful and unique God.

A worthy exhortation.

Easy for me to say as someone who doesn’t write worship songs but…  My experience of those songs that really ‘work’ are that they appear to have been written out of a deep experience and consistent lifestyle of conviction by the Holy Spirit and revelation of Jesus.

It’s perhaps not surprising that as we struggle to put into words what we have come to know in our hearts, that we find ourselves adopting the register of scripture.  Creativity and familiarity can co-exist.

I think the call for creativity and fresh expression, though, is recognising that the worship ‘scene’ can be a bit of an echo chamber at times, reflecting the language of other worship songs rather than fresh engagement with truth.

In any case, heartfelt worship songs that ‘connect’ will have more to do with the position of the worshipper and the journey of the community no matter how clever the lyrics.

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A conservative figure for the number of Christians in China would now be 70 million.

That’s a lot.

It’s perhaps no wonder than that Christianity is still treated with suspicion by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), whilst at the same time, there are many who call for increasing levels of acceptance. What Dr Gardam’s piece highlights well is the genuine tension in China between the official Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) churches and the ‘underground’, unofficial house churches.

Interpreting the TSPM is both complicated and controversial. The demand from believers has been for a ‘space’ in society where the individual could “govern his whole life and thought by Christian ideas and principles.” The practical developments around the modus vivendi that is the TSPM demonstrates both the problem of continued government interference with this ‘space’ for religious activity, and the reality of how some Three-Self churches are able to avoid the more restrictive aspects of the arrangement in practice.

There is a real danger in viewing the official church with derision and contempt, and presenting them as a moribund organisation that has outlived its usefulness. There are some very real compromises without question (the forbidding of ‘evangelism’ amongst the populace by TSPM churches of under-18s springs to mind.) There are some very real failings of the TSPM, and memories of the betrayal of house-church Christians by their TSPM peers in the 1950′s and opening years of the Cultural Revolution die hard. Yet the there are areas where religious accommodation has afforded to the official wing of Protestant Christianity in China a negotiation of gradual freedoms that simply would not be possible without its legal, and necessarily compromised, status.

Yet the reality of CCP meddling in church activity, while an issue treated with some care, has not been met by all registered church leaders with a somnambulant conformity, where they have proven unwilling or unable to respond. In reality, the degree of control wielded by the state is uneven the regions and there are many examples of official and unofficial churches working closely together – even of believers attending morning ‘house churches’, only to join in worship with TSPM believers in the evening. It is also, incidentally, categorically not the case that TSPM churches and their pastors are not themselves subject to persecution.

It doesn’t have to be a case of either or. Religious accommodation in an atheist state and house churches that go beyond the boundaries of legality can both be legitimate and spirit-filled responses in my view.

The state of Christianity in China is more than a search for autonomous space for religious activity. Being a Follower of Jesus and sitting under his lordship can be seen as at odds with the communist state. But the ways in which the lordship of Christ – just as it did for Paul and his believers across the Roman Empire – can express itself in many different, creative and surprising ways.

Just a few thoughts.

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I consider looseness with words no less of a defect than looseness of the bowels.

(John Calvin)

(Via Quote of the Day « Zwinglius Redivivus.)

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What’s likely to cost Obama his re-election isn’t that he did a particularly bad job in the (awful) situation he inherited, but that the strong messages of “hope” and “change” in his campaign — a significant part of what got him elected — convinced so many people that he could do more than he actually can as president.

The search for the liberal Messiah who can transcend the mire of politics continues… Hilary may not have faired any better, but maybe she would have managed expectations better?

Via Marco.org and Rebecca Traister.

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