Archive for October, 2004
This will be my weekend reading …
1. Incarnational Mission — Mark Norridge
2. Incarnational Missiology — Graham Old
The STM gate was really welcoming, it’s a really nice place – thought popping up – “what am I getting myself into?” – “Just do it lah!”
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Thanks Andy for this one – it’s not easy but for our health it’s necessary.
“When we have been wounded by the Church, our temptation is to reject it. But when we reject the Church it becomes very hard for us to keep in touch with the living Christ. When we say, “I love Jesus, but I hate the Church,” we end up losing not only the Church but Jesus too. The challenge is to forgive the Church. This challenge is especially great because the Church seldom asks us for forgiveness, at least not officially. But the Church as an often fallible human organization needs our forgiveness, while the Church as the living Christ among us continues to offer us forgiveness.
It is important to think about the Church not as “over there” but as a community of struggling, weak people of whom we are part and in whom we meet our Lord and Redeemer.”
~ Henri Nouwen
Well … tonight I’ll get some decent sleep and start reading the stuff I want to after finally completing something I have procrastinated for four years namely just the entrance exam to see whether they accept me for the Masters programme. 6 hours answering six questions – on the Old Testament, the New Testament and Ethics. That’s after finished three papers on Church History, Theology and Missiology.
It’s a good feeling, a burden lifted in a way. My friend Augy which is very instumental in getting me back on track in this matter short messaged me on the phone and said “It is finished” you bet! To be honest, it has merely begun, but I’m glad his old friend will be “jogging” with me along the path these coming years. I realize when their’s some one who comes along and gives us a little nudge we can go far together, for that I’m thankful!
Thanks to a nice birthday present by a wonderful family (you know who you are!), got four books from Amazon. Their arrival came much sooner than I expected and I’ve already started reading two and look forward to read the other two once I plough through 6 hours of pre-masters programme entrance exam.
Here are the goodies in no order of priority:
- Christianity Rediscovered by Vincent J. Donovan (which I was delighted to find out that Lamin Sanneh wrote something at the end of the book)
- God Sense: Reading the Bible for Preaching by Paul Scott Wilson (I read two of his books on preaching and found them excellent especially The Four Pages of the Sermon: A Guide to Biblical Preaching)
- The Logic of Renewal by William J. Abraham (again partly because I was really challenged and stretched by his other book Logic of Evangelism)
- A Theory of Everything : An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality by Ken Wilber (this one is not a Christian book at all … but I got it due to Brian McLaren’s recommendation, so far it’s quite an engaging read and sparks my mind in some useful dimensions especially when it comes to seeking a more integrated vision of life)
I think someone asked me how do I find time to read … I read when I’m waiting for the green light during traffic (that’s a little dangerous so usually I do articles), I read in the a-hem toilet, I read during advertisement if I’m watching TV (which nowadays I seldom do), I read before I sleep, I read when I wake up after my “solitude” with God (of course, the Scripture part is during the solitude), I read whenever I’m waiting … and of course, I also set a side some time for more focused reading.
But it’s more than just the reading, it’s the reflection, it’s about the inner reactions and responses that the reading facilitates. It’s I think about the burnign questions baffling my mind which there’s a strong urge to find answers or at least some directions – a voice calling for resolve I suppose .. I’m grasping for words … something like that.
I found this personal piece by NT Wright “My Pilgrimage in Theology” a warm read. I’m no academic but I think there’s a theologian in me 
in the broadest sense of the word!
Here’s two bits that struck me …
” …I learned to live with unanswered questions: one of the keys to staying sane and Christian in a lifetime of studying theology is to say ‘I don’t know the answer to this just now, but I’m prepared to wait’. Often the answer comes by an unexpected route, in a form that one wouldn’t have recognized at the original time of asking. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit much needed by theologians.
… Back in Oxford in 1986, the two halves of my professional life came together in a different way. I teach and write about the NT and early Judaism, and especially about Jesus and Paul. I work as a pastor in a college full of students from all backgrounds and in all disciplines. And I have the joy, during term, of a regular celebration of the Eucharist at which, again and again, everything else I do comes into focus. I find myself held within the love of the triune God able to receive fresh grace for fresh tasks. Privately I have found to my surprise that at least sometimes prayer is becoming more of a delight than a discipline—perhaps because I have drawn on traditions other than my own (charismatic on one side, orthodox on the other). Passages from Scripture still jump off the page and make me want to laugh and/or cry with the love and the pain, of God.”
Thanks to Organic church for this book review … I think Glad Sounds Malaysia might bring some copies in for a preview with the help of the review … read on …
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I’m taking up Maggi’s suggestion to “Make a cup fo tea, sit down and read, and reassess your life. ” as I read Hugh’s How to be creative I read another version on the flight to Germany. I like this pdf format – sandwiched the reading before and after the Sunday worship yesterday. The “Sex & Cash Theory” really got me laughing and thinking! Haven’t been drinking a lot of tea lately … I think I’ll have one this afternoon and have some good reasessment.
This should be my tentative last puppy post … happy to finish all three 3000 words papers and now touching up the footnotes.
I thought I’d introduce the mummy for all the puppies … a wonder mom indeed!
here’s another shot … before I left home today the puppies were hanging out at our doorstep … I wonder whether they are migrating back to the 4A house. Anyway so far the neighbors have been helping to take care of them. I saw a couple taking a good nap today .. so peaceful!