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Gods and men with three sides
2007-12-20 15:52:00
In his opening chapter of Adams vs. God - the Rematch, Phillip Adams quotes Charles de Montesquieu as saying,If a triangle made a god, it would give him three sides.This is true, as evidenced by the many god's that humans, religious and otherwise, have created after their own likeness.However, if the three-sided God pre-existed the creatures (John 1:1-3), and made creatures in his own image (Genesis 1:26), wouldn't they still have three sides?
More About: Sides , Gods

Adams vs God - the rematch
2007-12-12 06:20:00
I've long enjoyed listening to Phillip Adams interview interesting people on his Australian ABC's Late Night Live program. Given that Adams is an avowed and somewhat evangelical atheist, this may seem strange. However, it is not, and I challenge any Christian with a truly open mind and a love for human kind to read or listen to him and not find something to enjoy or even love.Yes, he will call you a 'God botherer', but I've been called far worse and lived! However, unlike his firend Richard Dawkins, he will treat you with respect, especially if you are as equally genuine in your beliefs as he is in his.I've just read the introduction to his new edition of Adams vs God. This is a collection of essays from more than two decades of Adam's jounalism. From my reading I gain the distinct impression that the sort of religion Adams is so appalled by, any genuine follower of Jesus would also reject, as I do. Let me indulge myself by quoting one passage, from pages xxiv and xxv:One of ...

Preparing for the Dissociation Seminar
2007-11-21 03:45:00
This Saturday Di and I are running our first day seminar on ministry to people with dissociation. By dissociation we do not just mean Dissociative identity Disorder (DID, or what used to be called Multiple Personality Disorder - MPD). Nor do we mean specifically victims of Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA), which seems to be a bit of a focus of some Christian counsellors workingin this area.Rather, we have learned from our training with Anazao Counselling, and from subsequent experience ministering to others, that almost everybody dissociates to some degree. Not just daydreaming or zoning out, which are actually not varieties of dissociation, but protecting themselves from many difficult childhood experiences by creating alternate parts in their minds.While preparing the lessons and resource sheets for Saturday's seminar we have been going over case notes about sessions with people we have counselled in this way, and I am once again amazed at what Jesus will do with you when you are willi...
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Prayer Ministry FAQ
2007-10-21 07:00:00
Because of our involvement in the teaching and practice of prayer ministry or prayer counselling, we recieve questions from many people.For example, prospective clients want to know what prayer ministry is, why we use it, and how it differs from counselling or other forms of ministry. In particular we are often asked whether we are a 'deliverance ministry'.Other questions relate to specific practices. Some accuse us of using New Age techniques, or claim that prayer ministry is not needed because it was "all done at the Cross".Yet others are interested enough to want to know how they too might become trained and get involved in prayer ministry.To help out we have produced some Frequently Asked Questions pages over at the Prayer Ministries Network website. This is a prelude to a more extensive prayer counselling website we are building, which we will post details about when it is complete.Why not hop over to the PMN site now and have a look?
More About: Ministry

Casey Stoner Wins MotoGP World Championship[
2007-09-23 02:44:00
Well done Casey on winning the MotoGP World Championship at Motegi, Japan! Mick Doohan will be proud to see it come back to Australia.Congratualtions to you and Adriana and the Stoner and Tuchyna families and all of the Ducati team.Have fun at Philip Island.
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Reverend Fun - Ever Wonder if God Ever Had Second Thoughts?
2007-09-09 05:56:00
(Copyright Gospel Communications International, Inc - www.reverendfun.com)
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How many blogging pastors are there?
2007-08-30 06:04:00
Darren Rowse, the Problogger, has written an interesting post about how to keep blogging when it feels like nobody is reading your blog. Darren speaks of his time as a pastor learning to preach by speaking to a room full of empty pews.As a fellow pastor I know that feeling well, and as an aspiring problogger I'm feeling it even more often. However, for me the eye openner came when I started to read the comments to Daren's post. There just seemed to be so many pastors and other church leaders there.Of course, I know a lot of pastors are now using a blog as part of their ministry, as I do. They post sermons and church news for the benefit of their congregation and others. However, these were not just pastors posting on church themes. No, these were pastors and ex-pastors who now post for many other reasons.I often attend the ordination services for new pastors in my denomination, and am always interested to discover just how many become pastors out of a professional science backgrou...
More About: Blogging , Pastors

Are you in a Christendom political party?
2007-08-18 06:03:00
Sad as it may seem, I believe that most Christians are told by their leaders which part of the theological spectrum they are part of, and generally they don't understand what it means, nor do they often care very much. Theology has been made to appear to them like an obscure, esoteric branch of philosophy that is beyond their reach and not very relevant to their lives anyway. As long as they dutifully subscribe to the party line then all will be well with their world. If they should question it too persistently then the accusations of backsliding will flow quickly and frighten them back into the loyal fold.This is not unlike voting for a particular political party for the important reasons that your parents always did so, or 'everyone' in your town does, or your favourite TV commentator's disparaging comments about the other parties are the funniest or wittiest.It also reminds me of the Middle Ages when, as long as the priest said the magic words of the Mass at one end of the pa...
More About: Party , Political , Political Party

Reverend Fun - I'm Telecommuting Today
2007-07-28 00:51:00
(Copyright Gospel Communications International, Inc - www.reverendfun.com)
More About: Today , Telecommuting , Reverend

Recent Beth Tephillah Ministries Seminars
2007-07-27 23:49:00
The Hearing God's Voice seminar we ran last weekend at Warrnambool was a great time. About 40 turned up for the Friday Night and all day Saturday sessions, where we taught about what it means to hear God's voice, some of the obstacles to hearing and how to overcome them, ways to begin to hear God, dreams and visions, creative imagination, and the nature of prophecy and prophets.Everyone engaged in the practical exercises, which for some were their first experience at actually recognising that God does speak to them. For others it was reinforcement and the discovery of further ways to hear, and what to do with it when we do.About half have already indicated their interest in having us return to Warrnambool to do our Intimacy with God seminar later in the year, and we will also repeat Hearing God's Voice for them before their next Restoration course begins in 2008. The material is available online at listening2god.com for anyone to use.The weekend before this we ran the first Intim...
More About: Seminars , Recent , Beth

Is Richard Dawkins a Level Five Atheist?
2007-07-10 23:41:00
Perhaps Richard Dawkins is at least a level five atheist (see previous post - Level Five Agnostic). This quote from a book review by Fr Frank Brenan SJ would seem to indicate this:Dawkins claims that moderation in faith fosters fanaticism: “even mild andmoderate religion helps to provide the climate of faith in which extremismnaturally flourishes”. Dawkins’ “take home message is that we should blamereligion itself, not religious extremism – as though that were some kind ofperversion of real, decent religion”. The same argument would not be put forscientific inquiry. Imagine a call to ban all scientific inquiry because thosewho engage in responsible scientific inquiry may be providing the opportunityfor fanatics to harness science for their own purposes. Dawkins and his ilkthink religious belief of any kind is meaningless, infantile and demeaning, sonothing is lost by agitating in the most illiberal way for the suppressionof all religion and not just religious extremism w...
More About: Atheist , A-Level

Reverend Fun - Level Five Agnostic
2007-07-10 18:47:00
(Copyright Gospel Communications International, Inc - www.reverendfun.com)
More About: Agnostic , Reverend

Now let us turn on our phones and browse to John chapter 3
2007-06-08 00:50:00
How many times have you heard a mobile phone ring during a church meeting and wished that people would show a bit more courtesy about turning them off? Well, all of that is about to change.No, not because someone has invented an effective phone blocker, or that everyone in church has been struck by an attack of consideration for others. No! Now we'll be asked to keep our phones on, because we need them to participate in the service!I was alerted to this revelation (or is that 'revelution'?) by a post on Dean Peters' Heal Your Church Web Site - Pastors preach: turn on & tune in … to your Blackberry. Apparently a pastor informed his congregation:‘“Please bring your cell phone with you to the service this Sunday. Yes, youread that right. I, the President of the ‘I hate cell phones going off in churchclub,’ am inviting you to bring that blasted thing to church thisSunday. At the end of the teaching on prayer this weekend I am going todevote about 7 minutes to answering...
More About: Phones , John , Turn , Chapter , Browse

Casey Stoner takes pole in Italian MotoGP on his Ducati
2007-06-02 15:50:00
Congratulation to young Australian Casey Stoner for his first pole position in the MotoGP Motorcycle World Championship. Casey has qualified first ahead of fellow Aussie Chris Vermeulen and Casey's main rival, the Yamaha rider with the home track advantage, Italian Valentino Rossi.While the fact that Casey's 800cc Ducati Desmosedici is by far the fastest bike on the track, what is really impressive about his performance, which has him leading the World Championship by a healthy margin, is that Casey does so well in heavy rain against much older and more experienced riders. The calmness, coolness and maturity displayed by this young Christian man does all of us, but especially his family and new wife Adriana, proud.We'll be watching the race with fascination tonight Casey. Well done!
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Brian McLaren Trilogy - A Real Bargain
2007-05-10 06:48:00
I've been wanting to buy emerging church author Brian McLaren's classic trilogy A New Kind of Christian, The Story We Find Ourselves In, and The Last Word and the Word After That, for some time. Apart from it being difficult to get them all in Australia, they are expensive at $32.95 each from Koorong.Amazon.com have all three books in a boxed set for US$19.75. Check it out here:McLaren Boxed Set (A New Kind of Christian; The Story We Find Ourselves In; The Last Word and the Word After That) (Hardcover).The great thing about this, apart from the US$46.09 saving, is that it ships as one item instead of three, so you save another US$9.98 on postage. With the Aussie dollar over US$0.83 at present this works out pretty reasonable.
More About: Bargain , Real , Trilogy

Poems of Cameron M. Semmens
2007-05-08 17:25:00
How’s this for a briliant commentary?a current-er prayer Our media,whose art is manipulationhollow be thy game.Thy cameras come, it will be doneon Nine as it is on Seven.Give us this day our daily sensation,and feed us our fearsas we feed the fear of others.Lead us on with misinformationand deliver us from thinking.For thine is the king-makerwith the power of the story,forever and ever,amoral.If you want to see more of poet and performer Cameron Semmens’ writings, or Cameron himself, then check out his website.
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Blogging for God
2007-04-26 00:48:00
In the Decature Daily is an interesting article, Plugged into Culture,  about a blogging pastor, Rev. Dave Anderson, alias ‘moviepastor. As pastor of Crosspoint Community Church in Decatur, Alabama, he is passionate about the gospel message impacting the young online culture.“I think the church should do everything it can to engage people long enough to present the gospel message.” Melanie Smith, the article’s author says, “He called himself  ‘moviepastor’ because he loves movies and views them as windows into today’s culture. He also figured the name would help drive Web users to his site. “He said it’s one thing to write a blog, but if it’s not genuine, readers will fast turn critical and stop reading. He said people are looking for authenticity, so he doesn’t shy away from putting his pain and shortcomings in his writing. He regularly uses words like ‘freaking’ and ‘crappy’.&...
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The Spiritual Armour of Ephesians 6
2007-04-22 03:19:00
Our involvement in healing prayer ministry and intercession has brought us into contact with a number of different ideas about the meaning of Paul’s injunction to put on the full armour of God.During our early training we were encouraged to go through the daily motions of putting on the armour, while visualising a Roman soldier with all of his equipment. We understood it then as a mnemonic device to help us remember the equipment needed, and each piece was generally explained in terms of its function. However, as with any such approach, it easily degenerates into a ritual, perhaps with magical overtones. The implication is that if the armour is not put on religiously each morning then the person is at risk.Such a ritualistic approach to life is common in religious people, but is a far cry from the way Jesus and his early followers lived. It betrays a lack of trust in God.So, what was Paul intending when he outlined each piece of the Christian’s equipment in thi...
More About: Spiritual , Ephesians , Armour

Seminars for 2007
2007-04-15 21:17:00
The topics and dates for our 2007 seminars at Beth Tephillah have been set. This year there will be four, with each one held on a Saturday. The first seminar for the year is:Hearing God’s VoiceSaturday 12th May, 10 am to 4 pmatBeth Tephillah Ministry Centre,55 Park Crescent, Williamstown (Mel 55 J7)"Hear the Word of the Lord" has been a common instruction to God’s people through the centuries. Jesus, who IS that Word, told us that sheep listen for their shepherd’s voice and follow him because they know his voice, and He expects His sheep to respond to His voice.This seminar aims to help participants hear, identify, understand and obey the voice of Father God.Cost: $25.00. There will be practical sessions. Refreshments will be provided. BYO lunch.Please advise Malcolm or Diana Dow you are coming as places are limited.Contact Beth Tephillah Ministry Centre, PO Box 138 Williamstown, 3016. Phone: 9397 2430, Fax: 9397 2430, or Email to pastors@bethtephillah.com.Download a brochure ...
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Update on Speaking in Tongues
2007-04-05 21:03:00
Prompted by a comment by a friend about my old article on speaking in tongues: Tongues - making it happen, on the Healing Prayer Ministries Network website, I've writen the first of a series on this topic on my Speaking -in-Tongues blog. The new article is called Tongues five years on.
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New Blog - Point Cook Community Baptist Church
2007-03-08 14:35:00
One of my Baptist pastor colleagues from just down the road - Warren Hodge of Point Cook Community Baptist Church - now has a church website and a blog. Though, if you want to subscribe to his blog with your reader you'll need to use the Blog Spot version, as the framed version on the website doesn't provide an RSS feed.Warren has posted some interesting Bible studies and comments.

Testing BlogJet
2007-03-08 02:04:00
I have installed an interesting application - BlogJet. It's a cool Windows client for my blog tool (as well as for other tools). Get your copy here: http://blogjet.com.It allows you to edit posts for your blogs while you are offline and publish them later."Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination." -- Albert Einstein
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Prayer Ministry - What's in a Name?
2007-03-04 01:59:00
Prayer Ministry - what's in a name? Sometimes a great deal.Through Beth Tephillah Ministry Centre we come into contact with many people working and ministering in the area described variously as Christian counselling, prayer ministry, healing ministry, Theophostic ministry, prayer counselling, and other terms. Often there is no problem because those involved know what they themselves mean when they use their name for what they do.However, increasingly, different ministries are intersecting as Jesus breaks down the boundaries that have for so long separated us. This is wonderful. It is an outworking of what Jesus means when he prays, "Father, ... I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one." (John 17:21,22)He goes on to speak more about this glory that is revealed through the oneness of Jesus with the Father and us with them. And what is this glory? Surely a part of it is our doing the work of Jesus on earth - bringing freedom to the captives, si...
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Our Church, Visible and Invisible
2007-03-02 04:46:00
The Reformers distinguished between the visible church: the organized institution as it appeared on earth, from the invisible church: the whole number of the elect known only to God.In our modern day, with its ‘scientific’ worldview, the visible or tangible seems more ‘real’ than the invisible, which seems ephemeral or mystical.However, to a postmodern the spiritual and relational has a strong appeal, and anything with a structure which might support a power base is viewed with grave suspicion. The organized chuch is unappealing, while a fellowship with a loose, unorganized, non-institutional appearance stands a chance of attracting, or at least not frightening them. I think Jesus would probably find more of a welcome among such a group as well.In the world of the organized church, loose ‘home group’ churches become invisible. Beth Tephillah, even though it is more like a home group in its functioning, and is thus often relatively invisible, is still a constituted Baptis...
More About: Church , Invisible , Visible

Like Ripples in a Pond
2007-02-25 00:50:00
During our fellowship gathering we were wondering about what influence any one believer might have in the world, perhaps without knowing it, just by being faithful and available to Jesus. I then came across the following story, written by Dick Innes in Encounter magazine for September/October 2001 (Vol. 32 No. 9/10). I thought it particularly apt in the light of the recent celebrations of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.Think, too, of the amazing events of recent years and how they were affected by the action of one person.For example, ‘19 August 2001 was the tenth anniversary of the finaldownfall of international communism in the former Soviet Union. Some of you mayremember that historic event. A group of Russian generals were determined toturn back the tide of democracy in that declining empire. They placed MikhailGorbachev under house arrest at his dacha outside of Moscow. Meanwhile a tankrumbled into Red square with the sole purpose of capturing second-in-command,Boris Y...
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The Dawkins Delusion
2007-02-08 05:14:02
It's nice to have agreement in high places. Further to my article on atheism, Science proves God doesn't exist? , John Sexton at Verum Serum has posted the comments of Oxford University theologian and historian, Alister McGrath on Dawkin's The God Delusion. Since I am greatly enjoying McGrath's insights into atheism in The twilight of atheism: the rise and fall of disbelief in the modern world, I was greatly interested in John's post, so I will reproduce it here:The God Delusion.That?s the title of a new book by fellow Oxford professor (of theology) Alister McGrath. McGrath is a former atheist who, prior to pursuing theology, received a Phd in molecular biophysics. Here?s what he has to say about Dawkins :I have known Dawkins for more than 20 years; we are both Oxford professors. I believe if anyone is ?immune to argument? it is him. He comes across as a dogmatic, aggressive propagandist.[snip]Our paths do cross on the television networks and we even managed to spar briefly acro...
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A million monkeys .. er penguins ... er, bloggers!
2007-02-05 05:13:02
You've all heard the story that if a million monkeys typed on a million typewriters long enough they would produce the works of Shakespeare! Well someone is trying it, except they are using penguins instead of monkeys - well, they are really using bloggers. Penguin UK have a project to let bloggers, working together using a wiki, write and edit a novel. Check it at: http://www.amillionpenguins.com/wiki/inde x.php?title=Main_Page Now that's a novel idea. Of course, if blogging penguins can come up with the next blockbuster then anyone can do it. Recently I read a scientific article, the source of which escapes me at the moment, which explored whether by watching the behaviour of a group of apes we can discover the roots of religion. Will the next project be a monkey writen Bible? That's more of a challenge than a novel - even more than the works of Shakespeare.
More About: Blogger , Monk , Monkey , Blog , Lion

Science proves God doesn't exist?
2007-02-01 11:09:04
In Eurekalert we find the following description of yet another book in what David van Biema in Time Magazine called an "atheist literary wave":In God : The Failed Hypothesis, physicist Victor Stenger argues that science has advanced sufficiently to make a definitive statement on the existence or nonexistence of the traditional Judeo-Christian-Islamic God. He invites readers to put their minds--and the scientific method--to work to test this claim.After evaluating all the scientific evidence--the studies done byreputable institutions on the power of prayer; the writings of philosophers who have puzzled over the problem of God and of good and evil; the efforts of biblical scholars to prove the accuracy of holy scriptures; and the work of biologists, geologists, and astronomers looking for clues to a creator on Earth and in the cosmos--Stenger concludes that beyond a reasonable doubt the universe and life appear exactly as we might expect if there were no God. He convincingly shows that...
More About: Science , Rove , Exist , Prove

Forgiveness
2007-01-31 17:08:03
Forgiveness is such a critical component of healing. Knowing the forgiveness of God through the reconciling work of Jesus on the cross is the beginning of peace with God. For many we struggle with unforgiveness - of ourselves, others and God. Much has been written on the need for us to forgive if we are to receive the forgiveness of God.In the area of forgiving, Joy Dawson has some helpful thoughts in The Fire of God: Discovering Its Many Life Changing Purposes. Shippensberg, PA: Destiny Image, 2005.On pages 70-71 she speaks of the sin of resentment towards those who have wronged us, and the difficulty of forgiveness where we have wrongly judged people."We can only forgive people who have wronged us. However, we must not presumethat because we're feeling hurt, that the person connected with the pain wasnecessarily guilty of doing wrong."Mis-communication, our expectations, misunderstandings and perceptions often lead us to judge others and hold unforgiveness against them wrongly. S...
More About: Given , Give , Forgive , Ness , Forgiveness

Scott Adams on Irrational Atheists
2007-01-30 23:06:03
One of the blogs I like to read is The Dilbert Blog by Scott Adam s . Scott is the author of the Dilbert Cartoon, a favourite with most geeks. What many don't realise is that his quirky sense of humour also comes out in his writing. So often his unusual mind is able to see right through the fog and put a subject into refreshing perspective. He reminds me a lot of Michael Leunig, whose free calendar from The Age keeps my head straight every day. Anyhow, in the light of my earlier post I just had to share Scott's take on the Irrationality of Atheism: Allow me to summarize every discussion of atheism that has ever occurred on the Internet: Atheist : ?Religion is irrational.? Believer: ?Oh yeah? Atheism is a religion too, because it?s a cause that?s believed on faith! See Merriam-Webster?s 4th definition of religion.? Atheist: ?Atheism is religion the same way that NOT collecting stamps is a hobby.? Believer: ?You can?t prove the non-existence of God. And belief without proof is...
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