becoming

[link: EerdWord]

或者，是因為每次聽到人說「恩典」兩個字，我就自然會「雞皮疫瘠」；
或者，是自己一生的經歷再沒有其他兩個字能形容得更透徹；
或者，我很久沒有被這樣平靜卻堅定有力的詩歌歌詞吸引過；
或者，祂要藉這樣美麗的旋律感動我；

我都覺得，你需要這首詩歌將你溶化於神的大愛中。

歌曲：恩典
收錄於：頌恩旋律【在恩典中敬拜】CD Worship (2013)
曲、詞：周敏曦
原唱：周敏曦
低音大提琴：許思頌
沙畫製作：梁振耀 (多倫多頌恩旋律)

Wow, Paul casting a demon out of the slave girl is to deprive her of her spiritual gift?

I thought the Paul-was-having-a-heat-stroke-on-the-road-to-Damascus sermon I heard was bad enough when I was still with the Anglican Church of Canada…

Boy, was I wrong!

Gorbachev on Thatcher:

Why is it that we were able to reach an understanding in the end? I believe one reason is that we gradually developed a personal rapport that became increasingly friendly over the years. Eventually we reached a degree of mutual trust.

Sometimes our outlook might be different, but our common need to look for a way out can bind us and help us build trust with one another. Friendship remains.

[NYTimes: Doing Business With the Iron Lady]

A week ago, I learned from my friend Alan Yu’s FB page that “80% of Muslim conversion narratives reference to a dream. Not a dream about Jesus but meeting Jesus in a dream.”

And then today, I come across this:

Alarming reports have been coming in for years: Christianity is being expelled from the Middle East. According to Walter Russell Mead, more than half of the Christians in Iraq have fled the country since 2003. Today it’s happening in Syria. Swedish journalist Nuri Kino reports on a “silent exodus of Christians from Syria” in the face of “kidnappings and rapes.”

It’s a regional trend. Two years ago Caroline Glick reported that “at the time of Lebanese independence from France in 1946 the majority of Lebanese were Christians. Today less than 30 percent of Lebanese are Christians. In Turkey, the Christian population has dwindled from 2 million at the end of World War I to less than 100,000 today. In Syria, at the time of independence Christians made up nearly half of the population. Today 4 percent of Syrians are Christian. In Jordan half a century ago 18 percent of the population was Christian. Today 2 percent of Jordanians are Christian.”

That’s only half the story. At the same time that traditional Christian populations are being driven out, Muslims are converting to Christianity at what missionaries and other Church leaders describe as an unprecedented rate. Joel Rosenberg claims that “more Muslims are coming to faith in Jesus Christ today than at any other time in history.”

Read the rest here:

Jesus is certainly at work in this world, and in ways that you can’t even imagine!

What a friend we have in Jesus!

[link: first things]

Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.
Repent and render yourself to Christ.

你要記住，你本是塵土，仍要歸於塵土。
當遠離罪，效忠基督。

或者，有多少人知道，1549, 1552, 1559, 1662年的《公禱書》，也就是說最早的《公禱書》，從沒有「塗灰禮」一項？這不是說中世紀的羅馬教會沒有這個傳統，而是英國以克藍麥（Cranmer）為首的改教運動，刻意惕除這禮儀。背後帶著「真誠悔罪，不靠外在形式」的意義。兩段經課（珥2:12-17, 太6:16-21）的主題正表明這點。

說到底，現代聖公宗行「塗灰禮」是「牛津運動」甚至更後期的「梵二」產物。背後帶著對羅馬天主教會禮儀的嚮往。

Many are excited about N.T. Wright’s forthcoming new book Paul and the Faithfulness of God. To whet your appetite, here is Wright’s own preview (done back in Aug 2011) on the themes and main thesis of his soon-to-be released new book:

讀到羅秉祥的這篇「教會應雍容大度對待同性戀者公民權」，再讀到 Louie Giglio 應邀為Obama 就職領禱卻被人拉下馬，我覺得很難過。

我難過，不是因為不同意，而是因為我同時同意兩篇文章的呼籲。

我明白所有的考慮，問題有多複雜，要有獨立思考，不應人云亦云…但在這一切之後，我們仍然要問：「教會應該做甚麼」？「跟隨主的人應該做甚麼？」

我應該做甚麼？