becoming

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。

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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？

In her final days as Commander of the International Space Station, Sunita Williams of NASA recorded an extensive tour of the orbital laboratory and downlinked the video on Nov. 18, just hours before she, cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Flight Engineer Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency departed in their Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft for a landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan. The tour includes scenes of each of the station’s modules and research facilities with a running narrative by Williams of the work that has taken place and which is ongoing aboard the orbital outpost.

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

各位同道，互勉之。

An Epiphany Prayer

Father, we thank you for revealing yourself to us in Jesus the Christ, we who once were not your people but whom you chose to adopt as your people. As ancient Israel confessed long ago, we realize that it was not because of our own righteousness, or our own superior wisdom, or strength, or power, or numbers. It was simply because you loved us, and chose to show us that love in Jesus.

As you have accepted us when we did not deserve your love, will you help us to accept those whom we find it hard to love? Forgive us, O Lord, for any attitude that we harbor that on any level sees ourselves as better or more righteous than others.  Will you help us to remove the barriers of prejudice and to tear down the walls of bigotry, religious or social?  O Lord, help us realize that the walls that we erect for others only form our own prisons!

Will you fill us so full of your love that there is no more room for intolerance. As you have forgiven us much, will you enable us with your strength to forgive others even more? Will you enable us through your abiding Presence among us, communally and individually, to live our lives in a manner worthy of the Name we bear?

May we, through your guidance and our faithful obedience, find new avenues in ways that we have not imagined of holding the Light of your love so that it may be a Light of revelation for all people.

We thank you for your love, praise you for your Gift, ask for your continued Presence with us, and bring these petitions in the name of your Son, who has truly revealed your heart. 

Amen.

I agree that the Bible is Christocentric: the gospel as the center of the Bible is a story of how Jesus as Israel’s Messiah has come to restore the world through is death and resurrection.  However, how can we understand the New Covenant work of the God-sent Messiah without understanding his Spirit-anointing which brings about a transformation of believers’ hearts as a fulfillment of the New Covenant?

I couldn’t agree more. Read the whole thing here.