becoming

Gabriel‘s reminder on fb comes too late..

Boy, look at those curry fish balls!!

[link: night it up via blogTO]

在一片歌功頌德的歡呼聲中，我找來莊祖鯤老師的這篇文章，作為對加爾文500年冥誕的一點「另類」紀念：野人獻曝─加爾文500年冥誕的幾點省思。

…我個人既不可能有超越前人的新見解，也解不開這個死結，反而會使問題失去焦點。我想指出的，卻是一般人在討論這個神學議題時，容易忽略的三個前題：

1. 所謂的“加爾文救恩論”，就是那五點式的神學論述（即所謂的TULIP）嗎？
2. 我們堅持聖經無誤，但是我們能主張任何一種神學体系是無誤的嗎？
3. 加爾文神學所強調的神之主權，與亞米念派所強調的人之責任，是不相容的嗎？

[舉目：第三十八期 2009/07]

20090709 – 25′ – 1000m

曾經，我上過的一個教會，沒有明星牧者，用的是最古老的團契模式。在一個留學的年代，在北美一個不大也不少的城市，服事一群群的華人學生。

一代又一代的留學生，在教會裡信主，被造就，成長；

然後，學成回港，沒有多少個會為這不大不少的城市而留下。

一代又一代的建立，一代又一代的被送走。

二十年後，再看看這個教會所造就的，幾多的牧者、宣教士、機構同工，人才輩出。

我為當年的牧者，導師感恩；因為你們有的，不是「山寨王」的狹隘主義，而是胸懷普世的國度心。

但願，有更多這樣的教會、

有更多這樣的人。

In what way have we as evangelical Christians failed to grasp or live out the fullness of God’s missional intent? How (if at all) has our theology of evangelism been weak?

Read Christopher Wright’s response in a 2-part series here (1) and here (2).

A snippet:

We have tended to separate believing from living the gospel, and to prioritize the first. That is, we seem to think that there can be a belief of faith separate from the life of faith, that people can be saved by something that goes on in their heads, without worrying too much about what happens in their lives. So long as they have prayed the right prayer and believed the right doctrine, nothing else ultimately matters, or at least, whatever happens next is secondary and distinct.

…The bad result of this dichotomy is that we have people called believers and evangelicals, whose actual lives are indistinguishable from the culture around them – whether in terms of moral standards, or social and political attitudes and actual behaviour (as various surveys have shown, including the recent Pew survey that showed evangelicals were the largest religious group in the USA who approved of the use of torture).

But even now, the King of Pop must bow his knee to the King of kings. And we pray, that you remind us Lord that our lives are but dust. We are here for a moment, and then we are gone...

What do you do when your office is out of electricity? In fact, what do you do when the whole block has a power-outage, and it is too far to go back home?

You go to a Chinese restaurant that offers WiFi access, ordering as little as possible, and staying as long as possible.

And what do you do if it so happens that the restaurant is closed on that day?

You drive up to it as close as you can, and try your luck, hoping that they forget to turn off their wireless router!

And that’s where I am right now.

The Remington Group is planning to replace the current Market Village, with a all-new 800,000-square-foot behemoth shopping plaza — the Remington Centre.

Is it too much? I think it is. But not so according to our Mayor and Councillor:

[Mayor Frank Scarpitti] said both Pacific Mall and Market Village have been very successful.

They attract visitors to Markham, he said, adding the cluster of retail proposals is expanding that opportunity.

Alex Chiu, councillor for that area, agreed it’s not too much.

When it comes to money, who would say they have just too many?

Read it here, here and here.