It's Christianity, not faith-ianity, thanks!

Typical head-line: "Faith can be positive for society, says David Cameron"

This comment is nothing to do with David Cameron - it's just he happens to be named in this head-line. I haven't clicked through to the story yet. But I don't need to, because I've seen enough of them to know what's around...

Christians don't have faith in faith. They have faith in Jesus Christ, the living Son of God.

We don't particularly believe that faith per se is beneficial. We believe that the power and presence of the resurrected Jesus is beneficial.

Now, how can Christians who want to see their faith Saviour accurately represented get that message through to the media-gatekeepers who write these stories and head-lines...?

The Binding of the Blade

After finishing Narnia again, I began reading to my children the "Binding of the Blade" series.

Brilliant; absolutely brilliant. We're presently in the second half of book 2. I can't understand why we'd never heard of it (we found it in the ACTS bookshop in Nairobi). A great story, and a well executed echo of that awesome story of all stories that, in our house, has both reader and hearers eagerly waiting for the next chapter...

So dear reader, I do my duty by pointing you to: http://www.bindingoftheblade.com

Permission to pray

If I follow this news story from the UK rightly...

• Bideford Town Council had a vote, in which the majority voted to pray before their meetings.
  
  
• Mr "Justice" Ouseley has ruled that, despite its desire to pray, it has not been granted the powers in law to do so.
  
  
• The logic of his decision seems to be this: if there's no law saying that you can pray on some particular occasion, then you can't. Even if you want to. In Mr Ouseley's world, it seems that councils may have powers to spend tax money, pass by-laws and the like: but the act of praying is one that is strictly forbidden to them.
  

Welcome to the world as re-made according to the desires of the National Secular Society. Think you'll like it? Perhaps you have no particular interest in council meetings or what happens in them. But suppose that the whole of society was run by people of the NSS's ilk and inclinations... would that be better or worse than living in one that had been shaped by the Bible?

The Ministers of Alice in Wonderland

Kevin De Young recently did a post on “10 reasons to believe in a historical Adam.” It drew predictable criticism from the usual quarters.

BTW, we’re glimpsing an Alice in Wonderland sort of world when it’s controversial for a minister to defend Bible history. Shouldn’t it be controversial for a minister to deny Bible history? But somewhere along the line, certain segments of evangelicalism fell through the rabbit hole.

http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2012/02/deja-vu.html

The last first world war veteran dies

According to the Guardian, the final known uniform-wearing veteran of the first world war has died:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/07/florence-green-war-veteran-dies

"Reality 'snapshot' of mission teams"

Some good stuff here.

Barnabas Fund "Proclaim Freedom" Campaign

https://barnabasfund.org/Act/Campaign/Proclaim-Freedom