I was asked to bring the closing thought for our end of term cell group meeting. We'd been talking about evangelising children. Here are my notes:
Tia has been talking to us about evanglising children. This is obviously very important to us, not only because there are a lot of children in our church, but because the youth of today has no purpose, and that can only lead to bad stuff.
Tia showed us ways we can overcome our fears and doubts and gave us some reasons for doing this. The primary reason for any evangelism is sin. Sin separates us from God, and separates us from our purpose in life, that is to Glorify Him, by representing Him in this creation. The call from God is to be used by Him, to make known His plan to redeem us, and to bring us back into close relationship with Him, in order that we can represent Him as we should.
This is good, but there is something more as well, that I feel we may not have thought about. Tia has been talking about sharing the gospel with her own kids and this prompted me to think about this. When we raise children, parents are the primary educators. Parents pass on their value system, which is also called culture, and teach their children how to live and organize themselves around that culture. This is their society, or socializing. This teaches children how to live, what to say and do; how to treat others and stuff like that. Generally we all teach our kids how to live in this world, but Christians have double trouble, we have to teach our kids how to live in one world with its social structure and culture, but to have a totally different culture, a God culture, with God’s values, and God’s social structure.
Educating children takes on 2 forms, formal and informal. Formal education is at school, but informal education begins with the parents. From the parents it extends out to family, friends, and the community in general. We talked about how there are many people out there who WILL stop and take the time to teach our children something, and if we, the parents, family, and community of God haven’t done our job as first and most important teachers of children, then our children will not have the knowledge and conviction to reject what these people say.
We have to be careful not to do what is called indoctrination. That is, bashing into their heads one piece of information, but we need to tell them and show in ways that they can understand, that they are separated from God, and that the best thing they can do is to entrust themselves to Him through Christ, and serve Him.
If we don’t take the time to educate we are not doing our part as people of God’s community, or people of the human race, the human race that God created with this process in place. If we think back to Creation, we can not represent our Father on this earth if we don’t have a relationship with Him, and through that relationship we learn what it is that God values, and how to live and survive in the universe that he created. It’s not just a good idea, it’s not even just because we would be not doing our part as God’s community. It’s a good idea because that is what God’s example is to us. God makes Himself known to us, and teaches us what we need to know to live in His community. We are the primary educators of our children, and the children in this community. As God is to us, so should we be to them.
Monday, April 17, 2006
Monday, March 27, 2006
wow so long from when I last posted
eeek..
I really do try and do this every week lol.
From the NZ herald (www.nzherald.co.nz):
Afghan judge says Christian convert case is flawed
27.03.06 7.30am
KABUL - The judge presiding over the case of an Afghan man who could face the death penalty for converting to Christianity said on Sunday the case was flawed and would be sent back to prosecutors.
The row over the man, Abdur Rahman, 40, jailed this month for abandoning Islam, threatens to create a rift between Afghanistan and the United States and other Western backers who have been calling for the man's release.
"The case, because of some technical as well as legal flaws and shortcomings, has been referred back to the prosecutor's office," the judge, Ansarullah Mawlavizada, told Reuters.
He declined to elaborate or say if the review would delay the trial, which had been due to begin in coming days.
A prosecutor said Rahman's mental state would be examined on Monday following suggestions that he may be mentally unstable.
Rahman, detained this month for converting to Christianity, told an Italian newspaper from his Kabul jail cell that he was ready to die for his new faith.
Death is the punishment stipulated by sharia, or Islamic law, for apostasy - abandoning the faith. The Afghan legal system is based on a mixture of civil and sharia law.
The government is trying to satisfy Western demands for the man's release, while not angering powerful conservatives at home who have demanded a trial and death sentence under Islamic law.
Officials in President Hamid Karzai's government declined to comment. "I'm hopeful something will be worked out," said one.
Officials and analysts say they do not expect Rahman to be executed. The outcome could hinge on his mental state.
A spokesman for the Supreme Court said the mental examination had been ordered after Rahman's relatives said he suffered from mental problems -- something he denies.
Checks also had to be made to see if Rahman had a second nationality, the spokesman said, without elaborating.
Rahman told a preliminary hearing 10 days ago that he had become a Christian while working for an aid group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan 15 years ago. He later lived in Germany before returning to Afghanistan.
He was detained after his family told authorities he had converted, apparently following a dispute involving two daughters, a judicial official said.
US President George W. Bush has urged Afghanistan to show it respects religious freedom and resolve the case quickly.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was asked on NBC's Meet the Press about a report that the case had been dismissed.
"The Afghans are working on it," she said. "America has stood solidly for religious freedom as a bedrock, the bedrock of democracy, and we'll see, but I can't confirm that story."
Several other countries with troops in Afghanistan, including Canada, Italy, Germany and Australia, have voiced concern. Some foreign critics have urged that their troops be withdrawn.
But the foreign pressure has only been met in Afghanistan by threats of rebellion if the government frees Rahman.
"I don't want to die. But if God decides, I am ready to face up to my choices, all the way," Rahman was quoted as saying in Sunday's La Repubblica newspaper.
The Italian newspaper conducted the interview by sending Rahman written questions via a human rights worker who visited him in jail outside Kabul.
Defying the conservative clamour, one newspaper - Outlook - made the first public call in Afghanistan for Rahman's release, saying the country could not ignore international opinion when it needed support to fight terrorism and rebuild.
--> yeah.. well.. what can you say other than... human life is precious, only God decides who should die, and from what I recall, nowhere does God ever say "kill him because hedoesnt agree with you)
I really do try and do this every week lol.
From the NZ herald (www.nzherald.co.nz):
Afghan judge says Christian convert case is flawed
27.03.06 7.30am
KABUL - The judge presiding over the case of an Afghan man who could face the death penalty for converting to Christianity said on Sunday the case was flawed and would be sent back to prosecutors.
The row over the man, Abdur Rahman, 40, jailed this month for abandoning Islam, threatens to create a rift between Afghanistan and the United States and other Western backers who have been calling for the man's release.
"The case, because of some technical as well as legal flaws and shortcomings, has been referred back to the prosecutor's office," the judge, Ansarullah Mawlavizada, told Reuters.
He declined to elaborate or say if the review would delay the trial, which had been due to begin in coming days.
A prosecutor said Rahman's mental state would be examined on Monday following suggestions that he may be mentally unstable.
Rahman, detained this month for converting to Christianity, told an Italian newspaper from his Kabul jail cell that he was ready to die for his new faith.
Death is the punishment stipulated by sharia, or Islamic law, for apostasy - abandoning the faith. The Afghan legal system is based on a mixture of civil and sharia law.
The government is trying to satisfy Western demands for the man's release, while not angering powerful conservatives at home who have demanded a trial and death sentence under Islamic law.
Officials in President Hamid Karzai's government declined to comment. "I'm hopeful something will be worked out," said one.
Officials and analysts say they do not expect Rahman to be executed. The outcome could hinge on his mental state.
A spokesman for the Supreme Court said the mental examination had been ordered after Rahman's relatives said he suffered from mental problems -- something he denies.
Checks also had to be made to see if Rahman had a second nationality, the spokesman said, without elaborating.
Rahman told a preliminary hearing 10 days ago that he had become a Christian while working for an aid group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan 15 years ago. He later lived in Germany before returning to Afghanistan.
He was detained after his family told authorities he had converted, apparently following a dispute involving two daughters, a judicial official said.
US President George W. Bush has urged Afghanistan to show it respects religious freedom and resolve the case quickly.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was asked on NBC's Meet the Press about a report that the case had been dismissed.
"The Afghans are working on it," she said. "America has stood solidly for religious freedom as a bedrock, the bedrock of democracy, and we'll see, but I can't confirm that story."
Several other countries with troops in Afghanistan, including Canada, Italy, Germany and Australia, have voiced concern. Some foreign critics have urged that their troops be withdrawn.
But the foreign pressure has only been met in Afghanistan by threats of rebellion if the government frees Rahman.
"I don't want to die. But if God decides, I am ready to face up to my choices, all the way," Rahman was quoted as saying in Sunday's La Repubblica newspaper.
The Italian newspaper conducted the interview by sending Rahman written questions via a human rights worker who visited him in jail outside Kabul.
Defying the conservative clamour, one newspaper - Outlook - made the first public call in Afghanistan for Rahman's release, saying the country could not ignore international opinion when it needed support to fight terrorism and rebuild.
--> yeah.. well.. what can you say other than... human life is precious, only God decides who should die, and from what I recall, nowhere does God ever say "kill him because hedoesnt agree with you)
Monday, February 20, 2006
The Knowledge of Good and Evil
What is it?
Something I havent been able to get my head around for quite some time.
I know that Adam and Eve knew what was right and wrong, God told them (do not eat of the fruit, etc). So its not that.
So.. it must be some knowledge that is "spiritual" because it relates to the "opening of their eyes" - however, they were not blind, so thats metaphorical.
Also.. it seems to be something they experienced.. so, its a Spiritual experiential knowledge..
Reading about the preacher in Ecclesiastes, he talks about life being "vanity and chasing after the wind(Spirit - life that is given by God)". This book is a sort of commentary on Genesis 1-11. And it seems that what the preacher is saying is that because we are born apart from God, our lives are purposeless, chasing after some Spiritual life which we can not have because we are "born to die".
So, I now understand "knowledge of Good and Evil" to be the knowledge that human life no longer has purpose, and that we are born to die apart from God. This is the Spiritual experiential knowledge that Adam and Eve did not have.
Something I havent been able to get my head around for quite some time.
I know that Adam and Eve knew what was right and wrong, God told them (do not eat of the fruit, etc). So its not that.
So.. it must be some knowledge that is "spiritual" because it relates to the "opening of their eyes" - however, they were not blind, so thats metaphorical.
Also.. it seems to be something they experienced.. so, its a Spiritual experiential knowledge..
Reading about the preacher in Ecclesiastes, he talks about life being "vanity and chasing after the wind(Spirit - life that is given by God)". This book is a sort of commentary on Genesis 1-11. And it seems that what the preacher is saying is that because we are born apart from God, our lives are purposeless, chasing after some Spiritual life which we can not have because we are "born to die".
So, I now understand "knowledge of Good and Evil" to be the knowledge that human life no longer has purpose, and that we are born to die apart from God. This is the Spiritual experiential knowledge that Adam and Eve did not have.
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