||Pastoral Passage|| Church life in New Zealand – like that of tourism and hospitality – has been disrupted and constricted these past two years, and it seems now that the times of lockdowns and gathering restrictions have come to an end. The Lord’s response to the despondent Jews at their return from exile also speaks today to church communities who are rebuilding.
||Pastoral Passage|| It is fine to pray for help, thank God or ask his forgiveness. But texts like Colossians 4:12 add something more – prayer in light of God’s promises and purposes, asking him to hasten these things.
||Extended Book Summary|| An intellectual history of the sexual revolution that still embroils western societies. It helps to answer questions such as, “Why do we celebrate the tearing down of traditional moral codes?” and “Why has sex education for ever-younger children become so important for social progressives?” and “how is it that the idea of ‘a woman trapped in a man’s body’ has come to make sense so suddenly to so many and ordinary people?”
||Pastoral Passage|| How has God defined the relationship between himself and humanity?
||Book Summary|| I am not fan of Brian Tamaki. As an educated Reformed Evangelical it is unsurprising that I would be at odds with a fundamentalist Pentecostal, as many others are for many different reasons. But I think a man with such a high profile and public loathing deserves the dignity of being understood. Having read Peter Lineham’s “Destiny: The Life and Times of a Self-Made Apostle”, I came away disagreeing no less with Tamaki’s teaching and practice than I did before, but with significantly more respect for the man. For that reason, I commend the book to fans and critics of Brian Tamaki alike. It need not change your own final assessment, but it allows you to think more intelligently about him.
Christians in high places can do a lot of good for God’s kingdom, but they can also do a lot of damage. There is a risk that Christians in places of power end up becoming a liability to the gospel.
||Pastoral Passage|| In light of the current coronavirus pandemic and the use of vaccines to ward off its serious ill effects, I would like to share two incidents – deaths – from the life of Jonathan Edwards. Edwards’ faith was in the same God and gospel we have today. The same confident hope is offered and there are the same expectations for selfless, humble, purposed living.
||Technical Article|| In the face of the unchallenged claim that the emperors ruled supreme, Paul begged to differ, shaping his Christology to offer an alternative world-ruler, sent not only to rule but also to redeem the Creator’s wayward world.
||Article|| Christians (and others) who ultimately refuse to get vaccinated and acquire a vaccine-passport face being made maligned and marginalised members of New Zealand for the foreseeable future. Whatever their rationale, they will not be doing it lightly, and it is not the role of vaccinated Christians to make life harder for them.
Chris Northcott 