OK, our annual attempt at World Domination begins this Autumn against South Africa (whom we have beaten on their last 2 trips here!) I have always loved picking teams and am posting here my proposed Ireland team for the game against the world champions, assuming full fitness (always unlikely)
15. R Kearney
14. T Bowe
13. BOD (thats BOD not God!)
12. L Fitzgerald
11. K Earls
10. J Sexton
9. T O'Leary
8. J Heaslip (all is forgiven Jamie!)
7. D Wallace (Last hurrah and no ready made replacement)
6. S Ferris (every team needs an enforcer)
5. D O'Callaghan
4. P O'Connell (but will he be fit?)
3. T Buckley (Time for Bull to go out to grass)
2. J Flannery
1. C Healy (Hopefully ate well over the summer)
Anyone buying or selling a ticket?!
JS
Monday, August 30, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Why pray? Another angle...
I am currently reading RT Kendall's amazing book 'Did you think to pray?', yes you guessed it - on prayer! I won't go into it but just want to leave you with one amazing thought that He starts the book with. So often books on prayer are written from the primary perspective of what WE the 'prayers' get out of prayer, all of which are valid points (peace, joy, wisdom etc.) However, the front-loading of this angle on prayer is often to the diminishment of Kendall's proposition regarding prayer and the heart of God. In this he makes the point through the Father-Child analogy of how children unconsciously 'spell' LOVE as quality T-I-M-E with their parents and suggests that God too (Father to those who have become His children) is no different in this regard, in that He too LOVES us, LOVES BEING 'with' us and LOVES spending T-I-M-E with us! This is not a 'need' it is a 'want', God is not insecure or 'needy' but is jealous for our love, not in a petty teenage kicks kind of way, but with the jealous love of a Father!
So here's a thought to leave you with. Try thinking of prayer not only from the perspective of what you get out of it and remember that God too longs to be with you, it is the earnest desire and longing of a loving and 'jealous' Father. Just by spending T-I-M-E 'being' with the All-sufficient God will bring Him so much delight... - surely another angle, even a motivation for prayer...
JS
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Jayden rocks - Happy Birthday son!!
Jayden turns 6 Wed 18th August. We can hardly believe it! Born in Dublin back in 2004, he has been an absolute delight to us these few years since he entered the fray. Jayden is a lover of life. He loves life too much to waste time in bed beyond 6.30am most mornings. He likes sponge-bob, lego, playing with Abi his cousin, breakfast, peanut butter sandwiches, lasagne (his chosen birthday dinner), rough and tumble with Dad, golf, church, ridng his 'No Fear' bike, being bare-foot and Jesus! Jayden is vibrant, fun (he loves to laugh), intense and passionate. At times he needs reining in a bit and being our third child I am aware that the tendency can be to become more and more permissive and that we won't do him any favours if don't bring clear and strong boundaries when necessary.
A visiting prophetically gifted person recently spoke over Jayden that he would 'enjoy his youth' but that he would also rise and 'grow in leadership' into the future. We found the bit about 'loving his life' both funny and reassuring because that is him to a 'T'. The strength he has is there because its meant to be there, although like everyone who has something they are born with, he is learning how to live with it! We are incredibly proud of Jayden. I want to honour him today as his Dad and say that Jayden is the boy I always dreamed of after two amazing daughters. Jayden - you are a one in a billion, you were made to walk this earth with joy and yet to be a straight arrow. There is much ahead for you my son, God loves you, your family all adore you, you were made for this hour and I have a feeling that you are going to make the most of every minute! Happy Birthday 'sonny Jim'!! Your Dad and Mum and big sisiters are SO PROUD of you!! You rock...
Dad
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
'Accountability Fraud'?
This term has gripped me as I prepare for some teaching and training that I will be conducting. The term has come out of a conviction that true accountability is less easy to come by these days, even amongst us believers! I am not talking about the fraud of financial dealings here, but rather the 'fraud of pretence' - that is that we are way LESS open to correction, listening to the advise of a friend, to personal transformation than we may care to admit. I have seen how easy it can be to hide behind slogans of accountability, to talk the right talk and project the right demeanour, but to lack the substance of true accountability. 'Who are you accountable to' is an easy point to make but a difficult question to answer for many! The answer clearly lies, I believe, in humility and also in deep friendships. Another factor is the skill, motive and attitude of 'friends' (ask Job!)
Humility is that attitude of heart that seeks not to elevate oneself at all costs and is open and willing to grow rather than to guard the priority of self-protectionism. Jesus was gentle and humble of heart. Deep friendships are those where two-way depth of communication and honesty can flow. They take time, effort, vulnerability and a sense of trust and safety. A true understanding and experience of sonship and freedom from a performance based personality mindset are surely key to unlocking the prison we make for ourselves in pretence and self-imposed isolationism. By comparing ourselves to others we end up competing, even sub-consciously, either intimidating or being intimidated. Christ came to set us free.
'Accountability fraud' then is living the lie that you are an accountable person when you are truly not. It is an image, a front, a manicured lawn, a picketed fence, that hides us away but creates the aura that we are truly open and willing to be more than an island and King of our own domain. This is not meant to be harsh but I hope it stirs the question, 'Am I truly accountable - firstly to God, and secondly, to people that are strategically positioned by God in my life'? Any comments?
Humility is that attitude of heart that seeks not to elevate oneself at all costs and is open and willing to grow rather than to guard the priority of self-protectionism. Jesus was gentle and humble of heart. Deep friendships are those where two-way depth of communication and honesty can flow. They take time, effort, vulnerability and a sense of trust and safety. A true understanding and experience of sonship and freedom from a performance based personality mindset are surely key to unlocking the prison we make for ourselves in pretence and self-imposed isolationism. By comparing ourselves to others we end up competing, even sub-consciously, either intimidating or being intimidated. Christ came to set us free.
'Accountability fraud' then is living the lie that you are an accountable person when you are truly not. It is an image, a front, a manicured lawn, a picketed fence, that hides us away but creates the aura that we are truly open and willing to be more than an island and King of our own domain. This is not meant to be harsh but I hope it stirs the question, 'Am I truly accountable - firstly to God, and secondly, to people that are strategically positioned by God in my life'? Any comments?
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Political Correctness and the Gospel
I am at times astonished at the strength of the perceived need in our society for 'political correctness'. I am not speaking so much in a specific sense about politics, although the term betrays the deeper rationale behind such attitudes and actions. Here I am rather more about talking about spirituality and communicating the Christian Gospel in 2010.
Paul's first letter to the early Corinthian believers (1 Corinthians) begins with repeated exhortation by the apostle for them to rise above the 'cultural spirit level' of the well established ideological building blocks of that city at that time. Society measures out an 'inherent plumb line' to which we become so well accustomed, particularly when we have grown up there. Ideas are passed down from generation to generation, become institutionalised and enshrined as the norms and unwritten rules by which locals live in a 'civilised society'.
My contention, and indeed that of the Apostle Paul as seen in his writings, is that many faulty premises underpin such 'laws of reason' and leave us spiritually bankrupt. A vivid and descriptive term that Paul uses is to call them 'strongholds' of the mind, 'imaginations' that exalt themselves against the Knowledge of God, idols of thought and deed that become the 'norm' in a society where 'crowds lie' rather than lead in paths of greater enlightenment. As Tim Keller, a preacher and writer puts it,
‘When we are completely immersed in a society of people who consider a particular idolatrous attachment normal, it becomes almost impossible to discern it for what it is'
Paul's courage and forthrightness stands in stark contrast to much of my own political correctness, which, thank God, is changing. He is never rude but rebukes the Corinthian believers for being seduced by the Corinthian obsession with 'wisdom','speech and knowledge', oratory flamboyance and in general the applause and accolades of men. The cross, says Paul, must NOT BE EMPTIED OF ITS POWER, and should not be preached with 'eloquence alone' but with boldness and in a 'demonstration of the Spirit's power'. God was drawing the 'foolish' in the eyes of the Corinthians, taking the 'weak' and common man and shining His Gospel deep into their hearts. Although, the preaching of a simple but profound Gospel of Christ crucified as our Saviour was an apparent folly to the 'strong' it would only serve to 'shame' the 'wise' in the long term for running with the crowd.
It seems to me that Paul was afraid of the believers falling back under the spell of 'trying to BE and look like somebody 'important' and culturally palatable' and was exhorting them to follow the rhythm of a different drumbeat, the drum master of which - Christ, transcends the cultures, crowds, opinions, fashions, ideologies and political correctness of that, this or any age.
As for them, so for believers today in 2010, amidst the cities and cultures in which we find ourselves. To hell with political correctness, we should not be rude, but neither silent nor compromised.
Paul's first letter to the early Corinthian believers (1 Corinthians) begins with repeated exhortation by the apostle for them to rise above the 'cultural spirit level' of the well established ideological building blocks of that city at that time. Society measures out an 'inherent plumb line' to which we become so well accustomed, particularly when we have grown up there. Ideas are passed down from generation to generation, become institutionalised and enshrined as the norms and unwritten rules by which locals live in a 'civilised society'.
My contention, and indeed that of the Apostle Paul as seen in his writings, is that many faulty premises underpin such 'laws of reason' and leave us spiritually bankrupt. A vivid and descriptive term that Paul uses is to call them 'strongholds' of the mind, 'imaginations' that exalt themselves against the Knowledge of God, idols of thought and deed that become the 'norm' in a society where 'crowds lie' rather than lead in paths of greater enlightenment. As Tim Keller, a preacher and writer puts it,
‘When we are completely immersed in a society of people who consider a particular idolatrous attachment normal, it becomes almost impossible to discern it for what it is'
Paul's courage and forthrightness stands in stark contrast to much of my own political correctness, which, thank God, is changing. He is never rude but rebukes the Corinthian believers for being seduced by the Corinthian obsession with 'wisdom','speech and knowledge', oratory flamboyance and in general the applause and accolades of men. The cross, says Paul, must NOT BE EMPTIED OF ITS POWER, and should not be preached with 'eloquence alone' but with boldness and in a 'demonstration of the Spirit's power'. God was drawing the 'foolish' in the eyes of the Corinthians, taking the 'weak' and common man and shining His Gospel deep into their hearts. Although, the preaching of a simple but profound Gospel of Christ crucified as our Saviour was an apparent folly to the 'strong' it would only serve to 'shame' the 'wise' in the long term for running with the crowd.
It seems to me that Paul was afraid of the believers falling back under the spell of 'trying to BE and look like somebody 'important' and culturally palatable' and was exhorting them to follow the rhythm of a different drumbeat, the drum master of which - Christ, transcends the cultures, crowds, opinions, fashions, ideologies and political correctness of that, this or any age.
As for them, so for believers today in 2010, amidst the cities and cultures in which we find ourselves. To hell with political correctness, we should not be rude, but neither silent nor compromised.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)