Reformed. Christianity. Evangelism. Modern Culture.
Every body wants a piece of The Big Apple. It is said that New York City is the most linguistically and religiously diverse city in the world. The 8.4 million inhabitants communicate in some 800 different languages across the five boroughs – the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. New York is also a religious city: 83% of New Yorkers are said to be affiliated to some organized religion.
As the muslims muscle their way in and stake a claim in the heart of Ground Zero with the Cordoba Centre and Ground zero mosque, some body had better warn them. Look who is riding in from the wings and ploughing into New York too: Read More
Thrones of gods?
Since the fall of man from grace in the Garden of Eden, Adam’s descendants have battled thistles and thorns, sweated for bread and battled the aging process that constantly reminds them of their mortality.
This week began with a doctor’s letter for my wife to go for a medical check up. Something to do with the usual blood pressure check, urine analysis and blood tests. Then I came across this article that could answer all our problems at one seating. The i- toilet: But There’s More
The leaves are slowly turning golden, the year is far gone. One sure way of keeping track of summer is to wait for the Notting Hill carnival in London. It officially reminds you that the good old summer sunshine has ebbed. Since 1966, this annual celebration has united the West Indian community and attracted millions from all over the world. The atmosphere has always been colourful and vibrant with steel drum bands, calypso, reggae and everything Caribbean. Not to forget the aromatic food as the crowds sing along to Bob Marley’s No woman, no cry. But There’s More
Ever reached late for a fancy dress party and upon arrival in your frilly loin cloth and ‘Jonah’ T-shirt some one whispers to you, “Didn’t you get the last minute memo this morning that it would be a black tie and suit evening party?” That is when it really hits you square in the face. What was I even thinking to get into a loin cloth? I must be a naive goat. That is one of the first hiccup steps to maturity from juvenile delinquency. Read More
It’s a little over two thousand years ago that Judas Iscariot left his calling card with the chief priests. In the modern day twenty first century setting you don’t even have to have a best friend or wayward disciple to betray you or your privacy. Speaking of which privacy has suncobsciously become a thing of the past. Anybody at a click of a button can know who you are, where you live, your social networking profile, who your friends are and what you like. But There’s More
On a lighter note we seem to be racing towards the second return of Jesus Christ. No I don’t have the date and year. Probably no body knows that bit, though the Mayans think they have that sorted . Their calender will end in 2012 and come December 2012 the Mayans will cheaply sell and give away all their belongings and head for the hills. Only to sheepishly re-buy them expensively in January 2013.
The rest of the world is still coming to terms with the devastation in Pakistan’s flood. (After BP shame facedly plugging a massive oil spill in Gulf of Mexico). With over 20 million homeless and over 1,600 dead- it is a challenge of similar proportion to that during the 1947 partition of the subcontinent into Hindu-dominated India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. Instead of pondering on these weighty issues, a young man in Japan has been serenading his one and only love- his pillow. But There’s More
The butterfly effect is a term used in Chaos Theory to describe how tiny variations can affect giant systems, and complex systems, like weather patterns. For example, it is said that a butterfly flapping its wings in a jungle in Brazil can cause a tornado in Texas.
A couple of years ago we leavened up the unleavened bread of Christianity. A little nip here and a tuck there. We created a brand of Hip and Cool Christianity not only smooth but market savvy. Relevant. We used reproducible and successful entrepreneurial church growth models to bring as many people into the church complexes as possible.
However, if the recent trend of events is anything to go by, it seems God has gone on a hiatus and left the youths playing peekaboo in the night. Recent statistics show that there is an increasing exodus of young people from churches, especially after they leave home and live on their own. In a 2007 study, Lifeway Research determined that 70% of young Protestant adults between 18-22 stop attending church regularly. Some critics have attributed this yo-yo effect to the perils of hipster Christianity. Read More
No samba, no chanting and best of all-no vuvuzela! These sound like the in house rules of a ballet dance or darts game and not a soccer game, right? You couldn’t be more wrong. The World Blind Soccer Championships are underway and I am up for them. Thinking of taking an extended leave till the Championships are over.
So, they have done away with the monotonous sonic assault of the vuvuzela from the FIFA World cup. I know I still have a buzz in my ears that the good doctor called ‘tinnitus’. Its like a heretic purpose driven resident bee is trying to settle an Olympics vendetta against a pack of charismatic crickets. But There’s More
Oh no you didn't!
Ngombe mjinga hupeleka ndama karibu ya barabara. Tongues? No its Swahili. It basically says that a stupid or despicable cow leads her calf near the road. This is an african proverb loosely built on the first Psalm that says that, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor sits in the seat of scoffers but his delight is in the Law of the lord.” There’s been lots of deaths recently. History is punctuated by stories of legends and village idiots alike who have done truly selfless altruistic feats. In the same breath history inks the chronicles of people who died and in their death caused untold devastation and merciless deaths of many others.
One gentle man (if I can call him that) Samson in the Bible used a broken donkey jaw bone in his prime as a weapon of mass destruction. He rearranged a few skulls, made a few others visit their dentists and matched out of the battle field whistling in time for dinner -without even raffling his well greased hair. So says the revised Suday school version of the events. Read More
The next time you probably ask a stranger on the street what time it is he might tell you the time three hours ahead of GMT. And if you ask why he will tell you he is going by the Mecca Clock Tower. If you ask why, seeing that for the past 125 years, the international community has accepted that the start of each day should be measured from the prime meridian, representing 0 degrees longitude, which passes through the Greenwich Observatory, he may proudly reply we are “Putting Mecca time in the face of Greenwich Mean Time. This is the goal.”
For more than a century, a point on the top of a hill in south-east London has been recognised as the centre of world time and the official starting point of each new day. But now the supremacy of Greenwich Mean Time is being challenged by a gargantuan new clock being built in Mecca, by which the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims could soon be setting their watches.
Big Ben (L) and Mecca Clock Tower(R)
Due to start ticking on Thursday as the faithful begin fasting during the month of Ramadan, the timepiece sits atop the Royal Mecca Clock Tower which dominates Islam’s holiest city. It is at the heart of a vast complex funded by the Saudi government that will also house hotels, shopping malls and conference halls. Read More
Is there still any reverence for the Holy and sacred things of God these days? What ever happened to the good old sermons about sin, righteousness and judgement? They called some of these ‘fire and brimstone’ sermons and phased them out of most churches, radios and television. Have you ever listened to Jonathan Edwards’ sermon ‘Sinners in the hands of an angry God’? Not even so called christian broad casters feature such sermons any more. These sermons are deemed ‘volatile’ and dont draw ratings they say. But they make a fatal error as they gladly proclaim a new gospel. One that is billed as the best thing since sliced bread called Gospel lite -the health, wealth and prosperity gospel.
Flip to a typical modern christian church sermon broad cast and what do you see? A young man who should be a pastor struts around an arena with spandex and jiggles as he lays his closed bible on the Plexiglass pulpit that casts a silhouette against the laser lit giant screen behind him. It’s Sunday and the topic is self esteem and positive confession…for the fifty second time that year. ‘This is our year of destiny’ reads the banner that has always been flown year in and year out. New visitors and tourists stagger in awe as they trudge through the church programme.The message elates them and sure enough tickles their fancy enough to bring them back But There’s More
It’s been coming and soon it will be here. Crowd control has always been a nightmare since the days of the ‘brood of vipers’ open air sermons of John the Baptist to the modern day children’s trampoline tea and biscuit parties of a pastor’s wife. Many delighted mega church ushers seemed to jump for joy this week supposing they had landed themselves a useful gadget in ultimate crowd control but stopped mid air as police in the UK seized large numbers of a gadget that has been supposedly dubbed ‘the ushers touch’.
A MILLION-volt stun gun disguised as a mobile phone is being smuggled into Britain by criminals. Potentially-lethal K95s are 24 TIMES more powerful than a police Taser. But There’s More
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
“Pastor is it OK to sell a Bible to a prostitute?” the story is told of a young girl called Laura from a small church in a small town in central Brazil. She sold Avon products for years in the town to supplement the family income. One of her weekly routes took her through the red light district. With those business contacts she often shared her faith in Jesus Christ.
God opened a door to present Bibles and Christian books in a house of prostitutes. Oddly enough, the house was located directly across the road from a large evangelical church. Ten of these women gathered around a table one afternoon as Laura shared with them the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. A few Bibles and some books containing testimonies of transformed lives were sold that afternoon.
Several months later there were terrible rains and floods in that part of Brazil, causing several deaths. With the floods came mudslides in communities that had been inundated by the rising rivers. Two prostitutes who had attended the book demonstration earlier that year talked about the danger and decided to read the Bible Read More
So God, The Almighty has taken to shaking up the Manchester United squad. This week it was apparently the turn for £ 18 million midfield maestro Anderson whose full name is Anderson Luis di Abreu Oliveira. The 22-year-old had reportedly spent the evening at a nightclub before leaving with two friends in a French-registered £100,000 Audi that has a top speed of 197mph.
The Audi R8 sports car, with Anderson’s male friend at the wheel, slid off the road and hit a wall before flying 100 feet through the air and landing in a field. But There’s More
A Twisted Crown of Thorns ® 