Couldn't Help Noticing

Recipe for success?

The Bible Society in Australia has just launched their ‘Jesus. All About Life’ campaign in Adelaide. The aim of the campaign is to use mainstream media advertisements to get the message of Jesus on to the public agenda, and Adelaide is the first city to take part.

Adelaide newspaper The Advertiser ran an article about the campaign on 9 August. What I found fascinating in the article was this:

But University of South Australia marketing expert Professor David Corkindale said the campaign would be preaching to the converted. “From a marketing perspective, trying to be all things to all people is not usually a recipe for success”, he said.

Er ... maybe someone should have told the Apostle Paul? (1 Cor 9:19-23)

For more information about the ‘Jesus. All About Life’ media campaign, visit their website.

Heavenly Man

Recently we gave the book The Heavenly Man a positive review in Briefing #321. In the light of this, it is worth mentioning that serious allegations have been made against Brother Yun, who is the subject of the book, by some prominent Chinese house church leaders. There is also a response from Paul Hattaway, the co-author of The Heavenly Man. We will post further as we learn more.

(Ed: I dug up some more information, for people who may want to investigate further:

• An MP3 sermon/testimony from Brother Yun himself.
• A report from Evangelicals Now about this story.
• There's some good measured discussion from both sides of the argument on this forum.
• And I'm certain that prayer for the church in China and our brothers and sisters in Christ who are there would not go astray.)

The breakdown of truth

From a Briefing reader:

We may have thought paedophilia was a fixed taboo but two recent films have presented the 'sympathetic' side—one about a convicted paedophile trying to find his way back into society (The Woodsman), and another about children who have been abused with mixed feelings about the experience (Mysterious Skin). I haven't seen either film (just read the reviews) but I'm reminded of Francis Schaeffer's warning that the breakdown of truth is spearheaded by the arts.

Personally, I've often wondered whether Australia is on the slippery slide to cultural acceptance of paedophilia. It's a shocking idea, isn't it? But many of the arguments used to support homosexuality can also be used to support paedophilia, if you take God out of the argument.

If there is no God (or higher authority) to draw the line between which kind of sex is right and which kind of sex is wrong, then who does get to draw the line? Some would say the line should be drawn on consent, or on age. But these are arbitrary measures, and they change depending on which culture you are talking about.

Without God, there is no basis upon which we can argue for any one particular type of morality over another. Deciding on the balance of what ‘most people believe’ is not good enough, because we know that there are times in history when ‘most people’ have been very wrong indeed.

The idiot’s guide to spiritual power and wisdom

The first step is understanding if you have spiritual wisdom and power. Do you?

Well, if people think of you as wise, inspired, gifted, and successful, it's quite likely that the answer is ‘no’. Because the wisdom that God imparts, powerful as it is, is invisible to the human eye—or, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:7 “a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory”.

This secret and hidden wisdom concerns—and if you've read 1 Corinthians, you've guessed it—a dead man. He was crucified by the “rulers of this age” (1 Cor 2:8). It is through this dead man that those in the know receive life, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption (1 Cor 1:30).

So how does this wisdom from God come to the average person? And how can you take hold of it?

First, we must realize that it comes from one source, and one source only—God himself. God's Holy Spirit takes this wisdom and gives it to whoever has the Spirit. (1 Cor 2:10)

Second, it comes in words. The words are the words concerning Christ and him crucified (1 Cor 2:2), and they are spiritual in nature.

Third, the wisdom comes because the one who has the Holy Spirit has access to nothing less than the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16). Now that's an exalted state of mind to have reached!

So how does this spiritual power and wisdom reveal itself? Putting these Corinthian insights together, you would expect this powerful, wise person to be spouting off at any opportunity about the death of Jesus on the cross, and raving on about how trusting yourself to this corpse will result in life, freedom from sin, and a total reversal in understanding about what really matters. Be warned, however. If you have this much spiritual power at your disposal, people will quickly decide you're an absolute idiot.

Quotable quote on preaching

Interesting quote from an article on the centrality of expository preaching, by Al Mohler:

A concern for true biblical worship was at the very heart of the Reformation. But even Martin Luther, who wrote hymns and required his preachers to be trained in song, would not recognize this modern preoccupation with music as legitimate or healthy. Why? Because the Reformers were convinced that the heart of true biblical worship was the preaching of the word of God.