The Sovereignty of God Vs the A-Team

Interesting isn’t it, the mixed and confused views people often have of the sovereignty of God? Even those who are agnostic towards the very existence of God are quick to believe that God holds some considerable sway in hopeless times. It seems that this ‘agnostic’ faith in the sovereignty of God is something of a placebo in the midst of hopelessness; “I can’t do anything about this situation, surely someone else can!” It’s a bit like some kind of supernatural superhero; If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire: THE A-TEAM.

Am I more pharisee or saducee?

Last Feburary, I was on a Univerisity mission when I read an article in The Guardian about the Bishop of Liverpool’s aparent U-turn in the continuing anglican homosexuality debate. Whilst there, I got talking to a wise old owl, who made a very insightful comment. He said; “Interesting isn’t it, what this guy is being said to be clinging to. He’s given up on the Bible, and instead tradition and culture have become his guides. He wants to be culturally relevant, so he ignores what the Bible says about homosexuality, but right now, he’s walking round with a dog collar on. If he wants to be culturally relevant, he should drop the tradition, not the Bible.”

Measuring success

How do we measure success? In church leadership, what is it that makes someone successful? I think there are three different ways of being successful.

The successful increaser: This is the obvious one. This is where a person leads a church and they see immense growth. Through clear proclamation of the gospel, not only do people come to faith in Christ, not only are Christians who were getting dissilusioned by church brought in assured as brothers and sisters but also Christians who are there grow in knowledge of Christ in grace and love further exercising and increasing in gifts. This is Moses, Nehemiah, Paul, Martin Luther, George Whitfield, Mark Driscoll and Peter Baker.

Cursed Pendulum and the Ticking Clock

Penduli (that’s the plural for pendulums) have fascinated Physicists for centuries. Apart from their particular usage for keeping time, their motion can help us understand the more complicated motion of things like universes…wierd huh. But recently I’ve found myself fascinated by penduli for another reason. That reason is the Church.

Death and the Providence of God

I’m going to die on Wednesday 23^rd October, 2024. I’ll be 48 years old. However, if I change my personality from pessimistic to optimistic – I’ll die on January 5^th, 2047, aged 71. Now, that’s not so bad, is it.

Thoughts about death…

Death…is a wretched thing. When we’re faced with it it makes us sick, sick to our very cores. It affects us unlike any other human experience. But why? I’ve always been of the opinion (having dealt with very little death in my life) that, “Everyone’s gotta die sometime.” “We all die.” “Better that way than another way…”

But when you actually meet death, when it’s just occurred, something inside tells us that it’s just plain wrong.

We've moved!

www.theprognosis.org

Dear readers,

I am writing on behalf of the proGnosis authors to inform you that we have moved address. Our new address is, www.theprognosis.org. There we have a whole new site with the usual blog, but also with pages for downloading articles, sermons, music and for displaying videos which will be uploaded in time.

We will no longer be using this address so please use our new address in future. We hope this doesn’t inconvenience you too much and we hope we don’t lose you as a reader in future. And by the way, this is not because google are trying to shut us down, that was an April Fool’s joke. It’s simply that now we have more stuff and a better url!

Your’s gratefully and sincerely

Jonny Raine (Techie!)

Why are British soaps so often set in working class contexts?

It’s an interesting question though I think it’s quite obvious when you think about it. Though it’s one I imagine most people wouldn’t have ever considered. For some reason, it’s one that popped into my head the other day. Ok, there are obvious exceptions, but take Britain’s two most popular soaps, Eastenders and Coronation Street, though I’ve never really watched either of them (I’m more into Aussie soaps!) I understand that they’re both in working class contexts, Eastenders being set in East London and Corrie being set in Manchester. Though there are or have been (I think) some characters on each of these who wouldn’t be described as working class (or to our American readers, blue collar)

Welcome!

Here’s our new blog. We’ve got our own web address now: www.theprognosis.org. We’ve got a new host. We’ve got new pages waiting to be filled with articles, audio downloads and videos to watch. We’ve got a slightly new look.

But it’s the same old authors and the same old logo, though we’ll change it and stick a “the” in there! Hope you feel at home here in our new site.

If you’ve not seen our old site or old blogs, they’re still available at http://prognosis.blog.com.

I know that my Redeemer lives (but I’m not certain how Job did…)

I want to preach Christ. And I want to do it from everwhere. Jesus says he’s everywhere in the Bible, so when I preach, I want to find him, and make him clear to people. 

Sometimes, this is easy. Turn to Mark, and it’s fairly easy to see Jesus. Turn to Esther, and it’s not so easy (whoaoh there cowboys! Don’t rush ahead to the comment bit yet…).

Or in Job. This Easter I thought I’d be a smarty pants. Job 19 –  ”I know that my Redeemer lives”. Piece of cake, thought I. Jesus = The Redeemer, He lives. Easy.