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Saturday, September 13, 2008 at 3:40PM This week, among the history shifting events here in South Africa with Jacob Zuma's judgement being overturned, there was also some other interesting news!
I'm glad that we're still here!
The Large Hadron Collider was fired up and we're apparently all still herezajkekukja..... Friday, September 12, 2008 at 10:11PM As the heading says, today's decision about the Jacob Zuma matter is some concern. Don't get me wrong, every person requires the right to appeal against a charge laid against them if they feel that they have been unfairly treated. However, the political posturing, intimidation, and track record surrounding this issue are overwhelming evidence of the fact that Mr Zuma has something to hide, and that he will muster all the support that he can to have his point heard.
Friday, September 12, 2008 at 9:33AM The December 2007 conference of the ANC in Polokwane, and today's judgement (which is only a very first step) in the Jacob Zuma case in Pietermaritzburg, will be noted at watershed events in the history of South Africa.
We have already traveled some way down a treacherous and uncertain road.
Whilst there is some uncertainty there is one thing of which we can be certain - we are not victims, we have choices, and we have a God who is both powerful and loving!
Today I am praying and fasting. I encourage you to do the same.
Thursday, September 11, 2008 at 12:30PM Here's an incredibly challenging quote! I like it a lot.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008 at 9:55PM My ministry changed radically about 9 years ago when a wealthy business person came to faith in Christ. He is a gifted and capable person who had made an incredible success of his companies. My first inclination, when he asked how he could serve the Lord, was to suggest that he get involved in the leadership of our Church, or perhaps run our Church's finance commission (clearly he was a gifted leader and a person who knew how to work with money). If I had suggested that to him the result may have been two things.
1) I may have helped one Methodist Church in a single city of South Africa to develop.
2) I'm fairly certain that in the process this new Christian would have become bored and frustrated with the task I had assigned him to and he would have moved on.
Thankfully I was dumb enough NOT to get him into that position - rather I invited him to join a small group that I was running specifically for business people. Here I knew his peers could start to disciple him on things like Christian worship, loving service, stewardship and the use of his influence and resources for Christ's Kingdom... The long and short of it is that the person I am talking about is Graham Power, who went on to start the Global Day of Prayer (which this year had between 300 and 400 million persons participating).
Graham has become a significant figure in world Christianity. God has used him to bring new excitement, passion, and drive to many Churches and denominations worldwide. Equally significant has been his influence among his peers (all leaders in their own right, either in business or politics) who have made some significant choices that have bettered the lives of many millions of persons in countries such as Ghana, Argentina, Kenya, the USA and a host of other nations.
I have come to consider this one fact: Graham was created by God to do business... It's what he does well, and he God blesses his efforts.
So, when Graham works to God's glory and towards the aims of achieving God's will for his companies, the industry in which he works, and the nation that he influences, then his work becomes worship!
So, here's a little audio recording that I did for my 'radio pulpit' show (The Ministry and Me), it was broadcast in the week of the 20th of August, and you can order an audio copy of the CD from Radio Pulpit if you wish.
Download the '5 paradigms that could change your work into worship' here (6MB in MP3 format).
The show was broadcast in the week of the 6th of August and I have had many emails and calls about it. You will find a powerpoint presentation with slides and scriptures here - 5paradigms.ppt. And here's a copy of an unedited MS Word document that may be of some use 5paradigms.doc.
Let me know what you think!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008 at 1:27PM I can understand the sentiment of this wonderfully challenging and insightful quote... I have suffered, far too frequently, from my own selfishness and greed. It is something I bring before the Lord frequently, whether it has to do with my time, my boundaries, my need for control, or the much more base desires such as food, clothing, possessions (and of course gadgets!)
Selfishness ... feeds an insatiable hunger that first eats up everything belonging to others and then causes a creature to devour itself.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008 at 1:22PM In a post I wrote two days ago on religious fundamentalism I got a wonderful comment from Simon G... Here's his comment on my post, and my response to him. What do you think? Can we differentiate without objectifying others? Is it healthy, or unhealthy? And, if we do so, how do we guard against abuse?
This is a fascinating quote because it starts from the premise you can split people into good and bad. I would suggest all bad things done in the name of religion start with exactly this sort of us and them split.
Christ said love you neighbour as yourself -- that needs to be without making a judgement on whether my neighbour is good or bad.
Yes, we all have tendency to split people into groups and label them - Hitchens included (good and bad). There lies the smooth highway to apartheid, ethnic cleansing, gay bashing, jihad and concentration camps. We are all capable of perpetrating these, they aren't the prerogative of a special group of people.
Trouble is some grouping and labelling is social acceptable and much is socially acceptable in the church, we need to fight this tendency with all vigour and pray the Holy Spirit will give us a renewed and Christ like vision of our neighbour.
So, what do you think!?Simon,
Thank you for this thought provoking comment. I agree with the sentiment entirely, and am particularly struck by the fact that such 'objectification' and categorization is exactly what leads to abuse.
However, I do wonder how one becomes critical (whether be self critical, or critical of groupings, structures, or individuals) in a healthy manner in order to bring about change for the good of all humanity and ultimately God's intended Glory in the Kingdom?
The methodology of prayer that you mention is certainly a core element of such an approach - it is something that I do daily in private and with groups as I have chance. However, I do believe that there must be something more tangible that can help us to do 'mission to the Church', as Karl Barth's missiology suggests...
I think that sometimes the answer of 'prayer conversion' creates a soft barrier the differentiates 'true believers' from 'false believers', even within the church.
Ultimately religion, which comes from the Latin word re - ligio (ligio is the root word for the English 'ligament' which means in Latin to 'bind' or 'hold together') does have a binding effect. At first it is comforting since the 'binding' gives structure and security, but sadly there frequently comes a 'tipping point' where religion goes from being a comfortable binding agent that brings people together, to a restrictive and exclusive binding agent that holds some persons captive, and excludes those who need more freedom.
So, the long and the short of my response is this - I agree that we need to be careful of hap-hazard objectification, but there does need to be some graciously realistic method of understanding, articulating, and dealing with sinful individuals, groups, and structures (both within 'us' and within 'them'). This will help us to grow and become more Christlike.
Perhaps the secret is the attitude that you spoke of, which comes from the Holy Spirit? I thought of Phil 2:5 as I read your comment "... consider others better than yourself..."
Thanks once again from the comment!
Dion
Tuesday, September 9, 2008 at 8:47AM 
Here I am stuck in the rain on the N2... At least I can see the mother of all mountains, Table mountain, and the cooling towers at Langa!
I'm on my way to meet the distributor of the book that Wessel Bentley and I wrote last year (Methodism in Southern Africa...), Africa Upper Room Ministry.
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Monday, September 8, 2008 at 9:48PM John Hodgman is known throughout galaxies far and wide for transcendent wit and bookish LOLs. You may know him from the Apple ads, the Daily Show hijinks, his blog, or his book, Areas of My Expertise (Amazon link), which begat the Internet Hobo Craze of The 21st Century.
What you may not yet know about him is this: he has a new book coming out October 21, 2008, titled More Information Than You Require (Amazon link).
The new compendium will include mole men. And, frankly, it's pretty sweet. We visited with him during a hotel hole-up at the Chateau Marmont, and interrupted his writing flow. He forgave us, and offered us a ham sandwich with some Soylent Green. Please to be watching.
(Ed. note: We aired a mole-man-centric cut of this visit late last year, but we're revisiting again to reveal more undiscovered Hodgmanic goodness. Stay tuned for all-new fun with this guy, planned soon.)
Do not fear... This is from boingboing!
Monday, September 8, 2008 at 9:44PM Mandy de Waal (whom I follow on twitter) posted the following telling quote today...
Indeed. Don't follow me.In the normal order of things good people do good things and bad people do bad things... To get good people to do bad things you need religion - Christopher Hitchens
Sunday, September 7, 2008 at 4:00PM 
I had two thoughts - first, sadness that persons and groups like this even exist in the new South Africa. Second, I was proud to be a new South African! We will even allow such persosn rights and freedoms in South Africa (unlike their behaviour in the past and desire for the future...)
Still, my heart is sad! Pray for this region - clearly there is still a lot of work to do here to heal relationships and establish the kind of society that would honour God!
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Saturday, September 6, 2008 at 3:35PM 
