fruitful faith

Have you ever thought about what it means to say that you own something?

December 28th, 2009 | Tags: christianity, ethics, judaism, ownership, politics, religion, sharing, stewardship | Category: christianity, ethics, general, philosophy, politics | Comments (4)

I don’t have time to look into it at the moment, but I’d love to see a treatment of what led Protestant Reformer Martin Luther to say,
“If I knew Jesus would return tomorrow, I would plant a tree today.”

April 4th, 2009 | Tags: belief, creation, faith, stewardship, theology | Category: christianity, ethics, theology | Comments (16)

Anyone who has a knee jerk (i.e. less than critical) reaction to political events in general and the recent U.S. stimulus package in particular, should shut up and think before ranting.
That said, I just don’t like the thought (much less the passing) of the new stimulus package (and I’m not at all anti-Obama – to [...]

February 11th, 2009 | Tags: advertising, change, consumerism, culture, current event, death, discernment, ethics, evil, justice, life, morals, politics, poverty, stewardship | Category: ethics, politics | Leave a comment

It’s ‘inorganic rubbish collection’ time in Northcote, Auckland, New Zealand.
Northcote street-sides are loaded down with previously-wanted, cheaply-made, briefly-enjoyed and hastily-discarded stuff.
Interestingly, a rather large percentage of the items you’ll see piled outside homes in the area can be seen in pre-broken, pre-rusted or pre-outdated condition in store advertising fliers like the “Outdoor Living ‘08” catalogue [...]

October 30th, 2008 | Tags: complacency, consumerism, creation, culture, current event, death, dignity, ethics, evil, humanity, justice, life, morals, poverty, spirituality, stewardship, temptation, truth, wisdom | Category: ethics | Comments (2)

Monday nights, 1, 8, 15, 22 September 2008
7:00 – 9:30pm, Laidlaw College – Auckland Campus,
80 Central Park Drive, Henderson, Waitakere
Heaven and Earth: Where are we going? Does it matter?
We are excited by the opportunity we have to introduce you to some of the new faces at College. This group includes Dr Martin Sutherland (Vice Principal [...]

August 30th, 2008 | Tags: belief, christianity, creation, faith, god, gospel, heaven, hope, humanity, interpretation, jesus, Jewish, kingdom of god, life, Mark Strom, religion, stewardship, theology, truth, wisdom | Category: bible, christianity, theology, www | Leave a comment

A targum of Psalm 8:

Yahweh our Master!
Your Name is priceless throughout the universe!
Your glory is unsearchable and inscrutable
and utterly beyond our capability to measure.
Even the smallest and inexperienced ones; yes – babies
they praise you – just as you wanted
all this is like ignorant and inane babbling to those who hate you,
yet this incoherent baby-noise completely [...]

August 27th, 2008 | Tags: belief, christianity, creation, dignity, god, humanity, humility, interpretation, life, order, poetry, science, significance, stewardship, targum, truth, wisdom | Category: bible, christianity, poetry, theology | Comments (2)

watch it here (worth all 20 minutes of your time).
Note: The scope of this thing is so huge, please don’t fault it for making sweeping statements – to cover what it does in 20 minutes, it has to make its statements as general as possible.

August 7th, 2008 | Tags: busyness, change, complacency, consumerism, creation, culture, death, dignity, ethics, evil, humanity, justice, learning, life, love, morals, politics, stewardship, truth, wisdom | Category: ethics, general, www | Leave a comment

I saw some footage tonight from a hot-dog eating contest…
Disgusting…
Utterly disgusting…
Yet somewhat amusing…
But later I thought…
“Hey, isn’t that shocking? All these people cramming down (and I don’t know how long they stayed ‘down’…) dozens of hot-dogs each, while food is scarce for most/many in the world!!??”
Is this utterly immoral?
Am I too idealistic?
Now, I do [...]

July 6th, 2008 | Tags: conflict, culture, current event, debate, ethics, evil, humanity, life, morals, random, stewardship | Category: ethics, philosophy, www | Comments (6)