Today was another beautiful day, so I decided to sit on the patio to translate the Friday Fax. It started out pleasant, with a nice breeze, but I was being fried after 45 minutes, so retreated to the cool of the house. (Yes Mary, I used the suncream, so didn’t get burned 🙂 )
Month: August 2005
Things are hotting up
Things are hotting up for the conference. The Steeles had a difficult evening yesterday, and are still trying to work out how to respond correctly (no more details here), John White also came under attack yesterday, and the Dales had a significant distraction too. Someone, somewhere does not like what is going on!
Dawn this morning, shown in the photo, was a beautiful contrast to the events.
Let the women be silent!
I was reading 1st Corinthians this morning. This verse linked in with some of the things we were talking about during the meeting yesterday:
1 Corinthians 14:35 And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.
I started to think about this in the context of a few other verses and facts, and believe that he is actually saying “It is shameful for women to chatter in church.”
I was reading 1st Corinthians this morning. This verse linked in with some of the things we were talking about during the meeting yesterday:
1 Corinthians 14:35 And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.
I started to think about this in the context of a few other verses and facts:
Continue reading “Let the women be silent!”
I really do take one photo each morning
For those of you who doubt, the morning photos really are taken each morning! The weather here is very predictable at the moment: it starts out clear, sunny and cool (at least until 8:30), warms considerably during the day, thunders at 3pm, sometimes with very heavy rain, and clears up for the evening. It’s really a climate I could get used to 🙂
This morning, we had breakfast with a couple who heard God calling them to simple church. He handed his ordination papers back to the group he was working with, and they are now waiting for the Lord’s leading. It is very encouraging to see people like that, demonstrating their faith in their actions.
Losung: 29.8.2005 Du bist der Gott, der mir hilft; täglich harre ich auf dich Psalm 25.5
Der Verfasser des Psalm 25 ist David ein Hirtenjunge, der von Gott zum König über Israel berufen wurde. Für David war der Ausspruch: “du bist der Gott, der mir hilft; täglich harre ich auf dich…” kein Lippenbekenntnis, Sondern erfahrene Realität. Woher nahm David diese Zuversicht, dass Gott ihm helfen würde? Woher nahm David diese Überzeugung, dass seine Gebete Erhörung fänden?
Continue reading “Losung: 29.8.2005 Du bist der Gott, der mir hilft; täglich harre ich auf dich Psalm 25.5”
A full house
Today, many of the members of the Steele’s old house churches gathered here, plus a few new friends – all told, around 25 people. We started off with a time of prayer and talking about what Jesus is doing in everybody’s lives and why we do things as we do (to answer questions raised by the people here for the first time). Then came lunch and an afternoon of talking and playing games. I found the number of people and the volume somewhat tiring at times, but the conversations were good. All in all a great day.
Squirrel steak and pond scum for dinner!
A gruesome meal
We had a lovely meal this evening: squirrel steak, pond scum (the gravy, with floaty bits), congealed blood (the red sauce), children’s teeth (the yellow bits), and, rather boringly, Continue reading “Squirrel steak and pond scum for dinner!”
Mike on his bike…
Mike likes to ride motorcycles, and looks surprisingly different when he does!
Across the generations
I’ve just posted the latest Friday Fax, which contains thoughts about the relationship between generations. I can’t express it any better, so just read it!
More on ‘Who is your covering?’
Continuing to look at Frank Viola’s book ‘Who is your covering?’.
The primary authority over the local churches were the elders. Paul instructed Titus, for example, to “appoint elders in every town”. Two things are notable (my addition to the comments in the book): firstly, the church in a city or region is generally referred to singularly, not ‘the churches’, and Titus should appoint ‘elders’, apparently indicating that there should be several of them in each church. Secondly, in the list of attributes required to become an elder, the word used suddenly changes from ‘presbuteros’ (‘elderly man’) to ‘episkopos’, often translated as ‘bishop’. This appears to indicate that bishops were the same thing as elders, and that there were several of them in each church.
I’ve read further in Frank Viola’s book ‘Who is your covering?’. It is a quite remarkable book, going back to the Greek words and examining their meaning, also looking at the context of the period in which they were written.
He starts by looking at models of leadership (basically contrasting hierarchical models with Jesus’ words):
Continue reading “More on ‘Who is your covering?’”