David asked in a comment,
“To use a like example, why would you ask a friend to pray for you when you can simply pray to God directly?”
Hmmm…. Never thought much about it. Anyone got any ideas?
Archive for July, 2008
You could hardly miss hearing about, if not watching, the massive Stations of the Cross that took over Sydney today. (1/6th of the world did) What was it all about? Why do we celebrate the gory execution of a rebel?
We celebrate because on that day, Jesus, God’s son, died in our place, as a sacrifice for my sins, and yours. On the third day, he rose to life again.
It should have been me and you on that cross. “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” (1 Peter 3:18)
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Find it in the Bible; or read more here.
The full headline of the two-page spread reads “Pope warns against the lure of false idols”. By an unfortunate coincidence, when the spread is separated, the phrase ‘the lure of false idols’ sits conspicuously above a photo of Pope Benedict XVI, “resplendent in red silk cape” (to quote a reporter heard on the evening news), waving to crowds of hundreds of thousands as he walks down a red carpet.
Quotes down the right-hand side are also unfortunately positioned. (One suspects an editor with a sense of humor:)
“Everybody was screaming his name.”
“You just feel the Holy Spirit is with him, that he is no ordinary person. When you touch him it’s like your heart is burning.”
Several pages deeper, a letter to the editor sums it up:
“I’m getting a little queasy at the quasi-worship of the Pope. He is only a man, for goodness sake. As for his infallibility, he has obviously never argued with a woman.”
“Back in the 1960s, the woman had been told that “life was basically coming to an end for her”, according to Sisters of St Joseph spokeswoman Sister Monica Cavanagh. But she recovered after asking the Josephite sisters to pray to Mary MacKillop on her behalf and being given a relic of Mary’s clothing to wear.”
… The Age reports. Jesus said “Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven…” (Matthew 6:9)
Why do Roman Catholics pray to Saints? (Or not-even-Saints, for that matter…) Do they think God can’t hear them directly? The curtain is torn, He is listening! We don’t need to pray to anyone else, nor does it honour the true mediator:
“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5)
… to the Blue Mountains. Back Friday =)
or 
Ghandi or the Pope?
“And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:20)
Just got back from an absolutely amazing surf with a pair of beautiful dolphins. They were playing in the clear water just a few metres away – swimming, jumping, catching waves. One swam under me, my mate tried to touch the other, and even surfed next to one for a bit! It was exhilarating – I was out of breath and was speechless. All I could do was shout and laugh at how beautiful they were. And I was moved to praise the creativity of our Creator – if He can create such beauty, how much more beautiful must He be.
Thank you Lord for beaches, blue skies, clear water, waves, dolphins, and a good mate to share it all with.
Dan writes a great article as he thinks through camp music. I like his idea that songs should be more propositional. Hymns set to contemporary music would be terrific.
I also like that Dan is consciously observing and thinking through these things. Keep it up, Dan!
One of my hopes for World Youth Day is that the Pope will clearly teach true Roman Catholicism. Many who call themselves Catholic do not fully understand that which they profess, even if they have been professing it for decades, because the pulpit is filled with empty platitudes. May we see Catholic doctrine in its true colours this week.
Like the doctrine of indulgences, for example.
As reported by the SMH last week:
The Vatican yesterday granted full plenary indulgences to the participants in World Youth Day. Remittances of punishment for sins were also granted when World Youth Day was held in Cologne in 2005 for all young Catholics who took part in Confession and Communion…
Full indulgences have been granted “to the faithful who will devotedly participate at some sacred function or pious exercise taking place” at World Youth Day.
A partial indulgence will be given to “all those who, wherever they are, will pray for the spiritual goals of this meeting and for its happy outcome”.
What are indulgences? This SMH article explains them well:
Catholic teaching holds that sins require purification in this life or the next. Purification in this life takes place through prayer, acts of charity and the patient bearing of trials and sufferings – or via dispensation of indulgences. The belief is that indulgences draw on the storehouse of merit acquired by Jesus’ sacrifice. An indulgence may be used either for yourself or for souls who have died and gone to purgatory, a state of purification before heaven.
I wanted to vomit when I first read that. God is withholding something from us? Rubbish! “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?“
(One Catholic I know thinks this is simply misreporting. Try the Catechism of the Catholic Church‘s entry on indulgences.)
I pray that many will see this disgusting doctrine as it is. John 3:36 says “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” Believe in the Son – end of story.
A very interesting extract from this otherwise ordinary article in the SMH:
World Youth Day aims to bring young people back to the Catholic Church, and while some liberals think the hoopla and singing is some sort of second-rate attempt to mimic Hillsong, the Sydney Pentacostal Christian church that is extraordinarily popular with the young, others think Billy Graham laid the groundwork all those years ago.
The evangelist arrived in Sydney on February 12, 1959, for a 15-week crusade… His first appearance in Melbourne filled the 5000-capacity West Melbourne Stadium; the next the outdoors Sydney Myer Music Bowl, and finally the Melbourne Showgrounds. In all 714,000 Melburnians, almost everyone who lived in the place, saw Graham. Pretty much the same thing happened in Sydney.
About 50,000 showed up at the Moore Park showground, and 150,000 crowded the showgrounds and the adjoining Sydney Cricket Ground for his last Sydney appearance. One million listened on radio.
The American’s success prompted anthropological coverage in Time magazine, which noted how well Graham had gone down with teenagers… By the time Graham left Australia, 130,000 people, nearly 2 per cent of the population, had reputedly answered his call to come to the stage and make a commitment to Jesus Christ. The historian Stuart Piggin used Australian Bureau of Statistics figures to show the crusade contributed to a drop in alcohol consumption, extramarital births and crime.
Karl Faase, of Gymea Baptist Church, is making a documentary on Graham’s 1959 crusade. He believes World Youth Day’s success is inevitable, but wonders what happens next. “What happens to those young Catholics when they go back to their churches? Will anything have changed?”
No. What changes people? A concert, a parade, a party, visiting some bones or watching an 81 year old man drive down the street in a gold-fish bowl?
It is God who changes people, through the gospel, which “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). Therefore, preach the word, in season and out of season.
I know someone who is quite interested in Christianity, and pretty open to coming to church events. I don’t pray for them, talk to them about Jesus, or invite them to stuff because I think they’re a bit weird and don’t really want them to become a regular at church.
Isn’t that terrible? For that person, who bears the image of God, Jesus gave his own life.
Jesus paid much too high a price
For us to pick and choose who should come
And we are the Body of ChristIf we are the body
Why aren’t His arms reaching
Why aren’t His hands healing
Why aren’t His words teaching
And if we are the body
Why aren’t His feet going
Why is His love not showing them there is a wayJesus is the way.