All Things Seen & Unseen

'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me' (Phil. 4.13).   All sorts of nonsense unfortunately have been inferred from these words of the apostle Paul in Philippians. One bit of silliness is the preaching that every saint of God 'can do all things they wish to do' in Christ.  I suspect that th is teaching comes from the 'health and wealth' theological quarter but wherever it comes from, that type of m otivational preaching that seeks to use this verse to encourage God's people to 'reach for the star s ' and 'fly like eag les', etc. is unsound.

The sending out of God's people into the world to work and witness for him is the last movement of the drama involving the people of God hearing the Word and receiving the s acrament which are at the heart Anglican Sunday worship. Fi ve short subsections comprise this main movement which are numbered §21 to §25. . . . . . . . . . . . . . §21    Priest: Gracious God, thank you for fee d ing us, with the spiritual food of the body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Thank you for assuring us of your goodness and love, and that we are living members of Christ's body. [ How do we k now that we are 'living members of Christ's body' (Rom 12.5; 1Cor 6.15; 1Cor 12.12; Eph 5.30 & etc.) ? An important question because some Anglicans at least seem to waver on whether they are destined for God's presence or not. Yet, the apostle John in his 1st letter said that he had written in order that his he arers might know that they had eternal life (1Jn 5.13 ). The whole...

I don't know how many countries celebrate this odd evening but it hasn't traditionally been part of Australian life and therefore, most Australians I think, still find it foreign and macabre.  Our American and Canadian friends seem to be wholly into it with all its paraphernalia, even Christians. The church I grew up in frowned upon it and thought it all of the devil! Last year we had some high school pupils come to our door unexpectedly 'trick and treating' but I just ignored them. They turned our outside light fixtures upside down as a punishment for not responding to them and then left us alone. This year I didn't know what to expect but I had my wife bring inside anything outside the front door that could be interfered with. She thought I was unduly anxious about a non-event but I asked her nicely anyway. Being a dutiful wife she complied.