Let's talk about sex

Our sexuality is central to who we are, so it's no wonder that the media and advertising uses it so much to get our attention.

Well, Christians are no different from the rest of the world in that respect, and I was part of a packed house at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Saturday to talk about sex - specifically healing from sexual brokenness - at a meeting organised by Living Waters NZ.

It's so encouraging that there are many people willing to discuss this whole issue at the core of who we are, openly.

More later on this, but I was really really challenged by the words of Tony Dolph-something (my apologies, can't find his name and I didn't write it down properly).

He said we buy into the world's way of thinking when we seek happiness as the highest good. God never calls us to happiness necessarily, but to a relationship with Him.

When I put it like that it seems very bald and unattractive, but at the time it was very compelling. And still is; I just struggle to explain what a profound change of my thinking this represents.

Like I say, more on this later.

So someone reads this!

I got an email from someone who actually reads this! Wow. And not just someone, the editor of NZ Netguide, Nige Horrocks.

Made my day, and encouraged me to post again. But what to write about...?

It's not like there's not a lot going on on the spiritual front - in fact God's very busy doing stuff in me... but where to start?

I'll start with what I'm reading right now: What's so amazing about grace?

It's a classic. When I was working at Rhema many years ago I heard about it all the time, yet I haven't read it. Until now.

It's good, very good. Re-emphasising the lessons on God's grace - which is a word in danger of losing its meaning, because when you understand grace, it is crazy. It is amazing.

That's it for now, tune in next time for more...

Thoughts on truth

I recently finished partly reading Why Truth Matters, an exhausting philosophical look at why our society urgently needs objective truth.

What puzzled me was that I was reading familiar arguments for absolute objective truth, from a secular humanistic point of view.

Tres strange!

In particular this quote caught my attention:

"...[E]nquiry, curiosity, interest, investigation, explanation-seeking, are hugely important components of human happiness. This doesn't seem to be a terribly popular thought right now. Public rhetoric tends to aim much lower, for some reason. It seems to see us all as hunkered down, and settling. Settling for minimal, parochial, almost biological satisfactions - family, safety, money. But that underestimates us. We want more than that. We want to ask questions, we want to learn, we want to understand. That's a very human taste and pleasure. ... It seems a waste not to use human capacities and abilities. Anyone can settle for just survival and reproduction and comfort, but we can do more. That's a privilege - and it seems a kind of sacrilege not to use it."

They're facing the same problem faced by philosophers in the 19th century. Remove God from the equation, you can do that with your head, but your heart still wants something sacred. And if you're removed the source of all sacredness, all you have are more questions. And questions only get you so far.