Make sure you change the toilet roll when it’s finished.
Always text or call when you are running late.
Regularly eat meals together.
Remember and celebrate special days and anniversaries.
In the case of an emergency – buy flowers.
Acknowledge your faults (incl. communication, body odour, and habits).
Go to bed at the same time.
Enjoy your life together.
While everyone else in the blogosphere seems to be debating about what Piper said at his latest Pastor’s Conference i’d like to strongly recommend that you listen to the talk by Ramez Atallah.
Ramez is Egyptian and the leader of the Bible Society in Egypt. His talk, that i listened to this morning, is very powerful and challenging for anyone looking at or in ministry. He tells his story, speaks of what it is like to minister in Egypt, a bit of history about mission to Egypt, and also about the garbage people. Over-arching this talk is his five principles that a Christian leader should have.
After listening to both Piper’s and Ramez’s talks i think they are both worth listening to. I came away thinking that Ramez had put a few things in perspective for those of us in the West.
Highly recommended.
A month ago we moved house. It’s not really the most enjoyable of experiences but is something that has to be done when the time comes. The process of moving house meant that i had to move all the books that i have. I’m an avid reader and aim to read a book each fortnight (on average over the course of a year). The “industry” i’m in also lends itself to be around books. Ministry requires reading, preaching requires reading, studying requires reading. This means i have a growing collecting of around 700 books on the shelves and when the library reaches this point it’s probably time to get it sorted out.
I did toy with the idea of working the Dewey system or using the Library of Congress numbers but decided that might be a bit extreme. In the end the best advice came from Andy Naselli’s post on “Why you should organise your theological library and a way how”. I’ve adjusted some of what he’s suggested but used the main categories to organise mine. My library is obviously not as big as his so it probably doesn’t need as much detail as what he has laid out. But here it is:
1. Biblical Theology
2. Historical Theology
3. Systematic Theology
4. Practical Theology
)At this stage all sub-categories are mixed in together in the broad categories. I’m not convinced this works for the Practical Theology section at this stage but it’ll take too much time sorting it out at the moment.
Comments? Suggestions? How do you sort yours?
Earlier this week i was playing around with Google Reader – deleting a few blogs and adding a couple of new ones. For the last 3-4 years i have subscribed to a variety of websites and blogs through GR and it is without a doubt the best way to get the content you want.
If you’re like me then no doubt you visit the same sites each week, perhaps even each day. With GR the content that is on those sites come to one place and immediately after it’s posted. GR is then an efficient way of reading the articles and posts that i find interesting. It also means i don’t have to go searching for what i want, i can decide whether or not to read the content straight away, leave it for later or not even read it at all.
If you look at a number of sites each day or week then i’d recommend getting on GR. There’s just no other way.
If you’d like to subscribe to this blog then put joncoombs.com/feed in the search box over at GR. Alternatively, sign up via email on the right hand side of this page.
The beginning of this year has seen me start reading through some of the issues related to believer’s baptism vs. infant baptism. A few months ago I baptised a couple of young people at church and it sparked the realisation that I’d never investigated “the other side” (infant baptism). In any case, these holidays I’ve taken the time to read two books on the topic thus far and I’ve at least 3-4 to go.
The books I’ve read are:
1. Troubled Waters: Re-thinking the theology of baptism by Ben Witherington.
2. Baptism: Three views ed. by David Wright.
A few initial comments on these books:
- They are both great books on baptism and I’m glad to have chosen these as the first two to read. They’ve covered all the issues that differentiate the baptist and infant views.
- Witherington is rather persuasive in his thoughts about the importance of infants and children. Not convinced this means that they should be baptised so young and without making a decision for themselves but puts the issue on the table well.
- The point above is linked to the very real question of whether children of Christian parents are saved or not. This has practical and theological ramifications and Witherington does well to persuade here.
- The importance of baptism seems to be undermined a little when Witherington questions it’s importance in the NT. This is odd considering he writes a whole book on baptism anyway. Certainly the weight of the NT on baptism is a consideration in whether one should make a larger than life issue out of it.
- Acts seems to be be main book for where the main arguments come from in this book. I did wonder whether it was relied on too heavily or not.
- The three views book is excellent with two particular scholars, B. Ware and S. Ferguson going at each other.
- Ware, a proponent of the baptist view, is more convincing here. Ferguson spends heaps of time explaining the covenants, which is good but isn’t so convincing re baptism and the NT.
- Ware is thorough in his exegetical points whereas the other two aren’t as much. The third view, a middle ground view that includes both views by A. Lane, is interesting but quite inventive and too reliant on historical grounds and not the NT.
Overall, these are two good books to begin with. It’ll be time to crack on with a few more in the coming weeks.
So here is the first post for 2012. Nothing to report nor comment on b/c I’m currently on holiday enjoying time away from regular activities.
Hope you had a great Christmas and NY.