Change your Feed for the New Blog

THIS BLOG HAS MOVED TO STEPHENMURRAY.CO.ZA

Yes I’ve been scarce with the blogging. Two main reasons: Too much work at the moment and secondly I’ve been preparing to move …daylight to a new and improved blog thanks to the help of my friend Aaron Marshall. Daylight has been pimped and you can now find it at stephenmurray.co.za so please adjust your links accordingly. Plus if you subscribe to this blog by RSS or email you’ll need to change your subscription. My new feed is now http://feeds2.feedburner.com/stephenmurraycoza and if you want to subscribe by email you can do so by following this link.

Unfortunately I’ve lost the last 10 or so comments on the blog this side, so if your comment was one of those that got lost then feel free to repost it on the new site. Now get over there and check it out…

Guidance and Sanity

Although I consider myself something of a moderate charismatic, or ‘charismatic with a seat-belt’ as Driscoll calls it, one of the things that freaks me out in a lot of charismatic circles is the wacky things that get done to ‘discern’ God’s will. It’s really not just a pet-peeve on my side, it actually comes more from seeing people badly damaged pastorally through terrible advice on this subject. Keeping this in mind I was extremely excited to discover that Kevin DeYoung’s new book will directly address this issue. His book is entitled “Just Do Something: How to Make a Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, etc.” -what a fantastic title.

Here’s the Amazon blurb:

Hyper-spiritual approaches to finding God’s will don’t work. It’s time to try something new: Give up.

Pastor and author Kevin DeYoung counsels Christians to settle down, make choices, and do the hard work of seeing those choices through. Too often, he writes, God’s people tinker around with churches, jobs, and relationships, worrying that they haven’t found God’s perfect will for their lives. Or—even worse—they do absolutely nothing, stuck in a frustrated state of paralyzed indecision, waiting . . . waiting . . . waiting for clear, direct, unmistakable direction.

But God doesn’t need to tell us what to do at each fork in the road. He’s already revealed his plan for our lives: to love him with our whole hearts, to obey His Word, and after that, to do what we like.

No need for hocus-pocus. No reason to be directionally challenged. Just do something.

Now here’s the fascinating and extremely encouraging part – get this: The forward is written by Joshua Harris, a well known charismatic leader. Not only that but DeYoung will be speaking at NEXT 2009, a charismatic conference. I’m loving the way in which charismatics and conservatives are slowly beginning to come together and make the gospel central and not particular emphases. In the process they’re both learning from each other – epic.

Tim Chester on Leadership

Chester has a really helpful set of expectations that he uses to evaluate and keep leaders accountable.

Lekota thinks Malema is a Threat

Mosiuoa Lekota thinks that Julius Malema is more of a problem than simply being a joke in the political arena of South Africa. I guess it’s easy to laugh a guy like Malema off without making a stand on the fact that the actions and speech of Malema are simply unacceptable in a country claiming to be democratic.

Pomo Calvin

Michael Jensen has a worthwhile post on just how postmodern Calvin really was.

Nothing but the Blood

Now that you’ve gotten over the misleading post title it’s time for some blogging silliness and all will be made clear…

The rules:

Put your MP3 player on shuffle. If you don’t have one, pick random CDs and tracks from your collection!

For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS:

IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?

How deep the Father’s love for us (Red Letter)

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?

Peace (Northern Conspiracy)

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?

Babies Breath (Brave Saint Saturn)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?

All Creatures (Red Letter)

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?

Recall (Brave Saint Saturn)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?

Author and Perfecter (Red Letter)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?

Softly and Tenderly (Team Strike Force)

WHAT IS 2+2?

Psalm 40 (E-Pop)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?

Dedication of St Patrick (Marshillbillies)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?

What have we done? (Northern Conspiracy)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?

Give me a new heart (Team Strike Force)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?

I’ll fly away (E-Pop)

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?

I fell away (Brave Saint Saturn)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?

All along the road (Noise Ratchet)

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?

Filthy Roman Cross (Northern Conspiracy)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?

O praise him (David Crowder Band)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?

No depression (The Marshillbillies)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?

Moons of Mars (Noise Ratchet)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?

He speaks (Sons of Thunder)

WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?

Disappear (Noise Ratchet)

HOW WILL YOU DIE?

Sound of Atone (Team Strike Force)

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?

Wonderful King (David Crowder Band)

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?

Till we have faces (Noise Ratchet)

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?

Only you (David Crowder Band)

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?

Manchuria (Pinback)

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?

A false sense of security (Rodeia)

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?

Thank you for hearing me (David Crowder Band)

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?

Tis so sweet (Marshillbillies)

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?

Nothing but the blood (E-Pop)

Now do the same and copy and paste it as a comment or on your own blog…

(HT – Andy)

Connect with Point Community Church

With everyone cracking into gear at work in this new year I thought it would be a good time to share what the majority of my time will be made up of this year (and for a few years to come) and how you can connect with the work.

This year Jacques Erasmus (the lead-planter) and myself (co-planter) are hoping, God-willing, to plant and establish Point Community Church in the Sea Point and Green Point areas of Cape Town. At the end of this month our first three gospel communities (we shamelessly plagiarised that name from the Crowded House guys) will hopefully be up and running. So in order to get connected with us or stay up to date with how we’re doing check out our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter.