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The Gospel According to Matthew According to Ben Cooper

Welcome to the Matthewphile... Ben Cooper's blog for his pretty intense work on Matthew:

http://thematthewphile.wordpress.com/

Enjoy!

Individuals in solidarity with the GAFCON Jerusalem Statement and Declaration

In June 2008 the Global Anglican Future Conference took place within the context of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

GAFCON was organized in response to the spread of wrongful theological teachings and practices within the Anglican Communion, demonstrated and symbolised by the ordination and consecration of people in active same-sex relationships and the formal blessing of same-sex unions, though by no means confined to these issues.

At the end of the Conference the Jerusalem Statement and Declaration were issued, which may be found here, and should be read before signing this petition.

On the 1st July 2008, two meetings took place at All Souls Church, Langham Place, England, the first for incumbents and other church leaders in the Church of England, the second particularly for members of Parochial Church Councils.

Arising from this, it was decided that an online petition should be made available for individuals and groups such as PCCs to indicate to the wider Anglican community the degree of support there is for the GAFCON movement within England.

Please only sign this petition if you are a member of the Church of England in England itself.

To access the petition, please click here.

The Wordle of God... what a find!!!

Well done to Geero for coming across this site....

http://wordle.net/

Here's a wordle for Romans 3:21-26: (original can be seen here)

Success Is: prayer

Another great chapter from Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome by
Kent and Barbara Hughes...

No time to write much on it... but to quote the illustration used in the
chapter helpfully summarises:

Some years ago a young man approached the foreman of a logging crew and
asked for a job. "That depends", replied the foreman. "Let me see you fell
this tree." The young man stepped forward and skilfully felled a great tree.
Impressed, the foreman exclaimed, "Start Monday!"
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday rolled by, and Thursday afternoon the
foreman approached the young man and said, "You can pick up your paycheck on
the way out today."
Startled, he replied, "I thought you paid on Friday." "Normally we do",
answered the foreman, "but we're letting you go today because you have
fallen behind. Our daily felling charts show that you've dropped from first
place on Monday to last place on Wednesday."
"But I'm a hard worker", the young man objected. "I arrive first, leave
last, and even have worked through my coffee breaks!"
The foreman, sensing the boy's integrity, thought for a minute and then
asked, "have you been sharpening your axe?"
The young man replied, "I've been working too hard to take the time."
[quoted from William D. Boyd, "I Work Too Hard!"]

The Grace of my God

A cracking song here on Bish's blog

Great to sing great truths... without the "Jesus my Girlfriend" factor!

Hearing from Calvin, second hand

Went to an AMAZING "bookshop" last week, well, more of a house stacked FULL of second hand books... some very old indeed... was great to pick up some Calvin commentaries for under a £10... brilliant... Romans for a fiver, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians set for £2 - remarkable! Lightfaded pages, and the names of previous owners in the cover... intriguing! I was reading through his on Daniel... and was probably most struck by the prayers that he starts each section with. Here is a man who understands his natural position before the Sovereign God, and the unmerited grace and favour shown to him from Him! I should put some up on here actually! Here is a man who most definetely knew his God!!!