Liam Byrnes

Every Friday I’m posting links to things I’ve read this week that I think you might find interesting too, next week I want to start sharing some links readers of the site are finding interesting…If you read something you think should be featured here submit it here, starting your message LINK LIST SUGGESTION.

What I posted recently

• What’s your inheritance? A Short thought on prodigals, inheritance and salvation
• Why I side-stepped the Book of Revelation and 5 Things to know about it
• Why Christ centredness might be the very reason we can’t grow
• 4 Things I learned about fruitfully facilitating a group process
• A syrian Refugee, an elderly Turk and a Pharmacist | An early hour excursion into Istanbul

• We enjoyed our yearly christmas tradition (apart from when we are away from Cape Town), of singing Carol’s at kirstenbosch botanical gardens last night, amazing how carols singing remains one of the most culturally celebrated forms of publicly proclaiming the Gospel.

#SummerChristmas is a little counter-intuitive for a northern hemispher-ite but it's also hard to beat our #christmas tradition of singing carols in one of the most beautiful places in the world #CapeTown @kirstenboschnbg | Funny how carols singing remains one of the most culturally celebrated forms of publicly proclaiming the Gospel

A photo posted by Liam Byrnes (@byrnesyliam) on Dec 17, 2015 at 8:59am PST

Time lapsing a few thousand glow sticks getting swung in time | Admittedly not as picturesque as candle but I think that got quashed after @janoc007 (accidentally) set a bush on fire a few years ago 😉

A video posted by Liam Byrnes (@byrnesyliam) on Dec 17, 2015 at 11:35pm PST

Theology

• Well this year we have engaged the rhythms of expectation that advent invite more than ever before. Mostly due to facilitating some gatherings in our church community around this season of the church calendar. In putting it together I came across lots of useful resources that I found (although too late for you this year). One of the finds of my research into advent was this song, written by Dustin Kensrue and sung to the tune of auld lang syne. It was the perfect combination of a tune everyone could sing to and new words which captured the season, we sung it to end each of the three ¹ advent services we gathered for.

• It’s Great that Andrew Jones (the Tall skinny Kiwi) is back on the blogging train. Back in the early 2000’s he was up there as a daily read and is posting with his usual excellence in these two recent posts; 5 Reasons why Falwell’s advice is wrong and Yoga and the untold story spoiler alert: missionaries helped to invent it

• The tendency to think highly of our own and negatively of others

Drawing insights from psychology, sociology, biology, and (mainly Jewish) theology, Sacks– himself a deeply religious man–understands well the maxim made famous by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn that the line dividing good and evil does not run between groups but through every human heart. Still, the tendency to hive off into groups and define one’s group against others constitutes the heart of the matter and disposes us not only to great evil but to great good. And this is the rub. Or, as Sacks puts it: “what is best in us and what is worst both come from the same source: our tendency to form ourselves into groups [and] to think highly of our own and negatively of others.”
Most would recognize this as all-too-human tendency but know, too, that groups can inspire and enable our better angels. The path to violence takes shape when three additional items are added. First, group formation must occur around our deepest convictions, which are often religious or metaphysical in nature; Sacks employs a line from Pascal to underscore this point: “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do so from religious conviction.” Second, one has to experience or at least be persuaded that the “other group” has committed grave wrongdoing against your group—your family, your clan, your religion. Finally, you need unscrupulous leaders to enflame a pervasive, righteous feeling of victimhood, enabling one to see the “other group” as utterly despicable, subhuman, malevolent.

• Emerging Scholars blog has been posting advent reflections, this was one of my favourites.

Lasting glory cannot be gotten, but it can be gazed upon in God’s Story. The Story of the Tree, which began as a Twig, and became a Roman Cross, to save us from ourselves. This Story is invisible to the proud, to the faithless, Who this small Bethlehem Babe really is; God in the flesh, Immanuel, God with us.

A recently made friend Steve Cochrane, both a pioneer missionary to india and a early church of the east scholar has been writing excellent things recently, none more than this post on meeting Mother Teresa here

“In these times when so many seek attention and promote themselves or their own agendas , Mother Teresa’s desire to be a “pencil in God’s hands” rings out so powerfully.”

I read a listened to a couple of things about racial diversity in the church this week which are worth your time;

• This post on the book “High definition leader for high definition churches”

and

• The Phil Vischer Podcast who spoke to Charlie Dates

Geo-centrisim upside down from Think Theology

The personal and political shenanigans behind the Galileo affair are far more interesting, and indeed amusing, than the traditional Science vs Religion narrative would have us believe. It certainly was not a matter of “ecclesiastical cover-up” against “intellectual freedom” (as fancifully narrated in one of the most garish abuses of history ever seen in The West Wing); it was actually Pope Urban who had asked for openness to the evidence, and Galileo who had refused to provide it.

Imagery

Flickr Blog posted the top photos by country in 2015, fascinating to see which photos are liked across cultures and nations like this.

Big Picture on shadows and silhouettes.

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Here’s this Friday’s link list, enjoy some reading this weekend;

…If you read something you think should be featured submit it here, starting your message LINK LIST SUGGESTION.

• I spent a crazed evening last Sunday live streaming the first every WSL big wave event held at Pe’ahi or Jaws as it is more widely known. Check out mind-blowing images here

• CS Lewis worked for MI6! (HT:Brandon Jones)

“How Lewis came to be recruited and by whom remains a secret. The records of the Secret Intelligence Service, known popularly as MI6, remain closed. Perhaps one of his former pupils at Oxford recommended him for his mission. It was an unusual mission for which few people were suited. J. R. R. Tolkien had the knowledge base for the job, even beyond that of Lewis, but Tolkien lacked other skills that Lewis possessed.”

• Brandon Jones lists 10 sites to follow (including this one!) – the others are work a peek too

• Jesus Creed Books of 2015 (mostly in the NT genre)

• Do we ignore Angels all around us? – Another Think Theology post on Leithart’s Kings commentary.

“Unlike premodern Christians, modern Christians are often functional empiricists, who instinctively believe that only visible things are real. At best, we are deists: of course, there is God up there somewhere, but he is a long way off. We do not think that we have to press through a crowd of angels every time we move; we do not think that a small angelic deployment runs ahead of us into danger; we do not think, as the poet Francis Thompson does, that we disturb an angel every time we turn a stone; we do not think, to quote Thompson again, that Jacob’s ladder is pitched between heaven and Charing Cross. ”

• NT Wright vs. Apocalyptic theory: How Adams goes wrong about Wright

“My fear? That apocalyptic theology too much looks like a kind of gnosticism. That is, the only way to know God is by knowing what apocalyptic theologians know, and what this means is that one must be born again to know this kind of knowing. (This is the second section’s emphasis of this chp.) That is, soteriology and reconciliation are pre-conditions for knowing. Perhaps I overstate, but I must register this fear of the approach. There is then an emphasis on God’s revelation in Christ and less emphasis on the incarnation as a reality in history — and God trusting us to make sense of that incarnated reality.”

• The (leadership) principle of the relaxed grasp by Floyd McClung

“The principle of the relaxed grasp is about releasing people into God’s hands so He can put them into yours. We don’t serve in order to be good leaders, but we’re more likely to be good leaders if we serve people rather than grasping them as ours. If we serve people well, we influence them, and if we influence them, then we have spiritual authority in their lives. Serving equals influence equals authority. Those who do not take hold of this Jesus-approach to leadership assume they have the right to insist on people submitting to them and respecting them.”

• Zondervan Academic editor explains why, even after a decade of trying, more women are not published.

“With as few women as enter the world of Christian academia, you typically start with a small pool to begin with, and once you layer on limitations of discipline, expertise/specialization, approach, the book idea itself, or any theological parameters, you are left with a handful—at best. And the few (any?) women you are left with are already booked up years out or have other priorities, commitments, or preferences. Many simply say no. I am not making excuses, but, strategy or not, publishers are constrained by the shape of the academy. The representation of women in our academy—or lack thereof—is alarming.”

• An iPhone 6S plus review

• The Folly of Bombing by Vinoth Ramachandra

“Among the inconvenient truths about terrorism that European and American publics avoid facing up to is this: aerial bombardments with drones, cruise missiles and fighter jets are merely expensive, knee-jerk reactions by governments designed to give the semblance of “doing something” to their electorates. They have no clearly defined military or political end in view. If no conventional war has ever been won by air campaigns, how much less likely the unconventional war against ISIL (or al-Qa’ida).
The UK and US governments have clearly not learned from the fiascos in Iraq and Libya. These military adventures left over a million Iraqis killed and the region awash in advanced weapons that have fallen into the hands of new militias of which ISIL is the most dangerous.”

• Advent and the agency of Mary by Jamie Arpin Ricci

“Do you see what happened there? Our over familiarity with the story can cause us miss it, but Mary did something astonishing. She chose to accept God’s plan for. This might not sound like much of a new insight until we consider that, by indicating that she freely accepted this great responsibility, we realize that she was free to refuse. Mary could have declined being the mother of Jesus, the vessel through which the incarnation entered the world. Some will argue that God’s will is absolute, that Mary did not truly have the choice, but her agency in this moment is critical. In that moment after the angel informed her what would happen- in that momentary pause before she answered- she was free to choose.”

• Faith gives fullness to reasoning by Ben Myers of Faith & Theology

• Part 1 and 2 of an interesting 3 part series on Baptism by Alistair Roberts

“Christians, even those who say much about ‘incarnational’ faith, can say surprisingly little about the way that God claims our bodies.”

and;

“My body defies the distinction between subject and object: it is both the site of my interiority and subjectivity, yet also an object that exists in continuity with the world and as a part of nature that others can act upon. My body is the site of my consciousness, my sense of self, and my action, but before these come into being, my body receives meaning and identity from other sources. My ‘self’ is never simply my subjectivity: it is also my bodily objectivity and in this objectivity my body is the bearer of ‘given’ meanings that precede me, my subjectivity, my choices, and my actions.”

finally;

“Once again, this reveals problems with some popular language about baptism. When we speak of baptism as expressive of the candidate’s ‘decision,’ we either implicitly resist the givenness of our selves, or we fail to address God’s salvation to the most basic dimension of our humanity.[1] Insistence upon the reality of original sin is, in part, insistence that alienation from God is an aspect of our givenness in a fallen world, not merely a result of our subjectively chosen action. The waters of baptism run deeper than action, deeper than choice, and even deeper than consciousness and subjectivity. They declare a new givenness, that my body is now defined by its relation to Jesus Christ and his body.”

• The Day I became a millionaire

“I remember the weeks leading up to that day when the numbers in my checking account suddenly swelled dramatically. They were anxious. I stood at the doorsteps of The Dream. A lifetime of expectations about how totally, utterly awesome it would be to be a millionaire. I’d be able to buy all the computers and cameras I ever wanted and any car I desired!”
I can only speak to the experience I did have. The one I do share with millions of people who have the basics taken care of, but who still yearn for the treasure perceived to be behind the curtain. For those who might contemplate giving up all manners of integrity, dignity, or even humanity to pull it back.
We humans acclimate to our surroundings incredibly quickly. The buzz is not going to last. Until you realize the next rung of the ladder isn’t where salvation hides, the siren song will keep playing.

This weeks link list is simplifying slightly more into the format of my good friend Brandon Jones who runs his own link list, but more true to the sense of list! Enjoy links, with less commentary from yours truly this week!

…If you read something you think should be featured submit it here, starting your message LINK LIST SUGGESTION.

If you want to receive articles like this once a week to your email sign up here

What I posted here recently

• Why Christ centredness might be the very reason we can’t grow

Theology & Christianity

• I met Steve recently in Switzerland; This post he wrote and the one’s which came before completely opened my awareness up to the ancient presence of Christianity in China.

• McKnight interviews JDG Dunn (one of the first proponents of what is called the New perspective) on the completion of his magnus opus – Neither Jew or Greek : A contested Identity

• People to be loved – A short think theology review on Preston Sprinkles work on the hotly contested homosexuality debate. Here is a summary of 9 arguments for the ‘non-affirming’ position on same-sex relationships from Preston’s book and the best arguments for the ‘affirming’ position.

• Sealed for resurrection: Baptism and the objectivity of the body – I’m increasingly appreciating the voice of Alistair Roberts, read more of him here

• Why follow a liturgical christian calendar?

• At Eternity’s gate by Skye Jethani – Van Gogh, Daniel, and Nouwen on prayer

• Review of “God’s battalions: The Case for the crusades

• Greg Boyd on living between the now and the not-yet of the Kingdom of God.

• Liam Thatcher – Jesus; the terrorist symphathiser?

• Interesting ongoing summary of Stackhouse’s book on gender – Partners in Christ

• Moral Sentimentalism and the Mechanised society at Mere Orthodoxy

• You know it’s Advent when.. Andy Goodliff

• God came to the wrong place – Liam Thatcher on the Christmas Story

• My friend Calvin Hanson on overcoming evil with Good in relation to the rhetoric and activity surrounding muslims, paris and immigration.

• Graham Tomlin on Wealth disparity and IS

• An accesible review for Divine Sex: A compelling vision of christian relationships in a hypersexualised age by Alastair Roberts.

• Kim Fabricus on the stages of grief following a terrorist attack

• Interview with John walton on genesis, origins and all other foundational worldview things

• Professor Michael Hanby on his new book – No God, No Science: Theology, Cosmology, Biology An interesting new bent on religion and science

• Andrew Walker has an extraorindary unique personal history, I’d be fascinated to read him more extensively. Andy Goodliff offers a way in with this review.

• Vinoth Ramachandra on the self-righteous parochialism demonstrated by western leaders comments after the Paris attacks

• If brands have become religions, could the opposite be true? – Skye Jethani on Apple

• “The Son is not merely greater than us, but is entirely different to us. The good news of the gospel is that he becomes one of us. Salvation rests in the blessed union of difference and solidarity in the person of Christ.” – Faith and Theology on Arius, Athanasius and the otherness of the Son

• Ben Sternke on Why it’s impossible to experience salvation by yourself

Images

• Extraordinary photos of Mount Etna’s eruption from the Flickr Blog

• Incredible macro style shots of space using tilt shift making galaxies seem like you could hold them in your hand.

• Flickr’s top 25 photos of 2015

• National Geographic photo contest 2015 entries

Gift Ideas

• Nice gift ideas for kids here if you are feeling stuck. Only available in the US, but I like the idea of pley.com like netflix for toys!

• Not a big-user of paper notebooks (see my collection of un-used moleskines!) but these TrekNotes notebooks look great.

• The Bag maker Tom Bihn just released a series of new products on their site here – I recently posted a couple of lengthy review posts of my Tom Bihn bag which are still the highest read posts on this blog.

• Here’s another worthwhile gift guide from the Cool Tools blog

• Here’s tools and toys guide to Christmas stocking fillers

• Review of Garageio door opener – smart phone apps for everything!

Miscellany

• Short answers to hard questions about climate change at NYTimes

• Prioritise your life before your manager / leader does – HT: Brandon Jones

• Lest We forget – Giles Fraser at the Guardian remember the death of the poor in London.

• Read a new book every day – Jeff Goins thinks its possible if you stretch your definition of read and invest in multiple formats, read more here

• After my own foray into short form non-fiction story telling from our time in Istanbul, I appreciated our friend Chloe writing about ‘soho moments’ here

• Stephen Colbert attempts to convert Bill Maher and Mere Orthodoxy says he’s a more loving fool.

• Going on a long walk with a backpack? Read this for simple weight distribution tips from Tom Bihn

• The complications of not having a birthday 0/0/1969

• Adele’s music video gets narrated by David Attenborough