Stephen Jackson on The Sola Panel is dead; long live the Sola Panel!
Sam Freney on The Sola Panel is dead; long live the Sola Panel!
Marty Foord on The Sola Panel is dead; long live the Sola Panel!
Dianne Howard on The Sola Panel is dead; long live the Sola Panel!
Mike Bull on Daniel 2-7, Harry Potter and Narnia
The Sola Panel is dead; long live the Sola Panel! by Tony Payne (4 comments). Regular Sola Panel readers will no doubt have detected a little slowness and quietness over the past six weeks or so. … more
Kids’ culture watch spot: Facing fear by Gordon Cheng (3 comments). By popular demand (two people asked), here is my next script for a culture watch spot I did with the kids … more
Daniel 2-7, Harry Potter and Narnia by Gordon Cheng (1 comment). It's a Sunday as I write this, and I'm speaking on Daniel 2 and 7 later this morning at a friend's … more
A constituent on same-sex marriage by Sandy Grant (34 comments). Last year, the Australian Parliament agreed that its Members of Parliament (MPs) should seek the … more
A tribute to John Stott by Sandy Grant (2 comments). Friends, I'm not ashamed to say I shed a tear when I opened up my computer on Thursday morning to read … more
Talkin’ ’bout my generation (part 3): On giants’ shoulders by Scott Newling (26 comments). This is the third post in this series; you can read part one, and more
Bible reading with kids by Sandy Grant (0 comments). I was asked for recommendations for resources that would encourage parents to read the Bible with their kids, especially … more
Talkin’ ’bout my generation (part 2): Stepping aside (not out) so others can step up (not in) by Scott Newling (3 comments). This is the second post in this series; you can read the first post, Unassuming … more
One more sip of the coffee by Tony Payne (8 comments). Sandy Grant is a man of integrity. Back in the early days of Sola Panel, I wrote a post … more
Talkin’ ’bout my generation (part 1): Unassuming generations by Scott Newling (30 comments). There is a model of ‘intergenerational theological decline’ that has been doing the rounds of late, and perhaps you … more
Paul is one of the Staff Editors at Matthias Media. He is married to Cathy and has three fantastic kids. He loves student ministry, reading, writing music and playing the saxophone, and is looking forward to meeting Jesus face to face.
I wonder if part of the reason as to why there are whole ‘tribes’of people in our cities who don’t know a Bible based Christian is because we aren’t very good at making friends with people who are different from us. We tend to struggle to make friends with the homeless, those who have limited social skills or who are new to Australian culture, and those who do things differently from us or who like different things. I think I fall down in this too often.
Thanks Philip. I’m interested in what you say about tribes of people in Sydney.
I think immigrants can find it very hard to meet Christians, but I’m not sure about the homeless. Almost every city dwelling homeless person I have spoken to seems to have some contact with christian people. But those in ‘ghettos’ and temporary housing (ie. trailer parks - which we do have in Sydney) seem much more inaccessible.
On a different aspect of this topic. We had a very interesting discussion at our Bible Study last week about how Christ’s death could be described as both:
a. Dying for his friends. (John 15:13)
b. Dying for those who were his enemies. (Romans 5:10)
Hold these two together and questions remain. I think the answer to these questions adds such a richness to our understanding of the atonement.
1. Did Christ die for his enemies or his friends? In what way are we at the same time his friends and his enemies?
2. What is the greatest kind of love - love for enemies or love for friends? Remember that Christ says it is the latter (John 15:13) but also remember what he says about enemies (Matthew 5:43-48).
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