Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Reserve your spot in Heaven

Came across reserveaspotinheaven.com

It is selling a place in heaven for $12.79. It includes:

  • Heavenly issued certificate of reservation registered in the Book of Light™
  • A First class ticket to Heaven. Why walk those stairs when you can fly?
  • The Official Heaven Identification Card so you can get around without getting hassled.
  • Heaven 101 mini informational guide. Don’t be a victim of culture shock. Get acquainted with the land.
You can even purchase an all access pass to mix with VIPs for an extra $15.95.

Think I have heard it all. Their banner suggests space is limited so its time to book now and once paid for your space is 100% guaranteed or your money back. Struck me as some small consolation that if I loose my space I would take the grand sum of $12.79 into hell with me.

Glad to know my space is already guaranteed. It cost Jesus everything and he gave it to me for free. Its called grace.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Immanuel

This morning I have been preparing a video with a voice over based around the text Matthew 1 v 22 - 23.

Thanks to Scot McKnight for the following insight.

One of the richest Advent texts is this one:

All of this happened to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:

“Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
She will give birth to a son,
and he will be called Immanuel

(meaning, God is with us)” (Matthew 1:22-23).

Advent is about “God with us.” It is about Incarnation. But “God with us” is more than simply a proposition about Incarnation, a proposition about God doing the really unthinkable — taking up humanity by becoming human — a proposition about christological natures. “God with us” is more than that.

Immanuel is promise — promise given from Adam and Eve and Abraham on, promise expected from the days of Israel’s yearning for redemption, and promise now fulfilled.

Immanuel is redemption — God with us is the good news, the gospel story that God has now taken up our case completely, God identifying with us in order to redeem us. “Immanuel” explains “Yeshua” (YHWH saves).

Immanuel is mission — if God is with us by sending the Son, the Son is with us as carry on the mission of making disciples (Matthew 28:16-20). It is not accident that Matthew both begins his Gospel on this note: “God with us in promise” becomes “Jesus with us in mission.”

Monday, December 17, 2007

Prince Caspian

Two weeks away, a few days of jet lag, 2 weeks of work to catch up on and Christmas services to plan so my blog has been somewhat neglected.

Just a quick post then. The oficial trailer for Prince Caspian has just been posted. Following on from The Lion the witch and the wardrobe our 4 heroes return to Narnia after a year to find 1300 Narnia tears have passed and it has been taken over by a sinister king. Releasing in June 2008 in the UK.