The Carnival is Coming Back

August 8, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
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I’m having some friends drop in next week. They’ll be visiting from all over the world and you’re invited to join us. The next Christian Carnival is being hosted here at RodneyOlsen.net.

The most recent edition is posted at Brain Cramps for God.

The weekly Christian Carnival is an opportunity for Christian blog writers to share their best posts from the previous week. The topic of the post doesn’t necessarily have to focus on Christianity but it must reflect a Christian worldview, and the writer must be Christian to qualify. You may wish to consider that the readership of the Christian Carnival will be more varied than your usual readership, and you might do better contributing a post with broad appeal.

I’ve taken part in the carnival many times over the years and this will be the second time I’ve hosted the carnival. I’ve already received a number of contributions and I’m looking forward to offering readers of this blog some great links when the carnival is published.

If you’re a Christian and you’ve never contributed before, or if it’s been a while since you have, how about having a look through your posts for this week and choosing something to contribute. It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, just a post that outlines your point of view or is designed to get others thinking. Being part of the carnival could be a great way to gain a little extra traffic at your blog.

The easiest way to get involved is to submit your article through the Blog Carnival Submission Form. Otherwise, you can email the submission address.

The deadline for submissions is Tuesday evening at midnight, Eastern (US) Standard Time. (EST is GMT minus five hours.) That means it’s midday Wednesday here in Perth, Western Australia.



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A Christian Response to Climate Change

August 6, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
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earth_1.jpgAre we responsible for what happens to our planet? Do we have a part to play in creating a more sustainable future for the earth?

Some Christians prefer to ignore the evidence of global warming while for others environmental issues become all consuming. Is there a balance that will let us care for the environment without losing sight of the essentials of faith?

Should we as people of faith be looking at driving smaller cars, using public transport, recycling and becoming more environmentally aware or are green issues taking us off on a tangent, forcing us to take our eye off the ball?

My regular Wednesday morning guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM is Ross Clifford who is the Principal of Morling College in New South Wales and current President of the Baptist Union of Australia. Each week we chat about a range of issues relating to spirituality and belief.

Today we discussed the growing concern among people of faith that we have failed our God given responsibility to be good stewards of the planet. Our desire to consume at rapidly rising levels is having a massive effect on poorer nations who don’t have the resources to respond.

You can listen to our discussion by clicking the play button of the audio player at the bottom of this post.



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Pushing against the wind

July 16, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
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Today I’m revisiting a post from a couple of years ago.

It’s around this time of year that I battle headwinds and rain as I cycle to work. As I’ve pushed against the wind in the past I’ve thought about the difficulties we face on the journey of life and how they can impact us.

I guess that a lot of the time we would prefer life to just roll along smoothly without hassles but we know that’s unlikely to happen. To be truthful, while I’d rather not battle headwinds all the time, I don’t really mind them that much. I know that when I’m pushing hard and seemingly getting nowhere that I’m building strength. I enjoy the challenge of getting to my destination knowing that I’ve persevered and I have a sense of achievement that I’d never have if it was all downhill with a tailwind.

Kicking Down Doors

As I think about how much good those tough rides are doing me, I start wondering about the reasoning that says that we know we’re following the right direction for our life when circumstances are easy or when things ‘fall into place’. We talk about God ‘opening doors’ and ‘shutting others’. Well, sometimes I think we need to discover what God wants us to do, which isn’t always an simple thing, and then go out and kick down a few of those closed doors.

I cringe when I hear people using easy circumstances as God’s stamp of approval. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that sometimes God does give us an easy passage to accomplish his purposes but if we expect that to always be the case I think we’ll be disappointed more often than not. I do believe, and it’s been my experience, that God will sometimes open a way that previously seemed permanently shut and we need to be sensitive to that and walk through when it’s right but not just assume that if we do the right thing that life will simply fit neatly together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Of course taking the opposite view, that following the right path will always be difficult and that taking the easy way is always wrong is equally flawed.

In the end, I believe that stopping at closed doors and walking through open ones isn’t always a recipe for right living. We need to be wary of who’s hand is on those open doors.

What’s your experience?

Have you had to struggle to find the way through? Have you had to kick down a few closed doors along the way? Have you walked through an open door only to find that it’s produced more problems than it has solved? Have you also experienced those times when God has very clearly guided you through an open door?



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All I need is a miracle

July 2, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
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If we’re to believe the hype, we live in an increasingly secular society that is losing its religion. Atheism is on the rise and less and less people have a belief in God. But is that really what’s going on?

From the Washington Post comes an article titled Most Americans Believe in Higher Power, Poll Finds.

It’s a fascinating look at the beliefs of Americans. I would guess that an Australian survey would yield similar results.

The poll took its results from interviews with 36 000 adults. While it shows that around 80% of people believe in miracles the percentage was even higher for those believing in God.

The study detailed Americans’ deep and broad religiosity, finding that 92 per cent believes in God or a universal spirit — including one in five of those who call themselves atheists. More than half of Americans polled pray at least once a day.

It’s interesting that 20% of people who claim some kind of belief in God or some kind of universal spirit call themselves atheists. I’m assuming that they aren’t rejecting the idea of God, rather they’re rejecting society’s understanding of who God is. This highlights the fact that the belief in God quoted in the survey isn’t necessarily a belief in the God of the Bible.

A belief in God or a higher spirit is pervasive. Even Americans who describe themselves as atheist or agnostic have a robust sense of a higher power: Twenty-one percent of those who describe themselves as atheists expressed a belief in God or a universal spirit, and more than half of those who call themselves agnostic expressed a similar conviction.

Smith said some people may identify with the term atheist or agnostic without fully understanding the definition, or they have a negative view of organized religion, even though they believe in God.

Many of the people surveyed believed in the power of prayer with many claiming to have experienced its power.

“I can’t remember any prayer that I have prayed that has not been answered,” said Helen Catchings, 62, of Vienna. God cured her of stuttering and gave her the resources for her home-care business, she said. And she said she has seen members of her church cured of cancer, brain tumours and other illnesses through prayer, baffling doctors. “I give Him all the credit,” Catchings said.

My regular Wednesday morning guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM is Ross Clifford who is the Principal of Morling College in New South Wales and current President of the Baptist Union of Australia. Each week we chat about a range of issues relating to spirituality and belief.

Today we discussed the survey and its implications. We also took a look at whether it really matters who we believe God to be. Is it good enough to believe in the God of our own understanding? Does it make a difference which path we take to God? You can listen to what Ross had to say by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.



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Antony Flew says There Is A God

June 25, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
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There_is_a_God.jpgHe was one of the world’s most vocal and respected atheists but after years of studying all the available evidence he’s come to a very different conclusion.

Professor Antony Garrard Newton Flew is a British philosopher who was known for several decades as a prominent atheist. In fact, he has been called the world’s most notorious atheist.

For many years, Flew debated Christians and others who believed in the existence of God saying that one should presuppose atheism until evidence of a God surfaces. He still believes in this approach but in recent years he has come to the understanding that such evidence does exist.

My regular Wednesday morning guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM is Ross Clifford who is the Principal of Morling College in New South Wales and current President of the Baptist Union of Australia. Each week we chat about a range of issues relating to spirituality and belief.

Today we discussed Flew’s book, There Is A God, and looked at what he now believes.

Antony Flew is certainly not a Christian but the book would suggest that he sees Christianity as the most compelling of the world’s religions.

I haven’t had a chance to read the book as yet but I certainly want to grab a copy. Ross says that it’s very readable and quite a revelation.

If you want to hear some more about Antony Flew and his book you can listen to our conversation by clicking play on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

So where does the evidence point for you? Whatever side of the fence you’re on, I hope you’re wise enough to ask the tough questions and see where the answers lead you.



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