God – Page 15 – RodneyOlsen.net

Confession …

July 15, 2009

… is good for the soul.

If you’ve ever wanted to be quoted in a book, here’s your opportunity.

Anne Jackson, author of the fabulous Mad Church Disease: Overcoming the Burnout Epidemic which I reviewed here, has a new project underway. She’s writing a new book based on her extremely popular blog post, Keeping Your Mouth Shut. The post asked readers to leave a comment about things they didn’t feel they could say in church. It rapidly gathered hundreds of comments as people confessed the secret thoughts they felt wouldn’t be welcome in church. Some were funny, some very serious.

Anne’s new book, Permission to Speak Freely, is starting to come together but she needs your help. Check out her post Be in My New Book & Get the First 1200 Words Free to see how you can have your confessions added to the book.

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John Piper and Television

June 27, 2009

by Rodney Olsen

4 Comments

John Piper seems to be beating himself up about an answer he gave at Advance ’09. While I don’t see the problem, I’m glad he decided to explain his position more clearly.

His post, Why I Don’t Have a Television and Rarely Go to Movies, is a thoughtful explanation of why he is very cautious of trivial entertainment for entertainment’s sake. He tackles the issue I touched on in my recent post, Get Naked for Success. He talks about preachers trying to remain relevant by immersing themselves in popular culture through the latest movies.

There are, perhaps, a few extraordinary men who can watch action-packed, suspenseful, sexually explicit films and come away more godly. But there are not many. And I am certainly not one of them.

I’d have to say that I’m not one of them either.

I love Piper’s explanation of why nudity in films is not acceptable.

I have a high tolerance for violence, high tolerance for bad language, and zero tolerance for nudity. There is a reason for these differences. The violence is make-believe. They don’t really mean those bad words. But that lady is really naked, and I am really watching. And somewhere she has a brokenhearted father.

I’ll put it bluntly. The only nude female body a guy should ever lay his eyes on is his wife’s. The few exceptions include doctors, morticians, and fathers changing diapers. “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?” (Job 31:1). What the eyes see really matters. “Everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Better to gouge your eye than go to hell (verse 29).

Whether we like to admit it or not, John Piper is right.

It’s not just sex and nudity in flims and on TV that bother Piper.

But leave sex aside (as if that were possible for fifteen minutes on TV). It’s the unremitting triviality that makes television so deadly. What we desperately need is help to enlarge our capacities to be moved by the immeasurable glories of Christ. Television takes us almost constantly in the opposite direction, lowering, shrinking, and deadening our capacities for worshiping Christ.

Even if you’re not a Christian, you’d have to admit that a lot of television tends to glorify the trivial and that can’t be good for any of us who want to enlarge our vision of the world and what we’re capable of achieving with the precious life we’ve been given.

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Awesome

June 10, 2009

by Rodney Olsen

6 Comments

There are some things that I could marvel at over and over again.

I love looking out our back door at sunrise and seeing the amazing colours that paint the sky. Not every sunrise is spectacular but day after day I can look at the emerging display and it really never gets old.

The moon has been pretty impressive over the last couple of mornings too. I’ve noticed it in the western sky as I’ve cycled to work. I love seeing the moon still hanging around in the morning, especially when it’s large and golden like it was yesterday.

This morning I saw another one of my favourites. An amazing rainbow was perched over the city as I cycled beside the river. If any of us see a rainbow when we’re at home we alert everyone else in the house before rushing outside to get a better view.

I never want to lose that sense of awe. There are so many natural wonders that continue to take my breath away no matter how many times I see them. The best part is that I know the one who made them all.

Are you still filled with wonder when you walk outside and see creation? What are the things that still amaze you no matter how many times you see them?

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A million reasons to smile

June 3, 2009

by Rodney Olsen

2 Comments

Something amazing happened last month. Something that proves that the problem is not too big to be tackled.

Compassion is currently serving over one million sponsored children. Over a million children now have hope for a better future. When you put the current million together with all those who have been through Compassion programmes over the past 57 years, you’re talking about a significant effort in changing the world one child at a time.

The one-millionth child, Fellow Blewussi Kpodo, is 8 years old and lives in Togo with his father, two older sisters and one younger brother.

Fellow’s sponsor is one than the world’s strongest women, Jang Mi-Ran, a long time Compassion supporter and Olympic gold medalist weight lifter from Korea.

You can find out more about the millionth sposorship at the Compassion Blog.

Last week on my morning radio programme I talked to DJ Konz from Compassion Australia about the milestone. You can hear the interview by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

We talked about the fact that the sponsor of the millionth Compassion child is from South Korea, the country where Compassion began its work. That country has seen such significant change over the last 57 years that people there are now able to help others.

The fact that the child being sponsored is from Togo is also significant. Togo is the most recent country to join the growing list of nations where Compassion works.

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Talking to a Demon

May 12, 2009

by Rodney Olsen

3 Comments

This morning during my radio programme I spoke to a man who is both an Assemblies of God minister … and a demon.

Chaplain of the Melbourne ‘Demons’ Football Club and head of Sports Chaplaincy Australia, Cameron Butler, joined me on 98.5 Sonshine FM this morning to talk about his role with the club and the wider influnce of chaplains in sport around Australia.

Far from being religious zealots out to force their faith on others, chaplains prefer to simply be a trusted friend to those who are comfortable with developing a relationship. Their duties can cover a range of areas that go well beyond those of a traditional pastor or minister.

A lot of high performance sports in Australia have chaplains supporting their teams. There are over 180 chaplains now serving teams of men and women involved in sports such as test and shield cricket, motor racing, tennis, rugby league, AFL, basketball, baseball, soccer, golf, yachting, skiing, netball, rodeo and horse racing, the Australian Institute of Sport and state Institutes of Sport.

Sports chaplaincy is a Christian cross-denominational service providing support for sports organisations. This includes sports men and women, administrators, supporters and family networks.

Why Chaplaincy?

Sports organisations and welfare officers recognise that sports people are whole human beings. The condition of other areas of an athlete’s life including unplanned circumstances can and do affect their performance, both on the field and in the public arena. Sporting demands can also have an impact on vocational responsibilities and relationships.

If you’d like to hear what Cameron had to say when we spoke this morning you can click the play button on the audio player in this post.

[audio:http://mpegmedia.sonshinefm.ws/feeds/MOR051209_1148.mp3]

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