We live in a pretty unforgiving world. Three years after the event, and thanks to the News of the World, Prince Harry faces the consequences of using an army comrade’s offensive nickname, with video evidence to establish a cast-iron case against him. It would be nice to be sure that no money changed hands in the process of the newspaper acquiring the video…
Jesus’ invitation to those ‘who have never sinned’ to ‘throw the first stone’ (John 8:7, CEV) might be a good principle for journalists. And that idea may well have been in the mind of whoever posed the question in last week’s Economist, ‘Who has a closet without a skeleton?’
Thank God that he didn’t ‘send his Son into the world to condemn the world’ (John 3:17, ESV) – he sent him to save the world. Is that the positive message the world hears from Christians?
When a blade snapped off a huge wind generator in Lincolnshire, the most popular explanation in the newspapers was also the most unlikely – UFO activity. It’s the kind of explanation you go for when you can’t think of anything else. Other possibilities suggested were a little more ordinary, a block of ice falling from an aircraft being popular.
As in Jesus’ time, for many people the miraculous and mysterious is more attractive than the straightforward (see John 4:48). Perhaps God’s grace is demonstrated in his willingness to respond to that desire with the miraculous. What we can’t do is assume that he will always act in that way.
Emlyn Williams
Wednesday 14 January 2009
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... and we can assume that if He does, if people were unwilling to listen to Moses, they are not likely to put their faith in repeated miracles ... I read some years ago in a Times Mag a letter that stated, 'If Jesus returned, they would put Him in an insane asylum.'
Those who choose not to believe choose not to believe. They literally don't know what they are doing. They need forgiveness, but are nevertheless responsible for their actions.
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