Egyptian Muslim seeks legal right to convert

From the Washington Times:

The freedom to believe may be considered a sacred right in some parts of the world — but not in others. Which is why Mohammed Hegazy, 24, and his wife made history in the Arab world when they became the first known Muslims to file a lawsuit against Egypt for refusing to legally recognize their conversion to Christianity. This unusual move quickly sparked a lawsuit by Muslim clerics along with death threats for the young couple. Some of these came during a live TV interview, when Mr. Hegazy was interviewed along with Sheikh Youssef el-Badry, a radical Islamic cleric. According to Mr. Badry, Mr. Hegazy deserves the death sentence for leaving Islam. Souaad Kamel, the outgoing dean of Islamic Study for girls at Al-Azhar University, stated on the air that Mr. Hegazy should be beheaded to fulfill the religious requirements.

The disciples anointing with oil

In my Bible reading yesterday I came across these verses from the Gospel of Mark:

They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

Mark 6:12-13

Now I must have read Mark’s gospel a dozen times in the last few years. I’ve used it as the basis of a discipleship course here in Cebu, and one of the few essays I can remember writing during my Theology degree at LBC was on the miracles of Mark and their place in the narrative. But I can never remember reading this verse before. And it came as quite a surprise to discover that the disciples were sent out to engage in a ministry of healing that included anointing with oil. Why? well, 2 reasons I suppose.

Firstly, I don’t think I have ever heard anyone mention it before, when I think of the disciples (and Jesus for that matter) healing I envisage them laying hands on people, praying for them, even declaring them healed. Anointing with oil seems a bit, well; Anglican. Presumably if the disciples went off anointing people with oil, and healing them, it must have been because they saw Jesus doing it, which makes Jesus seem a bit Anglican, and that feels all wrong especially to a culture conscious Anglican missionary trying to communicate the Gospel without any unnecessary Anglican baggage.

Secondly, I’ve always had the impression that the ministry of anointing the sick with oil came later in the development of the early church. In contrast with the above passage, this from James 5 has always been bread and butter for my practical theology:

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

James 5:14-16

The logic has run something like this:

Jesus and the disciples did lots of miracles. The early church was born. Slowly an evolution took place as the charismatic ministries of Christ, the disciples and apostles slowly evolved into the institutional ministries that we see today. Apostles were replaced by elders; prophets by teachers and pastors etc. As the church became more institutionally organised. It also became more liturgical. Thus baptism out in the Jordan or wherever as soon as someone confessed faith, was at first supplemented and then replaced by baptism at Easter in church, following a lengthly catechumenate. The Eucharist – a simple meal following the pattern of the Passover in which Christ the paschal lamb is remembered evolves into the Eucharistic feast. Spontaneous times of worship evolve into liturgical services.

And of course prayer for healing by the disciples evolves into anointing with oil by the elders. Except it didn’t. It was part of the Apostolic tradition from the start, which I find really encouraging. Rather than being an example of the church drifitng from the practice and power of the first followers of Christ, it is an example of the church retaining the practices of Christ, and seeking to follow Him in faith and hope.

Now why wasn’t I taught that during my MA at an Anglican seminary?

And then the computer died…

Apparently one of the golden rules of blogging is that you should never apologise for the infrequency of posting. So what follows is not so much an apology as an explanation.

The computer died.

Not a short sharp death, but a slow crumbling deterioration and wasting away, until in the end I had to do the right thing and put it out of its misery.

Aside from the regular blue screen that one gets accustomed to with Windows XP the first sign that something was wrong was about 2 weeks ago when I opened up the laptop lid and the screen didn’t come on. Fiddling around with the hinges revealed that there was obviously a loose connection. After that I couldn’t help myself. I was like the child with the fridge door opening and shutting to see if the light would come on. Often it didn’t. Sally (my wife) came up with the obvious soloution – ‘just leave the lid open’.

The next failure was to more the result of direct assault. Me and Ethan (the 5 yr old) found a really cool online game that required you to hammer the arrow keys. After this the right arrow key was stuck fully on. This meant random programs would keep opening. The final failure was due to the 7 month old grabbing a cup of water and pouring it over the keyboard. Now several keys wouldn’t work including Backspace. Result – computer has died. So after fruitless days touring Cebu trying to find someone, anyone who could repair the laptops keyboard and screen – a relatively simple job in the UK – impossible in Cebu. I bit the bullet and bought a new laptop. The cheapest I could get. I looked at Apple’s – very nice – very expensive and you can’t use Messenger. I looked at Sony’s very nice. I looked at obscure Chinese models – pirated software optional, and in the end went with tried and trusted Toshiba. It came with Vista – and so far I’m very impressed. Love the Sidebar!

So now after a week without a computer we are back online, and a couple of hundred pounds the poorer.

Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones – Our greatest danger

I came across this recently and it has stuck with me:

Our greatest danger, I feel today, is to quench the Spirit. This is no age to advocate restraint; the Church today does not need to be restrained, but to be aroused, to be awakened, to be filled with a spirit of glory, for she is failing in the modern world.

p75 ‘Joy Unspeakable’ – Kingsway

Health Seminar in Kalubian

This week we had another of our monthly health clinics in Kalubian. This one was with a difference in that friends of ours working with the Elim Pentecostal church had a visitor from the UK who is training to be a nurse and is on placement with them. She (Ashley) offered to do a health seminar for us – covering the basics – cleanliness, personal hygene, waste disposal etc. I was keen, but I was not sure how the community would respond. As it happened I needn’t of worried. We put up fliers during the week, and the offer of food helped to coax some of the stragglers to join us.

 

A pleasant surprise was that we had some of the men join us – who throughly enjoyed themselves, a number of whom have also been attending our Sunday services. The nurses treated the usual burns, infected wounds, skin infections etc, and of course we had the childrens work with Bible sheets and songs that run alongside.

God Debate – Dawkins and McGrath

Here in the far corners of the Philippines the Dawkins / McGrath debate has passed us by a somewhat. I have followed it a little on the web though. A great resource if you have not come across it is this from the Times website. It’s a couple of MP3’s that are recordings of a live debate between Dawkin and McGrath. (Questions from the audience at the end are terrible and a bit emotional though).

I recommend it.

Aside from the character of the arguments themselves (which are very good on both sides), and the tenor of the debate itself (again excellent – witty, informed and respectful – a model for all of us) I was struck by the similarity of Dawkins and McGrath. They both have great minds, both are good orators. In fact, they are almost mirror images of each other.

For Example:

Richard Dawkins – Born in 1941 his childhood was “a normal Anglican upbringing”, he then began to doubt the existence of God when he was 9, in his teens he returned to faith persuaded by the argument from design, later after studying evolution he became a convinced Agnostic (in the discussion he defines himself as agnostic as opposed to Atheist -as you cannot definitively say something does not exist – invisible unicorns – rather the most you can do is assert it highly improbable that something does not exist). And now is a leading evolutionist, Oxford professor and critic of the validity of religious belief.

Alister McGrath – Born in 1953 he grew up in religiously divided Northern Ireland, partly as a result of that he became a convinced Atheist, and then later converted to Christianity. He studied Science and Theology and has a DPhil in Molecular Biology, and now is a leading evangelical, Oxford professor and defender of the validity of religious belief.

Evidence of the providence of God, for every Dawkins there is a McGrath?

All to Jesus I surrender

Tommorrow we are singing this at church:

All to Jesus, I surrender;
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.

Refrain

I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessèd Savior,
I surrender all.

It’s a hymn I’ve always loved, especially in its modern setting, but I’ve only recently discovered the story behind its creation.

Judson W. Van DeVenter writing at the end of the 19thC tells the story:

The song was written while I was conducting a meeting in Ohio. For some time, I had struggled between developing my talents in the field of art and going into full-time evangelistic work. At last the pivotal hour of my life came, and I surrendered all. A new day was ushered into my life. I became an evangelist and discovered down deep in my soul a talent hitherto unknown to me. God had hidden a song in my heart, and touching a tender chord, He caused me to sing.

Amen to ‘new days’.

Latest Prayer Letter has been sent

Sorry (again) that it has been a while since I have posted. Life here has been busy again. We have been suffering from torrential rain (much like Gloucester), and therefore the garden has been turned into a quagmire, and so it has been full ontrying to entertain the kids in the spare moments, so not a lot of time for blogging. I have updated our prayer letter though. This is sent out to all our supportuing link churches (CMS), and other friends and family. If you should be receiving a copy and are not, then email me, and I will add you to the distribution list.

Cheers!