Podcasts

I'd like to take this opportunity to recommend Pete Volkofsky's podcasts on the Cornerstone website - http://www.cornerstone.edu.au/podcast-ecd

They're really very good and the podcasts on sex and romance are a great resource for anyone who will, at some point, have to talk to teenagers about the opposite sex.

Election Update

There was an Australian General Election on Saturday. In a shocking repeat of what happened in the UK, it's going to be a hung parliament. I consider it a blessing that I don't have to vote, as I find neither Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott particularly inspiring.

Anyway, that's about as exciting as elections can get. I thought I should update with a few photos, as I haven't posted any recently.

Also, I'm planning to take a trip to the UK in the New Year. I should be back in Blighty from the 27th December to the 17th January. I look forward to the blistering chill of the deathly winter winds of Northern Europe.

Without further ado, here are the photos.

First up - it's been a while since you saw photos of the children, so here are a couple of the boys who had birthdays recently. Reid is now six, and Parker was one in May. See if you can spot who is who...



And we've had a lot of rain here. Lots and lots of rain. It's been the biggest rainfall for about seven years, or something like that. The creek in the paddock at the bottom of the garden has been dry since we arrived here one and a half years ago, but the recent rainfall filled it up.


But not content with being full, it actually kept taking on water and flooded, which made it a tourist attraction for sheep from all around NSW.


And finally, here's Calvin deep in theologically conversation with Johnson, a student from Papua New Guinea. Community is a good thing for our children (sponsored by Coca-Cola).

Chicken and Egg

What comes first - faith or reason?

I was talking with one of the students here yesterday, and he got me thinking about this. What happens? Do we first reason ourselves into accepting the Lordship of Christ, and then faith follows, or do we take the step of faith first and then the logic comes after?

I can see arguments for both sides.

One of the best definitions of faith (as expressed Biblically) I have come across is the simple formula "Faith = belief + trust + action". If this is true then surely reason comes first, because we only trust and act on something if we have - taking the evidence into account - made the conscious decision that it can be trusted and should be acted upon. In other words, faith is expression of something that we have reasoned to be true.

On the other hand, I'm struck by the resurrection narratives making it clear that Jesus only bothered appearing to those who were already committed to Him. He didn't turn up in Pilate's chamber saying "Nyah, Nyah, Nyah, I told you so", instead he appeared only to those who were already His own. Yet they were demoralised and doubting - and as Matthew reminds us, even after the resurrection appearances some still doubted. It's as if here Jesus was providing confirmation after the act of faith. The reason to believe is given after the act of belief itself.

I suppose that I find myself concluding that faith and reason are actually too dependent on one another to decide which came first. Where you will find one, you will - by necessity - find the other. Even so-called 'blind faith' is the fruit of an individual's choice - which, in turn, is the result of some internal logical process, no matter how illogical it may seem to those around him.