13 Reasons Why: My take
I appreciate entertainment which achieves the level of art. And 13 Reason Why is art. I just finished watching the show and I'm pretty sure I need therapy. But then that's the point I think. And the reason I'm going against my better judgement in posting about the show here. Should I watch 13 Reasons Why? Of course 13 Reasons Why has been a controversial show. Basically a school girl kills herself, but before she does so, she records 13 tapes explaining why. And naming each person who played a role in the story. It is heavy. It is dark. It is intense. Let me be direct at the get go. I am not recommending this show. Children should not watch this show. If you have an unusually mature older teenager, you might consider letting them watch the show with you. If you're an adult who likes to avo... Read more
What’s so good about being nice?
Nice isn't good; mean isn't bad. There. I said it. You've long suspected my heresy. Now you have proof in black and white. But it's true. Nice isn't good and our unshakeable conviction that it is, is making us bad. Let me explain what I mean. Imagine you're walking down the street and you see a guy manhandling a woman. You have several options. One of your options is to be nice. Nice might do a number of things under these circumstances. It might look away awkwardly and tell itself that the matter is between them. It might offer her a sympathetic glance; the proverbial "be warmed and filled." It might even, in it's more courageous expressions, approach the man and ask him to be nice. The thing nice cannot do in such a circumstance is be good. Goodness demands anger in such circumstances. A... Read more
What is marriage?
I sat down this afternoon to consider a question of increasing importance in modern life. What is marriage? What exactly is marriage? What follows is a collection of my thoughts on that question. It is not my goal to outline what a marriage should look like. Or what is Christian marriage per se. But rather, my goal is to get to the very fundamental core of what constitutes a relationship as a marriage. Biblically. These thoughts are prompted in part by a post titled When Two So-Called “Married” Women (or Men) Repent by John Piper in which he argues that same-sex marriage is not valid marriage. To decide whether I agree with him, I need to understand what marriage is more precisely. What is marriage? Is marriage a legal thing? Is marriage an ecclesiastical thing? Is marriage a spiritual thi... Read more
You get one life. How are you using it?
This is not an inspirational book. It's a hands-on, 44-page guide for living your life deliberately in 2017. But it is rooted in some inspirational truths. This is how the introduction starts: You get one life. Just one. You live it. You use it up. And then it’s gone. Your one life is precious. It’s short. It’s fragile. And it’s permanent. It’s precious because it’s an irreplaceable, customised gift from God himself. It’s short because it precedes the infinity of eternity. It’s fragile because it could end at any moment. It’s permanent because it’s unrepeatable, irreversible, and has implications for you and others for as long as God lives. This is not a practise run. There is no “take two.” There is no backspace on the keyboard of life. The moments come, they pass, and then they are gone.... Read more
A new lease on life for InFocus
It's been over eleven years since InFocus was founded and this year could have easily been the last for this website. But I sat down with some key people behind this website recently and we decided that the website still has a role to play and a purpose to serve. For instance, there are topics that the more mainstream blogs won't feel the need to cover because their readership don't come from a Fundamentalist background. Not only can we offer an Australian point of view, but we can offer a perspective from a Fundamentalist background as well. We can, therefore, provide a bridge between Australian Fundamentalism and more mainstream Evangelicalism. We don't want to be an "abuse blog." We don't want to be an anti-anything blog. We want to be pro-God, pro-grace, pro-gospel, pro-health, pro-gro... Read more
