O God my Creator and Redeemer, I may not go forth today except You accompany me with your blessing. Let not the vigour and freshness of the morning, or the glow of good health, or the present prosperity of my undertakings, deceive me into a false reliance upon my own strength. All these good gifts have come to me from you. They were yours to give and they are yours also to curtail. They are not mine to keep; I do but hold them in trust; and only in continued dependence upon you, the Giver, can they be worthily enjoyed.

Let me then put back into your hand all that you have given me, rededicating to your service all the powers of my mind and body, all my worldly goods, all my influence with others. All these, O Father, are yours. All these are yours, O Christ. All these are yours, O Holy Spirit. Speak, Lord,  in my words today, think in my thoughts, and work in all my deeds.

O blessed Jesus, who used your own most precious life for the redemption of your human brothers and sisters, giving no thought to ease or pleasure or worldly enrichment, but filling up all your hours and days with deeds of self-denying love, give me grace today to follow the road you did first tread; and to your name be all the glory and the praise, even unto the end. Amen.

(Adapted from John Baillie, A Diary of Private Prayer, 13)

In this older blog post Bill Mounce tussles with those who – in 2009 – wanted to affirm either the ESV or the TNIV. Since then the TNIV has been replaced by the updated NIV. Nevertheless his post is still relevant on at least two fronts:
(a) he deals with some issues to do with Bible translations and translation theory;
(b) he raises important issues to do with the character of debate in Christian circles – including for those who may be faculty or students in a Seminary!

How do you eat an elephant? How do you read Karl Barth?This is a good post on where and how to start reading Karl Barth, by Darren Sumner.

Speaking of Barth, the 2015 Karl Barth Conference is on at Princeton Theological Seminary this week. The theme this year is “Karl Barth and the Gospels.” Travis McMaken gives an overview of the programme on his blog. Carolyn Tan is privileged to be there, and I am looking forward to hearing her report when she returns to Perth.

From the media attention this week, I gathered that Pope Francis had written an encyclical on climate change, and thought, ” Well, that seems to be a different papal focus from the kinds of issues that interested his predecessor.” This report on the encyclical, however, indicates that the issue of climate change was only a minor aspect of a more broad ranging discussion about environment, poverty and development.

What’s significant about Laudato Si is not that it adds anything new of substance to what scientists, economists, or prior popes have said about climate change. Rather, the encyclical is likely to be significant simply by raising the salience of the climate issue.

The Murdoch University International Theologian lectureship for 2015 has been announced – and begins next week. This year’s lectures are presented by Professor Brad Gregory of Notre Dame University (USA) on the theme “Embodied Souls and their Rivals: Human Nature since the Middle Ages.” RSVPs are due May 15th.

Please click on this link below for additional information: MUIT2015 Invite