Author Archives: Sam Freney

About Sam Freney

Sam is married to Kristy, and the father of Elissa. He's a Christian, and works with a local church and a certain Christian publishing house. (Sometimes the latter vocations can happen without the first.) Many people call him a nerd, which he prefers to geek. He's keen on biblical studies, languages, great technology, science fiction, coffee, photography, frisbee, family, jazz, and hats. You could call his tastes eclectic.

→ Alain de Botton interviewed

Link

As I’ve said before, I’m simultaneously fascinated and unconvinced by Alain de Botton’s Religion for Atheists. Brian Rosner recently interviewed de Botton for the Centre for Public Christianity:

In [the interview], Rosner canvasses a range of topics, asking de Botton about his own journey to atheism, and how he accounts for our human longing to believe in something greater than ourselves, and whether the fruits of religion can survive if they are, so to speak, cut off from the tree.

de Botton, in turn, responds that while he is moved by aspects of the Christian story, he doesn’t believe that we need to be ‘true believers’ to enjoy its benefits, and he remains firmly convinced that we can train our hearts and minds to our individual and social benefit without an appeal to the divine.

Go read the whole thing.

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Not a lot of hope in humanity

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Reading Alain de Botton’s Religion for Atheists is like watching a train-wreck of a sermon.

I don’t think I’ve ever encountered such a remarkable combination of astute observation and analysis of how religion and ritual affect our relationships and us alongside such a bare-knuckled insistence on missing the point of it all. He freely acknowledges this, of course:
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The ministry of more than showing up

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In all the Solas of the Reformation (by Scripture alone, by faith alone, by grace alone, through Christ alone, glory to God alone), there’s nothing about Christians being alone. Quite the opposite: we are brought in to a new community with others. Hebrews 10:19-25 shows us the twin bases of confidence we have for approaching God that then impact on Christian fellowship: the blood of Jesus provides a new way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place; and we have a great high priest over the house of God. (more…)

Acts 2:36

Bible 101

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Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.

Peter must have been an interesting preacher to listen to. Not afraid to speak his mind. Contentious. Divisive. (more…)

Two Ways to Live app

Resource Talk

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Available now on the App Store ($0.99/£0.69/€0,79)

Last year I attended the Oxygen conference in Sydney for ministry workers. During one of John Piper’s talks, he got to a point where he realized he had been talking about ‘the gospel’ as foundational to the Christian life without ever telling us what he thought that gospel was. So he told us he was about to outline ‘John Piper’s gospel’, which had six points to it. (more…)

Inviting discussion

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One of the neat things about the web is the way that (almost) instantaneous communication can take place. Someone makes a statement, and you can not only find out about it on the other side of the world but you can say your own thing as well. Here at The Briefing we value the input that many of you make to critique, sharpen, and refine the thinking presented in our articles by way of feedback, in all its kinds. (more…)

Editorial: A gathering, a bride, and divorce

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It was late high school when someone changed my perception of reality.

I can’t remember who it was, but they were a leader on a holiday conference. I was part of a group of students who were spending several days working through a passage in Hebrews, nutting out the context, the flow of the passage, what the main point was, how to express that to someone else, and so on. This guy helped me to read the Bible carefully, and to see the picture painted in Hebrews 12: I am part of that congregation of believers gathered not at Mount Sinai in fear and trembling, but in joy and glory around the throne of Jesus in the heavenly Jerusalem. (more…)

Psalm 51:1-2

Bible 101

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Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!

How aware of your sin are you? I find it’s often easy to minimize or brush under the carpet. Especially if it’s something others don’t know about, it can be easy to hide that aspect of my life, to pretend it doesn’t exist. But over time I start fooling myself, too, and I start to think that that part of my life isn’t so significant. (more…)

Colossians 3:1-4

Bible 101

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If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

In 2005, the city council of Rome banned round goldfish bowls on account of them being cruel to the goldfish inhabiting them.1 One report on the reasoning behind this decision was that the curved glass would surely give the fish a distorted view of reality, and may even lead to blindness. The councillor behind the law believes “the civilisation of a city can also be measured by this [kind of treatment of animals]”. (more…)

Editorial: The art of reading

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Wednesday night is a highlight of my week.

Around about 7:30pm some 15-20 young adults descend on our place. (Actually, they’re all university students, so it’s usually a fair bit after the ‘official’ start time.) I fire up my coffee machine—I have an industrial-grade behemoth for just this reason—and we sit down together to share our lives around God’s word. (more…)

Subscription options

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To help you do know what’s going on over here, we’ve come up with a variety of options to keep you updated with the latest and greatest from The Briefing. (more…)

It’s all connected

Thought

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I recently asked a group of young Christians to write a brief summary of the Christian gospel in a sentence or two. I called it ‘the crashing airplane’ conversation: you’re on a plane, it’s about to crash, and your neighbour leans over and says, “I saw you reading your Bible earlier… help!” (more…)

Deuteronomy 6:4-6

Bible 101

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“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.”

Occasionally at a big event, take a football match for example, you’ll see someone in the crowd holding up a placard emblazoned with something along the lines of “God loves you: John 3:16”. If you’re going to hold up a Bible verse at a sporting event, it’s a good one to choose: someone prompted by your sign to look up the reference would read of God’s gracious love, Jesus’ sacrifice, and our reconciliation with our creator. Only a few words, but it says so much! (more…)

How sweet the sound

Life

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Not so long ago I was part of a church that regularly went and visited a local nursing home, and on occasion ran a church service in one of the lounge rooms. This was for the residents who were unable to get out and go to church on their own, or even accompanied. These occasional services consisted of a number of hymns, a short talk, some prayer, and afternoon tea. It was quite lovely, and there were a number of residents who obviously looked forward to it all month (we could only go every four weeks or so). (more…)

The trials of theology

Review

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The Trials of Theology
Edited by Andrew Cameron and Brian Rosner
Christian Focus, Ross-shire, 2009, 192pp.

I never thought I’d go to theological college. In truth, I fancied the idea of studying theology as an abstract intellectual exercise, but had little inclination to put that learning to any practical use. I thought this a rather poor reason to go. Biblical scholarship for its own sake seemed to me to be a self-serving trap that was best avoided. This fear of the ‘ivory tower’ is one of the struggles and temptations that can accompany studying the things of God that is detailed in The Trials of Theology. This collection of wisdom, edited by Andrew Cameron and Brian Rosner, is a reader intended for those engaged in theological education: short pieces from Christians from both the past (Augustine, Luther, Spurgeon, Warfield, Bonhoeffer, and CS Lewis) and the present (DA Carson, Carl Trueman, Gerald Bray, Dennis Hollinger, and John Woodhouse). (more…)