tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-188631442024-03-08T07:37:35.997+00:00.Meditations of an Unfinished/Redeemed/Mystical/Reformed/Emerging/Calvanistic/Slighty-Left-Of-Center/Contemplative Christian.(vrbl.adj.)Timothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.comBlogger90125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-71591602012511003712011-11-12T20:32:00.002+00:002011-11-12T20:35:13.396+00:00NEW BLOG: http://timgough.wordpress.comI've started a new blog aimed specifically at providing food for thought, and resources for youth workers and youth ministers particularly in the Christian world.Find it here http://timgough.wordpress.comThanks so much for all of you who have spent time here! However I won't be posting any longer on blogger.com. Instead check out my wordpress site. http://timgough.wordpress.comTimothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-22061160483540219252008-10-14T21:15:00.000+01:002008-10-14T21:56:17.651+01:00Paul's Wilderness Experience. A theory based on Gal. 1:18It appears to me that all great men in the Bible who are chosen by God have some sort of ‘wilderness’ experience or time of testing prior to beginning ‘full-time’ ministry. Jacob was led into the wilderness to ‘wrestle with God,’ John the Baptist also, and of course Jesus, by the Spirit, was led to defeat Satan’s tempting. Paul I believe is no exception.There are many interpretations of GalatiansTimothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-229060255167477092008-10-10T12:17:00.002+01:002008-10-10T12:19:05.304+01:00The Unlearning of the WillDon’t you think we spend copious (ridiculous?) amounts of time debating the nature and extent of God’s sovereign will without hardly ever mentioning the sinful mess of our own wills? It appears to me that if the mind really is fallen and sin permeates every part of our wills (Rom. 7:21-25), it’s at very least rather handy and comforting to know that there is an exhaustively sovereign God who ‘Timothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-31539569438314772612008-10-10T12:11:00.003+01:002008-10-11T09:46:10.471+01:00Aggression and John 2.So I’ve been working a lot recently with my youth groups on the place of ‘aggression’ in the hearts of young men, and what the Bible may have to say about it. A passage that keeps coming up is John 2:13-16 where Jesus cleanses the Temple. (Also see Matthew 21:12-16; Mark 11:12-19; Luke 19:4-47).A key feature of this passage is it stands in dramatic contrast to the classic, westernised picture of Timothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-28656743928989879112008-04-02T13:11:00.002+01:002008-04-02T13:14:05.481+01:00My Fav. Bubblegum Greetings Card Company Poem' When sometimes things don't go too wellYou're the butt of people's rantsBut don't get down or even frownjust smile and then shout "pants!" 'Timothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-64322438134015595762008-03-31T10:33:00.006+01:002008-03-31T10:50:06.037+01:00The mystery of God found in the fathomability of Creation.A popular apologetic idea is that creation is not-fathomable, but mysterious. Thus there must be a God. - The easy response to this is 'we'll figure it out' thus God-of-the-gaps philosophy comes in, academia fills in the gaps and squeezes God out of the picture. Needless to say its not a very good apologetic to start with. The apologetic should run, creation is fathomable, thus God is not, Timothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-29102111898070466702008-03-29T23:19:00.004+00:002008-03-29T23:27:16.811+00:00Eugene Peterson on the Nature of Language + Creation (Forming)This is a quick quote from the intro to Ch.3 of 'Eat this book' (found HERE) by Eugene Peterson, the Author of The Message. The quote happens to happily agree with my last post. :)"It is the very nature of language to form rather than inform. When language is personal, which it is at best, it reveals; and revelation is always formative - we don't know more, we become more. Our best users of Timothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-68907947568649934082008-03-27T23:24:00.005+00:002008-03-27T23:53:08.900+00:00Language In Its Purity: Creational/Communicative?As a believer in Sola Scriptura, I love Words, the Word of God is indeed infallible and the final uncompromising revelation of God. However as a musician and a poet I believe Words are not black and white, in fact as a note can sing a thousand songs, a word can progressively colour and create God's true revelation.Sometimes it seems, Reformed writers talk about the Sola Scriptura as the 'Timothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-72582925803793311992008-03-27T14:38:00.003+00:002008-03-27T23:34:48.302+00:00The Pentatonic Scale and Godly CommunicationGodly communication; that is communication to and from God, not communication about God, can be perhaps likened much more readily with music than with words, the latter in submission to the former.The pentatonic scale is the mother of all blues and rock and roll, it is the Guitar-Soloists dream, and the Celtics heartbeat. In its most basic form a pentatonic is a scale with five pitches per octaveTimothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-53930866451119312182007-08-05T22:37:00.001+01:002007-08-06T13:54:01.548+01:00Preliminary reflections on the Psalms.Everytime I sit down at my blog I feel a twinge to write something about my view of the psalms... frustratingly however I still feel hugely unprepared to do so. The emotional spectrum paletted throughout the grace+spirit-meeting-humanity+dependency sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and touches of the psalter is universally unique. So unique in fact that it not only gives us an inspired song book, Timothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-57749092942466523652007-08-05T21:15:00.000+01:002007-08-05T21:23:00.839+01:00Teenagers on the edge of the Kingdom'Can I buy a fag off yer?'I shrug, and exhale slowly with my mouth closed, as if I wanted nothing better than to sell this young man a cigarette.'Sorry mate I don't smoke.'He turns away, I walk on around the corner and past the familiar old house which I recently discovered was where my mother grew up. Coming back around the house I see another 13 or 14 year old boy, on a bike, a Liverpool shirt Timothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-47146136960384660412007-08-05T17:47:00.001+01:002007-08-05T18:22:25.740+01:00Reflections on the absence of borrowed words as thought stimuli. The Glory of God's Spirit-Fuelled mind.I find myself in an odd place of present; for the first time in some years I have no access to my books. After graduating from seminary, my books were packed and remain packed as I'm now awaiting another move to London to start a new job. I find the absence of littered bookshelves, and smoulden-used books daunting and slightly intimidating. The places in which I found solitude, wisdom, and Timothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-92227071340091103552007-05-27T22:42:00.000+01:002007-05-27T22:54:29.284+01:00Summary of 1 Corinthians 14Paul now moves to the specifics of the discussion began in Ch.12 regarding tongues in worship. Ch.14 builds on two contrasts; practically between prophecy and tongues and spiritually between their individual and corporate devotions. vv.1-25 focus on the issue of intelligibility and vv.26-40 the regulation of orderly worship.vv.1-5 Paul highlights the central themes of the section; tongues which Timothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-2152224333114948792007-05-03T17:02:00.000+01:002007-05-27T22:55:09.206+01:00Pauline Theology is Primarily -Theological- not Primarily -Christological-Nearly all modern mainstream scholarship has claimed Paul to be primarily Christological above all else; which, although in some regards is true and vitally important its missed something quite substantial: Paul is not primarily Christological...he is primarily theological! Paul's focus is not Christ at the expense of the Trinity, but Christ to the extent that he operates in and expounds the Timothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-89192007022010501732007-03-15T09:06:00.000+00:002007-03-15T09:11:54.269+00:00Jephthah’s Tragic Vow (Based on Judges 11:29-40)Oh LORD, little did I know when I made my vow, the tragedy that would befall my heart. Little did I know when I exclaimed in my piety that death would be the reward, death from my family. My heart burns, my mind has turned, anguish grips me like a mother her new born babe; like a sparrow the meat it craves. As a babe is plucked from the breast, and a sparrow taken from its rest, so now, my child,Timothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com37tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-30110772989728150992007-03-14T21:45:00.000+00:002007-03-14T21:47:41.775+00:00Some Final Remarks about God FearersGod-fearers covers a spectrum of Jewish-sympathizers who were attracted to Judaism, mainly for it’s morality and monotheism but were not willing to become a proselyte, who would be circumcised, would attend Jewish feasts, would have made a public statement of faith and for all intents and purposes were considered in the covenant. God-fearer faith is more of a pick-and-choose faith in that it is Timothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-40564978461698513512007-03-14T21:41:00.000+00:002007-03-14T21:44:27.971+00:00Extra-Biblical Evidence for God Fearers‘Its important to remember that archaeology by its very nature is not able to produce a complete picture of cultural and religious life…Only the combination of the information received from the different sources, and the careful cross-checking of them, can produce reliable results’(Levinskaya, p.58). Inscriptions have been found around the Diaspora, which include the word θεοσεβης, many of theseTimothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com49tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-38907635370324840852007-03-14T21:29:00.000+00:002007-03-14T21:40:47.084+00:00God Fearers in Acts.Within Acts we see the most explicit reference to God-fearers (Acts 10; 13:16; 13:26; 13:43; 13:50; 16:14; 17:4; 17:17; 18:6-7). Some say this is Luke writing as a theologian who needed God-fearers for his narrative. I believe the reason we have the most references to God-fearers within Acts is because it gives us historical details not necessary in the rest of the New-Testament narratives.God Timothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-12840993267760210522007-03-14T21:24:00.000+00:002007-03-14T21:29:46.282+00:00New Testament Evidence for God Fearers outside of ActsMy hypothesis begins with this conviction; that not only can we speak legitimately of the first century AD people known sometimes as ‘God-fearers’ but also that their role was invaluable, to the success or failure in the spread of the gospel as recorded in the book of Acts.For the purpose of analysing the evidence, we can, for now be satisfied with the definition of God-fearers being members of Timothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-21202187135317676982007-03-14T21:08:00.000+00:002007-03-14T21:22:54.854+00:00>>>God Fearers<<<If you haven't already heard me rant at length about modern scholarships underestimating/botching the first centaury AD people known as God-fearers then these next posts are for you! Namely, if you see me begin to talk about it you can simply say 'I've read your blog' and I'll shut up. All this began with some research for a New Testament essay in my second year at Theological College, and has Timothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-4018072314247854462007-03-14T21:05:00.001+00:002008-10-14T21:58:32.718+01:00Some random exegetical thoughts from Gal. 2:15-21V15, Paul using ‘we’ refers to birthright Jews, including Peter. He places a distinction between Jews and Gentiles who are ‘sinners’ because they didn’t have the Jewish law to ‘earn’ their righteousness as the Jews had. However the Law’s no–longer a legal claim for Jews, as all can be made righteous in Christ alone. It’s seen here that God takes Jewish sinfulness just as seriously as gentileTimothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-64932800816250658812007-03-14T21:01:00.001+00:002007-03-14T21:02:09.755+00:00Some Possible Psalm ChristologyHow are the Psalms fulfilled in Christ?Directive predictive prophecy – or indirect typological prefiguring- Psalms cannot be fully applied/fulfilled/interpreted without Christ- Could be for an Israelic King, yet a foreshadowing of ChristForward looking prophecy – or – backward looking analogy/application- Could have fulfilment and application for Israelic King, yet unfulfilled potential for Timothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-85076725020959566002007-03-14T20:49:00.001+00:002007-03-14T20:50:00.273+00:00A Simple Narrative Structure of 1 and 2 Chronicles• 1Chron.1-9:34 – Collection of genealogies from Adam to returned exiles.• 1Chron.9:35-29 – The reign of King David.• 2Chron..1-9 – The reign of King Solomon.• 2Chron.10-36 – Destruction of Northern Kingdom and restoration under Cyrus.Timothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-22709260404767734402007-03-14T20:46:00.000+00:002007-03-14T20:48:49.513+00:00The Purpose of 1 and 2 ChroniclesThe dominant purpose and message of Chronicles, I believe, is to typologically present a template for the people of Yahweh, particularly in terms of their lives, worship, and monarchy. Note, I don’t believe it’s primarily eschatological or messianic, but is shows an idealistic template for God’s people against non-working models, this however gives messianic expectations. This is shown Timothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18863144.post-86744288378645221722007-03-14T20:37:00.000+00:002007-03-14T20:46:49.228+00:00Some thoughts arround eschatology and ministyReturnJesus Christ is coming back! This is a promise of God foreordained, he will come on the clouds of heaven and every eye will see him, he will make all things new. He will be the instigator of the New Heavens and the New Earth. This is a fantastic promise, and because of the assurance of the hope to which we are called we should be faithfully anticipating this day with great joy and certaintyTimothy Goughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15500818449255330651noreply@blogger.com1