Thoughts and Amusings

I am a great believer that Christians do not have a monopoly on the truth. God created everyone in his image and as such there are elements of truth in all aspects of life and in other cultures/ and religions. This doesn't mean though that I believe that it is true that one can be a mish mash of any old belief they like and still get a free pass into heaven, it just means I am not arrogant to believe that Christians have a perfectly clear view on every aspect of God, worship, his holiness and his creation (etc) just because they are are merely followers of Jesus.

In the words of Dr Mirsolav Volf renowned Theologian from Yale ' I’m happy to benefit from sociology, anthropology, psychology. ... you have a vibrant religious world, and academics sometimes aren’t aware of how potent 2 billion Christians , 1 billion Muslims and all the religious folks are. If you just analyse religion , you’re doing good work, but socially you’re inconsequential. You’re not shaping the world.’[1]

for the record I believe that Allah and God are two different beings before you all start ranting ... not that I expect you will as you are all a very quiet bunch you all seem to lurk - feel free to prove me wrong

Things Islam has taught/reminded me about Jesus and Christianity :my big thanks to Emma M for bouncing some ideas off on this one:

1. God has many names . In Islam Allah is known by 99 names. In Christianity we forget the fullness of God's names and the meaning behind them . Commonly we might throw around Jesus or Messiah but when was the last time you could recite and meditate on a long list of names about God?

2. Of those 99 names not one of them is Father. I know that God is my heavenly Father! This is something that i always want to remember

3.The Trinity (The father, the Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit) is an incredibly important part of our faith especially the Holy Spirit, who gives our faith a living and breathing dimension. Through the Trinity we know that God is not far away but is always inside us as well as being the creator of the universe.

4. Prayer is important and should be implict in all we do - not just once a day. Dressing modestly is not a crime and is an honour to the one we worship.

5. The importance of community (take for example the numerous examples of community seen at Ramadan)Anyone else have something else that they can share ..........[1] Oppenheimer, ‘Embracing Theology’