First, I had to cancel the New Year's retreat due to lack of interest. I am sad, but will get over it. Perhaps we can reschedule for a date next year. We shall see.
Second, my post for today is to direct you here.
Grace & Peace
21 December 2005
14 December 2005
Found this, thought it was interesting
As I was perusing the internet, I came across the site for all the "The Way I See It" quotes from the side of Starbucks cups. The first one on the page caught my attention and I thought I would share it with all of you.
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Imagine we are all the same. Imagine we agree about politics, religion and morality. Imagine we like the same types of music, art, food and coffee. Imagine we all look alike. Sound boring? Differences need not divide us. Embrace diversity. Dignity is everyone's human right.
-- BillBrummel, Documentary filmmaker. His programs focus on human rights issues.
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Grace & Peace
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Imagine we are all the same. Imagine we agree about politics, religion and morality. Imagine we like the same types of music, art, food and coffee. Imagine we all look alike. Sound boring? Differences need not divide us. Embrace diversity. Dignity is everyone's human right.
-- BillBrummel, Documentary filmmaker. His programs focus on human rights issues.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Grace & Peace
12 December 2005
iPod anyone?
Question:
Do any of you own an MP3 player? How often do you download new songs/videos/podcasts to it?
Follow-up Question:
If I podcasted a weekly devotional, would you download it to your MP3 player and listen to it?
Grace & Peace
Do any of you own an MP3 player? How often do you download new songs/videos/podcasts to it?
Follow-up Question:
If I podcasted a weekly devotional, would you download it to your MP3 player and listen to it?
Grace & Peace
06 December 2005
I'd like to add an amen to this
I received this article from a weekly email subscription I have and I wanted to link to it or post it here so that you could get to the site and check that out too, but it only comes in email form, so I copy, paste, and give proper credit so that you can be blessed by reading it too. It is a little long, but worth the read.
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Christian Love: Giving Up the Fantasy
by Peter J. Walker
My sister just caught her boyfriend soliciting a local prostitute online.
Now she gave me permission to write this, but this situation does raise the question: How far has common morality slipped? Is the Internet Age to blame? Has easy access to e-smut pushed us further and further toward the brink of depravity? Was the world always this bad, or is Original Sin merely as American as hot apple pie?
Do common ethics appear to be on the decline just as personal spirituality is exploding into everyday life? The 21st century looks to offer more potential for Christian evangelism than, perhaps, any period in the last 200 years. Today, even vocal anti-Christians acknowledge belief in God and respect Jesus, but such spiritual openness hasn’t translated to the kind of kingdom Jesus came to establish.
This is the central challenge posed to postmodern Christianity: How does one introduce a higher ethic, an absolute Truth, in the midst of exalted relativism?
We approach this question when we talk about “relevance” or “emergent Christianity,” but too often the relevant issues at hand are lost in theological rhetoric and pop-philosophy that has little to do with practical living. My views of hell and creation may be changing (and they certainly are thanks to postmodern literature), but if my love doesn’t grow, then my Christianity is just as stale and marginalized as it’s always been.
Conclusion: theology, per se, isn’t the whole solution.
So if intellectuals can’t save “selfish me” or my spurned sister or her philandering ex, where do we go from here? How does Christianity redeem a world where Christian virtues are trivial to the point of social incompatibility?
The Apostle Paul boiled it down to this: “And whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Romans 13:9, TNIV). Jesus lived and breathed this kind of self- negating, rights-surrendering, community-altering agape. It got Him killed.
If we are to embrace a brand of Christianity that truly alters our lives and the world in which we inhabit, it will require more from us than throwing out our secular music and wearing kitschy T-shirts bearing memorable Jesus-ized slogans.
First, it’s important to rediscover the unsexy unselfishness inherent in biblical ideas of love. We have to remind the world (and ourselves) that love involves sacrifice. Somewhere along the way, the “otherness” that love demands gets lost. In a generation where self-gratification reaches new levels through erotic mass media and a dangerously casual dating culture, the idea of abstaining from indulgence sounds almost puritanical. Yet such an attitude is completely contrary to a 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love that is defined, not by feelings or emotions or sensuality, but by matters of will, of choice and of sacrifice.
It doesn’t sound very erotic, but it may be the only prescription for healthy, transcendent relationships.
Next, the believer must expose and defy the all-too-American attitude that blindly tells us, “More is better—even relationally.” This lie convinced my frat brothers back in college that quantity is better than quality—that sleeping with four women in a week is perfectly acceptable, that there is plenty of time to settle down and be domestic later on. Years later, this lie convinced a man that his wife may have been adequate when his salary was $40K a year, but now that he’s reached junior vice president, it’s time to think about image.
“More” has been defined as a certain shape of body and a certain social inclination, a plastic replica of happy living. After all, how could something so pedestrian as love survive the rigors of corporate appearance?
Finally, love must be removed—with a scalpel, if necessary—from the romantic entanglements lauded by pop culture’s generic TV-archetypes. Ironically, this aspect of false love may be the most difficult to rid ourselves of. Because it is seemingly benign (almost adorably innocent), it escapes the critical lens of truth. Who could deny the life-changing love that grew and blossomed between Justin and Britney? Brad and Angelina? Kevin Arnold and Winnie Cooper? Who would want to?
The truth nobody likes to admit (but everyone knows deep down) is that love can be quite unimpressive, even boring; my parents have watched British comedies every Saturday night for 15 years! Before that, they square-danced. God save us from such fates …
Or perhaps: God redeem us through such simplicity.
I live next door to a woman with schizophrenia. Her husband left her last month, tired of dealing with the illness. For the last four nights, she has danced to blaring country music in her driveway, silhouetted by the empty glow of her parked pickup’s headlights. She’s out there as I write this paragraph, lost in some blurred reality that few will take the time to care about. I wonder what facets of love are lacking in her life. I wonder which parts of “ever after” fell by the wayside as her husband walked away for the last time.
Love is a lot of work—gut-wrenching at times—which means that Christianity is inevitably hard, no matter what the televangelists say.
In cautious reflection, I guess there must be a rush in making email contact with a real-life prostitute—the adrenaline of “what if” must excite the baser instincts in a man. Perhaps my sister’s ex isn’t so vile. I suppose I can almost see how something so empty and meaningless could provide a tempting escape from the responsibilities of a real, deep, give-and-take relationship …
But prostituted love isn’t real. Neither is empty, self-help Christianity, which promises far more than any religion could deliver: the simple life, the good life, the American pie. Maybe real love—real religion—is the one that Jesus was talking about before He gave His life for people, some of whom will never even realize why.
Peter Walker is a Spiritual Formation student at George Fox Seminary, and works with youth and drama ministries at his local church. He is desperate for change.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Check out Relevant Magazine for more article like this and for your connection to making Christ real for people who are not interested in Christianity.
Grace & Peace
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Christian Love: Giving Up the Fantasy
by Peter J. Walker
My sister just caught her boyfriend soliciting a local prostitute online.
Now she gave me permission to write this, but this situation does raise the question: How far has common morality slipped? Is the Internet Age to blame? Has easy access to e-smut pushed us further and further toward the brink of depravity? Was the world always this bad, or is Original Sin merely as American as hot apple pie?
Do common ethics appear to be on the decline just as personal spirituality is exploding into everyday life? The 21st century looks to offer more potential for Christian evangelism than, perhaps, any period in the last 200 years. Today, even vocal anti-Christians acknowledge belief in God and respect Jesus, but such spiritual openness hasn’t translated to the kind of kingdom Jesus came to establish.
This is the central challenge posed to postmodern Christianity: How does one introduce a higher ethic, an absolute Truth, in the midst of exalted relativism?
We approach this question when we talk about “relevance” or “emergent Christianity,” but too often the relevant issues at hand are lost in theological rhetoric and pop-philosophy that has little to do with practical living. My views of hell and creation may be changing (and they certainly are thanks to postmodern literature), but if my love doesn’t grow, then my Christianity is just as stale and marginalized as it’s always been.
Conclusion: theology, per se, isn’t the whole solution.
So if intellectuals can’t save “selfish me” or my spurned sister or her philandering ex, where do we go from here? How does Christianity redeem a world where Christian virtues are trivial to the point of social incompatibility?
The Apostle Paul boiled it down to this: “And whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Romans 13:9, TNIV). Jesus lived and breathed this kind of self- negating, rights-surrendering, community-altering agape. It got Him killed.
If we are to embrace a brand of Christianity that truly alters our lives and the world in which we inhabit, it will require more from us than throwing out our secular music and wearing kitschy T-shirts bearing memorable Jesus-ized slogans.
First, it’s important to rediscover the unsexy unselfishness inherent in biblical ideas of love. We have to remind the world (and ourselves) that love involves sacrifice. Somewhere along the way, the “otherness” that love demands gets lost. In a generation where self-gratification reaches new levels through erotic mass media and a dangerously casual dating culture, the idea of abstaining from indulgence sounds almost puritanical. Yet such an attitude is completely contrary to a 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love that is defined, not by feelings or emotions or sensuality, but by matters of will, of choice and of sacrifice.
It doesn’t sound very erotic, but it may be the only prescription for healthy, transcendent relationships.
Next, the believer must expose and defy the all-too-American attitude that blindly tells us, “More is better—even relationally.” This lie convinced my frat brothers back in college that quantity is better than quality—that sleeping with four women in a week is perfectly acceptable, that there is plenty of time to settle down and be domestic later on. Years later, this lie convinced a man that his wife may have been adequate when his salary was $40K a year, but now that he’s reached junior vice president, it’s time to think about image.
“More” has been defined as a certain shape of body and a certain social inclination, a plastic replica of happy living. After all, how could something so pedestrian as love survive the rigors of corporate appearance?
Finally, love must be removed—with a scalpel, if necessary—from the romantic entanglements lauded by pop culture’s generic TV-archetypes. Ironically, this aspect of false love may be the most difficult to rid ourselves of. Because it is seemingly benign (almost adorably innocent), it escapes the critical lens of truth. Who could deny the life-changing love that grew and blossomed between Justin and Britney? Brad and Angelina? Kevin Arnold and Winnie Cooper? Who would want to?
The truth nobody likes to admit (but everyone knows deep down) is that love can be quite unimpressive, even boring; my parents have watched British comedies every Saturday night for 15 years! Before that, they square-danced. God save us from such fates …
Or perhaps: God redeem us through such simplicity.
I live next door to a woman with schizophrenia. Her husband left her last month, tired of dealing with the illness. For the last four nights, she has danced to blaring country music in her driveway, silhouetted by the empty glow of her parked pickup’s headlights. She’s out there as I write this paragraph, lost in some blurred reality that few will take the time to care about. I wonder what facets of love are lacking in her life. I wonder which parts of “ever after” fell by the wayside as her husband walked away for the last time.
Love is a lot of work—gut-wrenching at times—which means that Christianity is inevitably hard, no matter what the televangelists say.
In cautious reflection, I guess there must be a rush in making email contact with a real-life prostitute—the adrenaline of “what if” must excite the baser instincts in a man. Perhaps my sister’s ex isn’t so vile. I suppose I can almost see how something so empty and meaningless could provide a tempting escape from the responsibilities of a real, deep, give-and-take relationship …
But prostituted love isn’t real. Neither is empty, self-help Christianity, which promises far more than any religion could deliver: the simple life, the good life, the American pie. Maybe real love—real religion—is the one that Jesus was talking about before He gave His life for people, some of whom will never even realize why.
Peter Walker is a Spiritual Formation student at George Fox Seminary, and works with youth and drama ministries at his local church. He is desperate for change.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Check out Relevant Magazine for more article like this and for your connection to making Christ real for people who are not interested in Christianity.
Grace & Peace
01 December 2005
Does anyone else hear the Hallelujah Chorus playing in my head?
Today was a milestone day across the board...
1) I turned in all my paperwork for commissioning this afternoon
2) Debbie went back to work this morning at 7:30am
and
3) Caitlyn went to her first day at TLC Daycare this morning
So in addition to not getting any sleep last night finishing up paperwork, I have been wondering how our little girl has been doing at daycare all day, and worried about Debbie being at work and not with Caitlyn...so tonight will be a celebration that we are all back together again and can sleep at the same time - whoop! Who knows, I may even finish Two Towers before too long!
Don't forget to sign up for the New Year's Retreat!
Grace & Peace
1) I turned in all my paperwork for commissioning this afternoon
2) Debbie went back to work this morning at 7:30am
and
3) Caitlyn went to her first day at TLC Daycare this morning
So in addition to not getting any sleep last night finishing up paperwork, I have been wondering how our little girl has been doing at daycare all day, and worried about Debbie being at work and not with Caitlyn...so tonight will be a celebration that we are all back together again and can sleep at the same time - whoop! Who knows, I may even finish Two Towers before too long!
Don't forget to sign up for the New Year's Retreat!
Grace & Peace
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