21:03:03 Purpose Driven Life ongoing
discussion group
That's what I'm calling it now. We had a deeply unifying
discussion last night on Warren's second purpose. This is in a church
where there is still fallout from the departure of a couple of former
staff that were treated more like employees than family. The wounds have
healed, but the lingering fear is for what the chiurch may revealed about
itself- we tend to give lip service when it comes to the notion of being
a family, but that is suspended in some cases. I fear it has to do with
a latent dichotomization of laity and staff.
The discussion revolved around the paradox of the responsibility
of believers under grace. I was encouraged to hear testimony of God's
working in various lives to enable sacrificial devotion to koinonia and
allela in the body. It is generally unseen and so discussing and sharing
what god is doing in each others' lives is a great grace we do not want
to ration to ourselves. there is authentic relationship with Jesus at
the center.
We shared prayer requests as well. Of course for the
present conflict and the many servicemen and women from our midst that
are involved, but also prayers for the opening of the Iraqi landscape
to the Gospel.
21:03:03
I read a poll that linked evangelicalism- the more devoted
to faith, the more devoted to war. My prayer is that the devotion will
be to the great commandment and the great commission, and not warmongering.
The smell of war- of burning and rotting bodies is something
that the news media cannot convey. Someone said it runs down your brainstem
and is something you never forget. I want to think of the reality of hell-
separation from God for eternity in that way. That was the image Jesus
gave us to deal with. that is a great motivation- to tell of a Savior
from the wrath of God so that they might believe. that is what we are
witness to and what we are to be lighting the world with.
21:03:03 Babel
Bilabials are the first words and infant learns to speak.
Actually, the advent of their voicing is the point of demarcation between
infancy and childhood. Children tend to manifest these utterings when
they are from 6-9 months in age.
Bilabial, Buh buh buh. Babbling. Babel is the same root
notion. An incoherent form of doublespeak can invade our lives n the body
when we fail to learn to articulate truth. We own it for ourselves when
we can communicate Who God is and who we are in light of who He is...
Comments?
21:03:03 In the waiting room
I read while waiting to have my teeth worked on this
morning about the Tzotzil metaphors in Smithsonian.
Repentance=My heart cries, or my heart grows small or
my heart withdraws or my heart becomes two.
You console me= you shape my heart.
I am upset= my heart shakes.
I am at peace= mu heart is seated.
Blessed be the Lord who placed the beautiful image of
God in man!
20:03:03 Amazing prayer
I can sense when people are praying for me and I can
sense when people are not praying for me. I know this sounds a bit scary
and I want to assure everyone I am aware of it and promise not to get
too weird. I have people affirm regularly that it is the case that the
prayer is there and that produces more humility than anything I could
generate (though I am very good at humiliating myself, that's
another issue). That's the thing with humility - you seek it and you kill
it. Tt has to well up supernaturally as a groundswell from the fountain
that indwells us as believers.
Did you ever know that you know that you know something?
Well this is one of those things and I don't try to analyze it. Suffice
it to say that a sense of one anotherness is developing in my current
situation and it has caused me to reevaluate plans, agendas and goals
for realizing the call in my life.
19:03:03 Thoughts on Open theism
vs. the impassibility of God
I have been following the open theism debate and recently
one of our teachers broached the subject with handouts from Aquinas on
impassibility which were really derivative of Augustine and Anselm. The
notion that God is impassible must be read not in the light of any theology
other than biblical theology. The unmoved mover concept at its core seems
to me to be unscriptural if it is applied to Gods relational interaction
with His creation. Sure God knows the beginning from the end. Sure this
is indeed a mystery how he can relate to us when His foreknowledge demands
he knows our choices before we make them- but this is part of what makes
Him God and us NOT God.
He is morally and ethically immutable- His character remains the same-
yet he is moved to compassion, He desires and seeks. Ultimately you cannot
say anything that is true of God that is not true of Christ. And here
we find the God who weeps and bleeds.
The progressive revelation of God throughout the Old Testament divulges
a compassionate Yahweh.
God grieves- Gen. 6:6
Gets jealous/angry- Ex 20:5
Feels compassion- Deut 32:36
Feels pity- Judges 2:19
Sorrow- 1 Kings 10:9
Sympathy-1 Chron 16:27
The Psalms the Holy Spirit reveals to David that God is Happy.
Happiness- Ps. 2:4
Gladness- Ps 5:5
Satisfaction Ps. 18:9
Loves- Ps. 35:27
Delights- Ps. 37:23
Gets pleasure-Ps. 103:13
Rejoices- Ps. 104:31
Further, the prophets tell us that God enjoys His creation.
Enjoys- Ezekiel 5:13
Delights and sings- Zephaniah 3:16
In the New Testament we learn about who God is and how he relates to the
world through the incarnation. We see a full range of emotions in Christ-
in fact in the Garden we see perfect emotion when Jesus sweat drops of
blood in extreme anguish.
And then God laughs-1 John 4:16
Even when the Son took on human flesh, this is not a change in the nature
of God in the sense that humans derive their nature from the image of
God, not vice versa. Could it be that Pinnock &co are looking for
a way to explain away the mystery of the timelessness of God? The Bible
reveals that God wants us to know that He never changes- He is the Alpha
and Omega and knows the beginning from the end and has ordered our days
before we were born - yet he responds to us passionately, not impassibly.
God does not deem it necessary to explain the dynamics of this in human
terms, because there are none other than the incarnate Christ. Do we really
need more?
19:03:03 The Incense of Service
I remember the first time I heard the old chestnut about the problem with
living sacrifices- that they tend to crawl off the altar. I think that
is seeing the glass half empty and in the end maligns the work of Christ
in us. The fact that we can offer up ourselves in a way that pleases the
Living God is not something to be passed over lightly. It is by the manifest
mercies of God that we can do this glorious thing. When we do anything
as unto the Lord we are righteous. When we do anything without faith it
is sin. Pretty simple but profound.
19:03:03 NCAA Basketball
Looks like there will be a tournament
after all. Here are my picks.
18:08:08
Cool
Flash intro I ran across while checking out Flash content alternatives...
18:08:08 Slate's take on Rick Warren
Interesting commentary
on Warren from msn/slate:The Book of Numbers Rick Warren's purpose-driven
attack on American Christianity. By Chris Lehmann. Important questions
worth asking.
18:03:03 Frank Schaeffer chat
ABC News aired an interesting 20/20 segment and followed
with a chat
on March 17 on the transformation of Frank Schaeffer's ideas towards
his son's military service...and from frankschaeffer.com
18:03:03 Prayer request
Got news my Grandma Amy(88) had a sinus infection that
went into pneumonia-she is home now but your prayers are coveted...
18:03:03 So persecuted they the
prophets that were before you...
Check out this
fish story from one of the blogs I read
The Good the True and the Beautiful
check out March 14 entry on
Pastor Joel's site
I'll have to contemplate this emotion...or not
*;*{)) A drunk, devilish chef with a toupee in an updraft,
a mustache, and a double chin. :-) Thank you!
17:03:03 The Skinny on St. Patrick
He wasn't Irish. He was never officially canonized by
the Catholic Church. And he converted Druids rather than herding snakes.
Check out this
article or this one.
Or you can checkout the esermon from Jim Kennedy, A.B., M.Div., M.Th.,
D.D., D.Sac.Lit., Ph.D., Litt.D., D.Sac.Theol., D.Humane Let.- check March
17 ASAP.
17:03:03 A Beginner's Guide To the
End Times
The Washington Post's Bill Broadway reports
one prediction that will surely come to pass- the resurfacing of a plethora
of end times scenarios in association with Iraq: "Many see evidence of
Iraq's significance in end-time scenarios in key passages of the apocalyptic
book of Revelation. Chapter 16, which includes the only mention of Armageddon
in the Bible, carries a direct reference to the Euphrates River, which
runs through modern-day Iraq."
Dr. Walvoord passed on this past year so I guess it's
up to someone else to lead the charge.
Good article on ginkworld on the
emerging
church
"On the more theoretical and theological front,
the emerging church has a huge tolerance for questioning well worn doctrinal
distinctives; things like inerrancy, theories of atonement, eschatology,
and foundationalism all come to mind. All of these are hot discussions
in the emerging church. In most evangelical churches a pretty clear party
line has been established that nearly determines your ³orthodoxy² in their
minds. The emerging church has little tolerance for being squeezed into
a doctrinal mold."
The biggest issue I have had in discussions with folks
in the emerging church is along the lines of orthodoxy/heterodoxy- there
seems to be a willingness to rush to the conclusion that heresy is all
about political power and not truth. Comments?
17:03:03 News from around the globe
Saw this on the ABCNews
site. I hope to get back to working in it soonest and hope I haven't forgotten
what I have learned.I had to put my Maya on the shelf for a while while
attending to the BlackBoard duties for my campus while we look to locate
another SID.
A study
that explains eveyrthing. So is morning quiet time dangerous to your mental
health? I guess Ben Frankin was right after all- early to bed and early
to rise...Or not?
Somebody fwd:fwd:fwd this to me-
too cute.
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