Here is another treasure

http://tinyurl.com/yxewot_

treasure is where you find it (keep looking)

"I gave my supper to a beggar.
Now, this would strike fools as foolish,
and wisemen as wise.
A fool eats his last potato;
a wise man plants it.
Apart from which, everyone knows beggars
are never what they seem"
(Jim Henson's The Storyteller, "The Story Short").















Thanks to Gillian @ http://missturner.blogspot.com/
for this wonderful quote.

Now here is my 2 cents worth
taken from another treasure trove

Hebrews 13:2
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Proverbs 19:17
Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD,and he will repay him for his deed.


Go Plant Your Potatoes in the Fields of the Lord.

Karl Barth I know, Pastor Astor I Know, but who is this P.T. Forsyth?

I discovered this on Tro&Tank, Pastor Astor's site. http://www.trotank.se/blog/ Thanks Dan. (You can stop blushing now that you've got that cord of Maple stacked-up against the back of the sauna.) You scored as Neo orthodox. You are neo-orthodox. You reject the human-centredness and scepticism of liberal theology, but neither do you go to the other extreme and make the Bible the central issue for faith. You believe that Christ is God's most important revelation to humanity, and the Trinity is hugely important in your theology. The Bible is also important because it points us to the revelation of Christ. You are influenced by Karl Barth and P T Forsyth. Neo orthodox 82% Emergent/Postmodern 75% Roman Catholic 68% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 64% Charismatic/Pentecostal 54% Classical Liberal 50% Modern Liberal 50% Reformed Evangelical 39% Fundamentalist 11% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

I'd love to know what your pigeon hole is?

Do It Anyway

Today we have a collaboration between two of my favourite theologians
Mother Teresa
and
Martina McBride
enjoy

"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." -- Mother Teresa [Agnes Gonxha Beiaxhiu] (1910-1997) Humanitarian, Nobel Peace Prize 1979


Do It Anyway Sign In Mother Teresa's Office

People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered,
LOVE THEM ANYWAY

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives,
DO GOOD ANYWAY

If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies,
SUCCEED ANYWAY

The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow,
DO GOOD ANYWAY

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable,
BE HONEST AND FRANK ANYWAY

What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight,
BUILD ANYWAY

People really need help but may attack you if you help them,
HELP PEOPLE ANYWAY

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth,
GIVE THE WORLD THE BEST YOU'VE GOT ANYWAY.

From a sign on the wall of Shishu Bhavan, the Children's home in Calcutta
"Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or sovereign. ... You must weep that your own government, at present, seems blind to this truth." -- Mother Teresa [Agnes Gonxha Beiaxhiu] (1910-1997)

"There must be a reason why some people can afford to live well. They must have worked for it. I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things we could use." Mother Teresa (1910-1997), A Gift for God, 1975. http://www.epa.gov/Region2/library/quotes.htm

Whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. - 1 Corinthians 10:31

Go and do likewise

ANYWAY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbGS_TV-SgY

John 3:16 Do we know what it means?

???????????????????????????????????

16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

http://www.beliefnet.com/av/preachersandteachers.aspx?v=2449&p=652

IS it about

Creation-Fall-Redemption

or

Creation-Incarnation-Re-Creation

???????????????????????????????

Pastor Astor Responds to John MacArthur's Attack on the Emergent Church

Check out my Swedish friend's excellent article. It is guys like Daniel (Pastor Astor) that make me hope that there will be a revival of a better, purer stream of Christianity in the postmodern West.

http://www.trotank.se/blog/index.php?/archives/519-Answer-to-McArthurs-attack-on-the-EC.html


here is a teaser:


"Had we focused instead on being a body of believers acting out the love of God in this world, I believe our situation would look much different. We would be a place for everyone, including homosexuals, to encounter God.

People seek God. Many die in despair, not having found him. When they come to us, we slap them over the face with our ethics.

“You are wrong” is so easy to say - it demands nothing of us.

“You are loved” is much harder, since we are called to present and represent that love. "
Inlagd av Daniel Astgård i Kyrkan kl 23:51 Kommentarer (15)

Our Marching Orders in the Dawkins Wars

The New Intolerance
Fear mongering among elite atheists is not a pretty sight.
A Christianity Today editorial posted 1/25/2007 08:32AM
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/february/17.24.html


Atheists on the march ? How do we respond?

"Most of all, we must be careful to live out our faith—with demonstrable neighbor love—rather than coasting along in a civil religion that blesses consumer culture and sings praises to the God of materialism. After all, the greatest apologia is love lived out."

can anyone say AMEN?


(Pssst. Click title for secret ammo stash)

CHANGE THE STORY ("Back to the Future")

Rather than

'Back to Eden'

Perhaps The Plan is more Like

"Back to the Future". (If you know what I mean.)



The paradigm of salvation history most western Christians follow has been;

1. Creation 2. Fall 3. Redemption (return to original condition).


The new paradigm (really the old one being rediscovered in the West and never completely abandoned in the Orthodox East) is;

1.Creation 2. Incarnation 3. Re-Creation (ultimate creation completed in transcendence).

If you think about it you will see the revolutionary difference the paradigm shift creates. The Old paradigm is a dead end. At best it leads us back to the beginning with a trail of suffering, sorrow and death that amounts to nothing but a diversion and a waste of tears. A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. What is the point of history if Eden is the goal?
If God's story is all about restoring us to our lost innocence in the Garden, then how are the torture, rape and sadistic killing of one child worth the price of this creation? Is our God so blinkered that He could not know the consequences of temptation and sin? Was He really thwarted in His 'A' plan by our obstinacy? Was Jesus a stopgap measure to get us back to the relating to God as pets of the garden of delights? Was the sufferings of billions of creatures for millions of years really neccessary?
However, if, as stated in the scripture, Jesus was crucified from the foundations of the world, then there is no way that Fall and Redemption should be the focal points of the Salvation story.
Jesus was the 'A' plan, the only plan, from before the beginning and suffering (Jesus' and ours) is a mysterious neccessity in the process of creating the Sons of God.
The bible intimates that the goal all along has been to make us like Him. To transform and transfigure our created/evolved bodies of dirt into a spiritual/eternal body that will unite with Christ in the most intimate and unimaginable ecstasy for eternity in a conjugal bond of perfect love and union.
(What did you think was supposed to follow the marriage supper of the lamb, Pinochle?)

This makes the plan Creation-Incarnation-Re Creation(a Honeymoon that never has to end).
The right emphasis is restored.

Perhaps when the Paradigm is shifted, the knowledge of God can begin to fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. It will be knowledge of a loving and longing God not a vengeful, condemning and destroying God.

The walls of condemnation can start to come down. Our tiny ever shrinking 'in crowd' (church)will then be able to venture out to embrace the 'out crowd' (everyone else) and unite in a fellowship of our common Humanity made in God's image.
We are emphatically called to love one another by the exclamation point of Jesus' incarnation which says, 'You are made in God's image, I came and took on your flesh and now the Image you palely reflect will become the perfect reality of your new being for all time and eternity'.

NEWS NEWS
share the
GOOD NEWS

MERCY TRIUMPHS OVER JUDGEMENT
AND LOVE OVER 'OTHER' CONDEMNATION
(for truly there is no 'OTHER'.
We are all made in God's image
and included by the miracle
of incarnation and transfiguration.)

Rejoice.
The beloved community will appear
and the old ways of sacrificial scapegoating
can be finally and completely set aside.

Behold I make all things new.

Even so Lord Come
and establish your
beloved community
and make us your bride.

SELAH.

How's This For 'same old story' Story? (Return to Eden?)

This CBS sitcom ran only one season from September 11, 1966 until August 27, 1967 and starred Jack Mullaney and Frank Aletter as two sixties astronauts who break the time barrier and end up in prehistoric times.
It's About Time (3 min. video clip) was produced by Sherwood Schwartz, creator of The Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island (then in its third year on CBS).
The astronauts take up with cave dwellers played by the great Joe E. Ross ("OOH, OOH" - Officer Tooty from 'Car 54, Where Are You?' and numerous Hanna-Barbera cartoons) as Gronk, Imogene Coca ('Your Show of Shows') as his wife, Shad; Mary Grace as daughter Mlor; Pat Cardi as Breer, their son; Cliff Norton as Boss; Kathleen Freeman as Mrs. Boss and Mike Mazurzsky as Boss's henchman Clon.
Like 'Gilligan's Island', situations were played for broad laughs and the show was universally panned by critics but loved by children.
Frank Wilcox joined the cast in January as the astronaut's commanding officer when the show shifted directions mid-season to try to build ratings. The cave people and Astronauts returned in the space craft to 1967, and the focus of the show shifted to stars Coca and Ross as they encountered a rough time adjusting to 20th century New York City.
Frank Aletter previously starred in a one-season sitcom called "The Cara Williams Show" in 1964.
It's About Time Theme Song

Read more about It's About Time! includes both theme songs.

This oldie goldie had all the elements that a kid growing up in the1960's could possibly want. At least all that this shy, egg headed ape who had an unusual sense of the ironic and a penchant for the ridiculous could want. It had space travel, the theory of relativity, dinosaurs, cavemen and strangely compelling images of robustly proportioned cave women being dragged by their hair int darkened caves. Whatever for I couldn't possible tell. But it did seem like an very stimulating pastime.

I think you will all agree,

they just aren't making T.V. like this anymore.

unless the paradigm at the heart of the culture is changed there can be no lasting change.

Ivan Illich was once asked what did he think the was the most radical way to change society; was it through violent revolution or gradual reform? He gave a careful answer. Neither. Rather, he suggested that if one wanted to change society, then one must tell an alternative story. Illich is right; we need to reframe our understandings though a different lens, an alternative story, if we wish to move beyond the captivity of the predominantly institutional paradigm which clearly dominates our current approach to leadership and church.

by
from Alan Hirsch
The Forgotten Ways
http://www.theforgottenways.org/blog/117#more-117

thanks to my Swedish friend Dan of Tro&Tank for pointing me towards Alan in Australia
http://www.trotank.se/blog/

Live Long and Prosper

If the human race wishes to have a prolonged
and indefinite period of material prosperity,
they have only got to behave in a peaceful
and helpful way toward one another.--Winston Churchill

Being Peace

Galatians 5:22,23 (King James Version)
2But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.


go here for a beautiful and profound meditation on peace

http://www.beliefnet.com/features/peace/test2/container01.html

The best thing a tree can do is to be a real tree,
the best thing a human being can do is be a real human being.

peace be with you

and also with you

What Do You Do On A Rainy Sunday Afternoon?

Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.-Susan Ertz

"If you give me the choice of Paris Hilton or Jesus, I'll take Jesus."

"I believe in the culture war. And you know what? If I have to take a side in the culture war I'll take [the conservative Christian] side. Because if you give me the choice of Paris Hilton or Jesus, I'll take Jesus."
—Alexandra Pelosi, creator of the new HBO documentary "Friends of God" and daughter of the Speaker of the House of Representatives. She was quoted by The New York Times.


Its an interesting world we live in, isn't it?

You Can't Handle the Tooth! The Perils of Conjugal Communication.

HUSBAND: When I get mad at you, you never fight back. How do you control your anger?
WIFE: I clean the toilet.
HUSBAND: How does that help?

WIFE: I use your toothbrush!

Is This About an Offended Jesus or a Commentator With His Shorts in a Knot and His Foot in His Mouth? You Decide.

posted by Douglas Hxxxx on
http://www.beliefnet.com/blogs/idolchatter/ Beliefnet's IDOL CHATTER Blog

Conan's Bit on Homo-Jesus
On this week in which we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I am growing tired of the disrespect that is tolerated in our culture--and even promoted--toward an individual who has had a far greater effect on the spiritual lives of countless Americans since even before the foundation of our country. His name is Jesus Christ.A recent bit on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" has brought this to light.
"Oh I love you Jesus, but only as a friend,"
sang the "homophobe country western singer,"
as introduced by O'Brien.
"You touched my heart but
I hope that's where the touchin' ends."

And as if that weren't enough, the bit went on:

"You're always lookin' over me
When I need a higher power.
But you better look at somethin' else
When I'm in the shower."

I can't believe phones weren't ringing off the hook and that O'Brien still has a job! Perhaps it's because his show has become so irrelevant. Perhaps people of the Christian faith just don't tune into him. Worse off, perhaps Christians are so used to their leaders being insulted (politicians, athletes, music and movie stars, etc.) that they don't even notice when the Savior becomes the target of the same stuff.
A recent story at freerepublic.com brought this to light, and told about one leader who's doing something about it. "The idea that anyone would think about the Son of God in this way is simply appalling," said Douglas R. Scott, Jr., president of Life Decisions International (LDI) said. "The inferences that permeate the song are utterly disgusting."Mr. Scott has written to Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment, copying Robert Wright (Chairman of Universal) and Jeffrey Immelt (Chairman of GE). I hope more followers of Christ—and people who respect and revere God—to do the same.
It's one thing to make fun of Christians, but a completely different thing to insult Jesus Christ. To do the former is levity and usually well-deserved. To do the latter is at the very least grossly irreverent, if not biting the hand we ask to feed us.


ImpApe's Editorial Comment:
I think you may have read the wrong emphasis in the bit that the homophobic cow-dudes did. From the description you gave, it was the cowboy's attitudes that were being skewered in this sketch. Jesus was not involved, other than as a foil to reveal the sometimes silly ways we think about and treat gay people. Did I misread your description? If not then perhaps you are defending a homophobic style of Christianity and not the person of Jesus. Getting Christians to emulate offended Muslim extremists isn't a good idea.Len Homepage 01.19.07 - 12:02 pm #
Biblicists beware!

I've Got Good News, Bad News, and Unsettling News

First the Good News
'Jesus is Coming Back'

Yay, yahoo, great!

Now the Bad News
'He's Thoroughly PEEEE -OOOOHHH'ed'

Duh Ohhh!




The Unsettling News
'We Can't Be Sure Who got his Goat'. see Matt 25

Whaaaaaaaa?


I think the bibilicists who want every jot and tittle of condemnation for others to be highlighted in their bibles have much to worry about. Those who ignore or even despise the disabled, the poor, the racially different or the sexual other are despising Him who made them! Those preaching hate in the guise of love and those making merchandise of the people of God will need to flee the judgement to come. Their professed longing for the Coming Day of the Lord will turn to ashes in their mouths. And they will call the mountains to fall on them to hide their countenances from the Lord when He comes to make things right.

R2E (aka 'The Road'): WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE CHURCH?

R2E (aka 'The Road'): WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE CHURCH?

Soul Survivor. How My Faith Survived the Church

Phillip Yancey provides another wonderful account of a person (himself) steeped in a malignant form of racist Christianity who escaped its grasp and now lives to tell the tale.
We still need more testimonies of such changed lives to make evangelical Christianity as credible as we would like it to be.

http://www.amazon.com/Soul-Survivor-Faith-Survived-Church/dp/0385502745

I highly recommend this book.

In Some Hearts There Has Been a March of A MillionMiles. This is What Martin Luther King was Prepared to Die For.

(Caution: Offensive language is used in this Post. The 'N' word is always repugnant but this piece speaks so eloquetly to the reality of prejudice in our lives that its use is justifed in this instance. The ones to be offended in this story are those whose continued prejudices need to be rooted out. Especially among those naming the name of the Lord.)

Title: racism and the Gospel...Link: http://paradoxum.squarespace.com/journal/2006/1/16/racism-and-the-gospel.html

Excerpt: I was raised in Eastern North Carolina...in a city where the black people literally lived on the "other side of the tracks". I didn't have any black friends. In fact, my senior year we had two black guys begin attending our all white Christian school, and, while they were athletic, I do remember being so disappointed and shocked that they weren't OUTSTANDING basketball players.I didn't hate black people...unless I had the opportunity. In our little town, I had many occasions to call them "niggers", and to me, I guess, that's what black people were. To be a "nigger" meant: ...........


This is as powerful a piece of confessional writing as I have ever read. It will strike to the quick many who have been on the giving and the receiving end of racial injustice.
Thankfully people like Franklin and Philip Yancey have undergone a miracle of transformation. They came to understand what Jesus taught about loving others as we love ourselves and about the equal dignity and worth of every human being and they allowed it to become a reality in their lives.
I can think of no better testimony to the possibility of the miraculous.


I highly recommend a visit to Franklin's excellent blog
Paradoxum, a muscularly mystical place where a gentle tongue can break bones.


http://paradoxum.squarespace.com/journal/2006/5/26/betty-joyce.html

check it out!

The Church's Great Malfunctions

CHRISTIAN VISION PROJECT

We should be our own fiercest critics, doing so out of the deep beauty and goodness of our faith.
Miroslav Volf


There is a remarkable image in the closing pages of Scripture that has become a touchstone for the way my colleagues and I think about faith and culture. Amid its descriptions of the New Jerusalem, Revelation includes "the tree of life, bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations" (Rev. 22:2). The tree holds out hope that whole cultures will be healed and mended, becoming places where people can flourish. And it sets an agenda for faith as a way of life that contributes to that flourishing, in anticipation, here and now.
Too often, however, Christian faith neither mends the world nor helps human beings thrive. To the contrary, it seems to shatter things into pieces, to choke what's new and beautiful before it has chance to take root, to trample underfoot what's good and true...........
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/october/52.108.html

We Have a Lot of Work To Do! (Why blacks are leaving evangelical ministries.)

When so many otherwise successful African American Christians still express disappointment over the state of race relations in the church, as my research indicates, something is not right. We need to listen and learn. As members of the body of Christ, we should be determined to hear and understand the concerns of our brothers and sisters. If one part of the body is hurting, we should respond. But first we need to understand the reasons. Why do so many successful black evangelicals feel marginalized in evangelical institutions? Worse, why are some giving up on the idea of racial unity in the church altogether?..........

"........I am thankful for who God has made me, and I am grateful for his call on my life—but not all the time. I find myself being distant, untrusting, and often angry that I have internalized a certain sense that I am not good enough. I know this is wrong, and I've been working with a support network to overcome it. But it's difficult."........


.....As evangelical leaders, are we trusting in God to use us to build his kingdom—in all its glorious diversity—or are we busy trying, in his name, to preserve our own? If we expect to see God move us toward a place of true and lasting unity, we cannot do business as usual.
Nor can we simply wait. The cost of maintaining the status quo is too high.........

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/february/4.104.html

Or Best of All...

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Or

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

I Wish I Could Be More Like....

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

The Results Could Have Been Worse? I could have been revealed as....

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Lesson for 'Toady': Take all Internet Psychological Testing with a Grain of Salt.

Who Knew The Impossibleape was Really a Guerrilla at Heart?
I sure didn't.

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Try As Ya Might, Ya Just Can't Take it With Ya!

Bill died, leaving a will that provided $30,000 for an elaborate funeral.
As the last of the visitors departed the services, his wife, Lynne,
turned to her dearest friend, Sue, and said,
"Well, I think Bill would be pleased."
"I'm sure you're right," replied Sue,
who then lowered her voice and leaned in close.
"How much did this really cost?"
"All of it," said Lynne.
"All thirty thousand."
"No!" Sue exclaimed.
"I mean, it was very nice, but $30,000?"
Lynne replied, "Yes. The funeral was $6,500;
I donated $500 to the church,
and the wake, food and drinks were another $500.
The rest went for the Memorial Stone.
"Sue computed quickly and asked, "$22,500 for a Memorial Stone?
My goodness, how big is it?"

"Two and a half carats."

"For I desire kindness, not sacrifices," said the prophet Hosea 2,700 years ago.

"Jews are the compassionate children of compassionate parents," the Talmud teaches. "One who is merciless toward his fellow creatures is no descendant of our father Abraham." Jewish tradition teaches that kindness is what life requires of you.

http://www.aish.com/jewishissues/jewishsociety/Jewish_Values_for_a_Secular_World.asp



Perhaps in the end only Kindness matters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smKJ4UCf-7w

It is beautiful to feel charitable, but it is far more beautiful to actually give charity.

Judaism would love for you to be passionate about giving charity, visiting the sick, avoiding gossip, telling the truth on your tax return. Judaism would be delighted if you performed those mitzvot from the heart. But what if your heart isn't in it? What if you don't really feel like doing one of them? It is beautiful to feel charitable, but it is far more beautiful to actually give charity. Judaism says: Do it anyway. It is beautiful to feel charitable, but it is far more beautiful to actually give charity. It's wonderful if you never feel the temptation to say bad things about other people, but it is considerably more wonderful to refrain from saying them even when you are tempted.

"Taking Stock: A Spiritual Guide to Rising Above Life's Financial Ups and Downs."by Rabbi Benjamin Blech

"OR LAYGOYIM" -- a light unto the nations

Judaism matters to the whole world because it is a system for making human beings decent. For turning men into menschen. The timeless mission of the Jews is to make the world better by making people better. We do so by standing for the proposition that there is one God Who created and rules this world and Who cares profoundly about the way people act.
For 3,500 years, Jews have been telling themselves, their children, and the rest of the world: Be good. Be kind. Be honest. Be ethical. Be moral. It is the most revolutionary message in human history, and we are the people who were chosen to deliver it -- to be, as the prophet Isaiah said, an "or lagoyim" -- a light unto the nations.

The Geography of Greed

by Rabbi Benjamin Blech
According to the Bible, God has a special affinity for the land of Israel. For centuries, it has been referred to it as "the Holy Land." In Jewish tradition, the land is linked to God even by its geography, which offers us spiritual lessons applicable to our own lives.
In the north of Israel, there is a sparkling river. The Jordan is the source of much-needed water in an arid climate. Fish abound there and serve as a delectable food supply. It is beautiful to behold and commonly acknowledged as a source of life.
That very same river flows south into another sea. From these waters, neither man nor beast will drink. It is foul smelling and forbidding.
What could possibly account for the difference between these two waters? The Sea of Galilee receives the waters of the Jordan but does not greedily retain them. For every drop that it gets, it gives another. The sea into which it flows, however, has a different mode of behavior. Every drop that it gets, it keeps. So while the Sea of Galilee generously gives and lives, its terminus that only knows how to hold on to what it has is called the Dead Sea.
The seas of Israel serve as symbols of people. Those who give, live. "Ninety percent of all mental illness that comes before me could have been prevented, or cured, by ordinary kindness," claims National University Professor Dr. William McGrath. As Eric Fromm, the famous psychiatrist, put it, "Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much."
Ironic, isn't it, that after all is said and done, it is the greedy who are really needy!
An excerpt from "Taking Stock: A Spiritual Guide to Rising Above Life's Financial Ups and Downs."
by Rabbi Benjamin Blech

As an Act of Contrition for Saying Shite in an Earlier Post, Here is the Lord's Prayer

http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ballc/oe/paternoster-oe.html

Listen to a continuous recording: LP-all.wav (518k)

The Lord's Prayer in Old EnglishMatthew 6:9-13.

Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum; [59k] Father our thou that art in heavens

Si þin nama gehalgod [44k] be thy name hallowed

to becume þin rice [37k] come thy kingdom

gewurþe ðin willa [43k] be-done thy will

on eorðan swa swa on heofonum. [53k] on earth as in heavens

urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg [68k] our daily bread give us today

and forgyf us ure gyltas [55k] and forgive us our sins

swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum [65k] as we forgive those-who-have-sinned-against-us
and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge [57k] and not lead thou us into temptation

ac alys us of yfele soþlice [69k] but deliver us from evil. truly.

A continuous recording: LP-all.wav (518k)

This version of the Lord's Prayer is from Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 140 [WSCp], a translation of the Gospels written in Bath in the first half of the 11th century; edited by Liuzza (1994).
Read by Cathy Ball (Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University) for Edward Vanetten's Sunday School class.

I'm Not a Nut, I'm a Legume

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N-oFxqhksU

"Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted."

- Martin Luther King Jr


I personally take a great deal of encouragement from that thought.

The rest of you must be scared 'Shiteless'. (Pardon 'mine olde Englishe')

This is True for All the Charismatic Churches I Have Known

"A Knock at Midnight"(On the role of the black church)

"There are two types of Negro churches that have failed to provide the bread at midnight. One is a church that burns up with emotionalism and the other is a church that freezes up with classism. The former is a church that reduces worship to entertainment, and places more emphasis on volume than on content. It confuses spirituality with muscularity. The danger of this church is that its members will end up with more religion in their hands and feet than in their hearts and souls. So many people have gone by this type of church at midnight, and it had neither the vitality nor the relevant gospel to feed their hungry souls.
The other type of Negro church that leaves men unfed at midnight is a church that develops a class system within. It boasts of the fact that it is a dignified church, and most of its members are professional people. It takes pride in its exclusiveness. In this church the worship service is cold and meaningless. ...The tragedy of this type of church is that it fails to see that worship at its best is a social experience with people of all levels of life coming together to realize their oneness and unity under God."

Martin Luther King Jr.

A Wise Man's Remedy for What Ails Us

"The Answer to a Perplexing Question"(On overcoming a bad habit)
"What, then, is the way out? Not by our own efforts, and not by a purely external help from God. One cannot remove an evil habit by my resolution; nor can it be done by simply calling on God to do the job. It can be done only when a man lifts himself up until he can put his will into the hands of God's will as an instrument."

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. (on overcoming prejudice, is there anything more important than this?)

"On Being a Good Neighbor"(The theme of brotherhood/sisterhood)

"The real tragedy--is that we see people as entities or merely as things. Too seldom do we see people in their true humanness. A spiritual myopia limits our vision to external accidents. We see men as Jews or Gentiles, Catholics or Protestants, Chinese or American, Negroes or whites. We fail to think of them as fellow human beings made from the same basic stuff as we, molded in the same divine image. The priest and the Levite saw only a bleeding body, not a human being like themselves. But the Good Samaritan will always remind us to remove the cataracts of provincialism from our spiritual eyes and see men as men."

A Game on Sunday

Dallas Willard
"Currently we are not only saved by grace; we are paralyzed by it. We find it hard to see that grace is not opposed to effort, but is opposed to earning. Earning and effort are not the same thing. Earning is an attitude, and grace is definitely opposed to that. But it is not opposed to effort."

ImpApe's Editorial comment

We evangelicals (protestants) often define ourselves by what we are against.
Instead of being true to Christ's teachings and examples, we sometimes react so vehemently against one kind of error that we take up a position on the polar opposite of it, and thereby promote another abberation in its place.

Martin Luther's much needed forceful tackling of the medievil Catholic practice of selling indulgences and a theology bordering on works based salvation led us to take such a radical position on Grace that Evangelical Protestants often act and think as if goodworks are deemed an infraction of the rules. A Ten Yard penalty, and a loss of down.

We need to get back to Quarterback Jesus' Game Plan and to start being more creatively and effectively involved in making this a better world.
Too much time and energy has been wasted teaching about Babylonian whores in the 'end-zone', and delivering 3 point after trivia sermons. We have fumbled the ball in terms of buildng the 'beloved community'.
Even if this is the last few minutes of the 4th Quarter, it is high time we got into the game of life and scored a touchdown for Jesus. If it means we have to carry the ball a yard or two, and get our Sunday-go-to-Church uniforms dirty, well glory to Jesus, let's put our game faces on and win this one for coach Holy Spirit!

Or is our Sunday morning activity just as much a game as the one we watch after services?

Dropkick me, Jesus, Through the Goalsposts of Life

http://bertc.com/dropkick.htm

Did You Know That....

....Dolly Parton was best known in highschool as the percussionist on the snare drum in the marching band(PahrumpahpahPummmm)......

....time may be a great healer, but it is sure a terrible beautician....


.....a lot of money is tainted. 'Taint yours and 'taint mine.......




.....you can tell you are drinking to much coffee when your eyes stay open when you sneeze?



Make of it what you will!
but.....a will is a dead giveaway....

Listen up Biblicist! It's Not Another Bible Study That You Need!

The Bible is to us what the star was to the wise men; but if we spend all our time in gazing upon it, observing its motions, and admiring its splendor, without being led to Christ by it, the use of it will be lost on us.-Thomas Adams

consider this;

39 You search and investigate and pore over the Scriptures diligently, because you suppose and trust that you have eternal life through them. And these [very Scriptures] testify about Me!
40 And still you are not willing [but refuse] to come to Me, so that you might have life.
John 5:39,40 (Amplified Bible)

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Art and heart courtesy of David Watson of Davesdesigns

http://davesdesigns.blogspot.com/2006/09/dave-hard-at-work-on-his-old-beatup.html

Bewildered in the Bush

Daniel Boone once said;

"No. Ive never been lost, but I was bewildered for three days once."

I'm glad I'm not the only one.

But Daniel,
Really,
Only Once?
C'mon
Fess Parker up man!

Martin Luther King Jr. on our Responsibility to Transcend Individual, Tribal, National and Racial Prejudices

"A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: 'This is not just.' It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say: 'This is not just.' The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: 'This way of settling differences is not just.' A nation that continues year after year to spend more on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. . . . A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies."

MLK jr. "A Time to Break Silence,"

What Makes A Film Christian?

I also know that not all films by Christians are uniquely Christian. I consider "Left Behind" as much a part of Christian cinema as I consider "The Killer Condom" a part of German cinema - that is, by definition alone. Art can be of a faith without possessing the faith itself.

Seth Studer

http://www.vagrantcafe.com/christiancinema/2003_11_09_archive.htm

Greatest Film Never Seen? (I've definitely got to see this.)

"ORDET"Denmark, 1955

http://www.vagrantcafe.com/christiancinema/2003_11_11_archive.htm

"Ordet" is a film about the Second Coming, in the tradition of Dostoevsky's "The Grand Inquisitor" (its heirs include such recent films as "The Green Mile" and "K-Pax"). From the first scene, the tone is apocalyptic, otherworldly. We see a breezy field of dunes in rural Denmark. Sheep wander about, unwatched. Johannes, who seems to address the whole earth from his dune, speaks with the voice and authority of Revelation 2, in which Christ diagnoses the spiritual condition of his church. "Ordet" is Dreyer's diagnosis of modernity - what would the Second Coming look like if it occurred today? What business would Christ attend to if he visited the 20th (or 21st) century? You won't find the answer in "The Omega Code," but you just might find it in "Ordet." (Thus says Seth Studer of The Vagrant Cafe http://www.vagrantcafe.com/christiancinema/2003_11_11_archive.htm)

What sayest Thou?

Yes Thou. Thou!

What sayest Thou?

Thus asks the ImpossibleApe.

Sad Pilgrimage/ John Lennon's Journey from emptiness to emptiness

.......he suddenly announced to close friends in the spring of 1977 that he'd become a born-again Christian. He had been particularly moved by the U.S. television premiere of Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth, starring Robert Powell as Jesus, which NBC showed in two three-hour segments on Palm Sunday, April 3, 1977. A week later, on Easter day, he took Yoko and Sean to a local church service..............

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/januaryweb-only/001-22.0.html

Imagine That!

Another Example of How Evangelicals Can Make Jesus Seem Ugly

Chuck Colson asks the important question of the day
Bigotry or Obedience?

Imp Ape says it's bigotry based on ignorance. It represents a failure of many Evangelicals to come to terms with the real world, as made God it. All this makes God seem ugly and perhaps even evil to many, many people of integrity and compassion who are outside our Evangelical tradition.

Now here's another sin and a shame

from today's Breakpoint commentary comes varnished and blackened truth for those who have closed eyes to see with and stopped ears to hear.....

"..........."Our argument," the bishop continues, "is that if homosexuals see themselves as deviants who have gone astray, the Christian spirit would plead for patience and prayers to make room for their repentance. When Scripture says something is wrong and some people say that it is right, such people make God a liar."
That's the real issue here, and that's the issue Christians must continue to focus on. There's certainly room for discussion of Bishop Akinola's views and how he relates to homosexuals. But let's not forget why he and the U.S. churches now under his oversight are doing what they're doing: It is because they choose orthodoxy. They believe in the Word of God, and they will obey it. That's what we all need to be concerned about, whether the media gets it right or not. "


ImpApe's editrorial note:

I respect Chuck Colson for many of the things he stands for and the work he has done, but to pitch his tent in the camp that insists that people, who are born different, must first see themselves as deviant and repent of how they were made is to leave the camp that Jesus is bivouacking. One statement from today's Breakpoint commentary may indicate that Chuck is a little unsure of all that the 'hatefilled' bishop has said. I hope and pray that he looks closer at what he has aligned himself with and decides to help the evangelical church repent of its false exclusivity and its hurtful prejudices.

Another example how Evangelicals make Jesus Ugly

R2E (aka 'The Road'): We Make Jesus Ugly




Can God Reach the Mentally Disabled?
Are mentally challenged adults whose intellectual age is probably that of a 1-year-old sheltered under God's salvation?
Lewis B. Smedes

March 5, 2001

I care for mentally challenged adults whose intellectual age is probably that of a 1-year-old. How can I assure their parents that their children are sheltered under God's salvation?—Robin Fose, New York


This is a question conceived not in a curious mind but in a caring heart, so I feel a special burden to answer it in a way that is both biblically true and personally comforting. I need to say at the start, however, that I can find no Bible text telling us forthrightly that mentally disabled people who cannot confess Jesus Christ as Savior are "under God's salvation." As I read the New Testament, I find only one path to salvation—the path of an informed faith in Jesus Christ.

John, Peter, and Paul, for instance, implied that the saving response to the gospel involves a rational choice. When John the Baptist told people how to be saved, he said they needed to believe in Jesus (John 3:36). When people at Pentecost asked Peter how they could be saved, he said they should repent and be baptized (Acts 2:37-38). And when Paul set out the human conditions for salvation, he summed them up as believing and confessing Christ (Rom. 10:9).

True, the apostles did not expressly say that people will be saved only if they repent, believe, and confess. But most evangelicals assume—with good reason—that this is what the apostles implied..........................

http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/2001/march5/31.94.html


Imp Ape's editorial comment:
Balderdash, Poppycock and BullSpit !!!!!!

Apparently most of us Evangelicals don't even know what Jesus taught about being saved and yet we obnoxiously, and self righteously pontificate on how all human flesh (except for our own blessed evangelical butt) is going to Hell .


R2E (aka 'The Road'): No one comes to the Father but......

R2E (aka 'The Road'): I tell you, this man went down to his house justified

according to Jesus none of the hoop jumping mentioned by the good Dr. Smedlap Smeddes is required to be justified.
A simple heart that knows no self righteousness, or self justification and that hopes in the mercy of God is enough according to Jesus. This grace is more accessible to the developmentally disabled than to most evangelicals preaching the bad news of other-condemnation and self-love.

Who are you gonna believe?

I pick Jesus over any 2 bit, backwoods, snake handling theologian Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland or Benny Hinn or any worthless money grubbing TV evangelist can produce. to justify themselves

Look for a HiddenTreasure in my Mea Culpa Post(and in the 'if this weren't so sad' post as well)

On a post from Jan.5, 2007 I made a confession to the world.

Since then I have added a hidden treat for all those who like to treasure hunt. Go back and see if you find it.

If this weren't so sad.......

God Help Us

......this Would be completely Hilarious

Benny Hill meets Benny Hinn

BEATITUDES FOR A GLOBALISED WORLD

'Irish musician Bono called the Millennium Development Goals “the beatitudes for a globalised world”.
Bishop Christopher Gregorowski, Cape Town
adapted them to reflect the Beatitudes of the Gospel
(ed. note: a worthy effort says I)


Jesus said, “You are blessed when you are merciful: you will receive mercy.” (Matthew 5:5)

You are blessed when you seek bread for the hungry: you will be filled.

You are blessed when you provide schooling for all girls and boys: you will see God’s light.

You are blessed when you support women and girls in their quest for empowerment and equality: the power of God’s Spirit is yours.

You are blessed when you bring vulnerable children to health and strength: you will be healed and strengthened.

You are blessed when you seek the health of pregnant women and young mothers: you will be called God’s children.

You are blessed when you strive to combat HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and other diseases: you will receive mercy.

You are blessed when you care for my creation, and seek clean water and sanitation for all, and a better life for slum dwellers: you will inherit the earth.

You are blessed when you open your borders to fair trade and your budgets to sound development: you will be richly rewarded.

You are blessed when you are persecuted for being just and seeking justice in the world: you are members of my family – for just as you do these things for your sisters and brothers in need, you do them for me.

More bumpers worth watching

Marriage … is finding that one special person you can annoy the rest of your life.

I'm not tense; I'm just terribly, terribly alert.

Normal people worry me.

When all else fails, lower your standards.

TALK only if you can improve the silence.

PEOPLE who look down on others live on a bluff.

Bumper Stickers I'd Consider Honking For (except maybe the last one)

I'm for the separation of church and hate.

Suburbia: Where they tear out trees and then name streets after them.

I considered atheism but there weren't enough holidays.

Lord, help me to be the person my dog thinks I am.

I do what my Rice Krispies tell me to.

Don't let the car fool you. My treasure is in heaven.

The big bang theory: God spoke and bang, it happened.

Jesus saves; Buddha recycles.

WWJD? I bet he'd use his turn signal!

I just got lost in thought. It was unfamiliar territory.

Honk if you are Jesus.

My bjorkennorkum is brokum

PastorAstor asked for the definition of "my bjorkennorkum is brokum"

All the Swedish I know I learned from the Muppets.

I think the Swedish Chef provides as good a definition of the term bjorkennorkum is brokum as any I've ever heard.

Please visit Pastor Astor at Tro&Tank you will find a wealth of great insights, quotatons, and viedos like the Three Pigs Cook Santa ( aka A case of Mistaken Identity)...... I wonder if the Swedish Chef has a recipe for that?

http://www.trotank.se/blog/

Church Re-envisioned (Lord may it come quickly)

I found this at
http://www.trotank.se/blog/index.php?/archives/2006/11.html

TRO&TANK
a very interesting (both fun and educational) and inspirational blog.
It originates inSweden but has as much English content as it does Swedish. So if your bjorkennorkum is brokum you can still Particpate.

"Church” will decreasingly mean a place one attends, and will increasingly mean a community to which one belongs, who share a common mission and a common spiritual practice, rooted in a common story of what’s going on here on planet earth. Whether the word “church” (like the word “Christian”) is abused beyond recovery, I don’t know. Let’s assume it is redeemable. One of the greatest enemies of evangelism is the church as fortress or social club; it sucks Christians out of their neighborhoods, clubs, workplaces, schools, and other social networks and isolates them in a religious ghetto. There it must entertain them (through various means, many of them masquerading as education) and hold them (through various means, many of them epitomized by the words guilt and fear). Thus Christians are warehoused as merchandise for heaven, kept safe in a protected space to prevent spillage, leakage, damage, or loss until their delivery. However, if the church is otherwise imagined, it can be experienced as an open community, welcoming strangers as Jesus welcomed sinners. Thus it becomes the main highway of evangelism. And if surprising people are loved there – people who would not be accepted were it not for the good news of the kingdom of God: the poor, the racially other, the politically other, etc. – the church will once again burst with new wine that no old wineskins can contain

"The Strategy we persue" by Brian McLaren

my sincere apologies to rainbow christian aka Ninure Saunders (and Jenn and Joan Osbourne)

(: Please search this post for the hidden video of me singing my favourite song...which I also wrote BTW :)
Back on Dec . 25, 2006
I posted 'Jesus' Invitation part 1, 2 and 3'. In a comment left on that post I was asked if wrote this, to which I replied yes.
I had modeled my Jesus' Invitation on a piece called Jesus' Christmas Letter. I heard this piece read over a radio station, WJR 760 Detroit, during Christmas 2003.
I modified the piece that winter and used it to challenge the way people with disablities at my church were viewed.
In my recollections of my efforts to refashion the story, I thought I had made more changes than I actually did.

Today I went back to my source at

http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/2605.htm

http://deaconninure.0catch.com/Christmas/XMAS_letter_from_jesus.html

and reread the story. To my dismay I discovered that my changes had not been nearly as significant as I had remembered. I had toned down Jesus' concern for his own honour at Christmas and changed the centre of his outward concern from an old man from the wrong side of town, to young man with severe physical and developmental disabilities, but basically the story and structure were not altered in any significant way.

I feel I owe rainbow christian (aka Ninure Saunders) an apology for having claimed to have modified the piece more than I actually did.
I don't know if rainbow christian is still around.
His site hasn't been updated since 2005 and is hijacked by viscous spammers and pirates.

Rainbow christian, if you are out there, I apologize for not giving you the credit you deserve.

God Bless you where ever you are.


(: Please search this post for the hidden video of me singing my favourite song...which I also wrote BTW :)

How Many Roads Must a Man Travel Down Before.....

"How many leaders of the Jesus Seminar does it take to change a light bulb?
Well, at first they thought maybe they could do it, but when they looked at the bulb they decided somehow that it really wasn't the bulb in question and put it down, and for quite some time now, they have been in the kitchen trying to 'unscrew' an onion - and there's not much of it left either...

How many Form critics does it take to change a light bulb?
They just decide that it could not be an authentic request since it came from the new apartment 10A and there is no prior incidences of this at all. They conclude that someone must have "borrowed" the request from some OTHER apartment, and simply put the request "on the lips of the tenant in 10A"...

How many Textual critics does it take to change a light bulb?

Their professional opinion is that we should leave the original bulb as it is. The probability of someone replacing a bad bulb with a good one is much lower than the opposite, and hence the bad bulb most likely reflects the oldest (and therefore better) bulb..

How many Talmudic Sages does it take to change a light bulb?
R. Abiva heard from R. Millerstein, who heard from Rab Josy, who got it from R. David, who got it from Moses, that it would take three. Whereupon, R. Marshmallow said that Moses said 'three' but meant 'two' since "light" has three radicals, but the vaw in the middle separates the light from the dark.

How many Darwinists does it take to change a lightbulb?
Well actually, they won't even TRY to change the bulb. They will simply stop using the room that has the burned out bulb, and start using only rooms with FUNCTIONING bulbs. That way, over time, ....

How many ID:ers does it take to change a light bulb?
Two: one to change it quickly, and one to point out that no transitional forms occurred at all.

How many Existentialists does it take to change a light bulb?
Two - one to bemoan the darkness until the other redefines something else as light.

How many Cartesians does it take to change a light bulb?
None - unfortunately, when the bulb blew out, they were all so shocked that they stopped thinking for that brief moment - and 'poof', they all just blinked out of existence.

Inlagd av Daniel Astgård i Blandat och humor

Hope for 2007

"Hope has two beautiful daughters, Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are."

St. Augustine

(now go take on the rest of your year,
you angry, courageous, hopeful people!)

great new years resolutions for writers

"1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.

2. Always prefer the clean direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.

3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “More people died” don’t say “Mortality rose.”

4. In writing, don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the things you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us the thing is “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers “Please, will you do my job for me.”

5. Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite."

Wayne Martindale and Jerry Root, (ed), "The Quotable Lewis" (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale, 1989), sid. 623.

Hogmanay

Admit it, ye addlebrained twitterpated lowlander, ye've fergit the ferm impliments ta boot.

Don't Forget to Return the Farm Impliments

NEW YEAR TRADITIONS Other traditions of the season include the making of New Year's resolutions. That tradition also dates back to the early Babylonians. Popular modern resolutions might include the promise to lose weight or quit smoking. The early Babylonian's most popular resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment.

The Church Was Late to the Party as Seems to be Our Custom

Happy New Year!" That greeting will be said and heard for at least the first couple of weeks as a new year gets under way. But the day celebrated as New Year's Day in modern America was not always January 1.
ANCIENT NEW YEARSThe celebration of the new year is the oldest of all holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonian New Year began with the first New Moon (actually the first visible cresent) after the Vernal Equinox (first day of spring).
The beginning of spring is a logical time to start a new year. After all, it is the season of rebirth, of planting new crops, and of blossoming. January 1, on the other hand, has no astronomical nor agricultural significance. It is purely arbitrary.
The Babylonian new year celebration lasted for eleven days. Each day had its own particular mode of celebration, but it is safe to say that modern New Year's Eve festivities pale in comparison.
The Romans continued to observe the new year in late March, but their calendar was continually tampered with by various emperors so that the calendar soon became out of synchronization with the sun.
In order to set the calendar right, the Roman senate, in 153 BC, declared January 1 to be the beginning of the new year. But tampering continued until Julius Caesar, in 46 BC, established what has come to be known as the Julian Calendar. It again established January 1 as the new year. But in order to synchronize the calendar with the sun, Caesar had to let the previous year drag on for 445 days.
THE CHURCH'S VIEW OF NEW YEAR CELEBRATIONSAlthough in the first centuries AD the Romans continued celebrating the new year, the early Catholic Church condemned the festivities as paganism. But as Christianity became more widespread, the early church began having its own religious observances concurrently with many of the pagan celebrations, and New Year's Day was no different. New Years is still observed as the Feast of Christ's Circumcision by some denominations.