Reporters interviewing a 104-year-old woman:
"And what do you think is the best thing about being 104?"
the reporter asked.
She simply replied,
"No peer pressure."
The nice thing about being senile is you can hide your own Easter eggs.
I've sure gotten old! I've had two bypass surgeries, a hip replacement, new knees Fought prostate cancer and diabetes. I'm half blind, can't hear anything quieter than a jet engine, take 40 different medications that make me dizzy, winded, and subject to blackouts Have bouts with dementia. Have poor circulation; hardly feel my hands and feet anymore. Can't remember if I'm 85 or 92. Have lost all my friends But, thank God, I still have my driver's license.
I feel like my body has gotten totally out of shape, so I got my doctor's permission to join a fitness club and start exercising. I decided to take an aerobics class for senior s. I bent, twisted, gyrated, jumped up and down, and perspired for an hour. But, by the time I got my leotards on, the class was over.
An elderly woman decided to prepare her will and told her preacher she had two final requests. First, she wanted to be cremated, and second, she wanted her ashes scattered over Wal-Mart. "Wal-Mart?" the preacher exclaimed. "Why Wal-Mart?" "Then I'll be sure my daughters visit me twice a week
"My memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
Know how to prevent sagging?
Just eat till the wrinkles fill out.
It's scary when you start making the same noises as your coffeemaker.
These days about half the stuff in my shopping cart says, "For fast relief.
"Remember: You don't stop laughing because you grow old,
You grow old because you stop laughing.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
Blondes come in all hat sizes and sexes.
A highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway. Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see that the blonde behind the wheel was knitting! Realizing that she was oblivious to his flashing lights and siren, the trooper cranked down his window, turned on his bullhorn and yelled, "PULL OVER!" - "NO!" the blonde yelled back, "IT'S A SCARF!"
A gorgeous young redhead goes into the doctor's office and said that her body hurt wherever she touched it. "Impossible!" says the doctor. "Showme." The redhead took her finger, pushed on her left breast and screamed , then she pushed her elbow and screamed even more. She pushed her knee and screamed; likewise she pushed her ankle and screamed. Everywhere she touched made her scream.. The doctor said, "You're not really a redhead, are you? "Well, no" she said, "I'm actually a blonde""I thought so," the doctor said. "Your finger is broken."
I asked my blonde haired nephew whether he bought his wife anything for Valentine's Day. "Yes", he said, "I bought her a belt and a bag.""That was very nice of you", I replied, "I hope she appreciated the thought."He said, "So do I, and hopefully the vaccuum cleaner will work better now."
A gorgeous young redhead goes into the doctor's office and said that her body hurt wherever she touched it. "Impossible!" says the doctor. "Showme." The redhead took her finger, pushed on her left breast and screamed , then she pushed her elbow and screamed even more. She pushed her knee and screamed; likewise she pushed her ankle and screamed. Everywhere she touched made her scream.. The doctor said, "You're not really a redhead, are you? "Well, no" she said, "I'm actually a blonde""I thought so," the doctor said. "Your finger is broken."
I asked my blonde haired nephew whether he bought his wife anything for Valentine's Day. "Yes", he said, "I bought her a belt and a bag.""That was very nice of you", I replied, "I hope she appreciated the thought."He said, "So do I, and hopefully the vaccuum cleaner will work better now."
Evangelicals and Neo-evangelicals
Evangelicals and Neo-evangelicals
by S. Thomas Berg
from Grow Mercy Blog-->
February 12th, 2007
.................Evangelicals, old and new, as a rule far more than an exception, are generous and good-hearted and kind. If there is kindness in me it is largely because of my dear old German Baptist mother. If there is generosity in me, it is because of my late, low-key Evangelical-Mennonite-Baptist Russian father. And if I’m occasionally found riding a goodwill curve, it is because of the good-natured self-critique, church-critique, pretension-piercing ability of the quiet agile mind of my father and the gentle hands of my mother, as well as the mimetic spill-over from my siblings....................
I’m confident that if (my Dad) were alive today he would have embraced today’s neo-evangelical thrust. And so I could have at least had an interesting discussion with him. I would have loved the opportunity with fear and trembling.
Neo-evangelicals (using the term in its broadest sense, not merely post-fundamentalist) as a body, are proof that evangelicals are often enough their own best critics. The "Emergent Church" in all its amorphousness, the open-mindedness of "Red-letter" Christians, and "Progressive Evangelicals," are all responses to an evangelicalism whose shelf-life is up. The old Evangelicalism’s stress on a highly individualistic understanding of salvation, the absence of environmental concern, the stress on the soul to the lamentable determent of the social, are the larger issues that these newer strains are correcting.
For this, I thank God.
by S. Thomas Berg
from Grow Mercy Blog-->
February 12th, 2007
.................Evangelicals, old and new, as a rule far more than an exception, are generous and good-hearted and kind. If there is kindness in me it is largely because of my dear old German Baptist mother. If there is generosity in me, it is because of my late, low-key Evangelical-Mennonite-Baptist Russian father. And if I’m occasionally found riding a goodwill curve, it is because of the good-natured self-critique, church-critique, pretension-piercing ability of the quiet agile mind of my father and the gentle hands of my mother, as well as the mimetic spill-over from my siblings....................
I’m confident that if (my Dad) were alive today he would have embraced today’s neo-evangelical thrust. And so I could have at least had an interesting discussion with him. I would have loved the opportunity with fear and trembling.
Neo-evangelicals (using the term in its broadest sense, not merely post-fundamentalist) as a body, are proof that evangelicals are often enough their own best critics. The "Emergent Church" in all its amorphousness, the open-mindedness of "Red-letter" Christians, and "Progressive Evangelicals," are all responses to an evangelicalism whose shelf-life is up. The old Evangelicalism’s stress on a highly individualistic understanding of salvation, the absence of environmental concern, the stress on the soul to the lamentable determent of the social, are the larger issues that these newer strains are correcting.
For this, I thank God.
Friday, February 16, 2007
This Kind of Christianity Will Not Likely Produce Fascist Faith
I belong to a web based discussion group called Resonate. It is a Canadian forum for Emergent Christan thinking and practice. One member (A clergy man) was just asked to be chaplain of a local bar. Here is his explanation for why this opportunity is very much in line with the call to lead a Christlike life.
"We shall see where that rabbit hole leads.
I was there the other night and God was all over the place.
I watched how pub patrons treated a schizophrenic street person who
walks in every night with bags of bottles he pulls from the garbage.
He is known around town as Bottle Man. Pub patrons get a him a hot
tea, help him store his bottles under a table and help him be seated.
He pulls out paper and starts drawing coloured squares. He is in his
own world mentally. But in this pub he is safe and welcome.
No one picks on him. No one throws him out. People treat him with
dignity.
Smells like Church to me. In a pub. With people who barely know who
Jesus is.
But maybe, they know Jesus better than we think.
In fact I saw Jesus colouring squares and sipping tea and making sure
his bags full of bottles were all straight and secure by his sorel
boats. He pulled his toque tightly over his ears and kept his coat
zipped up as people drank beer and said hello to him. They all
treated him so kindly. In a pub.
Hmm.
What an honour to be invited to give spiritual care to a place like
that! I am utterly not worthy of that.
max pax Joseph"
I LOVE THIS!
"We shall see where that rabbit hole leads.
I was there the other night and God was all over the place.
I watched how pub patrons treated a schizophrenic street person who
walks in every night with bags of bottles he pulls from the garbage.
He is known around town as Bottle Man. Pub patrons get a him a hot
tea, help him store his bottles under a table and help him be seated.
He pulls out paper and starts drawing coloured squares. He is in his
own world mentally. But in this pub he is safe and welcome.
No one picks on him. No one throws him out. People treat him with
dignity.
Smells like Church to me. In a pub. With people who barely know who
Jesus is.
But maybe, they know Jesus better than we think.
In fact I saw Jesus colouring squares and sipping tea and making sure
his bags full of bottles were all straight and secure by his sorel
boats. He pulled his toque tightly over his ears and kept his coat
zipped up as people drank beer and said hello to him. They all
treated him so kindly. In a pub.
Hmm.
What an honour to be invited to give spiritual care to a place like
that! I am utterly not worthy of that.
max pax Joseph"
I LOVE THIS!
Is the Biblical God A Madman With Fascist Tendencies?
In Response to this from Chris at http://romanticparadox.blogspot.com/2006/08/human-sacrifice.html;
Human Sacrifice
Ready for a shake up?Where do you think this passage came from, and what do you think about it?
Those evil humans down on earth. I hate what they are doing. All this sin...
Since I am all-knowing I know exactly what the humans are doing and I understand exactly why they commit each sin. Since I created the humans in my own image and personally programmed human nature into their brains, I am the direct author of all of this sin. The instant I created them I knew exactly what would happen with every single human being right down to the nanosecond level for all eternity. If I didn't like how it was going to turn out, I could have simply changed them when I created them. And since I am perfect, I know exactly what I am doing. But ignore all that. I hate all these people doing exactly what I perfectly designed them to do and knew they would do from the moment I created them...
So here's what I am going to do. I will artificially inseminate a virgin. She will give birth to an incarnated version of me. The humans will eventually crucify and kill the incarnated me. That will, finally, make me happy. Yes, sending myself down and having the humans crucify me -- that will satisfy me. I feel much better now.
I Give You This;
Hi Chris
The quoted passage in your original post was a straight parody of what is fundamentally a parabolic and paradoxical story.The 'big picture' of God, love, pain and the whole darned thing as drawn in the Bible is not so ridiculously framed.However, I don't think the usual way of interpreting the story is entirely correct either and so I will agree that some common Christian teachings lead into absurdity. Emergent thinkers are trying to reframe aspects of the story so that it will be better understood in or times and be more internally consistent and so better reflect (what we hope are) the true qualities of the Deity.Of course we could be wrong and God could be as capricious and demanding and uncaring as natural disasters, disease and poverty and fundamental preaching seem to imply that He is. Or perhaps as others suggest maybe He doesn’t exist at all. That could be true but that position doesn’t eliminate paradoxes, it replaces some of them with the mysteries of why any life at all, why intelligent life, why innate feelings of right and wrong in human kind, why love, why beauty, why the need to ask why?Let’s start looking at some of this big picture story stuff.Would you agree that there is a difference between contradictions (irreconcilable positions, logical absurdities) and paradoxes (things appearing contradictory in one point of reference or one dimension, but which can be profitably understood and utilized in another)?Is it possible that if higher dimensions exist they could intersect and interact with lower ones and that a relationship between the levels may be mutually beneficial? (I am going to run a foul of much traditional thinking but this is an exploration and if Columbus never was allowed to leave port we might be still living in the flat world.)Is it possible that from a higher reference point man's freedom and God's sovereignty are not incompatible? That we have to work as if everything depends on us, while praying as if everything depends on Him. Could it be that an Omnipotent God may require something from us that He cannot provide or create without us? Is it possible that the cross was not really a blood sacrifice to an enraged, insulted psychotic dictator? Can it be that the cross might have been a two-way reconciliation, God towards man because of our failure to love Him and those made in His image, and Man towards God because of the process set in place by God in making the world and allowing (I think ordaining) our Fall into conscious choice which naturally leads to sin and separation and suffering. I would say that creating Sons of God was God’s first last and only plan. The Garden was not the hoped for ending point. It was only the beginning. The plan apparently had to include free choice, sin and consequences (I cannot imagine that God would not have chosen another way if one were available. The suffering of innocents cannot be reconciled if there was a fiat way to make the Sons of God)). Because God could do it no other way He may have been asking us for a sort of forgiveness (reconciliation) because He had unilaterally required our participation in the creation of the Sons of God through suffering. As Billy Joel aptly said, ‘I didn’t start the fire’, but it’s a burnin’. God does have something to answer for and he answered in Jesus and we all will accept the answer when we see the culmination of the plan, namely the revelation of the Sons of God.In this exploration of story the cross becomes more than a sin sacrifice. It becomes the cornerstone of the foundation or the linchpin of a mysterious mechanism that makes possible the creation of the Sons of God.In this telling of the story the Fall is seen as the necessary ‘one step back’ in order to facilitate the ‘two steps forward’ that will allow us to transcend Adam’s estate and to enter into close kinship with Jesus Christ and God Himself.It would seem senseless for scripture to say that Jesus was crucified from the foundation of the world if Adam’s fall wasn’t foreseen, and even foreordained. I cannot believe that the Fall was a surprise to God and that Jesus was a patch-up job rushed on the scene to cover God’s oversight. If freedom did not exist, and so sin never entered the world, then Adam would be the end point. Humanity would be at ease roaming the fields as unconscious as the animals and God would have to content Himself with getting out the leash to walk the human pets in the cool of the evening. God had a higher purpose for creation and it is found in plan A (The old way of telling the story makes Jesus a backup, a plan B, if you will). I don’t want to abandon belief in a Good, Loving and Powerful God (the Christian God), but I have had to abandon a telling of the story that declares a simple blood sacrifice for Adam’s sins as the whole story of the cross and of human suffering and human history.The retelling I have hinted at here seems (at least to me) to be internally consistent and not outside the biblical narrative. What do you think?The story of human life may be paradoxical but it does not have to be nonsensical and absurd. I chose to believe that life in all its ugly unfairness has meaning and purpose and a hope for redemption,I am a follower of Christ. A doubting, suffering one, but nonetheless a Christian. That is of course is if other Christians will have me and my idiosyncratic approach to telling the old, old story.
Human Sacrifice
Ready for a shake up?Where do you think this passage came from, and what do you think about it?
Those evil humans down on earth. I hate what they are doing. All this sin...
Since I am all-knowing I know exactly what the humans are doing and I understand exactly why they commit each sin. Since I created the humans in my own image and personally programmed human nature into their brains, I am the direct author of all of this sin. The instant I created them I knew exactly what would happen with every single human being right down to the nanosecond level for all eternity. If I didn't like how it was going to turn out, I could have simply changed them when I created them. And since I am perfect, I know exactly what I am doing. But ignore all that. I hate all these people doing exactly what I perfectly designed them to do and knew they would do from the moment I created them...
So here's what I am going to do. I will artificially inseminate a virgin. She will give birth to an incarnated version of me. The humans will eventually crucify and kill the incarnated me. That will, finally, make me happy. Yes, sending myself down and having the humans crucify me -- that will satisfy me. I feel much better now.
I Give You This;
Hi Chris
The quoted passage in your original post was a straight parody of what is fundamentally a parabolic and paradoxical story.The 'big picture' of God, love, pain and the whole darned thing as drawn in the Bible is not so ridiculously framed.However, I don't think the usual way of interpreting the story is entirely correct either and so I will agree that some common Christian teachings lead into absurdity. Emergent thinkers are trying to reframe aspects of the story so that it will be better understood in or times and be more internally consistent and so better reflect (what we hope are) the true qualities of the Deity.Of course we could be wrong and God could be as capricious and demanding and uncaring as natural disasters, disease and poverty and fundamental preaching seem to imply that He is. Or perhaps as others suggest maybe He doesn’t exist at all. That could be true but that position doesn’t eliminate paradoxes, it replaces some of them with the mysteries of why any life at all, why intelligent life, why innate feelings of right and wrong in human kind, why love, why beauty, why the need to ask why?Let’s start looking at some of this big picture story stuff.Would you agree that there is a difference between contradictions (irreconcilable positions, logical absurdities) and paradoxes (things appearing contradictory in one point of reference or one dimension, but which can be profitably understood and utilized in another)?Is it possible that if higher dimensions exist they could intersect and interact with lower ones and that a relationship between the levels may be mutually beneficial? (I am going to run a foul of much traditional thinking but this is an exploration and if Columbus never was allowed to leave port we might be still living in the flat world.)Is it possible that from a higher reference point man's freedom and God's sovereignty are not incompatible? That we have to work as if everything depends on us, while praying as if everything depends on Him. Could it be that an Omnipotent God may require something from us that He cannot provide or create without us? Is it possible that the cross was not really a blood sacrifice to an enraged, insulted psychotic dictator? Can it be that the cross might have been a two-way reconciliation, God towards man because of our failure to love Him and those made in His image, and Man towards God because of the process set in place by God in making the world and allowing (I think ordaining) our Fall into conscious choice which naturally leads to sin and separation and suffering. I would say that creating Sons of God was God’s first last and only plan. The Garden was not the hoped for ending point. It was only the beginning. The plan apparently had to include free choice, sin and consequences (I cannot imagine that God would not have chosen another way if one were available. The suffering of innocents cannot be reconciled if there was a fiat way to make the Sons of God)). Because God could do it no other way He may have been asking us for a sort of forgiveness (reconciliation) because He had unilaterally required our participation in the creation of the Sons of God through suffering. As Billy Joel aptly said, ‘I didn’t start the fire’, but it’s a burnin’. God does have something to answer for and he answered in Jesus and we all will accept the answer when we see the culmination of the plan, namely the revelation of the Sons of God.In this exploration of story the cross becomes more than a sin sacrifice. It becomes the cornerstone of the foundation or the linchpin of a mysterious mechanism that makes possible the creation of the Sons of God.In this telling of the story the Fall is seen as the necessary ‘one step back’ in order to facilitate the ‘two steps forward’ that will allow us to transcend Adam’s estate and to enter into close kinship with Jesus Christ and God Himself.It would seem senseless for scripture to say that Jesus was crucified from the foundation of the world if Adam’s fall wasn’t foreseen, and even foreordained. I cannot believe that the Fall was a surprise to God and that Jesus was a patch-up job rushed on the scene to cover God’s oversight. If freedom did not exist, and so sin never entered the world, then Adam would be the end point. Humanity would be at ease roaming the fields as unconscious as the animals and God would have to content Himself with getting out the leash to walk the human pets in the cool of the evening. God had a higher purpose for creation and it is found in plan A (The old way of telling the story makes Jesus a backup, a plan B, if you will). I don’t want to abandon belief in a Good, Loving and Powerful God (the Christian God), but I have had to abandon a telling of the story that declares a simple blood sacrifice for Adam’s sins as the whole story of the cross and of human suffering and human history.The retelling I have hinted at here seems (at least to me) to be internally consistent and not outside the biblical narrative. What do you think?The story of human life may be paradoxical but it does not have to be nonsensical and absurd. I chose to believe that life in all its ugly unfairness has meaning and purpose and a hope for redemption,I am a follower of Christ. A doubting, suffering one, but nonetheless a Christian. That is of course is if other Christians will have me and my idiosyncratic approach to telling the old, old story.
LH
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Sin as Consciousness/Consciousness as Sin/Sin as a Necessary Condition Creatively Leading to Our Re-Creation In the Image of Christ
“It is ironic that the one thing that all religions recognize as separating us from our creator--our very self-consciousness—is also the one thing that divides us from our fellow creatures. It was a bitter birthday present from evolution, cutting us off at both ends.”
Annie Dillard-Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.
http://impossibleape.blogspot.com/2006/12/incarnatrion-part-of-mysterious.html
Perhaps this 'middle place' cut off from both ends is our Road leading to Emmaus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbA0RmHD7RY
'How will I rest my head
Oh I'm scared of the middle place
Between light and nowhere
I don't want to be the one
Left in there,left in there'
Antony and the Johnsons
Annie Dillard-Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.
http://impossibleape.blogspot.com/2006/12/incarnatrion-part-of-mysterious.html
Perhaps this 'middle place' cut off from both ends is our Road leading to Emmaus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbA0RmHD7RY
'How will I rest my head
Oh I'm scared of the middle place
Between light and nowhere
I don't want to be the one
Left in there,left in there'
Antony and the Johnsons
And Yet This Too Is True
I do not at all understand the mystery of grace--only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.-Anne Lamott
Its just that this comes much later than simply accepting, valuing, including, and loving with no buts or condemnations or condescension's..........
Its just that this comes much later than simply accepting, valuing, including, and loving with no buts or condemnations or condescension's..........
What Is Love?
Jean Vanier on 'What Love Means to Me'.
"To love is to see the value of each person and to reveal to each one his or her beauty and importance. To love people is to liberate them and call forth in them what is most beautiful so they can give life to others. To love is to be committed to people and to be a sign of fidelity.
To love is to celebrate unity and a communion of hearts."
Who has said it better?
Who has tried to live it better?
Is this the way we Evangelicals
prioritize our ministry goals and values?
Unfortunately I thinkthere is still too much of something else in many of our Evangelical churches and Evangelical hearts........
http://www.godhatessweden.com/
(I can only imagine what Daniel and the gang at Tro&tank would make of this?)
so remember............
All works of love are works of peace.
If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.--Mother Teresa
"To love is to see the value of each person and to reveal to each one his or her beauty and importance. To love people is to liberate them and call forth in them what is most beautiful so they can give life to others. To love is to be committed to people and to be a sign of fidelity.
To love is to celebrate unity and a communion of hearts."
Who has said it better?
Who has tried to live it better?
Is this the way we Evangelicals
prioritize our ministry goals and values?
Unfortunately I thinkthere is still too much of something else in many of our Evangelical churches and Evangelical hearts........
http://www.godhatessweden.com/
(I can only imagine what Daniel and the gang at Tro&tank would make of this?)
so remember............
All works of love are works of peace.
If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.--Mother Teresa
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Denying Christ
This is a piece I wrote back in September in response to the sad news that two compassionate, intelligent people of real integrity announced to me that they could no longer believe in Jesus., not only not believe in Christianity, or the Bible, or the teachings of the church but they could no longer believe in Jesus. It disheartened me and I wrote this in response but did not post it. Today I think it needs to be aired.
Please read this and respond to the question I posed in the final sentence.
Thanks and God Bless.
The Impossibleape
We have been through an extremely challenging month of debate initiated by Chris's Human Sacrifice Post(http://romanticparadox.blogspot.com/2006/08/human-sacrifice.html). Two of the contributors to the discussions confessed (here and on their own blogs) that they have lost faith not only in Christianity as it is imperfectly expressed by its followers, not only in every 'jot and tittle' in the Bible as God's literal Word, not only in the paradoxes that are a hallmark of discussions about things beyond the 4 dimensional confines of our experience, but most significantly in the Deity of Christ. I am a disaffected evangelical hoping for better things to come in our experience and understanding. I genuinely sympathize on an intellectual and an emotional level with people who find it hard to believe all the things we say are necessary to be card-carrying Evangelical Christians but I was surprised and deeply disheartened to watch two very fine individuals surrender their allegiance to Jesus right before our eyes. Even though I can not accept all the Bible literally interpreted as the direct and defining Word of God, I do confess and believe it to be the ultimate guide to spiritual truth and to Christian orthodoxy and orthopraxis. So I am left with concern for those who have once believed but now say they can not. I believe in radical grace and a love that covers a multitude of sins because it is what the Bible teaches but it also says that it is impossible to re-reconcile a person who has tasted the good things of the world to come and then turned away from it. I think we all can admit that we run hot and cold through out our life of faith and I imagine there are times when we all are close to turning in our 'I Love Jesus' bumper stickers.
I was wondering if anyone has a story from their own life or from a person they know who, for whatever reasons, gave up their faith but later returned to a new and perhaps even more vibrant commitment to Jesus? If so could you share your story?
Please read this and respond to the question I posed in the final sentence.
Thanks and God Bless.
The Impossibleape
We have been through an extremely challenging month of debate initiated by Chris's Human Sacrifice Post(http://romanticparadox.blogspot.com/2006/08/human-sacrifice.html). Two of the contributors to the discussions confessed (here and on their own blogs) that they have lost faith not only in Christianity as it is imperfectly expressed by its followers, not only in every 'jot and tittle' in the Bible as God's literal Word, not only in the paradoxes that are a hallmark of discussions about things beyond the 4 dimensional confines of our experience, but most significantly in the Deity of Christ. I am a disaffected evangelical hoping for better things to come in our experience and understanding. I genuinely sympathize on an intellectual and an emotional level with people who find it hard to believe all the things we say are necessary to be card-carrying Evangelical Christians but I was surprised and deeply disheartened to watch two very fine individuals surrender their allegiance to Jesus right before our eyes. Even though I can not accept all the Bible literally interpreted as the direct and defining Word of God, I do confess and believe it to be the ultimate guide to spiritual truth and to Christian orthodoxy and orthopraxis. So I am left with concern for those who have once believed but now say they can not. I believe in radical grace and a love that covers a multitude of sins because it is what the Bible teaches but it also says that it is impossible to re-reconcile a person who has tasted the good things of the world to come and then turned away from it. I think we all can admit that we run hot and cold through out our life of faith and I imagine there are times when we all are close to turning in our 'I Love Jesus' bumper stickers.
I was wondering if anyone has a story from their own life or from a person they know who, for whatever reasons, gave up their faith but later returned to a new and perhaps even more vibrant commitment to Jesus? If so could you share your story?
Valentines Isn't Easy For Many (But a sense of hope and humour helps)
An elderly missionary, in talking about answered prayer, explained to a group of young women how she prayed and prayed for a husband to share in her missionary ventures. In response, one young woman asked, "But you never married, so how can you talk about answered prayer?" The missionary then explained, "Somewhere there's a 65-year-old man who has been resisting the will of God for the last 45 years."
once you marry, you have to cheat
A prominent Christian leader has said that once you marry, you have to cheat. He contends that, given time constraints, you either end up cheating your family or cheating God. You can't do all that is required for both. Then, shockingly, he went on to say, "Faced with that dilemma, it's best to cheat God—because He can handle it and your family can't."
Jenn, Consider Dethroning Constantine Instead of Jesus
This piece by Alan Hirsch was posted on Saturday, February 10th, 2007 at 2:04 pm and is filed under the forgotten ways. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
We have been discussing the idea of cultural distance, systems stories/paradigms, and now we get to take a look at mega-paradigm of the Christendom idea of church (The Patrix??). So then, how do these ideas relate to Christendom and our situation now? Well, the transformation of the church from marginal movement to central institution started with the Edict of Milan (313AD) whereby Constantine, the newly crowned Emperor who had claimed a conversion to Christianity, declared Christianity to be the official state religion thereby eventually delegitimizing all others. But Constantine went beyond eventually proclaiming Christianity as the top-dog official religion: In order to bolster his political regime, he sought to bond church and state in a kind of sacral embrace, and so he brought all the Christian theologians together and demanded that they come up with a common theology that would unite the Christians in the Empire and so secure the political link between church and state. Not surprisingly he also instituted a centralized church organization based in Rome to ‘rule’ the churches and to unite all Christians everywhere under one institution with direct links to the State. And so, everything changed and what is thereafter called ‘Christendom’ was instituted.
Stuart Murray (Post-Christendom) comments on this bond…
“The foundation of the Christendom system was a close, though sometimes fraught, partnership between church and state, the two main pillars of society. Through the centuries, power struggles between popes and emperors resulted in one or other holding sway for a time. But the Christendom system assumed that the church was associated with a status quo that was understood as Christian and had vested interests in its maintenance. The church provided religious legitimation for state activities, and the state provided secular force to back up ecclesiastical decisions.”
What is clear is that a number of very significant shifts took place after Constantine’s deal with the church. In order to see our own experience of Christendom in a clearer light, it is necessary to outline the major shifts that took place after its imposition. According to Stuart Murray, the Christendom shift meant:
The adoption of Christianity as the official religion of a city, state or empire.
The movement of the church from the margins of society to its centre.
The creation and progressive development of a Christian culture or civilisation.
The assumption that all citizens (except for the Jews) were Christian by birth.
The development of a ‘sacral society’, the corpus Christianum, where there was no freedom of religion and where political power was regarded as divinely authenticated.
Infant baptism as the symbol of obligatory incorporation into this Christian society.
Sunday as an official day of rest and obligatory church attendance, with penalties for non-compliance.
The definition of ‘orthodoxy’ as the common belief shared by all, which was determined by powerful church leaders supported by the state.
The imposition of a supposedly Christian morality on the entire society (although normally Old Testament moral standards were applied).
A hierarchical ecclesiastical system, based on a diocesan and parish arrangement, which was analogous to the state hierarchy and was buttressed by state support.
The construction of massive and ornate church buildings and the formation of huge congregations.
A generic distinction between clergy and laity, and the relegation of the laity to a largely passive role.
The increased wealth of the church and the imposition of obligatory tithes to fund this system.
The defence of Christianity by legal sanctions to restrain heresy, immorality and schism.
The division of the globe into ‘Christendom’ or ‘heathendom’ and the waging of war in the name of Christ and the church.
The use of political and military force to impose the Christian faith.
The use of the Old Testament, rather than the New, to support and justify many of these changes.
This shift to Christendom was thoroughly paradigmatic and the implications were absolutely disastrous for the Jesus movement that was incrementally transforming the Roman world from the bottom up. Rodney Stark, widely considered to be the prevailing expert on the church in this period, summed it up in these dramatic terms.
Far too long, historians have accepted the claim that the conversion of the Emperor Constantine (ca.285-337) caused the triumph of Christianity. To the contrary, he destroyed its most attractive and dynamic aspects, turning a high-intensity, grassroots movement into an arrogant institution controlled by an elite who often managed to be both brutal and lax.
Clearly something fundamental had happened to the church in the Constantinian deal. And it is my belief that the imagination or conception of the church that was initiated in this shift still prevails to this day. Its not the same in every way, but the predominatly institutional idea of the church that was initiated here, still dominates our imaginations.
The missional issue arising from this is critical for us to grapple with and it goes something like this. That whilst Christendom as a religious-political-cultural force is finished (it was basically taken out in the Enlightenment period) it is still the overwhlemingly predominant idea of the church that we operate from. It appears that Constantine is still the emperor of our imaginations.
We should consider re-enthroning Jesus in the heart of our imaginations so we can rediscover the Forgotten Way, the Forgotten Truth, and the Forgotten Life.
We have been discussing the idea of cultural distance, systems stories/paradigms, and now we get to take a look at mega-paradigm of the Christendom idea of church (The Patrix??). So then, how do these ideas relate to Christendom and our situation now? Well, the transformation of the church from marginal movement to central institution started with the Edict of Milan (313AD) whereby Constantine, the newly crowned Emperor who had claimed a conversion to Christianity, declared Christianity to be the official state religion thereby eventually delegitimizing all others. But Constantine went beyond eventually proclaiming Christianity as the top-dog official religion: In order to bolster his political regime, he sought to bond church and state in a kind of sacral embrace, and so he brought all the Christian theologians together and demanded that they come up with a common theology that would unite the Christians in the Empire and so secure the political link between church and state. Not surprisingly he also instituted a centralized church organization based in Rome to ‘rule’ the churches and to unite all Christians everywhere under one institution with direct links to the State. And so, everything changed and what is thereafter called ‘Christendom’ was instituted.
Stuart Murray (Post-Christendom) comments on this bond…
“The foundation of the Christendom system was a close, though sometimes fraught, partnership between church and state, the two main pillars of society. Through the centuries, power struggles between popes and emperors resulted in one or other holding sway for a time. But the Christendom system assumed that the church was associated with a status quo that was understood as Christian and had vested interests in its maintenance. The church provided religious legitimation for state activities, and the state provided secular force to back up ecclesiastical decisions.”
What is clear is that a number of very significant shifts took place after Constantine’s deal with the church. In order to see our own experience of Christendom in a clearer light, it is necessary to outline the major shifts that took place after its imposition. According to Stuart Murray, the Christendom shift meant:
The adoption of Christianity as the official religion of a city, state or empire.
The movement of the church from the margins of society to its centre.
The creation and progressive development of a Christian culture or civilisation.
The assumption that all citizens (except for the Jews) were Christian by birth.
The development of a ‘sacral society’, the corpus Christianum, where there was no freedom of religion and where political power was regarded as divinely authenticated.
Infant baptism as the symbol of obligatory incorporation into this Christian society.
Sunday as an official day of rest and obligatory church attendance, with penalties for non-compliance.
The definition of ‘orthodoxy’ as the common belief shared by all, which was determined by powerful church leaders supported by the state.
The imposition of a supposedly Christian morality on the entire society (although normally Old Testament moral standards were applied).
A hierarchical ecclesiastical system, based on a diocesan and parish arrangement, which was analogous to the state hierarchy and was buttressed by state support.
The construction of massive and ornate church buildings and the formation of huge congregations.
A generic distinction between clergy and laity, and the relegation of the laity to a largely passive role.
The increased wealth of the church and the imposition of obligatory tithes to fund this system.
The defence of Christianity by legal sanctions to restrain heresy, immorality and schism.
The division of the globe into ‘Christendom’ or ‘heathendom’ and the waging of war in the name of Christ and the church.
The use of political and military force to impose the Christian faith.
The use of the Old Testament, rather than the New, to support and justify many of these changes.
This shift to Christendom was thoroughly paradigmatic and the implications were absolutely disastrous for the Jesus movement that was incrementally transforming the Roman world from the bottom up. Rodney Stark, widely considered to be the prevailing expert on the church in this period, summed it up in these dramatic terms.
Far too long, historians have accepted the claim that the conversion of the Emperor Constantine (ca.285-337) caused the triumph of Christianity. To the contrary, he destroyed its most attractive and dynamic aspects, turning a high-intensity, grassroots movement into an arrogant institution controlled by an elite who often managed to be both brutal and lax.
Clearly something fundamental had happened to the church in the Constantinian deal. And it is my belief that the imagination or conception of the church that was initiated in this shift still prevails to this day. Its not the same in every way, but the predominatly institutional idea of the church that was initiated here, still dominates our imaginations.
The missional issue arising from this is critical for us to grapple with and it goes something like this. That whilst Christendom as a religious-political-cultural force is finished (it was basically taken out in the Enlightenment period) it is still the overwhlemingly predominant idea of the church that we operate from. It appears that Constantine is still the emperor of our imaginations.
We should consider re-enthroning Jesus in the heart of our imaginations so we can rediscover the Forgotten Way, the Forgotten Truth, and the Forgotten Life.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Marshall McLuhanisms
IF IT WORKS,IT’S OBSOLETE
Marshall McLuhanisms
The story of modern America begins With the discovery of the white man byThe Indians.
Only puny secrets need protection. Big discoveries are protected by public incredulity.
Whereas convictions depend on speed-ups, justice requires delay.
The nature of people demands that most of them be engaged in the most frivolous possible activities—like making money.
With telephone and TV it is not so much the message as the sender that is“sent.”
Money is the poor man’s credit card.
We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future.
Spaceship earth is still operated by railway conductors, just as NASA is managed by men with Newtonian goals.
Invention is the mother of necessities.
You mean my whole fallacy’s wrong?
Mud sometimes gives the illusion of depth.
The car has become the carapace, the protective and aggressive shell, of urban and suburban man.
Why is it so easy to acquire the solutions of past problems and so difficult to solve current ones?
The trouble with a cheap, specialized education is that you never stop paying for it.
People don’t actually read newspapers. They step into them every morning like a hot bath.
The road is our major architectural form.
Today each of us lives several hundred years in a decade.
Today the business of business is becoming the constant invention of new business.
The price of eternal vigilance is indifference.
News, far more than art, is artifact.
When you are on the phone or on the air, you have no body.
Tomorrow is our permanent address.
All advertising advertises advertising.
The answers are always inside the problem, not outside.
“Camp” is popular because it gives people a sense of reality to see a replay of their lives.
This information is top security. When you have read it, destroy yourself.
The specialist is one who never makes small mistakes while moving toward the grand fallacy.
One of the nicest things about being big is the luxury of thinking little.
Politics offers yesterday’s answers to today’s questions.
The missing link created far more interest than all the chains and explanations of being.
In big industry new ideas are invited to rear their heads so they can be clobbered at once. The idea department of a big firm is a sort of lab for isolating dangerous viruses.
When a thing is current, it creates currency.
Food for the mind is like food for the body: the inputs are never the same as the outputs.
Men on frontiers, whether of time or space, abandon their previous identities. Neighborhood gives identity. Frontiers snatch it away.
The future of the book is the blurb.
The ignorance of how to use new knowledge stockpiles exponentially.
A road is a flattened-out wheel, rolled up in the belly of an airplane.
At the speed of light, policies and political parties yield place to charismatic images.
“I may be wrong, but I’m never in doubt.”
—Copyright © 1986, McLuhan Associates, Ltd.
Marshall McLuhanisms
The story of modern America begins With the discovery of the white man byThe Indians.
Only puny secrets need protection. Big discoveries are protected by public incredulity.
Whereas convictions depend on speed-ups, justice requires delay.
The nature of people demands that most of them be engaged in the most frivolous possible activities—like making money.
With telephone and TV it is not so much the message as the sender that is“sent.”
Money is the poor man’s credit card.
We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future.
Spaceship earth is still operated by railway conductors, just as NASA is managed by men with Newtonian goals.
Invention is the mother of necessities.
You mean my whole fallacy’s wrong?
Mud sometimes gives the illusion of depth.
The car has become the carapace, the protective and aggressive shell, of urban and suburban man.
Why is it so easy to acquire the solutions of past problems and so difficult to solve current ones?
The trouble with a cheap, specialized education is that you never stop paying for it.
People don’t actually read newspapers. They step into them every morning like a hot bath.
The road is our major architectural form.
Today each of us lives several hundred years in a decade.
Today the business of business is becoming the constant invention of new business.
The price of eternal vigilance is indifference.
News, far more than art, is artifact.
When you are on the phone or on the air, you have no body.
Tomorrow is our permanent address.
All advertising advertises advertising.
The answers are always inside the problem, not outside.
“Camp” is popular because it gives people a sense of reality to see a replay of their lives.
This information is top security. When you have read it, destroy yourself.
The specialist is one who never makes small mistakes while moving toward the grand fallacy.
One of the nicest things about being big is the luxury of thinking little.
Politics offers yesterday’s answers to today’s questions.
The missing link created far more interest than all the chains and explanations of being.
In big industry new ideas are invited to rear their heads so they can be clobbered at once. The idea department of a big firm is a sort of lab for isolating dangerous viruses.
When a thing is current, it creates currency.
Food for the mind is like food for the body: the inputs are never the same as the outputs.
Men on frontiers, whether of time or space, abandon their previous identities. Neighborhood gives identity. Frontiers snatch it away.
The future of the book is the blurb.
The ignorance of how to use new knowledge stockpiles exponentially.
A road is a flattened-out wheel, rolled up in the belly of an airplane.
At the speed of light, policies and political parties yield place to charismatic images.
“I may be wrong, but I’m never in doubt.”
—Copyright © 1986, McLuhan Associates, Ltd.
Friday, February 09, 2007
From Whence Cometh My Help? Where Will the Defenders of 'THE WAY' Come From?
http://switchboard.real.com/player/email.html?PV=6.0.12&&title=The%20Current%20%2D%20February%2008%2C%202007%20%2D%20Part%20Three&link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbc.ca%2Fthecurrent%2Fmedia%2F200702%2F20070208thecurrent%5Fsec3.ram
There was a time (not too long ago) I would have found Mr. Hedges' thesis outrageous and offensive. Today it seems to me like an issue worth considering very seriously. The description given in the CBC interview by Mr Hedges of a mindset of a magical faith cutoff from reality and commonsense and impassioned by a suppressed rage defines much of the conservative evangelical teaching I have endured over the past 20 years. I hope the threat is exaggerated but I am not so sure that it is.
If the danger is real, on what grounds will we stand upon to wrestle the faith away from the forces trying to hijack our churches? From which camp will the defenders of the faith come, if neither the liberals or the fundamentalists are equipped or inclined to do so?
THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT AND THE RISE OF AMERICAN FASCISM
By -- CHRIS HEDGES
15 Nov 2004
Dr. James Luther Adams, my ethics professor at Harvard Divinity School, told us that when we were his age, he was then close to 80, we would all be fighting the "Christian fascists."
The warning, given to me 25 years ago, came at the moment Pat Robertson and other radio and televangelists began speaking about a new political religion that would direct its efforts at taking control of all institutions, including mainstream denominations and the government. Its stated goal was to use the United States to create a global, Christian empire. It was hard, at the time, to take such fantastic rhetoric seriously, especially given the buffoonish quality of those who expounded it. But Adams warned us against the blindness caused by intellectual snobbery. The Nazis, he said, were not going to return with swastikas and brown shirts. Their ideological inheritors had found a mask for fascism in the pages of the Bible.
He was not a man to use the word fascist lightly. He was in Germany in 1935 and 1936 and worked with the underground anti-Nazi church, known as The Confessing Church, led by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Adams was eventually detained and interrogated by the Gestapo, who suggested he might want to consider returning to the United States . It was a suggestion he followed. He left on a night train with framed portraits of Adolph Hitler placed over the contents inside his suitcase to hide the rolls of home movie film he took of the so-called German Christian Church, which was pro-Nazi, and the few individuals who defied them, including the theologians Karl Barth and Albert Schweitzer. The ruse worked when the border police lifted the top of the suitcases, saw the portraits of the Fuhrer and closed them up again. I watched hours of the grainy black and white films as he narrated in his apartment in Cambridge.
He saw in the Christian Right, long before we did, disturbing similarities with the German Christian Church and the Nazi Party, similarities that he said would, in the event of prolonged social instability or a national crisis, see American fascists, under the guise of religion, rise to dismantle the open society. He despaired of liberals, who he said, as in Nazi Germany, mouthed silly platitudes about dialogue and inclusiveness that made them ineffectual and impotent. Liberals, he said, did not understand the power and allure of evil nor the cold reality of how the world worked. The current hand wringing by Democrats in the wake of the election, with many asking how they can reach out to a movement whose leaders brand them "demonic" and "satanic," would not have surprised Adams. Like Bonhoeffer, he did not believe that those who would fight effectively in coming times of turmoil, a fight that for him was an integral part of the Biblical message, would come from the church or the liberal, secular elite ............
There was a time (not too long ago) I would have found Mr. Hedges' thesis outrageous and offensive. Today it seems to me like an issue worth considering very seriously. The description given in the CBC interview by Mr Hedges of a mindset of a magical faith cutoff from reality and commonsense and impassioned by a suppressed rage defines much of the conservative evangelical teaching I have endured over the past 20 years. I hope the threat is exaggerated but I am not so sure that it is.
If the danger is real, on what grounds will we stand upon to wrestle the faith away from the forces trying to hijack our churches? From which camp will the defenders of the faith come, if neither the liberals or the fundamentalists are equipped or inclined to do so?
THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT AND THE RISE OF AMERICAN FASCISM
By -- CHRIS HEDGES
15 Nov 2004
Dr. James Luther Adams, my ethics professor at Harvard Divinity School, told us that when we were his age, he was then close to 80, we would all be fighting the "Christian fascists."
The warning, given to me 25 years ago, came at the moment Pat Robertson and other radio and televangelists began speaking about a new political religion that would direct its efforts at taking control of all institutions, including mainstream denominations and the government. Its stated goal was to use the United States to create a global, Christian empire. It was hard, at the time, to take such fantastic rhetoric seriously, especially given the buffoonish quality of those who expounded it. But Adams warned us against the blindness caused by intellectual snobbery. The Nazis, he said, were not going to return with swastikas and brown shirts. Their ideological inheritors had found a mask for fascism in the pages of the Bible.
He was not a man to use the word fascist lightly. He was in Germany in 1935 and 1936 and worked with the underground anti-Nazi church, known as The Confessing Church, led by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Adams was eventually detained and interrogated by the Gestapo, who suggested he might want to consider returning to the United States . It was a suggestion he followed. He left on a night train with framed portraits of Adolph Hitler placed over the contents inside his suitcase to hide the rolls of home movie film he took of the so-called German Christian Church, which was pro-Nazi, and the few individuals who defied them, including the theologians Karl Barth and Albert Schweitzer. The ruse worked when the border police lifted the top of the suitcases, saw the portraits of the Fuhrer and closed them up again. I watched hours of the grainy black and white films as he narrated in his apartment in Cambridge.
He saw in the Christian Right, long before we did, disturbing similarities with the German Christian Church and the Nazi Party, similarities that he said would, in the event of prolonged social instability or a national crisis, see American fascists, under the guise of religion, rise to dismantle the open society. He despaired of liberals, who he said, as in Nazi Germany, mouthed silly platitudes about dialogue and inclusiveness that made them ineffectual and impotent. Liberals, he said, did not understand the power and allure of evil nor the cold reality of how the world worked. The current hand wringing by Democrats in the wake of the election, with many asking how they can reach out to a movement whose leaders brand them "demonic" and "satanic," would not have surprised Adams. Like Bonhoeffer, he did not believe that those who would fight effectively in coming times of turmoil, a fight that for him was an integral part of the Biblical message, would come from the church or the liberal, secular elite ............
http://www.theocracywatch.org/chris_hedges_nov24_04.htm
Jim Wallis: Revolutionary Prayer
"For me, prayer is more often becoming a time of listening than talking. There is so much noise in our world and our lives (much of our own making); prayer becomes a quiet space enabling us to stop talking long enough to see what God might be trying to say to us. The disciplines of prayer, silence, and contemplation practices by the monastics and mystics are precisely that – stopping the noise, slowing down, and becoming still, so that God can break through all our activity and noise in order to speak to us. Prayer serves to put all the parts of our lives in God’s presence, reminding us of how holy our humanity really is.................
.........Contemplative writer and priest Henri Nouwen once shared with our Sojourners community that the desert fathers regarded prayer as an act of "unhooking" from the harness of the world's securities. Such prayer may be the only action powerful enough to free us from our spiritual bondage to property, money, power, ideas, and causes, which often control our behavior.
Only those who have truly found their identity in God can resist the violent tugs and pulls of the false values offered by the world. By re-establishing our security in God, prayer becomes an effective weapon in resisting the world’s false securities........."
http://www.beliefnet.com/blogs/godspolitics/2007/02/jim-wallis-revolutionary-prayer.html
.........Contemplative writer and priest Henri Nouwen once shared with our Sojourners community that the desert fathers regarded prayer as an act of "unhooking" from the harness of the world's securities. Such prayer may be the only action powerful enough to free us from our spiritual bondage to property, money, power, ideas, and causes, which often control our behavior.
Only those who have truly found their identity in God can resist the violent tugs and pulls of the false values offered by the world. By re-establishing our security in God, prayer becomes an effective weapon in resisting the world’s false securities........."
http://www.beliefnet.com/blogs/godspolitics/2007/02/jim-wallis-revolutionary-prayer.html
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
One day I’ll grow up (Antony)
For Today I Am A Boy
One day I’ll grow up, I’ll be a beautiful woman
One day I’ll grow up, I’ll be a beautiful girl
One day I’ll grow up, I’ll be a beautiful woman
One day I’ll grow up, I’ll be a beautiful girl
But for today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
One day I’ll grow up, I’ll feel the power in me
One day I’ll grow up, of this I’m sure
One day I’ll grow up, I know a womb within me
One day I’ll grow up, feel it full and pure
But for today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
One day I’ll grow up, I’ll be a beautiful woman
One day I’ll grow up, I’ll be a beautiful girl
One day I’ll grow up, I’ll be a beautiful woman
One day I’ll grow up, I’ll be a beautiful girl
But for today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
One day I’ll grow up, I’ll feel the power in me
One day I’ll grow up, of this I’m sure
One day I’ll grow up, I know a womb within me
One day I’ll grow up, feel it full and pure
But for today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
I Hope There Is Someone To Take Care Of Me/When I Die Where Will I Go?
Hope there's someone
Who'll take care of me
When I die, where will I go
Hope there's someone
Who'll set my heart free
Nice to hold
when I'm tired
There's a ghost on the horizon
When I go to bed
How can I fall asleep at night
How will I rest my head
Oh I'm scared of the middle place
Between light and nowhere
I don't want to be the one
Left in there,
left in there
There's a man on the horizon
When I go to bed
If I fall to his feet tonight
Will allow rest my head
So here's hoping I will not drown
Or paralyze in light
And godsend I don't want to go
To the sea's watershed
Hope there's someone
Who'll take care of me
When I die,
Where will I go
Hope there's someone
Who'll set my heart free
Nice to hold
when I'm tired
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbA0RmHD7RY
Who'll take care of me
When I die, where will I go
Hope there's someone
Who'll set my heart free
Nice to hold
when I'm tired
There's a ghost on the horizon
When I go to bed
How can I fall asleep at night
How will I rest my head
Oh I'm scared of the middle place
Between light and nowhere
I don't want to be the one
Left in there,
left in there
There's a man on the horizon
When I go to bed
If I fall to his feet tonight
Will allow rest my head
So here's hoping I will not drown
Or paralyze in light
And godsend I don't want to go
To the sea's watershed
Hope there's someone
Who'll take care of me
When I die,
Where will I go
Hope there's someone
Who'll set my heart free
Nice to hold
when I'm tired
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbA0RmHD7RY
Hallejujah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MDlMdu2gjw
Steve Berg, a favourite blogger, a profound thinker, an artist of words and pictures, a man who serves the poor with his professional and personal heart, a follower of the way of peace, linked me to an exceptionally beautiful video. I have added it to my favourites in the margins and I want everyone to see it.
The song is written by Leonard Cohen, who is one of my spiritual gurus from way back in Grade 11 English class where I first discovered his poetry and lyrics. Thank you Mrs Seabrook wherever you are. Leonard Cohen has been one of my mentors in the spirit ever since I first heard how Suzanne Takes You Down.
Steve is one of my current spiritual mentors. I have chased people over to explore his wonderful Grow Mercy Blog before, and I am doing it again now.
R2E (aka 'The Road'): GO, GO, for HEAVEN'S SAKE, GO NOW!....................did you go already?
Go Go for Heavens Sake go.
Have you gone yet?
http://growmercy.org/
The video he turned me on to is doubly powerful because it is sung so exquisitely by a living parable. A profound contradiction that opens up new vistas for spiritual eyes to see. His name is Antony and his band is known as Antony and the Johnsons. (A name that will make mothers and pastors everywhere blush....that is if they understand the cultural reference of the name.)
I discovered Antony last year and was moved to tears by much of his work. His songs drip with a spirituality that may get him stoned in conservative evangelical churches and may make him one of God's most significant voices for our time. I don't know if he is all that interested in fulfilling that roll, but the rocks cry out and the heavens speak, so why not Antony?
From whatI have been able to discern about this phenonmenal talent is that spirituality and Christianity are important to him but his homosexuality, his gender confusion verging on transexuality and the milieu and lifestyle he is involved in make him a prime candidate for Right Wing Christian Crucifixion not for Christian spokesman of the year.
This searching, longing, deeply spiritual man of artisitc and emotional integrity is a challenge to all the 'gay bashing' theologians inhabiting evangelical circles.
I invite you to hear Antony sing Cohen's hymn, "If it be your will". Let the person of Antony engage your heart as I search for the lyrics and the performances of some of Antony's haunting and profoundly moving songs for you to enjoy another day.
But now
Heeeeeeres ANTONY!
LH
Steve Berg, a favourite blogger, a profound thinker, an artist of words and pictures, a man who serves the poor with his professional and personal heart, a follower of the way of peace, linked me to an exceptionally beautiful video. I have added it to my favourites in the margins and I want everyone to see it.
The song is written by Leonard Cohen, who is one of my spiritual gurus from way back in Grade 11 English class where I first discovered his poetry and lyrics. Thank you Mrs Seabrook wherever you are. Leonard Cohen has been one of my mentors in the spirit ever since I first heard how Suzanne Takes You Down.
Steve is one of my current spiritual mentors. I have chased people over to explore his wonderful Grow Mercy Blog before, and I am doing it again now.
R2E (aka 'The Road'): GO, GO, for HEAVEN'S SAKE, GO NOW!....................did you go already?
Go Go for Heavens Sake go.
Have you gone yet?
http://growmercy.org/
The video he turned me on to is doubly powerful because it is sung so exquisitely by a living parable. A profound contradiction that opens up new vistas for spiritual eyes to see. His name is Antony and his band is known as Antony and the Johnsons. (A name that will make mothers and pastors everywhere blush....that is if they understand the cultural reference of the name.)
I discovered Antony last year and was moved to tears by much of his work. His songs drip with a spirituality that may get him stoned in conservative evangelical churches and may make him one of God's most significant voices for our time. I don't know if he is all that interested in fulfilling that roll, but the rocks cry out and the heavens speak, so why not Antony?
From whatI have been able to discern about this phenonmenal talent is that spirituality and Christianity are important to him but his homosexuality, his gender confusion verging on transexuality and the milieu and lifestyle he is involved in make him a prime candidate for Right Wing Christian Crucifixion not for Christian spokesman of the year.
This searching, longing, deeply spiritual man of artisitc and emotional integrity is a challenge to all the 'gay bashing' theologians inhabiting evangelical circles.
I invite you to hear Antony sing Cohen's hymn, "If it be your will". Let the person of Antony engage your heart as I search for the lyrics and the performances of some of Antony's haunting and profoundly moving songs for you to enjoy another day.
But now
Heeeeeeres ANTONY!
LH
PLEASE
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE read the piece at Disabled Christianity and the comments as well. You will be moved and challenged and be made a better person for the thoughts expressed there.
http://disabledchristianity.blogspot.com/2006/11/god-owns-disability.html
http://disabledchristianity.blogspot.com/2006/11/god-owns-disability.html
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
THE DEVIL OWNS DISABILITY
God owns disability
One of my Favourite Blogs is Disabled Christianity. I think it may be the most important voice in the modern evangelical church, but of course only a few have ears (or hearts) to hear.
In November 2006 Professor Jeff McNail of California Baptist University rwote a watershed post that he first called 'THE DEVIL OWNS DISABILITY'. He subsequently changed the title to 'God Owns Disability' for reasons you can discover when you read the full piece at
http://disabledchristianity.blogspot.com/2006/11/god-owns-disability.html
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
read the whole piece and the comments as well.
You will be moved and challenged and be made a better person for the thoughts expressed there.
At the Joni and Friends "Through the roof summit" recently in Pasadena, Joni Eareckson-Tada made a comment something to the effect at the moment, "Satan owns disability." Make no mistake, Joni was reflecting the perceptions of many regarding people how people with disabilities are perceived, and the ramification of those perceptions. My understanding of the context of her statement is that disability is often accompanied by such things as fear, depression, despair, anger, frustration, family break-up, hopelessness, loneliness. In the face of these experiences all too often a part of being a person experiencing disability, the Church is largely silent, not very interested, unwilling, ignorant. Together, the result is that Satan has a foothood in disbility. People are depressed and frustrated and we are ignorant. People are scared or ignorant, and we have nothing to tell them from our experience. People are angry and despairing, and we are not very interested and unwilling to do anything that will change our patterns of operation, or cause us any discomfort or change in our schedule. The more I think about it, the more I agree with her.Her response, however, was to say that it is time for the Church to take back disability. To encourage the depressed and despairing, to be there for them in friendship and support. To empathize with the angry and frustrated, and love them unconditionally. To prove to them that we will not reject them. To end hopelessness by providing hope, not just for eternal life but for life............
http://disabledchristianity.blogspot.com/2006/11/god-owns-disability.html
One of my Favourite Blogs is Disabled Christianity. I think it may be the most important voice in the modern evangelical church, but of course only a few have ears (or hearts) to hear.
In November 2006 Professor Jeff McNail of California Baptist University rwote a watershed post that he first called 'THE DEVIL OWNS DISABILITY'. He subsequently changed the title to 'God Owns Disability' for reasons you can discover when you read the full piece at
http://disabledchristianity.blogspot.com/2006/11/god-owns-disability.html
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
read the whole piece and the comments as well.
You will be moved and challenged and be made a better person for the thoughts expressed there.
At the Joni and Friends "Through the roof summit" recently in Pasadena, Joni Eareckson-Tada made a comment something to the effect at the moment, "Satan owns disability." Make no mistake, Joni was reflecting the perceptions of many regarding people how people with disabilities are perceived, and the ramification of those perceptions. My understanding of the context of her statement is that disability is often accompanied by such things as fear, depression, despair, anger, frustration, family break-up, hopelessness, loneliness. In the face of these experiences all too often a part of being a person experiencing disability, the Church is largely silent, not very interested, unwilling, ignorant. Together, the result is that Satan has a foothood in disbility. People are depressed and frustrated and we are ignorant. People are scared or ignorant, and we have nothing to tell them from our experience. People are angry and despairing, and we are not very interested and unwilling to do anything that will change our patterns of operation, or cause us any discomfort or change in our schedule. The more I think about it, the more I agree with her.Her response, however, was to say that it is time for the Church to take back disability. To encourage the depressed and despairing, to be there for them in friendship and support. To empathize with the angry and frustrated, and love them unconditionally. To prove to them that we will not reject them. To end hopelessness by providing hope, not just for eternal life but for life............
http://disabledchristianity.blogspot.com/2006/11/god-owns-disability.html
Fear Not the Disabled
A Christianity Today editorial from Nov. 2005.
We all benefit when people with disabilities are valued in our churches.
Imagine walking down the street and hearing a child say to his mother: "Mom, why does he walk that way?" Or, "Why is she in that wheelchair?" Or, "Why does he have that cane?" People with disabilities don't have to imagine such questions. They hear them regularly—at least those who can hear.
But it's not the queries of curious youngsters that bother those facing physical or mental challenges. It's the indifference, discrimination, or outright hostility that often comes from adults. During the public debate over Terri Schiavo, one especially blunt blogger wrote that Michael Schiavo had been "chained to a drooling [excrement]-bag for 15 years."
Blinded by media-induced visions of health and rugged individualism and by films such as Million Dollar Baby, many people see disability as a fate worse than death. Joni Eareckson Tada, left paralyzed after a diving accident 38 years ago, knows such private attitudes inevitably impact public policy.
"People have a fundamental fear of disabilities," Tada tells CT. "That fear drives social policy."Jesus' Distressing Disguise
In the debate over human embryonic stem cells, Christians are right to defend the humanity and dignity of the embryo. But our well-reasoned words are unlikely to convince people who fear disease and incapacitation if we do not also demonstrate real pro-life compassion for a whole class already here—people with disabilities.
These neighbors are all around us. And we must not, like the Levite and the priest in Jesus' parable, pass by on the other side of the road. There are an estimated 50 million people with disabilities of all kinds in the United States, and 600 million worldwide. Each one, to borrow a phrase from the late Mother Teresa, is Jesus in the distressing disguise of the poor, the disabled and the outcast...
Are people with disabilities (especially developmentally disabled) vastly under represented in most Pro-Life Churches?
Are Christians Prejudiced?
Is the 'Pope's Nose' the back end of the Turkey?*
Unfortunately the answer is yes to all these questions.
*This is not a reference to our beloved Catholic Pope. It is an old joke my father used to tell us as he carved our Christmas Turkey during my childhood years. (If you feel offended, I apologize. Please feel free to make a disaparing remark about the nose of one or all of the evangelical popes who pontificate on their television programs each day of the week.)
We all benefit when people with disabilities are valued in our churches.
Imagine walking down the street and hearing a child say to his mother: "Mom, why does he walk that way?" Or, "Why is she in that wheelchair?" Or, "Why does he have that cane?" People with disabilities don't have to imagine such questions. They hear them regularly—at least those who can hear.
But it's not the queries of curious youngsters that bother those facing physical or mental challenges. It's the indifference, discrimination, or outright hostility that often comes from adults. During the public debate over Terri Schiavo, one especially blunt blogger wrote that Michael Schiavo had been "chained to a drooling [excrement]-bag for 15 years."
Blinded by media-induced visions of health and rugged individualism and by films such as Million Dollar Baby, many people see disability as a fate worse than death. Joni Eareckson Tada, left paralyzed after a diving accident 38 years ago, knows such private attitudes inevitably impact public policy.
"People have a fundamental fear of disabilities," Tada tells CT. "That fear drives social policy."Jesus' Distressing Disguise
In the debate over human embryonic stem cells, Christians are right to defend the humanity and dignity of the embryo. But our well-reasoned words are unlikely to convince people who fear disease and incapacitation if we do not also demonstrate real pro-life compassion for a whole class already here—people with disabilities.
These neighbors are all around us. And we must not, like the Levite and the priest in Jesus' parable, pass by on the other side of the road. There are an estimated 50 million people with disabilities of all kinds in the United States, and 600 million worldwide. Each one, to borrow a phrase from the late Mother Teresa, is Jesus in the distressing disguise of the poor, the disabled and the outcast...
Are people with disabilities (especially developmentally disabled) vastly under represented in most Pro-Life Churches?
Are Christians Prejudiced?
Is the 'Pope's Nose' the back end of the Turkey?*
Unfortunately the answer is yes to all these questions.
*This is not a reference to our beloved Catholic Pope. It is an old joke my father used to tell us as he carved our Christmas Turkey during my childhood years. (If you feel offended, I apologize. Please feel free to make a disaparing remark about the nose of one or all of the evangelical popes who pontificate on their television programs each day of the week.)
Monday, February 05, 2007
Are Christians Overfed?
On Sunday, the new young pastor arrived at church and found only an old farmer had shown up. After waiting a while, the disappointed the pastor remarked to the old farmer, "Well, it appears no one else is coming, so we should probably cancel service today."
The farmer, dressed in his Sunday best, looked at the young preacher and said, "Well pastor, I don't know much 'bout preachin', but I do know something bout farmin' and if I went out in the field and found only one cow, I'd still feed 'em".
This excited the young preacher who preached for the next 45 minutes a fierce fire and brimstone sermon.
Afterwards the pastor asked the old farmer what he thought. The old farmer remarked, "Well pastor, I don't know much bout preachin', but I do know somethin' 'bout farmin' and if I went out in the field and found only one cow, I wouldn't give 'em the whole bale."
The farmer, dressed in his Sunday best, looked at the young preacher and said, "Well pastor, I don't know much 'bout preachin', but I do know something bout farmin' and if I went out in the field and found only one cow, I'd still feed 'em".
This excited the young preacher who preached for the next 45 minutes a fierce fire and brimstone sermon.
Afterwards the pastor asked the old farmer what he thought. The old farmer remarked, "Well pastor, I don't know much bout preachin', but I do know somethin' 'bout farmin' and if I went out in the field and found only one cow, I wouldn't give 'em the whole bale."
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Prof. said/Ape said
He said;
M. Robert Mulholland, Jr
"How often do we find persons and churches who define the Christian life by abstinence from certain practices and behaviors. Detachment from these practices and behaviors becomes the primary focus of their life rather than an ever deepening attachment to God in love. If detachment is not the consequence of loving attachment to God, then our religiosity is shaped by our detachment, and we have become religious false selves."
The Deeper Journey, sid. 65
Inlagd av Daniel Astgård i Citat kl 06:02 Kommentar (1)
It said(revised);
this is a profound insight.
I have become so fed-up with Christianity being about the 'shalt nots' and very little about the 'shall loves' that I have felt inclined to ignore the 'shalt not' teachings. I want Christians to concentrate on the 'thou shalts' and the 'do untos'. You know, active love stuff.
This quote helps me see that doing more 'do unto's' (love God with all your heart and your neighbour as yourself; and so son and so forth, etc. etc.) can lead to a healthy (natural) adherence to the 'thou shalt nots'.
Who knows, this Christian thing just might work out after all.
#1 len (Link) på 2007-02-02 03:39 (Svara)
M. Robert Mulholland, Jr
"How often do we find persons and churches who define the Christian life by abstinence from certain practices and behaviors. Detachment from these practices and behaviors becomes the primary focus of their life rather than an ever deepening attachment to God in love. If detachment is not the consequence of loving attachment to God, then our religiosity is shaped by our detachment, and we have become religious false selves."
The Deeper Journey, sid. 65
Inlagd av Daniel Astgård i Citat kl 06:02 Kommentar (1)
It said(revised);
this is a profound insight.
I have become so fed-up with Christianity being about the 'shalt nots' and very little about the 'shall loves' that I have felt inclined to ignore the 'shalt not' teachings. I want Christians to concentrate on the 'thou shalts' and the 'do untos'. You know, active love stuff.
This quote helps me see that doing more 'do unto's' (love God with all your heart and your neighbour as yourself; and so son and so forth, etc. etc.) can lead to a healthy (natural) adherence to the 'thou shalt nots'.
Who knows, this Christian thing just might work out after all.
#1 len (Link) på 2007-02-02 03:39 (Svara)
Warm Fuzzies and 'Jesus and Me' T-Shirts are not enough.
http://www.breakpoint.org/listingarticle.asp?ID=6046
Chuck Colson Break Point regarding Nancy Pelosi's daughter's documentary called
' Friends of God; A Road Trip with Alexandra Pelosi.'
"........But I would really like to see a sequel, one that takes a look at the other side of evangelicalism, one that rarely gets much attention. That is the part that rises above the “Jesus and me” ethic and identifies with the last, least, and lost whom Jesus called His brothers.
My dream sequel would introduce viewers to the International Justice Mission (IJM) and its founder, Gary Haugen. Haugen, the winner of this year’s Wilberforce Award, is the voice of those who have no voice: the victims of child prostitution, sex trafficking, and other neglected forms of oppression. While many Christians are content to sing “Jesus set me free,” International Justice Mission is busy working, obeying Jesus’ command to set the captives free.
International Justice Mission is not the only Christian group working to better the lives of people overseas. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof called evangelicals “the new internationalists” because of our concern about AIDS, religious freedom, and human rights. I’d love to see HBO direct some attention toward these efforts.
For instance, more than one million children in other countries are sponsored through just two Christian groups: World Vision and Compassion International. More than one million children are fed, clothed, and educated because Christians whom they have never met believe that in helping them they are helping Jesus. (ImpApe ed. note. That should be preached from every pulpit, on every Sunday throughout the year.)
.........There are many other evangelicals that fly under the media’s radar: people who run soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and crisis pregnancy centers. What they all have in common is an unwillingness to settle for just getting “high on Jesus” or otherwise reducing faith to a warm fuzzy, as we saw in the film (ImpApe ed. note. Why are so many getting rich catering to those who just want to get high in Jesus? Perhaps that should stop. ).......
........let’s see some scenes of love in action, of evangelical Christians living out their faith, feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. (ImpApe ed. note. Yeah, lets see some more of that love in action. It might make us feel more of the Love of God when we learn to give more of it away. )"
Chuck get's it right sometimes. God Bless that ol'hardnosed marine, former Nixon hatchet guy, excon evangelist.
Chuck Colson Break Point regarding Nancy Pelosi's daughter's documentary called
' Friends of God; A Road Trip with Alexandra Pelosi.'
"........But I would really like to see a sequel, one that takes a look at the other side of evangelicalism, one that rarely gets much attention. That is the part that rises above the “Jesus and me” ethic and identifies with the last, least, and lost whom Jesus called His brothers.
My dream sequel would introduce viewers to the International Justice Mission (IJM) and its founder, Gary Haugen. Haugen, the winner of this year’s Wilberforce Award, is the voice of those who have no voice: the victims of child prostitution, sex trafficking, and other neglected forms of oppression. While many Christians are content to sing “Jesus set me free,” International Justice Mission is busy working, obeying Jesus’ command to set the captives free.
International Justice Mission is not the only Christian group working to better the lives of people overseas. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof called evangelicals “the new internationalists” because of our concern about AIDS, religious freedom, and human rights. I’d love to see HBO direct some attention toward these efforts.
For instance, more than one million children in other countries are sponsored through just two Christian groups: World Vision and Compassion International. More than one million children are fed, clothed, and educated because Christians whom they have never met believe that in helping them they are helping Jesus. (ImpApe ed. note. That should be preached from every pulpit, on every Sunday throughout the year.)
.........There are many other evangelicals that fly under the media’s radar: people who run soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and crisis pregnancy centers. What they all have in common is an unwillingness to settle for just getting “high on Jesus” or otherwise reducing faith to a warm fuzzy, as we saw in the film (ImpApe ed. note. Why are so many getting rich catering to those who just want to get high in Jesus? Perhaps that should stop. ).......
........let’s see some scenes of love in action, of evangelical Christians living out their faith, feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. (ImpApe ed. note. Yeah, lets see some more of that love in action. It might make us feel more of the Love of God when we learn to give more of it away. )"
Chuck get's it right sometimes. God Bless that ol'hardnosed marine, former Nixon hatchet guy, excon evangelist.
God is an Equal Opportunity Rewarder
A minister dies and is waiting in line at the Pearly Gates. Ahead of him is a guy dressed in sunglasses, a loud shirt, leather jacket, and jeans.Saint Peter says to this guy, "Who are you, so that I may know whether to admit you to the Kingdom of Heaven?"The guy replies, "I'm Joe Cohen, taxi driver, of Noo Yawk City."Saint Peter consults his list. He smiles and says to the taxi driver, "Take this silken robe and golden staff and enter the Kingdom of Heaven."The taxi driver goes into Heaven with his robe and staff, and it's the minister's turn.He stands erect and booms out, "I am Joseph Snow, pastor of Saint Mary's for the last 43 years."Saint Peter consults his list. He says to the minister, "Take this cotton robe and wooden staff and enter the Kingdom of Heaven.""Just a minute!" says the minister. "That man was a taxi driver, and he gets a silken robe and golden staff. How can this be?""Up here, we work by results," says Saint Peter. "While you preached, people slept. While he drove, people prayed."
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