Either we are adrift in chaos or we are individuals, created, loved, upheld and placed purposefully, exactly where we are. -Elisabeth Elliot



Joy is to feel the doors of the self fly open into a wealth that is endless because none of it is ours and yet it all belongs to us. -William Sloane Coffin

Andrei Tarkovsky. A Man Worth Knowing, Whose Films are Perhaps Worth Seeing.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/features/fof.html

The most revered Russian filmmaker since Sergei Eisenstein, Tarkovsky offers an unabashedly religious worldview, without which, he wrote, "people cease to feel any need for the beautiful or the spiritual, and consume films like bottles of Coca-Cola."

Raised in the Russian Orthodox tradition, director Andrei Tarkovsky once told an interviewer, "I consider myself a person of faith, but I do not want to delve into the nuances and problems of my situation, for it is not so straightforward, not so simple, and not so unambiguous."

Nature, not seen as fallen in the Eastern church, but rather good at its core, possible even of bringing one to salvation, plays a major role in his films.

The influence of Russian religious history is also evident in his use of the Holy Fool, an archetype of Russian literature—often characters of deep faith, seen as fools by the world, yet who see God's reality as it truly is.

All his films deal with apocalyptic scenarios; indeed, one film idea he had was titled "The End of the World," yet he refused the label "pessimist." Indeed, he said of apocalyptic literature, "It would be wrong to consider that the Book of Revelation only contains within itself a concept of punishment, of retribution; it seems to me that what it contains above all, is hope."

"I believe that it is always through spiritual crisis that healing occurs," Tarkovsky wrote. "A spiritual crisis is an attempt to find oneself, to acquire new faith… . It seems to me that the individual today stands at a crossroad, faced with the choice of whether to pursue the existence of a blind consumer, subject to the implacable march of new technology and the endless multiplication of material goods, or to seek out a way that will lead to spiritual responsibility, a way that ultimately might mean not only his personal salvation but also the saving of society at large; in other words, to turn to God."

A Paradox of Grace

There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who believe themselves sinners, and the rest, sinners who believe themselves righteous.-Blaise Pascal

Have You Found Jesus.......Down By The River

A man is stumbling through the woods,
totally drunk,
when he comes upon
a preacher baptizing people in the river.
He proceeds to walk into the water and
subsequently bumps into the preacher.
The preacher turns around
and is almost overcome
by the smell of alcohol,
whereupon he asks the drunk,
"Are you ready to find Jesus?"
The drunk answers, "Yes, I am."
So the preacher grabs him and
dunks him in the water.
He pulls him up and asks the drunk,
"Brother have you found Jesus?"
The drunk replies, "No, I haven't found Jesus."
The preacher, shocked at the answer,
dunks him into the water again for a little longer.
He again pulls him out of the water and asks again,
"Have you found Jesus, my brother?"
The drunk again answers, "No, I haven't found Jesus."
By this time the preacher is at his wits' end and
dunks the drunk in
the water again
-- - but this time holds him down for about 30 seconds
and when he begins kicking his arms and legs he pulls him up.
The preacher again asks the drunk,
"For the love of God have you found Jesus?"
The drunk wipes his eyes and catches his breath and says to the preacher,

"Are you sure this is where he fell in?"

Wisdom or was that Wizzz....Dumb?

Classic "Simpsons" lines:

"I'm sure God will let us return soon. How long can he hold a grudge?" --Marge Simpson, in her dream where she is Eve

"I may not know that much about God, but I have to say we built an awfully nice cage for him." --Homer Simpson, after motivating islanders to build a church

"It's all Christianity, people. The little, stupid differences are nothing next to the big, stupid similarities." --Bart Simpson

"What if we picked the wrong religion? Every week, we're just making God madder and madder!" --Homer Simpson

"It's a good thing Buddha teaches freedom from desire, because I've got the desire to kick your ass." --Richard Gere

Bart Simpson once asked his father about the family's religious identity. Homer classically replied, "You know, the one with all the well-meaning rules that don't work in real life. Uh, Christianity."

"Bless the grocer for this wonderful meat, the middlemen who jacked up the price, and let's not forget the humane but determined guys over at the slaughterhouse." --Ned Flanders, when he is saying grace

A Simpsonic View of Religion.

Thank God it's Doomsday (Christianity)
May 8, 2005
Homer and the kids stumble into a movie theater at the mall that is showing a film based on the "Left Behind" series of apocalyptic pulp fiction. "The virtuous have gone to heaven," a character intones, "and the rest of us are left below." Fear struck, Homer buys enough Christian books to calculate the exact time and location of the Rapture and convinces townsfolk to gather with him on a mesa at that moment. But he makes an error, and when the event doesn't happen on schedule, he becomes an object of ridicule. On the right date, Homer is raptured by himself. But without his family with him in heaven, he is desolate. So he convinces God to turn back time and postpone the Rapture.

Classic "Simpsons" line: "I know about family suffering. I sent my Son down to earth once. I don't know what you people did to Him but He's never been the same since." God commiserating with Homer about the suffering of those 'left below'.

An Outcast Painted Saint for the Outcast Campy and Colourful Among Us....May God Bless and Keep Her

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/article_print.html?id=16020

It's Not Dark Yet..but its gettin' there

Church No No's

6. Never ask an usher to break a $20.
5. Never do a cannonball in the baptismal tank.
4. Never hold a church business meeting on Super Bowl Sunday.
3. Never tell the pastor, "We love your church and we might even come back next Easter."
2. During youth group activities, never bungee jump off the church steeple or play chicken with the church buses.
1. After a soloist of impressive size sings "Love Lifted Me," don't follow with the hymn "It Took a Miracle."

From "Bible Humor Top Seven Lists" by Dave Veerman and Rich Anderson:Amazon: http://snipr.com/biblehumor

Radical

In the early Christian communities, the character of the Jesus movement found expression in the abolition of social distinctions of class, religion, race, and gender.
- Mary John Mananzan
quoted in Cry Freedom, by Charles Ringma

Blessed Be 1 Peter 4:1

"BLESSED are those who mourn" is, paradoxically, a more necessary message than "Rejoice in the Lord always," because there can be no true rejoicing until we have stopped running away from mourning.Simon Tugwell, The Beatitudes

[MOURNING] cannot be limited exclusively to expressing sorrow for one's sin … or grief surrounding death. … Rather, "those who mourn" has the more comprehensive sense of Isaiah 61:2-3, an inclusive grief that refers to the disenfranchised, contrite, and bereaved. It is an expression of the intense sense of loss, helplessness, and despair.
Robert A. Guelich, The Sermon on the Mount

THE DISCIPLES bear the suffering laid on them only by the power of him who bears all suffering on the Cross. As bearers of suffering, they stand in communion with the crucified. They stand as strangers in the power of him who was so alien to the world that it crucified him. This is their comfort, or rather, he is their comfort, their comforter. … This alien community is comforted by the Cross.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship

IN THIS BEATITUDE, Jesus praises … those who can enter into solidarity with the pain of the world and not try to extract themselves from it.
Richard Rohr with John Bookser Feister, Jesus' Plan for a New World


IT IS NOT ENOUGH for us … within the arena of the world's pain merely to know of a God who sympathizes. It is not even enough to know of a God who heals. We need to know of and be connected with a God who experiences with us, for us, each grief, each wound. We need to be bonded with a God who has had nails in the hands and a spear in the heart!

Flora Slosson Wuellner, Weavings

EVERY SUFFERING can be blessed because it hollows out a place in us for God and his comfort, which is infinite joy.
Peter Kreeft, Back to Virtue


IT IS impossible for one to live without tears who considers things exactly as they are.
Gregory of Nyssa, De Beatitudine



BLESSED are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.Matthew 5:4Related articles and links


1 Peter 4:1
King James Version (KJV)Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;