Good Story

Good story about Tony Campolo in Hawaii here. Our pastor read that story on Sunday and got a little choked up when reading it. A lot of people did. He's got his own website but I didn't have time to find the story there. www.tonycampolo.org

Unspoken sin.

Sin not spoken about. Nobody knows about it. You and God are the only two that are aware of or that think about it and care. When in such a strange vacuum how many people actually choose to walk away from the sin?.. a sin that is hid from the world of people around you? When you don't walk away because it means too much to you... What is that? Idolotry, I guess, and possibly an indicator of something else in your life being starved? It may sound like I'm talking about deep dark secret sin but that's not necessarily true.

It's got to be the most painful sin when you know an action is wrong and keep doing it and don't have the control to stop. No one else knowing about the sin and you're so afraid someone will find out. That's what I call a nightmare and I have a hard time showing patience for people who can't find empathy behind the huge shadow of their own judgement of the sin itself.

Well, I'm getting dangerously close to doing exactly what I'm complaining about. Judging the judgmental isn't any different I suppose. In general other people's sin seems to be a seed of a great deal of our sin i.e. pride, ignorance, foolishness etc. Self included.

What's the difference?

What's the difference between a believer and a nonbeliever other than what they say about what they believe? Can and should you be able to tell?

It's good to be restless.

I guess the opposite of that would be content. If I'm not restless or am content, I don't feel the need for change. I'm not expecting anything to happen and am ok with that or even prefer that. How boring and dangerous at the same time!

If every Tuesday night I have to watch my favorite show and something comes up in real life, what do I do? I don't have a favorite Tuesday night show, but I know there are other meaningless comforts that I'd probably struggle with giving up if I got that call.

Now, if I have no specific comforts but just like to hang around the house and do things and I resist the opportunities to maintain comfort, how far away from the Tuesday-night-show-syndrome am I? I think it's not about what you are doing. It's about what you could be doing... OR even thinking about.

Don't miss the opportunity God lays out before you.

www.jakecolsen.com

I just finished reading a book called "So, you don't want to go to church anymore?" directly off of the above website . Jon from Mythic Reality recommended it to me.

It's a fictional story that points out the failures of today's church and it's structure in regards to the parishioner and their relationship to "Father".

I have my own frustrations with church and this solidifies them. I don't think I'm committed to leaving church. I wouldn't rule it out either though. I guess I look at church as a possible opportunity to connect with people that are in a situation like mine. People who are looking for a relationship with God through fellowship with Him and others. The church doesn't really help too much with that but I guess I would defend the church by saying it's at least a place to meet with people who are "trying" to head in the same direction. The frustration is trying to find people like that amongst people who are putting their trust in the system and doing what is recommended by the church and thinking that is what will bring them to Him. I'm pretty new in this and don't have a great relationship with God so my prayer is as I grow in Him the people who are heading that way will be more obvious. Regardless to that, finding Him first is priority one and whatever I need from there should follow. I guess if follow that line of thinking I won't be so frustrated after all (I should be looking for him first). If you seek Him you will get what you need. With or without the modern church or other people.

Anyway, good book. I recommend it. Thanks to Jon for Recommending it.

Questions

In the work world, what does it say about you if the non-believers around you see you as one of their own? If you have a career where if you were as outspoken as Jesus about Faith, you would loose your career, should you be in that career? What should be the approach to co-workers who know you have some commitment to at least some sort of religon, if they have made it clear they are not interested? ... or how about if they haven't made it clear and have actually left an opening for discussion? What direction do you take then in that discussion? Have you ever spoken out at work? If you do get on to "that topic" do you explain what your beleifs are as far as doctrine and rules you follow or do you speak of what you believe and that you believe it is the truth. What's the approach? and how can you tell you're doing a horrible job?

Ecclesiastes 7:16-18

The copy at the bottom is from the NIV.

It states to "not be over righteous or over wise" and of course "don't be over wicked" or "a fool".

Now, my "Living Translation bible has a footnote on this that goes as follows:

"How can a person be too good or too wise? This is a warning against pride--legalism or false righteousness..."

I'm going to take a leap here and say I think they're right in their interpretation. It really is hard to figure out what that means for me, my mind, and my actions. It seems actually to be saying don't worry about that so much. Going too far one way or the other is NOT good.


Ecclesiastes

Chapter 7

16 Do not be overrighteous,
neither be overwise—
why destroy yourself?

17 Do not be overwicked,<br> and do not be a fool—r> why die before your time?

18 It is good to grasp the one
and not let go of the other.
The man who fears God will avoid all extremes .

Emergent Churches.

I've absolutely never had any idea what emergent churches were and I still don't but I started checking them out and came upon this emergent church website. There's actually a prayer lava lamp! What's that? Not really sure but they've got one and it's interactive! and it has it's own ambiance music to get you in the mood. You click on a bubble, right in your prayer and watch it float away....No, God doesn't respond on your screen so much. Well, I don't know, I tested it and prayed for facial-hair as a test, even though I don't want more facial hair. That was the wifey's idea. You gotta see it I guess....

Anyway, they have part of the Wikipedia explanation of what an Emergent church is and that blurb is this: "...the emerging church seeks to deconstruct and reconstruct Christianity as its mainly Western members live in a postmodern culture..."

I bring this up because this is very similar to what I wanted to do for myself in this blog and the FIRST part is almost word for word on one of my first posts (I don't trust postmodernists. What can I say, It was bred in to me.) Anyway, kind of a co-inkidink I thought., Let's see if these postmodernist emergent types are "full of it" or have something going here.

What's been impressed upon my mind lately...

This post will have no central theme like a sermon might. These are just thoughts that may become future posts. I'll have to create a new word to label this kind of post. Hmmm...

Anyway, a few things I've encountered lately.

This weekend someone felt that they needed to bring to someone's attention the verses in the Bible that backed their belief up on how you raise your children. The receiver of this expressed opinion didn't take to kindly of course. The "giver" of opinion, I think, realized he had made some sort of mistake be it in approach or content I'm not sure. But, they did say that they felt God had impressed upon the person personally that something should be said, which makes me wonder when God is actually talking to us. I've heard others say the same thing and I've been skeptical (to use probably too mild a term) in whether God actually said that to them or they are applying God to a personal urge. It seems to me, and the verdict's not out yet, if people feel strongly about something in the religon & belief dept. that whatever they think they need to do in regards to that dept. is somehow directed to them by God. Seems kind of conveniant.... and I'M SURE you're much more convincing to your listener if they realize you're speaking on God's behalf!! I'm being cynical here. I guess something to learn from this would be that if you do hear something from God, maybe it won't help the listener to tell them that's what you believe or maybe you should be darn sure it's God before you decide you're speaking on his behalf because if I remember correctly, to speak in God's name without his consent is a big no-no.

Different topic.

Something that I've come across via blog-world is the concept of a Talmid or Talmidim.

"A talmid did not follow a rabbi as a student. They desired to gain the rabbi's knowledge, but for a greater goal-they wanted to become like the rabbi himself.

A talmid followed the rabbi everywhere-every day, and every hour of the day-often without knowing or asking where the rabbi was going. The talmid rarely left his rabbi's side for fear that he would miss a teachable moment. He watched the rabbi's every move, noting how he acted and thought about a variety of situations.

Talmidim trusted their rabbi completely. They were eager to hear the rabbi's teachings and they worked passionately to incorporate the rabbi's actions and words into their lives. The disciple's deepest desire was to follow his rabbi so closely that he would start to think and act like the rabbi himself." ~ Ray Vander Laan

Within the comments after this was pasted on Tom Steeles Blog (I don't know him, I just liked his post). He mentioned how he dislikes the term "Personal Relationship" with God and preferred the concept of a Talmid. That struck me right away because "Personal Relationship" is a favorite term of most Pastors (and I believe Mr. Steele is a pastor), and that is partly what made me think. When we think of a "Personal Relationship" often times an intimate relationship is correlated, like what you have with your husband or wife. There is that side to a Personal Relationship but this is GOD were talking about here. He IS it. A personal relationship just isn't enough. It makes too comfortably casaul a relationship with the almighty. The Talmid concept brings a bit of humbleness to that which is your relationship. Also Personal Relationship I think indicates that it's personal, as in "your own". I think Talmid puts a better perspective on that as well. More pondering on this one later.

New blog for old and New Thoughts.

I've been reading a lot of blogs on people's beliefs, their beliefs on other's beliefs, their beefs with other's beliefs, beliefs being applied to other people, application of what they see in people labeled with a belief and making judgements of that belief based on that person and so on and so forth.... Long and confusing sentence, Eh! Just like my brain.

There's been a lot to really motivate me to think, wonder, be irritated (in a good way and sometimes a bad way), open up my mind, and rethink and rework ideas in my for-too-long numbed head. I haven't had too much to say but I've read people's blogs who do and although I don't have a mission statement I have questions and thoughts I need to work out. If I can work something out on my blog and be able to understand it and spell it out for myself so I can understand and remember what I was thinking, that would be helpful to me. I need to redefine things in my own head and when I say redefine I don't mean to change the definition, I mean to reword it so my mind gets it. Every time I read philosophy papers (which I haven't done for quite a while) I have to read over it at least 3 times to get what they're saying, so this can be a helpful tool to work some of that out. This could end up giving me focus, motivation, or who knows! I've been thinking about doing this for a while. Hopefully there's a higher purpose for me and if there is(I pray to God), I'll write about it here.