my transformative story November 4, 2009
Posted by highofseventyfive in Design, profound thoughts, theology.Tags: copy-paste, create new, God, gospel, transformation
add a comment
whats better? to copy paste or to make something new?
if you asked an artist, or a composer, what would their response be? copying someone else’ ideas and stamping them as your own is wrong. and just not creative. i’d see some fingers wagging in disapproval at that one.
think about the first day of every class you’ve ever taken. whats on the syllabus? “don’t plagiarize”. or what? they’ll expel you!
Main Entry: pla·gia·rizePronunciation: \ˈplā-jə-ˌrīz also -jē-ə-\Function: verbto steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own : use (another’s production) without crediting the source
if you decided to copy paste an article from wikipedia and plop it at the beginning of your essay, a teacher wouldn’t get too far before they got suspicious, and maybe just went ahead and gave you a big fat F. instead, they want you to be able to say in your own words, to take the information all around you, and make it your own, otherwise, it is inauthentic.
i’ve seen this theme played out in my life. growing up, i copy-pasted social cues, cultural ideas, and faith beliefs from whatever I saw around me. Whether it was Oprah, or going to church every now and then, or what I was exposed to during holidays. But I didn’t see anything wrong with it, because the people I saw seemed to be doing the same thing. No one lived out the stuff they were teaching or learning, except maybe those really Holy people, but instead just plopped things onto their lives and went around doing whatever they pleased.
One day two people came to tell me about their faith. They asked me all sorts of questions, and I knew the answers mostly. They didn’t seem to believe me (consider that a copy-paste life doesn’t always resonate as being genuine) and so they shared the story of Jesus. They told me that he came and lived as a man because He had compassion on us, and longed for us to be in a relationship with Him. Each and every one of us. They talked about how we weren’t good enough to be with God in heaven because no matter how much we try, we sin and aren’t perfect. They said that Jesus came and died as a sacrifice, and came back to life, defeating death (the only person to ever do that mind you). After this we could trust that God really did this and hang out with God the way we hang out with our friends or people that we love. That was the only way to be in Heaven, and the question that really struck me was, “would Jesus be able to say I knew Him, when I die?”
Right then and there I committed to being in a relationship with this Jesus guy, to learn more about him, find out what it meant to follow Him. It was so compelling, how much He loved us!
What’s neat about this, is that instead of copy-pasting this new set of ideas or cravings on top of my old self, God cut out the old, and put in something new. Think about it, if you suddenly got an epiphany while writing your essay, and start to actually write it yourself, but you didn’t delete the plagiarized part from before, the teacher wouldn’t even get that far! Big Fat “F”. The only way to be new, would be to cut out the old. I wanted to be new, I wanted it to be for real, for it to be MY story and not someone else’. I needed to stop copy-pasting, and actually make it my own.
instead of copy-pasting this new set of ideas or cravings on top of my old self, God cut out the old, and put in something new.
In 2 Corinthians 5:17 it says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come”. This couldn’t explain it better!
So, as an artist, and as a person genuinely seeking to live life as authentically as possible, I’ve found its better to create new than to copy-paste.
What does it look like that God made me new? He changed my heart. It says he takes out your heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh. Meaning, He’s going to give you a heart that wants to love Him back.
One way He did this, was to open my eyes to new ways of looking at the things in my life. For instance; all through high school i had this verocious appetite for music. my friends and i would discover new bands like you brush your teeth. ALL the time! (i hope, ew, you don’t? you’re gross!) But I would just download it, or we’d burn it from each other, never buy it. While I think this issue is quite minimal, for me, it was more about my heart, than about the action. My heart was greedy, gluttonous, to have everything I wanted, without any consequences. More, more more. and with shortcuts. tax fraud, stealing clothes, cheating on a test, are all ways to get the end result without having to do anything hard, without giving up anything you already have to get it. God helped me see that this was counter to the way He wanted my heart to be as I followed Him. And so he changed my appetite for music! I started wanting music a little less. I also decided to start buying CD’s instead. Now, I do spend a decent amount of money on CD’s, but the way I view music, and money even, has changed dramatically. God didn’t change who I was necessarily. He didn’t change my passion and inkling for indie bands that no one’s ever heard of. But He did change the way I look at acquiring them, and what those things really meant to me. Does this make sense? I mean, thats just one little example.
Moral of the story, if you’re copy-pasting in your life; just plopping faith, or all sorts of beliefs, on top of who you are, people are going to be able to tell. They’re going to know you’re confused, they’re going to question why you don’t practice what you preach. That’s what people call a hypocrite. and actually, according to merriam webster, the only kind of hypocrite is a religious one! verrrry interesting, look!
hypocrite:
a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion
a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings
make faith your own. because what’s neat is, God cuts out the old, and creates a new life in you, that can live forever, who can talk with Him, and participate in the divine nature and things in His kingdom.
Yep, that’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it!
Make You Feel My Love October 18, 2009
Posted by highofseventyfive in Media, profound thoughts.Tags: adele, bob dylan song, Jesus
add a comment
Bob Dylan song, Make You Feel My LoveI really like the Adele version, so thats why this one’s up. This song is beautiful. you can picture God singing this to you.
When the rain
Is blowing in your face
And the whole world
Is on your case
I could offer you
A warm embrace
To make you feel my love
When the evening shadows
And the stars appear
And there is no one there
To dry your tears
I could hold you
For a million years
To make you feel my love
I know you
Haven’t made
Your mind up yet
But I would never
Do you wrong
I’ve known it
From the moment
That we met
No doubt in my mind
Where you belong
I’d go hungry
I’d go black and blue
I’d go crawling
Down the avenue
No, there’s nothing
That I wouldn’t do
To make you feel my love
The storms are raging
On the rolling sea
And on the highway of regret
Though winds of change
Are throwing wild and free
You ain’t seen nothing
Like me yet
I could make you happy
Make your dreams come true
Nothing that I wouldn’t do
Go to the ends
Of the Earth for you
To make you feel my love
The Missionary’s Predestined Purpose September 22, 2009
Posted by highofseventyfive in profound thoughts, theology.Tags: Bible, God, missions, MUFHS, philosophy, purpose, sin
add a comment
The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever–do not abandon the works of your hands. Psalm 138:8
September 20//
So, every, single, time i open up My Utmost for His Highest, it blows me away. it is either so terribly convicting, challenging, and compelling– or the very thing I need. (haha, i know those should actually be the SAME, but lemme explain) so some days i open it, and the thing i learn is new and challenging, and i think about it the entire day, which is really how a good devotional should be. its powerful and lets the Word carry on in my day. and then other days, I feel as if God is meeting me just where I’m at. Bringing the thing i need to hear in that moment. Today was one of those “ahah!” moments.
Today’s devo was about missions, and purpose. (ha!) I will type it here:
The first thing that happens after we recognize our election by God in Christ Jesus is the destruction of our preconceived ideas, our narrow-minded thinking, and all of our other allegiances–we are turned solely into servants of God’s own purpose. The entire human race was created to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Sin has diverted the human race onto another course, but it has not altered God’s purpose to the slightest degree. And when we are born again we are brought into the realization of God’s great purpose for hte human race, namely, that He created us for Himself. This realization of our election by God is the most joyful on earth, and we must learn to rely on this tremendous creative purpose of God. The first thing God will do is force is the interests of the whole world through the channel of our hearts. The love of God, and even His very nature, is introduced into us. And we see the nature of Almighty God purely focused in John 3:16– “for God so loved the world…”
We must continually keep our soul open to the fact of God’s creative purpose, and never confuse or cloud it with our intentions. If we do, God will have to force our intentions aside no matter how much it may hurt. A missionary is created for the purpose of being God’s servant, one in whom God is glorified. once we realize that it is through the salvation of Jesus Christ that we are made perfectly fit for the purpose of God, we will understand why Jesus Christ is so strict and relentless in His demands. He demands absolute righteousness from His servants, because He has put into them the very nature of God.
Beware lest you forget God’s purpose for your life.
Okay. So, WOW. is this not all the things I’ve been pondering the past week or so? YAH.
And, to add something to this, I just was talking to a student in the library at tcnj. (yes i’m at tcnj right now) and He said how the world’s lies have hidden or warped our process of discovering and following out our purpose. YES. you are right mr. atheist jewish frat guy! “The entire human race was created to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Sin has diverted the human race onto another course, but it has not altered God’s purpose to the slightest degree.”
the following are VERY loosely quoted scripture. with no context. so i dont claim they really have anything to do with this, it just sounds good for now.
The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out.– Proverbs 20:5 It takes alot of “soul-searching” and a communication with God to “discover” your purpose. Aside from our delegated purpose as humans as a whole- to glorify and enjoy God.
Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.- Acts 5:38
They have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast.- Revelation 17:13
BUT, God does want to be known, and wants his purpose to be known to us. And through that, our purpose too. It sure is muddled by the things of the world, but he wants us to know it.
Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath.-Hebrews 6:17
Summary: We must continually keep our soul open to the fact of God’s creative purpose, and never confuse or cloud it with our intentions. If we do, God will have to force our intentions aside no matter how much it may hurt.
just-in-case faith September 20, 2009
Posted by highofseventyfive in documenting life, theology.Tags: acts 17, church, faith, gospel, Jesus, matthew 8:5-10
add a comment
Jeff Bell came and was a guest speaker at church today. He’s Jeremy’s brother, from Indiana. He gave one of the most compelling gospel presentations today. It was “bring a friend sunday” which i totally forgot about. But the message was sooo good! He talked out of Acts 17, saying how the people of Athens had an unknown god amongst their idols, “just-in-case” they missed one. Likewise today, if we come to church just on Christmas and Easter, or when we really need something or come into a rut, we have just-in-case faith. This is a hard place to be in. Our lives are are centered around in fact no faith at all, and we pray or attend church just-in-case God is really there. Or we might have a buddha in one room, a statue of the virgin mary, a kabbala bracelet, etc, again– just-in-case.
But Jeff told us that we can have a just-Jesus faith. Because Jesus is the hero that conquered all, who’s big enough and powerful enough to handle anything, and worth giving our whole lives to. Jesus is the answer.
The thing that struck me today, was part of his message for believers. We looked at Matthew 8:5-10,13 where it says that a centurion came to Jesus asking for help to heal one of his servants. Jesus says, “I will go and heal him”. The centurion says, dude, you could just say it, from here, and it would happen! you are the Lord! I’m a guy of authority, i tell people what to do and they do it. How much more will that be so for you! (that was my paraphrase)
When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.
Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that very hour.
Jeff asked us, if Jesus would be stopped in his tracks, astonished, by our faith, or by our lack of faith.
and the youth group band played, which meant there was way more energy in the room, it sounded awesome, and we rocked as we worshiped God!
The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me September 18, 2009
Posted by highofseventyfive in profound thoughts, theology.Tags: Bible, fulfill, God, Jesus, life meaning, purpose, sovereignty, theology
1 comment so far
cool illustration from an artist click the pic
I’m going to continue my study of Purpose, with some verses containing the word purpose in them. This is kind of a faulty way of going about it, because the word purpose could probably just happen to be there in NIV translation, so I will hopefully look up some other translations in the process.
New King Jimmy is in italics
Psalm 57:2—I cry out to God Most High,
to God, who fulfills {his purpose} for me.
who performs all things for me
Psalm 138:8— The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;
your love, O LORD, endures forever—
do not abandon the works of your hands.
The LORD will perfect that which concerns me; (NLT) The Lord will work out his plans for my life
Proverbs 19:21— Many are the plans in a man’s heart,
but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.
Nevertheless the LORD’s counsel—that will stand
Proverbs 20:5— The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters,
but a man of understanding draws them out.
Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water,
But a man of understanding will draw it out.
Romans 9:21—Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
Philippians 2:13—for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
do for His good pleasure
2 Thessalonians 1:11—With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith.
and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power
2 Timothy 2:21—If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.
vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.
So it looks like some other terms for purpose(s) are:
all things; that which concerns me; plan for my life; counsel; honor; good pleasure; good works
i’d love to find out what the hebrew/greek words used in each case are. they are probably different. i don’t have esword on my mac.
These few verses show the sovereignty of God, that His purposes for us, are purposed BY him, FOR him, and He will actually FULFILL them! What good news (!)
- who fulfills {his purpose} for me
- The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;
- for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
- by his power he may fulfill every good purpose
Also, He chooses our purpose. What would it look like to discover you have been made from common use–humble purposes, rather than noble?
Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?” But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ “ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
I think it would look pretty awesome, all considering: 2 Corinthians 4:7-11 says, But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.
Next time: Time to GET DEEP!
The purposes of the human heart are deep waters,
but those who have insight draw them out.
purpose: to put, place September 16, 2009
Posted by highofseventyfive in profound thoughts, theology.Tags: God, human, life, meaning, philosophy, purpose, reason
3 comments
Q. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
last night, elizabeth brought up an excellent point. Jesus didn’t do anything “worthwhile”, or, he didn’t start his ministry, until he was 30.
huh, doesn’t that take the pressure off quit a bit? i mean, here i am 22, graduated college, and all of a sudden i expect to be making great change in the world, having a job with health insurance, paying my college loans, finding a place to live, start having “purpose”. well? we’re so antsy these days, with no patience for the things God has stored up for us. The pressure from the world to leave college and become a fully-realized purposeful person is seemingly insurmountable.
how do I know that my super duper awesome mind boggling purpose isn’t until I’m 30? or 82? or that i’ve already had it? (how bout THEM apples). apparently my only job is what it says in
Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this word, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is– his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
a quick study on Purpose:
[Middle English purpos, from Anglo-Norman, from purposer, to intend : pur-, forth (from Latin prō-; see pro-1) + poser, to put; see pose1.]
Purpose is the cognitive awareness in cause and effect linking for achieving a goal in a given system, whether human or machine. Purpose serves to change the state of conditions in a given environment, usually to one with a perceived better set of conditions or parameters from the previous state. This change is the motivation that serves the focus of control and goal orientation.
“There is a fundamental human need for guiding ideals that give meaning to our actions”, states Roger Fisher. Renowned psychiatrist Victor Frankl’s premise is that ‘man’s search for meaning’ is the primary motivation of his life. He speaks of the ‘will to meaning’ as opposed to Freud’s’ ‘will to pleasure’ and Friedrich Nietzsche’s ‘will to power’.
First attested in c
.1290, from earl Old French porpos “aim, intention”, purpose is related to from porposer “to put forth,” from Vulgar Latin corruption of por- “forth” (Latin pro- “forth”) and Old French poser “to put, place”.[1] Purpose is related to the term pose used from 1374 as to “put in a certain position,” or “suggest, propose, suppose, assume,” a term use in Late Latin debating (c.300–c.700) from pausare “to halt, rest, pause”.[2]
[Middle English purpos, from Anglo-Norman, from purposer, to intend : pur-, forth (from Latin prō-; see pro-1) + poser, to put; see pose1.]
(make one of these! its from Wordle)
so if the word purpose could also mean: aim, intention, put forth, to put, place, put in a certain position, suggest, propose, suppose, assume, halt, rest, pause. This forces us to ask a few questions.
can you acquire purpose? can you earn or ask for it? or must it be delegated, designated? is it an action or just a state of being? does there need to be an achievable goal to have it? Is a purpose the same as a reason? it seems like, purpose is doled out like the newspapers are thrown on your driveway. It is put there, then, and only then, does purpose exist. So someone has to do the putting. We put purpose into something for a reason. We say, “well the purpose of what i’m doing is to _____”, or “my purpose is to ______”. There is a reason, an aim, a goal, that gives something enough value to consider it purpose. To consider that something was MADE to achieve this goal, really is just because of the placement of its value upon it. It is set, rested, placed, paused, at the place it needs to be.
We can give purpose to light switches, guitars, and processes like evaporation, but that is because we can see both the beginning and the end. And really, even that could be subjective. The purpose of a guitar for me, is to be played, to make music. The purpose of it for someone else might be to smash it at a rock show.
We have decided that it is reasonable to conclude that the purpose of evaporation is to get water back in the sky, so it can more easily travel by the wind, to somewhere else, to rain and water the ground. But the only reason we can say that, is because we watched water come down, go back up, and come back down again. We see it keeping a cycle going, and keeping life on our planet.
I don’t think that we can give ourselves purpose. I think our job is to discover our already pre-determined purpose. Can you do enough good things to earn purpose? I guess so; you could win enough votes to run an office; You could see a need, and invent yourself into the solution. But still, in order to actually obtain purpose, it needs to be acknowledged or approved of, by some higher or other source.
Is purpose only purpose if a clear goal is within vision? Can something be purposeless? In my thinking, nothing can be without purpose, because God is a god of order. Everything has purpose. We have purpose. Our ultimate purpose, as far as I can tell from the Bible, is to glorify God and be in relationship with Him. This is the aim and intention suggested and put forth by God. He has placed value in us. Our mini-purposes are many and constant. I think what gets in the way is, reason. What is the reason that we must glorify God? Why must we be in relation with Him? Why? And so we confuse purpose and reason, and feel that we need a reason to have a purpose.
Reason: Reason, cause, motive are terms for a circumstance (or circumstances) which brings about or explains certain results. A reason is an explanation of a situation or circumstance which made certain results seem possible or appropriate: The reason for the robbery was the victim’s display of his money. The cause is the way in which the circumstances produce the effect, that is, make a specific action seem necessary or desirable: The cause was the robber’s extreme need of money. A motive is the hope, desire, or other force which starts the action (or an action) in an attempt to produce specific results: The motive was to get money to buy food for his family.
“Purpose serves to change the state of conditions in a given environment”. Our purpose is to love God, but God is never-changing. So, loving God must actually mean not change in Him, but in us and our environment. Funny! Our purpose seemingly for someone else, is actually for us! Now, don’t loop that around and say our purpose then is for ourselves. That is where the world has gone completely wacky. But, if God intends for us to love Him, and receive His love, that is in turn transformative. And since there is only one end of the equation to be changed, loving God changes us. Our purpose is to start to match God, not only in “image” but in totality (heart, character, virtue, holiness). God knows what is best for us, because He created us, and put forth our purpose. To match him, to reflect him, to pour him out, is to glorify him.
Q. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
comments welcome.
wow Romans. mmmm September 16, 2009
Posted by highofseventyfive in theology.Tags: romans
add a comment
just read this, slowly, out loud (if you can). no really, read it. don’t skim. READ.
wow. its so concise. i love Romans. Why do we try to come up with gimmicky things to say? maybe i’ll just walk around standing on benches and reading this.
Romans 3:10-27 (New International Version)
10As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
12All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”[a]
13“Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”[b]
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”[c]
14“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”[d]
15“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16ruin and misery mark their ways,
17and the way of peace they do not know.”[e]
18“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”[f]
19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
Righteousness Through Faith
21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement,[g] through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
27Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith.
thoughts on the Decision made 8/21/2009 August 22, 2009
Posted by highofseventyfive in theology.Tags: 1 Timothy 3:1-12, Bible, church leadership, ELCA, gay, john piper, lutherans, Mark 3:29, unforgivable sin
add a comment
For example: You can blaspheme God, He’ll forgive you. You can blaspheme Jesus, He’ll forgive you. If you blaspheme the Holy Spirit, you are, by definition, rejecting and discarding the very nature put into you (if you are regenerated Christian) that allows you TO BE forgiven. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit puts you beyond repentance, and therefore beyond forgiveness. By this I mean, if you reject the Holy Spirit’s convictions in your life, you stop being able to see and feel that you are rejecting God. You have no opportunity to ask for forgiveness if you see no wrong in what you’ve done. “Repent and believe”, “Godly sorrow”.
Say you engage in something, kind of think its wrong, and so then repent. But yet you find yourself doing it again. This time, taking a risk that someday God will forgive you, even though you are somewhat sorry. And so you do it again. and again. “How far do you think I can go before God won’t forgive me anymore? I’m willing to find out, I suppose”. and again. and again. Banking on cheap grace. At this point, your heart is so hardened to the Word of God, that you no longer consider it wrong, in fact, perhaps considering that this is part of your personality, or that God made you to enjoy this act of sin. You start to think, “Well, why is God so restricting! If I enjoy this thing, why would he deny me the right to do it just to love Him? I don’t think He would”. So you start making your own judgement calls about the nature and character of God, without the Bible and the Holy Spirit’s guiding; meaning really, you are just making a sin-filled blind perspective on God, in order to fulfill the pleasures you desire, yourself, and trusting only yourself, to make it happen.
Picture this, courtesy of John Piper:
Instead, many professing Christians today have such a sentimental view of God’s justice that they never feel terror and horror at the thought of being utterly forsaken by God because of their persistence in sin. They have the naïve notion that God’s patience has no end and that they can always return from any length and depth of sin, forgetting that there is a point of resistance which belittles the Holy Spirit so grievously that he withdraws forever with his convicting power, leaving them never able to repent and be forgiven.
They are like the buzzard who spots a carcass on a piece of ice floating in the river. He lands and begins to eat. He knows it is dangerous because the falls are just ahead. But he looks at his wings and says to himself, “I can fly to safety in an instant.” And he goes on eating. Just before the ice goes over the falls he spreads his wings to fly but his claws are frozen in the ice and there is no escape—neither in this age nor the age to come. The Spirit of holiness has forsaken the arrogant sinner forever.
He knows it is dangerous… says to himself, “I can fly to safety in an instant.” but his claws are frozen in the ice
——————–
All this to say, would you want someone in church leadership who is blatantly and openly choosing this path, rejecting the Word of God and not trusting God? I think not. (1 Tim 3:1-12)
What would be worth following them for? Granted, no one is perfect. But those in leadership positions must be the most attentive to the Holy Spirit, the most willing to change, to be humble, to seek righteousness, because they will be judged more harshly. They are responsible for teaching about the God of the universe!
And so I will say only this. I disagree profusely with the recent the decision of the Lutheran Church. Not because I think gay people are going to hell. (Everyone is going to hell, unless they have a relationship with Jesus.) Not because I think they are loose-moralled and flamboyantly promiscuous. (There are way more straight people who are like this.) But simply on the stance that, its one thing to be a member of a church, to be working out your struggles and sins, but its a whole other thing to be LEADING it.
If you knew that your pastor had alcohol and drug issues, wouldn’t you ask him to step down? First of all, he should take time to start to heal his addictions, and the heart behind it. He should not be lying or hiding this from the congregation. How much stress would that be, to have to try to deal with his own tremendous issues, while attending to all the others in his church? He would not make for a good shepherd, or for a reliable source of teaching.
In the same way, those who openly reject certain parts of the Bible, and not others, are kidding themselves, and mocking God. Who are you to say you can take this part and disregard that part? When speaking with atheists, even they agree with this reasoning: How would you know if God wasn’t just a figment of your imagination, unless there were some things about his nature and what he says to us, that are objectionable to our way of living? We cant’ just go on changing God to suit our times or our interests, or more gravely, our sins. That simply will not do. God is never changing.
How would you know if God wasn’t just a figment of your imagination, unless there were some things about his nature and what he says to us, that are objectionable to our way of living?
I hope I have made a suitable argument, without offending anyone beyond a reasonable amount. There are many things people say that offend me, but that is simply because I hold those things so dear to me that I take them personally, and find myself aggravated. I hope I have shown my theological basis for this in love. This decision is wrong. There’s nothing I can do about it now, nor will I pursue anything to rectify it. I will only state what I have seen and known to be true. This decision applies to a very sensitive subject; it is a sin that is wrapped up in “love and blessings” (even their own arguments for it are such). However, there are just as many other causes and issues that seem exponentially more “wrong” because their destructive nature is more obvious. We must not trust our own senses and our own eyes and hearts, because they deceive us daily.
perichoresis- a dance August 16, 2009
Posted by highofseventyfive in theology.Tags: dance, God, perichoresis, trinity
add a comment
The Divine Dance
The life of the Trinity is characterized not by self-centeredness but by mutually self-giving love. When we delight and serve someone else, we enter into a dynamic orbit around him or her, we center on the interests and desires of the other. That creates a dance, particularly if there are three persons, each of whom moves around the other two. So it is, the Bible tells us. Each of the divine persons centers upon the others. None demands that the others revolve around him. Each voluntarily circles the other two, pour love, delight, and adoration into them. Each person of the Trinity loves, adores, defers to, and rejoices in the others. That creates a dynamic, pulsating dance of joy and love. The early leaders of the Greek church had a word for this– perichoresis. Notice our word “choreography” within it. It means literally to “dance or flow around”. — The Reason for God, Timothy Keller pg 215
“[Christians] believe that the living, dynamic activity of love has been going on in God forever and has created everything else. And that, by the way, is perhaps the most important difference between Christianity and all other religions: that in Christianity God is not an impersonal thing nor a static thing – not even just one person – but a dynamic pulsating activity, a life, a kind of drama, almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance … (The) pattern of this three-personal life is … the great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality.”– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
turned upside-down by a nutcase August 16, 2009
Posted by highofseventyfive in profound thoughts.Tags: bono, interview, Jesus, nutcase
add a comment
second time i’ve read this little excerpt, love it. maybe i’ll read the whole thing someday, although i’m not sure i care enough about the life of Bono to do so:
Assayas: Christ has his rank among the world’s great thinkers. But Son of God, isn’t that farfetched?
Bono No, it’s not farfetched to me. Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn’t allow you that. He doesn’t let you off that hook. Christ says: No. I’m not saying I’m a teacher, don’t call me teacher. I’m not saying I’m a prophet. I’m saying: “I’m the Messiah.” I’m saying: “I am God incarnate.” And people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet, we can take. You’re a bit eccentric. We’ve had John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey, we can handle that. But don’t mention the “M” word! Because, you know, we’re gonna have to crucify you. And he goes: No, no. I know you’re expecting me to come back with an army, and set you free from these creeps, but actually I am the Messiah. At this point, everyone starts staring at their shoes, and says: Oh, my God, he’s gonna keep saying this. So what you’re left with is: either Christ was who He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase. I mean, we’re talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson. This man was like some of the people we’ve been talking about earlier. This man was strapping himself to a bomb, and had “King of the Jews” on his head, and, as they were putting him up on the Cross, was going: OK, martyrdom, here we go. Bring on the pain! I can take it. I’m not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that’s farfetched …
So what you’re left with is: either Christ was who He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase…The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that’s farfetched
