that is all
Monday, March 24, 2008
spring traditions
today i'm watching the sandlot. a classic baseball movie to celebrate the coming season.
that is all
that is all
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Velvet Elvis [pt 1]
So i just finished reading Rob Bell's book Velvet Elvis. And besides being a silly title, i think he makes a lot of good points in it. So i'm gonna write about some them. Oprah's book club, eat your heart out.
The book starts out by talking about doctrine and how they relate to God. We often look at our doctrine as absolutes. But isn't God alone absolute? Our doctrines are creations of man, putting words to some of the inexplainable things of the bible. The trinity for example, isn't mentioned at all in the bible, it's a doctrine created to explain the triune nature of God in scripture. But it isn't scripture itself. my view of trinity isn't necessarily the same as yours.
He uses the analogy of a trampoline to describe what he thinks doctrine should be. Doctrines are like the springs of a trampoline. They help to hold up the mat, but they aren't the mat itself. They aren't the part that people enjoy. Nobody gets on a trampoline to play with the springs. [my engineering friends excluded]
The counter to that is looking at doctrine as a wall of bricks. Firm, rigid, unchanging. So what happens if your brick of the trinity doesn't look like my brick of the trinity? We cant share the same wall. We have to have totally separate walls because a wall of two different sizes of bricks won't be able to stand. [my architecture education at it's finest right there] But should we look at our doctrine as a firm wall? Do we build our faith on doctrine? or do we build it on Christ who is our Rock?
Now there certainly is bad theology out there that wouldn't pass as a brick or a spring, but should bad theology be something that is irreconcilable? Something that we as Christians or we as a Church can't see past? I'm sure i still have bad theology about a lot of things, b/c i don't know God's positions on a lot of things. But rigid doctrine seems to have done a lot to divide the Church. We have a long history of splitting this way and that because we think communion should only be done this way, or worship can only be done that way.
Does God really want us to break apart the Church over things like that? Why can't we focus on the things that unify us?
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
ephesians 2:14-16
Why can't we stop viewing ourselves by the differences we have and start viewing each other as Christ does? As His creations, His workmanship, His children?
The book starts out by talking about doctrine and how they relate to God. We often look at our doctrine as absolutes. But isn't God alone absolute? Our doctrines are creations of man, putting words to some of the inexplainable things of the bible. The trinity for example, isn't mentioned at all in the bible, it's a doctrine created to explain the triune nature of God in scripture. But it isn't scripture itself. my view of trinity isn't necessarily the same as yours.
He uses the analogy of a trampoline to describe what he thinks doctrine should be. Doctrines are like the springs of a trampoline. They help to hold up the mat, but they aren't the mat itself. They aren't the part that people enjoy. Nobody gets on a trampoline to play with the springs. [my engineering friends excluded]
The counter to that is looking at doctrine as a wall of bricks. Firm, rigid, unchanging. So what happens if your brick of the trinity doesn't look like my brick of the trinity? We cant share the same wall. We have to have totally separate walls because a wall of two different sizes of bricks won't be able to stand. [my architecture education at it's finest right there] But should we look at our doctrine as a firm wall? Do we build our faith on doctrine? or do we build it on Christ who is our Rock?
Now there certainly is bad theology out there that wouldn't pass as a brick or a spring, but should bad theology be something that is irreconcilable? Something that we as Christians or we as a Church can't see past? I'm sure i still have bad theology about a lot of things, b/c i don't know God's positions on a lot of things. But rigid doctrine seems to have done a lot to divide the Church. We have a long history of splitting this way and that because we think communion should only be done this way, or worship can only be done that way.
Does God really want us to break apart the Church over things like that? Why can't we focus on the things that unify us?
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
ephesians 2:14-16
Why can't we stop viewing ourselves by the differences we have and start viewing each other as Christ does? As His creations, His workmanship, His children?
Monday, March 10, 2008
idol thoughts
so tonight at frontline the talk was about idols in our lives. they're going through a series called no other gods. it was really something i needed to hear. it made me recognize some of the idols in my life. here's some of the questions that they asked that can help you to recognize the things that are idols in your life.
i've let that become something that i focus way too much on in my life. i have a hard time being content in being single, in knowing that where i am right now is where God wants me. i'm always dwelling on the future, on what's to come, never on what's before me now.
now, something that they brought up was that most things that become idols for us aren't inherently bad. they're usually good things that we end up putting ahead of God. be it work, relationships, achievements, etc. so these things aren't bad to have in your life, but it just becomes sin when we put these things ahead of our relationship with Christ. when our status is determined by our relationship status, our monetary status or our achievements rather than the fact that we are children of God.
i hope that i can begin to learn to continuously put Christ first in my life, rather then letting other things get in the way. other things can be in my life, but Christ is first, all other things should fall into place after Him.
- what is your greatest fear?
- where do you run to for comfort?
- what do you complain about the most?
- how do you explain yourself to others?
- what causes you to be angry with God?
- what do you want to have more than anything else?
- what do you treasure most?
i've let that become something that i focus way too much on in my life. i have a hard time being content in being single, in knowing that where i am right now is where God wants me. i'm always dwelling on the future, on what's to come, never on what's before me now.
now, something that they brought up was that most things that become idols for us aren't inherently bad. they're usually good things that we end up putting ahead of God. be it work, relationships, achievements, etc. so these things aren't bad to have in your life, but it just becomes sin when we put these things ahead of our relationship with Christ. when our status is determined by our relationship status, our monetary status or our achievements rather than the fact that we are children of God.
i hope that i can begin to learn to continuously put Christ first in my life, rather then letting other things get in the way. other things can be in my life, but Christ is first, all other things should fall into place after Him.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
hope for the suburbs?
so coming home to chesapeake, the last thing i expected to be dealing with is homelessness.
for those of you who've never been here, chesapeake is suburban sprawl. pure and simple. suburbs from norfolk, suburbs from va beach, suburbs from suburbs. lots of middle-upper class white people and starbucks.
so i was a little surprised to come home and find my church being used as a homeless shelter.
it was part of NEST [norfolk emergency shelter team] which basically in the winter half of the year, takes 50-60 homeless out of norfolk and brings them to various churches in the area for a week at a time.
i generally think of life in chesapeake very cynically. i'm critical of the upper-middle class white folks that drive around in their hummer 2's and their mercedez. I feel like life here is very self centered. and maybe it's that way everywhere and i just haven't lived there long enough to see that side of it. but it was so refreshing to see the body of Christ doing something different.
it gives me hope that living in chesapeake doesn't have to mean living in that suburban daze. God's opening my eyes to the people that He wants me to care for and opening my eyes to the work he's already doing in this area and in His church. it gives me hope for the suburbs
"For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do."
galatians 2:8-10
for those of you who've never been here, chesapeake is suburban sprawl. pure and simple. suburbs from norfolk, suburbs from va beach, suburbs from suburbs. lots of middle-upper class white people and starbucks.
so i was a little surprised to come home and find my church being used as a homeless shelter.
it was part of NEST [norfolk emergency shelter team] which basically in the winter half of the year, takes 50-60 homeless out of norfolk and brings them to various churches in the area for a week at a time.
i generally think of life in chesapeake very cynically. i'm critical of the upper-middle class white folks that drive around in their hummer 2's and their mercedez. I feel like life here is very self centered. and maybe it's that way everywhere and i just haven't lived there long enough to see that side of it. but it was so refreshing to see the body of Christ doing something different.
it gives me hope that living in chesapeake doesn't have to mean living in that suburban daze. God's opening my eyes to the people that He wants me to care for and opening my eyes to the work he's already doing in this area and in His church. it gives me hope for the suburbs
"For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do."
galatians 2:8-10
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