a few of us just got back from watching this:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/magnolia/jesuscamp/trailer/

the question i can't get away from is this...



is this child abuse?

I have recently become more aware that people, in trying to quote or reference things or people from the past, tend to distort things a lot. It's really started bothering me, so I've been reading some stuff straight from the sources. I came across this today:

I should not wish 'free-will' to be granted me, even if it could be so, nor anything else to be left in my own hands, whereby I might endeavour something towards my own salvation. And that, not merely because in so many opposing dangers, and so many assaulting devils, I could not stand and hold it fast, (in which state no man could be saved, seeing that one devil is stronger than all men) but because, even though there were no dangers, no conflicts, no devils, I should be compelled to labour under a continual uncertainty, and to beat the air only. Nor would my conscience, even if I should live and work to all eternity, ever come to a settled certainty, how much it ought to do in order to satisfy God. For whatever work should be done, there would still remain a scrupling, whether or not it pleased God, or whether He required any thing more...

...But now, since God has put my salvation out of the way of my will, and has taken it under His own, and has promised to save me, not according to my working or manner of life, but according to His own grace and mercy, I rest fully assured and persuaded that He is faithful, and will not lie, and moreover great and powerful, so that no devils, no adversities can destroy Him, or pluck me out of His hand...

...By the power of 'free will' no one whatever could be saved, but all must perish together. And moreover, we are certain and persuaded, that in this way, we please God, not from the merit of our own works, but from the favour of His mercy promised unto us; and that, if we work less, or work badly, He does not impute it unto us, but, as a Father, pardons us and makes us better. — This is the glorying which all the saints have in their God!

My Idea Of Heaven

As I sit here, jittery from too much coffee, I wonder. I wonder what things I am waiting for. I wonder what is it that I think will cause a chain reaction in my soul. Is it going back to school, to pursue "greatness"? Is it reading yet another book, gaining more "information"? Is it meeting someone new, someone that will challenge my entire existence? Is it someday getting a "real job," finally being able to "provide" for my family? Is it getting something new, a MacBook maybe, or a G5, or a new car? What is it? I'm sure I, somewhere deep down, idolize all those things. And yet, none of them will bring progress. If anything, some of them may actually make things harder than they already are. Will I cave? Do I think that the level of anxiety and frustration will diminish when these things are evident? If I do, then I am a naive fool.

"There is nothing new under the sun."

So I probably spent way too many hours preparing for this, but in case you're interested here it is:

The Body: Participation

It was my first time to speak in a few years, and I actually don't think it turned out as bad as I feared. Hopefully I will more opportunities in the future to share some things.

“There are three kinds of people in the world. The first class is of those who live simply for their own sake and pleasure, regarding Man and Nature as so much raw material to be cut up into whatever shape may serve them. In the second class are those who acknowledge some other claim upon them – the will of God, the categorical imperative, or the good of society – and honestly try to pursue their own interests no further than this claim will allow. They try to surrender to the higher claim as much as it demands, like men paying a tax, but hope, like other taxpayers, that what is left over will be enough for them to live on. Their life is divided, like a soldier’s or a schoolboy’s life, into time 'on parade' and 'off parade', 'in school' and 'out of school'. But the third class is of those who can say like St Paul that for them 'to live is Christ'. These people have got rid of the tiresome business of adjusting those rival claims of Self and God by the simple expedient of rejecting the claims of Self altogether. The old egoistical will has been turned round, reconditioned, and made into a new thing. The will of Christ no longer limits theirs; it is theirs. All their time, in belonging to Him, belongs also to them, for they are His.” (from Three Kinds Of Men)

A few of us punked out. But, we did walk three miles...

we've been putting most of our thoughts lately here: groaning together.

Through hymns we connect with believers who lived centuries before us... When I introduce people to Anne Steele’s hymns, they are struck by the powerful way she dealt with her immense suffering. They find that her cries can become their cries, her tears can elicit their tears, and her faith can encourage their
faith. Seeing that we can connect with an English woman who lived in a small village 300 years ago and feel what she felt is powerful. (more...)

“There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
Lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.”
William Cowper; There is a Fountain, 1834

The words of There is a Fountain are written by a man who was smitten to the point of suicide with deep depression and anxiety until he found Christ to deal with the guilt that was debilitating him. Most modern skeptics would judge the author of a song like this to be a madman, not a recovered manic rejoicing with the Lord over the grace that He afforded him. So it is with the gospel. Paul tells us that it is “Foolishness to the Greeks, and a stumbling block to the Jews”...

(from "A Preeminent Tabernacle" preached by Mike Gunn)