Beautiful Music

Check it out. I've met him a couple of times before. He often plays keyboard at our church.

http://andrewrrogers.com/music/

"Word of God" ?

I was asked this question this morning..

"Does it bother you when people refer to that book as the 'word of God'?"

My response was perfectly vague and noncommittal. And I do not think that my response should've been vague and noncommittal. I think it is important that I start to develop an articulation and defense for what I believe. And I think it needs to begin very soon (possibly waiting until the semester and its papers are finished).

So, turning the question back to you...

Does it bother you when people refer to the Bible as the "word of God"?

Who am I

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Who am I? They often tell me

I stepped from my cell's confinement

calmly, cheerfully, firmly,

like a Squire from his country house.

Who am I? They often tell me

I used to speak to my warders

freely and friendly and clearly,

as though it were mine to command.

Who am I? They also tell me

I bore the days of misfortune

equably, smilingly, proudly,

like one accustomed to win.

Am I then really that which other men tell of?

Or am I only what I myself know of myself?

Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,

struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat,

yearning for colours, for flowers, for the voices of birds,

thirsting for words of kindness, for neighbourliness,

tossing in expectation of great events,

powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,

weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,

faint, and ready to say farewell to it all.

Who am I? This or the Other?

Am I one person to-day and to-morrow another?

Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,

and before myself a contemptible woebegone weakling?

Or is something within me still like a beaten army

fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?

Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.

Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine!

Pray.

Welcome to Our World

Tears are falling
Hearts are breaking
How we need to hear from God
You've been promised
We've been waiting
Welcome, Holy Child
Welcome, Holy Child

Hope that you don't
Mind our manger
How I wish we would have known
But long-awaited
Holy Stranger
Make Yourself at home
Please make Yourself at home

Bring Your peace
Into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
Word now breaking
Heaven's silence
Welcome to our world
Welcome to our world

Fragile finger
Sent to heal us
Tender brow prepared for thorn
Tiny heart
Whose blood will save us
Unto us is born
Unto us is born

So wrap our injured
Flesh around You
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin
And make us holy
Perfect Son of God
Welcome to our world

("Welcome to Our World," Chris Rice)

Saturday of Midterm Break

I think I could miss New Guinea right now.

And by that, I mean to say that I miss free, careless home.

I'm glad it's midterm break right now. The past 48 hours have been quite good, memories of home notwithstanding :)

Thoughts to come, hopefully....

Thoughts on solitude and community.

Suspicion as the enemy of community.

Is the value of an individual within a given community contingent upon that individual's potential/real contribution to that community? What about within the redeemed community? How does it affect our interpretation of Scripture? How does it affect our understanding of sin - original and personal?

Love, unity, division, marginalization, peace, Friday's message in chapel, humility, preaching.

Run

Surrender is one of the most difficult things for me, I think.

It's fight or flight for me, even it seems when the right thing is to submit.

So I fight it for all it's worth or I drown it in distraction.

God, please help me. I'm not yet ready and I don't know if I ever will be. But I want to be.

I think "Surrender" by BarlowGirl is probably pretty accurate.

Yep.

Feeling and writing, but not now

Sometimes I really feel like writing. Things I've been thinking about and want to share. Or sometimes just expressing memories.

The latter is driving my current desire to share.

But I think I'll leave it locked up right now.

Words aren't adequate and I feel that words won't satisfy, not yet. I'm gonna miss my home for a little longer.

It's pleasant. In a strange sort of way.

God is good.

Does anyone else smell that?

[Alternate Title: Why my clothes are so soft]

So I discovered (on Saturday) that I have been using fabric softener to clean my clothes and have been doing so for the majority of the past eight months.

I suppose my high school chemistry teacher, Mr. Beursken, was right to harp endlessly: "Pay strict attention to detail."

Yep... should've read that label closer.

Eve.

The daggers sink anew.

I still can't get over Eve Carson's murder.

My dear God.

In North Carolina

Waxhaw, NC.

I'm here. And it's quite beautiful. And the weather looks to be quite nice over this coming week.

Looking forward to some relaxation, hopefully, along with some time to think.

Perhaps some blogging, too? Hmm, perhaps.

I am soo looking forward to it. Oh, and I got to play soccer today: outdoor, pick-up. :D

A quote I heard today... something to chew on: "I would rather do something wrong out of right motives than happen to do something right out of wrong motives." Or something along those lines. Interesting indeed.

Listen.

Dear God. Dear world.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iU3IVnyNBpy8ooTN4OutE2rKG1pgD8V8JBH80.

How many times will this happen? How many!

How long until we realize? How long! We're so screwed up. We need Jesus.

Please, God - forgive. Please, God - remind. Please, God - heal. Please, God - return.

Forgive us for ignoring. Forgive us for apathy. Forgive us for distraction. Forgive us for our sin. Forgive us for forgetting what Christ has done.

Remind us of Christ. Remind us of our depravity apart from you. Remind us of Christ. Remind us of who we are in you. Remind us of Christ.

Heal us. Heal our world. Heal the hurt. Heal the pain. Heal the relationships. Heal us.

Return, O LORD. I'm so over this. Return and right the wrongs. Judge us fairly, LORD. Remember your love. Remember your son. But, please, make it right. I'm sorry for the way I've been wrong. I'm sorry for the way we've been wrong.

Dear God.

Chasing Happiness

When I surveyed all that my hands had done
___and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless,
___a chasing after the wind
(Ecclesiastes 2:11, NIV)

The American dream of happiness is rooted in a belief in the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," which is written into the Declaration of Independence. Yet we all know coworkers, friends, or loved ones who use their liberty to pursue happiness and end up... saying, "This isn't what it's cracked up to be." Their pursuit of happiness becomes "chasing after the wind."

That American dream is broken. It always has been.


--The above is copied (sans emphasis) from a letter I received today from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. (Note: all discussion about the merits of this and similar organizations will have to wait for another day.. that's not the point of this post - if you missed the point, read again). I am interested to find out how their TV special, "America's Dream: Chasing Happiness," touches on this topic. Airing times can be found here.

Later, all.

"That American dream is broken. It always has been."

Unity?!

Unity - what is it?

Is it possible? How?

Oh, the thoughts that have run their course through my mind as of late... modernity, postmodernity, truth, God, Christ, Christianity, priorities, surrender, society, politics, word-deed disconnect, God as a social construct vs. God as Himself, the Church, pain and brokenness, orientation, misplaced focus, existence, HIV/AIDS and a properly Christian approach, love, justice, interpretation of Scripture, do we trying to follow ourselves even though we pretend to be following God?

Maybe I'll unpack some of these here. Maybe.

Peace. Soli Deo Gloria.

It is a difficult thing.

It is a difficult thing, this life is.

It is a difficult thing, to stake one's life upon Christ.

It is a difficult thing.

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24.

Dear Church

Dear Church:

Who are you? Do you even know?

Who brings you into being?

Who gives you life?

Who draws you to himself?

Who comforts you in your pain?

Who lights your darkness and lightens your burden?

Who gives rest to the weary and restores the broken?

Who speaks judgment on the oppressors and justice for the oppressed?

Who grants mercy to the penitent?

Who brings peace in the midst of struggle?

Who leads the blind and heals the lame?

Who warns those who are idle and encourages the timid?

Who helps the weak?

Who leads the fearful?

Who touches the unloved?

Who displays the truth and disputes deceit?

Who brings you to this place?

Who gives you cause to be thankful and reason to be joyful?

Who will take you home?

Dear Church:

Who is this person? Do you even know?

He died to restore you. He rose in God’s mighty power.

In the same way, you also are called to die. God will take care of the rest. You must die.

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24.

Teach us, Lord – we need you.