O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
HT: Jesus Creed
Categories: prayer
Now, I will freely admit my bias towards the city. I love, love, love living in an urban area. Let me say that again — I LOVE it !!! I love the energy, I love the diversity, I love the craziness, I love the art and culture, I love the music venues and I love the needs that are obvious and not hidden.
So, I am totally biased, and one-sided. There, you know where I am coming from….
However, that being said — this is really one of the better articles that I have read recently — regarding cities & suburbs. It is written by Dave Gibbons, who is a pastor who lives in the suburbs, and whom I have great respect for. He is with a great church called New Song.
The Most Dangerous Place in America — Why the suburbs are silently sinister.
Here is the meat of it… (especially the last paragraph !):
“The suburban enclaves—with their middle-class citizens and well- manicured lawns, gates and guards protecting their Orwellian lifestyle and toys, Starbucks a few minutes from each busy intersection, and some of the best schools in the country—may actually be the most dangerous places to live. We may not have the high murder counts or robberies that urban centers have, but I wonder if the suburbs have become breeding grounds for the accessible and shallow thrills of drugs and alcohol abuse, extravagant parties and proms, and mere facades of happiness and the American dream. Just ask your local city drug dealer about his primary consumers: suburban teenagers and college students.
I’m not a researcher, but my gut impression from my travels and interactions with youth in the major cities of the world, as well as in suburbs and rural communities, is that they are all equally dangerous, just in different ways.
The dangers of the suburbs entail the lack of imagination (where do you find real art museums, innovative music venues, and creative opportunities to explore nature?); materialism; greed; isolation behind cookie-cutter neighborhoods and homogeneous clubs and churches; boredom: apathy; fascination with the relevant more than the real; a love affair with popularity more than loving the poor; and a thirst for excitement superficially satisfied in the Friday night party. All this takes precedence over a dangerous ride with God on the frontlines of his movement.”
Categories: Los Angeles · the City · theology
C.S. Lewis on the church in enemy territory:
“One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universe – a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the Power behind death and disease, and sin. The difference is that Christianity thinks this Dark Power was created by God, and was good when he was created, and went wrong. Christianity agrees with Dualism that this universe is at war. But it does not think this is a war between independent powers. It thinks it is a civil war, a rebellion, and that we are living in a part of the universe occupied by the rebel.”
“Enemy-occupied territory – that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage. When you go to church you are really listening to the secret wireless from our friends; that is why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us from going.” (from Mere Christianity)
HT: DashHouse
Divine Direction-Giver,
you place your hand gently but firmly upon our shoulders and show us the way. We confess that out of our willfulness we often try to go in other directions. Forgive us when we try to go it alone and ignore your gentle touch and patient direction. Help us to return to your way. Amen.
________________________________________
Categories: prayer
okay, figured out how to embed this….
hope you enjoy:
more about "Death Cab for Cutie", posted with vodpod
Categories: music Monday
Interesting read in the WSJ about a female octet group named ‘Girsa’, that does compelling renditions of traditional Irish ballads. It looks a little like a high school group — but they actually sound good.
What’s Irish for ‘Girl Power?’
Categories: music Monday
Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
HT: Jesus Creed
Categories: prayer
Larry (who leads worship at Kairos 1x/month), has an amazingly gifted artist son (Justin).
We went to his art show a few weeks back – at this hole-in-the-wall place, that actually really worked for having an art show…
Categories: Friends · Los Angeles
this is from a little bit back — but it is classic.
Colbert interrupts Bart Ehrman, as Bart is making his ridiculous claims…
more about "Cross Eyed: Atheist Interrupted", posted with vodpod
Here are some interesting thoughts by Ben Witherington III:
Actually Bart is dead wrong about early Christology, and I think he even knows it. Its pretty hard to miss Phil. 2.5-11, written before any Gospel probably. There it is said not only that Christ is “in very nature God” even before he takes on human form, but then on top of that Paul quotes and applies Isaiah to Christ after the ascension saying he has the name above all names, which very clearly in Isaiah is the name of God. The transfer of the LXX name for God ‘kyrios’ to Christ is clearly enough a statement about his divinity. In addition to which in Romans 9.5 Christ is called “God above all blessed forever”.
Furthermore, the Synoptic Gospels most certainly do view Christ as divine. This is why he is portrayed as Immanuel for example in Matthew’s Gospel, or as the human and also divine Son of Man of Daniel 7 fame who came from heaven to judge the world and will rule in a kingdom for ever (see Mk. 14.62).
Ehrman’s retro arguments about such things don’t even convince most liberal scholars these days, they just say that Paul was divinizing Jesus because they know he had an exalted view of Christ.
As for Colbert, he is a devout Catholic who teaches Sunday school, and is not much interested in making fun of any orthodox Christians.”
if you really want to read an alternative view on Ehrman’s latest book (Jesus Interrupted) – here you go…
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Categories: culture · theology · wild Wednesday
…dont know if you have been following this at all, but interesting read by N.T. Wright:
