Gluenow.com

Well I am sitting here thinking about my Integrative Paper Due Dec. 6th. I am not getting anything written down but I have several ideas. Unfortunately, ideas are not bringing me any comfort. So, I am blogging about the paper instead of writing it. I am using gluenow.com to see how it works at updating all my feeds (Facebook, Twitter, Myspace,WordPress, etc.)

I have decided to re-read Blackaby’s Spiritual Leadership to add to my thoughts about the paper. I have not been disappointed. There is a lot of graet stuff in the book.

Gluenow.com

Well I am sitting here thinking about my Integrative Paper Due Dec. 6th. I am not getting anything written down but I have several ideas. Unfortunately, ideas are not bringing me any comfort. So, I am blogging about the paper instead of writing it. I am using gluenow.com to see how it works at updating all my feeds (Facebook, Twitter, Myspace,WordPress, etc.)

I have decided to re-read Blackaby’s Spiritual Leadership to add to my thoughts about the paper. I have not been disappointed. There is a lot of graet stuff in the book.

Imagine If God Asked You, “Where are you?” I did.

“Randy, where are you?”, God calls.

“Well, Crap! Where have I gone that You can’t find me?”, I whisper under my breath.

God replies, “No, I know where you are, you silly man, I am only asking because I want you to know where you are.”

“Oh, You heard that? Um… You, had me worried for a moment”, I say. “In that case, I am here in Georgia, You know that place I said I would never go to live again. I’ll tell You, these past five years have been hard on us (Wanda, the kids and I). We are tired, emotionally, spiritually and physically. Also, I am bored intellectually. I know this is where You wanted us to go, and I thought I was prepared for the difficulty we would face, but, this has been even harder than I imagined.

“It isn’t really hard physical work for me, it’s the limited hours of sleep. Of course You know that. It is hard to watch any person die slowly day by day. It is even harder to watch Wanda, watch her mom die. Then, at the same time watch Wanda’s dad cling to some hope that he can keep his wife by shear force of will. It wears on my soul. How do I express the hope we have in You, without making him feel like I have given up on her. I know he misses her, but only her body is here. Sure there are the occasional moments of twinkle in her eye or when she says something that may make you think she is with us, but those moments are happening far less frequently. Those moments reenforce his hope. I don’t understand why he can’t see that as we lose more of her, You have not lost Your hold of her, she is secure.

“This time has had a dual affect on my spirit, I am constantly running to You and from You. Sometimes both at once. My emotions tell me to run from You as quickly as I can! ‘Do you really want to face the next heart ache He has in store for you?’, they say.  Then, You do some thing miraculous, like speak some truth from Your word, from one of Your children, or even from on of Your enemies and I collapse into Your peace clinging to You. So, does that make any sense to you? Because I have a hard time with it.”

“Yes.”

“Yes? Well um, thats it?”, my confused reply.

“Yes.”

“Okay. I guess it is kind of like that song ‘Storm’ by Lifehouse, Crying out to You in the mist of this crazy storm of which I can make no sense. Then realizing that if I could just see You everything would be okay. Everything is okay”, I say, “right?”

“Yes, so what next?”

“You’re asking me? I suppose I am going to keep taking care of the Jerrys, the kids and Wanda while I pursue the MATL at Bethel. You know I have wanted to get a masters degree for a long time, but I have put it off three other times in order ‘to do ministry’ rather than learn about it. I can’t really say what will come after that. I mean I never thought I would be the one taking care of Wanda’s mom. You know there are some people I just never wanted to bathe and/or see naked. Anyway, as I look at it now my being laid off seems to come right when Wanda couldn’t keep lifting her three or four times a day. Then you give me the part-time job at Woodland just when I thought my brain was going to turn to jelly from lack of use. So, I am just hoping to live each day and not worry about three years from now. You know, I am not very good at living for today. So, is that what you are trying to teach me?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe? That is awful vague.”

“Hmm.”

Knowledge and Reality

This statement was posed to me this week in my hermeneutics class:

Suppose someone said to you: ‘Knowledge is not so much like a statement that we consider objectively true, it’s more like a lens humans employ for making sense of reality.’ What would you say to that?
This was my response:

I would have to ask the question, ‘What is reality?’ Is it the world I can see and touch? Is it that plus what I feel? Does it include what I imagine? Or is reality, what exists outside of self? How do we define real?

I am going to define reality as the Creator GOD (God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit). God created “everything that is”, it is real because He made it. I am viewing things from my finite created position within “everything that is”. So if I follow through with the lens analogy, because I am within “everything that is” I cannot see but from my perspective (my knowledge) which is then also tainted by sin. So my lens is small and broken.

Therefore my view of “everything that is” is also small and broken. So, yes I use my small and broken lens of knowledge to view “reality”. Now, because of that small and broken lens I may not be able to see enough of “everything that is” to want to admit that there is a creator that made “everything that is”.

The good news is that the Creator God has stepped into “everything that is” and wants to repair my small broken lens. Thus, He widens my view of reality (my knowledge) to gain a clearer, yet, still small view. Overtime as I submit to him that view gets less and less distorted, though I will never have the Creators perspective.

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It is hard to deny that this is a fundamental change in culture but I am sure some will try.

But, I have some questions:

How should believers act in this change?

Can we steer this course? or Do we ride the wave? or Try to catch up later?

Can we use it effectively to introduce people to Jesus?

What is my role?

And They Devoted Themselves

⁴²And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. ⁴³And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. ⁴⁴And all who believed were together and had all things in common. ⁴⁵And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. ⁴⁶And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, ⁴⁷praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2;42-47 CEV)

The above passage is a picture of the “church”.

Brad has been teaching from this passage for a couple of weeks now and this week he quoted a speaker he heard some 20 years ago while in seminary Dr. E. K. Bailey. Dr. Bailey said, “The problem is church, you don’t look like your picture!”

So, if it is true that Acts 2:42-47 is a picture of the church, I have to ask myself some questions:

Am I a fulfillment of this picture?

Am I filled with AWE?

Am I seeing signs and wonders done?

Am I together (unified) with other believers? If so, do we have everything in commom?

Do I sell what is mine to give to those in need?

Am I devoted to meeting together with the Body?

Do I take time to eat and fellowship with other believers daily?

Do I recieve all my meals with gladness and sincerity(NASB)?

Do I praise God as He deserves?

Do I have favor with all?

Is God adding to this body daily?

Attitude is the Key to Winning in a Shifting Job Market
Although the current economic crisis poses many challenges, how we approach it will determine whether we sink or swim.
http://www.associatedcontent.com

Ministry Lessons from a Muslim | LeadershipJournal.net

Ministry Lessons from a Muslim | LeadershipJournal.net

His unexpected message to church leaders: fully embrace your Christian identity.

Skye Jethani and Brandon O’Brien | posted 7/06/2009

Eboo Patel is not the most likely seminary professor. His credentials are not the issue. Patel earned his doctorate from Oxford University, and he is a respected commentator on religion for The Washington Post and National Public Radio. He has spoken in venues across the world, including conferences for evangelical church leaders.

What makes Eboo Patel an unlikely seminary professor is that he is Muslim.

The editors of Leadership first encountered Patel at the 2008 Q Conference, where he challenged 500 Christian leaders to change the rules of interfaith dialogue. “Muslims and Christians might not fully agree on worldview,” he said, “but we share a world.” Patel spoke of his enduring friendships with a number of evangelicals and his desire to move beyond the “clash of civilizations” rhetoric that dominates Christian/Muslim interaction. While holding firmly to his belief in Islam, he also affirmed church leaders. “Even though it is not my tradition and my community,” Patel wrote after the conference, “I believe deeply that this type of evangelical Christianity is one of the most positive forces on Earth.”

We were intrigued, so we contacted Patel to talk more about the ramifications of increasing religious diversity in America, as well as his outsider’s perspective of the church’s response. Patel gave us more than we bargained for. He invited us to attend a class he was teaching on interfaith leadership at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.

Patel is not on the seminary faculty. He serves as the executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC)—a Chicago-based international non-profit that brings together religiously diverse young leaders to serve their communities. The seminary invited Patel to co-teach the course on interfaith leadership with Cassie Meyer, a Christian who serves as the training director at IFYC.

Be more Christian (to read the rest of the article click here)

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Death, Dieing and Living

I have been reminded over the last few weeks that our time on this planet is very limited. Our days are numbered, as the scriptures say.

Two men, with so much to live for, with things that they thought there would be plenty of time to do, left this world. Many people have said that their time was cut short, but if GOD is soveriegn, then I cannot agree with that without a considerable amount of struggle. I want to scream out that they did not get a chance to finish what they started, what they were supposed to do. I want to say that the Creator of the universe made some sort of mistake, maybe He was not watching close enough.

There is this woman with Alzheimer’s, that for all purposes has left us, her body lingers on, eating, drinking, and eliminating. Yet there is no meaningful or reasoned communication, her body just existing. I question the Sustainer of lif and His wisdom, leaving her body here withering like a leaf off the branch. Still, if our days are numbered, she will remain until the counting is complete.

So, I am at odds within myself, my knowledge of His truth and my feelings of what is or should be best. Two men taken away and one woman left. The one essentially gone before her body gives up. Two whose bodies are ripped from this world before their tasks were complete. And, I struggle, I don’t see the good in these situations. I want to cling to the truth that the Creator and Sustainer has a plan and a reason. That He knows and cares about those left behind and those who watch helplessly as death’s daily erosion of the one they love. And, I do cling to that Truth, sometimes. I am comforted in knowing that all three named and lived for Jesus, the Savior, the best they could. So, the two now are really living and the one will join them.

The Barna Group – Americans Are Exploring New Ways of Experiencing God

The Barna Group – Americans Are Exploring New Ways of Experiencing God

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