tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22505791077734746172024-03-13T14:51:22.603-05:00a stoners journalA blog for the purpose of communicating the purposes and passions of the pastor of 5 stones community church.david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.comBlogger262125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-667500932538873602011-03-18T13:24:00.000-05:002011-03-18T13:24:43.867-05:00concerning Rob Bell's new book and the face of theology todayOpening statements:<br />
<br />
If an orthodoxy cannot withstand questions, it is already dead.<br />
<br />
Teachers will face a double judgment<br />
<br />
Yes I have Rob Bell's book, and no i haven't finished it. But the conclusions of the book are already in grave doubt because of the methodology of his arguments.<br />
<br />
<br />
<ol><li>His exegesis is terrible. He heads into using word studies as a way around difficult biblical realities. He often pulls texts from their paragraph because the paragraph itself wouldn't support his conclusions. He also simply ignores major texts that would work against his argument.</li>
<li>He starts the book with a presupposition and reaction. A presupposition that God is so loving that Hell cannot possibly be what the bible and historical orthodoxy postulate that it is; and he didn't like what someone said in a note at his church art exhibit.</li>
<li>His trying to lump Origin into being a representative of orthodoxy is suspect at best. Universalism is not part of the great big stream of historical orthodoxy.</li>
<li>His use of questions as a rhetorical device is deeply manipulative and a dodge of responsibility. "Have you quit beating your wife," sort of questions. </li>
</ol><div>But this is simply the increasingly complex difficulty with theology today</div><div><br />
</div><div>Postmoderns / Emergents</div><div><br />
</div><div><ol><li>Don't do a good job with exegesis. Their logical and theological fallacies are often terrible.</li>
<li>They use word studies and find obscure definitions to dodge difficult realities.</li>
<li>In trying to be relevant they avoid the fact that the cross is a stumbling block.</li>
<li>They don't like Gods wrath (and other things) so they seek to remove them.</li>
<li>They quote historical [Ancient / Future] texts conveniently and often out of context.</li>
<li>They say "i'm just asking a question" like it gives them license to speculate on anything.</li>
<li>While deconstructionism is all fine and good for paradigm shifts, this group increasing tells you what they are against and don't like while being unable to clearly articulate their dogmatic doctrines.</li>
</ol><div>but: lest the sword not be shared equitably</div></div><div><br />
</div><div>Emerging / New-Calvinists</div><div><br />
</div><div><ol><li>Ignore the Corinthians passages about love</li>
<li>Ignore Matthew 18</li>
<li>Gossip and slander through blogs and justify it through rationalizing it as truth telling / prophetic thus showing them to tip their hand that the means does justify the ends. They have no sense of ethics in how they accomplish their inquisitions and can justify almost anything with a defending-truth mantra of some sort</li>
<li>Rarely show compassion in their confrontations</li>
<li>Ask for repentance but show no initiative of reconciliation</li>
<li>Are smug, arrogent, and prideful concerning truth in ways that are very ugly to those inside and outside the church</li>
</ol><div>In short, younger evangelical Orthodoxy is in terrible shape because of both these movements</div></div><div><br />
</div><div>1. Errors on doctrine and truth</div><div>1. Errors on love and relationship</div><div><br />
</div><div>Both damage Orthodoxy deeply. </div><div><br />
</div><div>1. Damages the head</div><div>1. Damages the heart</div><div>Both damage the gospel.</div><div><br />
</div><div>So while i have a soft spot for people to be able to question things, there is also a need for me to be an elder in Christianity. And while there are grey areas of conscience and opinion and paradox and culture...the gospel is not one of them.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Christ died for sinners, of whom I am chief. He atoned for my sin by facing the full wrath of God on the cross. There is only one name by which men can be saved, and that is the name of Christ.</div><div><br />
</div><div>There are vague scriptures that do allude to other possibilities, but they offer us only speculation. And speculation cannot offer hope. The hope of the nations and the world is Jesus.</div><div><br />
</div><div>but what about those who never heard</div><div>what about those who have a limited IQ</div><div>what about an infant who dies</div><div><br />
</div><div>yes yes I know the questions</div><div>and yes there ARE possible speculations</div><div>but I trust these people and these questions to the character of Christ</div><div><br />
</div><div>and he hasn't clearly answered these questions</div><div><br />
</div><div>so we CAN speculate...there are some groovy things he says</div><div><br />
</div><div>i have flocks you know not of...?</div><div>he descends to hell to preach and set captives free...?</div><div>the light one has been given argument from Romans...?</div><div><br />
</div><div>but we must be very careful to not give false hope...it is just that...speculation</div><div><br />
</div><div>I write this while sitting in a catholic monastery with my brothers in Christ who I disagree with about a host of things.</div><div>I write this still having learned a ton from other Rob Bell books and Nooma videos that i will still recommend.</div><div>I write this loving Rob Bell...and...loving John Piper</div><div>I write this knowing Augustine said "I have erred but I am not a heretic"</div><div>I write this trusting Jesus and not Calvin, Bell, Driscoll, McLaren...though i learn from all of them</div><div><br />
</div><div>I want love to win</div><div>I want truth to win</div><div><br />
</div><div>But in order for Jesus to win</div><div><br />
</div><div>we must speak the TRUTH.....IN......LOVE</div><div><br />
</div><div>so if your looking for guidance:</div><div><br />
</div><div>Read the book...and take every quote and go back to the paragraph it came from, it's not like there isn't some good points and questions in there...there are!</div><div>Read every verse in the Bible about wrath, vengeance, atonement, and hell</div><div><br />
</div><div>Pray for Rob and his enemies [or his brothers that have mistaken him for an enemy]. Rob isn't the anti-christ and don't let anybody tell you he is. Rob is asking questions, but he is also deconstructing orthodoxy with the way he is asking and answering those questions. Give him grace and space, while still confronting him.</div><div><br />
</div><div>finally i read something from Thomas Merton's journals today that cracked me up.</div><div><br />
</div><div>He is writing in the late 60's and basically he lists a few books he has written and says they are good and that God was in it, and then he lumps the rest together and says they were crap.</div><div><br />
</div><div>i laughed. </div><div><br />
</div><div>laugh a little. and move forward carefully. </div><div><br />
</div><div>if you hate Bell...be careful...if you say "you fool" you may be in danger of hellfire [Jesus said that]</div><div>if you love Bell...be careful...he may not be using the Bible as carefully as he should</div><div><br />
</div><div>and remember Rob is more of a pastor artist...sadly...he has painted himself into a corner. I will not throw stones, but i will seek to help him out. and I must help others to not go where he has gone.</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div>david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-48379076230137478752010-10-07T10:48:00.000-05:002010-10-07T10:48:20.127-05:00Appetites for destructionCatalyst tension 2010<br />
<br />
Our appetites for...food, sex, sleep, etc are high motivators in our lives<br />
Desires are the drivers of our lives<br />
Each appetite creates tension...because we always want more<br />
<br />
Leadership tensions<br />
<br />
Progress<br />
Responsibility<br />
Wins<br />
Growth<br />
Respect / Recognition / Fame / to be envied...jealousy<br />
Achievement<br />
<br />
Appetites:<br />
God created them and Sin distorts them<br />
Never fully and finally satisfied<br />
Always whisper NOW and never later<br />
<br />
Step 1 admit your reality<br />
<br />
Your reaction to your appetites that are never and fully satisfied will determine the path and destination of your life<br />
<br />
The internal battle must be won before the external war can be fought<br />
<br />
Gen 25 Jacob and Essau<br />
Both have appetites that are out of control<br />
<br />
Birthrights and blessings deeply desired<br />
Finances and inheritance<br />
Position and respect-given authority over the rest of the family<br />
Blessing...anointing and unique connection to God assumed<br />
<br />
Essau: mans man fight club<br />
Jacob: metrosexual, making dinner<br />
<br />
Older bro never need younger bro<br />
Younger bro always wants and needs something from older bro<br />
<br />
But when the older bro needs something... The younger bro says hey let's pause while I figure out what I can get out of this. Negotiation trade.<br />
<br />
The stupidest trade ever...because of inability to defer gratification<br />
Who would throw away....for .....<br />
Why?<br />
Because we can't wait we want it now<br />
<br />
Without this I will die! Bull... The appetite creates a brain impact bias and magnifies it completely out of proportion. Survival instinct on crack! Brain is lying to you and this is why you will have buyers remorse. And the brain does focalism where we see 1 thing and blur and forget everything else.<br />
<br />
This happens every time an appetite gets provoked<br />
<br />
This decision / these decisions are what Destroy the future!<br />
<br />
Now decisions: good and bad are unleashed into the future like a bullet from a gun<br />
<br />
The future essau: Moses lineage, Jesus, MatthewS gospel...<br />
Look at your bowl again<br />
It would be better if you died than if you did this<br />
You are about to lose your future<br />
<br />
YOU must mature enough to reframe your appetites<br />
<br />
And God let's this happen.. Because the responsibility is OURS<br />
This is the privilege and responsibility of freedom<br />
<br />
If the appetite gets control<br />
You will compromise everything to get it<br />
<br />
10 years from now...<br />
What do you want to see...desire to b an elder is a good thing<br />
But<br />
Control how you get there<br />
<br />
What is your bowl of stew?<br />
<br />
What are you desperate for to create excitement or ease the pain?<br />
<br />
Talk yourself off the cliff?<br />
<br />
What is not illegal or immoral that you do but you wish nobody ever found out about?<br />
<br />
Make no private decision that can't stand up on a public stage<br />
<br />
This pushes the appetite back into the right context<br />
<br />
The Jonathan Edwards reality<br />
The resolutions<br />
The graveyard<br />
<br />
And you are not just trading your stuff you are trading others hope, faith, etc.<br />
<br />
Refrain<br />
Retrain<br />
Retame<br />
And maintain<br />
<br />
Or lose to good plans God has for you!david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-19299765097896944072010-08-27T08:46:00.000-05:002010-08-27T08:46:35.409-05:00practical atheist week 1<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">So here's the deal. Your computer is depressed, it's slow, it;s sad, and frankly it's depressed. You've tried to install patches, a new OS, and even some new security features. But it still just won't work right. So you go to some online forums to get some advice, but nobody really gives you anything new. Finally, after coming to the conclusion that you can't fix it yourself you make a cell-phone call to service. They tell you to go to a chatroom and they walk you through a bunch of stuff that doesn't work either. Then the worst thing happens, you get a virus and it just messes with everything. You don't know what you did wrong to download the virus but nothing you try gets it out and everything is screwed up. Now there is only one thing left to do. But you don't like it. There is a service where you go on-line and let a remote host have access to your computer. It's kind of freaky because you can see the disembodied mouse moving around on your screen doing whatever it wants to. Plus it makes you feel stupid watching it, because it will write weird coded stuff on black pop-up screens and actually change the software; all that stuff us mere mortals don't know how to do. At first it's not to bad, but then the operator asks for some passwords for some protected parts of the machine. You know; bank account stuff, internet history, and some other places that you aren't sure you want to open up. So you lie, and say you'll have to be back to them because you can't remember those pass codes right now. And then you sit there and are just stuck. Because while all this stuff sounds mechanical, intellectual, and scientific the fact remains that you will have to trust this person before anything changes. And we don't like trusting some ethereal and faceless stranger with our pass codes, secrets, bank account information, and web history. So now you will have to sit back an weigh your options. A new Mac is too expensive. Staying with the way things are is increasingly impossible. But am I willing to risk trusting this person? A person who if i let them in to total access could fix or destroy everything.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">You walk away to think and feel your way through that decision.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">It's so weird to let a stranger into your house. But then to let them access the fridge, and your checkbook is even weirder. What if they...?! And when it gets really weird is if they sneak into bed with you, yikes! And then...worst case scenario...they can even read your thoughts and feelings and motivations. Epic-weirdness!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">my point?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">These are all freakishly bizarre scenarios. So let me make it even stranger. What if this person loved you in spite of all the crazy stuff they have discovered about you. What if they had completely pure motivations and wanted into your life not for what they could get out of you but for what they could give you? Would you let them in, would you trust them, would you risk it?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">This is after all, all about you and God. And God is both patient as well as intrusive in these sort of things. He wants into your hardrive. HHe wants into your checking account. And yes, he wants into your web browsing history. He wants remote access to all those password protected areas because of the virus that is infecting everything [the trojan horse we call 'sin'.] He wants full disclosure, full access, and full administrator rights and privileges. And as you sit in your seat you are gonna have to decide if you trust him or not. Not just a reaching-in-faith towards belief trust; but a rubber-hits-the-road of reality trust. In a good way, Jesus wants to go viral in you. He wants to shine his love, hope, power, peace, grace, discipline, truth, light...into every square millimeter and milibite of your life.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">What's a practical atheist? A practical atheist is someone who believes in God but acts like He doesn't exist. Or to put it another way, they let God unto the computer but keep massive sections out of his reach. Places like sex, money, painful memories, etc. The sort of relationship where we say we have a relationship with God but really we are just acquaintances that chit chat from time to time.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">So here is what I suggest you do when you get back to that computer that's busted up in epic-fail mode. I suggest you go all-in and trust the disembodied techie and let them have remote access and control of everything. Let God have it all. He will be patient, and we will try to keep him out. But simply choose to hand him they keys to every room of your life. And i'll promise you something. This "stranger" will become trustworthy to you. Because trust is earned, and it can only be earned if we risk. Every great story of faith is a story of risking trusting God. </span>david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-88637204355741926172010-08-04T11:44:00.001-05:002010-08-04T11:44:05.460-05:00Perez Hilton, Anne Rice and Christianity<a href="http://m.perezhilton.com/blog/91697/">http://m.perezhilton.com/blog/91697/</a>david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-67661622749522896962010-08-02T10:18:00.000-05:002010-08-02T10:18:19.400-05:00the voice of...<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><u><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The Voice:<o:p></o:p></span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">There is a voice that calls out to all of creation. The voice is in our very image; it lies within our conscience; and it can be read in creation itself. The voice calls out to us to come home, to a home we have never known. It calls out to us as creatures and leads us back to the creator. The voice is in a language we need to learn even as we had to learn our own native tongue. At first it seems garbled and broken, but as we ask for and enter into pursuit of the voice it comes to sing over us, and if we will let it in, it can sing from within us. And the song it longs to sing is full of tears of wonder, and laughter, and hope, but most of all it is a love-song. The song of God’s love calling out to us, a voice full of whispers and wind, an Mp3 from eternity.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The Voice is the Word of God and is the essential creative wind that breathes life into all we do and are. This core belief and doctrine means that God has not left us alone without code or creed, but that he has effectively written our binary code over the last few thousand years [downloading it bit by bit and generation by generation]; showed us exactly what the template of humanity could and should be in the person of Jesus; and is explaining and revealing fresh recordings through His indwelling Spirit within us. The word of God is both mystical in the sense that the Ghost of God issues revelation [fresh information and reminders of ancient information] and union with Her children. And it is Manifest in that it is embodied incarnationally in the person of Jesus Christ. That said, the Voice is our mothers milk as well as the meat we need to be sustained through our intellectual questions, emotional experiences, and search for practical answers for how to live life in a fractured and deconstructed society and civilization. <o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment-->david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-45609073084680764342010-07-21T14:08:00.000-05:002010-07-21T14:08:08.354-05:00earning the right to be heard<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Eurose Wide-Heavy"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Love without the gospel:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">An apologetic for forming a relational platform of love <b>before</b> sharing the gospel.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Each passage informs us to do good to unbelievers as well as people of the faith and NONE of the passages command us to preach-the-gospel at the same time.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Notice that nearly all these passages seem to infer building a relational reputation so that you can come to a place of influence: IE Show people the love of God so that you can earn the right to be heard and tell them about God.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">There is neither command nor condemnation for doing good and not presenting the gospel. Therefore it is inappropriate to command or condemn such a practice.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><u><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Scriptural basis:<o:p></o:p></span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">1 Peter 3<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">“Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>they may be won over without words</u></b> by the behavior of their wives.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Luke 6:33<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">"If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Luke 6:35<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">"But <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>love your enemies, and do good</u></b>, and lend, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>expecting nothing in return</u></b>; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Galatians 6:10<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">So then, while we have opportunity, let us <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>do good to all people</u></b> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">1 Timothy 6:18<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Instruct them to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share</u></b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Matthew 5:16<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">"<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Let your light shine before men in such a way</u></b> that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">1 Timothy 5:9-11 <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">A widow is to be put on the list only if she is not less than sixty years old, having been the wife of one man, having <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>a reputation for good works</u></b>; and if she has brought up children, if she has <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>shown hospitality to strangers</u></b>, if she has washed the saints' feet, if she has <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>assisted those in distress</u></b>, and if she has <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>devoted herself to every good work<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Matthew 5:44-46 <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">But I say unto you, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; </u></b>That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for <u>he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust</u>. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Titus 2:14-15<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>zealous of good works</u></b>. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Let no man despise thee.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Hebrews 13:2<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">John 10:5<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">"A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">1 Peter 2:12<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Live such good lives <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>among</u></b> the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">2 Timothy 2:24<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>he must be kind to everyone</u></b>, able to teach, not resentful.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">1 Thessalonians 5:15<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Colossians 3:12<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Matthew 25:44-46 <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. '"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.<o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment-->david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-11803513678601042162010-06-23T19:53:00.000-05:002010-06-23T19:53:26.192-05:00John Shore article on Batman and integrity12<br />
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We tend to think of integrity as a quality that feels really good to possess and manifest. We think of, say, Batman -- hands on hips, chest out, cape flowing magnificently behind him -- standing triumphantly over one of his conquered enemies, and we imagine he's just glowing from the inside, from having just accomplished something wonderful. And he has done something wonderful. And of course he's aware that he has. But what fills Batman when he's finished doing something wonderful isn't a feeling of integrity. That's too complex. What he feels is pride. And pride is to integrity what sugar glaze is to a donut: it makes it more immediately gratifying -- which is great! But ultimately it's bad for you.<br />
Of course Batman, being ... well, Batman, does have integrity. So what he does, after pausing for just a moment to process the legitimate inner pleasure that he gets from having, say, harpooned the Penguin -- is get right back to work. He hoists the squirming Penguin up off the ground, handcuffs him, and delivers him to the police station. Then he climbs back into his Batmobile, hauls it to his Batcave, and gets busy right away solving another crime (or figuring out Alfred's work schedule for the week, or making sure Robin is keeping up with his baking lessons, or whatever it is Batman does to keep his world running smoothly).<br />
Point is, he gets right back to work.<br />
And that's what we expect Batman to do. Because we know his character. We know he's not looking for accolades, or fame, or lavish shows of praise from public officials. We know Batman is a better bat man than that.<br />
Now, what we don't know about Batman is whether or not he believes in God. We can hope that he does. Because a man who believes in a Higher Power (however he might define that) is more likely to look beyond himself for his self-affirmation than is one who doesn't. If the primary source of Batman's internal, personal affirmation is Batman, then it's a safe bet that eventually that will simply fail to be enough for him. Before long he'll want someone else to validate for him that he's a great man doing great things.<br />
If he's doesn't believe in (for lack of a better word) God, then before long Batman is going to want to see his name in the papers. He'll crave a little of that warming, bright spotlight. He'll yearn for Commissioner Gordon to present him with the keys to the city before an applauding, adoring throng of Gothamites.<br />
And from the moment he smiles and waves for the camera, it'll be all downhill for our beloved Caped Crusader.<br />
Pretty soon he'll be scheduling his own press conferences. Then he'll start staging battles with evil-doers in such a way as to put him in the best possible light; he'll be arranging showdowns with his former arch-enemies.<br />
Then he'll start to drink a little -- just at night, to help him sleep.<br />
Before too long he'll just be some gaseous, bragging windbag who's forced Batgirl to change her cell phone number.<br />
Why the inevitable down slide? Because a person of real integrity only cares about one kind of affirmation, and that's the kind he gets via a Higher Power speaking directly to his heart -- from what Christians, for instance, call the Holy Spirit. And, frankly, that kind of affirmation hardly amounts to a party being thrown in your honor twice a week. The affirmation one receives from God is about as subtle as subtle gets. It's certainly no less real for being subtle -- in fact, it's more real for being so subtle -- but it generates from a station to which one must be exquisitely attuned in order to hear from it enough music to keep one happily dancing.<br />
A man of genuine integrity must live his life like a former fat person on a very strict diet. He can let himself have a little fat and sugar, but mostly he has to understand that his desire for fat and sugar is a false, harmful kind of desire; that it's bad, and works against his higher interests.<br />
He has to pretty much forget about being gratified by fat and sugar. And when he does indulge a little, he knows that he must pretty instantly forget that taste and the pleasure it brought him, and keep on moving; he knows he has to get right back to work. He knows how easily transitory gratification can hook a man, how quickly it can wrap him in its nasty, downward pulling tentacles.<br />
A man of integrity registers a pat on his back, for sure, and certainly appreciates it. But it's off his mind as quickly as that hand is off his back, because he knows that if he becomes attached to the idea that he's somebody worth complimenting and appreciating, that he's someone who deserves the respect and admiration of others, then before too long, by virtue of a huge part of his very nature (Christians would say the fallen part of his nature), he'll begin craving more and more of that sort of exterior, human kind of affirmation.<br />
There's a reason we tend to associate our True Heroes with the image of them (in one way or another) riding off into the sunset. They do that -- they isolate, they move on -- because they don't care what other people think of them. They've learned to tune out that sort of input.<br />
They're tuned, instead, to something deeper than that.<br />
They're listening to WGOD. And if that's not what a hero is listening to as he rides off into the sunset, then it's only a matter of time before he turns his horse around and comes riding back into town, where he'll seek out anyone who wants to join him for a little drinkin' and carousin'. Because he'll want that stimulation and attention.<br />
God can use any person for any reason he deems necessary. But a person of integrity can't help but be of special value to him. And a person of integrity is the rarest sort of person there is. But it's also the kind of person that each and every one of us has been training our entire lives to become.<br />
Anyone over the age of seven (at the outside) knows the difference between right and wrong, between honorable and dishonorable, between worthy and worthless. We know it. We've lived it. We've learned it. That knowledge has become part of our DNA.<br />
All we have to do now in order to become the person God has been trying to make of us our whole lives is to finally and thoroughly accept the fact that we were born to be persons of integrity. That that's why we were created in the first place. That the only one getting in the way of our being that person is us.<br />
In order to become a person who possesses true integrity, all any of us has to do is accept the fact that the only thing stopping us from becoming a person of integrity is the ever-subtle, ever-seductive desire for any sort of exterior validation for being a person of integrity.<br />
It's the Zen of wisdom: once you want or think you have it, you've lost it.<br />
Related to this is my recent post, "Atheist and Christian: Who's the Fool?"<br />
If you're an atheist angered by this post, please see my, "I, a Christian, Admit It: Atheists Have Been Right All Along."<br />
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Show me some Facebooky-like, if you like.david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-41430783664368507102010-03-25T14:13:00.001-05:002010-03-25T14:15:31.795-05:00put a rock in your mouth!<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Fun with spiritual disciplines:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><u><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“Put a rock in your mouth!”<o:p></o:p></span></u></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">My retreat at St. Meinrads has had some interesting twists and turns. I am trying to deeply engage stillness, silence, and solitude amongst other things. In doing this I wanted to share an interesting practice I have experimented with that comes from one of the desert fathers [Monks from the 3<sup>rd</sup>-6<sup>th</sup> centuries]<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">While practicing silence keep a stone in your mouth to remind you of your vow. In fact keep two stones on you at all times. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">One is a smooth small stone that is easy to keep in your mouth. Think of this smooth stone as the type that David used to slay goliath. If your heart and mind are focused on God and his goodness, this is the stone to keep in your mouth as a reminder of how His presence is smooth and strong and can give you the strength to slay the Goliath’s of your life.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The second stone is for when your heart wanders towards evil. This is when you take the other stone and put it into your mouth. It needs to be larger than the first and rough and porous. It represents the discomfort of leaving Gods presence. It is also a reminder of how your heart and mind have not yet been smoothed over by the presence of the Holy Spirit. This stone humbles us, and it hurts. It makes you wish that it had remained a long time under the rushing waters of a stream and gotten smooth from the consistent flow of the waters. Get it? To be drowning in God’s presence and to have the rushing waters of His word and spirit makes us smooth inside.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">And it works…trust me.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">But a few notes:<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS""><span style="mso-list:Ignore">1.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Stone number 1 needs to not be so small you might swallow it. I nearly did this. Also, don’t sleep with it; even though the monk I read about did this for 3 years I just know this would be a ridiculous way to die…or…just bizarre trying to explain to an EMT.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS""><span style="mso-list:Ignore">2.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Stone number 2 needs to be abrasive. It reminds us of our abrasive thoughts and how they become abrasive and abusive words in our mouths. And it needs to be big enough to really get our attention and be annoying to work around. You should really, really, really want to spit it out. As such it is a great motivator to reconnect with Gods peace instead of our rage.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-64219841875812544252010-03-14T21:07:00.001-05:002010-03-14T21:07:40.956-05:00TestNumber 1<p>Sent from my iPhone and soon from an iPaddavid sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-36685320022130645262010-03-13T21:00:00.001-06:002010-03-13T21:02:41.500-06:00when in wonderland...<!--StartFragment--> <p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック"; mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Absolem</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック"; mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">, a hookah smoking 3 inch caterpillar in the new “Alice in Wonderland” movie asks Alice a simple but profound question:</span></span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial, serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック"; mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック"; mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Who are you?</span></span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial, serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック"; mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック"; mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">After a brief dialogue 2 different times, he gives her 2 interesting retorts.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック"; mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック"; mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">“You are certainly not nearly Alice”</span></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック"; mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">And on the 2</span></span><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック"; mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;language:en-US;vertical-align:super;mso-text-raise:30%font-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">nd</span></span><span style="font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック";mso-bidi- mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning:12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> occasion</span></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック"; mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">“You are almost Alice”</span></span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial, serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック"; mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック"; mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">How about you?</span></span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial, serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック"; mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック"; mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">Are you certainly not nearly who God made you to be; or perhaps you are now almost who you were designed to become.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial, serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック"; mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック"; mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">As you are spring cleaning this year perhaps it’s time to throw away the you, that is not nearly at all who God intended you to be. Perhaps it’s time for people to see you becoming almost who God wants you to be.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック"; mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック"; mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">What’s standing in the way? What things need to be forgotten, thrown out, and set aside. And what things need to be yearned for, fought for, and raced after.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial, serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック"; mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;text-align:left;direction:ltr; unicode-bidi:embed;vertical-align:baseline"><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family:"MS Pゴシック"; mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1;mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;">For this is NO dream you can pinch your way out of. You must face and fight for your future. Beneath who you have become, is always lurking who you were made to be. And every now and then you simply need to be reminded of that, or else the world will steal your identity and make you a robot, a caricature, and an imposter of yourself.</span></span><span style="font-family:Arial;mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Pゴシック";mso-bidi-mso-color-index:1; mso-font-kerning:12.0pt;language:en-USfont-family:+mn-cs;font-size:10.0pt;color:black;"> </span></p> <!--EndFragment-->david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-29065326547812003132010-03-05T15:16:00.003-06:002010-03-05T15:34:09.793-06:00is THE SHACK heresy? are the chronicles of Narnia<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 19px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif;font-size:12px;"><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">By Wayne Jacobsen, collaborator on <span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_fixed="1" style="font-style: italic; ">The Shack</span></p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">We knew it would happen eventually. Frankly we thought it would happen far sooner and in far greater quantity than we have seen to date. But we knew <span mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; ">The Shack</span> was edgy enough to prompt some significant backlash, which is why so many publishing companies didn’t want to take it on at the beginning. </p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">I never thought everyone was going to love this book. Art is incredibly subjective as to whether a story and style are appealing. I have no problem with a spirited discussion of some of the theological issues raised in <span mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; ">The Shack</span>. The books I love most are the ones that challenge my theological constructs and invite a robust discussion among friends, whether I agree with everything in them or not in the end,. That is especially true of a work of fiction where people will bring their own interpretations of the same events or conversations. I never view a book as all good or all bad. It’s like eating chicken. Enjoy the meat and toss the bones. </p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">What is surprising, however, is the hostile tone of false accusation and the conspiracy theories that some are willing to put on this book. Some have even warned others not to read it or they will be led into deception. It saddens me that people want to use a book like this to polarize God’s family, whether it’s overenthusiastic reader thrusting it in someone’s face telling them they ‘must read’ this book, or when people read their own theological agendas into a work, then denounce it as heresy. </p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">If you’re interested, read it for yourself. Don’t let someone else do your thinking for you. If it helps convey the reality of Jesus to you, great! If all you can see is sinister motives and false teaching in it, then put it aside. I don’t have time to give a point-by-point rebuttal to the reviews I’ve read, but I would like to make some comments on some of the issues that have come up since I’m getting way too many emails asking me what I think of some of the questions they raise. I’ll also admit at the outset, that I’m biased. Admittedly, I’m biased. I was part of a team with the author of working on this manuscript for over a year and am part of the company formed to print and distribute this book. But I’m also well acquainted with the purpose and passions of this book.</p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">What do I think? I tire of the self-appointed doctrine police, especially when they toss around false accusations like ‘new age conspiracy’, ‘counterfeit Jesus’ or ‘heresy’ to promote fear in people as a way of advancing their own agenda. What many of them don’t realize is that research actually shows that more people will buy a book after reading a negative review than they do after reading a positive one. It piques their curiosity as to why someone would take so much time to denounce someone else’s book. </p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">But such reviews also confuse people who are afraid of being seduced into error and for those I think the false accusations demand a response. Let me assure any of you reading this that all three of us who worked on this book are deeply committed followers of Jesus Christ who have a passion for the Truth of the Scriptures and who have studied and taught the life of Jesus over the vast majority of our lifetimes. But none of us would begin to pretend that we have a complete picture of all that God is or that our theology is flawless. We are all still growing in our appreciation for him and our desire to be like him, and we hope this book encourages you to that process as well. In the end, this says the best stuff we know about God at this point in our journeys. Is it a complete picture of him? Of course not! Who could put all that he is into a little story like this one? But if it is a catalyst to get thousands of people to talk about theology—who God is and how he makes himself known in the world—we would be blessed.</p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">This is a story of one believer’s brokenness and how God reached into that pain and pulled him out and as such is a compelling story of God’s redemption. The pain and healing come straight from a life that was broken by guilt and shame at an incredibly deep level and he compresses into a weekend the lessons that helped him walk out of that pain and find life in Jesus again. </p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">That said, the content of this book does take a harsh look at how many of our religious institutions and practices have blinded people to the simple Gospel and replaced it with a religion of rules and rituals that have long ceased to reflect the Lord of Glory. Some will disagree with that assessment and the solutions this book offers, and the reviews that do so honestly merit discussion. But those who confuse the issues by making up their own back-story for the book, or ascribing motives to its publication without ever finding out the truth, only prove our point. </p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">Here are some brief comments on the major issues that have been raised about <span class="ds1">The Shack</span>:</span></p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="ds7">Does the book promote universalism?</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Some people can find a universalist under every bush. This book flatly states that all roads do not lead to Jesus, while it affirms that Jesus can find his followers wherever they may have wandered into sin or false beliefs. Just because he can find followers in the most unlikely places, does not validate those places. I don’t know how we could have been clearer, but people will quote portions out of that context and draw a false conclusion. </p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="ds7">Does it devalue Scripture?</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Just because we didn’t put Scriptural addresses with their numbers and colons at every allusion in the story, does not mean that the Bible isn’t the key source in virtually every conversation Mack has with God. Scriptural teachings and references appear on almost every page. They are reworded in ways to be relevant to those reading the story, but at every point we sought to be true to the way God has revealed himself in the Bible except for the literary characterizations that move the story forward. At its core the book is one long Bible study as Mack seeks to resolve his anger at God.</p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="ds7">Is this God too nice? </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Others have claimed that the God of The Shack is simply too nice, or having him in humorous human situations trivializes him. Really? Who wants to be on that side of the argument? For those who think this God is too easy, please tell me in what way does he let Mack off on anything? He holds his feet to the fire about every lie in his mind and every broken place in his heart. I guess what people these critics cannot see is confrontation and healing inside a relationship of love and compassion. This is not the angry and tyrannical God that religion has been using for 2000 years to beat people into conformity and we are not surprised that this threatens the self-proclaimed doctrine police. </p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">One reviewer even thought this passage from The Shack was a mockery of the true God: "I'm not a bully, not some self-centered demanding little deity insisting on my own way. I am good, and I desire only what is best for you. You cannot find that through guilt or condemnation...." That wasn’t mocking God but a view of God that sees him as a demanding, self-centered tyrant. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ revealed himself as the God who would lay down his life for us to redeem us to himself. </p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">The words, “I don’t want slaves to do my will; I want brothers and sisters who will share life with me,” are simply a reflection of John 15:15. Unfortunately those who tend toward legalism among us have no idea how much more completely Jesus transforms us out of a relationship of love, than we could ever muster in our gritted-teeth obedience. This is at the heart of the new covenant—that love will fulfill the law, where human effort cannot.</p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="ds7">Does it distort or demean the Trinity?</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">One of the concerns expressed about The Shack is that it presents the Trinity outside of a hierarchy. In fact many religious traditions think they find their basis for hierarchical organizations in what they’ve assumed about the Trinity. To look at the Trinity as a relationship without the need for command and control is one of the intriguing parts of this story. If they walk in complete unity, why would a hierarchy be needed? They live in love and honor each other. While in the flesh Jesus did walk in obedience to the Father as our example, elsewhere Scripture speaks of their complete unity, love and glory in relating to each other. Different functions need not imply a different status. </p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">This extends in other ways to look at how healed people can relate to each other inside their relationship with God that defines authority and submission in ways most are not used to, but that are far more consistent with what we see in the early believers and in the teaching of Scripture. It is also true of many believers around the world who are learning to experience the life of Father’s family without all the hierarchical maintenance and drama that has plagued followers of Christ since the third century. </p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">People may see this differently and find this challenging, if only because it represents some thought they have not been exposed to before. Here we might be better off having a discussion instead of dragging out the ‘heretic’ label when it is unwarranted.</p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="ds7">Does it leave out discussions about church, salvation and other important aspects of Christianity? </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">This is some of the most curious complaints I’ve ever read. This is the story about God making himself available to one of his followers who is being swallowed up by tragedy and his crisis of faith in God’s goodness over it. This is not a treatise on every element of theological study. Perhaps we should have paused in the story to have an altar call, or perhaps we should have drug a pipe organ into the woods and enlisted a choir to hold a service, but that was not the point. </p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="ds7">Is this a Feminist God?</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">The book uses some characterizations of God to mess with the religious stereotypes only to get people to consider God as he really is, not how we have reconstituted him as a white, male autocrat bent on religious conformity. There are important reasons in the story why God takes the expressions he does for Mack, which underlines his nature to meet us where we are, to lead us to where he is. While Jesus was incarnated as man, God as a spirit has no gender, even though we fully embrace that he has taken on the imagery of the Father to express his heart and mind to us. We also recognize Scripture uses traditional female imagery to help us understand other aspects of God’s person, as when Jesus compares himself to a hen gathering chicks, or David likens himself to a weaned child in his mother’s arms. </p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="ds7">Has it touched people too deeply?</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Some reviewers point to Amazon.com reviews and people who have claimed it had a transforming effect on their spiritual lives as proof of its demonic origin. Please! How absurd is that? Do we prefer books that leave people untouched? This book touches lives because it deals with God in the midst of pain in an honest, straightforward way and because for many this is the first time they have seen the power of theology worked out inside a relationship with God himself. </p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="ds7">Does <span mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; ">The Shack</span> promote Ultimate Reconciliation (UR)?</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">It does not. While some of that was in earlier versions because of the author’s partiality at the time to some aspects of what people call UR, I made it clear at the outset that I didn’t embrace UR as sound teaching and didn’t want to be involved in a project that promoted it. In my view UR is an extrapolation of Scripture to humanistic conclusions about our Father’s love that has to be forced on the biblical text. </p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Since I don’t believe in UR and wholeheartedly embrace the finished product, I think those who see UR here, either positively or negatively are reading into the text. To me that was the beauty of the collaboration. Three hearts weighed in on the theology to make it as true as we could muster. The process also helped shape our theologies in honest, protracted discussions. I think the author would say that some of that dialog significantly affected his views. This book represents growth in that area for all of us. Holding him to the conclusions he may have embraced years earlier would be unfair to the ongoing process of God in his life and theology.</p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">That said, however, I’m not afraid to have that discussion with people I regard as brothers and sisters since many have held that view in the course of theological history. Also keep in mind that the heretic hunters lump many absurd notions into what they call UR, but when I actually talk to those people partial to some view of ultimate reconciliation they do not endorse all the absurdities ascribed to them. This is a heavily nuanced discussion with UR meaning a lot of different things to different people. For myself, I am convinced that Jesus is someone we have to accept through repentance and belief in this age to participate in his life. </p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Throughout The Shack Mack’s choices are in play, determining what he will let God do in his life through their encounter. He is no victim of God’s process. He is a willing participant at every juncture. And even though Papa says ‘He is reconciled to all men” he also notes that, “not all men are reconciled to me.” </p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="ds7">Is the author promoting the emergent movement?</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "> This guilt-by-association tactic is completely contrived. Neither the author, nor Brad and I at Windblown have ever been part of the emergent conversation. Some of their bloggers have written about the book, but we have not had any significant contact with the leaders of that movement and they have not been the core audience that has embraced this book.</p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">That said I have met many people in the emergent conversation that have proved to be brothers and sisters in the faith. While I’m not nuts about all they do, a lot of the statements made about them by critics are as false as what some say about The Shack. They do deeply embrace the Scriptures. As I see it they are not trying to re-invent Christianity, but trying to communicate it in ways that captures a new generation. While I don’t agree with many of the conclusions they’re sorting through at the moment, they are not raving humanists. I have found them passionate seekers of the Lord Jesus Christ, who are asking some wonderful questions about God and how he makes himself known in us.</p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="ds7">Does </span><span class="ds8">The Shack</span><span class="ds7"> promote new age philosophy or Hinduism?</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Amazingly some people have made assumptions about some of the names to think there is some eastern mysticism here, but when you hear how Paul selected the names he did it wasn’t to make veiled references to Hinduism, black Madonnas, or anything else. It was to uncover facets of God’s character that are clear in the Scriptures. </p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">It’s amazing how much people will make up to indulge their fantasies and falsely label something to fit their own conclusions. Some have even insisted that Mack flying in his dreams was veiled instructions in astral travel. Absolutely absurd! Has this man never read fiction, or had a dream? Just because someone screams there is a demon under that bush, doesn’t mean there is. </p><p align="center" style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">* * * * *</p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">We realize this would be a challenging read for those who see no difference between the religious conditioning that underlies Christianity as it is often presented in the 21<span mce_name="sup" mce_style="vertical-align: super;" class="Apple-style-span" style="vertical-align: super; ">st</span> Century and the simple, powerful life in Christ that Jesus offered to his followers. Our hope was to help people see how the Loving Creator can penetrate our defenses and lead us to healing. Our prayer is that through this book people will see the God of the Bible as Jesus presented him to be—an endearing reality who wants to love us out of our sin and bondage and into his life. This is a message of grace and healing that does not condone or excuse sin, but shows God destroying it through the dynamic relationship he wants with each of his children. </p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">We realize folks will disagree. We planned on it. We appreciate the interaction of those who have honest concerns and questions. Those who have been captured by this story are encouraged to search the Scriptures to see if these things are so and not trust us or the ravings of those who misinterpret this book, either threatened by its success, or those who want to ride on it to push their own fear-based agenda</p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">sherwood's comments here:</p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">a funny / odd reality is that the same sort of hyper vigilant criticism could easily be used on CS Lewis the Chronicles of Narnia especially the final book. Pilgrims progress, Dante's inferno...all narrative prose breaks down as imperfect representations of truth. Lewis's writings are the most interesting because they are nearly cannonized by evangelicals. Art cannot be judged with the same lens we judge an excel spreadsheet of facts...or doctrine. And while all writings could and should be open to some correction or critique the sort of condemning witchhunts and anti-grace lynch mobs that follow some blogs are completely off target with Jesus COMMANDS to love, and even to offer corrective teaching IN LOVE. So while there may be some heresy floating around in some of this fiction I can ASSURE you there has been a least an equal amount of defiant-rebellion / sin in those that have defied Christs orders to love in how they have handled this brother.</p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">1 Corinthians 13 comes to mind...</p></span>david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-43653953033080102272010-03-05T08:23:00.001-06:002010-03-05T08:23:35.501-06:00happiness sucks...see article below<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "><div id="storyHeader" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(201, 201, 201); padding-top: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 8px; background-image: url(http://a.abcnews.com/assets/images/iphone/gradientBkg-ccc.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-position: 0px 0px; "><div class="sHeadline" style="padding-top: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-bottom: 12px; padding-left: 0px; "><h1 style="font-size: 18px; margin-top: 2px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 1.2em; ">Why Happiness Isn't All It's Cracked Up to Be</h1></div><div class="bylineDateContainer"><div class="story_byline" style="float: left; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.3em; width: 155px; ">By JESSICA HAMZELOU</div><div class="storyHeaderDate" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.3em; float: right; color: rgb(0, 51, 102); text-align: right; width: 142px; ">2/27/10, 10:51 PM EST</div><div class="clear" style="clear: both; "></div></div></div><div class="storyBody" style="border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 8px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 8px; "><div class="sImg" style="padding-top: 2px; padding-right: 2px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 2px; float: right; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(201, 201, 201); border-right-color: rgb(201, 201, 201); border-bottom-color: rgb(201, 201, 201); border-left-color: rgb(201, 201, 201); -webkit-box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) -3px 3px 3px; margin-top: 2px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 8px; height: 97px; width: 125px; text-align: center; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-position: initial initial; "><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/m/screen?id=9959685&pid=4380645#" id="sPopup" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 102); "><img src="http://a.abcnews.com/images/Technology/happy_sad_100226_me.jpg" width="125" height="97" border="0" alt="Photo: Happiness ain't all it's cracked up to be" title="" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; " /></a></div><div class="spyGlass" style="background-image: url(http://a.abcnews.com/assets/images/iphone/spyGlass.png); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: transparent; float: right; height: 20px; width: 20px; position: relative; top: 76px; left: 130px; background-position: 0px 0px; "></div><div class="sDek" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.4em; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 51, 102); ">Happiness seems to make people more selfish, research suggests.</div><div class="sBody" style="font-size: 15px; "><p>The Founding Fathers liked <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/happytown--9868636" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 102); ">happiness</a> so much they considered pursuing it an inalienable right – but maybe that wasn't such a good idea. <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6404630" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 102); ">Happiness</a> seems to make people more selfish, the latest in a series of revelations suggesting it changes how you think – and not in a good way.</p><p>Psychologist Joe Forgas at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, who has led many of these studies, suggests that happiness's negative effects all stem from a cheery mood's tendency to lull you into feeling secure. This makes you look inwards and behave both more selfishly and more carelessly.</p><p>"People in a positive mood generally rely more on their own thoughts and preferences, and pay less attention to the outside world and social norms," says Forgas.</p><p>To probe the effect of <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=9526788" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 102); ">happiness</a> on selfishness, Forgas and his colleague Hui Bing Tan put 45 students into good or bad moods by giving them positive or negative feedback on a "cognitive test" that they had taken. In fact the test was a fake and did not measure cognition, while the feedback bore no relation to their performance.</p><p></p><h4 style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 15px; ">Caring, Sharing</h4><p>After using a questionnaire to establish that the volunteers really were happy or sad, Forgas and Tan gave each one 10 raffle tickets for a A$20 prize. The students could choose between sharing some of their tickets with another, hypothetical student or selfishly keeping them all.</p><p>On average, those who had been praised kept more raffle tickets.</p><p>In a second experiment, Forgas and Tan used film clips to set the mood. Half of a group of 72 students were treated to a 10-minute clip of the British TV comedy Fawlty Towers, whilst the other half endured a passage from the gloomy film Angela's Ashes.</p><p>After taking another mood questionnaire, this time the students were shown pictures of a buddy they could share their raffle tickets with – with the intention of making the idea of sharing more vivid than the case of a hypothetical student. Again, the happy students were less likely to share.</p><p>Forgas's explanation is that <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/WN/HappinessInc/eat-pray-love-author-liz-gilbert-tackles-charlatans/story?id=9525950" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 102); ">happy people</a> focus more on their own desires. "Positive mood is in a sense an evolutionary signal, subconsciously informing people that the situation they face is safe and non-threatening," he says. This encourages people to rely more on their own thoughts and preferences, with selfishness the result.</p><p>Grumpiness or sadness, on the other hand, produces more vigilant, outward-looking thinkers. "A negative mood produces a thinking style that is more detailed and attentive, and pays more attention to the demands of the external environment," says Forgas.</p><p></p><p></p><h3 style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 15px; ">I've Forgotten Why I'm Happy</h3><p>This latest finding adds to a wealth of data suggesting that being happy isn't all it's cracked up to be. In previous studies, Forgas has found that happy people are less able to develop a persuasive argument, more gullible and worse at remembering objects in a shop window than their unhappy fellows.</p><p>Happy people are also more likely to be influenced by stereotypes, says Forgas: in another study, happy non-Muslim Australians were more likely to make snap negative judgements about – and even to shoot – computer images of people in traditional Muslim dress.</p><p>Ed Diener, a psychologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, points out that we shouldn't forget the benefits of happiness, which he says include "better health, social relationships and citizenship". But he adds that "it is wrong to say that it is always good to be happy".</p><p></p><h4 style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 15px; ">Optimum Happiness</h4><p>Robert Cummins, a psychologist at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, and editor of the Journal of Happiness Studies, says he "loves" the research. "It is so very refreshing to hear an alternative to the view that happy is good, and more is better."</p><p>"High levels of happiness generate openness to new experiences and gregariousness, but they also generate a lack of attention to detailed information and recklessness," says Cummins. We all need to behave like this occasionally, he says, but not when we are confronted with a potentially dangerous situation. "Low levels of happiness generate introspection and the careful processing of information, where choices must be carefully made."</p><p>A happy person "may well benefit from lowered mood while engaging in a task involving detailed information processing", adds Cummins.</p><p>In another study, he asked Australians to rate their happiness on a scale of 1 to 100. The most common rating was 75. He suggests that this might reflect 75 per cent of our potential happiness, which may be an optimum level: enough to enjoy the benefits, but not too much</p></div></div></span>david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-67859677465106882442010-02-06T21:33:00.001-06:002010-02-06T21:33:21.186-06:00missional living<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile">Being Missional is simply a choice. But, 2<sup>nd</sup> only to the decision to follow Jesus, this is the most dynamic and dangerous decision you will EVER make. For “Christian are lame and limp persons more times than not; but when one of them finds the mission for their life they become the most dynamic and dangerous of persons. For then, they become like Jesus!” Which one you will be is a matter of choice, but it is also a choice that must be made 24 hours a day / 7 days a week. And this choice will change you and the world far, far, far more than you could ever imagine!<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile">Reflection Questions [The BIG questions God wants to ask you]<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-family:Eurostile;mso-fareast-font-family:Eurostile;mso-bidi-font-family: Eurostile"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">1.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Eurostile">Am I participating in the “big picture” revealed in Scripture so that my life feels like an EPIC adventure rich with purpose, passion, and providence?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-family:Eurostile;mso-fareast-font-family:Eurostile;mso-bidi-font-family: Eurostile"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">2.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Eurostile">What does it mean that you are living in the Fourth Chapter [revolution]?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-family:Eurostile;mso-fareast-font-family:Eurostile;mso-bidi-font-family: Eurostile"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">3.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Eurostile">You are living in Ashland right now for a reason.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>You are here “for such a time as this” What do you think God wants to do through you?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-family:Eurostile;mso-fareast-font-family:Eurostile;mso-bidi-font-family: Eurostile"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">4.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Eurostile">What if my workplace is a mission field?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>What would happen if I started to think of my job as “ministry time” rather than just “work”? What specific things must change?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-family:Eurostile;mso-fareast-font-family:Eurostile;mso-bidi-font-family: Eurostile"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">5.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Eurostile">How can I practice paying attention to what God is doing, who God is putting in my path, on a daily basis?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile">Equipping Questions [Soul searching to find your unique / personal calling]<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2"><span style="font-family:Eurostile;mso-fareast-font-family:Eurostile;mso-bidi-font-family: Eurostile"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">1.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Eurostile">What things am I passionate about? What things are you willing to fight for? What gives you deep joy, peace, or meaning when you do it? What do you want to make a difference in? What is wrong in the world that you want desperately to make right? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2"><span style="font-family:Eurostile;mso-fareast-font-family:Eurostile;mso-bidi-font-family: Eurostile"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">2.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Eurostile">What makes me come alive?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>What kind of things do I love to do? Think about those times that have brought out the very best in you. How could God use these sort of experiences as missional adventures in the future?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2"><span style="font-family:Eurostile;mso-fareast-font-family:Eurostile;mso-bidi-font-family: Eurostile"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">3.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Eurostile">What, on a global scale / and a local level, breaks my heart? What can I do about these things? How can I leverage whatever resources I have at these challenges? [Time, money, prayer, etc.]<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2"><span style="font-family:Eurostile;mso-fareast-font-family:Eurostile;mso-bidi-font-family: Eurostile"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">4.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Eurostile">What, am I really good at? What spiritual gifts do I have? What skills have I cultivated? What experience do I have? How can these things be used to give the Gospel to people and to build the Kingdom?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2"><span style="font-family:Eurostile;mso-fareast-font-family:Eurostile;mso-bidi-font-family: Eurostile"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">5.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Eurostile">Who can I talk to and dream with and practice with in order to experiment with finding my unique mission? How can my friends, spouse, small group…help me on this journey?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile">Resources [for you to explore so you can adapt your life into a missional adventure]<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile">Missional Renaissance <span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>by Reggie McNeal<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile">Unstoppable force <span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>by Irwin McManus<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile">The Radical Reformission <span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>by Mark Driscoll<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Eurostile">Conspiracy of Kindness <span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>by Steve Sjogren<o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-55557981405954485852010-02-04T15:26:00.000-06:002010-02-04T15:27:27.542-06:00this sunday!!!! the end of boredom and beginning of sexy Bible study<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">Just a moment of your time. And what if that moment changed everything? And in that moment…<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">What would it be like if God talked to you. Really talked to you. What if He shared His heart, mind, and dreams for you; answered the big questions; and gave you some advice and perspective on how to live your life. And what if he was funny, sarcastic, serious, passionate, tearful, and real?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">That would be great wouldn’t it? And how would you respond if I invited you to an appointment to do this with God. And I promised His voice would be there?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">That’s what I’m promising!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">The trick is in learning how to hear. How to perceive. How to experience and respond to His voice. And this is what I am going to be helping people with on Sunday mornings at 5 stones. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">Meet me at 9am on the 3<sup>rd</sup> floor of the Bixler building [right behind the Chapel].<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">Learn how to read the Bible and hear Gods voice and thus His heart, mind, and desires.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u><span style="font-family:Arial">Class will include<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial">How to have a quiet time with Gods word that is relevant, engrossing, passionate, and transformative. Not boring, perfunctory, and passive.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial">How to understand the meaning of scriptures with online tools, websites, and other resources. Things that make you really perceive deeply and vibrantly what is going on.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial">How to utilize the Bible to understand how to handle the real challenges of life. Parenting, sex, meaning, morality, emotions, marriage, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">If you are coming I’d love to hear from you ahead of time, so I can prepare some materials.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">If you are <u>not</u> coming I’d love some feedback so I can understand how we might do things in the future that would better equip you and your spiritual life<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">Looking forward to hearing back from you<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">Hope I see ya<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">Learning to walk in the word. 9am 3<sup>rd</sup> floor Bixler building at Ashland University<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">David Sherwood<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial">david@5stones.org<o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-57288446891465858572009-10-21T06:41:00.002-05:002009-10-21T07:11:46.313-05:00finding courage<span style="font-family:arial;">2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 (New International Version)
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<br /><strong><span style="color:#ffff33;">May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
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<br />Courage, or the need for it presumes fear. What then are we afraid of? And what is the effect of fear?
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<br />For me, i have a deep seated fear of failure. I flunked a lot in High School, and flunked out of my 1st 2 years of college. There are also a host of other failures all that seem to bundle together and whisper "you are failing" in your ministry, family, personal life, etc. Most of the time i can keep these "demons" at bay; but if you add enough exhaustion and pressure to the mix they are quickly at my throat.
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<br />When this happens i slip into paralysis and survival mode. I go through the motions, watch <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">tv</span>, and allow a slow and deadly creep of depression to wash over me. I start to believe i am a failure and no longer have the energy or motivation to try and fight again. Hope and joy look like a mirage and it is here that i find myself check-mated by fear.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">in my story, there is where Christ steps unto the stage of my life over and over again to rescue me. When i am a little black sheep curled up in a fetal position of fear i am usually a long way from Christ. I never mean for this to happen, i just get too busy, too overwhelmed, and i even view pressure as coming from Him. Pressure to be moral, a good example, etc. Then, time slips through my hands and Bible study fades, prayer becomes <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">perfunctory</span>, worship stale, and in general i neglect my relationship with God to the point of apathy and avoidance. But HE doesn't! He waits patiently for me to run out of gas, for the pressure to become too much, for the emptiness to become overwhelming, and for the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">loneliness</span> of my soul to finally provoke my awakening. And then finally I call out for rescue.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">And then the good shepherd comes. I may being laying in the frozen rain, trapped in some <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">thornbush</span> but i can see his lantern as he slowly comes towards me. Sometimes i want to hide, but mostly i feel hope and expectation. I practice my apology [as the prodigal son did] but when His intimacy gets close i start to hear his voice and remember how foolish this is. And when i see his broad and loving smile-and he lifts me up with his warm hands and carries me on his strong back-i just cry and cry and cry. His presence alone brings back those three things listed in the scripture above. His presence brings encouragement and the light of his love, his perfect love, casts off the darkness of fear. And hope returns, good hope-not my hopes for success and meaning-but his hopes for love, compassion, grace, mercy, and renewal. And when He is close I again start to feel strong. Not 'my' strength, but his strength being renewed in me.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">And this is where i find myself today. After about 8 weeks of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">woundedness</span>. The news of my mothers cancer had just overwhelmed me in the midst of so many other pressures. For 8 weeks i slowly dissolved inside and fell into paralysis, fear, stagnation, and depression. Not that i couldn't function but i wasn't functioning in His strength, His encouragement, and His hope. But today i can feel Him carrying me again. I feel His presence healing and awakening me. His strength is pouring into me as our relationship has become "real" again and not just theoretical.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">But this relationship is always 2 sided. And i must stay with Him. I must stay dependant upon Him. And I must guard my busyness and make time for Him and take my pressures and pains to Him. </span>
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<br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">May you too....be rescued....be renewed...be strengthened...be given good hope...and be encouraged. By the One who gives these good gifts to His children and friends. And who rescues us...over...and...over again</span></strong></strong></strong></strong></em></em>
<br />david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-2306302859401792562009-10-05T21:06:00.002-05:002009-10-05T21:45:31.942-05:00idealism, the prophetic, and the problemEvery Christian finds themselves on the threshold of deep passion from time to time. This passions is a seed of transformation that the Holy Spirit has often planted with a desire for change. We sense fully that something is very wrong, or something should really be made right; and at this place there are some deep choices that must be made or all will be lost.<br /><br />pardon this adjust to scripture: from Matt 13<br /><br />When anyone feels deep passionate conviction about the kingdom, Church, or Christ and does not integrate it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. It is trampled down because it is just a concept, mere idealism, wishful and noble thoughts. It must grow by becoming real in the person, then it can't be trampled on the path. In fact the path will have to work around this person because the idea has become so real, so big, and is producing so much fruit that it is unavoidable and unalterable. These are the intellectuals.<br /><br />The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. This is the idealist who wants his passion without the pain of crucifying their flesh. They want a great marriage, or to worship deeply, or authentic community, or serving the poor...but don't want and are not willing to pay the price to actually do something about it. They talk big about it for a while, but it fades as their hypocrisy slowly drains adrenaline and they finally accept defeat from their lack of disciplines, sustainable actions. These are the emotionalists.<br /><br />The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. These people hear the word, understand its implications and feel its need to be acted upon. But they are master craftsmen of excuses. They have rationalizations and excuses for everything they do and don't do. They are perpetual martyrs, whiners, complainers, and act defeated and doomed about everything. For them Christianity is a hope that can never actually be embraced. These are the compromisers.<br /><br />The one who received the seed and showed it to everyone but never planted it in the ground and watered and pruned it is the braggart. These are the prophetic idealists who tell everyone what they should be doing but never do anything themselves. They accuse the Church but never transform the church by their example. The blow trumpets, write blogs, have passionate debates, and in general annoy people with things others should do but they don't do. These are the idealists.<br /><br />the problem you see is two things. 1 the kind of soil you have [attitude, actions, etc] and 2 the kind of discipline you employ.<br /><br />frankly it is easy to be idealistic, because it costs you nothing. It is fun to be prophetic, critical, and cynical in smug and self righteous and condescending ways. But to actually be an example and to allow that example to transform others is hard and patient work. It takes character and consistency. and who wants that?<br /><br />thus we end up with two insufferable people:<br /><br />1. the person who does nothing [for a variety of reasons] but annoys people with what THEY should be doing [even though they themselves don't]<br />2. the person who does something and slips into self-righteous, unbalanced, abrasive, condemning, legalistic, accusatory, and prideful wickedness [in the midst of doing something good]<br /><br />what we need instead is a transition that looks like this:<br /><br />a. feel conviction<br />b. look up what God's word says<br />c. pray about how God wants you to implement this in your life<br />d. implement it secretly<br />e. grow character and wisdom in this through consistency<br />f. invite others to join you<br />g. help them...others...the church...and the kingdom be transformed by your example<br />h. kill any self-righteousness, condemnation, or pride that as a weed grows alongside this good seed<br />i. maintain a humble, servant spirit<br />j. repeat with the next conviction and learn to balance these convictions with the whole of your life being ever more conformed to the image of Christ.<br /><br />remember...the problem is never OUT THERE [in accusing others] it is always IN HERE [and in what you should be doing]<br /><br />THUS the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."<br /><br />do you want godly fruit to come from your passions...then look at this backwards<br /><br />fruit will show up in big ways<br />but first it shows up in small ways<br />it's in you 1st, before it can be planted in others<br />it needs to actually be produced before fruit or anything else is possible<br />you must understand it and its implications<br /><br />so wherever and whoever you are as a christian<br /><br />PUT up, or shut UP [and candidly when you do PUT up...shut up anyways and be a servant example of Christlikeness]<br /><br />remember:<br /><br />nobody follows a critic, and critics never create revolutions, and critics live in crowds but die alone.<br />prophets can gather a crowd, but if you don't do anything it won't last long.<br />to know and not to do is to not know.<br />seeds don't win ribbons at the fair, fruit does.<br />talk is cheap, but actions are expensive<br />leaders earn the right to be heard through actions not rhetoric.<br /><br />most transformation happens through example and encouragement...not theory and condemnation<br /><br />that you want to see OUT THERE, must happen IN HERE 1st. we must BE the change we wish to see in the church.david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-7033828149212040552009-09-30T10:30:00.000-05:002009-09-30T10:31:01.593-05:00spiritual interest in young adultsMost Young Adults Think They are Spiritual: A survey conducted by LifeWay research indicates the vast majority of unchurched young adults consider themselves spiritual. This contrasts a view of young adults as uninterested in God or spiritual matters. 73% of 20-29 year olds said they think they are spiritual and want to learn more about "God or a higher supreme being." Among those 30 and over, that number is only 62%. 89% of 20-29 year olds said they would be open to a conversation about Christianity – 14% higher than those over 30 years old. 63% said they would attend church if it presented truth to them in a way that "relates to my life now." 58% said they would be more likely to attend if they felt the church "cared for them as a person."david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-5907098668877269222009-09-11T15:19:00.000-05:002009-09-11T15:20:07.046-05:00help us name our new space...surveyhttp://www.5stones.org/surveys/help-us-name-our-new-spacedavid sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-31849739185005260412009-09-01T12:30:00.002-05:002009-09-01T12:40:08.482-05:00is it well? / well it is / it is well!What happens when it all goes wrong. No, seriously...in a non religious / reality based way, how do we respond to the great ripping and ravaging pain of life. It seems like people can turn to God or run away when the pain really goes deep. Is God of any practical help when your guts are totally kicked out and you and your faith are left mangled on the floor?<br /><br />So there you are with your spouse burying your 1st child...and then you are standing with them looking over the ashes of your home with no insurance almost all of your personal assets liquified in flames...finally you send your wife and 4 daughters to visit family. They leave on a ship, which encounters a storm...and you get a text message that says...saved....alone... what would you do...what would faith mean? Can you stand in those shoes for just a minute and feel the sickening nausea fill you up. Your chest tightens...you scream...tears break out and explode across your face. And your heart and mind start racing, and grieving, and searching for an answer...a reason...something to hold unto. and on the airplane flight out to be with your wife what would you be thinking, feeling...what would you tell her. This is what Horatio Spafford wrote...this was the comfort he gave his wife...this is what faith meant to him when his life was shattered.... this is a true story, from one of my brothers in my faith<br /><br />~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br />When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,<br />When sorrows like sea-billows roll;<br />Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,<br />"It is well, it is well with my soul."<br />Though Satan should buffet, tho' trials should come,<br />Let this blest assurance control,<br />That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,<br />And hath shed His own blood for my soul.<br />My sin - oh, the bliss of this glorious thought,<br />My sin - not in part, but the whole,<br />Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more,<br />Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul.<br />And, Lord haste the day when the faith shall be sight,<br />The clouds be rolled back as a scroll,<br />The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend,<br />"Even so" - it is well with my soul.<br />It is well with my soul,<br />It is well, it is well with my soul.<br /><br />Horatio G. Spafford was an attorney in Chicago during the year of 1874. He and his family were members of the Fullerton Avenue Presbyterian Church. Spafford and his wife had learned what it meant to completely trust God in every situation. First their only son died and then in 1871 most of their personal property were burned in the great Chicago fire. But their greatest testing came in 1874. Mrs. Spafford and their four daughters boarded the French ship "Villa de Havre" on their way to England. But just off the coast of Ireland the ship sank with 226 persons losing their lives. Horatio finally received a cable sent by his wife. It read "saved alone." As he traveled to England to comfort his wife, he was able again to gain his strength from God with the verse, "All things work together for good to them that love the Lord" (Rom 8:28) He then penned the words to our hymn "It Is Well with My Soul." (The tune was written by Phillip Bliss)david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-12265394805104690782009-08-31T23:21:00.002-05:002009-09-01T00:03:13.838-05:00the death of christendomi wanted to clarify my own thoughts on this, so here goes. christendom is a term that basically means that christian ideas and values at some point so saturate a culture that those things inform everything that is created, rejected, or continued in that culture. In my case, this is what happened in America from her inception till...i guess the 1960's or so. But christendom also can mean simply propping up old and discarded values in forms and functions that the culture and her people no longer really believe. in such a case christendom is nothing more than nostalgia and narcissism for conservatism. It becomes a currency for dialogue using things and words that no longer matter much like the fact of having "In God we trust" imprinted on money that we spend on pornography. In our culture we [the christians] often spend a lot of energy propping up the relics of christendom. We fight for the 10 commandments, prayer in school, marriage ammendments to the constitution...as if forcing the form on other people would conform them to Christ. it doesn't. It simply makes Christianity appear to be another totalitarian cultural regime seeking dictatorship. Without a relationship with Christ, these are simply manipulation and pseudo-religious affiliations that are rammed down people's throats. The truth is, we have already lost the war for people's hearts, souls, paradigms, and perspectives. enslaving them to religious and moral constructs will do little to woo them to relationship with God. Christendom is doomed, and i for one am truly, truly happy. Why? It's obvious isn't it. or at least it is obvious to me. When we finally stop bombing people with our morality we may finally have the chance to love them. The sick need a doctor not smart-bombs, protests, legal-coalitions, and all the other weaponry we level at them. As archaic as leeching and electro-shock therapy is for the mentally ill, so are our techniques and tortures for this culture. Look at the middle-east, they hate us. We keep claiming we are liberating them as our bombs fall, our torture is rationalized, and our policies disrespect thier beliefs. The fact is: Christians are trying to water-board gays, abortionists, feminists, etc. "you only hurt the one you love," true...but confusing as hell for them. So then, finally we are running out of bombs and christendom can finally come to her fatal end. Amen. She has become such a religious prostitute of hypocrisy anyways. We are pimped out by politicians from both sides, and neither are indwelled by the fullness of Christ and his kingdom Gospel. At last the full wreckage will be revealed. Christendom in all her religious form and fury will be dead and paganism, humanism, mysticism, sensuality, science, etc. can reign supreme. And then, after the smoke has cleared we can finally get back to our business. Building the kingdom. Most of the church buildings will be gone or converted to art galleries and coffee houses. We will be 10% of the population or less. It will be like Rome in the time of Paul. And we will grow again of that i am sure. Because the death of christendom will purge the social, political, and other advantages of christianity from the church. Those who are left won't be televangelists. It will be unpopular, rare, and costly to be a Christian again. People will have to count the cost, because all the advantages [o this earth] will be removed. And what will win people over? The things we are supposed to be great at but have forgotten. We will again be great at trusting God and God alone as our everything. Not in some vague philosophical way, or emotive way...but in a substantial all-or-nothing way. God will again be our air and without him will will suffocate. And we will love again. We will desperately and death-defyingly love God and each other. And we will be great at suffering again. Prison, corrective thought facilities, all this and more will teach us how to smile, forgive, and die again. And the world...choking on the vomit of it's selfishness will see these people who are so disconnected to this world of lies, pleasure, and pointlessness and will be in awe. Like they used to be. Christians will look like st Francis again. They will walk and talk like st Patrick, Augustine, and others. Joy will again sustain us in our great pain. Our communities of love will shine like an oasis from heaven in the desert disaster of porn, disposable relationships, and empty romance and sexuality. Oh yes, the great hulking edifice of Christendom will totter topple and fall in a great flaming heap of ruins. And from those ancient and archaic ruins a seed will again be born. The seed of the true Church. The unstoppable force of God in this place. An irresistable revolution will be born-again. An impregnable fortress of joy, awe, and wonder will again have to be recond with. The Church will become the ark of truth, love, mercy, hope, and meaning in the great sea of insanity called humanity. Let's not call it a funeral, let's have a wake for the old girl. Her time came and went, and she lost herself in the living. But when she awakens on the other side she will be made new. And God knows she needs to be made new. Say something nice at her funeral, it's a lie, but say it anyway...it's what people do. But even as she dies, she is giving birth to a daughter who will live on. She will live on thankfully NOT knowing her mother. But her Father...her husband [Christ] and the Spirit will make her great. Her freshness will fill the world with laughter and light. Go oh Christendom, go away...and come Church, come and be born-again. The world needs you. The world will want you. The world will kill you. And you will forgive the world and go home to God. And the world will see this, and repent.david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-87734406662966235042009-08-02T22:49:00.000-05:002009-08-02T22:50:12.056-05:00missional sanctificationA MISSIONAL REVOLUTION<br /><br />As the stories of our lives intersect, there are transformations that take place. This is a story of transformation, but not in the way that you might suspect.<br /><br />The word “missional” gets kicked around a lot these days. Mostly it becomes a covert word for evangelism through social justice, altruism, or servanthood. Missional is rarely talked about as sanctification or incarnation or discipleship. But I suggest that missional living has two primary impact points. One is the effect that God has on the world through his people, and the second is the impact these moments have on God’s people when they are with God in his missions to the world. We want to be a church people that are moving into the world in such a way as to bless it, love it, rescue it, and transform it. <br /><br />At 5 stones community church we are just exploring what it means to be missional. We have formed a leadership team to do this; reallocated a lot of our budget in this direction; and begun to search the scriptures to see how we can join God in his ongoing mission to the world.<br /><br />Enter a phone call. On the other end of this phone call is a man who has lost his job, has no place to live, and a wife that is overwhelmed. There are drugs, alcohol abuse, and a huge warehouse of negative history for a couple that have lived most of their lives outside of Gods will and ways.<br /><br />The phone is picked up and a church responds to this story with as many resources as can be found and bought. Rent on a new house is paid, furniture and clothes found, appliances purchased. And two people who know God enter into the lives of two who do not.<br /><br />At first this story heads in the romantic direction we all so wish it would. The couple attends church services, begins to make friends there, and tries to kick the bad habits that they know have been destroying and enslaving their lives. Christ seems to be pressing into them with his transformational love, and they seem to be responding.<br /><br />But then there is a fight, the loss of another job, and another night of binge drinking. Followed by promises of repentance and reform. <br /><br />And those that have been investing in them don’t know what to do. They pray, they call, they visit…but the more they reach out the more it seems like this couple is slipping through their fingers. Finally after weeks of unreturned phone calls one of them visits church, and tells of the affair-the drugs-and the divorce papers being filed.<br /><br />And this is where the heartbreak of being missional begins. At the juncture where romantic ideas about spirituality crumble and we are faced with the stinging truth that peoples lives are never clichés. Here is the fork in the road for Gods people, and here is the place of deep sanctification. For in this place we must be transformed the most deeply or we will exit the mission of God.<br /><br />First of all we must stop trying to figure out who is to blame. When things go awry from our expectations we usually look for a source to assign guilt to. Sometimes we stand like a prophet on the wall and blame God; sometimes we blame those we are reaching out to; and often we blame ourselves. But if we stop blaming and start really feeling we can be transformed. Because if we would be missional and Christlike we must be called into his heartbreak for the world. To allow the worlds rebellion and lostness to shatter our hearts as Gods heart has been shattered. To sit with Jesus and watch the rich young ruler walk away, and to weep over a Jerusalem that will not come home. And when we let this heartbreak form in us, and we take it to our heartbroken God he can then fill us with his compassion, long-suffering, and faithfulness. Missional heartbreak opens the door for our hearts to be ravaged and transformed into the very heart of God.<br /><br />Secondly we must become resilient. Jesus warns us that we will be battered, rejected, imprisoned, etc. and yet we often act emotionally surprised when these things actually happen. We say things like “I’m just not called to this; it’s too hard; or I guess this doesn’t work.” If we aren’t wise we will quickly stuff our pain and frustration into a simplistic and convenient excuse jar and reference it every time we feel called to again engage in the rescue of a dangerous world. But Jesus experienced the same thing. In some places he was rejected, in others no faith meant no miracles could be performed, and at other times his own disciples didn’t understand what he was saying. But Jesus always saw the “joy set before him” and understood the magnitude of the mission. The event or relationship before us is microscopic not macroscopic. We must like Jesus set our eyes on the prize not the person in front of us. Missional living is not an experiment it is a mandate; it is not a moment it is a lifestyle; and it is not about momentum but about obedience. We must learn to be a tougher and more resilient people, a people of tenacity and training. We must learn to deny ourselves, pick up our crosses, and follow Jesus as he leads us.<br /><br />Third, and lastly, we must grow our interior world so that from it we can have the energy and resources for the mission before us. The immature disciple is still looking for some external event that will provide the motivation and momentum necessary to live the Christian life. They read books, attend worship events, and plug themselves into as many things as they can to acquire passion, focus, or intentionality. But the missional person must ultimately be a mystic. Because the world they are called to minister to is so dark and twisted they dare not find their courage and resolve in what happens “out there.” They must instead be focused on what happens “in here” and work their life…words…actions…thoughts…feelings…etc out from a deep and vitally vibrant relationship with God. In particular the God who has indwelt us with His Spirit. The missional community and a missional people are not naïve nor are they negligent. They have a high view of God and find pleasure in serving Him by serving others. They engage the world anticipating it might change, but are more expectant about the fact that they themselves will change. And it is in this fact that they take refuge and find rest, because he who is within them is greater than anything that is outside them. A person and a people that are spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually mature on the inside can face anything. This is what we had when we lived in the age of the martyrs and it is to this way of existing that we must return.<br /><br />So is this a happy story? Does this have a happy ending? That my friends, depends on you. If heartbreak, tenacity, and mysticism are things to be avoided than this is a gloomy fable of tragedy. But if the experience of formational empathy, the discipline of resilience, and the call to a contemplative life are to be embraced then this is a narrative of epic adventure.<br /><br />As Christendom dies in America the people of God will have to be transformed. Our lives, our morality, our politics, our church services have become so much rust and dust to the world around us. But from these ashes we are finding the true embers that lie beneath the rubble. The everlasting echoes from eternity that calls us into Gods deep and transformational love. And when we traverse into this love and are saturated with it, we are then unleashed by God to lavish the world with this love. And love is the backbone of the missional movement. God’s love residing in us being given freely to the world. This is revolutionary. And while Christendom may or may not ever be rebuilt in America, our goal is not to try and force this to happen. Our goals are simpler. To be a person of revolutionary love, amidst a people of revolutionary love, serving a world that is lost without love.<br /><br />And the story I told you of is not over. The biography of those lives are still being written. Redemption is still within reach and restoration may yet happen. And our faithfulness and obedience have something yet to say on the chapters that have yet to be written. But for the two at our church who have embraced this call, their biographies have been forever changed. And the spiritual formation in them has been profound and painful. But I believe they would smile at you from a deep-deep place of intimacy with God, and they say “join us.”david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-81505295259793233062009-06-21T18:00:00.001-05:002009-06-21T18:04:09.067-05:00VacationVacationing<br /><br />chip addicted to waverunner<br />girls speedboating and on the tube<br />Amy tanning and cooking<br />me...<br /><br />Poetry<br />hammock<br />jazz<br /><br />nuff saiddavid sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-40080679824768873832009-06-08T16:46:00.000-05:002009-06-08T16:47:13.448-05:00one service is coming...july 26thBlog post:<br /><br />Churches united. Ya….right. That will be a cold day in ____.<br /><br />As a person raised outside of faith I used to wonder why there where so many churches? Why did God do this, or as I was more likely to believe, why did God’s church splinter into so many freaky cults that were always at each others throats? Church folk, as I have found, can be an acquired taste. But I have learned to love and like church people…mostly because Jesus has showed me how. Plus, he loves me…and candidly I am not very lovable at times.<br /><br />And yet, perhaps it’s not as simple as cynicism always seems to be. What if the diversity of churches was more like the diversity of flowers God has created? What if the beauty of the world-wide church is the diversity? Each accomplishing something beautiful and unique? Variety is the spice of life. And some churches are just a little more spicy and differently seasoned than others.<br /><br />And most likely, what if there is some truth in both concepts? And what if the churches awoke to this and spent time with one another? Perhaps, just perhaps then the world would see something they long to see. God in us, through us, with us…merging and melting into each other in love. Just like the beauty of a botanical garden. Our distinctive colors remaining intact, but our diversity celebrated instead of condemned. A jambalaya of sorts, with Jesus being the one non-negotiable ingredient.<br /><br />This then is our dream. To build a unity between the Ashland churches. Where the unity of our love in the person of Christ becomes a singular beacon of hope to all. A single light, seen through a prism of churches, movements, and denominations.<br /><br />And our hope is that this love will be what Christ promised. “proof that we are His disciples.” The proof is in the pudding they say, and we are pudding together a unity service for any and all Ashland churches July 26th at the High School football stadium.<br /><br />Come join the laughter, loving, learning, and life of the CHURCH in Ashland.<br /><br />There might even be a frost that morning somewhere.<br /><br />David Sherwood lead pastor 5 stones community church.david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-77461500586251263102009-05-29T08:41:00.002-05:002009-05-29T08:45:34.889-05:00re-defining success<span style="font-family:verdana;">Metric mania</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />Or…how does a church, ministry, or leader define “success?” What should we measure and evaluate to define impact?<br />Let me give you few things to chew on:<br /><br />The Old Paradigm: most pastors and church leaders would define success from the following measurable quantities<br /><br />1. Church attendance, membership, small groups, Sunday school<br />2. Baptisms, conversions, re-dedications<br />3. Money that came into the church<br /><br />Notice how much this looks like a business model. It presumes we have products and services to offer and if they are “purchased” we are successful. The challenge of this is…how well would Jesus ministry be defines with this criterion?<br /><br />quote from CG at swerve: "I was trapped in this for years, my emotions rode the roller coaster of attendance. After a strong week of attendance I felt good about myself and life. After a bad week of attendance, I felt like the world was crashing down around me." The same with budget, baptisms, etc.<br /><br />Over the last 6 years I have looked at different criterion. The criterion I see God using in His word when talking with His servants.<br /><br />These include:<br /><br />§ How many can we bring in AND then disciple AND send into our communities to serve?<br /><br />In other words Bringing people in matters…but so does Sending them out<br />5 stones is not doing great at bringing them in yet…nor are we great at discipling yet…but…we are getting much better at sending people out [Spain trip, Missional rev, VBS, etc]<br /><br />How much money can we bring in AND then send out into the world to build the invisible Kingdom and transform people’s lives in tangible ways?<br /><br />5 stones is dead-on-target with doing this pretty well. We are becoming a generous church. We no longer hoard money but give it to the denomination, the community, 5th Sundays, etc.]<br /><br />How much love can we show God AND each other AND the world<br /><br />In other words the attendance doesn’t matter so much as the attitude of those attending. How can we really love God in worship? Obey his word? And integrate His love for us into a love for one another and the world? How transformed are we by His love?<br /><br />§ How many can we give AND send to help start new churches?<br /><br />We are actively working to be a training church for seminary students who want to do this, and we will walk deeper and deeper into this in the coming years<br />How many Conversations with the world can we have instead of Converts?<br /><br />IE: The means to salvations are relationships with the unchurched people of the world. Just trying to “convert” them is manipulative and annoying. Instead we should be looking for open doors to serve them and have compelling conversations with them about the substance of our lives. Being Missional w/o relationship is like being a used-car salesman. Instead of that we want to really love people no matter what, no matter how long it takes, no matter the results. And we trust, that love…over time…will transform others just as it has and continues to transform us.<br /><br />Leaders being obedient to their call…no matter what others do or don’t do<br /><br />IE: Jeremiah was alone and everyone thought he was nuts, Moses had whinners lining up around the block to complain, and Jesus watched many walk away when he said hard stuff. But when this happens to us we either blame ourselves or blame them…which is a waste of emotional energy and accomplishes nothing. Often leaders define success in weird ways but they need to define their obedience as something that brings glory to God, is the right example, and is worthy of testimony no matter what others think or do. Leaders lead…but also sometimes walk VERY, VERY alone. And in these places the leader must remember that part of the “success” God is looking for is INSIDE you and not OUTSIDE. IT is your character and Christ-likeness that is being defined and developed. Success sometimes is a long, hard, lonely obedience in the same direction. Noah understood this. Biblical success is always intertwinned in suffering and sacrifice. But in this you are NEVER alone.<br /><br />What other things should we be looking to measure to redefine success in a more Biblical way?<br /><br />ds</span><br /></span>david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2250579107773474617.post-20514202949135074862009-05-27T10:46:00.000-05:002009-05-27T10:47:53.435-05:00extreme ecclesiology and college ministry<span style="font-family:verdana;">Extreme ecclesiology and campus ministry: “Church why bother?”<br /><br />Or<br /><br />Do college students need to attend a “church?” Especially if they are already involved in campus ministry.<br /><br />As someone up to my ears in this reality, I would like to make a few theological, practical, and observational points. I will break these out of the following outline:<br /><br />1. The ecclesiology extremes<br />a. Barna’s “revolutionaries.” A very fluid understanding of ecclesiology<br />b. Monastic local churches. A very brittle, enclosed, and isolationist approach.<br />c. Searching for a balance of church, kingdom, and Church.<br />2. Fear factors<br />a. What “para-church” campus organizations fear?<br />b. What “local churches” fear?<br />3. Pure and impure desires<br />a. Impure<br /> i. Numbers and vanity in leadership<br /> ii. College students as cliché’s of energy, perception, and free labor<br /> iii. Rationalizing what “church” is in order to do what we want to do<br />b. Pure<br /> i. Serve college students<br /> ii. Missional impact to college students<br /> iii. Opportunities for use of spiritual and servant gifts of college students<br /> iv. Mentoring and Discipling college students<br /> v. Getting college students ready for their next “ecclesiological” experience<br />4. 3rd paradigm possibilities<br /><br />Prelude to dialogue:<br /><br />Church or the concept of church seems to be the focal point of many arguments these days. Is church useless; is church just me and my believer friends; is church a building or attendance on Sunday mornings? These questions and many more populate the blogs, books, rants, and questions of students and those he seek to minister to them. An ongoing challenge seems to be that very few people start with a definition of what “church” is. What did Christ intend when he said he would build it? What did Paul and the apostles actually build? While I don’t have time for that dissertation let me say a few obvious things. These are “backbones” of general orthodoxy and not worth arguing over. They are easily proved by a cursory look at the plain teaching of scripture.<br /><br />1. The Church is both universal [all believers everywhere] and local. IE: It is Glocal.<br />2. The Church exists to continue the ministry of Jesus. This includes the gospel; the kingdom; healing; social justice; teaching; morality; worship; miracles; etc. IE: it is missional<br />3. The Church has a structure. Jesus is the cornerstone; saints and apostles the foundation; Pastors; elders; deacons; etc. IE: There is ‘some’ structure to the relationships and these relationships have different leadership mandates and authority. And leadership and authority imply that there will be followers. IE: No loose cannons<br />4. The Church has a relational imperative. The gifts of church members are for building up, healing, teaching, maturing….each other. IE: Everyone is a contributor and Everyone is a consumer while everyone constructs the “Church.” It is both organic [relationships] and organization [systems, goals, and structures]<br />5. The Church is constructed with the principles, precepts, and promises of Gods word. Thus we cannot make the word “church” into whatever we want it to be. It is an idea and a living organism designed by God. Therefore we will attempt to build, plant, or rebuild the church always within sight of the obvious blueprints of scripture. IE: Church isn’t just one local assembly, and it isn’t a coach-a few friends-and a dialogue or social justice intervention. IE: He tells us what Church is; we don’t tell Him what “church” we want.<br /><br />The ecclesiology extremes<br /><br />In the book “revolutionaries” by George Barna the interviewed people had all abandoned institutional church for a variety of reasons. The veracity of their critiques I will applaud as probably very accurate. However, unlike the apostle Paul [who saw the same problems and more] they have chosen to abandon any form of church instead of focusing on constructing her. Barna never puts in play a comprehensive theology of what the church is, and thus panders to critiques that are to be expected from young idealists. Thus instead of asking “what does Jesus desire the church and me to be,” the reader is left instead to ask “what do I enjoy and want to do for Jesus?” Thus fellowship becomes blogging and slumming with Christian friends, deep involvement in social justice without the gospel being told, and a variety of other things that really look nice but are probably masquerading to some degree a deep seated spiritual selfishness. We become the primary authority over our own lives; we engage what we want, when we want, how we want; in short we get to be single and not enter into married life. Married life being in this case the family of the church. The messy, awkward, weird, fun, hilarious, etc life of the church. Having read probably 10 books and countless articles along these lines over the last decade I simply find this sad, blind, and stupid. The obvious and complete lack of biblical credibility for this seems not worth mentioning. Except for the fact that this position is gaining numbers exponentially and is in my mind a very real threat to the orthodoxy and orthopraxis of the church.<br /><br />Monastic local churches<br /><br />On the other extreme are the monastic churches that often believe every reference in the Bible to “church” means a local assembly. This is simply untrue and bad exegesis and theology. These churches believe everything in the church should be attended by everyone in the church family. Outside events, kingdom events, other churches are viewed with either suspicion or downright hostility. In these situations there is no connection between churches, all authority rests in the local governance of the church, and they often see themselves as the final outpost and remnant of orthodoxy. The message is “join us, do everything with us, hide from the world, and hope they join our freakish little cult.”<br /><br />Searching for a balance of church, kingdom, and Church.<br /><br />Any church situation needs to begin with some sort of general biblical definition that includes all the exemplary data, commandments, and obvious instructions.<br /><br />Thus we must maintain balance and avoid the extremes. In other words Jesus didn’t say to the apostles “I am the CEO and I am creating VP positions for each of you. One will be social justice, one will be intentional community, one will be teaching…” Instead he appointed apostles and believers to make disciples that would then build churches [the Church] that would then integrate with one another and affect the world by building the Tangible Kingdom within it. This balance makes is akin to the family unit [the church] being the backbone of civilization [the Church]. Without this we end up splintered and fractured, or to put it another way without healthy local churches [families] we end up with either a highly dysfunctional civilization [see headlines on any given day] or we end up with a “Children of men” scenario where there are no children to populate the future.<br /><br />This affects the average college student in a very real way. They [as we all do] need a balance of:<br /><br />1. A fluid ecclesiology of peer relationships. A parachurch ministry at a campus can provide this, and give them natural and organic experiences and relationships to nurture and support one another. But this fluidity needs to be connected to something more.<br />2. A firm ecclesiology of hierarchical relationships. A local church where they can be mentored, serve one another through their spiritual gifts, be under authority, and be preparing for the fact that this is the last train-station for peer based / generational ministry.<br />3. A fortress ecclesiology of kingdom relationships. The Global Church connection where they can be a part of affecting the world-wide revolution of Christ. This includes mission trips, support for ministries world-wide, intercessory prayer, etc.<br /><br />Without this balance they are prey to extreme autonomy; life without protective authority; a lack of family support; unhealthy focus on self spiritual pleasures; inability to enter a generationally diverse ecclesiology; stifling of spiritual gifts…and in general an indulgence of selfishness. And while America has turned college into a rebellious rite-of-passage against parental authority figures…anarchy will not be a reality-based option after they graduate. This delusion has isolated many college students and left them as easy prey for the enemy both at college and immediately afterwards.<br /><br />Fear factors<br />What “para-church” campus organizations fear?<br /><br />Most “para-church” organizations actively support local churches. However they have several fears about them that are mostly valid. These include:<br />1. Local churches just want free “labor” at their church.<br />2. Local churches will try to pull students out of involvement with us, and into them.<br />3. Local churches just want to use students as props of energy and momentum<br />4. Local churches fear they are getting old and want to “see” some young folks so they can feel better about themselves<br />5. Etc.<br /><br />What “local churches” fear?<br /><br />Most “local churches” want to support para-church ministries, except that:<br />1. “real” ministry is in the local church<br />2. “real” church is only the local church<br />3. Para-churches remind them of the fact that they are irrelevant and they secretly are annoyed at their own failures and displace blame on others.<br />4. Para-churches often don’t support their distinctive: Calvinism, Charismaticism, …ism’s galore etc.<br /><br />Pure and impure desires<br />a. Impurity in the local church<br /> i. Numbers and vanity in leadership IE: the numbers in attendance make me “feel” better about ‘my’ church.<br /> ii. College students as cliché’s of energy, perception, and free labor. IE: “those college kids should run the youth ministry.”<br /> iii. Rationalizing what “church” is in order to do what we want to do.<br />b. Purity in the local church<br /> i. Serve college students<br /> ii. Missional impact to college students<br /> iii. Opportunities for use of spiritual and servant gifts of college students<br /> iv. Mentoring and Discipling college students<br /> v. Getting college students ready for their next “ecclesiological” experience<br /><br />3rd paradigm possibilities<br /><br />It seems to me that there are endless possibilities to facing these challenges creativity. This I will list some sketches which are meant to be erased and redrawn in various situations. They are neither exhaustive nor authoritative. They are ecclesiological dreams.<br /><br />1. Local churches teaming-up with kingdom para-churches on local campuses. In order to do this:<br />a. Local churches need to support these groups financially, with deep relational resources invested, and with submission to the relevance of the missional approaches they use.<br />b. Para-churches need to support local churches by interlocking their programming with churches when possible. IE: don’t do so much programming that there is no room for local or global church involvement.<br />2. College ministries need to teach ecclesiology to college students in the generalities of the paradigms I have listed above. Most focus on missional, moral, or experiential agendas. They will need to broaden this if they wish for balance in the present and survivability in the future for their college students spirituality.<br />3. Deference for the sake of unity needs to become orthodoxy in these matters. College students are not clichés, toys, or objects of desire. They are God’s children and deserving of respect, foot-washing, love, care, etc. They are highly at risk in this developmental timeframe and “mom [para-church] and dad [local church] squabbling and getting a divorce, doesn’t help them. In fact this lack of stability and integration may be one of the reasons they are so at-risk to start with.<br />4. Local churches need to broaden their ecclesiology and para-churches need to narrow theirs. Both need a theology of kingdom to unite and bind them together.<br />5. We need models of this being initiated, evolved, and adjusted so that we can learn from one another. This is what 5 stones community church is attempting to do.</span>david sherwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01953498664528923105noreply@blogger.com1