Why Dead Theologians Are Cool

Just heard this on WHI podcast (@9:30).

Epistle to Diognetus
Chapter V.-The Manners of the Christians.

For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.

A Quality How-To

If more of us that name the name of Christ acted like they believed He commanded us to care for the widows and the poor, maybe we wouldn't need a welfare system.

Until then, here are the least of these. Matt. 25:31-46

Creating Followers

Here’s something I’ve been thinking about for quite sometime. Why does it seem that the Christian community is on the trailing edge of creativity? Or, to put it another way, why is the church taking its cues from popular culture?

It seems that in the desire to be all things to all people, we have stepped back to see what the world will do, then try to emulate the mainstream pop culture in an effort to be relevant. The flaw, in my opinion, is that it belies who we are as christians, who we are in Christ and most importantly, that Christ is in us. Is it not the God of and the Creator of the universe that has taken up residence within us? The Spirit of God who is able to create something from nothing is supposed to be our driving force, is it not? Then, if we agree this is true, why would we wait and see what trends the world will follow, and then follow the world? Shouldn’t following Christ, or if you prefer, being led by the Spirit, lead us to the cutting edge of creativity?

I, for one, thank it should. Especially in the engagement of the culture, whether through the arts, or evangelism or what ever we do, we should be the most creative subculture within our society. I pray you are challenged, as I have been, to lean wholly on the Lord and not on our own understanding when seeking to reach into the mission field that surrounds us.

Vicarious Blessings

This post has been a long time in coming. Maybe I'm a little behind the curve, but for the, oh, lets say ,last six months I get real joy out of my friends blessings. Now mind you, I don't mean blessings between me and my friends. But rather the blessings I have nothing o do with, the promotion at work, tickets to the big game or show, the new love. Now of course, the closer I am to the person receiving the blessing the the more I rejoice. It is amazing how little I think about myself regarding these things, I think I will be just as happy with vicarious blessings as I am with my own.


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Effect of Music

Over the past few weeks, I have found great comfort in music. Not just any music, but music that reminds me of my standing with my Maker. Most of the music I prefer is quite heavy. I like good storytelling at really high volume levels. Good hard rock / alt. music tends to have deeper lyrical and music content then most of what is heard today.
To remind me of the fight I listen to Stavesacre "Between the Two Heavens". When I hear COC's "Rise River Rise" I am reminded of the grace I enjoy. Audioslave's "Like a Stone" reminds me of the house I long to be in myself. But one of my favorite and most compeling is "Epignosis" by Chaterbox.
I'll try to get an iMix playlist up on iTunes music store so you can drop the $3.96 to hear and maybe be a little richer for it.

music