Get off the bench!

"Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn't take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I've become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn't just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!"

~ Paul the Apostle (1Cor 9:19-23 MSG)

Faith & Difficulty

"If we think we are going to grow in faith by sitting around at a Bible study, we are wrong. That stuff is fine, but without a story, without diving into something really difficult, something that requires us to look to God for support and wisdom and comfort, it will be more difficult to become a person of great faith."
~ more from Donald Miller

Spending time with Father

"Sunday morning church service is not an enormous priority; spending time with other believers is!  Some people associate Sunday morning with God. One of the things I associate with God is a sunrise. How many sunrises have you missed over the years, and God created that?"

~ Donald Miller

Schools Out

My counsel for you is simple and straight-forward: Just go ahead with what you've been given.  You received Christ Jesus,
the Master; now live him.  You're deeply rooted in him.  You're well constructed upon him.  You know your way around the faith.  Now do what you've been taught.
School's out; quit studying the subject and start living it!  And let your living spill over into thanksgiving. – Colossians 2:6-7 (The Message)

Burritos full of lvoe

Burritos full of lvoe

How wonderful the aroma

That has found their hearts

So hungry for significance

Lvoe, peace, dirt, smiles

And hearts longing for lvoe

A suffering people lost to society’s cares

A broken people needing helping hands

A hurting people that look like Jesus

A special people who know how to share

A dirty people with hurting hearts

A tender people with golden hearts

A least of these people that Jesus said to love

A proud people hanging on to dignity

Picking up pieces

Of broken hearts and spirits

Walking through the pain with them

One step at a time

Loving and learning and being the blessing

They’re the same kind of different as me

They’re just like you

A hopeful people who bless you right back

A wonderful people who stay on my heart

An infectious people who know the meaning of want

A strong people who know what it means to suffer

A suspious people leery of liars

Burritos full of lvoe

How wonderful the aroma

- Jim Burnham, Spring 2010

Theos - logos

I thought this was pretty interesting. It’s from the Mars Hill Bible Church theology:

The word theology comes from two Greek words: “theos”, meaning “God”, and “logos”, meaning “word”. So theology is words about God.

When we put to words what we believe about God, we discover that he has been writing a story of hope and redemption for all the world. His story is a movement from creation to new creation, and he has given us a role to play in that story, in the restoration of our relationships with God, each other, ourselves, and creation.

Since story is central to our belief about God, our words about God–our theology–exists in the form of a narrative [see below]. You won’t find isolated text references or a list of specific propositions in it, because ultimately neither of those things best reflects what we believe about God. What we believe about God is at the heart of what we believe also about each other, ourselves, and creation: that ultimately everything is part of the one great story.

In the beginning God created all things good. He was and always will be in a communal relationship with himself–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God created us to be relational as well and marked us with an identity as his image bearers and a missional calling to serve, care for, and cultivate the earth. God created humans in his image to live in fellowship with him, one another, our inner self, and creation. The enemy tempted the first humans, and darkness and evil entered the story through…