Postmodern Renaissance Culture Revolutionary

Love All Around Yesterday I emphasized that if we desire to mature in our love for God we will move through phases of that relationship/love. It takes an intentional effort on our part. That intention puts us in the places where God moves us through maturity. The first two phases, Devotion and Discipline, are heart and mind love. They are phases of developing certain character traits and practices. When we have been intentional about developing those, God brings us to a point of total surrender: Dedication. We are not able to become dedicated to God as much as God makes us able to be dedicated. But we still have to be intentional about developing our lives after that point. In particular, we have to be intentional about loving others. Read 1 John and you find a lot of love. In 4 chapters, love is referred to 46 times. The really interesting thing is that almost half of them are in chapter 4. 1 John 4 New Living Translation (NLT) 4  Dear friends, do not believe every...

When we say that we love God, what do we mean by that? We "love" many things. And the interesting thing about our loves is that we mature in the love we have toward the object. Consider this: if we love children throughout their lives with the same love we have for them as infants, what would that look like. As infants we show our love by caring for every need out of the awareness that they cannot do anything by themselves. We feed, move, and protect them in every way because they cannot even do the most basic activity on their own. Now fast forward that relationship to the day our children move out of their homes. By this time we have given them freedom to explore the world on their own. We have encouraged them to find their own identity even when some risk is involved. We may have empty cupboards on that day, but hopefully they can provide basic sustenance for themselves. If we have "loved" that child in the same fashion throughout their entire life, it ...

Given the sensitivity we are experiencing in the new of Robin Williams' death, I would like to share some sermon notes on the subject of suicide. This is the outline of a series of sermons written in 2010.  These are written from a purely Christian point of view with the hope of Christ being first and most important. I hope that these humble words will be helpful and full of hope. Taboo Subjects Suicide Suicide Death and a Cross 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 Suicide is sin I received so many responses to the comments I made about suicide in a sermon that I had to respond quickly Suicide has impacted many lives in this community And it is a subject we do not like to talk about – it is hard to talk about I’m going to speak from the Bible about issues surrounding suicide, but I am going to deal with the subject head on If you are uncomfortable or become emotionally overwhelmed, do not be ashamed to leave if you feel you have to But I ask that you give God a chance to heal...

This post will upset some people. Especially my wife. But before you jump to defend me or criticize my point of view, read/ponder/wonder with me. Last week was the Oklahoma Annual Conference. It is our regular business/worship/fellowship event for Oklahoma United Methodists. It is a time to celebrate the ongoing ministry, plan for the future, and carry out the necessary business that binds those two. I have a reputation among friends and colleagues for not caring for the event. I have also earned a reputation for not being there. That has nothing to do with the title. But those opinions hint at the struggle I experienced going into Annual Conference. This year was a difficult session for me emotionally and psychologically. I won't get into details. Let's just say that I was not in a good place mentally or emotionally when I arrived. It didn't get too much better over the course of the few days I was there (yes, I attended all sessions except worship). And when I left on T...

The following is an opinion piece. It is based on observation of the current events of United Methodists. It is not intended as a position piece, arguing a course of action. In other words: my blog, my space to vent. If you care nothing for my opinion, the state of United Methodist affairs, or personal venting, feel free to Google something more to your liking. Monday, a press release was issued. It was released by Good News, an evangelical United Methodist movement. The press release can be found here . It essentially states the opinion of the Good News staff and board regarding the current state of affairs of the United Methodist Church. It uses the word "untenable" to describe what our current UM reality is. According to Merriam-Webster, untenable means, "   not capable of being defended against attack or criticism : not tenable"  The situation they are referring to is the "united" portion of United Methodist.  Response to this statement is clearly...

Day three on the ark. All is dark. It sounds like rain. These critters stink. Spoiler Alert I've been wandering around the internet and found many complaints by Christians leveled against the movie Noah. The chief complaint is that it is not biblical. I can't understand this complaint. Why isn't it biblical? Is it because it includes elements that aren't written into the story? Is ti because it is too fantastic (as in loaded with fantasy images)? Is it because the characters don't do what is wanted or expected? I have already touched on some of these issues in the previous posts. But I want to focus on the biblical nature of this movie in detail. I felt that it is perhaps more biblical than most movies based on biblical narratives. And that is saying a lot considering the number of Bible themed movies that have come out recently. I feel that this movie is more biblical because it not only takes the Noah story seriously, but it also puts the Noah story into t...

The last blog post respected anyone who had not seen the movie. I didn't share anything about the content. ***TO BE WARNED - THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD*** As much as I loved Noah , I did have a few complaints. My first complaint is that this was way more of an action movie than I expected. There were some dramatic fight scenes included and they were, to some, graphically violent. I know that violence is somewhat necessary. Conflict is a critical tool in story telling. And violence seems to be the most visceral way to express conflict. Given the characterizations of "men" in the movie, violence is possibly a necessary way to portray that conflict between "men" and Noah. Don't get me wrong, I like action movies. Die Hard is one of my all time favorite Christmas movies. And I wasn't complaining about the violence in the movie. I just felt that at times, the action movie genre that was employed was a little over the top. It wasn't used just a part o...

Lisa and I decided on a last minute date Friday night. I wasn't sure if I would get to see Noah this weekend. So when the opportunity opened up, I jumped. I also knew that people would want my opinion. I've already posted a few comments on the movie. If you have seen any of those, you know I have a very positive opinion of Noah. I've gone so far to say that it is more of a Christian movie than other films released by Christian distributors. I'll get into the why of that as I go along. One of the reasons I was very interested in seeing this film was the amount of anti-Christian rhetoric that was being leveled against it before it was released. I started hearing the Ultra-conservative opinions being formed against the movie before the media screenings. That means these opinions were being formed before even seeing any of the content in context. But I have to confess, I also had my pre-conceived ideas about the movie. Months ago I saw some early blurbs on some things...

The Seedbed Blog recently featured a three-part series concerning sin, hell, and the relationship of "sinners" and "going to hell". Timothy Christian, the author, is a pastor from Versailles, Kentucky and graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary. Parts one and two do a fair job of reviewing the definitions and uses of the New Testament references to "hell". These represent a great start for anyone looking to do their own research. I feel that he did a very good job of keeping the information engaging without becoming too academic so to lose some readers. Christian takes the uses of the references to "hell" in it's different Greek forms and weighs them on a scale of judgment toward sinners. Specifically he is providing the basis for an argument of whether or not the Bible (or more pointedly, the New Testament) claims that sinners are condemned to Hell. He takes each body of New Testament literary genre separately. In each category of Script...

Wednesday night's Bible Study ended with a list of Scripture in reference to the theological concept of the Trinity. Here are those passages: Matthew 28:19 Matthew 3:16 2 Corinthians 13:15 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 Ephesians 2:18 Jude 20,21 John 14:26 John 1:1-4 1 John 3:23-4:3 1 John 5:4-10 Revelation 1:4-6 Philippians 2:5-11 BONUS: Colossians 1:13-16 Hebrews 1:1-4

Our family devotion this morning was from E. Stanley Jones' Christian Maturity. It comes on Week 1-Saturday (pg.7 in my edition).  Scripture reference is Philippians 2:5-11: 5  Have this attitude  [ a ] in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,   6  who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be  [ b ] grasped,   7  but  [ c ] emptied Himself, taking the form of abond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.   8  Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death  [ d ] on a cross.   9  For this reason also, Godhighly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,   10  so that at the name of Jesus  every knee will bow,  of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,   11  and that eve...

I try to keep my politics on the inside. I respect persons on all sides of the issues. I try to listen with compassion to the pain and passion with which they speak. But there are times when even I can't remain silent. I do not know the person in this share . I support this brave individual, though. It takes some soul searching and serious consideration to make this choice. While I do not agree with everything that is stated, I do support this family in the hard decision they have made. My comments are not partisan/party based. I don't follow a party platform. I try to examine the issues as they develop. And in my opinion the Affordable Care Act is not a workable solution to the needs of the people. It does not accomplish what was hoped for. It does not bring the need for affordable health care to all people. It will take hard choices like this on the part of many people to bring attention to an unbalanced and ill-conceived, poorly executed program. The political posturin...