It’s interesting how often food is mentioned in Scripture.
We see it parallel our spiritual lives in so many ways.
What goes in, must come out.
Man cannot live on bread alone…
Take and eat, this is my body…
Even the early Christians were known to partake in a “Love Feast” where everyone joined together and shared their meals and life together. I liken it to what Max Fincher calls, “The Gospel of Welcome.”
Continue reading Dining with friends
Blake Huggins shared his thoughts on this great quote from NT Wright…
“It really is high time we developed a Christian ethic of blogging. Bad temper is bad temper even in the apparent privacy of your own hard drive, and harsh and unjust words, when released into the wild, rampage around and do real damage. And as for the practice of saying mean an unjust things behind a pseudonym – well if I get a letter like that it goes straight in the bin. But the cyberspace equivalents of road rage don’t happen by accident. People who type vicious, angry, slanderous and inaccurate accusations do so because they feel their worldview to be under attack.†– NT Wright
Blake continues…
I couldn’t agree more. Blogging is at the same time both great and dangerous. It brings out the best and the worst in us. I am grateful for the many friends that I have made through this platform but I get really put out with the slander and hateful words that are put forth under the auspices of speaking the truth or defending the faith, or whatever else. As Christians we have a great opportunity to have rich and robust conversation and to model what charitable dialogue and respectful disagreement might look like. At our best we do that well, but sometimes we blow it.
I totally agree with both. I’ve twittered and blogged several times in the past about how difficult it would be to go a whole day without complaining about something online.
Continue reading A Christian Ethic of Blogging
A new CNN article today reports that the more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists.
More than half of people who attend services at least once a week — 54 percent — said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is “often” or “sometimes” justified. Only 42 percent of people who “seldom or never” go to services agreed, according the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Can someone please tell me why?
Is there something I’m missing along the way?
Photo by benab
How many of you can finish this statement:
“Love the sinner….”
Tony Campolo says “wherever someone is hurting, there is Jesus.”
But then he also finishes the above statement. For those who say, “I love the sinner, but I hate his sin.” His response is that “that is just the opposite of what Jesus says…. Jesus says, ‘love the sinner and hate your own sin; and after you get rid of the sin in your own life, then you can begin talking about the sin in your brother or sister’s life.'”
I continue to believe that the more we get to know people and know their stories and know their backgrounds and know their hurts — the more we realize how similar we are and loving them becomes that much easier.
Huge props to Theresa for sharing this video.
Recently on This American Life:
Act Two. Team Spirit in the Sky.
This past Christmas a story swept the internet about a football coach at a Christian high school in Texas who inspired his team’s fans to root for the opposition: a team from the local juvenile correctional facility. Among the thousands of emails that the coach received in response to his actions, one stood out to him. Trisha Sebastian mentioned her loss of faith, and coach Hogan got a message from God that he was meant to bring her back. We eavesdrop on their phone calls. (19 minutes)
Click here to listen to the audio of the story. It starts at 20:02 into the show.
I love the initial story of the fans cheering for the other team. Great work coach! We need lots more of that! Even just in regular high school games.
But as you listen to the story, you hear Trisha tell Ira Glass that she’s leaning towards agnosticism after the loss of a dear friend. She shares this with the coach and he attempts to change her mind with apologetics and logic.
Continue reading This I Used to Believe: Act 2
“I can’t take the Eucharist and not be cognizant of the fact that I belong to a universal community.
I can’t take the Eucharist and not be cognizant of the fact that my primary allegiance is to God and to faith in Christ.
I can’t do that and then allow myself to go out and have another allegiance claim ultimacy in my life.
That is profoundly threatening if you start to think through the implications of what that looks like for the Christian who lives anywhere in the world.”
– Dr. Jeffrey C. Pugh referring to Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theology.
AMEN.