Saturday, November 29, 2014
Comic Art
Friday, November 28, 2014
Pretending to Reality
Mark Roberts:
I don't think it would matter what the music was or who was preaching. People would just want to be there. I know I'd want to go to church at that place.
attractiveness church
So what if we were to dress up like God? No, I'm not envisioning wearing a robe and a beard like God in the Sistine Chapel or putting on a Norse warrior costume and winged-helmet like Thor. Rather, I'm thinking in light of Ephesians 4:24: "[You were taught] to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." Notice that the new self we "put on" as if it were an article of clothing is "created to be like God." This doesn't mean, of course, that we become all-knowing and all-powerful. We are like God when it comes to "true righteousness and holiness."What if rather than trying to get people to church with better music and programs we tried with this? What if everyone in the church tried to be a person so like Christ that the place just seemed magic?
[...]
Notice that putting on the new self has to do with actual behavior, not just with inner beliefs and feelings. Even as Galinsky and Adam found that one has to feel the doctor's coat in order to act like a doctor, so we need to feel our godlikeness through doing actions that reflect God's own actions. This thought is similar to what we read in Ephesians 2:10, where God "created [us] in Christ Jesus to do good works." As we put on our new self, engaging in behaviors in imitation of God, choosing to do and speak like Jesus, then we will experience our newness in Christ. Moreover, if "enclothed cognition" is correct, actually finding ourselves acting more consistently like God than we might ever have imagined.
I don't think it would matter what the music was or who was preaching. People would just want to be there. I know I'd want to go to church at that place.
attractiveness church
Thanksgiving Friday Humor
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Happy Thanksgiving
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Beauty in Work
Emily P Freeman:
Indeed, when God created us, we were created in His creative image. While we are God' beautiful creations, I would argue that there is beauty in a spreadsheet or carpool line or proposal. If we do not see the beauty, then we are not fully tapped into God's plan for us. The world is a beautiful place in all it's detail. It was designed to function beautifully. And all that we create including the mundane and the prosaic should be beautiful.
If it is not then it reflects the sin in us. It is often a question of being able to step back from the immediate situation. Most people, if they choose to, can see the beauty in a functioning gear based clock. There is a similar beauty in an electronic watch, but you have to see, in your mind's eye, the electronics work. And so it goes with most things. The ballet that is air traffic control, for example.
Finding the beauty in the seemingly mundane is not about us so much as it is about stepping outside of ourselves. That takes a deep relationship with Jesus.
beauty self
We would most likely all agree that the work offered by the actor, the singer, and the kindergarten painter is beautiful work, even art.Oh, so close, and yet....
But what about the work of the teacher, the father, or the real estate agent? What about the mail carrier, the babysitter, the lawyer, or the cashier? What about the work you do everyday?
Is the work of the artist beautiful and the work of the rest of us just work?
[...]
“So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27).
God spoke the world and breathed humanity and when he did, he declared that every human was made in His artistic image.
Perhaps art isn’t only for the dancer, the actor, the singer, or the painter after all.
The beauty you have to offer may not be a song or a flower or a dance. And you may not see the beauty in a spreadsheet or the carpool line or the proposal you’ve been working on.
But the true art, the most beautiful kind, is you – worshipful, generous, small you.
Indeed, when God created us, we were created in His creative image. While we are God' beautiful creations, I would argue that there is beauty in a spreadsheet or carpool line or proposal. If we do not see the beauty, then we are not fully tapped into God's plan for us. The world is a beautiful place in all it's detail. It was designed to function beautifully. And all that we create including the mundane and the prosaic should be beautiful.
If it is not then it reflects the sin in us. It is often a question of being able to step back from the immediate situation. Most people, if they choose to, can see the beauty in a functioning gear based clock. There is a similar beauty in an electronic watch, but you have to see, in your mind's eye, the electronics work. And so it goes with most things. The ballet that is air traffic control, for example.
Finding the beauty in the seemingly mundane is not about us so much as it is about stepping outside of ourselves. That takes a deep relationship with Jesus.
beauty self
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
What Goes Hand-In-Hand
Timothy Shriver, a clear liberal, says this of the newish Pope:
That said; however,there is wisdom in what Shriver is saying here. No amount of organizational or practical change that is unaccompanied by genuine spiritual renewal will be effective, it will eventually be sinful. Whether it is the pope leading the Catholics or Joe Evangelical leading local mega-church #6.
You see, it's not nearly so much about what we do specifically, but who we are when we do it.
Who are you?
change
Most people are applauding Francis’ call to change the Catholic hierarchy, and many are welcoming his challenge to attack economic inequality. But his call to change isn’t just about the social justice we seek for others or the reform of outdated Catholic insularity. It’s also about the deep and often painful work of changing ourselves from the inside out. The Hebrew prophet Joel captured the challenge of the inner life clearly: “Change your heart, not your garments.” Still, changing one’s heart isn’t easy.I could not agree with that more, but it should be noted that we don't change ourselves, the Holy Spirit does.
That said; however,there is wisdom in what Shriver is saying here. No amount of organizational or practical change that is unaccompanied by genuine spiritual renewal will be effective, it will eventually be sinful. Whether it is the pope leading the Catholics or Joe Evangelical leading local mega-church #6.
You see, it's not nearly so much about what we do specifically, but who we are when we do it.
Who are you?
change
Kitty Kartoons
Monday, November 24, 2014
Change
Chaplain Mike tries to figure out what it means to be transformed in Christ. He offers up three quotation with very different views. One describes it as primarily in the little things and describes it in legalistic and measurable things and another in escatalogical terms. He things asks which it is.
To which I respond - "ALL OF THE ABOVE." (and more)
The transformation offered in Christ is so total and so complete a recreation that it is beyond our comprehension. Here's the thing. The escatalogical viewpoint is not something I can do much about - just have to let it happen. The mechanistic is, but the mechanistic approach without the little things inevitably results in a legalism that is just as ugly as people outside of Christ, it must be tempered with the "little things" approach. (At this point if you have not clicked through, you are lost - take the hint, then come back.)
At that in the end is the real point to me. When Paul says "I am all things to all people" he is not just turning a phrase. Not only does it indicate that we have to meet people wherever they are and deal with whatever they are dealing with, but it also means that there is no crevice or area of life that Christianity does not creep to. Being a Christian is not a "specialty." It's not something you major in. It's something that consumes you.
Are you consumed?
Christianity transformation
To which I respond - "ALL OF THE ABOVE." (and more)
The transformation offered in Christ is so total and so complete a recreation that it is beyond our comprehension. Here's the thing. The escatalogical viewpoint is not something I can do much about - just have to let it happen. The mechanistic is, but the mechanistic approach without the little things inevitably results in a legalism that is just as ugly as people outside of Christ, it must be tempered with the "little things" approach. (At this point if you have not clicked through, you are lost - take the hint, then come back.)
At that in the end is the real point to me. When Paul says "I am all things to all people" he is not just turning a phrase. Not only does it indicate that we have to meet people wherever they are and deal with whatever they are dealing with, but it also means that there is no crevice or area of life that Christianity does not creep to. Being a Christian is not a "specialty." It's not something you major in. It's something that consumes you.
Are you consumed?
Christianity transformation
