Short and to the point.

The Scriptures have authority ... but the problem is that we mave given our interpretation the same authority. Many times our limited understanding, but arrogant approach has left us shaming the name of Christ.

I believe in the authority of Scripture ... just not our interpretation of it!
When someone today attacks the authority of Scripture stop and think... maybe they are attacking a poor cultural interpretation that has been skewed as the authority or absolute truth.
I do not believe in our perspective on absolute truth and absolture authority... it has been so confused and mixed with cultural Xianity.

It is not our job to defend the scriptures! They Can stand on their own!!!...maybe we should listen to what people are saying and dig a little deeper. I think many people who question authority have a good point but they are too often marginalized as rebellious or faithless.

Many would make accusation of this being heretical and dangerous... but on whose authority?

Comments?

A Progressive Conversation III

Very Good conversation!!!

So the essence of what man lost was the ability to sustain life... [life being a broader word than just the physical]

the fall of man was not that he became evil, bad, or depraved. But more the fact that Man has lost the ability to sustain life... our sinful nature is that death is at work in us... ... Jer makes a great point in that 'man's perception of self was changed.'.. he no longer saw goodness but he saw evil.

the purpose of Jesus was to bring the life giving nature of humankind back to a place where we can live in that sustaining element. And see that he was created and intended for good.

Here is the clincher ... any where there is a life giving element... God is in it!!! I have seen this First hand in my experience. People doing good ... the spirit of Jesus oozing out everywhere.

Jesus is a 'life giving spirit'... 'I have come that you might have life and have it to the full'

One of the mysteries of the kingdom I think is that the lifegiving nature of Christ is 'amoung men, in the the midst of men' and at work in them eventhough they do not know it.

Life can be given by even those who we do not recognize as Xian... is it still God? How is it that in some cases the lifegiving nature of Christ is completely absent from those that call themselves Christian?

But yet those that do not know Christ operate in this regularly. Its almost that they know the spirit of Christ but not him personally.

Does this make any sense?

Now filter all moral decisions through this grid... does it give life or death. That is more accurate to the nature of God over a 'right and wrong' approach.

A Progressive Converstation II

So here is a thought ....

****Note --for all those BIBLE/DOCTRINE police out there ... all of these posts are filtered through a scriptural grid... [YES I know some may find it hard to believe I do believe in the BIBLE ] ... there is a scritpural lense to corraborate this 'theologicial exploration.' I purposely do not list it to save time, and keep it simple.***
***Nor do I try to expand on all the conceptual triggers I am making to peoples comments and thought processes...it would take too long to do this****
****To be conclusive with my thoughts would defeat the purpose of this conversation.***




Looking at some of the great stuff folks have been writing I have to summarize a few


Alex --- Good = the likeness of God.



Cathy --- Some good can bring death?




Jeffro --- All good is God's



Matthew --- good is finding those redeeming qualities of life


Good is the essense of God... Good is life... God is life... All life comes from God... God saw what he made and that is was lifegiving and complete[it was good].




What was lost when man[kind] 'fell'?

Did everything become evil?

Was the good that God spoke of completely removed erased from existence?

Was God looking at his creation and saying 'It is very bad?'

Does any creative being after their creation appears to be less than ideal say such things about their handiwork?

God's articulation on 'good' is its ability to sustain and create life.
If its good then its lifegiving and produces more life... if its evil it brings death!

Agree....Disagree?

A Progressive Conversation

So after a meaningful converstaion today over slurpees with a few thinkers [Steveo, Dan, and Blake, and some Metrosexual who sat and gazed into his philosphy textbook but said nothing]. I was provoked to look at some things...

a little different

So I want to try something a little different...

I want to post three posts over the next seven days ... Several questions and several statements?
Its a progressive conversation... BUT The only way this works is if you share your thoughts so lets give it a try ...

First Question....

God Created man 'after his own image.' When all was said and done God said "IT WAS VERY GOOD"

WHAT IS GOOD?

Reflections from an airplane...

On a recent flight to Toronto I met an absolutely intriguing person. I found myself engaged on a meaningful and inspiring conversation for the full flight...from the moment I sat down to the moment I got up to leave [with the exception of the inflight movie and a few bathroom breaks].

Mary Doyle-Powell is a brilliant woman who works with Gifted Children in Ireland [and is a part of the Legion of Mary (another post I will write on this)]. One of the things that we spent quite some time dialoguing on was that every person needs someone else to draw out of them their potential. Many people who 'do not succeed' are unsuccessful because they do not have someone simply believing in them and acknowledging them in their uniqueness.

"Gifted children have special needs that other children do not have. It is often said that "the cream rises to the top" but it is not true that gifted children will succeed on their own without help"

... now stop and think about this for a minute...

how many times to we take this 'cream' mentality to our leadership development and people development? Maybe some of the greatest leaders in your group/class/organization are the quiet ones who don't seem to fit in or are hiding their giftedness to avoid being isolated from their friends.

Those ones who make your job difficult and are somewhat a pain in the keester... are probably the ones who could make a significant difference in your organization.

Now lets shift again for a moment... much talk is spent on the degenerate nature of humanity [frankly this tires me and really accomplishes little] ... but lets think for amoment about the beauty and wonder of God's amazing Creation. Every person created has a uniqueness to contribute to humanity [a special giftedness]. Each persons contribution has a value ... but ...
does your value system embrace their uniqueness? ...
Does it allow them to grow and discover who they are? ...
Does your value system release people to be eccentric or 'to color outside the lines'?
or does it require a certain conformity to fit into your value currency?


Many people claim to value people but at the end of the day do we really value them? Or are they simply a commodity that can be exchanged in our human-economic system?

Thoughts ??? ...

Mary ...You brought hope to me that there are people who honestly and genuinely BELIEVE and want to see people succeed in who they are made to be. Your FAITH IS REAL!!!

I hope to visit you with my family one day in your beautiful little 1000 yr old town. Meetings are never by Chance ...

What is the picture in your mind???

I think when it comes to our understanding about 'the poor' we are continually missing the point. This was inspired after having a great dialogue with Jeremy Postal and the young adult gang at Classic Rythms a few months ago. We were dialoging on Kingdom language.

In talking about the poor we automatically assume we are talking about a certain class of people. As soon as we envision “poor people” we would most likely have a neighbourhood in mind which would be classified as poor.
Or maybe we have a person in mind, or a street corner where a lot of homeless people seem to hang out. The first thing we should all notice is that whenever we think of poor we think of lack of money. We think of bad housing, crappy jobs, kids with old clothing, sleeping on cement and welfare; all benefactors of not having enough money.

What if the poor that the Bible speaks of isn’t a money thing?

It’s difficult for us to separate the term money from the term poor because money is easy. It’s easy to look at someone and know they are poor. It’s also easy (so we think) to fix them, we just throw money at them.

If we stopped using money as our judgement system I think we would have a lot different of a definition of what poor was around us. Just because someone has lots of money, doesn’t mean they are not poor, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t in need.

Just because someone has no money, and may live in conditions we wouldn’t wish for our pets doesn’t mean that they are poor and want our money. If we could actually train ourselves to not think in terms of poor and rich but in terms of Christ’s value upon them I think we would start to see progress.

The kingdom seems to be about abolishing our cast systems, and that doesn’t happen by constantly pointing at a group of people and saying that they are poor and that you (being rich) are there to help them.
This is probably why Christ told the rich to get rid of everything and give it to the poor and in the same lifetime commended the poor widow for getting rid of everything also.

Jesus took money out of the equation. Money does not matter to God... it is not a factor of value. If you have lots thats ok... if you have little thats ok too. So stop trying to fuss about those that have and those that don't. Sometimes I want to stand up and say ...Just Stop it!!! Our theology of economics is way out of wack!!!

After the poor widow gave her two pennies and if the rich young ruler ever sold all his stuff, they would be equal, the would be where Christ wanted them, unable to achieve status through which we are inclined to try to, through money.

What if in the kingdom, poor wasn’t about money at all?

What if in the kingdom money wasn’t our currency for goods, love, power and security but it was something else?

Jesus ministry didn’t just consist of the poor, it also consisted of the rich, money swindling tax collectors also. Obviously Jesus saw some sort of ‘poor’ characteristic in these rich tax collectors. Maybe our definition of poor needs to change.

But what would it even change to?