Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Paleo-orthodoxy

“One canon, two testaments, three creeds, four general councils, five centuries and the series of the Fathers in that period determine the boundaries of our faith.”

Lancelot Andrewes
(1555-1626)

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Hmm...

“And Jesus said to [the Pharisees], "I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?" Luke 6:9

You might be a Pharisee if (stolen from TreyMorgan.net)
1. If you consider the church roll the Lamb’s book of Life.
2. If you're disgusted by the moral filth that is playing out of your own DVD player.
3. If you think Christianity is about rules rather than relationship.
4. If you think any church that has experienced growth must be watering down the Gospel.
5. If you won't let your kids watch "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" because there's a witch in the movie.
6. If you only see what is wrong in others and never what is right.
7. If you feel it's your spiritual job to "fix" other people, because you only see what's wrong in others and never what's right.
8. If you're so obsessed with traditions and religion that you miss that it's all about Jesus.
9. If you accept only the KJV as authorized because it's the version that Paul & Silas carried.

How to avoid being a Pharisee:
1. Be aware of how prone you are to being a Pharisee
2. Seek humility. Right now
3. Look for evidences of grace in other’s lives
4. Do good. Save life. Especially if it is on a Sunday!
5. Repent deeply and daily
6. Cultivate compassion on the less fortunate
7. Spend time at the foot of the cross
8. Identify and tear down the idols of your heart
9. Don’t take yourself so seriously
10. Drink deeply from the wells of grace.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Unfashionable

From “Unfashionable: Making a Difference in the World by Being Different” (Tullian Tchividjian)

In this windowless world, God, transcendence, and mystery have become less and less imaginable. All of life is “rationalized.” Everything becomes a matter of human classification, calculation, and control. “What counts in a rationalized world,” says Guinness, “is efficiency predictability, quantifiability productivity, the substitution of technology for the human, and “from first to last control over uncertainty”. Everything's produced, managed, and solved this side of the ceiling, which explains why so many people are restless and yearning, as I was, for meaning that transcends this world - for something and Someone different.

This may be why every television season seems to bring new supernatural dramas, such as Ghost Whisperer, Supernatural, and Heroes. And why people are increasingly fascinated with Eastern mysticism, angels, aliens, psychics, the afterlife, and metaphysical healing. Our generation is crying out for something different, something higher, something beyond this world. They long for elements that a world without windows disallows””mystery, transcendence, and a deep sense of wonder, awe, and spirituality. “Eternal questions and yearnings,”� says Guinness, “are thrusting their way up between the cracks in the sterile world of secular disenchantment.”