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goofball841
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Name: Daniel
Birthday: 11/14/1985
Gender: Male
Interests: Praisin Jesus, Sports: Basketball is my favorite, soccer, track, skiing, pretty much all sports; Traveling, Chillin with friends, watching movies and TV shows, violin but I need to buy another one, Singing, Music, Reading, Sleeping, Video games, Computers, snowboard, would like to skydive, bungee jump, surf and travel everywhere
Expertise: I don't have one
Occupation: Student
Industry: IT
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
MSN: goofball81@hotmail.com
AIM:  goofball841
Member Since:
10/7/2003
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| "Last week I wrote of marriage and its potential to convey an essential distinction in the way we in the church can practically demonstrate the witness-bearing love for one another of which Jesus speaks. The issue of marriage within the church must be taken seriously if we want to be faithful to the gospel mission.
I hope my article served to stimulate some to action, to raise questions within your respective churches—such as, “What are we doing to promote and preserve marriages in our church?” and “Have we become indifferent to divorce?” or “Do we really understand marriage from a biblical perspective?” I hope some pastors were challenged to consider teaching on the subject beyond the popular topical level and instead address the sin and selfishness that leads to divorce. I hope others have grasped that teaching the saints about marriage serves the Great Commission by making disciples.
I now want to take up Paul’s charge that “love believes all things.” Once again, Paul is speaking about our relationships within the body of Christ. Paul is not calling for a foolish gullibility. However, being guarded against the possibility of being taken advantage of is not correct either. If love believes all things and love is our motivation, then suspicion has no place. If one has a need and we are able to meet that need, we do so without any expectation (see Matthew 5:41). You may be taken advantage of; you may suffer a loss. You may even look foolish to the world for doing so. So what? We serve one another without qualification in obedience to Christ.
Furthermore, this passage means that we begin from a position in which we think the best of each other, rather than assuming the worst or judging another’s unspoken thoughts and motivations. I can think of no other attribute more lacking in the church today than this.
I have received many e-mails over the years from people who want me to “take on” this Christian leader or another whom they are convinced is “destroying the faith.” Often these positions against one another are political issues common to the culture wars more so than doctrinal issues. For example, such-and-such doesn’t share our emphasis (i.e., conservative) on same-sex marriage, politics, or the culture in general, so some feel justified to publicly attack because they have elevated these political positions to essentials of the Christian faith. Recent reactions to Rick Warren are an excellent example of this.
I myself have received personal attacks, such as one recently from a woman who charged me with “leading millions astray” because, according to her, I was “emphasizing relationships and community over being obedient to the Scriptures.”
I think I am actually “emphasizing relationships and community in obedience to the Scriptures,” but nonetheless, her correspondence was anything but an attempt to believe the best about me. She wrote, “You have forgotten what the Scriptures say and you have replaced it with this unbiblical mumbo jumbo … You have strayed from the path and you are dragging many people with you … you should be ashamed of yourself …. You and people like you are the single biggest reason we are ‘losing the culture war!’” Those are pretty strong words from one who claims to be my sister in Christ.
Does this mean you can’t disagree with me or any other Christian for that matter? Certainly not! Anyone who is mildly familiar with church history would see that orthodox Christians have, throughout the centuries, held differing views on a multitude of important political and theological issues. It was at the height of such controversy that the Puritan writer Richard Baxter (1615–91) issued his famous appeal: “In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity.” Baxter was appealing to the principles laid out in 1 Corinthians 13.
I am called to teach and preach and the Lord in his providence has afforded me the privilege to do so, but I do not think for a moment that I speak “in the name of the Lord.” I can be wrong in my efforts to process and understand the mysteries of God, and so can we all. You can hold a different opinion about this or that theological matter and we can both remain Christian. The church is filled with various and opposing interpretations of biblical doctrine that remain well within the pale of orthodoxy! Christians can clearly be wrong about some things and still be Christian. Recall Apollos who, “being fervent in the spirit,” required Priscilla and Aquila to explain “the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:26). This would be expected among people who are saved by grace and not by knowledge, wouldn’t it?
How many times have you heard the phrase “doctrine divides?” In response, I would say it isn’t doctrine that divides us but rather epistemology. In other words, it’s what we think we know with certainty that divides us. Such certitude is presumptuous and arrogant, the height of hubris when measured against the humility of Paul, who in the same chapter on love conceded the presence of mystery when he wrote, “Now I know in part” (1 Corinthians 13:12). If the apostle Paul did not know the truth completely, then neither do you or I. The consequence of this fact should be a more humble epistemology that is more inclined to listen, to process and ponder, rather than critique and attack.
If one brother disagrees with another he can express that disagreement in a way that preserves the love and unity that Christ speaks of. Thankfully, I hear from some of these as well, such as a pastor who recently sought clarification and better understanding (very graciously) of my thesis before drawing his conclusions. As one who challenges the church to think and question our most common assumptions in the light of Scripture, I am always deeply grateful for such brothers and sisters. They express a rare spiritual maturity and openness. The pastor and I corresponded, dialogued, and he was satisfied that his initial perception was not entirely accurate. You see, this brother began by thinking the best of me, as 1 Corinthians 13 commands, rather than the worst. We were able to dialogue, exchange ideas, and expand each other’s perspective—and not only was unity preserved but a relationship formed.
How often do we find ourselves being critical of others, judging others in order to feel better about ourselves? Jesus addressed this very issue in the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (see Luke 18:9–14). The question we must ask ourselves is this: Am I like the Pharisee who elevates himself above other believers, thinking “I’m the true Christian” ready to condemn those with whom I disagree? Or do I see myself as the tax collector, an undeserving sinner who humbly pleads for God’s mercy? The former is self-righteous, contentious, and divisive, displeasing to God; while the latter is “justified,” a man who is humble, judging only himself.
If we spent more time judging ourselves, critiquing our own faith, knowing the truth of our own condition, we would inevitably be a people who could not help but believe the best of one another. "
© 2009 by S. Michael Craven
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| From a CD insert of a new artist I found.
"Image. Imagine if we had nothing on which to base our existence; Imagine if there was nothing which linked us all together. What if there was no beginning? No example by which we could make our decisions. If we had no self worth or value? What if we weren't royalty, and had no authority? Imagine if there was no blueprint from which we were made; no plans by which our maker could follow, no raw materials or resources to draw from? What if no one thought about us when we didn't exist? What if there was no template or working model to build upon? What if we weren't created? How would we know how to act, respond, think, and move? How would we know how to love, or that we could, or that we should, or that we need love?
No creator? No Image? Wow... Imagine that..."
-Marvin Winans Jr.
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| Bulletproof
The French and Indian War: Account of a British Officer
July 9, 1755 The American Indian chief looked scornfully at the soldiers on the field before him. How foolish it was to fight as they did, forming their perfect battle lines out in the open, standing shoulder to shoulder in their bright red uniforms. The British soldiers—trained for European war—did not break rank, even when braves fired at them from under the safe cover of the forest. The slaughter continued for two hours. By then 1,000 of 1,459 British soldiers were killed or wounded, while only 30 of the French and Indian warriors firing at them were injured. Not only were the soldiers foolish, but their officers were just as bad. Riding on horseback, fully exposed above the men on the ground, they made perfect targets. One by one, the chief’s marksmen shot the mounted British officers until only one remained. “Quick, let your aim be certain and he dies,” the chief commanded. The warriors leveled their rifles at the last officer on horseback. Round after round was aimed at this one man. Twice the officer’s horse was shot out from under him. Twice he grabbed a horse left idle when a fellow officer had been shot down. Ten, twelve, thirteen rounds were fired by the sharpshooters. Still, the officer remained unhurt. The native warriors stared at him in disbelief. Their rifles seldom missed their mark. The chief suddenly realized that a mighty power must be shielding this man. “Stop firing!” he commanded. “This one is under the special protection of the Great Spirit.” A brave standing nearby added, “I had seventeen clear shots at him…and after all could not bring him to the ground. This man was not born to be killed by a bullet.” As the firing slowed, the lieutenant colonel gathered the remaining troops and led the retreat to safety. That evening, as the last of the wounded were being cared for, the officer noticed an odd tear in his coat. It was a bullet hole! He rolled up his sleeve and looked at his arm directly under the hole. There was no mark on his skin. Amazed, he took off his coat and found three more holes where bullets had passed through his coat but stopped before they reached his body. Nine days after the battle, having heard a rumor of his own death, the young lieutenant colonel wrote his brother to confirm that he was still very much alive. As I have heard since my arrival at this place, a circumstantial account of my death and dying speech, I take this early opportunity of contradicting the first and of assuring you that I have not as yet composed the latter. But by the all-powerful dispensations of Providence I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me yet escaped unhurt, although death was leveling my companions on every side of me!
This battle, part of the French and Indian War, was fought on July 9, 1755, near Fort Duquesne, now the city of Pittsburgh. The twenty-three-year-old officer went on to become the commander in chief of the Continental Army and the first president of the United States. In all the years that followed in his long career, this man, George Washington, was never once wounded in battle. Fifteen years later, in 1770, George Washington returned to the same Pennsylvania woods. A respected Indian chief, having heard that Washington was in the area, traveled a long way to meet with him. He sat down with Washington, and face-to-face over a council fire, the chief told Washington the following: I am a chief and ruler over my tribes. My influence extends to the waters of the great lakes and to the far blue mountains. I have traveled a long and weary path that I might see the young warrior of the great battle. It was on the day when the white man’s blood mixed with the streams of our forests that I first beheld this chief [Washington]. I called to my young men and said, “Mark yon tall and daring warrior? He is not of the red-coat tribe—he hath an Indian’s wisdom and his warriors fight as we do—himself alone exposed. Quick, let your aim be certain, and he dies.” Our rifles were leveled, rifles which, but for you, knew not how to miss—’twas all in vain, a power mightier far than we shielded you. Seeing you were under the special guardianship of the Great Spirit, we immediately ceased to fire at you. I am old and shall soon be gathered to the great council fire of my fathers in the land of the shades, but ere I go, there is something bids me speak in the voice of prophecy: Listen! The Great Spirit protects that man [pointing at Washington], and guides his destinies—he will become the chief of nations, and a people yet unborn will hail him as the founder of a mighty empire. I am come to pay homage to the man who is the particular favorite of Heaven, and who can never die in battle.
* * * * *
This story of God’s divine protection and of Washington’s open gratitude could be found in virtually all school textbooks until 1934. Now few Americans have read it. Washington often recalled this dramatic event that helped shape his character and confirm God’s call on his life. Though a thousand fall at your side,
though ten thousand are dying around you,
these evils will not touch you.
Psalm 91:7 NLT http://www.undergodthebook.com/main.cfm | | |
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