“The book came out of me, I came out of them”
Such profound and well thought out words. Thank you Rob Bell. I am glad that there is such a man to quote such intelligent things for us fellow believers to follow. Listening to Rob Bell make a fool of himself and the rest of us lately has made want to vomit. Seeing him and his postmodern, trendy self makes me want to show up at his door with pitchforks and torches. I guess that is an inappropriate response and my real response should be to witness to him and show him truth. However, I may or may not be filled with anger when seeing his face lately.
It is not only his flawed theology, but it is the fact that he sucks at speaking. For example, the above quote, “The book came out of me, I came out of them...” Wow. Really? My first question is, you birthed a book? That takes some talent and I am not quite sure how that came about. Secondly, who is this “them” that is spoken of? I sure as heck hope that he is not speaking about the Christian body here. I do not think that many people would want to give birth to him.
In response to Bell's new found religion:
“We should have an entire nunnery just for Rob Bell.”
An entire nunnery just to pray for Rob Bell. I think that's a great thought Kelly, thank you for coming up with that. However, I do not think that one nunnery would be enough. We might need to get the universal Catholic church in on it. He's going to heaven anyway though, so I guess it doesn't really matter.
On a serious note about his responses though...
He was asked, “Does your God really care about his people and is not really sovereign?” or “Is your God sovereign and does not really care?” And he really had no response to this. In fact, he left it open ended and did not ask if there were any other possibilities. My question is, why would he hurt so many people by neglecting such an important question? His response does not only hurt himself and people in his close circle, but it also hurts the more broad church. He is putting words into the rest of our mouths. That is quite upsetting to me and quite selfish of him. He has been such an icon in the Christian world for such a long time and it is depressing to see that he is bring the rest of us down with him. I do not want to be a part of this band wagon. However, I suppose the good that does come from this is the conversations that we can have with people. It will be challenging and obnoxious, but necessary … especially after this whole ordeal. We'll see how this test goes.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
What Clubs Kelly and I would Start in A Nunnery
1. Bingo for Nuns - Prizes included:Bedazzled habit, solo during morning mass, field trip to the world
2. Science Club - Water to wine, makin robot stuff, figurin out prototype for low cal communion bread
3. Chess Club - rules: only pieces allowed to be used are bishop and queen, no taking opponent's pieces, no saying word mate, only check
4. "Root"beer Pong Club - Only play in secretive places, must pass sobriety test after, if out of "root"beer can use communal wine
5. Twilight Book Club - Must relate every chapter to scripture, meetings only during full moons, must choose team edward or team jacob cannot be neutral or partial
2. Science Club - Water to wine, makin robot stuff, figurin out prototype for low cal communion bread
3. Chess Club - rules: only pieces allowed to be used are bishop and queen, no taking opponent's pieces, no saying word mate, only check
4. "Root"beer Pong Club - Only play in secretive places, must pass sobriety test after, if out of "root"beer can use communal wine
5. Twilight Book Club - Must relate every chapter to scripture, meetings only during full moons, must choose team edward or team jacob cannot be neutral or partial
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Sex and The Cornfields
Relationships. My favorite topic...obviously.
This past week, I sat through the talks. I went to the sessions. I was involved. Yeah, that's right, I went to all of the freaking Sex and the Cornfields stuff. And just like always, they did not answer anything. They did not give any useful information to me. Actually, the only thing that I was truly informed of was: "Hey, you are still single." Sweet, thanks guys. However, this strange event that only Christian Schools would put on did provide many outside conversations. Therefore, did do its job...yes, I admitted it.
Two main conversations came out of this week:
The first one being the completeness in being single. All around us, we are tempted by this idea of dating. We are young and we should have a mate. That only makes sense because soon, very soon (it is spring after all), we should be getting married. This thought gets into our mind and we think about it more than it seems. It is talked about in every single conversation, so how can we not think about it. However, the truth is that it is okay to be counter cultural. We can be complete without someone else in our lives. It is perfectly normal to do so. We cannot be upset that we are not like "everyone" around us. Here's a hint, everyone is not truly everyone. It is okay to be complete without someone else. There may be a day where someone else "completes you," but if that day is not now, then it is okay. I know that seems a bit simplistic, but it is a simplistic thought that a single person does not always think when surrounded by relationships.
The second conversation that came up more than once this week is this thought of being married right out of college. We love love here at Taylor University. We love people getting engaged and getting married. The faster the marriage the better. It is super healthy for that to be the case. Maybe we are a bit confused in this thought. The truth is that we do not often emphasize how important it take a bit of time before getting married. We do not emphasize that marriages fail more often within Christian colleges. We do not emphasize that it really is not going to be as easy as it sounds. We do not emphasize how when two people are both in a time of transition, it may make marriage harder. Is it possible? Yes, but it fails more often than not. We lie to ourselves to often when it comes to marriage. We get married because we are scared. We do not want to live in this transitional moment by ourselves. We do not want to wait any longer and just want to be together. Marriage is forever, what's a few more months? Is it not more important to take time to truly grow and re-identify who you are before throwing someone else in the mix? If you and the other person are both trying to figure out yourselves, you'll get to a point where you realized that you never did that. Then what? Grow up...then get married.
Conclusion:
It's okay to be single...don't be dumb, just wait
This past week, I sat through the talks. I went to the sessions. I was involved. Yeah, that's right, I went to all of the freaking Sex and the Cornfields stuff. And just like always, they did not answer anything. They did not give any useful information to me. Actually, the only thing that I was truly informed of was: "Hey, you are still single." Sweet, thanks guys. However, this strange event that only Christian Schools would put on did provide many outside conversations. Therefore, did do its job...yes, I admitted it.
Two main conversations came out of this week:
The first one being the completeness in being single. All around us, we are tempted by this idea of dating. We are young and we should have a mate. That only makes sense because soon, very soon (it is spring after all), we should be getting married. This thought gets into our mind and we think about it more than it seems. It is talked about in every single conversation, so how can we not think about it. However, the truth is that it is okay to be counter cultural. We can be complete without someone else in our lives. It is perfectly normal to do so. We cannot be upset that we are not like "everyone" around us. Here's a hint, everyone is not truly everyone. It is okay to be complete without someone else. There may be a day where someone else "completes you," but if that day is not now, then it is okay. I know that seems a bit simplistic, but it is a simplistic thought that a single person does not always think when surrounded by relationships.
The second conversation that came up more than once this week is this thought of being married right out of college. We love love here at Taylor University. We love people getting engaged and getting married. The faster the marriage the better. It is super healthy for that to be the case. Maybe we are a bit confused in this thought. The truth is that we do not often emphasize how important it take a bit of time before getting married. We do not emphasize that marriages fail more often within Christian colleges. We do not emphasize that it really is not going to be as easy as it sounds. We do not emphasize how when two people are both in a time of transition, it may make marriage harder. Is it possible? Yes, but it fails more often than not. We lie to ourselves to often when it comes to marriage. We get married because we are scared. We do not want to live in this transitional moment by ourselves. We do not want to wait any longer and just want to be together. Marriage is forever, what's a few more months? Is it not more important to take time to truly grow and re-identify who you are before throwing someone else in the mix? If you and the other person are both trying to figure out yourselves, you'll get to a point where you realized that you never did that. Then what? Grow up...then get married.
Conclusion:
It's okay to be single...don't be dumb, just wait
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
Who's the strongman?
"Demons will watch your every move and they will take that and utilize it. They love to oppress you and hurt you. They love that you are in pain. If you are struggling with something, they will love to use that against you...They get us to the point where they do not have to do anything anymore. We do it on our own. They are applauding...Question is: Who is applauding louder?"
We do not give the spiritual world the credit that it deserves. We play it down so much that the reality of it does not have affect on us. We forget that there is a battle out there and that it is fighting against us. The truth of the matter is that this is a real fight. The enemy plays hard. He knows exactly what our weaknesses are. We make a mockery of him so often, but the truth of the matter is that he does know what he is doing. He knows what will make us stumble. He knows what will make us cringe. He knows exactly what will make us fall over. The only way to counter act it is to beat him to the play before he gets there. We have to prepare ourselves. We know exactly what makes us stumble. We know exactly what makes us fall flat on our face. It's time to fight back.
We do not give the spiritual world the credit that it deserves. We play it down so much that the reality of it does not have affect on us. We forget that there is a battle out there and that it is fighting against us. The truth of the matter is that this is a real fight. The enemy plays hard. He knows exactly what our weaknesses are. We make a mockery of him so often, but the truth of the matter is that he does know what he is doing. He knows what will make us stumble. He knows what will make us cringe. He knows exactly what will make us fall over. The only way to counter act it is to beat him to the play before he gets there. We have to prepare ourselves. We know exactly what makes us stumble. We know exactly what makes us fall flat on our face. It's time to fight back.
Monday, February 21, 2011
"Wherever genuine community emerges in the midst of our fallen world God is present and working.”
Community...a word that Taylor throws around like it is nothing. And well, it becomes nothing to us.
Here I am, sitting at a table in the top of the dining commons. Just asking people to simply sign up for YC. Give back to people, be servants, not a big deal. However, here is what I see from the "community" of Taylor University: scowls, rude comments, and just straight up ignorance. Why does this annoy me so much? Well let me tell you why...It is what we proclaim above all things. We proclaim to be "intentional community," but the way that I have been treated is not so intentional. Why do we hold this above all things when I see it the least most of the time. I know that we do have some intentional community within our campus and within different groups, but what about the bigger community? We join every week to come together to worship our creator, but where's that worship in the way that we live? Where is that worship in the community that we should be showing to others?
I know that I sound like a cry baby and that I am even preaching to the choir when I talk about these things, but the truth of the matter is that I am upset about this. I am getting so sick and tired of watching us be so selfish and only caring about ourselves. As I see people mock YC and "not have time" to even house a student, all I can think is selfishness. We do not have time to help students see who God really is. We do not have time to bring community outside of our walls and into the bigger community of God. We do not have time to show others that we truly love God above all things. We are so busy with life. We are already involved in something. We are already giving enough of our time. God does not deserve any more of our time. And even if we really do not have time then we should be jerks to those who ask for our time. Real Christ-like.
Community...a word that Taylor throws around like it is nothing. And well, it becomes nothing to us.
Here I am, sitting at a table in the top of the dining commons. Just asking people to simply sign up for YC. Give back to people, be servants, not a big deal. However, here is what I see from the "community" of Taylor University: scowls, rude comments, and just straight up ignorance. Why does this annoy me so much? Well let me tell you why...It is what we proclaim above all things. We proclaim to be "intentional community," but the way that I have been treated is not so intentional. Why do we hold this above all things when I see it the least most of the time. I know that we do have some intentional community within our campus and within different groups, but what about the bigger community? We join every week to come together to worship our creator, but where's that worship in the way that we live? Where is that worship in the community that we should be showing to others?
I know that I sound like a cry baby and that I am even preaching to the choir when I talk about these things, but the truth of the matter is that I am upset about this. I am getting so sick and tired of watching us be so selfish and only caring about ourselves. As I see people mock YC and "not have time" to even house a student, all I can think is selfishness. We do not have time to help students see who God really is. We do not have time to bring community outside of our walls and into the bigger community of God. We do not have time to show others that we truly love God above all things. We are so busy with life. We are already involved in something. We are already giving enough of our time. God does not deserve any more of our time. And even if we really do not have time then we should be jerks to those who ask for our time. Real Christ-like.
Monday, February 14, 2011
"I'm so in love with you, whatever you want to do is alright with me, cause you make me feel so brand new, and I want to spend my life with you. Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own. Two souls with but a single thought, two hearts that beat as one.There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved. When a heart finds another, what's a cloud more or less in the sky? How delicious is the winning of a kiss at love's beginning. Love is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired. I get no kick out of champagne, mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all so tell me why it should be true that I get a kick out of you? I love love, I love being in love, I don't care what it does to me. You had me at hello. One, your my dream come true, two, just want to be with you, three, it's plain to see that you are in love with me. I'll make love to you, like you want me to. I'm going crazy, crazy, crazy, thinking about you lately. Come away with me and we'll kiss pn a mountaintop come away with me
and I'll never stop loving you. Ain't no mountain high, ain't no valley low that's going to keep me from getting to you babe."
Happy Valentine's Day
and I'll never stop loving you. Ain't no mountain high, ain't no valley low that's going to keep me from getting to you babe."
Happy Valentine's Day
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