“Anything that draws us away from the model of the first century church can’t be good.”
Read more...Working through someone else’s sin
It is not the best written argument in Small Groups – Loving Sinners is Messy but Necessary but it does make me wonder about the fruit of the Spirit called patience (or longsuffering, if you’re a KJV fan) from Galatians. And it begs the question, am I willing to devote myself for the long haul to someone who doesn’t change right away?
Continue reading “Working through someone else’s sin”
A single story.
God knows where marriage fits into our individual lives to complete that purpose of building his Kingdom and drawing us closer to Him, all we have to do is trust Him. Harder said than done. It is the same in all the really big areas of our life, it is easier to know to trust God then to actually do it.
Read more...Redemption for grassrootsmusic.com
the last few orders that i have put through to grassroots have been riddled with problems to the point where have considered not buying from them anymore. time delays and incomplete orders where foreign to my experience with them until these last 3 orders. apparently they were moving facilities and this caused a time period of disarray. but alas they have redeemed themselves with this last order.
they tempted me with a cornucopia of close outs on a bunch of their independent releases and i was not strong enough to resist. so, i ordered 24 cd’s from them praying that they had gotten their act together. sure enough, the order has come in a day after shipped and a mere two business-days after I ordered ’em, without a cd missing from the bunch. excellent customer service has indeed returned to my favorite provider of independent Christian music.
i just hope that they are doing ok. i have heard rumors of financial problems at the company. i really hope that is not the case as i have found that grassroots has been invaluable in offering regional, independent offerings of the singer/song writer variety. stuff you just cannot find anywhere else.
i am concerned though, why are they clearing out so much good music at such cheap prices? i am not complaining about the windfall to my personal collection but i am worried that this resource that i have used for something like 7 or 8 years now, will soon not be with us. will i be condemned to what gets spoon-fed from the man, corporate music? i sure hope not. at least we still have pastemusic.com. even so, long live grassrootsmusic.com and the independent, folksy music they stand for!
(Chapter 1) The Search to Belong – a review by chapter
Myths of Belonging
The Search to Belong is a about community, more specifically about the type and substance of relationships that form a community in the church today. It strikes me as a “what’s been done and what’s to come sort of book that emphasizes the paradigm shift of post-modern thought and how that relates to the church and the functions of community in it.
“Community is a complex creature. Many factors contribute to finding successful community. With the erosion of the geographically close family and the heightened mobility of our culture, many people struggle to learn healthy competencies for community.”
Continue reading “(Chapter 1) The Search to Belong – a review by chapter”
(Intro) The Search to Belong – a review by chapter
It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us, that the time that still separates us from utter loneliness may be brief indeed. Therefore, let him who until now has had the priviledge of living a common Christian life with other Christians praise God’s grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare: It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s quote is a clear representation of the how I personally see community. I wanted to start off with this quote to give you feel of perspective concerning the review you are about to read. I can’t help but color my wording with my perspective on things. So I will just warn you ahead of time that I can be quite… dogmatic, on the issue of community and the place of it in the believer’s faith journey.
The posts over the next weeks will be a review of The Search for Belong by Joseph Myers, actually more of a Cliff’s Notes (should I put a TM here?), for the benefit of my brothers and sisters at the bluer Vineyard at the bequest of my pastor. The idea being that, if one who has passion for the topic of a certain book can condense the main points of that book into manageable bits, many can benefit from the thoughts presented of the book without having to actual read the whole volume of work. It is an idea born from a society with too many commitments and not enough time. This may or may not work, who knows? One thing is for certain I will enjoy the effort and I hope that you do also.
The Tyrany of American Freedom
Oh yeah, I said it and I meant it! We subjugate our enemies by the influence that we wield over the monarchies and/or dictatorships of other countries.
Look at Saudi Arabia and their institution of a state run program through which all, I say again, all charities for the country will be funneled through. In short, all charity in Saudi Arabia is to be strictly regulated by the state.
Continue reading “The Tyrany of American Freedom”
How do they come up with this stuff?
the following is meant for the technologically proficient only so, as you read, if your head starts hurting close the window for your own safety. my so smart, my roommate so smarter.
Continue reading “How do they come up with this stuff?”
The most unremarkable thing ever.
the egotist in me wonders why i never get a comment on my blog. sometimes i go to my site just to see if there is a comment even though i know that, if there was a comment, it would be forwarded to my email account.
i surprise myself with my own vanity sometimes. i mean really, i don’t log much and what i do log isn’t necessarily compelling to anyone but me, but there is still that part of me that wants to be recognized and acknowledged.
will anyone even read this post? who really cares? seriously, in the end this is mainly a cathartic action for me mixed with a bit of exhibitionism. It would be cool to have someone read and react to a entry but one would need an entry worth reacting too. so, i suppose i will just have to settle for the purging benefit this journal this journal allows me.
I did just check and if you do a google search for mark miron, this blog does come up as #1 on the list, so that’s a comfort. Anyone looking for mark miron will find this site. it’s like i’ve got a corner on the ‘mark miron’ market, so i’m like famous or something. it’s a long stretch but my ego likes it and that is good enough for now.
still, if you read this blog, comment. my ego will thank you… no, actually my ego (i must depersonalize at this point relegate my ego to the third person for reasons of shame) will probably bask in the recognition of it’s own importance for a moment and then ponder the next wonderfully insightful entry we can add to this blog, trolling for comments, so that the ego can bask again.
Here’s good idea, i’ll comment my own blog so that way when someone reads this they will be more like to respond and have a model for what a proper response could be. that’s it, people just need some guidance with this commenting thing, that’s all.
Acts of the Disciples
I’ve been thinking that since we are made in God’s image we are 3-in-1 just like Him. I’ve espoused this for a long time. Just recently though I’ve thinking of who we are and how we are made and the relation of that to the work of the Holy Spirit. It seems that conversations on the work of the Holy Spirit fall easily into the realms of the mental and the spiritual but on the issue of the physical, there is a nod to the possibility but a feeling of improbability. Why is that? Is it truly a balanced way it express/explore our faith?
We pay lip service to the fact that God can interrupt our natural life without any expectation that He actually will. Maybe I’m just interjecting my personal reflections into the intentions of others, but does seem it be the case that we live our lives like we are cessationists no matter we proclaim to believe.
I’m painting with a broad brush here, I know. It is just that generally speaking, I have heard the same thing time and time again, “Oh yes, God can do that (insert supernatural occurrence here) but let’s not be too hasty about it happening here and now (implied).” It just doesn’t mesh with what I’m reading in Acts. Daily God invaded their world of the flesh just as He did the mind and the spirit. Continually working in and through them to accomplish His will.
I pray for the faith to believe that the book of Acts is an open-ended story that is still being written today and the courage to live in that truth.