Disqus - Latest Comments for ded

Re: It’s the little things

ded — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 18:49:54 -0000

Heather,

I greatly enjoy reading your comments! The "small things" are called the "mundane" by folks who need great amounts of stimulation before they begin to feel satisfied. I amazed by what the Lord does in the small things. Such wonder and beauty! I am blessed to know you are one who sees the beauty in these areas.
It isn't a surprise, since you come from the two wonderful people who are your parents!!

Re: The High Stakes of Fatherhood

ded — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 18:03:41 -0000

I just wish you had finished the post with something to the effect of, "...and you will never succeed if you attempt to win those high stakes on your own." Men being who they are, some will undoubtedly take your challenging last line and redouble their efforts to be "godly" men and perform the "high stakes" role of father in their own understanding. It won't work. It is Christ in you or nothing in all things and especially when parenting. I did everything I knew to do, was taught to do, believed I should do and I still got the nightmare call at 3:00 AM, "Hello, Mr. Davis. This is officer so and so at Boone PD and we have your son under arrest." We either walk a NT reality of life in Christ or we don't. Christian religion fails and fails and fails no matter what the stakes are.

Re: The Price of Sausage

ded — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 17:30:18 -0000

I remember Link and Patty well. I am glad to know you were not traumatized for life once finding out the "pets" were dinner.

Re: Real Family Confessions

ded — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 06:30:23 -0000

If identifying the lack of authenticity as the major source of a young person's lack of trust in a parent is accurate, the fix seems fairly easy. Parents need to develop authenticity. That doesn't mean they need to do more spiritual exercise: more sermons, more devotionals, more terms of service in the church nursery. Folks, not just parents, need the latitude and support to be fully honest about their fallen natures, which often are very much alive and living under a veneer of Christianese and self-promoting good works. (One of the reasons a "man of God" is actually a rapist at heart.) When we are honest about our true natural state in an atmosphere without condemnation, we are opened to learn the ways of Christ in our heart. The bare knuckles reality emerges for the individual to admit, "I sin because I do not love God. I am unauthentic because I am trying to hide that truth." There are no excuses, scapegoats, or justifications for our fallenness. We willfully love ourselves instead of Him.

When we confront and accept how little we actually love God, then determine we want to be the new creature who does, the true journey of spiritual growth begins in the inner-person. An authentic experience of the Holy Spirit develops and springing from this vital relationship with the in-dwelling Presence of Jesus, spiritual authority to guide the development of our childrens' hearts and minds follows.

Re: Weekend Thoughts

ded — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:53:28 -0000

If TV characters appear whiny and clueless, is that not a fair way to judge the culture? ie: If such is popular does that accurately illuminiate what has come to be seen as "real" and epitomize the social condition?

Life without Christ is more deathly than ever!

Ben, how do you not get this?

Re: Real Family Confessions

ded — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 17:29:17 -0000

I started my blog Friday. I think I finally felt guilty about being long-winded on other people's blogs.

spiritinthewildwood.blogspot.com

Re: Garithes Yiouvetsi (Yummy Shrimp Dish)

ded — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 10:55:04 -0000

How could it be bad with the three best foods in the world: garlic, olive oil and tomatoes?

Re: George Barna: Revolution

ded — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 17:00:28 -0000

I absolutely agree with you. I do not consider my being in a home church as being underground. Rather, I see it, among other things, as helping us all prepare for being underground should the circumstances call for it. Those who know the Truth and refuse to back down from it, may end up having to die for our belief before we ever have the chance to go underground.

If and when we find ourselves underground, perhaps I will be able to offer some assistance to others on how to manage the practical aspects. ;^)

Re: Let Kids Be Kids

ded — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:14:33 -0000

Shape the child according to his or her bent. Who cares what anyone thinks? Challenge your kids by comparing him or her to him or herself. Reality is not bad.

Re: What is Biblical Faithfulness?

ded — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 06:12:04 -0000

There is a reason longevity is the basis for the promotion to the level of one's incompetence. Organizations are self-preserving. The higher a person rises within the organization, the more any given job has influence within the organizational structure. The safe and self-preserving logic is to hand these higher impact jobs to known and trusted entities. It is hoped they won't mess up; if they do, it will be less significant; and these folks who have been around a while are more likely to be loyal to the status-quo. All these assumptions tend to be true.

Once someone has achieved a level above their competency, they begin to operate by rote and formulas that are proven to work within the system since they are no longer able to fully apply thinking skills, both inductive and deductive, effectively. Their creativity and the subsequent risks are no longer valuable to the individual as these represent making a mistake the system will not tolerate.

Both ends of the agreement, higher management and worker, are settling for safe opposed to thinking and innovation.

This explains how Truth suffers within groups. Since God's ways are higher than ours, people and the groups they form tend to function within the limited perpsective of a current cultural bubble. The Truth of God consequently is compromised, if even ever so slightly, by men's unilluminated perspective. As this faulty understanding becomes the status-quo and is passed on to a new generation, people will not take the risk to challenge the man-made parts. Both ends of the equation, the responsible leaders and the laity, settle for the safe understanding that has allowed the group to function successfully.

Clearly sound biblical teaching is always needed, but if all this be true, it is a clear call to understand hearing and seeing in the spirit. Only the Holy Spirit's ability to lead us will deliver us from our desire for the safety of a man-made status-quo.

Re: What Not to Get Me for Christmas

ded — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:51:09 -0000

I keep wondering if the picture for the post is Ben with a knot jerked in his head by some fan of Santa Claus.

Re: What Not to Get Me for Christmas

ded — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:40:59 -0000

One year I was feeling...a bit of rage against the system maybe. I put up a bulletin board at the Christian school of Santa and his reindeer backlit by a full moon with a MX missile firing toward him. I furthered the joke at home by mumbling, "Santa's a bum," in response to any commercial with his visage on the tube. Amicably, I might add. One day in the grocery store, a sweet little old lady took an interest in Anna, then about four years old, sitting in the buggy. She leaned over to this innocnet little angel and said, "What's Santa going to bring you, Honey?" To which the little angel immediately and sweetly responded, "Santa's a bum." I realized I may have taken my personal belief a little too far. ;^)

Re: Circumcision and Christmas Carols

ded — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 16:35:24 -0000

too funny!! ROFL

Re: State of the Blog

ded — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 18:09:39 -0000

I always enjoy reading your blog. The partnering is great. I read Heather's posts with the same interest that I read Ben's! Guess it is the novelty of having the opportunity to see a former student in real life, up close and personal.

Keep up the good work! And Ben, the non-humorous serious stuff is always welcome to this reader.