DISQUS

I heard that Madonna was going to be one of the keynote artists at the concert. The funny thing is that if she turned off half of the lights in her mansion, the electricity saved would be adequate enough to single-handedly power the entire state of North Dakota. If I remember correctly, she was once a material girl living in a material world.

I don't want to be a narrow-minded cynic, however, but I am totally convinced of God's hand slowly being lifted from the North American continent. What a pity; we have inflicted this wooden nickel upon ourselves.

Free stuff has it's good points and it's bad points. Guess what? Just yesterday, I tried logging into an old Yahoo account, which I hadn't logged into it for four months. It's gone. After four months of inactivity, Yahoo deletes these accounts. :( Don't worry though, this account wasn't my main one. Just a quick shout out to even the scales here....

Also, this article wasn't too bad:

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/4707

[quote comment="67"]No to be honest, he does not...he reproves us...a big difference...

But one more knowledgeable then I is currently writing a series on Non-violent parenting...Graham over at Leaving Munster[/quote]

Hmmm ... good point. However, at least from my standpoint, enforcing my verbal command with a sharp (sometimes painful) reminder isn't necessarily or automatically an act of violence, or brutality. I think we may have our words mixed up. Take for example stepping on a tack. We feel a sharp pain. This is our brain’s way of telling us to remove the tack. Paul was given a thorn in the flesh, “lest I should be exalted above measure.” More pain. Hmmmm ... that was a stupid metaphor … but does that make any sense?

The goal of disciplining children (spanking) isn’t to create great pain anyhow. It’s all about the kid’s will being broken, and a bunch of other stuff like that. I know I have a lot to learn, so I don’t want to sound authoritative. Any comments?

Doesn't God spank us?

[quote]"...and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, my son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him..."[/quote]

Of course, that is a pat answer as well, sorry :). I see your point, though. Thought-provoking reading, as always.

[quote comment="40"]Herbe? Um. I don't quite get your drift?[/quote]

Our feeble, pathetic minds do not work very well outside the conventional ruts set down by organized, institutional “religion.” I'm sure all of us could agree to this, but this mere fact doesn't give us an excuse. When anyone begins to conjecture that what he has believed for the last 20 years may actually be a truncated form of truth (or completely false altogether), especially when the subject concerns our carefully guarded pet peeves, the natural temptation is to react in a categorically non-Berean fashion. The Bereans received the “Teaching” eagerly; as we read in the NT. They were not morose about it. Furthermore, they were not foolishly, flippantly, facetiously open to various winds of doctrine floating around, without first confirming the idea with other, sound ideas.

When confronted with any scriptural truth that appears to be new; we can do one of two things. We can roll up into a tight little “orthodox” ball, and call anything outside the ball “heresy,” as is typical amongst some of our peers. Or, we can misunderstand the seemingly-new truth in just the same way, but with this difference: the misunderstanding is embraced, which is the only other viable alternative. The moral of the story is this: we should embrace the movement only when the movement is approached and then approved Berean-style. If the movement cannot be confirmed by the Teaching, it must be disregarded. I'm not saying the movement is wrong one way or the other. And so, my response to you folks is this: precision is not the problem so much as pseudo-precision—chaos masquerading as clarity. True, the Southern Baptists are guilty as charged. But, strange as it seems, some other groups — groups not very far away from us — are just as culpable. For this, I am grieved.

[quote comment="29"]I wonder, from this post, how much experience you have of non-US and/or Non-historic-anabaptist-denomination-anabaptism you have? I as because much of what you write here simply does not ring true for me. That is, it gives an incomplete picture, at best.[/quote]

The problem may be: not that we know too little of the A's in other areas, but that we know too much.

“And thou, being a wild Frisbee® tossed, wert stuck among the branches, and with them thou didst not partake of the root and fatness of the tree. Though if you squint a bit, it almost looks as if you did. Sort of. But not really. Because, after all, you’re just a Frisbee.® Did you really think we’d ever let you be a branch? I mean look at you. What kind of deceived fools do you think we are? Remember that lumpy kid in seventh grade who thought he could become cool by hanging out with all the cool kids in ninth grade, laughing at all their jokes through his nose? Remember him? Huh??” – (Romans® 11:17, The Message®)

That Something doesn't pen Hallmark cards. He isn't a corporate risk manager or a flight attendant, seeking to make our ride as easy as possible. He is here to overturn tables and worlds and cultures and things such as that.

Abraham inferred resurrection with regards to his son. Bad move, but God took it anyhow. But he wasn't dealing with a pasty God. With a dangerous God, faith most often means thinking counterintuitively.

The knife meant for Isaac bypassed, slipped and killed the Savior of Mankind. God the dangerous isn't to be meddled with. We must be quick enough to recognize the dangerousness of God in the face of evil and respond in awe: "You're going to raise Him, aren't you?". After all, He is the One who holds the cards.

This is the mind of Christ. This is the "Something" so fascinating and teeming with life that we, as particles, can truly experience that He is, indeed, making everything new. This is God the dangerous. Wild, unpredictable. Just like West Virginian truckers.

You hit the nail on the head; skipping wide the typical etiquette and protocol as is your (commendable) style. However, the comfy fireside cubicle which you speak of will not be voluntarily (much less enthusiastically) relinquished until something happens. And if/when that happens, I just hope we are all prepared for mass hysteria and many 'a night of disputation that will result. And until that Hysteria comes and completes His task, all our futile conjectures and all our vain pontifications about the misfortune of others will shackle us to hopeless defeat after hopeless defeat. I’m afraid that the A’s are too reluctant to push the envelope and rock the boat in that regard. Too messy. But once the ferret does come out of his hole, the throes of winter will be very unforgiving concerning him. I almost wish I could help him: give him food, shelter, and warm him up, and give him some books on how to smile. Almost. But then I realize that the inevitable must come to pass and the sleeping giant must first fall and rupture his skull on the sidewalk and come to his senses, before anything else can be done for him. Only by God's scandalous grace can the A’s keep stumbling forward. Heavenward.