Disqus - Latest Comments for coldfire136

Re: Christological Hymn Denies Gender Roles

wellis68 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:47:23 -0000

Well, back in 2006 and 2007 I wrote a couple of posts you might be interested in re-reading. http://whateverisgood.blogspot.com/2006/07/serp...
and
http://whateverisgood.blogspot.com/2007/06/gene...

Both articles suggest that redemption and the reversal of the curse will come through reconciliation and not from retribution.

Re: Christological Hymn Denies Gender Roles

coldfire136 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:03:04 -0000

I have always wanted to write a blog post / story thingy entitled "The Salvation of Satan." Maybe someday I'll get around to finding the right words.

Re: Is the Mark of the Beast a Scare Tactic?

coldfire136 — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:40:53 -0000

Yes. We always have to be careful of stone throwing, and I think Wes would agree with that also.

Thanks for the comment!

Re: The Fourfold Response to Empire

coldfire136 — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:28:12 -0000

We both probably stole it from someone else.

Re: MONOTATION, “AMBITION” MONOTATION - one image, one word,...

coldfire136 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:27:27 -0000

Wow. These pictures are quite good and provide an awful lot to think about. Thanks for sharing these. I'll be marking you in my google reader for more in the future. This is truly awesome.

Re: “Ventures of Which We Cannot See the Ending”

coldfire136 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:18:30 -0000

This reminds of a part of a T.S. Eliot Poem "Ash Wednesday" where he says:

Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is actual only for one time
And only for one place
I rejoice that things are as they are

You can read the full poem here :

Re: On Suffering, with Rob Bell and Derek Foster

coldfire136 — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:34:49 -0000

The closest I have felt to God was during my times of greatest suffering. It is from this time in my life that I often share from with others who are struggling or going through suffering, and often, to my surprise, they understand completely. I really resonated with the father comment because suffering does indeed quite often bring people together.

Re: Repent! For the Kingdom of God is Near

coldfire136 — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 23:10:51 -0000

I am extremely glad that you wrote this. Recently I was subbing for a fourth grade class, and the teacher had them using "fake money." They would have to pay money to get a drink of water and to go the bathroom. I think the teacher had in mind that it would teach the students how to use their money responsibly, etc, but I found the whole system abhorrent.

There was one student in particular who had no money left and he really had to use the bathroom. One of the girls in the class gave the boy some money and said, "But I'm not giving you any more." I could hear the sense of entitlement in her voice. I was going to write a longer post on the subject on my own blog, but I don't want to make too big a deal about it or upset anyone in the district I am working in by making too big of a hulabaloo about it.

I just think that teachers unwitingly teach this sense of entitlement all throughout primary and secondary education. The primary reason teachers want to send students to college is to help them "gain more."

This post is a breath of fresh air away from that.

Re: stop giving money for the afflicted

coldfire136 — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:13:33 -0000

I really liked where your post ended up, but it seems too much to me that you are saying the purpose for rehabilitating someone is to make the "productive" again. Maybe I misunderstood your point, but you spent all that time talking about how we need to make sure we are not using the "value" of our dollar. I think that misses the central point of the value people put in people regardless of their economic worth. What do you think?

Re: Mark Driscoll’s Nine Misguided Misconceptions

coldfire136 — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:01:31 -0000

Ok forest gump.

Re: The Death of progress

coldfire136 — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:03:49 -0000

In the words of Conor Oberst:

Potential is a loaded line.
The veil between the world and the faceless bride

I don't know exactly what that means, but it does conjure up an image that all this talk of potential, growing companies (churches included), and bigger "things" will only lead to destruction.

Re: theologer: Why church, and why friends - sin in our lives (Matthew 18:17)

rogermugs — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:48:15 -0000

indeed it is... sad that it is as it seems to be one of the few things necessary for us to have hope of not falling apart in our sin...

Re: theologer: Why church, and why friends - sin in our lives (Matthew 18:17)

coldfire136 — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 02:05:27 -0000

Accountability is a difficult subject and it is not often addressed in modern day churches. I am glad that you are addressing it here.

I will be praying for you and your friend.

Re: Who are the ‘Least of These’?

coldfire136 — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:58:37 -0000

I have never considered an interpretation like this before. Thanks for sharing it. I think that some conservative people would still consider it "liberal" though because it seems to make room for saving 'pagans' outside of the redemptive power of Christ (i.e. that pagans can be saved through works).

Re: A Size 10 Hypocricy

coldfire136 — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:52:48 -0000

I had a little smile too when I first saw the story as if I thought, "Well, you got what's coming to you."

But as I watch Bush in outgoing interviews, I do feel great pain for him. He knows how unpopular he is, he knows that he made major mistakes, and I can guarantee (almost 100%) that we will hear about all of those mistakes in forthcoming memoirs after he comes out of office. He is not a perfect man, and he made a number of mistakes because he surrounded himself with people who made the situation seem a way that it actually might not have been. This is what happens when you surround yourself with a unilateral voice that casts out of the diversity (like when they casted out Powell).

Re: reform realism: the middle way to education reform

coldfire136 — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:22:48 -0000

Yes. I am in teacher education right now. That is why I am saying it is desperately needed. There are so many things wrong with the system and things we need to fix.

Re: reform realism: the middle way to education reform

dtatusko — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:15:38 -0000

More tests go against what teachers learn about teaching and assessment in teacher education! That's why I agree with you, and this proposal, that if they need tests, making them more locally appropriate while maintaining variables that measure the same competencies is key. The problem, one of them, with NCLB is that it measures content knowledge and not competencies meaning that teaching to the test, the inevitable outcome of it, kills off more in depth analysis of what students can actually do with that knowledge. It just cannot work even if the goals are admirable.

Re: reform realism: the middle way to education reform

coldfire136 — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:22:33 -0000

I don't think more tests are the answer.

But, if they are, we have to do them right and spend the money needed to really reform the stupid tests that kids are now given for better ones. This will require paying teachers more to actually grade and learn how to how grade these more complex tests. I am all for this, but you will have quite a battle trying to get teacher's to shoulder that burden.

Re: Order of the Brokenhearted

coldfire136 — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:32:13 -0000

great poem! Thanks for sharing it.

I especially liked that you are "unreasonably" in love with sinners.

Too often the church tries to be reasonable.

Re: what is it to be postmodern?

coldfire136 — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 23:38:40 -0000

This is a great question, and I think that you are asking some good points.

I recently critiqued an article on the OOZE on a similar subject. Thanks for posting this.

Re: The Martyrs Den

coldfire136 — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:57:10 -0000

This question, in my opinion, is part of a larger rethinking of motivation in our society. Recently at In-N-Out where I work, a manager talked about "the old days" when managers would simply rule with an iron fist and write anybody up who handed out a wrong order or yell at those people who broke company policies. Training in education and taking a lot of classes in the subject, I am finding more and more that people do not think that punishing students is a good motivator for improving overall student work. In fact, most researchers think the standard grading system we use is archaic and counterproductive. I think that the rethinking of scaring people as a way of getting things done is in general being realized in our generation as something quite negative. This is an interesting cultural shift we are making.

I am a fan of it, but I am also a product of my culture.

Yes. I would be a Christian without Hell.

Hell, in my mind, gets in the way more than it helps.

Re: How to Make Teachers Content Managers

coldfire136 — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:22:17 -0000

It's funny. I think the exact opposite. I think that each district should be its own boss and answer to the people within that community rather than to some state or national standards. I think that localized education is the answer (albeit an imperfect one). I can't see any other better way than this.

Re: The Martyr's Den

coldfire136 — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:59:14 -0000

i agree with you that we need to help them.

I was simply adding on that these organizations are often run by westerners and we need to let them be run by natives of that area who understand the culture better.

Re: The Martyr's Den

martyrologist — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 20:46:11 -0000

I'm missing something. What organizations do you think I am talking about? There are a good number of teams/groups already in India, and they have been there for a while doing work. They need funding badly. They also need hands on deck. And I am not talking about going in to deal with or teach them how to deal with the various conflicts and wars. I'm talking about the Christian families who have been ravaged by the violence, the women and children who are left without dads now. I am talking about helping those who need help now.

Re: The Martyr's Den

coldfire136 — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:05:46 -0000

I would agree that we could spend less money here. We could do with fewer (perhaps cheaper and more creative gifts), but it's this whole idea that organizations are "going into" these places that is troublesome. Don't get me wrong, i am glad that they are doing this, but the real question is why do we feel the need to go in there? The real question is, why can't these people fix it themselves. If we go into their communities, as strangers in a strange land, we give them aid and whatnot, and then we leave after a while and things are exactly as they were before. The real question to deal with is how to create self-sustaining solutions in those countries by training people in those countries to do it themselves. I think that humanitarian aid is great and needed, but the long-term solution is training its people to do it themselves and to prevent these types of things in the future.