Disqus - Latest Comments for geofforius

Re: The Tornado, the Lutherans, and Homosexuality

eph2 — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 05:50:22 -0000

Does not God have the power over the winds and the waves, storms and clear skies, can He not direct them wherever he pleases? One need only to look at the last chapters of Job!

Re: The Tornado, the Lutherans, and Homosexuality

James — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:16:47 -0000

Maybe Psalm 29 would be a better reference to God "causing" the storm.

Re: The Tornado, the Lutherans, and Homosexuality

geofforius — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 21:22:54 -0000

I'm certainly not saying that Jesus couldn't. But nothing in that story says that he did. That's what I'm saying.

Re: The Tornado, the Lutherans, and Homosexuality

Steve Causey — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:40:19 -0000

Ok, so they obey him, but you don't think he could get them going?

really... you made that argument?

Re: The Tornado, the Lutherans, and Homosexuality

geofforius — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:41:17 -0000

This is a quote in reference to the story where Jesus does calm the wind and the waves. There's no implication in the story that it was Jesus who got the wind and waves going in the first place.

Re: How do I get those cute little pictures next to my comment?

geofforius — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 01:06:25 -0000

On the positive side Mark, now you can rest assured that nobody can go around the internet masquerading as everybody's favourite purple-loving pastor, posting comments.

Re: How do I get those cute little pictures next to my comment?

geofforius — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:22:01 -0000

And by "this page" I mean: http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2008/07...

Re: How do I get those cute little pictures next to my comment?

geofforius — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:21:36 -0000

<?php if(function_exists('get_avatar')) { echo get_avatar($comment, '40'); } ?>
Check this page for full details, but basically that's it: the '40' is for how big you want the picture to be (in pixels)

Re: How do I get those cute little pictures next to my comment?

geofforius — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:10:31 -0000

Don't we all.

Re: It’s Storytime Kids

geofforius — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:57:28 -0000

I signed up for the missional tribe thing, got a blog with it, and went: "I really should use this for something". Like I said - I'm not 100% sure that I'll keep using it, but it's something to try out for the moment.

Re: A Benediction to Live By

rick — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:33:40 -0000

:-)

I took the "yellow to mellow" as just silliness to make a rhyme - my paradigm doesn't get bothered by that. I do that kind of thing all of the time and I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it.

Perhaps because of my own prejudice, I thought the white embracing right comment tainted the prayer. Politics aside, a high percentage of the excitement around Obama is the forward progress against racism. Personally, this is great and long overdue. Unfortunately, the expression of celebration is laced with reverse discrimination. My assumption is that an inaugural prayer is not some ad hoc sort of thing and I would have been more cautious with my words.

On a related note, I had a warm fuzzy feeling regarding Warren's prayer.

Re: A Benediction to Live By

geofforius — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:15:34 -0000

Thanks Mark, I wondered if that might have been it, but I still think the yellow comment is probably the most racist part. I take your point Rick though (assuming Mark's right about your opinion) - I understand why it's possible to take that as a racist slur, but I'd see it as a call on the people in power (and black president or not, white people still hold the power across the western world) to do right. And I think it's a very true sentiment that if more "whites" would "embrace what is right", the picture in the previous paragraph becomes much more possible.

Re: A Benediction to Live By

geofforius — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:53:50 -0000

In what way? I'm not a big fan of telling yellow to be mellow - is that your concern?

Re: Year In Review - Positionless

geofforius — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 03:05:15 -0000

Can't disagree with you there - probably not the best choice of wording. But in some ways it's been important to be able to sort out what really is "just Christianity", seperate from the identity of a leader.

Re: Pete Rollins - The Rapture

rick — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:01:28 -0000

Thank - now I understand what he was driving at. I had not read all of the comments ... to your point, that's often where the meat is but I've tended to avoid them because that's also where the sharks hang out also ... I hate that stuff. Sounds like this is one I shouldn't have avoided.

peace.

Re: Pete Rollins - The Rapture

geofforius — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:47:07 -0000

I'd want to highlight the comment Pete made in response to similar concerns raised in the comments on his blog (and I'd have a read of all the comments, because I think that's always where the meat happens on blogs):

"To try and get beyond that problem I made it so that God was only addressing the ‘church’ rather than all people. This itself causes problems, however by doing this I wanted to hint that God was speaking to those who were attempting to live the way of Christ… in the church there were then two types of people, those seeking to escape the world and those embracing it. The other way I attempted to overcome the problem was to make God say “it is there we shall find our people”, rather than simply saying, “the people who remain are our people”, i.e. those who remain on the earth are not all the selfless ones."

I do think that in some places Rollins' language borders on clumsiness, but I think his emphasis hits out against the prevailing extraction-based concept of heaven - and that's the heaven his few are "forsaking" and "turning away from".

Thanks for engaging in this Rick - it would have been much easier to just write it (and me) off as universalist hogwash, but you haven't and that's been really good (for me anyway).

Re: Pete Rollins - The Rapture

rick — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:33:00 -0000

yeah - I thought of that one but I couldn't wrestle these key phrases out of it.

"The ones who would forsake heaven in order to embrace the earth."
"The few who would turn away from eternity itself to serve at the feet of a fragile, broken life that passes from existence in but an instant."
"The few who had discovered heaven in the very act of forsaking it."

I presume in, "Quietly supporting the ones who had forsaken God for the world and thus who bore the mark God" those that bore the mark of God are those doing the supporting not those that based on the other points even that's not clear.

Net - I don't want to be cynical but it smacks not of universalism.

To your point, if I'm embracing heaven or eternity I'm not embracing religion so that doesn't sync. I'm getting what he's trying to say and I'm bothered by what I'm guessing he is saying.

I was curious because I was in the process of posting about the second coming and one of the key characteristics is judgement. Your Scripture quote supports that while Rollins' seems counter to that.

Re: Pete Rollins - The Rapture

geofforius — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:59:41 -0000

:)
Matthew 25:31

31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=47...

But, I'm not backing the theology in Pete's parable 100% - because I'm not 100% sure I get it either. But I don't 100% get the parable I've posted above, and I think that it's vitally important to irritate at the points where I'm not sure. And religion that shelters us and separates us from the suffering of the world is absolutely the religion that Jesus rallied against, rather than supported. So I think we need to hear it.

Re: The Jewell - A Parable

ephemeralthoughts — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 11:08:08 -0000

Not true! It's all the more amazing because you wrote it. Seriously. Awesome job.

Re: The Jewell - A Parable

geofforius — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 18:21:56 -0000

Yep, sure did. Would have been better written otherwise :P

Re: The Jewell - A Parable

geofforius — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:38:41 -0000

Yes, but what's it about?

Re: Giving Disqus A Hurl

geofforius — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:22:35 -0000

OK - this is where naming two similar things, two similar names turns out not to be a good idea. "WordPress", is a blogging platform/content management system, which you can install (or have installed for you) on a web server/hosting.

"Wordpress.com" is a free, multi-user environment, using Wordpress (basically). They control what themes you can use, plugins you have applied, and in return, they look after it for you. They're two separate "products", and you signed up for Wordpress.com.

Re: New Feature: IntenseDebate

Geofforius — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:31:58 -0000

Might have to give that one a look Kay - thanks!

Re: Taking a Private Jet To Beg - A Parable

Geoff — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 01:05:34 -0000

Just as long as I get the credit! ;)

Re: Pete Rollins on Ironic Christianity

Geoff — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:54:49 -0000

Those arms certainly do get a workout! Thanks for dropping by Marina. I'm not sure that "don't go to church" is exactly the answer we're looking for - but let your lifestyle be changed by the Gospel you encounter in Scripture!