Thursday, November 29, 2007
already gone
So often in time it happens, we all live our life in chains, and we never even know we have the key.
- The Eagles, “Already Gone”
- The Eagles, “Already Gone”
Sunday, November 25, 2007
the use of reason
Catholic Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who’s findings, while condemned by the church (blush), forged the backbone of modern astronomy as he discovered that the earth moved around the sun, not the sun around the earth, had this to say concerning the Christian’s use of the mind and science:
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. . . . In the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the Scriptures, but with experiments, and demonstrations.
-- The Submerging Influence
Friday, November 23, 2007
aging
Birthdays come more quickly -- Thanksgivings & Christmases more frequently -- and I sense my growing impatience about work and other infringers upon my time. Why? Is it aging? It's not that I resent work -- I just want my time to be more meaningful. That's why I appreciated the following from the Henri Nouwen Society:
Waiting patiently in expectation does not necessarily get easier as we become older. On the contrary, as we grow in age we are tempted to settle down in a routine way of living and say: "Well, I have seen it all. ... There is nothing new under the sun. ... I am just going to take it easy and take the days as they come." But in this way our lives lose their creative tension. We no longer expect something really new to happen. We become cynical or self-satisfied or simply bored.
The challenge of aging is waiting with an ever-greater patience and an ever- stronger expectation. It is living with an eager hope. It is trusting that through Christ "we have been admitted into God's favour ... and look forward exultantly to God's glory" (Romans 5:2).
Waiting patiently in expectation does not necessarily get easier as we become older. On the contrary, as we grow in age we are tempted to settle down in a routine way of living and say: "Well, I have seen it all. ... There is nothing new under the sun. ... I am just going to take it easy and take the days as they come." But in this way our lives lose their creative tension. We no longer expect something really new to happen. We become cynical or self-satisfied or simply bored.
The challenge of aging is waiting with an ever-greater patience and an ever- stronger expectation. It is living with an eager hope. It is trusting that through Christ "we have been admitted into God's favour ... and look forward exultantly to God's glory" (Romans 5:2).
Thursday, November 22, 2007
What do we hail today?
Borrowed from my birding blog:
At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.
-- The Rime of The Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Litany of Thanksgiving
We praise and thank our God,
for all that we have been given!
We praise and thank our God,
for the earth and oceans, rain and sun, for food and homes!
We praise and thank our God,
for the blessings of life and faith and hope!
We praise and thank our God,
for the Father who made us, the Son who saved us, and the Spirit who guides us!
We praise and thank our God,
for family and friends, neighbors and coworkers!
We praise and thank our God,
because God has blessed us beyond all expectations!
We praise and thank our God,
for all of the blessings which compel us to reach out to others, to be of service to any in need, to keep company with the stranger, and to seek peace with those who trouble us!
for all that we have been given!
We praise and thank our God,
for the earth and oceans, rain and sun, for food and homes!
We praise and thank our God,
for the blessings of life and faith and hope!
We praise and thank our God,
for the Father who made us, the Son who saved us, and the Spirit who guides us!
We praise and thank our God,
for family and friends, neighbors and coworkers!
We praise and thank our God,
because God has blessed us beyond all expectations!
We praise and thank our God,
for all of the blessings which compel us to reach out to others, to be of service to any in need, to keep company with the stranger, and to seek peace with those who trouble us!
Monday, November 19, 2007
what God has wrought
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
next Sunday
This Sunday I will be preaching & leading both services (8:15a & 10:45a) at Cross of Glory Lutheran Church at 5472 Adams St., Mounds View, MN. I'd love to see you there!
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Monday, November 12, 2007
The Last Supper
Friday, November 09, 2007
Shouldn't this apply to religion also?
He preferred the hard truth to his dearest illusions.
-- Carl Sagan's epitaph to astronomer Johannes Kepler
-- Carl Sagan's epitaph to astronomer Johannes Kepler
Thursday, November 08, 2007
This is love
Another pastor's view of Christian love (see the previous post from Monday):
Take a few minutes and write a note to Britney Spears. No preaching. No criticizing. Just love. As a church, let's love Britney the way Jesus loves her.”
-- John Weece, pastor of Southland Christian Church in Lexington, Ky
Monday, November 05, 2007
"This is love, . . ."
Sunday, November 04, 2007
a little late
Thursday, November 01, 2007
final form of love
Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore, we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true, or beautiful, or good, makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore, we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, could be accomplished alone; therefore, we must be saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our own standpoint; therefore, we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.
-- Reinhold Niebuhr
-- Reinhold Niebuhr
