Categotry Archives: food for thought

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God and Secrets and Missing the Point Again

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Categories: food for thought, Rantings

This morning I was thumbing through a popular Christian magazine I used to subscribe to. I no longer am a subscriber, but they keep sending me issues saying, “Your subscription is expired!” hoping I will re-subscribe.

Anywho…I was looking at the Christian book advertisements in it, and had the impulse to see how many times the word “secret” was employed to pitch the books.

I lost count. But it was more than a couple.

This is a preview of God and Secrets and Missing the Point Again. Read the full post (820 words, 2 images, estimated 3:17 mins reading time)

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Why I Am Still a "Christian"

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Categories: food for thought, Meanderings (look it up)

In a recent post, “Label Schmabel“, I talked about how I no longer feel comfortable with most of the labels I once associated with my faith. I won’t go into it all again here; read it if you need to catch up. 🙂

But toward the end of the post, I mentioned that there was one label I was still okay with–the word “Christian.” And I thought today I’d like to ‘splain why.

This is a preview of Why I Am Still a "Christian". Read the full post (945 words, 2 images, estimated 3:47 mins reading time)

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Label Schmabel

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Categories: food for thought, Meanderings (look it up)

I’ve recently come to realize that I’ve been having a bit of an identity crisis.

(And all the regular readers said in unison…”DUH!”)

No, really. I mean…I know I’m feeling the “being over 40” thing, but I’m not really talking about “mid-life” crisis here. Although it’s pretty amazing that this is happening at this stage of my life. Talk about timing. 🙂

You see, I’ve spent my whole life wearing some sort of label, some identification tag by which other people (especially Christians) could know what camp I stood with, what I believed, what the practice of my faith looked like. Actually, I’ve worn quite a few of these labels, so it’s not like I’ve stuck with one my whole life. I’ve changed name badges numerous times. Even so, I’ve felt okay as long as I was wearing some label. Or maybe it wasn’t the label itself, but the group of people that the label identified. Wearing the label made me feel…like I belonged.

This is a preview of Label Schmabel. Read the full post (1099 words, 2 images, estimated 4:24 mins reading time)

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…And Apparently, He Is STILL Not Finished Spewing Out Nuggets of Wisdom…

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Categories: food for thought, random stuff

Consider this–Nugget # 27 from the Official Collection of Proverbs and Random Thoughts from Jeff the Twisted, Slightly Off-Center Philosopher:

“Since the arrival of Christ on the stage of world history, those who claim to believe in Him have consistently struggled between conforming themselves after the likeness of Christ, and forming Christ after their own likeness and agendas.”

Hmm….

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Permanent link to this post (59 words, 1 image, estimated 14 secs reading time)

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What Religion Did for Me

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Categories: food for thought, religion

Religion made faith easy and safe. It gave me a set of understandable measure markers, expectations, and boundaries so I could easily tell if I was doing good, or doing badly.

Religion put things in my control. It laid out the parameters for a desired result, and told me I could obtain that desired result if I met the requirements (i.e., prayed enough, read my Bible enough, said the right things, did enough good deeds, or what-have-you). It took the guesswork out of trusting God.

This is a preview of What Religion Did for Me. Read the full post (601 words, 1 image, estimated 2:24 mins reading time)

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Hijacking the Mission

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Categories: changing mindsets, food for thought, missional

All through March in house church, we’ve themed our meetings around “the mission of Christ”, or missio Dei, whatever term you use to describe it. We’ve been pondering the idea that God has been at work in the earth before we ever got here, that He is working in people’s lives before we encounter them, and will remain after we leave. We’ve talked about how we can participate in God’s mission, and we’ve encouraged one another not to spend this time just trying to “find our place” in the mission, but to try and tap into the heart of it.

In thinking and studying about this, I’m seeing how important it is that we absorb this simple truth, that mission belongs to God, not to the church. Why is it so important to make this distinction?

This is a preview of Hijacking the Mission. Read the full post (1077 words, 2 images, estimated 4:18 mins reading time)

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Remembering that This Is a Journey

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Categories: food for thought, link love, Meanderings (look it up)

Mark over at Pragmatic-Eclectic has written a couple of great posts using Elijah’s time at the brook Cherith (1 Kings 17) as an analogy for the respite many of us feel after migrating out of the institutional church settings. I couldn’t possibly improve on what he’s said, so go read them here and here.

His posts have got me thinking, not only about where I am personally, but about our tendency to want to stay in places of rest. In particular this sentence stood out to me today:

“Over and over you will want to build a tabernacle and just stay in one place.”

This is a preview of Remembering that This Is a Journey. Read the full post (883 words, 1 image, estimated 3:32 mins reading time)
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