Blogotional

Ron Edmundson on true friendship:

• Unconditional love
• Unwavering support
• Willingness to challenge
• Consistent over time
• Gives grace freely and generously

That's good stuff, and I cannot disagree with a single word, but I will say that ir strikes me as a bit trite.

I have been blessed with some true friends in my life and there is something deeper than can be summed up in such words. There is, frankly, a supernatural element to it - the Holy Spirit at work.

As the peace of Christ passes all understanding so does the bond He can forge between people.

Which causes me to wonder why it is that we are so reticent to discuss the supernatural nature of things? Edmondson invites us at the conclusion of his post to pay tribute to our good friends. I hope I do not need to, I hope they know who they are. But I would like to pay tribute the God who makes those friendships possible.

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Dan Gilgoff:

Thou shalt not be required to financially support your church – but you should anyway.

That’s the upshot of a new informal survey of evangelical leaders finding that less than half believe that the Bible requires church members to tithe, the practice of giving at least 10 percent of one’s income to the church.

The survey, conducted by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) among its 100-member board of directors, found that 42% of evangelical leaders believe the Bible requires tithing, while 58% do not.

First the theology, then the practicality.

I think one should give away 10%. Not necessarily to your local congregation, and taxes don't count. In the end tithing is not about supporting something - it's about sacrificing to God. You're allowed to support a lot of God's work in a lot of different places, put it needs to total up to something seriously sacrificial, like 10% of gross.

Now to the practical - if these survey results are to be believed, the amount of preaching I hear about tithing is way out of proportion to the convictions of the preachers. Wonder why that is?

The reason should be obvious, and I think a preacher that preaches on tithing when his/her convictions may be slightly different needs to do a bit of self-examination. Consider the words of the Apostle Paul:

1 Cor 9:11-19 - If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we should reap material things from you? If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.

Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the {food} of the temple, {and} those who attend regularly to the altar have their share with the altar? So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel. But I have used none of these things. And I am not writing these things that it may be done so in my case; for it would be better for me to die than have any man make my boast an empty one.

For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me. What then is my reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel. For though I am free from all {men,} I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more.

I think we could get by with a lot less preaching about tithing. If we teach selfless, sacrificial living, I think the money thing will take care of itself. Not to mention it's really hard to teach selfless, sacrificial living when you are begging for your own paycheck!

God provides. My financial life is testament to that fact. I certainly have not earned what I have been rewarded with. I'd like to see more churches rely on God and less on begging. I think the results might be interesting.

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Lara Blackwood Pickrel @ Thoughtful Christian:

Friends have always been important to me, and at the same time, friendship has often been difficult.

[...]

I'm beginning to understand that friendships aren't "just" friendships. Friendships (and the work of cultivating them) are a form of spiritual discipline, just like prayer or scripture reading or mindful eating. When I don't pray, my spirit suffers. When I don't spend time reading the Word, my spirit/mind become impoverished. When I don't eat mindfully, my spirit/body become stressed and broken. And when I don't practice the art of friendship, my spirit begins to turn in on itself.

How many of us think of friends as "resources" of some sort? They are who we turn to when we need help. To whom to they turn? Then there is the issue of "differently yoked." It often seems like in a friendship there is one person that seems to bear the burden of making it work - does all the inviting, thinking of things to do, etc. If you are that person, do you grow resentful of that fact?

I really like this idea, friendship is in fact a resource, but not the resource we think. It is a resource to teach us selflessness - which is in fact the thing we need to learn most.

It is often easy to just stay at home, not reach out and find ways to occupy myself. It is easier than reaching out, not to mention the fact that I can feel sorry for myself that no one has bothered to call and ask me if I want to do something.

BUt that is the time I most need to reach out, because it is not about me.

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Next time there is a Thor movie, they have GOT to include today's villainous group - The Wrecking Crew. Powerful enough to destroy the planet, stupid enough to get lost in a paper bag, this group is both evil and very, very funny.

Their power, originally, was derived by stealing Asgardian power (Thor stuff) so they were capable of fighting the likes of the Hulk to a standstill - these guys were baaaaaaad.

And yet all they really wanted to do was rob banks. Yes, they could have stolen the whole building - just picked it up and walked off with it - but no, they had to just go for the money. Fort Knox was theirs for the pickin', but they just wanted pocket change. Heck, they could rule a lot of planets.

The Wrecking Crew have now lost their Asgardian levels of power (though they remain incredibly strong) and spend their lives trying to get it back. I mean they work really, really hard at it. A lot harder than they would work if they just got a job moving pianos. Again proof of how ultimately dumb this bunch of meatheads really is.

They usually hang together - all four of them big enough to not fit through a door - in some one bedroom flop in Brooklyn - IN COSTUME!

My favorite would be the guy with the metal head. (Bulldozer) Why do guys, even really, really strong guys, insist on butting things with their heads like goats? I don't care how strong you are, you butt the Hulk with your head and you're going to break your neck. At least put a point on that helmet for crying out loud.

The next Thor movie needs serious comic relief. FOUND IT!

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Michael P. Orsi:

How we express ourselves to others reveals our perception of reality. Appreciation of status, for example, is suggested in forms of address and by the words and phrases we use. There is a current trend in our speech, however, that lends itself to minimizing human relationships.

Tend to agree, so let's look at the examples he lays out.

...the traditional sign-off “good-bye” at the close of a phone conversation or when parting has now been replaced with “I love you.” Once this most intimate of phrases was reserved for special people on special occasions, usually at the most tender, if not vulnerable moments, in their life. It is now so frequently and loosely bandied about that its power has been greatly diminished.

Interesting choice. Does it really express love, or just cheapen the expression? Have to go with the latter.

...example of the diminution of language has come by way of the animal rights lobby. In the past when someone wanted a pet they would say, “I am going to get a dog or a cat.” Today, the popular phrase is “I am going to adopt a dog or cat.” This is a mighty leap from the owner-animal understanding of the past.

This one is easy. Lastly:

In recent years the term for one’s parents has become my “mom and my dad.” In former times this would have been considered baby talk. Traditional maturity always demanded that when referencing parents the proper designation after childhood was my “mother and father.” This connoted a growing degree of independence. Only in private discourse was “mom and dad” retained as the familiar address usually replacing mommy and daddy.

That one is deep and one I had not really thought of.

Let me add one more to this pile - "grace." This term, so bandied about in faith circles has come to mean "license to sin" rather than and expression of the depth of our sinfulness and the amazing love of God. It's overuse has lead to precisely the cheap grace that Bonhoeffer warned us about.

This is in part why I worry about efforts to express the gospel in a single sentence, and other such efforts at simplification. Made by people who know what the word mean with precision, they break in the the consciousness of a public with only a vague understanding.

It is important that we endeavor to teach the entirety of God's message to us.

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Via Secondhand Smoke, a Daily News story:

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, has asked the Committee on Bible Translation to update the New International Version Bible to include more animal-friendly language, according to CNN.

In a letter to translators, the group called the Bible's current text "speciesist" and requested that pronouns like "he" and "she" be used instead of "it" when referring to animals.

All right - I've had it. The Bible is not a plaything. "Scholarship" does not serve agendas. This is perhaps the most bass-akwards thing I have ever read. So naked in stating that the agenda is ahead of anything else.

I don't want to go all prophetic here, but reading something like this I have a good idea what Moses felt like when he descended from Sinai and found the golden calf. At the moment, I don;t blame him for dashing the tablets.

It's one thing to stretch an exegetical point. But this is a naked effort to shape the Bible to our own will and desires. This makes proof-texting look like pilfering a rubber band at work.

Is this really our societal view of scripture? If so, I'm buying flood insurance.

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