Saturday, October 10, 2015
Comic Art
Iconic Covers
This is one of those I saw when originally published as a lad and has stayed with my my whole life
comic art comic books comics iconic covers
This is one of those I saw when originally published as a lad and has stayed with my my whole life
comic art comic books comics iconic covers
Friday, October 09, 2015
Christmas in October - How To Do It
Mark Roberts:
Incarnation humility
Thus, the Incarnation becomes a model for us. Even as Christ chose the way of humility, so should we. Even as he opted for the path of self-sacrifice, so should we in our relationships. When we begin to think too much of ourselves, when we value our opinions so much that we don’t care what others think, we need to remember and model our lives upon the Incarnation.AMEN!
Keeping Christmas well means letting the Incarnation of Christ teach us how to live together as the people of God. It means choosing the way of humility and servanthood, knowing that our imitation of Christ honors him even as it strengthens the church, which is the body of Christ.
Incarnation humility
Friday Humor
Thursday, October 08, 2015
Lovely, Just Lovely
Campus Reform discusses the Dean of Religious life at Stanford:
Prayer and then more prayer.
church under fire
The church needs to focus more on art and less on religion and converting people in an effort to become less “churchy,” according to Stanford University’s Dean for Religious Life, The Very Reverend Dr. Jane Shaw.I do not know how else to put this - The evil one, realizing all the good that Christ's body the church has done in the world, is trying to rebuild the church in our own image. Like the frog in the water we are being slowly boiled to death.
“I think people are always slightly surprised that I’m not very churchy as a person,” Shaw told the Palo Alto Weekly in an interview. “I don’t think church is to be more churchy. I think church is about, anyone should be welcome. I’m really interested in how you welcome many different kind of constituencies, certainly not convert them, not even necessarily to do religion all the time.”
Stanford announced that Shaw, 51, was to join the school’s Department of Religious Studies in July as a dean and professor of religious studies, moving to the school from Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. At Grace Cathedral, Shaw was not only the first woman to head the church, but the first openly lesbian dean.
Prayer and then more prayer.
church under fire
Wednesday, October 07, 2015
Pursuit
Reformation Theology quotes "The Pursuit of Holiness" by Jerry Bridges. It is a fine quote, I agree with it wholly, but the thing that got to me most was that title - we must PURSUE holiness. The quote uses good imagery about life:
Too often we think Christ's victory on the cross simply expunged all sin from our lives and we need do nothing. AS we have so often learned in the world, winning the war is easy, winning the peace is difficult. That's the Christian life - winning the peace. It is a pursuit of holiness.
Do you have your running shoes on?
christian life
As indicated in the previous chapter, indwelling sin remains in us even though it has been dethroned. And through it has been overthrown and weakened, its nature has not changed.It is as if Christ has overthrown the sinful government of our lives, but rebel forces of evil remain active. They must be pursued and killed.
Too often we think Christ's victory on the cross simply expunged all sin from our lives and we need do nothing. AS we have so often learned in the world, winning the war is easy, winning the peace is difficult. That's the Christian life - winning the peace. It is a pursuit of holiness.
Do you have your running shoes on?
christian life
Tuesday, October 06, 2015
Shouldn't the Church Change Culture?
CT:
There are sub-cultural elements to Evangelicalism, but embracing that fact is to make it ordinary, no different than any of the other sub-cultures out there. It makes it sound like every teenager has to decide whether to go with the geeks, the goths, or the Christians. Please, there is too much at stake.
Secondly, CCM strikes me more as appropriating other cultural elements and making them vaguely Christian than it does actually inventing and leading a culture. It is limiting ourselves to sub-culture instead of insisting that we define culture. This impulse is born, I think, of an evangelical misunderstanding of how to deal with culture. Hard Rock music doesn't seem "Christian enough," so we appropriate it. Instead of teaching kids what is right and wrong about hard rock, we just say, "Here listen to hard rock 'tamed.'"
Everybody knows I am a serious fan of comic books. There is a definite comic book sub-culture. I don't live there. There is a bunch of bad stuff in comics, particularly right now. But I still reads them, a lot. I am just picky about what I read. That is a function of having been taught that I can appreciate things of the world so long as I do not become part of it.
We need to tach kids to be in, but not of, culture, not to segregate into sub-culture.
Christians culture sub-culture
Like every theological tradition, US evangelicalism is as much a subculture as it is a set of beliefs. It’s a community built on shared practices and products,....This is a story about a CCM record label. And it just hits me as all wrong.
There are sub-cultural elements to Evangelicalism, but embracing that fact is to make it ordinary, no different than any of the other sub-cultures out there. It makes it sound like every teenager has to decide whether to go with the geeks, the goths, or the Christians. Please, there is too much at stake.
Secondly, CCM strikes me more as appropriating other cultural elements and making them vaguely Christian than it does actually inventing and leading a culture. It is limiting ourselves to sub-culture instead of insisting that we define culture. This impulse is born, I think, of an evangelical misunderstanding of how to deal with culture. Hard Rock music doesn't seem "Christian enough," so we appropriate it. Instead of teaching kids what is right and wrong about hard rock, we just say, "Here listen to hard rock 'tamed.'"
Everybody knows I am a serious fan of comic books. There is a definite comic book sub-culture. I don't live there. There is a bunch of bad stuff in comics, particularly right now. But I still reads them, a lot. I am just picky about what I read. That is a function of having been taught that I can appreciate things of the world so long as I do not become part of it.
We need to tach kids to be in, but not of, culture, not to segregate into sub-culture.
Christians culture sub-culture
Monday, October 05, 2015
Boldness Does Not Imply Equality
Mark Roberts looks at teh incarnation and proclaims that we can approach God "boldly":
If you work with important people, you will now that some are open door and some are closed door. With the former you walk in and state your business, with the later you make an appointment - something that emphasizes that their time is more important than yours. We worship and open door God, but make no mistake, He is still God. His time is more important than ours, he just chooses to not act too self-important.
Too many people also assume that a bold approach means you will always get what you are asking. He is still the boss and he can still say "No."
There is an old phrase, "Familiarity breeds contempt." I worry about that when people talk about approaching God "boldly." Yes, we indeed can, but we cannot allow His openness with us to to in anyway diminish our respect for Him. We do so at our peril.
approaching God boldness respect
This makes all the difference in the world in our relationship with God. In light of the High Priesthood of Jesus, Hebrews 4:16 proclaims, “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” Because of who Jesus is and what he has done, we know that God has forgiven our sins and that he understands our struggles. Therefore, we do not have to wallow in guilt when we approach God. We do not come before him begging for a hearing and fearful of his rejection. Rather, we come “boldly,” telling God everything on our minds and hearts. When we come before God in prayer, we know in advance that we will receive God’s mercy and grace … not because we deserve it, but because of what Christ, our High Priest, has done for us.I agree God's love allows us to approach him boldly, but we still approach Him as supplicants. He is still King and we can not let His love for us allow us to think we are somehow equals.
If you work with important people, you will now that some are open door and some are closed door. With the former you walk in and state your business, with the later you make an appointment - something that emphasizes that their time is more important than yours. We worship and open door God, but make no mistake, He is still God. His time is more important than ours, he just chooses to not act too self-important.
Too many people also assume that a bold approach means you will always get what you are asking. He is still the boss and he can still say "No."
There is an old phrase, "Familiarity breeds contempt." I worry about that when people talk about approaching God "boldly." Yes, we indeed can, but we cannot allow His openness with us to to in anyway diminish our respect for Him. We do so at our peril.
approaching God boldness respect
