Catholic Thoughs?!?

So I just found this article on Fox News and I was intrigued by it so greatly I wanted to hear your opinions on it.

Here are a few highlights:

Hell is a place where sinners really do burn in an everlasting fire, and not just a religious symbol designed to galvanize the faithful, the Pope said.

The pope, who as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was head of Catholic doctrine, noted that "forgiveness of sins" for those who repent was a cornerstone of Christian belief. He recalled that Jesus had forgiven the "woman taken in adultery" and prevented her from being stoned to death, observing: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."


God had given men and women free will to choose whether "spontaneously to accept salvation ... the Christian faith is not imposed on anyone, it is a gift, an offer to mankind."



Thoughts?

I'm curious. Albeit it sounds Arminian - but still prodestant!

Placing Bible Teaching Back into Schools...

Time has this article up on its website and I found it interesting and I thought that I would share it with all of you! Enjoy! Here are a few sinipits...

By which she meant an official attendance roll. Because the day was Thursday, not Sunday. And the location was not Oakwood Baptist Church, a mile down Texas State Highway 46, but New Braunfels High School, a public school that began offering a Bible-literacy class last fall. The class has its share of conservative Christians. Front-row center sat Rachel Williams, 18, whose mother does teach Sunday school at Oakwood. But not 20 ft. away sat a blond atheist who asked that her name not be used because she hasn't outed herself to her parents. Why take a Bible class? I asked her. "Some of my friends are Christian," she said, shrugging, "and they would argue about, like, whether you can be a Christian and believe in evolution, and I'm like, Okaaaay ... clueless." Williams signed up for a similar reason. "If somebody is going to carry on a sophisticated conversation with me, I would rather know what they're talking about than look like a moron or fight my way through it," she says. The class has "gotten a lot of positive feedback," she adds. "It's going to really rise in popularity."

The same might be said about public-school courses on the Bible nationwide. There aren't that many. But they're rising in popularity. Last year Georgia became the first state in memory to offer funds for high school electives on the Old and New Testaments using the Bible as the core text. Similar funding was discussed in several other legislatures, although the initiatives did not become law. Meanwhile, two privately produced curriculums crafted specifically to pass church-state muster are competing for use in individual schools nationwide. Combined, they are employed in 460 districts in at least 37 states. The numbers are modest, but their publishers expect them to soar. The smaller of the two went into operation just last year but is already into its second 10,000-copy printing, has expressions of interest from a thousand new districts this year and expects many more. The larger publisher claims to be roughly doubling the number of districts it adds each year. These new curriculums plus polls suggesting that over 60% of Americans favor secular teaching about the Bible suggest that a Miss Kendrick may soon be talking about Matthew in a school near you.

Justin I particularly wondered if you had any thoughts here!

Underwear Work

So today Shari has a doctor's appointment and I thought about it and I decided that it wasn't worth running back and forth to work all morning so I'm staying home this morning and working. You know it's kind of nice. I don't have to hear the phone ring every 30 seconds and it's really quiet. Well, I hope I can get some stuff done.

A New Way to Look at Jesus...

So I've recently reading books that challenge the things I've been taught about Jesus. No, not anything heretical (i.e. God-Man, death/burial/ressurection - I'm still with you on these things), but things about his ministry. Things that I think we often miss.

Philosophical/Theological Rant
Our modern view of Jesus and the Bible has only put him and it in a box. I mean we don't even let the bible speak for itself when it comes to the text. We find this need to split it up to explain away any so-called "inconsistancies" only because we miss the big picture.

Back on Task
The Bible is one big and very cool story. Jesus' message of caring for people isn't a new concept! Creation was very good as God proclaimed, and then we screwed it up - and we continue to screw it up. But God entered the world through a family (Israel), and began to redeem it. He began to mold it and change it and shape this sinful, chaotic place into something completely different - in fact opposite of what it was. He was making it beautiful and good again!

Jesus comes along and he's preaching the same message. The message of God turning this place back into something good. The message of hope for this earth. The message of people doing extraordinary things to help overturn the cart and make this sinful, chaotic place beautiful and full of order.

Why don't we do that? Why don't we get involved and make this place beautiful? Why don't we make this place wonderful?

Things are completely different than they were in Jesus' day. I really don't live in fear of my life everyday, like some do. I don't need to worry about where I am going to live or food on my table. My basic needs are covered. I don't even worry about the our country being attacked and overthrown and occupied. I don't have to worry about those things. Don't you think that has something to do with Jesus' message?

I'm still thinking about this and I'm not sure where I'll land.

Book of Questions Journal

So a while ago I purchased some material for the students here and one of them caught my eye. It was a questions journal. It has a new question every day, and you take some time to answer it and I thought that I would take a few minutes and answer today's on here.

Q: What is God's will for your life today?

A: God's will for my life today is to be obedient! I need to trust God in all I do! I need to obey him fully. Wednesdays are teh busiest day of my week and I need to get several things done today esspecially with the Poland Trip Sunday Morning Service this coming Sunday. But God's will for my life today is not a to-do list. I don't have to perform for God in that way. God's will for my life it to obey him! How can I obey him more today than I did yesterday?

Sex God

I just finished reading Rob Bell's new book - Sex God, and it was absolutely fantastic. I had a chance to sit down with Nate Dawson, yes Mom it is who you're thinking it is, and he first told me about the new book. Nate is one of Rob Bell's Disciples as well as a community Pastor at Mars Hill. He told me that this book was about how we live in a society that is under sexed. Meaning that sex is around us all the time (advertising, magazines, tv, the internet, etc.), but we don't see anything about true sex in our society. We are under sexed because the true meaning of sex is not being shown.

I honestly felt as though that was a little bit of a stretch. I welcome your opinion, but I think that it could have been better stated that we misunderstand the definition of intimacy. Rob told the stories of several people he has come into contact with that are deeply connected to a program, people group, ministry, or way of life and came to the conclusion that these people are sexually connected to their particular program, peapole group, ministry, or way of life. I guess I would say that they are intimately connected, or deeply connected. Much in the same way that a husband should be connected to his wife intimate.

Right out of the gate we get to here that if we talk about "this (sex)" we have to talk about "That (God)." Which is so true. It really isn't possible to discuss sex without talking about God. They are so deeply connected. Sex is such a spiritual act because God designed it!

All in all I liked it better that Velvet Elvis. It was well thought out and deeply moving. It brought things concerning my spirituality that I had not considered. It challenged me to be more and more connected to my wife.

Rob again challenged me to rethink my Christianity. Which is something that we will never completely figure out, so we should be constantly rethinking Christianity.

Thank you Rob for developing resourses that thouroughly challenge us to deeper faith, and deeper relationships.

Well, I'm Back - Hopefully

So this blog has been full of holes for as long as its been around. I believe that we have hit year number 3 of the blog and I'll bet that I have taken at least 4 more than one month hiatus' from posting. But I know that there are those out there who still check. And I know that there is a brother of mine who has the rss set-up to check. Anyway. Here we go - I'm back. You can probably look for a site change to come soon.