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C L

How do you balance it all? Balancing family, ministry and work | Tentmaking Ideas - 0 views

  • setting goals & priorities. Every so often, I sit down and plan out my goals for the next few months. I try to seek the Lord for what He wants me to do and I write those things down. Once I have chosen the most important goals, I begin to break those goals down into bite size tasks. I schedule each task on my calendar and start with those tasks each day. I try not to open email until I have completed my most important tasks for the day.
  • “Just say NO” and “Just DO it”
  • Adjust your schedule As I mentioned above, spending time with family is very important, however, we also must be careful not to miss out on key visiting times with locals.
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  • Plan in your non-negotiables A young parent asked me the other day how I made time for my family in the midst of my business schedule. I said, “I know I need to get better at this, but I schedule it into my week. Each week my wife and I have a date night! I try to plan in my “play time” with my kids.” I have realized that we spend time doing what is important to us. If we really love our family, we need to choose to spend quality time with them. Now, I am not talking about taking time out of your normal work week, but instead planning in time afterwork or in the evenings to be with the family. I know one guy who when people asked if he was free any time between 5 pm – 7pm, he answered that he was doing discipleship and was unavailable. He was spending that time training his kids in the ways the should go. If you want to learn language, you will need to plan in your language learning times. If you think that they will just happen, I guarantee that something else will pop up and take their place.
  • Back to the basics – laying a solid foundation! Over the past years of doing ministry in creative access countries, I have found that the real key to a balanced life is abiding in Jesus. If we can spend time quality time with Jesus each and every day, we begin to hear his voice and listen to his heart. Without knowing what HE wants us to do each day, we end up chasing our manmade strategies and plans. Start taking time each and ever day (lavished time) to just listen and learn from Jesus.
Adam Skinner

The Woman's Headcovering - 0 views

  • the headcovering practiced in the churches is emblematic of womanly submission; and he also indicates that this is a symbol which even the angels (who are not subject to changing fashions) take a real interest in. So the practice cannot be dismissed as being merely cultural
  • when we consider that the bare-headed fashion of our times came into vogue at the same time that the "women's liberation" movement began, along with the wearing of pants and the cutting of hair, we ought to pause before we say that these things are really so devoid of symbolism in the culture at large
  • Paul provides a rationale which is based on an appeal to creation, not to the custom of Corinthian harlots. We must be careful not to let our zeal for knowledge of the culture obscure what is actually said. To subordinate Paul's stated reason to our speculatively conceived reason is to slander the apostle and turn exegesis into eisogesis.
    • Adam Skinner
       
      This is Sproul speaking here.
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  • I do not think it is safe to assume that, despite his arguments, Paul's real intention is merely to affirm and interpret the fashions of his day (especially in Corinth) or that he would affirm in like manner the fashions of modern women if he were writing the letter today. Rather, it seems that Paul wants Christian women to observe a churchly tradition, irrespective of what happens to be in vogue outside the church. (20) Are we really honoring Scripture if we say that, despite its conspicuous absence in the passage, the counsel of cultural conformity is the real and unspoken motive for the ordinance?
  • It often becomes difficult for me to hear and understand what the Bible is saying because I bring to it a host of extra-biblical assumptions. This is probably the biggest problem of "cultural conditioning" we face. No one of us ever totally escapes being a child of our age ... I am convinced that the problem of the influence of the twentieth-century secular mindset is a far more formidable obstacle to accurate biblical interpretation than is the problem of the conditioning of ancient culture.
    • Adam Skinner
       
      Zing!
  • Fashions of women's dress have changed and will continue to change, but Paul in this passage has explained very carefully that the headcovering symbolizes something which does not change.
  • How are we to apply this rule to ourselves as Christians in the twenty-first century? The whole passage has been treated with some uneasiness in recent times. Since about 1960, not only have hats and scarves gone out of fashion for women in Western nations, but it has become "politically incorrect" to even suggest that women ought to submit to male authority. The very idea that women should be required to wear headcoverings as a sign of their subordination is almost intolerable in the modern context.
  • After a few paragraphs Sproul goes on to say, "What if, after careful consideration of a biblical mandate, we remain uncertain as to its character as principle or custom? If we must decide to treat it one way or the other but have no conclusive means to make the decision, what can we do? Here the biblical principle of humility can be helpful. The issue is simple. Would it be better to treat a possible custom as a principle and be guilty of being overscrupulous in our design to obey God? Or would it be better to treat a possible principle as a custom and be guilty of being unscrupulous in demoting a transcendent requirement of God to the level of a mere human convention? I hope the answer is obvious."
  • We should not be asking how much we are allowed to ignore the literal instructions of this passage or any other passage of Scripture so long as we claim to be observing the "spirit." We should be asking how we may best obey it both in spirit and in the letter.
  • Symbols have a powerful effect on our lives, and it is not safe to treat them with contempt, especially when the symbol in question has been appointed in Scripture itself.
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    I happened to be listening to 1 Cor this morning and it stuck me again that the argument for women wearing a head covering doesn't come from the culture, but is a physical manifestation of a spiritual submission.  Paul spoke strongly on the matter.  I did a little more looking, and the argument presented here is well laid out, with man salient points (especially Sproul's comments).
Ebey Soman

Congo: Red Rubber, White King, Black Death - 0 views

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    Congo: Red Rubber, White King, Black Death is a critical film and documentary on the reign of King Leopold of Belgium over his private property we now know as the country of Congo. The film graphically illustrates the atrocities that occurred, the injustices, the evils and the popular lies that people hold to be true. Below is a quick summary of the film and a few notes on what seemed interesting to me.
Joel Bennett

Notifu - Send Group Messages (Free) and get responses! - 0 views

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    Cool (albeit impresonal) replacement for the phone tree?
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    I just tried this (without creating an account or anything) ... it let me put a phone number in, and type out a message for it to send by a VOICE message, along with choices. It called instantly, and the moment my wife made her choice (by pressing 3 on her phone), the answer showed up on the website.
Pastor Jeff Lilley

Daily Word of God: Daily Word for Fri 5/29/2009 "Teach me the Way Lord" - 0 views

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    Daily Word of God Devotionals are Powerful, Motivating, Practical and Inspiring. Written to Turbo-charge your day and stimulate your spiritual appetite and do "Whatever it Takes" to focus on Christ. Remember, "A cheerful heart is good medicine..." (Prov 17:22a) For Reservations at Our Fathers House, Please Enter John 3:16
Pastor Jeff Lilley

Daily Word of God: Daily Word for Sun 6/7/2009 "Holy Spirit, Lead me like Christ!" - 0 views

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    Daily Word of God Devotionals are Powerful, Motivating, Practical and Inspiring. Written to Turbo-charge your day and stimulate your spiritual appetite and do "Whatever it Takes" to focus on Christ. Remember, "A cheerful heart is good medicine..." (Prov 17:22a) For Reservations at Our Fathers House, Please Enter John 3:16
anonymous

Where Is the Emerging Church Headed? - 0 views

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    Instead of asking, "Where is the emerging church headed?" a better question is "Where am I taking the emerging church?" I want to highlight four people whose responses resonate with me.
Dan J

About Francesca | Francesca Battistelli - 0 views

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    ""We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."-E.M. Forester So, what do you want to be when you grow up? It's a question that takes many people years and years of trial and error and self-discovery to figure out. But for singer/songwriter Francesca Battistelli, her mind was made up when she was only six years old. After seeing "The Secret Garden" on Broadway with her parents, the decision was ultimately a no-brainer. "There was just something about live theater-especially musical theater-that has always resonated with me," Francesca says. "So I thought that was it. I was going to be Mary Lennox in 'The Secret Garden'." Of course for anyone who knew her family, Francesca's passion for life on the stage wasn't all that surprising, given her mom and dad's extensive theater background. In fact, they met when her dad was the assistant conductor for the national tour of "The King and I," while her mom played Anna, the show's female lead opposite Yul Brynner. "
Dan J

Nathan Lee Jackson's Music - 0 views

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    "A little about Nathan Lee Jackson Nathans Web Site. http://www.nathanleejackson.com/ A few years back. We had moved to Nashville,TN. Being that we are so heavily into the Christian Music Scene, it didn't take long for us to really get into meeting several great artists and musicians that went way beyond the Talent we have. I have never seen so many talented artists of all genres anywhere except in Nashville. I understand why they call it Music City. Among those Artist we met Nathan Lee Jackson. We actually went to a small church again almost all of them Musicians. Karin, Bill and Nathan were all there. I heard some of the most honest worship there. It was a sound for soar ears so to speak. True Worship, Finally. Anyway we all became good friends. I really enjoyed the time we got to play together and the Fellowship with all of them. We miss you all out there. I just wanted to brag a little here on how far Nathan has made it ever since. If they let me I would like to add more updates here as well. First off, Nathan Lee Jackson's CD he's been working on for so long now. I finally out. We jumped on it of course, It's that good. If you wanna own a great CD, Filled with the Spirit of God and the talent to back it all up. Go to his site here and check it out."
IN Too

Access to Grace « Reflections in the WORD - 0 views

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    When some followers of Christ find themselves suffering, their immediate response is "Lord, deliver me from this, immediately!" He can and sometimes He does. But He often does not. When He does not, it may be because it is His will to grow spiritual character in the life of His follower.
J. B.

God Is Still Holy and What You Learned in Sunday School Is Still True: A Review of "Lov... - 0 views

  • Bell asks a lot of questions (350 by one count), we should not write off the provocative theology as mere question-raising. Bell did not write an entire book because he was looking for some good resources on heaven and hell.
  • As Bell himself writes, “But this isn’t a book of questions. It’s a book of responses to these questions” (19).
  • Bad theology usually sneaks in under the guise of familiar language.
  • ...24 more annotations...
  • Judgmentalism is not the same as making judgments. The same Jesus who said “do not judge” in Matthew 7:1 calls his opponents dogs and pigs in Matthew 7:6. Paul pronounces an anathema on those who preach a false gospel (Gal. 1:8). Disagreement among professing Christians is not a plague on the church. In fact, it is sometimes necessary.
  • This is a book for people like Bell, people who grew up in an evangelical environment and don’t want to leave it completely, but want to change it, grow up out of it, and transcend it. The emerging church is not an evangelistic strategy. It is the last rung for evangelicals falling off the ladder into liberalism or unbelief. Over and over, Bell refers to the “staggering number” of people just like him, people who can’t believe the message they used to believe, people who want nothing to do with traditional Christianity, people who don’t want to leave the faith but can’t live in the faith they once embraced.
  • Others—and they are in the worse position—will opt for liberalism, which has always seen itself as a halfway house between conservative orthodoxy and secular disbelief.
  • This is misguided, toxic, and ultimately subverts
    • J. B.
       
      Clearly Bell thinks this must be a very important issue. If Bell is right, then the vast majority of Christians throughout Christian history have been teaching a misguided, toxic, and subverting gospel.... in effect, it looks like we are teaching a different gospel altogether.
  • It’s a cheap view of the world because it’s a cheap view of God. It’s a shriveled imagination
  • This bold claim flies in the face of Richard Bauckham’s historical survey: Until the nineteenth century almost all Christian theologians taught the reality of eternal torment in hell. Here and there, outside the theological mainstream, were some who believed that the wicked would be finally annihilated. . . . Even fewer were the advocates of universal salvation, though these few included some major theologians of the early church. Eternal punishment was firmly asserted in official creeds and confessions of the churches. It must have seemed as indispensable a part of the universal Christian belief as the doctrines of the Trinity and the incarnation. (“Universalism: A Historical Survey,” Themelios 4.2 [September 1978]: 47–54)
  • Universalism has been around a long time. But so has every other heresy. Arius rejected the full deity of Christ and many people followed him. This hardly makes Arianism part of the wide, diverse stream of Christian orthodoxy. Every point of Christian doctrine has been contested, but some have been deemed heterodox. Universalism, traditionally, was considered one of those points. True, many recent liberal theologians have argued for versions of universalism—and this is where Bell stands, not in the center of the historic Christian tradition.
  • Universalism (though in a different form than Bell’s and for different reasons) has been present in the church since Origen, but it was never in the center of the tradition.
  • some of these are promises to God’s people, some are general promises about the nations coming to God, and others are about the universal acknowledgement (not to be equated with saving faith) on the last day that Jesus Christ is Lord. Not one of his texts supports his conclusion.
  • Even a cursory glance at John 14 shows that the through in verse 16 refers to faith. The chapter begins by saying, “Believe in God; believe also in me.” Verse seven talks about knowing the Father. Verse nine and ten explain that we see and know the Father by believing that Jesus is in the Father and the Father in him. Verses 11 and 12 touch on belief yet again. Coming to the Father through Christ means through faith in Christ. This is in keeping with the overall purpose of John’s gospel (John 20:31).
  • Bell cites Jesus’ words in John 3:17 that he “did not come to judge the world but to save it” (160). This Jesus, Bell says, is a “vast, expansive, generous mystery” leading us to conclude hopefully that “Heaven is, after all, full of surprises.” Bell’s lean into universalism here would be significantly muted had he gone on to Jesus’ words in verse 18: “Whoever believes in him [i.e., the Son] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” Likewise, according to John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
  • The Greek word for “unite” is a long one: anakephalaiōsasthai. It means to sum up, to bring together to a main point, to gather together. It is like an author finishing the last chapter of his book or a conductor bringing the symphony from cacophony to harmony. It’s a glorious promise, already begun in some ways by the word of Christ.
  • The uniting of all things does not entail the salvation of all people. It means that everything in the universe, heaven and earth, the spiritual world and the physical world, will finally submit to the lordship of Christ, some in joyful worship of their beloved Savior and others in just punishment for their wretched treason. In the end, God wins.
  • If you don’t accept God’s story about the world and resist his love, heaven will be hell for you, a hell you create for yourself. We are supposed to see this in Luke 15 where both brothers are invited to the same feast but one can’t enjoy it. Heaven and hell at the same party (176).
  • The result is a simplistic formula: “God wants all people to be saved. God gets what he wants. Therefore, all people will eventually be saved.” This is a case of poor theologizing beholden to mistaken logic. If it is “the will of God” that Christians “abstain from sexual immorality” (1 Thess. 4:3), does that mean God’s greatness is diminished by our impurity?
  • If he’s right, most of church history has been wrong. If he’s wrong, a staggering number of people are hearing “peace, peace” where there is no peace.
  • Bell figures God won’t say “sorry, too late” to those in hell who are humble and broken for their sins. But where does the Bible teach the damned are truly humble or penitent? For that matter, where does the Bible talk about growing and maturing in the afterlife or getting a second chance after death? Why does the Bible make such a big deal about repenting “today” (Heb. 3:13), about being found blameless on the day of Christ (2 Pet. 3:14), about not neglecting such a great salvation (Heb. 2:3) if we have all sorts of time to figure things out in the next life? Why warn about not inheriting the kingdom (1 Cor. 6:9–10), about what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:31), or about the vengeance of our coming King (2 Thess. 1:5–12) if hell is just what we make of heaven? Bell does nothing to answer these questions, or even ask them in the first place.
  • Some Jesuses should be rejected, Bell says, like the ones that are “anti-science” and “anti-gay” and use bullhorns on the street (8). But wherever we find “grace, peace, love, acceptance, healing, forgiveness” we’ve found the creative life source that we call Jesus (156, 159).
  • At the very heart of this controversy, and one of the reasons the blogosphere exploded over this book, is that we really do have two different Gods. The stakes are that high. If Bell is right, then historic orthodoxy is toxic and terrible. But if the traditional view of heaven and hell are right, Bell is blaspheming. I do not use the word lightly, just like Bell probably chose “toxic” quite deliberately. Both sides cannot be right. As much as some voices in evangelicalism will suggest that we should all get along and learn from each other and listen for the Spirit speaking in our midst, the fact is we have two irreconcilable views of God.
  • Bell’s god may be all love, but it is a love rooted in our modern Western sensibilities more than careful biblical reflection. It is a love that threatens to swallow up God’s glory and holiness. But, you may reply, the Bible says God is love (1 John 4:16). True, but if you want to weigh divine attributes by sentence construction, you have to mention God is spirit (John 4:24), God is light (1 John 1:5), and God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29). The verb “is” does not establish a priority of attributes. If anything, one might mention that the only thrice-repeated attribute is “holy, holy, holy.” And yet this is the one thing Bell’s god is not.
  • What’s missing is not only a full-orbed view of sins, but a deeper understanding of sin itself. In Bell’s telling of the story, there is no sense of the vertical dimension of our evil. Yes, Bell admits several times that we can resist or reject God’s love. But there’s never any discussion of the way we’ve offended God, no suggestion that ultimately all our failings are a failure to worship God as we should. God is not simply disappointed with our choices or angry for the way we judge others. He is angry at the way we judge him. He cannot stand to look upon our uncleanness. His nostrils flare at iniquity. He hates our ingratitude, our impurity, our God-complexes, our self-centeredness, our disobedience, our despising of his holy law. Only when we see God’s eye-covering holiness will we grasp the magnitude of our traitorous rebellion, and only then will we marvel at the incomprehensible love that purchased our deliverance on the cross.
  • The pain of hell is our fault. But it’s also God’s doing. Hell is not what we make for ourselves or gladly choose. It’s what a holy God justly gives to those who exchange the truth of God for a lie. The bowls of wrath in Revelation are poured out by God; they are not swum in by sinners. The ten plagues were sent by God, they were not the product of some Egyptian spell gone wrong. God’s wrath burns against the impenitent and unbelieving; they do not walk into the fire by themselves. Bell’s god is wholly passive toward sin. He hates some of it and says no to it in the next life, but he does not actively judge it. There’s no way to make sense of Nadab and Abihu or Perrez-Uzzah or Gehazi or Achan’s or Korah’s rebellion or the flood or the exodus or the Babylonian captivity or the preaching of John the Baptist or the visions of Revelation or the admonitions of Paul or the warnings of Hebrews or Calvary’s cross apart from a God who hates sin, judges sin, and pour out his wrath—sometimes now, always later—on the accursed things and peoples of this world.
  • Love Wins assures people that everyone’s eternity ends up as heaven eventually. The second chances are good not just for this life, but for the next. And what if they aren’t? What if Jesus says on the day of judgment, “Depart from me, I never knew you” (Matt. 7:23)? What if at the end of the age the wicked and unbelieving cry out, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb” (Rev. 6:16)? What if outside the walls of the New Jerusalem “are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood” (Rev. 22:15)? What if there really is only one name “under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12)? And what if the wrath of God really remains on those who do not believe in the Son (John 3:18, 36)?
  • Bad theology hurts real people.
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    A thorough critical review of Rob Bell's book "Love Wins" by Kevin Deyoung. MUST READ.
High Syn

The Best Thing Happened to Party People Like Me - 1 views

I really have my doubts when I first heard about herbal highs and legal weed. I said "there is no such thing" but everything changed when I tried Kronic original. True to its promise, it gives the ...

legal pot

started by High Syn on 13 Jun 11 no follow-up yet
Chiki Smith

This Book Offers Great Relationship Advice - 1 views

I broke up with my boyfriend of nine months because he cheated on me. All the while I was thinking it was all his fault, that he is just one of those cheating partners who are not contented with on...

relationships advice

started by Chiki Smith on 14 Sep 11 no follow-up yet
IN Too

Encounters With Jesus: Paying Taxes « Reflections in the WORD - 0 views

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    The children of God live in the Kingdom of God, therefore, no tax in any kingdom of man can stop/hinder the work of a child of God going about their Father's business in the Kingdom of God. God the Father had already provided for our earthly needs, so no earthly tax/demand/situation can stop you or me from doing the work of God here on earth.
IN Too

Gone Fishin' « Reflections in the WORD - 0 views

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    When Jesus calls you/me into ministry (any kind of ministry; Romans 12:4-8), what will be our response?Will we immediately make the step of faith? Or will we hold back (making the usual excuses)?When Jesus makes the call, do we have our minds set for service?
José Bortolato

II REIS - XI - PERDIDOS E ACHADOS - 0 views

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    Quando estudava Contabilidade, me deparava às vezes com uma conta denominada de "Lucros e Perdas".   Era onde se lançavam os lucros obtidos no final de um período, mas também, por outro lado, era ali onde se destinavam os prejuízos e perdas. Semelhantemente sabemos que em escolas,
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    Eliseu, discípulos, casa, madeira, machado, perda, recuperação, Ben Hadade, emboscada, delatada, frustrada, Dotã, cavalos, carros de fogo, cegueira, Samaria, perdão, libertação, guerra, sítio, leprosos, fome, fartura, livrmento
chakiry95

8 Ways to Recapture Your Husband's Heart | buzitnow - 0 views

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    I almost threw out the stack of aged, yellowed papers, weathered by time and slightly torn on the edges. When I unfolded the papers and read through them, I instantly realized why I'd kept them all those years. They were love letters from my husband written nearly 30 years ago and they contained phrases such as "I love you beyond expression" and "You complete me like no other."
chakiry95

Speaking Your Vulnerable Truth - relaationship - 0 views

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    We as a whole yearn for mystical minutes in which we feel profoundly associated with our accomplice. Sadly, it's likewise what we maintain a strategic distance from in a hundred distinctive ways. However,the bearings for returning to an ordeal of closeness can be found within the word itself: in to me see. When we let ourselves be open to our accomplice and demonstrate her how we feel and what we need,
José Bortolato

I REIS -XVIII - TEMPESTADES QUE ACABAM NA PRAIA - 0 views

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    Traumatizante!   Quem não usou este adjetivo para se referir a um acontecimento passado que lhe trouxe momentos de incerteza, perigo e quase que tudo se perdeu em um só lance? Lembro-me bem do ano de 1965, final do mês de fevereiro, às vésperas do Carnaval que comemorava o IVº centenário da
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    a viúva de Sarepta Acabe Baal Elias Jezabel perseguição ribeiro de Querite Yaweh
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