I've been completely away from the blogosphere for a while. I'm sorry to all y'all who's blogs I've been reading. I'm getting back on the train...
I'm in a group at church with some other young couples called Faith for Life. We read the Rule of St. Benedict and a book called Benedict's Toolbox and are going to be creating our own Rule of Life. I read these two books before and blogged a bit about them. The group is awesome and I have recently decided to try and follow Benedict's Hours schedule again.
Awhile back I read through the Psalms once a week at the Daily Hours (Vigils, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline) for a couple weeks and then made my own schedule to follow, as to not repeat as many Psalms throughout the week as Benedict does. In the past week I went back through the Rule and also wrote in all the other readings, hymns and such that Benedict has his monks do throughout the day. Needless to say, it's pretty crazy.
I started following it, mostly, yesterday. Sunday Vigils is the most intense. Vigils is supposed to be at 2-3am, but I'm doing it when I get up, before I eat breakfast. On Sundays Vigils is extra long, with the normal 12 psalms and then another 8 readings, 4 New Testament readings, and a Gospel reading. For Benedict, not all readings have to be from the Scriptures, although, that's what I'm doing. Until one of my uber rich friends buys me the Loeb Classical Library, I'm sticking to the Bible.
Well, that's all for now. I'll probably revamp some of my other thoughts on stuff like Jesus and his love for the Democratic party soon...
Peace,
Monday, November 16, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
The B-I-B-L-E
Yup, that's the book for me!
I wanted to revisit the topic that I teased awhile ago about the importance and/or position of the Bible in our lives as Christians as we seek to follow Jesus. While I am far from being a fundamentalist and on some days not even really evangelical by strict definition, I do think that reading and engaging with the Bible is one of the most important things for a follow of Jesus to do. I think this looks different for everyone, but should be a hallmark of what it looks like practically to be a Christian.
To me, no matter how literally you take the Bible or what your view of its perfection is, the Bible is the most important and full way to get to know who God is, how God acts in the world, who we as humans are and how we are to interact with God and each other. I say 'most important' because I think that there are many other things beyond the Bible that do these things as well. I just the that the Bible is the primary and most important one. Again, for some people the Bible will take a stronger or weaker role in comparison to other mediums of learning about God and ourselves, such as nature, experience, science, reason, etc. Yet I still think that for everyone the Bible should be the primary and most important one.
Having said this, I don't read the Scriptures like I would like to. (I almost said should, but even with the view of how important the Bible is I don't think the should should be used. When we do it out of guilt or obligation, it loses a lot of value.) I won't go as far as to say that everyone should read the Bible every day, but for me, to whom the Bible speak to more than other mediums, I think that I need to in order to be fully connecting with and learning from God. I have tried many approaches, some have worked more than others, and am currently exploring a good and sustainable one. (B90X should be done by all at some point. Check out a great blog about it). I think that some combination of the Benedictine practices, hours of prayer, Anglican prayer book and my own creativity will win in the end.
I bring this up, because I wonder what other people's views on this are. In our discussions on things like the role of government, what churches should be engaged in, how we should live as Christians, etc., I think one of the questions is where do we find resources to help us address these questions? My answer would be that it is primarily the Bible, but definitely not only the Bible. The other resources, like experience, science, reason, research, etc., should fall in line with the Bible's narrative story. (I say narrative story because I think proof texting is dumb. If you're going to use the Bible to back you up, you better be able to show how the SCOPE of the story does).
So, I want to hear what people think...
peace,
I wanted to revisit the topic that I teased awhile ago about the importance and/or position of the Bible in our lives as Christians as we seek to follow Jesus. While I am far from being a fundamentalist and on some days not even really evangelical by strict definition, I do think that reading and engaging with the Bible is one of the most important things for a follow of Jesus to do. I think this looks different for everyone, but should be a hallmark of what it looks like practically to be a Christian.
To me, no matter how literally you take the Bible or what your view of its perfection is, the Bible is the most important and full way to get to know who God is, how God acts in the world, who we as humans are and how we are to interact with God and each other. I say 'most important' because I think that there are many other things beyond the Bible that do these things as well. I just the that the Bible is the primary and most important one. Again, for some people the Bible will take a stronger or weaker role in comparison to other mediums of learning about God and ourselves, such as nature, experience, science, reason, etc. Yet I still think that for everyone the Bible should be the primary and most important one.
Having said this, I don't read the Scriptures like I would like to. (I almost said should, but even with the view of how important the Bible is I don't think the should should be used. When we do it out of guilt or obligation, it loses a lot of value.) I won't go as far as to say that everyone should read the Bible every day, but for me, to whom the Bible speak to more than other mediums, I think that I need to in order to be fully connecting with and learning from God. I have tried many approaches, some have worked more than others, and am currently exploring a good and sustainable one. (B90X should be done by all at some point. Check out a great blog about it). I think that some combination of the Benedictine practices, hours of prayer, Anglican prayer book and my own creativity will win in the end.
I bring this up, because I wonder what other people's views on this are. In our discussions on things like the role of government, what churches should be engaged in, how we should live as Christians, etc., I think one of the questions is where do we find resources to help us address these questions? My answer would be that it is primarily the Bible, but definitely not only the Bible. The other resources, like experience, science, reason, research, etc., should fall in line with the Bible's narrative story. (I say narrative story because I think proof texting is dumb. If you're going to use the Bible to back you up, you better be able to show how the SCOPE of the story does).
So, I want to hear what people think...
peace,
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Triathlon
Yes, you read that correctly. Triathlon. I decided today that I want to do one. Searched online and found a cool website for beginners and saw that there is an Olympic triathlon in Normal, IL on July 17th, 2010. That's 1.5km of swimming (.93mi), 40km of biking (24.8mi) and 10K (6.2mi) of running. That's seems doable to me. In July of next year. Biggest Loser is my inspiration.
Who is with me???
peace,
Who is with me???
peace,
Quick Post
This last week has been crazy. I had terrible headaches for about 6 days, along with just generally not feeling all that great. Emily and I hosted 4 people over the period of 6 days, saw great friends from out of town and in town and attended the Lauterez wedding.
Since moving to Chicago I haven't had a need to go to the doctor. I went to the Minute Clinic when I had strep, got tested and got some antibiotics. Now I need to find a family practice doctor and actually go in and find out what is wrong with me. Kind of weird, since I haven't visited a doctor more than about 3 times in the last 10 years. Have an appointment tomorrow.
I've really enjoyed some of the recent conversations about the Church. It's really got me thinking about what it looks like for me, not just other people, to engage in my local community, church and world in general. One thing I would like to throw out there and then write on further later today or tomorrow is the role of the Bible in our living out of our faith. Conversations, experiments and opinions on their own are kind of useless. Also, throwing around Bible verses to say "Help the poor", "Don't help the poor", or anything crazy like that is pretty useless as well. What I am eager to see is how can a community, local, web-based and global engage with the WHOLE of Scripture to inform how we live. Especially knowing that many of us read the Bible differently? Thoughts before I share mine?
peace,
Since moving to Chicago I haven't had a need to go to the doctor. I went to the Minute Clinic when I had strep, got tested and got some antibiotics. Now I need to find a family practice doctor and actually go in and find out what is wrong with me. Kind of weird, since I haven't visited a doctor more than about 3 times in the last 10 years. Have an appointment tomorrow.
I've really enjoyed some of the recent conversations about the Church. It's really got me thinking about what it looks like for me, not just other people, to engage in my local community, church and world in general. One thing I would like to throw out there and then write on further later today or tomorrow is the role of the Bible in our living out of our faith. Conversations, experiments and opinions on their own are kind of useless. Also, throwing around Bible verses to say "Help the poor", "Don't help the poor", or anything crazy like that is pretty useless as well. What I am eager to see is how can a community, local, web-based and global engage with the WHOLE of Scripture to inform how we live. Especially knowing that many of us read the Bible differently? Thoughts before I share mine?
peace,
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
The Role of the Local Church
Some great comments, ideas, insights and rebuttals! As someone mentioned recently, I believe in person, but maybe somewhere on the interweb, it's fun having a rebirth of the Xanga crew plus new blood. Hurah for the interweb!
Megan, your call for more Christians to be involved in the foster care world is amazing. It's amazing not just because small children are part of the voiceless 'poor and oppressed' that cannot speak for themselves, but also because your call comes out of a lived conviction. For those of you who don't know, I'm adopted. I was adopted at birth and lived with foster parents for the first 10 weeks of my life. I often thank God for their care for me and I know my parents and I are ever grateful for them. However, my adoption circumstances weren't the average. Foster care is important also for the children who are taken from their parents or given up by their parents after birth. I believe that one area that Christians need to really think a lot about is how we can be involved in the WHOLE of beginning and end of life care. Not just, "Abortion and euthanasia are bad", but a presence with people of support and love like the Bensons have been for their foster kids.
I found the ideas attending a local church interesting, mostly because that wasn't what I was thinking directly. I do agree that it would be great for more people to attend and become a part of churches closer to them, not driving past 25 churches to attend the 'right' one for them. However, I think it is more important that individual Christians be involved in their own neighborhood personally and that churches be involved in their local neighborhoods as a 'parish'. If you happen to attend a church outside your neighborhood, for whatever reason, then we know that people are still being cared for. This way, too, I can help network my church that I attend and my local church that I see working in my neighborhood together to learn from one another on how best to serve in certain ways.
Check out Melissa's blog. Not only do I want you to check it out so her Analytics tells her that people got to her site via jesusandlife, but also because she has a great post about churches networking together and working with one another to meet needs. Interesting thoughts that need to be discussed.
Really, when it comes down to it, I want to see Christians and churches in America be more active in their communities. Period. Let's just start there, since it really isn't being done all that much. Preaching on Sunday is great, but let's also start helping people around us.
peace,
Megan, your call for more Christians to be involved in the foster care world is amazing. It's amazing not just because small children are part of the voiceless 'poor and oppressed' that cannot speak for themselves, but also because your call comes out of a lived conviction. For those of you who don't know, I'm adopted. I was adopted at birth and lived with foster parents for the first 10 weeks of my life. I often thank God for their care for me and I know my parents and I are ever grateful for them. However, my adoption circumstances weren't the average. Foster care is important also for the children who are taken from their parents or given up by their parents after birth. I believe that one area that Christians need to really think a lot about is how we can be involved in the WHOLE of beginning and end of life care. Not just, "Abortion and euthanasia are bad", but a presence with people of support and love like the Bensons have been for their foster kids.
I found the ideas attending a local church interesting, mostly because that wasn't what I was thinking directly. I do agree that it would be great for more people to attend and become a part of churches closer to them, not driving past 25 churches to attend the 'right' one for them. However, I think it is more important that individual Christians be involved in their own neighborhood personally and that churches be involved in their local neighborhoods as a 'parish'. If you happen to attend a church outside your neighborhood, for whatever reason, then we know that people are still being cared for. This way, too, I can help network my church that I attend and my local church that I see working in my neighborhood together to learn from one another on how best to serve in certain ways.
Check out Melissa's blog. Not only do I want you to check it out so her Analytics tells her that people got to her site via jesusandlife, but also because she has a great post about churches networking together and working with one another to meet needs. Interesting thoughts that need to be discussed.
Really, when it comes down to it, I want to see Christians and churches in America be more active in their communities. Period. Let's just start there, since it really isn't being done all that much. Preaching on Sunday is great, but let's also start helping people around us.
peace,
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