Why We're Not Emergent

Michael scoffed at this book for being one sided, but actually it is a very fair treatment of the emergent movement. I have become more and more familiar with things emergent and have read and like a lot of the authors favored by the movement - Nouwen, Buechner, Miller (Blue Like Jazz). However, I have not read anything by the leaders of the movement, but have seen a number of DVDs by Rob Bell. This book, however, quotes them extensively. The principal author is very respectful of the leaders of the movement, but disagrees with some of their basic tenets. If you're interested, I'll write what I have learned.
Love, Mom

I'm reading a book about trying to be conscious of God every moment of the day. It is a spiritual discipline and seems quite impossible. I've failed completely today, but tomorrow is another day!
Love, Mom

Weeds

I pulled lots of weeds today. Strange as it may sound, I love pulling weeds. I think because there is such satisfaction in the end product. Dad and I also cleaned out his closet and gave lots of clothes away. Again, great satisfaction. It seems that if we could do the same with the besetting sins and wasteful habits in our lives, we would get the same satisfaction. I guess the problem for me is that I can't see the end result as easily as a nice flower bed without weeds and a clean closet.

estote ergo prudentes sicut serpentes et simplices sicut columbae

The NIV reads "Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves," but you can see that the Latin for "shrewd" is prudentes and for "innocent" is simplices. To me, "shrewd" has a negative sense, as if you were trying to get by with something or deceive someone in some way, but prudence, according to Webster, is "the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason." In my Latin book, the definition of prudentia is "good sense." (If you know someone who is a snake expert, you might ask them about prudence in snakes - it could be eye-opening!) "Innocent" is also from a Latin word, in+nocens, which means "not harming," but the Latin word here, simplex, means simple, single; unmixed, pure. It reminds me of the word "integrity," from which we get "integer," meaning whole.
So, we have two goals. One is to have good sense. Use the reason that God has given you to make right choices, to discipline yourself, to judge fairly and rightly. The second is to be simple, not to be double-minded, two-faced, speak with a forked tongue. Let people know who you are - men of integrity who let their yes be yes and their no be no. No lies, no deceit, no pretending.

P.S. I'm not quarreling with the NIV. What I like about looking at the Latin (the Greek, of course, would be better, but not as easy for me), is that it gives you a different perspective.

To my prudent and simple sons! I love you!

Love to my boys

I love you boys! I know you aren't used to looking at this yet, but I hope to be more faithful.
Love, Mom

Confession

Most Christians would agree that we are sinners in need of forgiveness. It's interesting that the Chinese word for sinner is "criminal" and one who sins commits a crime. I wonder if we would as readily agree to that. If we truly believe we are sinners, we must also admit that we are criminals, that we have committed innumerable crimes against our Father. I have been noticing that in my own prayers and in the prayers of others that I pray with, we rarely confess our sins. I think that it is because, deep down, we really don't believe that we are that bad. We seem to believe that God will forgive our little peccadilloes without us even mentioning them. We need to ask the Lord to help us remember to confess, to take time in our prayers to recall our crimes against him, and to humbly ask him to forgive us. Perhaps (do we dare?) we should "confess our sins one to another and pray for one another "so that you may be healed." James 5:16

Hell

"People are free in this world to live for themselves alone if they want to and let the rest go hang, and they are free to live out the dismal consequences as long as they can stand it. The doctrine of Hell proclaims that they retain this freedom in whatever world comes next. Thus the possibility of making damned fools of ourselves would appear to be limitless.
Or maybe Hell is the limit. Since the damned are said to suffer as dismally in the next world as they do in this one, they must still have enough life left in them to suffer with, which means that in their flight from Love, God apparently stops them just this side of extinguishing themselves utterly. Thus the bottomless pit is not really bottomless. Hell is the bottom beyond which God in his terrible mercy will not let them go.
Dante saw written over the gates of Hell the words "Abandon all hope ye who enter here," but he must have seen wrong. If there is suffering in Hell, there must also be hope in Hell, because where there is life there is the Lord and giver of life, and where there is suffering he is there too because the suffering of the ones he loves is also his suffering.
"He descended into Hell" the Creed says, and "If I make my bed in Sheol, thou art there," the Psalmist (139:8). It seems there is no depth to which he will not sink. Maybe not even Old Scratch will be able to hold out against him forever." --Frederick Buechner