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| where i'm atso life has been interesting. i'm no longer overseas and i am no longer in ohio. it was a weird feeling to move after being home for only 3 weeks. so far i haven't really enjoyed st. paul. i don't really know anyone--or at least have any friends up here. sure i have some aquaintances but that doesn't give me something to do. i've been extremely bored over the last 2 weeks, although it was good to see friends at nwc. i am struggling big time with depression due to loneliness. i know that is the cause but i'm not too sure how to fight against it. i know i'm not alone by any stretch but it feels like it most of the time. i'm looking forward to starting classes--this is the most motivated i've ever been to do well in school. i'm also looking forward to getting a job. not that i want to go back to cvs, but i am. i hate retail work. well i think thats about all i have to update on. i'll be writing more--hopefully--once i start class and have some things to think about. shalom.
-mike-
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| the ones that give us a bad namei've heard a lot, recently, about a family of christians from kansas or something like that who are extremely 'conservative.' they have been shown a few times over in the UK and most people think they are completely nuts. it is no wonder christians from the US get such a bad name when the only representation that is given is the nut jobs. this family is completely into condemning people--i don't get it. they go around saying that people are going to hell--even a mass amount of people who would consider themselves christians. they have clearly missed all the biblical references to 'love' and 'compassion.' they are so full of hatred and judgment and condemnation i wonder if they have actually read the bible. i know they have but they have completely missed a lot of what jesus taught. it seems to me they would be more equated with pharisees and trying to live the perfect life by the law. i fear they will be the ones who end up in hell because they will be judged how they judge. send out a prayer that God will soften this families hearts along with the other people that are in the same place as they are. i don't like saying who is in and who is out, but they make it extremely difficult to try and say they are in. may God have mercy on them. | | |
| divine intention...is a book that i just got and the author is having me do a review. i would highly reccomend the book to anyone who is disenchanted with church. his insights on how the vision of the early church should shape us today, not only in church but in our personal lives, are quite challenging. he knows how to ask the right questions at the right time. for someone like myself who has been doing nothing but bitching about the insitutional church for the last 4-5 years, it is extremely challenging. it forces one to actually get off their butt and do something about it. it challenges one to move past the criticisms and finally push through to do what God wants you to do. if you get the chance, get a copy of the book and read it. | | |
| a need for humilityi have come to the conclusion that i am too prideful. i have realized that i need to humble myself in an attempt to stop being so reactionary against conservative evangelicalism. i need to admit that i may be wrong about some things and that it really is ok if you don't think the same way i do. i know i've been saying those things for a while now, but i need to actually practice what i preach. i don't really know where to start, but i figure reading scripture will be a good place to start. i will attempt to clearly define what i believe--or if i don't know, i can say that without shame. it is going to be a long road to recovery but i need to get started. pray. | | |
| missing the point???i've been reading a lot about the whole heaven/hell thing recently. also, with the easter holidays now just past, i have been thinking about what Jesus' main goal was. i think at some point we have missed the point of Jesus life, death, and ressurection. do you really think that the biggest reason for Jesus was for our eternal life? i'm not thinking that anymore, although i've never really been taught differently. i am beginning to think that Jesus was a lot more about the here and now than the then and there. for me, Jesus was more about teaching us how to live the way we were originally meant to live--in complete harmony with one another. if you look back to Genesis and take a look at the first few chapters, you will see the transformation of human interaction (i.e. the fall). sin, to me, has become something so much more than just an offense against God. i think the reason that we are seperated from God is because we are seperated from one another. when christians talk about being born again or about being saved, i think they need to remember just what they are being born again too and being saved from. it isn't about the heaven/hell debate, its about how you live. sin seperates us even when it is the littlest thing imaginable. every sin has a negative to how it affects yourself or you and someone else. maybe when we talk about being born again we should be talking about what it means to have a new viewpoint on life--one that is no longer self-centered but others-centered. maybe when we talk about salvation and being saved we need to talk about the healing of ourselves from our own transgressions--not about being saved from the fires of hell. Jesus, to me, was a lot more about getting us to see that we should be making earth a place where heaven can be. he wasn't about getting out of here to go to heaven. i think we have missed the point completely, or maybe i have. but i feel that i know God in such a better way when i think of Him this way rather than in the way of getting souls into His heaven. | | |
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