As always, some hopeful & insightful thoughts by my co-pasor Dave

Tagging our Streets with Faith, Hope, and Love

by Dave, kludt.wordpress.com
May 24th 2012

I love our neighborhood. Our neighborhood is loud and it can be pretty dirty. We have our fair share (and maybe part of your neighborhood’s fair share) of nefarious activity on our block, but I love our neighborhood and am grateful we’ve had three years to live, move, and breathe the life of our neighborhood.

Tagging is nothing new on our street. We’re in urban Los Angeles, and gangs are a bit of a reality for this city and our neighborhood. But lately I’ve noticed an increase in the frequency our street gets tagged by the local gang.

Seeing tags, signs, and evidence meant to propagate a particularly narrow and often violent vision of community and neighborhood – designed to establish boundaries and exclude others – is a good reminder:

that we are called to praythat we are called to be a “contrast community”that we are called to live a new kind of reality in our neighborhood and with our neighbors

It’s a reminder that we’re called to tag our neighborhood and our streets with faith, hope, and love.

So, in light of messy, violent, and gang-tagged streets in need of restoration and renewal, here’s a riff on one of Saint Francis’s prayers:

Where there is hatred, let us sow love.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is intimidation, let us sow welcome.
Where there is fear, courage.
Where there is crime, peace.
Where there is selfishness, generosity.
Where there is struggle, reconciliation.
Where there is exclusion, embrace.

Where there is tagged violence, hatred, and fear, let us tag faith, hope, and love.

Original Page: http://kludt.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/tagging-our-streets-with-faith-hope-and-love

“If there is not radical growth in humble love toward everyone (even your enemies), you don’t really know you are a SINNER saved by grace. If there is not radical, concrete growth in confidence and joy (even in difficulties) you don’t really know you are a sinner saved by GRACE.”

  -Tim Keller

“If you and your church were to disappear off the face of the earth tomorrow, would anyone in the community around you notice you were gone? And if the community did even notice would they say ‘we are really glad they are gone’, or ‘we are really going to miss them’?”

-Tim Keller

"I must secure more time for private devotions. I have been living far too public for me. The shortening of devotions starves the soul, it grows lean and faint. I have been keeping too late hours."

  - William Wilberforce

HT: Bob Hyatt

by Seth Godin, sethgodin.typepad.com
May 17th 2012

Not the easiest, but the quickest:

Don't demand authority.

Eagerly take responsibility.

Relentlessly give credit.

(personally, i think i need to grow in all three of these areas...)

Original Page: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/LyKHPCYE_CQ/the-quickest-way-to-get-things-done-and-make-change-and.html

so, dont think I'm quite ready for this yet...

The Goodness of Singleness

by scotmcknight, patheos.com
May 15th 2012

Tim and Kathy Keller buck a trend that I have heard in the last decade, and that trend is that if you are single at 27 or 28 or 29, you are out of God’s will. Their contention is that since the Ultimate Marriage is our union with Christ, then marriage and singleness are both good.

The Kellers, in their exceptional book The Meaning of Marriage, begin by quoting some texts from Paul that not only buck the trend but prove that the trendy folks are not reading the Bible well. Here is the text:

²⁵ Now about virgins [singles]: I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. ²⁶ Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for a man to remain as he is. ²⁷ Are you pledged to a woman? Do not seek to be released. Are you free from such a commitment? Do not look for a wife. ²⁸ But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this.

²⁹ What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; ³⁰ those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; ³¹ those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

Paul’s eschatology, his conviction that the Lord’s return could be imminent, his conviction that we are in-between This Age and The Age to Come, his conviction that marriage reflects the union with Christ, his conviction that marriage is a school in which we learn to help one another reflect our glory-selves (their term) .. these and more mean that singleness is and can be a good.

“Single adults cannot be seen as somehow less fully formed or realized human beings than married persons because Jesus Christ, a single man, was the perfect man” (195). The early church, then, de-idolized marriage and traditional society and in its place put God. Singleness then is not Plan B. It is not a state of deprivation.

The church is the permanent society and brothers and sisters in Christ can enter into a fellowship that transcends time. The Kellers call this “cross gender enrichment,” though they are quick to point out that marriage “does and should somewhat limit the extent of friendships you have with others of the opposite sex” (201).

But marriage, too, is good. The problem today is that many have so idealized marriage they fear it. The Kellers demote marriage so that it need not be feared.

Some practical advice from the Kellers when dating and seeking a spouse.

1. Know that dating today is not what it always was. Marriage used to be more social and functional; dating was more arranged and supervised, if there was what we now call dating.

2. There are reasons for not seeking marriage.

3. Understand the gift of singleness

4. Get more serious about seeking marriage as you get older.

5. Do not allow yourself deep emotional involvement with a non-believing person.

6. Feel attraction in the most comprehensive sense.

7. Don’t let things get too passionate too quickly.

8. Don’t become a faux spouse for someone who won’t commit to you.

9. Get and submit to lots of community input.

Because of spammers and other undesirable things I won’t blog about the last chap (about s-x). I want to say this is one of the finest books on marriage I’ve ever read; it is theologically sound and pastorally sensitive. Even if I disagree with one or two elements here and there, their presentation of those topics remains pastorally useful and wise. I would give this book to anyone seeking advice on marriage and love.

Original Page: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PatheosJesusCreed/~3/x7sVa9ULF-Y/

Shared from Pocket

O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Original Page: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2012/05/13/prayer-for-the-week-234/

...love this!!