something funny I read today...

There once was a rich man who was near death. He was very grieved because he had worked so hard for his money and he wanted to be able to take it with him to heaven. So he began to pray that he might be able to take some of his wealth with him. An angel hears his plea and appears to him. "Sorry, but you can't take your wealth with you." The man implores the angel to speak to God to see if He might bend the rules. The man continues to pray that his wealth could follow him. The angel reappears and informs the man that God has decided to allow him to take one suitcase with him. Overjoyed, the man gathers his largest suitcase and fills it with pure gold bars and places it beside his bed.
Soon afterward the man dies and shows up at the Gates of Heaven to greet St. Peter. St. Peter seeing the suitcase says, "Hold on, you can't bring that in here!" But, the man explains to St. Peter that he has permission and asks him to verify his story with the Lord. Sure enough, St. Peter checks and comes back saying, "You're right. You are allowed one carry-on bag, but I'm supposed to check its contents before letting it through." St. Peter opens the suitcase to inspect the worldly items that the man found too precious to leave behind and exclaims, "You brought pavement?!!!"

Rev 21:21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.

do people still keep track of this?

just want to say hello. i miss the byob group.

"Jesus looked at him and loved him."

Mark 10: 17-22:
17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”18“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’^d”20“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”21Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Pastor David talked last night about falling back in love with the Lord, and I thought of these verses. When I read this passage, I have to say that I didn't initially feel sympathy for the rich young man-he reminds me of someone who sucks up to the teacher in class, but is really just trying to show off to the teacher (and the other students) how much he/she knows. In fact, I think Jesus' first comment about no one being good but God alone is a sarcastic remark meant to illustrate that it's silly for the rich young man to think of Jesus as just a "good teacher."

And yet, even right after the rich young man makes the absurdly arrogant statement that he's kept all the commandments since he's a boy(really? never violated any of them even once?), Jesus looks at him, and loves him. That really touched me, and brought home to me how unconditional God's love for us really is.

"Old Schoolism"

This is from Martin Luther; I found it to be quite interesting as I think most of us has this mentality organisation of church is an old school concept and that we should try to be more organic. Well, it does seem as a whole, we don't do a great job starting spiritual grow-ops. Anyways, how could we better bring Christ into our daily community lives? It's just something to think about.

“[Christians] should sign their names and meet alone in a house somewhere to pray, to read, to baptize, to receive the sacrament, and do other Christian works. According to this order, those who do not lead Christian lives could be known, reproved, corrected, cast out, or excommunicated, according to the rule of Christ [Mat. 18:15-17]. Here one could also solicit benevolent gifts to be willingly given and distributed to the poor, according to St. Paul’s example [2 Cor. 9]. Here would be no need of much and elaborate singing. Here one could set out a brief and neat order for baptism and the sacrament and center everything on the Word, prayer, and love.”

"In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship — be it J.C. or Allah, be it Yahweh or the Wiccan mother-goddess or the Four Noble Truths or some infrangible set of ethical principles — is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things — if they are where you tap real meaning in life — then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already — it’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Worship power — you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart — you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on." -David Foster Wallace, Kenyon Commencement speech http://merginglanes.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/david-foster-wallace-on-life-and-work/

Just to be fair

Here's Don Miller on What Women Really Need From Men: http://donmilleris.com/2010/04/07/what-women-really-need-from-men/

I find this advice to be generally correct, if of course incomplete and a gross oversimplification.

Don Miller on What Men want

http://donmilleris.com/2010/04/08/what-men-really-need-from-women/comment-page-2/#comments

I know we talked a little last semester about looking for the right spouse, and this post has something to do with that (from the guys' perspective). I really enjoyed reading through it, and thought that it is definitely something we women should hear more often.
Thoughts, anyone?

"ching chong chang"

here's a verse i came across today that relates to yesterday's discussion

proverbs 9:7-8
whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury. do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.

INTERESTING.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

worries cripple my desire to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. i think i could be diligent in my daily responsibilities. but even if despite diligence, i experience instability /uncertainty in areas like finances, job, relationships, future, etc... i hope eventually my peace of mind and heart won't be dictated by these things. why do i think my daily concerns fall outside God's control? the past few bible studies and sermons have been good in helping me rethink and recognize God's authority over all things, from natural storms to supernatural demons. and even if my prayers aren't answered the way i'd expect, i'm seeing that it's God maintaining his good plan. sort of in the same way ben pointed out yesterday that Jesus can assent to the pleadings of demons and faithless people, and then say no to the healed man who begged to travel with Jesus - i can imagine it was with the utmost earnestness that he begged, out of immense love and faith for the dude who had just ended his emotional/physical/spiritual enslavement to thousands of demons. thankfully, with the 'no,' Jesus adds words of direction. sometimes i feel like my prayers are like, "oh God oh God.. my loans!!!! are you going to help me?? should i be working here right now?? do i really have to give this and that up???? circle: yes/no. and p.s. these are legitimate concerns!" but he responds, "Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." i've been seeing in my own life how mature faithful people follow this command despite money, timing and other logistics not falling into place - and God provides..

Interesting little Short Story

A Parable of American Politics

Not so much just a statement on politics, but rather one about human rational?