For those of you who do worship in churches that ARE "
All in Life
Worship With Your Eyes Open
service. Christian worship should not be a place and a time where our eyes are mostly closed. NO! Rather, our eyes should be open to behold the grace of God. When the lights are on and the speakers are off one realizes that there are others along side you who are loving God and loving you. Christ's Body is truly acting as a body as they worship in unison togetherness rather than as an amalgam of dissonant members.
Why I Love Integrated Worship
A child who is immersed in Christian worship will necessarily be shaped by that immersion. Conversely, when the children are whisked away to the church annexes they are denied such formation. Further, the act removing the children from Christ’s Body (the church) seems to run straight against the words of our Lord when he
Turning the World Upside Down
The fact that I, a descendant of the Danes who used to worship Thor, go to church to worship the one true and living God is proof that Paul and the other Apostles really did turn the world upside down 2000 years ago!
Yes, I’m Hypocritically Judging Your Judging
Perhaps I am just tired of Protestantism and her legacy of hermeneutical interpretive dance. Is there a beauty in this I am missing? Perhaps the problems I’ve so… magniloquently (insert self-conscious chuckle here)… expressed here stem from some grave uncertainty in my soul. My sanctimonious passing of judgement is, possibly, just a symptom of the gracelessness to which we are all prone to, to one degree or another.
The Vaccination Debate
We've been conditioned to believe that our views only hold public weight when they are confirmed through an election or the cultural elites of the New York Times. What this has created is entire generations of Americans who believe they must validate their views and perspectives through national laws. Nothing could be more destructive to communities.
Beer and Babies: Raising Kids in a Beer Loving Home
Regardless of the reason behind the stinkeye, the point remains -- people often don't understand, or may downright disagree with, our decision to raise our kids around brewing and beer. However, there are several lessons we can teach our kids by doing just that.
No View Apart From Fog
The time was wonderful and the destination, Vancouver BC in Canada, almost perfect and rather inspiring.
Biblical Symbolism, Marriage, & the New Covenant
What is necessary is not the creation of symbols. The symbols (like marriage) are already there. What is necessary is that we have our eyes opened to the Biblical symbolism that pervades our world and that we view the world through that lens rather than the symbol-averse of late-modernity.
A Solitude of Stillness
Her hands were never idle, but her soul was still.
Main Street > Pennsylvania Avenue
We are woefully blind to the fact that even if one party (democrat or republican) won every seat in the senate and the house AND won the presidency NOTHING WOULD CHANGE.
Weekend Wildness...on our rather tame scale.
Come along; witness the fun!
Road Trip 2014
Road trips are certainly not glamorous. They are not particularly comfortable. Only those stout of heart, quick of clemency, and iron of stomach undertake such travels. Well, those people and then us.
A Good Man is Hard to Find
Am I saying only good men will take out the trash - because it is such a stinky chore? Well, yes, but no.
To Have and To Hold: A Football Story
My union with a Steelers fan was almost de-railed thanks to fanaticism.
In Which I Stopped Listening to Sermons
"Well, then, have the like faith with regard to Divine Scripture; believe that thy soul is profited by the mere reading, even though thy understanding does not receive the fruit of profiting by these passages. Our inner nature is charmed; its better elements are nourished, the worse weakened and brought to nought." - Origen, Philocalia 12.2
A Place I Once Called Home
We were remembering, and celebrating in the perfect location for us. Not the easiest, but the best. In those
Effectual Vocation
What would you do today if you knew that Jesus were to return this afternoon? Calvin replies that he would do exactly what he would do any other day, just as Paul encouraged the Thessalonians to continue in their callings with excellence in view of Christ’s return (2 Thess. 3:1–13).
Wedded Bliss
I’d be willing to bet there are things unknown about my dearly beloved and myself. Hence this post. Eight pieces of wedded trivia for eight years of marriage; in honor of our eight-year anniversary this previous Tuesday, August 5th.