Do you own all the albums of any particular musical artist or group? Who?
Submitted by dutterman.
Casting Crowns! I even have the CD that was released yesterday! :)
Click here: Keeping the Faith
I would share my incredibly amazing artwork with you guys, but it saves in some weird svg format, and you have to have a special adobe plugin to view it.
Have fun!
I got my laptop back today! Yay me!!
MIntheGap posted something today that has helped me identify part of my problem. He writes about two errors that many Christians make today as highlighted by Scott Buchanan in his article Indifferentism vs. Everythingism: Stay in the Middle of the Road.
First, let’s get some definitions out of the way:
- Indifferentism is the error of accepting the gospel but refusing to acknowledge the doctrines of the gospel as “unbreachable boundaries for Christian faith and fellowship.”
- Everythingism is the error of holding all doctrines on the same level as the gospel, making every belief a boundary for faith and fellowship.
The problem here is that both are wrong Scripturally. The one is wrong because there are doctrines that go along with salvation that must be maintained. The other is wrong because not every doctrine is of the same weight as salvation or necessary for salvation.
I fall into the second category. Well, I’m desperately trying to get out of that second category. To the point of wearing nothing but red shirts.
Most Christians tend to be more sensitive to one error and to neglect the other. Many evangelicals are quick to perceive the intrinsic factiousness of everythingism, but in avoiding it they become tolerant of indifferentists. Fundamentalists go miles out of their way to avoid the compromise of indifferentists, but they are willing to put up with the everythingists. On both sides, political considerations sometimes become more important than integrity.
If we want a truly biblical Christianity, then we are going to have to avoid both errors. We are going to have to treat everythingists and indifferentists with about the same misgiving. Of course, in order to do that we shall have to become skilled at judging the importance of doctrines. We must develop special proficiency for discriminating fundamentals from non-fundamentals.
As much as I hate labels, I like being able to identify an issue that I’m having.
I asked a friend last week how you go about changing something that’s been engrained in you for so long and his answer, annoying as it was, is true: “You just…do.” That’s my current goal. To change. To be able to take my faith seriously despite my doubts. To trust God even when I don’t trust myself.
Don’t expect it to happen overnight.
One of the things I’ve learned about myself through all of this crud is that though I can easily explain true Christianity to people and point out when people aren’t living up to it, I’ve never embraced it for myself. I’ve still clung to the stupid things about church, the Bible, and Christianity that I was taught for the majority of my life.
That’s my problem.
There’s an analogy I use that kind of works here. If someone tells you several times a week that wearing a red shirt is wrong, you’re going to begin to think that wearing a red shirt is wrong. Or, you’ll wear the red shirt when you won’t be around the teacher. But if you ever get caught by the teacher wearing a red shirt, you end up feeling shame and guilt even if you don’t think it’s wrong. And then, if it’s gone on long enough, you may wear red shirts, but there’s still something in the back of your mind that tells you that you shouldn’t be.
That’s where I am. I’ve realized how stupid it is to think that red shirts are wrong. But it’s such an ingrained habit that I have, that the only way I know to fix it is to go to the opposite extreme and wear nothing but red. Which is just as silly!
Okay, enough of the metaphor. What I’m trying to say is that what I really need to do is work on relearning what is Truth and what isn’t. I need to forget what I’ve been taught and look to what is right. It won’t be easy. I still have many many doubts and questions. There are things I want explained that can’t be explained by Christianity. And I’m not ready to get to the point where I say, “Well, God doesn’t have to tell us everything.” That’s a cop out.
Faith and reason can exist together.
I just have to figure out how.
I'm an addict.
They say the first step to getting over an addiction is admitting that you have a problem.
Well, I do.
It interferes with work. I think about it all the time. I even dream about it sometimes.
It's frustrating! I don't want this addiction. I feel shame anytime someone comes in and catches me.
I need to stop, but I just can't.
What am I addicted to, you ask?
...
The community copier/printer/scanner for my building is right outside of my office. I used to get really frustrated when my desk was just inside my office door because this piece of machinery is our office's equivalant of a watercooler (even though we do, in fact, have a watercooler). Now that I'm at the opposite end of my office, that aspect of the copier doesn't bother me because I don't often hear the gabfests that happen there. But there is one employee who constantly struggles with making this machine work. Her office is on the second floor; we're on the third. I rarely hear her use the thing without complaining about something. Today, I hear her approach the copier and exclaim, "You've got to be kidding me!" She then proceeds to talk to herself out loud about how she sent something to print, but it wasn't there.
*sigh*
After she leaves, I can't help myself. I get up to examine the copier in question.
There's a big red light.
That should be the first tip-off that something may be wrong, right?
It was a simple fix. She had sent it to the wrong size paper tray. I selected a different tray and all of her jobs print--like magic.
When I was a kid, I adored Shel Silverstein. I just came across my favorite poem that he wrote, "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out!"
Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
Would not take the garbage out!
She'd scour the pots and scrape the pans,
Candy the yams and spice the hams,
And though her daddy would scream and shout,
She simply would not take the garbage out.
And so it piled up to the ceilings:
Coffee grounds, potato peelings,
Brown Bananas, rotten peas,
Chunks of sour cottage cheese.
It filled the can, it covered the floor,
It cracked the window and blocked the door
With bacon rinds and chicken bones,
Drippy ends of ice cream cones,
Prune pits, peach pits, orange peel,
Gloppy glumps of cold oatmeal,
Pizza crusts and withered greens,
Soggy beans and tangerines,
Crusts of black burned buttered toast,
Grisly bits of beefy roasts...
The garbage rolled down the hall,
It raised the roof, it broke the wall...
Greasy napkins, cookie crumbs,
Globs of gooey bubble gum,
Cellophane from green baloney,
Rubbery blubbery macaroni,
Peanut butter, caked and dry,
Curdled milk and crusts of pie,
Moldy melons, dried-up mustard,
Eggshells mixed with lemon custard,
Cold french fries and rancid meat,
Yellow lumps of Cream of Wheat.
At last the garbage reached so high
That finally it touched the sky.
And all the neighbors moved away,
And none of her friends would come to play.
And finally Sarah Cynthia Slylvia Stout said,
"Ok, I'll take the garbage out!"
But then, of course, it was too late...
The garbage reached across the state,
From New York to the Golden Gate.
And there, in the garbage she did hate,
Poor Sarah met an awful fate,
That I cannot right now relate
Because the hour is much too late.
But children, remember Sarah Stout
And always take the garbage out!
It's brilliant!
