Linkathon!
Reading the Bible with dead guys…
Christian persecution at all time high…
Wesleyan University now up to fifteen letters describing sexual identities…
What really happened in David Barton’s lawsuits?
ISIS has taken 90 more Christians…
Rob Bell, gay marriage, and the movie “Tombstone”.
Can science and scripture be reconciled?
Silencing people and learning to control the narrative…
No faith is free from child abuse scandals and cover ups…
How to find bread and water in the dungeon of depression…
Steve Brown on why we don’t pray…
10 things about the “Great Commission”…
FIRST!
I’m really troubled that Rob Bell is referenced to one of my favorite movies Tombstone. 🙁
“I’m your huckleberry” will never be the same.
The domestic violence issue is largely ignored by the church. There are many and I mean many a men who both verbally and physically abuse their brides and children all the while hiding behind the Scriptures.
It is an atrocity that these men who do this as well as the the women who are afraid to speak up freely in the house of God.
What can pastors teachers do to bring this subject up and make it a safe place for the dialogue to be opened?
Just my thought.
Charles,
I agree with you…and one of the things that make it even more difficult is the fact that the pastorate is basically a men only fraternity.
Spousal abuse is one of the churches dirty little secrets…
The fact ISIS has taken 90 believers hostage sends chills down my spine. God help them.
The article on house churches makes some erroneous assumptions.
The author assumes that pre-Constantine Christians met in living rooms and worshiped in an informal, spontaneous way. However, the early church followed the example of the synagogue liturgy from the very beginning, adapted, of course, to conform with the needs of the New Covenant. Synagogue worship followed the liturgical pattern of scripture readings, prayers, etc. The Christians took was was appropriate for Christianity from the Jewish liturgy and added the Eucharist and readings from books/ letters that eventually became the New Testament.
Also, house churches may not have been what moderns think they were. In the ancient city of Duras Europas a house was uncovered that had been converted to a church, with a baptistry and other churchly accouterments., including mosaic icons. It was completely converted to church use and was no longer used as a house. This predated Constantine by many years.
When is our government going to step in to try and protect people from this evil infection called ISIS? I realize we are called to pray for ISIS and love them as Jesus followers. But I can’t help but feel that, with all of the sophisticated intelligence and weaponry our military has at its disposal, “we” could be doing more to protect the innocent. Thanks for letting me vent.
Excuse me, “Dura Europas.”
Xenia,
Good points.
Those historical facts never seem to be recognized when we speak of home churches.
JoelG,
I don’t understand it either if it makes you feel any better…
http://www.people-press.org/2015/02/24/growing-support-for-campaign-against-isis-and-possible-use-of-u-s-ground-troops/
The problem with sending in troops is that our government won’t let them finish the job. We send in our young men and women in and let them get killed as we get a temporal victory that looks good for the politicians, then withdraw the troops and ISIS will just rebuild under another banner and leaders, with the same money coming in from the same sources.
I’m all for sending in US troops IF they will let them do their job and do it well. Keep the politicians and the multi national banks out of it and let the Soldiers do what they need to do to wipe ISIS off the face of the earth. But that isn’t going to happen.
Today being the 24th, Proverbs 24 was part of our husband/wife devotion this morning and we both paused on verse 11 given the morning news out of Syria.
Rescue those who are being taken away to death;
hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
Nonnie, I will go you one better. Wiping ISIS off the map is not enough…who even heard of ISIS a few years ago when Al Qaeda and The Taliban were the flavors of the month….Islam will just come up with some new-named group that is just as vicious.
What America along with the rest of the free world needs to do, in unison (preferably at the United Nations) is to stand up and say that unless these nations are willing to establish a right to freedom of religion then they will be pariahs to us all. It is imperative that the people of these nations, the supposed millions of peaceful Muslims, fight their oppressors in the same manner that the West overthrew the power of kings back in the 18th century. They must do it themselves, and while we may certainly be there to lend a hand (i.e. the French during the US Revolution) they must do the heavy-lifting.
It should be no problem if ISIS truly is a minority and if Muslims do just want peace – and freedom of religion (which is the antithesis of true Islam) is a nonnegotiable.
Of course, this must be done in tandem with our own energy production so that Saudi Arabia and other so-called moderate Muslim nations are told to pound sand as well (which they have plenty of)….
This idea of shedding out blood and spending our treasure just so an Islamic state can continue has to end…..THAT (to me) is the true lesson of the errors of the Iraq war. Once Saddam was eliminated to then say it is not our business if the new Iraq mandated Islam as the state religion….we should have walked right then…and sent a bill for their oil to pay for the war money spent to that point.
For those who think ISIS is just another extension of crazy, fundamental, terrorist Muslims you need to read this link:
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/
After reading this last week it kind-of reminded me of how some Christian church sects have the rapture as a truth or agreement requirement for leadership. Of course the difference is they don’t use physical violence to achieve their goals like ISIS.
The sum total of this article is ISIS is not some extremist group who can be nuked off the map. They also remind me a bit of the Essenes of Jesus day (they didn’t use force, just withdrew from the culture).
It’s easy to defeat a country, but it’s almost impossible to kill and idea.
How can anyone with a straight face say that it is a myth to see social justice as something political.
Two scenarios:
1) It is just/fair/equitable/righteous for the power of the state, given their ability to imprison, fine and/or seize/freeze assets….to treat all citizens equally. Thus, a flat rate income tax system should be applied to all.
2) It is just/fair/equitable/righteous for the power of the state to use its ability to imprison, fine and/or seize/freeze asstes..to create equality among its citizens. Thus a heavily progressive tax system should be applied, with a majority of the population not paying any income taxes.
Both scenarios can be (and certainly are) repeatedly argued on the basis of fairness (justice) and this is a 100% political debate because the Bible only remotely touches on the issue, and only in the Old Testament theocracy, and only then supporting one of the two sides (and it ain’t the last).
The “50 Shades of Grey” article was pretty lame. Basically she’s arguing that the popularity of the books and movie can all be blamed on men. God forbid we just state aloud the dirty truth that millions upon millions of women have bad taste and, in some areas, poor respect for themselves individually and womankind corporately. I think that “the patriarchy” is not driving the popularity of these books. Rather, I think the same spirit/attitude/mindset that has caused women to be drawn to these books is also one of the reasons why patriarchalism has flourished. I bet a lot of women, secretly or not so secretly, don’t mind being dominated, or at least don’t mind the idea of being dominated, and would give up their personal autonomy and allow themselves to be demeaned if it meant that they were financially provided for and didn’t have to think as much on their own or act as much on their own or reach decisions as much on their own.
Don’t blame the men for 50 shades – did an men read the book? Did any men go to the movie voluntarily?
Exactly. 50 Shades is an all female phenom. There’s just no reasonable way to blame it on men. Trying to do so only makes the writer of the article look bad..
I wonder what keeps guys like Bill O’Reilly from admitting they were wrong? He could have end his on the first day by saying “yes, looking back on it now, I probably overstated the situation. You know, when it happened it seemed like war, but as I look back it was just a little civil unrest.”
But no – he just keeps stepping on his …
j2…you nailed it. It’s pretty disgusting the levels some women will stoop to.
Actually MLD he proved that what he said was correct beyond the shadow of a doubt.
He’s hard for me to take in the way he treats guests and some other ways but in this instance he proved what Mother Jones printed was false. If someone digs and finds something else that turns out to be true then I would hope he would own it and apologize.
ISIS boils me like nothing in a long while.
God have mercy on me I hope we give them the apocalyptic showdown they are seeking to provoke. Now is as good as any time.
Steve Browns ideas on why people don’t pray are all fear based and thus, quite a limited list. There’s also because we don’t understand how, because we are too lazy, because we think it doesn’t matter, because we are shy or reserved (praying aloud not our thing), we are intimidated by how good others seem to be at it, we are too pissed off to speak to God at the moment, etc….
Loads of reasons that aren’t because we are too afraid. That article was disappointing to me.
“I wonder what keeps guys like Bill O’Reilly from admitting they were wrong?”
There are many sins God will forgive, murder, rape, child abuse, drug sales etc. Being wrong is not one of them. That may sound a bit silly but what I mean by being wrong is being wrong in the apologetic on some extremely shallow issue but will get in the way of the revenue stream. One cannot be wrong on that level.
Best thing we can do is to spend time in prayer to the One who can save our brothers and sisters from the hell storm called Isis . No amount of complaining about our government stepping in is going to save them. Only God can and He will bring them home either on this earth or He will call them to Him. Jesus said “fear not, for I have overcome the world”.