Joanna the wife of Herod’s household manager Chuza, Susanna, and many others. These women were ministering to them out of their own means.
Luke 8:3
Adam was made from the dust
Then Eve was placed in his trust
After that things went downhill
And we are trapped by that still
How can we grow all of us closer to Jesus?
Lately I’ve been wrestling with a series of questions around:
This morning — having watched the Indian Forrest Gump last night — I wonder if the acronym RUPA might address all of them:
Here’s a first draft of how that might work. What do you think?
Continue readingWhen ye life become out of sorts
The cause may be using wrong “forts”
When Christ is my shield
I safely can yield
Knowing He’ll guard all my ports
A mighty fortress is our God,
A Mighty Fortress | Martin Luther
A bulwark never failing
Our school has been taken over.
We are going to take it back.
Lord, though we’re made from the dust
We long to build towers of trust
A shelter from all earthly storms
A safe place to play with new forms
The reason I feel insignificant
Is hard problems feel like a sign I can’t
Do what I must
To win back the trust
Of those of whose hearts I’m a supplicant
The Hands they say once made the world
Now find themselves around nails curled
The One who by rights is our Boss
Has become a symbol of loss
If we long for transfigured life-flow
We must learn how to under-shadow
The less I trust me
The more I can see
How earth’s gap from heaven to narrow
We love to build faster and higher
But maybe we’re playing with fire
What Babel foresaw
Icarus’s flaw
Dooms us with our own desire
True friendship is not based on “must”
But how much we risk out of trust
If we truly love God
More than our own bod
We’d leave this whole world in the dust!
Continued from Sex 304: Autistic License
Earnest: Right. Who would be willing to drop everything to travel halfway around the world to take on an impossible Quest with people he doesn’t even know?
Lecher: Actually, I know just the guy…
Owen Wilson and Ben Affleck are cops on a stakeout
This floor of the building
Is one giant room
Full of desks and bookshelves
Probably a college library
Ben is on administrative leave
Because he supposedly shot someone
For no good reason
Owen, his partner, is helping him prove his innocence
Ben’s fragmented memories
And other clues
Have led them here
This floor seems mostly deserted
I am the only other one there
I am at another startup
We have just gotten a new interim CEO
Everyone is skeptical
Especially the Engineers
Because the CEO
is actually the (former?) mayor
Of a nearby town
(Small but with a large population)
Everyone is expecting him
To be a slick extrovert
With no substance
Or Intellectual depth
MIT is being renovated.
I am leading a tour group.
Like I used to do.
We come from the East.
The standalone buildings on that side
Are most functional.
But the large complex in the heart of campus
The Infinite Corridor
Is completely surrounded in yellow tape.
In fact
The large buildings in the center
Are partly demolished. Continue reading
This is a another poem from my old site, written back in 2004 as I was beginning my current voyage of self-discovery. It starts out a bit whiny, but that’s where I was back then. 🙂
The meter is loosely based on Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven, and the plot is partly inspired by Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis.
In Which We Begin to Pursue the End…
This is the final lesson in our series, but hopefully just the beginning of your journey in understanding what it means to lead others — and yourself — into the “name” of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
As we proceed to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” (cf Philippians 2:12), it is essential to continually rejoice (cf. Philippians 4:4), because the “joy of the Lord is our strength” (cf. Nehemiah 8:10). We may occasionally become discouraged when we realize we will never reach complete perfection, either in our discipline, our character, or even our theology (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:9). On the other hand, the good news is that this means we will always have room for improvement!
This course has tried to give you the basics, but there are even more wonderful truths about Christ to be understood, deeper works of the Holy Spirit to be experienced, and greater glories for the Father to be won.
May we persevere together in that pursuit until the day we are all finally united with our Beloved Bridegroom, to celebrate His matchless “name” for all eternity.
Memory Verse: “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.” — Matthew 25:13 (NKJV)
In Which We Hear to Obey, and Obey to Hear
Few questions are more fraught with promise and peril for the believer than “What is God’s will for my life?” While we know the textbook answers, we still long for more specific, personal guidance — and rightly so. Properly hearing God’s voice can open the door to dramatic transformation of people, relationships, and society; alas, mishearing God’s voice can result in darkest tragedy.
There is no simple answer, but there is a sure promise: if we entrust our ways to the Lord by faithfully pursuing the disciplines in submission to the Spirit, the Word, and the Body, He will ultimately lead us in a way that glorifies His name…
Memory Verse: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” — Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV)
In Which We and the World are Transformed as We Pray to the Father
Prayer is the process of aligning our thoughts, desires, and decisions with the Name of God, so that His Spirit can work through us to transform our lives, our relationships, and our world.
Memory Verse:“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” — Matthew 6:31-33 (NKJV)
In Which Unseen Faith Transforms the Visible World
Faith is the primary virtue of the Mind. It enables us to base Decisions on Reasons, as well as to deduce Reasons from Decisions (axioms). It can be defined as “the ability to believe what is true — even when difficult.”
Faith is particularly needed by the Simple, who otherwise would only trust what they can touch and feel. Yet God’s invisible wisdom is in reality more powerful than all the armies of flesh and blood which rail against it. And thus pursuing that wisdom, in faith, is actually the most practical decision of all…
[click to enlarge image]
Apologies for the pretentious title, but I wanted to challenge myself to identify and reorganize the lessons we covered in last year’s leadership class into a coherent prescription for facing down “Ministry Killers”. The idea is that each of these “steps” would be a single “life lesson”, but that together they provide the “full armor of God.“
What do you think? Did I miss anything important?
Radically Happy 