...a barely thematic journey through my tangentizing mental life...: 03.09

Waiting on the Lord is a confident, disciplined, expectant, active, and sometimes painful clinging to God.

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Toe-tapping and muttering are not the sort of active waiting God requires of us, despite how much we may desire this to be the case.

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The quote in the title is from If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat, by John Ortburg, quoted in the TFB Sermon of 3/29.

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Why do we put so much stock in and pressure upon professional ministers?

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The longer I study Ephesians 4:1-16, the more I realize how far we have strayed from its clear teaching: the members cause the body’s growth.

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Related:
Alan Knox: Scripture... As We Live It #47 on Assembling of the Church
Laura: Ephesians tag on witwaw
Laura: Spiritual Formation Experiment tag on LW
Laura: Ephesians tag on LW

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This Week in the Food Box: Lemon and Pepper

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Pucks: the usual pucks, seasoned with fresh-squeezed lemon, lavender, and chicken stock (from the savory drippings), and topped with a bit of soy sauce before cooking
Savory: range-fed, organic yada yada chicken legs, marinated overnight in fresh lemon juice and black pepper, oven-roasted with lavender, lemon slices, and lemon avocado oil, all over green cabbage, with onion and celery, seasoned with fresh lemon juice and black pepper
Salad: romaine, topped with celery, steamed broccoli, and salmon salad (salmon, onion, lemon juice, black pepper, lemon avocado oil)

Sounds like a good food week...

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What does it take to make all things new?

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tenacious and furious his manner,
salvation and justice his actions,
on one hand re-creating a new, whole humanity,
on the other hand purging all rebellion

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“If science is a way of uncovering the details of God’s creation, then it may actually be a form of worship.” - Collins

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“Together, in a loving and worshipful attitude, we could formulate a new and wondrous natural theology. This kind of theology celebrates God as the creator, embraces His majestic universe from the far-flung galaxies to the “fearfully and wonderfully made” nature of humanity, and accepts and incorporates the marvelous things that God has given us the chance to discover through science.”

Francis S. Collins, "A New Theology of Celebration," Science & Spirit

"The equations and predictions of the science, super-accurate though they are, offer us only a glimpse behind that veil." -bbc

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We see what we expect:
Atheist sees pointlessness,
Skeptic, questions,
Platonist, eternal universals,
Believer, an orderly God,
Pantheist, a divine universe.

What is the truth?

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Resource:
What do you get if you divide science by God?

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"...we're not in the evangelical preservation society..." - Galli

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What will fail and should fail are “branches” of Evangelicalism that center on anything other than Christ or who place any rule above Spirit-interpreted Scripture.

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Related:
Mark Galli: On the Lasting Evangelical Survival
Springer: on Evangelicalism

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We are not a collection of individuals; we are persons-in-community

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God has indeed chosen to deal with persons as individuals…Yet they are not simply individuals; they become members of a social reality called ekklesia… *

Willing to fail...Determined to think

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we fear such small things,
cowering in the face of exposure or failure,
yet refusing the Sovereign Creator.

Should we not fear the truly frightening?

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Eating simplicity this week

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Pucks: Simplicity this week, mixing the usual oat, lentil and egg white, with nori flakes, lemon avocado oil, sunflower seeds, and a bit of low-sodium soy.
Vegetables: Green cabbage, cooked in homemade beef stock (beef knuckle, celery, onion, peppercorns, bay leaf, and lots of cooking time) and topped with leftover New York steak.
Savory: a bit of last week's garbanzo bean dish, mixed with a can of Trader Joe's Beef Chili, with a touch of chipotle and chili powder from Penzey's

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I lay no claims to a common perspective, though I expect I often have one

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Still, I would rather be known as one
who seems just a touch off center,
than as the one
who does and thinks the expected.

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I am not quite as pessimistic as Michael Spencer, who sees Evangelicalism collapsing.

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Our task in this is to remain steadfast in trust, flexible in form, and passionate in love.

Michael Patton has specific actions to take now.

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Resources:
Has the institutional church forgotten the purpose of its structure?, by Laura Springer
The Coming Evangelical Collapse, by Michael Spencer
My Evangelical Bailout Package, by C. Michael Patton of Reclaiming the Mind

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Why do we continue to seek help from the helpless? (Isaiah 31)

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tenacious and furious,
for his people and against his enemies,
Yahweh’s salvation will be done,
Yahweh’s justice will be served.

No doubt in that day.

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What are the current storms in your life?

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refuse to be a victim.
stay faithful.
be used by God.

three easy steps,
so simple on paper,
yet so difficult in practice,

but why?

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A week of Aglio Olio Peperoncino spice mix

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Pucks: Aglio Olio Peperoncino and dandelion greens in the usual oat, lentil, and egg white base
Salad: Aglio Olio Peperoncino and lime marinated cucumber and celery, over red cabbage, Savoy cabbage, with a touch of extra virgin olive oil for good measure
Savory: Aglio Olio Peperoncino spiced Crimini mushrooms, yellow onion, garbanzo beans, and Delicata squash, simmered in fresh lamb stock.

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Perceptions are difficult to change, but they can change.

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Perception has so much to do with what we see.

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Perceptions are difficult to change. Worldview transformation can take place quickly, but most of the time it takes years, filled with tears and confused struggle.

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How often do we refuse to hear God while blaming him for not speaking?

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crying out,
fingers stuck firmly in our ears,
hearing no answer,
we head off to other saviors,
all the while thinking ourselves wise,
disaster waits.

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What hinders you from taking your first steps?

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the hesitation,
fed by fear or ignorance,
holds my feet inches from the shore.

what it he hesitates while I do,
awaiting a trusting step?

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Garam Masala all 'round

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Key Spice: garam masala

Breakfast Pucks: filled with banana squash, topped with spice and sea salt
Yogurt: topped with molasses
Salad: Romaine, red cabbage, and pink salmon, with a dressing of sweated onion and celery, pureed in olive oil
Savory: dry pan roasted onion and bell pepper, oven roasted eggplant, and leftover lamb stewed in lamb stock

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Trusting him is the only requirement. There is nothing else.

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There is only one thing one must do to be saved: trust God, even if it means not knowing, not being clear, and being confused.

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All the spiritual practices in the world do nothing apart from proper perception.

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In his work, Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered, Wilhoit writes that the size of our perception of the cross has everything to do with a correct understanding of God's infinite holiness and our utter sinfulness. To the degree that we downplay either one, our perception of the cross shrinks.

Wilhoit goes on to say that, the size of our perception of the cross determines how much transformational grace we receive. If we do not think we need that much grace, we will not be in a place to receive that grace and we will not be transformed. If we are not being transformed, the first place to look is not in our practices but in our perceptions.

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