Born to be bad...
School days!
I love them!
For the past two years, my classroom was like a cave, in the center of the building, off the Library, small and dingy.
This year I have a nice new classroom, with windows that face the rising sun. My students have room to move. It is a welcoming, comfortable environment for learning. The first three weeks have been pretty peaceful.
School right now is about the only peaceful place in my life.
I am still pretty unsettled spiritually speaking. My time of life is wrecking havoc on my mood...stop the swing I wanna get off! My family is in crisis. So, the other day Isaw this kid walking down the hall with a tee shirt featuring "Baby Stewie" from Family Guy. It carried a disturbing message:Born to be Bad. At first I just smiled. Cute. Then I thought, I'd like to tell the kid, "no you were really born to be saved". Then I thought, no, probably that tee shirt was truer than I'd like. Well, not born to be bad, but maybe born to burn. Predestination right? My old arch enemy. We are all born to burn. Born with a sin nature. Born damned. But the will of God is that all be saved. He calls all to seek Him, know Him, honor Him. In Church Sunday, I was thinking about the nature of God. Are we created chiefly to glorify God. Or are we created to come to know and love God as a child loves their parents...their father...Our Father... seems that it was important to Jesus that we identify to God as beloved children to a perfect Father who wants only the best for His family.
I'm wondering now, as my mind wanders, as I watch my seventh graders decorate the covers of their journals and wondering what they should write as their first entries...what is the average life expectancy of a blog? I was addicted once. And that addiction nearly put an end to my life as I knew it.I was greedy for hits and comments. I was actually happy (sort of) when something I wrote generated a heated discussion. I wanted to be heard ... read ... I wanted what I said to matter to someone. My son has a blog. His computer access is limited and he doesn't have much of a reader base but he always wants me to check his hits. He wants to make contact with someone out there. Our ministry blog isn't well read either. I was hoping that it would generate some support, some interest in our vision, some encouragement. I have about 14,000 hits. Amazing...but so what...Who cares... Who knows...This is a long weekend, and we have no plans. I guess I?ll spend some time blog surfing...making contact again. Who ever does read this, blessings and the LOVE of the LORD be yours
12 comments:
I hope you have a decent weekend. I may have to call you on Monday so that you have a chance to wish me a happy birthday. Yeah, I am greedy like that. :)
I just posted more pictures of my daughter and a funny caricature of myself drawn by MC on my blog. I may make that the new picture that people see when I comment. Maybe not. I am taking a brief break, a couple of minutes really, so I imagine you won't notice. Then I am going to launch into something inspired by some of the observations I have made recently. I imagine you won't like it, but your input could be worthwhile. I also imagine your son and I discussing this on the phone soon, so you might want to have him take the opportunity to read it as a preparation therein.
As for the blog hits, write if you feel moved, write nothing if you don't. I at least will work as hard as I can to push those hits up. :)
"Are we created chiefly to glorify God. Or are we created to come to know and love God as a child loves their parents...their father...Our Father... seems that it was important to Jesus that we identify to God as beloved children to a perfect Father who wants only the best for His family."
Are these mutually exclusive concepts??
p. melancthon, in response to your comment, no not necessarily. However when you observe division in the body, this is one of the concepts that seems to divide. I plan on blogging more tomorrow. I will visit my friends, and see what is happening out there in blog land. Today, I am relaxing...
Hi again, I like stopping by even though I may not comment always. Is the division within the body is caused by both our sinful nature which has not yet been completely eradicated from us and also caused by the evil one who is always lying to us about our relationship to God and our relationships with each other? We still make selfish prideful choices and we are often not obedient to Christ. We do not love our neighbor nor our enemy as we love ourselves. Some of us men do not love our wives as Christ loved the church.
Ofcourse we can not ignor the fact that we have a sinful nature and an enemy who hates us. God has shown us in His word and through Himself - Jesus - that Love is His true nature and Love is His greatest commandment. But there are those who would claim that it is not lack of love, but false doctrine that divides. And that correct doctrine, not love will be the deciding factor. So what do I do with an Episcopalian priest, who may loose his church because he is standing true to the Holy Bible, and who refers to his Roman Catholic Brothers with whom he has had occassion to worship as having a Spirit filled service? I stand beside him while many other Christians would call him a heretic. Hummm, I can smell the coffee
No believer who understands Scripture would divide God's Love from His holiness, righteousness, jealousy, wrath, anger, mercy, grace, vengeance, or true and sound doctrine etc.
God is all of the above, therefore His love entails all of the above.
My original question still stands;
is not being created to show His glory, the sign of a loving God?
As for the Episcopal brother, praise God for His biblical stance. I am sure that there are some catholics who are "saved".
However when one can leave all the denominations behind, i.e. "come out of her people" then we may actually demonstrate the love of God that costs everything, including our pitiable need for validation.
Trying to stir up a calvinist v. arminian debate will not win a bigger readership.
I am definately not trying to stir up a C vs A debate, been there, done that, with nothing resulting other than frustration and more division. But, I'm not sure being created to give glory to God, is the same thing as being created to be loved by God. Why do humans long for children?
"Why do humans long for children?"
To mimic Her ability to create, and thus come closer to understanding Her, and trying to mimic Her to a greater level. We create ourselves, just as She did, now perhaps we can raise in other levels as well. To deal with our creations as She has.
(I thought about changing the above pronoun as I often do, but I hope you don't mind that I left it for the sake of avoiding confusion as to my position in the rest of this comment. You have never actually commented on your preference in my pronouns thus far.)
I must say that your comments about the "Evil one" have frequently bothered me. Why must you reassign blame? You have such a loving God, why can't you accept that there is no "evil one", that our nature could lead us to horrible things without that corruption. Give us an intelligence that more closely approaches Hers than any of the animals, but doesn't have the divine perspective. You think horrors won't come out of this?
The great impeding factor to growing to the level that She would have of us is that you are too busy assigning the blame to this amorphous corruptor. Where in your texts is this individual even mentioned? (Take your time, I know many of them, and they are refutable.)
You, as man, are corrupt. Just as AA will tell you, the first step towards recovery is acceptance.
Wanderer
Would you say there is a difference in how a mother relates to her children and how a father relates to his children? the God of the Bible does refer to himself as a mother hen in one scripture, but the image of Father is fairly prevelent. As to the evil one...she/he is there, in many places. And Our Father warns us of him/her through out His Word. Is the evil one to blame for all our sins and troubles? No. Infact he/she is pretty impotent, having only lies with which to war against us. Once one turns from the shadows and gazes into the bright light of the Truth, it becomes easier to see the lies that the enemy tries to use against us. Since I hold to the authority of the Bible, and the Truth of the Cross, and you know those truths which I proclaim, is a further discussion of the "evil one" really necessary? I'm coming by your site later today...see you there! m.e.
Does God "long" for children??
Where in scripture is such a notion found?
Of course there is an evil one? Jesus Christ, who is God, said so.
MaryEllen - "Would you say there is a difference in how a mother relates to her children and how a father relates to his children?"
To some extent, yes. Although not in any highly significant manner. (I addressed this in one of my posts actually.) Moreover, that wasn't the point that I was making with intentionally changing the pronouns in my comments on your blog this time. My purpose was apparently wasted, as I will indicate momentarily.
(As for my questions re: the evil one, I truly sought as I often do to understand the mentality, not to undermine or question the fact that you believe differently than me. Is it necessary to discuss? Of course not. Is it one of those areas I have never been able to find reason or means to wrap my brain around? Yes. Hence the question.)
p. melancthon - "Does God 'long' for children??
Where in scripture is such a notion found?"
You see, P, I did attempt to make it painfully clear that I wasn't speaking from your scriptural viewpoint. Referring to God as a Her was meant to be a hint to those of you who did not know my position so as to stave off any questions about how your scripture supported my religion. So questioning where the scriptural basis was for my statement is just a tad bit silly.
"Of course there is an evil one? Jesus Christ, who is God, said so." Where? Point to the verses in which Jesus states that the "Evil one" is a singular entity, and not an amorphous example of the ability of man to be corrupt of their own accord.
6:02 am
I just left a rather long comment on Wanderer's blog. Haven't had my coffee yet. I want to leave for school in 20 minutes. Gotta sneak out during my break to pay my utilities, before they turn off my electricty. Sometimes I really resent being the "grown up" in the family. But, oh how I love to teach! I'm planning on writing a piece about "the evil one" or rather "the evil ones". I don't know just how Biblically sound it will be, since some of the devil passages in the Bible are vague and subject to varied interpretations. But it should be interesting to me at least...blessings all. The moon is setting and the sun is about to rise.
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