Genesis Lutheran Mission - Denver, CO (LCMS) - Comments

The Ends

pastor joe — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 12:00:40 -0600

I'll agree that those who think God dropped the Bible all bound and pretty with red letters are disturbing. It would be interesting to know how much that errant end resulted in the other errant end of our day ... that Constantine put the Bible together on his own as part of the Council of Nicea.

I do like the addition that, it's because of our faith that we see God active in the process. It makes sense why those without faith would see it as purely random (at least with the Catholic Epistles).

Between faith and reason

Saint — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 11:03:15 -0600

The question to Number 1 is easy, and one you should well know. Everything.

Heh heh, but seriously. Being the history freak egomaniac that I am, and being Catholic, so therefore immune to hating everything that happened after 74 AD, it's easy to understand that the formation of the Bible as we know it was a process. And with our faith (I mean, of course, with all apostolic faiths), we see the Spirit active in that formation. What I find more disconcerting is that people actually believe the Bible just appeared one day in complete form and fashion. There's no room then, for apologetics (regarding your last post), with that disconnect between reality and religion.

Pax vobiscum,
Saint

Neighborhood Watch

Saint — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 10:59:07 -0600

Robbie's the premiere agent for the Capitol Hill Neighborhood Watch.

Pax vobiscum,
Saint

"Hi, hi, hi! You're all

Kristin — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 10:54:18 -0600

"Hi, hi, hi! You're all doing a great job.." says Robbie!

CNN Article on Lying

pastor joe — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:04:34 -0600

After writing this I returned to a CNN article that I'd bookmarked. It's on the topic of lying and basically stats that we all do it for some mix of the following reasons, "We lie, she says, because we want other people to see us the way we wish we were, to spare others' feelings or to avoid conflict."

Now, one of the reason based apologetics approaches I've heard used in the past went something like, "Have you ever told a white lie?" Of course the person says, "Yes." Which is followed by, "So you're a liar." The basic ideas is that you catch a person in sin and therefore stir up a need for forgiveness.

However, as we can see in the CNN article, the basic response of people today is, "Yeah, I do, and it's for the common good so it's not a big deal." Based on the reason approach, the discussion is now over.

Of course, the philosophical approach invites a whole realm of discussion on why we find it necessary to lie, what is behind that individual's lies, and maybe even discussions on how things should be versus how they are. Suddenly we have an opening for a conversation on worldview.

Apple

Saint — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 16:25:04 -0500

Yeah, I'd say Apple is the best example of bourgois American consumerism. I mean, they don't call everything iSomething for nothing. :-P

Pax vobiscum,
Saint

Armor

Cindy del Rio — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 08:02:09 -0500

What an awesome message this morning. Thank you for hope and future. It is a wonderful reminder of one of my favorite verses, Jeremiah 29:11. Cindy says hi.

Duh!

pastor joe — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 23:51:56 -0500

Okay, now I'm following.

P.S. Not math happy, just spam sick. We're getting about 50 spam comments a day so I'm trying to tame them somehow.

Quote

Saint — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 13:35:49 -0500

I was, of course, quoting Inigo Montoya.

You killed my father, now prepare to die!

P.S. Getting a bit math happy lately?

Definitions

pastor joe — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 16:51:02 -0500

Um, yeah. It's an adjective that would mean something to the effect of "not able to be imagined" or "unbelievable".

So, how are you seeing that not jiving with what's written?

Inconceivable!

Saint — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 15:45:16 -0500

You keep using that word, but are you sure it means what you sink it means?

Pax vobiscum,
Saint

Abortion

Saint — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 10:40:19 -0500

This is perhaps one of the most annoying verses ever to enter the lexicon of the pop Christian. I hear it all the time in arguments against abortion. Can't they find better verses? Reading Jeremiah, I can't figure out how on Earth they connect the two in any sort of logical argument. And then, additionally, how do you convince non-Christians to go against abortion when all you do is quote some vague, non-related Bible verses at them? (I'm obviously not saying you do this, Joe, you tend to be pretty good at understanding that non-Christians aren't going to take Bible verses as hard evidence, I'm just venting, I guess).

Pax vobiscum,
Saint

I noticed the problem with

thetophus — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 10:12:09 -0500

I noticed the problem with the first one was the tone, and that it was more of a "You should do this because it's what you should do" type thing when it should have had a "This is the problem, this is the solution" vibe. So I structured it and introduced the questions... because I'm all about playing devil's advocate.

A Beautiful Revision

pastor joe — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 20:57:48 -0500

I'm digging the revision and how you invite God's people to consider how they treat the earth in light of who they are in Christ. You're challenging without being condemning and it's a beautiful thing!

Thanks!

pastor joe — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 12:28:50 -0500

For those of you who aren't sure what's going on here, Cindy's referring to the sermon version of this article that I preached on Sunday, July 8th at Peace with Christ in Aurora.