A Cup Of Grace: August 2011

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

More Vacations & Less Work Increases Productivity...

Why Summer Vacations (and the Internet) Make You More Productive - Atlantic Mobile

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Saturday, August 27, 2011

The Question…The Abrahamic Promise, The Unconditional Covenant…

"The LORD had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’"

~ Genesis 12:1-3 TNIV

Is the question:

Is someone a Christian or is it, is someone a human being?

Do we believe that we are the beloved of God, that we are the “one” that God loves, created in his/her image and because of that truth we can be free and live full abundant lives? No longer slaves or in bondage, but rather magnificent freedom?

And then, do you believe this to be true of EVERYONE that you meet, encounter, and interact with – they too are all the “one(s)” – “one(s)” that the One (Jesus) came to earth to be born, live, die and be resurrected for?

“…and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you…”

~God

At some point in early Church history perhaps being a Christian and being fully alive were synonymous – now, not so much?

“For the glory of God is a living man (woman); and the life of man (woman) consists in the beholding God. For if the manifestation of God which is made by means of the creation, affords life to all living in the earth, much more does that revelation of the Father which comes through the Word, give life to those who see God.”
~ St. Irenaeus, A dversus Haereses 4. 34. 5-7.

“And remember the truth that once was spoken: to love another person is to see the face of God…”

~ Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied:

"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

~ Matthew 22:36-40 TNIV

"Love God and do as you please."

~ St. Augustine of Hippo

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."

~ 1 John 4:8-12 TNIV

Europe...

To breathe, think, write, and wonder.
Watch the sun, rise and set.
Sit near an ocean, walk in the rolling hills,
Let the history in the streets rise to meet my senses.

Sip coffee in the café’s,
Drink beer in the pubs,
Walk amongst the ancient ruins.

Make poetic memories,
Add words and lines to my story,
Be awake in each moment,
And sleep until I wake.

Moments and Seasons...

“I'm not afraid of anything in this world
There's nothing you can throw at me that I haven't already heard
I'm just trying to find a decent melody
A song that I can sing in my own company…”

~ U2, Stuck In A Moment

Go to Europe…

To breathe, think, write, and wonder.
Watch the sun, rise and set.
Sit near an ocean, walk in the rolling hills,
Let the history in the streets rise to meet my senses.

Sip coffee in the café’s,
Drink beer in the pubs,
Walk amongst the ancient ruins.

Make poetic memories,
Add words and lines to my story,
Be awake in each moment,
And sleep until I wake.

“You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintry light. But you knew there would always be spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen.”

~ Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

Creating...

“But no matter how much the mess and distortion make you want to despair, you can’t abandon the work because you’re chained to the bloody thing, it’s absolutely woven into your soul and you know you can never rest until you’ve brought truth out of all the distortion and beauty out of all the mess - but it’s agony, agony, agony - while simultaneously being the most wonderful rewarding experience in the world. And that’s the creative process which so few people understand.

It involves an indestructible sort of fidelity, an insane amount of hope, and indescribable, well…it’s love, isn’t it? There’s no other word for it. Mozart sweated and slaved and died young giving birth to all that music. He poured himself out and suffered. That’s the way it is. That’s creation. You can’t create without waste and mess and sheer undiluted slog. You can’t create without pain.

It’s all part of the process. It’s in the nature of things. So in the end every major disaster, every tiny error, every wrong turning, every fragment of discarded clay, all the blood, sweat and tears-everything has meaning. I give it meaning. I reuse, reshape, recast all that goes wrong so that in the end nothing is wasted and nothing is without significance and nothing ceases to be precious to me.”

~ Susan Howatch

Friday, August 26, 2011

The Rabbit Hole and Two Pills…

We are all artists and with each choice we make there is another brush stroke on the canvas that is our life. The miracle and the beauty of it is that we create and the masterpiece that is our life is not ever finished - although at times we feel as though it is. Yet, there are more colors, more brush strokes, more light.

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

~ Romans 12:2

"If you trust the Bible, it shouldn't be that hard to believe in the existence of a Matrix. Consider what the apostle Paul taught: "Do not conform any longer to the pattern [suschematizo] of this world, but be transformed [metamorphoo] by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will (Rom. 12:2). Notice that the Greek word suschematizo, which is translated "pattern," could in fact be translated as "schema"-or yes, even "matrix." The Greek word suschematizo literally suggests the joining together (su) of matrixes or schemas (schematizo). Hence, the NIV appropriately translates the word "con [with] form ... to the pattern."

Paul is teaching us that we are not to let the Matrix of the world control our minds, thoughts, and feelings. We are, rather, to be transformed-more literally, metamorphosed-out of it by the renewing of our minds. Our God-given destiny is for us to be transformed into the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29; 1 John 3:2), for this is who we truly are. The key to accomplishing this is to renew our minds away from the lies of the world's Matrix toward the truth of who we are in Christ.

MORPHEUS: [The Matrix is] the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

Neo: What truth?

MORPHEUS: That you are a slave. Like everyone else you were born into bondage ... [a] prison for your mind.

In biblical terms, "the god of this age has blinded the minds" of people to keep them from seeing and experiencing the truth (2 Cor. 4:4).”

~ Al Larson;Gregory Boyd. Escaping the Matrix: Setting Your Mind Free to Experience Real Life in Christ (Kindle Locations 130-139). Kindle Edition.

You are free to create, or re-create the patterns, schemas of your mind. It really is ok to write healthy positive scripts for yourself that have beautiful, passionate story lines. See the world bending, intertwining and conforming to your story, and not to someone else’s or the world’s story or pattern for you. Choose not to believe lies about God, others or yourself. Don’t be afraid to see how deep the rabbit hole goes…

Thursday, August 25, 2011

The Church Shouldn't Do Worship - Peter Rollins

The Church Shouldn’t Do Worship, The Charts Have That Covered « peterrollins.net

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Jay Bakker On Homosexuality, Religion & Politics

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

My Place Today...

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Monday, August 22, 2011

The Irish Poems...

Trinity

Where is your kiss?

I am dying.

Help me to get up,

To stop the bullets,

Or…has all of my experience been a simulacrum?

All of it, nothing original, no reality, no truth,

All that I have done,

All that I believe in?

Has it been for naught?

A waste,

A dream gone horribly wrong,

A blighting of my body,

Bleeding of my spirit?

There is no way out, is there?

Death is the only door.

Is that where you are?

Waiting for me…

Omega

Death now calls to me,

It knows me by name.

Not only at night,

But now,

Also in the day,

My journey, my escape,

Has done nothing to cure my ailment,

I ache still.

There is no one to hold me,

Loneliness is now a constant companion.

It's shriek rings in my ears.

It does not relent.

I fear each day, the rising sun.

No longer wanting to wake,

Eternal sleep, endless darkness on a sea of unconsciousness beckons me.

And I answer, “yes” – take me,

So, there will be, “No more pain. Wake no more. Nobody owns.”

My flesh rots with angst,

My mind is anxious,

And my life but a waste,

An ugly, horrible man,

Betrayed and betrayer.

Lost and invisible to all,

No daughter of Eve would want me,

Unattractive and undesirable,

I am a wreck and devastation to all.

To forlorn, to needy, to sensitive, to everything,

Yes, Dante, I have abandoned hope.

Stuck now in Hades,

A purgatory of vicious memories,

I dream of every night,

They haunt me.

There is no release,

No freeing of my mind,

I have lost, understood now by none.

Condemned by fate,

To live and die alone,

Death and defeat,

By my own will and hands,

Hands blood stained, like Lady Macbeth,

Washing and washing,

No cleansing,

No consolation,

No reconciliation,

No salvation,

No kiss,

No breath of life.

“Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more.”

Only dark death will squelch my ache,

My dreams, my torments,

My thoughts, my fears,

I desire to quench the thirst of my longings in wormwood.

Bitter, bitter, bitter,

Spoiled and stained,

All that I have ever touched or loved…

Killarney Afternoon

Nothing,

I walk and walk.

Bleakness,

The page is empty.

My heart bleeds,

“…shielding the gaping wounds which the words had left in his heart…”

For what it thought was true.

Now betrayed and broken.

Irish Rain

I walked home in the Irish rain,

Nothing has changed,

I am invisible.

Johanna

Touch of a goddess,

Beauty and gifts of Acesco,

“Your body is a chalice, wine-filled.”

Like Odysseus I journeyed and found you.

And I, like him, “While on the sea…” my “…spirit suffered many torments.”

You have calmed the sea,

And unleashed truth with your warm breath,

What had been deep and hidden you saved and rose to life,

During the Irish night and into the rainy dawn,

I thought, “Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of incense.”

Two hands like magic wands,

Inviting eyes, “… wells of light, deep with mystery…” and hair dark as the night.

I thought, “Touch me. Soft eyes. Soft soft soft hand. I am lonely here. O touch me soon, now. …I am quiet here alone. Sad too. Touch, touch me.”

And you acquiesced.

Celtic skin, new land to discover, to explore, to journey over,

And I, “…searched for the island in the great river with the high steep banks….finding it and losing it, and then finding it for good.”

You whispered, “Breathe on my garden, fill the air with spice fragrance. Oh, let my lover enter his garden! Yes, let him eat the fine, ripe fruits.”

The land quivered around the island, the garden bloomed, and with teaming exultation the land quieted and came to rest.

With the lingering taste of the island’s sweet dew on my tongue I kissed the lips, “…the mouth like the best wine…” that breathed life into my tormented soul.

Last Night in Killarney

On the pull,

Invisible, now visible,

Undesirable, now desired.

The craic is ninety,

Words, a touch, a kiss,

Beer and a vodka coke,

Alone no more, the ache subsided,

A body, a friend, a night spent together.

Now, something to live for, to feel for, to breathe for…

All in All

Life without time,