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subear
Posts:796
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| 05/01/2007 11:55 AM |
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On a banner above the door, seen as you walk out of the chapel at La Casa de Maria retreat center, Santa Barbara:
"We must Love them both, Those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject. For both have labored in the search for Truth and both have helped us in the finding of it." ~ Thomas Aquinas |
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"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin |
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Pastorbogy
Posts:121
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| 05/07/2007 11:47 PM |
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My son graduates in a few weeks. I have been asked to preach at his class's Baccalaureate Service. In trying to decide my theme, I was looking at the class motto:
“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”
This quote is most often attributed to Frank Outlaw. However, as I was doing some research on who "Frank Outlaw" was supposed to be (interesting name, isn't it?), I ran across this:
The thought manifests as the word;
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And habit hardens into character;
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
And let is spring from love
Born out of concern for all beings…
As the shadow follows the body,
As we think, so we become.
- From the Dhammapada
Sayings of the Buddha |
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subear
Posts:796
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| 06/01/2007 10:00 AM |
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My daughter, Saneya, graduates from college today.
"Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. When we really listen to people there is an alternating current, and this recharges us so that we never get tired of each other. We are constantly being re-created."
--Brenda Ueland
And
"Not where I breathe, but where I love, I live." ~Robert Southey |
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"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin |
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BCakes
Posts:48
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| 06/01/2007 1:54 PM |
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| My prayers are with your daughter, Saneya, as she makes this important transition into her future filled with Blessings and possibilities. |
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"Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude...Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never ends." Love is. |
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Pastorbogy
Posts:121
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| 06/01/2007 10:22 PM |
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| Susannah, what is your daughter doing next? My second daughter graduated three weeks ago and about 2 weeks ago got her invitation letter from the Peace Corps to spend 27 months in Nicaragua. That will put one daughter in Kenya and one in Nicaragua. At least it doesn't cost as much to get to Nicaragua for a visit. I could drive there, but my wife says she won't come with me. |
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Linda
Posts:93
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| 06/02/2007 12:30 AM |
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| Susannah and David, my prayers are with both of your kids as they take giant leaps into the next phase of their journeys. An exciting time for them- I hope it feels exciting for both of you as well. I have a lot of years to go before my kids get there- I'll be thrilled to get mine through middle school! |
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subear
Posts:796
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| 06/05/2007 7:16 PM |
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After the graduation and a celebration lunch, I drove to San Diego (north county) to serve as administrator and teacher-assistant on the spring retreat of an on-line class. This was the first time they met one another in person, but it was more like a family reunion than a first time gathering of strangers. The students had come to know each other deeply and respectfully through their common studies and on line chat-room. They met once a week, for three hours, with their teacher, across America, Canada, Switzerland, and Egypt (consider the time zones). What they discovered is that they came to know one another deeper than they ever could have in a traditional "in person" classroom. There is amazing potential for community on this World Wide Web.
David asked "what is your daughter doing next?"
Saneya (my graduated daughter) actually finished her course work in December. Since then, she has been searching for meaningful work. . . after going to Cambodia again to visit the orphans that she had worked with previous years. When she came home she got her young-man-friend to sign up with her for the Peace Corps . Then she continued her job working with Kindergarten day care kids in a public school in Long Beach, CA. She also has a job as a tutor for kids not up to the test standards of the "no child left behind" program. She was given a list of kids identified as needing assistance. Then she called the parents and made appointments to come to their homes in the late afternoon or evenings. She had several clients in various cities in South Los Angeles county. With her creative intelligence, she has been very effective helping these different kids to learn what they needed. She's graduated with an art major, and a certificate in teaching ESL. The ESL certification involved extensive grammer lessons (more than native English language kids get).
Here's my quote for the "Great Quotes" thread:
"If waters are placid, the moon will be mirrored perfectly. If we still ourselves, we can mirror the divine perfectly. But if we engage in the frenetic activities of our daily involvement . . . the surface of our water becomes turbulent. Then we cannot be receptive to Tao. . . Just as water seeks its own level, the mind will gravitate toward the holy. Muddy water will become clear if allowed to stand undisturbed, and so too will the mind become clear if it is allowed to be still."
~Deng Ming-Dao
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"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin |
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subear
Posts:796
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| 06/30/2007 11:46 AM |
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"What you begin in time you will assuredly finish in eternity--if it is worth finishing. "
(The Urantia Book, p. 1129, par. 8) |
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"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin |
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Jack
Posts:96
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| 07/05/2007 7:54 AM |
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America is simultaneously the richest and poorest country in the world. Richest because it has the world's largest economy and highest standard of living. Poorest because of a toxic culture that exploits women, worships damaged celebrity, and addicts children to money and materialism.
What America needs is a healthy infusion of values, which can only come from a values-based education. -- Shmuley Boteach
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1183053078018&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull |
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Jack |
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Jack
Posts:96
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| 07/10/2007 6:10 PM |
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The Worshipers Respond to Divine Action
"The praise that we offer to God should result in a feeling of awe and wonder. When we worship we are encountering the indescribably holy God, who created the entire universe and all its magisterial wonder." -- Robert E. Webber
If you have any misunderstanding about difference between God the Creator of the universe and humankind, a tiny sliver of that creation. Please read and ponder Job Chapters 38–41. |
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Jack |
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tacenogeno
Posts:112
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| 07/10/2007 10:24 PM |
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Do you really think
The only way to bring-about the peace
Is to sacrifice your children
And kill all your enemies?
-Larry Norman, "The Great American Novel" |
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I'M ONLY VISITING THIS PLANET! |
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richrthr
Posts:102
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| 07/14/2007 11:02 AM |
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| I loved "A Wrinkle In Time", one of my favorite childhood books. Reading it as an adult reveals many many more levels I didn't perceive back then!
"IT" was a scary concept! |
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Richard Kiraly
Garden of Grace UCC
http://www.gogucc.com |
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Jack
Posts:96
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| 07/17/2007 9:51 AM |
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What do the dodo and the ivory-billed woodpecker have to do with culturally savvy Christians? Absolutely everything.
First, Christians who enter culture naively risk perishing like the dodo bird, consumed by predators.
Second, a remnant of culturally savvy Christians survives, but they have already faced harsh conditions and are nearly extinct, like the ivory-billed woodpecker.
Third, unlike the ivory-billed woodpecker whose disappearance is sad but not fatal for the environment, with the disappearance of individuals aglow with God's presence, we are witnessing a rapid deterioration of our spiritual, intellectual, and aesthetic cultural environment.
Fourth, as a result, like spiritual environmentalists, we need to find culturally savvy Christians, nurture them back to health, help them to multiply, and carefully reintroduce them into society.
… finding this culturally savvy Christian, who was previously thought to be extinct, is huge, just huge. Its kind of like finding Elvis. Just to think that these Christians made it into the twenty-first century should give us the chills. The reemergence of this new kind of Christian should be as if a funeral shroud has been pulled back, giving us a glimpse of a living person, the most beautiful person we could imagine rediscovering, a magical person rising Lazarus-like from the grave. And for those who tenaciously cling to the idea that culturally savvy Christians can survive alongside their fellow humans, the reemergence of culturally savvy Christians will be the most incredible ray of hope.
Dick Straub The Culturally Savvy Christian |
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Jack |
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subear
Posts:796
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| 07/17/2007 11:38 AM |
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Hey, Jack:
You provide some of the most interesting links. I googled "The Culturally Savvy Christian" and found a most interesting web site (which I bookmarked), with some good (short) articles on the topic. The guy's cool (and intelligent).
Thank you.
Blessings,
Susannah |
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"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin |
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subear
Posts:796
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| 07/18/2007 1:23 PM |
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| "If you judge people, you have no time to love them." - Mother Teresa |
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"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin |
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Don NIederfrank
Posts:42
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| 07/18/2007 4:39 PM |
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Susannah,
Reminds of a Garrison Keilor(?) quote--"That's the trouble with hating someone; you make them part of your life. "
Which reminds me of another G.K. quote my wife used to have on the wall next to her desk--"Subtlety is wasted on men." :-)
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Dios habla todavia |
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tacenogeno
Posts:112
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| 07/19/2007 3:08 PM |
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"The fellowship of the Lord's Supper is the superlative fulfillment of Christian fellowship. As members of the congregation are united in body and blood at the table of the Lord so will they be together in eternity. Here the community has reached its goal. Here joy in Christ and his community is complete. The life of Christians together under the Word has reached its perfection in the sacrament.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Chapter V, "Life Together" |
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I'M ONLY VISITING THIS PLANET! |
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subear
Posts:796
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| 07/19/2007 3:33 PM |
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"Yeshua said,
I say, if you are whole, you will be filled with light,
but if divided, you will be filled with darkness."
-The Gospel of Thomas, 61 |
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"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin |
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tacenogeno
Posts:112
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| 07/20/2007 8:03 PM |
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The only thing that hinders peace is when we refuse to surrender our troubles to God. So, when dismay, frustration, or deep disappointments come, "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts."
To surrender to God is never the same as surrendering to the situation - or to whatever works of hell may be afoot. It is an act of choice that overrules whatever of chance seems to be trying your soul, stretching your faith, or overthrowing your confidence.
Say, "Lord God almighty, I give this to you - completely!" Then with praise leave it there.
- Pastor Jack Hayford, "Moments With Majesty" |
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I'M ONLY VISITING THIS PLANET! |
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tacenogeno
Posts:112
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| 07/21/2007 8:50 PM |
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Like, if you want to get high, you don't have to drop acid, just pray and you'll go all the way to heaven!
You don't have to pop pills to get loaded. Just drop a little Matthew, Mark, Luke and John!
- Arthur Blessitt |
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