Friday, May 23, 2008

Dean Borgman

Toward Theology of Culture:

In this chapter they say that “A theology of culture is the way we approach, think about, and interact with culture in view of God and God’s mighty works in the world.”

How do we think about our cultures? How can we do this in a Godly way? I think for me, I love looking at the different cultures, I like to see how God has blessed them and to see how in all of the cultures we have so many different styles of worship.

How do we approach different cultures? Someone recently was telling me about a friend of theirs who went on a missions trip, when he got to the village that he was going to be staying at, all of the people were so excited, they were so happy to have him there. He came out of the vehicle, went unloaded his stuff and told them, I am here, and I bring the Lord with me. Now, the man didn’t mean anything insulting, but the way he approached them, it seemed as if he thought the Lord wasn’t already there.
We must approach in a Godly way, the Lord is already in all of these different cultures, but he send us there to do the work that he commands us to do to “Go and make disciples.”

And interacting with them, there are so many different kinds of cultures, many here in America. Interacting is something that is very important. I often have a hard time interacting with people, I like to sit in my room and get my work done. But in doing that I miss many oppertunity’s to witness to someone, and also to be witnessed to…

These things are very important when visiting a place you are not familiar with. But we mnust trust the Lord, and believe that he will guide us as we prepare for this journey that he has commanded us to go on.

~Brennen~

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Thursday, May 22, 2008

Craig Detweiler

A Matrix of Meenings:

As I was reading this article there was something said on page35 that really struck me and made me think a lot, it said “without reflecting on consequences we have become preoccupied with creating favorable images of America. Yet by doing so, we may be defeating ourselves. Almost everywhere today Amereican IMAGES overshadow American IDEALS.”

This kind of got me thinking, but they are right. What we see here in america today and outside America it covers everything we think and everything we want to fix. We want something to stop, but then we look at the pictures and it covers everything we think. It makes us think well, this is just how things are going to be. Nothing we can do about it. Our Ideal things need to be in the light, we need to bring them to others attention and not hide them under all of these images.

Posted by B at 23:53:14 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Tony Jones

Postmodernism:

Page 19 says this
“The Enlightenment scientists who came after Descartes built upon his foundation with the newfound belief that everything is ultimately knowable by the all-powerful human mind. The universe was quantified into laws of physics, the celestial realm was figured out, and it no longer needed a God turning a crank to keep it moving.”

Later in the chapter Kara Powell says “It would indeed be terrifying to worship a God we could figure out. The enigmas, mysteries, and antinomies of God are what make him God. Without these, he would be just a very cool guy.”

Can you really imagine if we (Humans) were all knowing? If we knew everything that was going on everything that was goinhg to happen, if we had the answers to everything. Can you imagine where the world would be today? Can you imagine where we would be without a loving God?

“It would be terrifying to worship a God we could figure out.” To me it would be terrifying just understanding God, let alone having the full knowledge that he has, being all-knowing.

I can’t personally imagine where this world would be or what we would be doing without God, if everyone just insisted that we are all-knowing, we really don’t need God, forget the Bible forget what he has told us. I  know it all already. NO WAY.

God is all-knowing, Jesus is all-knowing, we as humans are not.

~brennen~

Posted by B at 23:33:01 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Chosen to be a Soldier

The Life of Prayer:

This section of the chapter was cool and very true, Prayer is the way we keep in contact with our God, but Prayer can be done in many ways, prayer to me is a conversation with the Lord, you don’t have to use any big special words, just talk to him tell him whats on your mind, and enjoy your conversation. I like the part in this section where it talks about “The Holy Spirit makes the presence of Christ living and real”. I love feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit, you can feel him when he is moving people, you can feel his presence as if he is literally right there.
In this setion it says this “So wonderful are the possibilities of the life of prayer that those who have penatrated farthest into its secrets are most vividly concious of the fact that there is much more to learn and far deeper depths to explore.” I think that is so true and powerful in itself. Through pray you really do realize how much more there is to God, and how much more you have to learn. I have come to realize though, that there is no end, you will never know enough or too much. The Lord will always have more for you.

God-Bless
~B~

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Monday, May 12, 2008

Internal- Achievement Motivation

Achievement Motivation:

Achievement Motivation, is when a child is motivated to do well in school.

I think that this is one that is often shoved aside and people don’t think much of. For me, growing up this was very important, I needed to be motivated to do my work. All I could think of was how bad I was doing, I was going to fail, I am no good at school why bother.

My family caught on quickly that I needed to be reminded that there are things I am good at, and that I am good at school, I just learn different. I thought for a while that that was just an excuse, but it wasn’t. I do learn different. We need to be willing to help those that learn different and be willing to encourage them to keep doing better and better, and to not give up. It isn’t easy, but they can do it.

Brennen

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External- Family Boundaries

Family Boundaries:

When we were sitting in class discussing this asset it hit me, and I began to really think, How often now days do parents check on their kids to know where they are going? what they are doing? who they are with? How many times are the parents clueless and really aren’t too interested?

I remember when I was growing up, everywhere I went, my parents had to know, they needed to know where i would be, when i would be home, who I would be with. Every little detail was needed. I thought they were such pests, I hated it. My neighbor though, didn’t have to tell his parents anything, they didn’t care how late he was out where he was or anything.
As I got older, I really began looking at the different lifestyles and realized how much I appreciate my parents being such pests. I realized that my neighbor, really wanted some attention, he was lonely, he wanted someone to care and to ask what he was doing, how his day was etc.

It’s important to keep up with the youth. They really need all of us leaders to help them stay on track as they ontinue to grow as we have and still are. We need to be pests to our kids, and be sure to know that they will one day thank you for it.

Brennen

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