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[iamaloveroflight]

Maybe I read all the signs wrong.... what in the world are you doing?

[iamaloveroflight]

For the few followers I have on tumbler... my dear friends... I ask for good vibes the next few days... and months... stuff is just about ready to hit the fan...

[azspot]

If I try to understand what it means to be a Christian, I look at the two instructions that were given in the Bible that are paramount, and those are to love God with all your heart and mind, and to love your neighbour as yourself. That’s it.

Bruce Cockburn (via azspot)

[nequiquam-blog]

How odd, I can have all this inside me and to you it’s just words.

David Foster Wallace  (via pavorst)

[azspot]

[iamaloveroflight]

Fracking, for those not in the know, is the process of injecting chemical-laden water at high speed into the ground, so as to extract the last vestiges of useable hydrocarbons from a particular site. Bully for those who turn whatever is extracted into folding green, but the neighbors have a tendency to find their tap water undrinkable and/or flammable thanks to the chemicals being injected into the ground, and folks in places like Oklahoma, Texas and California will tell you all about the earthquakes that happen near active fracking sites.

The state fathers of the North Carolina General Assembly, it seems, do not want you or anyone else to know the precise composition of the poisons being injected into the ground in order to lap up whatever mouthfuls of gas and oil there are to be had. Three Republican senators from that august chamber have coughed up a bill that would make it a felony to disclose the chemicals used in the fracking process.

Not for nothing, and try to contain your shock, but the three North Carolina state senators pushing this bill have each received lavish campaign contributions from a lobbying firm called McGuire Woods, which represents gas and oil companies like Koch Industries and Halliburton. Far be it from me to wave the bloody shirt, but it strikes me as singularly obnoxious that elected officials are seeking to criminalize providing information to the public about why the water they drink is probably killing them because of the crud being pumped into their groundwater by the companies doling out money to keep it secret.

#fraking #oil #corruption

[azspot]

Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and he gave it to me.

Rabbi Abraham Heschel (via azspot)

[iamaloveroflight]

I simply cannot wait to be anonymous... no one knows me... and I don't know anybody. ..

[azspot]

Allan Bevere shared the above image on Facebook. It certainly reflects a popular stereotype many conservatives have of liberal churches. But when one looks closely at such claims, a paradox emerges. Supposedly, liberal churches are pandering to the world for the sake of popularity. And yet liberal churches do not seem to be distinctively popular, and indeed, are often unpopular, both from the perspective of the non-Christian world, and from the perspective of the conservative churches.

One could make a case that that suggests that actual liberal churches are doing something right. Liberal churches may have different views about sin than conservative ones do. But typically they are not lacking in a stance on what can be called evil, nor happy to leave people unchanged. The sins liberals tend to focus on are injustice, bigotry, judgmentalism, and others – which a caricature of conservatives might suggest are equated with piety in conservative contexts. Indeed, one could redo the cartoon to make the point. The sign might say “Fundamentalist Christian Church,” and the visitor could say that this is just the church he has been looking for – one that will convince him that he has all the right answers, and that that justifies his smug arrogance.

[azspot]

When controversial issues arise in the church, it is all too easy to allow the debate to dissolve into an either-or discussion when often it should be both-and. Tongues is just one among many issues on which equally devout and equally biblical Christians of all denominational stripes disagree and likely will continue to disagree about until Jesus returns. The solution is to continue to discuss the matter with one another without denigrating those on the other side or pressing our views dogmatically. Not to put too fine an edge on it, the early church succeeded where we don’t largely because they got this right. These people were enthusiasts for Jesus Christ, not for their pet doctrines. The mark of their gatherings was transparent love, for without love of the brethren there can be no effective evangelism. If non-believers do not see in our Christian circles a more accepting and caring fellowship than they can find in the world, they are not going to be too impressed with all of our “God talk.”

daveblackonline (via azspot)

[azspot]

[iamaloveroflight]

I wept on the phone today with Rich Stearns, President of World Vision USA. I just couldn’t contain my grief any longer. As soon as Rich told us that 10,000+ children had lost their sponsorships in the course of a week–that in ONE DAY! they’d lost as many as 2,200 sponsorships–well, I broke down crying and told him through ragged breaths how heartbroken I was.

After the phone call, I literally had to go to bed because I was shaking so terribly. I just couldn’t get my brain around the fact that so many of my fellow Christians had reacted with such hasty anger and punished CHILDREN as a way of showing their strong disagreement with World Vision’s change in hiring policy.

As a brief recap, last week World Vision announced it would allow the hiring of legally married, same-sex couples (World Vision is based in Washington state where same-sex marriage is legal). There was a huge outcry from prominent evangelical leaders and immediately, Christians all over the United States flooded World Vision’s call center lines and yanked their sponsorships, abandoning commitments to 10,000 children.

Rich told us that on one day, the call center received 7,000 calls. Many of these calls were angry and those who answered the phones were subjected to a torrent of verbal abuse: name-calling and being told they were “agents of Satan.”

[iamaloveroflight]

I miss my friends. .. and they aren't even gone yet...

[iamaloveroflight]

I miss ohio... mostly just how it made me feel... like I was home.

[azspot]

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.

The Habit of Change (via azspot)

[azspot]

I hate the modern Christian subculture. It’s got a music, a fashion, an insider language, a strip-mall architecture—that I think is terrible. So I have always mocked it, preached against it, tried to shred that Christian subculture. But then I woke up one day four or five years ago as we were moving into another neighborhood. I realized that I had subtly become the insulated subculture that I mocked.

John Mark Comer (via azspot)

[iamaloveroflight]

I realized that I struggle with prayer. I do a lot of writting... but really I write about what I hear from God not what I want to say to him. Anytime I try talking to him it seems so fake. Truthfully I hardly mean what I say when I pray to him. I guess my biggest thing is I hear and see a lot of people doing the "christian" thing.... and really I don't want anything to do with that. I don't want people to see me and think oh wow she is so spiritual. I want people to see me and say oh wow she is so real. Prayer just seems so fake. In young adults we are going to be reading this book called the circle maker. It is about prayer. Maybe this book will answer some of my questions. .. ease some of my hesitations. .. This is me God... telling you I struggle with prayer... and I am asking you for help....

[iamaloveroflight]

Exodus 20

A dear friend once said the 10 commandments really just boil down to two things love God and love people. Have no other gods before me Thou shalt not make graven images Thou shalt not take the Lord's name in vain Remember the Sabbath day All related to God Honor thy father and mother Thou shall not kill Thou shall not commit adultery Thou shall not kill Thou shall not steal Thou shall not bear false witness against each other Thou shall not covet People. In general... If you love people... The above commandments will come easily to you. As I read this I couldn't get that out if my mind. The great commandments really have not changed from exodus to Matthew. God is constant. never changing. Reliable. Holy. Powerful... Exodus 20:18 KJV And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it , they removed, and stood afar off. Look at all that power... He is on my side pulling for me. Whom shall I fear?

[iamaloveroflight]

"Jesus came among us to show and teach the life for which we were made. He came very gently, opened access to the governance of God with Him, and set afoot a conspiracy of freedom in truth among human beings.... He staked his claim to be all that the human being was originally supposed to be - and surely much more..." -the divine conspiracy