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music monday : world apart

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jars of clay is probably my one sustaining contemporary christian music group. i remember getting some preview album of theirs in 95 and have appreciated their exploration since. haven’t always cared for all their stuff, but most of them i do. this is one of my favs.. though, being a live version it’s a bit longer than the album version. still it is excellent

evening prayer : Israel-Palestine

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for prayers today, one of the scripture readings is Luke 24: 44-53. i am sharing some thoughts on what is bugging me. it is not to be a theological discourse in any matter. but a thought…

45. Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46. He told them, "This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

what i am thinking of.. if we, as disciples, have our minds open. why are we not looking towards beginning the Kingdom in Jerusalem? now, there might not be much you or i can do actively, but how much do we know about or care of the conflict that continues on in Israel-Palestine? it just bothers me. many of us are so up our own church asses that we rarely listen to any concern for the actual spaces that our faith stories erupt from. why?..

the united methodist women have put together a very comprehensive study to understand all the dynamics involved in Israel-Palestine for those who are convicted to know more.

an evening with bishop nt wright : round up & audio

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Ntwright2

last night erin & i headed down to west end, along with quite a few hundred cross cultural types to hear from n.t. wright, the bishop of durham. he’s on a book tour for "surprised by hope" which i am to read sometime this year. i was stoked to hear of his coming and by the turnout last night, quite a few others were as well. it was a nice evening out catching up with many friends. even erin had fun meeting up with the various friendships through blogging. being at the methodist church it was nice to see some metho-types in the audience as well. after-wards we went out for drinks at the broadway brewhouse, with the joneses for a new draft beer to town. the new beer, boulevard brew, out of kansas city. it is quite good, though it probably won’t take over from my early 20’s drink of choice back in nj.

back to last night. i am still processing. i don’t know if i have knowledge and language command to navigate what i heard in teaching and not making it sound like some purgatory realm. one thing erin & i liked was nt’s distinction that we are not building the kingdom but building for the kingdom. his analogy was a rock sculpture shape a rock, and that is what they do, but it is the architect who puts into its place where the true beauty shows.

many friends have already started to throw down their thoughts. so i give you a round-up of those conversations

another fun thing. i received an email from a older gentleman asking my response to his comments on the tennessean article i was quoted in. for the record, my church is "first" united methodist, not "faith" united methodist. common mistake.. not really, but oh well.

some of my conversations in the being interviewed were that. 1. this isn’t such a hard concept to grasp as we have always had a teaching of holiness movement and means of grace that is intended to be kingdom building 2. it isn’t so hard to imagine methodist’s interested in anglican folks as we are only 300 years removed from those anglican traditions of church. not to mention, we are a revival movement from that church body, so any revival in that church is probably something we are going to be interested in. but as with any of my "news" spots, my one liners are lame or total bs.

i do take down some audio of the bishop’s talk. the sound system was not in fine form. john, who was operating the system and a old family friend told me after-wards someone came in and messed it all up after he had it perfect. he was so mad. so the audio isn’t the best volume quality, but if you can plug into some speakers you can hear just fine.