“I care more about my theology than my politics.”

 

Here’s a great article on Christian movies from the creator of Blue Like Jazz.

And if you haven’t seen the Blue Like Jazz trailer yet, here it is…

Everything we learn about God through Scripture and in Christ tells us that that he knows what it is like to change a diaper for the thirteenth time in the day, to see a report over which we have worked long and carefully gather dust on somebody’s desk for weeks and weeks, to find our teaching treated with scorn and indifference by children and youth to discover that the integrity and excellence of our work has been overlooked and the shoddy duplicity of another’s rewarded with a promotion.

From Eugene Peterson’s A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

Here are a few thoughts running through my head about leaving:

1. The process of leaving is way harder than I thought it would be (and I thought it would be really hard).
2. I have a strange mixture of sadness and excitement right now. It’s hard to know how to deal with those emotions.
3. I’ve known this move was coming for a few months and had to keep it secret. I’m glad it’s out in the open.
4. United Methodist ministry is likely to be a lifetime of building relationships and then saying goodbye. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.
5. We really believe God has led us to this new church, but it doesn’t make it easier.
6. One of the ways people have followed God’s will in history and in the Bible is by leaving what is comfortable and what they know in order to share the gospel in a new place with new people.
7. When we decided it was time to leave Asbury, we put our name up for an appointment in an itinerate system that could have led us in a number of different ways. That decision was probably the biggest act of trust in God I’ve ever experienced.
8. Asbury Church has been overwhelmingly generous and supportive of me throughout my time with the church. Their generosity has been shown in this decision, too. Thank you, Asbury.

“Repentance is not an emotion. It is not feeling sorry for your sins. It is a decision. It is deciding that you have been wrong in supposing that you could manage your own life and be your own god; it is deciding that you were wrong in thinking that you had, or could get, the strength, education and training to make it on your own; it is deciding that you have been told a pack of lies about yourself and your neighbors and your world. And it is deciding that God in Jesus Christ is telling you the truth. Repentance is a realization what God wants from you and what you want from God are not going to be achieved by doing the same old things, thinking the same old thoughts. Repentance is a decision to follow Jesus Christ and become his pilgrim in the path of peace.”

from Eugene Peterson’s A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

A short reminder from Penn Jillette

Jesus teaches in Matthew 5, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect.”

Perfect is not the same as perfection.

Perfection demands striving and achieving.

Perfect invites beholding and becoming.

Perfection sets a standard that must be achieved.

Perfect reveals a quality of heart that can only be received.

Perfection breeds performance.

Perfect welcomes relationship.

Perfection excludes others with prejudice.

Perfect embraces enemies with blessing.

Perfection requires people to change before they are accepted.

Perfect accepts them as they are.

Perfection is a curse.

Perfect is a blessing.

Perfection enslaves us with never quite getting there.

Perfect frees us to become.

Perfection reeks of Hell.

Perfect has the aroma of Heaven.

Perfection resigns its victims in despair.

Perfect revels in joy.

Perfection revolves around the protection of self.

Perfect orients around the love of other.

Perfection depreciates through criticism.

Perfect appreciates through encouragement.

Perfection struggles with impossibility.

Perfect thrives in possibilities.

Perfection demands proofs.

Perfect exudes a winsome witness.

Perfection insists on “right.”

Perfect loves “real.”

Perfection smacks of gotcha.

Perfect emanates grace.

Perfection lowers through comparison.

Perfect lifts through Love.

Perfection cries foul and demands its own standard of justice.

Perfect revels in generosity

Perfection emphasizes the letter of the law.

Perfect captures the spirit of grace.

Perfection examines the outward appearance.

Perfect looks on the heart.

Perfection enforces the rules.

Perfect delights in the truth.

Perfection is exacting in judgment.

Perfect forgives flaws and faults.

Perfection exploits sin.

Perfect covers sin.

Perfection traffics in prestige, pride, and power.

Perfect seeks meekness, purity and peace.

Perfection struggles to take the seats of honor.

Perfect takes the last place.

Perfection lives to be served.

Perfect lives to serve.

Perfection stones sinners.

Perfect pardons sinners.

Perfection calculates a tithe.

Perfect puts in their last two coins.

Perfection banishes to hell.

Perfect invites a dying thief into paradise.

Perfection assesses quickly and never gets past the face value.

Perfect seeks deeper for understanding.

Perfection crucifies Perfect.

Perfect rises from the dead and puts perfection in the grave.

(these perfect vs perfection statements are taken from the Asbury Reader from Asbury Theological Seminary)

Some stats on the pornification of America…