Heard about a cool web site. It is www.notreligion.com Check it out!
I love anything strawberry and yesterday we went to the Strawberry Festival in Plant City FL. It was really neat, but crowded. I would have liked to look around a lot more, but the kids were hot and tired. The neatest thing we did there was watch Steven Curtis Chapman do his sound checks and pratice for his two concerts he was going to do later in the day. It was great! He was singing all the songs we know. My son heard him first ! He said," Mom I hear Steven Curtis Chapman, is he here?!" I had forgotten about the concerts so this was a neat suprise. We were able to sit in the bleachers and listen all we wanted. An hour before the concert he went back stage and the "show " was over.
It was fun for us!
21 comments:
Mmmm...strawberries. We have a festival here every year, but it's not until June. I wish I lived somewhere warm like FL so I could have fresh, juicy strawberries year round.
That is so cool about Steven Curtis Champman! He's a great guy.
That is always my favorite time to go to a concert, while they are doing the sound check and just hanging out.
My new daughter-in-law loves SCC.
Hey, I went to the notreligion.com website. What about this quote:
"If you don’t accept Jesus, you will stand alone before God. You’ll have to bear the consequences, which the Bible tells us involves eternity in hell, forever separated from God."
Do you still believe this? I don't mean that as a challenge, just wondering how much your beliefs have changed since OBC days.
Yes ,I still believe that! But in my relationship with Jesus I don't believe He is standing over me looking for me to slip up so he can "spank" me. I believe there are natural consequences to my sin and when I do "slip up", He is there to help me back on my feet. Much like I am with my children! Once they are mine they are mine, at least in this world, and I love them unconditionally. They learn from their mistakes and I/We pick them up and redirect them when they fall.
Even with all the rules and expectations, I can honestly say I never felt that way when I was a fundamentalist. I often got down on myself for personal failures (still have that tendency, though not as much), but never felt like God was "mad" at me or looking for a reason to discipline me. Even then I thought the sermon illustrations of how God punished this or that person were just stupid and inconsistent.
I did feel like that there, and I was constantly trying to make sure I was doing everything right, the way they wanted. They were always telling us to make sure we were "right" with God and I guess I thought obeying all the strict rules that they handed down made me more right with God. I have since learned that is not so. It is about my personal relationship with Him . The closer I am to Him the more I will know what He wants of me. What is right for me at one point in my life may not be right for everyone else.
I have said before that there is only one way to God through Jesus, but that we are all different with different personalities, so we worship differently (hymns aren't the only way), we have different gifts and talents. All those differences in believers make up the one , "Body of Christ". In OKC they tried to make us all the "same". Stamping us out with a "cookie cutter". I hope I am making sence. I have a headache.
How about you, Seeker? Do you believe that Jesus is the only way to the Father?
Cheri, I'm sorry you're not feeling well. I'm getting impatient with your doctor, so I can only imagine what you're going through.
Aola you wicked woman...you knew that question would set me off, didn't you?
I got carried away answering that so I went back and deleted it.
The answer is, no, I very much do NOT believe that Jesus is the only way to the father.
You did not have to delete it! I made a comment about it but it got ate by the blogger!
I know, I'm bad... but I got to read the comment before you deleted it :)
It was what I expected you to say.
I struggle with it, still. The intellegent side of my brain says that if Jesus were the only way that would make God smaller, less tolerent and loving. How could he turn away from my Buddist brothers or any other gentle, loving soul who longs for God but doesn't see Jesus as the way.
But, then there is that other side of my brain that says.. if Jesus is not the only way, that makes his death of no importance or that he died on that cross for no other reason than the fact that the religious crowd of his day hated him. and, that is hard for me to accept, too.
I'm open for discussion here. If McMom doesn't mind that we've hijacked her blog :)
Yeah, I do feel guilty for the hijacking, but I doubt she'll mind! If you'd rather, McMom, we could take it over to my blog. Just say the word! Meanwhile, I have a question:
How would it affect your faith if it turns out Jesus never existed as a physical, historical human?
Could you still be a Christian? Would the principles you have espoused that make your Christian faith precious be invalidated? If the teachings attributed to him didn’t actually fall from the lips of a historical god-man named Jesus, who died vicariously for you and rose from the dead, would they be any less acceptable?
I don't know about being "Christian" since that is being a follower of Christ..but,no, it wouldn't change how I felt about God the creator/supreme being/Father-Mother or change how I lived my life but I don't think I am ready to give up, yet, on those basic Christian beliefs of Jesus being my Savior.
I guess that in itself is a bit odd since I don't believe much else that the Bible says.
I don't mind! Aola is right Christian is a follower of Christ. There would not be that title if Christ had not come. I believe Christ was God come down in the flesh.
Christianity and my faith is all I have ever known since a small. I will never turn my back on it! I have seen too much in my life and been through much that affirms it! I still believe the Bible! I do not understand it all, but am learning more everyday.
I believe there is a lot out there to prove Jesus existed. Two great books, written by an award winning journalist, are The Case for Christ and The Case for Faith, by Lee Strobel, a former atheist. There is also the works of Josephus.
I HAVE wondered if, for those who truly have not heard about Jesus, from a man, if God reveals Himself to them in different ways. Through dreams etc. Like he did in the O.T. I have heard some amazing stories that come from missionaries in Africa.
The evidence is negligble that Jesus was a historical person. Josephus never mentioned him (until long after Josephus died - The Thrones of Blood mention is an obvious forgery). No historical document outside the Bible gives even a brief mention. Doesn't that seem strange?
But does that really matter? "Christ" is just as real whether a physical person or an idealized concept borrowed from other religions and myths.
Only the beliefs of a fundamentalist would be seriously affected by the idea that Jesus wasn't a historical person, because their focus is on the doctrine of his death and resurrection rather than his example and teachings.
I've read both of those books by Lee Strobel. Tried to get permission to translate The Case for Faith, but they already had someone.
Even back then, I was put off by the way Strobel tried to come across as a neutral, skeptic reporter who was convinced by his research and interviews. That was not the case.
I don't suppose it ever crossed my mind that Jesus wasn't a "real" person. It kind of feels like the first time I had someone ask me if I really believed he was the son of God. It's funny the things you just accept as reality because of your upbringing/traditions, etc.
So, you believe that the whole salvation thru Jesus is just ideology?
hmmm... you've given me something else to chew on here.
That's what I love to do!
I'll be addressing this more on my blog. I entered a post about Josephus last night. Tell me what you think about it.
I have not had the internet for two days, but I'm back! My Pastor said today that there is more evidence of Jesus existance that Julius Cesar or Christopher Columbus. Don't know his sources. His whole message was on the topic.
I'll go read you blog now Seeker!!
That's the wonder of the pulpit! Rhetoric and red herrings can sway an audience because they go uncontested. Nobody else has a microphone!
Your pastor's sources almost certainly refer to the same writings I mention on my website: Josephus, Tacitus, and Suetonius. Maybe a few others.
And he probably considers the Bible and the existence of the church as more the proof he cites.
By the way, I'm not questioning the existence of "Jesus," just whether he was a historical person or an personified concept.
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