Broad-hearted catholicity

“I am a Christian; I consider nothing that is Christian to be foreign to me.” (Christianus sum, nihil Christiani a me alienum puto.)
—Philip Schaff

Friendship and Hospitality 4

"Paul, interestingly, does not place hospitality on the periphery of essential godliness, where the modern church tends to place it. We tend to imagine it as a luxurious virtue, practiced by those who are willing and able and not required for anyone else; it is a luxury that we can occasionally afford. We certainly do not think of it as a central expression of Christian holiness and the glory of God. Paul corrects this notion. If we are not practicing hospitality, we are not loving, and when we do not love, we cease to be a living church. It is bound up with our profession of faith and our sacrifice of self to God."
Wilkins

Friendship and Hospitality 3

"We are not to give unnecessary publicity to our brother's sin. 'He who covers a transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates friends' (Prov 17:9). The one who talks unnecessarily about another's sin seeks to estrange him from the rest of his friends, just as he and the gossiper have already been estranged from one another. More friendships are destroyed in this way than in any other. More churches are destroyed by this one error than by any other. Because this is a very serious and constant danger, I and many others have a great and continual fear that it might spring up in our own congregations, and thus we make it a point to warn against it regularly from the pulpit.

Instead, we should just have the courage to speak to one another plainly and in love for:

"Part of loving one's neighbor is telling them the truth. A.W. Pink once said, 'The man who loves me the most is the one who tells me the most truth about myself.'"

From Steve Wilkins book, Face to Face: Meditations on Friendship & Hospitality.

Friendship and Hospitality 2

"A true friend will be a ferocious enemy to yoursin as well as to his own. Instead of a flatterer, we need someone who encourages, someone who loves us and speaks the plain truth to us, willing to give earnest encouragement if we are downcast, and faithful rebuke if we are in sin. He stirs others up by the example of his own godliness and integrity. His desire after Christ provokes others to desire His glory more."

Friendship and Hospitality 1

Whoa! It's been a while.. Ordination prep has had me by the throat. But I have subdued him until my fight with him in the ring on Oct 4. So for now, I have some time to start a little series on Wilkins book, "Face-to-face: Meditations of Friendship and Hospitality."

I will throw in some videos on our recent adventures too here and there.

Thanks for visiting my humble little sight.

Wilkins: "Humans are created as social beings, for they are created after the image of God...He is three as well as one, and the holy communion that is enjoyed by the three persons of the Trinity is the pattern for all earthly communion. We are so constituted by God as to live in the society of others. It is a non-negotiable and undeniable attribute of humanity."

Life is about relationships.. The deeper you go down that well, the more glory you will have in life.

Panhandle of FL

James Jordan-2010 BH Conf on "Wine, Women, Song, and Death"

For the bride to be glorified, the Bridegroom has to be sacrificed. This is Christ and His Church. From Adam’s death, comes Eve. From Christ’s death, comes the Church. Phil 2 Christ poured himself out. It is sacrificial language. Paul said that he is about to be poured out. Pouring out results in glorification.

Christ died for the Church. In Islam, men do not die sacrificially to beautify their brides. They debase women. They die so that they can rape 70 virgins in heaven!

Jordan believes that Islam is Satan's counterfeit New Covenant. We drink wine, they ban it. We honor women's sexuality, Muslims "circumcise" theirs. We glorify women in song. Women are the shape of biblical song. Men sing bass, the foundation of songs, women sing soprano and Alto, the "front" and most glorifying part of songs.

The first Starbuck's--Pike Place Market-Seattle

Andreas Christopher

Andreas says "Da-Da" for everything he experiences. When's he tired and cranky--DADA! When he's happy, Da-Da, when he's desperately trying to communicate-DAADAAAHHHH! It's nice to be appreciated ;)

On the road with Tolkien

Wyoming

Alexander fam first camping trip 2010

This just hit me

"For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith."

I Jn. 5:4

Faith will overcome the world.. That's powerful.

Faith in what?

I Jn 5:5:

"Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"