February 9, 2006

human?

i’m preaching at church this sunday and i thought i would deal with the “imagio die” – the image of GOD mentioned in genesis 1:26-27:

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

traditionally within CHRISTian thought the “imagio de”i has been considered what makes us human. so we have to ask the question what exactly is the image of GOD within us? or another way of asking is to ask “what exactly makes us human?” so i figured i would ask y’all.

this is your chance to be a part of the sermon. what do you think makes us human? or what is the image of GOD?

February 9, 2006

i dropped the ball

as many of you know sunday we as a church are spending some time dealing with true love waits and trying to honor GOD with our relationships. three or four weeks ago i typed up the letter to send out to our youth ministry families and emailed it to jessica, my assistant. the only problem was that i didn’t actually email it to jessica. instead i apparently saved it as a draft and never mailed it. i found this out last night. so the letter was mailed today. if you are on our mailing list you should get it by saturday or you could just downloaded it from here.

UPDATE – i have apparently confused at least one person with this entry over whether or not we will still have the ring ceremony this sunday so i’m updating this entry to correct any confusion. since, i did at least catch my mistake in time for us to have the ceremony this sunday we will continue to have the ceremony sunday, february 12, 2006. sorry for the confusion.

February 9, 2006

our own self-interest?

the onion had an interesting article from the right reverend michael barrodale. rev. barrodale “honestly” declares “i am but a vessel through which GOD drones on indefinitely” and that none of what he says or does comes from his own needs or interests. of course, rev. barrodale is unlike most of the minsters i know, including myself, who have to constantly be on the watch for where their own needs and desires sneak into the ministry. i have to admit that i enjoy people wanting my opinion on things. i enjoy people considering what i say as important. if i’m not careful this enjoyment can begin to direct my actions within the ministry in which i am involved. i can start forcing my opinion and voice into conversations.

it happens in ministries all around us. if you are in the ministry you’ve probably seen ministers whose own interest, desires, and psychological needs have begun to direct their actions within their ministry. sometimes they speak longer and louder because they need to, rather than because GOD truly wants them to. if you’ve been to seminary you’ve probably seen people that if you had to guess you would probably guess were studying to be a minister merely because of their own needs and desires – they need to be someone important, to have some clout. the real problem for me here is that it’s just to easy for me to do this too and thus it’s not a problem that just “they” have.

i have to watch out for this all the time. i want to be someone who follows GOD’s desires rather than merely placing HIS name on my own agendas.