Street Survival

This is helpful in case of mugging.
Hat tip to Don't Call Me veronica.

Another Look At Judgment And A Poem

JUDGMENT
Continuing on the theme of Heaven/Hell/Judgment this continues the discussion on Judgment.

Hat Tip to Jason for sharing this with me.

POEM

The picture to the left is of the poet Robert Lax. From the 60's up until the late 90's he hadn't published a book of poems in America. With the publication of A Thing That Is a brief renewed interest in his work was born. A close friend of Thomas Merton you can see the meditative quality of Lax's poems. They can be frustrating to read at times since individual words and even fractions of words make up a single line forcing you to really stop and read the poems more closely.

There is no poem, no painting
that will hold on paper or canvas
the look of the three trees
standing in the valley
with their young green leaves.

They are three girls
pouring speech like water
poised and waiting
for their dancing lesson.

They are three girls on tip toe
with arms uplifted
dancing in the valley's early light.

++++

What
is
be
ing

what
is

ex
is
tence

can
the
rab
bit

be
said

to
be

if
it
is
dead

?

we
say
it

is
dead

what
is

is that

?

A View on Christ and Hell

Big time Hat Tip to Rotating Chaos for writing this eloquent post on her coming to Christ.

And to complement my post on Hell here is a study done at Belief.net.

Also, if anyone ever wants to do a Guest Blog please send me your ideas. I am also looking for some fresh ideas to post here.

cubicle.reverend@gmail.com

HELL

Have we lost our sense of how bad a place Hell is? During my younger days in CCD hell was a place where bad people went after they died. When I became a Christian in my more foolish days I attended a legalistic church which made me terrified of the idea of falling out of grace. I left that church to go to a church that lost their way teaching more about having good feelings and such. I became a very complacent person focussing more on myself than on serving others or trying to reach the lost. Now I am fortunate to have a very normal church family with a pastor who tries to actually teach us what is important to grow as Christians and to impact the kingdom. Slowly, a fire has been slowly been growing in me (it's not a full fire yet, but God is working on that). While at a bar watching a friend of mines band perform I looked around me and realized that a lot of the people around me didn't know who Christ was and may very well be on a short trip to Hell. I became very afraid and heart broken for them. Hell is very real and a terrifying place.

Rodin's Gates of Hell is a terrifying vision. I have seen the work
in person. When you look at the door you'd hope to never find out
what's inside.

These days the idea of hell is absent from many pulpits. I can recall once in the last few years hearing Hell or sin mentioned maybe once in the past five years. Many people outside of the church has made Hell a punchline, usually because they've said or done something slightly naughty: “They are building a condo in hell for for that one.”

Am I the only one who thinks these guys are enjoying themselves
a little too much in Hell? Though this is a gospel album their attempts
to make Hell appear to be a terrifying place comes off looking silly.
Still this is a great Rockabilly album.

I do not want to become one of those fire and brimstone preachers sending everyone who disagrees with me to Hell. I wrestle with whether or not we still need to have a concept of heaven and hell anymore? A friend of mine remarked how twenty somethings like himself do not need to be reminded they are sinners since they've heard how worthless they are all their lives and only need to hear about the love and grace of God. The message of grace is also an important message. What happens when received a one sided message? Christ did more than just come down here to make us feel good about ourselves. That is an aspect, but not the only aspect of our faith. Christ came to give us abundant life as well as to close the gap between us and the father that has been in place since the days of Adam. Did Christ save the world from having a grumpy day? No. He saved us from the very grips of Hell.

Christ risen to full Glory!

Tag - 5 Silly Things About Me

Got tagged by the Queen of Australia herself. So here are 5 silly things about me.

1. I can't start my saturdays without watching my favorite cartoons. Even if I've seen them before I have to watch my saturday morning cartoons.

2. I dream of being a super hero. Seriously, I imagine myself with various types of super powers. The most recent was I would absorb various elements out of the area to become super dense, though it wouldn't change my size, making me super strong and impervious to harm.

3. I got all giddy when I saw my class requirements meant I had to take 2 classes focussing on shakespeare, and another class which meant I had to read works prior to 1700.

4. I have been setting my alarm clock for 5:00 AM promising I'd get up and jog only to fall back asleep for 2 more hours. I have been doing this since highschool.

5. I don't show people pictures of myself when I still had hair.

If you want to do this you are tagged.

Peace In War Time

After watching the recent news coverage about the bombings in Isreal I am reminded of something a very wise sunday school teacher of mine had said to us. He asked us to pray for peace in the hearts of those in the Middle East and not just peace from conflict. What an interesting thing to request. Because it brings to mind all the current hub bub of people screaming for peace with out having any real idea what we should do to attain it or what exactly does peace mean. We want peace! Well duh, so does everybody. So what do you recommend we do to gain it? When Richard Gere asked that we show compassion and love to the people who attacked us on 9/11 people responded to his request with such negativity it's amazing he has any sort of career left. That is an equally remarkable thing to say. It is so out of character to the mind set of all the people at that time. I can't blame people for their anger. Heck, I almost enlisted in the military. No kidding, a buddy and I almost drove to a recruiting center. I am still here. Though I am unable to just sit on my butt waiting for a visit from George Bush I am left wondering what can I do to help.

Pray for the peace of hearts for the people in the world that God may touch their hurts.

Church Picnics

Ah church picnics. There are very few social activities a church can do that I enjoy more. Except for maybe a square dance. Any opportunity Christians can have for hanging out socially is a good thing. We let our hair down (for those of us that have it) and show the sides of ourselves that we may not always feel comfortable about in church. This happend a week ago. A fun time was had by all. And my team won the seed spitting relay.

The Friday Gallery: New Eyes Art

It has been way too long since I have done one of these things. So what better way to start off a new batch of discoveries than with New Eyes' Art? I'm not going to lie when I first looked at her work I thought all I was seeing was the same thing painted over and over again. And why did I think that? Because I'm a typical thick guy who doesn't notice this little thing we like to call "subtlety". What is great about "subtlety" is when you finally notice it you can't help but stand back and gasp. It is the epiphany, the ah ha! moment where you can grasp as best as your experience and imagination allows you to move from the big picture down to the details. That is the difference between a visual artist like New and a poet like myself. The poet goes for the details to draw you to the big picture. The visual artist goes from the big picture with the hopes it'll draw you into the details. It is a shame I cannot see the full size pictures in front of me. I have a feeling I am missing out on a lot of the details because they are shrunk down so much. I'll also admit though I can appreciate modern art I like to know what it is I am looking at. I find it easier to wrap my mind around words that have an ambiguous meaning than a painting that does. In this case, I may not entirely get it, but I do not care. I can look at the work and appreciate it for the aesthetic value they retain.

Everyone's Gotta Go Sometime.

'What will your obituary say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

What scares me, is I could see this happening. I wonder which muppet will be most heart broken? And is it just me or does this obituary writer have serious pronoun problems?

Big time hat tip to Wendy for this one.

Due to computer problems, if you want to still contribute to my Racism e-mail please do. See below for my e-mail. Plus it'll give me more time to write what I think.