Sprinting on the Highway to Hell or Stairway to Heaven

Here's the thing.... I am sick of the Caner scandal and absolutely done with reading the likes of Peter Lumpkins and his band of inimical associates. I will continue to pray for Dr. Caner's repentance and leave it at that. I am no longer the slightest bit interested in anything but their repentance. (I include Lumpkins and his band of inimical associates and anyone else enjoying this sad state of affairs within God's church.)

I am praying for the 'Dearborn Four' though in my opinion of that situation I am conflicted. I am OK with having conflicting thoughts and opinions, God knows every minute detail and the outcome is in His hands. It's His justice I pray for, if that matches the US Constitution, that's incidental.

So, what else can I possible write about? About a million other things come to mind, but the chances of anyone reading this unless I tag the post with something scintillating like, Liberty University, Dr. Ergun Caner or Lumpkins I don't imagine it will be read. You see we Christians love controversy and gossip as much as the heathens do... we just sprinkle it with prayer and call it good.

I had a great conversation with a young woman who attended the seminars I was blessed to teach on the biblical concepts of fear, hope and peace. She reminded me why theology matters; because when I believed in a gospel of cheap grace I had a domesticated god in my back pocket and certainly not the sovereign God of the universe. (See pastor, I listened so well I have stolen one of your lines.) Buffeted by the wind and every swing of my emotions, I had no safe place to put my hope.

I think she was a bit surprised that I shared some not so nice things about myself. I guess at 50 something I am all done with pretending to be something I am not. The worst things about me aren't the dope I smoked in high school or all of that wild living that came with growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area during the hippie, free love heyday of hedonism. No the worst things about me are the hideous sins I commit as a professing believer. By the world's standards, those were sins were/are my most grievous. I know exactly who I am and how easily I will walk away from Him. Prone to wander? Not me. I am prone to sprint off the path of righteousness like an Olympic athlete.

The object of being transparent isn't to regale in the sinfulness of my heart. I take no perverse pride in my sins. The point of ever bringing it up is to rejoice in His grace and mercy and to encourage my sisters to fight the good fight. Our sinful pride works against us in so many ways we even want to believe that we are worst of sinners. Nobody but a perfect and merciful God would have a thing to do with us if they knew who we really were........... and then condemnation settles in to our souls. The enemy robs us of the peace that is ours in Christ. Rather than speak up and address the trouble by asking for counsel, ...we smile and pretend it is not there.....letting our pride fan the spark of doubt until we indulge our sins because of unbelief and/or no accountability. It's good to be in a church where you can be transparent with your sins and no one will tell you that it's OK and let you stay there in their filth and aftermath. It's good to be in fellowship with folks who want the truth enough to be truly vulnerable with one another.

James 5:16
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
(NAS)

Character Flaws, Sin and Remediation

I have been thinking about my last post in which I offered to talk about how having a job has shown or magnified my character flaws. Before I do though, I want to distinguish between character flaws and sin. My character flaws predispose me to sin in certain areas more readily than in others. Indulging in my character flaws is sinful. Entertaining the idea of indulging my character flaws is sinful. They are the weaknesses in me where my flesh makes itself known by screaming, "You know you want to!!" Too often I hear Christians lamenting that they "make mistakes" or are victims of their genetic make-up and intimate that they should, therefore, be excused from culpability for being prone to certain activities. Our cultural dependence on a medical model to define our behavior has given many what they see as a plausible excuse for sin. I don't see that caveat in the Word. For Christians, the Word is always our standard. It is the standard by which all will be j

Fear Down, Hope and Peace to Go!

Last night I had the honor and privilege to present some information to the women of my church. I cannot begin to tell you how much I love and appreciate them. The seminar I did was on fear. God is clever and He had me present the information to them because I needed it. It's not that I don't want to study things for my own benefit and growth, but whenever I do a topical study to teach it, I see how badly I needed it and how much more I have to repent of than I realized. Sometimes you don't know what you don't know. That's a topic I want to return to in another post. I want to talk about the ladies for a moment. They are an incredibly loving group of women. Women who seek God and are teachable. They have gone out of their way to include me and love on me, which speaks volumes of their characters because I am not all that lovable. I am not being self-deprecating here. I am a mix of endearing and maddening qualities like anyone else. What I am telling you is

Super Church a song for the Emergent-sy

In the early 70s I was in a youth choir at my church. Our youth pastor was a musician and his way of connecting with us as a group was through the choir and music. Somehow there was an affiliation between him and The Continental Singers, New Hope and Jeremiah People. He was worked with Moishe Rosen of Jews for Jesus too, I think. Are any of these names familiar to you? Though I remember the church fondly I was a profoundly lost and troubled young woman during my years there. That and time have muddled the memories quite a bit. Today I was digging through some old paperwork and one of the books to the musical we did. It's Getting Late For the Great Planet Earth, a folk rock oratorio by Cam Floria. Yes, that's right. Cam Floria put Hal Lindsey to music. There's a lot to laugh about and some to groan about but as I was looking through the songs and remembering, I found this little ditty and I only wish I could sing it for you. Just remember that this is circa 1972 and even th

rambling rosemarie

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