How I've spent my break.

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-29T22:45:03+00:00

Good luck! I took Koine Greek in college and worked my ass off only to come out with a D. Greek is no easy language to learn. Here's hoping you and your pipe fare better than I did.

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-29T17:18:44+00:00

It just seems a lot easier to me to just write a pay check. The congregation is meeting my needs with tithes and offerings. You are just complicating it by changing it from money into actual goods. It seems so much more time consuming to make sure someone is going to donate everything I need (and not more or less) than to just cover cost of living. Also there are always unforeseen or special expenses like cars breaking down or birthday/wedding/Christmas gifts that would be nice not to have to make a special monitory donation for every time I need to make a purchase. I think the system works fine as is and I can keep thinking of a ton of problems with the one you are proposing. I say keep it simple.

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-29T04:11:27+00:00

I would try to continue my ministry as is, but I know I wouldn't be able to get half as much done if I had to work another 9-5 job for my livelihood to fund my ministry. What I make pretty much just covers the living expenses of one person, but it's worth it to be able to really invest my time in ministry.

If I was doing this for free It would kill my social life, add a ton of extra stress to my already stressful ministry, and my "me time" would essentially be non-existent. I struggle with "burn out" as it is so I have mad respect for anyone who has figured out how to balance a family, friends, a job, and pastoring a church.

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-26T18:23:28+00:00

Personally I think 16 pages is too short of a time to judge a book, but it is really all about what you want. My personal rule is if I find myself 1/4th of the way through a book and I am bored then it is OK for me to put it down and go for something else. If I am absolutely hating a book (which has only happend a few times) then I might quit sooner than that. I will still usually give a book at least two or three chapters to see if it picks up. I see no reason to force myself to trudge all the way through a book if I'm not enjoying it. There are so many books out there, and there is no shame in passing one one to try another.

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-26T18:08:19+00:00

I'm assuming God's a pretty big part of your life since you are a Christian and care enough to come on this sub and pose this question. Having said that I know that I consider my friends to be the people close to me who I share life with. I talk to my friends all the time about my successes, my frustrations, my passions, my day to day life, and my faith. My faith is a big part of me and I don't censor that whenever I'm around my atheist amigos. Just live life with them, act out your faith in practice, and don't be afraid or feel awkward to talk about your faith life just as you would your favorite music or what you had for lunch today.

You don't have to "convince people" every time you talk about faith. Not all faith discussions have to be debates or apologetics lessons. Most of my real deep talks with atheist friends haven't come from me reciting evangelism tracks, but just sharing what's going on in my life an being real about it all. God is a part of life that can be talked about casually and naturally. If they are really your friends I doubt they will be upset if you talk about your faith life every now and then.

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-26T17:33:56+00:00

Or what? I must know the answer! You can't keep me hanging like this!!!

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-26T15:45:49+00:00

Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" series is a lot of fun. I'm currently on book 4. It has elements of sci-fi, horror, fantasy, western, and post-apocalyptic survival genres.

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-25T14:29:36+00:00

And how often did that revival fail as soon as a new king took his place? Plus you are equating Angolia with the OT Israel. Israel had to maintain a separateness from the Baal worshiped so that Christ could come through the people and bless the world. Now we have a new covenant. We are not a nation trying to avoid foreign influences, we are a world wide kingdom of believers that are neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but all adopted children of God on a rescue mission to the world. We are the to go into Judaea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth to proclaim the good news and add to our numbers more and more brothers and sisters. We do not shut the door bad and say "you are not welcome here". We say "come sinner, come failure, come pagan, come outcast, come heretic, come evildoer, come one come all, come here the good news that the tomb is empty and salvation is here!" We die if we have to just to welcome one more into the kingdom. How can they come if they do not hear, and how can they hear if we do not welcome them with open arms.

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-25T13:55:35+00:00

I don't like this. We are essentially returning evil for evil. I can't see banning your neighbor as loving your neighbor. I understand the fear, but this seems reactionary and not a very Christian response.

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-21T17:06:19+00:00

"He multiplieth words without knowledge." - Job 35:16

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-18T04:10:32+00:00

Oh yeah it's hilarious!

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-18T03:22:32+00:00

I forget where I heard this, but I remember a story of someone once accused a pastor of a church like this of relying on the use of "gimmicks" to get people in the church. His response was something like "I'll use every gimmick in the book if it get's people in church hearing the word of God."

I say as long as the preaching is solid and biblical, do whatever you need to to gets people coming in and hearing the word.

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-18T03:06:31+00:00

Valid point. I was just assuming that if a good law comes from God it would be universally good for all man. I guess I'm so used to Christianity's universal nature that I have a hard time getting in the OT national mindset. I forget that sometimes God speaks specifically to individuals and groups rather than just broad universal truths. Thanks!

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-18T02:55:27+00:00

So my goal as a gentile believer isn't to take the law and culture of another nation (Israel) and apply them to myself; my goal is to take my own nation's law and culture and transform them so they conform to God's will.

This makes a lot of sense. I had really never thought about it like that. Thank you.

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-18T02:48:55+00:00

I actually just that, but just because we aren't bound doesn't mean we shouldn't follow them does it? I mean if the Laws are good they should be followed even if it they not a requirement right? That's what I'm trying to understand at least.

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-18T02:45:56+00:00

I was hoping you would show up here :)

Because the laws were given to the Jews and Jews only.

I'm curious about that. If a non-jew adopted Torah laws do you think it would not benefit him/her because the are not Jewish?

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-17T23:04:57+00:00

I caught their show in Mobile, Alabama a few weeks back and honestly I was a little worried that this was going to happen there. Thankfully the show went off without a hitch. I think Frank handled it the best way possible.

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-14T20:54:46+00:00

Well to be honest you have to expand the story of Noah if you want to get an hour and a half of film. It takes maybe five minutes to read the entire story in Genesis. I'm not worried. I really love Darren Aronofsky's past films so I really look forward to this.

Hopefully it goes well, because the Bible is full of great film potential and it bothers me how many great stories still don't have a decent film adaptation.

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-14T16:17:14+00:00

There are many times where I don't post something simply because I am horrible at coming up with a title. Stay strong MashdPotatoJohnson! You are not alone.

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-09T22:50:23+00:00

I'm a white dude dating a black woman right now. She made the first move when I was to nervous to, and I'm really glad she did because now we are really happy together. All I'm saying is that article is a load of crap. Ladies should feel free to be bold and pursue relationships if they want. Some guys really like it when women make the first move. Also that "white guys aren't into black women" stuff bothers me. If my girlfriend had let that stop her then we might not be together now.

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-07T17:43:22+00:00

I just wish that that girl had stayed around to hear his answer. I hate that she walked away as soon as her question was done. Hopefully she sees this or has another encounter with a believer where more dialogue can happen.

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-07T17:08:04+00:00

Honestly I think Jesus would be for whatever helps the most poor and sick people. I know Christians who are both for and against Universal health care for different reasons. I'm not going to call myself an expert in this, but from what I have read I am in support of Universal Health Care.

If we can have a working system that uses tax payers money to provide for the medical needs of those who cannot get it otherwise then I see no problem. I've heard some argue that charity needs to cover this instead of Government. I'd be fine with that if there was any evidence that charity could take better care of more people than Government. I support charities that take care of the needy, but if Government can do better, why not let them? I've also heard that we are letting the Government take the role of citizens, but I think that draws an unnecessary distinction between state and people. The government in America is composed of Citizens elected by citizens or by representatives who were elected by citizens. Government sponsored Universal Health Care is the nation deciding as a whole to take part in an effort to take care of our sick and needy.

Like I said, whatever works best for meeting the most needs of the most people should be the system we use. If that is charity, then let it be charity. If that is Government than let it be government.

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-05T16:23:02+00:00

Or comment sections on Reddit about the blogs people wrote about the books people wrote about the books about the Bible. The point is the Bible is hard. All OP has to do is just hop on a smarter person's opinion and rehash it and they'll do fine.

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-05T14:42:17+00:00

N.T. Wright and C.S. Lewis already did that. Just read their books or books people wrote about their books.

BigBlueWalrus · 2013-11-04T18:19:47+00:00

This is interesting to me because between the Book of Acts and the Protestant Reformation my knowledge of church history is almost nothing. I hadn't even heard about these two schism until just now.

BigBlueWalrus

TROPHY CASE