Is Emergent heretical?

I ran across a link at tallskinnykiwi and thought I’d link them over here. “Dr Ken Meeks has been examining the Emergent church movement in light of the accusations from Calvary Chapel. He is not speaking from an emerging church standpoint but from a Bible College teacher.” Is emergent heretical? There is a discussion on pluralism vs inclusivism and this one as well. which I thought very good… I hadn’t really thought through the differences before.

There is much more there, and I look forward to him finishing his series in answering this question. I think the church tends to throw around the “false teacher” and “heresy” and “apostasy” words a little too freely, without really understanding or thinking through what they are accusing.

Anyway, I’m off to bed, Bryan is working a double shift, and I need sleep to get up at 5:30 – I am liking this!! maybe I’ll continue after LENT!!

Lent readings

For those who would like to read Lent readings, but haven’t got around to finding some Scripture recommendations… here are some for you. I have been reading them “Lectio Divina” style – not studying, but reading them slowly, and meditating on phrases that jump out at me, praying through them, and journaling what God is sharing with me. It has been a wonderful time of renewal for me, and today…

The kids and dog are STILL sleeping and we have crossed the 7:00 am mark… this is UNHEARD of!!!! I had an HOUR with God!! UNINTERRUPTED!!

Here is the first (1/2 ) week and second week If you are only just starting, do read through the first weeks Scriptures… they are wonderful wonderful!!

Lord God, by Your Word, fill me with Your life-giving Spirit

Ash Wednesday Luke 4: 1-13

Thursday Romans 8: 1-17

Friday Galatians 5: 16-26

Saturday Ephesians 4: 17-24

Lord God, by Your Word, fill me with a spirit of repentance and forgiveness

Sunday Psalm 51

Monday Matthew 6: 5-15

Tuesday Matthew 18: 21-35

Wednesday Luke 15: 11-32

Thursday Ephesians 4: 25- 5: 2

More Keenan Funnies

I asked him about the 3 types of food we eat that are body breaks down as review for his notebook… here are his answers, with the real ones in parantheses…

Carbohydrates (starch – what we tested for with iodine)

Profanes (proteins)

and…

Farticles (fat!) HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Thursday, while reading our Lent scripture: Romans 8: 1-17, Bryan asked him if he knew what it mean by “the flesh”…

Keenan: like flush the toilet?

Glad we clarified that!! BUT you know, he may have more insight then we realize… when I think about my flesh and what comes out of it, it could definitely stand to be flushed!!!

 

Keenan takes ownership…

So I walk in the kids room the other day… the WHOLE corner is cleaned out (as in now its in the middle of the room and I can’t reach the beds)

I stand, like a true mother, with hands on my hips, “What is going on?  What did you do?” trying not to sound irritated since I had so lovingly and painstakingly cleaned it the day before.

Keenan” OH!  I had to make room for Rachel’s bed so she could sleep in my room!”

Mom “what?  I am sorry, but, who’s Rachel”

Keenan – with exasperated tone (like, hello!) “Mom! baby Rachel! my sister!!”

SO apparently, its decided… its a girl and the name is Rachel… at least in Keenan’s mind.  I am sure my sister would be greatly honored!! 🙂

This actually isn’t the first time he has mentioned it, and he actually told me a dream yesterday morning (while he was up before 6am during my Lent sleep fast for my prayer time!!) about him, Thaddeus and baby Rachel… like it was the most natural thing in the world…

And no, we don’t know if its a girl!

Lent

I haven’t prayed about this nearly as much as I wanted to… I have been distracted by family stuff and my heart.

Something I have wanted to do for a LONG time but DON’T WANT to do, is get up earlier, and it came to me “PING” (yep! just like that!) – I will get up at 5:30 for Lent… and I will trust the Spirit to speak loud and revive me each morning!! And I trust Father God to keep my children (and the dog) sleeping although I will be up!!

Tomorrow I will put a cross of ash on our foreheads, and talk about what that means with my children.  And then I’ll wipe it off, since I know it won’t stay and will end up on my bed or my favorite shirt!! 🙂

From Wed – Saturday the theme of my Scripture reading will be “Lord God, by Your Word, fill me with Your life-giving Spirit.”

Between now (Tuesday night) and tomorrow morning God has a big work to do in my heart involving forgiveness.  His Spirit does not breed resentment or revenge, as they lead to death in every sense of the word.

test post for email

just a test post for email…

And now I am editing to test it again, for my sister, to see if it emails her… sorry!!

And I have NO idea why it keeps reprinting some of my posts… I am not touching them, I promise!

The Good, Bad and the Ugly

We’ll start with the Bad… its 1 degree outside!!! YUCK!!  SO cold.

Ugly… me teaching Keenan math. oh my word.  I can’t get over how frustrated I can get over a few measly math problems, that he’s probably figure out in a year on his own anyway with NO teaching!! The kid is so, so bright and I could screw that up that love of learning, and that confidence with crappy attitude while teaching math. sigh.

Good … it was starting to look light outside this around 8:00!!! – sunrise officially at 8:35am… but for us, at 9:52, it JUST peeked over the mountain, and there is hope for spring yet… (I know, its only mid-February!!) and it doesn’t set about 5:30 – wow.

The good bad and the ugly

We’ll start with the Bad… its 1 degree outside!!! YUCK!!  SO cold.

Ugly… me teaching Keenan math. oh my word.  I can’t get over how frustrated I can get over a few measly math problems, that he’s probably figure out in a year on his own anyway with NO teaching!! The kid is so, so bright and I could screw that up that love of learning, and that confidence with crappy attitude while teaching math. sigh.

Good … it was starting to look light outside this around 8:00!!! – sunrise officially at 8:35am… but for us, at 9:52, it JUST peeked over the mountain, and there is hope for spring yet… (I know, its only mid-February!!) and it doesn’t set about 5:30 – wow.

Prayer – praying the Lord's Prayer

I think the title of this post is kind of funny and ironic, since I have recently entered into some conversations on prayer and the perceived "evils" of contemplation, using our God given imagination (for good, as opposed to the crazy out of control imagining my mind tends towards without Him), listening to hear God speak, praying anything but the model of the Lord’s Prayer… 🙂 etc. you get the idea. Fear of anything different, under the guise of being watchful and vigilant for the lion seeking to devour is my take, personally.

Anyway, that isn’t what this is about… so I’ll stop on that.

The main gist of this weekend was the real power of prayer. how to enter into the work of prayer. how to pray effectively. how to pray and know God’s heart. and what to pray when you don’t! there was much covered, and much not covered, of course, but one thing the speaker spoke of at the beginning was that the work of prayer flows / or grows out of intimacy with the Father, not the other way around.

 

click here for the rest over at the "other" place… Prayer

 

Prayer – based on the Lord’s Prayer

I think the title of this post is kind of funny and ironic, since I have recently entered into some conversations on prayer and the perceived “evils” of contemplation, using our God given imagination (for good, as opposed to the crazy out of control imagining my mind tends towards without Him), listening to hear God speak, praying anything but the model of the Lord’s Prayer… 🙂 etc. you get the idea. Fear of anything different, under the guise of being watchful and vigilant for the lion seeking to devour is my take, personally.

Anyway, that isn’t what this is about… so I’ll stop on that.

The main gist of this weekend was the real power of prayer. how to enter into the work of prayer. how to pray effectively. how to pray and know God’s heart. and what to pray when you don’t! there was much covered, and much not covered, of course, but one thing the speaker spoke of at the beginning was that the work of prayer flows / or grows out of intimacy with the Father, not the other way around.

Over at the Sacred Everyday, they are discussing the same thing sort of… discipline and love and marrying them together.

We were handed a sheet, giving us ideas to expound and pray on each aspect of the Lord’s Prayer. You can do this yourself, of course, but it was a helpful tool…

“Our Father in heaven…” spend time in His presence, your Heavenly Father, allowing His love to bless you. John 1:12-13, Eph 1:5, Romans 8:15 ask God for healing and the ability to forgive your earthly Father so that you can grow in relationship with your heavenly Father.

“Hallowed be Your name…” take time to worship the Father. Be creative and free. Tell Him out loud or write every reason you can think of for giving Him praise. sing, write a new song (Col 3:16), choose a Psalm and pray it back to God with thanksgiving.

etc… I don’t know why I still get surprised at how faithful He is to bless me in return!! How He is so consistent to meet me as I praise Him, to change my heart as I worship. To pour out His love on me, even as I struggle to love Him back the way He deserves…