[Brendt]

As do "both" and "begin"....

Good band names:

A Critical Mass of Phils
Explode the EAR

(sadly, the latter is really geeky -- for those less in the know, an ear is an archive file -- exploding it means opening the archive and placing its contents appropriately)

More:

Bikini Praise Hour -- conceived by tonyh -- click here for its origin
Altar Calls and the Regulatory Principle -- this was actually a thread name, but seemed to be a good band name, too
Unsound Hermeneutic
Mindless Organ
I Got My WaWa
Scum, Snot, and Die -- this one definitely needs explanation -- these are three "words" that we try to avoid in worship team by not running together "Jesus, come" or "us, not" or "and I"
The Eraser Crumbs
The Invisible Panda Plan
Unfounded Willies
Crash on the D

I promise, future entries will be better....

[Brendt]

Acts 23:11
But the following night the Lord stood by him and said, "Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome."

Acts 24:27
But after two years Porcius Festus succeeded Felix; and Felix, wanting to do the Jews a favor, left Paul bound.

Acts 25:12
Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, "You have appealed to Caesar? To Caesar you shall go!"

(all quotes are from the New King Jimmy)

In the first passage, the Lord tells Paul that he's going to Rome. In the second passage, we see that at least 2 years have passed, and Paul hasn't gone to Rome yet. In the third passage, Festus at least says that Paul will go to Rome. (Granted, it is even more time before he actually goes.)

This was pointed out in the teaching at my church this week.

Sometimes, while acknowledging God's timing on things, we still think that He wouldn't tell us that something is going to happen looooooooooong before it happens.

OK, maybe that should be "I", not "we". But it's definitely applicable to someone who genuinely believes that God told him 3 years ago that he'd have a new job and still doesn't have one.

Hopefully, there's at least one other person out there who this'll mean something to.

[Brian-Alexander]

Hey Welcome to your blog enjoy posting and everything well come visit my blog sometime well stay cool and enjoy everything here at cgr

[Brendt]

This started out as just a compilation of good quotes -- stuff I'd put in my sig line if I wanted it to be 100 lines long eventually -- some are in my sig at one time or another. But I've run across some bad quotes lately that are telling and confirm my pastor's assessment that this world is going nuts. So I'm going to put those in here too.

Good quotes:

The cross is where we see God's justice and His love most clearly, because it is there that they stand in opposition to each other and are reconciled. -- Blindman

Don't divide your life into the churchy bits and the other bits. -- Mike Rimmer (CrossRhythms Radio)

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. -William Arthur Ward, college administrator, writer (1921-1994)

...[Christians] are a people set free to start at good, and whether good choices cause us to fail or succeed by the world's standards of success is of no importance. -- Charlie Peacock

Tolerance is the virtue of a man without convictions. -- G K Chesterton

I am my own reality show. -- Rick Neilsen (friend of mine) on why he doesn't watch reality TV

It is quite an odd circumstance to find even our own court system -- which insists on “nothing but the truth” -- standing for relativism on many important issues. -- Randy McCracken (missionary, musician and professor)

[John Kerry] wants to be the Commander in Chief of our U.S. Armed Forces? U.S. forces armed with what? Spitballs? -- Senator Zell Miller (D-GA) at Republican National Convention (after citing a laundry list of military weaponry that Kerry voted against)

When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing, they believe in anything. -- G K Chesterton

To be bored is to turn down cold whatever life happens to be offering you at the moment. It is to cast a jaundiced eye at life in general including most of all your own life. You feel nothing is worth getting excited about because you are yourself not worth getting excited about. To be bored is a way of making the least of the things you often have a sneaking suspicion you need the most. To be bored to death is a form of suicide. -- Frederick Buechner – Whistling in the Dark

It is alleged by men of loose principles, or defective views of the subject, that religion and morality are not necessary or important qualifications for political station. When a citizen gives his vote to a man of immorality, he abuses his civic responsibilty. He sacrifices not only his own interest but that of his neighbor, and he betrays the interest of his country. -- Noah Webster

I believe Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. -- C. S. Lewis

One of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that, lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful termination of their C programs. -- Robert Firth

Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the universe trying to build bigger and better idiots. So far, the universe is winning. -- Robert Cringley

It is always the secure who are humble. -- G.K. Chesterton

[We] spent night after night after night, traipsing through the rain forest in - what can only be described as - the rain. -- Douglas Adams

Spare me your sixth-grade Michael Moore logic. -- Secretary of Defense James Heller on 24

Bad quotes:

France and the Holy See are joined in the fight for a world which places Man at the centre of every enterprise. -- Jacques Chirac, President of France -- Can we possibly get a bit less God-centered, Jacques?

God says to you, 'I have a dream. Please help me to realize it.' -- Archbishop Desmond Tutu in God Has A Dream -- publicized here -- I guess Acts 17:25 doesn't rate very high with Tutu

(wrote a blog entry about the Tutu quote, too -- it's on page 4, item #49 -- links to specific articles almost never work for me)

Our Christmas special ... talk[s] about religious tolerance and the "one God" nature of ... Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. -- Rev. Eric Shafer, Director, Dept for Communication, ELCA, describing the newest episode of Davey and Goliath -- I think this marks the world's first Christmas special about Islam

Music that lifts you up, and makes you feel good. -- Bumper motto heard on WVFJ in Atlanta, a Christian (sic) music station -- Glad it lifts me up. Wouldn't want to get that Jesus guy involved in Christian music. Like the song says: It's all about me, Jesus / And all this is for me / To make me feel OK / It's not about you / As if I should do things Your way / You may just be God / but I surrender to no one

Politically, [the incumbent] is more in line with the district's [political party] leanings, but [the challenger] would prove an excellent legislator if given the chance. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution endorsement of the challenger in a Georgia State House race -- wouldn't want the representative to represent his constituents now

I have lived 61 years, lost my parents and my sister plus many many pets and this is the darkest day of my life. -- blogger writing of the re-election of President Bush -- gee, how'd you like to be a surviving member of this person's family?

[benj]

Welcome to journals, Brendt. A new neighbor. Here is a casserole and a welcome hug and/or handshake.

[Brian-Alexander]

are you dead? whats going on man?

[Brendt]

Originally Posted by Brian-Alexander

are you dead? whats going on man?

{Checks pulse}

No, I don't think so....

Been swamped (mostly busy eating benj's casserole ). But I have made a few updates recently to the "band name" list.

[Brian-Alexander]

where is the band name list? well anywho glad your not dead....

[Brendt]

Originally Posted by Brian-Alexander

where is the band name list?

First post in this thread.

Originally Posted by Brian-Alexander

well anywho glad your not dead....

Me too.

[Brendt]

OK, so having let this rest for 5 or 6 years, and hoping that I'm not quite the angry young man I used to be (at least I know I'm not young anymore), I thought I'd re-visit this. Most folks know about Steve Camp's "107 Theses" (if you're one of the folks who aren't familiar with them, you can read them here.)

Shortly after the release of the theses, I was discussing them with folks on Usenet, and wrote this:

Originally Posted by Longer ago than I care to admit, I

The last few times that I saw Camp in concert (and admittedly, this was at least 5 years ago) he lost all credibility with me. He would sing songs about not selling out and ad-lib very pointed lyrics into the songs -- he wouldn't actually sing an artist's name, but it was QUITE clear (to anyone who hadn't been under a rock for the past year) who he was talking about. While pulling this little stunt, he would have a smug or impish grin on his face. At one concert, the audience groaned nearly in unison at the bad move, and it only encouraged him (as evidenced by the comment he made, which I don't remember now). About the same time, he'd have an interview in a magazine where he'd pull out something like the above-quoted "coming from a heart of conviction and not condemnation".

Perhaps he no longer gets infantile glee out of criticizing his brothers and sisters. If so, I'm glad.

OK, so I re-read the theses the other day (before looking up my quote above), and I noticed this acknowledgment in the introduction:

Originally Posted by Steve Camp

Early in my own musical journey I wrote songs that neither represented good music or precise theology. My motives were vitiated; my actions were not godly; and my lips were unclean. The thirst for prominence and position made my heart prideful, judgmental and callused.

I have to admit, I didn't remember that part (guess the angry young man blocked it out) and it gave me pause and a felt need to re-consider.

But even trying to give Camp the benefit of the doubt, after further consideration, these statements seem somewhat disingenuous and smacking of false humility. To make these self-incriminations right before his theses seems something of a FailSafe move, designed to head off criticism.

Granted, much of the ccm industry has written him off, never to consider him worth bothering with or listening to again. But, wouldn't some people have re-thought their position had Camp simply made the admissions of guilt on his part and (for some time, anyway) left it at that?

Am I way off base here? Am I just an angry old man now?

[Lightknight]

You're awesome man!!! You actually have a quote of mine

[Brian-Alexander]

steve camp is pretty cool. my dad likes his music and other people like him. Well i don't listin to it that much though

[Lightknight]

How are you doing? update?

[Brendt]

1 Corinthians 3:1-2 speaks of immature believers ("babes in Christ") who are not ready for solid food yet. While there would seem to be a certain level of frustration on Paul's part over the Corinthians' immaturity, he does acknowledge that they are in Christ, and does meet them where they are.

While there are certainly problems (and even heresy) in what some have labeled "pop Christianity", in these fora (and in other places), I have seen several issues -- maybe properly deemed as "milk" -- dismissed as pop Christianity, with all of contempt and despising thereunto appertaining (to borrow a phrase from my diploma).

It would appear that a line has been crossed. In Romans 14 (NKJV), Paul writes:

1 Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.
2 For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables.
3 Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat...

10 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

While we should encourage "weaker" believers to press on to deeper concepts, is it not a direct violation of this passage to dismiss what they are currently learning? And (though I don't have direct scriptural backing for this thought), where is it written that God teaches every believer the same things in the same order?

To bring this back into the physical world, given Paul's illustration in 1 Corinthians, is there anyone here who doesn't still drink milk (outside of those who are lactose-intolerant)? Isn't it actually beneficial (calcium and such)? Solid food isn't a replacement for milk -- it is a (much-needed) addition.

[Tony]

Where are you, man?

Real question: Did you ever interview Steve Taylor in your TLeM days?