The New Monastics
June 29th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Interesting piece over at USA Today.
But when they found an apartment complex condemned by the city, they decided to buy it. Castanea has since completed the initial cleanup, and the group hopes to begin construction in the next few months, installing new windows, doors and a roof. It still needs $600,000 to complete renovations on the building.
The apartments will enable all of the members to live under one roof — a family of seven, another married couple and the six single adults in the group can fit in four apartments. There, they can easily share meals, prayer, work, study, play and possessions. The remaining 10 units they plan to lease out to the homeless and refugees by coordinating with other organizations fighting homelessness in the city.
Some people talk about their faith, others live out their faith.
What Sustains You In The Bad Times?
January 13th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
There’s an interesting piece over at Relevant Magazine where they profile Pastor Matt Chandler’s battle with brain cancer. It’s a good read and there is this great quote in the piece:
“I don’t think God gave me cancer … but He knew it was coming. He certainly didn’t stop it, and He’s certainly able to. The whole Scripture is: bad things happen in a fallen world, and God is enough in those things and uses those things to the Glory of His own name.”
The bad times have a way of burning away the fluff in our lives and distilling our purpose down to the important.
Review: The Search for God and Guinness
October 12th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
The title of this book piqued my interest. Having spent a number of years as a member of a famously teetotaling church denomination I had been used to thinking of alcoholic beverages as something bordering on immoral. While I had left that denomination and even came to a more enlightened conclusion about alcohol that allowed me to develop a passion for craft beer, I guess I still had some emotional baggage regarding beer.
Stephen Mansfield writes an engaging history of the Guinness brewing dynasty. A history that includes a strong faith in God and led the Guinness company to pioneer social change in Dublin and throughout the world. While we think that companies that provide for their employees well-being as a modern invention of a dot-com company like Google, Guinness was providing for their employees in a manner to rival these dot-com’s at the beginning of the 20th century. Just as amazing as the Guinness family’s investment in their employees was the story of Rupert Guinness who took his new bride and their £5 million pound wedding gift and moved into the slums to work towards improving the lives of the poor.
In a departure from the form of a traditional historical narrative, Mansfield concludes his work with a five point epilogue describing the values that made Guinness successful that Mansfield calls “The Guinness Way”. It’s an interesting conclusion for a worthy book.
My only criticism of the book is not so much the fault of the writer but of the enormous story he tries to tell in a brief 270 pages. The Guinness story is so big, with such an interesting cast of characters that any attempt to distill it down to such a brief form invariably leaves it feeling a bit disjointed. In spite of this I’d recommend this book to anyone with a love of God and a taste of good beer.
As a matter of disclosure, I participate in Thomas Nelson’s Book Review blogger program. I get copies of the books I review gratis in exchange for reading and writing reviews of the books. For more information about this visit: http://brb.thomasnelson.com/
Shalom,
Scott D
Thoughts On Unbelief
August 18th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
I find the passage here in Mark 9:14-29 to be interesting. While Jesus and three of the disciples are up on a “high mountain” where Jesus will meet with Moses and Elijah and become transfigured before Peter, James and John, the rest of the disciples are left to contend with a crowd of people. I am sure that the crowd was quite an assortment of people, those who came to see Jesus, those who came to scoff, those who wanted to see a miracle or two and some who did not even know why they were there.
Jesus, Peter, James and John return to find the rest of the disciples arguing with the scribes while the crowd watched. When Jesus asked what was happening, a man approached Jesus and told him a sad story about his son.
“Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” – Mark 9:17-18 ESV
Some commentators mentioned that the symptoms he described resembled epilepsy. But whatever the cause, this man’s son didn’t have much of a chance for a normal life in the condition he was in. The man then asks Christ to heal his son saying “But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. Jesus responds by telling the man that “All things are possible for one who believes.” The man then answers with an answer that I so connect with. He says:
“I believe; help my unbelief!” – Mark 9:24 ESV
What really struck me is the seeming incongruity of this answer. Eugene Peterson translates that passage in his Bible translation The Message: “Then I believe. Help me with my doubt.” It’s not this man’s faith I so understand but his doubt.
When I became a Christian, I saw those around me who seemed so confident in their faith. I bet they never had doubts. I thought something must be wrong with me because I have had my doubts over the years. My doubts have caused me to question everything about faith in general, and my faith in particular. This doubt is maddening. Given the consequences of getting this right, isn’t it crucial to get it right? How can I be assured I have it right when I struggle with doubt? Is it possible to have complete and total faith without a smidgen of doubt? Am I doing something wrong?
What I find interesting in this passage is not what happened, but what didn’t; Jesus didn’t rebuke this man for his doubt, he just healed the man’s son. Apparently we can come to Jesus doubts and all and He will still hear our plea. I find that so hopeful. Just like I don’t have to be perfect and sinless to be accepted by God, I don’t have to have perfect faith either. It’s not what I do that makes me acceptable to God, but what He did for me. God chose to give me the gift of salvation not because of anything I did, but because He chose to. That’s what makes it a gift. I just need to accept this free gift in spite of my doubt and like this desperate father did, ask Jesus to “Help me with my doubt.”
Shalom,
Scott D
