Theocentric Musings

  I'm glad that I have found a lot of friends on social media and blogs that are willing to ask the hard questions, discuss them, accept where God leads in them, and are willing to share their walk with a fearlessness, willing to stand up to any backlash. This last week a singer, Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay, learned the hard way what happens when the church is against you, simply by ASKING QUESTIONS. For wanting to learn, for wanting to gro w, for wanting to make sure they have all the information. A man was attacked for doing the mature thing and seeking truth, seeking wisdom, not just following something he felt he didn't know enough about blindly. I guess now he felt how the marginalized people the church attacks on a daily basis feel. This is the type of stuff I point out in the church because it's a plague. If your underarm area smells, you take a shower and clean the area, you don't just keep spraying deodorant on it for years. Well the church needs...

My thoughts on "sharing the truth with love": The problem is that the individual decides what love is. History of human kind should show that most humans don't really have a very good or clear concept of love. So when they try to do something that may hurt someone and say its in love, it's not received that way, because their concept of love is flawed or different than the recipient. Incidenta lly Gary Chapman has his book, the 5 love languages, it's a great book because it delves a little deeper into what other people see as a loving gesture. Now it doesn't really apply to this subject, but if even in doing things for a spouse or family member there are different ways of showing love and certain ones will not be received as love, that should give pause in dealing with a person one on one and doing something supposedly with love. I know a few people that are really good at homeless outreach, it's really where their heart is and they are equipp...

We defend suffering in our lives because we say it's the chastening of the Lord or disciplining of the Lord, but I have to disagree. I look to scriptures and watch how Jesus "chastened" or "disciplined" His disciples. Also how He chastened or disciplined those that were clearly in the midst of sin, like the woman caught in adultery, the woman at the well, Zacchaeus, Saul/Paul, or pretty much the m ultitude that He looked at and had compassion for. But back to the disciples who spent the most time around Him as He walked the earth, they didn't have a clue what they were doing, they didn't graduate from Bible school, they didn't have degrees or doctorates, they were picking things up on the fly by being in contact with God in flesh, Jesus Christ. They were learning as they walked with Him, some faster than others, some slower than others. They slipped at times, and God was right there with them, He was right there ready to do His chastening and d...