Saturday, November 19, 2005

Book this one

Over the past decade, I have developed a deep appreciation of and love for good books by thoughtful authors on spirituality. I have an extreme weakness for buying books, which can be harmful living in the vicinity (as I do) of over 15 discount bookstores. However, I would best describe my reading habits as sporadic -- I rarely make it through an entire book before another one gains my interest. So sometimes it takes several months to finish a book, if I finish it at all.

Contrast this with my father. While I peruse books, he actually reads them, cover to cover, often more than once. So his voice and thoughts are to be taken seriously, certainly more seriously than mine. Luckily, he's just entered the blogosphere, blogging at "spiritual literacy,"and intends to share much of what he's been reading and thinking.

Add it to your blogroll and visit it often.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

He said it better than I could

Sometimes it takes an artist's words to get some things I'm thinking just right. Ran across another instance today, in which Charlie Peacock writes in New Way to Be Human:

Despite the overwhelming human opinion and evidence to the contrary, Jesus did not come to start a new religion. He did not come to create a two-hour-on-Sunday parasite culture that pious people can stick on the side of their otherwise busy lives. Jesus came to subvert every aspect of life and culture with the relational Word and will of God – what he announced as the kingdom. The kingdom, or God’s rule, is what brings a person’s life into alignment with reality. To live in the kingdom way is to live a real and everlasting life, beginning the very moment you follow Jesus. This means that everything is overhauled or restructured to fit the kingdom way, the new way to be human. Knowledge, education, romance, marriage, sex, parenting, work, play, money, ambition, business, social services, caring for the earth, even being the church in the world – all of these areas and a thousand more now come under kingdom rule and authority. Following Jesus faithfully means seeing to it that all of these areas in our lives are subverted by the kingdom and rebuilt in the
new way.

Here I Go Again...

...no, not singing Whitesnake, but blogging. Blog theory is wonderful, but I'm trying my hand at the practice again. Wish me luck.