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Name: steph
Location: San Mateo
Interests: pondering what has never had the pleasure of being pondered before. ceaselessly pursuing the unimaginable. finding treasure in the unfathomable.
also, typing 'lol' and really meaning it.
Expertise: chasing fun. doing what i'm not quite s'posed to be doing. running things into the ground; pursuing things until they become meaningless. tripping. starting things and not finishing them. drinking root beer.
Message: message me
AIM:  elephantjuice55
AIM:  youaresteph
Member Since:
6/1/2005
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SubscriptionsSites I Read
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| for the most part, i have moved to
stephcheng.info
see you there! | | |
| favorite excerpt:
The signature Keller sermon is a mix of biblical scholarship, pop culture, and whatever might have caught his eye in The New York Review of Books or on Salon.com that week. The intellectual component is the key to winning over New Yorkers, he says. “When you communicate in a way that touches a person’s heart culturally, you get growth,” he says. “I come here, and people say, ‘Oh, look, Tim quotes The New Yorker and Nietzsche and talks about the existentialists. He’s an intellectual.’ Another way to put it is: ‘He’s showing me what Christianity would look like if I believed. Because I think like him, and even though I’m not sure I agree, it resonates.’ ” Using the author of The Antichrist to get across a Christian message is a neat trick, and I confess to Keller that an old cynical expression popped into my head: “Running with the hares, hunting with the hounds.” He doesn’t smile. “It’s not too deliberate, otherwise it does become an act—‘That’ll get the New Yorkers,’ ” he says. “You have to live here so you’re a lot like New Yorkers, you live the same life, and you have the same concerns.”
(thanks glennis!)
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| gonna try to sleep early tonight so i can get some writing done in the morning. i was just thinking, and if i need to put a label on it (and what is writing if not labeling?) i consistently surround myself with people who take (their faith and culture/ things) seriously, but not themselves.
but even that's a fine line (taking anything seriously) that we have trouble with.
how next shall we grow? | | |
| Make Your Calling and Election Sure 3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us tohis own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualitiesare yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 12 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things. Christ's Glory and the Prophetic Word 16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
... or any in-between time really.
also: vintage piper
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| (thought about this this morning as i made my way to church, which is across the street from a mormon temple:)
a lot of christians are obsessed with truth - being the truest truth around.
they usually bring up elijah's showdown versus the false gods as an example of standing up for truth.
"if people could only be convinced of truth, then they would believe." (sometimes unspoken: then they would finally respect me. then they would finally stop looking at me like i'm crazy for giving my life away. then they would come after me profusely for pursuing them, these thankless fools.)
but if "knowledge puffs up, and love builds up" - truly - this should perhaps be my verse for daily living - and we lay claim to the ultimate truth too easily to bolster our own insecurities about ourselves and our status in one another's eyes... can we first remember the truth we claim to possess?
i've been stuck on romans 5 for weeks now:
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, wehave peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and werejoicein hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
here's our truth: we are weak, helpless, unrighteous, awful, unloving, wretched people. even our best deeds on our best days are "filthy rags" in the sight of a strong, mighty, perfect, complete God who is our father.
there is no other everlasting hope but Christ.
so why do we act like it all depends on us? how could it possibly??
mediate on your truth before you preach it. many of us so need to be brought to our knees. what truth are we standing on right now? we have no rights to any of this; it must be given away.
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