Day 2: Chicken Tonight

About 14 of us gather almost every Thursday as a house church, and we make it a point to bring a dish - a la pot luck. For some reason almost everyone decided they felt like chicken, and so 4 out of 6 dishes were Chicken - grilled chicken, chicken stew, herbal chicken, chicken nuggets. I'm all chickened out.

Closing thoughts for the night:
Based on Genesis 1:1 - The Genesis writer does not use the personal names for God that the Hebrews used (eg. Yahweh, El Shaddai); instead, the writer uses the general word 'Elohim', literally meaning 'The Mighty One', or the 'Ultimate Power'.
What is the difference between saying, "Our God created the Heavens and the Earth' and "The One who created the Heavens and the Earth is our God"?

Day 1.

Have decided to jump on the project365 bandwagon and attempt to post 1 photo each day for the next 365 days. More often than not, though I have a lot in my heart and lots to say, I can't seem to put them into one coherent post, and this gets me frustrated and so I just tend not to try. So I'm hoping each photo will get me started. If not, at least the photo is something posted for the day, which will hopefully also "capture otherwise forgotten moments of (my) life" (as per their website!)

Day 1:
Saw this very unusual water glass at a fancy cafe, when catching up with a dear old friend for lunch.

I won't quite start my rambling now, as I'm actually cheating, i.e. it's not exactly the 7th by the time of this posting, as noted on the blog :P I DID photograph this on the 7th though

Wawa shall...

...work for the Sabbath.



Not all that easy though - what with working under Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

This is where a strength beyond my own is needed.

sigh.

In God's Name

Early this morning, the Husband took the car as he was going for a day-hike about 3 hours out of Melbourne. Problem was, my house key was in the glove compartment, so I was stuck at home. With nothing much to do, I turned the TV on, which is something I don't do often. Incidentally they were showing the documentary In God's Name, by Jules and Gedeon Naudet.

12 of the world's most influential religious leaders were interviewed and followed around for a day - The Pope, the chief Rabbi of Israel, some Christian leaders (including the head of the Russian Orthodox church), two Muslim leaders, the Dalai Lama, the Sikhs' leader, a Hindu spiritual leader, and the Japanese Shinto High Priest.

I watched in awe, not only of the massive diversity of followers and ways of practice, but even more so the COMMONALITIES of the beliefs and hope that they shared. It is hard to imagine the commonalities between these people from extremely different backgrounds is due to coincidence. It is easy to say the commonalities shared is due to our humanity - which is precisely right. The question is, where would our humanity come from, if these commonalities are not a coincidence?

What's in a name?

“You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name” [Deut 5:11]

For years and years I couldn’t actually bring myself to use the name Jesus.

It could be due to years of being exposed, directly or indirectly, to bible-bashers – generations of people who use the name Jesus to run their own agenda; from the Crusades to the Inquisition to the “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” picket signs.

It has been misused; and now we all feel yuck. We feel yuck to associate ourselves with the “god” that people have been portraying; we feel yuck to associate ourselves with the “jesus” that some ”Christians” have been portraying.

A fellow speechie and I were talking just the other day about sensory issues; how certain experiences in the past will make us aversive to different textures or sensations in the future – like being forced to eat that one green pea on our plate may lead to an aversion to peas for years to come, because of that immediate negative association we’ve made.

Perhaps similarly, we now make an immediate negative association with the name Jesus or Christianity. Even I do that – but really as a product of being exposed and aware of all the crap that has gone on, or is going on.

SPTG talked about the Ten Commandments were given to Moses as rules or guidelines to building a life*-giving community; given to a people who were entrenched in slavery for years, and now suddenly had freedom. He also mentioned how the relevance of this particular commandment is more for the above, than merely using “God’s name in vain”, e.g. merely saying something like “Oh My LOOORD!”

I used to be told off at school to “not use God’s name in vain” whenever I exclaimed “oh my god!” as it was “in the 10 Commandments” (WHICH IRRITATED THE HELL OUT OF ME!).

I wonder which was more destructive to humankind – the Spanish Inquisition, or my exclamation?

My God – let me be careful to not use your name to run my agenda; to leave people with “no choice” since “GOD had a say in it”; to use you. Continue to reveal to me, and others, how indeed beautiful and powerful and pure the name Jesus is – untainted by men; so let it be.

refreshed and rejuvenated...

... and ready to roll!

i'm hurting too.

I shouldn't, I suppose, but.