We are now back home after a pretty long day. We stopped by my parent's place before coming here to chit-chat a bit and get our presents from my grandparents.
Boston keeps coming up in conversations... much more so than any other city. It came up again while talking to Deb and Thomas on Sunday night. We need to be more serious about praying about it.... I think God may be trying to tell us something.
Wow, Alan Creech went off last night about postmodern and emerging church... definitely worth a read.
Well, it's almost been one and a half years since we got married... and just this morning did I get a good photo album online. I scanned in 105 pictures, I hope you enjoy them. There are also some Christmas photos in their own album. And now that I have a digital camera(Christmas present from Alicia) expect to see more photo albums show up.
I have been thinking some lately of what it means to be post-reformation. The Reformation, you know, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Urlich Zwingli and all them... it was so tied to the Enlightenment. What does that mean for us now that we are moving beyond the Enlightenment? We are starting to restore what was lost when the Enlightenment came. I see the same thing happening in the post-reformation church. Communal living, set times of prayer, common scripture readings, an emphasis on faith and works(obedience)... It has been interesting to see and it is interesting to think about.
I just found out this morning that my old friend/pastor JR Woodward has a blog. Thank you Clay for mentioning it on the message board.
Merry Christmas everyone! Alicia and I were up early and opened our presents from each other. She is so adorable! She is now napping and it's not even 8 yet. Today we are going to Northern Virginia for a lunch/dinner thing, then back to my parent's place for some family time... and then I think we are going to stop by the Dehring's place to say hi. Gonna be a busy day. Happy Birthday Lord!
Merry Christmas eve! We have had an enjoyable day so far. I slept in some while Alicia worked this morning. Then we went shopping for our final gifts. It was nice to just be out together... we weren't stressed or rushed, just out. After things got done this afternoon we took a nap together on the chair in our living room. Now we are getting ready to go to Joy's place for a party. It has been a very enjoyable day with my incredible wife!
Alicia and I have gotten ourselves a domain name... simplepilgrimage.org I'll be moving this blog there sometime in the not so distant future. We are also trying to come up with other cool stuff to do there. If you have any cool ideas please let me know.
This morning's service at Horizon was very enjoyable. It was a Towson+Owings Mills gathering. First one of those. The band Reveal played mostly Christmas stuff and were very good. Then we took communion. Alicia and I both enjoyed it very much.
I went over to Clay's house for our fantasy football party. It was a fun season, thank's for inviting me to play guys.
And lastly, tonight we went to Jenn and Christina's place for their Christmas party. It was nice to see some people, but man was it crowded!
Everything is now ready for our trip to Cincinnati in January from the 9th to the 11th... We are signed up for the conference, got our hotel room and have made basic arrangements to hang out with Jeff and Mindy after the conference.
For those who don't know... we will be going to the Not Alone conference to learn and hopefully meet some really cool people... It is a simple church conference that is being sponsored by the likes of Allelon and Vineyard Central.
I wonder if we have lost something... Almost all of the original followers of Jesus were killed because the world was offended by the way they lived and what they talked about. Now we are careful not to offend anyone and we have made ourselves cool.
In other news... I was reminded of the sermon Ten Shekels and a Shirt while thinking about the recent thread on the Horizon board. If you haven't listened to it and have an extra 50 minutes, I suggest you give it a listen. Good stuff.
I have been thinking thoughts about worldviews and such lately. It came out of that thread on the Horizon board I mentioned yesterday. I am trying to figure out if I really do think differently about the world than most other people. Here are some things I have come up with:
1. I think being is much more important than doing. When I read I don't read to gain knowledge, I read to be changed. It is the reason I don't take notes or mark up the book I am reading.
2. I believe that humanism, the idea that man's happiness and progress for the human race is the goal of life, is opposed to the life God intended for us. Not that it is bad to be happy or for us to progress, it's just bad for it to be the goal of life.
3. I believe God is still working powerfully in this world. I believe He still speaks to us and guides us. I believe that often what He tells us to do is foolishness to the world.
4. I believe this world is at war... that Satan is still in control of most of the world... and that we as christians need to be working to overthrow him.
I've been a part of a very interesting thread on Horizon's message board... we are discussing education, public school vs homeschooling, and other such things.
I'm at work doing some prep work for job... and like usual I got a little distracted on the internet. Found this really cool article by Mark Priddy. It is suggested reading.
We had a very enjoyable evening last night looking at Christmas lights, watching The Santa Clause 2 and having tea and dessert with Joy, Scott and Francine. Good food, good friends, fun stuff.
For those who haven't been down to Hamden to see 34th street I would suggest it! It is very cool!
Read an interesting post on Eric Kecks blog this morning... give it a read.
We got more snow last night... Horizon didn't have a service today because of it. Alicia and I have just been hanging out around the house. I have been reading and thinking and she has been napping.
We are/were supposed to go to the Maryland basketball game this afternoon. I haven't heard any news on whether that is still on or not.
Went to a party at Jeremiah and Maryanne's house last night. Was a lot of fun! Nice party guys! Tried one of Bobby's homebrew beers. I must say, I was impressed! It got me reading on the internet today about what it takes to brew your own. I think after the holidays are over I may order a beginner's kit. Mmmmmm beer...
We just watched Fight Club. I had only seen the beginning before, but people had told me the main plot twist that happened later. It was interesting to watch it from that perspective. It seemed to me to be one big demonstration of demon possession. In fact, the more I think of it the more it seems like what the enemy is trying to do. Even the idea of destroying the banks to reset everything to equal. It basically is destroying people's identities. Hmmmm....
Creative Commons is a great project everyone should check out. What I would really like to see is a CC licensed(preferably Share-Alike) bible translation. It would also be really cool if a lot of post-modern churches shared their media stuff with each other under something like this.
Played football with the guys from Horizon yesterday. Man, what a bunch of tough guys! I hurt some this morning... more from bruises than from the normal soreness.
Man, reading Waking The Dead has really been opening my eyes to some things. Like the ways that Satan has been attacking me and how I have been thinking it was something else. Also the idea that people(including me) will be drawn to attack people in the same ways that Satan is attacking them. That one should really be good way to figure out how to help people.
