Friday, April 27, 2007

Atonement

I read an interesting article online today. It is a pretty heavy theological piece, but I found it remarkably readable. It is by NT Wright, and this article makes me want to read more by Wright. The article is actually a response to a radio address and a book, both of which Wright disagreed with and both of which concerned Christ's atonement for human sin. Check out the article here, and a response by the book's authors here.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

This Sunday

I guess I've been slowing down lately here on the blog. I really enjoy it, but I've been pretty busy lately. This study for this Sunday in the Refuge is Moving Forward with Each Other. We will look at a lot of Scriptures. The best way to get a preview of Sunday's service is to look at the worship bulletin. You could even get a head start on the Bible study.

Monday, April 23, 2007

ArkAlmighty


There is a sequel of sorts to Bruce Almighty called Evan Almighty, which comes out this June. In this movie, the newscaster who beat out Bruce for the anchor job (Evan, played by Steve Carrell) has the encounter with God. Now, here is the interesting part. The movie has spun off a website and movement that encourages churches to do good. The concept is called ArkAlmighty, and works like a version of Craig's List for your church. People enter on a personalized (for your church) website their needs. People can scan these and choose one to meet. A person can also list gifts, abilities, skills, etc. that they can share, and people in need can check this list. if you go to the ArkAlmighty website, you can be introduced to the concept by John Goodman. Is this something we would like to do here at Catalina? I registered Catalina just to get further information; there is nothing entered on the site yet. Of course, one drawback to this approach is that some people with needs may not have access to a computer or the internet. As a solution to this, we could have a table set up on Sunday mornings where people could get the info entered for them, or even a kiosk with an internet-connected computer that people could use as a self-serve access to ArkAlmighty. You could also have people complete a brief survey and then input the results to the website. When we are serving at Casa Maria, or if we are planning a work trip to Agua Prieta, we could list the number of volunteers needed, and people could sign up online. Of course there are art pieces and links we can put on our church website. Lots of possibilities. What do you think?

Thanks, Sarai

Yesterday was Sarai Case's last Sunday on our church staff. She preached in both of our Refuge services and did a great job. The thought that stuck with me was about the miracles she referred to. The healing of the leper (Mark 1.40-42), the story of the hemorraging woman (Matthew 9.18-22), and the story of the blind men (Matthew 9.27-30); all have at least one common characteristic: the people sought healing from Jesus. Jesus was not seeking them to heal them, they came to Jesus and the healing they needed was available, and Jesus was willing. In the case of the hemorraging woman, all she did was touch his cloak. It seems that the faith needed to approach Jesus and ask was all the faith that was necessary. This brings up the question that Sarai asked: What if the healing is already there? What if it has already been allocated by God, and all we have to do is take it? I'm not putting this as well as she did, but we must ask ourselves, what does God have for us that we are not taking? What healing does Jesus have for us that we are not seeking?