Saturday, August 22, 2009

To-Do Tattoos

Hmmm...I wonder if this would help Tyler remember his homework or chores??

To-Do Tattoos: "

I can’t remember where I first saw these, but the “To-Do Tattoo” caught my attention as a great way to help kids remember things. The temporary tattoos in the kit seem a bit unnecessary, but the skin-safe gel pen is a hit in my book.




Sure, you could easily create a digital list or a list on a sheet of paper, but both run the risk of being lost. This way, you can be sure your child makes it wherever he needs to go with everything on his list.


It’s novel, and I like when organizing can be fun.




"

Credo: Triune God

Great post from pomomusings... The Trinity has always been a mystery. But then again, God is SUPPOSED to be beyond our understanding. I'll be teaching on this in youth group as part of our "BIG Truths" study. It will probably then make it to a sermon in The Refuge.



Credo: Triune God: "

Credo-Triune


This post is part of the Credo Blog Series. For some basic information about the series, go here. Photo Credit.


I believe that God is three persons in one substance. Within the trinity exists the perfect and holy love communion between God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The trinity is a perfect, three-in-one relationship between the three distinct persons of God. The three persons in the trinity are unified together by the same goal: to do the work of Christ and to bring people into relationship with God. They are diverse from each other, but are all completely equal. There is no hierarchy between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit within the trinity.


Someone asked in the first Credo post on God why I didn’t refer to Jesus or the Trinity? Well – I could have been snarky and say something like, “Well – since the BIBLE never uses the word “Trinity” – why should I in my Credo? But it’s really just because I’m going through my Credo according to the way I split up the topics up when I made the Credo in 2000. However, I don’t know that one can really talk about God without talking about God’s relational nature and mutual indwelling (or, one of everyone’s favorite seminary words: interpenetration – snicker snicker…) of the other parts of the Godhead.


Now, I don’t feel like getting into any intensely philosophical debate and start throwing around words like homoousious or anything – but I do still connect with what I wrote in the second sentence. “Within the trinity exists the perfect and holy love and communion.” Through the Triune God, we know humanity is called to be in relationship with other humans. While there are many ways in which people talk about the imago Dei (image of God) – one of the primary ways I see that we are made in God’s image is that we are created to be relational. The community and relationality that exists in the Triune God has to be central to our understanding of both who God is and who we have been created to become.


The one line that I would challenge my 20-yr old self on is where I define what the goal of the Triune God is: “to do the work of Christ and to bring people into relationship with God.” I’m sure this is no surprise, but I don’t think I would want to “box” in the Triune God that much – to say that “These are the two goals of God.” Certainly the Triune God does continue on the work of Christ and draws people into relationship with Godself, but there is so much more than God is up to in this world, I wouldn’t want to simply say “these are the two goals.”


Credo 2009: Triune God


The Triune God consists of God the Creator, God the Redeemer and God the Sustainer. Rather than existing in an hierarchical relationship together, the Triune God is a relational being – one which is dynamic and organic. The relationship is best described as that of a 3-person dance (perichoresis). The relationality between the members of the Triune God gives humanity one of its greatest clues to what being created in the imago dei truly means – to be in relationship with others and with God Godself. Again, as with God, I don’t want to limit the ways in which the Triune God works in the world through Godself, God’s Spirit and others in the world. There is far more about the nature of the Triune God than I will ever know or understand – and that’s a good place to be, I think.


What do you think? What did I leave out?




Related posts:

  1. Credo: God
  2. Introducing the Credo Blog Series



"

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Life in a cold climate

I found this great post on Mark Berry's blog.

Life in a cold climate: "

Holy HuddleIs 'Church' like living in a cold climate? Odd question to ask during the summer I suppose but the more time I spend outside of 'Church' the more it looks like a bunch of people trying to survive in sub-zero temperatures... we huddle together for protection, we surround ourselves with layer upon layer of insulation from the climate (culture) around us and pray for Summer... we pull our lifeblood back from the extremities into the centre spending more and more time at this meeting or that, this group or gathering or that... I know many good Christians whose whole life is lived in 'Church', whose diary is jammed with 'Church' events (the workplace being the only exception) and whose social life is spent entirely with 'Church' people (families often the only exception) trouble is it seems to me that living like this means sooner or later the extremities will die and ultimately it is not the way to survive... some Christians can't stand the waiting around and the self preoccupation and head off into the cold regardless of the outcome... some seem able to take the risk and acclimatise, adapt, so that they can survive and even flourish... though perhaps in a new way! I want to be hopeful, I really do, maybe I'm just the type who can't stand standing around in a huddle facing in with my back to the weather (like those penguins do on 'March of the Penguins'!) I'm not saying I have the answer, not even saying I know how to survive just that I'm not sure 'survival' is enough or worth it in it's own right... I guess I'm more of a 'blaze (or freeze) of glory' type! My Rural Dean said at the interview for my post that the role should be 'meeting light and relationship heavy' I guess that's part of the reason I'm here in Telford and why at this moment I'm more than happy being outside 'Church'.... with my face, not my back to the storm!

Technorati Tags: : : : : : :

"