Was Tommy right ???

“Feel me……Hear meeeee……Touch me…... Heal meeeee…..

…On you, I see the glory….I get excitement at your feet.”

I recognize that man, that’s The Who from Tommy The Rock Opera…Woodstock, live….Jay…don’t trash my song big guy. No problem, I love that song. Especially the longgggg version.

What does that have to do with our Christian beliefs? Glad you asked. Everything! It’s all about the postmodern cry. “Relativism”. What about my relatives? (fists clenched) No no no big boy, not the study of your relatives….

C. Michael Patton, says “Relativism is the idea that truth is contained only in the eye of the beholder… all truth is contingent upon the situation, culture... A moral truth can be true and binding for one person, while for another it is not.” Plus a true die hard postmodern can speak “Truth” out of both sides of their mouth at the same time. The law of non-contradiction is not binding to the relativist.

“Free love” “It’s my body” “Love the one your with” “We’re both consenting adults” remember? PMR to the max baby. Postmodern Relativism… Let’s try this one on for size … “What’s good for the goose, is good for… hey, it better not be happening with my gander. And, it better not be happening when you take out my daughter!”

“Gosshhh, that ain’t fair Pedro. I thought all truth was relative?”

Do you see where The law of non-contradiction for relativism falls apart? Read this link for more…

“All you need is love. Do do do do do , All you need is love. Do do do do do, All you need is love, love,,, love is all you need.”

I’ll be back…….

Postmodernism and bad theology

Have you ever been in a conversation with a really smart person (according to them…), yet they are clueless to reality? It’s like they have no problem taking the “High road”, by climbing up a tree so they can talk down to you with their “knowledge”, while walking out on a limb and profess their “brilliance” from high above, in the meanwhile they are just plain busy sawing off the limb they stand on with “feel good” theory.

That is what Postmodernism does.

Postmodernism was born in the 60’s. California - New York, from sea to shining sea shouts and signs proclaiming “God is dead” “To each his own” “Free love” “Smoke this and you’ll see God” “It’s my body” “Your truth may not be my truth” ….. you get it. I grew up in the heart of it all in San Francisco… it was awesome. No rules at 13 years old. (1966 – you do the math…dude, you’re old!)

Charles Colson wrote this about Postmodernism…

“In Postmodernism, there is no objective, universal truth; there is only the perspective of the group. . . . In postmodernism, all viewpoints, all lifestyles, all beliefs and behaviors are regarded as equally valid. . . . Tolerance has become so important that no exception is tolerated.”

How Now Shall We Live?

Did you catch the last sentence? You must tolerate NO tolerance.

Southbrook’s latest series on “Planet Earth” has all been a returning to what God intended for us as human’s. The opposite of postmodernism.

Coming up next??? A few Questions to ponder;

1. What does this have to do with our Christian beliefs?

2. Is all truth relative? (Not the same as do we invite all our relatives over)

3. How would we tolerate an 11^th commandment “Thou shall tolerate everything.”?

4. Was John Lennon on to something? “Give peace a chance!”

Types of Theology

Back for more eh????? Ok…. Let’s continue then…

There are basically 6 areas or “arenas” of theology, and your reflection to others will hinge in here somewhere.

1. Tabloid Theology; based on naive hearsay (very little if any evidence) doubters, trashers, gossipers, rumor mills, “Christian” chain letters.)

2. Folk Theology; based on traditions or religious folklore (Santa; The Easter Bunny, the devil with horns and a red cape, the Pearly Gates, The DaVinci Code, the Jewish princess…maybe I’m wrong on this one… )

3. Lay Theology; is from a person with studied theological concepts, leery of unfounded traditions, uses study tools. (me)

4. Ministerial Theology; this is a more theologically educated person, can critique competing theologies, reflects more time to orthodoxy. (Some one like me but further along their pastoral path)

5. Professional Theology; Someone who makes a living espousing their theological thoughts… Pastor Rob for a good example and others. (be careful on this one… a lot of the time ego is attached they remind you of their titles & degrees.)

6. Academic Theology; This is all they do, countless big books are written by them and used world wide as study/research guides. Very critical and speculative. (Norm Geisler, Wayne Grudem, R.C. Sproul. great theologians of our time)

SO….. where do you fit in these arenas?

Are you where you want to be? Are you reading/listening to the theology that accurately reflects God, Christ, The Holy Spirit in your life? Or do you spend too much time filling yourself with the first two?

Your reflection to others will hinge in here somewhere. Be careful while reflecting.

The Triple Dog Dare is now in effect….. Any Comments???

Defcon 5 in action!

Sooo… last weekend I slept in Sunday morning by request of the 10am non-members patrol. And it was awesome….

This week we stayed home Saturday night and had a fantastic dinner. 100% Trader Joes… 2 beautiful steaks marinated in Rosemary and garlic with Tamari… fabulous Garlic Fries, and mixed vegetables, notice I didn’t “Veggies” (buzzz).

Once I watched the monkey video I figured…8:30 service ought to be pretty cool.

Either way, Saturday night or Sunday 8:30 just plain gives you plenty of time to spend with loved ones at home, AND spend quality time with God in a service time that leaves plenty of needed seats for those looking for Him.

Any comments out there?

Who is a Theologian?

Remember our definition? Theology is a belief system concerning deity.

So…. Who is a theologian?

Anyone who has asked the ultimate questions of life:

• Why am I here?

• What is life?

• What happens after death?

• What is the difference between right and wrong?

• Why is there something instead of nothing?

Have you asked any of these before? Lately?

Well... “Congratulations!” That makes YOU a theologian. Now go and create a blog and start theologianizing (yea I made that word up) to the world. Make sure you link your blog to Rob’s blog.

“”The question is not, “Who is a theologian?” but “What kind of theologian am I going to be?” Are you going to be a good theologian or a bad theologian? This is a more accurate question because, as one writer put it, “not all theologies are equal.”’

–Source unknown

If you can take it…. I’ll post more about the “Arenas of Theology”

I now double corn dog dare ya to hang with me.

Any comments????

Life....Flows from God

This is what Dar and I love about Wednesday nights at Southbrook.

Pastor Dan flat out spanked it out of the park.

What a blessed worship team we have. click here and see,,,,

Thoughts on Theology

The great theologian Augustine (Bishop of Hippo 396-430AD) says theology is “Rational discussion respecting the deity.”

A Christian might say a definition of theology sounds like this: “The study of God through the revelation contained in Scripture.” The problem here is that this excludes non Christian religions who define their theology different… note I didn’t say wrong, just different.

ALL people have a theology of one sort or another. For example, If you believe there is no God, then that is your theology, known as Atheism. If you believe in Buddha, then that is your theology…so on and so on.

I’ll go with this definition from C. Michael Patton, Th. M. of “The Theology Program” , Theology is a belief system concerning deity.

Here lies the 1^st problem… As soon as you start to shoot your mouth off (thoughts with air behind them), you are now a target and may need to wear a helmet…. (read about this at Rob’s blog… here…)

Your comments are welcome....

I dare ya to read more in the next post…..

Dude... This is like totally Relevant man

What a day. I SLEPT IN!!!!! Got up and took 1 hour to slowly drink my coffee (I added a bit of Hazelnut), cook a couple of fresh brown eggs with sharp cheddar cheese and some roasted garlic salsa, a multi seed bagel lightly toasted with a schmear (again….cream cheese). Then, I took my shower. Then, I did an hour of Bible study for my Tuesday night class on Humanity and Sin. VERY relaxing on a Sunday morning.

“Hey Jay…what in the _ _ _ _ are you doing home on “Church day?”

Now hit your big red “Easy” button.

Pastor Rob told me to! “Yea? Prove it buddy!... read this…. ½ way down the page . I double dog dare ya. Did you catch it??? I went to Saturday night services, stayed for the S.A.L.T meeting….. Then I SLEPT IN!!!!! You can too.

What a day God made for me.

Tomorrow I’m off to San Francisco for 21 hours. While I’m there I’m gonna go visit my best friend in life, Dany who has Leukemia really bad. Dany and I go all the way back to the late 60’s. Dar and I are God-Parents to he and Peggy’s (his wife) son Bronson. Bronson is a Sophomore now down at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Gosh am I getting old.

Oh, by the way before I forget, make sure to add a link from your blog or website to Pastor Rob’s blog.

Southbrook's S.A.L T. meeting IS for YOU

Hey Gang,

Here is a great opportunity to hear live, (click his name) Rob’s heart and leadership at our S.A.L.T meeting this Saturday night. If you have ANY desire to see Southbrook Church grow and reach out to the lost, the found, the undecided then you need to read (click this...) Rob’s blog about this and make sure you attend this Saturday night’s 6:30pm services then STAY for the S.A.L.T meeting immediately afterwards….

See ya there!!!!

(sung to “The beat goes on”)

The buzz goes on. …..The buzz goes on…… Rob keeps pounding love words to the brain…..LADA DADA DEEEE……..LADA DADA DIE………

enough already!!!!

(Click here)Take me back to Rob, PLEASE!...... You’ll see why

Why do bad things happen to good people???

This came up several times last month here at Southbrook. 2 men, fathers, husbands, church members…. lost their young lives within 2 weeks of each other. Both of them in love with God and His Son. read this…

Why do bad things happen to good people??? They both left behind families, small groups, never got to be grand pa’s, or see next weeks game, etc.

God has a perfect plan, lightning strikes in the forest, trees, burn, and new life begins, more abundant, and some times that happens with us. Then it happens again, click this…..

All told….. 211 people in that month gave their lives over to Jesus, new growth, more abundant…. then it starts a wave…. in past weeks the numbers have grown to almost 300…. with 49 just this past weekend hit this…..

so… Why do bad things happen to good people??? I’m not sure, and I don’t know who can really answer that question, I’ve read some great believers articles on it, the best is… I have seen His hand in the glory. “I know there is a pony in here somewhere!”

In His awe, Jay