12 years ago
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“What saves us is to take a step. Then another step. It is always the same step, but we have to take it.” -- Antoine de St Exupery
Michael's Other Blogs
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Learning Stuff - My wife and her four skirted traveling sisters are on their way home... or soon will be. 6 AM in Manzini, and so they're about ready to start their last ...
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We Are Yours - Just as the last song ("Know Me") took forever to come to life, this one came almost immediately -- mysteriously, suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere. I w...15 years ago
The Adventures of a Stumbling Christian
These are the thoughts and adventures of an ever-stumbling, always wondering Christian. Some may make sense, many don't, and some may seem blasphemous... but all are pondered with honesty and humility.
We're all on a path toward God. We're each on a different path, but for many it's the same path. (If that doesn't make sense, read the quote from St-Exupery above. If it still doesn't make sense, blame me.)
This blog is dedicated to that path, and to my fellow travelers.
Blog Archive
Michael's Creed
Who needs their own creed anyway? Probably no one... but this simple list helps keep me grounded in the One, and in the reasons why we follow him.
Trust God
At the end of the day, in whatever circumstances assail us or buoy us, we need to trust God. We need to trust his compassion, his endless love for us, and we need to trust in his great dream for bringing us all back together.
Follow Jesus
There are other faiths, other prophets, other paths. Who am I to say whether they bring one to God or not? But I've chosen to follow the Jesus way: in community with other believers, carrying his word, and sharing his love.
Serve Humbly
I'm convinced that the Christian life is all about finding and growing one's "servant nature". I'm bad at this, but I try to remind myself to seek out ways to serve, even if they feel unnatural or are out of my normal comfort zone.
Love Boundlessly
I've struggled in the past with how to make this part of the creed fit, and still be obtainable by a mere human like me. I originall thought one should "Love unconditionally" but I know I can't love everyone without condition or exception, as much as might want to. "Love boundlessly" conveys, I think, the idea that there should be no boundaries between who we might or might not offer our love to, or the depth that we might allow ourselves to feel that love... no matter how vulnerable that leaves us.
Trust God
At the end of the day, in whatever circumstances assail us or buoy us, we need to trust God. We need to trust his compassion, his endless love for us, and we need to trust in his great dream for bringing us all back together.
Follow Jesus
There are other faiths, other prophets, other paths. Who am I to say whether they bring one to God or not? But I've chosen to follow the Jesus way: in community with other believers, carrying his word, and sharing his love.
Serve Humbly
I'm convinced that the Christian life is all about finding and growing one's "servant nature". I'm bad at this, but I try to remind myself to seek out ways to serve, even if they feel unnatural or are out of my normal comfort zone.
Love Boundlessly
I've struggled in the past with how to make this part of the creed fit, and still be obtainable by a mere human like me. I originall thought one should "Love unconditionally" but I know I can't love everyone without condition or exception, as much as might want to. "Love boundlessly" conveys, I think, the idea that there should be no boundaries between who we might or might not offer our love to, or the depth that we might allow ourselves to feel that love... no matter how vulnerable that leaves us.
Links, Blogs, and Sites
Galations 3.26-28
Baptized into Messiah,you are clothed in Messiah,so that there is no moreJew or Greek,slave or free,man or woman,but all are one, are the same,in Jesus Messiah.(Translation by Garry Wills)
2 Corinthians 5.18-19
All is God's doing, as he rejoined us to himself through Messiah, and made us cooperators in the rejoining. Just as God was in Messiah rejoining creation to himself, canceling man's sin, so he made us diplomats of the rejoining.
Ephesians 1.8-10
His grace is overflowing to us in every kind of wisdom and knowledge, revealing the secret of his purpose, the loving care of his prior arrangements in Christ, that he bring the stages of all things to their fulfillment , summing them all up [anakephalaiosasthai] in Christ, all that is in the heavans, all that is on earth.
St. Augustine's "Confessions"
"Nevertheless, to praise you is the desire of man, a little piece of your creation. You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you."
1 Corinthians 13.1-13
Were I to speak the languages of all men and all angels, without having love, I were as a resonating gong or jangling cymbal. Were I to prophesy and know all secrets and every truth, were I to have faith strong enough to move mountains, without having love, I were as nothing.Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy others or brag of itself. It is not swollen with self. It is not wayward or grasping. It does not flare with anger nor harbor a grudge. It takes no joy in evil, but delights in truth. It keeps all confidences, all trust, all hope, all endurance. Love will never go out of existence. Prophecy will fail in time, languages too, and knowledge as well. For we know things only partially, or prophecy partially, and when the totality is known the parts will vanish. It is like what I spoke as a child, knew as a child, thought as a child, argued as a child -- which, now I am grown up, I put aside. In the same way we see all things in a murky reflection now, but shall see them full face when what we have known in part we shall know fully, just as we are known. For the present then, three things matter -- believing, hoping, loving. But supreme is loving.(Translation by Garry Wills)
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