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Thursday, 24 May 2012

  • No Hablo Christianese

    Every profession, academic discipline, social group, and Harry Potter fan club has its own vocabulary or “jargon.” For example, when a friend of mine who has a Ph.D. in neuroscience talks about her discipline I wrinkle my forehead and nod knowingly, despite the fact that I don’t have a clue what she’s talking about. That’s because I know nothing about neuroscience, although I believe it has something to do with your head.

    The problem with jargon is that it often comes off as pedantic or exclusionary. I think this is especially true of “Christianese.” I’ve been thinking about this lately because I’ve noticed that many of the comments on Revelife are written in Christianese. That’s ok; most of us know what these folks are talking about because we are fluent in Christianese. In fact, that’s pretty much the only language I spoke for many years. 

    I’ve made a concerted effort, however, to step outside of that paradigm over the last decade or so and my ears have finally begun to hear Christianese the way someone who is not familiar with that language might hear it.

    In other words, it’s started to sound pretty silly. More Here...

  • Submit Your Posts to Revelife!

    We want to take a moment to extend an invitation to those of you who haven't submitted something to Revelife in a while.  We know there are many of you who have, for whatever reason, stopped submitting your posts to Revelife.  It's not easy for us to find good content, and there are many of you who are fantastic writers.  We miss seeing your posts in our editor!  If you haven't submitted a post in a while -- or ever -- we want to invite you to share with us your thoughts.  If you're looking for inspiration, here are some general topics we like to feature:

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    Feel free to send us anything in these categories or on any other subject that you find interesting.  It is the breadth and depth of subject matter we feature here on Revelife that makes our community unique.

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  • Jealous Man and Jealous God: A Contradiction?

    The topic of jealousy has been weighing on my mind lately for no reason in particular, and I feel like the only way to figure this out is to really examine and study it. And anyone who knows me knows that the best way I process things is to write them out. So here goes.

    Jealousy is a generally negative emotion and is at the base of things; wrong. I get this, I understand this, and like many people, I have fought it. James 3:14-17 says “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.”

    So rather than submitting to the jealous emotions within in us we are called to seek out the wisdom of God from above so that we may be made pure. Simple enough right? More Here...

Wednesday, 23 May 2012

  • The Best Books I've Never Read

    By Tom Zuniga

    I like lists. Lists keep the world in order. Lists tell us what’s the best of the best and the worst of the worst and the medicorest of the mediocre.

    Top-10 lists are cute, but cliché. That’s why I do top-11 lists. They’re less cute, yes, but also less cliché, which also means more original. Also, I greatly worry what people think of me; I’ll trade cute for non-cliché.

    I love books, though I’m certain I don’t read nearly enough. There’s just too many great books out there I’ve yet to tap into. So here now is my top-11 list of books I’ve never read. I hear they’re all pretty great — or, you know, maybe they’re not. More Here...

  • All the World's a Stage: Stop People-Pleasing and Start God-Pleasing

    I grew up with a dad who was a pastor. There was always a strong emphasis on my sisters and I that people were watching! We had to behave as perfectly as possible, or it was considered a bad reflection on my father and his standing in the community.

    I often felt like there was a different set of rules for pastors kids than there were for everyone else. The deacon's kids could chew gum in church, or even skip church to attend other functions. They did not come to prayer meeting. Other people's kids could wear shorts and go to movies and dances. My dad was very strict with us. I was often reminded that I must be a good example.

    It got to the point that I felt like I was on a stage all the time. People were watching, and I was "on display." Sadly, I got really good at pretending. I learned all my memory verses in Sunday School. I knew the words to almost every song in the hymnal.

    Oh yes, on the outside I did everything right. It all looked good. But in my heart, I was just a performer. More Here...

  • God, I Want to Really Know You

    If you were a celebrity, and I inquired to know your name, when I knew your name would I then know you? If I were to Google as a few facts in regards to your life style, would I know you then? If I were to read all about you, know when you were born, what culture you were raised in, and a few facts about your parents, then would I know you?

    What if I knew your family tree by heart, or could quote sayings of yours by mere memory? What if I knew the hidden meaning of your words and parables? Would I know you? What if I could mind-baffle others with astonishing knowledge of you, would that prove that I knew you? If I could come up with intellectual sounding wordy books on the topic of you, would I indeed know you? If I joined a club of your fans and meet often in honor of you, would this then, mean that I knew you?

    I believe that all that I have attempted to do in regards to you would be meaningless, because at the end of the day, I would have to come to the realization that I have never once touched you, and you have never once touched me. I would have to face the fact that, though my knowledge of you may indeed in some sense be great, I have never held a personal conversation with you. I would have to admit that, though I know your life somewhat intimately, knowledge doesn't link you and I in any kind of way. The fact would remain, that I don't know you, just know of you. Therefore, since I don't know you, it would be likely and acceptable to conclude that you, yourself as a person, don't know me either. More Here...

Tuesday, 22 May 2012

  • Which Marriage Rights Should We Be Fighting For?

    Jesus never said anything about homosexuality, but about divorce he was very clear in Matthew 5:

    31 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery."

    Why oh why do the conservative pundits love to attack gay people (which, as most of them admit [including Exodus International, famed "pray the gay away" group], is not a quality they choose), but never wage a war against divorce? Hell, Newt Gingrich, who up until two months ago was a legitimate contender for the White House, is on his third marriage. Even worse, he divorced one woman while she was in a hospital bed for cancer treatments, and divorced another after having liaisons with his current wife well before the divorce -- and he was getting the Evangelical vote!

    Why is it that, in politics, the "Christian" thing to do is to ignore the actual teachings of Jesus and focus on the parts of the Bible that make your pet issues convenient?     More Here...

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  • Defining Life In Amongst The Chaos

    Life is chaos.

    We began in chaos. If we were to subscribe to evolutionary theory, we were a few atoms forced together by chance from a million others emanating from a cosmic bang producing hydrogen atoms. From the combinations forming from the random contact of atoms, compounds happened. These compounds multiplied, and continuously bumping around, mistakes happened, and mostly, we reached a dead end and most compounds decayed away. But some flaws worked in our favour and we changed somewhat to slightly different structures and the better compounds overtook and dominated over the older versions of the compounds. From the diversity of compounds became life. Life started off as simple, then complex life forms. Life is merely bumping into each other, and making more offspring, and moving further and further along the evolutionary cycle.

    If we were to subscribe to creationism, we were conceived as very good beings from the dust of the earth. Yet, we are fundamentally tainted by the chaos, that is, power and the ability to sin against one another and against a Holy God. Through the fruit eaten in the Garden of Eden we have been forced to live a life without the direct providential care of God, and we are returned to working the earth for little fruit. It is the chaos we find, when we find our relationships strained because we have rejected the life of God for much less.

    We are highly flawed beings, whatever theory we subscribe to. More Here...

Monday, 21 May 2012

  • Smoke Detectors are Against My Religion

    That is what Amish are saying about smoke detectors. They claim it would be against their religious beliefs to have smoke detectors in their homes.

    A reporter talked to Mose Miller at his doorstep with his nine children looking on. It was cold: -15C (5F). Most of the kids were in bare feet. Their clothes were roughly sewed together - like Victorian patchwork puppets.

    Mose Miller said "I use this,” he said pointing at his nose, “or him,” and his finger pointed upwards. “I don’t need a devil on the wall to tell me if my house is burning.” More Here...

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