The Boulder Church

About Last Night... (Sat. Jan 3)

Chris Burkhardt — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 23:28:45 +0000

Author: Chris Burkhardt

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 11:28 pm

Here's an NPR article about the World Health Organization's support of DDT in combating Malaria: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6083944

And it's interesting to note that Dr. Paul M�ller received the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1948 for his discovery of DDT: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1948/press.html

Questions

Tim — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 10:43:49 +0000

Author: Tim

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 10:43 am

From my perspective, there are answers to questions, just not all of them. When asking questions about God, many times you may find answers to questions you were not necessarily looking for. In the story of Job, the main character demanded answers from God. God answers, clearly, but never explains what the reader knows from the beginning of the book (the conversation between God and satan).

That may be the important point. We will find answers to our questions, perhaps many of those findings with great clarity. However, we will not find ALL the answers, because we simply do not see the whole story from our vantage point.

Therefore, wisdom may be the awareness of what we understand, and awareness of what we do not. It's that illusive virtue we've discussed so much (and constantly and consistently misinterpreted as self-hatred)...humility.

Quote:

God to Job:

"Will you really annul My judgment?
Will you condemn Me that you may be justified?

Then Job answered the LORD and said,
"I know that You can do all things,
And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
[God, you said to me]'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?'
"Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know."

Heretics - Hell - This American Life

Chris Burkhardt — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 13:55:03 +0000

Author: Chris Burkhardt

Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 1:55 pm

Thanks for the link, Amy.

For people that don't want to listen to all 55 minutes of it, I found an article from the Dallas Morning News that is almost a summary of the program: The Fall and Rise of Carlton Pearson.

I think we should take his church's slogan as our own: "The Friendliest, Trendiest, Most Radically Inclusive Faith Consciousness!" And maybe we can put a glamor shot of Tim and a donation button on our front page too

Dec Gatherings

Louis.com — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 18:09:40 +0000

Author: Louis.com

Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2008 6:09 pm

Tim wrote:

Fellowship!

Party tonight! Remember, this is a Potluck: bring chips, dip, fruits,
veggies, whatever you want!

I'm bringing olives. I'd like to bring peace, too.
Also, I'll miss the Tues. meeting and any Christmas parties because I'll be in Sacrament[o] with Mindy! (But I'll still miss the SaturdayNighters.)

Helen Keller

Louis.com — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:03:17 +0000

Author: Louis.com

Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:03 pm

Hey, that's good news, Timsy. Thanks for following up. What I like about Helen's position is that it is based on a unique experience -- not just a theory. She went through at a much older age what most of us passed through when we were too young to notice. Louis

PM spam and Christian Pipe Smokers forum

Louis.com — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 19:58:41 +0000

Author: Louis.com

Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 7:58 pm

Thanks for the hot tip, Chris.
I just joined & think Josh, Mindy, and Laura, among others should join to be true to our calling.

Tell 'em that God's Gonna Cut You Down

Tim — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 16:54:50 +0000

Author: Tim

Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 4:54 pm

Check out this Cash video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e0EQlQXoEo

Notes on Hell

Chris Burkhardt — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:52:32 +0000

Author: Chris Burkhardt

Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 10:52 pm

I think Matthew 25:41 is an interesting one to add to the "Hell in the New Testament" section:

Quote:

'Then He will say to those at His left hand, "You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; [...]

He uses simply the word "fire" (gk: pur) instead of comparing it to Hades or Gehenna or Tartarus.

The Spark

Tim — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:05:45 +0000

Author: Tim

Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 11:05 pm

Thank you for this post Dennis. I like it.

Do you remember what you had said about love, and what that has to do with the spark? I was trying to remember tonight.

Uncertainty

Chris Burkhardt — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 19:20:11 +0000

Author: Chris Burkhardt

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 7:20 pm

Chris Burkhardt wrote:

At least it works with HTML: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect_(physics)

... or at least it worked in preview. I guess people can copy and paste the url to their address bar

Potential as a Form of Destiny - from C S Lewis

Chris Burkhardt — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 12:19:26 +0000

Author: Chris Burkhardt

Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 12:19 pm

As Louis attempted when we discussed this, the next sentence of the sermon clarifies how Lewis meant we help each other to our destinations:

CS Lewis wrote:

It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

Gandalf the Decider

Chris Burkhardt — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 14:19:32 +0000

Author: Chris Burkhardt

Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 2:19 pm

The clip from The Lord of the Rings we watched on Saturday was fairly true to the book:

The Fellowship of the Ring wrote:

It was Gandalf who roused them all from sleep. He had sat and watched all alone for about six hours, and had let the others rest. 'And in the watches I have made up my mind,' he said. 'I do not like the feel of the middle way; and I do not like the smell of the left-hand way: there is foul air down there, or I am no guide. I shall take the right-hand passage. It is time we began to climb up again.'

(But the conversation between Gandalf and Frodo about pity takes place much earlier in the book.)

union of theology and science?

Tim — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 13:41:25 +0000

Author: Tim

Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 1:41 pm

I finally read this entire debate. I recommend everyone who is coming to Sat nights read it.

The link is in Chris' post above mine.

Our Inability to Judge - from C. S. Lewis

Tim — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 19:23:00 +0000

Author: Tim

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 7:23 pm

How very true, and how easily forgotten this important idea is. Anyone else think that almost sounded like a Yoda sentence. Perhaps this way, "Important, this idea is...but forgot, one will easily do..."

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE THE DEER? (AND OTHER INQUIRIES)

Chris Burkhardt — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:59:56 +0000

Author: Chris Burkhardt

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2008 5:59 pm

Quote:

Should we long for God? [...] I further believed that self-denial is a natural part of this process and that we need to go "out of ourselves," so to speak, and let God take control of our lives and our being.

Maybe the most obvious model we have for how we should relate to God is how we relate to each other. The nice thing is that most of us have good and bad and strong and weak relationships, so we don't even need to refer to any scriptures or mystics to know what they are like and to imagine what they could be like.

What does a good relationship take? How and how much should we reach out to somebody to create a relationship? How much should we deny our selves to maintain a harmonious relationship?

Different kinds of relationships can act as (very real) metaphors for different ways we can relate to God: friendship, parent-child, marital (romantic), etc..

Romantic relationships, being so emotionally intense and there existing a rather rich vocabulary for describing them, are probably an especially good model. There, maybe more than anywhere, we find what it's like to long for a relationship; the pain of rejection, infidelity, or of being forgotten; giving up our wills and interests in favor of our beloved's; and it's the closest we come to being united with another person.

This was not lost on the Hebrew people and their idea of a jealous God. The Psalms are a good place to find descriptions of trying to have a relationship with God from our point-of-view. Hosea, as we'll discuss tonight, takes the marital metaphor and describes the same relationship-attempt from God's point-of-view.

The struggle to have a relationship with God is the very history of Israel, conveniently distilled to a couplet in Hosea:

Code:

In the womb he grasped his brother's heel;
as a man he struggled with God.