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Don't sleep.

 

 

Any musical genre you wish.

We have boundless creativity on this board!

Come on!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ahem...I mean...

 

That was great!

 

 

 

 

 

I actually discovered that God actually IS in the club and at work to bless people with Love... HA! 

Drinks up! 

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"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,  that all of them may be One, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be One as we are One—  I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete UNIty. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."

 

Inspired...

3/4/2007 – The Kingdom is a Really Messy Party, Greg Boyd – sermon length is 39:21 minutes

From the Sermon Study Guide...

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Messiness often bothers people. Many times when things are messy, things are ambiguous or undefined. There are no clear categories into which events can be placed. It can be too chaotic, changing, and unsettling for some to endure. Because of this dislike of messiness, it is pretty understandable how we would like to make things are clean and unambigous as we can...including our relationship with God and His Kingdom. We learn from Jesus' ministry, however, that God's Kingdom is not as clean-and-nice as we might like for it to be.

In Luke 5:27-32, we have an account of Jesus attending a huge party in his honor that is hosted by Levi (also knowns as Matthew) who happens to be a tax collector. A tax collector at this time was a Jewish businessman who made a living collecting taxes from the Jewish people on behalf of the Roman government. They were known to be corrupt, regularly exploiting their own people to line their own pockets with money. At any rate, there were a lot of social "sinners" at this party like other tax collectors, prostitutes, and others who were invited to this party. So, here we have the holy Son of God in the midst of an apparent "messy" little party. Because of Jesus's openness, love, and willingness to befriend, he was able to not only attend the party, but also enjoy himself while positively affecting those there. The Pharisaic religious leadership, however, saw Jesus as compromising with sin by hanging out with who they believed to be the main problems with Israel's then-current state. They judged Jesus because of his blatent association with people of questionable character and profession. But Jesus made clear his intentions: the Healer goes where the sick people are, wherever they may be, in order to heal them. God is reaching out to the lost, whether religous people like it or not. And He parties while He does so.

We learn that Jesus was a party person. He was a person who genuinely enjoyed seeing people have a good time. Life in the Holy Spirit is righteousness, peace, and joy (Romans 14:17) and that's what Jesus brought to earth for everyone to share. Having fun doesn't equate to doing spirtually unhealthy things like getting drunk or induging in sensual or sexual free-for-all. God is the ultimate source of all joy and desires that we enjoy our lives. God never intended for our lives to be "all work" and "no play". Jesus himself was able to party, even as he confronted many of the oppressive realities of his day. We as disciples can do no more or less than our Lord. To be sure, God does give us responsibilities and he empowers us to take those responsibilities. However, the righting of all the wrongs the world is God's responsibility, not ours. We are not to shoulder that responsibility or take any guilt from trying to take that responsibility. We are to bless others as God blesses us with the ability...and give the rest to God's mighty hands.

We also learn that the religioius leaders opposing Jesus were NOT party people. Unfortunately, they were too caught up in their judgements of Jesus' methods of serving God to notice the true work God was doing in the people. Instead of being a part of what Jesus was doing, they were paralyzed by all of the questions that their self-oriented religious convictions brought to their minds. The thinking that says "we-can-and-we-must-fix-the-world", where people get life from being the religious orchestrators of how people should come to God. They got life meaning from judging others! Disciples of Jesus must avoid this mental trap at all costs, if we want to make a true difference in the world as God's people.

There are three things that we can take away from this account for our lives today:

1) Life is found in a loving relationship with God, not in religious judgement of others.

2) Christians are as much sinners as anyone else, so we aren't in a position to fix anyone like we are better than others.

3) The only thing that can help people is God's unconditional coming through us that brings with it Kingdom joy.

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God Bless Greg Boyd.

 

 

 

 

If we allow something like this to happen again, may God's judgement descend upon our heads with swift, fiery precision! I will gladly receive divine retribution for the sins of such abhorrent nastiness coming from my country's negligence. We are among a people of unclean lips and hearts! Lord, please have mercy on us, your disrespectful, unloving Children!

(For context.  Lil' Wayne is a native New Orleans resident. Born and raised. He (along with some of his other Cash Money rap brothers) lost his house and vehicles in Katrina.  Not too mention a number of his friends and family that died in the tragedy.  He was directly and personally affected by the natural disaster and the foolish debacle that followed. )

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"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,  that all of them may be One, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be One as we are One—  I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete UNIty. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AGOiMVtkT8&mode=related&search=

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VssJg9BIHVE&mode=related&search=

 

 

Let's go out! ;)

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"When one has once fully entered the realm of love, the world — no matter how imperfect — becomes rich and beautiful, it consists solely of opportunities for love."
~ Soren Kierkegaard

Post Edited (selah) : 7/9/2007 7:12:27 PM (GMT-5)

And we WILL go out.  It'll be sooo much fun! 

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"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,  that all of them may be One, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be One as we are One—  I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete UNIty. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."

 

Tom