Culture and The Wounded Heart

"Love is a powerful force and energy to reclaim the potential good in another, even at the risk of great sacrifice and loss.

For example, if another's arrogance destroys the possibility of relationship with us and with God, we must hate his arrogance and see it as a cancer to be destroyed  In one way, the cancerous mass can be said to be a part of the man, but in another sense it is a foreign, alien thing that is not part of God's original design.  If we are to hate what is evil and cling to what is good, we are constrained to detest all that is consonant with evil and bind ourselves to whatever is good.  Therefore, love is not anemic unconditional acceptance that ignores evil in others or ourselves (Matthew 7:3-6).  It is not contradictory to love someone, desire their good, and equally work toward destroying their cancer through bringing them to repentance and faith" (242).

Dan Allender, The Wounded Heart

What does the truth of bold love have to do with how we look at cultures?  We might love the culture but still see severe issues in the culture (lies that they are believing).  This reminds me of my favorite non-fiction book in the world (that I haven't finished yet): Discipling Nations by Darrow Miller

Lovefeasts = bizarre

A Lovefeast service is a service dedicated to Christian love, and is most famously practiced by, but not limited to, the Moravians. A Lovefeast seeks to strengthen the bonds and the spirit of harmony, goodwill, and congeniality, as well as to forgive past disputes and instead love one another.

Wikipedia: Lovefeast

The Holy Spirit was always my favorite member of the Trinity

"The communion between Christ and believers, while it is so intimate and unbreakable that it can scarcely be expressed in words and can only be somewhat made clear by images (such as head and body, vine and branch, bridegroom and bride), it is still not a pantheistic mingling or identification, no transference of substance, no consubstantial oneness like that of the three persons in the Trinity, nor a personal union like that of the two natures in Christ.  Christ and believers remain distinct.  Their personalities are maintained.  The mystical union is a union of persons, not only in will and disposition but also in being and nature.  

This communion is brought about by the Holy Spirit, who dwells in Christ as the head and in believers as his members...Only the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ, can so unite people with Christ that they share in his person and benefits and cannot be separated form him by death or the grave, by the world or by Satan (577)."

Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation (vol. 4)

I love this stuff now.  But I love it knowing that a lot of people think theology like this is lame.  But I think its truth make any lameness worth it.  (This is referencing the argument post below).

liz (my sister in law) just posted the pictures from bangalore on fbook.

explanation: liz embroiders a neighborhood map onto a sheet or large piece of cloth and then goes into a neighborhood (she's done parts of barcelona, manhattan, and now bangalore) and sets up a table.  as people pass by she asks them to stitch "themselves," or their memories and impressions, onto the map.  This includes marking favorite places on the map, where one fell in love, where one has been mugged, places of the city that make them angry, etc.  It's pretty awesome and interesting.

rome.

my sister in law did a project in rome along with some other artists that i talked about before.  it was an audio tour of rome where people biked around and listened to recordings of people from other romes in the world (rome, georgia was one) talked about the places they were looking at and how it reminded them of their own rome.  can you see the wolf in the picture?  do you remember the story of rome?  

more pictures here from liz's website

she's doing an urban fabric project in bangalore now, i can't wait until the pictures are put up.

i couldn't stop thinking about this photo:

Garance Dore

When I decided to get dreads I didn't really know what i wanted.  But now I want this:  something bizarre and sculptural on top of my head.  

What is feminist theology? And other things that I know nothing about...

Wikipedia: Feminist Theology