Paul Long's Ramblings

Pastor's notes for 29 April 2012 To read go HERE

Another helpful reminder from Henri Nouwen. Ramblings below after his thoughts ... :-) Question from Above What are spiritual questions?  They are questions from above.  Most questions people ask of Jesus are questions from below, such as the question about which of  a woman's seven husbands she will be married to in the resurrection.   Jesus does not answer this question because it comes from a legalistic mind-set.  It is a question from below. Often Jesus  responds by changing this question.  In the case of the woman with seven husbands he says, "At the resurrection men and women do not marry - have you never read what God himself said to you:  'I am God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob?'  He is God not of the dead but of the living" (Matthew 22:23-30). We have to keep looking for the spiritual question if we want spiritual answers.    It has been a good couple of days of leave. Had fu...

One of many reasons why I enjoy Star Trek ... thought provoking creative and well written stories that explore via fiction important themes from real life Thought his was a good piece ... Taken from http://www.startrek.com/article/there-are-four-lights-free-will-on-tng By  Lindsay Thomas April 23, 2012 There Are Four Lights: Free Will in the Context of Star Trek: The Next Generation Hidden beneath the malevolence of the Borg Collective I always felt, what I can only describe to be, a disjointed sense of innocence. There was no fundamental free will, there was no morality or ethical reasoning; The Collective was merely doing what it was programmed to do – one might even say, it was simply succumbing to its intrinsic nature in the purist sense. The Borg was terrifying in its relentless pursuit – exhibiting no sympathy, no second thoughts, no potential for reasoning or negotiating, just cold industrialized space aged metal grating upon what was once warm, pulsing fles...

Another old guard has passed on.  Got an email this morning from Colson's email list ... May God raise up more people to carry on his example of passion ans service Honor the life and legacy of Chuck Colson (1931-2012) Dear Friends, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV It is with a heavy heart that we share the news that Chuck Colson — our friend, founder, and brother in Christ — passed away this [morning, afternoon, evening]. Though we mourn the loss of a great leader, we rejoice knowing God has welcomed his humble and faithful servant home. When Chuck Colson left prison, he promised to remember the men who remained behind bars. “I will never forget you guys!” he told them. And for 36 years, Chuck faithfully kept that promise. In 1976, he founded Prison Fellowship, a ministry dedicated to living out Jesus’ command to remember the incarcerated and share the transformational love of Jesus...

Still slowly reading Eugene Peterson's "The Pastor: A Memoir" and after reading this chapter, I thought I should quickly reflect and ramble on it instead of procrastinating :-) So many sentences in this short chapter caught my eye and heart ... The first is the reason Peterson was teaching at St. Mary's Seminary while still busy as a pastor.   But the invitation to give courses at the Ecumenical Institute, as it turned out, was neither diversion nor detraction from my pastoral work. It contributed a kind of reinforcement, an enrichment. It gave me a supplementary congregation very different from the suburbanites I gathered for worship each week and with whom I lived as a companion. My classes were multiethnic, a gathering of people off the streets of Baltimore from missions, New Age cults, workers with the homeless, men and women who hadn't found their place, looking for a place. Some were Christians looking for guidance and stimulus in sharpening their witne...

Pastor's notes for 22 April 2012 To read, click HERE

Really nice! David Garibaldi: Jesus Painting from Thriving Churches on Vimeo .

A really timely reminder for me ... as "the decadence of civilization" has of late been getting me down ... “It is too easy to find an excuse for inaction by pleading the decadence of civilization, or even the imminent end of the world. This defeatism, whether it be innate or acquired or a mere affection, seems to me the besetting temptation of our time. Defeatism is invariably unhealthy and impotent; can we also prove that it is unjustified? I think so.” - Teilhard de Chardin ,  from  Building the Earth

Pastor's notes for 15 April 2012 To read, click HERE

Been a long time since I blogged. Just been too distracted and in a way unmotivated ... But anyway .... This first cartoon has been on my desktop for weeks. The church I serve as pastor has as part of its name "Community Church", and the community aspect is very important to me. A couple of random thoughts on the word community that has stuck in my mind over the last few years ... 1. A community leader once made a comment to me when I asked him about whether there were churches in the past involved in a local community trust (which I now belong to) He told me that in the past there were pastors who came on board but did not last long - his off the cuff remark was  "they were more interested in helping their own community." Ouch!  So how do Christians (or better still, should Christians) define the term "community"? Is it to be in terms of "Christians" who become part of a local church community? As in church members?  Then another communit...

Pastor's notes for 8th April 2012 To read go HERE