Christ is Risen!

Hey, everyone, after a long, Lenten hiatus (broken for a short time by my desire to be somewhat involved in the ThP creation, and then resumed once ThP was up and running), I have returned. Yes, it is I, CoderForChrist, with a new name! Why a new name? Well, CfC was getting kinda old, and this is the name I use on IRC and in video games now...so I decided to try it out here. I also have registered coderforchrist here, so we'll see how this name change goes, and if I don't like it, I'll switch back.

So, a good bit has happened since I went away. Mainly, Kristen and I got a house! We moved in the day before Palm Sunday, and we're still unpacking. That whole process has been a wild ride, and I documented as much as I could on my . I am very glad that it was all done with before Holy Week, though.

Easter was awesome this year. Last year, I wasn't yet Chrismated for Easter (Kristen and I were received into the Church by Holy Chrismation on May 20, which was a week before Pentecost, IIRC), so this was my first year celebrating Easter as an Orthodox Christian. I was also able to take Good Friday off this year, to attend more of the services which I think really helped me a lot in preparing for the Paschal Services. Also, singing in the choir helped a lot in staying focused, which can be hard to do when the services last from 12-3am. :-D Oh, and we had 6 people Chrismated on Holy Saturday! Glory to God!

If you choose to accept this challenge you can expect to see life in a whole new way. I recently attended a prayer workshop at my church and learned from a Jewish Rabbi guest speaker that in their faith they are asked to seek out and acknowledge 100 blessings everyday. I immediately connected with this idea, however, I call them "GEMS OF THE DAY".

Upon awakening each morning, I feel Jesus kiss my face and tell me to wake, start my day and go into the world and find the gems he has provided for me to find. These can be as simple as spotting a newly born Daffodil, or being witness to a small child reach up for his mother's hand as they begin to cross the street I sit in waiting for a green light. Finding GEMS, or blessings, are easy for me, most days. But there are times I struggle with my life and can't find anything good in it, or the world around me. It is those days that knowing how to stop the negativity and find the gems becomes ever so very important to the life of my faith, my happiness, and the wholeness of my being.

It is this negativity and the great saddness I see around me that I decided to write about my GEMS OF THE DAY. It has made such a significant difference in my life, and the lives of thoe I have shared it with in real time, that I felt it was worth sharing here.

It is a concept, an idea, that being able to acknowledge, seek out, appreciate, and enjoy...the gifts all around us that God has given in every day, that are right there for the taking, readily available to our sight, and smell, and touch, and hearing, and taste; can and will change your life. It's free, it's easy, you do it alone, or with anyone near you, you don't need to read a book, or become an expert, or take a class. You just become aware.

The challenge is simple: acknowledge everything you see that is beautiful to you; a GEM. Every friend you bump into on accident. A favor someone does for you. A piece of chocolate you enjoy. A task made easier by someone or something. A smile from a stranger on the street. Two lovers holding hands in the park. Laughing so hard your tummy hurts, no lines at the grocery store, hearing your favorite song on the radio, a bubble bath, giggling, finding 20 dollars in your coat from last Spring...you'll know your GEMS once you start to look for them. See God in all of them, and smile. Pay attention to the GEMS OF THE DAY: the gifts you are given in every single day that are, YES, SIMPLE, but joyful, and beautiful, and there FOR YOU, to soak up and enjoy. God knows life is hard and challenging, that's why there are GEMS in every day; to lighten the day, to turn the frown right side up, and for you to hear God say, "I know its tough, but I love you, here is how I can make it easier, and beautiful, right now."

If you cannot find 100 in a day, shoot for 100 in a week, write them down; to me... here if you want, or ask me for my email, I'd love to compose a log of them. Maybe one day, in a few months, I'll have heard from 100 of you. Then we will have 10,000 GEMS! And I will post them. And we will smile from ear to ear from our own little places where ever we are all over the world, yet, connected by our GEMS OF THE DAY.

Go for it...the effort of looking for them is small, but the reward of smiling at God's GEMS 100 times a day is GRAND!

XO~~Denise

Has anyone heard anything about the Hobbit?  There was an article today about Guillermo del Toro directing "The Hobbit" and its sequel.  Sequel?  What sequel?  Wikipedia's article says that Orlando Bloom, Viggo Mortensen, Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood, and Christopher Lee have said they would reprise their roles as Legolas, Aragorn, Galadriel, Frodo Baggins, and Saruman if they were required for either prequel.  Huh?  I don't remember these characters from The Hobbit.  It also implied that missing pieces, such as the Council of the White, would be filled in.  Ugh!

Does anyone see this going good?  LoTR movies were best when they stuck to the script and now it looks like The Hobbit is going to be vastly tampered with.  Instead of adding scenes, they should not cut scenes from the books.  Take the money  and time from the Hobbit sequel and use it to do scenes of Tom Bombadil and the Scouring of the Shire!

A discussion between Bart Ehrman and N.T. Wright.

Is Our Pain God's Problem?

Is our pain God’s problem? If God is good and all-powerful, why does he allow so much suffering? These kinds of questions—sometimes called the problem of theodicy—have long bothered believers and nonbelievers alike. These questions are especially pressing now as we face the AIDS pandemic, widespread hunger, and environmental degradation—not to mention the grief that humans can cause one another.

Our two guests for this new Beliefnet Blogalogue have devoted part of their lives to addressing these issues. Bart Ehrman is James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the author of God's Problem and Misquoting Jesus, among many other titles. N.T. Wright is the Bishop of Durham for the Church of England and has taught at McGill, Oxford, and Cambridge. His books include Surprised By Hope, Evil and the Justice of God, and several other titles.

 From Touchstone magazine:

The fifties really were a time when the culture broadly affirmed Christianity as a Good Thing. I was there. I saw it; I heard it.

And yet some kind of demurral is strongly indicated: some sign of recognition that no human society, whatever its good intentions and methods, has lived unburdened, unencumbered by the crushing weight of human fallenness. Good as life may appear to have been in the cities and universities of France and Italy in the thirteenth century, or amid the sweaty fervor of the camp meetings in nineteenth-century America, or among the fierce faith of the emancipators, always human pride and general nuttiness were there to spoil the broth.

The fifties were not the summum bonum. They were an episode—a highly instructive one, I might add, full of dangers as well as satisfactions. We really don’t want to bring them back. We want something better, which is to learn from them.

‘Day of Silence’ in Schools Brings Unity, Controversy

As participation levels have grown over the years, however, so has a countermovement backed by religious conservatives. [...]

Meanwhile, another conservative group has come up with a different way to object to the Day of Silence. The American Family Association, based in Tupelo, Miss., is encouraging parents to tell school administrators they will withhold their children from school on the gay-supportive day.

The AFA offers a sample letter for parents to send to schools that says: “By allowing students to remain silent, administrations fail to protect the classroom from intrusive, political exploitation. My child/children will not be part of this political appropriation of the classroom.”

As some of you may know, I've been having trouble acclamating to the church I joined just a few months ago. After an arguement that ensued shortly after service, I decided that it might be time for me to leave. I believe that a building does not make a church, it's the people that reside in it... and if I can't feel comfortable with the group of people in that building, then I'm not really apart of the church, correct? I mentioned on X, how I didn't trust the pastor enough to tell him my issues, and after many attempts, I failed to relate to other congressional members who didn't think it "right" for someone like me to live the way I do, or to come to church "solo"... whatever that means... anyways, I'm worried about joining another church so soon after, since, in late august, I'll be moving once again when I transfer to another college... what should I do? I don't even know what the point of church is anymore really, it feels like a chore that I'd rather push off, and I'm not so sure I even want to join another church now... but I still believe in God, and scripture... any advice?

There are two passages in scripture that I consider to be two of the most important passages for Christian life. They are Micah 6:6-8 and Matthew 22:36-39. Of course, that's just my opinion.

Doctrine Under Great Duress in Postmodern Era, Theologians Say

Friends, fans and bearers of doctrine and theology got together this past week to confront the many skewed representations of the Gospel they've seen even among evangelicals and to reaffirm the centrality of doctrine in a postmodern era.

"We live and minister in an anti-doctrinal age or at least an age that thinks that it's anti-doctrinal. We live and minister in an age which is anti-theological or at least it claims it's anti-theological," said Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III, senior minister of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Miss., during the T4G (Together for the Gospel) conference, which concluded Thursday.