Session Notes

spiked-essays | Essay | The curious rise of anti-religious hysteria

Morality marketed by people who do not necessarily ‘believe in such things’ is unlikely to set the world on fire. That is why they resent and hate the Narnia film so much. For all its faults, the movie attempts to transmit a powerful sense of belief, bravery and sacrifice. Such sentiments are alien to a cultural elite that regards the expression of any sort of strong belief as another form of that dreaded fundamentalism. Envy, bad faith and instrumentalism: these are the raw materials that fuel today’s anti-religious crusade.

Why the liberal elite hates C.S. Lewis with such a raving passion.

Focus on the Family Magazine: Chronic Kids, Healthy Spirits:

“ven for children with extreme physical or mental impairment, God has created an avenue by which He can reach their souls – through their senses and through their parents. A few nights later, Jordan’s voice woke me. “Mommy?!” I stepped into his room, “What”s wrong?” “I’m afraid of the dark.” Then in a whisper, “And diabetes. Will you sing and pray with me?” I sang “Jesus Loves Me,” prayed with him, then snuggled the blankets under his chin. “Mommy? Will you get my Bible?” I handed it to him, and he tucked it between his arms close to his heart. “Now I can sleep.” I marveled at the simplicity. He knew his comfort and security rested with God.”

TrueU.org | Student Lounge: Does Philosophy Matter?:

” the misinterpretation of Colossians 2:8 as an argument against philosophy highlights at least two important principles of biblical interpretation (hermeneutics). First, passages must be interpreted in context; this principle of hermeneutics helps avoid the common error of pulling Bible passages out of context and, in the process, misinterpreting the text. Second, passages need to be interpreted in light of what other biblical passages have to say on the matter.”

This article has some good points about proper biblical interpretation. As well there is encouragement to reason. finally one needs to ultimately depend on christ rather than worldly principles.

Boundless-Who’s on First?:

“she said something about how we’ve known each other for almost two years. I said yes. She said we’ve had a lot of fun together. I said yes. And then she said some other stuff, I don’t remember what – you can’t listen to everything a girl says or it would wear you out. I think I must have said yes to that too, which was probably a mistake. The next thing I knew, she was talking about how a girl needs a commitment or something. And I guess it took a few minutes for what she was saying to sink in, and I asked ‘What do you mean?’ And she said ‘commitment’ and spelled the word. And I said ‘It’s not like we’ve been dating or anything.’ And she said ‘What do you call it when we’ve been seeing each other exclusively for two years?’ And I said ‘What do you mean exclusively? I do things together with lots of other people.’ And she said ‘Not with other girls you don’t’ and I said ‘Girls and guys both’ and she said ‘What girls?’ And I said I couldn’t think of any and she asked me why I was holding back and I said I didn’t know what she was talking about and then all of a sudden she was crying and she left the table and the waiter brought the check and he looked at me like I was dogmeat and I couldn’t find her and so I went home, and I keep trying to phone her but she won’t return my calls “

An excellent article of the fear of commitment/failure.

Boundless: The Beloved:

“We’ve been offered many explanations. From one religious camp we’re told that what God wants is obedience, or sacrifice, or adherence to the right doctrines, or morality. Those are the answers offered by conservative churches. The more therapeutic churches suggest that no, God is after our contentment, or happiness, or self-actualization, or something else along those lines. He is concerned about all these things, of course, but they are not his primary concern. What He is after is us – our laughter, our tears, our dreams, our fears, our heart of hearts. Remember his lament in Isaiah, that though his people were performing all their duties, ‘their hearts are far from me’ (29:13). How few of us truly believe this. We’ve never been wanted for our heart, our truest self, not really, not for long. The thought that God wants our heart seems too good to be true”

A passionate call to those who have admitted the deepest desire of their hearts: to be loved.

Time Enough for Me:

“Truly effective people learn how to separate the wheat from the chaff. They let the small stuff go. I’m not so good at this. One time, while turning in a torturous twenty-page paper, I suddenly realized that I’d left the bibliography at home. I was so frustrated that I nearly broke down in front of my teacher. His stern face softened and he shook his head at me. “Jenny, there are big things in life, and there are little things. This is a little thing.”

A few words of advice on not sweating the small stuff.

Letter to a Christmas Christian : “(Large numbers of self-proclaimed Christians tell pollsters they don’t believe in hell.) In short, we don’t really need a Savior, just a little helping hand. Naturally, no one of us who buys into this self-serving imaginary theology wants to meet the real Christ. The real Christ, after all, talks constantly of our deep and thorough sinfulness, and leaves no room for any conceit about our own virtue. Moreover, He insists that He is the only path to salvation - and He means not merely behaving ourselves in accordance with some of His teachings, but trusting in His atoning work on the cross.”

This article has a few good points. One is that we you get real with your faith that constant uneasy feeling that you are lying to yourself, that you are afraid to face the truth will be gone.

What Does a Biblical Relationship Look Like? : “The first difference lies with the man’s motive in pursuing the relationship. Biblical courtship has one motive - to find a spouse. A man will court a particular woman because he believes it is possible that he could marry her, and the courtship is the process of discerning whether that belief is correct. To the extent that the Bible addresses premarital relationships at all, it uses the language of men marrying and women being given in marriage (see Matt. 24:38; Luke 20:34-35). Numbers 30:3-16 talks about a transfer of authority from the father to the husband when a woman leaves her father’s house and is united to her husband. The Song of Solomon showcases the meeting, courtship, and marriage of a couple – always with marriage in view. I am not advocating arranged marriages; rather, I am pointing toward the biblical purpose for why young men and women associate with one another. These passages do not argue that marriage should be the direct goal of such relationships so much as they assume it. Modern dating, on the other hand, need not have marriage as a goal at all. Dating can be recreational. Not only is ‘dating for fun’ acceptable, it is assumed that ‘practice’ and learning by ‘trial and error’ are necessary, even advisable, before finding the person that is just right for you. The fact that individuals will be emotionally and probably physically intimate with many people before settling down with the ‘right person’ is just part of the deal. Yet where is the biblical support for such an approach to marriage? There is none. How many examples of ‘recreational dating’ do we see among God’s people in the Bible? Zero.”

Taking a Relationship from Good to Great: “In the movie When Harry Met Sally, Harry declared that men and women can’t be just friends – I set out to prove they could. I saw it as a safe way to take a chance – to see if a relationship could grow without the pressure of formal dating and terms like “boyfriend” or “girlfriend.” If the friendship began to disappoint, I could always just say, “oh, maybe you misunderstood me, we’re just friends.” After a year of introducing her as “my friend,” Candice wanted me to be honest about the nature of our relationship. “Is this dating or something else?” she asked. “How do you describe all the time we spend together? Is this relationship going somewhere?” I knew I needed to answer these questions – I couldn’t just leave our relationship in limbo. My Wandering Eye The next challenge was a little more indirect. Candice said she wanted me to define our relationship before the new school year started. She said it was important for new students to know whether she was available or not. This was a weak spot for me. In 4 years of college, 3 years of college administration and then graduate school, I had grown to look forward to fall and the batch of new women it brought to campus. Jerry Seinfield once said, “Guys don’t want to see what’s on television – they want to see what else is on television.” “

Not Your Buddy : “The most helpful book I never read was a little relationship book called He’s Just Not That Into You. The title alone provided the answer to a decade’s old inner struggle I’ve had. You know, the one that causes a single female to hope a relationship will develop out of a friendship despite a complete absence of evidence of the fact. In her book Relationships, former college professor Dr. Pamela Reeve discusses three levels of friendships: acquaintances, companions and intimate friends. Dr. Reeve observes that men and women cannot sustain an intimate friendship without one or the other harboring romantic expectations. She recommends that men and women avoid being intimate friends outside of courtship and marriage. Companions, she says, generally spend less than two hours together a week. When a man indicates he would like to see the woman more than that, but claims they are ‘just friends,’ he sends a mixed message. Dr. Reeve writes: ‘One party can selfishly enjoy all the benefits of a relationship, the warmth and relief from loneliness, the satisfaction of the attention that feeds the ego %u2014 all without the accompanying commitment. One party luxuriates, while the other party feels cheated and is left with deep unsatisfied longings.’”