a place just for voxtropolis chocoholics!

Near the Grand Place in Brussels, Belgium.

i’ve been updating facebook these days…i miss Voxtropolis though!

Tonight, one of the women in my small group told me that Dr. Phil showed up a Women of Faith conference In Sacramento to support his wife (Joy?) who was a speaker this past weekend.
So, “Cool”, I thought to myself, “Dr. Phil loves Jesus?! That’s awesome!”
BUT THEN, the guys group that meets downstairs heard this same news (Dr. Phil is a Christian) when they came upstairs, on the tail end of this conversation, and they were in agreement that it is unlikely that Dr. Phil is a Christian. They felt he was a Christian in the same regard that Oprah is, which is being a Christian in that one loves Jesus and also believes in the equal deity and goodness of other Gods.
Is one to not judge and believe, “Only God knows who is a Christian and who’s not”, or, do we take a person at face value when they show up at a huge Christian conference and say, “I believe. Jesus is Lord.”?

All in all, “I don’t know.” I wasn’t at the conference and I obviously don’t know Dr. Phil or even know his wife’s name. But, I’d like to believe that he and his wife are sincere and not just showing up at conferences purely for personal gain. Maybe I am too naive? Maybe I am too skeptical? Who are we to say he is a Christian or not? If he says he is, then why not believe him?
*sigh*

All I know is that the more I learn, the more I realize, I know very little.

I think there were about eight garbage bags full of clothes and shoes by the time I went through my closet and dresser.

My sister came over to help me decide what to keep and what to give away. She took some clothes for herself in the process, which I was really happy about, including an outfit that she might wear when she gets married back in the Netherlands. She also accepted the earrings! Turns out they had belonged to our Great Grandmother.

My Mom also came over to help and she left wearing a jacket that I no longer wanted. Coincidently she is having a garage sale at the end of the month in her housing complex so she took all my stuff and will donate the rest to St. Vincent DePaul Charities, or to Goodwill. Fine with me!

(BTW, Goodwill does indeed appear to be “good”, and extremely good at generating revenue from their retail sales. They made over $1.6 billion from their stores in 2005 alone!)

After a full school year followed by two weeks of family in town to visit, I finally have some time to clean out my closet and really clean my room!!! I automatically assume that I will give my clothes to Goodwill, but I am just now wondering, what exactly does Goodwill do with their proceeds? I honestly have no idea. I just assume it’s a good organization because it’s a part of their name. Are they like the Salvation Army?
Maybe I should try to have a garage sale and then donate the money I make to an organization that I am more familiar with or give the proceeds as an offering at church? Realistically, I do not have time to actually have a garage sale any time soon (I’ve never had one before). OK, maybe I can save my clothes to donate to a missions trip or some other “cause” that is just as “good” as Goodwill. I guess I’m just trying not to always do the laziest, most convinient thing (dropping my stuff off at Goodwill) as I purge my shelves, hangers, dresser drawers and shoes.

What do you do with your old clothes? Do you ever feel like it’s lame to give away stuff you no longer want? Is it really giving if you no longer want what you’re giving away? What makes my old clothes better than trash? I suppose there is the saying that one person’s trash is another’s treasure. Perhaps that will hold true as I sift through and give away clothes I bought, wore once, maybe twice, and never wore again. But, then I also have to wonder, why is it that I don’t also so readily give away the stuff I really want? And how much stuff is too much?

I have a lot of stuff…so much so I can’t believe it. Sometimes, this belief extends to the point of embarrasment. For example, last week I was looking for a jewelry box that I haven’t seen since we moved into our house about 4 years ago. In it was my grandmother’s wedding ring that I broke, but which can be easily repaired (the band snapped). My sister was recently engaged and she and her fiancee can’t really afford a diamond ring (which she would love to have, something simple, just like this ring) so I thought I should give her our Kauai Grandma’s ring since I have my own wedding ring now. It’s a precious ring from the 1920’s that has 7 tiny diamonds in it. I lost this ring in college (when I used to wear it all of the time) and I prayed and prayed to the Lord that somehow I would find it again. I was a baby-baby Christian at the time. I didn’t even know that being a Christian meant you should probably look for a church or have fellowship or anything. I just believed in Jesus as God and Savior at that point in my journey. That night, after re-tracing my steps all afternoon at school, as I was in bed crying and praying to the Lord for the ring to be found. In my distress, I rolled over in a tantrum like fit and something poked me in the rib. I swatted at it to relieve my irritation and as my hand made contact with what was poking me, I realized that the irritation was the ring! I swore that I had lost it at school!!! I believe that it was an absolute miracle and an answer to prayer that I found it. Even if it had slipped off in my sleep the night before, even so, in my mind, it was lost, and then it was found! Just like I was…(life was really hard, lonely and dark back then…).

But, I digress (my point is that it’s a special ring!).

Anyway, I looked around the house for a long time for the jewelry box in which I knew the ring would be. I almost gave up for the day and then I finally I found it tucked away in one of our closets. Nestled next to the ring, I also re-discoved a pair of diamond earrings that my Mom gave to me years ago which had belonged to my other Grandmother. I had forgotten all about those! This is why I say that I have WAY too much stuff.
So, I’m going to give those earrings to my sister if she wants them (but notice I have not yet given them away!). If she doesn’t want them, perhaps I should give them to someone else who would appreciate them? Or should I hold on to them and keep them “in the family?”

It’s so easy to give away my old clothes, but not so much those earrings…

Do people ever give diamond earrings to Goodwill? Would that be dumb to give them to Goodwill? Would they just get lost in some junk pile?
Well, now I will “have to” look into Goodwill before I clean out my closet and drop off my bags (and bags) full of clothes/shoes/misc. items. It is likely a “good” organization as far as “good” goes.

It’s just like me to find a way to procrastinate from cleaning my room for just a bit longer…

Watch this free video on iTunes to see how Bono continues to leverage his celebrity to bless the people of Africa:

NBC News Special, Bono In Africa With Brian Williams
An inside look at U2’s Bono and his mission of hope in Africa

(sorry there’s no link, just enough info. to find it on iTunes ==> Videos ==> TV Shows)

Or, try browsing here, in MSNBC.com

Guess this story is about a month old, but I kept hearing about Bono’s work in Africa, and yet hadn’t read or watched anything about it myself, so thought I’d share this in case anyone else out there is as behind as I am!

I appreciate the previous comments about this issue. Thanks Jonathan & JVD. This started out as a reply, but it became so long that it might as well be a new post.

So, I’ve been reading many theological viewpoints. Good arguments, and poor ones. The worst argument thus far is by a theologian who proudly shares that his daugthers know how to lead in the church “without being mannish�.

I too wish that there were no debate here, and that full unity existed over the ordination of women, but there is a debate. There are not clear answers or conclusions for many people surrounding women’s roles in the church. So when the issue came up in my Systematic Theology course (Ecclesiology & Eschatology), I had to ask myself, “What do I think?�

“Can I articulate an informed and loving answer to those who might ask me about this issue?�

Right now, no. But I hope to get there…

I am thankful tonight for my church. I think that we are fairly conservative in our Biblical stances and interpretations. Yet, the ordination or teaching “authority” of women is just not an issue with us. Women speak, lead and teach as they are gifted and called. If a woman happens to have “authority” over a man, people respect that authority unto the Lord w/o issue (or they leave the church if they can’t handle a woman giving a man any type of direction; and, good luck making it in the real world).

We also are a people who highly value grace, unity in the essentials and liberty in the non-essentials. The more I study theology and the things theologians argue over, the more I appreciate Cornerstone! I don’t think we have authority issues (unless your cell phone rings during service or you get up to use the bathroom and expect to go back to your original seat).

Although…I do believe that men and women have to serve and lead one another together, in balance; if a woman is serving and overseeing a group of men w/o any male leadership support (but not necessarily a man “in authority over her”), things can get imbalanced or unhealthy, but, it’s the same when the shoe is on the other foot.

Wow, this is quite a long post…I guess I’m ready to start writing my paper.
It’s due on Monday.

Looking forward to my next post: “I’m Finished!!!�
(it will contain my thesis and conclusions, as popular or unpopular as they may be.)

So, I am developoing my thoughts, theologically (at least that’s the goal!), on this subject for a paper that is due in about a week. This is an issue (the ordination of women in the church) where I can appreciate both sides of the argument (complementarian and egalitarian).
It will be interesting to see what I learn along the way. I am open, and this issue challenges me (which is why I am choosing to write about it).

I am grieved that this issue has been, and still is a source of division in the Church.

I do not think that this is something we should be divided over, although I can see why there are differing viewpoints.

Personally, I am open to being convinced either way and to having my mind changed as I continue to read and research. I never really thought much about ordination, for men or women, until I started taking theology courses. I go to a non-denominational church and we don’t really ordain our Pastors, so this isn’t an “issue” for us as a body. I’ve never been “pro” or “con” when it came to this and I tend to be fine with whatever as long as God is being glorified and people’s rights are not being viciously squashed. There are women leaders in our church, and if we did ordain our associate Pastors and Ministry Directors I am fairly certain women would be included in the ordination process on the basis of their calling and giftings, gender notwithstanding.

So, I am looking forward to seeing how this develops and what my paper will actually have to contribute to this topic once it’s finished!

8 days to go before the due date!

Hey there~~~

You have found me on Voxtropolis….thanks for taking the time to read this.

To the Wednesday night small group:
Well, if we had to name our group, my first thought would be G3…short for the title of this post. No, wait, I’d change it to “THE G3″ for THE Greatest Group of Girls…

You all blew me away last night, and I loved seeing how you were reaching out and connecting so quickly and authentically. What a blessing!!!

So, I just decided to rename this vox (for the third time) and thought I could use it to keep in touch with you girls, because…

1) You are each awesome
2) Our group is awesome
3) I have, and will have, lots of ideas/thoughts/updates and want to hear yours too…

So, let’s try to use this site to keep in touch, and if you like voxtroplolis, get your own VOX and start blogging and we can subscribe to each others blogs, etc…this site (voxtropolis) doesn’t launch until Feb. 2007; it’s in Beta right now, so that’s probably why you’ve never heard of it.

It’s a Christian site out of Mosaic in L.A. (Pasadena); Erwin McMannus is the Senior Pastor…

I think it would be great to get everyone from college group on Voxtropolis!!!

So, GET A VOX!!! Let’s stay in touch other than via e-mail.

Anyway…see you all next Wednesday; same place, same time, except I’ll be on time!!!
(Janelle, it was NOT your fault I was running late…I would have been late even if I had not picked you up!)

xo in Him,
tobee

Seems like I’m not the only one in the city of voices who is studying for finals and/or in some type of theology course…
I’m currently taking an Ecclesiology and Eschatology course, and yesterday, I read through the theologies of certain individuals who concluded that “Jesus was clearly mistaken in his thinking” (regarding the timing of His second coming). At that point, I started to skim pages…I have trouble not throwing the ‘baby out with the bath water’ when I read one or two things I don’t agree with, and I do not care to read in-depth more of that person’s theological conclusions…

Later in the day, thankfully, when reading about the end times, I came across a paragraph that hit home, and continued to confirm the design of the Character Matrix presented by Erwin McManus at Ethos. What I read is as follows, on Reaping One’s Own Sowing, (Gal. 6:7-8), by Thomas C. Oden, Life in the Spirit: Systematic Theology Volume Three, p. 440 (emphasis mine):

CHARACTER MOLDS DESTINY. That human freedom is divinely aided does not diminish its quality as freedom, for all self-determining beings are given grace adequate for salvation if they cooperate with it. It is the ultimate directionality of the character that makes the judgment irreversible, a crystallization due to moral choice, not coercion (Origen, Principles II.10, Ante-Nicene Fathers IV, pp. 293-96). This does not deny social or genetic or biological or cultural determinants [e.g. Strengths and Personality Profile], but focuses upon one’s own free response to all conceivable determinants.

If I am required to read texts that need to point out mistaken thinking about Jesus being mistaken, fine. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I’ll read it and pray for those who are being quoted to not lead others astray (I admit, I sometimes get angry when I read theology). Ultimately, if a theologian, no matter how educated, no matter what school s/he may be a professor at, I’m going to reject the conclusions of those who think of Jesus as merely a “good” man, able to be “mistaken” (!!!). Maybe I am closed-minded, but shouldn’t we start with the “WHO” and let our theology be formed and informed from that vantage point?

I suppose this is all par for course…needing to learn what’s out there in a conversation that has been going on for thousands of years!!! Lots of opinions to wade through (including my own…).

When it’s all said and done, I have to believe all the reading and studying will be worth it. I want to believe that being aware of what I do not agree with in the pages of Systematic Theology texts have value if, as I read, I daily give it all to the One Who has given His all.
OK, back to the books…