A realization/question?

have you guys ever considered this:

What is the purpose of Christian life? Simple answer: to bring glory to God.

Now, consider this:
Many Christians will have their beliefs affected greatly by the type of music they listen to, whether those be hymns, CCM, contemporary worship, or whatever else. Also, many are similarly affected by Christian books, such as those by Joel Osteen, John Piper, Joyce Meyer, or Eugene Peterson.

Who is in charge of what music gets released, or what books get printed, or sold? As far as I can tell, secular companies and groups will determine what gets released or sold. What is their motivation? One word: profit.

No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Matt. 6:24

Now, how should we as Christians react to this? How are we to respond to the facts that Christians will have their beliefs and faith greatly affected by Christian books, music, and whatnot; while it is also the case that these things are controlled by worldly corporations, focused on profit?

Personally, I don't want to base my beliefs off of Joel Osteen or John Piper or Tim Hughes or Relient K or whoever just because these people write books and make music that sells really well. Rather, I want to have influences from people who are focused on glorifying God and on equipping others to glorify God. But, as it stands, pretty much the only people who will get heard are the ones who the corporations think will sell well.

What is to be done? Should anything be done? Can anything be done?

random stuff...

Stuff:
- I recommend that all of you read Every Woman's Battle, even the guys! I finished it in 2 days, and it has been a really interesting and helpful read. It really helps one to understand the POV of members of the fairer sex, and I would say that it helps guys understand aspects of their personality that often go unnoticed or ignored. All in all, good book. If you want to read it, you can borrow it from my "library." Just ask me...
- Continuing with that topic, read this article from the latest issue of Christianity Today. It's on the proper place of chastity in the Christian life and in the spiritual disciplines.
- For all of your information, Jason has now been made into an admin of this site too. Yay!

oh and here's something funny for the ppl in here who are both Church History geeks and Star wars geeks!.

OK, ta ta for now...

New member?

If anyone is not opposed, then a friend of Jason's will be invited. I don't know much about him, other than the fact that he lives in SoCal and Jason really respects him alot. If nobody has any problems, I will send out an invitation tomorrow.

Also, If you know anyone in other fellowships that you think would be cool to have on our discussion board, please tell me. If you want someone on here, please send me their name, and email address.

OK, bye 4 now...

On Games...

Why do you suppose the Bible speaks so little about games?

Now, if by games you mean the things we see kids do nowadays, I would offer up the fact that childhood as we know it is a relatively modern concept. Now, it is true that, in Jewish culture, a young boy is not considered a man until his bar mitzvah (or girl and bat mitzvah). However, even still, since the society of the Bible is a pre-industrial, group-oriented society, their views of what childhood is woudl differ much from our modern, western, post-industrial concept. So, they would have not have focused on childhood games as much as maybe we would think they should.

If you see games as non-career activities that are for pleasure, again I would point you to the fact that their society was group-oriented, not individual-oriented like ours today. Narrative accounts would not include much about games because: 1) people were not as focused on self-fulfillment as we are today and 2) Narrative accounts coming out of that society would not focus on internal causes of external actions. Thus, games would not be mentioned as such, for they would be discussed as caused by external things, not by a desire for personal enjoyment.

However, I must mention how many activities that we would consider recreational are in fact included. For instance, boxing, running, archery, etc. However, these can also be seen, and indeed are often taken, as skills for a particular type of person, such as a boxer, runner, etc.

OK, enough cultural, intellectual stuff. Personally, I think that they don't mention games just because such things are not particularly important for the message they are trying to get across.

Well then... what is the proper role of recreational activities, then?

All things are made for the glory and pleasure of God, and that includes people. Methods for fulfilling our purpose as creations of God are revealed to us through both natural (conscience, nature) and special revelation (the Bible). Jesus says that the core of the message of the law and the prophets is to Love God and to love others. Thus, the purpose of our actions must lie in this, and thus the proper role of recreational activities must also lie in this.
I would say this in this way: Recreational activities must either be activites which express Love for God and love for others, or which better enable one to love God and others.

Let me give an example: AACF's football on fridays. I would say that such an event is done for the primary goal of fostering fellowship and love and unity within the Body of Christ.

Now, take an activity like, oh, i dunno, exercise in the RSF. Often, people will do it alone, so it won't really do anything to develop felowship, love, etc for others. However, it may be the case that they are doing their workouts as a way of Loviing God with their bodies. Also, exercising is an activity that develops one's body, such that it may be used to better serve God and others.

So, the proper role of recreational activities is to show love to others and God, and to develop one's self in order to be better equipped to show love to God and others.

Some weird Christian-Culture crap...

Sorry, quick interuption... Some funny stuff from the wide world of American Christian culture...










More here

did jesus play games?

I often wonder what the childhood of Jesus was like, and from the Gospels we can glean very little, most of the stories of Jesus' childhood surrounds his birth, but there is one time, when he was twelve, (so that's like jr high age?) and his family went to Jerusalem for the annual Passover celebration, and amonst the high traffic and confusion and many relatives, Joseph and Mary lost their child, and Jesus was no where to be found, so they went back to Jerusalem to search for him and after searching for three days, they finally found Him in the temple, teaching the Scriptures... and to me, I see this as this is what Jesus did for fun, teaching the people Scriptures... that this was His joy and desire...

so I think the purpose of a game often times is to have fun, and fun can be redefined and changed, for example I can thinking dancing is silly and weird for a while, until maybe one day I experience dancing in a whole new way that makes me wanna dance all day long, or maybe you can abstain from things you consider fun in order to pursue another means of having fun, so like giving up videogames to spend time visiting and talking with people with the hope that the latter will be transformed into what you truly enjoy doing...

but games do act as some sort of common ground for which people of all types can come together and bond over some sort of common event, or something like that...

what exactly do you mean when you say "games"?

Some good reads...

From our very own Albert

Latest post from my Pastor (check out the rest of his blog too.. he's cool!)

A modern retelling of the woman at the well story

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from JP Holding:

On what love means, based on the social context of the First-century Mediterranean world.

Also, what Faith is:

and on how a Christian is like a patriot

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OK, may the grace of God be with you and keep you as you live and love... Peace...

sorry, no books by those authors...

Hey, Jason, do you think you could discuss this entire idea you have about the proper place of solitude in a Christian's life? I was reading up on some First century culture stuff, and I was wondering if they might offer insight into that entire topic in which you are so interested.

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Oh, and for your edification, here's a quote that sprung up from my conversation with Albert last night in my OHs:

"Exegete in a legitimate manner, or else you'll be full of crap..."

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Oh, one last thing.. would any of you oppose to having someone in our discussion group that isn't from berkeley? I have recieved a request to add someone who is a close friend of one of our members, and who doesn't go to Cal.

So, while we work out ppl to invite and such, I was wondering:

Are there any particular topics that you guys would like to discuss?

Some of the ones that I would be interested in discussing are:

- Reformed theology and its relationship to the Christian community here at Berkeley
- Ways of developing unity between different fellowships
- current trends in American Christianity, such as the megachurch movement, the emergent church movement, various youth movements (such as Kissing Dating Goodbye, trends in CCM, etc)

and there are a few others.

Again, we want to maintain the unity of the Body of Christ here in Cal BHT, so keep that in mind. No topics like "Why Pons is a big stoopid doo-doo-head" or anything like that. :)

So, any topics?
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I have been having many thoughts concerning the nature of love. If you want to know more, talk to me. I don't yet feel like posting such stuff here. But maybe later...
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BTW, any recommendations on ppl to invite to discuss with us? if so, please email me with some names and email addresses, and I'll talk it over with others in here.

The Rules of Cal BHT

These are the current rules - last updated 6/6/05.

1) All things must be done in love. No matter what else, our two primary goals are to love God and love others.

2) Within the boundaries of being loving, be truthful and honest. Don't go saying something unless you really mean it. (Note the point on sarcasm below)

3) If there is an aesthetic change you would like to propose, contact either Pons or Jason, the current administrators of the blog.

4) Whether Protestant, Catholic, Lutheran, Orthodox, or whatever else, any and all viewpoints that fall within the realm of orthodox Christianity are accepted here. Again, in all things, be loving - we are unified in Christ.

5) Sarcasm must be clearly marked out.

6) Administrators have the right at all times to delete a post as they see fit, according to whatever rules are in place.

7) Anyone is welcome to read what we post.

8) If you are a member, please always write in the main section, unless you are responding to a lurker. If you are a lurker, feel free to write comments and questions in the comments sections.

Here we go...

WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!