Monthly Archives: September 2006

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Recycling is Biblical (part 2)

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This is a follow up to my intro in part 1 (which according to my friend Josh, sounded grouchy).

If someone is hoping I’m going to pull out the verse in Habbakuk 13:8 that says, “Any container that can be reused or returned to it’s natural form should. The punishment for not doing so is death,” I’m sorry to disappoint you but that’s not the verse I’m preaching on today.

I’d rather pull a few phrases of Paul, “Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial,” and “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God,” and finally, “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.”

First of all I want to point out that my desire to argue that Recycling is Biblical does not come from a point of condemning those who do not currently recycle. We are not bound by the law anymore and therefore my goal is not to place this as the 11th commandment, but rather to simply argue that it is worth considering recycling as opposed to not recycling as the more “Christ-like” thing to do. When Paul says “Everything is permissible for me,” he is exclaiming the fact that we don’t live under the law, but then he points out it is not all beneficial. In light of that I’ll ask, what is better for you and your great grand children, recycling or not?

Whatever you do, you are to do it for the glory of God. Now, you well know that that does not mean that we are to lie and cheat to the glory of God. There are some things that given the option (between lying and telling the truth) one is clearly not as glorifying, or not glorifying at all. Currently, as it relates to recyclable products in your home, there are two options. You have the opportunity to recycle those items, contributing to a more sustainable world, and not recycling. You’ve got taking care of God’s green earth (recycling, composting, using less trash and less gas, gardening, etc) and then you take not doing those things (draining resources, creating tons of trash, etc). I’m not sure it’s too difficult to argue that one is more God glorifying then the other.

And, last but not least, you have your weaker brother here. There is no law binding you to recycling. There was no law keeping Paul from eating meat. But Paul was willing to sacrifice the exercise of his freedom, so that he did not become a stumbling block for his weaker brother who felt recycling was so important it was almost a sin not to do it. One might choose to recycle, not because they are selfish, nor because they have been compelled by the evidence of the benefits of recycling, nor because of the Scriptures, but simply because they see the trauma it causes their brother in Christ when they don’t recycle.

-your weaker brother

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The Bible is a Story

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If you haven’t noticed the little countdown on the side bar, I’ve decided to join a group of folks from Mosaic in reading through the Bible in 12 weeks.

Adria explains well why we are all doing this:

Why read the Bible together in 12 weeks?

1. To know what the Bible says, so that we can better understand what the Bible means, and what God’s message is to us through this story, so that we can live well.

2. To have an experience of reading the Bible as a whole book, and not just it’s separate parts. The beauty of reading the Bible in such a concentrated amount of time is that we better understand the overall story and let it put our lives into context.

3. To create community around a common goal.

To facilitate the community part of things Adria put together a blog, 12 weeks, for all those reading to write their thoughts on and to create some dialogue. It’s a pretty neat thing and I’m excited to be a part of it. It did take me a couple days into it before I finally joined in.
If you want to keep up with what I write as I read you can bookmark this link, or grab this feed.
And now you know what I’ll be reading for the next three months.

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The News makes choices on what’s important

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The Crocodile Hunter dies. Okay, so I realize why this gets media attention. An international celebrity, an environmentalist, quite a character. As a friend said, “This is seriously like finding out there’s no Santa. He was invincible.” If you want to find out about another crazy radical killed by dangerous animals he hung out with, check out this movie.

I understand all that, and I understand why the news story on The Today Show yesterday spent time commentating on the death of the Crocodile Hunter and how sad that is.

What I don’t understand is why we don’t spend an equal amount of time commentating, discussing, and pondering the tragedy of six children dying in a fire because a candle tipped over in thier apartment where there were no working smoke alarms and the candle was their current source of light since their electricity had been off since May. I’m not advocating for universal electricity service or anything. I’m just saying, that’s a tragedy, and it’s an important one for us to discuss.
Where was the interview of the local pastor, asking how we can preach a gospel that calls us to help those in need, and yet we let this women and her children live without electricity for months? Where is the commentary on the reality of slum landlords that don’t keep their buildings up to code?
Why is the death of six children not worth as much media time and energy as the death of a man who many expected would die in an accident similar to the what happened?

From
Fire kills 6 children in Chicago – The Boston Globe

Commonwealth Edison spokesman John Dewey said the apartment hadn’t had electricity since May, but he wouldn’t say why it was turned off, citing confidentiality policies.

Orozco said smoke detectors were found in common areas of the building but not the gutted apartment.

“We have working smoke detectors in all of our apartment units at the time the tenants sign their leases,” said Jay Johnson, the owner of the building. All the smoke detectors in the building are hard-wired to the electrical system, he said.

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Podcasting is Back!

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It took a little while, but I’m back in the podcasting world.
Bryan and I have decided to do a weekly podcast about our experiences living in this community that we’ve formed. Hopefully it will be something that is beneficial for both us and those who are listening in.

It’s gonna take us a little while to get in a groove, but I hope your ready for some great podcasts to come. Your really going to enjoy listening to Bryan, he’s very wise and has awesome stories. Stay tuned…


or Download here.

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I know you read this…

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It’s come to my attention recently, that there are people from the church I have been attending, Mosaic, that read my blog.

Those that have posted a comment on here before I appreciate that, it establishes your presences and acknowledges to me that your out there.

Some though, have been lurking in the shadows, investigating into my thoughts and writings without hinting that your there. If that’s you, I want to encourage you to come out of the shadows.
I’m not looking for anyone to comment all the time, but I would like to know that your reading what I’m writing. I think that would be courteous. Don’t worry, I’m not offended or anything, it would just be good for me to know who I’m talking to.

If it’s nothing more then a quick comment or an email (ariahfine at gmail dot com) the gesture would be wonderful.

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I’m not “Saving Money on Gas”

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It occured to me the other day when we were driving in the car with the three year old and talking about biking and driving and “saving” gas that I’ve still been buying into this lie.
A while ago I realized how ridiculous it is to come home from a shopping trip and say I “Saved $143.52 today!” The truth is a spent a bunch of money, regardless of how on sale the item I purchased was. That was step one in my reality check.
Today I realized, biking to work doesn’t “save gas” it rather keeps gas from being used that doesn’t need to be used. In the same way, when I choose not to eat red meat (which I grew up not eating), I don’t walk around saying, “I’m saved a pig’s leg and a cow today!”

Very little in my life are necessities, and this is probably true for you as well. I think we can probably make a case for our “need” to go to our job and/or school, and therefore I can understand a “need” to drive to those locations if they aren’t in walking or biking distance.
What I’ve realized though, is I’ve been hoping in my car for far too many “wants.” If using too much gas is a problem, then I need to work on changing my lifestyle and my choices.

That’s I think one of the reasons I find this place the MinusCarProject so inspiring. Here’s the mission statement:

The MinusCar Project exists because I believe people that think that the globe is warming because of human activity, specifically carbon emitting human activity, might be right. Because I think they might be right, I think humans need to change. And because I think humans need to change, I think I need to change.

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Free Derek Webb!!!

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Good ol’ Derek former front man of Caedmon’s Call has Not been wrongfully imprisoned or anything like that.
What he has done is made his most recent and Amazing CD available as a free download for those who need to and must hear it.
I’ll give you the Lyrics to just one of his songs and you’ll see why, for your own faith edification, you need to go and download this CD now.


Rich Young Ruler

(vs. 1)
poverty is so hard to see
when it’s only on your tv and twenty miles across town
where we’re all living so good
that we moved out of Jesus’ neighborhood
where he’s hungry and not feeling so good
from going through our trash
he says, more than just your cash and coin
i want your time, i want your voice
i want the things you just can’t give me

(vs. 2)
so what must we do
here in the west we want to follow you
we speak the language and we keep all the rules
even a few we made up
come on and follow me
but sell your house, sell your suv
sell your stocks, sell your security
and give it to the poor
what is this, hey what’s the deal
i don’t sleep around and i don’t steal
i want the things you just can’t give me

(bridge)
because what you do to the least of these
my brother’s, you have done it to me
because i want the things you just can’t give me

Here’s a video from one of his songs too.

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Recycling is Biblical (part 1)

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Earlier this week I sent an email out to some friends informing them of the new recycling policies in Nashville.

At the end of the letter I went out on a limb and threw in a statement saying that it’s “Biblical” to recycle. Well, I think it took a few people back and rubbed them the wrong way or something. So, I’ve got to give some explanation.

I think this will only be two parts, but no guarantees.

First of all, with any issue we address as Christians, we need to stop beginning our thought process from a societal worldview. What I mean by that is that the society we live in views the world a certain way and when we look at the Bible and try and consider the most “Christian” thing to do, we must try our hardest to begin thinking about it from a clean slate rather then the already established worldview.
It’s interesting that when I say “recycling is Biblical” that the burden of proof is on me to prove that it is indeed supported by the Bible. If we are going to step back and then we need to consider how Biblical NOT recycling is.
I’ll write more in part 2 about why I think particularly Recycling is a good thing to do and try and support environmental stewardship as a Biblical step. However, for now I think we need to start seriously considering many of the actions in our lives.