Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Friday, April 13, 2012

Sojourneys Update: Former KKSM Skateboarder to Thailand Missions


Update: Four Posts
02.21.12 - Last Full Day
03.03.12 - First Week Back
04.04.12 - Gettin' Started
04.10.12 - Engagement
Where to Give Vids






http://www.ripeforharvest.org/give/



Last Full Day
February 21, 2012

Today is officially my last full day in the U.S. before I disappear back into the heart of Thailand. It's been a refreshing 4 1/2 month "visit". I'm thankful to have had the opportunity, & now ready to get back. Nice to have last year's worth of experience in Thailand under my belt. Going back, I have a much better gauge now of what exactly I'm getting into. It'll be nice to not be as clueless this time around :)

I'm also very passionate about my going back this time around because of what this & hopefully upcoming years will contain as far as missions go. The ministry I've linked up with has me going to one of the poorest & most unreached areas with the gospel in all of Thailand. And I don't say that hoping to get sympathy. Rather, hopefully a reason for you to be excited for me. There's no reason to pity those leave who leave some of the familiar comforts of home to follow Christ in foreign places. Those who go & are gauging their situation rightly would call themselves privileged. The apostles "left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name." Christ puts purpose behind hardship/uncomfortablity that is endured for His sake. I'll leave you with a quote from David Livingstone who, "gave his life to serve Christ in the exploration of Africa for the sake of the access of the gospel." He says:

"For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa....Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now & then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences & charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in & for us. I never made a sacrifice."
love you all...

lonely sparrow





First Week Back
March 3, 2012

It's great to be in thailand again. getting settled into my first week back. spending the next two months here in Chiang Mai, trying to really hit this language hard, & then I'll be moving to a city in Northeast Thailand called Kalasin. Been talking with the Pastor I work with, walking through what ministry down there will be looking like. Ultimately, the hope for the culmination of our work in Kalasin is church planting/discipleship. It is one of the poorest & most unreached(gospel-wise) areas in Thailand. I've committed to the next three years living & working there with a Thai Pastor & a small missionary team. There's no reason why there can't be a gospel explosion in this country, and particularly in this region. We've all heard stories of what God has done/is doing in China; I'm believing for a revolution. The good news of the shed blood of The Son that turns sinners into saints & makes God's enemies His friends is the answer for this country. For this world. Christ is the universal cure. The importance of this message cannot be stressed enough. I love how Spurgeon put it when he said, "..if I was saved by a simple gospel, then I am bound to preach that same simple gospel till I die, so that others too may be saved by it. When I cease to preach salvation by faith in Jesus put me into a lunatic asylum, for you may be sure that my mind is gone."

lonely sparrow

*If you would like more information about what I'm doing here in Thailand or how you can support financially, please scroll down to previous blog entries.*









 
 
 
 
Gettin' Started
April 4, 2012

So, I've been back here in Thailand for about a month & a half now, and more specifically, Chiang Mai. This has mainly consisted of alot of reading, language study, meetings, hanging with local kids, etc. The first two months of my being back were/are a preparation time for what's coming in 2 weeks, which is the move to a city called Galasin, about 12 hours southeast of here. I'll be going down there with my friend Derrick where we'll be helping a local pastor doing church planting. This past weekend we got to go down there and check it out, meet with the pastor, rent a house & really just start to get ready & get a feel for what's going on down there. Discipleship, teaching at house churches, youth ministry, equipping worship leaders, teaching English are some of the pratical ways in which we'll be engaging those in the area. 1,000,000 people with around 700 believers. Definitely lots to be apart of. There really is something special about worshiping Christ with believers in that setting, when you know how few in the area are doing the same thing. And so hopefully our efforts can be used to spill the fragrance of Christ & spread the aroma of His gospel to many in this region. Prayers are very much appreciated, and if you'd like to help support financially, there are links below in previous blogs that explain how you can do that. Thank you all...

lonely sparrow














 
 
 
Engagement
April 10, 2012

Coming up on a year ago, I saw a video on youtube of a youth ministry in southern thailand with a girl on there named Oy, talking about the Lord & her involvement with that ministry. I shot her message & not too long after that we started writing back & forth. And over time it became phone, skype, meeting in person & then eventually dating. And from that has come our plans for engagement & marriage. I know typically in western culture that most of us are used to the wedding obviously being planned but the engagement usually coming as (at least somewhat) of a surprise. But here in Thailand, the custom is to do a type of ceremony for the engagement & the wedding; so that's what we're planning on for the 23rd of this month, with the wedding being the 12th of June. I'm so excited & thankful to the Lord for this opportunity that's on the horizon. It's something I've anticipated & tried to prepare for for quite some time, it's hard to believe that it's becoming a fast-approaching reality.

And what's beautiful is that the girl I get to do this with is such a gem. She's so precious to me. I'm really looking forward to spending the rest of my life following Christ with Oy & hopefully being very much like Christ to her as well. I'd be lying if I said I don't have fears when it comes to the realm of marriage & leading a family, but stepping up & answering the call to man up is possible by the grace of God. I plan to draw every ounce of it that I can from The Lord.

I would really appreciate your prayers, especially now as Oy & I step into this new season & learn what it means to become one as we set our sights on The Lord & walk this thing out together. Also, if you'd like to support financially, the are links below on previous blogs that can direct you where to do that. Thank you!

lonely sparrow (no more!)



















Thailand 2012 & Beyond...




loving thailand. raising support.











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