Divergence

I've been pretty unhappy with the name of my blog. It worked at the beginning but it seems like all respectable blogs have some catchy name. So, I think I've found a word that describes me fairly well and is catchy (at least I think so). As you can see, I've come to: DIVERGENCE . What does it mean? 1. The act of diverging. Don't you love dictionaries? I love how they define a word with a word that needs defining itself. 2. difference or disparity: a difference between two or more things such as opinions or attitudes 3. failure to conform or match: deviation from something such as a typical pattern or expressed wish 4. moving apart: the process of separating or moving apart to follow different paths or different courses I find that as I continue to learn and grow older, things that I believed strongly in the past have been challenged and replaced by new thoughts, ideas, and beliefs. Don't hold anything I write against me because I might have changed my mind ...

We all want to have or experience something special and unique. This desire can lead us do insane things as we crave for some special experience and additional attention. People will spend millions of dollars for a one-of-a-kind painting, a record-breaking home run ball, or a baseball card from the early 1900's. We crave for things that will make us different and more unique than the next person. It's boring to have what everyone else has. This craving and desire can also hurt our experience of the Gospel. We can take great pride in our understanding of God and the Gospel and want to keep it to ourselves in our quest to have something special that no one else does. I was really challenged with my own cravings for uniqueness as I read 1 John 2:1-2 in which John writes: "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and he is the atoning sacrifice for ...

As a church, we pride ourselves on being focused on evangelism and reaching out to people with the Gospel. Many Adventist churches engage in public evangelism on a yearly/bi-yearly basis in their efforts to spread the message and grow their churches. But, I've started to wonder if we are actually anti-Church Growth (I'm not referring to any specific model of church growth theory but simply the addition of new church members). Outreach Magazine just published their report on the 100 Fastest Growing Churches in America. I don't think it would really come as a surprise that there are no Adventist churches on that list. My question is: Why Not? Let me state right now that I am no major fan of the megachurch movement and don't think huge growth in one church is necessarily a positive thing. However, I do wonder why there seem to be no Adventist Churches in America that are growing by leaps and bounds and on the radar of the larger Christian community. Two easy and often rep...

Augustine is considered one of the greatest theologians of all time. One of his most famous books is a biography of his life in which he tells his story of conversion and confesses many of his sins growing up. It has recently been republished in a modern translation called, "You Converted Me" which I read bits and pieces of recently. So, I've decided to confess a sin. I have seen on a fairly regular basis an older man who lives by himself in our apartment complex. He gets out a lot and is very independent. A month ago, he was in a fairly serious car accident just a few blocks from our place. We drove by and the police were there and were taking care of everything. The next day, I saw some people bringing him into his apartment in a wheelchair and a brace on his leg. I told Shari that if we see him out we should talk to him and see if he needed any help around his apartment or going to the store. A few weeks after the accident I was walking to my car to go to my class on ...