My mom and dad married each other on the rebound.

My mom (Nyla Myrtle Mathews) was unceremoniously dumped by her fiancé when he found out her mother (my Grandmother) was bi-racial. My Grandmother’s father was a freed slave and her mother was Cherokee. When that came up in conversation, my momma’s fiancé walked out on her.

My dad (Press Parsons) had been dating my mom’s younger sister for a couple of month’s when he met this sweet little girl for whom he fell head over heels. They planned to marry but her father put a stop to it. He said that daddy was nothing more than poor white trash and forbade her to marry him.

These two events occurred on the same day.

"I walked not in the way of righteousness. … But the Almighty God, who sits in the court of heaven, granted what I did not deserve." - Constantine (280-337)

Just day’s after becoming a Christian, we sang Amazing Grace at the Bethel Church of Christ, Bethel, Ohio (elevation 892 feet) and I understood for the first time, what it meant. I finally understood what it all meant. I saw grace not just as a word used in church but as a gift from The God who cared about this homicidal 15 year old. I felt grace in the freedom that my soul had...I was still struggling with the sin in my life but I felt freedom from the bonds that had held me. I was no longer controlled by it, just tortured by it (there is a difference!)

I didn’t understand, but for some reason...I was worth something to somebody. That Somebody was the Creator of the universe...That is some heavy stuff - that is...

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Chapter 11: "The New Men"

In this chapter, Lewis uses the illustration of Evolutionary change. Of how man came to be (according to that theory), and the common views of "what's next" for humanity, according to Evolutionary extrapolation.

But what should we expect? We should expect something completely new, not something marginally new. Lewis makes the case that "the Next Step" is already upon us.... Christianity is the Next Step for humanity.

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Chapter 10: "Nice People or New Men"

Jesus is in the process of making Christians perfect, as He is perfect

• If so, can we expect all Christians to be nicer than all non-Christians?
• Not necessarily -- we have to start from where each Christian is
• A Christian should be becoming nicer than the person they were before they started following Christ (before He started his work in them)
• A tree is known by it's fruit
• When Christians fail to act Christian, we make Christianity unbelievable.
• Some people are just born with better dispositions than others...
• Christian is a process of transformation... some becoming more Christlike.... sadly, some becoming less... some confused and inconsistent

So, what of the individual?

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Chapter 9: "Counting the Cost"

Some people are bothered by the words, "Be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." Some think that maybe it means that if we're not perfect, we fail as Christians. On the contrary, Lewis points out Jesus is working in us to make us perfect -- and will accept nothing less, even though we would.

Example of the child's toothache:

• the child only wants something now to make the pain go away now
• if he goes to his mother he will get that but...
• he will also go to the dentist the next morning...
• then the dentist will go messing with every other tooth that has problems
• and all the child really wanted was for that one tooth to stop hurting

(An 'ell' is about 45 inches, "It was derived from the length of the arm from the shoulder (or the elbow) to the wrist." wikipedia.com)

Jesus is the same way:

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Chapter 8: "Is Christianity Hard or Easy?"

Putting on Christ is not just one job that Christians have, it is the one job that Christians have.

• It's not something only a special class of Christians do, it's what Christianity is all about.
• This is completely different from any other idea of 'morality' or 'being good.'

The ordinary idea for young Christians, or non-Christians is

• We start with ourselves
• We admit that there 'morality' or 'decent behavior' or 'the good of society' has some claim on our lives
• Those claims interfere with our own desires
• We try to do all of the 'right' things and not do all of the 'wrong' things and have something of ourselves left over to pursue our own interests.
• Lewis likens it to paying taxes, and hoping we have something left over to live on.

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Chapter 7: "Let's Pretend"

Two pictures:

• Beauty and the Beast
• A masked man

This is a discussion about practice, the things we do as Christians.

Like good story telling, good theology takes lots of hard work, lots of good thinking. Unfortunately, it's too easy to take the easy way, and just accept whatever we've been told. We're exhorted in scripture to test everything, and that really does mean EVERYTHING.

The audio is really glitchy, but the content makes it worth publishing (I think). There are some pops, and obviously missing parts of words, but I think you can figure it out. If it's too bad, let us know.

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Chapter 6: "Two Notes"

Lewis felt compelled to append, as it were, two notes following the previous chaper:

1) If God wanted many sons instead of toy soldiers, why didn't he just beget many sons? This would have skipped the difficult and painful process of transforming the 'toy soldiers' into sons.

• The first part of the answer is fairly easy - the transformation from creature to son would not have been painful had not mankind rebelled against God. The rebellion was the fruit of Free Will. Free Will was the only way to have creatures capable of infinite love and hapiness.
• The second part is complicated by the way we see things from within creation. Two identical pennies, which are identical, but not the same vs. two organs of a body which are not alike, but part of the same organ. In the same way, people are organs, part of the organism of humanity.

"For God so loved the world that ... all things work out for the good."

Or something.

Have you ever noticed that when you memorize scripture you tend to memorize only the stuff you like... only the stuff that proves your point?

- If you like the show, tell a friend about it!
- If you don't like it, tell someone you don't like!

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Chapter 5: "The Obstinate Toy Soldiers"

The Son of God became a man to enable men to become the sons of God.

Way back in April (2007) John Wilkerson of JesusGeek.info dropped us a line concerning his experience with children in worship. We did respond in a timely fashion.... but it only just now got published.

Sorry for the delay, John!

- If you like the show, tell a friend about it!
- If you don't like it, tell someone you don't like!

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Chapter 4: "Good Infection"

• Example of the books and the relations between, then removing time... so the relationships existed as they appear without a time when the relationships didn't exist.
• This is an introduction to thinking about things outside of time.
• Uses the example of a cube being made up of six squares, but remaining a cube...

Dan's up and around! Yay! Get the scoop on what's happenin' in the OD.o universe.

In 1 Timothy chapter 4, Paul talks to the young pastor about teachings that erode the joy of the gospel, steal from the Church and make the truth that the Church teaches look needlessly foolish. "Godless myths and old wives' tales" that are to be avoided. We should instead train ourselves to be godly. How many times has the Church been dragged into debates about good things that should be outlawed, when everything God has made is good?

Somebody has to stop the nonsense, and in doing so, we can save both ourselves and our hearers.

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Chapter 3: "Time and Beyond Time"

This chapter discusses Time as it relates to Prayer.

We live through time. In this reality, we flow in one direction with time. All that is behind us is lost to us, except in our memory. All that is before us is unknown to us. What Lewis is attempting to address here is, "How can God listen to everyone in the world praying at the same time?"

• God created time
• God exists beyond time ("outside and above")
• God is not restricted to time

Primarily it's a discussion about the importance of the doctrine of the resurection, but we discuss a whole range of things, and how we, as humans, tend to screw them up. If there's a particular doctrine you'd like to discuss with us, let us know.

Keep Dan in your prayers. No update from Dan this week. I did get an email forward from him, but that was all. I'll check on him later today.

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Chapter 2: "The Three-Personal God"

Lewis' example of begetting and making.

Personality and God: New Age, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. (hereafter shown as "NA/H/B"), believe "in a god that is beyond personal." Christians agree, but in a starkly contrasting way to those religions. The others believe in something impersonal... something that has "transcended" the personal. Christians (and only Christians) believe in something that is super-personal... the source that person/personal/personality flows (down) from.

Perhaps we don't get excited enough about "missing sheep." When someone in our congregation drops off the radar, we should go after them, with fear for their lives

Keep Dan in your prayers. He had surgery on his foot on Wednesday the 11th (of July, 2007), and is now home recooperating. He does have a bone infection, which requires watching. Please left Dan up to the Lord.

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Chapter 1: "Making and Begetting"

Theology means 'the science of God,' and I think any man who wants to think about God at all would like to have the clearest and most accurate ideas about Him which are available. You are not children: why should you be treated like children?

Theology and doctrines are like a map. They give us an idea of what God is like, but they are not God and they are not, in truth, "real." Theology, though, gives us a much greater scope of the personality of God that we cannot get on our own.

But that map is based on the experience of hundreds of people who really were in touch with God-experiences compared with which any thrills or pious feelings you and I are likely to get on our own are very elementary and very confused. And secondly, if you want to get any further, you must use the map.