Marsh Walk, Plum Island

Marsh Walk, Plum Island
Originally uploaded by matbathome

Here is a shot I took on Plum Island, near Newburyport, MA

Plum Island is a national park. The views from it are incredible. It only costs $5 to get in.

Salem, MA

Salem, MA
Originally uploaded by matbathome

This is another cool shot with my new camera. I did the black and white in Photoshop.

Photo from Salem, MA trip

Boat
Originally uploaded by matbathome

Here is a photo I took from my recent Salem, MA trip. There are a bunch of photos on my Flickr page. These are my first attempts at color photography.

Wallace

Wallace
Originally uploaded by matbathome

This is from my new Nikon D40x. I'm going to have fun with this camera.

Dallas Willard: The Spirit of The Disciplines Ch 7

This chapter is the longest and most philosophical so far. Here Willard talks about the spiritual life of St Paul and how it relates to us. He argues that Paul's spiritual life wasn't allegorical, like it is for many Protestansts. Many Protestants see the whole body/spirit issue as something that isn't rooted in the concrete world. We talk about our own personal "Pilgrim's Progess" and yet it isn't rooted in the every day world of matter. It's only spiritual. Willard would argue that our physical actions play a key role in our spiritual lives. And by physical, he means what we do with our bodies in terms of feeding our spirtual lives, things like fasting, serving, solitude, prayer, etc.

Perhaps the most intriguing thought I ran across in this chapter was that we can allow thoughts to cause us to sin, but only if we dwell on them. It's not that it's bad that we think a certain thought, but that we allow it to linger.

Another thought that was interesting was that we aren't meant for the "fuel" of our old life. We are made for new fuel. This fuel is put in us by our outward actions. Not that these actions earn our salvation, it's that these actions are because of our salvation.

Photo by jam343.

I'm back

I haven't written anything in a while here. A lot has been going on. Perhaps I will finish the book I was blogging through.

But, yes, I'm back.

I just rediscovered some art and photos back from my college years. Here is one of them.



Here is another:

Tozer the Emergent

Below, in this quote from Tozer, he calls several Catholics "great saints". He also talks about creation's role in worship. Tozer sounds like many emergents I have heard.

"Some of the great saints, who were great because they took such admonitions seriously and sought to practice them, managed to achieve the sanctification of the secular, or perhaps I should say the abolition of the secular. Their attitude toward life’s common things raised those above the common and imparted to them an aura of divinity. These pure souls broke down the high walls that separated the various areas of their lives from each other and saw all as one; and that one they offered to God as a holy oblation acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Nicholas Herman (Brother Lawrence) made his most common act one of devotion: “The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer,” he said, “and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.”

Francis of Assisi accepted the whole creation as his house of worship and called upon everything great and small to join him in adoration of the Godhead. Mother earth, the burning sun, the silver moon, the stars of evening, wind, water, flowers, fruits-all were invited to praise with him their God and King. Hardly a spot was left that could be called secular. The whole world glowed like Moses’ bush with the light of God, and before it the saint kneeled and removed his shoes.

Thomas Traherne, the seventeenth century Christian writer, declared that the children of the King can never enjoy the world aright till every morning they wake up in heaven, see themselves in the Father’s palace, and look upon the skies, the earth and the air as celestial joys, having such a reverent esteem for all as if they were among the angels. "
The Sanctification of the Secular by Tozer

http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/tozer/5j00.0010/5j00.0010.13.htm

Iggy found this quote from Tozer, by the way.

Photo by Bombardier