The Relevance of God's Truth?

I believe in truth as being such, irrespective of my own subjective understanding of what that entails. I believe that objective truth exists outside of my suggesting what truth's actual nature and content may consist of. Yet, at the same time, if someone comes along and tells me what I am supposed to believe, even if I think they raise a good point, I don't necessarily feel inclined to accept their understanding of that particular truth nor do I believe I possess the power needed to do so even if I desired to do so.

For years I have been exhorted by many external sources (pastors, teachers, friends) to believe the same things that they believe, and often times there would be negative consequences imposed upon me if I chose to reject their suppositions of which they said were actually God's revelation to all men in a universal way.

As much as I value the idea of truth, especially God's truth, I now am of the mind that unless more than just my brain seeks to attain to what my whole heart longs for, then what is the point of listening to others' points of view and then their expecting me to accommodate my current beliefs to theirs? I value the fact that God may have spoken to them in such a way as it affected them profoundly. I seek the same for myself. I desire to hear from others their new and exciting transforming words from God to them. But I struggle so much when I am expected to "get it" by way of intellectual assent, when they have the experience to validate for them the words of God themselves.

I think I prefer Jesus' way where he was recognised "as" one who had authority, that not of the Scribes, and yet he exhorts us to judge for ourselves. I am compelled to move in this direction as I am curious about the words He has for me (that is, words spoken directly to me), and I would love to share them with others in the hope that they would seek Him out for themselves too, apart from expecting to hear the same exact message as I had received. There may be general truths of revelation, but apart from my being able to grasp them from the core of my whole being, of what use are they?

November Meeting!

We're two weeks away from our November meeting. I'll probably get in and add our meeting dates to the sidebar next week but this week is my busy week before the big youth carnival at Central on Saturday.

Our next meeting is Tuesday, November 11th at 5 pm at Flying Star on Central just to the west of Carlisle. We'll get together for a meal and discussion. Your meal is on your own.

Can't wait to see the group again! I know I have invited some people to join us who are interested in the conversation. Hopefully we'll have a pretty good crowd!

Dork

Laura,
Sorry we missed you at ACC tonight. (I couldn't access your email, so I'm trying to contact you via blog.) Please tell Paul I'm a dork. He asked if I was the Alli "who wrote us up". I said I wasn't - thinking he was referring to something he talked about in his sermon - seemed like a newspaper article or something. I figured out that he was probably talking about the Emergent ABQ blog - duh. :) Thanks, Alli.

Churches

Hey,
It occurred to me that just about all of us are in different churches and in different roles. I thought it would be interesting to compare notes on where we worshipped this week - good, bad, indifferent...

At my church, we had lay leaders do the message. I realized that I've gotten so used to sermons not being read from the pulpit that when it happens, it affects how I receive it. The words aren't any less sincere or enlightening, just not memorized. I probably need to be more gracious about that.

One of the speakers referenced a scene from the movie "Sex & the City" without saying the title which I thought was funny. We have the children play percussion instruments with the praise band before they go off to their own worship. There's one little guy that can rock a cowbell like no other!

Anyone else have things they wanted to share about their worship service? Thanks, Alli.

ACC

After hearing Laura talk about "Counterculture" or ACC, I got curious and attended last night. The folks were welcoming and laid-back. I understand it was acoustic night - not their normal music set up but it was really good, nonetheless. I particularly liked how creative they were about the service. They used a YouTube music video - Lifehouse, "Broken", which happens to be one of my favorite songs right now. They also used a very old clip from the Muppets. Communion was tiny glasses of milk and tiny cookies. It reminded me of the contemporary service at Asbury in the old days when our entire focus was outside the walls and joked about who's turn it was to drag people in off the street. :)

Creativity takes work and risk but it's so worth it. Some things work, some things don't but it's so fun to throw ideas out there as a team - try to tap into the Holy Spirit and go beyond ourselves.

St. John's this morning was also amazing. We had a Baptism for an adult who was Jewish. Those of us from Asbury have been separated and it was good to look around the room and come together as a Community within a loving new community. Just amazed me how God works when we think things are broken beyond repair.

Hope you're having a great Autumn morning. See you soon, Alli.

Directions to Greenside Cafe for tomorrow

Just in case....

I-40 eastbound from Albuquerque (about a 15 minute-drive from Uptown) to the Cedar Crest/Tijeras exit (Exit #175). Follow the signs for Cedar Crest, North 14. Once you cross back under I-40, heading north into Cedar Crest on Highway 14, it's about 3 miles to the restaurant. It will be on your left in the Village at Bella Vista shopping center (12165 North Highway 14, Suite B-1). There will be a Davis Hardward across the street from the shopping center to use as a landmark. See you tomorrow at 9:00 a.m.!

October 11th Updated Update

Okay, I made a "command decision" and reserved a space for us at the Green Side Cafe in Cedar Crest. It's not up at Sandia Crest, but we can always drive up there after we eat if we still decide we want to do that.

Green Side Cafe looks great (go to the web site: greensidecafe.net) and is located at 12165 Highway 14 North, Suite B-1 in Cedar Crest. (This address doesn't seem to work on MapQuest or Google Maps -- not in their database I guess). It's in that new shopping center called the Village of Bella Vista Shopping Center where the Triangle Grocery store is located. It's a new shopping center constructed in recent years on the WEST side of the street (on your left). It's hard to miss. The architecture is unique, very mountainesque with the metal snow roof style.

If anyone doesn't know exactly how to get to Highway 14 in Cedar Crest, let me know!

They're expecting us at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday. You can check out the menu on their web site. Good stuff and good prices too.

Peace,
Troy