Liberal Christianity

The line? What line?

English 101 and Math 99 ?learning? community: An English ?professor? from Yale; a math proff named Gregg.

Cascadia?s ?learning outcomes?:

Learn actively; yeah I learned actively, a quick passage from my English 101 book ?Flatland?:

?The greatest length or breadth of a full grown inhabitant of Flatland may be estimated at about eleven of your inches. Twelve inches may be regarded as maximum.

Our Women are Straight Lines.

Our Soldiers and Lowest Classes of Workmen are Triangles with two equal sides, each about eleven inches long, and a base or third side so short (often not exceeding half an inch) that they at their vertices a very sharp and formidable angle. Indeed when their bases are of the most degraded type (not more than the eighth part of an inch in size), they can hardly be distinguished from Straight Lines are Women; so extremely pointed are their vertices. With us, as with you, these Triangles are distinguished from others by being called Isosceles; and by this name I shall refer to them in the following pages.

Our Middle Class consists of Equilateral or Equal-Sided Triangles.

Our Professional Men and Gentlemen are Square (to which class I myself belong) and Five-Sided Figures or Pentagons.

Next above these come the Nobility, of whom there are several degrees?.

It is a law of Nature with us that a male child shall have one more side than his father, so that each generation shall raise (as a rule) one step in the scale of development and nobility.

But this rule applies not always to the Tradesmen, and still less often to the Soldiers, and to the Workmen; who indeed can hardly be said to deserve the name of human Figures, since they have not all their sides equal?

In some of the States there is an additional Law forbidding Females, under penalty of death, from walking or standing in any public place without moving their backs constantly from right to left so as to indicate their presence to those behind them; others oblige a Women, when traveling, to be followed by one of her sons, or servants, or by her husband; others confine Women altogether to their houses except during the religious festivals. But is has been found by the wisest of our Circles or Statesmen that the multiplication of restrictions on Females tends not only to debilitation and diminution of the race, but also to the increase of domestic murders to such an extent that a State loses more than it gains by a too prohibitive Code?.

Think Critically, Creatively & Reflectively: Okay, my critical analyses of this; this isn?t even close to a parable of the real world; creative analyses; this sure stretched my imagination; reflective analyses; this book made my head hurt.

Communicate, with Clarity & Originality: How?s this for Clarity and Originality; This learning community was a waste of my time, and caused me to just go nuts, not everyone is an abstract thinker, is not a college to cover all the learning abilities?

Interact, in diverse & Complex environments: This was certainly diverse and complex, diverse because I don?t think any of us in that classroom that quarter had ever experienced circles who were on top of the world and women who had to constantly move because they could hurt someone, nope I don?t think so. Complex, because math and English are so separate, and should remain so, you put them together and all you get is confusion. Each of us certainly interacted, because most of us were simply confused, annoyed, or not even interested in the entire ?learning community?.

This is what I get for going to a liberal college? A bunch of nonsense that only the extremists in our population would enjoy? No wonder our sometimes make bizarre decisions which lack common sense, they were taught too!

Here is what I do like about going to a secular liberal college:

1. The attempt to have educated conversations.

2. The ?community? of people, people are more accepting and open.

3. The fact that most are hypocritical when it comes to hearing about Jesus, that?s the one thing they are not open minded too. (this is where I want to make a difference)

4. Creativity is always accepted and respected.

What I don?t like I think is obvious from my take on my ?learning? community experience above.

Now what does this have to do with liberal Christianity? A lot, I believe that because of our schools (which many of our K-12 institutes fall into) have become too liberal. They have changed the minds of our future leaders into thinking certain unquestionable morals are now ?out dated?, but these students haven?t even second guessed this for themselves, these liberal colleges want us to actively think, but when we do outside of their box, it?s wrong. Instead we have to think so abstractly that it doesn?t apply to anything in our real lives. One thing I have not been taught in any school is that everything needs to be taken with a grain of salt; I didn?t learn any of this until I became a Christian, that?s because after knowing Christ I had a solid truth to stand on, to compare and analyze everything against.

I have been taught in the American institutions that truth is relative to what you know and experience. I have taken a lot of this into my relationship with Christ, and I have blurred the line between Christianity and liberalism. The problem, most ?traditional? Christians are not open enough, and most ?liberal? Christians are too open. In general I have not seen the general balance that Jesus taught in any of my education. I have followed his word, although it went against a lot of what I believed at the time, I stuck to it, because I found it to be more fulfilling than anything else I have ever tried. You?ve just got to try it, it?s hard, not easy, and you will be attacked by those who don?t understand. I believe that true Christianity fits the liberal ideas more than current liberalism fits; think about it.

So, I’m passionate, shoot me.

I want this place to provoke feelings, provoke thought, and provoke some life. That previous posting was to bring up something which really bothers me, it may have sounded insensitive, but it is something I truly believe other Christians need to hear. So this is my place, my place to say what I want, and how I want to, with out having to worry about people reacting in my face before they know my full story. God wasn?t always sensitive to people, that?s not my excuse, I?m not God, but I truly believe that sometimes you just have to hear it straight up. The things I say are mostly for Christians; obviously you can not say these things to ?pre-Christians? because they can not understand. I guess I?ll need to explain before I go off like I did, that what ever the subject, I am passionate, and sometimes this means I sound harsh. Come on people, we can?t always be nice. I am just a little sick of the ?you have to be nice? syndrome, it doesn?t get through to people, but most of all we have to realize that God Loves us, and everything in his book is to help us have a better life not take things from it.

Let me tell you something you do not want to be told.

You know what really ticks me off? Christians who do not want to grow; they find every excuse so they don’t have to live up to God’s word. Such as “Well, around other Christians why should I act fake, if I curse, they know where my heart is”, please, yeah I know where your heart is, not in God’s word. I know how condemning this sounds, but as Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:28-30 28 If you are a thief, stop stealing. Begin using your hands for honest work, and then give generously to others in need. 29 Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. 30 And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he is the one who has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption. I understand where people are, and I understand that sometimes, even as Christians we slip up, we don’t think. But I also think that sometimes we honestly don’t even try, and if you think your trying and you just can’t stop, your not trying hard enough, and your not letting the Holy Spirit guide you, your still in control.

I bring this up because, I too have this same problem, not everything I do lifts others up, not everything I do is for God, but I let the Holy Spirit change me. This is what Jesus was all about, freeing us from having to experience the need to curse, be angry, have turmoil, he came to set us FREE! Just follow what he has to say, it’s NOT going to be an overnight deal, it certainly was not for me. The easiest way for me was to just take on one thing at a time, first it was cursing, then it was the way I talked to people, then the way I talked about people, then other life areas, etc, etc, believe me it’s true.

To whom this may concern

Forget everyone else; for you will never be happy until God is number one and everyone else number two. Communicate directly with whom ever is causing disharmony for you. Use God?s wisdom and not your own.

I am not special

There is nothing special about me. Every aspect of me is not “special” I am not the only one to have these qualifications which some have deemed ?special? and therefore excuse themselves from ever having to live up to the same word I live up to, God?s word. This is the point in my life I have feared, the point where people are just excusing the change in my life. I?m just a follower of Christ, I haven?t done anything, and everything anyone witnesses in my life is because of Christ!

1 Corinthians 1:10-12

10 Thieves, greedy people, drunkards, abusers, and swindlers–none of these will have a share in the Kingdom of God. 11 There was a time when some of you were just like that, but now your sins have been washed away, and you have been set apart for God. You have been made right with God because of what the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God have done for you.

12 You may say, “I am allowed to do anything.” But I reply, “Not everything is good for you.” And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything.

I understand that God gives each of us specific gifts, but he gives ALL of us the gift of holiness, grace and mercy. We are ?born again?, our old ways of sin are taken away, forgiven, we don?t need to continue sinning, and we are not slaves of sin. We are filled with the Holy Spirit, which helps us in being different in this world, being ?special?.

1 Corinthians 1:7-9

Now you have every spiritual gift you need as you eagerly wait for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8 He will keep you strong right up to the end, and he will keep you free from all blame on the great day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. 9 God will surely do this for you, for he always does just what he says, and he is the one who invited you into this wonderful friendship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.7

All of us have free will, the ability to do as we want, because God loves us, he allows us to do our own thing, but he has given us his Spirit so we can do wise things. This is all I have done in my life, read the words, listened to older Christians, and really let God speak to my heart and make the changes in my life.

1 Corinthians 1:18-24

The Wisdom of God

18 I know very well how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those who are on the road to destruction. But we who are being saved recognize this message as the very power of God. 19 As the Scriptures say,

“I will destroy human wisdom

and discard their most brilliant ideas.”

20 So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made them all look foolish and has shown their wisdom to be useless nonsense. 21 Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never find him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save all who believe. 22 God’s way seems foolish to the Jews because they want a sign from heaven to prove it is true. And it is foolish to the Greeks because they believe only what agrees with their own wisdom. 23 So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended, and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense. 24 But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the mighty power of God and the wonderful wisdom of God. This “foolish” plan of God is far wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is far stronger than the greatest of human strength.

So, to take my self off of the pedestal I have apparently been placed on, this is all I have done, listen to God, watch and learn from others, but please realize that I am only human, everything in my life which is Good is of God and not my self, God didn?t make me anymore special than you.

Prayer is what I need more of

More of you is what I need.

Time with you is all I need.

I want you to be who my life revolves around.

Because only you matter in the end.

In the end love is all that matters.

In the end kindness is all tha matters.

Only Jesus is the one to follow.

I will fall at your feet.

And I will worship you forever.

Valentines Day

So I left for work today, forgetting it was a “special” day. ?Special? in whose eyes; I don?t know. All I know is that I?m seeking to just love God, with all my heart, my mind and my soul. I want my relationship with God to be complete before I even think about having a relationship with a person of the female persuasion. I?ve decided that I?m just fine being single; I know that I won?t be forever, I don?t know how long, but it?s not forever, because God has shown me that I will have children and a family some day. I?m independent, I can do this, and yes I can.

Well, now I?m off to the CRU valentine?s party, but our valentine is better than any other in the entire universe. Our valentine is Jesus Christ!

So be it.

.: prayers, prayer requests:.

God,

You are awesome, help me to become a brighter light for you, share your love, and love your people as you do. I ask that you continue your work in me, I ask for your forgiveness because I have not obeyed your greatest commandments, to love you with all my MIND, HEART and SOUL, and to love others as I love myself. Thank you God for being with me in all I do, I thank you that you are so merciful, that I can mess up, that you are letting us learn here on Earth so we can see the full beauty of Heaven. I share my life with, be in my life in all you do!

So be it (amen).

Uhg. I hate it when I can’t get to sleep

Has it ever been 1:00 am, and you just can’t get to sleep? Your brain just goes on and on? Well i’m having that right now. I have to apologize to a certain person, I said things that just don’t fly with me, but I said them because i’m an idiot when my brain is moving at rapid pace and my tounge goes faster than the rat in my head turning the wheels…

Random ramblings before the real thing.

I was caught.

We were trying to remember old one hit wonders…

Well… what came to Travis’ mind?

“You and me baby ain’t nothing but mammals, so let’s do it like they do on the Discovery channel”…. um yeah… no comment.

I should be trying to come up with more content for speaking tomorrow at CRU, but that’s ok.

I’ve been really stressed out at work, I hate it, I really do, but I don’t know why… why?

I want to be in school, like nearly full time, I hate working and I like learning.

I am SOOO excited for the missions to Poland, I know it is not going to be a vacation, but i’m going to learn! I’m going to be on the edge, i’ m not going to know what tomorrow brings!!! That is exciting!

I love the ocean shore, I want to go back to the ocean, but this time with my wife.

There are people in my living room yelling “Ice, Ice Baby…” umm… scary.

Even scarier… The radio is saying “Ice, Ice baby” oh boy…

I want to love God with all my Mind (all that I learn and know to lead to him), Soul (My actions and “natural” reactions to life) and heart (My emotions and the way I handle things, making them a matter of my heart for God). I want to be able to do this all the time, I am so not able to do this at work right now… although I have no reason not too.

Have I ever mentioned that I really like pink lemonade?

I also love just having the time to be me and watch Star Trek, Play SimCity, and play The Sims…. you know how much this happens….. very rarely. (StarTrek has been at least 6 months, SimCity is restricted to Saturdays “my real sabboth”, and The sims… I have no idea).

I’ve been so busy lately that I havn’t washed any of my clothes in like 2 weeks… or more, good thing I don’t have a physical job that makes me clothes stinky.

I’m so excited that I have next Monday off because of President’s day… yay!

I support our Government, in war in no war, whatever they do… they know more than us… just like we know more about our lives… Not to say that some people do things just to be mean, but the majority of people are not… are you? are your friends? think about it.

Welcome to the world of Travis. More to continue.

Please wait for these comercial breaks.

Travis is going to Poland, he will require about $800/month… for a year… stay tuned for more information.

Okay… were back. Have a good day.

End transmission. \o/