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unworthyseraphim
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Name: Raghu
Country: United States
State: Texas
Metro: Arlington
Birthday: 7/16/1981
Gender: Male
Interests: Learning about everything, Traveling around the world.
Expertise: Talking, Reading, and Pharmacy
Occupation: Dialysis Pharmacy Technician
Industry: Medical - Renal Failure
Message: message meEmail: email me
AIM:  unworthyseraphim
Member Since:
7/8/2005
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| Going back to school!I am starting back at UTA this Spring with the end goal of making it into Pharmacy School. Maybe I will graduate before I am 32! Haha, I am gonna be such a geezer when I am done with classes.
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| Well it was bound to happen...I think my xanga days are coming to a close...
http://unworthyseraphim.wordpress.com/
please bookmark new site. if not, your loss!
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| On Church Unity"In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity."
- Saint Augustine
"We are all in the same boat in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty."
- G.K. Chesterton
"Homesickness for the One True Church is genuine and legitimate only in so far as it a disquietude at the fact that we have lost and forgotten Christ, and with Him have lost the unity of the Church. Thus we must be on guard, all along the line, lest the motives which stir us today lead us to a quest that looks past Him. Indeed, however rightful and urgent these motives are, we could well leave them out of our reckoning. We shall do well to realize that in themselves they are well-meaning but merely human desires, and that we can have no final certainty that they are rightful, no unanswerable claim for their fulfillment. Unless we regard them with a measure of holy indifference, we are ill placed for a quest after the unity of the Church."
- Karl Barth
"Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He who loves his dream of community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial."
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"Obedience is the road to freedom, humility the road to pleasure, unity the road to personality."
- C.S. Lewis
"Only in Christ are all things in communion. He is the point of convergence of all hearts and beings and therefore the bridge and the shortest way from each to each."
- Hans Urs von Balthasar
"The doctrine of justification by faith is in fact the great ecumenical doctrine."
- N.T. Wright
"There is one body and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in you all."
- Ephesians 4:4-6
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| Leisure vs WorkThree months ago I was very involved with family events - my sister's marriage in May and my cousin's marriage in July. My main focus was making sure my extended family was happy with all the minuscule to important details. It was nice period for me - life was relaxing, and I had more of an outgoing personality. For the past 6 weeks I have done nothing but work overtime. I am averaging around 47 hours for this timespan and have exerted a lot of myself into my job. My life has been filled with renal failure, pharmacy operations, and clinical support. (This does not do much for having a social life.) It's interesting to think that one day I will not view work and leisure as being 2 opposing concepts. Work today is hard - filled with much stress and anguish. The Biblical curse still stands against all our toil and labor. However in the world to come, work will not be fruitless and stressful. God's intent is for us to have peaceful dominion over creation. That means we get to have jobs that we actually like! (Can you imaging what an enjoyable job will do for our efficiency?) It's exciting to think about - especially on the nights like this when I feel burned out.
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| Preach the gospel.. no matter what?We were all dressed up and ready to enjoy roasted corn, kulfi, coconut water, good music, and fireworks. It was after all India's Independence Day celebration in Grand Prairie last night. As I walked in with my family I noticed 3 men standing at the entrance passing out tracts. As we walked by them my family politely received the tracts. Eventually the grounds were littered with tracts. It seems like the biggest side effect of Indian tract evangelism was a waste of paper, and harm to the environment!
What would you do? Consider yourself to be a non-believer. You are going to a non-religious event - celebrating your country's independence. And someone gives you a tract with religious information. How seriously are you going to consider the offer? It seems like religious discussion should take place within the context of religious thought. This seemed to be the precedent on Mars Hill - the apostle Paul entered into street discussions about a serious religious topic. This was after all the norm of Athens - theological discussion and debate in the open square. The idea of writing an apology (ala Herodotus) was foreign to the culture - the way you entered into discussion was to verbally discuss it with the author or propagator. Eventually when Christianity took shape and demanded a framework or boundary to separate the heretical from the orthodox the Cannon of Scripture came to play. Still illiteracy was rampant and the spoken word was more powerful than the written. What does this have to do with us? I think it gives us some insight into the cultural conditions the Apostles and Early Church Fathers considered prior to preaching the gospel. What cultural conditions can we consider before preaching the gospel? Are there ways in which we are failing to recognize the folly of our evangelistic efforts? (Yes, I am well aware of the "If one person believes, then it's all worth it!" defense. It's weak in my opinion.)
The gospel is powerful to save (1 Cor 1:18) - all Christians agree on this. However the timing and way in which we present the gospel needs to be re-examined. I don't know of any Christians that do tract evangelism at funerals. If we don't need to consider the event, then why don't we pass out tracts at funerals? It seems like the perfect place - lot's of people, people thinking about death, etc. We should be more like Westboro Baptist Church - maybe not in content but definitely in form. Absurd? Reductio ad absurdum it might be, but evangelical Christians need to re-think tract evangelism - for the sake of the gospel and honor of our Lord.
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