I want to move to the city,
many of my friends want to live there too...
why?
Is it because we feel no sense of "place" or community on these
"gruesome, tragic suburban boulevards of commerce, and we're overwhelmed at the fantastic, awesome, stupefying ugliness of absolutely everything in sight -- the fry pits, the big-box stores, the office units, the lube joints, the carpet warehouses, the parking lagoons, the jive plastic townhouse clusters, the uproar of signs, the highway itself clogged with cars -- as though the whole thing had been designed by some diabolical force bent on making human beings miserable?"
anyone else feel this way about your community?

would you pray for my friends the Palmer's

Found this ditty on this Blog and it relates to much of what our group discussed this past wed.
i Love it::
What makes pharisaical sin so dangerous is that it disguises itself as a form of enlightenment. This is what Jesus meant when he said, "If the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" (Matthew 6:23).

The darkness is great because one is deluded into thinking it is light. You think you are seeing better than anyone else, when, in fact, you can't see at all. This means the idea that you can't see is farthest from you. A blind person knows he is blind. A Pharisee thinks he can see, and this is why the "light" within him is actually darkness. Jesus called the Pharisees "blind guides." "So it is necessary in this darkness we call light to identify our error and get free from our entrapment--exactly the job of all recovery groups. It could even be argued that our churches ought to be more like this. The church should be the most honest place on earth--a place where it is possible to say among friends: "Hi, I'm John, and I'm a Pharisee." John Fischer

12 Steps for Pharisees

It's been a great week.
Working more at starbucks this week and I like how life's rythm feels. less money - more life
Wed. night's gathering was excellent. It's pretty amazing what happens when you open the Word and invite all to participate.

from Matt. 5 we heard the words of Christ on the Kingdom of God.
My friends claim they are leavers of the institutional church because of the hypocricy they see in those at the "show"
we discussed how even Jesus said "don't be like the hypocrite" but it is hard to find anyone to point to because authentic discipleship is always pointing toward God...It is vanishing. Citizens of His kingdom don't attach names with actions and they usually can't be found up front. They are behind the glory of God and HATE the spotlight. What they do is in secret. In fact they don't even let their left hand know what their right hand is doing.

other good news:: Doug moved in last night...
riley is thrilled and so are kerri and I.