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Fringe: The Fringe Conduct of Peacemaking God Favors

I ate lunch earlier this month with a man who had recently moved to Memphis.  His sixteen year old son was having a hard time transitioning to his new school and neighborhood.  His best friends were still back in his Florida hometown and he hadn’t yet made new friends in Memphis.  The son felt like an outsider.  “I guess the move has hit him the hardest of anyone in our family,” the father said.

It’s hard to be an outsider isn’t it?  We want to be included.  We want to be accepted.Read More »Fringe: The Fringe Conduct of Peacemaking God Favors

Fringe: The Fringe Conduct of Persecution God Favors

“Fringe” is a science fiction television series.  It is a mixture of “Twilight Zone” and “X-Files.”  The series is named after a fictitious division of the FBI called “Fringe Division.”  Fringe Division uses methods which are outside the norm in order to investigate unexplained events around the world.  Eventually the FBI’s Fringe Division learns the cause of these unexplained events.  They discover the existence of an alternate earth.  This earth exists in a parallel universe.  In some ways the alternate earth is similar to the original earth.  In other ways it is quite different.  These two earths have recently been interfering with one another, creating havoc on both planets.  Fringe Division learns there are leaders on the alternate earth who are striving to destroy the original earth because the original earth threatens the existence of the alternate earth.  Much of the series revolves around this power struggle between the two parallel worlds.Read More »Fringe: The Fringe Conduct of Persecution God Favors

Simplify: A Word from the Summit About Cutting the Chaos and Complication of Life

It’s the beginning of a new month.  September has stopped.  October has arrived.  Think for a moment about September.  How did you spend that month?  What was your schedule like?  In his book Freedom of Simplicity Richard Foster urges us to write down all our activities for one month.[i] Imagine recording everything you did in September.  Then, Foster advises us to categorize each activity into one of the following:

Read More »Simplify: A Word from the Summit About Cutting the Chaos and Complication of Life

Simplify: A Word from the Steeple About Cutting the Chaos and Complication of Life

The movie “Daddy Day Camp” tells of two dads named Charlie and Phil who take over a summer day-camp for young children. Armed with no knowledge of the outdoors and a dilapidated day-camp facility, the dads soon realize they’ve taken on more than they can handle.  Just the beginning moments of camp are chaotic: Read More »Simplify: A Word from the Steeple About Cutting the Chaos and Complication of Life