Grease for the Wheels

As I mentioned in my first post. It was the blogs of some of my friends that helped me to go ahead with this crazy idea of putting my thoughts up on the internet for all the world to see. So I want to give some credit where credit is due. A few links to friends posts follow. All these posts really helped provide some grease to the rusty old wheels in my head...


For those of you that don't know, Shane Tucker was one of my best friends in high school, back in my Columbus, Ohio days. Shane is now a pastor working for the Church of Ireland Youth Department. He wrote this great article:
http://wwwdreamtoday.blogspot.com/2005/05/bohemian-christmas.html
Perhaps its because I was just in Prague that this article really spoke to me, but he touches on some great topics..."A very Ecclesiastes experience", "we are but wind passing through the fingers of God", and he even brings in a reference to Pulp Fiction. Great stuff! Also check out Shane's Dreamers of the Day website. Filled with good stuff about Christianity and the arts:
http://www.dreamtoday.org/intro.htm


Clint Roberts was one of my pastors back in SLC. I always appreciated his excellent teaching and his brilliant sense of humor. I think I like his blog even more than his teaching; the gloves come off in a way that isn't really possible in church setting. This particular article really stood out to me:
http://ccroberts.blogspot.com/2005/05/zeal-cant-make-up-for-ignorance.html
Again, this post probably appeals to me more because I am a recent escapee from the land of Mormons. I really loved the part referencing John Locke:
"As a Christian, Locke believed that faith was not merely wishful fancies, but included a responsibility to use the faculties God has given to make certain that you're as close to the truth as possible. A person has to come to know for himself whether his views be correct or not."
That's where I'm at right now, really trying to "use the faculties God has given" to get as close to the truth as I can.


Jonathan Hays is a friend from my SLC days. The strange thing is that he is currently living in Edinburgh, Scotland studying theology-something-or-other (what is it you are studying Jon?). Its only a five hour drive from here to visit him; we will be making the pilgrimage in July (much to the chagrin of our English neighbors who say there is no reason for anyone to go to Scotland). Crazy Jonathan (I witnessed some wild acts from him that will always stand out in my mind), seems to have done a lot of spiritualal growing, reading, studying, praying etc. in recent times. Take a look at this great post:
http://www.firstfloorflat.com/?p=270
Admittedly, I don't entirely agree with all of it, but Jon covers a lot of ground with this meandering post and I really like where he ends up.


There you have it, words of wisdom from across the globe brought together here at Wednesday Morning Coffee.

JE