Slapstick Politics: Plagiarism Renders Scott McInnis Unfit to Practice Law or Govern

Slapstick Politics: Plagiarism Renders Scott McInnis Unfit to Practice Law or Govern

One of the more insightful articles regarding the McInnis kafafel-debacle...

I am working on Financial Decisions classwork... and getting ready to take the kids out to a park to have some fun with this late "summer" weather!

The Living Church

The Church is an organism. A living, breathing thing… why else is the Church referred to as the Body of Christ. I doubt that any living person can really fathom or explain the truth embedded in this statement. There are a great many illustrations and ideas that have been drawn from this statement, but it is not that purpose for which the statement is made here.

The statement here is really directed at the fact that, at least here in America, the Church has become the church an organization. A legally defined entity that must meet certain definitions and criteria as an organization in order to be deemed a church, but even this begs a question. What is it about the legal organization that makes it a part of the organism the Body of Christ? I submit to you that it has nothing to do with it.

Trapped within the confines of our cultural and societal definitions of what church is, I believe that the Church has lost much of its vitality and impact that it once had upon society. What was it about the First Century church of Acts that forged it into the dominant religious entity of the Fifth Century?

For the Acts of the Twenty First Century to have meaning and impact, we must make the attempt to strip away twenty centuries of culture, tradition, and societal norms and attempt to derive what a Vital Living Church ought to be.

I don’t know about you, but I am tired of church done the way it is because it is just that – “it’s done.” Did you go to church last week? Have you visited church lately? What did you think about what the pastor had to say at church this weekend? We identify church as a place and not as the living breathing organism that it is… I appreciate a worship pastor I know who opens a service by making the statement, “Thank you for bringing the church into this room.”

It makes me wonder… is the American church today kind of like a leg left in one position so long that all feeling has left it? Feeling in terms of real compassion for people. Feeling in terms of a real deep felt emotional connection with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. That kind of feeling seems to be sorely lacking in so many places...

There are some places that I believe run dangerously close to being the kind of people that Paul warns Timothy about in 2 Timothy 3:5, those who "holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power..." Is the American Church, in general, so numb that it has simply ceased to be a real and influential force in our contemporary culture today? Or is it more accurate to say that we are numb to the extent that societal norms and pressures have more influence upon the Church Body?

Perhaps the lack of real and bloody persecution has left the Church in America struggling to “wake up.” I say this as my own humble and limited experience, coupled with the interaction I’ve had with many other Christian brothers and sisters around the country, has left the impression that the American church in many instances has become more of a program driven, numbers obsessed, marketing and commercial giant than a community where the faithful encounter Jesus.

Aren't you tired of plastic Christians that are incapable of being real about struggle or life or difficulty? There is a tiresome “cult of personality,” if you will, of pastors that have raised the cry of “unity” to stifle the questions of the faithful. Since when was unity such an overriding standard that we ceased to intelligently discuss how to live out and express our faith?

This is not to say that I do not believe in doctrinal distinctives or that doctrine should be somehow subservient to the whims and questions of the many. What I am saying is that just like the Bereans in Acts 17, we ought to be continually searching and reading the scriptures to be sure that what we are thinking and sharing with each other is Scripturally true and accurate. (Acts 17:11)

If we are unwilling to intelligently interact with the Scriptures, to question, to search, and to learn then we are commiting both intellectual suicide and spiritual suicide. Intellectually because we are not "working" to understand and articulate our faith, which in itself produces a weak and ineffective witness. Spiritually because we are not approaching the Throne Room of Grace, and therefore actively seeking to become spiritually mature (Ephesians 4:12-15).

One of the greatest human philosophers in history, Socrates said the most important principle is to "Know thyself." As a Christian, it should be re-stated as we need to "Know Christ." In knowing Christ, we ought to be actively interacting with Scripture so that the Holy Spirit can prompt us towards true maturity in Christ Jesus. (Romans 12:1-2)

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to the Father,who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. (Colossians 1:9-12 NASB)

And so it is my prayer also ... What do you think?

The Fingerprints of God

But now, O Lord, You are our Father,
We are the clay, and You our potter;
And all of us are the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8

Have you ever seen the mess in a potter's room? The wet and dried clay spattered across the floor, the walls, the potter - if not rent the movie "Ghost." It doesn't seem possible for a potter to place the clay on the wheel and form anything beautiful or useful, or beautifully useful without being wholly focused and into the project.

If the clay becomes unbalanced, too much clay in one area or another, the wheel begins to shake and inevitably the potter has to break it down and start over. On the other hand, when the clay is easy to work with and the potter is able to keep it balanced it becomes possible to create something that is both functional and a work of art.

The prophet Isaiah calls us clay - how easy are you to work with? Lately it seems that I've been trying to make myself into what I think I should be. The only problem with clay trying to be the potter is that the position, the perspective, and the source of directed power is all wrong.

Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker -
An earthenware vessel among the vessls of the earth!
Will the clay say to the potter,"What are you doing?"
Or the thing you are making say,"He has no hands?" Isaiah 45:9

In spite of my own pride and my own inadequacy, I find myself being broken down, reduced to that basic lump of clay. When the potter first begins to work the clay, depending 0n how it has been prepared it can be stiff and difficult to work with. But, after adding a little water, after beating the clay and massaging the clay, it becomes pliable and soft enough to work with - yet it retains enough "stuff" to hold the desired shape.

I find myself wanting to argue with God, saying to Him and to myself - God what on earth are you doing to me? Why did you let me do that to myself? Why did you let me make that bad decision. I scream silently to the heaven's "Why?" Yet, no answer thunder's forth - not even a whisper.

My mind seethes with anger to the point of rage desirous of answers, meaning, hope, and salvation from circumstance. I even find myself wanting to accuse God of not caring, of abandoning His greater purpose in me. Which is really no more than suggesting that He has "no hands" just like Isaiah warns in chapter 45 and verse 9. I know God has a design for me, I just wish that He would let me in on the secret. Don't you?

How do I as a poor, misshapen lump of clay stop trying to control the wheel that is not under my control in the first place?

How do I become soft and pliable, easy to work with, and not stiff and unyielding of heart?

How do I pause and recognize the fingerprints of God in the details of life, both large and small?

You're asking me? I'm just another piece of clay like you! They (those poetic and prosaic authors) suggest that life is a journey, life is a process, life is the culimination of your choices... Who are the ubiquitous "they?" More pieces of clay? We're all whirling away on a potter's wheel of our own. Where does that leave us - besides dizzy, dazed, and confused?

What about disaster, bloodshed, "pointless" death that happens in the thousands of daily tragedies the world over?

I know this - that if we're all "the work of His hand" and we are spinning away on our own potter's wheel - then I submit to you that it is impossible to have any perspective on the insane spinning of life without seeing each piece of clay through the eye's of the Potter.

When life raises up like an ocean wave and swallows you whole, you need to struggle against the rip tide of hopelessness and despair. You need to strive to break the surface and return to shore. When you find your feet and touch the stand, you will find the Potter holding you close. He's ready to make something amazing with you from the mess you've made.

You know what you'll find? You'll find that He never dropped you. He didn't throw you away. He just added some water to make you a little easier to work with. The cross shows us just how involved He is, He's covered with all of the bits and pieces of our lives that we couldn't handle.

Now look at yourself - see your past with new eyes. Can you see how He's touched you, guided you, shaped you, broken you down, made you whole, made you new, made you useful to His purpose and His end?

I pray that God will open your eyes and that in the midst of whatever you may find, you will find His fingerprints already there. After all, they've always been all over your life - we just don't normally slow down enough, get quiet enough, step softly enough to know it. Know it, not just intellectually, but know it spiritually, experientially, emotionally - to feel it in the deepest most secret fibre of your being.

I know that's what I want - will you pray for me?

John 10:10