A few thoughts that I will reflect on this next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Trumpism is a mirror to who we are. There are two significant issues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a. What is happening in our society?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
b. What is happening in our faith community (churches)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Sometimes it is easier to determine what is not true than what is truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. The Barman Confession of 1934 gives us some historical context to understanding the relationship between the organized church and political affiliations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. We are citizens and carry a passport from Heaven. Wayne Dyer put it this way, \u201cI am a spiritual being having an earthly experience.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. The question to us is how do I open a door to a Kingdom perspective for myself and others without denigrating others?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6. Making a statement, a \u201cStanding stone,\u201d without a clean definition of terms would not be helpful. Still, we must try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7. We each have our own stories and perspectives. The question is how we fit into God\u2019s story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8. We are a work in progress, an unfinished product, listening and learning from those who have a totally different perspective, perhaps even a wrong perspective, or we may recognize our perspective is wrong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 9. The purpose of a discussion (Argument\/debate) is not to win but to understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bill and I started this small discussion group with four or five of us, thinking we will commit to 12 weeks. Neither of us had used zoom in the past. We are now on week 42. I have learned so much, read things I never would have read, had my eyes and heart opened, been challenged, and my mind changed. Of all the things that I can complain about in 2020, this is one endeavor for which I am most grateful. I have met people I would never have met. Those I knew, I now know better and deeper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For me, faith has never been a theological issue but rather a practical one. James 2: 14-18 is what it is all about for me. I want my faith to make a difference in my life and in the lives of others. Each of you are helping me achieve that. Thank you! Happy New Year! Lou<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A few thoughts that I will reflect on this next week. 1. Trumpism is a mirror to who we are. There are two significant issues: a. What is happening in our society? b. What is happening in our faith community (churches) 2. Sometimes it is easier to determine what is not true than what is truth. 3. The Barman Confession …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":209713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_block_theme_hide_title":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sunday-reflections","with-featured-image"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/history-in-hd-cTz5-T7voqQ-unsplash-scaled-1-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/history-in-hd-cTz5-T7voqQ-unsplash-scaled-1-600x600.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Lou Haveman","author_link":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/?author=5"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=209712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/209713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=209712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=209712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=209712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}