Re: [TruthTalk] My Sister and Peaches

[Knpraise]

Jonathon, I am going to pick at your post a little.   Much of it is agreeable.  Some is not..And that is why we have TT.

John the Beloved



In a message dated 6/18/2004 7:30:28 AM Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

I picked my sister up from the airport last night.  She lives in the United States and works there as a childrenâs pastor.  I mentioned the discussions we have been having here regarding Bushâs policies, Americaâs responsibility, repentance, and the reflective approach to 9/11 that Lance and I prescribe.  She immediately told me of how much of America is doing just that, engaging the event with thoughtful and prayerful speech.

I have no idea where this is going on.   I personally do not attend church services where politics is the point of discussion.  As I see it, we have an hour or two per week to benefit from the larger fellowhsip of the Saints.   Choices have to be made  --  spirit filled communion or politics. 

She mentioned that talk radio has been constructively discussing why the rest hates the

west for over a year now.

NPR is the only radio doing this.  National Propogandist Radio is interesting, at time, if you like Marxism and related material.   Talk radio in this country is 85% conservative.  Some are fundamentalists (whatever that is) but most are not.   Just for kicks, Jonathon, write down your definition of "fundamentalis" and have your sister do the same  -- no prediscussion.   Then compare.  I think that would be interesting.  

I said to her, well that certainly is not like the forum that I am attempting to engage. 

She looked up from her dinner and said, âOh, you must be speaking with fundamentalists.â  I smiled.

And the Lord said, it is not good for man to be alone, in a room, with Canadians who do not udnerstand American conservative politics, and the evening and the morning saw no progress in the discussion. 

There is nothing like a nice, ripe peach.  So soft, juicy, delicious, sweet, everything a peach should be.  But not all peaches are like the perfect peach.  Many peaches are hard, unforgiving to the touch, un-impressionable.  They look great from the outside, the fuzz in the right places, the colour just right.  But when you pick one up it is hard.  Your thumb leaves no imprint.  You put the peach down and search for one that is impressionable, one that will be sweet to the mouth.  Of course you keep an eye on the first peach; you hold it again tomorrow but it is still hard.  Each day you lightly touch it hoping for that softness, hoping against odds that the peach will become all that it is meant to become: the perfect peach.  Although it still looks beautiful on the outside it begins to rot on the inside.  Within a few days, this peach that had so much potential is now rotten, beginning to smell.

Sounds like the bits to me.

I would like the TT forum to become more like the soft peaches: impressionable, teachable, and pliable. 

"Heads full of mush"  comes to mind. 

This is my main problem with fundamentalists; they have lost the ability to be molded, to

become soft, teachable. 

So we used to be all warm and fuzzy and teachable and moldy, but now we are not?


Rather, they look great from the outside,


yes we do

perhaps looking like the model Christians.

GQ  ??

They do most things right; they look like

good peaches.  But when you pick one up, attempt to become more intimate with that peach you notice that it is hard on the inside.

"intimate with a peach"   I can tell you one thing for sure, Jonathon.  A "fundamentalist" would never get intimate with a peach.   I am going to put this line in the same keep sake file in which I have the words "outer Mogolia."  

A nice looking peach, but little visible fruitness.  These peaches tend to be rather angry,

responding out of their hardness, their rigidity.  Softness is considered too feminine, too liberal.  Meanwhile, they slowly rot inside, their juice drying up.
My very first post on Truthtalk was about epistemological humility; the changes that occur in our doctrines as we become closer to God.  I asked for examples from people (after providing a few of my own) on where God had changed them, molded them differently from what they first believed.  I found it astounding when none of the âfundamentalistsâ on this forum replied, not one of them. 

I seem to remember Terry saking a similar question with a good deal of response.  Maybe you got little response because you were knew to the group  --  I mean it was your first post and all. 

   It appears that fundamentalists grow in the faith, just never change in it.  What an eye-

opener for me.

Don't believe everything you write.  Actaully, if you think we can grow without changing, don't believe anything you write. 

I beg of you, plead with you, allow the Spirit to keep you humble, to be impressionable,

to listen and hear the Spiritâs voice in whatever guise it may come to you.  Allow yourself to be healthy peaches, full of juice and a delicate sweetness.

Leave off the peach illustration and the words "delicate sweetness" an you have a point here that is, in fact, great advice. 

Big John  back at ya