Pete Bishop

Painty Painty

I have this blank wall in my studio.Not a lot going on there other than some high-mid acoustical foam. So I got some of this stuff and me wifie is going to paint a big square on said wall in order for me to keep track of all the ADD ponderings going on inside my cranium. I am very excited. I can now mind map forever!!!

Inspire

Because there are so many things out there waiting to capture and push your imagination. Here are some cool links of the day.

TED: a wealth of cool video to make you think.
Magwerk: Kikin online mag
Shawn Barber: oil and canvas artist. New work specilizing in tattoo portraits.

Culture

If you don't subscribe to the Catalyst podcast then you should go check out this interview with Andy Crouch as he wrestles with the question of being a counterculture for the common good . Its quite good. Actualy its better than that.

The Reformission

So I'm reading a couple books right now. Mark Driscolls  The Radical Reformission and Dan Kimballs They Like Jesus but Not The Church. In the Radical Reformission Driscoll points to the fact that its simply about Jesus and his call to us to:
    1. Love God.
    2. Love our neighbor 
    3. Love the church. ( the people, not the building or programs or what it can do for you, and by the way thats "the" church... all of it)

He goes on to talk about how western Christianity fails to fulfill this call because various Christian traditions are only faithful to one or two of  the counts.

• Gospel +Culture-Church= parachurch
• Culture+Church-Gospel=Liberalism
• Church+Gospel-Culture=Fundamentalism.

I say all of that to get to this... I'm reading in chapter 2 and 3 about How Billy Graham and the guy who wrote the original 4 spiritual law tracks ( his name slips me ) wrote for the people they were trying to reach. For instance Mr Graham spoke a lot about the peace of God due to just coming out of the wars. The 4 spiritual laws came out of a science and physics driven culture.... so in regards to the culture we currently live in Mark Driscoll poses  an interesting  set of   questions  at the end of one of the chapters. He talks about the 4 Gospels and how the writers wrote for a specific culture and in a way that the people would understand. He has a great breakdown in the book of how that fleshes out.

The questions are
If you were to write a Gospel for the people in your culture.

• Where would you start?
• How would you explain sin?
• How would you explain Jesus
• What in Jesus's life would they most resonate with. What would they struggle with?

This begs me to ask a lot of questions. Do I really know who the people in my culture are ? How do they think? What do they do? Why do they do it? How do I tell them about Christs Love in a way they understand, not in the way I understand (and Im not talking about watering it down or changing truth) . How am I going to get to know these people  and love them... where they are?.... hmmm let the perculating begin.

Here is a question for you?

If you had unlimited resources (including time, money and influence) that enabled you to do whatever you wanted with your life. What would it be?

Saturday Quote

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”

~George Bernard Shaw

 

Day 5

Today is Day 5 of no sodie pop. Not going to bad. I feel rather odd but I suppose its the way most people feel all the time. My buddy Matt says I used to act like this guy. Anyway found an interesting way to consume Coca Cola... if I go back to it. Seems like in Texas ( why does all the weird stuff come out of Texas?) the newest fad is to take balls of batter deep fry them and pour coke syrup all over them. Check it out.... the equivalent of shoving a syringe of grease in your neck :).

Forgiveness

Based on this guys post ( who by the way is one fantastic human specimen!) and some conversations I have been having with people lately I have been thinking a lot and reading a lot about this topic of forgiveness . If ever there was a quality that this world cannot understand or make it's forgiveness, someone once said it is the very breath of Heaven. Kingdom style life cannot be lived without an operation of it. I'm reading a book right now that states the secret behind forgiveness is that it confronts and has the ability to set you free from....your pride. If there is one thing that runs polar opposite of all things God its pride. The elevation of yourself. But Christ has the answer. It appears there are two types of personalities that come into play when you talk about forgiveness. When it comes to forgiving usually you will either respond to people with comfort or truth. Comfort people( or mercy driven people)  find it easy to forgive others but not themselves. Truth people (or justice driven people) accept forgiveness easily but don't find it as easy to forgive others. Those who are mercy driven say I should be better than this, truth driven people say.. I am better than this, problem is both of those are driven by pride, and pride in any form shuts out God. Psalm 85:10 melds both of these thought process together.

Mercy and truth have met together;
         Righteousness and peace have kissed.

The questions for me today are. Am I mercy driven? Or Truth Driven? Where is my pride in this? Who do I need to forgive today? Where do I need to accept forgiveness? How do I make it a Lifestyle instead of an instance by instance act?...More to come.

Orbiting the Giant Hairball

Rink Mink our executive Pastor gave me this book and it is amazing. Go read it! Brilliant!.... here is a line from the description....Creativity is crucial to business success. But too often, even the most innovative organization quickly becomes a "giant hairball"--a tangled, impenetrable mass of rules, traditions, and systems, all based on what worked in the past--that exercises an inexorable pull into mediocrity. Every once in a while I really resonate with something and this book was it. It has made me want to change some of my evil ways.:)

Quote of the Day

"If you are going to be come great at one thing you have to begin to become terrible at other things."
Erwin Mcgmanus (from the message Practice)