cwdaniels's Xanga

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Sat, 28 Jan 2006 15:15:36 GMT

this may be unbelievable, annoying or just plain strange but i've moved my blog again. This time, will be the last time, because its my own domain. Please update your booksmarks if you do that kind of thing.

www.gatheringinlight.com

Saturday, October 22, 2005

Sat, 22 Oct 2005 13:24:52 GMT

its been a while since i've posted on ol' xanga, i think its mainly because i have become a blogger snob (if that were possible for a free service). anyways i post there regularly but thought that i might say something here. emily's parents are in town this weekend, hangingout having a good time. its always nice to have visitors. we are not sure how much longer we will be in LA, except that we are committed to the end of Emily's school year. She is now teaching 9 and 10th grade English. I have just finished up my last project for fuller and am now officially done witih school. I have recently submitted my application to the University of Birminghan (UK), and am working on other apps for PhD programs. Its a lot of pressure to figure out where we are headed, and up to now the Lord hasn't made it clear one way or the other so we are sticking to the original plan of doing school a bit longer, and trying to be a Quaker Theologian. Or a worker at a gas station, the latter is sounding pretty nice. we are antsy to buy a house and begin a family and all that. For now we are happy to live in LA, and hang out with all the interesting folks here. come and visit me http://gatheringinlight.blogspot.com.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Tue, 02 Aug 2005 04:44:11 GMT

a comment on my comments

gathering in light.

Did you read and comment on the Barclay Press article yet?

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Thu, 21 Jul 2005 14:18:11 GMT

"Finding The Right Wording to be Saved"

1. Emily and I are moving, again, our third apt. since we moved here! it is insane, and I hate moving BUT, our new apt. kicks some serious behind. We are saving a ton of money on rent, which is good since I can only work part-time till the middle of september and emily is still looking for a new job. It is right on the path of the gold line (the public transit train) so we can ride into LA with ease, and I can ride it to work and school in pasadena.

2. Emily has a job interview today at a charter school in pasadena to teach english, she is nervous about it, i am a little too, I hope that it goes well for her its a big deal to do this kind of stuff. I know because I also applied to teach in a high school, a catholic one, and to be their religious studies teacher. I am a bit nervous thinking about that as a prospect, I have no teaching experience other than for youth groups and stuff, but its not much the same. I would love to teach at a catholic school though, and i think the experience would be wonderful.

3. What is it about me that always gets into these theological discussions? Granted yesterday It wasn't about Quakers but still - this guy ambushed me at work in the bookstore and asked me if I believe in the oneness of God or the Trinity. I said, I believe in both...hoping he would take the cue to leave me alone. but i am not so lucky. rather, after he found out that even though I have "been baptized in the holy Spirit" i still am not saved because when I was baptized someone said "i Baptize you in the NAME of the father, son and holy spirit" which according to him is a heresy and expresses disobedience to God therefore rendering my salvation null. DANG IT - why didn't i know this earlier? I have wanted to do so many terrible deeds but couldn't because of this thing called the inner light of Christ. Why was it that I seemed to already have the SPirit? I was disappointed to learn that I am not a Christian though, wouldn't it come as a shock to anyone?

The crux of his argument is based on semantics, When matt. says the NAME of the father, son and spirit, he is expecting us to do the math, therefore the NAME = Jesus not the Father, son and SPirit, those are names those are titles as he told me about 60 times. Therefore I was baptized into titles, that render no power whatsoever and according to him God is not the kind of God to make those kinds of allowances and overlook a semantic mistake - because it was disobedient. After listening to about 40 min. of nonstop proof-texting (the best kind of torture to offer me) I couldn't take and started to pull out my own guns (but mind you I was trying to avoid debate hoping he'd just go away). I think he was sent as a missionary to Fuller's campus, considering how it all went down, and how he ripped off 25 verses in about 10 min, quoting them all off the top of his head (an impressive feat for anyone, heretic or not) made me think he was sent on a mission.

My main points are 1) at the end of the day, if him and i are both baptized in the Spirit, speaking in tongues or whatever, living the life that Christ calls us too, and one of us is a trinitarian and the other a oneness - what difference does it make. It seems as though God is faithful beyond our point of view on the matter. 2) If i quote Matt. 28:18ff vs. "doing the math" to get the name Jesus and I really going to be punished by God (Jesus I mean) I have always been under the impression that for pentecostals quoting the scripture is the best medicine...3) Jesus never baptized anyone, nor did he command anyone to baptize people in his name Matthew 28:18 says "the son." But to assume that he meant himself in that verse is doing mental gymnastics, thus breaking a Hermeneutical rule of Dispensational Pentecostals - reading the Bible rigidly-literal for all its worth baby. 4) Jesus never explicitly called himself God. My friend did not like the fact that I pointed this out to him. 5) Jesus is only an english translation of our Lord's actual Aramaic name Yeshua. So in fact if it is a matter of semantics, none of us are saved unless we are saved under that specific name.

I pointed out to my friend that his entire argument was more divisive than anything, because both camps are producing spiritually obedience followers of JESUS - but actually we are followers of YESHUA. And that at the end of the day what is most important is an inward move toward God, an earnest seeking, the actual event of longing for God, Longing to be changed by his forgiveness and love - not a prayer you prayer, or whether you are ever baptized, or what not. the move is more important than the method of the move. but this is where i could have started down the road to Quakerism and I stopped, he left, and I thanked God for how ever convoluted a faith I have...and I hope my friend settles down a bit, running at that kind of extreme will end him up in a lifestyle of bitterness towards God real fast.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Thu, 21 Jul 2005 05:01:19 GMT

I was apart of a roundtable discussion on "what is church" that was just published on the Evangelical Friends Barclay Press website - check it out.

Barclay Press "What is Church"

Oh and we are coming home aug 9-22...be there...

Monday, June 13, 2005

Mon, 13 Jun 2005 22:52:10 GMT

Im still alive.

Monday, April 25, 2005

Mon, 25 Apr 2005 13:48:16 GMT

what a weekend. starting with thursday i helped a buddy shoot his film for an LA wide event called 168. He asked me to shoot the whole thing but about 2 hours into it he took the camera and did it himself - so that was kind of a bummer. I ended up just doing boom stuff and being an extra which is much less interesting (to me) than shooting it. thursday night we went to this hip hop thing at fuller where i filmed that. then friday night i was asked to film the festival of nations which is basically all the international students make food from their different countries and the rest of fuller comes and chows down. it is a blast. my buddy chase and his wife kate and their 1 month old Wren came over saturday night to kick it with us, Hebrew National style (to kick off the passover). okay we didn't actually mean to kick off the passover but i guess we inadvertently did, and with Hebrew National hot dogs nonetheless (on the grill Canton Ohio style...(?)...

That make me remember the "good ol days" back on 8th street when we would just randomly invite all our friends over for a cook out on our front porche in our happy little downtown home and since we have such a small grille we would do the meal in shifts. some friends would go up into our music room and play on my Rhodes, the guitars and drumset have an instantaneous jam session. what great times.

anyways - we did something like that on saturday with the Roden's and their sweet new daughter. Chase helped me add another hard drive (the fourth) to my video editing computer so i can keep pumping out the videos for all the world to...wonder why i am making videos...

Then on sunday we got to kick it with our good friend Tressa Watts from good ol' BFYG, and Barberton Ohio - home of the chicken champions - though i think i may be the only one who is proud of that fact. Tressa was in Anaheim for a school related convention and since she had all of sunday afternoon off we went down to hang out. it was a lot of fun, we went to laguna beach and walked around there for a few hours. then i got a ticket by a very un-nice cop who pulled me over for making a U turn over double yellow lines. I didn't know you couldn't do that, i thought you could make a U turn anywhere in CA - so now i have to go back to driving school. i wonder if i should take my laptop for notes like i do at Fuller?

I was glad that it was Tressa's first time being in a car that is pulled over, that i got to show her the ropes a little, yet keep everything under control at the same time, i made sure nobody got to out of hand, except for the part where emily can the female officer - "sir" on accident. i got a little worried there, but no sweat i made up for it by putting a sock in emily's mouth and telling the officer that my daughter has turrets syndrome. the lady gave me a ticket and that was it, i guess they are going to mail me a bill or a court date or whatever. dang it! its been like 7-8 years since i have gotten a ticket.

well - it was fun hanging out with Tressa and hearing her stories about all the BFYG kids. good stuff. we miss everyone back home but for now we are making due in this crazy place they call LAhmajune.

Monday, April 18, 2005

Mon, 18 Apr 2005 04:35:27 GMT

a new post.

gathering in light

Friday, April 08, 2005

Fri, 08 Apr 2005 14:30:02 GMT

i just read a robert frost poem "reluctance" which was really good, it talked about seasons coming to an end, and how we are reluctant to let seasons (and loves) come to an end - that it is a part of humanity to be reluctant. i thought it was good.

anyways we are heading off for death valley today.
but first we must have a wyldlife event, the first one ever
for RMS. we are really excited and are believing for a lot of kids,
we have invited some and are hoping that God spread the word for us.

lots of craziness.
actually this qtr haas been going really well. i have been busy but nothing like last qtr, i have felt relaxed and at ease. i have also had very few headaches that the LOrd.

lately i have been getting more excited about pastoral ministry again, feeling like it is something i want to master, i mean this is a workmanship/trade kind of way, that i want to be good at it, i want to learn how to be a humble leader, i want to lead/shepherd the body of Christ, be an amazing listener, i want to help inform the church of its history and heritage, help it to understand today and tomorrow, i want to be a part of forming communities, shaping lives, brining justice, doing art, reform ecclesiology and mission, and bring healing. i guess i haven't experienced any pastors that fit this exact mold, i don't know what it means to do all this, i don't even know if it is humanly possible, i want to find out if this is what the spirit can do through me.

i want to do theology.
i want to teach.
i want to create.
i want to love, weep and love more.

show us the way Lord.

we said last night that if Cleveland Heights had an opening for a Friends Church we would go next year and do it. I wonder what God thinks of these silly statements?

Monday, March 07, 2005

Mon, 07 Mar 2005 17:56:56 GMT

I have been thinking lately about doing something like what we used to do back in Canton for Bible study. It was biblical study based off the Quaker idea that all people are endowed with the Spirit of God to a greater or lesser extent depending on your obedience to it, but that all people have some of the "light of Christ" as we are all His artwork.

So what I thought would be stimulating and valuable for all of us, whether a spiritual novice, new to any faith at all or to Christianity, or like me one who has been around this stuff from an early age - I invite you to participate in this community wide dialogue. Spend as little or as much time as you like in reflection and dialogue with this passage, but please put it on the blog so that we can all interact.

care to join the table? check in to Gathering In Light