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Today is a melancholy day – meaning it is a day to listen to my country playlist
- Johnny Cash
- Kenny Rogers
- Alison Krauss
- Charley Pride
- Charlie Daniels
- Conway Twitty
- Dennis Agajanian
- Confederate Railroad
- Hank Williams, Jr.
- Ronnie Milsap
And of course, King George
It was one of his songs that stood out to me this morning as the ones and zeros flipped files into my ears – If You Ain’t Lovin’ (You Ain’t Livin’)
In a nutshell, the song states that money and fame isn’t worth squat if there is no one there with you. Good words… Continue reading A Melancholy Day…Music
 Chuck Colson has an unique writing style full of stories of his adventures working with prison inmates around the world. His book “Loving God” is one of my all time favorite books – and one of the few that have made me cry.
“The Faith” is Colson’s attempt to boil all of Christianity down into one simple volume for new believers, old-believers, and/or skeptics who want to see what it is all about.
Nothing like a challenge. 
Actually, Colson does a really good job for the first half to three-quarters of the book. He stayed true to the Bible and the essentials of the faith – highlighting those things that unify Protestant, Catholics and Eastern Orthodox believers. In other words, he tried to major in the majors and minor in the minor.
However, there are two things that I do not like in the book.
My first objection is a tad petty… but, here is goes. Near the beginning of the book, Colson mentions that he is going to describe the up-most top items in Christianity. He even writes down the number of items he is going to be talking about – only he never lists these items out nor does he refer back to this comment in the rest of the book (which is why I don’t recall the number he gave or what items he considered to be ‘high priority”)…  Continue reading The Faith by Chuck Colson
Over the years there has been plethora of books written about the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth – mostly notably the four included in the collection called the Bible.
Undaunted by those who have gone before him, Gene Edwards put ink to paper and wrote about the Passion through the eyes of Jesus. Yes, [...]
 Picture Take In Argentina A good friend of ours recently started attending St. John’s Catholic Cathedral in the valley. As we listened to her describe the church and what God was doing, we decided to join her for Mass last Sunday evening.
Entering into the building, I really didn’t know what to expect as all my knowledge about the Catholic Church comes from either history or Latin America. The one thing that I did know that that St. John was a ‘high’ church with lots of liturgies and rituals, similar to the Greek Orthodox Church we visited a few months ago.
Sitting down, my eyes swept across the Cathedral enjoying the paintings, stained glass and marble that spread out before me. It was quite amazing! =)
Then came Mass Continue reading This Is Not Your Great-Great-Great Grandfather’s Church
You know that old saying, “the devil is in the details”? Well it is true….
Last week I submitted a course substitution petition to Fuller Theological Seminary where I am working on a Masters of Cross Cultural Studies. Today, I emailed my advisor asking for an update of the petition as the class starts next Monday. Her reply:
“I had sent the decision to your Fuller email account.”
Say what?!
I have a Fuller email address?!!!
When? Where? How? And Who killed the cat?
I’ve have been a grad student for…hmm…lets see – a little over two years now. And never once did I ever realize or think about the fact that I might have a student email address… 
Wow. 65 unread messages…. Continue reading Say What? I Have A Fuller Email Address?!!
 The year was 1976 and the church growth movement was beginning to start. Peter Wagner, a former missionary to South America, was on the forefront of this movement due to his job at Fuller Theological Seminary’s new church growth department.
The church growth movement, in a nutshell, was a movement that placed the focus of the local church on increasing the number of members attending said church. This in turn led to “seeker friendly services” and the attractional church model (i.e. do whatever it takes to get people to come to your church).
The sad thing about this movement was that it tended to a) leave out certain groups of people and b) create churches full of attendees, or spectators, and not true followers of Christ. Continue reading Your Church Can Grow by Peter Wagner
 I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
I bind this day to me for ever.
By power of faith, Christ’s incarnation;
His baptism in the Jordan river;
His death on Cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb;
His riding up the heavenly way;
His coming at the day of doom;*
I bind unto myself today.
I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of the cherubim;
The sweet ‘well done’ in judgment hour,
The service of the seraphim,
Confessors’ faith, Apostles’ word,
The Patriarchs’ prayers, the Prophets’ scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord,
And purity of virgin souls. Continue reading Saint Patrick’s “Breastplate”
“Green Guilt” is the title of an article published last month (Jan 10th) by The Chronicle Review and written by Stephen T. Asma, a professor of philosophy at Columbia College Chicago.
The premise of the article is that humanity has a “natural propensity toward guilt and indignation.” Throughout history, this guilt over “our very existence” was challenged into aggression with each other. When that was not possible, due to social and religious rules, we “engage in a kind of self-denial, or self-cruelty.”
You can see our veiled value system better if you contrast it with the one that preceded Christianity. For the pagans, honor and pride were valued, but for the Christians it is meekness and humility; for the pagans it was public shame, for Christians, private guilt; for pagans there was a celebration of hierarchy, with superior and inferior people, but for Christians there is egalitarianism; and for pagans there was more emphasis on justice, while for Christians there is emphasis on mercy (turning the other cheek). Underneath all these values, according to Nietzsche, is a kind of psychology—one dominated by resentment and guilt.
With the decline of Christianity in the West, something had to rise up and take over the role of directing our “feelings of guilt and indignation”: Continue reading Green Guilt
Four emotions.
Four rolling, somewhat sporadic emotions caught up in the ink covered pages of an audio book. Four emotions that tell a story of how I read Jon Krakauer’s bestselling book “Into the Wild.”
Emotion #1: Critique and Criticism
On the surface, “Into the Wild” is a book about a wealth young man (Christopher McCandless) who gives away all his money and embarks on a life of a hobo, thumbing his way across the American West – only to die of starvation in 1992 in the wilderness of Alaska due to his choice not to carry a map of the area in which he was camping.
In a nut shell, that is the book – and the movie it spawned.
As an avid wilderness backpacker, I distained Christopher McCandless’ decision to go out into the “wild” without carrying a map or a compass. To me, this one simple fact was enough to keep me from reading or otherwise thinking about his life or death.
Yet, as you can tell, I did read the book… mostly, to be honest, because a good friend and backpacking buddy met McCandless years ago while returning to the lower 48 states from Alaska (McCandless was on his way north at the time). Then there was another friend who read Krakauer’s book and identified with McCandless’ journey to forsake the craziness of modern consumer life and escape to raw beauty of nature.
So I read it. Continue reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
 It was 1994 and amidst the trees and rocks of northeast Oklahoma a rumor was spreading: “The Spirit of God has touched down in Toronto!”
Yet, as fast as that rumor was going, another one was going faster: “The devil has deceived the church in Toronto and they are all doomed!”
As a young teenager, I remember being very confused about the revival and what was really happening. So much so, that in the end, I decided that the Toronto Blessing was a fluke happening of a bunch of crazy Canadians. This was I was able to focus on the important things in life – like getting that Jose Canseco or Nolan Ryan baseball card!
Little did I know that years later I would join the movement that sparked the Toronto revival! God is something else… that much is true.
Enter the book “Catch The Fire: The Toronto Blessing” by Guy Chevreau.
I picked up this book a few years back out of a desire to learn more about what happened in Toronto in 1994. Even though I had studied the history of the Vineyard Movement and knew a little bit about the Toronto Blessing and the resulting fall out (the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship left the Vineyard in 1995), I still didn’t know what “happened.” Continue reading Catch The Fire: The Toronto Blessing by Guy Chevreau
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Who Writes This Mess? My name is Joshua Hopping and I am a Son of the Most High journeying through a foreign land following the Wild Goose (i.e. the Holy Spirit) one step at a time.
As I journey along the Way, I have the privilege of serving as the bi-vocational pastor of the Payette River Vineyard Christian Fellowship. I am also a voracious reader who loves studying church history, theology, and world missions.
This blog, "Requisite Danger", is a record of what God is teaching and showing me as I try to follow Him wherever He leads as well as occasional random thoughts. I pray that you will join me in this journey through online/offline interaction as this life is lived in community.
May His grace and peace be upon you.
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