Jerusalem Pilgrimage Post 1

Shalom Y'all

We arrived yestrday after a loooong plane ride in a 747 in which I slept little but that was good because I was able to sleep well after we arrived and have no problems with jet lag. .   We are at St. George’s college in East Jerusalem.  It is the Palestininan part of the city.  It is the second day of the Jweish Independence day whiich is also known ast the day of disaster tot the Arabs.  

St. Geeorges is amazing and beuatiful.  I will post pics.  the beds are confortable and the weather is similar to that in SC.  We have had an orientation (I’m typing this during the talk).  Today we are heading to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher which is there the people here think Jesus was crucified.

We began the day with Communion.  The priests here are all TEC.  Not much else to say yet.  I will continue to post my diary and pictures here on this blog.  I will be posting while you are asleep so it will be waiting for you every morning.  I can recieve email so to to the Holy Trinity wevsite and find the link to my emaill there.  www.htchas.com.   God bless you and keep you in HIs loving embrace.

David.   

Bishop Mark Lawrence's Remarks to Old St. Andrew's Parish, Charleston SC

"If you were to ask me, what areas of Christian theology have the Diocese of South Carolina and the national Episcopal Church been moving at odds, I would say they would be in the areas of (1) the trust and worthiness of Holy Scripture as the word of God containing everything necessary for our salvation, and (2) the uniqueness and universality of Jesus Christ as the unique God-man who is the savior of the human race, regardless of cultural background, religious affiliation, color, race, creed, or sexual orientation, who everybody has to decide whether they will follow or not. As he divided the thieves on the cross, between the one who continued to rail and condemn him, and the other thief who said, “Remember me when you enter into your kingdom,” to which our Lord said, “Today you will be with me in paradise,” every human being gets behind one of those thieves and their eternal destiny. We all enter into paradise behind the thief who repented, or behind the thief who did not. Since we all get in line behind a thief, everybody loses their bragging rights, of their moral goodness and virtue and deservedness. We are saved by grace, or we’re not saved at all. We either get bleeding mercy or justice. As for me and my house, give me bleeding mercy. But that uniqueness of Jesus Christ is absolutely essential."

Click here for the entire .pdf file of the transcript.

Editorial On Abusing Matthew 18 by D. A. Carson

D. A. Carson is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.  [and he rocks! (Tiger edit)]

Several years ago I wrote a fairly restrained critique of the emerging church movement as it then existed, before it morphed into its present diverse configurations.1 That little book earned me some of the angriest, bitterness-laced emails I have ever received—to say nothing, of course, of the blog posts. There were other responses, of course—some approving and grateful, some thoughtful and wanting to dialogue. But the ones that displayed the greatest intensity were those whose indignation was white hot because I had not first approached privately those whose positions I had criticized in the book. What a hypocrite I was—criticizing my brothers on ostensible biblical grounds when I myself was not following the Bible’s mandate to observe a certain procedure nicely laid out in Matt 18:15–17.

Find the rest here

A powerful article about my friend Sarah (Sally) and the tragedy of suicide.

James Island family faces holidays after death by suicide

Jennifer Berry Hawes

Caroline Ball, the baby, loved to paint and draw and dance ballet. She and her sister, Sarah, sang in the church choir. Theirs was, in so many ways, an ideal childhood.

Yet, today Sarah Ball Damewood and one sister are all who remain with their father in a family robbed of its pieces by physical and mental illness. In 2009, they lost their mother to complications from a stroke.

In 2010, they lost the oldest of the four sisters to breast cancer. She was just 54.

And this year, they lost Caroline, the youngest daughter. They lost Caroline to herself, to the emptiness she had yet to fill.

Read it all

A Prayer for the People of Newtown CT and all who mourn today.

Gracious Lord, 
in our darkest hours we, your children, either cling to you for comfort and solace or we hide our faces from you as we hold you responsible for the evil of this world. Help us to remember that the tears you cried over Lazarus mingle with our own on this day of mourning and anguish. Help us to remember that you have received these innocents into your loving arms. Pour out your mercy on those whose loved ones were lost and give us your grace and wisdom and comfort as we seek your will for our lives as living members of Your Son, Our Savior, Jesus Christ, the lover of souls and defeater of death. Amen.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.
David Dubay+ 2012

Diocese of South Carolina Special Convention: Bishop's Address

45 minutes of gold.

A new day in the Diocese of S.C.

Diocese of South Carolina Turns the Page; Looks Forward
Special Convention Approves Canonical and Constitutional Amendments Regarding Disassociation

Today, Saturday, November 17, 2012, the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of South Carolina met in Special Convention at the “mother church of the Diocese,” historic St. Philip’s Church in Charleston.  There, an overwhelming majority passed three resolutions.   

Here for the rest  

What is going on in the Diocese of South Carolina?

Here is a link to a helpful document from the Diocese.

Gracious Father, we pray for they holy Catholic Church. Fill it
with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt,
purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is
amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in
want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake
of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. Amen.     BCP 1979

What really happened at the Cathedral of St. Luke and St. Paul?

God Bless Dean Dickinson and the congregation of Cathedral of St. Luke and St. Paul.

CLICK HERE FOR SOME TRUE FACTS!

What is going on at Holy Trinity, Charleston this weekend?
Click here to find out.

Faith in the Storm 4:A life saved. (Matt Pridgen)

Faith in the Storm 4:A life saved. (Matt Pridgen)

Holy Trinity, Charleston's  2012 Lenten Series is entitled: Faith under fire...life in a Stormy world.  This is the 4th in that series.  In it, Mr. Matt Pridgen (www.mattpridgen.com) tells of how the Lord saved him when he had no idea he needed to be saved.  A powerful and moving and ....odd....story.   May it bless you and point you to Jesus.
 
Here for Audio of the talk

Here for Holy Trinity's Website 

Here for Matt's Website 

Faith in the Storm: The loss of a child. (Brenda and Brett McBride)

From Holy Trinity, Charleston's 2012 Lenten Series in entitled: Faith under fire...life in a stormy world.  This is the 3rd in that series but the first one with a working recording available.  Brenda and Brett McBride tell there heart breaking story of loss and their glorious story of healing and redemption in Christ.

Here for the audio.

Here for church website

Soon to come... Sunday sermons from Holy Trinity, Charleston SC

Keep checking back.

How To Receive Criticism Like A Champ by Mark Altrogge on March 14, 2012

I don’t love to be criticized or critiqued.  I must admit, I don’t love “input.”

I think this goes back to my Intro to Design class in college.  One day Dr. Grinchwold (named changed) walked past my desk, looked disdainfully at my project, a 3-dimensional paper fly (which was brilliant, by the way), and muttered something.  “Excuse me, what did you say?” I asked.  To which he replied for the whole class to hear, “I said, ‘Do you have a match?’  Because you should burn that thing.”  I was stunned, mortified and humiliated.  I wanted to say, “If I had a match I’d light your pants on fire,” but I didn’t.

Read more....

Heath Lambert: Gracious Candor: A Tutorial in Speaking Truth in Love

...Now of course there is Ephesians 4:15 to consider and apply: Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. If we are to grow up in Christ in the context of our conversations, the apostle Paul commands two things about our words...  here for entire post