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welcome!
I am Mike Noakes.
That is was my pipe.
This is my blog.
Welcome.
(about me)
My Bio... thus far
My Myspace
My Wishlist
Buy my books on Half.Com!
(thoughts)
"Before the beautiful-no, not really before but within the beautiful-the whole person quivers. He not only 'finds' the beautiful moving; rather, he experiences himself as being moved and possessed by it."
- Hans Urs von Balthasar
"Everywhere I go, I'm asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher."
- Flannery o'Connor
"Christians are called to leave behind, in the tomb of Jesus Christ, all that belongs to the brokenness and incompleteness of the present world. It is time, in the power of the Spirit, to take up our proper role, our fully human role, as agents, heralds, stewards of the new day that is dawning."
- NT Wright
"When we think our brother or sister has sinned against us, such an affront is not just against us but against the whole community. A community established as peaceful cannot afford to let us relish our sense of being wronged without exposing that wrong in the hopes of reconciliation."
- Stan Hauerwas
"Advertising treats all products with the reverence and the seriousness due to sacraments."
- Thomas Merton
"All the believers were of one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possesions was their own, but they shared everything that they had."
- Acts of the Apostles
"For evil men account those things alone evil which do not make men evil; neither do they blush to praise good things, and yet to remain evil among the good things they praise. It grieves them more to own a bad house than a bad life, as if it were man's greatest good to have everything good but himself."
- St. Augustine
(reading)
The Eucharist of the Early Christians
The Collected Short Stories, Flannery o'Connor
The Kingdom of God is Within You, Tolstoy
(have read)
Crossing the Threshold of Hope, Pope John Paul II
God is Near Us, Pope Benedict XVI
Heretics/Orthodoxy, GK Chesterton
Sonnets from the Portuguese, Elizabeth Barret Browning
(theology thinkers)
Bishop NT Wright
Stanley Hauerwas
Karl Barth
(spirituality)
Daily Prayer
Nutshell Christology
Patristic Resources
Renovare
Centering Prayer
Sacramental Theology
The Triune God
(site feed)
My Atom Feed
(good books)
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Wednesday, January 31, 2007
I need money
Badly. I am moving to Twin Falls soon (town house, baby!) but I need to get a bit more money to make the deposit and get electricity going. I am taking a new job soon but I need to get some cash in the meantime. I was trying to figure out a way and then thought, "I will take it to the Blogosphere!" Seriously, I will read your book and blog on it for a modest price. You can even decide what that is! I'll do web searches for you, help you compile databases on church info, or whatever if you will help me out financially. Anyways, this is me begging. Help me. Please.
posted by -mike- at 12:55 AM
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Monday, January 29, 2007
Just a brief thought for the day:
Does America have christian families? I know that may seem like a ridiculous question for some, but it nonetheless stands as a valid question in light of the fact our families don't act very christian. This usually ends up being a topic of discussion between a few of my friends and I but I saw that renowned " dark heretic" blogger, Anthony Bradley has brought the fact to the attention of his wide-readership and I felt it appropriate to follow suit. There are 120,000 kids in foster care. There are 225 million self-proclaimed Christians in America. Hmmm... Something about that just doesn't add up to me. Is adoption really that bad of an option? I mean, surely the bible, we christians sacred scriptures, have nothing to say of this modern catastrophe, now would they? The New Testament authors were busy handling the bigger issues of the faith, such as angelic tongues, circumcision, and the end of the world, weren't they? True religion would be having an orthodox faith that doesn't question authority, pressed and starched sunday shirts, and of course the latest in christian media for the car CD player, yah? Oh, wait... Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. James 1:27 Huh. Now how about that...
Seriously, people, this is a problem.
posted by -mike- at 10:20 AM
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Wednesday, January 24, 2007
"You suck. It's over."
Wow. This is amazing.
Atheist: The burden of proof is on you to establish the existence of this so-called "god" but I believe that if there was any such divine entity "it" would not want us to continue dating. Intelligent Design Theorist: Our relationship bears the marks of irreducible complexity making it too difficult to explain by way of natural causes. Therefore, there the most reasonable conclusion is that we were designed to break up since things have gotten so complicated. Calvinist: We were predestined before the creation of the world to break up according to God's good pleasure. I am, on my own power, unable to break up with you apart from the irresistible draw of God's sovereign grace which leads me to end this relationship. Those that truly break up will not get back together in the end. Arminian: While you love me and have a wonderful plan for my life, I have the power to resist your will. If I did not, love would not be possible. For our relationship to be loving it needs to include the possibility of breaking up--something I am doing right now. New Perspective on Paul Scholar: Rather than earning God's blessing, it is established on the basis of our covenant courtship (I asked your dad to date you didn't I?) which requires the proper response of an intentional and deliberate pursuit of marriage. Yet there is no such pursuit, therefore God's blessing on or relationship is no longer maintained. Open Theist: I am not really sure if we are supposed to be together, because neither is God. Theistic Evolutionist: The beauty and rhythm of random variation and natural selection over long periods of time has presented us with a world where God has shown us that our relationship is too biologically expensive to maintain and is destined for extinction. Young Earth Creationist: No, I do not believe we have been going out for that long. Our relationship is only six days old and the on the seventh God rested. I think we need a rest too. Emergent: The question if whether we are in relationship or not is mired in Modernity's obsession with propositional truth. A better a way to look at this is to enter into God's story about how he lead us together and is now leading us apart. Catholic: Honey, I think the Virgin Mary is leading us in different directions. I think it is her will that we break up. (lame)
Lutheran: I want our relationship to continue, but first there are a few things about you that God wants to change. Here is a list of 95 that I made. What? OK, then, I guess we're done. Episcopalian: Ummm... I'm gay. Fundamentalist: You have tarnished the pure nature of our love by incorporating such heathen elements as "dating" and "fun." I am afraid I can no longer court you--yea, even speak to you--until you repent of this apostasy. Mennonite: At that holiest barn raising two weeks prior to this conversational exchange, I realized as I drove you home at sunset in my best carriage, that there are other falsettos in the choir; some that art willing, with all fervent spirit, to trimmest my beard and even my eyebrows on such special occasion, and would, though it hurts me to spake this, make a more holy match. Mike: You suck. It's over. Add some. Thanks to this guy.
posted by -mike- at 3:35 PM
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Quote of the week
 "I probably just repressed her..." -Matt I was attempting to describe a woman he and I both knew as children who I still converse with from time to time but he does not. I began by telling him about her blonde frizzy hair, blood red lipstick, twig-thin figure, sunken eyes, and ditzy personality when he interrupted me with those words. This is why we love him.
posted by -mike- at 9:18 AM
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Friday, January 19, 2007
HOMOsexuality
I wrote a bit on homosexuality sometime ago. I would provide a link but I really do not like those posts and have considered deleting them from my archives. Don't worry, I won't. That wouldn't be cool and if someone else did that I would mock them forever. But you still don't get a link.Well, some others have added in their comments on it. And some of their friends have commented also. I decided to let all of you, my fair readers, have the choice to read the posts in their entirety, if you so choose: Kyle Potter: So where does "gay" start to matter? It matters when we start talking about chastity, which in turn is only meaningful for people who have chosen to live in the Jesus way. Christian chastity is a bodily expression of our belonging to Christ. It happens to be the case that the vast majority of Christians in the vast majority of all times and places have considered homoerotic relationship of any kind to be outside the boundaries of God's creative and redemptive intentions for humanity. The two options for chaste living are Christian marriage or celibacy. The gospel calls all Christians to live chaste lives, and for people who understand themselves to be homosexual, that means celibacy.
Hmm... I shot my mouth off yesterday about this somewhere else. I think maybe I shouldn't say much yet. I do feel this statement to not be entirely correct. The vast majority of christians in the vast majority of all times ad places have also felt violence to be necessary for the preservation of "good people." Kim Fabricus: For all Christians, as the drama unfolds, the question must surely be this: How, as embodied and sexual creatures, do we live in the truth and witness to Christ? “Live in the truth”: acting not according to law, either biblical or ecclesiastical, but not according to personal feelings either, rather following the truth that must ultimately lead to Christ, while refusing complicity in conspiracies of secrecy and deceit, particularly in clerical culture. -12th Proposition
I am still thinking through these 12 propositions. Good thoughts. Everyone should read them and think about it. Anyways, theologically, I have some ways to go before I can make any sort of argument for my position. I honestly believe the love and grace of God transcends sexual orientation. That doesn't mean I think it's cool to be a skank, rather, that, in my opinion, you are fine if you are sexually committed to one person (and they to you) for an agreed on length of time (preferably life) I won't go so far as to say that God agrees with me. To do so would be to join the ranks of those who I'd prefer not to associate with. All I'm saying is that for me, Mike Noakes, a christian, I'm okay that you're gay. The end.(postscript: I'm not here to debate any of this. I'm just throwing out my thoughts on the subject for clarification. I would rather go so low as to debate Ford vs. Chevy than take this shit up again)
posted by -mike- at 9:28 AM
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Thursday, January 04, 2007
Quote of the week:
"How does using a cup make me a jew?
-Matt,
After I started drinking straight from the bottle and he yelled at me for being barbaric and uncouth. I then replied back with a biting Gibson-esque insult.
posted by -mike- at 11:03 PM
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Monday, January 01, 2007
Happy New Years!
I hope everyone is having a good 2007! So far, mine has been relaxed and nice. That is a welcome change. I need to do some revision work on my essay. Ugh. Not looking forward to that but it does need to be done. I have been given an extended time frame thanks to the grace and mercy of Nicholas. Thanks man. Anyways, I hope to have all revisions up and finished in a week. I'll email the final essay to all who want it. So far the main problems I see are using the word "liturgy" like "some kind of baptist" (thanks, kyle) not enough "relevance" (whatever that may mean) and being a bit too arrogant (which was not my intention whatsoever) I'll attempt to have a good fix made soon. Grace and Peace be with us all. -mike
posted by -mike- at 2:30 PM
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