ClarkeComments.com

Hello all:

Just a note -and a plea for assistance from anyone who knows what the deal is- wordpress keeps putting comments into moderation from people that I have already approved commnents for. Sometimes it allows people’s comments to go straight out on the page, and sometimes it puts them in the moderation box. I am trying to figure out the problem and will fix it as so0n as I can. In the meantime, please be patient if it gets marked for moderation - I won’t edit it, and I won’t deny its approval unless the post is obscene or spam.

-Clarke

Hello all:

I’ve been reading a few blogs lately. Refer to Greg’s Blog and Travis’ blog if you don’t know to what I’m refering.

When I read comments like I’ve read on various blogs recently, I come away very puzzled at times. Maybe I am wired differently than the rest of my blogging brothers and sisters.

Many have stated that the entire concept of restoration is chilling to them. One person stated that restoration implies that the church was broken, and we had to fix it.

The concept of “Restoration” is really two-fold as I see it. It was/is a movement that held the lofty goal of creating unity of all believers, and that the easiest way to do that was by going back to the patterns found in the New Testament.

The second was the premise that the church itself was broken. The “Great Apostasy” of the Roman Catholic church needed to be corrected.

I saw a post lately on a blog from a member of the church that denied that there really was an apostasy. I would have to emphatically state that there was. The Catholic church went so far off from basic biblical teaching that I find it hard to believe that anyone inside the church of Christ would deny such a thing. A look at the practice of selling indulgences is enough for most people.

So, the restoration movement was an attempt to restore the church to a form pleasing to God. This isn’t just a church of Christ ideal. In this effort, we were joined by our disciple and independent brethren. However, before that, there were numerous reformation efforts, some with pure intentions and some not.

But, I know most of you are familiar with church history.

The argument has been made many times by many of you and many others that there has not been enough emphasis on the saving blood of Jesus in the church of Christ. This may or may not be true in individual congregations of the church across the world. I for one have not seen it, but I don’t doubt the many accounts that I have heard. However, that does not mean that we should blindly throw the doctrines of the church away because of what many perceive to be a lack of focus on other issues. What is needed is balance.

I would have to say that the theme of the restoration movement, besides unity, has been obedience. We should be obedient to the Lord. We should try our best. We will all fail, as we are all sinners. Those that have gone before us have tried to do their best, and many have failed, just like we have.

Do we have it all right? Have we “perfected” restoration? Of course not. Should we stop trying? I think not. There is nothing wrong with trying your best to obey the Lord, be it in any way.

-Clarke

Hello all:

Its been almost a week since I wrote in the blog here. I’ve been pretty busy with work and family stuff, but I hope to be writing regularly again pretty quick.

Sometimes, the funniest things happen in church. Sometimes its a weird quip in a sermon when the minister is feeling a little too provacative. Sometimes its a funny error in the middle of singing a six verse song. Sometimes its the prayer being led by someone with great intentions who goes a bit too far…..

Today, one of the prayers in the service started off with some praise towards our seniors for the great examples of Christian living they show the rest of the congregation. It turned a little weird when the man leading the prayer mentioned that they would all soon be in heaven with the Lord. While I was pondering that comment, he continued

As he was asking our Father to keep our teenagers from temptation, he mentioned those temptations aloud: “internet porn, binge drinking, and sex orgies.

If there was anything else weird in the prayer, I missed it, because I spent the rest of it watching my wife who was trying her hardest not to burst out in laughter. Our son was sitting on her lap, and she just about completetly lost it. It is always interesting when someone gets passionate during a prayer. People sometimes mention some interesting things and odd concerns, but this was the funniest one I’ve ever heard.

If anyone has any interesting stories about funny things happening at church, I’d love to hear about them.

-Clarke

Hello all:

President Bush has nominated Harriet Miers, the current White House Counsel, as the next associate member of the Supreme Court. Miers is a member of the Valley View Christian Church in Dallas, Texas.

It is good that the President is nominating yet another person to a high post that comes from a church of Restoration Heritage.

A few months ago, Janice Rogers Brown was confirmed as an appellete court judge. Brown is a member of the church of Christ.

The Christian Standard has a full length article about Miers online, as well as a profile they wrote of her in 2001.

-Clarke