Insights from the Furnace

"New Light"

2012-01-22T08:24:00.000-07:00

Because in the mystery of the Wordmade flesh, thou hast caused a New Light to shine in our hearts, to give theknowledge of thy glory in the face of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. (fromthe book of Common Prayer)

"We Are Robots! We Are Puppets! The Church of Scientism." Post by Tom Graffagnino

2012-01-20T22:12:00.000-07:00

This week I am featuring a post from Artist, Poet and Thinker, Tom Graffagnino. Follow the link for the complete post.

The Bible is able to speak to and inform the human heart on every conceivable level and in every setting and context. she is able to communicate spiritual truth to the people of any culture, nation or tribe. and she can do so , ti seems, at any time. She can communicate to and satisfy both the unschooled and the most highly educated. she speaks here truth to the most miserably downtrodden and oppressed ans well as to the most comfortably ensconced powerful elite. she can just as easily mystify and fascinate the innocent pre-schooler as she can mesmerize the wise and aged scholar.

Read the full post here.

Michael Behe & Daniel Kuebler: Science and Faith Conference

2012-01-15T21:45:00.000-07:00

I am running into Christians who do not understand Intelligent Design. Would you take the time to listen to the professor who developed this theory. This is Dr. Michael Behe (Bio-Chem, Lehigh), at the Science and Faith conference in Steubenville OH, this last December. There is a rebuttal presentation by Professor Daniel Kuebler after the paper by Dr. Behe.

Understand that just like Darwinism, this is a theory...an "Inference to the Best Explanation." But according to Darwinism and Neo-Darwinstic theories; these are evolutionary processes which are premised by the idea of no-telos; no purpose...e.g. no God. And these theories cannot explain by "incremental changes over time by random mutation" the complexity of molecular "machines" within a cell.

Intelligent Design points out that the most reasonable explanation for the complexity in cellular biology is that it is designed. It does not "prove" God, it only point to the possibility of a designing intelligence...that "could" be God. And quite frankly, it in no way takes away from biblical teaching; rather it enhances it.

And contra critics, it is in no way "anti-scientific." To know that this is an orderly universe has been the driver of science and philosophy since Plato.

Darwin's theory is God-less and purposeless.

A Quote From Vernon Grounds

2012-01-11T11:59:00.000-07:00

We can and must affirm that the Church’sprimary task is that of personal evangelism. Whatever methodology we employ…our task is that of bringing individualsone by one into a redemptive encounter with Jesus Christ. We can and must affirm that personal evangelismand social concern are two sides of the same coin. This is not a case of either-or; it is rathera case of both-and. We can and mustaffirm that social concern and personal evangelism are not a dichotomy; they area both-and duality blanketed as our Lord’s word in Luke 11:42: “But woe to youPharisees! You give a tenth of mint, rue, and every kind of herb, and youbypass justice and love for God. Thesethings you should have done without neglecting the others.”(p. 60)

VernonGrounds

From the essay “Evangelicalism andSocial Responsibility”

In the book Tough-Minded Christianity (2008) B&H Academic

The Flying Spaghetti Monster...Again.

2012-01-11T09:31:00.000-07:00

This is the January 6 post on the Ratio Christi blog. Seems the Secularists (read: militant Atheists) are at it again. On March 24 there will be a rally on the Mall in Washington DC to promote their agenda and claim the only true religion... is no religion.

Go here to read the full post.

Defense Against New Age Philosophy: Video

2012-01-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a video produced by IVP from 1989 about the New Age movement. Please take the time to watch it for these issues are still with us.

There is a great difference between the wisdom of the world and God's Wisdom. This is the aim of Christian Apologetics; to learn God's Wisdom in order to out-think the world for Christ.

Two authors interviewed here are Doug Groothuis and James Sire. I would recommend Doug's book Unmasking the New Age and James Sire's book Naming the Elephant; both of these books are excellent, and accessible reads to help you clarify and strengthen your Christian walk and defend your faith.

The Mordecai Project

2012-01-04T19:06:00.002-07:00

In this New Year, I would like toencourage you all to think about supporting the ministry of Lee Grady and The Mordecai Project. Watch this video.

Throughout theworld in many cultures there still is the endemic problem of the abusive treatment ofwomen. The cultural/traditionaldevaluation of women continues in the 21^st century un-abated especiallywhere the Gospel has not been preached, or worse yet, not clearly explained.

In India for example, thousands ofinfant girls are aborted because of the “problem” of having a girl baby. You see, it is not just China’s one-child(and it better be a boy) policy that causes the abortion of girl babies. InIndia the use of ultra-sound causes gender selection; there is a "gender-cide" going on. Parents want boys, not girls. Boys bring honor, girls only bring shame andexpense!

But the ministry of Lee Grady and The Mordecai Project isaiming to change that!

By preaching the love of God, andthat men and women are equally created in the Image of God, he seeks to changethe paradigm of abuse and devaluation of women. His organization plans to build ‘safe-houses’ in other countries for women suffering fromabuse, and Lee also leads intensive work-shops to teach men in other countries how to be a better husbandto their wives; abuse is never an option.

I personally have some verystrong opinions about discrimination, both in the ‘world’ and in the church…butyou have to understand the separation of sexes into "roles" over-seas is not justhurt feelings, it is a matter of life and death! If women in other countries are not seen as having any value, they are abused and killed, or sold to brothels. This is not about women as teacher andpreachers, it is about survival! Only inChristianity is there hope for women world-wide.

If you want an eye-opening read;get a copy of the book “Half-the-Sky” by Kristof & WuDunn (2009, Knopf)

Please considersupporting this worthy ministry. At the veryleast, consider passing along this video introduction so more people get themessage.

Christianity historically was and is the only hope for the betterment of women...just remember the "exposed" infant girls of the Roman Empire were rescued by the early Christian Church...can we do that today?

Can you imagine how many abortions could behalted if women were valued as highly as men?

Please think about it.

Makoto Fugimura: Christian AND artist.

2011-12-29T16:16:00.000-07:00

Here is an amazing Christian artist; who illustrated a commemorative printing of the KJV (King James Version) of the Gospels. Fugimura is trying to promote Aesthetics within the Evangelical circles. For some reason, art has a bad name within Christian circles. I would like to help change that attitude.

As we can understand God; and his attributes, beauty is included in that. There is such a thing as 'Objective Beauty' as well as Goodness, Holiness, Righteousness, etc..." These things are not just subjective.

Peace

2011-12-22T14:05:00.000-07:00

Photo by Alice E. (Lisa) Guinther

In the quiet beauty of falling snow, here at the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, I wish you all a wonderful Christmas.

"...And on earth, peace, good will toward men." (Luke 2:14)

Shalom

Amen.

From "Christmas Devotions From Denver Seminary;" Dr. Noelliste,

2011-12-21T09:10:00.005-07:00

Nativity window, St. Luke's Episcopal, Atlanta

From “He is Born!:Christmas Devotions From Denver Seminary.” A meditation by Dr. Dieumeme Noelliste, Professorof Theological Ethics and Director of the Grounds Institute of Public Ethics.

“…Though he was rich…for your sakes he became poor, so thatyou through his poverty might become rich.” 2 Corinthians 8:9

Perhaps, like me, you’ve heard people wonder whether it isproper for Christians to observe Christmas. Perhaps, like me, you’ve heard them give reasons for their suspicion suchas our ignorance of the date of Christ’s birth, the pagan origin of some of thefeature of Christmas, and the many Christmas-related celebrations which havenothing to do with the birth of the Savior.

How should we respond to these objections? Is it enough tosay that our ignorance of Jesus’ birth date doesn’t matter, since ourcelebration focuses on the fact that He was born? Does it suffice for us to say that whatever culturalcoating may overlay our observance is offset by numerous references made to thename of Jesus at Christmastime?

There is merit in these responses. But I believe somethingmuch more compelling needs to be said. Our response must be more than a clever argument for the continuation ofa cultural festival. For me, that responseis not made verbally, but in the manner in which we celebrate the Savior’s birth.

How do we do that? By putting the values and attitudes that characterized His life at the center ofour celebration. 2 Cor. 8:9 brings tolight helpful principles which make our observance Christ-like and authentic. First, our celebration reflects Christ when itminimizes self-enjoyment. In ourculture, Christmas has become synonymous with materialisticself-indulgence. Our Christmas is joyousif our wants are satisfied and our desires gratified. In stark contrast, self-enjoyment was not thedominant characteristic of our Savior’s life. Self-denial was! His coming toour world and dwelling with us were acts of self-renunciation. We honor Him in celebration when we resistthe pull to self-indulge.

Second, a Christmas that resembles Christ maximizes self-abasement. The coming of Christ to the earth was acostly journey. It involved self-demotion and self-condescension. His birth and life were marked byself-giving. What have we given up as weremember Him?

Third, a Christ-like Christmas observance emphasizes the enhancementof others. Christmas has to do with thegreat exchange—a transaction carried out in our favor and Christ’s disfavor!He, rich became poor, so that we, poor, may become rich! Who are we blessing by our celebration?

"You mean this is true whether I believe it or not?"

2011-12-15T13:14:00.002-07:00

Here is a great video where Craig Hazen speaks on the truth of Christianity: "You mean, this is true whether I believe it or not?"

No more blind faith!

Recorded October 12, 2009

"What is True?" Defining My World View

2011-12-14T19:38:00.002-07:00

As a part of an apology (defense) of my beliefs as a Christian, I am postin my paper I wrote as my final for World Views (Philosophy 205) for Colorado Christian University.

Jesus said “I am the Way the Truth and theLife…” and Pilate said “…What is Truth?” as he washed his hands. If we believe the first, we will know how toanswer the second. This paper seeks toclarify my position on my own World View. I will try to clearly write what itis I believe, and why; and finally answer the question of how this applies tomy daily life. I will answer this in three parts; Part One is Natural Theology,proof of God from nature. Part two is Revelation from Scripture, and thehistoricity of the Bible, and finally Part three will be an explanation of howI integrate this into my life and how I treat others based on my understandingof what is real and true.

Part One: Natural Theology

In our text book, James Sire (2004) made for me thestunning observation of how our ontology, how we understand the “really-real”effects our own perceptions. He writes, “…the object of knowledge controls theway knowledge of the object will be able to be apprehended.” (p 88) In other words only if the Infinite ispersonal, are we able to perceive Him. An impersonal force is an enigma and undefined, and ineffable. So in my life, I look to theInfinite-personal God, the Creator of the Universe as my ground to ontologythat shapes my life and world view. Myfaith needs an object, not a projection of my psyche, or a wish-fulfillment asput forward by Sigmund Freud. FrancesSchaeffer (2006) writes it this way “…Faith in faith, rather than faithdirected to an object which is actually there.” (p 84) But how do I know thatthere is a God out there?

My first proof of there being an infinite-personal God,is in Cosmology. William Lane Craig(2008) developed the early 13^th century argument known as “The KalamCosmological Argument.” (p.111) This argument from philosophy/cosmology givesus a look at a syllogism that explains the origin of the universe. The argument runs like this:

1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause.

2. Theuniverse began to exist.

3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.

Theargument is that because as we can see, we have ‘something’ instead of nothing;there has to be a ‘first-cause’ and that attempts to prove God. As we have grown up with the astronomers andphysicists who developed and prove the “Big-Bang,” we have come to take forgranted the idea that there was an absolute start to the universe. But if the universe has an absolutebeginning, there has to be a cause; nothing just ‘pops’ into being; this is whythe Big-bang cosmology sounds like problems for Atheists. But this is not proof, but a strongpossibility for the existence of an All-powerful, Unlimited, Being…God.

Butthis Big-Bang Cosmology was not always taken for granted. Up until the development of this theory andthe mathematical and astrological support, it was assumed by most that theuniverse was eternal. This was thebelief of most philosophers, including Plato. But Plato and later Aristotle had the sense of a ‘beginning’…theyunderstood the idea of the problem of motion. Aristotle proposed the ‘un-moved mover,’ the start of the ‘chain’ ofmotion. But according to W.T. Jones (1969) this un-moved mover of Aristotle wasnot our idea of God. Jones writes

There are virtually no religious overtones inAristotle…Hence it is misleading to modern ears to talk about Aristotle’stheology. It is better to use theneutral expression, “Aristotle’s account of his unmoved mover”…Thus there is…no divine providence, which is so important an aspect of the Judeo-Christianview of the world. His god does not lookout for, care about, and provide for man. He did not create the universe, for it is eternal, and he[god] is utterlyindifferent to it. (p 231)

This is aninteresting observation, even more so when you understand that W. T. Jones wasan Atheist.

So now I have some proof that Godmay exist as evidenced by the cosmos. Next, another sign of God from the area of Biology; and this is theevidence of design in nature, or Intelligent Design. Intelligent Design, is a term coined by Dr.Michael Behe, professor of Bio Chemistry at Lehigh University. As Mike studied the complexity of the cellsin plants and animals, even the smallest eukaryotic cells, he could notunderstand the seeming level of complexity and how un-explainable this was by aDarwinistic evolutionary process. Mikeexplains the working of the “swimming systems” of a cell; the cilium (2006).

A cilium is a structure that, crudely put, looks like ahair and beats like a whip. If a cellwith a cilium is free to move about in a liquid, the cilium moves the cell muchas an oar moves a boat…But discovery of the Lilliputian details of cilia had towait for the invention of the electron microscope, which revealed that thecilium is quite a complicated structure. (p 59)

So what he discovered wasthe amazing molecular machines, which have a level of “Irreducible Complexity”;these systems can only work when all the parts are together. Mike’s theory which he wrote in his book Darwin’sBlack Box is that a much more feasible explanation for this complexity isan intelligent designer. Mike is aChristian, but although this complexity points to God, he only makes the modestclaim to an intelligent designer. But with the organization of not only theuniverse, and the impossibly complex molecular machines in living cells, thereis a much higher chance of the existence of God as evidenced by Nature itself.

Part Two: Revelation of God; the Bible

If we are to understand a being like the Creator of theuniverse, and if his hand can be seen in the creation around us, it would seemthat he would give us a revelation of himself. That book is our Holy Bible, a combination of the Old Testament (theJewish Bible) and the New Testament (the testimony of the fulfillment ofprophesies of the promised Messiah). Frances Schaeffer (1982) writes of our senses and our rationality herewhen he wrote;

These two eyes which the Bible gives us to look throughalways agree perfectly—the eye of didactic teaching and the eye of God workinginto history and in the cosmos…That when God reveals his attributes to man,they are true not only to man but to God. God is not just telling a story; he is telling us what is reallytrue…What he tells us is not exhaustive, because we are finite and we knownothing in an exhaustive way. We cannoteven communicate with each other exhaustively…But he tells us truly—even thegreat truth about himself. (p 79)

So a rational God createdrational being with senses that can apprehend the world; and this God gave us arevelation of himself and his created order.

But with any communication, there is the telling of notonly God’s creative power, but the comprehension that there was a time whenhumanity was perfect, but we rebelled against God’s order, and caused a dividebetween the true and good God, and ourselves. This is the revelation that God wants us to know in his Word, theBible. But as with any rebellion, restitutionhad to be made, and when that rebellion is against our creator, the onlysatisfaction is our very lives.

One can read between the covers of the Bible and see themeans and methods over time that this infinite—personal God used to remove theseparation between us. As we read inthe New Testament, God sent his own Son to be that means of removing thegulf. That God would so desire ourhearts, and for us to be in fellowship with him; he would allow his Son to besacrificed for our sin and rebellion.

Butunlike other religions which are grounded in impersonal essences or forces, ourFather and Creator, became exactly like us, to show us how God really is. Jesus was fully human and fully divine. He was the Truth incarnate! Douglas Groothuis (2001) writes;

Thetruth of the gospel is not subject to any human veto or democraticprocedures. Jesus was not elected Lordby humans but was chosen by God; nor can he be dethroned by any human effort oropinion or insurrection. (p 68)

So you see Jesus, theMessiah, came to save the lost. But werational beings need to believe the writing of God’s revelation to humanity inhis Bible.

The challenge then becomes to prove that this is theactual truth of God written through humans who were inspired by God’s HolySpirit. To help the belief in theveracity of the Bible is the fact that it is grounded in history. You can follow a historical narrative thatcan be corroborated in many places, both in archaeology and other writings, togive us confidence in the truth of what is being revealed there. But the most remarkable and earth-shakingevidence is the empty tomb of Jesus himself.

The four gospel accounts are an amazing array ofeye-witness testimony, which most biblical scholars believe now to be reliablydated as being written before 70AD and the destruction of the Temple ofJerusalem by Titus. Not only did thewriters use their own witness, and the accounts of other eye-witnesses, theextant writings corroborate the existence of Jesus as written by Josephus, andcontained in Tacitus’ writings of the burning of Rome (Licona 2011) and thepersecution of Christians. Tacitus explains “Their name comes from Christ, who,during the reign of Tiberius, had been executed by the procurator PontiusPilate.” (p. 243) We have good andreasonable accounts of the life and death and the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth,the Messiah, Son of God.

Part Three: Integrating Beliefs in My Life.

I once believed in Jesus because it gave me goodfeelings, and I liked hanging out with other Christians, and the music wasgreat. But I had a period of my lifewhere hard times hit me, and I turned my back on God. For many reasons, Iblamed God for my problems; but mostly because I never was taught that faithcould be reasoned and reasonable. When Ifinally stopped running away from God, I wanted to ‘do things your way, God.’One of the first things I did was to intensively study the Bible. But next I studied commentaries of Bible; andsoon that grew to the Philosophy of Religion, and Apologetics. This meant that now although worship is awonderful (and sometimes emotional experience) I now can articulate why I am aChristian. I am a Christian because Ibelieve in the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth; who is theSon of God. He, with the Father, senthis Holy Spirit to dwell in me and guide me in my life and in the fellowshipwith other believers.

Because I understand the Bible is a historically reliablebook, I know that I am reading Truth. That leaves me with options of what to do with that truth; I can eitherignore it, or I can follow it. I havebeen pondering what it really mean to “love my neighbor” and “who is myneighbor”, the same question the Lawyer asked Jesus in Luke 10:29. I know the utterly difficult words of Jesusand his “Sermon on the Mount.” When you really study these words, they are revolutionaryand truly difficult…so difficult you cannot walk in His words. But that is the point, you need to surrenderyour will to God, and He will work the change in you.

But one other application; as an Apologist for theChristian faith, I am called to lovingly give an answer for the hope within me,the hope I am required to share to spread God’s kingdom on this earth. The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) is notoptional. We all need to learn how toshare and defend our faith, hope, life, and the Truth.

What is Truth? Jesus, the Son of God. The Way,The Truth, and certainly The Life.

Amen.

References:

M. Behe (2006) Darwin’s Black Box.New York, NY: Free Press

W. L. Craig (2008) Reasonable Faith 3^rdEd. Wheaton, IL: Crossways

D. Groothuis (2000) Truth Decay.Downers Grove, IL: IVP

W.T. Jones (1969) AHistory of Western Philosophy: The Classical Mind. New York, NY:

Harcourt Brace & World.

M. Licona (2011) The Resurrection ofJesus. Downers Grove, IL: IVP.

F. Schaeffer (2006) The God How isThere. Downers Grove, IL: IVP.

--(1982) He is There and He is NotSilent. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House.

J. Sire (2004) Naming the Elephant.Downers Grove, IL: IVP.

"Least Among Judah's Princes"

2011-12-07T10:09:00.001-07:00

I received a wonderful devotional yesterday from DenverSeminary; and I wanted to share some of the meditations in it with all of youwho follow my blog.

This meditation is for December 3, and is written by Dr. RickHess, who is the Earl S. Kalland Professor of Old Testament and SemiticLanguages.

“Least Among Judah’s Princes”

Mica 5:2 (NIV) “As for you, O Bethlehem Ephratah, althoughyou are least among Judah’s princes; yet my ruler in Israel will emerge withorigins that are ancient, from long ago.”

The prophet Micah wrote some seven centuries before Jesus’birth. It was a difficult time when thepeople of God had turned away from Him and the prophet warned of judgment. He also promised a time beyond of restorationand the return of a ruler who would bring peace and the kingdom of God. This ruler would be found in the line ofDavid who was born in Bethlehem (1 Sam. 16), centuries after Micahprophesied. Many hundreds of years laterthe gospel writer Matthew saw God’s people experiencing that judgment in hisdays. He found in Jesus the fulfillmentof Micah’s promised ruler. This was madecrystal clear in both Jesus’ human lineage from David (Matt. 1:1-17) and in Hisactual birth in Bethlehem. It is therethat Matthew cites Micah’s prophecy (Matt. 2:6).

But in doing so he changes the description of Bethlehem. Micah, picturing towns as “princes,” hadnoted how Bethlehem (in the region called Ephratah) was the least or smallestin Judah. Perhaps he remembered howDavid had been chosen despite being the youngest or least among his brothers (1Sam. 16:10-13). Matthew, writing afterthe life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, could not bring himself tocall Bethlehem the “least” any longer. However humble and insignificant His birth at the time, the Son of God’sincarnation in this village would forever transform its status so that it was “byno means least.”

In a similar way we are called to live like Christ. For many of us this does not mean that wewill become popular or powerful in the eyes of the world. However, it does mean that our lives canchange the world where it counts in following Christ and spreading the goodnews of His Kingdom. As Micah andMatthew knew in their times, the meaning of Jesus’ apparently insignificant birthwas far more earth-shattering than the great powers and leaders of theirtimes. As with Jesus, God delights totake the weak, the poor, and the insignificant, and to transform the worldthrough such disciples.

Psalm 143

2011-11-30T08:56:00.001-07:00

Psalm 143

Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications! Answerme in Your faithfulness, in your righteousness! And do no enter into judgment withyour servant, for in your sight no man living is righteous. For the enemy has persecuted my soul; he hascrushed my life to the ground; he has made me to dwell in dark places, likethose who have long been dead. Thereforemy spirit is overwhelmed within me; my heart is appalled within me.

I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your doings; Imuse on the work of Your hands. Istretch out my hands to you; my soul longs for you as a parched land.

Selah.

Answer me quickly, O Lord, my spirit fails; Do not hide Yourface from me, or I will become like those who go down to the pit. Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning;for I trust in you; teach me the way in which I should walk; for to you I liftup my soul. Deliver me, O Lord, from myenemies; I take refuge in You.

Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; let your goodSpirit lead me on level ground. For thesake of you name, O Lord, revive me. Inyour righteousness bring my soul out of trouble. And in you lovingkindness cut off my enemiesand destroy all those who afflict my soul, for I am you servant.

Amen.

"Oh come, oh come Emanuel..."

2011-11-25T11:43:00.001-07:00

Isaiah 64 begins with; “Oh, that Youwould rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at Yourpresence—

Israel was looking for smoke,flames, earthquakes…drama.

Yet Jesus you came in all humility.

Annunciation window: St. John's Denver

In this day and age, we still seemto be looking for a “light show”, stage acts, and pyrotechnics.

But when You came, You came quietly;as a child born to an engaged, but not yet married, teenage girl.

Yet hungry hearts still find you…withno glamour at all.

“Oh come oh come Emanuel…”

May we in all humility find You, inour families, friends, cast-offs, and nursing homes.

“God-With-Us” is right here…why notgo and be with Him.

“The King will answer and say tothem, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of thesebrothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.” Matthew 25:40

Guest post: Are you looking for wisdom or "nice."

2011-11-21T18:03:00.001-07:00

Deacon Christopher Pietraszko posted as a noteon Facebook November 18, 2011 and he graciously shared with me this homily.

So, are you looking for wisdom or “nice”?

Be sure to read carefully.

******************************************************************

I would like to begin by telling you a useless story that captures the essenceof modern thinking:

There was a man who had left his gated communityand was looking for a new place to live. He came across another gated community, and asked the security guard onesimple question:”What is this community like?”

The security guard responded to his question withanother question, “What was the last place you lived like?”

The man responded, “Well, it was terrible.Everyone was selfish and hard to live with. I had a difficult time living there, that’s why I left.”

The security guard responded by saying, “Youwill find the same here.”

The man left in frustration, and kept looking.

Meanwhile another man came to the same security guardand asked the exact same question: “What is this community like?”

The security guard asked in response the samequestion: “What was the last place you lived like?”

The man answered, “It was great! People were lovingand understanding, and helpful to one another. It is terrible that we had to leave, but business has forced us to moveaway.”

The security guard responded, “You will find thesame here.”

~End ofStory~

This story is an attempt tospeak a certain truth, which is that our perception sometimes taints ourexperience. If we are negative people, we will have negativeexperiences. And if we are positive people, we will have positiveexperiences. And while all this may offer some insighton being either pessimistic and/or optimistic, none of ittells us a darn thing about what this “new” community is like. Rather allit tells us is that an optimistic and pessimistic person projects their wishfulor cynical views on reality. But it does not tell us what reality is.

The modern era emphasizes the importance of “perception” and how being eitherpositive or negative affects our goal towards self-fulfillment. Thismodern emphasis is junk.

If a woman has been physically abused by her husband, she has been through a horrible experience; and in her healing, her feelings need to be validated. If we are to say to this woman, “Wow you are sonegative about your experience, I guess every relationship will be a failure asa result” we are being uncharitable, unrealistic and judgmental.

Sometimes communities are good, sometimes communities are bad. However,our culture avoids standards, and as a result wishes to avoid the whole questionin general. We would rather focus on what makes us feel good, andwhat instills positive thinking, because that illusion is preferable to theillusion of pessimism.

Pessimism and optimism are distractions from an authentic and genuine spirituallife. Hope is the ultimate goal of our faith, and hope is grounded not inwishful thinking or cynical mindsets, it is grounded in objective truth: God loves us and offers us something greater than all the sin and despair andevil in this world.

That hope, which was encountered in the most sufferable moments in humanhistory, be it a concentration camp or a prison cell filled with darkness andtorture (St. John of the Cross), does not involve wishful thinking ordespair. It involves a dry thirst for something more, and the realizationthat there is something more in the midst of that suffering and beyond it,because of God's immense Love. God's love allows hell and invites us toheaven, and as a result, His love involves both negativity and hope, bothcondemnation and redemption.

To look at the entire world with rose-coloured glasses is ultimately to donumerous things: namely to condone evil, to ignore evil, or to redefineevil as good. In all cases, those who have become victims of evil shouldbe outraged when, as a result of optimism (false-hope), their pain andsuffering has been neglected and ignored. When optimists have ignored thevery real injustices done to others simply to foster"positive-thinking."

This modern story may have some degree of truth when it comes to the disorderedtendency to think negatively and positively, but it in no way authenticallybegins to grasp the reality of genuine Christian Hope. Our hope is notgrounded in an attitude or a personal expectation and illusion we can easilydraw up for ourselves. Hope is grounded in a trusting relationship withChrist, that accepts the fact that purification and suffering in this lifehurts, and feels terrible, while nonetheless infused with love and worthsuffering because of what is discovered at the end of that road.

G. K. Chesterton says it perfectly when he says:

“Whatever the reason, it seemed and still seems to me that our attitudetowards life can be better expressed in terms of a kind of military loyaltythan in terms of criticism and approval. My acceptance of the universe is notoptimism, it is more like patriotism. It is a matter of primary loyalty. Theworld is not a lodging-house at Brighton, which we are to leave because it ismiserable. It is the fortress of our family, with the flag flying on theturret, and the more miserable it is the less we should leave it. The point isnot that this world is too sad to love or too glad not to love; the point isthat when you do love a thing, its gladness is a reason for loving it, and itssadness a reason for loving it more. All optimistic thoughts about England andall pessimistic thoughts about her are alike reasons for the English patriot.Similarly, optimism and pessimism are alike arguments for the cosmic patriot.”(Orthodoxy, Chapter 5)

In other words, as we learn from scripture, our love for God is grounded in a lovefor the good and a hatred for what is evil. It is not a matter of sayingthat the glass is half full or half empty, but it’s about the common-sensestatement that it is both, and that there are no sides to choose on thisissue. If we choose a side we are choosing to be ignorant of either whatis good or what is evil, and in both cases that is neither good, and iscertainly evil.

The same thing applies to those who are “approachable.” An honest manseeks the advice of a wise person, not a nice person. An honest personseeks the advice of someone who is helpful, not someone who is cynical. Finally, an honest person seeks a man who can condemn evil and praise good, allin one action. Only those who love to reinforce an illusion of cynicismseek cynics, and a person who seeks the illusion of optimism and an inauthentichope seek nice, happy people. If we are sinning with a smile on ourface, it’s still a sin, and if we are being negative about the good, we aresomeone to become criticized. What makes pessimism and optimism evil is whenthey are non-integrative; that is to say when they cannot be seen as a realitythat necessarily belongs together. If we love what is good, we willnaturally hate what is evil. And if we love what is evil, we willnaturally hate what is good, since the two cannot ever be reconciled.

Is the community we seek good or evil? How can we even begin to answerthis question if we are so immersed into what we think good and evil shouldbe? If we live by perception alone, there is no meaning toanything. But if we live in common-sense and self-honesty, our hope willbecome less wishful and more real.

Internet+ Google = Scholarship?

2011-11-18T20:04:00.001-07:00

One of the most disastrous illusions of the Internet age is that an amateur plus google is equivalent to a scholar. A search engine offers information , more or less relevant according to the skill of the searcher. but it does not sift that information ; it does not sort fact from fancy, wheat from chaff. It does not explain which facts are relevant and which are beside the point. It does not weight the merits of competing arguments and tell the user where the balance of evidence lies. A bright amateur armed with the Internet may be better informed than he would otherwise have been, and he may occasionally catch a real scholar in a factual error. But it will not turn him into a scholar himself.

There is no such thing as effortless erudition.

Dr Timothy McGrew
Philosophy Department
Western Michigan University
From a 'note' on Facebook
November 17, 2011

A brief thought...

2011-11-16T13:29:00.001-07:00

I realized today why I like philosophy so much.

As I read some wonderful thoughts by philosophers whose works I enjoy (at the moment, James Sire); it struck me that the authors of these works do not care if I am young or old, male or female; they just ask that I try to understand what they write…carefully and thoughtfully.

They are not asking for me to like their work, but to try and comprehend the “what’s” and “why’s” of their writing. They are trying to teach me, if I allow them to. This is a chance to be in a sort of dialog as I read.

I am honored to be included in the conversation.

"Aging In Postmodern America"

2011-11-12T18:15:00.001-07:00

I’d like to post the closing thoughts from a paper I wrote a couple of years ago, on “Aging in Postmodern America.”

As I have been blessed with a ministry to bring “church” to a local nursing home that was neglected by local churches, I would like you to read some of my thoughts on the care we need to give the older members of society.

If anyone would like to read the whole paper, I can send you the pdf of it.
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Over the centuries there has been a gradual shift in the response to the elderly in society. Yes, even in the time of ancient Israel people had to be reminded to care for the non-productive (widows, etc…). However, most people wanted to honor God by showing compassion to the elderly, and into the early twentieth century the aged parents were still thought of as valuable addition to the home, being allowed to live out their days in relative comfort. Children were not segregated from the old, and so they grew up understanding the decline of old age. But with a shift in the 1960’s to a postmodern, relativistic form of thinking, the elderly were seen as a burden and put aside in nursing homes or retirement communities. Now, with our striving for youth, beauty, and status, people do not wish to be reminded of their mortality by having to deal with aging. The church in today’s society could do much to begin to reverse this trend by starting ministries to the elderly and begin to bring forward the “radical” notion of compassion to the “least of these…” American society needs to re-emphasize the intrinsic value of all human life as made in the imago Dei, the image of God. The church could be the leader in re-introducing the very young to the very old and show the children and the adults that the elderly have great stories to tell and great contributions to make to succeeding generations. But are we willing to be compassionate listeners?

Finally, I would like to end with excerpts of a poem shared by Dr Vernon Grounds, found in the personal effects of an un-named woman who died in a home for the aged in England

What do you see, nurse, what do you see?
What are you thinking when you look at me-
A crabbed old woman, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit with far away eyes,
Who dribbles her food and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice, “I do wish you’d try.”

…The worn body crumbles, grace and vigor depart,
There now is a stone where I once had a heart.
But inside this carcass a young girl still dwells,
And now and again my embittered heart swells.
I remember the joys, I remember the pain,
And I’m loving and living life over again.

I think of the years, all too few, gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, nurse, open and see
Not a crabbed old woman,

Look closer- see me! (p 10)

An excerpt from the poem published in the book, Aging, Death, and the Quest for Immortality (2004).

Book Review: Sex and the iWorld by Dale S. Kuehne

2011-11-05T19:33:00.000-06:00

Dale S. Kuehn. Sex and the iWorld: Rethinking Relationship beyond an Age of Individualism (2009) Grand Rapids, Baker Academic.

In our society today, there is the idea, brought forward by the “Sexual Revolution” of the 1960’s, that in order to live a truly fulfilling life, one needs to be fulfilled sexually. In this book, Dale Kuehne (pronounced keen) challenges the modern idea that sexual fulfillment is essential to human happiness. The thesis he sets out to answer is this: “Is the scriptural teaching about sexuality good news for everyone?”(Audio,2009)

In this world of independence and individuality, we are not often presented with a book so thoughtfully written which describes our current cultural surroundings. As media has hailed the ‘self-made’ man, Steve Jobs after his death, Kuehne writes of the intent of the title of this book:

I believe the best way to describe and understand our present moment is to call it the “iWorld.” Steve Jobs and the people at Apple Inc. have brilliantly understood the spirit of our age—a spirit of unfettered individualism and freedom—by marketing many of their products using the prefix i…In short, the t [traditional] World is being replaced by the iWorld. (p.45)

As a culture today, I believe we need to take time to understand where we came from, and the schools of thought about sexual relationships. In the classical world of Greek philosophy, the highest form of relationship was friendship, and our “appetites” (including sexuality) were detrimental to the highest form of human fulfillment. “Bodily passions” as so named by Socrates, were something to be mastered in the quest to “practice philosophy” and purify your soul. In the dialog from Phaedo, Socrates is quoted as saying:

But I think that if the soul is polluted and impure when it leaves the body, having always been associated with it and served it, bewitched by physical desires and pleasures to the point at which nothing seems to exist for it but the physical, which one can touch and see or eat and drink or make use of for sexual enjoyment, and if that soul is accustomed to hate and fear and avoid that which is dim and invisible to the eyes but intelligible and to be grasped by philosophy—do you think such a soul will escape pure and by itself?(p. 72)

So which is correct? Should we attempt to try the ancient “Classical” ideal, or (as many conservatives seem to want) turn the clock back to the 1950’s idea of the “Leave it to Beaver” life, or should we continue the search for ourselves and what makes us happy…especially our sex lives; but could there be another possible path?

Kuehne begin his book with the warning that this is about all those things “...our parents warned us to avoid in conversation…it’s about the way our individual and collective choices about sexuality affect us both personally and relationally.” (p. 13) But we as Christians can no longer avoid these conversations.

Is sexual intimacy essential to human fulfillment? Or have we lost something precious and vital to human flourishing by the sexualization of most of our most intimate relationships today? To read Dale Kuehne’s book is to find a thoughtful and loving answer to these questions. This is not a book of dogmatism, but a true, loving, Christian response to the problems in the clash of the Bible and the culture of today.

This, in my estimation, is a “must-read” for all people; within and without the Christian world, no matter the denomination or outside affiliation. Perhaps we can cease remaking ourselves, and begin relating.

References:

D. Kuehne.(2009) Sex and the iWorld: Rethinking Relationship beyod and Age of Indiviualism. Grand Rapids, Baker.

Ken Myers. Interview of Dale Kuehne from Mars Hill Audio, #99 September/October, 2009.

Plato: Complete Works. Edited by John Cooper (1997) Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing.

Sunday Comics: "Id Bits" by Robin

2011-10-30T15:26:00.003-06:00

"Overflow": Both Suffering and Comfort.

2011-10-29T09:26:00.000-06:00

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth with all the saints who are throughout Achaia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance [overflow], so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. (2 Corinthians 1:1-6)

As we walk through this life as Christians, we don’t go looking for trouble; we don’t have to, it finds us. Many days I cry out to God “Why?” I ask for an answer to the “why’s” of others sufferings, or more often, the “why’s” of my own. Let me share some thoughts written by Linda Belleville from her commentary on 2 Corinthians on the above verses.

Linda writes:

The Christian is not promised release from trouble but help in the midst of it. The implication is that if we are serving Christ, we will encounter hardships. This is a given of the Christian life, as it was a given in Christ’s life. As Paul puts it the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives (v. 5). The Greek verb translated “to flow over” means “to exceed the measure.” Not only does God not deliver us from suffering, but he actually permits suffering to brim over into our lives. Yet this is not just any suffering but specifically the suffering of Christ. What does this mean? It does not mean that we somehow complete what Christ failed to finish on the cross. The idea is, rather, that to identify with Christ is to identify with the suffering that was an essential part of his earthly ministry. What Paul articulates here is in essence what Jesus taught his disciples—to wit, that all who would come after him must deny self, take up the cross and follow him (Mk 8:34) Suffering overflowed into Christ’s life; suffering overflows into ours. This is a hard truth for many of us to accept, and the Corinthians also had a problem in this area. In their case, they thought that they had “arrived” and had conquered the frailties of human existence (1 Cor. 4:8-10). As a result, the sufferings that Paul underwent tended to discredit him in their eyes. In response, Paul attempts to drive home in verses 3-5 that both the gospel ministry and the lot of the Christian involve suffering.

Paul’s purpose in this eulogy is not merely to praise God for personal comfort received or to discuss the nature of the gospel ministry. His primary concern is to show the Corinthians [and us] that their lives are inescapably intertwined, so that what impact Paul impacts the Corinthians and what impact the Corinthians impacts Paul. It is for their benefit, he says, that he encounters trouble. For, if we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort (v. 6). Whatever he experiences, be it suffering or comfort, the Corinthians personally benefit. Paul then goes on to state an important but often neglected truth. Service to the body of Christ results in personal gain rather than personal loss. The experience of comfort received and imparted produces patient endurance (v.6). The net effect is the ability to endure the same suffering we suffer (v. 6)—that is, hardships and trials experienced in the course of proclaiming the gospel.(pp55-56)

So the point that I am trying to get across with this passage, is that to remind myself ( and you) that if we are truly walking with Christ; we’ve all got a ‘tough row to hoe.’ Although not every day is a trial; we will gain in the end…not just in the ‘sweet by-and-by’ but in strength, patience, and love poured into us by Christ’s strengthening us…for us to be ‘conduits’ of His love and grace…to overflow to others.

L. Belleville, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series: 2Corrinthians (1996, Downers Grove, InterVarsity Press)

On Being a Christian...audio link

2011-10-27T09:55:00.000-06:00

Please take the time to listen to this sermon delivered by Dr. Mark Young, President of Denver Seminary, August 31, 2009.

The title of the sermon is "Who's My Neighbor?", which you may gather is on Luke 10: 25-37, "The Good Samaritan." The sermon is just under 30 minutes, and is worth every second.

The page is here.

"Sunday Comics" From Robin

2011-10-23T15:44:00.000-06:00

Here are a few Sunday Comics from the wonderful drawing board of Robin Jensen.

If you would like to see Robin's original artwork go to his web page "Jazz-Art Jauntin"

"Undesigned Coincidences" in the New Testament

2011-10-20T12:19:00.001-06:00

Here is an introduction of the idea of "Undesigned Coincidences" which is being re-introduced and expanded by Dr. Tim McGrew, philosophy professor at Western Michigan State. Cris Putnam designed this video to explain an over-view of how this works.

You can visit Cris' blog Logos Apologia here.

And you can visit Tim McGrew's blog Library of Historical Apologetics here.

Some Thoughts on Forgiveness

2011-10-18T20:50:00.001-06:00

The next time you think that you can never forgive someone for the awful things they put you through.

And you think “I wouldn’t want to be in heaven with them!”

Remember this:

From the cross, Jesus spoke these words “Father forgive them, for they do not understand what they are doing” (Luke 23:34)

It is clear that many of those who heard Peter preach at Pentecost were the very crowd who cried “Crucify Him.” Or is it possible that in the crowd were some of the Pharisees who were in the Sanhedrin the night Jesus was condemed; the ones who punched Jesus in the face (see Matthew 26:67 & Mark 14:65). It seems from history that many of the Pharisees were among the first Christians, and were a large part of the early church (Remember Nicodemus).

“What can we do to be saved!” they cried.

Peter said “Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of you sins…” (Acts 2:38)

These same people who cried for Jesus’ crucifixion are in heaven with Him.

God gives forgiveness.

God is the one saving.

God is the one doing the changing...renewing hearts and minds.( see Romans 12:2)

Remember “…that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.” (1Timothy 1:15) And who said that?

...and how many years did it take him to get squared away in his mind?

(Acording to the records, somewhere around 14 years!)

Peter Scheibner "A Pilots Story"

2011-10-15T17:51:00.000-06:00

I'm not really sure how to intro this video; so I won't. But please watch it through to the end. We all should live our lives "To the Glory and Honor of God!"

A Franciscan Benediction from "Beautiful Feet"

2011-10-08T21:56:00.000-06:00

May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships – so that we may live deep within our hearts. May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people – so that we may work for justice, freedom, and peace. May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war – so that we may reach out our hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy. And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in the world – so that we can do what others claim cannot be done, to bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor. Amen. (Franciscan Benediction)

This posted at "Beautiful Feet"

"Are Biblical Laws Imoral?" (video)

2011-10-07T07:32:00.000-06:00

I posted this video on my facebook page; but I decided to also post it here...partially because I wanted to see if I could...and partially because there are some followers of this blog who are not my facebook 'friends'. You will note that at the end of this video, Brett gives a great plug for Paul Copan's book "Is God a Moral Monster", which I also reviewed on this blog.

Thank you Christiana S. for originally posting this on her blog "In Defence of the Christian Faith"( go here)

You see, God never changes...But what does change is how we as finite, fallen humans, understand God. We are the ones that do the changing.

Swans

2011-10-05T21:49:00.000-06:00

Swans,

birds that make no sound.

Yet,
according to legends,
will sing a most beautiful
Song,
at the time of their death.

There was another
who spoke
lyrics to the
Ultimate Song,

that changed the world.

Surrounded with darkness
and blood—“It is finished!”

Changed history,
Changed the world,
And can change your eternity.

But only if
you—forfeit;
will,
pride,
vanity,

and take up your cross.

If only you—like swans,

Sing.

"Just kidding around"

2011-09-30T08:10:00.001-06:00

I had the chance to stop in at Denver Seminary's annual book sale. Of course, I just 'happened' to be there on the last day when they give the books away (hmm). At any rate, in the pile of paperback pamphlets I found this little comic book with drawings by Robin Jensen, who was at the time Professor of Art, at Calvin College, and I am guessing because of the style of the comics, this dates to the mid-to-late 60's.

At any rate, I have copied with attribution a couple of his comics. I may use more at a later date.

So, many thanks to Robin Jensen and his "Id-Bits."

And an update: I found Robin Jensen's web-site! Go here for a gallery of Robin's art:http://www.jazz-art.org/index.htm

"Just waiting for an
inspiration."

"But of course, these Are my opinions!"

Apologetics: "Always having an answer"

2011-09-24T16:47:00.000-06:00

I am adding some ‘help’ to my blog. My friend Paul Ernst is a local of Boulder and has given me permission to share some of his email answers to local “New Age” and Atheist/Agnostic friends.

As Christians, we are called to “…always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is within you…” (1Peter 3:15) Below is an example of what this looks like.

Here is the back-story:

An acquaintance of Paul’s viewed a program on the History Channel on the Shroud of Turin and sent him an email with the question: “What difference does it make if Jesus rose from the dead?” This person is a self-professed “Gnostic” (New Age believer)…follow Paul’s answer and see if it can help you to explain questions to those who ask to know the “whys” of our faith.
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Last week you asked me why the resurrection mattered. You were the 2nd person that week to ask me that. I thought God might be prompting me to take my nose out of all those books about it and give an answer. So here goes.

The Jews had some very good reasons to think their scriptures (OT: Old Testament) were from God. Even so, the OT itself said it was incomplete and that a new deal was coming.

When Jesus came he claimed to be the promised messiah. Others had made the claim and it ended badly. Jesus claimed to be more than just the long awaited messiah, he claimed equality with God—God’s ONLY son. This was not some general notion that we are all sons of God in some sense. This was blasphemy to the Jews and it got him crucified. As with the other pretenders, he got killed and a dead messiah was a failed messiah—except for the resurrection.

No other leader of a world religion ever made that claim. Why would a proper orthodox Jew go around making that claim? CS Lewis called it the Lord, liar, lunatic dilemma.

Folks like Deepak Choprah want to make him into an Eastern guru. This violates Jesus personal self understanding and the worldview of Christians and Jews. I may say I don't believe someone else's religious claim, but for me to tell someone they don't understand their own religion, and I as an outsider do, is the height of arrogance.

So if the resurrection is true, Jesus is God; and what he says about man's relationship to God is the final authority on the matter. The resurrection is a matter of religious epistemology, it's how we know it’s true. The 1st Century Roman world is close enough to us and the documentary evidence good enough that we can get at this with the tools of the historian. As with anything in history, some will dispute. It is up to each to evaluate the evidence.

The resurrection proves the Incarnation (God took on flesh as a real person). This assumes God would not validate a false claim by resurrecting the perpetrator. The incarnation gives us the truest picture of who God is that we can understand. The Jews had some understanding from the prophets, who God had revealed himself to with dreams, visions, voices etc. God had the prophets predict certain future events like the Babylonian exile so the prophets themselves would be validated for inclusion in scripture. But the average OT Jew knew God through the mediation of a priesthood/temple system.

Philosophers could speculate about God; what it means to be "Omni" this or that. They could see God in the creation. The OT tells us about his character: good, just, hates sin, forgiving etc. But there is nothing like seeing the real thing. God can show us what he is like as a man, which is what we can understand. Most importantly he showed us what he is willing to do for us in order to reconcile us to himself. His suffering on the cross not only paid our sin debt (the Judge himself pays the penalty) but showed us his love in the most graphic way.

But why a physical resurrection?

God is spirit. God created a spiritual realm (angelic beings) and I suppose he could have stopped there. For his own reasons, he wanted to create something "other"…a material world. I guess he just likes the stuff. He pronounced it “good" and humanity “very good!” The Jews understood this. The Greeks, following Plato, didn’t. They despised the material world. God becoming man was blasphemy to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. If you tried to invent a religion for the 1st century you couldn't come up with a worse story.

But only in Christianity are you more in death than in life. Buddhism is nothingness, Hinduism (after enough tries) is union with the impersonal. Gnosticism (ancient/New Age) is a merger with a "world soul". Islam has the sexual fantasy thing but you won’t enjoy God, because Allah is "totally other" and cannot be personally known. Only his will (Quran) is known.

Christianity, with reunion with loved ones and the fellowship of other believers, all enjoying God forever, with perfect bodies in a new creation (a real world of some sort), would seem to be the best alternative. The resurrection gives us warrant for believing it’s true. The others are just guessing.
****************************************************************************************

Now the ‘verdict’ (so to speak) is still out as far as I know.

Perhaps this man will see the truth, eventually.

Sharing from "The Cold and Lonely Truth": Joe Wright's Kansas Senate Prayer

2011-09-19T09:39:00.002-06:00

This was posted yesterday, September 18th, 2011 at Arthur Khachatryan’s blog “The Cold and Lonely Truth”. The link to track back is here.

I have read this before, but I think we all need to read it again. Thanks for posting this Arthur.

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This prayer was delivered on January 23, 1996 by the Rev. Joe Wright in Kansas. It was said that most of those in attendance were outraged and some walked out. Without a doubt, it is a blunt and direct indictment on modern culture. Within just a few weeks, the Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, received thousands of phone calls. Surprisingly, only a few dozen of those calls were from those who were responding negatively. In the weeks to follow the church received international requests for copies of this prayer from all over the world.

“Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and seek your direction and guidance. We know your Word says, “Woe to those who call evil good,” but that’s exactly what we’ve done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.

We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of your Word and called it moral pluralism.

We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.

We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building esteem.

We have abused power and called it political savvy.

We have coveted our neighbors’ possessions and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our fore-fathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us O God and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.

Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of Kansas, and who have been ordained by you, to govern this great state. Grant them your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of your will. I ask it in the name of your son, the living savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen.”

"Taking a break"

2011-09-11T14:36:00.003-06:00

To all my readers;

Due to "life" issues, I will be taking a little break from blogging. Those who pray, please keep me in your prayers.

Thank you for your kind support.

May God bless you,

Alice E. (Lisa) Guinther

A video 'fly-by' of Saturn

2011-09-08T19:12:00.000-06:00

Here is an amazing link to an animated 'fly-by' of saturn.http://www.tecca.com/news/2011/03/15/saturn-fly-by-video/

Now I absolutely believe that our God is an artist...take the time to look at the amazing range of colors an pattern on the atmosphere of Saturn.http://vimeo.com/11386048

I've never added a video to my blog before...so this is an experiment.

Blessings,
Lisa

Psalm 91 Prayer for Protection

2011-09-05T22:10:00.001-06:00

Psalm 91 Prayer for Protection.

Father, I thank you that I dwell in the shelter of the Most High,
I abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

I say to you my Lord; that you are my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.
For it is You who delivers me from the snare of the trapper, and from the deadly pestilence.

You shield me the way an eagle protects her young, and they take refuge under her wings.
Your faithfulness is a shield and high wall around me.

I am not afraid of the terror by night, or the arrow that flies by day;
Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that lays waste at noon.

A thousand may fall at my side; and ten thousand at my right hand;
But it will not come near me, and I will see the wicked punished.

For I have made the Lord my refuge, even the Most High my dwelling place.
No evil will befall me, nor will any plague come near my tent.

For You give Your angels charge concerning me, to guard me in all my ways.
They bear me up in their hands lest I stumble over a rock.

I tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent I will trample down.
Because I love you Lord, You will deliver me;

You set me securely on high, because I know Your name.
You are with me in trouble, You rescue me and honor me,
With a long life You satisfy me, and let me behold Your salvation.

*Amen*

"Turn the Other Cheek"

2011-08-28T16:33:00.000-06:00

Over the last two of weeks, I have been spending a lot of time studying “The Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew’s Gospel. I would like to share some of the interesting insights I have gained from this study.

Anyone who has grown up in the church has heard this teaching of Jesus over and over again. I know that I am guilty of reading through this and saying to myself “yes, I know this; this is old hat…move on.” We all read over these passages and have probably highlighted favorite parts of Jesus teaching…but are we listening to what he is saying here?

For example; Jesus’ teaching in what is known as “the Beatitudes” (Matt. 5:3-12); this teaching of our Lord stresses humility (v.5) and endurance in the face of persecution because of our faith in Jesus (…on account of Me.” v.11). But note how Matthew arranges Jesus’ teaching towards the end of chapter 5, specifically verses 38-39 where it is written “You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist him who is evil; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

What is going on here?

What is Jesus quoting from when he says “…An eye for an eye…”?

Look at Leviticus 24:17-22 which in my Bible is headed with the title “An Eye for an Eye” and when you read v. 20 it is written “Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him.” But for the followers of Second Temple Judaism in the day of Jesus’ teaching, could this rule of “eye for eye” have been being abused by persons wanting to be justified under the over 600 extant rules included in the teaching of Torah? Is it possible that in the minds of some of the Pharisees’ they hoped to bring salvation from Rome by their own piety and zeal; over-did rule-following, and committed evil deeds in the name of “eye-for-eye”?

Remember that in Ancient Rome a high priority was placed on one’s honor. But is there any difference in our society today?

What of Jesus’ teaching here; when insulted, (“slapped”) we should allow another insult? (the other cheek?) Really, shouldn’t we “stand up for ourselves?” If nothing else, don’t we get the chance to tell our “side of the story” when others talk badly of us?

Listen to what Dr Craig Keener writes, from his Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (1999):

…A disciple must be so secure in his or her status before God that he or she can dispense with human honor. Such a person need not avenge lost honor because this person seeks God’s honor rather than his or her own…If their lives are forfeit when they begin to follow Jesus (16:24-27) they have no honor of their own to lose. (p 198)

And just in case you don’t get around to looking up Matthew 16: 24-27, I’ll write it for you here:

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me, For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it. For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with His angels; and will then recompense every man according to his deeds.”

This idea of honor-shame and losing ones own soul; is not some simple, glossed over teaching of Jesus.

Are we so bound to save our honor that we would lose our souls striving to win the world?

And Paul wrote “Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21)

Father in Heaven, these are tough teachings that my fallen nature fights against. When my possible livelihood may be in the balance; I ask that you help me to look to you, the Author and Perfecter of my faith. Please give me the strength to take up my cross and follow you…no matter what the cost, take the slap and offer the other cheek. In Jesus’ name I pray; Amen.

Reference:

Craig Keener (1999) Comentary on the Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.

Book Review: Christian Apologetics by Douglas Groothuis

2011-08-14T19:22:00.000-06:00

Douglas Groothuis. (2011) Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic.

You know, I had decided that this week I would post a quote from Doug Groothuis’ new textbook Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith (2011) but I have decided to do more than that; this is a review.

Now I am not yet a professor (though that is my plan) but perhaps as a budding Apologist for the Christian faith, and a lover of the “love of Wisdom” my advice might be useful to others in the positions I would like to someday hold.

This is a wonderful, thought provoking text; and this textbook has been worth the wait…there is chapter after chapter of discussion enabling reading that I believe will enliven any classroom. There is room for nods of agreement and moments of hand-raising questions, and areas of disagreement and continued discussion. I could come up with a host of challenging questions to throw out to a classroom in each chapter…and it highlights areas I’d like to do further reading in my own studies.

And as I planned to, here is a quote from the introduction that will give you a “taste” of what you can look forward to in this text. Douglas Groothuis writes:

What if hope cannot extend beyond human endeavor itself and is never answered by anything beyond it? What if the millennia of human cries echo only into the empty sky and not further? That possibility must be faced if the quest itself is to have any meaning. In the end, hope without truth is pointless. Illusions and delusions, no matter how comforting or grandiose, are the enemies of those who strive for integrity in their knowing and being. Statements such as “I like to think of the universe as having a purpose” or “The thought of an afterlife gives me peace” reflect mere wishes. These notions do not address the truth or falsity of there being purpose in the world or of our postmortem survival, because there is no genuine claim to knowledge: a warranted awareness of reality as it is. A hearty, sturdy and insatiable appetite for reality—whatever it might be—is the only engine for testing and discerning truth. (p.16)

And that gives an idea of the caliber of writing you have to look forward to while reading this text.

Chapters include topics such as: “The Biblical Basis for Apologetics” and “The Christian World View” in Part One, “The Ontological Argument” and “Origins, Design and Darwinism” in Part Two, and finally in Part Three chapters on “Religious Pluralism” and “Apologetics and the Challenge of Islam” and of course a chapter on “The Problem of Evil.”

I have not given you the complete table of contents, but you can get an idea of the topics covered.

As I have found with Doug’s other books; this is a challenging, but enjoyable read…which is rare in a classroom textbook.

And if you were wondering, no I haven’t finished reading the whole text…at 731 pages at the end of the bibliography; I can’t read that fast…but I will finish the whole thing…promise.

The Call of Levi, Part Two.

2011-08-07T17:10:00.001-06:00

Luke 5: 33-39

33 And they said to Him, “The disciples of John often fast and offer prayers; the disciples of the Pharisees also do the same; but Yours eat and drink.” 34 And Jesus said to them, “You cannot make the attendants of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? 35 But the day will come; and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.” 36 And He was also telling them a parable; “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise he will both tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins 39 and no one after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says ‘The old is good enough.’”

So we left off with Jesus pointing out to the outraged Pharisees he would call a “Tax collector” to be a disciple…so now they make another “call out” to Jesus on his faulty administration of his followers by pointing out the bad example they set; not even acting like his cousin John’s disciples, nor their own disciples by following prescribed fasting periods. So what is going on here? Let me see if I can clarify a bit.

First of all, who were the disciples of John the Baptist? These were people who were seeking forgiveness by repenting of their sins publicly and receiving baptism to symbolically “wash away” their sins in “living water.” Any water that was running was considered “living” and in purity circles was able to render the penitent “clean.” Remember that followers of John the Baptist were those who had fallen into the “cracks” of Pharisaic Judaism who were trying to find forgiveness of their sins...tax collectors, prostitutes, and other un-desirables.

When we see the reference to the followers of the Pharisees here, what were they looking for in their fasting? It seems they may have been looking for justification of their adherence to Torah, the earned right-standing before Yahweh in the great Temple; could they have been looking for an “at-a-boy” for their following of the Mishnah (the interpretation based on rabbinic teaching) and comparing themselves to John’s disciples?

Let me give you an example from Bruce Chilton and Jacob Neusner ( 2007) of Mishnaic teaching examples:

Mishnah-Tractate Shabbat 16:8

A. A gentile who lit a candle—
B. an Israelite may make use of its light.
C. But [if he did so] for an Israelite, it is prohibited [to do so on the Sabbath].
D. [If a gentile] drew water to give water to his beast, an Israelite give water to his beast after him.
E. But [if he did so] for an Israelite, it is prohibited [to use it on the Sabbath].
F. [If] a gentile made a gangway by which to come down from a ship, an Israelite goes down after him.
G. But [if he did so] for an Israelite, it is prohibited [to use it on the Sabbath]. (p.189-190)

Do you see the ‘hair-splitting’ going on here? Now I understand I can’t give the full scope of the Mishnaic interpretation of the Torah here, but I can give you a glimpse of what was going on with the Pharisee’s party of believers? They wanted to justify their own behavior and to compare themselves to the disciples of John the Baptist.

Of course Jesus makes clear that as the long awaited Messiah (the bridegroom) now is the time for celebration, not fasting and mourning…but he foreshadows that this will come later, after his Passion.

Jesus then begins to clarify by using parables to teach the listening crowd of this new time at hand by first illustrating how not to handle his new teaching of the Kingdom of God. The example given first is the faulty method of repairing an old garment by tearing a patch from a new garment. As Jesus point out in v.36 both the old and new would be ruined. John Noland (1989) writes:

In both parables…the focus is on what is (not) to be done with the new. And in each case the point is made that the new must be allowed to have its own integrity…it is not to be reduced to a patch on the old; nor is it right to attempt to contain the new within the constraints of the old. The apparent absurdity of such a method of repair needs to be placed in the light of v.39 to come: the high value set on the old may indeed lead to inappropriate attempts to preserve it. The Lukan parables, however, do not address themselves to what is to be done with the old in the light of the presence of the new: their attention is restricted to what is (or is not) to be done with the new. (p. 249)

So Jesus is teaching followers of the old Torah something entirely new; and he is not offering a ‘band-aid’ fix. This is truly the ushering in of the New Covenant.

And finally, the old wine/new wine parable with the odd wording in v 39 “And no one after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says, ‘The old is good enough.’” Let me explore this a little more…

Have you ever been to a wine tasting? The best education in how to understand and appreciate wine comes from lessons in what you taste, and how to understand the complexity of a great vintage. But anyone wanting to invest in a cellar wine understands that you are not looking for an established old (and very expensive)wine, you want to find a young wine with potential. This is a skill; to be able to “taste” the future. Can you taste a young wine and get a hint of the future complexity and flavor that with aging in your cellar will be the next great old vintage?

Jesus was saying that the Pharisees were not willing to “taste” the future, they were content with the “old wine”, and were going to miss what was to come…the New Wine of later exceptional, priceless worth…the vintage that will be shared with us in the fulfilled Kingdom.

Yes, they preferred the old wine~ to their eternal loss.

References:

Jacob Neusner & Bruce Chilton (2007) In Quest of the Historical Pharisees. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.
John Nolland (1989) Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 35A, Luke 1-9:20. Dallas, TX: Word Books Publisher.

Help Me Lord...a prayer.

2011-07-30T08:26:00.000-06:00

Help me Lord;

To speak your words,

Walk with your strength,

Be your light in the darkness—

And hold out your love,

to a lost and dying world.

Amen.

The Call of Levi, Part One

2011-07-28T21:05:00.000-06:00

Well, I’ve gotten carried away with this blog…it has grown to a two parter. So for this week I am writing a lesson on what is commonly noted in your Bibles as “The Call of Levi (Matthew).

Luke 5: 27-32

27And after that He went out, and noticed a tax-gatherer named Levi, sitting in the tax office (“tollhouse” in one translation) and He said to him, “Follow Me.”28 And he left everything behind, and rose and began to follow Him. 29 And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house; and there was a great crowd of tax-gatherers and other people who were reclining at the table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax-gathers and sinners?”31 And Jesus answered and said to them, “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick.” 32 “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

First a little on the city of Jerusalem in the region locally known as Judea, and known to the Roman Empire as Palestine. Jerusalem was the city of the great Temple…the center of the world to the Jews of the region and the Diaspora. Jerusalem was not a trade city, but a religious center. The entire city existed on and for the Temple. According to James Dunn’s book Beginning from Jerusalem (2009) he writes, “Apart from the royal palaces and garrison, more or less all trade and commerce would be directly or indirectly dependent on the Temple.” (p.175) So we need to understand that this is a city filled with those who 1.worked for the Temple, and 2.those called to travel there by Torah, and finally 3.those who made a living directly from the influx of travelers…How about envisioning Vatican City in Rome? Or another extreme would be Washington DC (on the secular end of the scale). Those who came to Jerusalem came to worship or make money…or both…and I think an educated guess would be that being a Pharisee, teacher of the Law, or a scribe within the Temple must have been a pretty good living!

Now how about tax collectors within the region of Palestine? A note first on being Jewish in the Roman Empire; Judaism was a ‘protected’ religion in the Roman Empire. More than that, Jews were exempt from serving in the Roman army…but they could bid on local tax-collection jobs within Palestine…especially the lucrative “tourist” routs in and around Jerusalem. I found this quote in Gundry’s Survey of the New Testament (2003) where he writes of tax-collectors:

Among the Jews, tax collectors—traditionally called “publicans”—became special objects of class hatred. They collected poll taxes, property taxes, road use taxes, and sales taxes. Other Jews despised the tax collectors because they handled currency with blasphemous pagan inscriptions and iconography and cooperated with Roman overlords. These overlords auctioned the job of collection taxes to the lowest bidder, that is, to the one who bid the lowest rate of commission for a contract. A collector would gather not only the tax and his commission, but also what ever he could pocket illegally. Bribery of tax collectors by the rich increased the financial burden of those who were barely scraping by. As a result, the masses deeply resented the collectors. (p 33)

So you see, it is really is true that Jewish tax collectors were thought to be traitors to the Jewish people and down right crooks! But I’m sure they liked to think of themselves as merely good businessmen. Yet as Jews, did they long to be forgiven or to be accepted within the walls of the great Temple by the priests? I’m sure they knew full-good-and-well they were considered “un-clean” and looked at with contempt “…or even like this tax-gatherer…” (Luke 18:11) the Pharisee said in another parable.

But remember now, that one had to make a living, and if the only major industry is religion and the religious travel industry (hotel, restaurant, souvenirs, and suppliers of sacrificial animals, and of course, money changers)…what else could you do for a living? (other than to be a beggar...and there were LOTS of them)

And one more point I’d like to share to ‘color’ the background, if you will; and that is being called by a Rabbi. If I understand clearly, both from reading and conversations; Rabbi’s generally chose children to train. And being “chosen”, or “called” was a great, great honor. Adults were rarely ever called by a rabbi…imagine being asked by the President of the United States to head a cabinet position…I’m thinking you’d jump at the chance! (depending on the administration…?)

Now, the lead-in to this lesson; Jesus is now known in the region for being a teacher/preacher/healer in “…the synagogues of Judea.” (Luke 4:44) So in the suburbs of Jerusalem, Jesus has a following of those wanting to learn, or to see what he would do next; Luke 5:15 says “But the news about Him was spreading even farther, and great multitudes were gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses.” It is clear that the Pharisees and teachers of the law were trying to establish what was going on; what kind of rabbi was this Jesus. At this time Jesus heals the paralyzed man, and shows his authority as the “Son of Man” (the common term for the Messiah); and the whole crowd “…were all seized with astonishment and began glorifying God; and they were filled with fear, saying “We have seen remarkable things today.” (Luke 5:26)

Now how mind-blowing for the following crowd to see Jesus on a walk to the next stop on his preaching tour of the area, come up to a “tollhouse” and instead of paying a road tax; “call” the man responsible for the collection of Roman tax and the local “hustler” of the masses! Now can you understand why someone like Levi, would throw a shindig at his place for all his fellow “tax-collectors!” You understand in the company of thieves, there is not so much friendship but comradeship of a shared profession…no-one else would spend time with them. But here, one of their compadres now, unbelievably, has been chosen by this famous rabbi, to be one of his followers. He now gets a chance at a totally new life! To learn scripture! A full and rich education! Can you see his utter joy! He gets the chance to be no-longer hated by his fellow Jews! Levi is now a “disciple.”

But the Pharisees following, now on the out-side looking in; gripe to the other disciples of Jesus “Why do you eat and drink with the tax-gatherers and sinners?” How outraged they must have been…couldn’t have this rabbi picked a more “appropriate” student? This is more than just a ritual purity or someone not committed to Pharisaic rules. According to John Nolland (1989) in Word Biblical Commentary, the Pharisee’s use of the term “sinner” here is more broad condemnation. He writes:

The term [sinner] should be understood sociologically as identifying those publicly known to be unsavory types who lived beyond the edge of respectable society…Pharisaism had strong separatist tendencies, and because of the prominence in Pharisaic piety of food and ritual cleanliness rules, Pharisees would only accept hospitality from one another. But analogy with the avoiding of communicable ritual uncleanness, the Pharisees considered it necessary also to avoid contamination from contact with the morally suspect elements for Jewish society (and Gentiles). (p.246)

And the final shot from Jesus himself, is a reminder that he is reaching out to the “sick” to make them well…to call sinners…those outside not only ‘polite’ society, but outside the teaching of the Temple…the house of God! Darrell Bock (1994) reminds us that “Jesus’ reply makes it clear that recovery, not quarantine, is the message of his ministry.” And that “…the unrighteous are aware of their need, whereas the unrighteous “righteous” are not.” (p. 108)

More next time.

References:

Darrell Bock (1994) Luke. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Robert Gundry (2003) A Survey of the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

James D.G. Dunn (2009) Beginning From Jerusalem. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.

John Nolland (1989) Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 35A, Luke 1-9:20. Dallas, TX: Word Books Publisher.

On Rainbow's...again.

2011-07-20T18:16:00.000-06:00

In my "too buisy" life of not enough sleep, I am again posting a blog from two years ago...hope you enjoy...again.
(I'll give you the footnote stuff later if you want it...I didn't do that the first time...sorry)
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From the Targums of Palestine on the Book of Genesis (see Genesis 9:11-17)

And I will establish my covenant with you, and will not again cause all flesh to perish by the waters of a flood; and there shall not again be a flood to destroy the earth.

And the Lord said, this is the sign of the covenant which I establish between My Word and between you and every living soul that is with you to the generations of the world. I have set My Bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of the covenant between My Word and the earth.

And it shall be that when I spread out My glorious cloud over the earth the bow shall be seen in the day (time) while the sun is not sunk (or hidden) in a cloud. And I will remember My covenant.

…And the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between the Word of the Lord and every living soul of all flesh that is on the earth.

Let’s think a little about rainbows for a minute. Now they definitely bring out the “wow” factor. Any time you see one, you automatically say “wow”…Now think back a moment to Noah, and the generations after Noah. I am sure for a while, whenever Noah or his family saw a dark cloud, they wondered, “Is this it?” or “Will it (the flood) happen again?” And yes, it would rain, and like here in Colorado, I’m sure some rains were “gully washers”. The terrifying flashes of lightning and the rolling booms of the thunder that you can feel. Yet, as the storm passes, and the rain is just beginning to subside, sunlight breaks through the clouds and suddenly in the distance with dark clouds behind it; a spectacular, glowing bow of luminous color. A “token” the Targums say, the NASB says a “sign”; God remembering an everlasting covenant.

Now, we live under a “New Covenant” and just as everlasting.

“And it was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, the sun being obscured;” (Luke 23:45)

Yet we now have a new “token” an empty cross, the more perfect “sign” that the dark clouds of the storm frame, showing the beauty of the victory, and highlighted by the pure bright light of God shining for us.
Yes, the storms we have to live through are dark, and sometimes we think that they will never end; we ask “God will you deliver me?” Yet on one lonely hill, with dark clouds behind it, the victory was won. So we know and we have this confidence, not only an empty cross, but an empty tomb…the ultimate storm was conquered…Death!
The Apostle Paul wrote,
“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death: in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:10-14)

So, we can press on with the “token” of the empty cross before us always; and not just after the storm. Now that is the ultimate “wow” factor.

Deposed Royalty...Revisited

2011-07-10T17:12:00.002-06:00

The sermon today highlighted our pastors recent return from the country of Rwanda, were he highlighted the healing taking place after the horrible genocide there. I am revisiting this particular post from last year where I wrote on the dichotomy of humanity...the greatness and vileness as pointed out by Blase Pascal.

It is dangerous to explain too clearly to man how like he is to the animals without pointing out his greatness. It is also dangerous to make too much of his greatness without his vileness. It is still more dangerous to leave him in ignorance of both, but it is most valuable to represent both to him. Man must not be allowed to believe that he is equal either to animals or to angels, nor to be unaware of either, but he must know both. (Pensee’s 121/418)

There is an amazing greatness in humanity, yet there is also an utter depravity. We so clearly have the capacity for astounding creativity; in the arts—musical and visual; painting and sculpture; don’t forget the sciences—Physics and Biology, and of course Philosophy…all in all the level of our inventiveness is astounding.

Yet the study of history shows over the thousands and thousands of years, the horrid level of depravity we have inflicted on our fellow man. The wars and slavery, subjugation and tyranny; the slaughter of innocents and genocide…horrid massacres of fellow human beings for no other reason that they did not fit the majority’s measure of worth.

Societies have created systems of worship based on gods that are merely mega-humanity in an effort to give the general populace something to hold to…but to no avail. Only a God that is above; infinite yet personal can be the source of absolutes mankind can seek for true salvation.
Frances Schaeffer writes of the strength of the Christian world view this way:

This strength rested on God being an infinite-personal God and his speaking in the Old Testament, in the life and teaching of Jesus Christ…He had spoken in ways people could understand, Thus the Christians not only had knowledge about the universe and mankind the people cannot find out by themselves, but they had absolute, universal values by which to live...(p. 22)

The Apostle Paul points out in Romans 1:20 that God’s invisible attributes are clearly seen…But instead we make images of the creation and worship them rather than giving worship to the Creator. In today’s world we turn the nurture given to children by their parents into nothing more than behavior necessary for survival.

And on the other end of the spectrum, we take the Judeo/Christian ideals this country was founded on and change them into a evolutionary change pointing to man as the measure of all things…humanity is passing up into a higher level of existence.

Yet in any thorough study of history it is plain to see the depravity of ages gone by is mirrored in daily life of the 21st century. There has merely been a change in the technology. Man is as fallen today as he was during the Roman Empire.

Yet what of the horror we inflict upon each other…And what of the sacrifices and blessings given to some? How do we reconcile these differences.
As Blase Pascal writes:

What sort of freak then is man? How novel, how monstrous, how chaotic, how paradoxical, how prodigious! Judge of all things, feeble earthworm, repository of truth, sink of doubt and error, glory and refuse of the universe! (Pensee’s 131/434)

Can we see the imago Dei in people? The very image and likeness of God in the humanity around us…but also can we recognize the fallen-ness in ourselves and others. Were it not for the grace given to us by God for our salvation…this is what we are called to give to one another, Grace.

But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. (Matthew 6:44)

Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:12)

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:8)

Peter Kreeft(1993) Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal’s Pensees. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press

Frances Schaeffer (1976) How Should We Then Live. Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Company.

"Music, Fireworks, and Joy"

2011-07-07T21:57:00.000-06:00

I can hear the music in living color.

When I read the Bible, it sings to me in a glorious Technicolor symphony orchestra. I can hear the music of God’s grace. It paints for me a picture of how life was, is, and how it should be; colored by His love, mercy, justice, and holiness.

I feel fireworks.

When I read Pascal for the first time I honestly felt as if fireworks were lighting off around my heart. It was as if golden sparks were lighting up inside of me. Blase Pascal’s writings speak to me of a passionate love of God. That is the true fire of the Holy Spirit.

Now I have joy!

Reading the foundational writings of Philosophy…Socrates, Plato, Aristotle…what joy; I can see what I’ve been missing my whole life. It is so exhilarating for me to read works that I had been denied; now open, accessible, and understandable. This is the greatest Joy, and given as a gift from God.

Yes I know I need to be a grown-up…but inside I am a child set free and chasing butterflies across a meadow; laughing with pure joy.

“Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me; O Lord, be thou my helper.” Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing; Thou hast loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness; that my soul may sing praise to Thee, and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to Thee forever. (Psalm 30:10-12)

"Try It Before You Buy It?" and a 300lb Gorilla

2011-07-03T21:08:00.001-06:00

I’d like to share a link to an article written by Greg Koukl and published in Salvo Magazine, Issue 17, Summer 2011; titled “Try before You Buy”; about the pitfalls and dangers of pre-marital sex. This article is an adaptation of his Stand to Reason booklet of the same name available at http://www.str.org./

Now-a-days I think that Christians and non-Christians alike have a problem with the idea of something being a sin. Even the word SIN is passed over and re-worded to perhaps make it more palatable. I hear within Christian circles the word sin changed to “mistake” or wrong-doing, or error in judgment. But sexual sin is just never discussed…it is ignored; it is the amazing 300 lb gorilla in the room.

I personally have the hugely painful experience of being “hit-on” by a professing Christian. But this should not have happened if we get our heads out of the sand and teach loud and clear the biblical mandates for chastity, purity, and the fact that sex is ONLY to be entered into by a man and woman in the covenant of marriage.

We are in a war against the world, and the 24/7 bombardment of media…TV, magazines, billboards, and all the endless adds on the internet which promote sexuality. In the book The God Question, J.P. Moreland addresses the effect of media on men from an article by Michael Levine in Psychology Today. J.P. analyses the article this way;

Levine points out that for all of human history prior to the automobile and television, the average man was exposed to very few people in general or extremely beautiful women in particular. Limited in travel and with no television, most men learned to relate to women on a basis other than beauty. But today, says Levine, the average man sees hundreds of absolutely gorgeous women each night on television shows and commercials and gradually loses interest in less beautiful women. These findings are not hard to believe. What is surprising, and relevant to our discussion, is his explanation for this loss of interest. It is not that such exposure to television makes men think their partners are less physically attractive. Instead, men think, My partner is fine, but why settle for “fine” when there are so many beautiful women out there! I can do a lot better than this! (p.175)

In our empty lives we are driven to and lured by pop-psychology to fulfill ourselves; and high on that list according to all you see in the media is sexual fulfillment. This idea that we are repressed and inhibited is a miss-interpretation, according to C.S. Lewis, in The Problem of Pain, where he writes;

…The effect of Psychoanalysis on the public mind, and in particular, the doctrine of repressions and inhibitions. Whatever these doctrines really mean, the impression they have actually left on most people is that the sense of Shame is a dangerous and mischievous thing. We have labored to overcome that sense of shrinking, that desire to conceal, which either Nature herself or the tradition of almost all mankind has attached to cowardice, unchastity, falsehood, and envy. We are told to ‘get things out into the open’, not for the sake of self-humiliation, but on the grounds that these ‘things’ are very natural and we need not be ashamed of them. (p.391)

Do we really think its a “wink-wink-nudge-nudge” joke the struggle even Augustine had over chastity?

Let me turn this another way; when you chase after your own need for sex, who are you hurting? You are not just indulging yourself; you are using another human being as an object, nothing more. You devalue, objectify, and outright use a person made in the Imago Dei as a means to an end—your sexual satisfaction. There is no “romance” about it, no matter what the songs, movies, books all try to tell you other wise. C.S Lewis writes;

A recovery of the old sense of sin is essential to Christianity. Christ takes it for granted that men are bad. Until we really feel this assumption of His to be true, though we are part of the world He came to save, we are not part of the audience to whom His words are addressed. (p.392)

So without an understanding of the sinfulness of sin, especially sexual sin, you can see how we devalue Jesus’ sacrifice into nothing more than a story that may make you cry, but in the end you dry your tears and walk away unchanged.

C.S. Lewis (2002). The Complete C.S Lewis Signature Classics. (HaperSanFrancisco)

J.P. Moreland (2009) The God Question. Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers

"The Mouth of the Lord"

2011-06-27T19:59:00.000-06:00

18“Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “Thought your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool. 19 If you consent and obey, you will eat the best of the land; 20 but if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 1:18-20 NASB)

What an amazing passage; here preserved are the prophet Isaiah’s words to Judah before the exile and destruction of Jerusalem. History records the later collapse of the kingdom and capture and exile under Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon; but during the time Isaiah wrote this, that event was still in the future. But of course through the writings of Isaiah, found to be nearly 90% unchanged in the analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls; a continuity of writing nearly unchanged for over 2600 years and in your Bible on the table. So we know that Isaiah’s words were true words of prophesy, for they came to pass. History records that most of the people of Israel and Judah (the divided Kingdom of Israel) were killed, starved, or carried away into exile.

I want you to now focus on these words at the end of verse 20 “…Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” What does that mean to you? Isaiah was a true prophet, so therefore he spoke/wrote what he was told by the Spirit of God. The people whom he served relied upon him to tell them what God’s will for them was. I am sure there were men and women who did listen and do what Isaiah told them to do, but it seems that many did not.

“…Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Again I ask, what does that mean to you? Isaiah wrote these words; they are from the first chapter, and most all scholars are in agreement that this early portion of Isaiah is clearly his work. So you can feel confident that these words are true, accurate, and dependable.

“…Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

If this is the word from God’s mouth, given to Isaiah, and proven a true prophecy; what do you do with the Bible on your table? If this writing is historically accurate predictions…and is accurately transmitted to your Bible when compared to the Dead Sea Scrolls…What are you going to do with that information?

I want to read more. I want to study more. I want to tell more people that this book, the Holy Bible, is TRUE.

And I want to know more about what “…The mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

How about you?

What Do You Pray For Me?

2011-06-18T08:07:00.001-06:00

And the former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers, because they were prevented by death from continuing, but He on the other hand, because He abides forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Hence, also, He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Heb. 7:23-25)

When all my friends neglect to pray,
busily caring for spouses, children, and family;

Lord, what do you pray for me?

When my thoughts paint me into a corner of gloom,
And all I want is a phone call or note;

Lord, what do you pray for me?

As I am overlooked, alone, and supposed
seriously self-sufficient;

Lord, what do you pray for me?

As I look back over a life of abuse, corruption, and subjugation—
and I do not want to go on;

Lord, what do you pray for me?

There was a small city with few men in it and a great king came to it, surrounded it, and constructed large siegeworks against it. But there was found in it a poor wise man and he delivered the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man. So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the wisdom of the poor man is despised and his words are not heeded. (Ecc. 9: 14-16)

Quote from "Bonhoeffer"

2011-06-12T17:48:00.001-06:00

I have been reading Eric Metaxas’ book “Bonhoeffer” and I am riveted. As you read it, I guarantee it will cause you to re-examine your walk with God. I highly recommend this book.

This week I would like to share a striking quote but first let me set the stage (so to speak); this is later in the book and Germany had just over-run France.

Eric Metaxas writes of Bonhoeffer:

In his book Ethics, which he worked on during this time, Bonhoeffer wrote about the way people worship success. The topic fascinated him. He referred to it in his letter from Barcelona many years earlier, in which he observed the fickleness of the crowds at bullfights, how they roared for the toreador one moment and for the bull the next. It was success they wanted, success more than anything. In Ethics, he wrote:

In a world where success is the measure and justification of all things the figure of Him who was sentenced and crucified remains a stranger and is at best the object of pity. The world will allow itself to be subdued only by success. It is not ideas or opinions which decide, but deeds. Success alone justifies wrongs done…With a frankness and off-handedness which no other earthly power could permit itself, history appeals in its own cause to the dictum that the end justifies the means…the figure of the Crucified invalidate all though which takes success for its standard.

God was interested not in success, but in obedience. If one obeyed God and was willing to suffer defeat and whatever else came one’s way, God would show a kind of success that the world couldn’t imagine. But this was narrow path, and few would take it. (p.363)

Eric Metaxas (2011) Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy; A Righteous Gentile vs. The Third Reich. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

Book review: Dave Sterrett's book "Why Trust Jesus?"

2011-06-07T12:38:00.000-06:00

Dave Sterrett (2010)Why Trust Jesus?: An Honest Look at Doubts, Plans,Hurts, Desires, Fears, Questions, and Pleasures. Chicago. Moody Publisers.

Being the great book lover that I am, and being on a rather tight budget, I was told of a great way to get your hands on new books; to offer to post a review on your blog and a review on the sites of some of the “usual suspects” on line. So now the “disclaimer”…by accepting this book from Moody does not mean I am forced to write a favorable review…OK; OK…now move on!

You might recognize Dave Sterrett’s name along with Josh McDowell where they teamed up to write the book “ O” God: A dialogue on truth and Oprah’s Spirituality (2009, World Net Daily) which McDowell and Sterrett address in a readable way some of the popular misconceptions among Christians and non-Christians alike on the difference between spirituality, and the true Christian walk…because we are not all ‘climbing the same mountain’!

But with that plug, (you’re welcome Dave & Josh…*chuckle*) back to the topic.

“Why Trust Jesus?” is a wonderful, popular level book that gently and lovingly addresses many of the sad “Why?” questions asked by people suffering from old or new hurts…from losing a loved one, to being not answered kindly by a pastor, to those “un-answered” prayers…addressed to all those looking for an honest, thoughtful answer.

With a heart to share God’s truth, Dave lays out the biblical and just plain common-sense answers that may not fully satisfy; but I believe will draw the reader in to find out more. With so many guru’s, spiritualists, and pastors turned cheer-leader, this book gives some answers, not gimmicks.

It is time that a popular level book addresses the tough “why” questions…yes there is pain, but there is an answer to help you to keep going in this fallen world; and that is Jesus. It doesn’t mean your whole world will get easier, send you riches, health, or the love of your life; but what it will mean is you will find the Truth. You will find life.

Looking forward to your next book Dave!

"Once Upon A Time"

2011-05-29T15:06:00.000-06:00

Once upon a time, there was a little girl born to a privileged family who always dressed her in ribbons and lace. To all those looking at her, you would have thought she lived like a princess, but what those looking from afar did not know she was actually a slave. Her mother and father had left the kingdom of the Great Emperor, and were captured by the glamour of the Dark Enemy.

You see, the Dark Enemy wanted to own the little girl forever to break the family line of priests to the Great Emperor, so her family, trapped by the glitter of the Dark Enemy’s camp, were given a magic mirror to hold up for the little girl to look into, and show only what the Dark Enemy wanted her to see of herself. The mirror showed an ugly, bent and twisted child, totally unlovable. Her family, wanting to please the Dark Enemy, believed what the mirror showed…So they fell into the trap of the Dark Enemy and told her that the only worth she had was to be silent and serve her family as a slave. She was taught she should always be grateful to them for teaching her what her role was in life, and that she should be thankful that they bothered to take the time to train her to be an excellent, quiet, obedient, and respectful slave…she was so ugly and bent, no-one would ever love her.

One Sunday, at The Club of Good Moral Values, a guest speaker came to speak of something new. He said that there was a wonderful, gentle, loving Son of the Great Emperor who had hope and love to give anyone who wanted it. That anyone could get a dose of it put right in their hearts. So the little girl, who wanted love and hope so desperately, raised her hand to get some.

Nothing seemed to happen at first. But in a few days, when no one came to talk to her, she picked up the book written all about the Great Emperor and his Son and began to read it. This book was filled with stories of people being forgiven, and saved, and helped by the Great Emperor, and how those who hated the Great Emperor tried to kill the Son, but amazingly when all hope was gone, the Great Emperor’s own power restored his Son to life again; So the Son could share that power and love and hope with anyone who would serve the Great Emperor.

“Oh,” the little girl thought, “If only I could be a slave for the Great Emperor, perhaps my life would get easier.” But about that time, when the father of the little girl discovered she was reading the story of the Great Emperor, he began teaching her that the book was only a myth, and you could pick any myth you want, but that was only for weak slaves. Strong, obedient slaves would never fall for myths like that.

As she grew up, she moved away and found another place far from her home in the Dark Enemy’s camp where there were a lot of people who loved the story of the Great Emperor, and showed her care and love…but no-one ever corrected her view in the Enemy’s mirror that out of habit she carried with her where ever she went. She would gaze in it everyday, hoping to see a difference; and there never was. Sadly, she tried to see what the people saw, and just couldn’t part from the vision in the Enemy’s mirror. And even more sadly, her friends did not know she had this mirror with her.

After selling herself to be the slave of other men, (quite like her own father) she fell ill and went to a doctor for medicine. The doctor gave her the bad news that she would have to take this medicine to keep her a happy slave for the rest of her life. In the fellowship of others who loved the story of the Great Emperor, there was confusion, because she left with no word. I think they tried to find her, but they never knew about her magic mirror of the Dark Enemy.

She decided that the story of the Great Emperor was a big lie, and decided to give up reading it, and accepted her fate to serve as a slave of the Dark Enemy and give up trying to serve the Great Emperor. More doctors saw her unhappiness and tried to give her stronger medicine to take away her sadness, but alas, they also did not know of her magic mirror; they never thought to ask.

After being beaten by her last owner, she decided to leave him because she did realize that even slaves did not deserve to be beaten. So the law court told her she could be free of the ownership contract and she could be all by herself. She still looked into the magic mirror, and with great sadness realized no nice men would want what she saw in the mirror; so she would be satisfied to be alone.

One day, she began feeling sorry for not wanting to serve the Great Emperor, but in despair thought she could never go back, because she did not understand that story clearly. But she dug out her book (she never got rid of it) and began again to read the stories of the Great Emperor once again.

As she read, she began to almost hear a voice calling her. She turned more and more pages until she noticed a story that sounded a lot like her. Another slave, one too disobedient and dirty to see the Son of the Great Emperor, but yet this slave struggled through a dinner party with out an invitation in order to try to beg the Great Emperor’s Son for forgiveness and freedom. She brought an expensive gift of perfumed oil, pored it on his feet, while crying and wiping the Son’s feet with her hair the Son forgave her and set her free.

Free? The Great Emperor’s Son set her free? She never thought she could be free, and not a slave. This was new. But how could she get the Son’s attention? She had no more tears to shed, was too tired from her empty life, and didn’t know what to do. So sitting on her sofa, she closed her eyes and quietly spoke these words, “Oh Great Emperor, I’m so sorry, will you forgive me and set me free like the other slave in the book? I believe in your Son, and your story. Please help me.” All was quiet around her; she did not feel any different. So she went to bed, exhausted.

The next day at work, she found herself humming a little and she felt a bit more energy. A co-worker stopped her and asked “You look different today, better…what has changed?” And to her own surprise stated “Well, I decided to serve the Great Emperor again.” The co-worker grabbed her in a bear hug and said, “I have been praying for you to come back to the Great Emperor for a long time, I’m glad you came back!”

That evening the woman was curious if she looked different, so she went to the magic mirror and strangely there was a crack in it. But to her own eyes, she still appeared as a twisted, ugly slave…yet not as clear as before; her image was blurred. As this mirror was a family heirloom, she figured she would have to keep it, crack and all. So the woman put the cracked mirror in the corner of her room, and ignored it.

But one day while reading the stories of the Great Emperor, she could hear a voice calling her! The voice said “Child, do you trust me?” She answered “Yes, I think so.” Then the voice said, “Will you break the mirror?” “Oh,” she said, “I cannot do that, my family will be angry with me.” The voice again said “Child, do you trust me?” “I’m trying to,” she cried, “but I need help!” “Will you do what I ask?” the voice said. “Yes, if you take my hand, I’m afraid,” she moaned. “Here child; here is my hand.” And then suddenly, the Son of the Great Emperor was standing in front of her. Startled, she began to draw back, afraid; but looking into his eyes, she could see love, and hope, and kindness; all those things she had always wanted. And with determination, she reached out and put her hand in his. With that, there was the sound of an explosion and shattering glass; she reflexively closed her eyes, and clung to the Son’s hand. Then, with her eyes tightly shut, she felt a sensation as if cool water was being pored over her head…a refreshing, clean feeling. She felt different, new and light. With a new strength, she opened her eyes to see the Son smiling at her. “Child,” he said, “I am giving you a new job, I am giving you the task of taking my story to the other slaves of the Dark Enemy, so they can be set free.” “But sir,” She said, “I am so bent and ugly, no-one will listen to me; they won’t believe me.” Then the Son said “Child, you have been trapped in a lie your whole life, and I have destroyed the Enemy’s magic mirror, the spell is broken forever.”

Turning to the table where her book of the story of the Great Emperor, he smoothly opened it to the middle of the book. Suddenly the book had an opening that the Son reached his hand into, and as he pulled out his hand, out came an elaborately framed gold mirror. Holding the mirror, he said, “Child, this is the Mirror of Truth, it only shows how things and people really are; I want you to look at what I see, and what you truly look like.” Curiously, she looked at the image in the mirror. Her eyes flew open wide, startled; for what she saw was glowing, beautiful woman. Her hair was clean and bouncy, her eyes bright, her mouth curved in a delighted smile; all in all, she looked like a sweet and kind, loving person anyone would enjoy befriending. “Oh my!” she said, “Surely that is not me?” “Yes, child,” the Son said, “This is what you look like in truth.” He continued “This is how you look after the spell is broken; all will see you as I planned for you before you were captured by the spell of the Enemy.”

“Oh Sir, I must go back to my family and tell them the good news!” she exclaimed. The Son of the Emperor looked sadly at her and said “Child, this will hurt, but you only can tell them of the hope of my freedom, and then you must leave them all and never go back.” “But why?” she said, “let me try to help them, please?” The Son of the Great Emperor quietly explained, “Child, you want to do this, and I will give you the words, but they are blinded, and only will want to enslave you again, they will not be happy to see you.” “But Sir, can’t you help them like you helped me?” she sobbed. “I want them to be happy and free with me, to rejoice in true freedom, that you gave me; please Sir, please help them hear me.” She fell to her knees, and begged, “Oh, let me try, Sir, I don’t want to go through the rest of my life with no family; I don’t want to be alone!” She was weeping, head down, tears falling in her lap.

The Son of the Great Emperor knelt down in front of her and tenderly cradled her chin in his hands and lifted up her face for her to look into her eyes. “Child, all you can do is speak to them the words I give you to tell them, then you will have to leave and follow me.” As he gently wiped the tears from her face he finished speaking, “I promise you this, I will always be with you, watching over you, you will never be alone. In the days ahead, if you trust me, I will give you a new family, filled with my love and hope, who will care for you if you let them.” “One day,” he continued, “the words you speak to your family may take root and grow, but that is not for you to know; I need you to trust me, and follow me to help those who want the help now.” He stood up and held out his hand to her, she placed her hand in his and he lifted her to her feet.

"Futility or Hope?" The Groaning of Creation.

2011-05-25T10:49:00.000-06:00

I was chatting with a friend on the phone, discussing Romans…specifically Romans chapter 8; so my next words were, “Hold it, let’s see what Jimmy Dunn has to say.” So I looked up the passage in question from his “World Biblical Commentary” on Romans on my bookshelf (which, by-the-way I highly recommend!) Any way, I read the passage, and it of course raised more discussion…but we had to end the conversation.

Off the phone, I continued reading the section I had just started and came upon this quote I’d like to share.

This is what Dr. James D.G. Dunn has to say on Romans 8:20 by way of Ecclesiastes, and as most of his writing, is revelatory. He writes of the out-of-sortness of the created order [cf. Romans 8:17-30]:

By “futility” Paul probably has in mind the same sense of futility of life which found expression in Jewish thought most clearly in Ecclesiastes—that weariness and despair of spirit which cannot see beyond the stultifying repetitiveness of life, the endless cycle of decay and corruption, the worthlessness of a lifelong effort which may be swept away overnight by a storm or be parched to nothingness in a drought, the complete insignificance of the individual in the tides of time and the currents of human affairs—all indeed that, had man but realized it, was going to make it impossible for him to be “as god,” made it inevitable that he would become subservient to useless idols and mere things. Yet for Paul, of course, that is not, could not be the last word. The same character of creation-bound existence which causes some to despair, seen from another angel becomes a ground for hope. Looked at in terms of man’s vaunted independence from God the future for the world is bleak. But seen in terms of the creator’s purpose, the present state of affairs is not all there is to look forward to; the goal of the created order will be determined by God, not by the puny mind of man. As the suffering of believers becomes a ground of hope because it is experienced as the formation of character and renewal of the inner man…so the out-of-jointness for creation itself is testimony that is was not always intended to be thus. From the beginning the primal-time subjection to futility had the final-time fulfillment of God’s original purpose for man and his habitation in view. Even in its futility creation is still God’s.[into the explanation of v 21] The end God has in view for his creation is eschatological liberation, liberation for the slavery of corruption. (p.488)

James D.G. Dunn (1988) Word Biblical Commentary Volume 38a: Romans 1-8. Dallas, TX: Word Books, Publisher.

"The Heresy of Orthodoxy"

2011-05-13T15:02:00.000-06:00

The Heresy of Orthodoxy: How Contemporary Culture’s Fascination with Diversity has Reshaped Our Understanding of Early Christianity. Andreas J Kostenberger and Michael J. Kruger (2010) Wheaton, IL: Crossway

The desire for diversity is taking on new meaning throughout Christianity; and trying to unearth what the early churches really believed takes top billing. With new books published on the popular level by Bart Ehrman again telling an avid readership that the Bible is full of errors, and cannot be trusted, and we only have an “orthodox” Christian church because of a ruling Roman church redacting what we read…( I meant to do that!)

As Bible believing Christians, are we again to be left stuttering without answers? Do we have to concede to consumerism, to be driven in our beliefs by majority vote? Kostenberger and Kruger write:

“…Like in the days of the judges, everyone does what is right in his or her own eyes, but unlike in the days of the judges, this is not meant as an indictment but celebrated as the ultimate expression of truly enlightened humanity. All is fluid, doctrine is dead, and diversity reigns. Not only in restaurants and shopping malls, but even in churches and houses of worship, what people are looking for is a variety of options, and if they don’t like what they see, they take their business—or worship—elsewhere. Consumers control which products are made, children are catered to by parents, students determine what is taught in our schools and universities, and no one should tell anyone else what to do—or at least not acknowledge that they do. We live in an age that prides itself on its independence, rejection of authority, and embrace of pluralism. Truth is dead, long live diversity! (p 15-16)

And with that start, Andreas Kostenberger and Michael Kruger proceed to refute the skeptical stance first put forward by Walter Bauer and rehashed by Bart Ehrman of this idea of diversity in believes within the early “churches” of fledgling Christianity. This idea that 1. first were the heretical-diverse beliefs and 2. later the orthodoxy was imposed on all believers.

This intense read covers all the bases, from when the early heresies got their start, what the meaning of cannon is, copies and circulation of scrolls and codices, and tampering…all covered in a great scholarly book…and this is a must-read for apologists/evangelists, pastors and teachers, to be able to answer the questions that inevitably will come up with “young” Christians who read Ehrman first…not to mention the host of ‘new Atheists’ who enjoy Christian “bashing.”

At only 235 pages, you can read this one in one sitting, and for those of us who write a lot of paper, this is a huge resource to keep on your book shelf.

OK, now that you are done reading this…order your own copy…right now!

"The Quiet Hero"

2011-05-06T21:35:00.000-06:00

In this secular age, the emphasis today within the body of Christ is to teach Christian Apologetics. With young men and women attending secular colleges, those from Christian backgrounds may be heading to colleges were they will face many challenges to their faith; and in some cases their belief is not up to the task. There is a scramble to reach these young adults and equip them to face these secular attacks against the truth claims of Christianity. This is a worthy cause, and one I am personally involved in.

But I would like to feature a story of the “other” young adults who come from secular families, become Christians and stay strong in their faith. The young men and women who defy their families wish for them to attend secular, popular colleges, and instead attend Christian colleges.

Who supports them?

There is a young woman I recently met, who shared a part of her story to me…and I would like to write a small part of it here.

This student transferred from a secular college to attend a Christian college. During her studies there, she was a member of the woman’s basket ball team…where she and I compaired stories on what you can learn about leaning into God’s strength when working (in my case) and playing (in her case) “injured”…where your strength ends and God’s begins…a lesson many other Christians could learn from.

She told me of working to pay for college herself...her classes completely paid for…on her own.

She is graduating tomorrow…a day that all college students look forward to; to see the pride in their families faces...that their families would be in the audience to cheer as their graduating son or daughter's name is called and they take that walk across the stage to accept their diploma…except for this young woman.

Her parent will not attend. They claim she is in a “cult”…a religious “nut.” She is an out-cast in her family.

Who will cheer for her?

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you may not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:1-3

Do not lose heart.

Business Owner: An "Excelent" Example

2011-04-28T16:43:00.000-06:00

I wanted to share a part of my biblical concepts assignment this week. As a part of most of my classes, there are assignment like this to connect the biblical teaching in what ever area we are studying. So in my class “Business Law” this week example verses were given to connect with various business titles. Examples from scripture of managers, agents, entrepreneurs…you get the idea.

But for “Owner” the scriptural verse given was Colossians 4:1 “Masters, grant to your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven.”

Well, I baulked at that, and for a very good reason. We no longer have slavery in the Western world, and whether you are a business owner, manager, agent ( Christian or not), to even think of equating your employees as “slaves” is wrong. That is occasional writings by the Apostle Paul and really, for examples, we can do SO much better.

So I offered this excellent example.

How about this: for a business owner use Proverbs 31:10-31 as the example.

This person who is described as a woman of strength (khayil = strength is the best fit) makes such a successful business all her employees are well fed (v.14) takes owner business capital to expand (v.16) profits are such that the company excels in charitable giving (v.20) and all the employees are paid well enough to have a comfortable life style (v.21) and her company is well diversified (v.24) and has great future goals (v. 25) And finally she is looked to for her wise advice in the business world (not to mention a great husband)…How’s that for a godly business owner!

Why look at scripture the same old way?

"He Has Risen"

2011-04-23T20:03:00.001-06:00

And the angel answered and said to the women, "Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just as he said..." Matthew 28:5-6

Photo: St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Atlanta GA..by the author.

J.P. Moreland Quote

2011-04-17T12:11:00.000-06:00

An extended quote from J.P. Moreland’s book Love Your God With All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul. (1997) Colorado Springs, Navpress. p 56-57

3. Scripture show the value of being qualified to minister from a position of influence…. Scripture shows people qualified to minister in God’s name in situations that required them to have intellectual skills in extrabiblical knowledge. In Daniel 1:3-4, 2:12-13, 5:7, we see Daniel and his friends in a position to influence Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, only because they showed “intelligence in every branch of wisdom.” These men had studied and learned Babylonian science, geometry, and literature. And because of this, they were prepared to serve when the occasion presented itself.

I remember being in a meeting with Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, shortly after Ronald Reagan had been elected president. Dr. Bright came into the meeting late because Reagan had called to ask him to confer with other evangelical leaders in order to suggest a list of qualified evangelicals to serve in his presidential cabinet. With sadness in his heart, Dr. Bright said that after numerous phone conversations with other evangelical leaders, they had concluded that there simply were not many evangelicals with the intellectual and professional excellence for such a high post. C. Everett Koop was all they could think of and, as we now know, Koop got the position of surgeon general. Had evangelicals valued the study of extrabiblical knowledge the way Daniel and his friends did, things may have turned out quite differently.

How, then, should this attitude toward extrabiblical intellectual training inform parents and youth groups when they prepare Christian teenagers to go to college and tell teens why college is important? According to various studies, increasing numbers of college freshmen, on the advice of parents, say their primary goal in going to college is to get a good job and ensure a secure financial future for themselves. This parallels a trend in the same students toward valuing a good job more than developing a meaningful philosophy of life. Given this view of a college education, it is clear why the level of our public discourse on topics central to the culture wars is so shallow, since it is precisely the humanities that train people to think carefully about these topics.

What is not so clear is why Christians, with a confidence in the providential care and provision of God, would follow the secular culture in adopting this approach to college. (p 56-57)

Why indeed?

Do not be anxious then, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or “With what shall we clothe ourselves?’ For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Matthew 6:31-33

The Samaritan Woman

2011-04-09T16:39:00.000-06:00

I’d like to point out a few things casual readers of scripture may miss when one reads through the passages in John chapter 4 and Jesus’ encounter with the “woman at the well.” Many lessons like to point out Jesus' teaching about the water of life, the “living water” or sermons that point out the fallenness of the woman and Jesus’ telling her the fact she had no husband…or that we need to worship God in Spirit and truth...you know, the assorted sermon illustrations all of which are good to remember as we meditate on scripture.

But now a question. Do we in our day and age get the point the Apostle John was making when writing this example of Jesus’ ministry? Do we in the 20th century understand the cultural significance of our Lord (as a Jewish man) sitting and speaking with a Samaritan woman in 1st century Palestine?

Let me help here.

First, most of us think we understand the “dislike” of the Samaritans by the Jews in the Roman territory of Palestine…but you need to understand that it was out-right hatred! The Rabbis of the time taught that it was ok to kill a Samaritan because you were killing a “heretic.” That about a hundred (or so) years prior there had been a Jewish raid that destroyed the Samaritan temple, and in retribution the Samaritans smuggled human bones into the Jerusalem Temple to deliberately defile it!

Dislike is a bit of an understatement!

And what about Samaritan women?

Jewish Rabbis taught that Samaritan women were considered “menstrual” from the cradle…another-words, Samaritan women were always unclean, and un-touchable…and everything that they touched was also unclean.

Now, am I beginning to help in your understanding of this passage? Do you see what an amazing point that St. John was making in writing of this example of Jesus’ earthly ministry? Do you realize that Jesus identified himself as the Messiah for the first time in his earthly ministry to a Samaritan woman!!!

And that this un-clean, un-loved, cast-off woman went and preached the Messiah to her entire town!

Now, what’s your excuse for not spreading the Gospel?

Lamentations

2011-04-03T16:36:00.000-06:00

395 c.1862

There is a Languor of the Life
More imminent than Pain-
‘Tis pain’s successor – When the Soul
Has suffered all it can –

A Drowsiness – diffuses –
A dimness like a Fog
Envelopes Consciousness –
As Mists – obliterate a Crag.

The Surgeon – does not blanch – at pain –
His Habit – is severe –
But tell him that it ceased to feel –
The Creature lying there –

And he will tell you – skill is late –
A Mightier than He –
Has ministered before Him –
There’s no Vitality.
[p. 188]

The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson edt. by Thomas H. Johnson.

O Lord, the God of my salvation,
I have cried out by day and in the night before Thee.
Let my prayer come before Thee;
Incline Thine ear to my cry!
For my soul has had enough troubles,
And my life has drawn near to Sheol.
Psalm 88:1-3

How Atheists are Made...?

2011-03-27T08:18:00.000-06:00

We hear in new books promoting theories of how Atheists are made, ideas of how one’s good or bad family life may promote either a propensity for a just and moral life, with an assumption here that good Christian kids are raised from good Christian parents…or at least an up-right, strong father figure…because our foundational ideas of God are related to our fathers. But what does it say in the Word of God? What do some examples from the Bible say…what analogies are used to teach us to follow the Lord?

2 Chronicles 30:7 says “And do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were unfaithful to the LORD God of their fathers, so that He made them a horror, as you see.”

Cries from Psalm of being forsaken by ones parents… “For my father and my mother have forsaken me…” (Psalm 27:10) and reminders to remember God and his works “and not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not prepare its heart, and whose spirit was not faithful to God.” (Psalm 78:8)And what did Jesus say? “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it.” (Matthew 10:37-39)

So I believe the point I am trying to biblically illustrate here is the danger of absolutizing anything. Our heavenly father is NOT like our earthly father. He does not tell lies, cheat, and above all is not a sinful fallen human being in desperate need of redemption. And that goes for mothers also.

We are transients in a fallen, and fractured world. We walk along the road God places us on only by His grace, mercy and love. All of us suffer disappointments, damage, pain, and loss…until we realize that God is not like our existent (or non-existent) earthly fathers ( or mothers for that matter) and seek the transcendent, yet immanent Creator…who knows us and yet still loves us and is the only one to mend, heal, restore and finally give us the life meant to share with others…only then with God as our true guide and focus will we understand how our lives were meant to be lived.

When any human being falls under the glamour of lusting after immorality (of any sort…money, power, sex, fame) that is a clear sign where that person’s heart is. So in the end, we cannot reduce everything to simplistic equation or rationalization (it is the fault of * fill in the blank *)

Are we using horrible child hood experiences of some Atheists to give comfort to ourselves? Are some of us patting ourselves on the back that “thank God I’m not like that” or beating our breasts with sorrow thinking to ourselves, “I guess I wasn’t a good father/mother, because my son/daughter won’t go to church.”

We know there are some universalities: All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. Everyone is in need of Salvation. And God so loved the world that he sent His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but receive eternal life.

You can blame your father or mother, sister or brother, the church or even God for your pain and unbelief…but in the end you, as a unique, special, precious human being; will have to stand before the Only Just Judge who will ask you to give an account for your life…and He will not listen to any excuse.

So my question today is…Are you looking for excuses or are you ready to take up your own personal cross and follow Jesus?

A Bit of Pascal

2011-03-20T19:17:00.000-06:00

As I am speaking on one angle of Blaise Pascal’s Wager argument the end of this week, let me share a quote from the Pensees…some may be familiar with a bit of this “thoughts,” so here is a larger quote from Honor Levi's translation; Pensees #164:

Those who think they can remain neutral are Pyrrhonists [skeptics] par excellence. This neutrality is the essence of their conspiracy. Anyone who is not against them must be in the highest degree on their side. They are not even supporters, they are neutral, indifferent, totally detached from everything, including themselves.

What will we do in this state of mind? Shall we cast doubt on everything? Shall we doubt if we are awake, if we are pinched, if we are burnt? Will we doubt whether we doubt? Will we doubt that we exist at all? We cannot get to that state, and I am quite certain that no truly genuine Pyrrhonists has ever existed. Nature upholds powerlessness of reason and prevents it ever reaching that stage of lunacy.

So on the other hand will we say that we certainly know the truth when, given the slightest nudge, we cannot demonstrate the basis of this claim and we have to give way?

What a figment of the imagination human beings are! What a novelty, what monsters! Chaotic, contradictory, prodigious, judging everything, mindless worm of the earth, storehouse of truth, cesspool of uncertainty and error, glory and refuse of the universe.

Who will unravel this tangle?

It is certainly beyond dogmatism and Pyrrhonism and the whole of human philosophy.

Man is beyond man. Let us allow the Pyrrhonists what they have so often claimed, that truth is neither within our grasp nor is it our target. It does not reside on earth but belongs in heaven, in God’s bosom, and we can know it only as much as he is pleased to reveal. Let us then learn our true nature from the uncreated and incarnate truth...Be aware then, proud men, what a paradox you are to yourselves! humble yourself, powerless reason! Be silent, foolish nature! Learn that humanity infinitely transcends humanity and hear from your Master your true condition of which you are unaware.

Listen to God.

Blaise Pascal The Pensees and Other Writings: A New Translation by Honor Levi (1995) New York, Oxford University Press. P 41-42

Philosophy

2011-03-11T20:14:00.000-07:00

Philosophy

Just the sound of that word has always intrigued me.

Difficult, logical, lofty

Out of reach.

Yet, I am offered a teacher, a mentor, a guide…to help build a foundation,

Firmly admonishing, waving a finger at me,

“Read slowly and carefully,

Do not go on to the next paragraph without understanding the last…”

So I begin,

Walking up those steps,

To the doorway, cracked open—I see a bit of light and peak around the door;

The gentlemen in their robes turn to me with smiles,

And beckon me in to the light.

Reason, Heart, and Diminishing the Passions: Pascal and Indirectly Willing to Belief

2011-03-05T21:13:00.000-07:00

I will be presenting an undergraduate paper as a part of a student paper contest at the Midwest Region EPS meeting, March 25-26 in Cincinnati, OH.

So for those who follow this blog; I would appreciate your prayer support.

Here is my abstract:

Reason, Heart, and Diminishing the Passions; Pascal and Indirectly Willing to Belief. By Alice E. Guinther

This paper will explore the role of reason and our "heart" as viewed by Pascal, namely, that one could put oneself into a stance of being more receptive to the truth claims of Christianity by diminishing he "Passions" which Pascal held "...are your great stumbling blocks." According to Pascal, "That will make you believe quite naturally," Because evidently, one could then receive God's grace by recognizing the truth in one's heart. This paper will argue that the Pascalian wager construed in these terms will more likely find Christianity's claims to be reasonable and true. The problem I am addressing is this: Is Pascal's appeal to indirectly willing belief a valid one? Pascal encouraged, "Learn from those who have been bound like you, and now wager all they have."

Poem: The Pillar of the Cloud

2011-02-21T18:22:00.000-07:00

I recently received a little book of poems compiled by Dr. Regis Martin of the theology department of Franciscan University, Steubenville, OH. When I met his lovely wife, I was intrigued with her description of this book of Christian poetry. Having read through this small but precious book of meditative poems, I see this will be a small but loved gem in my collection of books.

This book is entitled Images of Grace 33 Christian Poems, and I would like to share one of the treasures I found in its pages.

By John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890)
The Pillar of the Cloud

Lead, kindly Light, through the encircling gloom;
Lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home;
Lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet: I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou
Should lead me on.
I loved to choose and see my path; but now
Lead Thou me on.
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will; remember not past years.

So long Thy power hath blessed me, sure it still
Will lead me on
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone,
And in the morn those angel faces smile
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

...changing the subject...

2011-02-19T20:19:00.001-07:00

I will see what new insights I can come up with this weekend...I am going to shelve the current topic for the foreseeable future. I just can't continue in a loving manner. Perhaps in the future God will allow me to continue.

But right now, I am incredibly busy with college papers,and finishing my paper for the Midwest region's ETS/EPS convention...and I am immersed with Pascal's wager and his philosophy of religion.

So I will move on to other topics. I might share some of my rough-draft of my Pascal paper...we'll see!

God Bless you all.

Lisa

Poem: "What is White?"

2011-01-10T10:43:00.000-07:00

I was recently re-united with a book from my youth, titled "Hailstones and Halibut Bones; Adventures in Color" by Mary O'Neill.

Here is the poem "What is White?"

What is White?

White is a dove
And lily of the valley
And a puddle of milk
Spilled in an alley---
A ship’s sail
A kite’s tail
a wedding veil
Hailstones and
Halibut bones
And some people’s
Telephones.
The hottest and most blinding light
Is white.
And breath is white
When you blow it out on a frosty night.
White is the shining absence of all color
Then absence is white
Out of touch
Out of sight.
White is marshmallow
And vanilla ice cream
And the part you can’t remember
In a dream.
White is the sound
Of a light foot walking
White is the beautiful
Broken lace
Of snowflakes falling
On your face.
You can smell white
In a country room
Toward the end of may
In the cherry bloom.

From: Hailstones and Halibut Bones (1961)Mary O’Neill
Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc.

Ethics and Emotions

2011-01-01T07:48:00.000-07:00

Here is an article on the real problems with a post-Christian society and the rules made by those who can weave the best emotional narrative.

In this article written by Wesley J. Smith, the point is made in law and ethics, when we are reduced to decision making by the tug on our heart strings rather than guiding principles; the best presentation and play on one's emotions wins.

For the first blog of the New Year, I am letting someone else's words be a guide.

The link is here.

My greatest wish and prayer for this year ahead is that we turn off the distractions and surrounding emotional frenzy, and spend time renewing our minds to the truth claims of Christianity. That we realize the importance of loving God with our minds...Christianity has the answers to this bleak and dark world. It is high time that we get up off our backsides and tell the world again!

God, help your body to out-think the world for your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Amen.

That's Christmas

2010-12-24T15:53:00.000-07:00

Here is a great short film that clearly defines the holiday we call Christmas.

To all readers of my blog, may God bless you and your family this year. Seek first the kingdom of God, and remember always...

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your path straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6

Alice E. (Lisa)Guinther
Boulder, CO

"I Forgive..."

2010-12-22T04:56:00.000-07:00

I forgive you,

But my spirit is crushed.

I forgive you,

But my soul is scared.

I forgive you,

But I hardly can trust.

I forgive you,

But the pain never stops.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life—

Really?

Job set his daughters free,

Why am I still in chains?

"I Wonder as I Wander"

2010-12-20T16:03:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share this with you all...a traditonal American carol, sung here by the Cambridge Singers.

The lyrics are as follows:

I wonder as I wander out under the sky,
How Jesus the Saviour did come for to die,
For poor on'ry people like you and like I;

I wonder as I wander, out under the sky.

When Mary birthed Jesus 'twas in a cow's stall,
With wise men and farmers and shepherds and all.

But high from God's heaven a star's light did fall
And the promise of ages it then did recall.

If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing,
A star in the sky or a bird on the wing,
Or all of God's angels in heav'n for to sing,

He surely could have it, 'cause he was the King.

Neighbors

2010-12-17T18:27:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about how in our Christian walk we try hard to be a good neighbor.

My neighbors are Mexican…they are a wonderful family with many relatives that come to visit them and share celebrations for birthdays and holidays…or just to have an impromptu meal. So at times there is a real fiesta right next door.

Now my Spanish language skills are basic, I do understand more than I can speak. But that is about it.

I have had the chance to help the little daughter get ready for kindergarten for she spoke almost no English, and interact with the nephews and nieces and various cousins and entertain them with dramatic readings of “If I ran the Zoo” to an appreciative audience.

But for birthdays and holidays I have learned to expect the knock on the door inviting me to come over for some food…and not much conversation.

Or there will be a knock on the door with the offer of a plate of wonderful homemade taquitos or carne-assada and a dish of red rice…and not too spicy either.

But this time, I was just wondering what to make for dinner, and I hear the timid knock on the door…and here is a young cousin with a foil rapped package of tamales…fresh and still hot! “My mother just made these” he said.

You know, I’m the neighbor that they share God’s love with.

And I am blessed.

Avery Dulles from "The Gospels as Confessional Documents"

2010-12-12T19:11:00.000-07:00

Jesus Himself, as He lives in the pages of the New Testament, addresses Himself to men. As I read of Him conversing with Peter or Pilate, Mary or John, I become conscious that He is also speaking to me, demanding from me the unqualified surrender of faith. This is not a mere piece of dramatic artifice, but a dreadfully serious challenge. The Evangelists themselves, and the Church through them, solemnly guarantee the reality of Christ’s call. The Gospels, therefore, confront the reader with an existential choice. Either I must accept Jesus, with His sovereign demands upon me, or I must refuse what He asks. To look upon Him with mere interest, to remain deliberately uncommitted, is in effect to reject Him. “He who does not believe shall be condemned” (Mark 16:16) p.34

From: Apologetics and the Biblical Christ. Avery Dulles (1971) Paramus, NJ: Newman Press.

Book Review: "Is God A Moral Monster?"

2010-12-04T14:47:00.000-07:00

Well, I may be starting a trend...another book review.

This time a new book by Paul Copan entitled; Is God a Moral Monster? Making Sense of The Old Testament God(2011) Baker Books, Grand Rapids, MI.

This is an enlightening read, and is true of all Paul’s books, well crafted and researched.

What he has done with this book is to take his studies and research in biblical studies, philosophy of religion, Christian apologetics and compile it in a logical fashion to answer the critics of Christianity. Paul puts to rest the public perception that there is a difference between the “God of the Old Testament” and Jesus’ words of love in the New Testament, “…all men will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35); the seeming contradictions between the Old Testament and New that continue to plague Christianity today.

Chapter by chapter Paul addresses all the common fallacious understandings of the “New Atheists” that should have been shot down by most Christians a long time ago. Sad to say, most of these misunderstandings have been absorbed by atheists like Christopher Hitchens directly from sloppy teaching coming out of the church.

With outstanding apologetical verve, the chapters authoritatively address each of the common misunderstandings of the Old Testament…things like the “binding of Isaac”, to a more studied theological understanding of the “Kosher” food laws, to treatment of women and slaves, and finally a thorough, and to my mind, definitive look at the “massacre of the Canaanites”.

With sources like Richard Hess, Daniel Block and Mary Douglas to draw from, Paul has put to rest many of the errors of interpretation of the Old Testament still passed along today. All in all, this is a great book to strengthen any apologetics library and I recommend it for use in church classes and as supplemental textbook reading for understanding of the Old Testament.

So, you all need to order a copy! It should be avalible in stores soon, or order from Amazon, or direct from Baker Books.

Sustain Me: A prayer

2010-11-19T15:01:00.001-07:00

Lord, sustain me this day:

Not with frantic pace
or frenetic activity from which I believe I accomplish much.

But with your quiet strength,
steady pace,
calm assurance,

that you are with me.

That you guide my steps,

that you hold my hand,

and quietly whisper to me

that it is you who accomplish

Your will
in me
as i rest in You.

Friendship

2010-11-15T19:39:00.000-07:00

~ A friend is one who needs us and one whom we need. Around us may be many whose companionships we enjoy but were they suddenly to drop out of their places there would be no soreness, no sense of deprivation, no lack of comfort. We do not need them, neither do they need us. A friend is one to whom we cling, though many leagues of space separates us. Though days pass with no sight of his face or word from his pen, we know our friend loves us and that when we meet again we will be on the same old terms. We shall begin where we left off. A friend is one in whom we can confide. The secret chambers of our soul open to his touch on the latch. Thousands imagine their friendships are numbered by scores, but if subjected to these tests every one of them would fall into the great sea of common humanity. ~ J.E. Dinger (p. 80)

Leaves of Gold, 1956

I may have many aquaintances, but few friends. Serving God is the toughest, greatest, hardest, most glorious thing I have ever decided to do. The friends that he has blessed me with are beyond anything I could have possibly imagined.

This is to my friends who cry with me, laugh with me, and pray for me; who I also pray for every day!

For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length an height an depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpassed knowledge that you may be filled up to all th fulness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 3:14-21

But What About Our Minds?

2010-11-07T07:11:00.000-07:00

It seems that in the Evangelical world today is a tendency towards the “experience”. That is what congregation has the most emotional service, to give the seeker the best in what they are looking for. I have observed that at what is commonly termed “mega-churches” wonderfully choreographed, well practiced worship teams; lights, great equipment, a full-on experience similar to a high-price rock concert.

Books that tout the emotional side of our Christian walk have been pushed on me, when I have denied having read them yet…a shocked “Oh Lisa, you simply must read this, it is life changing!”

And even to the point where I was chastised for spending too much time studying with the comment “…Lisa, you spend too much time in the books”; these words from two different pastors.

But what does the Bible say?

Matthew 22:37 “…You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

Romans 12:2 “And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good an acceptable and perfect."

How about the Old Testament:

Daniel 1:17 “And as for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom…” and verse 20 “And as for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm.”

So much seems to be written in the Bible about how God gives priority to the mind…the intellect, how we think; then how can we as Christians believe that faith is some blind “leap”? J.P. Moreland writes this;

“…Faith is now understood as a blind act of will, a decision to believe something that is that is either independent of reason or that is a simple choice to believe while ignoring the paltry lack of evidence for what is believed.”(p. 25)
If we as Christians are told (ordered?)that we should always be “…ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you…” (1 Peter 3:15)

what then does blind “faith” have to do with that? Yes we are lead by the Spirit; but like a computer, “garbage in, garbage out”. We need to give the Holy Spirit something to work with!

As J.P. writes of the true biblical definition of faith is this “…Faith is a power or skill to act in accordance with the nature of the kingdom of God, a trust in what we have reason to believe is true.” (p. 25) Faith and reason go hand in hand.

But don’t take my word for it, read the Bible…

You can listen to a lecture by J.P. Moreland on this subject here… and click on the lecture "Apologetics Seminar (intro by Ronald Larson)or read his book “Love Your God With All Your Mind” (1997) Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.

A Prayer

2010-10-30T17:34:00.000-06:00

This prayer was sent to me by my friend Dorle.

May the Father of Life pour out His grace on you;
May you feel His hand in everything you do,
And be strengthened by the things He brings you through;
This is my prayer for you.

May the Son of God be Lord in all your ways;
May He shepherd you the length of all you days,
And in your heart may He receive the praise;
This is my prayer for you.

And despite how simple it may sound,
I pray that His grace will abound,
And motivate everything you do;
And may the fullness of His love be shared through you.

May His Spirit comfort you, and make you strong,
May He discipline you gently when you’re wrong,
And in your heart may He give you a song:
This is my prayer for you.

May Jesus be Lord in all your ways,
May He shepherd you the length of all your days,
And in your heart my He receive the praise:

This is my prayer for you, my prayer for you.

Dorle, Happy Birthday and may God richly bless your special day...have fun singing in the choir!

"Ich danke dir dafür, daß ich wunderbar gemacht bin; wunderbar sind deine Werke, und das erkennt meine Seele wohl."

What Did Jeremiah Recall?

2010-10-23T09:57:00.000-06:00

If you are a student of your Bible and have read it cover to cover, you know from the history of Israel, the time of Jeremiah the prophet and his cry against Judah warning of the judgment of God against them for their apostasy. Along with Isaiah and the other prophets, he warned of the calamities coming.

Then in Jeremiah’s writings we have The Lamentations of Jeremiah where his woe pours out over the condition of Jerusalem and how the whole of the nation is now crushed. He also laments over his own personal suffering as a servant of God.

Jeremiah writes this:

I have become a laughingstock to all my people, their mocking song all the day. He has filled me with bitterness, He has make me drunk with wormwood. And He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust. And my soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness. So I say, “My strength has perished, and so has my hope from the Lord.” Remembering my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. (Lamentations 3: 14-20)

Think just a moment of the horrendous trials faced by the prophet in trying to be obedient to God…slapped, beaten, put in stocks, thrown in jail, and left to die in a cistern, and finally dragged against his will to Egypt; the very place God told his people not to go…So Jeremiah and the people of God are suffering together.

But read the next verses:

This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope, the lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail, they are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I have hope in Him. (vv 21-24)

What was he recalling to his mind?

Was he recalling the writings of Moses and the Exodus of God delivering the Children of Israel from over 400 years of slavery?

Was he recalling the wanderings in the wilderness? How God cared for those people, taught them, and led them into the Promised Land?

Or did he recall prophesy given to him by God showing him the future and the “New Covenant” where God would finally put his laws within his chosen people. (Jeremiah 31:33-34) Did he know and understand the writings of Isaiah and his prophesy regarding God’s “suffering servant” taking the iniquity of the people on Himself?(Isaiah 53) The true deliverance of God’s people by the shed blood of the Lamb slain since the foundation of the world; God’s own Son to take away the sin of the world.

As my own world seems to be turning to ashes around me, can I look to the fulfilled prophesy in the Bible; seen by Jeremiah, Isaiah, and all the other saints of old who saw the coming Messiah; our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…and in the midst of all the chaos…Rejoice.

When my heart was embittered, and I was pierced within, then I was senseless and ignorant; I was like a beast before Thee. Nevertheless I am continually with Thee; Thou hast taken hold of my right hand. With thy counsel Thou wilt guide me, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And besides Thee, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For, behold, those who are far from Thee will perish; Thou hast destroyed all those who are unfaithful to Thee. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all Thy works. Psalm 73: 21-28

Ahh..."To be or not to be"...must be Maya

2010-10-16T12:05:00.000-06:00

While traveling around town, I have noticed the interesting influence of “Eastern” philosophy in the reactions of people around me. With the school of thought that embraces the experiential and rejects rational thinking; that we should strive for unity with the Universe or the universal One-ness.

We rational Westerners need to let go; you know give up on the logical and rational and realize that all that is around us is merely ‘Maya’…Illusion and transitory. All should embrace non-logical forms of thinking (or non-thinking) and allow the “self” to merge with the un-differentiated ONE.

So it does not surprise me when driving down the road I see the SUV at the stop sign; the driver looks my way, then blissfully pulls out and crosses the road in front of me. So this must be an acknowledgement of embracing the contradiction...I am both there and not there.

Maybe next time I will try the same experiment and not use my brakes!

Book review: "Sex, Lies, and the Truth"

2010-10-07T19:31:00.000-06:00

Here's a first for me, I am posing a book review of the new book by an acquaintance of mine; Linda Belleville.

Although she and I have not yet met, we have over the last couple of years exchanged emails, and she is responsible for directing me to study at Colorado Christian University...where I am now officially a Junior. (Thanks Linda!)

I want to recommend her new book "Sex, Lies, and the Truth: Developing a Christian Ethic in a Post Christian Society" (2010) Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock.

This is a short, concise book that addresses all the common fallacies of the 21st century “Postmodern” world and the sexual excesses overlooked and accepted in daily live that are in conflict with biblical Christianity.

So many times in this society we tend to divorce ourselves from the commonalities between the “ancient” world and the modern world. Truth be told; there is ‘nothing new under the sun” and Linda makes this abundantly clear. There is no way to water it down…the same sins that faced the Old Testament, late Roman Empire, and today’s “Postmodern” world are common to us as they were in the days of Moses. The teachings of the Apostle Paul are as relevant to the church at Corinth as our own church down the block. Sexual immorality is as destructive today as then.

We as Christians have to draw the line “in the sand” and maintain the prepositional truths of the Bible. Catchy phrases as “relevance” or “relational” are no excuse for accepting the “majority rule.” The loss of biblical mandates of celibacy before marriage, and allowing for same sex marriage as well as male/female hierarchical dominance leads to unhealthy/ unbiblical relationships…all detrimental to the health of the “Body of Christ.” To allow or turn a blind eye to immorality is to “proof text” or twist the truth of God word to suit our own personal agendas.

Linda Belleville has done an excellent job of condensing many years of hard work into a concise book that hits home. This is a book I would highly recommend to add to your collection; and to pass on to friends with questions about sexuality in today’s over-stimulated world.

The Wipf & Stock link is here

The link on Amazon is here

I also posted this review on Amazon.

"...You, Too, Caesar.

2010-10-01T17:21:00.000-06:00

Well, I am starting to feel much better...many thanks to all who prayed.

Today while I was reading my inbox, I received this dynamite blog post from American Vision. The breakdown of this exchange of Jesus with the Pharisee's is well known; but the presentation of the historical context is first rate! I am sharing the post by Joel McDurmon. You can read the original post here.

RENDER UNTO GOD WHAT IS GOD’S. YOU, TOO, CAESAR.

Written by Joel McDurmon on Oct 01, 2010 06:00 am

Most people who refer use the phrase “render unto Caesar” don’t consider the biblical account in its context—either its biblical context, or historical context. This causes considerable misunderstanding and confusion about the issue of legitimate Authority among Christians.

The Context

The confrontation (Matt. 22:15–22) takes place in the setting of a larger narrative about Jesus’ triumphal ascent to Jerusalem (Matt 21:1–23:39). As soon as he gets there he enters the temple “and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer,” but you make it a den of robbers’” (Matt. 21:12–13). And the very next interaction he has in each of the synoptic Gospels is that the Chief Priests and the elders (most likely Pharisees) meet him walking in the temple and demand to see His badge: “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” He confounds them with His own question and gets out of the situation.
So here’s Guy who allows Himself to be worshipped as He enters Jerusalem, He enters riding on a donkey indicating the fulfillment of a messianic prophecy, receiving the appellative “Son of David,” by force driving out the moneychangers, et al, and healing people in the temple. The Jewish leaders had been watching Him and these things He did for some time—they had been sending out delegations to inquire about this fringe messianic activity as early as John the Baptist (John 1:19, 24)—so the priests and elders knew very well about Jesus and how powerful He was.
And yet, as the blindness of pride would have it, they stood before Him demanding He give an account of His authority to them.

Of course, this implies that they had the authority to demand that accounting. And there is some legitimacy to their demand, since they did hold the offices of the Priesthood and of Moses seat, which Jesus himself later recognizes right before he scolds their hypocrisy in Matthew 23. But they had not, could not, see that Jesus was the True High Priest and the True Shepherd of Israel. And thus, they stood at loggerheads (temporarily anyway) over the issues of Sovereignty and Authority.
The whole narrative in which this story sits deals with this theme of the greater authority of heaven versus earthly authority, and the inability of the Jews to tell the difference. This is the very issue Jesus uses to confound the temple leaders when they ask Him about His authority. But the issue is that heaven has authority which man does not; man’s authorization pales in comparison to God’s. The episode and some attendant parables stung these leaders, and they began to plot, particularly the Pharisees, on how they might “entangle him in his words.” (This concept and very word “entangle” or “snare” is used throughout Proverbs in relation to the words or lips or mouth of the wicked and the fool.)

The Tax Plot

It is with great irony that when they take their first shot—which is this question about Caesar’s tax—that they set up a dichotomy between heavenly authority and earthly authority. Where had they learned that tactic, I wonder? It’s as if they counseled together trying to find a way to trick and trap him intellectually, and finally decided, “Hey, let’s use the same trick against Him that He used against us.”
Their sole aim, however, was to discredit him. The Pharisees were a popular movement, by which I mean a movement aimed at the lay people. They were a combination religious and political movement among the people. When the people turned in masses to follow Jesus, and He then confounded the Pharisees, the Pharisees began to lose their audience. In fact, three times this larger narrative emphasizes the fact that they were jealous of Jesus’ popularity and yet could not answer Him or arrest Him because they feared the people. So they plotted, partly out of revenge because He has bested them once publically, but mainly because He had encroached on their turf—stealing their audience, their thunder—so they felt.
So they apply the trick: “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

Notice a few things here: First, they set up the question by characterizing Jesus as one faithful to God only, and who is not a respecter of persons. “Not swayed by appearances” in the KJV is, “regardest not the person of men”; the literal text is “you do not look into the face of men.” I believe this is a direct reference to Leviticus 19:15:

“Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect [receive, cp. Luke 20:20] the person [“face” in Hebrew and LXX] of the poor, nor honour the person [face] of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.”

Most of the commentators seem to think the leaders’ approach to Jesus is mere flattery, as if this country bumpkin from Galilee who receives praise from the people will fall prey to false praise. But this is not the case—He has already outwitted them once—He is no shallow praise-seeker, and they know this by now. They were not trying flatter Him; they were trying to trap Him with God’s Word, as if they said, “You truly serve God only and refuse to bow to any man. Therefore, is it right to give tribute to Caesar?” If the way of God says do not respect persons whether small or mighty, then is it right to pay respect in the form of giving or paying tax to mighty Caesar who is a man? This is the nature of the challenge.
Second, notice they asked a legal question, “Is it lawful….” The word itself leaves it unclear whether they meant Roman law or God’s law, but since it was already Roman law to pay the tax, the question certainly aimed at the law of “the way of God.” The question, again, and the Greek [exestin; cp. exousia, Matt. 21:23] makes it clear that the issue is one of fundamental authority. Does Caesar have legitimate authority to demand tribute? Do we have authority from God to pay to Caesar?
Thirdly, the reference is not to “taxes” in general as so many of the translations have it, but to a particular tax called the kānsos—a Greek version of a Latin word we translate as census. This had nothing to do with sales taxes, duties, commerce or business taxes, or travel tolls, etc. This particularly had to do with the “poll tax” or “head tax” which was based on a census of the people and had to be paid on all persons including women and slaves. And by law it had to be paid by means of Roman coinage.

The Message of the Coin

Jesus responded immediately by calling them hypocrites, obviously because they were hardly sincere in asking. Luke (20:23) refers to their panourgia, meaning something like willingness “to do anything.” The Herodians, especially, played the hypocrites, for they were of the party that supported one of the most ruthless tax collectors in Judean history, Herod. Herod the Great had so heavily taxed the Jewish people that Caesar himself demanded Herod lower taxes in the region. Herod refused, and so Caesar called for a census to be taken in the realm. It is this enrollment of the people, likely, that appears in the story of Jesus birth (Luke 2:1–7).

The trap of the question is well understood, I think: If Jesus said “No” He could be in trouble with the Roman authorities for encouraging tax evasion and treason against Caesar; if Jesus said “Yes” He would certainly lose the support of the people who saw Him as a Messiah against Roman occupation. Either way, the Pharisees and Herodians would win; so they asked; and the implication is “Speak into this microphone when you answer.” They wanted everyone to hear.

Since the census had to be paid by Roman coinage, Jesus asked to be shown that particular money—the “tribute money” or literally, “the money of the census.” And they brought Him such a Roman coin: a “denarius.”

“Whose likeness and inscription is this?”

They knew already they were in trouble. Jesus simply didn’t throw around the “image” or “likeness” casually. In fact, it only appears in all of the Gospels in their accounts of this story. Why so sparse? Because it is a technical term, a term that has a very specific place in the Jewish religion: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” (Ex. 20:4).

Jesus also specifically made them note the inscription on the coin. This was perhaps more damning the image. The denarius itself—most likely a coin from the current Emperor—carried not only his image but an inscription that read TIBERIUS CAESAR DIVI AGUSTI FILIUS AGUSTUS (“Tiberius Caesar August Son of the August God”), and the back side continued PONTIFEX MAXIMUS (“High Priest”). If this was not a graven image of a false god, nothing is. And Jesus made it a point to enter these facts into the record.

The Currency of Idolatry

Keep in mind, this confrontation begins all the way back in Matt. 21:23 and is taking place in the temple. There was a particular taboo about having the idols in the temple itself. Had not Israel been sent into exile for such infractions? Why did these holy men of Israel, Pharisees and Herodians, now have idols in the temple? Why were they so readily able to produce a denarius when Jesus asked? Hypocrites indeed!
This hit the Pharisees acutely in that they prided themselves in purity and separation from non-biblical practices. A real poke at their bid for popularity, that!—look everyone, the “Pure” “Holy” Pharisees are carrying false gods through their own Temple! By the way, did you say you wanted me to speak into the microphone?
Jesus could have had some real fun here at the expense particularly of the Sadducees (surely close by, as they feature in the next confrontation) who were the Chief Priests of the Temple, including the High Priest. What are you doing carrying a coin around the Temple which bears an inscription that calls Caesar the “High Priest”? You are supposed to be God’s High Priest! Since when did you abdicate your office for the pagan ruler?

And it was certainly not an isolated incident, all of the people carried Roman coinage every day. For example, the Temple itself had a yearly head tax that all Jews had to pay, and it was a half-shekel of silver. But they were forbidden to pay that tax with Roman coins. This is why there were moneychangers in the Temple to begin with. They had a virtual monopoly on special silver coins that were acceptable to pay the Temple tax; and as with any monopoly, you can understand how high the exchange was: these guys were extorting people for specialized coinage which they had to have. This is why Jesus called them robbers: they were literally extorting the people. As they were engaged in a forced exchange, they grew rich in terms of Roman coins.

You can imagine, then, that they had tables and bags filled with Roman denarii throughout the Temple courts. In fact, the moneychangers all wore one of these coins in their ear as a mark of their trade. [They have ears but can’t hear (because of their idols)!] You can image that passers-by and pilgrims to the Temple saw plenty of display of these images right there in the Temple itself. You can imagine, also, that as Jesus overturned the chairs and tables and poured out the money, that the streets rang with sound of silver pings and clangs as coins rolled down the stone pavements. [Some (Caesar’s) heads are gonna roll!]

The entire Jewish civilization had given in to the usage of idolatrous Roman coins. Roman currency was the basis of their commerce. They had thus, despite whatever idolatry they judged to be involved, accepted the social benefit of Caesar’s rule, and thus legitimized it.

Thus, the only answer Jesus’ opponents could give was “Caesar’s.” Not only did the bare facts of the coin itself require this answer, obviously, but it also related to the total dominance over political and economic life throughout the Jewish culture. The coining of money is a symbol of power. The acceptance of that money as common currency is submission on the part of the people to that power. (This does not address the issue of legal tender.)

“Is it lawful?” “Why are you asking? You already do it all day every day.”

Payback Time

But now that Jesus had them in the headlights, He fired the fatal shot: “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
Important here in Jesus’ answer is the verb: “render.” The opponents had worded the question wrongly: Is it lawful to “give” or to “pay”? The word is different. The Pharisees’ word is didomi “give”; Jesus says not “give” but apodidomi “give back” or “pay up.” It is a term used for paying what is due to someone, or what belongs to them to begin with. This was an acknowledgement of several things, all of which would have angered the Jews to have to admit: 1) Caesar owns the coin, it is His; 2) the usage of Caesar’s property to your own benefit implies your debt to him to the extent that you do; and 3) Caesar’s enforcement of the recalling of this money (the tax itself) meant that the Jewish people were not free as they pretended, but under foreign bondage still (a clear implication that God’s judgment was still upon them).
They profited by the means, so they had no right to refuse the tax on the means on economic grounds. They enjoyed the order of the Roman Empire, so they had no right to refuse on political grounds. They carried his money right into their own Temple despite the implications, so they had no right to refuse on theological grounds (at least not without repentance).[1] So the Pharisees stood before Jesus and before the crowds, themselves entangled by His words: “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s.”

The Greater Debt

But, also, render “to God the things that are God’s.”
What most commentators miss or ignore here is that Jesus implies a clear argument a fortiori from the lesser to the greater—if it is true for the lesser case of the man Caesar, how much more true is it for the Greater. If Caesar has authority to demand payment, how much more authority does God have? Instead of this, most commentators see something more of a dichotomy between the two instead of a hierarchy. The State has authority over here, and God has authority over there (your thoughts, emotions, and energies).

But this is not the point, for at least two very outstanding reasons: the image and the inscription. These are the two things to which Jesus called attention in regard to the coin. They are both overtly theological concepts.

We have already mentioned the idea of image in regard to the commandment against graven images. Why was this a commandment? Man is to make no graven image of any living thing, and certainly nothing to be used in reference to divinity. Why not? Because the creation of living things is the exclusive Province of God; and the placing His image is the exclusive Province of God. The man who creates images in this way is both demeaning God Himself through the inadequate representation, and himself attempting the play the part of God by being the Creator and the Image-giver.
In contrast, God is the one who places His image: He places it on man; or more properly, He creates man in His image and likeness. All men bear this image.

The same is true with God’s inscription. We bear His Word written on our hearts, though the fall had some consequence on that. Paul indicates this is true even of the natural man (Rom. 2:14–15). This was especially true of the Pharisees: they literally wore the word of God on their heads and the arms. This appears in Matt. 23:5, when Jesus criticizes them for making “broad their phylacteries.” A phylactery is a small box in which is kept small parchments of Scripture (Ex. 13:1–10; Deut. 6:4–9; 11:13–21). Some of the Jews took the command literally: “these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes…” (Deut. 6:6, 8). So they literally wore that section of Scripture in a small box on their forehead, between their eyes, and on their forearm like a wristwatch. The Pharisees went over the top in this regard, using larger boxes than everyone else to show how much more eager they were to recall God’s Word.

This was true yet even more relevant to the priests: the High Priest wore a golden plate on his hat that read HOLINESS TO THE LORD (Ex. 28:36). He as well literally bore the inscription of God as representative of the entire people of God.
So literally, outwardly, whose inscription was on these guys? I think the theological implications of both the image and the inscription would have been obvious to everyone listening. The impact of the lesson would have nearly made the Pharisees a laughingstock among the people. Yet it would have been a stark wake-up call to everyone listening.

Yes, the people had something of a legitimate debt to Caesar, but Jesus’ lesson was a far cry from saying that the authority of the State is separate or removed in some way from the authority of God, or that we must wait until the end of time until the State comes under God’s authority and judgment. The lesson here is much more challenging, much more comprehensive.

The lesson is, more fully, that all men bear God’s image and God’s inscription. We are all God’s coinage. We all belong wholly to God. All men must “render to God what is God’s.” All men. The Pharisees, Sadducees, the Herods, the masses, and even Caesar himself. Caesar has as much obligation to “render unto God”—bow and submit to God—as everyone else. He as has much obligation to love his neighbors and to obey God’s law as everyone else. He is not a god or a high priest, he is not the source of law and providence; he, like all men, is a man subject to God Almighty’s providence, and God’ Law, and God’s High Priest, Jesus Christ. He has as much obligation to obey; in fact, he has a greater obligation to obey because he represents multiple people in a public office.

Render unto God. All of Jesus listeners would not only have understood the concepts involved, they would have immediately understood the theological nature of the idea of rendering to God. It appeared throughout the psalms of the Jewish worship:
“My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay [render; same Greek word] my vows before them that fear him” (Ps. 22:25).

“Thy vows are upon me, O God: I will render praises unto thee” (Ps. 56:12).
“I will go into thy house with burnt offerings: I will pay [render] thee my vows” (Ps. 66:13 KJV).

“Vow, and pay [render] unto the LORD your God” (Ps. 76:11 KJV).

“I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people (Ps. 116:18).

It even appeared in the Levitical law: where the Levites were set apart for Temple service, they were presented before the High Priest and “offered” or “rendered” unto God as an offering (Lev. 8:13). Their whole persons were rendered unto God.

Authority, Loyalty, and Freedom

Man is free, because God made him that way. Man is not free to the extent that he does render all to God; and societies are in bondage to that same extent. Therefore, where human institutions infringe upon God’s law, you have a decision about loyalty to competing authorities. We must obey God and not men, even to death if necessary in necessary matters. Yet we can denounce and resist tyranny in other matters as an expression of our loyalty to God, and of the proper place of human governments.
It is not improper, therefore, for other men to call Caesar to be accountable before God. And, it should not be considered unlawful for other men to refuse either to use or to accept as payment any particular currency, no matter what human image or inscription is upon it. We must resist tyranny, though never through violent revolution, and there are many non-violent ways to do so.

By what Authority do you do these things? What believer in God ever truly has to question about Authority?

“The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it” (Ps. 24:1). God says, “[E]very beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird of the mountains, and everything that moves in the field is Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world is Mine, and all it contains” (Psa. 50:9–12).

Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, sure. But render unto God what is God’s.

Recommended sources:
R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007)
Leon Morris, The Gospel According to Luke: An Introduction and Commentary, The Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), 287–289.
Gary North, Priorities and Dominion: An Economic Commentary on Matthew (online edition).
Samuel Sandmel, Judaism and Christian Beginnings (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), 154–167.
Ethelbert Stauffer, Christ and the Caesars: Historical Sketches, trans. K. and R. Gregor Smith (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1955)
Endnotes:
1. See Stauffer, 130–131.

Time out

2010-09-27T16:19:00.000-06:00

I am going to take a break this week...I am un-well and need to rest.

I would appreciate your prayers.

Lisa

Deposed Royalty

2010-09-19T19:14:00.001-06:00

The sermon today highlighted the visit our pastor had in the country of Rwanda, and after hearing some of the stories of that country after the horrid genocide and some of the stories of the healing going on throughout that small country, I am revisiting this particular post from last year were I wrote on the dichotomy of humanity...the greatness and vileness as pointed out by Blase Pascal.

It is dangerous to explain too clearly to man how like he is to the animals without pointing out his greatness. It is also dangerous to make too much of his greatness without his vileness. It is still more dangerous to leave him in ignorance of both, but it is most valuable to represent both to him. Man must not be allowed to believe that he is equal either to animals or to angels, nor to be unaware of either, but he must know both. (Pensee’s 121/418)

There is an amazing greatness in humanity, yet there is also an utter depravity. We so clearly have the capacity for astounding creativity; in the arts—musical and visual; painting and sculpture; don’t forget the sciences—Physics and Biology, and of course Philosophy…all in all the level of our inventiveness is astounding.

Yet the study of history shows over the millennial the horrid level of depravity we have inflicted on our fellow man. The wars and slavery, subjugation and tyranny; the slaughter of innocents and genocide…horrid massacres of fellow human beings for no other reason that they did not fit the majority’s measure of worth.

Societies have created systems of worship based on gods that are merely mega-humanity in an effort to give the general populace something to hold to…but to no avail. Only a God that is above; infinite yet personal can be the source of absolutes mankind can seek for true salvation.

Frances Schaeffer writes of the strength of the Christian world view this way:

This strength rested on God’s being an infinite-personal God and his speaking in the Old Testament, in the life and teaching of Jesus Christ…He had spoken in ways people could understand, Thus the Christians not only had knowledge about the universe and mankind the people cannot find out by themselves, but they had absolute, universal values by which to live...(p. 22)

What sort of freak then is man? How novel, how monstrous, how chaotic, how paradoxical, how prodigious! Judge of all things, feeble earthworm, repository of truth, sink of doubt and error, glory and refuse of the universe! (Pensee’s 131/434)

Can we see the imago Dei in people? The very image and likeness of God in the humanity around us…but also can we recognize the fallen-ness in ourselves and others. Were it not for the grace given to us by God for our salvation…this is what we are called to give to one another

Grace.

But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. (Matthew 6:44)

Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:12)

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:8)

Peter Kreeft(1993) Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal’s Pensees. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press

Frances Schaeffer (1976) How Should We Then Live. Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Company.

My 9-11 Tribute

2010-09-14T11:59:00.000-06:00

Here is a picture I wanted to share from my vacation. I haven't been to New York city since the tragedy of 9-11-2001. I had the honor of standing on the pier in Brooklyn...just after the memorial ceremony.

We must never forget.

"Rectitude, Waiting, Finally"

2010-09-11T08:58:00.000-06:00

It is the right and responsibility of reason
and the habituate the heart

to feel,

to know

the weight of woe

in a wailing world.

While waiting

for the gravity of glory;

while waiting

for the levity of grace...

to arrive, finally,

Finally.

From Dr. Douglas Groothuis’ blog “The Constructive Curmudgeon”

What is Prayer?

2010-09-05T20:14:00.000-06:00

What is prayer?

My old Webster’s New World Dictionary dated 1957, defines it this way; “To implore; beseech; entreat… An earnest request; entreaty; supplication…humble entreaty addressed to God.”

When I was growing up we always said stuff that I was told was prayer; for example we always said the “Lord’s Prayer” during the service. But most of the time we listened to someone read words from a paper supposedly for me and for everyone in the congregation…my mind would wander and I’d sneak peeks at what my brother was doing, as I fidgeted on the other side of mom.

As I got older, I knew that I should pray to God for myself and for others. But the hardest thing for me to do was to string more than 10 minutes together to God…I’d lie in the bed, try to pray and generally fall asleep.

But as I studied scripture, something began to happen; I began to care more and more for others and for God. It began to be not an obligation or chore; but a joy, a love, and a privilege to pray. I knew that the people that I am asked to pray for (or are just on “my list”) may not be able to ask God for help “right now”; so they need me to intercede for them. And I know the comfort that it brings me to know someone is praying for me if I ask.

But maybe I should explain my “prayer time”…yes, I do what may be considered “formal” prayers…but for the most part, it is a fairly one way conversation with God. I have come to the place of having confidence in being in God’s presence. I have trust that he hears me, and is “here” when I am praying. So I simply talk to him; knowing he won’t get tired of listening to me (um…he’s the only one!) as I ask for help, listen to my gripes, try to figure out my homework, and pour out my pain or sorrows. Then when I begin to “lift up” the needs of those who have problems, pain, sickness; something begins to change in me—my own needs aren’t so pressing anymore. And even if my needs seem unresolved; I cry out for God to have mercy on all of us trying to keep to his path in this fallen world. The more time I spend in God’s presence, shows to me my own sinfulness…I pass beyond my asking for help to humility that the Creator of the Universe is listening to me…that is where I can only ask for mercy.

That is where the insights are. That is where God meets me, as I fall at his feet in humility.

And that is where my listening begins. This is the joy of prayer, that if I am at the bottom of a muddy pit, I reach up my hand to God in faith; I feel him grasp my hand to pull me out…that is when I turn and reach back to those I know are still in the pit; to help pull them out.

That is what it means to me to pray…for my needs and for the needs of others.

O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou dost know when I sit down and when I rise up; Thou dost understand my thought from afar. Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down, and art intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, Thou dost know it all. Thou hast enclosed me behind and before, and laid thy hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it. (Psalm 139:1-6)

But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. And when you are praying do not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. There fore do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need, before you ask Him. ( Matthew 6:6-8)

More from "Confessions"

2010-08-29T18:02:00.000-06:00

How great was your love for us, good father, for you did not even spare your own son, but gave him up to save us sinners! How great was your love for us, when it was for us the Christ, who did not see, in the rank of Godhead, a prize to be coveted, accepted an obedience which brought him to death, death on the cross! He who alone was free among the dead for he was free to lay down his life and free to take it up again, was for us both Victor and Victim in your sight, and it was because he was the Victim that he was also the Victor. In your sight he was for us both Priest and Sacrifice, and it was because he was the Sacrifice that he was also the Priest. By being your Son, yet serving you, he freed us from servitude and made us your sons. Rightly do I place in him my firm hope that you will cure all my ills through him who sits at your right hand and pleads for us; other wise I should despair. For my ills are many and great, many and great indeed; but your medicine is greater still. We might have thought that your Word was far distant from union with man, and so we might have despaired of ourselves, if he had not been made flesh and come to dwell among us. Terrified by my sins and the dead weight of my misery, I had turned my problems over in my mind and was half determined to seek refuge in the desert. But you forbade me to do this and gave me strength by saying : Christ died for us all, so that being alive should no longer mean living with our own life, but with his life who died for us. Lord, I cast all my troubles on you and from now on I shall contemplate the wonders of your law. You know how weak I am and how inadequate is my knowledge: teach me and heal my frailty. Your only Son, in whom the whole treasury of wisdom and knowledge is stored up, has redeemed me with his blood. Save me from the scorn of my enemies, for the price of my redemption is always in my thoughts, I eat is and drink it and minister it to others; and as one of the poor I long to be filled with it, to be one of those who eat and have their fill. And those who look for the Lord will cry out in praise of him.

St Augustine Confessions Book X Chapter 43 (pp 251-251)
R.S. Pine-Coffin (1961) Middlesex, England; Penguin Classics.

Orpheus in the Underworld?

2010-08-22T13:53:00.000-06:00

My father and step-mother are huge musical performance fans; symphony orchestra, music festivals, you get the idea. Every year they attend the opera. In fact my first encounter with a live operatic performance was when their usual friend could not attend…and I had a wonderful experience.

This year they again had tickets for the several performances during the summer where they meet their friends, have a picnic dinner, and then attend the opera.

About two weeks went by before we had a chance to enjoy a dinner together to catch up on what we’ve been doing. While chatting, my step-mother brought me up to speed on how they enjoyed the last several opera performances.

The first opera they had attended this season was Orpheus in the Underworld, by Offenbach; and she told me how great the performance was, that the orchestra was outstanding, the stage set was rich and beautifully designed, a gorgeous sight and very well done. Then she went on to tell me of the next week where the performance that evening was Madame Butterfly. “Oh” I asked (having seen it once before) “How was it?” “Well,” she said, “It was awful; they presented it as a ‘minimalist’ type of performance; the stage was bare, just a white curtain…it was just terrible…your father and I did not enjoy it at all!” “What a shame,” I said, “I so enjoyed the performance I saw when I went with you a couple of years ago.” My step-mother continued, “The producers must have overspent on the first performance, and had nothing left to spend on Madam Butterfly.”

Then she said “They spent all their money on hell, and had nothing left for anything else!”

Compare and Contrast: Islam and Christianlty

2010-08-15T12:56:00.000-06:00

I am posting a paper I turned in last week on some differences between Christianity and Islam...It is a little long, if you are willing to read it. But this topic is very complex and this short paper just cannot do it justice. So such as it is; here is my paper.

N.B. I can't format block quotes the same as required in a APA formatted paper...so please give grace. The references are at the end of the paper.

The question has been raised in current history of the differences in religious beliefs; that fundamentally they are all the same. So it is with the presentation of gender relations in Islam compared to the early Christian church are no better or worse than historical beliefs in any of the religions. So in the brief scope of this paper I will attempt to show the historical belief systems and their affect on gender relationships within both Christianity and Islam.

My first task then, is to present the core beliefs of Christianity; that is, what are the fundamental beliefs consistent with calling oneself a Christian. The central belief is first that Jesus the Messiah or Christ; is God’s incarnate son. He walked the earth to show God’s nature; and to save the fallen world, was crucified and died. He was raised from the dead and was seen alive, and in the presence of witnesses ascended to heaven. His words and actions were written down within 20 to 30 years of his ascension; and those words taught men and women to love and serve one another because of the grace given to them. That those who are leaders, according to Jesus’ own words, were those who would be servants to one another in Matthew 20: 25-28. This is the example that Jesus gave by his very life.

Early church records write of the martyrs; both women and men, suffering horribly at the hands of Roman and Jewish authorities in an effort to stamp out this religion. But in all this there are no records of any conquest by leadership of the early church for conversion. Belief was desired, and not forced; in fact the early converts faced almost certain death if found to be Christians. Men and woman were equally servants of God, and equally charged with spreading the “good news” and making disciples as written of Jesus’ words recorded in Matthew 28:19 As written by Frances Schaeffer (1982) of how God communicates “… is not exhaustive, because we are finite and we know nothing in an exhaustive way…but he tells us truly.” (p 79) God has given his guidelines in his word and the life and teaching of his son, recorded by secular history as well as the biblical record.

Islam is considered a fulfillment of all earlier religious teaching. Mohammad received the Qur’an from Allah from the angel Gabriel. The actual “mother of all books” which is the heavenly existing book of God; the Qur’an as dictated to Mohammad is a copy of that. The author Jaques Jomier (1959) writes of the Islamic believers idea of the Qur’an is this “To the Moslem, every sentence of the Koran [Qur’an] conveys a lesson which the believer must put into practice.” (p.77)

All of the messages received by the Prophet Mohammad were the actual words of Allah; and only certain Imams (or teacher) who knew the Prophet were allowed to teach or interpret the Qur’an. Winfried Corduan (2009) writes, “A great amount of the content of the Qur’an consists of demonstrating that Islam is better then any other religion, and the God, as portrayed in Islam, is greater than any other deity that human beings may have imagined.” (p.247) Allah is utterly transcendent and utterly sovereign; so different than us that he would never have a personal relationship with his servants (us). But Corduan points out that Allah created mankind better than the angles and evil spirits to rule over them. Man was given by Allah the reason and intellect to understand the rules as given by Allah and recited by the Prophet Mohammad; that it is man’s responsibility to follow, and he is responsible for his fate (paradise or hell).

So as I have read and understand from reading from the Qur’an and Hadith is that all other religious text; the Torah of the Jews and the Gospel as taught by another “messenger” Jesus is flawed by its transmission by man. The proclamation of Allah as given to the Prophet Mohammed, is the culmination of all other writings and supersedes all other teaching; for all other messages as given by the other “Prophets” ( Abraham, Noah and Jesus) were corrupted over time; the Qur’an is the perfect Word of Allah. According to Jomier, the Qur’an was finalized “less then two centuries after the death of the Prophet, everything had been fixed finally except some minor differences of reading which were collected carefully.” (p 4) And he goes on to explain that the Caliph Othman made an official “recension” (or examination of the textual reliability) less than 20 years after the death of Mohammad.

So, as an Islamic believer, there is now no other interpretation to do. Allah has given his word to his “Prophet” (alternately “Messenger” or lately translated “Apostle”) Mohammad, and the approved interpretations in the Hadith, and as Corduan writes,

"There is nothing left for us to do than to try our best to follow all of God’s commandments. There is no point in speculating on God’s will …Rather than search God’s purposes, we should accept whatever he sends our way…Our obligation is not to out-think Allah but to do his will.' (p. 267)

What does the Qur’an write? There are many Surah and Hadith concerning the fate of unbelievers and those who err against Allah. One example is this plea for forgiveness from a prayer book of Mohammad (n.d.):

Our Lord! Condemn us not if we forget of err. Our Lord! Lay not on us such a burden as Thou didst lay on those who have been before us: neither impose upon us, O our Lord, ought which we have not the strength to bear; but forgive us, absolve us, and have mercy upon us. Thou art our Protector, Therefore give us victory over the disbelieving folk. (p.59)

The constant prayer I have found is pleas to prove one’s favor with Allah by giving the plaintiff victory over a battle.

The idea of conquest seems to be the over-riding consideration of Islam. The teachings of the Qur’an and the Hadith teach that one is born a believer in Islam and later due to the will of Allah are corrupted into other faiths. From the text Forty Hadith (1976) from Hadith 8:

I have been ordered to fight against people until they testify that there is one god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah and until they perform the prayers and pay the zakat,[protection monies] and if they do so they will have gained protection from me for their lives and property unless [they do acts that are punishable] in accordance with Islam, and their reckoning will be with Allah the Almighty.”(p. 46)

Of course at the bottom of the same page is a rather long footnote explaining that what the Holy Qur’an really means is that actually there is “no compulsion in religion” and you are to “reason with them in the better way” and that “waging of war is enjoined against certain categories of persons such as those who attack a Muslim country, those who prevent the preaching an spread of Islam by peaceful means and apostates.”

Yet in the actual writings of the Qur’an it states in Surah 60:1-3;
O ye who believe! Choose not My enemy and your enemy for friends. Do ye give them friendship when they disbelieve in that Truth which hath come unto you, driving out the messenger and you because ye believe in Allah, your Lord? If ye have come forth to strive in My way and seeking My good pleasure, (show them not friendship). Do ye show friendship unto them in secret, when I am best Aware of what ye hide and what ye proclaim?

This shows clearly the intent of serving Allah and the intent of Islam.
Now with that rather long explanation; what is the teaching on gender in Islam? This was to show that at the heart of Islam are the disparities between believers and non-believers. A woman who does not submit to her husband will not reach “Paradise.” Yet an interesting explanation by a Muslim woman (Waud 1999) and teacher of Islamic studies wrote of the descriptions of Paradise:

The mechanisms of communication (the terms and images) employed by the Qur’an reflect that audience. They had to be convinced to change their way of thinking and their manner of living. Specifically, the Qur’an attempted: 1. To convince them of the authenticity of the message; 2. To demonstrate its relevance and significance: 3. To indicate the shortcomings and weaknesses of the existing status quo: and 4. To persuade or entice them through offers and threats that appealed to their nature, understanding and experience. (p. 54 italics from the original)

The author makes a point of showing how the verses of the Qur’an are used to “unreasonably” confine women to the house where she writes of Surah 33.33 “…has been use to make the general rule that women are restricted from going out of their houses altogether instead of stressing the limitations of the ‘going out’ for the purpose of wanton display. Here is the quote in its proper complete context from Surah 33:30-34;

O ye wives of the Prophet! Whosoever of you committeth manifest lew[d]ness, the punishment for her will be doubled, and that is easy for Allah. And whosoever of you is submissive unto Allah and His messenger and doth right, we shall give her reward twice over, and we have prepared for her a rich provision. O ye wives of the Prophet! Ye are not like any other women. If ye keep your duty (to Allah)… utter customary speech. And stay in your houses. Bedizen not yourselves with the bedizenment of the Time of Ignorance. Be regular in prayer, and pay the poor-due, and obey Allah and his messenger. Allah’s wish is but to remove uncleanness far from you, O folk of the household, and cleans you with a thorough cleansing…”

It is plain in my study of the Qur’an and Hadith, there is a bias favoring men and against women.

From this short exposition, I have found that there is no personal relationship with Allah in Islam; only the unique relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ within the Christian faith allows us an intimate, loving relationship; with its service and submission to one another regardless of gender. Grace is unique to Christianity. The mindset of Islam is summed up by Corduan when he states: “…a negative mindset is the most common result among human beings who believe that their eternal destiny is based on keeping rules.” (p. 269) When the only incentive in a religion is keeping rules, the demeaning of gender and “others” tends to result.

It is clear to me after spending time studying the Qur’an and the writing of the Hadith, the uniqueness of Christianity is the grace given to us. This still seems to be an anathema to so many around the world. That God would give salvation away freely, by the belief in his son, our Lord and Savior Jesus. This is the freedom we have in Christianity that is lacking in Islam. All religions are not the same despite the implications in the world today.

References:
W. Corduan (2009). “A View From the Middle East” in J. Sire’s The Universe Next Door. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsty Press.

A. Farid (n.d.) Prayers of Muhammad. Karachi, Pakistan.

E. Ibrahim, D. Davies; translators (1976) Forty Hadith. Beirut, Lebanon: The Holy Koran Publishing House.

J. Jomier (1959). E. Arbez translator. The Bible and the Koran. New York, NY: Desclee Company

M. Pickthall. (1994) The Glorious Qur’an.10th ed. Des Plains, IL: Library of Islam

F. Schaeffer (1982) He is There and He is Not Silent. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publisher

A. Waud (1999) Qur’an and Woman: Rereading the sacred Text from a Woman’s Perspective. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

"Something for Everyone"

2010-08-01T21:39:00.000-06:00

Here in America, we do have it easy. We work from Monday to Friday, and most people have weekends off; unless putting in some overtime. We have air-conditioned houses, most people have at least one car, and we take our indoor plumbing and refrigeration for granted. You know, having cable television is nearly thought to be a right! And even with the heated debate over health care; with out question if you truly need a doctor, I guarantee you can find one in an emergency!

We are a blessed country; after all, we have a right to worship how we see fit…a multiplicity of denominations, “main-stream,” or “splinter groups,” and many with no affiliation at all. You can choose a traditional service, or contemporary, with musical instruments or without, rock-and-roll or a grand pipe organ. Services are led by special “worship teams” and there are multi-media displays to put the song lyrics on the screens for all to see, or just a person leading the songs on an old guitar.

We have available the Word of God in every conceivable translation for ease of understanding. Bibles are “rated” on a scale of conservative to liberal in their translation; “word for word” or “thought for thought.” And you can purchase lovely covers with lace for the girls or camo for the boys, or special leather bound editions complete with concordances inside. Children’s Bibles, youth Bibles, study Bibles…You get the idea.

Yes, in this great country of ours; Christianity has something for everyone. We have all the advantages…a veritable smorgasbord.

But I have just a few questions:

Were you in church this Sunday? Do you remember the sermon? Was the Bible preached? Did you go for the “warm fuzzies” or were you challenged? Have you prayed this week? Did you read your Bible? When was the last time you were “inconvenienced” for your faith? What are you willing to sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel? Have you ever shared the Gospel with anyone in your life, and do you know how? Do you understand Christianity; or is it merely a “mystery” and faith is just “knowing in your know-er.”

“If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” Luke 9:23-25

“Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” 1 John 2: 15-16

“If one feels no friction with a fallen world, one will never find traction in the Kingdom of God” Doug Groothuis

So how’s your footing?

"This Momentary Light Affliction..."

2010-07-25T16:31:00.000-06:00

What makes a man suffering from heart disease continue to write a book, teach others, and to reach out to the lost; then hear him question why he doesn’t suffer as much as some others around him?

What makes a woman who is a mother of 9 and grandmother of 4, struggling to work and take care of her family give out of her grocery money to make sure another could eat and get to work?

What makes a professor push his students to study and read, only to have some of those same students scoff not only at him but at higher education; yet still continue to teach year after year?

What makes a single grandmother, continue education in the face of no support from family or church leaders in order to be able to teach at the college level knowing she will never be tenured?

Doesn’t that sound utterly ridiculous? Why would people do this? They must be mentally ill, wouldn’t you say?

Change the channel, there must be something more entertaining to watch.

But what if they are serving something besides their own needs? What if they are being lead by something else? Could it be in this pluralistic, postmodern, pass-the-buck society there are people suffering to serve God?

Maybe they actually did hear God’s voice.

“We are afflicted in every way, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.”

“Therefore we do not lose heart, but thought our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

2 Corinthians 4:8-9, 16-18

"John Saw Duh Numbuh"

2010-07-16T22:28:00.000-06:00

Music has always played a large part of my life, and I have been honored to be a recent member of the Canto Deo Festival Choir. Dr. Keith Wells of Denver Seminary (Bass 1 and choir board member) gave a most memorable devotional before the last pre-concert rehearsal. Revolving around the song “John Saw Duh Numbuh” he graciously gave me permission to post this devotional on “Insights from the Furnace” and I am sharing this with you all. The performance can be viewed here.

JOHN SAW DUH NUMBUH . . . Keith Wells

“After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.” Rev. 7:9 (NIV)

“Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.” – Rev. 14:1-3 (NIV)

It has been my privilege to share with the board reflections on the biblical and theological foundation for the ministry of Canto Deo. It is my conviction that what we sing and how we sing it must be grounded solidly in the historic Christian faith. For we sing not just notes in a score of music but we communicate a message, the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The singing of the magnificent Parker / Shaw arrangement of the great spiritual, “John Saw Duh Numbuh”, for example, prompts the question, “Who are these 144,000 who have the name of the Lamb and the Father written on their foreheads and who alone sing the ‘new song’? Various Christian groups throughout the centuries have claimed this identity for themselves to the exclusion of other Christians who differed from them in some way. But a closer look at the text provides some insight as to the true identity of these 144,000.

A careful review of the nature of apocalyptic literature and the symbolic use of numbers in that genre builds a strong case that the number is to be taken as one of completeness or wholeness. That is, those included in the 144,000 (12 X 12 X 1,000), are all those who are redeemed throughout the course of salvation history. These are those who have the mark of allegiance, have committed themselves completely to the Lamb, and who have overcome by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, and that they loved not their lives unto death. These are the overcomers upon whom the risen Christ has written his own new name.

And what of the ‘new song’ that they sing? Notice that these alone can learn the ‘new song’ because it has to do with who they are, not whether or not they can learn new music! I confess I take some comfort in that! That’s one song that I know I can learn!!

It is identity and not ability that John has in mind here. At the very essence of who we are as a sacred choir, Canto Deo, is our identity as Christians, brothers and sisters in Christ. That identity enables us to sing in a way that native musical ability can never do. So let us sing the ‘new song’ today, and for all eternity! May that be the ‘mark’ of Canto Deo! Praise be to God!!

Insights on Music

2010-07-10T17:29:00.000-06:00

I was invited to attend a concert last night; the Colorado Music Festival at Chautauqua in Boulder (for additional information go here). Not knowing the program for the evening, I was delighted to learn that one of the pieces to be performed was a favorite of mine. This was a piece I had heard from my childhood and I was very familiar with it, even owning a CD of this work.

As the orchestra began to play, I was swept away with the depth of the music; the kind of experience you can only get while attending a live performance. There is a sense of your personal emotions—your individual feeling and thought pictures, yet you are a part of a whole; other people listening with you—some enjoying the experience as deeply as you, others seemingly distracted, paging through the program or whispering to one another.

Letting the music wash over me, the people around me seemed to fade and the measures of music so familiar to me filled the concert hall. The orchestra brought to the piece their own subtle style to the music; these musicians so practiced in playing, added an interpretation solely their own. With my familiarity with the music I found the passion and love of music and performing shining through as I listened to this wonderful performance.

While listening I wondered over my enjoyment of this performance; what made it special for me? After all, I have always been a music lover; anytime I get a chance at seeing a live musical performance is a special event. I realized that my very familiarity with the music, knowing the history, the musical “story” that was being told, and understanding the picture I was visualizing may have been similar to the one seen by the composer so many years ago…knowing all that just brought me to a place where I felt I was a true participant in the performance, not a mere spectator.

I can look at any musical score and read the notes, or awkwardly pick them out on a piano and understand the idea of the music.

If it is a vocal arrangement, I can spend time at home and learn the song, memorize it and enjoy singing it and begin to get a bit more depth of enjoyment; but still not have a very deep understanding of the music.

But if I truly take time to study the composer; the time he lived in, what he was trying to share in this composition, the picture he was trying to paint for his listeners, the lesson he was trying to teach; now that is the full, rich, deep, and meaningful enjoyment of music you can experience with care and study.

So…how do you study the Bible?

For Independance Day: A Must Read

2010-07-01T16:24:00.000-06:00

The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription

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IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

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Who Is Educated?

2010-06-27T13:15:00.000-06:00

From Leaves of Gold (p 63)

A professor in Chicago is reported to have given the following test to his pupils. He told them they were not really educated unless they could say Yes to all these questions:

Has your education given you sympathy with all good causes and made you espouse them?

Has it made you a brother to the weak?

Have you learned how to make friends and to keep them?

Do you know what it is to be a friend yourself?

Can you look an honest man or a pure woman straight in the eye?

Do you see anything to love in a little child?

Will a lonely dog follow you down the street?

Can you be high-minded and happy in the meaner drudgeries of life?

Do you think washing dishes and hoeing corn just as compatible with high thinking as piano playing or golf?

Can you be happy alone?

Can you look out on the world and see anything but dollars and cents?

Can you look into a mud puddle by the wayside and see anything in the puddle but mud?

Can you look into the sky at night and see beyond the stars?

Can your soul claim relationship with the Creator?

Suppose...

2010-06-19T19:18:00.000-06:00

Book IX, chapter 10

Saint Augustine reminiscing on a conversation with his mother:

Suppose, we said, that the tumult of a man’s flesh were to cease and all that his thoughts can conceive, of earth, of water, and of air, should no longer speak to him; suppose that the heavens and even his own soul were silent, no longer thinking of itself but passing beyond; suppose that his dreams and the visions of his imaginations spoke no more and that every tongue and every sign and all that is transient grew silent—for all these things have the same message to tell, if only we can hear it, and their message is this: We did not make ourselves, but he who abides for ever made us. Suppose, we said, that after giving us this message and bidding us listen to him who made them, they fell silent and he alone should speak to us, not through them but in his own voice, so that we should hear him speaking, not by any tongue of the flesh or by an angels voice, not in the sound of thunder or in some veiled parable, but in his own voice, the voice of the one whom we love in all these created things; suppose that we heard him himself, with none of these things between ourselves and him, just as in that brief moment my mother and I had reached out in thought and touched the eternal Wisdom which abides over all things; suppose that this state were to continue and all other visions of things inferior were to be removed, so that this single vision entranced and absorbed the one who beheld it and enveloped him in inward joys in such a way that for him life was eternally the same as that instant of understanding for which we had longed so much—would not this be what we are to understand by the words Come and share the joy of our Lord?. But when is it to be? (p.198)

Saint Augustine: Confessions. Translated by S. Pine-Coffin (1977) Penguin Classics.

Finding Faults

2010-06-11T23:03:00.000-06:00

Working on the assembly line this week, we were plagued with problems. Most of the issues have surrounded the scalpel blade in the surgical equipment we make. So we have been diligent in checking the blade for nicks as we assemble this component. Everyone has been cautiously looking for damage on the edge of the blade.

But as my co-workers and I were checking over the blades, something interesting began to happen; we started seeing damage where there was none. We were becoming so focused on finding problems—we began to see imaginary faults. My co-worker noticed this and said, “Wow, it is as if we want to find problems; we are seeing things that aren’t there.”

Now how true is this in our walk with Christ; we get so hung up on the fact we are in a fallen world, that all we focus on are problems; in our world, in the people around us, and most of all—in our fellow Christians.

Yes, it is true—we are living “East of Eden”; but Christ is victorious. Yes the “whole creation groans, awaiting redemption” but there is still hope. Yes there is horror and evil in the world; but we have a risen Savior, Jesus Christ the righteous, seated at the right hand of the Father. To deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him is the hardest and most painful thing we ever do; yet Paul stated it best when he pointed us all towards the finish line when he wrote “This momentary light affliction is producing in us an eternal weight in glory far beyond all comparison.” Can we look on the humanity around us and realize that we are looking at fellow image bearers; created in the glorious imago Dei; and as such, deserve grace…the same grace given to us. Can we allow the love of Christ, the self-sacrificial love, to flow through us by the power of the Holy Spirit to minister to the hurting humanity around us? Or will we allow ourselves to remain blind to the hope and beauty, love and grace God gives to us each day.

This I recall to mind, Therefore I have hope, the Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail, they are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3:21-23

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant[slave], and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:3-8

Choices

2010-06-06T18:17:00.000-06:00

From the epilogue of JP Moreland’s book “The God Question”

I offer you my final invitation. You are on a journey—that is not a choice, but the path you take is. I place before you what I believe are the two most plausible choices available. Some have tried to soften the atheistic, naturalist option by adding absolute values and other bells and whistles to it, but they are implausible, ad hoc revisions of atheism that do not sit well with it. And some would opt for a different form of theism, such as Islam. But based on all the available evidence, they are nowhere near as reasonable to believe as Christianity. Here, then are your two pathways. Ponder them wisely and choose well.

Bertrand Russell(1872-1970) gives a nice description of atheism:

That man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, nor heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system; and that the whole temple of man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins—all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.

Here is the other choice, stated nicely by St. Patrick (AD 387-493):

I arise today in a mighty strength, calling upon the Trinity, believing in the Three Persons, saying they are One, thanking my Creator.

I arise today strengthened by Christ’s own baptism, made strong by His crucifixion and His burial, made strong by His resurrection and ascension, made strong by His descent to meet me on the day of doom…

I arise today with God’s strength to pilot me, God’s might to uphold me, God’s wisdom to guide me, God’s eye to look ahead for me, God’s ear to hear me, God’s word to speak for me, God’s hand to defend me, God’ way to lie before me, God’s shield to protect me, God’s host to safeguard me: against devil’s traps, against attraction of sin, against pull of nature , against all who wish me ill near and far, alone and in a crowd…

Christ ever with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ to my right side, Christ to my left, Christ in His breadth, Christ in His length, Christ in depth, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today in mighty strength, making in my mouth the Trinity, believing in mind Three Person, confessing in heart they are One, thanking my Creator. Salvation is from the Lord. Salvation is from the Lord. Salvation is from Christ. May your salvation, three Lords, Be always with us. (pp 259-261)

J.P. Moreland (2009). The God Question. Eugene, OR. Harvest House Publishers.

Leaves of Gold

2010-05-31T08:40:00.000-06:00

I recently obtained a copy of an old book entitled Leaves of Gold; one I know that I have looked through as a child from some other person’s library. I will periodically share some of the tried and true tidbits from within. One that spoke to me so clearly is entitled “Trouble” and reads this way:

I think that human life is much like road life. You stand on a hill, and look down and across the valley, and another prodigious hill lifts itself upon the other side. The day is hot, your horse is weary, and you are tired; and it seems to you that you cannot climb that long hill. But you had better trot down the hill you are on, and not trouble yourself about the other one. You find the valley pleasant and inspiring. When you get across it, you meet only a slight ascent, and begin to wonder where the steep hill is which you saw. You drive along briskly, and when you reach the highest point, you find that there has not been an inch of the hill over which you have not trotted. You see that it was illusory. The slight ascent looked almost like a perpendicular steep; but when you come to pass over it, step by step, you find it to be a good traveling road.

So it is with your troubles. Just in that way your anticipations of mischief hang before you; and when you come to where they are, you find them to be all smooth turnpikes. Men ought to be ashamed, after they have done that two or three times, not to take the hint, and profit by it; yet they will not. They will suffer from anticipated troubles just as much as though they had no such experience. They have not wit enough to make use of the lesson which their life is continually teaching them; namely, that a large majority of the troubles which they worry themselves about beforehand either never come or are easily borne. They form a habit of fretting about future troubles. It was not the old monks alone who wore sackcloth and hair shirts; you wear them as much as they did; only you wear them inside, while they wore them outside~ you wear them in your heart, they wore them on their skins. They were wiser then you are.(p 23)
Henry Ward Beecher

Clyde Francis Lytle, edt. (1956). Leaves of Gold. Williamsport, PA: The Coslett Publishing Company.

Kyrie Elesion

2010-05-30T00:34:00.000-06:00

Father in heaven,
Please help me to keep going.

Jesus, help me bear the pain.
I am not strong enough.
I don’t ask you to take it away,
Then I would be less than human,
Just make me strong enough to take it.

These blessings you have given me,
Seem now to be my cross.

Lord, I so need your peace;
To guard my heart and mind.

I so love to be a blessing to others,
Yet, I need a blessing myself—

Lord, I know I purposely make myself
So busy that I don’t feel so alone;
But I’m exhausted.

Lord, I have nothing left—
Please fill me with your Spirit.

I need your strength, peace, love…
All of it—
That is the only way I can keep going.

Qui sedes, ad dexteram Patris mi se rere nobis.

A Musical Invitation

2010-05-26T18:20:00.000-06:00

For all those who are fans of choral music, I would like to invite you to the up-coming concerts by Canto Deo. The theme of these two concerts is Americana; a mix of old time gospel, spirituals, and traditional folk hymns. The concerts are free, and I have tickets to send to anyone interested in attending. Just email me, and I would be happy to send you tickets; or contact the Canto Deo web site for additional information.

The concerts are:

Saturday June 12, 7:30 pm at Bethany Lutheran Church,4500 E. Hampden Ave. Cherry Hills village, CO 80113

Sunday June 13 at 2pm at St. Francis Cabrini Church, 6673 W. Chatfield Ave., Littleton, CO 80128