Are we breeding more terrorists?

Maybe, no probably:

“History shows that it is rare that increasingly repressive measures by the regime in power have the desired effect of addressing the underlying sense of grievance. Instead, the issues must be confronted and the criminals arrested (or killed in the attempt—I also note that declaring “war on terrorism” may legitimize the nonjudicial killing of terrorist suspects as enemies engaged in combat). Israel is suffering from a predictable bloody backlash against its increasingly oppressive reaction to terrorist outrages within its borders as it seeks to target Al Fatah and other resistance or terrorist groups in Palestine. This repression often raises more extremists who are willing, even eager, to become martyrs in the perceived cause of their religion, country, or community. All repression must be avoided in the conduct of the 'war on terrorism.'”—Durie, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 120

Terrorism and War

“It is important to recognize that it [terrorism] is not an ideology (such as communism); it is an instrument, not a movement. Questions arise whether it can ever be justified and how it may be defeated. Because a state cannot declare war on an instrument, it may be helpful to redefine “declaring war on terrorism” as a declaration of war on individuals or groups who resort to or threaten to use terrorism.”—Durie, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 114

War in the Bible, continued

“A state cannot rationally fight evil by committing it. Thus when political and military leaders ask themselves the question, “What should we do?” they must consider the moral, not only the pragmatic, aspects of this question.”—Pfaff, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 112

Making disciples by war?

“How should the ethics of Jesus and our being in Christ shape our view of war? I suggest that they lead to a stance of nonviolence and love for our enemies. Can participating in war contribute to the mission to make disciples of every nation? I think not. To achieve these goals requires envisioning an uncommon sociopolitical presence, a unique (and very different!) set of “responsible” actions committed to a distinct mode of being in the world and for the world that can point the world beyond itself and its self-destructive ways.”—Carroll, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, pages 76-77
<idle musing>
I think that about sums up the pacifist position. We are called to imitate Jesus and to make known to all his love for them. I just don't see how the barrel of a gun can do that...
</idle musing>

War in the Bible, resumed quotations

“Whenever violence was perpetrated in the name of the cross, the cross was depleted of its “thick” meaning within the larger story of Jesus Christ and “thinned” down to a symbol of religious belonging and power—and the blood of those who did not belong flowed as Christians transmuted themselves from would-be followers of the Crucified to imitators of the people who crucified him.”—Volf, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 13

Felt-needs

OK, it's over a week old now, but I finally had a chance to read it over the weekend...
There is a good post over at Out of Ur about “felt needs” church growth. Very good critique of the supposed biblical foundation for it. Here is the penultimate paragraph:

Contradicting the gospel message is another danger of a hyper-felt-needs based approach to outreach. The gospel calls us to surrender our desires, take up our cross, and follow Christ. How can a church effectively invite people to “die to self” while constantly appealing to their self-interests? Whereas Jesus’ miracles of restoration were completely in sync with his message, our acts of service—particularly in an affluent, consumer culture—run the risk of undermining our message of personal sacrifice by promoting the satifaction of felt-needs/wants.

<idle musing>
Yes! I've said it before, but it bears mentioning again, the most overlooked passages in the Bible are the ones that talk about death to self. It doesn't preach well in our self-absorbed society, but it is the essence of the gospel. Christ came to set us free from self; why, then, do we preach a self-indulgent “gospel?”
</idle musing>

Quote from a new book

From a book that arrived yesterday;

In more sentimental books on music from the past, one sometimes encounters the romantic claim that a certain era or people ‘loved to sing,’ ‘filled their waking hours with song,’ ‘had melody in their souls,’ and so on. The modern musicologist or ethnomusicologist ardently avoids writing anything redolent of such happy platitudes. But perhaps our predecessors were onto something. For the more we explore early modern English thought, the more it appears to indicate a society intrigued by singing to a remarkable degree, both in theory and in practice. Singing played a vital role in England’s devotional life during this era; and it would not be too much to assert that the nation’s devotional life, in turn, ultimately affected its social, moral, and political spheres as well. —Brown, Singing and the Imagination of Devotion, page 1

<idle musing>
There is a lot to commend this thought. I have found over the years that people who sing tend to be happier people. I don't know which engenders which, but it is just an observation.
<idle musing>

Help!

OK, I need the help of all of you here. Carta has changed the name of the Ahituv volume and they are asking for help on where to price it. Here are the new details:

Echoes from the Past
Hebrew and Cognate Inscriptions from the Biblical Period
Carta Handbook
Carta, Jerusalem, Forthcoming, August 2008
528 pages + illustrations, English
Cloth
ISBN: 9789652207081
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~AHIECHOES

It is about twice the size of Cogan's The Raging Torrent, which is priced at $64.00, minus the 10% for buying it from Eisenbrauns' website.

What do you think would be a fair price? It was originally priced at $150.00, then reduced to $124.00. Is that fair for a 538 page technical book?

How old is my house?

<idle musing>
In a post yesterday, I mentioned that we removed the overhang from the north side of the house. It changed the appearance of the house quite a bit. Does that mean my house is only a week old? Hardly!

How about the flower boxes I added in June? Or the electrical work I did in January? No? Well then the major plumbing work that I did in November with Joel and Ryan's help? What? Still not enough to make the house new?

OK, surely the wood floor that Ryan and I laid in Octber qualifies! No? Well, how about the remodeling of the kitchen 4 years ago? Or the bathroom remodel at the same time? Or the new roof? No? Boy, you sure are hard to please!

OK, surely this will qualify to make the house new. in the mid-1970's the upper story was expanded. A new stairway was put in to get upstairs and downstairs. New windows were put in and vinyl siding was used on that part of the house. The size of the house was increased by about 35%. Surely this make the house new!

If I were to claim any of these dates for the building of the house, the bank would laugh at me. Everyone knows that the date of a house is from the initial building, in my case 1942.

Well, then why is it that on the biblical studies list, the date of the biblical text is dated by the date of the oldest complete manuscript that we have? So, the biblical text has to be no earlier than the Dead Sea Scrolls! The snippets that were uncovered on the amulets don't count; they simply show that there were ideas floating around that might eventually become the biblical text. By that reasoning, my house was built last week! And, the Septuagint and Peshitta would have to be considered the oldest versions of the Hebrew bible outside of the Dead Sea Scrolls—after all, our oldest codex is only 1000 years old this year—the Leningrad Codex

Just a thought...

Another question: How old is the Gilgamesh epic? Do we date it by the last and final version? Or, do we date it by the various translations? Or, do we date it by the earliest version we find? Of course, it could well be that it is all just a bunch of forgeries and the real version is in English—King James English, of course! :)
</idle musing>

Absolute Hospitality?

“'Absolute hospitality' seems generous and peaceful, until one remembers that unrepentant perpetrators and their unhealed victims would then have to sit around the same table and share a common home without adequate attention to the violation that has taken place. The idea ends up too close for comfort to the Nietzschean affirmation of life, in which a sacred “yes” is pronounced to all that is and “but thus I willed it” is said of all that was, including all the small and large horrors of history. Absolute hospitality would in no way amount to absence of violence. To the contrary, it would enthrone violence precisely under the guise of nonviolence because it would leave the violators unchanged and the consequences of violence unremedied. Hospitality can be absolute only once the world has been transformed into a world of love in which each person is hospitable to all. In the world of injustice, deception, and violence, hospitality can only be conditional—even if the will to hospitality and the offer of hospitality remain unconditional.

“Transformation of the world of violence into a world of love cannot take place by means of absolute hospitality. It would require radical change and not simply an act of indiscriminate acceptance for the world to be transformed into a world of love. The Christian tradition has tied this change to the coming of the Messiah, the crucified and the resurrected One, whose appearance in glory is still awaited. Is this messianic intervention violent? Does it sanction human violence? The answer is simple regarding the Messiah’s first coming. Jesus Christ did not come into the world in order to conquer evildoers through an act of violence but to die for them in self-giving love and thereby reconcile them to God. The outstretched arms of the suffering body on the cross define the whole of Christ’s mission. He condemned the sin of humanity by taking it upon himself; and by bearing it, he freed human beings from its power and restored their communion with God.”—Volf, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 12

Is Christianity violent by nature?

OK, let's go back to the first chapter and pick up the quotes from there that I missed...

“As applied to Christianity, the victory of the transcendental over the here and now is violent only if the notion of the transcendental is stripped of its particular content and infused with the values of the here and now around which the conflicts rage. This often happens when the Christian faith is employed to legitimize violence. We declare God to be on our side and we see ourselves as soldiers of God, so that the earthly goals acquire a “transcendent” aura and the struggle for them becomes a religious duty. One may describe this as inverse projection—not the projection of what humans deem supremely valuable onto a heavenly screen, a practice that 19th-century critics of religion deplored, but the projection of heavenly values onto earthly goods. The second projection is more dangerous because the first generates religiously sanctioned passivity in the context of oppression and suffering, whereas the second generates religiously sanctioned violence in the context of struggle for scarce goods. This sort of projection of transcendent values onto earthly goods can only succeed, however, if Christian faith is illegitimately stripped of its “thick” content in order to support an engagement in a struggle that was already under way and carried out for other-than-religious reasons and by means not sanctioned by the religion.”—Volf, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 7

Timberrr!!

OK, not really, but a loud crash would do.

Last Monday, Debbie and I noticed that the overhang above the north side door was a bit more crooked that it had been. We both knew that one of the supports was rotting and that I would need to take it down soon, but it looked like soon was becoming now.

Tuesday night I put a couple of 2 x 4s in place to hold it. Sure enough, the support on the right side fell down and dangled loosely. Not much support there! In the interest of safety, we stopped using the door :)

Wednesday night, Jon came over to help me. Together, we started ripping off shingles. Pretty soon we hear a buzzing sound, sort of like bees. Not a good thing! Get the bee spray; ready, aim, fire. No effect! Hmmm, now what? I saw a pile of wood shavings and grass under the roof; that must be where they are. After telling Jon to get out of the way, I shoved it to the ground. Sure enough, the buzzing was coming from inside the ball of grass. We left them alone, and they left us alone. Back to tearing the roof off...

I had the roof off my side and was starting to work on the front, and Jon had most of the roof off his side, when all of a sudden the thing let go! In a heroic display of acrobatics, Jon pushed off the roof and as the ladder started falling he jumped down, safely avoiding the falling ladder, the falling overhang, and landing on his feet! No injuries, no damage to the porch, just a nice pile of lumber on the driveway. Of course, we had to finish tearing it apart, but praise God, no one was hurt.

After we tore the thing apart, we (actually Jon) put the wood on the woodpile for a fire later this summer. Time for fresh apple crisp! Debbie had been making it while we tore the overhang apart, after all, a worker is worthy of his hire!

Yahweh will save

“The question that needs to be asked is not “what should This country take from Isaiah?” but instead “what should Christians learn about faith in God in the context of war from these prophetic texts?” This second question returns to the two fundamental issues that were raised in the introduction:
Who are we (identity)? What are we to do (mission)? This leads me to two additional lessons that I feel the people of God must learn from the prophet. To begin with, we see that believers are called to trust in the absolute power of Yahweh to deliver. One may protest, “This is naïve. It will not work. All the prayers and calls to believe in God cannot save us from enemy attack! We have to be responsible, pragmatic, and prepare our defenses.” How much we sound like the Judah of Isaiah’s day! The prophet’s point was that Yahweh was able to save. To depend on horses and chariots and mortar and brick is to rely on human cunning and the weakness of flesh. These will fail us, sooner if not later.”—Carroll, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, pages 75-76

The joys of reading

This wonderful little article flew through my inbox today.

The pile is waiting. The pile is getting higher. The pile looks impressive, probably isn't, still feels slightly overwhelming, vaguely threatening, even as it sighs, waits, drums its fingers on the inside of my skull, promising all manner of wonder and insight and syntactical bliss if I'd just, please, maybe, right now, even for just an hour or three, pay it some serious, focused attention. Please?

It's a bit of a problem. More than that, it's a moral, ethical, personal issue, a deep indignity of the soul, a painful twist to the nipple of my id.

See, I love books. Admire and appreciate and adore. Was a lit major at Berkeley, read voraciously, still love to read, still like to consider myself a big consumer of books and deep thinker about bookish issues and ideas and authoralia.

And yet, if I'm painfully honest, I have to admit it: I barely read books anymore...

About a year ago the most astounding thing happened: The hard drive on my MacBook suffered a rare and painful meltdown when I was away on vacation. I was, much to my initial horror, to be e-mail/Net-free for over a week. What was I missing? Who was e-mailing? What about all the blogs and the news and the Significant Global Happenings? What of all the salacious offerings of nubile flesh and social wonderment stroking my in-box as I sat there, entirely cut off and adrift?...

When I finally got my precious MacBook back, when all e-mail was restored and all Net access was re-granted and I was able to dive back into the perky digital maelstrom, when I spent a few hours and got all caught up, it finally hit me: I'd missed exactly nothing. The world was exactly the same. The beautiful churn continued, same as it ever was, with or without me. Isn't that fantastic? Someone should write a book about it.

<idle musing>
You really should read the whole thing, It is brutally honest about how we convince ourselves that we have to have the Internet to survive and that reading a real book is too difficult.
</idle musing>

Vengeance is whose?

“Based on these two images of God as king (sovereign) and warrior (victor over evil), several ethical conclusions follow, only one of which I will discuss. Christians need not—should not—engage in violence. The fact that Yahweh our God is a powerful warrior, whose passion for holiness and justice is intense and who will deal decisively with evil, means that his followers can afford to leave the righting of wrongs in God’s hand. Both testaments emphatically affirm this point. Moses asserts in the name of God, “Vengeance is mine” (Deut 32:35). Paul, in urging a peaceable lifestyle, tells his audience in Rome: “Never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’” (Rom 12:19). God is completely able to deal with the inequities and the violence in the world without our help.”—Martens, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 55

God as warrior

“Following God the warrior fully in faith does not have the effect of grooming warlike followers. That God is a warrior means the opposite—that his people need not be warlike.”—Martens, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 53

July sale at Eisenbrauns

Hey, its earlier than last month :)

For the month of July, Eisenbrauns is offering you the chance to build your library of Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture volumes from Intervarsity Press. Save 42% off list price on 20 different titles in the series. Order here.

"Genesis 1-11"
Edited by Andrew Louth
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament - ACCSOT 1
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2001. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 083081471X
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Genesis 12-50"
Edited by Mark Sheridan
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament - ACCSOT 2
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2002. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814728
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Job"
Edited by Manlio Simonetti and Marco Conti
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament - ACCSOT 6
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2006. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814760
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Psalms 51-150"
Edited by Quentin F. Wesselschmidt
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament - ACCSOT 8
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2007. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9780830814787
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon"
by J. Robert Wright
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament - ACCSOT
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2005. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814795
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Isaiah 1 -39"
by Steven A. McKinion
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament - ACCSOT
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2004. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814809
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Isaiah 40-66"
Edited by Mark W. Elliott
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament - ACCSOT
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2007. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9780830814817
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Ezekiel, Daniel"
Edited by Michael Glerup and Kenneth Stevenson
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament - ACCSOT
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2008. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9780830814831
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Matthew 1-13"
Edited by Manlio Simonetti
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT NT 1A
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2001. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814868
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Matthew 14-28"
Edited by Manlio Simonetti
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT NT 1B
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2002. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814698
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Mark"
Edited by Christopher A. Hall and Thomas C. Oden
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2005. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814183
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Luke"
Edited by Arthur A. Just
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT 3
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2003. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814884
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Acts"
Edited by Francis Martin
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT 5
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2006. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814906
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Romans"
Edited by Gerald Bray
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 1998. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814914
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"1-2 Corinthians"
Edited by Gerald Bray
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 1999. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814922
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians"
Edited by Mark J. Edwards
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 1999. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814930
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Colossians, 1-2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon"
Edited by Peter Gorday
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2000. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814949
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Hebrews"
by Erik M. Heen and Philip D. W. Krey
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT 10
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2005. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814957
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude"
Edited by Gerald Bray
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2000. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814965
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

"Revelation"
Edited by William C. Weinrich
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament - ACCSNT 12
InterVarsity Press - IVP, 2005. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0830814973
List Price: $40.00 Your Price: $23.20

War and justice

“In the context of war, the definition of faith is forged: faith is the casting of one’s destiny on God who spoke the word of promise. Faith is less a cerebral process than it is a life/death commitment based on an unshakable confidence in the veracity of Yahweh’s word (consider David’s words before approaching Goliath, 1 Sam 17:45) and purpose. Wars in the Bible address humans who are slow to hear and even slower to believe, to instruct them on the meaning of faith...

“The message of these God-directed wars for Israel is not that war is the divinely sanctioned means for setting matters right. The kerygma of the Yahweh wars expresses a different message: pithy, down-to-earth experiences to illustrate what we abstractly call “incarnation” or define as faith.

“Wars sanctioned by the Lord Yahweh, with the destruction they brought, must be appraised in light of who God is—namely, a God of holiness. This holiness is expressed by a justice that is both hard edged and compassionate. This means that evil is resisted and destroyed through hard justice; it also means that God enters the fray of violence as an overture to the incarnation and pedagogically makes clear what is meant by trusting him. Christians, remembering the asymmetry that exists between themselves and God, do well to leave the righting of wrongs to God. Believers do, however, have a mandate to work toward justice, understood as honorable relationships, but they may not establish it coercively. Their responsibility is quite the opposite. Believers cannot participate in precipitating violence. Their calling is to absorb violence.”—Martens, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 50

Sin equals violence?

“Though working as a theorist and not as theologian or exegete, Girard has put forth a hypothesis about the origin of violence that readily aligns with the biblical evidence. Cain desires what Abel has, namely, the assurance of God’s favor. Denied this favor, he turns his hostility on the model whom he is imitating. The two struggle. Cain kills Abel. A Christian theologian, interpreting this same material, can agree to some extent with Girard on the reason for the violence but concludes that the human predicament is the sins of selfishness and rebellion, one of the consequences of which is violence. The conclusion is inevitable: where sin reigns, violence is inevitable.”—Martens, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 42.

Peace now?

The vision [in Isaiah 2:2-4] is of a world without the violence of war. Reading the phrase wehayâ beªa˙årît hayyamîm [I'm afraid the diacritics dropped out in the transliteration] as ‘in the last days’, scholars customarily assert that only in the eschaton when the Messiah rules will this vision be fully realized. This reading shortchanges the exegesis. The expression wehayâ beªa˙årît hayyamîm is translated in the NRSV as ‘in days to come’ and should be understood as ‘whenever’. Hence, whenever and wherever (including here and now) the word of Yahweh’s instruction is embraced, the outcome will be eliminating weapons of destruction and instead forging implements of agricultural production. The oracle offers hope for the future, but it also addresses the immediate circumstance.”—Martens, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 37

<idle musing>
Wow; what a radical understanding. Maybe I have been living in a corner, but I have never heard this interpretation before. It certainly puts a different urgency on peacemaking!
</idle musing>

Vengeance is whose?

"The Psalms urge us to “seek peace, and pursue it” (34:14), an exhortation written by one who is teaching his family the fear of the Lord. The Psalms promise that “there is posterity for the peaceable” (37:37, NRSV; “there is a future for the man of peace,” NIV). Someone may retort that the imprecatory psalms strike a different note; the point is conceded: human emotions run high when people are provoked. But, strikingly, the imprecatory psalms call on God to take punitive action in accord with his promise/principle, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay”—a major plank in the shalom position (Deut 32:35). The Writings segment of the canon advocates a strategy of desisting from personal vengeance when provoked.”— Martens, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, pp. 36-37

Shalom and monotheism

"The legacy of biblical monotheism is shalom, not violence.

“The intent of this essay is to sort out these two contradictory interpretations. I argue here that the cross along with the resurrection is the centerpiece of the Christian gospel, that its message is fundamentally reconciliation and peace, and that the method for achieving reconciliation and peace is absorbing the violence. Christians, followers of God’s way, share this message of reconciliation and peace and both advocate and practice nonviolence. Shalom is ultimately possible because of God’s intervention. An alternate title for this essay might be: “The Legacy of Biblical Monotheism: Shalom.”—Elmer Martens in War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 33.

111111 meme

OK, I've been tagged by Jim West and Nick Norelli for the BSC 111111 meme. I am not nearly as clever as those two, and have been struggling to come up with 5 imaginary posts by 5 bibliobloggers (per the instructions here), but am drawing a major blank. But, I don't want to hear Zwingli read to me by anyone—that would be worse than having Calvin read to me :)

First the rules:

a. Tag five Biblical studies bloggers.
b. Invent fictional posts that they might have written over the last month.
c. Link to this post.

Here are my lame attempts:
Charles Halton: "Why the University of Chicago is better than Hebrew Union College and why I wish I had gone there"

Kevin Edgecomb: "I just discovered that the filioque clause is right! Now what?"

Kevin Wilson: "Why I prefer the Anchor Bible Dictionary over the New Interpreter's Bible Dictionary"

Tyler Williams: "It's those 3 X's that are blocking it, really!"

Rick Brannan: "Greek accents don't really matter; one ALLA is as good as another!"

OK, I told you they were lame...now does anybody have a good idea for a July sale? That's what I should have been doing while I was straining my poor brain for this.

God and war

More from War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century
“The evidence of Exodus 15 may be multiplied throughout the Bible; whenever war is associated with God’s activities, the majesty of God receives far more attention and praise than the war that he prosecutes.”—Hess, pages 31-32

War in the Bible

I have been reading War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century. I have some good excerpts marked from chapter one, but forgot to bring it with me on this trip, so they will have to wait until next week.

Meanwhile, here's a good quote from chapter 2, by Rick Hess (page 25):

...no ancient war was entirely secular. Despite the horror of battle, the ancient world understood all its wars to be sacred, if not holy. That is, war involved the powers of heaven as well as earth. Therefore, every war that was prosecuted by an ancient people, whether great or small, was dependent on the favor of the gods for its success. The case was no different in Israel.

<idle musing>
I am always amazed by how difficult this concept is for people to grasp. For some reason the secular/sacred dichotomy of modern/post-modern life gets projected backwards onto texts and history. Of course, I would argue that the dichotomy is a false one even today :)
</idle musing>

Bang! Bang! Another one bites the dust

OK, bad title, but I have to agree with Scot McKnight on this one. The Supreme Court might be legally right, but they are wrong.

The Supreme Court decision is a classic example of being legal and right but dead wrong, in my opinion of course. Like the priest and levite who chose to avoid touching what they thought was a dead corpse but, in avoiding contracting impurity, missed the whole point of the law — to love God and to love others.

<idle musing>
"As long as their is sin in the world, there will be violence." I just read that yesterday in a book. But, do we have to make the tools of violence so readily available? Does anyone really need an automatic weapon? That is hardly a hunting weapon—at least not unless you are hunting humans!
</idle musing>

lost post

I ran across this yesterday, it was supposed to have been posted a week ago Wednesday, which explains why there was no post that day :)

Again, from Absolute Surrender:
All the feebleness in the Church is owing to the refusal to obey its God.

And why is that so? I know your answer. You say: “We are too feeble and too helpless, and we try to obey, and we vow to obey, but somehow we fail.”

Ah, yes; you fail because you do not accept the strength of God. God alone can work out His will in you. You cannot work out God's will, but His Holy Spirit can; and until the Church, until believers grasp this, and cease trying by human effort to do God's will, and wait upon the Holy Spirit to come with His omnipotent and enabling power, the Church will never be what God wants her to be, and what God is willing to make of her.

ATLA morning

Here are a couple of pictures. This is not a fancy display; I didn't even bring our pull-up banner because United would have charged me $25.00 to check it.

Death or death?

From My Utmost for His Highest:

We have to recognize that sin is a fact of life, not just a shortcoming. Sin is blatant mutiny against God, and either sin or God must die in my life. The New Testament brings us right down to this one issue— if sin rules in me, God’s life in me will be killed; if God rules in me, sin in me will be killed. There is nothing more fundamental than that. The culmination of sin was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and what was true in the history of God on earth will also be true in your history and in mine— that is, sin will kill the life of God in us. We must mentally bring ourselves to terms with this fact of sin. It is the only explanation why Jesus Christ came to earth, and it is the explanation of the grief and sorrow of life.

Moonlit walks

<idle musing>
Because I am away from home, I can't take my daily walk with Debbie. We usually take a walk around midnight or so, covering about 2 miles while we talk, sing, and pray together. I really like those times and miss them when we don't walk. There is something special about the outdoors after midnight.

This time of year is especially nice. Monday night the moon was about 1/2 full and it was clear. The fireflies have started coming out now, and they were flashing all over the woods. It was almost like a Christmas display. Tuesday night the sky was mostly cloudy, but that made the moon all the more interesting as it would try to peek through the clouds. Sometimes it almost looked like a fire burning a hole through them.
</idle musing>

Thoughts on travel

Well, I finally arrived at the hotel tonight. I arrived at the airport in South Bend (Indiana) around 3:00. I got a ride from Debbie's parents, since the hood still hasn't arrived for our car yet—although it is supposed to arrive on Thursday. I went to check in and the auto check-in wouldn't let me. It said something about overbooked flight or missing connecting flight. Immediately visions of staying the night at the airport flash to my mind :(

Well, turns out that the weather—lots of thunderstorms—had backed up South Bend and Chicago. My flight to Ottawa from Chicago would be gone by the time I left South Bend. But, they put me on a later flight. Problem solved. The flight, which was supposed to leave at 4:08, ended up leaving at 5:30. When I got to O'Hare, the flight I was originally booked on was still in the gate, so I could have made it. Instead I sat in the airport for an extra 2 hours. No problem though, I just caught up on some blog reading.

The flight to Ottawa was pretty uneventful, but the guy next to me was reading a Dan Brown type novel. He glanced over at what I was reading—the Greek New Testament. He went back to his novel. Too bad! It could have gotten interesting :)

Because I had shipped books ahead of me, they sent me to customs. I sat there for a long time while they grilled some people in front of me. I was wondering what I would be in for when all of a sudden a new customs officer appears with two people in tow. Apparently they had tried to bring meat into the country without declaring it. From Iraq! Uh-oh! They're probably still there, or in jail.

When they got to me, the customs woman asked me why I was here, what I had shipped, why I had shipped it and then let me go. I offered to show her the book I had in my backpack: Ashkelon 1, but she wasn't interested. I told her I was proud of it and that it was just published. She reluctantly agreed to let me show it to her, but she didn't seem impressed by its 7 pounds of mass. Oh well.

One advantage of catching the later flight was that I ran into the guys from TBN and we shared a cab. Since it was around 11:00 at night, I didn't see much of the city, but it looks nice. Hopefully I can walk around some while I am here.

When I got to my room and opened my suitcase, I noticed that they had rummaged through it. I had a brand new bottle of contact lens solution in a side pouch. The unzipped the pouch and moved it. It was still sealed, or I bet I wouldn't have it anymore. They also took my toothpaste! I've never had that happen before. Oh will, it has been a long day with 8 hours in airports, so I think I will head for bed. The hotel has a workout room that I will use in the morning.

Strawberries

It's that time of the year again. A bit later than normal this year because it has been so cold, but that worked out better for me with our wacky schedule this year. Saturday I picked about 40 pounds of strawberries—20 pounds for freezer jam and 20 pounds sliced and frozen. I wanted 50 pounds, but because it is toward the end of the season, the berries were smaller and it took longer than normal to pick.

We still don't have a car, and the patch is about 15 miles away, so Jon loaned me his car. I couldn't have fit that many strawberries onto the bike trailer without crushing them. I certainly didn't want strawberry juice :)

I got to the patch around 9:00 and had picked about 15 pounds when it got cloudy and windy and looked (and sounded) like it was going to rain. In fact, it did start to sprinkle and most people quit and went home. Not me. Instead I asked God to send the storm south of us and let me finish picking. Sure enough, that storm went south of us and I kept on picking. A bit later, when I had about 35 pounds, it started to look like rain again, but I kept on praying. When I hit 40 pounds, my back was starting to hurt and I decided to quit.

I was carrying the flats up to the stand to pay for them when it started to rain. By the time I had the fourth flat there, it was pouring rain. Next time, I will remember to ask God to keep the rain away until I have them paid for! Oh well, I didn't melt, nor did the strawberries.

The rest of the day was spent making jam, slicing strawberries and freezing them. We finished at about 11:00 PM. Long day, but it will be well worth it this winter when Debbie makes shortcake. But, right now I don't want to see another strawberry for a while...

Eisenbrauns 10 day sale

1000 years ago this year the scribes finished copying the Leningrad codex. Eisenbrauns is celebrating the milestone with a sale on the facsimile edition and the smaller Dothan edition, both at 40% off.

Of course, you can't just run those two by themselves, so we threw in 8 other titles for you at savings from 40-50% off:

"Biblia Hebraica Leningradensia: Prepared according to the Vocalization, Accents, and Masora of Aaron ben Moses ben Asher in the Leningrad Codex with Adaptations to Halakhic Requirements"
by Aron Dothan
Hendrickson Publishers, 2001. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 1565630890
List Price: $49.95 Your Price: $29.97

"The Leningrad Codex: The Facsimile Edition"
Edited by David Noel Freedman, Astrid Beck, and James A. Sanders
Eerdmans, 1998. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0802837867
List Price: $275.00 Your Price: $165.00

"Deuteronomy"
Edited by Carmel McCarthy
Biblia Hebraica Quinta - BHQ
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart, 2007. Paper. Hebrew.
ISBN: 9781598561982
List Price: $99.00 Your Price: $59.40

"Ezra-Nehemiah: Biblia Hebraica Quinta"
Edited by David Marcus
Biblia Hebraica Quinta - BHQ 20
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart, 2006. Paper. Hebrew.
ISBN: 3438052806
List Price: $98.00 Your Price: $58.80

"General Introduction and Megilloth: Biblia Hebraica Quinta"
Edited by Adrian Schenker, et al.
Biblia Hebraica Quinta - BHQ 18
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart, 2004. Paper. Hebrew.
ISBN: 3438052784
List Price: $98.00 Your Price: $58.80

"Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: Large Format"
Edited by K. Elliger and W. Rudolph

Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart, 1987. Cloth. Hebrew.
ISBN: 3438052180
List Price: $79.99 Your Price: $47.99

"Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: Paperback Edition"
Edited by K. Elliger and W. Rudolph
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart, 2001. Paper. Hebrew.
ISBN: 3438052229
List Price: $34.99 Your Price: $19.94

"Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: Small format"
Edited by K. Elliger and W. Rudolph
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart, 1987. Cloth. Hebrew.
ISBN: 3438052199
List Price: $69.95 Your Price: $38.47

"Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon Old Testament: Study Edition, 2 Volume Set"
Edited by Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner
Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament - HALOT
Brill Academic Publishers, 2002. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9004124454
List Price: $249.00 Your Price: $174.05

"The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon with an appendix containing the Biblical Aramaic: Coded with the numbering system from "Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible""
by Francis Brown, et al.
Hendrickson Publishers, 1995. Cloth. English and Hebrew.
ISBN: 1565632060
List Price: $34.95 Your Price: $17.48

Tuesday's thought

Another selection from Absolute Surrender, compliments of Blogger's delayed posting action:
I fear that if you take the preaching throughout the Church of Christ and ask why there is, alas! so little converting power in the preaching of the Word, why there is so much work and often so little result for eternity, why the Word has so little power to build up believers in holiness and in consecration—the answer will come: It is the absence of the power of the Holy Ghost. And why is this? There can be no other reason but that the flesh and human energy have taken the place that the Holy Ghost ought to have.

Monday's thought

If you are reading this, then the delayed posting function of Blogger works :)

Here's another selection from Abosolute Surrender:
God gives Christians the Holy Spirit with this intention, that every day all their life should be lived in the power of the Spirit. A man cannot live one hour a godly life unless by the power of the Holy Ghost. He may live a proper, consistent life, as people call it, an irreproachable life, a life of virtue and diligent service; but to live a life acceptable to God, in enjoyment of God's salvation and God's love, to live and walk in the power of the new life—he cannot do it unless he be guided by the Holy Spirit every day and every hour.

Lost shipment

This one has to take the record for time lost.

We sent a shipment out to a customer in December, 2006. It was a foreign address, so we allow up to 3 months for delivery. When it hadn't arrived by March, 2007, we reshipped to him, our normal procedure. He received the follow-up shipment without problems.

Today, we received back a package containing the original shipment. The box was beat up, but the books were still in sellable condition! That was over 18 months that the package was lost somewhere in the world!

Strange things happening...

Thought for a Friday

I haven't had a lot of time to read lately, but I picked up Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray again the other day and read chapter 7. Here is a selection from it:

If the church will return to acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is her strength and her help, and if the church will return to give up everything, and wait upon God to be filled with the Spirit, her days of beauty and gladness will return, and we shall see the glory of God revealed among us. This is my message to every individual believer: Nothing will help you unless you come to understand that you must live every day under the power of the Holy Ghost.

God wants you to be a living vessel in whom the power of the Spirit is to be manifested every hour and every moment of your life, and God will enable you to be that.

<idle musing>
Do I ever know that to be true in the last few days. Without the continuous upholding power of God, there is no way I could make it. I feel a wall of peace surrounding me and protecting me. Sure, it hurts and I grieve, but not as those without hope, as the scripture says. David put it appropriately when he said of his dead baby that he would go to be with him, but the child would never return.

I do thank all of you for your e-mails, wall posts, comments, and prayers. They do make a difference and I thank God for all of you. I will be leaving to get Debbie on Saturday and won't return until Tuesday night, so there might not be any postings until then.
</idle musing>

Various notes

I am getting caught up on some blog reading, and wanted to point to a few good posts

Nice post by Claude Mariottini on why just changing the name of your church won't change anything else.

How about some provocative thoughts on marriage

Alan Knox is connecting some dots in reading scripture, and pointing to a faulty view of church

Or, how about some thoughts on baptism and what it means in your daily life.

Finally, how about an outsider's view of American life

Enjoy.

Lakeland again

Well, it looks like I don't have to figure out how to post the PDF. Gary sent it to Todd, and he posted it on his website here.

Peter Kirk interacts with the paper here.

I have known Gary Greig for over 20 years now, from the time we were students together at the University of Chicago. Gary is a very careful scholar and pays attention to detail—unlike yours truly :)

The what?

I think we need to start reapplying the lex sedentium Huh? I had never heard of it before either, but Alan Knox posted on it recently. Here's a bit to help you understand

Sometime during the 1500's the magisterial reformers abandoned the idea of Sitzerrecht - that all believers have the right and duty to test teachers and determine the meaning of Scripture together - and embraced the principle that only a "technically qualified theological expert" could properly interpret Scripture for a gathered group of believers.

The idea that only a qualified expert can exegete and explain Scripture today is embraced by most congregations - even if it is not voiced as a hermeneutical principle by those same congregations. For this reason, the "sermon" and the "pulpit" are placed in a superior position to any other type of communication between believers. Since the sermon is now in a superior position - for many a sacrosanct or even sacramental position - Paul's instructions in 1 Cor. 14:26ff. concerning interrupting a speaker are considered to not apply to sermons.

<idle musing>
Fascinating stuff. Too bad the magisterial reformers (a certain Zwingli included) didn't stick with the scripture, but instead substituted their own version of the Mass (he says, ducking!). Read the whole post for more background
</idle musing>

Sometimes you have to say good-bye

But it is not always easy. Monday they did surgery on Emily Grace. Tuesday, she went to be with Jesus. I only got to see her two days, but she had a sweet spirit about her. Even the nurses noticed it and commented on it. Joel has written a nice little good-bye here.

Lakeland (long)

Up until now, I have avoided saying anything about the Lakeland outpouring. But, it seems that some comments need to be made, so here we go...

As most of you know, I desire to see a revival of true Christianity in this land—actually, in this world. I have read quite a few histories of revival and not a few biographies of some of the greatest revival preachers in the last 400 years. One thing I have noted that they all have in common is that they are misunderstood and misrepresented by their contemporaries. Especially by the established leaders of the institutional church. For example, Jonathan Edwards was accused of allowing the devil to deceive him—they even had a denominational meeting that was going to censure him, but Godly men prevented it; John Wesley was called a “papist” (which was one of the worst things you could call someone in 18th century England—remember they had just come out of the religious wars) and worse; Charles Finney was accused of using “new measures” which were in contradiction to the scripture. Ironically, many of those "new measures" have now become essential in many people's minds. For example, take the altar call. This is a staple in most evangelistic services, but it was introduced by Finney, to the outrage of most of his contemporaries. Now if you don't have one, you are accused of not presenting the gospel!

Another thing that they have in common is an unusual level of physical manifestations which were a bit strange. People crying out under conviction, some actually falling to the ground and going into a trance. If you read John Wesley's journal (not the cleaned up one that Moody Press used to sell, but either the new one by Abingdon, or the older one by Baker), you will see many strange things enumerated. But, and this is the difference between many revivalists then and now, the revivalists did not put any stock in the manifestations. They looked for a changed life; a life full of the fear of God and the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Anything else was simply accepted as a way that God was working, but not seen as a substitute for a changed life.

As long as a changed life remains the focus, and God is kept at the center, let the manifestations come in whatever form they do. Personally, I think that is where Toronto got sidetracked. They started out focusing on God, but before very long, the manifestations became the center. Once that happened, God left.

I have heard many accusations raised against Todd Bentley. For example, he is violent; he almost attacks the people physically who come for healing. So? Has anybody ever read any of the reports from a Smith Wigglesworth healing? Herr Tilling, care to say anything? Smith Wigglesworth would probably be hauled into court today for the physicalness of his “laying on of hands,” yet most were healed.

I have heard complaints about the fact that he is tattoed. So? I grew up during the 1960-70 era. Anybody hear of the Jesus Movement? The big complaint about them was that they had long-hair, wore ragged blue jeans, went barefoot, and played rock and roll (guilty on all counts!). Did that mean that God wasn't at work? Did that mean that their salvation wasn't real? Can God only work through established institutional churches with robes, candles, vestments, etc.? Hmmm. Want to join the pharisees and sadducees who were against Jesus because he didn't do things the “right” way?

I have heard him accused of being ignorant. Maybe he isn't a theologian, but I would venture to say that he knows more about God than his critics. The early disciples were “ignorant and unschooled men,” did that stop God from using them? Smith Wigglesworth could barely read (and some of his theology was a bit on the questionable side). Did that keep God from using him? I know a pastor who is now in his 80's who couldn't read until God called him to preach. His answer to God was, “God, I'll preach, but you will have to teach me how to read.” God did. It is a cliché, but true, that God is more concerned with our availability than our ability.

Remember that scripture says people will know we are Christians by our love for one another. It doesn't say by our correct doctrine or by our flowery sermons or our ornate buildings. Also, remember that we are told to watch for false teachers by the fruit of their lives. Again, nothing about doctrine. Yes, doctrine is important! But, far more important is your relationship with the almighty righteous God who created you and redeemed you by the blood of his son, Jesus.

A friend of mine, who has a PhD from the University of Chicago, sent me a theological defense of the Lakeland outpouring. He gave me permission to post it, but it is too long to put up as a post. If I can figure out how to post a PDF on Blogger, I will put it up. Anybody able to tell me how?

June sale at Eisenbrauns

Here it is the tenth of June, and I still haven't posted about the monthly sale. You would almost think that other more important things are going on right now :)

The Eisenbrauns' June sale is offering you the chance to save 40% on almost 50 titles from the AOAT series by Ugarit Verlag. We haven't offered prices this low on AOAT titles for over 2 years. You can view the complete list here

Update on Emily

I just received an e-mail from Joel:

They decided not to do another ECHO. They were putting an IV in Emily's neck when we arrived, but we couldn't watch. She's still scheduled for noon but may not actually have surgery until 1 or 2.

The times are Central Daylight. Please pray! I think they should do another ECHO before surgery, but...

Emily Grace (June bug) Monday results

Joel and Renee couldn't post last night, but I talked to Joel on the phone (Debbie too!). Here's what happened:

The doctors stopped the prostoglandin yesterday morning, as planned. Emily's oxygen saturation levels dropped, as expected; the concern is if they drop below 70. They did drop below 70 last evening, but then recovered into the 80's, but were not stable, although they did not drop below 70 again. The doctors had a nurse technician do an ultrasound/echo monitor on Emily's heart. She was at it for about 45 minutes.

She was fairly sure that she saw forward movement of blood through the pulmonary artery, which is good. Because it was evening, the doctors were consulting with her over the phone. Given that it was evening, and that her levels were somewhat unstable, they decided to begin giving Emily the prostoglandin again. But, there will be a consultation between the doctors and a new ultrasound/echo monitor this morning.

Please pray! This is truly good news! If when the doctors review the ultrasound/echo monitor from last night and this morning they see forward movement of blood, they probably will not need to operate!

Joel told me they would call me at work today with any further updates. I will post them as soon as I hear.

Emily Grace (June bug)

I haven't posted anything on baby Emily since she was born. But, here is the latest, well the latest as of Saturday anyway. You can get all the details, as well as pictures on Joel and Renee's blog

On Thursday they stopped giving her prostoglandin to see if her heart would be able to function normally (see here for details). It didn't. So they resumed the medication. At the time, the doctors said that this automatically means open-heart surgery. But, on Saturday when I talked to Renee she told me that they were going to try one more time—today. Apparently they think there is still a chance to avoid surgery. When I think of that tiny little chest getting cut open... Anyway, with God there is more than a chance to avoid surgery. Please pray that God would intervene and enable her heart to sustain the necessary blood flow.

She is a beautiful little baby and she is one week old today.

The car

OK. The insurance guy came today and took all kinds of pictures. The car is 13 years old, so there was plenty of rust and related dents. After all was said and done, I got about $600 for the car. I hope that covers the repair of the hood; I have a friend coming to look at it tomorrow.

Here are some pictures I took of it. It is in the garage and the sun was causing weird shadows, but you can get the idea.

Back home again

I am now back in Indiana and at work. Yesterday (Wednesday) I swung by the hospital one last time to say good-bye to Joel, Renee, and Emily. She is such a precious little thing and looks very good despite all the tubes. If you want the latest news, check out Joel and Renee's blog.

The return trip is about 10 hours and I left the hospital around noon, Minneapolis time, which means 1:00 PM Indiana time. I made good time around Chicago, even with all the construction, and was coming down our road right around 11:15. I was rejoicing in the good time I made and that I hadn't had any car problems when suddenly a deer runs out in front of me, not more than 15 feet away. I swerved to avoid it, but the thing hit the hood with a crash! Or, was that the airbags deploying? I don't know, but I sure did hit it. The hood folded in half and the car stunk from the airbags.

The poor deer was lying in the road and I thought for sure I had killed it, But, nope. It scrambled up and managed to cross the road into the ditch before it collapsed. You could hear the backbone crunching. It was heart-wrenching to hear and see it thrashing around trying to get away. I called 911 and waited for the sheriff deputy to arrive. Thankfully, he put it out of its misery with 2 shots to the head with a rifle.

Five hundred and thirty miles, and 1/4 mile from home. Amazingly, there were no leaking fluids and the radiator had only moved about 1.5 inches. I actually drove it home and parked it in the garage. Because the airbags deployed, the insurance company is going to declare it totaled, but I'm going to buy it back. I got 55 miles to the gallon coming home. If at all possible, I want that car!

Never a dull moment. Son gets married, daughter has high-risk baby, deer hits car. All in less than a week :)

It certainly makes me believe in divine providence.

Junebug

Hey everybody! I'm a grandpa again! Emily Grace was born at 1:30 PM Central time today. They were concerned that she wouldn't have enough lung capacity to support life. Guess what? God is fantastic! Not only did she cry, but she wouldn't stop crying! Talk about lung capacity :)

More details soon, but my battery is about dead now...

It's Monday

Haven't had access to the Internet since Thursday, so perhaps a bit of an update would be nice...

Ryan and Emily's wedding was Saturday, and it was wonderful. Their prayer was that God would be glorified and people would see Jesus in everything that happened. Their prayers were answered. We saw people we hadn't seen since the last wedding (Renee's four years ago); others we hadn't seen since we left Minneapolis over 4.5 years ago. After the reception we helped Ryan and Emily take their gifts to their new apartment and left them in peace :) They flew out Monday AM at 6:00 for Florida. Ryan's work has paid for their airfare and lodging for 8 days at Fort Lauderdale! Emily had never flown before, or seen the ocean, so this is quite the treat for her. I just hope they don't get sunburn.

Saturday evening we went to "The House" which is an emerging-type church in Burnsville on the charismatic side of things. This is Ryan and Emily's home church, so we saw quite a few people that we had met at the wedding that morning. Afterwards, several of us joined together in prayer for baby Emily Grace (Junebug).

Sunday we went to see some friends in Chaska (where we used to live in the Minneapolis area). We had a good time catching up and praying with people from our bible study there. After that, we headed over to another set of friends and prayed with them for healing of their marriage. God broke through, and there was a great time of forgiveness and healing. They had been separated, but after last night, they are back together. We praise God for the restoration and pray that they would continue to walk in forgiveness with one another. By the time that was over, it was a bit late to take the kids back to Clyde and Pat's—we had laid them down to sleep at the last place—so we stayed the rest of the night.

Today, we returned to Clyde and Pat's to the news that Renee had gone into labor on her own late Sunday night. They admitted her Monday morning and broke her water around 10:30 Central time. And that brings us up to date. We don't know anything more yet, but they are expecting a baby girl before evening...

More when I have it.

So, what is happening?

Basically, nothing. We arrived in Minneapolis Monday morning after driving through the night. That same afternoon, Joel and I went up to Grand Marais (about a 5 hour drive) to get the kids and their clothes. Debbie stayed with Renee. Tuesday morning Joel and I did some things that they hadn't been able to do before leaving Friday night—they weren't expecting to leave for another 6 days—and packed up the kids' clothes and grabbed the kids. Then, off we went for another 5 hour drive back to Minneapolis. Along the way, we stopped outside of Duluth for a nice cold picnic. The wind was off the lake, which always makes it cold, but it had been 35 F the night before, and was only about 50 degrees at noon. But the lake is still beautiful and we threw our share of rocks into it :) We arrived back in Minneapolis around 5 that night. So, in about 36 hours, I had spent around 20 of them in a car :(

We have the kids and are staying with Ryan's future in-laws, Clyde and Pat. They have a large enough house and a 3 acre yard, so we aren't cramped. They have been great, and the kids are doing well. Joel and Renee come every day to see them after their morning doctor's appointment. Renee has been having contractions off and on, but nothing to really get things moving. Right now, as I write this, they are having an ultrasound, which may tell more, but I doubt it.

Yesterday afternoon, Joel, Clyde, and I went for a nice hike in the nature preserve near their house. They have about 7-8 miles of trails and we did about 5 miles of them. Saw 3-4 deer, 1 wild turkey, and numerous birds.

Last night I helped Ryan pick up their new bed and put it together. They got a nice one bedroom apartment in Bloomington (a near 'burb of Minneapolis) with a nice big yard. Very quiet and peaceful. Ryan has been living there for about a week; Emily is still living at Bethany. They believe in sexual abstinence until marriage—would that others would also!

The only drawback about staying where we are is that they have no high speed Internet and no network for me to attach my computer to even for dial-up. Right now I am sitting in a Panera Bread and typing this, trying to get caught up on e-mails, and do some other stuff.

We left in such a hurry, that I copied the wrong files to my computer, so I am going to try and get those so I can get the Biblical Studies catalog done while I am here.

And they're off!

Wow, what a weekend, and its only Sunday afternoon. We were at some friends Friday night and returned to no less than 5 messages on the answering machine. Emily Grace (June bug) decided to upset everybody's schedule and sent Renee into labor. You can read all the details on Joel and Renee's blog.

They stopped the labor in Duluth while they airlifted her to Minneapolis and decided not to restart it. But, they won't let them leave Minneapolis. So, Joel and Renee are in a hotel about 2 blocks from the hospital, and Joshua and Rachel are still in Grand Marais. So, we are off to Minneapolis to take care of Joshua and Rachel.

I will post as I can, but please pray!

Thanks to all who have been praying; God is in control and will get glory for himself.

Humor for a Friday

I was looking over a book we recently got, entitled Doing Business with Germans. There are some cartoons, but this one hit my funny bone on a Friday afternoon.



I don't know if the image came through well enough to read, but the blow dryer on the right is entitle "Anleitung," and contains rows of instructions. The one on the left simply says "Press." Too funny...

What a waste

I've been a bit busy of late, creating the new Biblical Studies Resource catalog. The titles need to be chosen before we leave for Ryan's wedding next Wednesday. And, I've been trying to get all the outside stuff done at home before we leave. Both of those together limit my reading and writing time significantly.

All of that to say, this list is about a week old now, but still very good. He lists 45 ways to waste your time in seminary. I would add that some/most of them are good ways to waste your life in general, not just a seminary education. Here's a selection:

4. Nurture an attitude of superiority, competition, and condesension toward fellow seminary students. Secrectly speak ill of them with friends and with your spouse.

6. Neglect personal worship, Bible reading and prayer.

8. Practice misquoting and misrepresenting positions and ideas you don’t agree with. Be lazy and don’t attempt to understand opposing views; instead, nurse your prejudices and exalt your opinions by superficial reading and listening.

9. Give your opinion as often as possible - especially in class. Ask questions that show off your knowledge instead of questions that demonstrate a genuine inquiry.

12. Fill your life with questionable movies, television, internet, and music.

13. Set aside fellowship and accountability with fellow brothers in Christ.

14. Let your study of divine things become dull, boring, lifeless, and mundane.

15. Chip away at your integrity by signing your school’s covenant and then breaking it under the delusion that, “Those rules are legalistic anyway.”

16. Don’t read to learn; read only to refute what you believe is wrong.

17. Convince yourself that you already know all this stuff.

32. Gain knowledge in order to merely teach others. Don’t expend the effort it takes to deal with your own heart.

35. Comfort yourself with the delusion that you will start seriously dealing with sin as soon as you become a pastor; right now it’s not really that big a deal.

41. Love books and theology and ministry more than the Lord Jesus Christ.

45. Don’t really try to learn the languages - let Bible Works do all the work for you.

<idle musing>
Read the whole thing, some good insights there, especially number 41! Now, back to the catalog, which will go out to those who just might be victims of number 41.
</idle musing>

Information or transformation?

The Heresy has an interesting comment on ministry:

In conventional ministry the life blood of ministry is information. The underlying assumption is that knowledge changes people so find the right people who will present the right information to everyone else and they will change. It isn’t working out so well now.

If sacrificial love is as important as Jesus, Paul and John make it out to be why doesn’t this value shape what we do? If love is more important than knowledge than why do we spend so much time absorbing information and so little time interacting with people we care about? In as much as I believe in a simpler approach to church organization the size isn’t the pivotal factor. It really isn’t about how many people are meeting where. It goes deeper than that. It is about the Spirit having an opportunity to work through the body and that a Christlike genuine sacrificial love be evident in the lives of those who are committed to each other. If we organize ourselves in such a way that we prevent real genuine caring relationships to form and we put curbs and barriers up to manage people we are squeezing off the life blood of Christ’s body.

He goes on to say that knowledge is essential to prevent weird directions, but is secondary. Read the whole thing.
<idle musing>
The structure of our meetings and church bodies is not a secondary consideration; how we are organized has a huge effect on the results. In the May Christianity Today there was an article that said we are not “brains on a stick” (which just got posted today), yet we organize everything around information transfer (i.e., the sermon). That needs to change in order for God to get our whole lives under His control! And just changing it from emphasis on the sermon to emphasis on the liturgy doesn't reslt in more interaction! A responsive reading or collect prayer isn't any more interactive than silently absorbing a sermon! We need real community, not just a Sunday morning “worship hour” in order to become the body of Christ on the earth.
</idle musing>

Rapture Ready?

The other day, Ben Myers published a long review of the book Rapture Ready!. I am quoting a long excerpt from his review, but even so, you should read the whole thing. His insights are disturbingly accurate:

Most of all, however, Radosh’s hopeful outlook arises from his confidence in consumerism itself. Concluding the book, he suggests that the problems in evangelical pop culture – its tendency towards intolerance, for example – will be resolved as Christian pop culture is more fully assimilated into the mainstream market. The weirdness and bigotry that characterises some aspects of evangelical culture will thus eventually be smoothed out – not so much through dialogue, discussion and reflection, but merely through the levelling operation of market forces. The result will be a more liberal and more tolerant Christian culture – in short, a more precise mirror of the values of mainstream culture.

By and large, this analysis is probably correct: in the setting of late capitalism, the creation of a vibrant and distinctive niche market goes hand in hand with the emergence of mass homogeneity. But I’m not so sure this is a comforting prospect. Instead, it ought to raise some disturbing questions about the nature of evangelical culture. It seems to me that the only flaw in Radosh’s analysis is his assumption that evangelical consumerism can be neatly distinguished from evangelical identity – as though the modification of evangelicalism’s consumer culture would not also be a modification of its religious identity.

The issues involved here are, to my mind, far more urgent than Radosh’s concerns about helping evangelicals to become nicer and more tolerant. We should perhaps ask what it means for religious believers to identify themselves by the merchandise they consume; what it means when we allow ourselves to become not a community, but a sub-culture, and thus one more market niche alongside others.

As Slavoj Žižek has observed, the logic of late capitalism presses towards the
commodification of a niche identity for its own sake; the Christian merchandise I buy is not itself the desired commodity, but it is merely an ephemeral signifier of the real commodity, which is my identity as a particular sort of Christian. In this case, the product I am really purchasing is radically non-material, wholly spiritual; I am purchasing religious meaning and belonging, religious “community” (since the merchandise allows me to participate in a specific market niche). Here, any neat separation between my “faith” and my “consumer culture” is simply fictitious. To change the latter simply is to change the former.

So what we need today, I believe, is a sustained theological critique of this commodification of Christian identity, and a recognition that the spiritual identity provided by a consumer sub-culture is a seductive simulacrum, an obstacle to the risky venture of Christian faith. If we are to find authentic Christian identity, it will arise not from the benevolent operations of the market, but in a community which creates a new economic space within the world, with its own practices and its own ways of belonging.

<idle musing>
Amen! True Christian community, with a true following of God's kingdom principles is a necessity.
</idle musing>

A publishing parable

I like this, from IVP's chief editor, Andy Le Peau:

The key personnel gathered. “Listen,” said the publisher. “A publisher went out to publish. And as he published, some books fell on deaf ears. And the remaindering houses came and snatched up the excess stock at a fraction of its cost. Other books fell on hard-headed readers where the ideas were not able to root deeply in their minds. So as soon as the readers’ preconceived notions arose, the ideas from the book withered away. Other books fell among a huge glut of other new books and choked out the shelf-space, so the books were not seen. Other books fell into fertile minds and grew there, making a difference in the readers who in turn touched the lives of thirty, sixty or even a hundred other people.”

He then goes on to interpret it. Go read the whole thing.

Where's the focus?

Scot McKnight was in South Africa last week, so he had some guest posters. One in particular stood out to me, the one on Friday:

I spent so much of my early ministry years living in fear. Fear that I wouldn’t be a good enough pastor. Fear that I wouldn’t be a good enough parent. Fear that I wouldn’t be able to financially support my family adequately. And all of that energy that I invested in fear (and a fair amount of corresponding inner anger and depression) was so unnecessary. If only I had listened to my own sermons on God’s grace and faithfulness...

So what wisdom would I give to a new pastor if were asked the question, “What should I focus on?” Focus on God’s grace and faithfulness — for your people, but especially for yourself!

<idle musing>
Wonderful wisdom! So often I can give the answer to a problem in someone else's life, but ignore the answer for my own life! Isn't there something in Matthew about the speck in your brother's eye, but not seeing the log in your own...
</idle musing>

Have we arrived?

Joel over at Grace Roots has a good post on arriving:

My point here is that I did have some sort of a sense that I had "arrived" at some sort of definition of what the Lord wanted to do with my life, and He would build this "vision" in due time, even if the "vision" wasn't perfectly clear at the time. But over the months and years, I discovered that my life in Christ isn't about some ministry "brand." Even if/when I write a book, my life in Him is still not defined by it. I am in Him and He is in me, and I usually don't have a clue where I'm going!

<idle musing>
Years ago, while I was mowing the lawn one day, I heard a teaching tape from Keith Green's Last Days Ministries (that tells you how long ago!). The message was on how every time the Lord puts us in a new place, we think we have finally “arrived.” His point was that each place is simply a way station on the journey of life. God may allow us to stay there for a short or long time, but it isn't the end of the journey.

I like to say that God gives us milestones along the way, to mark major points in our life. The problem is, instead of seeing them as milestones, we treat them as altars, set up a temple, and worship them. God wants us to celebrate them, and then move on, sort of like the Israelites after the crossing of Yam Suph (Red Sea). They rejoiced, had a good old gospel celebration, and then pressed on to Mt Sinai.
</idle musing>

A truly interesting book

This book caught my eye in the latest Columbia University catalog:

From Student to Scholar
A Candid Guide to Becoming a Professor
by Steven M. Cahn
Columbia University Press, Forthcoming September 2008
112 pages, English
Paper
ISBN: 9780231145336
Your Price: $14.95
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~CAHFROMST
Description:
Steven M. Cahn's advice on the professorial life covers an extensive range of critical issues: how to plan, complete, and defend a dissertation; how to navigate a job interview; how to improve teaching performance; how to prepare and publish research; how to develop a professional network; and how to garner support for tenure. He deals with such hurdles as a difficult dissertation advisor, problematic colleagues, and the pressures of the tenure clock. Cahn's witty insights are invaluable to traversing the thickets of academia.

Social action

I ran across this post the other day from Dan Kimball about social action:

What I am wondering about, is how do we avoid patterns of the past when the church jumps strongly in the realm of focusing on the gospel's impact for this earth and in this life - but slowly neglects teaching and reminding people of the gospel's impact about the reality of eternal heaven and eternal hell in the life to come after we die?

Ron Sider wrote a book called "Good News and Good Works: A Theology for the Whole Gospel" which impacted my thinking on this. I read that at exactly the time I was beginning to realize how much I was personally focusing on "the gospel is all about going to heaven when we die". So the timing was great. He raises how the pattern seems to be where churches will focus on what he calls a "one-sided gospel". What he means by that, is that he has seen churches who only focus on evangelism with little or no passion for the poor and liberation for the oppressed. But then he makes the important point that it also goes the other way. That he also sees churches who focus on peace and justice, but do not have any focus on evangelism. He goes on to say how we can "put so much emphasis on social action that they almost entirely forget to tell dying sinners about our wonderful Savior" (page 17). He even called that "ghastly."

Coming from Ron, this is important to listen to. Ron's life and ministry is all about social justice. He leads the Evangelicals for Social Action network. But here we have someone voicing the need to never forget the need for personal evangelism in the midst of focusing on social action.

<idle musing>
Take that! those of you who claim that emerging is all about relevancy :)
</idle musing>

All quiet

Well, not really. I've been a bit busy of late, between tilling and planting—both raspberries and trees, and mowing and... Wow, I had forgotten how much time being a home owner consumes in the Spring.

But, it is always fun the first Spring in a place. You get to see all these flowers and plants come up that others have planted. We had daffodils, which I love, in front of the house. They finished blooming late last week. There was a lone tulip that is still in bloom. We also have two nice lilacs with purple blossoms that are opening up. The fragrance from them comes in the windows and flows through the house.

But, my favorite discovery was the redbud in the back yard. One day, Debbie looked out the back window and saw that there was a tree with a mass of purple on it. We had no idea that there was a redbud on the property, but it is now in full bloom and very beautiful. If I ever remember, I'll take a picture of it and post it.

Last night, we dodged raindrops and bought flowers and vegetables. We ended up with 8 tomato plants, 4 cherry tomato plants, 4 bell peppers, 16 impatiens (red), and 42 begonias (also red). Now we get to plant them! Hopefully this weekend will be nice enough for that to happen. Meantime, I still have to till a small spot for our herb garden.

Oh, I almost forgot, we have a wren couple that has taken up residence in one of our wren houses. It is fun to watch the male sit on top of the house and scold anything that comes near. It was also fun watching them build the nest; they have a lot more patience than I would. The male would bring a long straw and try to get it in the small opening. It would fall to the ground, and he would try again, and again, and again, and...you get the idea. They finally got it built.

Virtual sin

Out of Ur has a great observation about the newest Grand Theft Auto video game:

Do you suspect we’ll see Christians picketing Game Stop and Wal-Mart for selling a game that celebrates violence, drunkenness, theft, prostitution, and heaven knows what else? Will we write books and Bible studies to refute the game’s poor theology? I doubt it. I suspect we’ll buy it. And play it...

I understand the temptation myself. It didn’t take me long to overcome the queasiness I felt during my first exposure to Vice City. Sure, I have qualms about murder and carjacking, but only in real life. It turns out it’s quite a lot of fun to pull someone out of their car and drive it around a while when there are no consequences (and no one really gets hurt). It’s also great fun to run down pedestrians and take their pocket money or shoot a cop to instigate a high-speed chase. I had no problem preaching on Sunday morning (in real life, of course) and selling drugs from the back of an ice cream truck (in Vice City, of course) on Sunday afternoon.

But, he doesn't stop there...

...if you can kill a man in your heart (as Jesus seemed to think you could), then why should we expect God to excuse us for offing someone on a video game? We evangelicals are pretty sure we can commit adultery in our hearts, and we seem to agree that viewing pornography makes us guilty of that heart kind of adultery. If viewing pornography (which isn’t a real affair, after all) makes us adulterers, then doesn’t killing someone in a video game (which isn’t a real crime, after all) make us murderers?

No, you’ll object. It’s different. Porn involves real people; video games don’t. You have a point there. But then again, the deep tragedy of pornography is that it objectifies and dehumanizes women (and men). It completely ignores all the things beneath the skin that makes a human a human—the spirit and personality and whatever else. It presents us with a facsimile of a person. A video game starts with the facsimile and then adds spirit and personality to make it more human so that we find more satisfaction in killing it.

<idle musing>
Yep. Face it, evangelicals are down on sexual sins, but let just about anything else slip by. I noticed it the other day at a Bible study; there were two parts to a verse. The first part dealt with loving the world, the second with adultery (which from the context seemed to be figurative—being unfaithful to God), but the only part that got mentioned was the second half. Loving the world was totally glossed over.

I have noticed it before. When there is a text that talks about death to self, it gets glossed over, or just plain ignored. But, turn a preacher loose on Romans 1, and watch out! Why is this? Maybe because death to self is addressed to christians, and is therefore too convicting? What do you think? Am I not seeing something, or seeing something that isn't there?
</idle musing>

Genesis one

Oh, I love it!

A nice discussion is going on over at Ancient Hebrew Poetry. John posted this morning on what is going on in Genesis 1. He takes John Walton to task for his functional views. The resulting comments were interesting, but what is even more interesting is that John Walton has responded.

This is going to prove to be an interesting exchange, I'm sure. As John notes, he has a book in the works with us. I just wish it were ready now :) But, fear not, brave reader, it will appear. Personally, I am looking forward to it. Maybe I can convince Jim to give me a copy of the manuscript...

Eisenbrauns' May sales

May is here, and so are our new clearance and monthly sale items.

We are running a clearance on some pretty neat items, like Child's Exodus, or Bovon's Studies in Early Christianity. Quantities are limited, so you need to hurry...here's the direct link

Our regular May sale is here. I kinda like my blurb, even though it is tacky:

Taking a cue from nature, with its variety of Spring flora, Eisenbrauns has selected a wide variety of titles, hopefully with something for everyone, to put on sale. Enjoy a bouquet of Eisenbrauns titles this May, with the sweet smell of savings from 40-70%.

I'm not a poet, and not even poetic, so what can I say? :)