The tree house, again

Renee posted a nice picture tour of the tree house here. I didn't take many shots of the inside, but she does a good job. If you want to see all the pictures, you will have to go to my Facebook page

Summer!

Yes, I know, I'm a month late. But, to me, the first tomato is the sign of real summer. All week long we have been picking a tomato, as in one, each day. On Monday it was a Roma; can you imagine us splitting it 3 ways? But, we did, Joshua, Debbie, and I each received about one bite from it :) Each day since then we have had a tomato. Last night, we picked three!

I received some flak when I commented on my first tomato sandwich two years ago. But, this year, I can assure you, the sandwich was from home made wheat bread, home grown Romaine lettuce (the last of it), home grown tomatoes, home grown bunching onions, home made pickle relish, and home made sharp cheddar cheese. But, no mayonnaise.

That's right, I finally opened the last 1/2 pound of cheddar that I made back in March. It is now almost 5 months old. It isn't as sharp as I thought it would be, but it is still good. I didn't have any home made mayonnaise, and having just returned from a 36-plus mile bike ride, didn't want to wait to make it, so I just went without. Ah, the trial of it all :)

That river in Brazil again

Another interesting take on Amazon surfaced yesterday on Inside Higher Education. Here's a sampling:

...from the chief editor of a Midwestern university press who asked not to be identified. (This is understandable. Half the art of dealing with the 800-pound gorilla in the room may be keeping from drawing too much attention to yourself.)

"...Amazon is a predatory corporation — maybe not in a strictly legal sense of the word, but in practice, a shark. And swimming with sharks is dangerous."

He noted last week’s announcement of an arrangement between Amazon and the powerful literary agent Andrew Wylie, who has launched a new digital imprint for his clients. Their e-books will be available exclusively for Amazon’s e-reader, the Kindle -- cutting publishers out entirely.

“As the recent agreement with Andrew Wylie demonstrates,” the editor told me, “Amazon is willing to go against its ‘partners’ — their term of art — whenever it chooses, and the fact that they're publishing Kindle editions directly from authors to readers underscores the contempt with which they hold publishers.”

<idle musing>
They are all about profits. Period. If it makes money, do it. Period. As I repeatedly tell people, if money is your god, you will do anything to serve that god.

Sure, a company needs to make money to survive; it's a necessary, but not sufficient in itself, condition; refer back to the Drucker quote from last Friday for what I mean.
</idle musing>

But, it was so much easier before...

For most of us, living the Christian life is a as difficult as finding Christ was. Often it's more difficult. Why? Now that we have Christ in us, shouldn't life go much easier? The truth is that we ourselves make it difficult. We complicate it by trying to do what seems perfectly natural once we become a Christian. We try to keep God's law. But trying through our own effort to keep God's law prevents us from experiencing Christ's abundant life, because contrary to most popular teaching, it is the opposite of what God designed us to do.— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, pages 141-142

<idle musing>
As usual, we get it backwards...Christ says, "you're dead" and we talk about how alive we are, "Christ makes your life fuller." Note the pronoun there—your. No, Christ replaces your life with his. I think its a pretty good trade; not fair, but good. I get rid of the life I had that was all bound up with sin and death in exchange for Christ's spotless, sinless one!
</idle musing>

Get over it!

Until you are willing to take the things of your life, push them on beyond Satan, and lay them at the Father's feet, you won't get peace. I'm not saying you might not get some resolution. God may deliver you from a bad circumstance. But I notice that when I hear people say, “God delivered me from this,” or “God rescued so-and-so from that,” the next one on their mind is the devil. Everything had to do with the devil.

Phooey on the devil. God already dealt with him. GOD HAS ALREADY DEALT WITH HIM! And if the devil doesn't know it, you and I ought to know it. We watch God take the devil's tricks and lies and turn them around on him. They are the very horse manure out of which grows a beautiful plant. And we praise the Lord.— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, page 137

<idle musing>
I read a book a few years ago about spiritual warfare where the author said, "I radically disbelieve in the devil!" He didn't mean he didn't believe in his existence, but he disbelieved that he had any power over God. To hear some people talk (as I said yesterday), you would think they were dualists, that is that God and satan are equals. What heresy for a Christian to think that! Satan is a created being; created by God. As Luther was wont to say, he's God's devil...
</idle musing>

How's your vision?

I'm not saying there isn't a devil. I don't mean that sickness is not a result of the fall. Both are a reality. And it's not wrong if that's the level at which you see. But I believe God wants a group of people who can get beyond that. Yes, on one level we have to deal with the devil, but on another level we get beyond that.— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, page 134

But we need to take the nasty, the ugly, the afflictions, the trials, and the tribulations, and identify them as part of Gods domain. They, too, are His arena of operation. We're not debating now who caused something. We're talking about who is going to use it.

I love something my pastor said once: “What the Christian needs is 50/20 vision.” He was referring to Genesis 50:20, where Joseph said of his brothers' actions against him: “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” We need 50/20 vision. Most people just have the vision of, “It looks bad, it feels bad, so it is bad, and that's all it is.” Then that's all they get. They get angry. They get bitter, because all they see is the external circumstance, which looks bad. But 50/20 vision says, “God means it for good.”— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, pages 135-136

<idle musing>
To hear some people talk, you would think God was at the mercy of the enemy. Guess what? He isn't! He already won, so stop feeling sorry for yourself and getting all depressed about the "bad stuff" in your life! God is at work, if you will just let him.
</idle musing>

It's all a matter of perspective

The point is that God is our life now. The secret of the Christian life is learning to live out of the life of Another. Because that's true, we have to look at the things that happen to us in the natural realm from a supernatural point of view. Or, we could say, to look at seen and temporal events from an unseen and eternal perspective. We see what God is about in a situation.— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, page 132

<idle musing>
And that is by faith...
</idle musing>

Officially done

OK. I'm declaring the tree house officially done. Joshua (our visiting 5 year-old grandson) spent a good part of yesterday scrambling up and down the ladder, in and out of the tree house, using the rope and bucket to raise and lower stuff, so it is officially endorsed by the person we built it for. We even had lunch together in the tower!

Here are some pictures after I added the trim:

A nice view of the tree, slide, swing, and tree house; you can see the yellow rope for the bucket in the background, too:









Not sure if you can see it, but there is a cat sleeping on the floor of the tower. We call him "Baby;" he's a stray that we took in, but he is just a big baby.

All that's left is putting up the trim

I finished painting the tree house last night. The white trim took longer to paint than I thought it would—it always does. What do you think? Tonight I'll put trim around the doors to make them stand out and I'll stain the floors. You should be able to see that on Monday, if I remember...

Your life shows it

In the end, we always live out what we know. We can talk the talk and try to fool each other on Sundays, but when we get up Monday morning, we live out what we know. It's practically impossible to walk in what we don't know. Catch me off guard and you'll find out what I really know, versus what I just talk about. My life will show it.— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, page 130

<idle musing>
That reminds me of that old kid's song, "If you're happy and you know it, then your life will surely show it." Or, "Your actions are speaking so loud that I can't hear what you are saying."
</idle musing>

Thought for today

Some of us here at Eisenbrauns are reading The Essential Drucker by Peter Drucker, the management guru. Chapter 2 has a nice little thought:

None of our institutions exists by itself and is an end in itself. Every one is an organ of society and exists for the sake of society. Business is no exception. Free enterprise cannot be justified as being good for business; it can be justified only as being good for society.—page 16

<idle musing>
Unfortunately, it seems that profit-chasing has taken over in most people's minds :( I think the Bible has a bit to say about greed, though, doesn't it?
</idle musing>

Spiritual warfare, Zambian style

Matt Harmon, a New Testament professor here at Grace Seminary is teaching for a few weeks this summer in Zambia. Today, he posted about one of his recent classes:

Yesterday during my class on Jesus and the Gospels, the discussion turned to spiritual warfare. Anytime this subject comes up (no matter where I am teaching), I try to explain that there are two extremes within the evangelical church. One extreme says that any talk of demons or spiritual warfare is simply an outdated and ignorant way of thinking about things that have other, "natural" causes. According to this view, such talk was the only way that less enlightened people had of explaining things that were beyond their control such as sickness, calamity, drought, famine, etc. I would suggest that this is the default view of most evangelical Christians in the United States. The other extreme says that virtually everything that happens in a day is the direct result of activity in the spirit world. According to this view, one must be constantly alert to how the spirits/demons are at work to avoid offending them or being somehow hurt by them. This is the default view in much of Africa even among evangelical Christians.

<idle musing>
I might add that the second view was the view in the ancient world, which I sum up as, "Don't tick off the gods!" And, "make sure you have at least one of them on your side, running interference for you." That, by the way, was the job of your personal minor deity, the lamassu in the ANE, the penates and lares in Rome, the Greek word escapes me right now, was it the hermai? A little help, please! Anyway, our concept of the guardian angel comes from this same concern.

The idea is that you keep the minor deity happy with small sacrifices and they will shield you from any unwanted (negative) attention by the major deities. This idea still lives on in popular culture with the various statues, etc. that you see around. And, some of you are old enough to remember when it was not uncommon to throw salt over your shoulder to placate the deities... I could go on, but you get the idea.

Of course, as Matt opines later in the post, both extremes are incorrect and spiritually dangerous. Take the time to look at his post.
</idle musing>

Bicycling

I haven't said anything about the Tour de France because I stopped following it several years ago. Nevertheless, it is the end of an era. I think it is summed up best by Bill Strickland at Bicycling's blog:

So many times over so many years I had witnessed Armstrong bend the Tour de France to his will. Now for the first time I wondered if the race was, as it did with everyone else, bending him. The Tour de France ennobles men, turns them into heroes. Then eventually it turns its heroes into men, by humbling them.

Although I have never been a big Lance fan, it is still sad that he couldn't at least win a stage in his final tour.

On other bicycling notes, I really enjoy riding to work each day. This morning, a fawn was standing in the middle of the road a little over 1/4 mile from home. It stood there, looking at me until I was about 25 feet away from it. Then, it turned and ran along the road for about 100 yards before veering into a lawn and disappearing into the woods. Priceless! Then, the lake was like glass this morning, and the bike path was so green...a wonderful ride.

Yesterday, though, I took the long route home. Consider this a public service announcement: If you are riding around Warsaw, Indiana, beware of 400 East; not only is it torn up and gravel between 600 and 700 South, which I had forgotten, but they are redoing the railroad crossing. They had just redone it in 2006; before that it was so bad I would get off and walk across it. I thought it was quite nice, at least for bicycles. I suspect it was still a bit too steep coming up for cars. So, it's closed while they redo it again. And, while I'm thinking of it, they just sealed 900 South, so don't expect a nice ride on it for a few weeks. Ah, the joys of rural riding :)

We're already there!

I always liked the word awareness more than the word growth. Because what really happens in each of us? Our awareness simply expands. We become more aware of Who already was. “Oh, I see more and more of Him.” We're not seeing more and more about Him. We're seeing more and more of Him. He is the peace. He is the joy. He is the life. He is the love.

Until we see that, we are always saying to God, “Give me something. Gimme. Gimme. Gimme.” But when that insight comes (and I'm not saying it has to be sudden, although it was with me), we say, “Oh, I see. I already have life. I already have Him.”

When God gives your spirit a revelation, often your soul responds with, “That can't be. That can't be.” But your spirit is saying, “It is. It is.” Revelation doesn't take place in your brain. God reveals Himself in our spirit. He says, “Yes, the absolutes are true. When you begin to live in My reality, you'll begin to say, 'I am.' Until you live in My reality, you'll say, 'I am becoming' or I want to be' or 'I hope I am.'”— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, page 127

<idle musing>
Yes! As it says in 2 Peter 2:3 "His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence." (RSV)
</idle musing>

Emotions or knowing?

...each of us as a believer has a spirit knowing that our sins are forgiven. It's not an emotional knowing. It's not simply a fact knowing that's tied to a past event, whereby we remember the day we trusted Jesus Christ as our Savior. Spirit knowing transcends that. We have an inner knowing that our sins are forgiven. We know that. The Holy Spirit has revealed it to us. In the same way, God wants us to know that we have been crucified with Christ, and that it is no longer we who live, but Christ lives in us. That is the work of the Holy Spirit: to make a knower out of us, rather than a feeler or a thinker or a hoper.

Knowing is not feeling. It is not thinking. To someone who hasn't yet experienced the difference, knowing seems based on feelings and thoughts. But it isn't. In knowing, you and what you know are one. You become mixed, or united, with the thing that you know.— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, pages 125-126

<idle musing>
One time, several years ago now, we were trying to explain the "Christ in you" life to someone. They blurted out, "But it's so touchy-feely!" Nope! We tried to explain what we meant, but they didn't understand it. Hopefully they do now.
</idle musing>

Right, or rights?

I subscribe to a lot of RSS feeds and e-mail lists. One of the e-mail lists is for a country store in Ohio called Lehmans. You might have heard of them. Anyway, yesterday they had a blog post worth reading. Here is a good snippet:

The distinction between arguing over right and arguing over your rights may be small. But, it must be understood. Sticking to what is right is important; it may even be important enough to sacrifice your life for. But merely wanting to be right, or insisting on winning for the sake of winning, is just plain wrong.

<idle musing>:
A vital distinction that sadly tends to get lost in the heat of the moment...
</idle musing>:

New weekly sale

Eisenbrauns has a great new 10 day sale going on right now. Here's the BookNews announcement:

BookNews from Eisenbrauns

For the next 10 days, you have the opportunity to save from
40-50% off on selected Hendrickson titles. Don't miss this
opportunity to get Sasson's Civilizations of the Ancient
Near East at 50% off (plus shipping).

As always, all sales on this web sale are final; no returns
will be permitted. Offer is good only on orders placed at
www.eisenbrauns.com through July 29, 2010.

To go directly to the weekly sale, click on this link:
http://www.eisenbrauns.com/pages/NEWSLIST
============================================================
"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: 9781565632066
List Price: $34.95 Your Price: $17.48

"The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha:
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Edited by James H. Charlesworth
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ISBN: 9781598564891
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"The Elements of Biblical Exegesis, Revised and Expanded Edition:
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by Michael J. Gorman
Hendrickson Publishers, 2009. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9781598563115
List Price: $19.95 Your Price: $9.98

"A Basic Introduction to Biblical Hebrew: with CD"
by Jo Ann Hackett
Hendrickson Publishers, 2010. Cloth. English and Hebrew.
ISBN: 9781598560282
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"Christianity in the Greco-Roman World:: A Narrative Introduction"
by Moyer Hubbard
Hendrickson Publishers, 2010. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9781565636637
List Price: $24.95 Your Price: $13.72

"Analytical Lexicon to the Septuagint: Expanded Edition with
Word Definitions from Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint"
by Bernard Taylor, et al.
Hendrickson Publishers, 2009. Cloth. English and Greek.
ISBN: 9781565635166
List Price: $44.95 Your Price: $24.72

"The Jewish Targums and John's Logos Theology"
by John Ronning
Hendrickson Publishers, 2010. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9781598563061
List Price: $29.95 Your Price: $16.47

"Vines Intertwined: A History of Jews and Christians from
the Babylonian Exile to the Advent of Islam"
by Leo Dupree Sandgren
Hendrickson Publishers, 2010. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9781598560831
List Price: $34.95 Your Price: $19.22

"Civilizations of the Ancient Near East"
Edited by Jack M. Sasson
Hendrickson Publishers, 2000. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9781565636071
List Price: $179.95 Your Price: $89.98

"Ancient Texts for the Study of the Hebrew Bible:
A Guide to the Background Literature"
by Kenton L. Sparks
Hendrickson Publishers, 2005. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9781565634077
List Price: $39.95 Your Price: $21.97

More activity, that's what we need

The only answers we get to flesh questions—those that focus on externals—are flesh answers. Those answers all have to do with more activity, more dedication, and more commitment. That's a flesh answer to a flesh question. It may even work for a little while. But it doesn't bring life.— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, page 123

<idle musing>
The stock answer to everything, "I will try harder" Only problem is, it doesn't work. Up and down, up and down, down, down, down... rededicate yourself! Up...and down... You know the cycle. But, it doesn't have to be that way; let Christ live His life through you, as you.
</idle musing>

Musings

Debbie left on Sunday to take Madelynn back; the house seems empty without them. I talked to her last night after she got to Ryan's (our son) in Minneapolis. Today she leaves for Grand Marais and delivers Madelynn to her parents, who are pining away, missing her :)

But, I have plenty to do. I need to get the tree house painted before Debbie brings Joshua back. I finished the body of it last night. I still have to paint the trim and railings; they will be a gloss white. What do you think of it so far?



In other news, I canned 8.5 quarts of bread and butter pickles and 2 quarts of beet pickles over the weekend. The green beans are about done with their first crop, except for the pole beans that are about to get started. So, I froze what we had picked.

The Japanese beetles have been a problem this year. The trap isn't drawing them as well as it did last year. I even put an extra pheromone patch on it. I don't know if you can see it in this picture, but they have made lace work of my rhubarb.


I mentioned a while ago that my brick cheese didn't seem to have turned out. I made two pounds and ate one two weeks later. The other one has been aging until yesterday. I opened it up and took a taste. It no longer looks or tastes like Brie! In fact, it tastes (and smells) like a mild Limburger. Good thing Debbie's gone :) Brick cheese is just a non-aged Limburger, so no surprise. I had some on a baked potato; it was good—I do like Limburger, by the way. But, don't go sending me any for Christmas; I don't like it that well!

I still have a 1/2 pound of cheddar that is aging. I made it on March 10, so it is now over 4 months old. I think I will open it up this week. I'll let you know how it tastes—unless it kills me! :)

Mental assent

For years I traveled around the country teaching people about our union with Christ. I would draw a few simple diagrams on the board, trying to be cognitive and give them something to hang onto, so with the brain they could see how things work. But after a while I discovered this: brain understanding is not spiritual understanding.

That's difficult for people to grasp, because Western civilization processes things mentally. We try to grasp it with the head and get the head to tell it to the heart, instead of waiting for the Holy Spirit to tell it to the heart. If it's in the heart, we will know it. If it's in the head, we will just know about it. It's easy to get a handle on all of these union phrases and Christ-in-you clauses and get an ouline all down pat and go around talking about it. But knowing about is not the same as knowing.

Everything we truly know of God comes by revelation of the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit is to reveal to us the reality of the mysteries of God...

Unfortunately, there's no relationship between the amount of information we accumulate and the ability to live a spiritual life. But there is a a direct correlation between the amount of information we gain and our level of frustration. It's frustrating to know about something and not be able to know it or live it. It's frustrating to know something is there and not be able to lay hold of it. It always seems elusive, like the carrot dangling in front of you that you keep chasing but can never grab...

But trying to live the Christian live through our own effort is like trying to put a cube into a spherical hole. It doesn't ft. The only One who can live the Christian life is Christ. Only His life fits the hole. But we still try to force it to work ourselves, and that becomes very, very frustrating.— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, pages 121-122

<idle musing>
I have seen this over and over; people continuously confuse information transfer with spiritual maturity. The two are not the same, in fact, they are frequently at opposite ends. Think of some of the people who know the scriptures the best. Are they proud and arrogant? Or, are they humble and teachable?
</idle musing>