Ea$ter

I just got this in a marketing e-mail, and it makes me sick.

Consumers to spend $14 billion for Easter.
According to the National Retail Federation’s 2007 Easter Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, 79.5% of shoppers are planning to celebrate Easter and are expected to spend an average of $135.07, up 11% from last year’s $121.72 per person. Total holiday spending is estimated to reach $14.37 billion.

Is this what Easter is all about? Babylon!

Free Books!

Yep, that's right. Eisenbrauns will be giving away new books for free.

What's the catch? Simple, subscribe to any one or more of the RSS feeds here; watch for the "free books" posting; follow the directions.

No forms to fill out, no purchase necessary, etc...

The plural of index

Being the former Latin teacher that I am, I have a hard time with Anglicized plurals of Latin words. For me the plural of index is indices, not indexes.

Well, however you want to spell it, Eisenbrauns now has the indices of all Eisenbrauns books published since 2001 on the web in PDF form. That's right, if you are wondering whether or not a certain topic is covered in a book, and how thoroughly, you can download the PDF of the index/indices of that book and search it.

By the way, what is the plural of syllabus?

I don't know how to title this...

My son, Ryan, sent me this link yesterday. It is about a researcher who is doing CT scans on people praying to see what happens inside their brains. [note to my cessationist friends: I love you, but you're wrong :)] Here is an interesting snippet:

In earlier studies, he looked at what happens in the brains of Buddhist monks meditating and Franciscan nuns praying. The results were quite different from what happens in the brains of people speaking in tongues, whose brains, he found, went quiet in the frontal lobe — the part of the brain right behind the forehead that's considered the brain's control center.

"When they are actually engaged in this whole very intense spiritual practice … their frontal lobes tend to go down in activity. … It is very consistent with the kind of experience they have, because they say that they're not in charge. [They say] it's the voice of God, it's the spirit of God that is moving through them," said Newberg.

What does it prove? Absolutely nothing, actually, which is what the researcher himself admits. But, it does point to someone other than the person doing the praying being in control... OK, put away the aliens are in control nonsense! and look at I Corinthians 14:

For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also. I Corinthians 14:14-15 RSV

Confession

Scot McKnight has a very good post on confession of sin.

[Tippens in Pilgrim Heart] begins with the obvious: for many of us (I’m in this group) confession is not a group or verbal activity with another Christian. It is solo-solo: only between the person and God. One reason is this: “the Christian community’s demand for respectability often increases the dishonesty” of not confessing.

<idle musing>
Bonhoeffer has a very good section in his Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible about confession. He firmly believed that every Christian should be actively doing it. But, in good Protestant fashion, he didn't believe it needed to be a priest, but could be any believer. In fact, he was against having only one person hear everyone's confessions because of the dangers inherent for the person hearing all the confessions.

Part of Wesley's class meetings was the confession of sins to one another. I think this is one of the reasons the Wesleyan revival lasted so long. I remember when I first started reading his journal that one of the recurring themes that stood out to me was the confession of sins and honesty before God and man. This from the person most associated with the holiness movement!

Perhaps part of the problem is that we try to jump over confession of sin directly into holiness? Or, perhaps we really don't have a true conception of sin. We think that it is something we do, instead of something we are (apart from Christ). If someone doesn't see themself as a sinner, but just as a good person who occasionally sins, then they don't see a real need for repentance. Which, of course, results in half converted, anemic christians who substitute good works for true holiness of heart and life...

Am I off base here?
</idle musing>

Tsumura's Creation and Destruction

I recently finished Tsumura’s Creation and Destruction. I don’t think I have seen that much Akkadian and Ugaritic, along with Sumerian, in a book in a good while! The book is basically an expansion of his 1989 book on Genesis 1 & 2, now including several Psalms and Habakkuk in his evaluation.

I found his arguments for Genesis convincing, but once he moved into the other realms, less so. His arguments are solid, almost watertight. But, I was reminded of a paper I did in Ugaritic for Dennis Pardee; I was looking for concrete borrowings in the mythological writings of Ugarit, the Hittites (including the Kumarbi cycle), and Akkadian. I was unable to find anything concrete that I could hang a strong argument on. But, as Dennis told me after reading the paper, there is no doubt something was going on. That’s how I felt after reading the book. Direct borrowing? Probably not. But there was “something going on” there. To Tsumura’s credit, he acknowledges that there are some borrowed motifs, but I wonder if maybe he hasn’t minimized them in his attempt to slay the Chaoskampf monster.

Even with that caveat, the book is worth the read, just be ready to wade through a good bit of Hebrew, Ugaritic, Akkadian, as well as a bit of Sumerian if you want to critique his arguments in detail.

Hmm, I donated this book as a prize for an undergraduate paper on Genesis! Maybe it is a bit too much for an undergrad? What do you think?

Creation and Destruction
A Reappraisal of the Chaoskampf Theory in the Old Testament

by David Toshio Tsumura
Eisenbrauns, 2005
xviii + 214 pages, English
Cloth
ISBN: 1575061066
List Price: $35.00
Your Price: $31.50
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~TSUCREATI

Talking head preaching

<idle musing>
I love that title! No, it’s not mine, although I wish it were. It actually comes from House Church Blog. He starts with a wonderful quote from A.W. Tozer and then proceeds to say:

There are no shortcuts to actually grasping hold of the things of God. We can hear the messages, and even be emotionally charged and thrilled by them, but transformation that leads to more deeply knowing God comes only by our own time spent in pursuit of him.

The problem with the talking-head preaching/teaching, even the really good stuff, is that we highlight it so much that we perpetuate the concept that hearing these messages are at the core of transformation. This is simply not true. Simply hearing others share their deep insights into God does not bring us to deeper places.

He goes on to argue that the place where actual transformation can happen is in small participatory church gatherings. He’s right, as far as he goes. But, there is more to it than that; we have to be willing to die to self.

I know I am starting to sound like a broken record, but this seems to be the single most neglected command in scripture. We don’t want to face the fact that Jesus called us to come and die. We want a comfortable Jesus who pampers us and says, “There, there, everything will be alright. I died so you don’t have to. I took care of sin so you can live in it.”

What a blasphemous attitude! Yet, if you scratch below the surface of much that passes for theology today, that is just exactly what you will find. Whether it is the “name it, claim it, stomp on it and frame it” gospel, or the “seeker-friendly” gospel, or the mega-church-build-a-mega-buck-building for mega-buck suburbanites gospel, they all boil down to a self-serving christianity which makes God a Santa Claus god.

As long as we wallow in sin and self, there is no hope for a transformation in our lives, let alone our culture. It is only as we take Jesus seriously and allow Him to transform us, believing, in faith, what scripture says we already are—saints—that we will begin to see the faint glimmering of awakening in our churches, be they house churches or mega-churches.

I love where Brueggemann in Theology of the Old Testament highlights the choice Israel had in the exile. They could look at the circumstances: captives in Babylon, temple in ruins, kingship destroyed, no hope for restoration. Pretty grim, don’t you agree? Or, they could believe the promises of restoration found in the prophets. Rationally, that is insane!

Not a whole lot has changed in 2500 years, has it? God still calls us to believe the unbelievable: that we are “seated in the heavenlies with Christ,” that we “are more than conquerors,” that “Christ is our life.” I could go on and on, but none of them make sense outside of a faith perspective. God calls us today, just as he did the Israelites. Whom are we going to listen to? Culture or God? Self or God?
</idle musing>

Catalogs

<idle musing>
Today I received a catalog from one of Eisenbrauns competitors; I'm sure you would recognize them. Anyway, I looked in vain for something in the catalog that could pass for a Biblical Studies title. Finally, on page 28 of the catalog Biblical Studies began and continued for a phenomenal 4 pages! Then the movies started.

Obviously, Eisenbrauns is in the wrong business. Our most recent catalog, Scholar's Source 27.1, was 40 pages of titles, all ancient Near East or Biblical Studies. Not a single movie or popular paperback; not a single novel, historical or romantic. How in the world can we expect to sell anything? We must be crazy, expecting people to actually think when they read our books :)
</idle musing>

Prophets or profits

<idle musing>
When I was in high school, I made a poster and hung it in my bedroom that said “Men love Profits, not Prophets.” Over the years, I have found that to be true. You rarely find a prophetic person on the staff of a church; they’re too dangerous.

Well, it appears I am not the only one to notice this, because the Christianity Today blog, Out of Ur, has a very nice post asking Where have all the prophets gone? He has three points—he must have gone to seminary :) Here’s the second one:

Church structures are unsafe for prophets:
A prophet by definition is going to disturb the status quo, make people uncomfortable, and rock the boat. But when a pastor with a prophetic function is completely dependant upon the congregation for his/her livelihood it creates a conflict of interests

Why? Because the prophet may tell them that their method of obtaining profits is wrong! Nobody likes to be told they are wrong, it is part of that whole Genesis 3 thing. People especially don’t like to be told they are wrong by someone whom they are paying. After all, we are paying them; shouldn’t we be able to dictate what we are hearing? (I just had this flashback to the scene in the movie Pollyanna, where the woman sends Pollyanna with a message to the preacher about what to preach that coming Sunday).

Of course, this is nothing new; Timothy was warned about it way back in the New Testament.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 2 Timothy 4:1-5 RSV

The other two points are also well worth considering:

1. Seminaries are not training prophets
I question whether a prophet can be trained, after all it appears to be a gift of the Holy Spirit, but nonetheless, seminary training should contain classes that show people how to question the status quo

3. Ministries evaluate size not depth
This is one of my big soap box items, but I’ll not expound on it this time!
</idle musing>

Conference

Friday and Saturday I was at the regional Evangelical Theological Society meeting here in Warsaw. We don’t do many regional conferences; we are too small a company with too narrow a focus to make them profitable. But, when they come to us, we like to make a statement :) Because we were the “locals,” the conference organizers gave us pride of place, right inside the front door. Here are a few pictures of our book exhibit for you to drool over. I took them Friday morning before the conference started.

Sermon on the Mount

<idle musing>
Yesterday I posted a link to Ted Gossard’s series on Christians and War. But, that really is an offshoot of the Sermon on the Mount. Personally, I think the Sermon on the Mount is the heart of Christianity, the standard by which Christ expects us to live—not that we can by our own strength! There is only one way we can live it, and that is by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. But, that presence can and does enable us to live it, if we will allow the Holy Spirit to rule our lives.

On that note, there are a few really good resources on the sermon that I have found stimulating. There is, of course, Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship, a wonderful work that every Christian should read at least once. Another good book is by E. Stanley Jones The Christ of the Mount, which is out of print : ( This book grew out of his work in India with people of the Hindu persuasion. If you can get your hands on a copy, read it.

I naively thought I took the Sermon on the Mount seriously, that is, until I started reading John Wesley’s series of 13 sermons on the Sermon on the Mount a few years ago. These are readily available online here in sermons 21-33. I was suddenly confronted with the stark reality of how much I rationalized my disobedience! Again, every Christian owes it to him/herself to read these, ponder them, and pray through them.
</idle musing>

The citizenship of Christians

Ted Gossard over at The Community of Jesus has been running a series entitled “Christians and War.” Here is a quote from part 3

We in Jesus must be countercultural in many ways. We're not to live as this world does. This may seem problematical. Is war and killing intrinsically evil? After all, there were certainly physical battles sanctioned by God in the Old Testament. But we see that even David, the man after God's own heart, was not allowed to build the temple, since he had fought in so much warfare. War may not be intrinsically wrong in itself, though no war fought here and now is without wrong being done on both sides.

But Jesus brings in, understand it all or not (and we don't) a new way to be Israel. That will not render to Caesar what does not belong to him. Since their identity is those whose Lord is Jesus. Not any Caesar. Because of that, I take it, they will not go into battles for nations. Because as the one holy nation, scattered throughout the world, their ethic is redemptive, in Christ. They are part of the mission to bring God's salvation and reconciliation, through the good news of his kingdom, in Christ, to all.

Unappreciated workers

Update: This is indeed an urban legend. Thanks to Neal for the legwork.

---

Bev, one of our editors, just forwarded this to all Eisenbrauns employees:



I know that proofreading is one of the most thankless tasks in the world, but that's a bit ridiculous! I can assure you we would notice the lack of movement here at Eisenbrauns!

Good reflections on church

I have been blessed of late reading the site The Assembling of the Church. Alan raises many good issues about what it means to be church. He is a prolific blogger; I usually only have time to catch up on the weekends. Last week he was talking about leadership—very good stuff. Here is a snippet from Imitate God, a post on 3 John:

In 3 John 1:12 and following, John encourages his readers to follow Demetrius instead. How do the readers know that they should follow Demetrius? Because Demetrius "has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself". John adds his own recommendation as well.

Notice what John is saying here. There is one man who loves to be first - he loves being a leader. But, John says that his conduct is contrary to the ways of God. So, John does not want his readers to follow him. Instead, he points them to a man who is obediently following God. Everyone who knows him recognizes this. This is the "good" that John expects his readers to follow.

Do you want to know who [sic] to follow as a disciple? Then ask yourself these questions: Who has a good testimony? Who's [sic] conduct matches their theology? Who lives what they teach and speak? Follow those people.

But, think about these questions: Who loves to be first, noticed, recognized, important? Who is more concerned with their position than with their conduct? Who is more concerned with whether or not other people are obeying him than whether or not he is obeying God? Do not follow those people.

<idle musing>
One of these days I need to update my blogroll and add him to it; it is hopelessly out of date. Meantime, do yourself a favor and check out his postings.
</idle musing>

A Prayer

<idle musing>
Out of Ur has an interview with Brian McLaren. In it he mentions a wonderful prayer, which I had never seen before. It is entitled Prayer for your enemies. It starts like this:

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them. Enemies have driven me into your embrace more than friends have. Friends have bound me to earth; enemies have loosed me from earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world.

Enemies have made me a stranger in worldly realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the world.

As one of my theology professors used to say, “You owe it to yourself to read this.”
</idle musing>

Good Theologians

There is a very timely post over at The Heresy about the poor theology we have in comtemporary church life.

Some people look down upon theologians as overly intellectual and unspiritual. After working with many I consider good friends I can see where people get that impression. Theologians trust their thinking more than their feeling and often distrust people who speak in terms of feelings, impressions or divine revelation. The disdain between the “thinkers” and the “feelers” is often mutual. The consequences of this disdain are dire. The charismatic movement has lost its theological and biblical moorings. The prosperity gospel seems to have infected most of the movement. Christian television is a theological wasteland. Among many conservative evangelicals we find an unnatural obsession with political power and a narrow set of social issues.

The people that could bring correction are too isolated from the local church. When they do speak they are one voice among many. If they aren’t a successful pastor or an author with market power their influence is limited. Many of our grounded theologians watch and perhaps shake their head but are not in a place where they feel they can make much of a difference.

<idle musing>
I couldn't say it better myself. Many are feeling that the link between theology and church life has been severed.

I know that my boss, Jim Eisenbraun, feels that way. The nice thing is that he is in a position to make a contribution, being a publisher. Consequently, Eisenbrauns is going to be publishing a journal entitled The Journal of Theological Interpretation whose goal is to try to reunite the two. Sound interesting? Then check out the sample issue.

I hope that doesn't sound like a shameless marketing blurb, because it isn't; it is a genuine concern which we are trying to address. It isn't easy trying to launch a new journal, especially with libraries cutting back on acquisitions. This journal grew out of dialog with theologians, not accountants :)
</idle musing>

Self-promotion

OK. I wasn't going to post this because it smacks too much of self-promotion, but I have had some people ask why I didn't. So, here it is:
Jim & Brandon chose to interview me as the Biblioblogger for March

So, if you are bored, or just want to find out a bit more about who I am, go visit the link. By the way, my daughter took the picture :)

New catalog

We just received our new Scholar's Source and it will be sent out in the mail over the next week or so. Can't wait? You can download it here

Enjoy!

2008 already?

No, but it might as well be...

There is a very good post over at Out of Ur about the whole "whom should a christian endorse" thing.

1. Can he/she give us a government that will recoup our reputation in the world as a generous and compassionate nation? And could he/she take more seriously the fact that a large part of this world now finds our country distasteful? And this goes for Christians in other lands also. (I’m embarrassed every time I go abroad.)

He has nine other ones, give them a read.

You did what?

Our house is relatively small, with an upstairs that is accessed via a ladder that pulls out from the wall. That is where my study is; that is also where our exercise area is. We have a NordicTrac ski machine (now 12 years old) and my old bicycle on a magnetic trainer by Cycleops.

Last night I was riding the trainer, and was about 12 minutes into the ride, when all of a sudden the pedaling got very easy. I thought maybe I had burned out the trainer, but no. I had managed to get a flat tire. Can you believe it? On a trainer! Debbie told me it was carpet tacks :)

That put a quick end to the bicycle workout, but I just went over to the ski machine and finished up my workout on it. But, now I have to fix the flat tire :(

Neo-Assyrian sales

Sales? Yes, plural.

Eisenbrauns is running a monthly sale on books in the State Archives of Assyria series. Charles over at Awilum mentioned it last week.

Now, double your pleasure, double your Akkadian, we are running a 10 day sale on books in the State Archives of Assyria Studies series, also at 20% off.

Just think, you can get books from both series for 20% off in the same order. Enjoy your Akkadian!

Tomb of Jesus?

Update: Seems I got the date wrong! I thought it was going to air on March 5, but it was the 4th. Oh well, instead of pizza, I made Swedish Rye bread and we went over to Debbie's parents and had a good time discussing Galatians 2:20

 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (RSV)

and what it means experientially in our lives.

I have been avoiding talking about this so far, but over the weekend two archaeologists have chimed in. Since some of you will probably watch or have watched the Discovery Channel spectacle, you should read these two articles:

Joe Zias' comments. Joe is a archaeologist who works for the Israel Antiquities Authority. His comments are well informed and authoritative.

Jodi Magness who is an archaeologist (and an Eisenbrauns author!) who has excavated extensively in Israel.

There are also numerous good posts around the blogosphere. Basically, choose any of the biblioblogs on my blogroll...

Me, I'm going to make pizza tonight and enjoy some Augustine in Latin. You can waste your time watching the thing, if you want :)

Speaking the truth...in love

<idle musing>
The other day I was discussing with someone else the ego stroking that sometimes (often?) goes on in the world. As we closed, this verse came to mind, “speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” (Ephesians 4:15, RSV).

I don’t know about you, but I know lots of people, including myself, who can do this, just not both at the same time. Either we speak the truth, out of frustration, or anger, or self-righteousness—not out of love—or, we speak in love, but veil the truth. Well, we think it is love, anyway. Maybe the problem is that we have defined love, and then gone to the Godhead and made our image of love shape our perception of who God is. Maybe we should go to the scripture and see what the text says love is and who God is, then take that definition and understanding to our life.

Hmm...that sounds dangerous. I might have to let God change the way I interact with people. I might have to get off the throne, stop acting sicut deus as Bonhoeffer puts it, and let God run my life. Now that is a scary thought, not be in control?
</idle musing>

Entertainment

As I mentioned, I’m a bit behind in my blog reading, but Alan Knox over at The Assembling of the Church has a good post on entertainment. Well, actually it is a quote from another post with his reaction to it. I heartily endorse his plea: give up entertainment and love Jesus instead.

About 6-7 years ago Debbie and I went to our daughter’s church. The pastor spoke about discipleship and one of the things he said has stuck with me. He said, “As a culture, we are addicted to entertainment.” I don’t remember anything else he said, but it opened my eyes to the severity of it. I have since mentioned the idea to others, and invariably they agree. The sad part is that most of them don’t think it is a bad thing.

The usual response is, “Well, God wants us to be happy, doesn’t he?” Hmm, that sure smells like it is straight out of the pit! God wants us to filled with him; full of love for him; dead to the world and alive in him. Entertainment is all about me: making me happy; making me feel good; making me laugh, usually at the expense of someone else or via deceit of some kind.

And he said to all, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.—Luke 9:23-26 RSV (see also Matt. 16:24, Mark 8:34)

Thought for the day

George Barna did another survey; this time about the relative popularity of various well-known individuals. Here is a short excerpt from the survey results:

Barna also pointed out that born again adults seem capable of compartmentalizing their faith. "The perceptions that born again adults have of public figures is nearly identical to that of people who are not born again. That suggests that their faith in Christ has little influence upon their decision-making, which explains why surveys find few distinctives in their lifestyle and values. Not only are most born again adults surprisingly oblivious to national religious leaders, but they apparently have the same perceptual filter as people who have not turned to Jesus Christ. If nothing else, this suggests that most born again adults are a work in progress, and that there is a lot of growth yet to experience in the renewing of their minds."

<idle musing>
This is a disturbing trend. It seems that we too easily allow intellectual assent to the claims of Jesus and the gospel to be sufficient. We don’t allow the “radium of the Cross,” as an early 20th century author called it, to burn our self-life, self-love, and self-centeredness out. The cross has one purpose–to kill.

No one ever erected a cross in the ancient world for the sake of an ornament; it was designed for one purpose–to kill the person hanging on it. Scripture says we are crucified with Christ. Now, I haven’t been to a lot of funerals, but never once have I seen the dead body get up and talk about how great it was, after all, it’s dead! It looked very pretty in the casket, all made-up and dressed up, but that didn’t change the fact that it was dead. You could have said all kinds of wonderful, or terrible, things about it, but it wouldn’t have blushed, or moved, or writhed in discomfort. It’s dead! It doesn’t care who’s who in the top rankings.

All that is pretty obvious, even a first grader would probably know it. But, as Christians, do we remember it? Is Christ the life of our life (as Galatians 2:20 has it)?

Oh, the other thing about the cross is you can’t nail yourself there; God puts you there. Self-crucifixion doesn’t work. For that matter, when was the last time someone decided they didn’t want to hang on the cross (after they were put there), and then proceeded to pull out the spikes by themselves and climb down? Yet, that is what we sometimes do…pretty ludicrous picture, isn’t it?
</idle musing>

Parasitic Christians

There was an excellent post by Scot McKnight late last week about Parasitic Christians. Here is a brief snippet, but please read the whole thing. It is worth it.

Parasitic Christians are those who “show their brilliance” by criticizing others, by showing how someone doesn’t measure up, by revealing how someone made a slight misstep, by making it clear that someone might be veering off the course. These parasitic Christians, instead of being known for positive and fresh insight into God, into Jesus, into what the Bible says and the simple practices of compassion and grace and love and justice, spread a cancer of we-are-holier-than-thou throughout many pockets in the Church. They make people think that either one is the devil of hell or a saint in glory. They feed off of the slips of other Christians. They seem to find the Church to be the problem. Instead of putting forward good ideas, new ideas, creative conclusions, their approach is attack.

What I find in most of the parasitic Christians is a self-congratulations about their own faithfulness. Put differently, what they are doing in criticizing another is finding a way to feel good about themselves. We learned in grade school that most people who criticize do so not to help others reform their ways but to feel good about themselves. Parasitic Christians, so it appears to me, feel very good about themselves. They have, to use the words of Jesus, their reward.

<idle musing>:
Ouch! A bit too close to home in some respects. We need to be modeling a life transformed by the power of God. That doesn’t mean dissing others; rather it means showing them, both verbally and by our actions, that there is a better way—the Jesus Way, the way of love.

Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; never be conceited. Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” No, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.—Romans 12:16-21 RSV

<idle musing>

Blogs I’ve seen of late

UPDATE: I fixed the link to the Ultimate Testament. Sorry about the bad link. James

Ok, there is way too much good stuff going on out there! A good problem, unless you want to digest it all... I’m going to mention a few good posts of late (actually quite late, last week), and hope you take the time to peruse them.

At The M blog there is a good post on the curse of knowledge. No, he is not saying knowledge is bad, just that it makes it hard for us to remember what it was like before we had the knowledge. Good food for thought.

He also has a post about the strength of a group of 2-3. He is quoting from a book by Neil Cole Organic Church. Good stuff.

Ted Gossard over at The Jesus Community has a wonderful post about real beauty—not the superficial kind, but real beauty. I praise God that I am married to a woman who reflects true beauty, as well as being beautiful.

On the House Church Blog there is a post about his experience at a recent conference in Asia. They put the people into small “house churches” so they could experience it. The results were encouraging, and hopefully life changing.

Leighton Tebay has a wonderful quote about the scrap heap of history.

The Better Bibles Blog has had two very powerful posts of late. First Suzanne tells us why she cares so much about women in the church. Then, Wayne shares how he found freedom in Christ after 40 years. I weep when I hear these stories.

Claude Mariottini has a post on the Ultimate Testament. Seems there’s a book out there called The Secret that is tickling people’s ears with promises of wealth and fame, the true gods of our culture.

There are some other ones, but I would like to interact with them a bit more, so stay tuned over the next few days…

Bauckham’s “Jesus and the Eyewitnesses”

I finished Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses the other day. I’m not going to try and say a lot about it, since Chris Tilling is doing a good job in a multi-part series on his blog. I did notice that Kevin Edgecomb didn’t like it.

Personally, I enjoyed it, finding it a very viable theory, and a healthy corrective to the extreme skepticism of many scholars. The last chapter was, in my opinion, the best part of the book. Ostensibly the chapter is about Jesus and tradition, but really it is a full blown examination of historiography. If you deal with history in any way, whether Hebrew Bible, New Testament, ANE, or Classics, you should read this chapter. That’s all I’m going to say. Go ahead and read it, then tell me whether or not you agree [secret recipe for sales of the book :) Do you think it will work? I don't either!]

What are we coming to?

The other day, as I was driving back from a meeting, I saw a sign on a pet shop: Weight control food for your cat or dog.

What? We have overweight pets, too? Not content to stuff ourselves, are we now stuffing our animals, too? Please, tell me this is just a marketing gimmick...

Quote for the day

"What else is the goal of theological education than to bring us closer to the Lord our God so that we may be more faithful to the great commandment to love him with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind, and our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37)? Seminaries and divinity schools must lead theology students into an ever-growing communion with God, with each other, and with their fellow human beings. Theological education is meant to form our whole person toward an increasing conformity with the mind of Christ so that our way of praying and our way of believing will be one.

"But is this what takes place? Often it seems that we who study or teach theology find ourselves entangled in such a complex network of discussions, debates, and arguments about God and “God-issues” that a simple conversation with God or a simple presence to God has become practically impossible. Our heightened verbal ability, which enables us to make many distinctions, has sometimes become a poor substitute to a single-minded commitment to the Word who is life. If there is a crisis in theological education, it is first and foremost a crisis of the word. This is not to say that critical intellectual work and the subtle distinctions it requires have no place in theological training. But when our words are no longer a reflection of the divine Word in and through whom the world has been created and redeemed, they lose their grounding and become as seductive and misleading as the words used to sell Geritol."—Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart, pp. 39-40.

On this day

On this day, in about 155 AD, Polycarp was accused of atheism and ordered to renounce Christ. His response has become famous:

“Eighty and six years have I served him and he has done me no wrong. Can I revile my King that saved me?”

They burned him at the stake. The Martrydom of Polycarp says that the smell of his burning was as the baking of bread. Personally, I doubt it, but there is no doubt he was a godly man who died in his master’s service. We would do well to be as uncompromising in our faith as he was.

Quote for the day

“I have stressed in the past how a believer needs to grow in several respects. Let me reiterate them once again. First, after one is saved he should seek for proper knowledge of the Bible. Second, he should desire to make progress in the spiritual life, such as victory, holiness, perfect love, and so forth. This is very very important. Third, we should be fervent in winning souls. Fourth, we should trust in God with such singleness of faith that we may see God working miracles.

“There are many defects in the church today. Many believers are interested in nothing more than the expounding of the Scriptures. Their knowledge is excellent, yet they neither care for nor seek after growth in spiritual life. Or some may go a step further and search for the higher life and the deeper things of God, but they neglect the other three aspects. Still others have zeal but have no knowledge. All such lopsided strivings are unhealthy. Is it not surprising that in the church today those who seek to either literally or spiritually expound the Bible, or to pursue after deeper and richer life, or to be zealous in soul winning are not lacking in number, but few there be who trust God with a living faith so as to obtain something from Him?”—Watchman Nee in The Latent Power of the Soul

Short little book

Yesterday afternoon a new book came in from Augsburg/Fortress Press in their Facets series. The book is only about 110 pages, but it is intriguing. I am going to have to read the whole thing. Here are the bibliographic details:

The Horrors We Bless
Rethinking the Just-War Legacy
Facets
by Daniel C. Maguire
Fortress Press, 2007
viii + 103 pages, English
Paper, 4.5 x 7
ISBN: 0800638972
List Price: $7.00
Your Price: $6.51
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~MAGHORROR

Anyway, I was looking through the book, and was struck by how insightful it was. He isn't a pacifist, although he acknowledges that the early church was overwhelmingly so. He isn't a just war theorist, saying it lacks sufficient Biblical backing. I'm not quite sure what he is proposing, since I was only able to look through about 15 pages or so. But, one thing he does say is, "War is stupid." (italics his).

He then proceeds to talk about rules of war, taking the medieval period as an example. There were certain rules of war: knights on horses, etc. Well, the English discovered the longbow and beat the crap out of the French. The French didn't learn, and tried the same tactic again–3 times. They finally learned, but it took Joan of Arc to teach them.

Fast forward several hundred years. The U.S. goes to Vietnam, fully equipped to fight a WWII type war. The VC use guerrilla war tactics and beat the crap out of the U.S. Fast forward 30 years. The U.S. goes to Iraq figuring to fight a WWII type war... OK, get the picture? Big tanks, lots of noise, obvious target. Enemy? The people who live there. Result? Genocide. You can't win without killing innocent people because you don't know who your enemy is. Conclusion: War is stupid, but also immoral.

I have got to read the rest of the book, its only 110 pages...

Sundays

Alan Knox over at The Assembling of the Church has some good thoughts on Sunday Church meetings. Here are a few snippets, but do take the time to read it all:

“It is very important for believers to meet together. That is clear from Scripture. However, is it possible for us to put so much emphasis on one gathering of the church (say, Sunday morning, for instance) that we forget God's purpose for the church?

“…If we examine the money/time/effort/resources spent on preparing the location for the event, acquiring those who perform during the event, rehearsing for the event, and setting the schedule for the event, we might find that the event is much more important to us than we first thought. Is this what Jesus taught us? Is this what Jesus said was important?”

<idle musing>
Sunday is only one day of the week; there are 6 others which matter just as much to God as Sunday does. We need to move beyond the false dichotomy of secular and sacred which we inherited from our Graeco-Roman culture and re-adopt a more biblical world view that sees all things as sacred, since they are created by God.

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything. And he made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your poets have said,
‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a representation by the art and imagination of man.—Acts 17:24-29 RSV

<idle musing>

Church planting

The M blog has an interesting post about church planting. There are 7 points. Here are the first and last, but the rest are just as good

FIRST, I would begin in the harvest and start small. Don't start with a team of already-saved Christians. We think that having a bigger and better team will accelerate the work, but it doesn't. In fact, has the opposite effect...churches birthed out of transformed lives are healthier, reproductive, and growing faster. It is about this: a life changed, not about the model.

SEVENTH and last, I would settle my ownership issues. Stop being concerned about whether "your" church plant will succeed or not. It isn't yours in the first place. Your reputation is not the one on the line; Jesus' is. He will do a good job if we let him. If we have our own identity and reputation at stake in the work, we will tend to take command. Big mistake. Let Jesus get the glory and put his reputation on the line; He can take care of Himself without your help.

<idle musing>
Amen!
</idle musing>

The sights of winter

It was a beautiful weekend here. The temperatures were in the upper teens to mid-twenties F during the day—perfect for being outside. Here are a few scenes to enjoy. Maybe you'll see why I love winter so much :)

Geese, swans and ducks on the small unfrozen portion of Winona Lake. This morning this section was all frozen over.



Snowshoeing on Saturday. This is a view of the creek



Snowshoes drying at the back door. I was out for about 3 hours on Saturday and 2 hours on Sunday.


Plowing the snow on the sidewalks


Some kids had built a fort in the snowbank of a parking lot. This was their access tunnel, but the wind has drifted most of it shut.


Nap, anyone?

HT on the last one: Andy Kerr

Rachel

Rachel is now 20 days old. For the benefit of those of you who were praying, here is a picture of Renee holding Rachel. Isn't she a wonderful answer to prayer?



And here is Joel holding her. Doesn't he look like the proud father?

Quote for the day

" The church is not a franchise of grace to hungry spiritual consumers, but a vehicle for Christians committed with one another to proclaim Christ and build His Kingdom."—Leighton Tebay at The Heresy

Cold...

OK, this is at least a near first, if not a first. Today, when I got up and came to work, the temperature was about -8 F (-22 C). The wind chill was a bit colder. Now, even by Minnesota standards, that is getting cold.

Once I got to work, I thought I would check the temperature in Shakopee, where our son lives. Shakopee is a burb of Minneapolis. Here's what I saw:



Yes, Winona Lake is colder than Minneapolis, Minnesota. And what is even more interesting is that Grand Marais, on the north shore of Lake Superior, is 11 F! Makes me glad we moved! Now, where did I put my snowshoes...

Worship?

Out of Ur has a good post on a talk given at the National Pastors Convention. Here's a part of it:

Drawing mainly from the Old Testament prophets Daniel and Isaiah, Labberton built a case for thinking differently about worship. “Worship reorders reality to help us see what is true,” he said. It should reorder our priorities and help us see the world differently. But quite often worship is simply a baptized version of our culture. In our worship we simply mirror what is all around us—worship of self. This, he says, is “illegitimate worship.”

“Fear of God is what matters most,” says Labberton. “The failure of our people to live this way is a failure of our worship.” The solution is not making our worship louder, faster, or more spectacular as many are in the habit of doing. Rather, we need to reevaluate what our worship is forming within our people. “Does our worship impact our view of our neighbor?”

<idle musing>
Worship in not a song, not even a fast song. Worship is about a life lived in subservience to God; in obedience to our creator. It is not about music; it is not about choirs, or good voices; no, it is not even a good sermon. It is about God, and it is a part of life Monday through Saturday even more than it is about Sunday. God commands us to love our neighbor—in practical ways. And what he commands us to do, he enables us to do via the power available in the Holy Spirit. It is not another thing I have to do; it is about surrendering my self to the cross and allowing Him to do it through me. Me dead, Christ alive (Galatians 2:20).
</idle musing>

Quote for the day

Allegories are the natural mirrors of ideology. — Agnus Fletcher, Allegory

HT: John Cook

Wittenburg door image

Tyler at Codex has put up my favorite image from the Wittenburg door. Truly appealing! A must read.

Snow!

It is finally winter here. It has been snowing continually since about 2:30 this morning and is supposed to continue for another 10-12 hours! Because of the wind, just about everything is closing down. Here's a picture of one of the doors to the warehouse



They had predicted 12-16 inches, and we might actually get somewhere in the 8-10 inch range. That would be a first for my 4 winters here in Indiana.

I think I'm starting to come down with a severe case of snowshoe-itis. The only known cure is a morning off of work walking in the woods on snowshoes...

Quote for the day

“Understand now what lying is. Any species of designed deception. If the deception be not designed, it is not lying. But if you design to make an impression contrary to the naked truth, you lie. Put down all those cases you can recollect. Do not call them by any soft name. God calls them LIES, and charges you with LYING, and you had better charge yourself correctly. How innumerable are the falsehoods perpetrated every day in business, and in social intercourse, by words, and looks, and actions, designed to make an impression on others, for selfish reasons that is contrary to the truth!”—Finney in Lectures on Revival, lecture 3

<idle musing>
Pretty stringent definition, isn't it? Finney doesn't leave a whole lot of wiggle room when he starts naming sins. All of lecture 3 is about what is sin. He lists over 15 different categories, of which this is but one. Too bad the book isn't in print anymore; of course, that might be why. It is too convicting for our middle-class comfortable christianity.
</idle musing>

BookNews subscribers tops 2000

BookNews, the Eisenbrauns bi-weekly e-letter is over 2000 strong! Andy tells me that sometime last Thursday afternoon, our 2,000th subscriber signed up.

How does that compare to other e-mail lists? Well, the Biblical Studies list is 606 strong; ANE-2 has 758 subscribers; Classics-L is over 1500 (not sure of the exact number); Crosstalk2 is over 500. I have no idea how many subscribe to B-Greek.

So, I guess we compare pretty favorably. Of course, who doesn't want to get books at a discount?

The American Dream

There is a nice post over at The Community of Jesus about the "haves and have-nots." You should definitely read the whole thing, but here is a snippet:

When we see wealthy nations doing whatever it takes to guarantee their continued lifestyle and "way of life", while other peoples are left (with many excuses for that) behind, like in Darfur. I find this as just one of the scandals of living in a fallen world.

Being a good Samaritan begins at home. What about in our neighborhood? Among those we know? In our church? City? This is where we need to begin. As well as giving to those who help the poor, such as World Vision.

And I write off political candidates who call themselves "pro-life", yet say nothing about addressing this problem.

<idle musing>
I was reading in Finney's Lectures on Revival yesterday. In it he asks how we can consider ourselves a Christian and not care for the poor both among us and in foreign lands. The evangelical movement, starting with the Wesley's, was very concerned with social justice. It continued with abolitionists in the U.S.; the Salvation Army began as an outreach to the poor and homeless.

What happened? Now all Evangelicals talk about is abortion and gay marriage. Those are important, but not the only things that are. We need to move beyond those and address other problems as well.

We need to understand that abortion and gay marriage are but symptoms of a deeper problem—the sinful self. As long as we only address those two issues, and not the other ones, we can feel good about ourselves; unless we happen to fall into those two categories... But, God is calling us to examine our own lives and see where the sinful self rules in our decisions, from the most minor decision of what to eat, to the major decision of where we live. Can we cut down on consumption and take that extra few dollars and give to someone?
</idle musing>

Jeremiah 17, slightly revised

Jim West has decided that Jeremiah 17 is too harsh in the original, so he revised it a bit for the modern reader. Here's a bit of it:

5Thus says the Lord: Coddled are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord. 6They shall be like a giant shrubbery in the well watered desert, and shall not see when trouble of any kind comes because God would never allow anything bad to happen to anyone...10I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings. And that means he will just make everyone as happy as they want to be, because, after all, God is here for us- and we aren’t here for him.

Definitely modified! But, it is what we want to hear, isn't it?

Sight reading in Ezekiel

As I have mentioned before, we are sight reading in Hebrew and Greek each Thursday. We are still slogging through Mark in the GNT, but in the HB, we are now in Ezekiel. We made our way through Ruth, then voyaged through Jonah, landing on the banks of the Chebar river in Ezekiel. John assured us that it was readable.

Right! It might be readable, but is it understandable? Between convoluted syntax and changing genders on the pronouns, I'm not sure I understood a word we translated. Of course, you have to add all of the interesting comments Zimmerli (the BHS editor of Ezekiel) makes, deleting every duplicate, rearranging other ones, emending the text (when it doesn't agree with him!), and you have the perfect setting for a laugh fest. And that is exactly what happened yesterday. We were all laughing at our feeble attempts to understand a description of a supernatural vision in a dead foreign language 2500 years old. Now I understand why there is a Jewish tradition that you should never read the visions in Ezekiel until you are over 40!

Quote for a Thursday

Continuing on in the same chapter of Lectures on Revival:

A revival of religion is the only possible thing that can wipe away the reproach which covers the Church, and restore religion to the place it ought to have in the estimation of the public. Without a revival, this reproach will cover the Church more and more, until it is overwhelmed with universal contempt. You may do anything else you please, and you
may change the aspects of society in some respects, but you will do no real good; you only make it worse without a revival of religion. You may go and build a splendid new house of worship, and line your seats with damask, put up a costly pulpit, and get a magnificent organ, and everything of that kind, to make a show and dash, and in that way you may procure a sort of respect for religion among the wicked, but it does no good in reality. It rather does hurt. It misleads them as to the real nature of religion; and so far from converting them, it carries them farther away from salvation. Look wherever they have surrounded the altar of Christianity with splendor, and you will find that the impression produced is contrary to the true nature of religion.

<idle musing>
How much closer to the mark could he get? He was writing in the 1840’s, but it sure sounds like a description of the church in 2007. We have people working diligently to change society; we have people building huge church buildings; the church has scorn heaped on it by society. And the whole time we “do no real good” rather we “only make it worse” because we are trying to do it our way instead of God’s way.

The first place a revival has an effect is the church. How many of us are willing to admit that we have been cherishing “little” sins in our heart? How many of us are willing to admit that we have been comparing ourselves to those around us, assuming that God grades on a curve? We forget that we serve a holy God who demands (and imparts) holiness of heart, not just behavior according to a set of rules on a checklist.

There is a reason that II Chronicles 7:14 starts with “my people who are called by my name” are called to “humble themselves…turn from their wicked ways.” This was addressed to God’s people then, and it is still addressed to God’s people today. Romans 2:24 says, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” It was true in Paul’s day, it is only too true today. But, it doesn’t have to be! Romans goes on to say in chapter 8 that we are “more than conquerors through him who loved us.” It is available to us by faith; we need only believe it and live in it.

Revive your church, O Lord! Forgive our complacency; renew our love; fire our passion for you; may we experientially know the truth that we are dead to the world, but alive in Christ.
</idle musing>

Unicode

Over at deinde Danny Zacharias has a post about publishers accepting unicode in submissions. Since it is directed against publishers, Eisenbrauns (in the person of Jim Eisenbraun) chose to respond. I quote:

Your comments on the virtues of Unicode and OpenType are well placed. However, your comments on publishers being unwilling to move forward are not. Almost all publishers in this field would love to move directly to Unicode and OpenType. The problem is not that publishers are slow to embrace these standards: the problem is that publishing software lags behind. Yes, InDesign handles Unicode quite well. However, Adobe created InDesign first of all to serve the general (consumer) magazine market, not the academic publishing market. In academic publishing, much more is required than getting the font/glyphs right. One has to index; create cross-references; generate tables of contents; include footnotes. Until the latest version of InDesign (CS 2), it could not do footnotes! Now, in the CS 2 revision, it will do footnotes. But it still cannot do cross-references. It cannot do more than one index (without doing so manually; suppose you want more than a Scripture index? or an author index?). (Plug-ins are available from third-party commercial companies to do these things, but they are expensive and very very slow. In fact, InDesign suffers from what I would call software piggishness: it's very fat. An example: the same file in the older publishing software that Eisenbrauns has used for 15+ years if recreated in InDesign will require a file size that is roughly 10-20x the disk space. That by itself is not much of an issue any longer, but the fact that the software is very slow and unwieldy (in comparison) simply raises costs signficantly. The list of things that InDesign will do is long.

In short, biblical studies publishers would very rapidly embrace OpenType/Unicode--and we all will. We believe that it is the future (at least I do). But the creation of true professional publishing software lags the development of this encoding standard. We're quite frustrated with this fact. But I would remind us all that academic publishing is less than 1% of the general publishing market. We feed on the scraps that fall from the table of big business. -- Jim Eisenbraun, Eisenbrauns

I encourage you to read the whole post.

Quote for today

From Finney’s Lectures on Revival, chapter 2, When a Revival Is to Be Expected:

“When there is a worldly spirit in the Church. It is manifest that the Church has sunk down into a low and backslidden state, when you see Christians conform to the world in dress, equipage, and “parties,” in seeking worldly amusements, and reading novels, and other books such as the world reads. It shows that they are far from God, and that there is great need of a revival of religion.

“When the Church finds its members falling into gross and scandalous sins, then it is time to awake and cry to God for a revival of religion. When such things are taking place as give the enemies of religion an occasion for reproach, it is time to ask of God: ‘What will become of Thy great Name?’”

<idle musing>
Seems like that would be now, doesn’t it? Even so, come Lord Jesus! Awake your slumbering church! Give sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf that your great name may be lifted high above the earth.
</idle musing>

Unity of what spirit?

Over at Milk Fusion there is a very perceptive post on the unity of the body of Christ. Here are a few snippets:

…in our desperation to create community, to succeed in our efforts and carve out a "space" where we can find shared life and unity, the temptation is always before us to cultivate a sense of it through other things; shared interests in sports, shared hobbies, social service experiences, shared cultural backgrounds (high school experience, tv shows, movies, etc), shared meals, musical tastes, demographic-specific needs or any one of thousands of peripheral things that tempt us to 'major' our unity in while 'minoring' unity in Christ: where awaits the tangible power of endless life. We do lots of stuff and always try to mix in a little Jesus somewhere.

And then there is the mother of all shortcuts to unity: the party. We might not use that term exactly, but its [sic] what we end up creating. Unity in "good times" for the sake of "good times" modeled after sanitized patterns defined for us by the world. It is somewhat intoxicating, almost universally appealing and easy. A short cut. An age-old version of joy without all that bothersome ownership of other people's pain and ugliness. All we wanna do is have some fun and we all know we are not the only ones. Unity lite: low in sodium. Savor free. Ready to be trampled.

…So what might this path look like? First of all, answering "what-does-it-look-like" questions is sometimes dangerous because giving the answer tempts people to start imitating the fruit without developing the root…

We talk too much. We have too much knowledge and not enough substance. Partying with our knowledge is dangerous. A true spiritual unity will not be what the world would label a "party" by outward appearances. The apostles may have been mocked on the day of Pentecost as being "drunk with wine" but even such a label could not encompass the flood of thousands of souls rushing into the Kingdom because of their searing words that burned into hearts like hot metal on flesh.

In our day of digital self-service and sensory self-indulgence we are not in need of raising a pint of Guinness together and declaring "God is good." Rather, we are in need of beholding God as he is, being shaken by that vision to collapse on our faces and cry "Woe is me! He is Holy!"

Repentant lives, being washed clean of our tolerated sins that suddenly appear terrifying by the searing light of His countenance, are shown how to pay the price to enter in that fellowship that discovers and partakes of the unspeakable union found only between the Father, Son and Spirit. We err in our concocted "unity" based on our human devices. How quickly we exit the spirit that leads us into the purity that abides the presence of a God that is a consuming fire.

HT: Alan Knox

New wine

I recently ran across this post on the M Blog about a conference he just got back from. Much wisdom here.

All the speakers and workshops were great but will share just a bit of what Wolfgang [Simson] had to say. He spoke about the fact that we are in a new phase of Christian history where a new OS (computer operating system) of TRUST IN GOD will replace the old OS of knowledge. Listening to God as He leads step by step will become more and more the basis for ministry replacing plans, programs, strategies, etc.

When we feel that nothing is happening it is when God is most active. What is happening in these "silences" is that God is in the process of replacing our old operating systems for the new one that will carry us into the greatest harvest the world has ever seen.

How does one implement this new OS? Wolfgang shared that we must slow down and do less. We need to detox and allow God to replace the old OS with his new one. It's not about speeding up and trying to do more; rather get in tune with what God is wanting to do and follow Him step by step--listening carefully and trusting that He will bring about His Kingdom here on earth.

Much more. Read it all here

Media in the sanctuary

Interesting post over at Out of Ur

My childhood church had a silver cross suspended in the sanctuary. It was the visual focus of our worship. I recently returned to the church and the cross was still there, but few people notice it anymore. A large screen now hangs in front of it.

Read the rest, especially the comments section. This comment especially:

When the associate pastor of my former church (Mennonite Brethren) became the senior pastor a number of years ago, he had an 'old-rugged cross' constructed and placed in the middle of the stage. The base upon which it stood was large and during his sermon he would often stumble over it. At first we thought it was an accident, but then he began speaking of how in every aspect of life we need to 'stumble' over the cross. It is a reminder to keep us on the straight and narrow way. The congregation hated it and in less than two years he was gone. We did not like to be constantly reminded of our sin nature and the price that had to be paid for it; nor did we want to be reminded of the need for true Christians to be obedient to God's written laws.

It keeps going. Quite perceptive, eh?

Just arrived!

I walked over to the warehouse just now, looking for a book. As I entered, I looked at the stack of boxes that came in today and saw two from Pontifical Biblical Institute.

Hmmm...what could that be? Usually shipments from Italy take 3 months. Well, I opened the boxes up, and sure enough—there it was, Muraoka's new version of Jouon's Grammar of Biblical Hebrew, and in cloth, too. I thought it was going to be a paperback and didn't expect it for at least another month. I haven't had a chance to look it over thoroughly yet, after all I've only had it for about 1/2 hour, but one nice feature is an index of modern authors and a bibliography through 2003. Here are the details:

A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew
2006 one volume edition
Subsidia Biblica - SB 27
by Paul Jouon and Takamitsu Muraoka
Pontifical Biblical Institute, 2006
xlvi + 772 pages, English
Cloth
ISBN: 8876536299
Your Price: $78.00
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~JOUBIBLIC

Quote for the day

In the time of our first perplexity and helplessness we prayed much to God, and God answered and God blessed, and our organization became perfected, and our band of workers became large; but gradually the organization and the work and the rush have so taken possession of us that the power of the Spirit, in which we began when we were a small company, has almost been lost.—Andrew Murray in Absolute Surrender

<idle musing>
I have seen this happen repeatedly. When I start something big (or small), I know I can't handle it, so I depend on God. But, once I have it figured out, I rush in and take over. Basically treating God like a master with me as an apprentice. The difference is that I decide the length of the apprenticeship, its terms, and once I "figure it out" I dump the master. I sign my own papers on my own authority. Then, of course, when things go wrong, it is God's fault!

Hmmm, count the number of times the first person pronoun occurs in the preceding paragraph. Kinda scary, isn't it?
</idle musing>

I'm a grandma!

Well, actually, I'm still a grandpa :) But, Renee and Joel had a baby girl last night at 6:43 Central time. She was two weeks early by the doctor's calculations, but right on time by God's. Everyone is doing fine.

Quote for the day

“Think of the church at large. What divisions! Think of the different bodies. Take the question of holiness, take the question of the cleansing blood, take the question of the baptism of the Spirit - what differences are caused among dear believers by such questions! That there are differences of opinion does not trouble me. We do not have the same constitution and temperament and mind. But how often hate, bitterness, contempt, separation, unlovingness are caused by the holiest truths of God’s Word! Our doctrines, our creeds, have been more important than love. We often think we are valiant for the truth and we forget God’s command to speak the truth in love. And it was so in the time of the Reformation between the Lutheran and Calvinistic churches. What bitterness there was than in regard to the Holy Supper, which was meant to be the bond of union among all believers! And so, down the ages, the very dearest truths of God have become mountains that have separated us.”—Andrew Murray in Absolute Surrender

It's still Winter

It snowed most of last night; just a light one, amounting to about 1.5 inches. But, it sure was beautiful. Andy took this picture of the front of the building this morning after he finished sweeping/shoveling the walk.

Quote for today

In a book I was reading over the weekend, the author made a comment about our conception of angels, especially the Valentine's day type. You know which ones I'm talking about; they have the little wings and diapers on. I thought his critique of the "Gerber baby" angels was too priceless not to post...

Those were not Gerber babies that sang around the manger the holy night Christ was born; those were mighty, warring heavenly beings singing in awe of the sacrifice of the great King.

Just once some Christmas I would like to see a real angel show up on top of the tree just as I plugged in the light—bam!—nuclear glory radiating, instantly frying the Christmas tree into a skeleton of smoldering sticks; everyone in the family slain spiritually, unable to move for hours under the weight of the angelic presence. A true "touched by an angel" episode and a Christmas to remember!—Francis Frangipane

Winter!

Finally, 2 months late, but I think it might be here. This morning was 8 degrees F; a nice crisp day. We were at Debbie's parents last night and came out to about an inch of fluffy snow on the car. When we went for our walk last night, the temperature was about 12 F, the sky was clear and the moon was reflecting off the snow. As we walked, the snow crunched under our feet. A few deer were feeding in the woods. What more could you ask for?

This morning on the way to work, there was ice on the lake, white snow on the ground, not too windy. A beautiful day for a walk. It's a good thing it didn't snow enough to go snowshoeing, or I would never have come in to work...time to bring out one of my favorite quotes (from Space for God).

"When rain turns to ice and snow I declare a holiday. I could as easily resist as stay at a desk with a parade going by in the street below. I cannot hide the delight that then possesses my heart. Only God could have surprised rain with such a change of dress as ice and cold...

"Most people love rain, water. Snow charms all young hearts. Only when you get older and bones begin to feel dampnesss, when snow becomes a traffic problem and a burden in the driveway, when wet means dirt--then the poetry takes flight and God's love play is not noted.

But I am still a child and have no desire to take on the ways of death. I shall continue to heed water's invitation, the call of the rain. We are in love and lovers are a little mad."

Quote for today

As [C.J.H.] Wright [Deuteronomy, NIBC, pp. 50-51] aptly notes,

the contrast is not between visible and invisible, or between spiritual and material, but between the visible and the audible. Idols have “form” but do not speak, Yahweh has no “form,” but he decisively speaks. Idols are visible but dumb. Yahweh is invisible but eloquent.

As we have seen, the words of Yahweh are the means by which his presence is manifest in Israel. So, making an image would be an attempt to actualize Yahweh’s presence in a manner that is, first of all, contrary to the means he desires. It would be an attempt to substitute the speaking Yahweh who confronts, rebukes, demands, and challenges. Attempting to represent Yahweh with a lifeless image would serve to ‘gag’ him.”—Vogt in Deuteronomic Theology and the Significance of Torah

Brief review of Bonhoeffer “Reflections on the Bible”

As you can see from the quote of the day for the last week or so, I have been reading Reflections on the Bible. It is a short little book, only 128 pages, of selections from many of the volumes in the Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Works series. The book was put together in celebration of Bonhoeffer’s one hundredth birthday in 2005; since the English translations for some of the Works aren’t done yet, the quotes are direct translations from the German edition.

I must say, I am ambivalent about the book. In many ways, it is a wonderful distillation of Bonhoeffer quotes. In other ways, it is far too short, and I would have chosen some other writings to include instead of what they chose. Of course, that is the nature of a short anthology–everyone has their own favorite passages and wants to see them included. Since I didn’t choose them, I will find something “better” that should have been included.

The other thing is the price; at a list price of $9.95 for 128 pages it seems overpriced. But, when the alternative is to buy all 17 volumes of Bonhoeffer’s Works ( or Werke since some are still only in German), and then find the time to read them–and mark the best passages…Well, $9.95 suddenly doesn’t seem too bad.

Although I enjoyed reading it, I probably won’t keep the volume in my library, but will pass it on. After all, why should I have the short one when I have the English volumes of Works already (and bookshelf space is at a premium in our house)?

<cheap plug>
So, watch for it to appear on the Used Books section at Eisenbrauns in the next few days—which reminds me, you definitely should subscribe to our RSS feeds : )
</cheap plug>

Quote for the day

God said—and we know it from the Bible—”See, I am making all things new” (Revelation 21:5). This is what God made come true at Easter. Would not this message appear even more impossible, strange, bizarre than the whole story of King David, which is almost harmless by comparison?

The only thing left is the decision whether we are willing to trust the word of the Bible or not, whether we are willing to let ourselves be held by it, as by no other word in life or in death. And, I believe, we can find true joy and peace only when we have made this decision…—Bonheoffer in Reflections on the Bible

<idle musing>
Hmm...we not only accept Easter, but say our faith hangs on the empty tomb. But, David, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, etc., didn't really exist? Doesn't there seem to be a disconnect here?

Jesus said "And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” Matthew 22:31-32 (RSV)

So does that mean that:
a. Jesus didn't know what he was talking about?
b. God is a liar?
c. We know better, because we live in the 21st century?
d. Bultmann was right, after all?
e. none of the above
f. all of the above
g. ???
</idle musing>

Quote for the day

If I am the one who gets to decide where God will be found, then I will always find a god there, a god who some way or other is the kind of god I am looking for, a god I like, a god appropriate to my own nature and personality. But if God is the One who says where he will be Found, then this will very likely be the place that at first does not at all fit my own nature and character, a place I probably will not like at all. This place is the cross of Jesus. And those who want to find God there must take their place under the cross, as demanded by the Sermon on the Mount. This does not at all correspond to our nature; it is exactly contrary to it. But this is the message of the Bible, not only in the New Testament but also in the Old Testament (Isaiah 53!). in any case this was the understanding of both Jesus and Paul: in the cross of Jesus the Scripture, that is, the Old Testament, is fulfilled. Thus the whole Bible is permeated by the divine intention of being that word in which God wants to be found by us. No place that seems pleasant to us, or that at first even seems reasonable to us, but a place in every way strange to us, totally alien to us. Precisely there is the place God has chosen to meet us.—Bonheoffer in Reflections on the Bible

Instant Greek?

There is a very interesting post at Better Bibles Blog about "Sunday School Greek."

The premise, put forward by Hank of Think Wink, and warmly received by the ESV Bible blog is that eve[r]yone in the church could learn Greek and Hebrew in Sunday School. And then people could decide for themselves all the sticky translation issues. The democratization of exegesis! We might wake up one day and find out that the world really is flat.

<idle musing>
Right! On the basis of how much Greek and Hebrew? I am all in favor of people learning the languages, after all, I was a Greek and Latin teacher, but let's be realistic about expectations here. One of the hardest things already about a language is managing expectations. A person outside of a consistent, almost daily, classroom setting has to be very highly motivated to learn a language, any language.

Furthermore, you can't do exegesis well with only 1-2 years of Greek or Hebrew, let alone judge translational issues. Not infrequently there are textual issues, as well as language issues. How many second year Greek or Hebrew students use the critical apparatus and understand what it means?

I have seen some of the translations that first and second year students come up with! Phooey, I remember some of my own!

By all means, learn the languages, at least enough to understand how to use the tools. But, don't assume that because you know a little of the language you can correct the translators. More accurately, you begin to understand the semantic domain of a word in the Greek/Hebrew and understand why the translations might disagree on the exact English word or phrase chosen.
</idle musing>

Quote for the day

Or—I might as well go ahead and ask myself now—am I perhaps already living so much within the framework of my own principles that I might not even notice if one day God should withdraw his living word from me? Perhaps I would just continue living by my own rules, but God’s command would no longer be with me. God’s command is God’s personal word to me for this day for my life here and now; it is, to be sure, not today one thing and something else tomorrow that God wants of me. In itself, God’s command is one. But the decisive difference is whether I obey God or live by my own principles. If I am satisfied to live by my own principles, then I cannot understand the psalmist’s prayer [Psalm 119:19]. But if I allow God himself to direct my way, then I am totally dependent on the grace that reveals itself to me or withholds itself from me, then I tremble at every word I receive from the mouth of God, tremble at the prospect of the next word and whether I will be maintained in grace. Then I am bound by grace in all my ways and decisions, and no false certainty can lead me astray from this living communion with God.—Bonhoeffer in Reflections on the Bible

Quote for the day

We have been getting together with Debbie's parents every Sunday evening to read from The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, a classic from 1875. We have been reading from 1-4 chapters each time and discussing them. There were some real gems last night, but here is one of them:

The standard of practical holy living has been so low among Christians that the least degree of real devotedness of life and walk is looked upon with surprise, and often even with disapprobation, by a large portion of the Church. And, for the most part, the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ are satisfied with a life so conformed to the world and so like it in almost every respect, that, to a casual observer, no difference is discernible.