The continuing saga of programmers who can't spell

After a quiet few weeks, Travis is at it again. This time, though, it is a cry for help. Yesterday he posted this flyer on his door:


Since he has declared himself an independent state, he can't use company funds, I guess. Anyway, I did my part, I gave him a 10 cent Euro piece. So now he only needs $98.77. I doubt that a one day seminar is going to teach him to spell and write, though...

Why Bonhoeffer?

Why Bonhoeffer?
<idle musing>
That is the question some of us were discussing the other day. Why not Brunner, or Barth, or Moltmann, or…the list could go on ad infinitum. They are all good modern theologians, but why does Bonhoeffer seem to have something a bit different?

I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but there is something about Bonhoeffer that is unique and grabs me in a way that the other ones don’t. He seems more alive, more in touch with everyday life; his faith made a difference in the way he lived. I think that is why I like him. There is a passion that shines through in his writings; a conviction that ignites the soul and makes it feel alive.

As you read Bonhoeffer, you can sense that he had an encounter with the living God that was still alive in him. You see the difference in his writings after 1932. As Bethge (one of his students and his biographer) said of him: Before 1932 he was a good theologian, but once he encountered God, he became a Christian theologian.
</idle musing>

That’s my view anyway, anyone care to comment?

New CAD volumes arrived

Finally, after over 6 weeks delay at the printer, The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary volume T and Tet just arrived.

Chicago Assyrian Dictionary T
Chicago Assyrian Dictionary - CAD 18
Edited by Martha T. Roth
Oriental Institute-Chicago, 2006
510 pages, English
Cloth
ISBN: 1885923422
Your Price: $145.00
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~CADT

Chicago Assyrian Dictionary T. [Tet)
Chicago Assyrian Dictionary - CAD 19
Edited by Martha T. Roth
Oriental Institute-Chicago, Forthcoming December 22, 2006
170 pages, English
Cloth
ISBN: 1885923430
Your Price: $105.00
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~CADTET

Update: It appears that I had the wrong prices! I have corrected them downwards!

Quote for today

“If Jesus is not the Lord of every part of my life, then He is not Lord of any of it. This is true salvation—true faith—true obedience. Yes I must die to my life, my interests, my will in order to abide in Him. However, I will make a greater exchange—my life for His. I will acquire a greater prize; for He is faithful to return to me more than I have given Him.” Marilyn Howshall, The Mystery of the Gospel

Quote for today

“Not I, but Christ. This is the rest of faith in which a man rests from his works. With the unconverted man it Not Christ, but I. With the feeble and slothful Christian, I and Christ: I first and Christ to fill up what is wanting. With increasing earnestness it becomes Christ and I: Christ first, but still I second. With the man who dies with Christ it is, Not I, but Christ: Christ alone and Christ all. He has ceased from his work: Christ lives in him. This is the rest of faith.” Andrew Murray, The Holiest of All

Quote for today

“The point of departure for Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s concrete ethics is the theological question of how the reality of God revealed in Jesus Christ can take form in human life in the world. Bonhoeffer’s ethical reflection tries to understand God’s will and the world’s reality here and now, together, the one not without the other. Rather than treating the reality of the world as a matter of indifference—it is in fact disclosed completely anew—and rather than eclipsing it in some fashion, Bonhoeffer confronts the reality of the world with the Yes and No that God’s presence means for it.”—Editors’ Afterword to the German Edition of Bonhoeffer’s Ethics, page 409 of English edition.

Quote for today

“The church does not have a twofold word, the one general, rational, and grounded in natural law and the other Christian—that is, it does not have one word for unbelievers and another for believers. Only a pharisaical arrogance can lead the church to withhold the proclamation of Christ from some but not from others. The word of the church is justified and authorized solely by the commission of Jesus Christ. Therefore any of its words that fail to take this authorization into account must be just empty chatter…Only by fulfilling its own mandate can it legitimately question the government about fulfilling its mandate.” —Bonhoeffer, Ethics, page 399

Quote for the day

“Where private confession and church discipline have been lost, there God’s commandment in the sermon is merely understood as a proclamation of general moral principles, which as such are void of any concrete claim.” —Bonhoeffer, Ethics, page 395

Ethics for today

“Even a master has a Master, and this fact alone makes him a master and authorizes and legitimizes him vis-à-vis the servant. Master and servant owe one another the respect that springs from their respective participation in God’s mandate.” —Bonhoeffer, Ethics, page 391

Quote for the day

A Chinese house church leader once visited some major mega-churches in Los Angeles, California and when asked, “What do you think?” he responded with, ‘It’s amazing what your American Churches can do without the Holy Spirit.”

Bonhoeffer's 4 mandates

“The commandment of God revealed in Jesus Christ embraces in its unity all of human life. Its claim on human beings and the world through the reconciling love of God is all-encompassing. This commandment encounters us concretely in four different forms that find their unity only in the commandment itself, namely, in the church, marriage and family, culture, and government.” —Bonhoeffer, Ethics, page 388

Self-righteousness

<idle musing>
Ouch! It hurt, but it had to be done.

Saturday I was frustrated. How can people be so dense? I try so hard, but it just doesn't seem to happen. I don't seem to get anywhere. I, I, I, I...

That should have been my first clue. As I am so fond of telling others, you can tell a lot about a person by the subject of the sentence. But, no, I went on bullheadedly and let my frustration rule me instead of the love of Christ.

So, if I am running the show, what do you think will come out? Yep, me, self-righteous, Pharisaical, proud, arrogant, the list goes on. Sure, it might contain truth, but is it the truth, spoken in love? That is the true test. It is only as I function in the love of Christ that anything will ever be accomplished.

A good Christian brother pointed out the problem to me, but I only saw half the problem. Even after I posted the Bonhoeffer quote, and mused on it, I didn't realize the extent of my sin. Only now, two days after, and who knows how many people hurt, did it become evident to me.

What am I talking about? I made some posts that I should not have—probably not the first time—but these were different; they weren't just frivolous. These were mean-spirited; they reflected the worst of me, my pride and desire to be right at all costs. Self-vindication is a cruel task master and loves to eat its victims up, all the while making them think they are justified in their actions. But, the light of God shines brighter and shone through, setting me free once again.

So, I did something I've never done before, I took down some posts. They were posted in arrogance and pride, and if anyone was hurt, I ask your forgiveness.

I am not given to this kind of public confession. But, the sin was public, therefore the confession should also be public.
</idle musing>

Quote for today

“The commandment of God as the commandment revealed in Jesus Christ is always a concrete speaking to someone, and never an abstract speaking about something or someone. It always addresses and claims the hearer in such a comprehensive and at the same time definitive way that it no longer permits the freedom of interpretation and application, but only the freedom of obedience or disobedience.”—Bonhoeffer, Ethics, page 381

<idle musing>
Ouch! I don't know how many times I've heard something and instantly applied it to someone else's life. Yes, even—no, especially—when it was very relevant to my own life. Or, just as bad, I've explained my sin away, justifying it in my own eyes. Or, worse yet, set myself up as judge of someone else's situation...Lord! Deliver me from myself! Oh, wait he has! "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death." Romans 8:2 RSV
</idle musing>

Bonhoeffer for a Saturday

“God’s commandment is God’s speech to human beings. Both in its content and in its form, it is concrete speech to concrete human beings. God’s commandment leaves human beings no room for application and interpretation, but only for obedience or disobedience. God’s commandment cannot be found and known apart from time and place; indeed, it can only be heard by one who is bound to a specific place and time. God’s commandment is either utterly specific, clear, and concrete or it is not God’s commandment.”—Bonhoeffer, Ethics, pages 378-379

Ethics again

"Jesus’ demand that the rich young man give up one of his rights makes clear that his ‘keeping of the Ten Commandments since his youth’ was not obedience to God, but ignoring the living God in the midst of keeping the so-called divine orders. The Decalogue and the Sermon on the Mount are thus not two different ethical ideals, but the one call to concrete obedience to the God and Father of Jesus Christ. Responsibly affirming property rights is no different from giving up one’s property, when done out of faith in God. Neither ‘fighting for rights’ nor ‘giving up rights’ is essential as such, as if it were a particular subject of the church’s proclamation. However, when done in faith either stance amounts to a submission to the right of God alone." —Bonhoeffer, Ethics, page 359 (emphasis his)

Wish list is live at Eisenbrauns!

We've been working diligently (well, Travis and Andy have, all I did was try to break it!) on this for quite a while now, but it is finally ready for prime-time. You can now create a wish list and publish it (if you wish). Perfect timing, right? You just finished that final and need to relax. What better way than creating a wish list for next semester/quarter? Or, to take your mind off all the grading that you need to do (ugh!), why not create a wish list at Eisenbrauns?

You can see mine here.

If you are feeling generous, the large BHS would be very nice. My eyes can't always tell the difference between a resh and a dahlet anymore in my small BHS, even with reading glasses :(

Around the blogosphere

Some very good posts today and yesterday that are worth reading.

Yesterday, over at the The M Blog there is a very good post about Church Planting, Baptists & Charismatics together:

I have been told 80% of evangelicals in Ecuador are either charismatics or pentecostals. To ignore and disassociate ourselves from them is not only unbiblical, it is ministry suicide, and quite clearly sin if you ask me.

He goes on for quite a while, well worth the read.

Meantime, here in the States, Jim Martin has a good post on The Wonderful World of Self:

Years ago, I was the minister to a church that met on the campus of a Bible college. The school and the church were their own separate entities. Yet, there was some overlap. After all, I taught part-time at the college (a senior level ministry class each semester). One Sunday, a man employed by the school was in our assembly. He approached me afterward and said that he was scheduled to preach in chapel that week and would like to use much of what I had just said in that morning’s sermon. I said something like "sure" and went on. As I recall, I felt encouraged that he wanted to use much of that material for his own message.

That week, I was in chapel and heard his message. It was very familiar — very, very familiar. Maybe I just wanted him to acknowledge that he heard much of this last Sunday morning in our assembly. Yet, not one word.

This bothered me.

This bothered me — a lot.

You really should read it all. One commenter on the blog said it is the "Somebody didn’t push my ‘I’m important!’ button." Well put. Definitely worth the read.

And Ted Gossard has an excellent post as well on Living out life

This is why, though rules have their place, they really do not have a kind of prior place in the living out of this life. For example, as one in Jesus, I don't refuse to steal, simply because it's a rule from God I must keep, and because it's part of a choice, among the many choices I must make along the way. No. But I refuse to steal, or fight any temptation I may have to do so, because I have this life in Jesus. And having this life, I want to live it out. And I have the dynamic in God to do so.

I was brought up with a form of legalism that made how one dresses (especially women), or what one does (and doesn't do) to be of prior importance in living out Christianity, in being a Christian. Fortunately there were those who knew better. But by and large Christianity was seen more for what we do and don't do, rather than who we are and "the life" that we have in Jesus. When I finally became a Christian, the new life in Jesus was at the forefront of my experience. I overflowed with this new love and grace I had found. But I gradually receded back into a kind of orientation, that, while not surrendering "the life" aspect entirely, nevertheless relegated it to a status that put the onus on me. As if living out this life, and remaining in it, depends on me

He continues on, worth the read.

More from Bonhoeffer

"Jesus is hardly ever involved in solving worldly problems; whenever he is requested to do so, he is strangely evasive (Matt. 22:15; Luke 12:13), just as generally he almost never answers people’s questions directly, but from a completely different plain. His word is not an answer to human questions and problems, but the divine answer to the divine question addressed to human beings. His word is essentially determined not from below, but from above; it is not a solution but redemption. His word does not spring from the human problematic of the disunity of good and evil, but from the complete unity of the Son with the will of the Father. He stands beyond the human problematic. This is the first thing that must be understood. Since Jesus brings the redemption of human beings, rather than the solution to problems, he indeed brings the solution to all human problems—”all these things will be given”—though from a completely different vantage point.” —Bonhoeffer, Ethics, page 354 (emphasis his)

Yeah, right!

John Cook, our acquisitions editor, forwarded the following graphic to all of us today. He told us the underlining was not his. (You might have to click on it to make it big enough to read.)


All I can say is that I wouldn't want to be married to a woman like that. It sure would be boring.

Best books of 2006

I was delighted to see that some of Eisenbrauns' finest publications were recently nominated for best books of 2006 by Biblische Ausbildung. You can see which ones I mean by clicking here