Quote for today

“Worship is more than just singing. Worship is an entire life devoted to living in a way that honors God. It is any decision we make that demonstrates Jesus Christ is the Lord of our lives. The definition of worship is simple: it is any act that tells God he is important to us. And as we live our lives in a way that brings honor to God, we transform every place we are – every part of our lives ndash; into a place of worship. To put it another way, everywhere becomes a sanctuary, and there are always seats available for us to fill…” jacket of a church’s worship CD

Dose of Tozer for today

Ryan (our son) called us last night asking for prayer for a difficult meeting he was going to. While I was praying for him, my eyes happened to glance at a beaten up old copy of Pursuit of God that was sitting on my bookshelf. Here is what I opened to:

The doctrine of justification by faith--a Biblical truth, and a blessed relief from sterile legalism and unavailing self-effort--has in our time fallen into evil company and been interpreted by many in such manner as actually to bar men from the knowledge of God. The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may now be exercised without a jar to the moral life and without embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be 'received' without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver. The man is 'saved,' but he is not hungry nor thirsty after God. In fact he is specifically taught to be satisfied and encouraged to be content with little.—A.W. Tozer, Pursuit of God, chapter 1

<idle musing>
Incidentally, the meeting was about that very thing!
</idle musing>

Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament, continued

I'm reading Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament right now, and this is part 2 of my impressions.

A brief recap from last time:
The book is divided into 5 parts:
1. Comparative Studies
2. Literature of the Ancient Near East
3. Religion
4. Cosmos
5. People

Last time I mentioned parts 1 & 2 and a brief note on part 3. One thing I failed to mention is that the bibliography in the book is great. The footnotes are very helpful, pointing to sources for further reference.
<cheap plug>
Of course, John is a longtime Eisenbrauns customer and it shows in the breadth of his sources.
</cheap plug>

The section on Religion deals with the state cults as well as personal deity/family religion. It is very interesting reading; a good introduction for those new to ANE and OT studies. John is well aware of the dangers inherent here, for example this quote on prayer: “Most of us would have trouble making such distinctions [between true piety and prudence] in the roots of our own prayers and should be reluctant to draw conclusions from the literary prayers that are preserved from the ancient world.” (page 146). His emphasis is on defining in what ways the ancient Israelites were in continuity with their neighbors and in what ways they were not. To that end, there are periodic “Comparative Exploration” boxes throughout the book. These take a topic that is being discussed and highlight how the ANE and Israelite outlooks were similar and different.

I just finished the Cosmos section and John does a good job of highlighting how differently we think from how the ancients thought. We think in terms of substance—dirt, rock, iron, flesh, but the ancients thought in terms of function—“In other words, something exists when it has a function, not when it takes up space or is a substance characterized by material properties. . . The physical aspects of the cosmos did not define its existence or its importance; they were merely the tools the gods used for carrying out their purposes. The purposes of the gods were of prime interest to them.” (page 167)

He has several “Comparative Exploration” boxes related to Genesis 1 in this section. This is one of his main interests, as reflected in the NIVAC Genesis commentary that he did and in at least one forthcoming book on the cosmology of Genesis (not yet announced). I’m not a big fan of the NIVAC series, but I might have to get the Genesis volume after reading this book. The information in the book is sufficient for his purposes, but it piques my interest for further reading.

Part 5 is People; I hope to read that section this week and post on it over the weekend.

New Interpreter's Bible on sale

For the next 10 days, Eisenbrauns is offering the New Interpreter's Bible at 40% off, both print and electronic version.

To purchase, or see the graphics, go here

Here's what's on sale:

"The New Interpreter's Bible, volume 1: General and Old Testament
Articles; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus"
by Terence E. Fretheim, Walter Brueggemann, and Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.
New Interpreter's Bible - NIB 1
Abingdon, Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0687278147
List Price: $70.00 Your Price: $42.00

"The New Interpreter's Bible, volume 2: Numbers, Deuteronomy,
Introduction to Narrative Literature, Joshua, Judges,
Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel"
by Thomas B. Dozeman, et al.
New Interpreter's Bible - NIB 2
Abingdon, Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0687278155
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"The New Interpreter's Bible, volume 3: 1 and 2 Kings,
1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, Esther,
Additions to Esther, Tobit, Judith"
by Choon-Leong Seow, et al.
New Interpreter's Bible - NIB 3
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"The New Interpreter's Bible, volume 4: 1 and 2 Macabees,
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by Robert Doran, et al.
New Interpreter's Bible - NIB 4
Abingdon, Cloth. English.
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"The New Interpreter's Bible, volume 5: Introduction to Wisdom
Literature, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Book of Wisdom, Sirach"
by Richard J. Clifford, et al.
New Interpreter's Bible - NIB 5
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"The New Interpreter's Bible, volume 8: General Articles on the
New Testament, Matthew, Mark"
by M. Eugene Boring and Pheme Perkins
New Interpreter's Bible - NIB 8
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"The New Interpreter's Bible, volume 9: Luke; John"
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"The New Interpreter's Bible, Volume 10: Acts, Introduction to
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"The New Interpreter's Bible, volume 11: 2 Corinthians, Galatians,
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Quote for the day

This is the final quote from the Conversations of Practice of the Presence of God:
“Brother Lawrence felt it was a great delusion to think that the times of prayer ought to differ from other times. We are as strictly obliged to adhere to God by action in the time of action, as by prayer in its season. His own prayer was nothing else but a sense of the presence of God, his soul being at that time insensible to everything but Divine Love. When the appointed times of prayer were past, he found no difference, because he still continued with God, praising and blessing Him with all his might. Thus he passed his life in continual joy.”

Sunday evening reading

Last night we got together with Debbie’s parents again to continue reading through The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life, reading more 5 chapters. We are now half way through the book, which is very strong on faith. Here are a few excerpts:

Your idea of faith, I suppose, has been something like this. You have looked upon it as in some way a sort of thing, either a religious exercise of soul, or an inward gracious disposition of heart; something tangible, in fact, which, when you have got, you can look at and rejoice over, and use as a passport to God’s favor, or a coin with which to purchase His gifts. And you have been praying for faith, expecting all the while to get something
like this, and never having received any such thing, you are insisting upon it that you have no faith. Now faith, in fact, is not in the least this sort of thing. It is nothing at all tangible. It is simply believing God, and, like sight, it is nothing apart from its object. You might as well shut your eyes and look inside to see whether you have sight, as to look inside to discover whether you have faith. You see something, and thus know that you have sight; you believe something, and thus know that you have faith. For, as sight is only seeing, so faith is only believing. And as the only necessary thing about seeing is, that you see the thing as it is, so the only necessary thing about believing is, at you believe the thing as it is. The virtue does not lie in your believing, but in the thing you believe.

When a believer really trusts anything, he ceases to worry about that thing which he has trusted. And when he worries, it is a plain proof that he does not trust. Tested by this rule how little real trust there is in the Church of Christ! No wonder our Lord asked the pathetic question, “When the Son of Man cometh shall he find faith on the earth?” He will find plenty of activity, a great deal of earnestness, and doubtless many consecrated hearts; but shall he find faith, the one thing He values more than all the rest?

<idle musing>
Scary indictments, yet I fear only too true. The book was written in 1875, but it feels like it could have been written yesterday (apart from the archaisms in the language). We could substitute programs for activity, and it would describe the average church today.
</idle musing>

It seems strange that people, whose very name of Believers implies that their one chiefest characteristic is that they believe, should have to confess to such experiences. And yet it is such a universal habit that I feel if the majority of the Church were to be named over again, the only fitting and descriptive name that could be given them would be that of Doubters. In fact, most Christians have settled down under their doubts, as to a sort of
inevitable malady, from which they suffer acutely, but to which they must try to be resigned as a part of the necessary discipline of this earthly life.

<idle musing>
Ouch! And we’re only halfway through the book! Stay tuned for next week’s installment, or buy/download the book for yourself and read it.
</idle musing>

Brother Lawrence on sanctification

“Our sanctification did not depend upon changing our works. Instead, it depended on doing that for God's sake which we commonly do for our own. He [Brother Lawrence] thought it was lamentable to see how many people mistook the means for the end, addicting themselves to certain works which they performed very imperfectly by reason of their human or selfish regards. The most excellent method he had found for going to God was that of doing our common business without any view of pleasing men but purely for the love of God.”— Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God

<idle musing>
Wise words. God is there in the ordinary, taking it and making it holy. We need to let go of the Greek dichotomy of secular and sacred. In the biblical world view, all is sacred, since all was created by and for God.
</idle musing>

Latest on Renee

I appreciate all the prayers that have been offered. This will probably be the last I post on this, unless the situation changes.

Happy Friday morning! Renee has just come off the magnesium sulfate that decreased the contractions. She's pretty happy to be off the IV, and might get a wheelchair ride down to the nursery! Now she will be monitored for the few hours to see how she does on her own. If the contractions do not flare up we will be able to go home, hopefully yet today, with an oral drug to inhibit the contractions. She'll be placed on bed rest for a couple weeks. The baby could be born safely today but would have to stay in the hospital for a week after its born.

<snip>

We've had peace so far as long as we do not look to the right or the left at the potential worries, but keep our eyes straight ahead on Jesus who isn't worried. Renee says she keeps running into this wall of peace. I guess that would be the strong fortress.

Quote for the day

“Brother Lawrence said that many do not advance in the Christian progress because they stick in penances and particular exercises while they neglect the love of God which is the end. This appeared plainly by their works and was the reason why we see so little solid virtue. He said there needed neither art nor science for going to God, but only a heart resolutely determined to apply itself to nothing but Him and to love Him only.” —Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God

Update on Renee

I just received an e-mail from Joel & Renee:

Renee is doing well, the contractions really settled down and the doctor is excited about that. She will receive another shot for development of the baby's lungs this morning, and have to wait another 24 hours on the magnesium sulfate IV til we see if [we] can go home.

It looks hopeful that we'll go home tomorrow, but Renee will be on moderate bed rest, whatever that means. Now she can only get up to use the bathroom. Which is quite the process considering all the hoses and cords, and that the medication is making her weak.

I'm glad I'm here to help. With some sleeping pills and Tylenol she was finally able to sleep last night despite the nurses checking on her and the bright computer lights. We wish we were here having a baby, but its best if Sweet Pea comes full term.

Moderate bed rest with a 21 month old son? Hmm...We really do appreciate all your prayers.

Eisenbrauns' January Sale

For January, Eisenbrauns is having a clearance sale!

To help make room for all those great new titles coming in 2007, we are offering 17-77% off on 59 titles that are overstocked. The sale is limited to the quantity on hand, first come, first served, so hurry.

To see all the sale items, please visit: http://www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~~~SPECIAL

I'm not making money on most of these, so you probably won't find a better deal anywhere else. For example:
eBible Platinum Edition on CD-ROM (Windows)
Thomas Nelson, CD-ROM. English.
ISBN: 0785250247
List Price: $399.99 Your Price: $136.99 (66% savings and about $100 cheaper than anybody else!)
http://www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~CDWEBIBLE

Tozer on the self

The recent Tozer quote over on Jim West's blog led me to scanning back through Pursuit of God over the weekend. I ran across this quote:

"For sin has played many evil tricks upon us, and one has been the infusing into us a false sense of shame. There is hardly a man or woman who dares to be just what he or she is without doctoring up the impression. The fear of being found out gnaws like rodents within their hearts. The man of culture is haunted by the fear that he will some day come upon a man more cultured than himself. The learned man fears to meet a man more learned than he. The rich man sweats under the fear that his clothes or his car or his house will sometime be made to look cheap by comparison with those of another rich man. So-called 'society' runs by a motivation not higher than this, and the poorer classes on their level are little better…

"This unnatural condition is part of our sad heritage of sin, but in our day it is aggravated by our whole way of life. Advertising is largely based upon this habit of pretense. 'Courses' are offered in this or that field of human learning frankly appealing to the victim's desire to shine at a party. Books are sold, clothes and cosmetics are peddled, by playing continually upon this desire to appear what we are not. Artificiality is one curse that will drop away the moment we kneel at Jesus' feet and surrender ourselves to His meekness. Then we will not care what people think of us so long as God is pleased. Then what we are will be everything; what we appear will take its place far down the scale of interest for us. Apart from sin we have nothing of which to be ashamed. Only an evil desire to shine makes us want to appear other than we are."—A.W. Tozer, Pursuit of God, Chapter 9

What more is there to say?

A Jerusalem view

Lawson is back to blogging again, and has a good post from Jerusalem, where he is leading a group of seminary students. Here is a snippet from a very good post concerning the theological only view of the biblical text:

They rightly realize that faith cannot be tethered to the ephemeral whims of scholarly fashion. Unfortunately, they choose to ignore that insisting on the historical character of biblical truth does not necessitate enslavement to scholarly fads—unless one assumes naively (and many them do) that "the latest is the greatest" mistaking present trends for perennial truth. Similarly, to rate historical truth highly in theological interpretation doesn't necessitate historiography being a "tether" or "basis" for faith. Historical study typically enriches and enlarges, often correcting and focusing interpretations the truths already clearly implied in the text. They also get it right that the Bible's primary reference is to theological truth, but again, they ignore the centuries-old recognition, going all the way back to the Church Fathers, that the Bible refers to theological truth by means of historical reference. It is a mediated revelation: truth comes via historically shaped texts to alert, investigating, thoughtful faith. St. John says "The Word became flesh" not "The Word became text."

He has more, have a read.

Prayer request

I just received a phone call from Debbie. Renee (our daughter) is on her way to the hospital in Duluth (2 hours away from where they live in Grand Marais, MN). She is in labor, six weeks early. I would appreciate your prayers.

Update: The doctors have given Renee something to cause the contractions to stop. Apparently, they don't want the baby to be born yet. She is going to stay in the hospital overnight and then return home. I appreciate the prayers that people offered. If anything changes, I will post it here.

Quote from Brother Lawrence

“He [Brother Lawrence] said that as far as the miseries and sins he heard of daily in the world, he was so far from wondering at them, that, on the contrary, he was surprised there were not more considering the malice sinners were capable of. For his part, he prayed for them. But knowing that God could remedy the mischief they did when He pleased, he gave himself no further trouble.” —Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God

New blog

I promised him I would wait until there was more than one post up before I announced it...Eisenbrauns acquisitions editor, John Cook, in association with one of his sons, Colin, has started a new blog entitled Beginning of Wisdom.

Here is how he describes it:

Having enjoyed a Latin Proverb of the Day blog and noting that nobody is doing anything similar for ancient Near Eastern wisdom literature, Colin and I have launched a new blog (mainly he picks the proverbs to discuss and I write up the post after we've discussed it over dinner).

Be sure to add it to your blogroll and check it out often. John is an excellent Hebraist and a good teacher as well.

Quote for the day

Over the weekend, I re-read the "Conversations" in The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. It is a delightful little book, and I will be posting quotes from it over the next few days. Here's the first one:

“Instead of taking faith for the rule of their conduct, men amused themselves with trivial devotions which changed daily. He[Brother Lawrence] said that faith was sufficient to bring us to a high degree of perfection. We ought to give ourselves up to God with regard both to things temporal and spiritual and seek our satisfaction only in the fulfilling of His will. Whether God led us by suffering or by consolation all would be equal to a soul truly resigned.”

What I'm reading now

As you probably gathered by the quote from the afterword, I have finished Bonhoeffer's Ethics. I am currently reading Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament . As I read it, I will be making brief comments; here is the summary of the first 100 or so pages.

The first part, consisting of 2 chapters, deals with comparative studies and examines the historical uses, both those who have attempted to defend the historicity of the text and those who have sought to show it wasn't historical. Walton defines a third alternative, which is his purpose, illuminating the text in order to avoid exegetical missteps.

The second part is a brief summary of the available literature from the ANE, complete with bibliographical references for those who wish to go deeper. The summary fills the purpose of the book fine, but if you are really interested in the wealth of material available, then Sparks, Ancient Texts for the Study of the Hebrew Bible is a better source.

The third part, where I am currently reading, consists of 3 chapters on the religion of the ANE. I found this quote, relating to the function of gods, especially interesting:

“Since their ontology was function oriented, a god who does not function or act fades into virtual nonexistence.” – page 94.

<idle musing>
Hmm, how is that different from now? Most people in the U.S. are functioning atheists (including many christians). They don’t believe that any deity can affect their lives on a day to day basis, so for all intents and purposes, a god doesn’t exist. Their ontology is strictly self-oriented and self-contained. The only time they trot out their god is for patriotic events, or in an emergency, or Sunday, or to impress others with how religious/ethical/moral they are. Far cry from real Christianity, at least as portrayed in the biblical text, where God is a daily reality and prayers are offered and answered.
</idle musing>

New Year's Eve

Last night we went over to Debbie's parents place for dinner and to watch the new year come in. After dinner, we decided to read a chapter in a book that we had read the first chapter in on Christmas Eve, each of us taking a turn reading about a page out loud. Well, it turned into 4 more chapters, and we probably would have read another 1-2, except the neighbors came over.

The book is an old Christian classic called The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life, available just about everywhere, including online. We were reading from the Barbour edition. Here are a few choice quotes:

A keen observer once said to me, “You Christians seem to have a religion that makes you miserable. You are like a man with a headache. He does not want to get rid of his head, but it hurts him to keep it.”

The greatest burden we have to carry in life is self. The most difficult thing we have to manage is self. Our own daily living, our frames and feelings, our especial weaknesses and temptations, and our peculiar temperaments, our inward affairs of every kind, these are the things that perplex and worry us more than anything else, and that bring us oftenest into bondage and darkness. In laying off your burdens, therefore, the first one you must get rid of is yourself. You must hand yourself and all your inward experiences, your temptations, your temperament, your frames and feelings, all over into the care and keeping of your God, and leave them there. He made you, and therefore He understands you and knows how to manage you, and you must trust Him to do it.

“According to our faith,” is always the limit and the rule.

But this faith of which I am speaking must be a present faith. No faith that is exercised in the future tense amounts to anything. A man may believe forever that his sins will be forgiven at some future time, and he will never find peace. He has to come to the now belief, and say by faith, “My sins are now forgiven,” before he can live the new life. And, similarly, no faith which looks for a future deliverance from the power of sin, will ever lead a soul into the life we are describing. The enemy delights in this future faith, for he knows it is powerless to accomplish any practical results. But he trembles and flees when the soul of the believer dares to claim a present deliverance, and to reckon itself now to be free from his power.

Sight is not faith, and hearing is not faith, neither is feeling faith; but believing when we can neither see, hear, nor feel is faith; and everywhere the Bible tells us our salvation is to be by faith. Therefore we must believe before we feel, and often against our feelings, if we would honor God by our faith. It is always he that believeth who has the witness, not he that doubteth.

On the whole, a most enjoyable way to bring in the new year! We plan on reading about a chapter each week together.

Catching up

Life is getting back to normal now. Over Christmas we had our 7 month pregnant daughter Renee, our son-in-law Joel, Joshua (their 21 month old), and our son Ryan visiting us. And on Christmas Eve, Debbie's parents came over. So, there were 8 of us around a 42 inch round table. Well, really only 7, because Joshua sat off to the side on a booster chair with a tray. Still, quite a few people around a table designed for 4. We had a grand time, though.

After dinner, we had a time of worship with Joel on the guitar and Ryan and Renee on the hand drums, some sharing of what God has done in our lives, and then communion. One of the joys of having adult children is being able to see and share in what God is doing in their lives. We rejoice in His goodness to us. The verse that I have always torn out of context (hey, eisegesis is good sometimes!) and asked God for in my children is III John 3 "No greater joy can I have than this, to hear that my children follow the truth." (RSV) God has answered that prayer abundantly and we praise him for it.