A few on church

There is a good take on consumerism and the church over at Out ofUr. Here is a short snippet from the end of the post:

I hear a lot on Christian radio and see a lot of Christian books fighting against postmodernism, relativism, and secularism. But if people are constructing their identities and lives around consumer brands like Apple, is the church fighting the wrong battle? And perhaps more disturbing, are we unknowingly contributing to the problem by encouraging Christians to construct and express their identities via Christ-branded merchandise rather than through characters transformed to reflect the values of Christ himself?

And, along those same lines, Alan Knox talks about the church as a corporation versus being a true body of believers:

It may be pragmatic and efficient and logical to have a human leader, and a set of programs, and a specific meeting place, and tax-deductible status. But, these things do not define the church. We could argue the benefits or the detriments of having these things, but they would be outside the scope of defining what (or WHO) the church is.

Jesus said that he wold build his church... not his charitable organization. We would do well to remember that Jesus cares about his church, not our organizations and programs.

<idle musing>
I am reminded of David Fitch's book, of which I have forgotten the title...but anyway, he says that making disciples is not efficient. People are messy things that don't fit into nice little programs and packages easily. I agree. It is not an accident that C.S. Lewis chose a corporation to depict the enemy in Screwtape Letters. It is the opposite of an organic organization like what the church is supposed to be.
</idle musing>

This might be a good time to link to an older post at the M Blog. Guy discusses what Luther wanted the church to look like:

The following characteristics summarize Luther's "Order of Divine Service" as to the "how" churches should be organized.
Self-organized
Home-based
Lay led
Full sacramental life
Stewardship and social ministry
Simple catechetical instruction
Ideal context for loving accountability after Matthew 18
"Form and Order" are not imported but emerge spontaneously from community life.

And, Alan Knox mentioned the reformers goal for church the other day, too:

[A]ccording to Chadwick, the early reformers recognized that the whole congregation (not just "the clergy") should take part in the church meeting. They were not content with a passive audience who simple listened to teaching, reading, or singing. Instead, they expected a church that took part in the meeting.

So, what happened? Well, according to Chadwick [in The Early Reformation on the Continent (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)], the reformers could not determine how to have this type of meeting while ensuring that the meeting also stayed focused on teaching the Scriptures. He said that the early reformers emphasized teaching (and a certain style of teaching) to such an extent that it eclipsed their desire to have a participatory meeting.

<idle musing>
Been there. Our agenda eclipses God's agenda. We get scared of what might happen if there isn't a “scripture lesson.” But, in doing that we ignore John 5:39-40 “You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me; yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (RSV) We exalt the scripture above the very one the scripture is pointing too!
</idle musing>

New mug!

Yep, as promised, we have a new mug, and just in time for me to take it to AAR, too. This year we are doing the Gezer calendar, which was discovered 100 years ago, in 1908.

Eisenbrauns 2008 Gezer Calendar mug
Eisenbrauns, 2008
16 ounces
Ceramic
Your Price: $7.50
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~EISMUG2008

If you follow the link, you can see other views of it, too. The pictures really don't do it justice. It is a beautiful cobalt blue. The staff here are already fighting to get their hands on them, but I will make sure we have enough to bring to SBL :)

Sin, redefined

“Elder brothers obey God to get things. They don't obey God to get God himself—in order to resemble him, love him, know him, and delight him. So religious and moral people can be their own spiritual Saviors and Lords as much as the younger brothers who say they don't believe in God and define right and wrong for themselves.

“Here, then, is Jesus' radical redefinition of what is wrong with us. Nearly everyone defines sin as breaking a list of rules. Jesus, though, shows us that a man who has violated virtually nothing on the list of moral misbehaviors can be every bit as spiritually lost as the most profligate, immoral person. Why? Because sin is not just breaking the rules, it is putting yourself in the place of God as Savior, Lord, and Judge.”—Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God>, page 43

How blind can we be? Apparently, very, as Keller goes on to show:

“The younger son's flight from the father was crashingly obvious. He left the father literally, physically and morally. Though the older son stayed home, he was actually more distant and alienated from the father than his brother, because he was blind to his true condition. He would have been horribly offended by the suggestion that he was rebelling against the father's authority and love, but he was, deeply.

“Because the elder brother is more blind to what is going on, being an elder brother Pharisee is a more spiritually desperate condition.”—Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God, page 47

The elder brother

“The elder brother in the parable illustrates the way of moral conformity. The Pharisees of Jesus' day believed that, while they were a people chosen by God, they could only maintain their place in his blessing and receive final salvation through strict obedience to the Bible. There are innumerable varieties of this paradigm, but they all believe in putting the will of God and the standards of the community ahead of individual fulfillment. In this view, we only win through to happiness and a world made right by achieving moral rectitude. We may fall at times, of course, but then we will be judged by how abject and intense our regret is. In this view, even in our failures we must always measure up.”—Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God, pages 29-30

<idle musing>
Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Too much like what passes for Christianity in many places. But, wait, it gets better, he continues the story...
</idle musing>

“Jesus the story-teller deliberately leaves the elder brother in his alienated state. The bad son enters the father's feast but the good son will not. The lover of prostitutes is saved, but the man of moral rectitude is still lost...The elder brother is not losing the father's love in spite of his goodness, but because of it. It is not his sins that create the barrier between him and his father, it's the pride he has in his moral record; it's not his wrongdoing but his righteousness that is keeping him from sharing in the feast of the father.”—Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God>, pages 34-35

Another one of those test things

OK, I'm a sucker for them. I guess there aren't any surprises here, but I wonder if this will get me tarred and feathered in Indiana. But then, how much can they really tell from a 20 question survey?

Your Political Profile:

Overall: 15% Conservative, 85% Liberal Social Issues: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal Personal Responsibility: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal Fiscal Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal Ethics: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal Defense and Crime: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

How Liberal Or Conservative Are You?

The Prodigal God

A few month's ago, one of the publisher reps was making a call and a book caught my eye. I knew it wasn't a book that Eisenbrauns would carry, but I casually mentioned that it looked interesting. Low and behold, the next time he came around he brought me an advanced reading copy (ARC in industry parlance). The book is titled The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller and I will be offering extracts from the book for the next week or so. Because it is an ARC, the page numbers might not match the published version when it appears on October 30.

Keller's basic thesis is that we have misnamed the parable of the prodigal son and caused the word prodigal to morph into meaning “wayward.” In actuality, prodigal means recklessly extravagant, which defines God's relationship with us; scripture calls the parable “the parable of the two sons,” since there is an elder and younger brother. With that as background, I present you with the first excerpt:

Jesus' teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners doesn't have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did. If our churches aren't appealing to younger brothers, they must be more full of elder brothers than we'd like to think.—Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God, pages 15-16

<idle musing>
Ouch! Many of us (me included) started out as younger brothers whom Jesus went looking for. Once he found us, he cleaned us up. Problem is, we think we cleaned ourselves up and we look down on the very people we used to be—and still would be but for God's mercy and grace being manifested to us and transforming us.
</idle musing>

Living in sin?

“A certain individual supposes that Christ's righteousness, having been imputed to him, allows him to go on living in sin. That is, he supposes that he is entirely exempt from the penalty of violating the law. He even thinks that he has the honors and rewards of full obedience while he still has all the self-indulgences of a life of sin. Horrible!

“Examine such a case thoroughly, and you will see that selfishness is at the bottom of the religion in it. The man was worldly before and is devout now, but he is devout for the same reason that he was worldly. His selfish heart is the basis for each system.”—Charles Finney, God's Call, page 104

<idle musing>
Not that you can live without sin without the grace of God. That is the foundation of what Finney is saying, which is why he finds it so horrible. The person is stamping on the grace by which they might be saved, saying it is can have no effect in their life.
</idle musing>

Ouch!

We just received the next printing of A Grammar of Akkadian. Lots of boxes, but not all were healthy:



Forklift through the side of the box. I'm glad this doesn't happen very often.

I think I'm going to be sick

I just read this at Out of Ur. Mystery Worshippers! What is the church? K-Mart?

Lord, bring us to our knees in repentance! We need the Holy Spirit to show us our need for you and you alone. Forgive us for trying to save the world before being saved ourselves.

German quotes

Nijay has some thoughts on writing a dissertation. Along the way, he touches on something that we at Eisenbrauns think is important:

German quotes - OK, we are required to have international breadth in our research, so we must cite and interact with German and French lit. But, do we need to quote the German without an English translation? My question would be, why? The only reasons I can see why we would quote the German is because (1) we feel the wording of it is very important to the argument or (2) the German is rhetorically more appealing (i.e. a good sound-bite). There are those, I guess, who feel if a reader does not know German, he/she is out of luck. That’s just snobby, in my opinion. Are we saying we don’t want MA and undergrads to read our published theses? Are we that elitist? Well, I think we can have it both ways if we do this: Keep the German quotes in, but have an appendix in the back that has English translations of all German quotes.

<idle musing>
Good idea, except in Eisenbrauns books, we do it the other way around. We put the translation in the text and footnote the original. If the original is too long, we put it in an appendix. That way we keep the book accessible—as if Akkadian/Hittite/whatever is accessible!—to the beginner, but allow the purist to check the original. Now, if we could just get a few elitist bloggers to do the same... :)
</idle musing>

Experience or Atonement?

The redemption of Christ is not an experience, it is the great act of God which He has performed through Christ, and I have to build my faith on it. If I construct my faith on my own experience, I produce the most unscriptural kind of life— an isolated life, with my eyes focused solely on my own holiness. Beware of that human holiness that is not based on the atonement of the Lord. It has no value for anything except a life of isolation— it is useless to God and a nuisance to man. Measure every kind of experience you have by our Lord Himself. We cannot do anything pleasing to God unless we deliberately build on the foundation of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.—Oswald Chambers My Utmost for His Highest

True salvation

Salvation, to be real and available, must be salvation from sin. Everything else fails. Any system of religion that does not break the power of sin is a lie. If it does not expel selfishness and lust for the things of the world, and if it does not generate love for God and man, joy, peace, and all the fruits of the Spirit, it is false and worthless. Any system that fails in this vital respect is a lie, can be of no use, and is no better than a curse.—Charles Finney

Salvation from sin, or salvation from hell?

The impression of many seems to be, that grace will pardon what it cannot prevent; in other words, that if the grace of the Gospel fails to save people from the commission of sin in this life; it will nevertheless pardon them and save them in sin, if it cannot save them from sin. Now, really, I understand the Gospel as teaching that men are saved from sin first, and as a consequence, from hell; and not that they are saved from hell while they are not saved from sin. Christ sanctifies when he saves. And this is the very first element or idea of salvation, saving from sin. "Thou shall call his name Jesus," said the angel, "for he shall save his people from their sins." "Having raised up his Son Jesus," says the apostle, "he hath sent him to bless you in turning every one of you from his iniquities." Let no one expect to saved from hell, unless the grace of the Gospel saves him first from sin.--Charles Finney, from An OnLine site for the Complete Works of Charles G. Finney

True love

Ted over at The Jesus Community has some good thoughts on the place of zeal and love in the Christian life. Here's an excerpt:

I see zealous Christians who talk about the lack of truth and holiness in the church, and often seem to hold other Christians at arm's length. They talk about other Christians and churches derisively. I wonder if whether we love or not shows up in how we look at others and what we say about them. Those who know this deep, deep love of Jesus in their own life, will not throw stones at others who may be failing.

<idle musing>
This is so true. There is no doubt that the church needs to repent; there is no doubt that there is a need for more holiness in individual Christian's lives. But, there is also no doubt that the call to repentance must come from a heart that is full of the love of God and is heartbroken with God's love for His church.

Wesley used to talk about holiness as being perfected in love. For him, the test of holiness was not obeying certain rules and regulations, but how one loved. We need to recover that same standard today.

Lord, fill us with love, your love, that we might shine and be an attractive representation for you. Forgive us for judging others and then using a different standard on ourselves. Pour out your holy love on your church. We know it has to be your love or it won't be real.
</idle musing>

Money-back guarantee?

Our loved ones did not come with money-back guarantees. We did not buy them and we cannot trade them for newer models. This may come as a shock, but we do not own our loved ones.—Francis Frangipane, A House United, page 123

<idle musing>
A humorous way of saying that we are not God.

But, how often do we treat others as if we did own them? We take for granted their service, as if we deserve it. As a friend of mine likes to say, "You deserve to roast in hell. Anything else is a blessing, so treat it that way." But, without Christ in us, we can't. We are curvatus in se, as the reformers used to say—curved in on ourselves. It is only as Christ lives his life through us that we are able to extend beyond ourselves and love those around us.
</idle musing>

Eisenbrauns ASOR/SBL sale in October

Don't want to pay the airlines for those extra books you schlep home from SBL every year? We don't want you to, either! So, we are doing what we can to help:
SBL prices on-line from now until October 31.

These are the same prices you would/will pay in the booth, but you don't have to pay the Boston sales tax, or the airlines' extra suitcase/overweight fees.

Discounts are 20-50% off, including new release and not yet released items. Enjoy the savings and tell your friends. But, don't forget to swing past the booth anyway. We are still giving away two $50.00 gift certificates each day. Besides that, we want to see you :)

Oh, I almost forgot, there are 631 titles on sale! That has got to be some kind of record for us. I know I feel like it was a lot of work, and I'm sure Andy and Shannon both agree with me.

Pleasing God

The reason you cannot please God in your outward acts is that your governing purpose is not right. When your leading motive is wrong, everything you do is selfish, because it is all done for the single purpose of pleasing yourself. You do nothing for the sake of pleasing God or with the governing purpose of doing His holy will. Therefore, everything you do, even your religious duties, only displeases God.—Charles Finney

The sin of offense

Today there are preachers who are afraid to preach truth for fear people will react and leave the church. The end result is a church of easily offended people who cannot grow beyond their inability to accept correction.—Francis Frangipane, A House United, page 119

Heaven?

He [God] can never save us by merely taking us away to some place called heaven—as if a change of place would change the human heart.—Charles Finney

Taking offense

People don't usually stumble over boulders; they stumble over stones—relatively small things. It may be that the personality of someone in authority bothers us and soon we are offended. Or a friend or family member fails to meet our expectations and we take offense in our soul.—Francis Frangipane, A House United, page 117

Harvest time, or dodging trucks

It is harvest time for soybeans and corn around here. The combines are running from early morning until late night. It's not so bad when they are doing corn, but when they are harvesting soybeans the dust is pretty bad. The wind takes the dust from the soybean leaves and blows it for quite a ways, clogging your breathing. You can see it billowing across the fields toward you. At least that gives you a warning before you get into the dust cloud.

But, the trucks are another thing altogether. Most of the year, the back roads are quiet and wonderful for bicycling. But, come harvest time they become highways with tractor-trailers full of soybeans and corn. They don't go slow, either, they fly, making runs from the fields to the storage and back for another load. It's kind of fun, but scary at the same time. It only lasts for a few weeks, and then peace descends on the roads until the next fall.

This morning riding in was beautiful. The magical light of predawn was causing the yellows and oranges on the trees appear almost luminescent. I wouldn't have been surprised to have some elves step out from behind a tree and tell me that I was a captive and had to appear before Galadriel and Celeborn.

Credit cards and saving

I was reading this week's Time magazine the other day and ran across this:

Somewhere along the way, THRIFT did not just stop being a value; it became a folly. Saving was for suckers; you'd miss the ride, die leaving money on the table when you could have lived it up. There are no pockets in a shroud, as the saying goes. We once saved about 15% of our income. By the roaring '80s the rate was 4%; now we're in negative numbers...The average American has nine credit cards with a total $17,000 balance. We borrow against our houses and pensions to live in a way that dares us to actually grow old...

There's no way to tell during this current distress whether we're repenting or just retrenching. THRIFT-store sales are up. Cars are shrinking. P. Diddy retired his private jet to save on gas. In hard times, people often rediscover the peace that prudence brings, when you try to spend a little less than you have because tomorrow might be worse. But that feels almost un-American; we're optimists by nature, and we've been living large for so long that solvency feels like a sacrifice.

<idle musing>
That is the highest number I have heard for average credit card balance. The previous one was $12,000, but that was a few years ago. I guess the way to handle a shortage of funds for your favorite toy is to charge it. The scariest thing is that I don't have any credit card balance, and I know at least 3 other people who don't. That means somebody, somewhere, has to make up for it.

I think it is high time that we as a church wake up and repent of the sin of overindulgence, of the sin of loving the world and the things of the world, of serving mammon instead of God. God is a jealous God, and he will not delay his judgment forever. Perhaps 9/11/2001 was a warning salvo across the bow. If so, we missed it and blamed it on somebody else; not our fault, we say...
</idle musing>

Sobering thought

I noted this as I read it, but forgot to post it. From Israelite Religions:
"...some twenty thousand urns with infant and animal bones cremated and buried in the tophet (sanctuary) at Carthage during a period of six hundred years attest to infant sacrifice. Other cemeteries have children's bones that included both cremated and inhumed examples. The data suggest that such sacrifices were used for purposes of population control, as animal substitution decreased with an increase in population at Carthage."—Israelite Religions, page 293

<idle musing>
Yikes! Population control! That's just plain morbid. Of course, we use abortion for population control in the world today, so what's the difference in the end? One is sacrificed on an altar (presumably), the other on a table with a white cloth over it... I wonder what archaeologists and philologists will be saying about us in 2000 years?
</idle musing>

Summary of Partakes of the Divine Nature

The last chapter of Partakers of the Divine Nature should actually be the first, in my opinion. In it, Gösta Hallonsten makes an important distinction between a theme of theosis and a doctrine of theosis: “if the doctrine of theosis according to the Greek Fathers or present-day Orthodox theology is examined, it will be realized that deification as doctrine is not solely about the final goal but is conceived of as a comprehensive doctrine encompassing the whole economy of salvation.” (page 284) In other words, there might be a theme of theosis in Western theology, but it is a theme that is an undercurrent because it is a scriptural theme. But, in Eastern theology, it is more than a theme, rather “[t]he whole structure implies that creation and human beings from the very beginning are endowed with an affinity and likeness that potentially draws them to God.” (page 285). And “[i]n the East, creation from its very beginning is seen as a participation in God; hence grace cannot be separated from creation, but inhere in it and potentially leads us to union with God...The world and human beings are seen as caused by God in the sense of formal causality, whereas in the Western view efficient causality takes its place: God and the world are distinct beings, even if the world participates in Being in an analogical sense.” (page 286).

If this chapter had been first, it would have framed the whole book differently. After reading this chapter, it was appears that some of the claims of a doctrine of theosis in Western theology earlier in the book fall flat; it was not a doctrine, but a biblical theme that was used to buttress the main arguments the theologian in question was making. But, perhaps I am being too harsh.

I highly recommend the book; it should give the person reading it some food for thought, at the very least, and it might transform one's outlook on the importance of theosis for Christian life and theology.

OK, Jon, now you can borrow the book and read it :)

Partaking

“Just as the word of God became flesh, so it is certainly also necessary that the flesh may become word. In other words; God becomes man so that man may become God. Thus power becomes powerless so that weakness may become powerful. The Logos puts on our form and pattern, our image and likeness, so that it may clothe us with its image, its pattern, and its likeness. Thus wisdom becomes foolish so that foolishness may become wisdom, and so it is in all other things that are in God and in us, to the extent that in all these things he takes what is ours to himself in order to impart what is his to us.”—Martin Luther, Christmas sermon of 1514 (quoted in Partakers of the Divine Nature, page 191)

<idle musing>
Whodda thunk!!?? That certainly sounds like Athanasius to me. Hard to believe that such an important insight would be all but forgotten in Western theology for 500 years.
</idle musing>

Quote for today

“Perhaps it is not the case that the West has failed to articulate a doctrine of deification, but that it has failed to understand the nature and function of theology, and to put the vision of deification properly to work. If so, Western theology ironically has neglected its own most important point: deification is doctrinally a constituent of the doctrine of God; and not fully to grasp the implications of this is to forestall and deactivate the fundamental task of theoria—redemptive insight into the perfection of divine esse”&—Nathan R. Kerr in Partakers of the Divine Nature, page 176

The bailout and bicycling

Hey! I might stand to benefit from the bailout. There is an obscure provision in the bill that allows tax credits to businesses with employees who bicycle to work. Granted, it is a whopping $20/month, so it might not even be worth the paperwork for Eisenbrauns to do it...but maybe it will. There are 3 of us who bike to work currently; with a tax credit maybe that will increase, who knows.

Just think, at $240/year it will only take me 30 years to earn back what it is costing me as a taxpayer! Of course, I'm sure there is a time limit on the tax credit, and at 52, I probably won't be bicycling to work for 30 years longer, but with the current economic situation, I might be. Or, it could get worse and I might be forced to sell my bike for food—NEVER! :)

Heaven, or hell?

"If during the Middle Ages a similar effect [audience shock value] was often provoked by references to the burning flames of hell, in patristic writers the attempt to enhance the devotional zeal for spiritual life and the commitment to Christ was carried out by no less shocking, but significantly more positively oriented, affirmations. Not eternal punishment as retribution for sinful life was emphasized, but rather eternal life in God, divine therapeutic forgiveness, and the restored harmony of the whole creation. Emphasis was placed not on what would happen to people if they did not obey the divine commandments, but rather on what awaits them if they reconcile themselves with God."—Vladimir Kharlamov in Partakers of the Divine Nature, pages 127-128.

Barth's new Church Dogmatics

OK everybody. I'm definitely going out on a limb here...I just looked at what CBD is doing with the "new" Church Dogmatics and have decided to play their game—and beat them at it!

Everybody ready? OK, check out this pricing:

Church Dogmatics
31 volume set, New Edition
This is a heavy item and will incur additional shipping!
by Karl Barth
T & T Clark, Forthcoming 2009
English. Paper.
ISBN: 9780567022790
List Price: $950.00
Your Price: $416.25
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~SETCHURCH2

I can only run this pricing until the end of November, so if you have ever wanted to say you own Barth's Church Dogmatics, this is even cheaper than the existing 14 volume set! I don't think you will find it cheaper anywhere.

We are partakers now!

The participles in [2 Peter] 1:4 do not of themselves indicate whether the participation in divine nature is past, present, or future, but the consensus view that 2 Peter writes solely of the future, of an eschatological entry into a state of divine incorruption, fails to take seriously the juxtaposition of the divine attribute of virtue mentioned in 1:3 and the exhortation for the readers to enter into virtue now (1:5-7). The readers have already now been given everything that is necessary for piety and therefore are no longer subject to the tyranny of passionate desire. The interpretation that 2 Peter envisions sharing in divine nature as something belonging solely to the future cannot be suported from the immediate context and suggests mistakenly that a departure from the physical world is requisite for participation in divine nature. this is clearly not 2 Peter's intention...—James Starr in Partakers of the Divine Nature, page 83

Cats

We have been adopted by another stray cat. This one is a tiger striped cat. It appears to have been dumped on the road in the last several days. It showed up on Monday and is very friendly; probably a pet that a family decided to get rid of and hoped that someone would adopt. That makes three now...

No, they are not inside cats; we feed them and let them stay around. One lives under the deck, one in the barn, and the new one appears to have found a place right across the road from us. Unlike some bloggers, I don't think cats are demonic. In fact, I think people who consider them so are themselves deceived :)

An Anastiform gospel

"In chapter 3 [of Philippians], the believer's re-formation or conformation begins with sharing in Christ's sufferings and death, and then with participation in resurrection. Conformity with Christ, then, is first 'cruciform,' and then 'anastiform,' to coin a term derived from ANASTASIS, resurrection. Theosis has to do with 'anastiform' experience, both in this life and the next. If we want to call Paul's gospel 'cruciform,' as Michael Gorman does, we must also call it 'anastiform,' or we leave out half his message."—Stephen Finlan in Partakers of the Divine Nature, pages 74-75

<idle musing>
And that is the problem with what passes for the gospel in many places. We miss the second half; we preach a decapitated gospel. Why is there no transformation? Because most of us don't believe it can happen. Paul would not recognize what we have done to the gospel!
</idle musing>

Quote for today

“What must be noticed in Philippians is that the believer receives an ability to discern what is good, what is righteous, and what is conducive of love; and with this ability, the believer is able to stand pure and blameless “in the day of Christ” (1:10). It is not that the believer will be declared blameless on that day; the believer already is blameless, already is righteous, already is possessed of EPIGNWSIS to discern what is best, because of the re-formation wrought upon the believer in this lifetime, and because of the righteousness received from God in this lifetime. Such a change is truly a re-formation of the person.”—Stephen Finlan in Partakers of the Divine Nature, page 74

Dogs!

It seems that every October, the dogs get more agressive. This year, they started a week earlier. Yesterday Debbie and I took a bike ride and were chased by several dogs. These same dogs had just ignored us when we went by earlier in the year.

Anybody got any ideas on why this happens every fall?

Maybe everybody should just get cats instead of dogs! Then I wouldn't need to carry dog spray...

Theosis/Deification Greek/Latin

Deification, then, is not a transcending of what it means to be human, but the fulfillment of what it is to be human. Although we need to realize how far we are from that fulfillment, that realization is greatly impeded by the conviction that to be human is to be fallen and frail (“all too human”)...Deification reveals the divine and lofty purpose for which humankind was created.—Andrew Louth in Partakers of the Divine Nature, page 39

Theosis

A while back I finished Partakers of the Divine Nature, but never got around to putting any quotes from it on the blog. I hope to do that over the next week or so, and then give a brief summary at the end. Here is the first quote to start the series...

What is envisaged is a transformation, a transfiguration, of human beings. Those are big words, but what is certainly meant is a real change: a change that is the result of coming to share in the life of God. This change involves a kind of reconstitution of our humanity, a reshaping, a straightening out of all the distortions and corruptions that we have brought upon our humanity by misusing—and abusing—our human capacities, and by living out our lives in accordance with values and principles that fall a long way short of the values and principles inherent in creation as God intended it. This reconstitution of human nature is something impossible without the grace of God, without everything implied God the Word's living out what it is to be human, and thereby on the one hand showing us what it is to be truly human, and on the other experiencing and overcoming the accumulated power of evil that has manifested itself in human nature and human affairs—ultimately experiencing and overcoming the power of death itself. This reconstitution of our human nature is therefore something beyond our human powers—no self-help will be anywhere near adequate—but on the other hand iti is something that involves the most profound commitment of our human powers; it is not a change in which we will be passively put right—some sort of moral and spiritual surgery—it is a change that requires our utmost cooperation, that calls for truly ascetic struggle.—Andrew Louth in Partakers of the Divine Nature, page 37

New sale at Eisenbrauns

Can you say 50% off on Brill? How about 50% off on Greek or Hebrew texts? Maybe 40% off on The Context of Scripture strikes a chord with you? All those, and more here:

Update: Peter is correct, it is the RSV, not the NRSV in the Greek-English NA 27.

"The Context of Scripture"
Edited by William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger, Jr.
Context of Scripture - CS
Brill Academic Publishers, 2003. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9004131051
List Price: $311.00 Your Price: $186.60 (40%)

"A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law - 2 volume set"
Edited by Raymond Westbrook
Handbook of Oriental Studies, Part One: The Ancient Near East
and Middle East - HOSANE / HOSNME 72
Brill Academic Publishers, 2003. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9004129952
List Price: $472.00 Your Price: $236.00 (50%!)

"Matthew"
by Stanley Hauerwas
Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible - BTCB
Brazos Press, 2006. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 1587430959
List Price: $29.99 Your Price: $15.00 (50%)

"1 and 2 Kings"
by Peter J. Leithart
Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible - BTCB
Brazos Press, 2006. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 1587431254
List Price: $29.99 Your Price: $15.00 (50%)

"Biblia Sacra Utriusque Testamenti: Editio Hebraica et Graeca"
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart, 1994. Cloth. Greek and Hebrew.
ISBN: 3438052504
List Price: $139.99 Your Price: $70.00 (50%)

"Greek New Testament, updated to include textual
variants from Papyri 98-116 (no dictionary)"
Edited by Barbara Aland and Kurt Aland
American Bible Society, 2002. Cloth. Greek.
ISBN: 3438051109
List Price: $43.99 Your Price: $22.00 (50%)

"Greek New Testament with Dictionary"
by Kurt Aland
United Bible Societies, 1993. Cloth. Greek.
ISBN: 3438051133
List Price: $46.95 Your Price: $23.48 (50%)

"Greek-English New Testament"
Note: this is the NA 27 Greek text with the RSV English NT
Edited by Eberhard Nestle, Barbara Aland, and Kurt Aland
German Bible Society, 2001. Cloth. English and Greek.
ISBN: 3438054086
List Price: $59.99 Your Price: $30.00 (50%)

"Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Babli,
Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature"
by Marcus Jastrow
Judaica Press, 1996. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 1932443207
List Price: $34.95 Your Price: $24.47 (30%)

"A Basic Grammar of Ugaritic Language
with Selected Texts and Glossary"
by Stanislav Segert
University of California Press, 1984. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0520039998
List Price: $70.00 Your Price: $45.50 (35%)

But I'm trying really hard!

<idle musing>
We got back from Minnesota early this morning. You can see pictures of a hike we took here.

While we were there, I was sitting on a deck and watching a grasshopper. I don't know why, but the grasshopper was trying to climb the wall of the house. He would carefully place each of his six legs and advance up the wall. Each step took about 15-20 seconds. But, every time he got about 2-3 inches up the wall, he would lose his grip and fall to the ground. He did this for quite some time; sometimes he managed to get 4 inches off the ground, but he always fell back down. Once he landed on his back and had a terrible time getting upright. I thought maybe he would give up and hop away, but no! He tried again.

I finally walked away, but he was still trying—he might still be for all I know.

I thought the grasshopper was the perfect parable of how we try to make ourselves holy. We try and try and fall and fail and try again—all in vain. Only Christ can live a holy life and he has promised to do it in us. All we have to do is surrender.
</idle musing>

Vacation

I am leaving for vacation today and will have limited/no Internet access for about 12 days. I was hoping to have some book excerpts to automatically post while I was gone, but it didn't happen :(

Don't expect any action here until October 24. If I do get access, I will try to post.

Nuts!

No, really, genuine nuts. let me explain. We have a shag-bark hickory tree in our front yard. It must be about 50 feet tall and it is loaded with hickory nuts. My first thought was that it would be a pain to take care of all the nuts—remembering acorns from days past. But, I checked it out and they are actually edible!

They are quite small (sorry, no picture), but they look and taste like 1/4 sized walnuts. So, instead of dreading the falling nuts, I am harvesting them. I let them sit in our basement in a box for a few days, and the husk comes off nicely, leaving a hickory nut.

They will make a nice snack this winter...if I don't eat them all before that :)

More on church

Another missionary on furlough and having a hard time with North American versions of church, but he sees glimpses of it:

Your church is most vibrant when it lives out Spirit-led community. Love, joy, peace, patience. Compassion. That kind of stuff freaks people out. Quite a lot of American churches seem to think the Holy Spirit comes when the music is just right. But I’ve noticed lately a lot of signs that your Spirit waits until the service is over and then starts working while people are drinking coffee in the lobby or chatting in the parking lot. Compassion, again. And breaking down the barriers and isolation.

<idle musing>
Grace Roots has a nice post on the "feelings" of the presence of God that ties in with what David is saying above. Do read that as well.
</idle musing>

Micro-what?

I was looking through an older (1987) book that was damaged and noticed that there was a microfiche of the inscriptions at the back of the book. Does anybody have a microfiche reader anymore?

Just so you know, here is the book. It will show up in the used section later on today, if you are interested.

Assyrian Rulers of the Third and Second Millennia B.C. (to 1115 B.C.)
Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia Assyrian Periods - RIMA 1
by A. K. Grayson
Toronto University Press, 1987
xxi + 355 pages, English
Cloth
ISBN: 0802026052
List Price: $108.00
Your Price: $97.20
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~GRATHIRD

Church as we know it

I have a great deal of sympathy for Guy Muse. He is back in the states and is being forced to sit through "church" in North America. He has posted twice on it. Here is an excerpt from his first post, where he discusses the sermon, offering, Sunday School, singing and praise, and prayer:

Prayer. Probably the most striking thing I have noticed after years of being away from legacy churches is the almost non-existent place of prayer in the gatherings of believers. Prayer is used more as a way to begin and close meetings, but I have seen little real praying when believers gather. Singing praise and worship songs is certainly a way of addressing our Lord, but there are so many other aspects of our communion with God that are going unaddressed in our gatherings: prayers of repentance/confession, prayers of united intercession and supplication, prayers for laborers (Lk. 10:2), prayers for wisdom/guidance/discernment, spiritual warfare, prayers for healing and for the sick, prayers for those who do not know the Lord, etc. Prayer takes time. I see little time in our gatherings being spent in prayer. Maybe the problem is we have to cram everything in between 11am-12noon. There simply isn't time for prayer when we gather if we are going to sing for 20-minutes and listen to a 30-minute message. But then, is it any wonder we have such little spiritual power in our midst? Maybe we should reschedule church on Sundays from, say, 5-8pm to give us adequate time to deal with truly being the Body of Christ and all that implies.

So, what are some of your thoughts? How can we be the church, be God's people; instead of going to church and doing church?

In a second post, he shares an approach that he has used in North American churches—and it worked!

I asked the congregation to rearrange the plastic chairs into a circle. Then with a few words of encouragement to literally "stimulate one another to love and good deeds" and "each one has..." for the edification of the saints, we began...

At first there was little understanding of what was expected, and the "how to" do what the Scriptures exhort us in these two passages. With a little prompting and some awkward silences, people slowly began to open up. We sang several songs of their choice, a couple of testimonies were shared of how God had been working in their lives. A sister shared a passage of Scripture that had spoken to her during the week. Someone asked for prayer. We gathered around that person laying hands on them and prayed. One brother confessed he had long harbored in his spirit something against another brother who was present. The two asked forgiveness of each other, hugged, cried, and prayed for one another.

By then we had gone well over the "30 minutes" allotted sermon time, but nobody was eager to break up and go home. After TWO HOURS of open sharing and Spirit-led interaction, I turned the "service" back over to the pastor of the church. He stood, thanked me (didn't he mean the Holy Spirit?) for leading them in a most "interesting" evening...

<idle musing>
Ah yes! Real church! Once you have experienced it, it is very difficult to sit in a "normal" church service...

Do read both the posts in full; they are good food for thought—dare I say it?—maybe even implementation?
</idle musing>

By the way, Alan Knox linked to the second post on Monday. I'm just a bit behind...

Quote for the day

"As a pastor your job is not to prepare a sermon, but to prepare a people."—Francis Frangipane

Performance or response?

The other day Debbie pulled a book off the bookshelf and just “happened” to open it to this page:

What we call failure, God doesn't necessarily call failure. Sometimes the best thing that can happen is that we come to the end of ourselves. The end of self is the beginning of God! Sometimes it takes us years to admit we can't do omething, but when we admit our helplessness, God immediately takes us to the other side.

In the power of our flesh, we cannot please God (see Romans 8:8). Only through the power of the Spirit can we truly overcome. “for if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13).

Pride says, “If I just try a little harder,” but humility says, “I can only do it through the power of the Spirit.” Sometimes it takes us years to recognize that the New Covenant has nothing to do with performance, but rather with responding to God. This is where most people have a problem. Our flesh wants to perform. Many Christians are still tied to performance. They are trying to get God to accept them for their good works. But the New Covenant isn't works; rather it is faith in his finished work. “It is finished” (John 19:30). We want part of the credit. It frustrates our flesh to have to depend totally on God. He requires no performance, only obedience and response.—Steve Sampson in Confronting Jezebel, page 151.

<idle musing>
Only too true. We want to say we did it our way, on our own strength. But we can't! Only the indwelling Holy Spirit can live the life that God demands.
</idle musing>

Azusa Street, what have we lost?

There was a short 3 section biography of William Seymour, of the Azusa Street Revival, back in the middle of August. Here is a brief snippet from part 3:

Seymour was known for his less-than-glamorous style. Blind in one eye, sparsely educated, he was not a particularly charismatic preacher. He rarely took an offering and simply placed a collection box by the door, choosing to leave it up to the people to settle with God as they felt fit. As for putting on a good show, he spent much of his time during the numerous daily services with his head in a packing crate – his makeshift pulpit. He even played down what were to some the most exciting elements of the meetings, telling people "don't go out of here talking about tongues, talk about Jesus."

<idle musing>
Would that the current Pentecostal/Charismatic movement retained the same values
</idle musing>
But he continues:

Today we are missing one central element which was at the core of William Seymour's work: mission. The distinctive of the Azusa Street revival was not so much the chaos caused by the Holy Spirit in the meetings, but the great force with which people were sent out. Much of the spread of the Pentecostal church was due simply to the fact that believers left their homes, put aside their careers and headed off to where they were needed, whether that was the other side of the world, the state or the street. Sacrifice and obedience were high on the list of desirables, and coupled with a desire to take the gospel out to those without prior knowledge, the army of inspired Spiritual footmen was a formidable force.

Today it can be hard to find much talk of 'going' – harder, at least, than it is to hear exhortations for people to gravitate to us. It seems like the preferred flavour is of staying, of pursuing spiritual answers to physical problems. That being said, members of the conference were invited to take part in a mass distribution of food and hygiene products to the city's homeless – a glorious and bold act that the church has the potential to do so well. Yet any tour of the retail zone that tried to hook in as many willing consumers as possible, and it was immediately clear that poverty and justice are poorly represented among Pentecostal publishers.

<idle musing>
Too bad. The church—not just the pentecostal/charismatic wing of it—seems more intent on getting people to “come to church” than on being church.

Lord, fill us with a fresh vision of what you want your church to look like! May we respond in obedience to that vision as you fill us with your presence and power to make it happen!
</idle musing>

Transformation

Another great post over at Grace Roots:

Unfortunately a very deficient "gospel" has been spread, and keeps on being spread, in which grace and salvation are depicted merely as a matter of our sins being forgiven. It's great that our sins have been forgiven, but if you are forgiven and yet remain in the same condition, what good is that? What's missing from the gospel message that's commonly taught is the issue of LIFE! We've not only been forgiven of all sin, but our sin has been taken away and we died to our old life in Adam, and we were raised up and made alive together with Christ Himself! Not only have we been forgiven, but our condition has changed! In Adam we were dead to God, but in Christ we are now fully alive to God.

<idle musing>
Yes! What good is forgiveness if you still have to live in sin? We sell the grace of God short when we preach a decapitated gospel that doesn't include deliverance from sin.

There is a marvelous little book that came out of the 19th century entitled The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life. No, not a self-help book, and not a Your Best Life Now kind of happy life. What she talks about is the freedom we have from sin in Christ. The first chapter is worth your time, if you can't read the whole thing. It is freely available on the Internet, search for the title and author—Hannah Whitehall Smith.

Maybe I'll post some excerpts from the book, but I don't have an electronic version available to me at the moment...
</idle musing>

Hebrew stuff on sale

Yep. It's Hebrew's turn to be featured on our back-to-school sale. I think it's a pretty good sale—the large BHS for almost the same price as the small one. Now you don't have to break the bank to save the eyes :)

I wish I could offer a better deal on HALOT, but I don't control the retail price on it. Of course, with the dollar climbing maybe the price will drop??? OK, I know I'm dreaming now! Anyway, here are the details:

"The Verbless Clause in Biblical Hebrew: Linguistic Approaches"
Edited by Cynthia L. Miller
Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic - LSAWS 1
Eisenbrauns, 1999. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 1575060361
List Price: $49.50 Your Price: $29.70

"Biblical Hebrew in Its Northwest Semitic Setting:
Typological and Historical Perspectives"
Edited by Steven E. Fassberg and Avi Hurvitz
Eisenbrauns, 2006. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 1575061163
List Price: $49.50 Your Price: $34.65

"Dialect Geography of Syria-Palestine, 1000-586 BCE"
by W. Randall Garr
Eisenbrauns, 2004. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 1575060914
List Price: $47.50 Your Price: $28.50

"Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon Old Testament: Study Edition, 2 Volume Set"
Edited by Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner
Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament - HALOT
Brill Academic Publishers, 2002. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9004124454
List Price: $249.00 Your Price: $161.85

"A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament"
by William L. Holladay
Eerdmans, 1971. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0802834132
List Price: $38.00 Your Price: $22.80

"The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon with an appendix
containing the Biblical Aramaic: Coded with the numbering system
from "Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible""
by Francis Brown, et al.
Hendrickson Publishers, 1995. Cloth. English and Hebrew.
ISBN: 1565632060
List Price: $34.95 Your Price: $20.97

"Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: Small format"
Edited by K. Elliger and W. Rudolph
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart, 1987. Cloth. Hebrew.
ISBN: 3438052199
List Price: $69.95 Your Price: $41.97

"Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: Large Format"
Edited by K. Elliger and W. Rudolph
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart, 1987. Cloth. Hebrew.
ISBN: 3438052180
List Price: $79.99 Your Price: $43.99

"Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar: Edited and enlarged
by E. Kautzsch; Second edition"
Edited by E. Kautzsch
by William Gesenius
Clarendon Press, 1910. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0198154062
List Price: $62.95 Your Price: $51.96

"Biblical Hebrew and Discourse Linguistics"
Edited by Robert D. Bergen
SIL International, 1994. Paper. English.
ISBN: 1556710070
List Price: $42.00 Your Price: $33.60

You can see all the graphics by going here

Now that's refreshing

As the marketing guy at Eisenbrauns, I receive a good bit of stuff—that's a nice way of saying junk!—but once in a while there is a refreshing breeze that comes in. I was just reading the latest edition of Christian Retailing and came across a review of a book called Surrender. I have no idea who the author is, apparently she is well known, but here is the part that was a breath of fresh air:

Lamb contrasted her book with the bestsellers Your Best Life Now by Joel Osteen and The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, saying that her book is "almost a reverse."

"It's not what God can do for me, it's what happens when I surrender to Him," she said.

<idle musing>
Amen! God-centered theology instead of man-centered, how refreshing.
</idle musing>

Good works

A nice little summary of good works in the life of a Christian at Grace Roots

Good works are a fruit of our life in Christ. They are most certainly not the root by which our righteousness is established or maintained! Christ is the Vine. We are the branches of the vine. The LIFE is in the Vine, and the fruit grows not as the branches struggle and strive to produce fruit for the Vine, but as the LIFE of the vine flows into the branches as the branches abide - rest - in the Vine. The branches have no life in and of themselves to produce anything anyway! "Abide in Me," Jesus says, "and you will bear fruit."

<idle musing>
Yep! All Christ, all the time! And only Christ all the time!
</idle musing>

September sale

I don't think we can top last month's sale, but at least those of you with Assyriological and Sumerian interests can save a bunch of cash. Here's the BookNews lead in:

Eisenbrauns continues the tradition of back-to-school sales in the month of September by featuring Akkadian and Sumerian reference works. Enjoy savings from 10-30% off on those essential tools for serious scholarly work that you expect to find at Eisenbrauns.

You can see all 39 titles here

After that is the nice list of AHw, CAD, GAG, etc. If you don't understand those abbreviations, you won't want anything that's on sale :)

Mouse, the final chapter

I know you are on the edge of your seats on this one! After all, it has been since Friday...

Yep, we got the mouse, resquiescat in pace. But, since this is a family friendly™ blog, I can't post the pictures. Besides, I don't want PETA down my throat. Actually, Cindy disposed of it before I could take any, but I'm sure it was starting to decompose after 3 days. We turn the air conditioning to energy save mode and it got hot over the weekend, so you probably wouldn't want to see the pictures, even if I had them.

Results

I spent some of this weekend catching up on blog reading. I hope to point to some good posts that are a bit older this week. The first one is from Out of Ur, about ministry results:

Consider a chapter titled “Bigger is Better” from a popular ministry book. The authors write, “A church should always be bigger than it was. It should be constantly growing.” Talk about pressure. The problem is this standard doesn’t hold water when applied to Jesus himself. John 6 describes the scene where “many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.” After teaching some weird stuff about drinking his blood and eating his flesh, the crowds who were drawn by Jesus’ miracles decided they had had enough. Did Jesus’ shrinking ministry mean he was an ineffective leader? Why do we hold ourselves to a standard that Jesus’ doesn’t apply to himself?
Or consider one of my favorite stories from the Old Testament. In Numbers 20, Moses performs a miracle by drawing water from a rock to nourish the Israelites. By any human measure Moses’ ministry was a success. It was God-empowered (he performed a miracle), and it was relevant (the people were thirsty). If Moses lived today, we’d all be reading his ministry book titled, “How to Draw Water from Rocks: Effective Strategies to Refresh Arid Churches.” There was just one problem—Moses’ effective ministry was rejected by God. Moses had disobeyed the Lord’s command by striking the rock rather than speaking to it. For this sin he was forbidden from entering the Promised Land. It turns out God performed a miracle in spite of Moses, not because of him.
Might God be doing the same thing today? Is God allowing some powerful, effective, and relevant ministries to grow in spite of leaders rather than because of them? If Scripture shows that faithful and godly leaders can have shrinking ministries (Jesus in John 6), and sinful leaders can have successful ministries (Moses in Numbers 20), then why do we persist in measuring our success simply on the measurable outcomes of our work?

<idle musing>
He is pointing out a very valuable lesson: God gives the increase. We can go through all the motions, but God gives the increase; we can follow all the “tried and true” techniques, but God gives the increase.

We need to realize that we are totally dependent on God for the results. That can be scary, but freeing, too. Bonhoeffer, in his Ethics talked about releasing the results of our actions into the hands of God, because we don't know whether the results will be good or bad. I have found that to be a freeing insight; I don't have to strive or struggle to make things right. I just obey God and let him work the results.
</idle musing>

What happened in Iron Age I?

I've been reading Hess's Israelite Religions lately. Most of it is pretty straight forward interpretaion of the archaeology and comparison with Ugarit, Mari, Ebla, etc. This little paragraph jumped out at me, though:

"With rare exceptions, there are no shrines or temples in the village culture of the Iron Age I highlands in contrast to the proliferation of such in the fortified cities of the Late Bronze Age. This suggests a change from the traditional religious worship of the preceding period to a 'simple, aniconic, noninstitutionalized cult' [Dever]. In addition, the absence of pig bones suggests an ethnic marker for people for whom eating pork is taboo."—Hess, Israelite Religions, page 234

<idle musing>
Something happened! Connect the dots; I happen to believe the dots are best connected by the Hebrew bible :)

Of course, you can choose otherwise, but you still have to explain the change. No, it is not seeking proof to bolster faith; rather, it is faith seeing the evidence and knowing why it is the way it is.
</idle musing>

Get that mouse!

Last night Cindy set a pair of traps:


I'm not sure you can see it, but this trap has a rice cake and peanut butter


This one is just peanut butter

When she came in this morning, the traps were still set, but the rice cake was gone...I told you they were erudite mice! We'll try again tonight.

Mice

We have a mouse or mice in the warehouse! Cindy and Jessica walked into the warehouse the other morning and saw this evidence:



Obviously chocolate lovers! They ate Jessica's rice cakes, too, but I didn't get a picture of that.

Now, they might well be very erudite mice, in fact I suspect they must be, living in Eisenbrauns book shipping warehouse. But! we don't want them chewing up our books as they digest all that knowledge :) So, tonight we will try to get them; here are the tools of the trade:


Peanut butter and mouse traps; can't think of a better way.

Stay tuned for the results—hopefully tomorrow. Of course, I could always bring in our cat instead...

Be a loser

I just was (finally) reading the July issue of Christianity Today yesterday—I know, that was over a month ago now. But at least that means that the articles are online now :) One of the articles was just a page long, actually more of an op-ed or column. I found it very good and forwarded the link to a friend who was going through a tough time at work. I thought others might benefit too, so here it is:

It's amazing—and sobering—to realize that Jacob has the strength to resist God. It isn't until the angel of the Lord dislocates Jacob's hip that Jacob surrenders and requests what he's really been fighting for—a blessing. My husband, a wrestling coach, tells me the hip is the wrestler's pivot point, the core of his strength. God can't give Jacob the blessing he desperately needs until he incapacitates him at the center of his human power...

I don't know that it ever feels good to have our own strength overcome. But if we want to be blessed, if we want to relocate from living in our own resources to resting in the middle of God's goodness, power, and provision, sometimes a little dislocation is necessary.

<idle musing>
Please read the whole article for the full impact.

Of course, my question is always, "Why are you depending on your own strength in the first place?" One of the basic tenets of Christianity is we can't do it, we need God to do it for us, so why do we continue to struggle and strive and generally exhaust ourselves for nothing? Why not just surrender and let God have his way with us from the start?

I know; pride is usually the block, although unbelief runs a close second. Just an
</idle musing>
on a Wednesday morning

Yes, your comments count

A little over a month ago, I asked for some help on pricing a book from Carta. At the time, the price of the book as $150. Based on feedback, they lowered the price to $124. But, today, I just heard from them again. Based on your feedback, they lowered the price one more time to $98.00. That is a 33% reduction from the original price!

The book is on its way, but still about a month off; it is coming via ship. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, here are the details, once again:

Echoes from the Past
Hebrew and Cognate Inscriptions from the Biblical Period
Carta Handbook
by Shmuel Ahituv
Carta, Jerusalem, Forthcoming September 2008
528 pages + illustrations, English
Cloth
ISBN: 9789652207081
List Price: $98.00
Your Price: $88.20
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~AHIECHOES

Harvest time

Our garden has been a bit slow this year, but over the weekend it decided to explode! Sunday afternoon and evening were full of freezing beans, canning tomatoes, and making bread and butter pickles.

Saturday we made a trip to an orchard and bought a bushel of peaches. Guess what I did last night? No, I didn't eat them all! I canned them. I had forgotten that peaches don't "skin" as easily as tomatoes, and I sure do praise God for freestone peaches! The last canner load finished around 2:15 this morning, but it will be worth it this winter :)

Sleep? Who needs sleep when you can harvest and preserve all night! ZZZZZZZZZ

Quote for the day

Actually, this is so good, I think it could be the quote for the week:

I naturally incline towards viewing Dispensationalism as a breeding ground for freaky and over-zealous biblical interpretation!—Robin Parry, Editor for Paternoster on his blog

By the way, that series is very good.

Educashun

Well, last night I learned about the herbs and the bees. Yep, you read that right.

We have an herb garden that is 8 feet by 8 feet. It contains mint, chives, parsley, sweet basil, and oregano. It has been very dry here lately, so I was watering it last night. Little did I know that a nest of yellow jackets had been created under one of the oregano plants! As I started watering the oregano, the bees decided I was attacking their home and they attacked me.

I dropped the hose very quickly and started swatting and ran toward the house. They followed :( I managed to get inside the house with only two inside my shirt—one stung me, the other one didn't get a chance. I ended up with 4 stings, one on each hand, one on my cheek and one under the arm pit. I got my wedding ring off quickly before the swelling made it impossible to get off.

My right hand puffed up significantly, and my left hand by the ring finger and pinky got pretty large, too. The other two stings weren't bad. Today the swelling is down, but still quite noticeable—and they itch! At least I'm not allergic to them.

So, now you understand why I say that I learned about the herbs and the bees...

Legalism?

Yesterday I mentioned that orthopraxy is more important than orthodoxy. Does that mean I am going down the path of legalism and works righteousness? μὴ γένοιτο! If you read on, you will see that I said it has to be all grace all the time.

We can no more live the Christian life without the Holy Spirit than we can change the course of the planets. All we can do on our own is what we do best—rebel against our creator. Does that mean I am now saying that Calvin was right and we are consigned to hell except for the "elect"? μὴ γένοιτο! I believe in free grace for all. Everyone is repeatedly offered the chance to repent and believe—daily, even every second. How we choose to respond to that offered grace is the deciding factor.

A life of holiness and righteousness is all the result of dying to self and allowing the true life of Jesus Christ, via the Holy Spirit, to flow in us and through us. Of course, if you take Paul seriously in Romans and Colossians, he will tell you that we died with Christ and so it is a matter of believing what God says is true, i.e., you aredead. It is now the life of Christ that is to empower you. Anything else is dead works and a lie...

They will know you are my disciples...

by your correct doctrine and heresy hunting abilities. You will put the Pharisees to shame with your self-righteousness. NOT!!

<idle musing>
But, that is how many Christians act, most recently in the Todd Bentley situation. I am not going to defend his actions; he stands before God and his board is holding him accountable. What I am talking about is the lack of love in many people's actions. Back in June I posted a link to a friend of mine's theological defense. What I didn't post subsequently is the backlash against Gary by the heresy hunters—supposed Christians... Somehow they discovered his private e-mail address, his personal cell phone number, his home number, in addition to his work e-mail and phone number. They called all the numbers repeatedly, at times reducing his wife to tears. The Pharisees would be proud of them! But, they were doing it for God, therefore they could do whatever they wanted, right? Wrong!

Listen up, folks! Orthodoxy (correct doctrine) is important, but orthopraxy (correct practice) is far more important. Yesterday I took to task the people who wear their spiritual gifts as badges, today I am talking about those who wear their correct doctrine as a badge. Both are in danger of judgment. Both need Jesus—we all need Jesus! There is no way anybody can live the Christian life. It has to be God, via the Holy Spirit, living through them; all grace, all the time!

By the way, the correct quote is "by our love for one another." I am a firm believer in speaking the truth in love; you can't serve God via a lie. But, you have to get both halves right: the truth—and love. Either one without the other is a problem.
</idle musing>

Banana chips!

No, not those horrendous things that they sell in the store that are tasteless! But, home dried ones. Oops, nothing like jumping in medias res...

About 25 or so years ago, we received a gift of a food dehydrator. It served us well for many years. One of the things we loved the most was dehydrated bananas. Take a banana, cut it into about 18-22 slices and dry it for about 20 hours at 120 F. Then, peal them off the trays and enjoy a burst of banana flavor. Delicious.

Sadly, the dehydrator died about 10 years ago. We couldn't justify replacing it; at the time the only ones we could find ran about $200! But, this summer we bought a new one for about $60. It is modular, allowing you to add trays as needed (you can see it here). Well, we finally got around to using it Sunday night to dry a few bananas. Last night we pealed them off and tasted them. Yep! Still good. So, now I can buy those over-ripe bananas at a fraction of the full cost and dry them. You really should try one sometime...

De spiritalibus

<idle musing>
Poor Paul! About 1950 years ago he penned a letter that contained the sentence "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be uninformed." (RSV) From there he launches into a 3 chapter exposition on "Charismata" which has been misunderstood, misapplied and generally caused all kinds of chaos..

I am only going to make a few observations here, not a general exegesis—you can consult the commentaries and find out all the disagreement you want :(

First: They are gifts, not badges, not signs of spiritual maturity, not licenses to do what you want and brow-beat people into submitting to you. A gift is not earned, deserved, or otherwise given with a stipulation. Just because someone has the gift of healing does not mean they are spiritually mature! Please, understand this point! I have seen gifts used as spiritual badges too many times over the years. They are given for the edification of the body of Christ, not the glorification of an individual.

Second (and this follows from the preceding): Just because someone has a gift that is highly regarded doesn't mean they won't come into judgment! Look at Jesus warnings in the gospels. How many times does he warn that many doing mightly works, such as healings, exorcisms, etc., will be told "I never knew you." Holiness is taken seriously by God. Revivals are wonderful, and I praise God for them. But, if a revival does not result in a deeper understanding of the holiness of God, then it was a failure, no matter how many people were wowed, "saved," or healed. But, mind you, that is not God's fault! It is the fault of our sensationalistic mindset that wants just enough of God to get a high. I became a Christian during the Jesus Movement of the 1970's; more than a few people "came to Jesus" for the spiritual high that it gave them. When the high wore off, they were gone.

Finally: Why is it that people love to accept a "word from the Lord" when it is positive, but when that same person who was so readily embraced offers a word of correction... Well, obviously they are being judgmental or critical. Wake up folks! Prophecy is given to the body of Christ for the edification of the body of Christ. Sometimes edification can only happen by pulling down the bad structure so the Holy Spirit can rebuild with good material. Look at the prophets in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. How often did they upbraid the Israelites as opposed to giving them prophecies of prosperity? It is interesting that the only ones who prophesied food and drink were the false prophets!

Am I down on Charismata? Absolutely not! I have never been a cessationist, but I have been disillusioned by what fallen humanity does with the gifts. I believe they are valid gifts given by God to the church. They are used by God to show fallen humanity that there is a creator, he is alive, active, and he cares for this fallen world.
</idle musing>

Twinkies taste test, the movie

As you know, at Eisenbrauns, we are always interested in archaeology and history. We've expanded that a bit. Three years ago Marti, our customer service manager, set aside 5 Twinkies to test the unlimited shelf life urban legend. Here's the promised video of year 3...



Remember, this was started long before Wall-E hit the theaters...

Barn

So, my project off and on this summer has been painting the barn. It has been more off than on most of the summer :) But, this last weekend I finally finished it. I thought I had a picture from before, but all I could find was this one with snow:


Here is what it looks like now:



What do you think?

Twinkie time again

Last year and in 2006 we taste-tested Twinkies™ that had expired. It's that time again!

Here is a picture of the poor thing:



This Twinkie™ is now 3 years past its expiration date. I think it is safe to say that Twinkies™ do not have an indefinite shelf life! It looks ok, but it is hard and, well, almost inedible. I hope to upload a video of the taste test to You Tube—I'll let you know. But, in the meantime, I do think I have an idea for a new Veggie Tales™ episode:



Scissors in the Twinkie (instead of Sword in the Stone...)

A present God?

Alan Knox asks a good question, which has been a concern of mine for many years.

<idle musing>
Do we live as if God is close, or far away from us? We say we believe in a present God, but our actions frequently betray us... Sure, we believe God can heal—somebody else, somewhere else. Sure, we believe that God answers prayer—just someone else's somewhere else, probably in the two-thirds world.
</idle musing>

The sky is falling!

<idle musing>
Yes, it really is! At least, it was last night when we went for a walk. I know the annual Perseid meteor shower isn't "officially" here until tomorrow night, but last night we saw about 10 meteorites in 15 minutes on our walk. The sky was clear, the temperature was about 59 F, and the meteors decided to grace our walk with a light show. I wonder if that means the "official" shower will be better than usual this year?
</idle musing>

War in the Bible...

<idle musing>
As you probably guessed by the lack of quotes from the book War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, I finished it. It was stimulating and thought-provoking, as it should be. I still am convinced that the pacifist stance is the most compelling; all the caveats and conditions necessary for a just war position just don't seem right. But, the church has been arguing about war and pacifism for about 1800 years now, so I don't expect everyone to agree with me.

I have been a pacifist ever since I became a Christian, over 34 years ago now. But, the one thing this book presented to me was the necessity of working for just peace. Just peace is something that both just war advocates and pacifists can get behind. There is not true peace without justice, because true peace is more than the absence of war.

If you only read one chapter in this book, it should be the one on just peace making. Fittingly, it is the final chapter of the book. Eisenbrauns offers it at a 10% discount everyday. Or, if you want, wait until AAR or SBL in November and get it for 30% off.

Interestingly, we gave away a copy at the ATLA meeting in Ottawa. The book is edited by Rick Hess, of Denver Seminary. Guess which seminary library won the book? Yep, Denver Seminary. They already have a few copies in their library. I guess this is a case of the rich get richer...
</idle musing>

The cat's a mouser

<idle musing>
Sunday night, as I was cutting the tops off the onions, the kitty was sitting on the driveway. We have a bug zapper on the front of the garage, and she seemed to be watching the bugs fry. All of a sudden, she gets up and runs toward the garage. I figured she was going to play with the June bugs; she does that a lot. But, then she came running toward the porch and I saw a fuzzy thing in her mouth. It was a mouse! The tail was hanging out of her mouth as she ran past me under her favorite bush.

A short time later, she reappeared and sat back down on the driveway as if nothing had happened. About a half hour later, she got up, ran to the garage, and came running back toward the porch. Another mouse! This time, all I could see was the tail hanging out of her mouth. She disappeared under her favorite bush again, only to re-emerge about 5 minutes later. Nice meal, I guess!

I knew we had mice, they had gotten into some stuff in the garage over the winter. I don't think we will have a problem like that this winter :)
</idle musing>

Onions!

<idle musing>
We planted a garden this year for the first time in a while. It's nice having fresh produce just outside the door. One of the things we planted was red onions—about 2 pounds of onion sets. We like onions :)

I harvested about a third of them in July, but Sunday night I pulled most of the rest of them. About 20 pounds worth! That's a lot of onions. We cut them up and freeze them for use on pizza or in stuff. So, Sunday night I sat on the porch and cut the tops off and peeled the outer layer off of them.

While I was doing that, Debbie made onions and potatoes. Most people have potatoes and onions, but we have onions with some potatoes added. Did I mention that we like onions?

It took a while to cut the tops off and peel the onions, so it got too late to cut them up. Instead we put them in a crisper drawer in our refrigerator. It filled up the entire drawer—even after using about 10 of them for onions and potatoes.

Monday night, after dark, I started cutting them up. While the thunderstorm rattled the windows, I cut up onions. While the power flashed on and off, I cut up onions. Did I mention that there are a lot of onions? I managed to get about ½ to 2/3 of them cut up before I quit for the night. I bagged them in snack sized bags, put those bags inside a freezer bag, about 12-15 to a bag. Then I put that freezer bag inside another freezer bag. We don't want our beans, blueberries, and strawberries to taste like onions.

I think I will be able to finish them tonight. Did I mention that there are a lot of onions?
</idle musing>

August sale response

Wow! All the research says never send a sale e-mail on Friday. The research says the results will be terrible and you will regret it. Guess what. The research is wrong!

I sent out the BookNews for August's sale last Friday afternoon. It didn't take long for the word to spread in the biblioblog community either; so far I counted four posts mentioning it (I still lead the referring sites—clear proof that mine is the most popular biblioblog! Take that, Nick). I can't believe the response. I just looked at the Google Analytics figures, and the only things that have generated more interest than the August sale are our Valentine's Day contest, and our traditional April first post.

So far the record for the most books is 28. Can you imagine? 28 books out of 60. I wonder why they quit at 28 :)

Thanks to all of you who have visited our sale.

Latest BHQ volume

The latest BHQ volume has just been announced:

Proverbs
Biblia Hebraica Quinta - BHQ 17
Edited by J. de Waard
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart, Forthcoming November 2008
ca. 160 pages, Hebrew
Paper, 6 x 9
ISBN: 9783438052773
List Price: $98.00
Your Price: $73.50
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~BHQPROVER

I just found out about it yesterday; nobody else seems to have it listed yet...guess that's what happens when you love the books you sell. It isn't just a job :)

August sale

Hey, everybody, the August sale is up at Eisenbrauns!

You are going to love this sale. Here is the official blurb:

For the month of August, we are offering 60 titles at discounts ranging from 60-80% off retail. Put another way, the books are on sale from $6.89 to $29.85, with most being between $8.00-$15.00. At these prices you won't have to choose between books and gas!

Ok, the last sentence is my poor attempt at an allusion to Erasmus' famous line, "When I have money, I buy books. If I have any left, I buy food." Did anybody catch it? I didn't think so. Now you know why I am a bookseller and not a comedian. Anyway, check out all 60 titles here. Only two are actually at 60%, the rest are at 70-80%, but it wouldn't have the same ring to it to say, "60 titles, most at 70-80% off." "60 at 60% or better" just sounds better, at least I think so.