Sesame Street and Settlers of Catan

I am working on a couple of ideas for a reading/research project for school and one of the areas I am thinking a lot about is the current challenges in Ecclesiology.

In the past day or so four or five great articles on this subject have appeared on my blog reader, and yesterday was a great Systematic Theology class that touched on some related issues.

I am too busy with papers and tests to develop this or blog on it right now, but just wanted to pass on some great articles on the church.

What the Church can learn from Sesame Street

Settlers of Catan and Church membership

Two views on Christless Christianity

2 articles, 1.5 questions

I'm going to ask you to do something odd,

I want you to read two short two posts in the order that they appeared to me as I was scrolling down my google reader today, and see if the same thing happens to you.

These posts are short, like 90 seconds or so, and painless... though it might involve thought.

But if 90 seconds, or thinking seems a burden, then just click to the next click or tweet or whatever is next in your life, there is nothing to see here, good bye have a nice day.

But if you want to think about something with me, then read this post. It references another article which you can read later, but for now just the summary, then i'll see ya back here. back here.

Ok, Click and GO!

.... are you back? (... hey! party poopers who didn't read the first link ... no one is making you do this. you are free to leave, really, It's OK, you have already answered my final question.)

....Still with me? OK,, here is the second one. ...just read the lead in from Tullian and look at the list and consider some of the titles and authors, an come on back. I really am not trying to be tedious, i am just wondering if the same thought/question appears to anyone else when they read this second one.

....OK, you're back. ....Here is the .5 question: Did you see a connection?

Here's the question that burst on my mind as I read the second post, with the first one still on my mind:

How is the hyper-socialized, "what are you doing right now?", 140 character, txt communication culture mentioned in the first post even going to engage the significant thought life of the Christian mind and history represented in that list of books? or become wise in the way Tim Keller suggested?

Call me a pessimist, a Luddite, or just dismiss me as a retrogrouch, but heres my answer: they aren't.

A brain trained to 140 charachters with an attention span to match is simply not going to read the significant thought life world represented in that list...and it sure as heck will never write anything approaching that kind of significant thought life.

What are the implications for the Church? ....OK, no fair! that's a third question.

well, I'm gonna risk that third question, and a thought:

There are two responses for Church and Christians to take: keep drifting down stream till your mind, your Gospel and your church are small enough to fit in the same 140, culturally conforming, and similarly irrelevant charecters. Or....?

Are you a Modern Pagan?

Don't answer that one too quickly.

Scrolling through my reader this morning I was excited to see Justing Taylor's recommendation of one of my favorite books: Peter Kreeft’s Christianity for Modern Pagans, Pascal’s Pensees Edited, Outlined, and Explained.

It has been a while since I have read Kreeft / Pascal (I had to leave my latest copy to friends in Hungary... I hope some one actually reads it.) But Pensees was a book that grabbed my thoughts in my 20s and really provoked my Christian thought life. Finding Kreeft's work some years later really helped me understand the Pensees better.

So, I thought I would pass his along Taylor's post which you can read here, and add my own ...not that my recommendation and Taylor's carry the same weight. I'll just say I have really benefited from the book, and add that, ... even if you are not a Modern Pagan ...or at least don't think or realize that you are yet, read Pascal with Kreeft's help, and prepare to be provoked in your Christian life and thinking.

For all the Saints who from their labors rest

Two excerpts from the blog of the editors of Touchstone on this Reformation Day.

Reformation Day for a Mere Christian

by Russell D. Moore

What I do know is that, whatever your view of the Reformation, it's obvious to see that some of the things that drove Luther to anger (and to despair) are everywhere present, to this day, often even in the most "Reformation-centric" evangelical churches.

Hardened rebels against God rest easy in a prayer said at Vacation Bible School, or a card signed at confirmation class. And guilty consciences stand paralyzed outside, fearful that Christ can only save those who look or dress or speak a certain way. And, through it all, American Christianity has become a vast conspiracy to sell one another products.

The combination of the damning power of cheap grace with the accusing agony of performance-based righteousness before God exists in every wing of the church. That's because it's not a medieval problem, but a primeval one.

Reformation Day Reflections on Calvin and Calvinism

by Jordan Ballor

Earlier this month Dr. Richard A. Muller, the P.J. Zondervan Professor of Historical Theology at Calvin Theological Seminary, gave a lecture in which he asked and answered the question, "Was Calvin a Calvinist?" In this far-reaching and comprehensive address, Muller succinctly summarized his decades of work demolishing the myths and historical fallacies of a great deal of secondary research.

A basic way in which the relationship of Calvin to the broader Reformed tradition has been misconstrued, including his relationship to predecessors, contemporaries, and followers, is in the idea that Calvin's work, or a particular aspect of his work, serves as an index for judging the rest of so-called Calvinism. Calvin’s theology (or a part thereof) becomes the sole standard of arbitration, the gold standard of determining the level of some contemporaneous or following figure’s adherence to Calvinist orthodoxy.

As Muller contends, such elevation of Calvin’s work mistakenly “assumes that later Reformed theologians either intended to be or should have been precise followers of Calvin rather than also followers of Zwingli, Bucer, Oecolampadius, Bullinger, and others, and not merely followers of Calvin in general or Calvin of the tracts, treatises, commentaries, and sermons, nor the Calvin of the 1539, 1543, or 1550 Institutes, but the Calvin of the 1559 Institutes.”

A related error is that figures like Bucer, Bullinger, Vermigli, or Wolfgang Musculus, all of whom were older contemporaries of Calvin and who disagreed with him sharply on such important issues as the relationship of the civil and ecclesiastical magistrates, the use of excommunication, and the doctrine of the Lord's Supper, either did or ought to have judged themselves in relation to the work of their junior colleague in Geneva, who was younger by some decade or more than many of these other eminent figures.

So, Semper Reformanda I guess.

glimpses of reality yielding discomfort, and perhaps salvation

first a warning. if you are cozy with your consumerism, sensitive about your nationalism, or uncomfortable not conforming... this video is not for you.

...or maybe it is.




My first thought was: This is like an anti-globalist, secular, human-hopeful version of Don't Waste Your Life ...if that's possible.

Hang with me a second.

See, as a Christian I believe some of the same things: Everything is not OK. Yes, there is a delusional quality to culture that keeps us blind to to what is really important. And, when you look at it like this guy does... our modern culture does seem uncomfortably similar to the "conditioning" of Huxley's Brave New World: Consume consume consume, never be alone, never allow quiet, if you feel bad - buy something, and above all conform!! ....Oh, and when it comes to Soma? Well our omnipresent techno saturation probably has more euphoric and numbing potential than Huxley's pill.

...Of course we still have lots of pills to.

Sure, you can dismiss the guy as a sarcastic libertarian or an anti-globalist anarchist or something, it's probably true. I don't agree with everything of course, or endorse this guys whole message. I just see that he is onto at least one uncomfortable truth isn't he? a truth we Christians already know.

...don't we? people are blind, numb, and perishing.

We know that the world is blind, but thank God we also know why the world is blind and we know who turns the lights on ..and who is The Light.

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2Cor. 4:3-6

So, people are blind numb and perishing ...I'm with ya...I already knew that ...so now where are we going with this? Because there is more than More, Marx, or the Matrix going on here. Waking up from the Matrix without the Gospel is not fully waking up. You might "wake up" to some social and political realities but still have no True Light, still blind, numb, and perishing in the most important eternal way.

It seems to me that those who become aware of the futility of life but don't catch sight of the Light are the most susceptible to further delusion. For most its just "Quick!! change the channel!... too much reality! Dude! Plug me back in already!"

Others respond with cynicism...pick your metaphor: the world is a barge of rats, a cruel joke, and the answer to life the universe and everything is 42 but we forgot the question.

Others attempt to rebel against the absurd, exercise a will to power, or call the workers of the world to unite. its all been done.

Still others grasp at some Utopian political-social engineering scheme, or globalism, anarchism, techno-shamanism... or whatever. Whatever Babel is of the moment.

Some just give up on reality and head east chanting "Atman is Brahman."

Yeah, when you ask questions about reality it can be dangerous. There's a hundred dirty needles and broken bottles to step on in the half light. But there is also the chance that it is Light shining out of darkness and into hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

That's an act of God. ...this other guy is just politics.

Now I don't want to compare Paul to this guy in the video, certainly not him to Paul. Nor do I think this would make the best evangelism method (...at least not in every situation.)

It's just that the whole thing got me thinking: What would Paul look like if he walked into London today? Not that he would choose off the rent a cops... but the guy did start riots...regularly. Not because he was a mere provocateur, but because the message of the Gospel turned the lights on on the self-deluded, self-satisfied, and self-righteous. And men suppress the truth in unrighteousness and love darkness rather than light.

That's what I wondering. How often does that happen? Some kind of reaction to the Preaching of the Gospel. No, not trying to make one, there is a difference. Why don't we see happen what so many Christians have seen when the Gospel light shines? Lots to think about there.

I have never caused a riot, I've only been heckled a couple times, in Romania. ...and when you can't understand Romanian that hardly counts as heckling right?

So, I look at this guy on the megaphone in London willing to confront and preach and try to open people's eyes because he believes in a political or social ideology.

God! I wish I had that guy's courage for the Gospel. (that's a prayer BTW not a violation of the 3rd commandment.) And, I want to pray that God could use me to help make some lights come on.

Paul preached, prayed, and the lights came on. Lots of people beat him, some stoned him, even more laughed, and others shrugged and said we will hear you more on this some other time.

But others woke all the way up.

Flashbacks

They say that olfaction is the sense that has the largest and broadest amount of information attached to a single stimuli. I have often thought about that... how one simple smell can flood your mind with impressions, emotions, and thoughts.

Yesterday I was driving through the countryside between jobs and enjoying the turning colors of the Minnesota forests in fall. The roads wound between lakes, around sloughs, fields and hills. It is beautiful.

Then I caught the faint smell of burning leaves... it was totally unexpected and shocked my senses. Given the air quality laws, it's something you almost never smell these days.

...but in Ukraine it is virtually the smell of fall and spring.

One wiff, and I was slammed with a deep emotional reaction and a flood of thoughts, memories, impressions, associations, and a kind of pain.

Maybe I was still in that state of mind, but when we sang "Blessed be Your Name" in Church this morning, ...the words just wouldn't come out of my mouth. That song was used in a video about our team in Ukraine. The first time I saw that video was the first time I ever heard the song in English. I had learned it in Russian. So, I still "see" the images from that video when I hear the song.

So then it was very strange as I sat here in my office this afternoon studying, and heard the unmistakable sound of a carpet being whacked with a stick. It's a sound like nothing else, and the dull reverberation of the "thwack" off the neighbors houses made the sound palate complete. Too real. It's something you virtually never hear in America, but is so common in Ukraine it wouldn't even be noticed. Again, a similar flood of thoughts.

I looked out the window to see that Gretchen had taken the doormat from the front doorstep and had laid it over a chair in the front yard and was whacking it with a broom handle. It instantly flashed in my mind that that is just what she might be doing if living in Ukraine.

What a strange day. Some days I struggle. This is one of them.

a little light reading anyone?

I came across this quote in my reading the other day about the impact of Erasmus' Greek NT when it was first published in 1516.

Never was a volume more passionately devoured. A hundred thousand copies were sold in France alone. The fire spread, as it spread behind Samson's foxes in the Philistines' corn. The clergy's skins were tender from long impurity. They shrieked from the pulpit and platform, and made Europe ring with their clamor. (1)

Think about that for a second. 100,000 copies of an academic text. A Greek NT, in a time when few could read ...let alone Greek...when books were printed one sheet at a time, hand bound and sown, hand distributed, and very expensive. People were that deperate to get their hands on it.

That says something about them... probably a lot of things.

What are we desparate for? What sells a 100K copies today?

I don't have the number of copies sold, but here are the top 10 bestselling Christian books for August courtesy of CBA

1. The Love Dare Stephen Kendrick & Alex Kendrick, B&H Publishing

2. The Shack William P. Young, Windblown Media

3. The Five Love Languages Gary Chapman, Moody

4. Crazy Love Francis Chan & Danae Yankoski, David C. Cook

5. Take Two Karen Kingsbury, Zondervan

6. God’s Wisdom for Fathers Jack Countryman, Thomas Nelson

7. Jesus Calling Sarah Young, Thomas Nelson

8. Take One Karen Kingsbury, Zondervan

9. What in the World Is Going On? David Jeremiah, Thomas Nelson

10. Love and Respect Emerson Eggerichs, Thomas Nelson

That says something about us... probably a lot of things.

(1) J.A. Frounde, Life and Letters of Erasmus. Quoted in Using New Testament Greek In Ministry by David Allen Black.

Praise God!!

The Following article is about our fellow CCBoise missionary. We have been in fervent prayer for him for the last two weeks. Rejoice with Us!!

Dear Friends,

Jesus tells us in John 15:20 to remember that, "A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you."

Our brother Saeed, his wife Naghmeh, and their children were stopped in an Iranian airport on their way home from a visit with friends and family. He was arrested. The authorities let Naghmeh and the children board the plane as they placed Saeed under house arrest. The government accused him of being a Christian; a crime punishable by death. Yes, I am a follower of Jesus Christ. Yes, I have told others about Him, and I have started churches in His name, he told interrogators. As of today, September 11th, we are rejoicing that a new judge was miraculously assigned Saeed's case and has ordered his release - a true miracle and answer to prayer.

However, our Iranian sisters, Maryam and Marzieh, are still in custody. While their health is precarious, they are standing firm on their confession of faith in Christ. Let's continue to lift them in prayer until they too are released.

While we remain in a constant state of prayer for the persecuted church we also have peace knowing that their lives are not their own. Each of us carries this same sentence of death when we embrace the life of Christ; the promise of His resurrection being our reward. Saeed and Naghmeh and thousands of a myriad of others have counted the cost. Our lives have been bought with a most precious commodity - Christ's blood. People hated the message that Jesus proclaimed - I AM the way. He was put to death. Yet, He tells us, "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Matt 10:28.

Our faith is precious to God. Some of us receive a lion's den measure of grace through faith like Saeed, Maryam, and Marzieh. Yet, ultimately, we are all called to point others to Christ which always brings with it certain death by the world's standards. May we continue to trust in Him, the author and finisher of our faith; facing our personal trials by the grace of God through Jesus Christ who went before us to die for those He loves.

View Saeed's Testimony and Pray for the Church of Jesus, our brothers and Sisters in Iran!

same song ... what reissue are we on?

This funny video got me thinking this friday morning..

cause pop music is a funny thing ... and a lucrative racket.

the Beatles, Stones, Byrds, The Who etc etc etc

re-issues, re-mixes re-masters....

re-money re-money re-money

How many times can you sell the same song??

How many times can you get your fans to pay you for the same song??

... Hmmm, I wonder when they will issue a box set of their box sets??

...or re-issue their re-issues?

Maybe it's time for a new version??

Oh.. I'm sure Apple Corps got royalties of of this big guy to... but still no Apple.

It is not death to die

It is not death to die
To leave this weary road
And join the saints who dwell on high
Who’ve found their home with God

It is not death to close
The eyes long dimmed by tears
And wake in joy before Your throne
Delivered from our fears

(Refrain)
O Jesus, conquering the grave
Your precious blood has power to save
Those who trust in You
Will in Your mercy find
That it is not death to die

It is not death to fling
Aside this earthly dust
And rise with strong and noble wing
To live among the just

It is not death to hear
The key unlock the door
That sets us free from mortal years
To praise You evermore
O Jesus, conquering the grave
Your precious blood has power to save
Those who trust in You
Will in Your mercy find
That it is not death to die

_____________

My lovely sweet auntie Crystal went home to Jesus yesterday

one moment she was enjoying a vacation drive on the Oregon coast with her husband, on the way to see some of her kids and grandkids in seattle...

the next moment a car suddenly swerved into their lane...

...a moment of terror and shock...

...and then, she was looking at the face of Jesus

...who drew her into his arms and comforted her.

the shock is still ringing for those still here;

husband, children, grandchildren, brothers and sisters,

all of us who love her are in shock and heartache

the same Jesus will also draw us into His arms and comfort us.

truly, we do not grieve as those who have no hope.

we grieve, and are comforted by One who also wept.

Those who trust in Him will in his mercy find, that it is not death to Die.

_______________________________________

the lyrics to this song are based on a hymn by Henri Malan (1787-1864) that was translated into English by George Bethune (1847). The song is from Sovereign Grace Music. I couldn't find a functioning easy way to post it and didn't want to try and figure it out late at night. So, take a minute and listen to the whole thing by clicking Here.

(give it a second as the player on top loads the song, press the play button.)

It is a beautiful song... more so because it is true.