Help sombody save me! "Dup da da DA!!! ... U.N to the rescue!!!

Consider this list of propositions about climate change by Kevin Williamson of National Review; they are arranged in “ascending order of unlikeliness”:

1. The planet is getting warmer.

2. The planet is getting warmer, and human activity is the reason.

3. The planet is getting warmer, human activity is a main factor, and the consequences will be catastrophic.

4. The planet is getting warmer, human activity is a main factor, the consequences will be catastrophic, and some U.N.-style climate policeman is going to be able to manage a mitigating response.

5. The planet is getting warmer, human activity is a main factor, the consequences will be catastrophic, and some U.N.-style climate policeman is going to be able to manage a mitigating response — in an economically efficient manner.

6. The planet is getting warmer, human activity is a main factor, the consequences will be catastrophic, and some U.N.-style climate policeman is going to be able to manage a mitigating response — in an economically efficient manner that also is consistent with our political liberties and national sovereignties.

consider this: "The international community has very little credibility in dealing with real and present danger — such as Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal and Tehran’s ambition to possess one — and so it seems unlikely that they will be effective in dealing with a less concrete, less immediate, more complex set of challenges, particularly one in which the various members of the international community have different and often conflicting economic incentives."

Read his whole article for the evaluation of each proposition.

RC Sproul on future challenges in Theology

Check out this thought provoking video. Obviously these challenges are always present and every generations needs to pay attention. I wish he could have gotten more into the specific challenges.

It would have been a great to hear a whole conversation on this.

Another provoking thought for me is ...what's it really like to have Driscoll and Sproul in the same room together?

Agitprop, Thoughtcrime, Re-education and a few other proposals for public education in Minnesota

A post at the National Association of Scholars web site pointed me to an article about a new report/proposal from the Teacher Education Redesign Initiative at the University of Minnesota.

The report advocates making race, class and gender politics the "overarching framework" for all teaching courses at the U. It calls for evaluating future teachers in both coursework and practice teaching based on their willingness to fall into ideological lockstep.

The first step toward "cultural competence," says the task group, is for future teachers to recognize -- and confess -- their own bigotry. Anyone familiar with the reeducation camps of China's Cultural Revolution will recognize the modus operandi.

The task group recommends, for example, that prospective teachers be required to prepare an "autoethnography" report. They must describe their own prejudices and stereotypes, question their "cultural" motives for wishing to become teachers, and take a "cultural intelligence" assessment designed to ferret out their latent racism, classism and other "isms." They "earn points" for "demonstrating the ability to be self-critical."

The task group opens its report with a model for officially approved confessional statements: "As an Anglo teacher, I struggle to quiet voices from my own farm family, echoing as always from some unstated standard. ... How can we untangle our own deeply entrenched assumptions?"

The goal of these exercises, in the task group's words, is to ensure that "future teachers will be able to discuss their own histories and current thinking drawing on notions of white privilege, hegemonic masculinity, heteronormativity, and internalized oppression."

I encourage you to read the whole article and see the postmodern-leftist-GLBT thought police at work. The goal is to ensure that all licensed educators are indoctrinated in their "Newspeak" and will be "ideologically and politically reliable" when they walk into a class room to "educate" our children.

That's our tax dollars at work in our higher education system to train the teachers of our education system...

They seem to understand public education's power. Do we?

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.

4 provocative quotes about Ukraine

“Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire, but with Ukraine, suborned and then subordinated, Russia automatically becomes an empire.”
Zbigniew Brzezinski, Polish-born former U.S. National Security Adviser

“You understand, George, that Ukraine is not even a state!”
a reported comment from Vladimir Putin to President George Bush in Bucharest last year.

“In the last 80 years of the 20th century we declared our independence six times. Five times we lost it,” President Ukrainian Viktor Yushchenko

A full-blown military conflict with Ukraine seems unlikely but is no longer unthinkable. (Two years ago a war between Russia and Georgia seemed equally unlikely.) The Economist

I pulled these juicy quotes from an article in The Economist which you should read to get the latest on the Ukraine / Russia relation inflammation. I've been watching this situation for the past couple weeks. It is both interesting to me as a former Soviet Foreign Policy student, and concerning as a former resident of Ukraine who loves many Ukrainians.

Inflammatory rhetoric between Russia and Ukraine of course is nothing new, it has been the diplomatic protocol between the two since .... forever? It's a dysfunctional relationship to say the least, in both history and present reality, and both sides have talked some real nation-state smack in the past few years. But one thing has always been historically clear; only one side has been, and still is capable of being a threat to the other. What seems currently clear is that that one side is increasingly ...threatening.

Russia's withholding of ambassadors and "not-normalizing" relationships is more than just smack. In terms of nation-state diplomacy and relations that's an attention getter. Imagine the United States or Canada deciding not to exchanging diplomatic parties and ambassadors, and the rising use of "Anti-Russian" as a term the Russian leadership uses to describing Ukrainian actions, policies, and events. These are not what you might term positive relational developments.

At this point in Yushchenko's now lame-duck presidency, (elections are scheduled for January) Medvedev's letters and "foreign policy TV advertisement" are obviously less of a message to Viktor than it is an opportunity to assert and spin-test Russia's foreign policy views...and possibly its policy objectives. (Is the fact that Medvedev made his video at the Black Sea supposed to tell us something of whats' on his mind?)

It seems to me that there are lots of bad historical precedents for this sort of thing. Two nations trade smack and escalating rhetoric over unresolved issues. Then one side finally makes a threat the other can't answer. At that point one nation usually gains the initiative and usually the advantage, and the other shift to the defensive. Unless you enjoy "splendid isolation," some powerful friends ...or possesses a nuclear arsenal, the defensive is not a place to be. ...the results usually write another chapter in a history book.

Ukraine needs some international friends and has been on a long, and so far fruitless search to secure some security. It gave away its nuclear arsenal post haste in the post-Soviet era thanks to some serious pressure (and millions of $ in disarmament-contingent aid) from the USA and Europe. I'm not suggesting that Ukraine should have kept them... just that the ones who talked them out of the nukes didn't seem to have a plan or even seem to foresee a need to ensure Ukrainian national security by any other means. Seems more than a little ignorant and naive given the history and the neighborhood.

So, Ukraine was left without security alliances, no military big stick (nuclear or non) in the shadow of a neighbor who considers Ukrainian national identity as an aberration, and assumes the kid brother will eventually be brought to his senses and come home.

...one way or the other?

Where will Ukraine find security? There are not many options. The EU? LOL!! Firstly, European security commitment is probably an oxymoronic term. More importantly, Europe's dependence on Russian natural gas dominates its relationship and policies toward everyone and everything to the East. By Europe here I mean the industrial-economic-political energy using power center mainly represented by Germany. There are a number of off-color euphemisms that could be used here to describe the European / Russian natural gas relationship, but lets just say none of it bodes well for any nation sitting between Germany and the Russian gas pimp. Especially if you are on the supply route, and the route is about to change.

The Baltics, Poland and others clearly understand Germany's Nord Stream project in something like these terms. The gas pipelines that supply Germany and much of Western Europe cross Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia... That means everyone downstream with a stove or furnace has had a vested interest in the territorial integrity of those countries... well at least an interest in the gas that transits that territory. Once Germany has Nord Stream will Germany care about anyone to the east? Exactly. Does Russia understand this? Exactly.

Russian aggression toward an EU Member seems a far stretch at this point (unless you are Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili) What about a non-EU eastern European country...like Ukraine for example? Everyone knows it's not EU and in no danger of being EU anytime soon. Especially those in the EU. I'm guessing most Europeans probably consider Ukraine only marginally or technically European ...more Russian right? and didn't they threaten to leave us freezing in the dark last winter?? I think we can figure an EU with an alternate gas supply is not going to give its pimp a hard time if he beats up one of the other girls... as long as gas keeps flowing to the EU.

How 'bout the US? Probably not a lot of hope there either. George Bush dangled NATO to both Ukraine and Georgia, but was he really serous to the commitments that would take, or was that just a ruse to torque Russia's tail? Or was it simply a bridge too far? Well that can be someone's doctoral dissertation cause it is all history now.

In the meantime we have had a Georgian war and the election of Barack Obama. Bush might not have been serous about his NATO tease, but President Obama just simply doesn't strike me as being a serious or weighty foreign policy presence. More importantly as it concerns Ukraine, I'm guessin' he doesn't strikes Mr Medvedev... and probably more importantly Mr Putin as a serious or strong international policy force. Even if he was, would he really risk much to establish or defend Ukrainian integrity? I can see Obama doing a great Lord Chamberlain impression as he capitulates on Ukrainian sovereignty to Russia ..."it is a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing."

Nothing indeed. The EU's response, and the the response of (at that time) candidate Obama to the Georgian War and Russian aggression was not exactly confidence inspiring. ...unless of course, you are Russia.

Tommy Relevant

I'm Sorry, this could get carried away.
I found this on xtranormal, and something about hearing postmodern theological mumbojumbo from a DIY spherical animated creatures just brings it all together for me.

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A computer-generated voice and a motion graphic image inviting me to Relevant-Missional-Emergent-Relevant-Faith-Community of Relevance...

maybe I'm 42, but it seems just right.

Witnessing?

I saw these on DeYoung's blog this AM and had to share (steal) them.

Aside from the fascinating animation technology, are these caricatures of more than just our theology? Can we laugh at that to?

Any of my Lutheran friends want to create a This Is Most Certainly True/Augsburg version??

Two Kingdom Theology and Neo-Kuyperians

I have wanted to write about this all week since I read DeYoung's original post but i just haven't had time. But I wanted to pass on a link to what has developed into a great discussion even on other sites. Lots' of Theology and Practice and Culture implications here, I am sure some of my Lutheran friends would immediately want to throw in some discussion of uses of the law... Wow. Great topic. Hope you can follow it, think about it and contribute.

Democratic Ukraine, autocratic Russia: Why?

Here's an interesting article on the historic foundations of Ukrainian and Russian political development. Certainly overstated in it's view of the success of Ukrainian democratic development, but at least an interesting thesis.

Antipsalm 23

I found this in an article by David Powlison at CCEF Its quite the statement about sin and self-absorption in the human heart and the resulting alienation and fear.

Antipsalm 23

I’m on my own.
No one looks out for me or protects me.
I experience a continual sense of need. Nothing’s quite right.
I’m always restless. I’m easily frustrated and often disappointed.
It’s a jungle — I feel overwhelmed. It’s a desert — I’m thirsty.
My soul feels broken, twisted, and stuck. I can’t fix myself.
I stumble down some dark paths.
Still, I insist: I want to do what I want, when I want, how I want.
But life’s confusing. Why don’t things ever really work out?
I’m haunted by emptiness and futility — shadows of death.
I fear the big hurt and final loss.
Death is waiting for me at the end of every road,
but I’d rather not think about that.
I spend my life protecting myself. Bad things can happen.
I find no lasting comfort.
I’m alone … facing everything that could hurt me.
Are my friends really friends?
Other people use me for their own ends.
I can’t really trust anyone. No one has my back.
No one is really for me — except me.
And I’m so much all about ME, sometimes it’s sickening.
I belong to no one except myself.
My cup is never quite full enough. I’m left empty.
Disappointment follows me all the days of my life.
Will I just be obliterated into nothingness?
Will I be alone forever, homeless, free-falling into void?
Sartre said, “Hell is other people.”
I have to add, “Hell is also myself.”
It’s a living death, and then I die.

It sounds to me like something out of the mouth of a Dostoyevsky character. A summation of Man's condition and his end outside of redemption.
I am convicted though by how many of its statements sound like attitudes of my own heart. How about you?
Now read the real PS 23 for a glorious contrast of being shepherded by our Gracious Christ Jesus.

I also encourage you to read Powlison's couple of blog entires in this series as they give such Gospel hope and truth to challenge and answer our dark hearts of sin. They are long but worth it.

inspiration for a weary greek student

I am in the middle of an intensive NT Greek class. (6 hours a day of class and I have lost track of the time memorizing and doing the exercises.) We have a break this week before we hit it again next week. My brain feels like mush but it is already encouraging to be able to read some of the text. I have so far to go... why am I doing this?

I took Greek 15 years ago at School of Ministry in Costa Mesa but didn't take it seriously nor was I convinced of the usefulness and need. I thought "if i need to know a word, I'll just look up the definitions." But after 15 years in Ministry I am aware of my exegetical weakness because I cannot access the Word directly. Specifically the Grammar.

Having taken Greek before, I am often frustrated and haunted and by the knowledge that I could actually know what clauses are subordinate to what, and what modifies what within the passage I am studying ...if I could just read it in Greek.

Because I can't, all that essential grammatical information and therefore exegetical information that I need to understand and teach the text, is unavailable to me. Knowing that the information is in the text, and not being able to see it has left me feeling a bit naked, and certainly weaker in my teaching through the years.

So, I am subjecting myself again to the crucible of Greek class so that I can actually see these things in the text.

It's a great idea, but language learning is mostly frustrating and discouraging. Having spent time in a couple different languages, I have lived that frustration. I realize how much work it is to develop the ability to understand and discover meaning. You need conviction about the need to learn this stuff, especially at 2 in the morning when the Perfect Indicative has caused your brain to mutiny and run out your ear. (...Not that I know anything about that...I only lasted till 12:30.)

A guy needs a little encouragement sometimes. So along came the following encouragement and exhortation...

I was listening to Piper's Sunday sermon this week where he gave a wonderful description of why it is essential to be able to see these things in the text. I immediately wanted to pull out a clip from that video to post, but I lack the technical savvy. Today on my blog reader I found out someone has done it for me!!

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This really isn't a slam on translations (... well no more than is necessary anyway) nor is it a snobby "I know Greek and you don't" kind of point Piper is making. He brings it up because as the sermon develops, he shows that the main points of the scriptural text hang on something that cannot be seen well in English... though if you are a careful reader of an accurate translation you will at least notice that something is going on. If you read something else, where the editors have done you a favor (you decide if that's a kind favor) by "smoothing" it out to make it "readable" you will miss John's point about Jesus, Belief and True Faith.

...Oh and that's John the Apostle's point BTW, the writer of Holy Scripture ...not John Piper.

Watch listen or read the whole sermon to see how this grammatical point plays out. You will see the Greek is not merely snobby, nor a small detail. ...it's also a really good sermon.

are we going to die in our religion, or die in our devotion?

David Platt: SBC Pastors Conference 2009 from Todd Thomas on Vimeo.

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Check out a great interview with David Platt here

Cultivating community … at warp speed?

"I read a book on stress a few years back, and the author made a side comment that I thought was so insightful. He said that the highest value of materialistic western culture is not possessing. It's actually acquiring."

Paul Tripp answering a question on the challenges of building in the American church read the full interview here

Multi-Site Churches - Modern Day Bus Ministry?

I had an exchange on my friend Danny's blog a few weeks back. you have to read down a bit in the comments to follow the conversation its really about more than junior mints.

then I came across this post by a guy I don't know but whose thoughts nicely summarize my own.

(Two posts in one day... with five links... cheap bloggin' hun?)

What do YOU mean...or expect in preaching?

Whatever this day may bring

O God, early in the morning I cry to you.
Help me to pray,
and to concentrate my thoughts on you:
I cannot do this alone.

In me there is darkness,
But with you there is light;
I am lonely,
but you do not leave me;
I am feeble in heart,
but with you there is help;
I am restless,
but with you there is peace.
In me there is bitterness,
but with you there is patience;
I do not understand your ways,
but you know the way for me …

Restore me to liberty,
And enable me so to live now
that I may answer before you and before me.
Lord, whatever this day may bring,
Your name be praised.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

From Prayers of the Martyrs
ed, Duane Arnold

The Donkey of the One Who Hates You

I stumbled upon this jewel in Exodus today. I would prefer to avoid my enemy. This verse gave me conviction to repent, to love, and to rescue my enemy, his donkey …and myself.

The Decline and Fall of Evangelicalism?

I was sent this article by my Dad. It's worth the read. Don't choke on the CSMonitor source, Spencer is certainly no C-Scientist, and the article is a summary of a series he had on his own blog. I have run into Spencer's articles in various place in the past year or two. He's definatley thought provoking. I'm not sure I agree with every point in this article of course, or the causality of said implosion. ...but that's nitpicking. The bulk/substance is some pretty solid criticism and reminds me of some books I read by Os Guinness, and others years ago. It has come true. Evangelicalism is in a downward spiral.

Evangelicals are notorious for chicken little political and cultural analysis, but I think what is different here is that Spencer's analysis is less prophet of doom and more state of the union.

 

I came across this video on a friend's website a while back,
Piper puts it pretty clear...



...I think I have the same fear.

For the church today, doctrine is optional, knowledge is personal experience, wisdom is often personal intuition, community is conditional, and felt need and "what can this passage do for me?" shape most preaching. "Relevance" rules, and today's churches are probably more culturally shaped than Gospel formed.

I grew up a church kid, and I used to wonder how there could be a great falling away? How could people leave the Church? Desert the Gospel? I thought, 'that must be in a future whose preconditions are a long way off' .... but now I think they might be uncomfortably close to home in our age. Like Piper I fear that many people in evangelical churches don't know the Gospel. They have come to Jesus for dubious self improvement reasons, not because they are sinners, wholly lost in sin and bound for hell apart from the Grace of God in Christ. 

I have had some discussions over the past two years with my students and various others regarding "The Way of the Master" evangelism series by Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron. It's an approach to evangelism that emphasizes a need to show a person their sin and utter separation from God first. Only when a person knows their hopelessness can the hope of the Gospel be clearly seen without distraction. 

It is interesting what a discussion of this approach has revealed about the understanding of the Gospel among Christians from Bible teaching churches. Putting the Holy standard of the Law up front so that sin is revealed is a shocking approach to many in evangelical culture today. (Those of us who hung out with Martin in His small catechism immediately sense the binary Biblical pattern of Law and Gospel.) The fact that the message of the Law is shocking to many makes me wonder what they are used to hearing, and what they personally understand they were saved from and saved to.

Evangelical culture has tended to put the personal benefits of salvation front and center, both in evangelism as well as church life. I once heard a pastor say that what you use to draw people, you will also use to keep people. If we have drawn people with the promise of Jesus as the key to a better life, what will we keep them with? We invite people to come to Jesus so they can get their life straightened out, then continue with preaching that presents Jesus as the key to the maximized life. It's not about what the text says, but what it can do for you.

What Joel Olsteen shamelessly places in the center of his sinless-self-improvement christianity, is probably the subtle mantra woven into much preaching and church culture: Evangelical culture is all about our Best Life Now. It's what I sarcastically refer to as the church of Pimp my Ride. No Sinners in the hands of an Angry God in church today.

So...who's in church? What do they believe? What are they here for?

The question my discussions with these students and others has brought up is the question of what is it that is preached in most churches today? What "Gospel" are people getting "saved" into? As Ray Comfort rightly questions, does the self improvement Gospel really save? Maybe I've read too much Luther and Bonhoeffer and Paul (...is that possible?) but I have the same question; can you preach the Gospel without first preaching the Law?

...Or is that Cheap Grace? ...and therefore not Saving Grace?

When things get tough, when Gospel fidelity becomes costly, and the church no longer appears "self improving" to the masses, we will experience 2 Timothy 3. I think that is what Spencer is getting at.

The hope is, as always, abiding in The Vine. The Source of true life is there, not Church. But we cling to that vine in clusters because that is how we are made to grow. Contrary to our hyper-individualistic self-determining culture we need each other. We need to be where the Gospel is faithfully proclaimed in a way that holds us accountable to it. Teaches truth and doctrine that form us, not principles we extract from it. We need to be among Gospel formed people forming a Gospel formed accountable Christian community ...not just "families of association" or community of convenience (Bonhoeffer's Life Together springs to mind as a definition) and then faithfully living, witnessing, and proclaiming the Gospel.

...There are still some of these around, precious few, but there are some new clusters forming on the vine with this awareness and intention in mind. But is going to take a counter-cultural... maybe even counter-evangelical-culture commitment to create, maintain, and defend such a creed and community.

The real Church existed before there was Evangelical, Relevant, Emerging, Emergent, or Contemporary and it will exist after all that is dust. We should make sure we don't mistake one for the other.

Oops...51 Words, but good ones.

"In our Lord's life there was none of the press and rush of tremendous activity that we regard so highly, and the disciple is to be as his Master. The central thing about the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a personal relationship to Himself, not public usefulness to men."
Oswald Chambers

Who Would Jesus Smack Down?

“Driscoll’s New Calvinism underscores a curious fact: the doctrine of total human depravity has always had a funny way of emboldening, rather than humbling, its adherents.”

Summary observation from an interesting NYT article on Mark Driscoll.

Gospel Toxic Comfort

If the warmth of my bed, flannel sheets, and Hudson’s Bay Blanket make me lulled, drowsy, and indifferent instead of awake, fighting, and praying. What might the ease, convenience, self-indulgence, entitlement, and distractions of America keep me from?

The Comfort of The Incarnation

If we have never sought, we seek Thee now;
Thine eyes burn through the dark, our only stars;
We must have sight of thorn-pricks on Thy brow,
We must have Thee, O Jesus of the Scars.
The heavens frighten us; they are too calm;
In all the universe we have no place.
Our wounds are hurting us; where is the balm?
Lord Jesus, by Thy Scars, we claim Thy grace.
If, when the doors are shut, Thou drawest near,
Only reveal those hands, that side of Thine;
We know to-day what wounds are, have no fear,
Show us Thy Scars, we know the countersign.
The other gods were strong; but Thou wast weak;
They rode, but Thou didst stumble to a throne;
But to our wounds only God's wounds can speak,
And not a god has wounds, but Thou alone.

Jesus of the Scars by Edward Shillito

Shillito was an English minister who wrote his poetry in the trench horrors of World War I.

I am currently teaching the book of Hebrews at CCBoise SOM. If one can have a favorite book of the Bible, this might be mine. I am captivated and intensely comforted by Hebrews' central image of Jesus as our scar-bearing High Priest. The book uniquely magnifies the full deity and full humanity of Jesus, and both are essential to His ministry as our intercessor. Many Christians understand the importance of Christ's deity, fewer understand or appreciate the importance of His full humanity, and the need to hold the truth of both of His nature's fully, and preciously.

It is not simple to hold the truth of both,

but it is sublimely precious and essential.

Sometimes though, we take what is sublime and try to make it simple,

...and in the process can loose a truth.

That's how the first heresy in the church started. The Greek mind had a hard time understanding Jesus as both God and Man. They made him simpler to understand, not by diminishing His deity, but by diminishing His humanity. The Gnostics believed Jesus was only human in form, but not in experience, essence, or will. Their "Jesus" was insulated from a personal experience of suffering and temptation because he was not fully man. The Gnostic Acts of John quaintly records that 'Jesus walked by the seashore but left no footprints' ... a Jesus was not quite fully connected.

Christians rarely adopt a structured heresy like Gnosticism....unless some JW's beguile them. Most Christians I meet will say that Jesus is both God and Man...at least that's what they have heard. But since that is hard to get your mind around, many Christians practically emphasize or understand one nature more than the other, rarely both in unity.

(...You know? a little Catechization might go a long way....but I digress.)

A Biblical, orthodox understanding of Christ's incarnation fully articulates and rejoices in the fullness of both of His natures. If you emphasize one to the diminishing of the other, or if you have a murky or drifting understanding of either, you can quickly slide into heresy... in either direction. Jesus Christ is fully God fully Man...a creed the first three church councils fought to make unequivocally clear, and an essential truths for which people have died ever since.

As I said: It is not simple to hold the truth of both,

but it is sublimely precious and essential.

We might not diminish His humanity in the same way or for the same reasons as the Gnostics, but I often hear phrases about Jesus that make me uncomfortable in how they disconnect and distance Him from human experience. It seems agreeable to most Christians that Jesus experienced a bit of poverty or hunger... a bit. But for Jesus to fully and personally experience trials that tested, temptations that tempted, desires that distracted, anger that threatened, despair that darkened, betrayal that wounded, a will that conflicted?

Did Jesus suffer these same things that I do? ....if so, He might be able to really understand me. Could He suffer these things and be sinless? ....maybe then he has power to help me.

Those questions might take some thinking, some effort, some study to understand...

but it would be sublime.

But before we have to think hard things, someone inevitably spares us the trouble and simplifies the Sublime with something like "...well, He was God you know..."

Simple.

...right?

...and "click," Jesus gets disconnected from human suffering ...distanced from our suffering. We are left to assume that the difficulties of human life that weary, that shame, that pain us were not actually difficult for Jesus. The hope of a sympathetic Savior withers...

He was God you know...He walked an inch off the ground...He wasn't really here.

Taking the edge off his humanity might also provide a fig leaf to cover our exposure, and distance Jesus from our own human weaknesses. Our weakness is our shame, because it is inseparable from our failure. If Jesus experienced our weakness...wouldn't that be shameful? Especially for us. So, maybe it's better to keep Him at a comfortable respectful distance. He doesn't have to understand all our weaknesses right? A slightly less human Jesus would be safely distanced from the messiness of this human experience, and it would save Him the inconvenience and the shame of having to come all the way down.

But we are too late to save Him. Too late.

He humbled himself and became a man. He has drawn near, touched the ground, and got his feet dirty. He was hurt, weary, cold, shamed, hungry, weak, angry, exhausted, tempted, conflicted. He sympathized, literally; suffered alongside, and was in all ways tempted, yet without sin and is thus able to comfort us in our familiar weaknesses.

We thought we might save Him the shame of human weakness...

but forgot that He does not fail.

Job and I are eternally grateful.

Job cried out for one who would be a mediator between us...one who can lay hands on us both. I know Him as Jesus, the Perfect Scarred Mediator. He is able to lay priestly, compassionate, experienced, interceding, hole-ly hands on both God and man because He was a Man of sorrows, fully acquainted with grief. He is sublimely precious, and is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him.

He ever lives to make intercession for me.

Thank you Father, for the Jesus of the Scars.

The Dead Horse

Young Chuck in Montana bought a horse from a farmer for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the horse the next day. The next day the farmer drove up and said, "Sorry son, but I have some bad news.. the horse died."
Chuck replied, "Well, then just give me my money back."
The farmer said, "Can't do that. I went and spent it already."
Chuck said, "Ok, then, just bring me the dead horse."
The farmer asked, "What ya gonna do with him?"
Chuck said, "I'm going to raffle him off."
The farmer said, "You can't raffle off a dead horse!"

Chuck said, "Sure I can, Watch me. I just won't tell anybody he's dead."
A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, "What happened with that dead horse?"
Chuck said, "I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars a piece and made a profit of $998."
The farmer said, "Didn't anyone complain?"
Chuck said, "Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back."
Chuck grew up and now works for the government.
He's the one who figured out how this "bail-out" is going to work.

Anyone know a Creed?

A student once answered me; "Yeah, I like their old stuff."

I think churches should give tall-carmel-chocolate-vanilla-skinny-soy-decaf-latte's to anyone who can say the Apostles Creed.
...and a Crispy Cream if can define any of the articles.

Shameless Commerce

One of the blogs I subscribe to was holding a promotion (though it is not really that kinda blog) ...and I would recommend them even if posting these blog links didn't increase my chances of winning.

22 Words

Molly Piper

22 Words is just that, a 22 word post...usually random, usually thoughtful.. he calls it "experiments in getting to the point." 

Well, I need more than an experiment, I need therapy. A recent post provoked me to embark on a similar writing exercise (therapy) I am calling 41 words. Shameless rip-off hun? 

Last but not least, it is also the source of a funny post on worship music How's that for bait?

Compare and Contrast…

"Israelite evangelism never suggested that neighboring idolators start worshipping the true God because Yahweh would give them better crops than their idols. Instead, people were and are called to turn from their idols because idolatry is (sin) against God.”

p.149 When People are Big and God is Small, Edward T Welch

Technology + Food = Fear

I don't measure my life in terms of ipods, but by whatever chronological measure you use, this post should certainly cause you to consider your mortality in contrast to the seemingly eternal life span of a McDonalds hamburger.

And no Conor! this does not mean eating Mc Donalds will make you live forever.

Things Daddy Doesn’t Want to Explain Yet

Peter can’t read yet, but loves to spell out signs and figure out what they are advertising.
The other day he saw a bright orange sign and spelled; “H-O-O-T-E-R-S …what’s that place Dad?”

Time Management, Life Goals, and Other Sobering Thoughts on Jesus’ Life.

I’m reading a poster I have posted above my computer that says; Live dangerously for the one who loved you and died for you in His thirties. I am 41.