The human dilemma . . .

Today I wanted to offer you something to think about that comes from Francis A. Schaeffer. I've been perusing his The God Who Is There lately, and I came across the following material that I found both shocking and culturally relevant to post-modern Christians in a twenty-first century world. Let me know what you think. The quotes below come from pages 193ff of Schaeffer's book.

The historic Christian position is that man's dilemma has a moral cause. God, being non-determined, created man as a non-determined person. this is a difficult idea to anyone thinking in twentieth-century terms because most twentieth-century thinking sees man as determined. He is determined either by chemical factors, . . . or by psychological factors . . . . In either case, or as a result of the fusion of these two, man is considered to be programmed. If this is the case, then man is not the tremendous thing the Bible says he is, made in the image of God as a personality who could make a free first choice. Because God created a true universe outside of Himself (not as an extension of His essence), htere is a true history which exists. Man as created in God's image is therefore a significant man in a significant history, who could choose to obey the commandment of God and love Him, or revolt against Him. There is no reformed theologian, however strong his reformed theology might be, who would not say that Adam in this way was able fundamentally to change the course of history.

This is the wonder of man and the wonder of history. . . . Man can understand and respond to the One who, having made him and communicated with him, called upon him to show that he loved Him by simple command, 'Don't do this'. . . . This is the infinite-personal God calling on personal man to act by choice. . . . He could so act by choice because he was created to be different from the animal, the plant and the machine.

To ask that man should have been made so that he was not able to revolt is to ask that God's creation should have ceased after He created plants and animals. It is to ask that man should be reduced to machine programming. It is to ask that man should not exist.

If one begins to consider the Christian system as a total system, one must begin with the infinite-personal triune God who is there, and who was communicating and loving before anything else was.

That's a lot to take in for one day, but I wanted to add a postscript. This morning in philosophy class I acknowledge that the only true knowledge of God begins with God's initiation. That is, God is reaching out to me to communicate to and relate with me. That is the record of Scriptue, and, I argue, the record of human history and experience. I cannot come to God on my own abilities or knowledge, even though those things may be gifts from that same God. No, the only way to have a relationship with God is through the initiative he shows to us all in the grace of Jesus. Chew on these things for a while and let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading!

T-Shirts . . .

Today I wanted to post the lyrics from a song by Derek Webb. The song is entitled "T-Shirts (what we should be known for)" and comes off of Derek's "I see things upside down" album. The song is a take off of John 13:34-35. Good stuff! Chew on this:

They'll know us by the t-shirts that we wear
They'll know us by the way we point and stare
At anyone whose sin looks worse than ours
Who cannot hide the scars of this curse that we all bare
They'll know us by our picket lines and signs
They'll know us by the pride we hide behind
Like anyone on earth is living right
And isn't that why Jesus died
Not to make us think we are right

Chorus:
When love, love, love
Is what we should be known for
Love, love, love
It's the how and it's the why
We live and breathe and we die

They'll know us by reasons we divide
And how we can't seem to unify
Because we've gotta sing songs a certain style
Or we'll walk right down that aisle
And just leave 'em all behind
They'll know us by the billboards that we make
Just turning God's words to cheap cliches
Says "What part of murder don't you understand?"
But we hate our fellow man
And point a finger at his grave

Chorus

They'll know us by the t-shirts that we wear
They'll know us by the way we point and stare
Telling 'em their sins are worse than ours
Thinking we can hide our scars
Beneath these t-shirts we wear


So, what do you think?

Thanks for reading!

What is my problem? Some rambles . . .

I sit here listening to the greatest hits of DC Talk and grading Philosophy worldview papers, but my mind continues to wander to other things. What is my problem?

I have tried for almost 2 weeks to get through the worldview of Augustine. Heck, it took three classes to cover Plotinus, and only God knows how long I took on Aristotle. I certainly enjoy the discussions we have in class (if any of you are reading this post, thanks for asking questions, it makes my day!), but some days I get bogged down in (what seem to me) unnecessary details.

Ever have one of those days?

Like Wednesday, we had a great discussion of the old "free will" versus "sovereignty of God" debate. I don't know if we settled anything, but I think we as a class framed the argument well and asked the right questions. Maybe some of life is simply a mystery to which we can't always find specific answers. Heck, I'm a philosopher, I ought to know this stuff! What is my problem?

I understand that I am human, I am not perfect. I know that the search for Truth (with a capital "T") is a lifelong pursuit. Dang, if it was easy, then everyone would do it, right? I guess today I am just a bit anxious that I didn't offer help in pursuing the issues. My desire is to provide a place where questions can be considered with openness, honesty, and reason. I want to help others to think critically about the important things in life--especially the things of God.

Hey, don't we all want to be the hero? Right?

Is this thing on?

Is anyone out there?

Sometimes I think I hear God in the back of my mind whispering encouragement. He offers tantalizing evidence of his love and watchcare by quietly speaking in the darkest reaches of my heart. I hear it, but sometimes it is too faint. I run to look at it more closely, yet I often take a wrong turn. Anyone else ever feel that way?

What is my problem?

It is Friday, I want to go home and play with my kids, and I'm feeling too introspective.

God help us when we get too introspective.

A note of interest that relates to nothing above--on Monday a friend of mine will come by the house to build a sukkoth to celebrate the Jewish feast of Tabernacles. My family will join his family (hi Joe!) and others (Hi Wayne!) to offer thanks to God for his provision for us. I'm looking forward to it. Wednesday night I had the privilege of participating in Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) services with the same folks. It was quite impressive.

To think that God cared enough for me to provide a covering for my relationship to him. He loved us in such a manner as to give us a relationship with him through the sacrifice of his own Son. When I get down or introspective (like today), it is good to remember this fact. God loves me! Yes, he loves you too!

I may not know what is my problem today, but I know that God loves me. Thanks for listening to me ramble.

I appreciate you all.

Thanks for reading!

Problems with the media, reality TV . . . and more Muggeridge

Those who are familiar with Malcolm Muggeridge already know that he was a journalist. If you didn't know that, you may wonder how it is possible for a journalist to be a Christian (grin), but that's a discussion for another day. The fact is that Muggeridge was a journalist, and in his lectures that later became the little book, The End of Christendom, Muggeridge notes some problems with the media. Here is the quote from pages 38-39.

"A strange thing I have observed over many years in this business of news gathering and news presentation is that by some infallible process media people always manage to miss the most important thing. It's almost as though there were some built-in propensity to do this. In moments of humility, I realize that if I had been correspondent in the Holy Land at the time of our Lord's ministry, I should almost certainly have spent my time knocking about with the entourage of Pontius Pilate, finding out what the Sanhedrin was up to, and lurking around Herod's court with the hope of signing up Salome to write her memoirs exclusively. I regret that this is true. Ironically enough, as the dramatization of the public scene gains impetus, so we move farther and farther from the reality of things and become more and more preoccupied with fantasy."

That last line gave me pause. Here is Muggeridge, speaking in 1978, addressing the problem of news and reality. I understand this paragraph to be saying that even in '78, Muggeridge saw signs of the media's "dramatization of the public scene" as opposed to the straightforward reporting of "the reality of things." Is this some kind of reference to "making the news" versus "reporting the news"? Perhaps, but more to the point is the reference to the danger of becoming "more and more preoccupied with fantasy." This remark certainly sounds a lot like "reality" TV, doesn't it?

Think about it--we neglect our "real" lives to tune in to shows that purport to show us "reality" on TV. Yet these very shows are more interested in the dramatization of an "unrealistic" setting than in offering us "reality." We strand a bunch of people on an island, encourage them to stab each other in the back, film the results, edit that film, and then call it "reality!" Does anyone else appreciate the irony?

We take the desire among most humans for a loving relationship, find some single guy, set him up with a choice of several gorgeous women, and then film their responses as the fat hits the fan. Then we call it "reality" TV!

We put a bunch of has-been celebrities together in a house, encourage them to participate in shenanigans, then we call it "reality."

Why are we obsessed with this stuff? Could it be that our own "reality" is so mundane that we want a substitute reality for it?

We all know that (like TV wrestling) most of these "reality" shows follow a script and are edited to elicit a certain response, yet we persist in calling them "reality" TV!

Muggeridge was practically prophetic here. Look at the major cable "news" networks--don't you see basic "dramatization" of events instead of a reporting of "things"? Why does the coverage of MSNBC, CNN, and even Fox look the same? We are living in the age of reality dramatization predicted by Muggeride almost 30 years ago!

What do you think?

More Muggeride to consider

Here are a couple more quotes from Malcolm Muggeridge for you all to chew on.

“Words can be polluted even more dramatically and drastically than rivers and land and sea. There has been a terrible destruction of words in our time.” The End of Christendom, p. 2

“As Pascal says, faith is a gift of God. It is different from the proof of it. It is the kind of faith God himself places in the heart, of which the proof is often the instrument. Faith that makes us think of credo (I believe), rather than of scio (I know). He says of it, too, that it is the heart which is aware of God, and not reason. That is what faith is: God perceived intuitively by the heart, not by reason. . . . Faith does indeed tell us what the senses do not tell, but does not contradict their findings. It transcends but does not contradict them. Pascal repeats, ‘Faith is the gift of God.’” The End of Christendom, p. 6

"Because (Pascal) understood how important humility is and because he could recognize the arrogance that was growing up among scholars and learned people, he foresaw the dangers that the Enlightenment would bring. He knew that as never before in history a choice was going to confront man between seeing the whole future of mankind in terms of man shut up in his physical being--as we say today, in his genes--and the alternative of accepting in humility and contrition a role in the purposes of a loving God." The End of Christendom, pp. 7-8

I look at the world some thirty years after this lecture and shudder to think that Muggeridge may be right. Like C. S. Lewis in The Abolition of Man, Muggeridge almost speaks prophetically to us, warning us of the dangers of unrestrained and proud science. If the whole of human existence is wrapped up in our genes, and if we are able by science to alter that structure as we see fit, who then determines what is an improvement or a defect? Who gets to say what is the "ideal human" or the perfect man or woman? As Lewis notes, the only ones left to make this decision are also human, and as such, subject to the same potential "evolutionary" changes in their genes as the rest of us. What makes this "elite" group more capable to decide what is proper or not in human genetic development? Who gets to decide?

What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

How 'bout some Baptists?

Having grown up in the Southern Baptist version of Christianity here in America, I have a special love for all things Baptist. One thing I have tried to do with fair regularity is to learn something about the various groups of Baptists that exist around the world. One of my favorite names is the Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists (imagine that on a softball shirt!). These folks trace their roots to the Waldenses and began in America in the eighteenth century with the protests of one Daniel Parker against missions and Sunday School. Yep, you read that right, protests agains missions and Sunday School.

Parker evidently had a genuinely negative view of the Arminian doctrine of the Methodists and based his dislike of the missionary effort and church schools on what he called his Two-Seed doctrine. Briefly stated, this doctrine holds that two seeds entered the life stream of humanity in the Garden of Eden. One seed was good, the other evil. Every child is born with one seed or the other and thus predestined to either salvation or damnation depending on which seed the child has. Mission activity is therefore useless, as each child has within them the "seeds" (pardon the pun) of salvation or destruction! The seed is in the spirit, not in the flesh of humans. At any rate, I thought you all might be fascinated with this information.

I've taken to calling this group the Dead Sea Scrolls Baptists given the similarity in doctrine to some of the materials found at Qumran. Nonetheless, I would be curious as to whether any of you have encountered these folks. They were a small group when I first looked into them in the mid 1980s, so if you can find any info on them, post it here. Oh, if you want to read my source for the material above, I found it in Frank S. Mead's Handbook of Denominations in the United States.

Thanks for reading!

And now a word from Malcolm Muggeridge . . .

I've been reading parts of Muggeridge's The End of Christendom lately, and I thought you might benefit from some quotes. This first section is a description of Pascal in Muggeridge's words. Muggeridge says:

"Like all true believers, (Pascal) was deeply skeptical. His intelligence was wonderfully astringent and critical. It is one of the fantasies of the twentieth century that believers are credulous people, sentimental people, and that you have to be a materialist and a scientist and a humanist to have a skeptical mind. But of course exactly the opposite is true. It is believers who can be astringent and skeptical, whereas people who believe seriously that this universe exists only in order to provide a theatre for man must take man with deadly seriousness. I believe myself that the age we are living in now will go down in history as one of the most credulous ever. . . . The truth is that the farther our faith reaches, the more doubts it encompasses, as from the highest hills there are the fullest vistas." (pp. 4-5, The End of Christendom)

What do you think? Is Muggeridge right? Does faith include some element of doubt? Do cynics make good believers? It is something to ponder, huh?

And now, to balance the thought, let me quote Pascal himself from Pensees, p. 149:

"It is in vain that you seek within yourselves for the cure for your miseries. All your insight only leads you to the knowledge that it is not in yourselves that you will discover the true and the good. The philosophers promised them to you and they have not been able to keep their promise. . . . Your principle maladies are pride, which cuts you off from God, and sensuality, which binds you to earth. And they have done nothing but foster at least one of these maladies. If they have given you God for your object, it has been to pander to your pride. They have made you think that you were like him and resemble him by your nature. And those who have grasped the vanity of such a pretension have cast you down in the other abyss by making you believe that your nature is like that of the beast of the field and have led you to seek your good in lust, which is the lot of animals."

Well, I think that these quotes are enough for today. Chew on them. Think about them. Then, if you want, share your insights with the rest of us.

Thanks for reading!

A word from Derek Webb

I've been listening to Derek Webb's "She Must and Shall Go Free" album today, and I wanted to share a provocative song entitled "Nothing (Without You)."

I've got the dress; I've got the ring
I've got a song that I can sing
I've got the bread; I've got the wine
But I've got the life I left behind
I've got everything but I've got nothing without you

I've got the law in my heart
I've got your love tearing me apart
I've got a vow that I can't keep
But I've got your promise getting me to sleep
I've got everything but I've got nothing without you

I've got your works and I've got my faith
I've got all the wine that you can make
I am the kiss of your betrayer
But I've got your grace on every layer
I've got everything but I've got nothing without you

'Cause you see it's all just a show
And you either hate it or you don't
And only time will tell the difference
If you get it clearly or with interference

Because I've got the race; Got the election
But win or lose I've got protection
I found a lobbyist in the devil
And I've got salvation in a rebel
I've got everything but I've got nothing without you.

Let me know what you think of this song.

Thanks for reading!

A word to Atheists . . .

I've been reading C. S. Lewis' Surprised by Joy recently, and several quotes have gotten my attention in this account of his conversion from atheism to Christ. So, with some comments, here are the quotes.

"In reading Chesterton, as in reading MacDonald, I did not know what I was letting myself in for. A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere--'Bibles laid open, millions of surprises,' as Herbert says, 'fine nets and strategems.' God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous." (p. 191)

I love the image painted here. Lewis is trying his best to maintain a reasonable atheism as his philosophy of life, but even in the realm of literature he seems to butt up against the idea of God constantly. He cannot escape the divine person he calls "the Adversary." In fact, I think this image is appropriate. God, the creator of the universe, is constantly trying to "trap" us in the net of his grace. He wants a relationship with us so much that he is willing to be (in Lewis' words) unscrupulous in his pursuit of us. Atheists be warned, God has laid a trap for you. He is on the hunt, and reason will not keep you safe from him. In fact, as Lewis describes it, reason itself is one of the traps God uses to catch us.

"Really, a young Atheist cannot guard his faith too carefully. Dangers lie in wait for him on every side. . . . For the first time I examined myself with a seriously practical purpose. . . . Idealism can be talked, and even felt; it cannot be lived. It became patently absurd to go on thinking of 'Spirit' as either ignorant of, or passive to, my approaches. Even if my own philosophy were true, how could the initiative lie on my side? My own analogy, as I now first perceived, suggested the opposite: if Shakespeare and Hamlet could ever meet, it must be Shakespeare's doing. Hamlet could initiate nothing. . . . The real terror was that if you seriously believed in even such a 'God' or 'Spirit' as I admitted, a wholly new situation developed. . . . I was to be allowed to play at philosophy no longer. It might, as I say, still be true that my 'Spirit' differed in some way from 'the God of popular religion.' My Adversary waived the point. It sank into utter unimportance. He would not argue about it. He only said, 'I amd the Lord'; 'I am that I am'; 'I am.' . . . . People who are naturally religious find difficulty in understanding the horror of such a revelation. Amiable agnostics will talk cheerfully about 'man's search for God.' To me, as I then was, they might as well have talked about the mouse's search for the cat." (pp. 226-227)

Lewis had come to the philosophical conclusion that a "Spirit" existed beyond mere natural existence, and now that very "Spirit" was interfering with Lewis' life and thought. The very idea unnerved him. He did not want such an interference, he wanted his soul to remain his own personal possession. Now, however, he was coming to the reasonable conclusion that such a wish is practically impossible. He could not live without interference from the divine. Lewis continues:

"Doubtless, by definition, God was Reason itself. But would he also be 'reasonable' in that other, more comfortable, sense? Not the slightest assurance on that score was offered me. Total surrender, the absolute leap in the dark was demanded. . . . The demand was not even 'All or nothing.' I think that stage had been passed, . . . Now the demand was simply 'All.'" (p. 228)

Given his own thoughts and attempts to live his rational philosophy, Lewis ended in one of God's traps. He could not find a way around the practical conclusion that if a divine "Spirit" existed, he/she/it had the right to demand something of humans. At least, that is how it reads to me. This realization of God's all encompassing claim on humanity caused a crisis for Lewis. What to do? He even uses the words "That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me." His response?

"I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. . . . who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance to escape? The words . . . compel them to come in, . . .properly understood, . . . plumb the depth of Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation." (pp. 228-229)

I love the way Lewis expresses himself here, and I am inclined to agree with him. Lewis the atheist has come face-to-face with the realization that Someone may be there, Someone who has a prior claim on humanity. It subsequently frightens him and concerns him, but he sees no recourse but surrender. Is he right?

What do you think?

I encourage you to get this frank book and read a description of a conversion that is quite unlike that of St. Augustine.

Thanks for reading!

Are you there yet?

Phil 3:12-15
12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. NASU

2 Cor 3:18
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. NASU

Today I feel drawn to these words of Paul. I like both the humility and the possibility inherent in these words—the wonderful “not yet” and the strangely exciting “one day.” I find it interesting the Paul did not consider himself a person who had figured out all of God’s plans. Paul did not think of himself as someone who had “made it,” as someone who had “already obtained it” or “become perfect.” Yet, this same fellow could remind us of the wonderful opportunity to look at the glory of the Lord directly through the mediation of Jesus Christ. Paul also often told us to imitate him, even though he had not yet apprehended or comprehended the full counsel of God on every issue.

How unlike us today! We want others to think we have a corner on God’s market. We want others to respect us for our degrees, or our learning, or our Bible knowledge. We can quote Scripture, we understand eschatological charts, we can look up Greek and Hebrew words, we have done exegesis! We are worthy of emulation, we are excellent exemplars of the kind of person God respects, right?

But . . .

I think God is more interested in whether or not we do his Word, not just in how much we can quote. God is more concerned with our obedience than with our knowledge. Application and practice seem to be priority items in heaven.

That shouldn’t be taken as a knock against knowledge. Not at all! But knowledge that isn’t acted on is useless. If I know how to fix my own car, but then I insist on paying someone else to do it, then I am in some ways being foolish. Knowledge is important, but practice makes knowledge better.

Finally, I don’t want to sound too negative about learning or degrees (I have a few myself). My point is this—God wants the company of humble men and women. Folks who know stuff, but recognize their status compared to the Lord of the universe. As Isaiah says, God likes to be around the humble and contrite, folks that have an honest assessment of their worth, i.e., one that is based on God’s value system rather than a human one.

God values each of us, that is why he gave Jesus in our place. We have not really done much to get ourselves to the point of success in which we find our lives today. In reality, God is the one who has driven things to this point. He alone rules all the details.

Yet, he values our cooperation with him. He wants us to work with him, to be his partners in the enterprise of loving other people and showing his grace for all.

Are we willing to humble ourselves and join him? Can we be partners with God, all the while letting him be the one in charge? I hope so. Nothing else seems worthwhile to me anymore.

Thanks for reading!

Be careful little hands what you do . . .

Luke 20:17-18
17 But Jesus looked at them and said, "What then is this that is written:

'THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED,
THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone'?

18 " Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust." NASU

Ex 14:13-14

13 But Moses told the people, "Don't be afraid. Just stand where you are and watch the LORD rescue you. The Egyptians that you see today will never be seen again. 14 The LORD himself will fight for you. You won't have to lift a finger in your defense!" NLT

How comfortable I become in my laziness and in my lax approach to life! I am given so many advantages compared to others, and yet instead of pursuing excellence, I seem to pursue mediocrity. Bill Lane once told me that he was a child of God first and a scholar second. His scholarship was his gift to God for the grace God had given him. I wonder if we take seriously the tasks that God has set before us. Think about it! In James 4:17, we are told that if we know the right thing to do, but then refuse to do it, we are willfully committing sin. Then, Colossians 3:24-25 tells us that the person who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong done, and that without partiality. I’m not talking about a form of Christian legalism here, I have in mind the idea that we need to remind ourselves on a regular basis that our acts, our deeds, are as important as our lives. What we do or don’t do can weigh heavily against us or for us.

Take some time to contemplate that. God cares what you do.

In the parable of the sheep and the goats, Jesus distinguishes between the two groups by what they did or didn’t do. The book of Revelation reminds us that all humans will be judged for their deeds. How many times do we have to be told to watch what we are doing before we actually start “watching” what we are doing? Even our choice to do nothing is an action that has consequences.

God, forgive your people for substituting inactivity for real activity. Forgive us for substituting mediocrity for excellence. Remind us of the great grace and kindness you have shown us. Remind us so that we will feel that holy obligation to be and to do that which will bring you glory.

Some random notes, stuff I've been doing lately . . .

I want to post here, but sometimes I'm not real sure what to say. I recently submitted some reviews of three books in the Journal of the Study of the New Testament Supplement series. Each book was, in its own right, an interesting read. The one that really grabbed my attention was entitled Scalometry and the Pauline Epistles. The author is George K. Barr, and he proposes using a measure of scale to understand and to interpret texts. Barr contends that the Pauline materials (as well as other texts) evidence a surprising range of scale that could be important for determining not only the importance of certain elements in a text, but also for the possibility of determining authorship of various disputed works. For Barr, scale exists in written texts as surely as in art, music, and architecture. The presence of scale in a text informs the reader with regards to the importance of certain materials, lending a sense of immensity to major themes and an aura of the mundane to less important materials.

Now, this idea intrigued me because I had no idea how to measure scale in a text. Fortunately for me, Barr spends a great deal of time not only defining the concept of textual scale, but also he describes a method whereby the scale of a text can be graphed and studied. Now, if you are graphically challenged like me, this material may not be the most exciting reading you have ever done. Nonetheless, Barr delineates an approach that has a feel of objectivity to it and yields some fascininating conclusions. Simply stated, Barr discovers 6 basic levels or models of scale in Pauline materials. Applying these models to books that are not universally accepted as Pauline, Barr discovers that they show the same range of scale as the undisputed Pauline materials. That is, they chart the same graph of scale as other works considered definitely by the hand of Paul.

Now, you may have turned off your computer at that point, but I think it is interesting in this way--working as I do in conservative Christian circles, the view has long been that Paul wrote all those epistles directly attributed to him. In other scholarly circles, however, the opinion has long been that Paul only wrote a handful of the 12 or so epistles bearing his name. If Barr's method checks out, then there will be a sort of graphical or scientific evidence that the conservative is correct. In fact, Barr believes so strongly in his conclusions that he calls for a radical change in sholarly consensus about the Pauline epistles. His call is similar to Luther's nailing the 95 theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg.

At any rate, I found it interesting that after all this time, an academic work could have a different or fresh approach and hold my attention. It might not be fascinating to you, but I certainly enjoyed the challenge of learning the language and use of scale in texts. Ah well, I've rambled enough. If you want more, feel free to ask.

Thanks for reading!

What I'm listening to this morning . . .

I'm feeling nostalgic, so I have on two classics from the rock group Kansas:

1. Leftoverture

2. The Point of Know Return

Remember, we are all "dust in the wind," so we should "carry on" in what we have to do today! (smile)

Thanks for reading!

What I'm listening to today . . .

1. Altar Boys, "Against the Grain"

2. Tonio K, "Romeo Loves Jane"

Thanks for reading!

Some thoughts from Spurgeon

An excerpt from a devotional by C. H. Spurgeon:

"I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth." --Ecclesiastes 10:7

"Upstarts frequently usurp the highest places, while the truly great pine in obscurity. This is a riddle in providence whose solution will one day gladden the hearts of the upright; but it is so common a fact, that none of us should murmur if it should fall to our own lot. When our Lord was upon earth, although He is the Prince of the kings of the earth, yet He walked the footpath of weariness and service as the Servant of servants: what wonder is it if His followers, who are princes of the blood, should also be looked down upon as inferior and contemptible persons? The world is upside down, and therefore, the first are last and the last first. See how the servile sons of Satan lord it in the earth! What a high horse they ride! How they lift up their horn on high! Haman is in the court, while Mordecai sits in the gate; David wanders on the mountains, while Saul reigns in state; Elijah is complaining in the cave while Jezebel is boasting in the palace; yet who would wish to take the places of the proud rebels? and who, on the other hand, might not envy the despised saints? When the wheel turns, those who are lowest rise, and the highest sink. Patience, then, believer, eternity will right the wrongs of time.

"Let us not fall into the error of letting our passions and carnal appetites ride in triumph, while our nobler powers walk in the dust. Grace must reign as a prince, and make the members of the body instruments of righteousness. The Holy Spirit loves order, and He therefore sets our powers and faculties in due rank and place, giving the highest room to those spiritual faculties which link us with the great King; let us not disturb the divine arrangement, but ask for grace that we may keep under our body and bring it into subjection. We were not new created to allow our passions to rule over us, but that we, as kings, may reign in Christ Jesus over the triple kingdom of spirit, soul, and body, to the glory of God the Father."

What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

On my CD player . . .

1. Watermark, "The Purest Place"

2. Elvis, "30 #1 Hits"

3. Veggie Rocks!

Currently the Veggie Rocks album is playing. It is comprised of songs from the popular Veggie Tales videos, only with a twist. The songs are being covered by folks like Skillet, Rebecca St. James, Relient K, and the Supertones. Talk about surreal! It kind of fits with grading papers, though!

Thanks for reading!

And now, a hymn

Hymn: Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, by John G. Whittier

“Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our feverish ways!
Reclothe us in our rightful mind;
In purer lives Thy service find,
In deeper rev’rence praise.

“In simple trust, like theirs who heard,
Beside the Syrian sea,
The gracious call of the Lord,
Let us, like them, without a word,
Rise up and follow Thee . . . .”

Thanks for reading!

The Jesus Prayer and a Blind Beggar

“Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me.” The Jesus Prayer, a short, enigmatic statement of faith and repentance. Contained in this short phrase are some of the most powerful doctrines needed to heal the human condition. One version of it is found in Luke 18:35-43, the story about the healing of a blind beggar.

The blind beggar sat by the road. There was nothing new here. He had done this many times in his all too long suffering. He sat there. He begged. Another day in paradise.

Imagine his situation. Close your eyes for a moment and think of how he experienced life. Devoid of sight, he lived in a constant sense of blackness. Of course, his other senses were sharp, he could hear and smell and taste. But he could not see. Because he could not see, he could not hold his child’s face and admire the nose or the eyes that obviously are a family trait. He could not admire his wife’s beauty or the glory of her in splendid dress. He could not get around like the rest of us. He had to rely on the kindness of others to avoid stumbling.

Perhaps he chose this stretch of the road because the people in that area were especially generous. He could get a lot of money or other goods begging there. Whatever the reason, he hauled himself as best he could to the spot he had occupied so often. He sat. He begged. Another day in paradise.

Yet somehow today promised to be different. He couldn’t quite explain it. There was something in the air, something that didn’t smell or taste or sound the same as all the other days. The humidity was the same, so it wasn’t a change in weather. He was the same blind person he had always been, so it wasn’t a physical change in his situation. Something was different, however, but just what it was remained a mystery.

Then, he heard a sound of a crowd. Was there a parade today about which he had no knowledge? This crowd didn’t sound like a typical parade. Folks were talking about a great teacher, a person who had told the most amazing stories, of an encounter with a rich man, of an encounter with the Pharisees. This person the crowd discussed was evidently no ordinary man. He was different. He was the difference in the blind beggar’s day.

The blind man inquired, “What’s going on? Who is coming?” One of the people told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is headed this way.”

He thought about it. “Jesus of Nazareth,” he mumbled. “I wonder if that is the same fellow who reportedly healed ten lepers the other day. If so, surely he can lift my blindness! Surely he can set me free.”

His excitement grew. Nervously he formulated a plan. He stood up and cried out loud, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!”

Some of the folks in the crowd shushed him and angrily asked him to be quiet. He got louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

The noise got Jesus’ attention. Stopping, Jesus asked the man what he wanted. The request was simple, “Please give me my sight.” Jesus granted the request and told the man, “Your faith has saved you and made you well.”

The crowd (the same ones who rebuked the blind man earlier) now rejoiced at the notable (or should that be “visible”?) miracle that happened here. They gave glory to God for the man’s healing.

Isn’t that just like us? When someone cries the loudest for God’s mercy, don’t we sometimes wish that they would just be quiet? It is embarrassing to hear all that crying and begging. Can’t you just do that in private?

Or maybe like the blind man you’ve become so desperate that you simply don’t care anymore. “Jesus, have mercy on me!” is your rallying cry, and you’re going to shout it until you get a response.

There is good news here. Jesus stopped. He listened. He healed and saved. The crowd rejoiced.

Just another day in paradise.

Thanks for reading!

Currently playing . . .

On my CD player in the office:

1. Darrell Evans, "You are I am"
2. Passion, "Our Love is Loud"
3. Jeremy Camp, "Carried Me--The Worship Project"

Thanks for reading!

Consumed by fire . . .

Heb 10:19-27 (NASU)

19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

26 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES.

“Cells, as the monks call their rooms, has nothing to do with prison cells. ‘Cell’ comes from the Latin word cella, related to the word coelum, heaven, the place where one enjoys God.” From A Place Apart by M. Basil Pennington

Sometimes I think I see clearly when I really see through a mist, a fog of sorts. Just when I think I can adequately or even in some cases completely discuss certain aspects of God’s nature or desire for humanity, then I begin to see how far behind the curve I am on understanding God and his concern for this mud ball of a planet. His “surpassing riches” of grace, is how Paul mentions God’s focus on humans in Ephesians 1 and 2. God’s grace surpasses anything we can imagine. Think of that fact, we can think of large quantities of stuff, but we will never overwhelm the expanse of God’s kindness. We can fill warehouses, ships, houses, factories, but we can never quantify enough stuff to equal God’ great grace. John said in the first chapter of his Gospel that God has grace stacked up on grace (John 1:16). Picture an endless supply of your favorite thing, as far as the eye can see you are surrounded by that favorite item. It is stacked high and wide, stretching out over the whole horizon. That is how God’s grace is stacked for us!

What does all this talk of grace have to do with the Hebrews passage above? Simply this—Jesus says in a story that those who have forgiven much should also love much. We have all been forgiven much, if we are honest, and we should love Jesus in such a way as to forsake the old way of life for love of Christ. Think of it. We should willingly lay aside the pursuits of old “pleasures” so-called that conflict with the great grace and kindness of God that has led us to repentance. We should willingly lay aside the weight that burdens us or entangles our feet. Why? That is easy—it is the nature of the lover to be obsessed with the one loved. The lover seeks to be bound to and surrounded by the beloved. The lover is obsessed, nothing else can satisfy. The lover seeks to be imprisoned by the love for the beloved.

As Paul says, “When we are dead, we stop sinning.” If I am imprisoned in my love for Christ, then I should not invite into my cell the things that compete with my beloved. Oh, I do, yes indeed I do that very thing more often than I like to admit. The truth, however, is that if I was truly obsessed and impassioned by my love for Christ, these other things would be willingly destroyed, removed, and discarded from that sacred place of love I share with my beloved. Oh, that my heart would be aflame with his love yet again! Overwhelm me, beloved Christ, so that I might love as you love me.

“Like a Fire” by Dennis Jernigan

Like a fire that cannot be quenched by the rain
Though the winds rise against it they’ll not quench this flame
For this fire of love burns where eyes cannot see
In the heart of Lord Jesus the King of you and me

Chorus:
And oh, how he loves me
His love for me burns like a fire
And oh, how he loves me
For he loves me with holy desire
For he loves me with holy desire

Such a holy and true flame was sent to the cross
By the King who would love me no matter the cost
For his life was consumed for my sin in the flame
But the grave was defeated, his love could not be contained

Chorus:
And oh, how you love me
Your love for me burns like a flame
And oh, how you love me
For you love me with holy desire
For you love me with holy desire

You are Lord over heaven and Lord over earth
You are Lord of creation and Lord of new birth
You are mighty in battle, King Jesus my Lord
You are gentle and loving and worthy to be adored

Chorus:
And, oh, how I love you
My love for you burns like a fire
And, oh, how I love you
Lord Jesus, you’re my heart’s desire
Lord Jesus, you’re my heart’s desire

Thanks for reading!

Wrath or Love?

Eph 4:29-32
29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. 30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. NASU

What is it with Christians? I have heard many among us say lately that “we talk too much of God’s love and not enough of his wrath.” I ask those of us who say such things to consider Paul’s writings, or to even consider Jesus in the Gospels. What consumed Paul? Was it God’s coming wrath? God’s righteous indignation? God’s holy anger? Yes, Paul mentions God’s wrath and lists it in his writings, but the question remains as to whether or not Paul spent as much time dwelling on the issue as some of us think we should.

Here in Ephesians, Paul admonishes us to look to the positive, to do those things that encourage and build up folks. Can wrath do that? Yes, a warning and recognition of God’s wrath is a good motivator when I am feeling lazy or lax in my Christian duties, but at the same time are we more motivated to act in a good way by love? What does the lover seek? The lover seeks to be bound to the object of his or her love, to be enraptured and enveloped by the object of love, to be quite literally obsessed with the object of love. That is the kind of disciple we should seek to be—one so in awe of and in love with Christ that we act in a fashion pleasing to him without even a second thought.

How does the person under the threat of punishment act? Do they labor joyously? Do they act positively? In many cases such a condemned one will merely do the minimum requirement to avoid punishment. That is, they will do enough to get by so that they will not incur wrath. Oh, but the lover, the lover will go far and beyond what is expected. Why? Out of sheer love they will act! Think of it—what mighty acts have ever been accomplished out of a sense of impending doom or judgment? Then ask yourself what mighty deeds were accomplished for the sake of love. Do we not see the difference? Are we so blind as to think that we see when we do not see?

Thanks for reading!

What day is it, Monday?

Ever have one of those days where you feel like you'd like to have one big "do over"?

I'm having one of those days.

My sister-in-law (who is my age) was checked into the hospital with stroke-like symptoms. They don't know what's wrong at this point.

Work has been hectic (gearing up for a new semester, moving into a new office, etc.).

Some of my antique books (including an ancient copy of the Latin New Testament) got damaged in my move.

We're still digging out of all of our boxes from our recent move into our new home.

My wife's MS is acting up.

My temper is short.

Yuck!

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God is still faithful.

Thank God, he is faithful!

Now, I wonder if he helps people unpack their boxes? (grin)

I feel much better.

Thanks for reading!

On my CD player at the moment . . .

1. Boston
2. Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians--"Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars"
3. David Crowder Band--"The Lime CD"
4. Switchfoot--"The Beautiful Letdown"

Yes, Boston!

It's definitely "More than a Feeling!"

Later!

A blast from the past . . .

Here is a little something I wrote around Christmas 2003. Enjoy!

A little over 2000 years ago, a tiny child was born in the bleakest of conditions. Oh, he wasn’t the only one born in a bad state. In fact, in some ways, he was one of the lucky ones. He and his mother actually survived childbirth and thrived. Still, this story is unique and amazing on several levels. First, this child would literally change the way time is reckoned in the world. His life and abilities would so impress generations of others that a brand new movement would be created, one that would radically change the very face of the earth (sometimes for good, sometimes for bad). His name would become recognized among the names of the greatest of humans, yet he never forgot his humble beginnings or lost a sense of who he was. The second thing about this child is tied to the first in that this baby, this helpless lad full of spittle and mush, was born as the very Son of God. When Mary held his little head to her breast, he drank human milk. Yet, he was (and is) the God of the universe. Can you picture this simply ridiculous, yet somehow poetic scene? God, who calls the stars by name, pressed to the human breast for sustenance. Humble, yet almighty, is how most folks would no doubt recall this child.

A little over 2000 years ago, God proposed that the only remedy for the human condition of sin would be if he humbled himself, stepped out of eternity and into human flesh, and suckled at Mary’s breast in preparation for the greatest, most impressive conversion of all. Think about it--the God of creation, in Mary’s arms, toddling around Joseph’s shop, learning to talk, learning to walk, tasting and touching things with human hands. As the Psalm 139 says, “such knowledge is too wonderful for us, we cannot contain it.”

God knew that the only way to redeem us was if he did it himself. Haven’t you ever had that thought? You know, the one where you say, “If I want something done right, I’ll just have to do it myself?” Imagine God having that thought about bringing us to proper relationship with him. Imagine again that the only way he knew he could do that is if he came to earth as a baby. Think of it—-how vulnerable the almighty God was at that moment, how paradoxical that the God of all creation had to learn to walk! And why did he put himself in this situation? Out of his inexpressible love for each of us he acted in this manner. He became insane that we may be sane. He became flesh so that we might walk in the Spirit. He became sin that we might be righteous. He became poor so that we might be rich. He became a toddling, dribbling, helpless babe so that we could become mature people. What wondrous love! What humility and service! How then can anything he asks of us be too difficult?

Thanks for reading!

Currently playing . . .

What's on my CD player here in my newly constucted but not yet approved office?

1. Elvis, 30 #1 Hits
2. Rich Mullins, Never Picture Perfect
3. Switchfoot, Beautiful Letdown.

Thanks for reading!

Is God faithful?

I think sometimes that I have believed a lie. Yes, I think sometimes that I have bought into something that isn’t true. For example, the idea that somehow my sin is too great for God to forgive, or that he may forgive me but never help me get beyond it. Or how about this one—habitual sin causes God to leave me.

In Leviticus 26, God is describing to the Jews how he will discipline them if they disobey his law, and the punishments listed there are hard and terrible to me. Yet, at the end of all this discussion of exile and desolation, God says, “Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God. But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the LORD.”

Note the faithfulness and love of God in these verses. He will not forsake his people, no matter how horrible their disobedience or failure or sin. He will keep his covenant because it is what he does. He is the LORD, he is Yahweh, and it is his essential nature to keep his covenant. He will “remember” the promises, the covenant, he has made with us, and more importantly, he will not break that covenant. As Romans 10 says, “The kingdom and word of God is near you, even in your heart.” We know in our hearts that God will not abandon us, yet we cover over our sins as though somehow we may be that one exception to the rule. Proverbs 28:13 warns us against concealing our transgression, and yet that is exactly what we all try to do when conviction first hits our hearts.

Why do we do that?

Thank God he is faithful and merciful! As 2 Timothy 2 reminds us--even when we are faithless, he is faithful. As Paul records elsewhere--God is faithful to complete the work he has begun.

Thank God today for how he has been faithful to you.

Thanks for reading!

Desire

Desire is inherent in the human species. Think of it, we all desire something, whether it is a sinful or evil thing or a blessed and heavenly thing. We are lonely, so we desire companions. We are sad, so we desire encouragement. We are happy, so we desire to continue in it. When tired we desire rest. When satisfied we desire more. Desire is part of who we are. Even spiritual desire is a part of each of us—we all hope to “leave our mark” or have some kind of legacy. Even the most committed atheist or agnostic hopes to leave some evidence behind that he or she lived and breathed and did something worthy of note. That is a spiritual desire. We need to cultivate it, to encourage it, to nurture it.

What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

Some interesting quotes for you . . .

“A theological thought can breathe only in the atmosphere of dialogue with God.” Helmut Thielicke, A Little Exercise for Young Theologians

“There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.” Thomas Edison

“Truth is always a quarry hard to hunt, and therefore we must look everywhere for its tracks.” (From On the Spirit 1.1)--Basil the Great.

“Preach always. If necessary, use words.”--St. Francis

“The more seriously I take (God), the more completely I shatter myself against him.” Helmut Thielicke, I Believe! The Christian's Creed

Thanks for reading!

God is There

Here's a little something I wrote while I was managing a Christian bookstore. Enjoy!

I like to think of myself as some kind of writer, a scholar or academic of sorts, yet I never seem to have the words to say what is really in my heart. Of course, God is in my heart, and that is enough. Even if words fail me and my ability to explain clearly the thoughts and intents of my heart disappears, nonetheless Christ remains faithful and stalwart. Will God fail? More likely the sun will cease to shine, the stars will blink out, the universe will cave in, and the earth will stop rotating on its axis! Will God be there? How silly we can be! How can God not be there? For God not to be there amounts to nothing short of hell! That is the only place where God is not. Oh, we try to exclude him, to push him out of our lives as though we somehow have power or authority over the one who holds the cosmos in the palm of his hand!

Sure, we try to rid ourselves of God, but it never works. He is there, still loving us, still caring, still taking care of us, still pouring grace into our graceless lives. Oh, we may not acknowledge him, we may not “notice” the subtle coincidences as the hand of God, but they are there. Everyday, in hundreds of ways, God is watching out for us. Amazing thought, huh? The Psalmist said that “such knowledge is to wonderful for me,” and I think he was right.

Consider this—God was in that little hole with Saddam Hussein, loving him, trying to get him on the right track. That same merciful God is with you, in whatever rabbit hole you find yourself, he is there to comfort, to help, and most importantly, to love on you like nobody’s business. Do you think God doesn’t care? Look around you. Do the trees worry about their next drink of water? Do the flowers worry about the sun? Do the birds worry about food? God doesn’t care? How utterly foolish we can be! If God didn’t care, none of life would be good, none of this would matter, none of us would be alive.

I don’t know how to say it—we are caught up in God moments everyday. We may not recognize them, but there they are! Jesus shows up at work as the odd person who can’t pronounce Jean Guyon’s name, or as the young preacher looking for encouragement concerning something “disturbing” he has found in Scripture, or as the mother with three young Veggie Tales fans who is taking great pleasure in her latte and in browsing for books. He shows up as the person who tips or compliments you, as the person who “accidentally” gives you a word of encouragement. He smiles, he says, “well done.” He is There with YOU! In the flood, in the fire, in the sweet times, in the good times, he stands with you and applauds you. He kisses your face and thinks to himself, “What a delightful child! How proud I am to be here!” Thank you, Father, that you are here, and you will be there. Create moments for us that remind us of your subtle and eternal watch of care for us. Energize us by that knowledge and create the character of your Son Jesus in us. For Christ’s sake, do these things we pray.

Thanks for reading!

Please Excuse our Mess . . .

Just wanted to stop by to let you all know that my blogging may be a bit interrupted this summer. My office at the seminary is under construction, so I am working from home a lot. Also, my wife and I recently purchased a home and just moved our stuff into our new place. Add to that the fact that I have had some problems with internet connections, that I have several projects to finish up as well, and you will understand why my blogging will be sparse this summer. I will try to be here at least once a week, but I just wanted to update everyone.

Thanks for reading!

July 4, 2005--Independence Day

Hello all:

I have been having a few thoughts lately about Independence Day and what independence means to me, so please forgive me a few moments of "stream of consciousness" thought.

I was watching the ending of "Saving Private Ryan" the other night. As Capt. Miller is dying (Tom Hanks' character), he says to Ryan (who I believe is Matt Damon!), "Earn this!" In other words, he wants Ryan to show his worthiness to have other men die on his behalf to get him safely home. At the end of the movie, a much older Ryan says to Miller's tombstone, "Everyday I've remembered what you've said, and I've tried to live a life worthy of the sacrifice." Ryan then turns to his wife and begs her, "Tell me I've had a good life. Tell me I've been a good husband, a good father." The amount of pressure that fellow felt was due to the fact that other men had literally laid down their lives so that he could continue living his life of freedom. What a weight to carry! What pressure!

I watched "The Longest Day" today, and as I saw the many depictions of soldiers giving their all on the beaches and battlefields of France, I felt a bit of Ryan's pressure. I mean, my uncles and other relatives fought in that and other wars. Some of them lost body parts, some lost their lives. I can almost hear them whispering through history to me, "Earn this! Be worthy of our sacrifice."

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, John Hancock and a host of other heroes gave their possessions and in many cases their lives or their children's lives to give birth to a free nation.

I don't know if I can be worthy. You see, freedom comes at a heavy price. Not only that, it bears a heavy responsibility. I cannot rightfully expect liberty and freedom for myself that I do not wish for others. Nor can I expect to keep whatever liberty I have without some struggle and responsibility on my part to "earn it" by my own personal sacrifice and struggle.

Freedom isn't easy, it doesn't come cheap.

Those of us blessed to be born in this democratic republic called the United States of America sometimes forget the heavy price paid by lots of people for us to have our "freedoms" and our "rights." Martin Luther King, Jr., Sgt. York, the Founding Fathers, the men and women of our armed services since 1776--these and countless others have bled and died for me to have the "right" to be free. It is humbling, it is heavy. I'm not worthy.

Freedom isn't free. Yes, it is trite and a cliche, but that doesn't change the truth value of the statement. We owe a debt to those who died to secure our freedoms. We owe a debt to those who serve to keep our freedoms. We must "earn this" glorious right to freedom and liberty. Will we? Like Private Ryan, will we look back and ask, "Did I do good? Did I earn it?"

I hope I can. I know I want to be worthy. God help us to secure liberty on this earth. God help us to do it with dignity, nobility, honor, and integrity. God help us to be worthy.

Go today and read the Declaration of Independence at http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/charters/declaration_transcript.html. Watch an old movie about the fight for freedom. Remind yourself of the debt of gratitude you owe.

Happy Independence Day!

Thanks for reading!

Who knew he lived so close?

“Christ is not speaking to the press at this time,” said West Virginia attorney A. P. Pishevar the other day. Well, there’s a thing you don’t hear every day. Mr. Pishevar was actually referring to his client, a gentleman who started out in life as Peter Robert Phillips Jr., but who subsequently changed his name to Jesus Christ as an expression of piety. That was all very well in Washington, D.C., where Mr. Christ was living at the time, but when he moved to West Virginia recently, he found himself up against stricter driver’s license requirements. His new state of abode simply will not issue a license to him as Jesus Christ, because they say the documentation on his name change is insufficient. Hence the attorney. May we offer a suggestion to Mr. Christ? Perhaps an affidavit from your Father . . ."

National Review, June 6, 2005, Vol. LVII, No. 10

Some interesting quotes

“For us murder is once for all forbidden, so even the child in the womb . . . is not lawful for us to destroy. To forbid birth is only quicker murder . . . the fruit is always present in the seed.” Tertullian

“Whenever you find yourself disposed to uneasiness or murmuring at anything that is the effect of God’s providence, look upon yourself as denying either the wisdom or goodness of God.” William Law

“The great Christian revolutions come not by the discovery of something that was not known before. They happen when somebody takes radically something that was always there.” H. Richard Niebuhr

“If my faith is false, I ought to change it; whereas, if it be true, I am bound to propagate it.” Bishop Whatley

Thanks for reading!

Quick update

My family and I arrived back from my cousin's funeral safe and sound. I have been busy catching up on grading and other work. They are currently renovating the offices, so I am a nomad professor at the moment. At any rate, the point I am trying to make is that due to the funeral and other commitments, it may be next week before I get to post much on this blog. Thanks for the prayers, and thanks for reading.

Leo

Blogging interrupted

Due to the recent death and upcoming funeral of my cousin, Drew Renfro, I will not be on-line much the next few days. Thanks to you all for your prayers and words of encouragement during this time of loss. Drew was as fine a man as anyone could hope, and more importantly, he had a wonderful relationship with God through Jesus and his sacrifice. Drew leaves behind 5 beautiful children and a wife, and I am sure they (and Drew's parents) will appreciate your continued prayers. I know I do.

A Final Word today--it is funny how in the past couple of months I have come to see this blog and others as a kind of community, a family really, where I get to catch up with folks and give them news of my life. I like it. I find myself thinking of you all as dear friends that I've known for ages. Wayne, Veriphile, Michael--I appreciate you all. Funny how a computer and a site can create a type of community (almost like a church, no?). Thanks for being there, and thanks for reading.

Rich or Poor?

In the Beatitudes, Jesus states “Blessed are the poor” or “Blessed are the paupers.” He also states in the Gospels that it is difficult for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Have you ever wondered at the juxtaposition of those two thoughts? I know the traditional interpretation of both sayings, and I am aware of the devotional literature that surrounds them as well. What I want to consider for a few moments today is the abject difference between the two.

The poor are blessed, but the rich have a difficult time entering into God’s kingdom.

Why?

Most of us have been “poor” at some point in our lives. Oh, we may not have been as poor as the poorest of the world, but we had to do without due to our lack of means. Maybe our stomachs even growled and our heads hurt from hunger. Perhaps we even had to bypass the purchase of a particular item we desperately wanted or even needed. Yes, we have known some form of poverty.

Did we feel blessed? Really?

Did you feel “happy” during those times of poverty? In all likelihood, we looked forward with some measure of pleasure/joy to the day when we wouldn’t suffer such setbacks. We prayed and wished for a time when we would have abundance and would not have to “do without.” We didn’t feel blessed, we felt miserable.

Some of us today are rich, or at least, we aren’t poor any more. We can pretty much get what we want or need when we want or need it. We don’t have to “do without” unless we choose to do so. As an example, I recently signed a contract on a house that is much more than I have ever paid for a house. Homes in Lynchburg are costly (compared to homes in Waco, that is), and yet I can afford the note. I am no longer “poor”!

Do I feel far from the kingdom of God? Do I feel unhappy or a lack of blessing? Not really.

What could Jesus mean then? Was he just speaking rhetorically or do these words tell us something important?

I think it is Matthew who says “Blessed are the poor in spirit” as opposed to simply “Blessed are the poor.” I like what Oswald Chambers says in My Utmost for His Highest.

“The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount produces despair in the natural man—the very thing Jesus means it to do. As long as we have a self-righteous, conceited notion that we can carry out our Lord’s teaching, God will allow us to go on until we break our arrogance over some obstacle, then we are willing to come to him as paupers and receive from him. ‘Blessed are the paupers in spirit,’ that is the first principle in the kingdom of God. The bedrock in Jesus Christ’s kingdom is poverty, not possession; not decisions for Jesus Christ, but a sense of absolute futility—I cannot begin to do it. Then Jesus says—Blessed are you. That is the entrance, and it does take us a long while to believe we are poor! The knowledge of our own poverty brings us to the moral frontier where Jesus Christ works. . . . Jesus Christ never asks us to decide for him, but to yield to him—a very different thing.. . . If I know that I have no strength of will, no nobility of disposition, then Jesus says ‘Blessed are you, because it is through this poverty that I enter his kingdom. I cannot enter his kingdom as a good person, I can only enter it as a complete pauper.”

In other words, as long as I think of myself as offering some gift or blessing to God, I cannot receive his free gift or blessing. Unless I recognize the poverty of my own will and spirit, I cannot humbly receive what God has to offer. Like a little child, I must recognize my limitations in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. Rich people like us think we can buy or earn what we need or want, God says that the kingdom of heaven is for those who realize that they cannot enter on their own abilities or initiatives. Thanks be to God for the grace to enter! Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift in Jesus Christ!

Thanks for reading!

It isn't fair!

“It isn’t fair!” I hear these words more often than I can count from my children every day. Usually the complaint has to do with some “cherished” position, or some privilege, or some opportunity, or whose turn it is to “go first,” etc. More often than not, the cry is one for justice but from a strictly partisan or selfish position. Given the smaller piece of cake, the child exclaims the unfairness and unrighteousness of life. Offered an opportunity that seems less than satisfactory, the sibling rails to the parents about the need for equality, or fairness, or justice, in the present situation.

We’ve all endured moments of injustice. We were overlooked for a promotion or unjustly removed from a position. We expected more than we got, we worked hard and received a lower wage. Maybe it was a relationship that promised so much better than we received. Maybe we were overlooked in one of our rare moments of success. Maybe our idea was attributed to another without a concern for our opinion or sense of fairness.

Maybe you’ve lost a loved one at an untimely time in an unpleasant manner. As I write these words, a cousin lies “near death” after some routine surgery on his back. He is a fine fellow, a generous man, a husband and a father. He has accomplished much with his life, but he continued to show a type of humility rarely found in a person of success. He is what we may call in America “well off,” at the very least he lives comfortably with his wife and children. And yet, here he is, suffering silently near death as the doctors and family decide what to do next.

I want to scream at God “It’s unfair! He doesn’t deserve this situation! His wife and kids don’t deserve this injustice.” I cry out my dissatisfaction not as an objective judge, but as a person who has a stake in the outcome. My cousin is one of my extended family with whom I feel I share a bond beyond blood. I recently moved to Virginia, where he lives, and I hoped to renew our relationship and even hopefully deepen it. I feel shortchanged by the circumstances, I feel like it isn’t fair.

In my feelings of injustice, I cry out to God for a boon of grace, for a favor that (in all honesty) I don’t deserve. Yet, I want it. I want my cousin to live. Will God grant it? I don’t know.

Life is unfair at times. Injustice happens. God seems silent and life seems dull. I don’t always get the biggest piece of cake. What do I do after I have registered my disappointment with God? I live. I breathe in and out. I move on to the next thing. I trust that even when the outcome doesn’t suit my plans, still my Father has good things in store.

Life isn’t easy, treat each day as a precious gift. I have learned in the last 10 months that this physical existence we experience is much more fragile than we imagine. I do not know when my time may come. I have no way of predicting what will happen, but I know the character of the One who does. He is faithful, he is trustworthy, and, perhaps most importantly, he has himself suffered outrageous injustice so that when we cry “It isn’t fair!” he not only hears, but he empathizes. He understands, he hears, he cares. God may not always act the way we want him to in our situations, but he is never so aloof as to be unloving or uncaring. Jesus suffered so that I could live. I’m alive because he died. More importantly, I have the hope of resurrection because he didn’t stay in the grave. Is life unfair? Yes, but God is just, loving, merciful, and he is here. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!

Addendum (06-07-05)—Last night, my cousin passed away surrounded by his family. God is still good, but I am sad.

This topic is heavy, I want to put it down now.

Thanks for reading!

Quick hello

No time for blogging today, but I wanted to at least stop by and say "Howdy" to any readers out there. I'm still digging out from under a deluge of grading that needs to be done, so I don't know when I may post a longer item here. In the immortal words of General MacArthur, "I will return!"

Thanks for reading!

Memories of Dad

I know that Father's Day is still a month away, but I wanted to share this anyway. I have been thinking this morning about memories. You see, my father passed away last August (2004), and for some reason thoughts of him have been central in my mind recently. I’m afraid I’m losing him.

Let me explain.

My dad wasn’t very active the last few years of life. Due to his own lack of proper care for his physical body and a host of problems with illness, the primary memory my children have of their grandfather is dad sitting in a big lounger watching TV and occasionally waking up long enough to tease them.

My children did not get to know my dad. Oh, my dad was never the most active guy in the world (I think I know where my own lack of activity comes from!), but he didn’t sit around a lot as I remember it. Dad coached baseball, football, basketball, if it had “ball” in the title, he learned it, played it, and probably coached it. My dad cared about folks that no one else wanted. He loved kids, even his own. I once saw my dad kick a field goal from the 45 yard line (that’s a 55 yard kick, if you didn’t know!). I was in high school then, so dad was probably in his mid-40s. He could kick the ball further than the place kicker on our team.

I remember looking for dad’s vehicle to pull up at the football practice field. I don’t know if he knew that I saw him, but I looked for him to show up so I could perform for him. Dad didn’t get real excited about sports (that was mom’s job!), but you could tell when he was enjoying something. He had this infectious grin and mischievous smile that would literally light up his face. I heard that for almost 10 years after my younger brother graduated high school, dad would make his way to the practice field and sit in his car and watch the players go through their paces. For me, his watching was a comforting presence that reminded me that he was there if I needed him. Oh, I’ll admit that I didn’t “need” him as much as he would like, but it made me feel real good to know dad was there.

I miss him.

Sometimes in my work here, I think that dad is sitting in heaven, in his heavenly lounger, watching his boy perform. Oh, I’m not blindsiding running backs and quarterbacks any more, but I can’t help but think that dad is silently cheering for me. He sits there, intently studying me as I pace a classroom or teach a class or grade a paper. When I make a particularly brilliant play, he smiles that smile. Even when I don’t do so well, dad looks approvingly on his boy. I can see him, sitting there, a big glass of sweet tea on the table, a smile in his eyes, and joy in his heart. I want to make him proud, and I think he knows that.

My last words to my dad face-to-face were spoken around Easter of 2004. I don’t remember everything we discussed, but I remember putting my arm around his shoulders and looking into that face. His eyes were a bit dimmed by senility due to old age and strokes. But somewhere in those eyes I saw the place kicker kicking a field goal from the 45 yard line. I remember saying this to him, “Dad, I love you. I’ll see you later.” At his funeral in August, the pastor asked me to pray at the grave site (actually, my mother asked me to do it). As I walked away from dad’s coffin, I touched the lid and said, “I love you, dad, see you later.”

I miss him, but thank God I will see him later. If your father is alive, call him up. Tell him you appreciate him and love him. Memories are great, but I’d love to have my dad here to hug again. He’s much better off, but I need his smile. Dad, I love you. See you later.

Thanks for reading!

Killing time

Today I don't feel witty or clever. I wanted to post on my blog, but then I knew that in reality I'd just be killing time. Guess I'll go grade some papers.

Thanks for reading!

Some ramblings . . .

Well, I hear that C. S. Lewis is about to be on the big screen again in the form of a movie based on volume one of his "Chronicles of Narnia." The movie, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," will hit the movie screens sometime in December, and from the looks of it, it will have a decidedly "Lord of the Rings" feel to it. Poetic justice, I think, that two of the greatest fantasy writers I've ever read will be immortalized on the big screen! Ah well, on to other news.

I purchased a few comics yesterday--got issue #4 of the new Black Panther and wasn't too impressed. The current writer seems to have a tendency to ignore the history of this character and "make it up" as he goes along. I'm not enjoying it much. However, issue #8 of the New Thunderbolts also came out, and I enjoyed it tremendously. It is funny to me how one writer will appeal to me in some way, while another just leaves me feeling like I wasted my time and money. I wonder why we are like that? No doubt there are comic fans out there who love what Reggie Hudlin is doing in Black Panther, but I'm not one of them. People have strange tastes, don't we?

Speaking of tastes, I was listening to Toby Mac's "Welcome to Diverse City" CD in the car yesterday, and (I can't believe I'm saying this!) I actually found some rap music I like! Yes, I sincerely believed it would never happen, but I like this stuff. No, that doesn't mean that I've converted from the "alternative" sound I love to gangsta rap, but I am a bit surprised that the crisp vocals and deep bass of Toby Mac's music could attract me. Maybe you can teach an "old dog" new tricks, huh?

Finally, I just want to say thanks to those of you who think my ramblings are worth reading. Feel free to comment or drop me an e-mail if you want to "talk" about anything on this blog! Thanks for dropping by!

A Few Random Quotes

“No emotion is, in itself, a judgment: in that sense all emotions and sentiments are alogical. But they can be reasonable or unreasonable as they conform to Reason or fail to conform. The heart never takes the place of the head: but it can, and should, obey it.” C. Lewis, The Abolition of Man.

“Small is the number of them that see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts. But it is their strength that will decide whether the human race must relapse into that state of stupor which a deluded multitude appears today to regard as the ideal.” –Albert Einstein

“Great occasions for serving God come seldom, but little ones surround us daily; and our Lord Himself has told us that ‘he that is faithful in little will also be faithful in much.’” St. Frances de Sales

Thanks for reading!

A frightening and sobering reality . . .

This morning I was reading some excerpts in a little devotional book I have, and I was thinking about the “absence” of God. Some of the things I read gave me pause as I thought about the concept of God’s omnipresence. Those of us who claim to be Christians (or even Jews and Muslims, for that matter) typically claim that God is everywhere always. That is, he is right with us even when we don’t think he is, and worse, when we hope that he is not. He is there. I think Francis Schaeffer wrote a book entitled The God who is There. At any rate, I was thinking about all the times in my life when God was present (like he always is), but I tended to overlook that reality.

When I notice God there on the fringe of my experience (kind of hanging around like a brother who wants to be involved in everything you do), sometimes I respond with a sense of comfort (Oh good, he is there!). Other times I respond with fear (Oh no, did he see that!). Other times I am complacent (Oh, it’s just you, huh?). Still some times I am overwhelmed (Thank God you’re here!). I think of the Jews wandering in the wilderness and camped at Mt. Sinai. God showed up on the mountain, and they begged Moses to make it stop! “Don’t let God speak directly to us again, we can’t take it!” The acknowledgement of God’s presence frightened them, maybe it made them a bit uncomfortable. Maybe we respond to God in the same way. Annie Dillard addresses this problem when she says:

“It is difficult to undo our own damage, and to recall to our presence that which we have asked to leave. It is hard to desecrate a grove and change your mind. The very holy mountains are keeping mum. We doused the burning bush and cannot rekindle it; we are lighting matches in vain under every green tree.
“What have we been doing all these centuries but trying to call God back to the mountain, or, failing that, raise a peep out of anything that isn’t us? What is the difference between a cathedral and a physics lab? Are they not both saying: ‘Hello?’ We spy on whales and on interstellar radio objects; we starve ourselves and pray till we’re blue.” From Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard

Our fear of God’s omnipresence causes us to turn off a switch in our minds and souls that helps us to ignore this fascinating (and sometimes frightening) reality. We pretend he isn’t there. We even ignore his obvious appearances. We ignore the God of all, then we say that we didn’t know he was there. As A. W. Tozer notes:

“. . . If God is present at every point in space, if we cannot go where he is not, cannot even conceive of a place where he is not, why then has not that Presence become the one universally celebrated fact of the world? The patriarch Jacob, ‘in waste howling wilderness,’ gave the answer to that question. He saw a vision of God and cried out in wonder. ‘Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.’ Jacob had never been for one small division of a moment outside of the circle of that all-pervading Presence. But he knew it not. That was his trouble, and it is ours. People do not know if God is here. What a difference it would make if they knew.” From The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer

We “know it not” because we don’t like the reality that God’s omnipresence makes us face. That reality is this—when we fail and sin, he is there. When we succeed, he is there. When we need him, he is there. When we think we don’t need him, he is there. Even when we don’t want him to be, he is there.

One of my pet peeves is to hear a preacher talking about Jesus’ cry (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”) from the cross and say something like, “At that point, God turned his back on Jesus because he became sin for us.” Think of the ramifications of that idea—God, the omnipresence One, turning his back on his only unique Son. God, the merciful, overlooking the sacrifice his own Son Jesus is offering. Can you imagine it? God, forsaking his Son! It sounds ridiculous because it is. God did not “turn his back on Jesus” (look in the text of the Gospels, it does not say any such thing). No, God was watching the brutal fact of it all with tears in his eyes. He did not forsake Jesus, and he does not forsake humanity. He endures when we pretend he is absent, but he is there. He loves Jesus, even when Jesus became sin for us, God lovingly watched his Son. God lovingly watches you as well. Scary, ain’t it?

Thanks for reading!

Some interesting quotes . . .

“There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.” Thomas Edison

"I think that if it had been a religion that first maintained the notion that all the matter in the entire universe had once been contained in an area smaller than the point of a pin, scientists probably would have laughed at the idea." Marilyn vos Savant, The Guinness Book of World Records Hall of Fame holder of the Highest IQ at 230. Parade, February 4, 1996, p. 7.

"Beware of ideas others come up with for rescuing you from the river, especially if they involve dropping a heavy stone right on you." Eeyore

“There's right and there's wrong. You gotta do one or the other. You do the one and you're living. You do the other and you may be walking around but you’re dead as a beaver hat.” John Wayne, as Davey Crockett in the movie, The Alamo.

Enjoy!

A Sad Memorial, A Sad Anniversary . . .

Recently we remembered a sad page in the history of humanity, we recalled the liberation of the prison camp Dachau among others from the nightmare of Nazi oppression and thuggery. Annually I try to remind myself of the depth of depravity to which humanity can slip, even humanity that justifies its inhumanity and brutality by science. The Nazis showed the dark beastial side of humanity, the side we all have to some degree (although most of us will never admit it). The Nazis were more than thugs or brutes or even barbarians, they were humans that (in C. S. Lewis' words from The Abolition of Man) were humans without magnanimity, "men without chests." Here are Lewis' own words about such people:

"They are not distinguished from other men by any unusual skill in finding truth nor any virginal ardour to pursue her. Indeed, it would be strange if they were: a perservering devotion to truth, a nice of intellectual honour, cannot be long maintained without the aid of sentiment . . . It is not excess of thought but defect of fertile and generous emotion that marks them out. Their heads are no bigger than the ordinary: it is the atrophy of the chest beneath that makes them seem so." (C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man, New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001, p. 25).

These Germans were not less human than the rest of us, they just acted as people without that emotion that makes our "better angels" show up instead of the "brutes" in each of us. They became the "elites" who judged other races in humanity as mere brutish nature to be studied. They were Social Darwinists who wanted to keep their race pure, and who ultimately participated in that which Lewis deems "the abolition of man." They were people like us. In many ways we hate to admit, they were us. As one survivor records the event of his liberation:

"The full record of the pseudo-medical experimentations came to light. Prisoners had been used as laboratory animals, without the humane restrictions placed on vivisection. Hannah Arendt suggested that `the camp was itself a vast laboratory in which the Nazis proved that there is no limit to human depravity.' For it was remembered that these experiments were not planned or conducted by identifiable psychopaths. They were performed or supervised by professional scientists, trained in what had been once considered peerless universities and medical schools. Reverend Franklin Littell called them `technically competent barbarians.' Indeed the procedures had the full approval and cooperation of Berlin's Institute of Hygiene." (Sachar, Abram L. The Redemption of the Unwanted. New York: St. Martin's/Marek, 1983, pp. 8-10)

Let us remember with sadness the number of innocents lost and the reality of our own potentially brutish nature. Let us not forget that without grace, we are all irredeemably lost. Could Dachau happen again? Only if humans let it, only if we deny once again our own humanity and treat our fellow humans as mere animals. Yes, it can happen again. Let's pray that it doesn't. Let's make sure it doesn't.

This topic is heavy and sad. I don't apologize for that, but I do want to put the weight down now. Thanks for reading.

Finding a place . . .

“I’m stuck in this place.” How many times have I said that when I find myself somewhere I’d rather not be? Maybe it was a job I didn’t particularly enjoy, or a meeting that bored me to tears, or perhaps a relationship that wasn’t what I hoped. In all these ways, we often find ourselves “stuck” in a “place” that we don’t appreciate or even like. Do we ever stop to think that it is those sinkholes, those pits, those stuck places where God wants to meet us? Do we ever think that maybe, just maybe, like Job God has brought us to a place where we can focus on him?

I forget sometimes that the Bible speaks often of “place.” Jesus went out to a deserted place to be alone with his Father. Paul went to a desert place to learn about his new faith. Ezekiel speaks of the places where God met him. Isaiah was in the Temple, the place of God’s revelation, when king Uzziah died, and Isaiah saw a vision of God in that place. Abraham left his hometown to go to a “place” that God would show him. Even Satan wants to have a “place” since he lost his “place” in heaven (see Revelation 12). We all want a “place.” Like the old theme song to the TV show Cheers, we want a place “where everyone knows your name.” We want a place to belong, a place to be at peace, a place of rest.

There is such a place you know. We can even carry it with us every day of our lives. That place is Calvary. The place of the Skull and the place of the supreme sacrifice in history is where we can go to find what we want. There, safe from the world, we can shelter ourselves under the sweet sacrifice of Jesus, confident, as Paul tells us, that “He who freely gave his Son for us, will he not also freely give us all things?” It is a place of both sacrifice and safety, a place of grace and rest. Although it was not a positive place for Jesus on that day, it has become for us a place of comfort, kindness, grace, and even peace. There Jesus did for me what I could not do for myself. There God redeemed me as his own by giving his only Son in my place. Read and meditate on these words from Dennis Jernigan’s song “It was My Sin.”

1. See the God of Glory giving up His Son
See the awesome depth of love in all that He has done
See the tiny baby on the hay so still
See Him take the cross and climb up Calvary’s lonely hill
That hill

Chorus:
It was my sin that nailed him there
It was my cross He had to bear
It was His blood that washed me clean
It was the greatest love this world has seen
He died for me
He washed me clean
I am redeemed
Worship the King

2. Hear the groaning thunder, feel the falling rain
See the King of Glory bear unbearable pain
Dying brokenhearted, Himself He would not save
See the King who died for me now risen from the grave
My grave

Chorus:
It was my sin that nailed You there
It was my cross You had to bear
Your precious blood has washed me clean
No greater love has this world ever seen
You died for me
You washed me clean
I am redeemed
Worship the King

May God grant us the grace to live confidently in the places he has placed us. May we understand the height, width, breadth, and length of his love to us. May we find his place of rest.

Thanks for reading! I'm praying for you!

Life and Death . . .

Today, March 31, Terry Schiavo died in Florida. No matter where you fall in the great argument surrounding the life of this woman, the fact remains that her passing deserves a moment of silence, a somber reminder that for all of us life is fragile.

Terry's life and death and the whole ruckus over what were her final desires causes me to ask some questions:

How do we measure soul? I mean, some doctors tried to convince her family that she had no "conscious" existence. What instrument did they use to measure that? I wasn't aware that we had found the "soul" or "consciousness" gene in our mapping of the human DNA. How did they know for certain that Terry wasn't aware?

As far as I know, we have no scientific way of measuring the existence of the soul. We have some theories, some ideas, but nothing concrete. I could be wrong, but if such measurements exist, I don't know of them.

I also wonder why we consider it compassion to starve an individual in Terry's condition? Most of us in the West have never endured the hunger pains or other anguish that comes with starvation. Oh, our stomaches my growl on occasion, but we've never really starved. It is definitely not a humane way to end a life.

Why have we in the West decided that "life" can be quantified or even qualified? I have heard arguments over "quality of life" until I am sick. No, I wouldn't want to be in Terry's shoes (or in Michael's either!), but it seems more rational to me to err on the side of reason. If we had any doubt (and I had plenty), we should have let her live. Who knows what could have happened?

Finally, I have to look in amazement and wonder why folks say things like, "Well, I guess it was God's will for Terry to die." Why do we say things like that? Technically speaking, it is God's will for all of us to die. We start the process when we are born. Do we really think that God delighted in Terry's situation? Why are we so quick to determine for God what he thinks? God knows I've done it way too many times.

Well, I've rambled enough. I have no good answers for my questions, and I won't even try to give bad ones at this time. I wanted a moment of silence, and in typical human fallenness I filled the silence with foolish words. Terry has ended her journey on this earth. Her life had blessings and plenty of sadness. May she rest in peace.

Waiting in an Airport

Have you ever had an experience that totally changed your perspective on a typically overlooked place or institution? This past Sunday and Monday I had just such an experience at the Charlotte Airport (please note--If you are from Charlotte, comments here are not directed at you or your fine city).

This past Sunday I flew into the Charlotte from Memphis on U.S. Airways. When I arrived, I went to the proper gate to make my connection to Lynchburg. We left the airport sometime near midnight and made out turbulent way to Lynchburg. The weather included thunderstorms and lots of wind, so we had a bumpy ride. We made good time to Lynchburg (it took about an hour), but instead of landing at Lynchburg, we promptly turned around and headed back to Charlotte (now there's a movie title for you!). We landed at the Charlotte Airport (for the second time!) around 2:00 a.m. After returning to our gate, we were promptly informed by the "helpful" personnel that "No hotels are available, so don't ask!" The next flight out would be 8:00 Monday morning, so what's a guy to do? Spend the night in the airport, that's what!

Did you know that you can learn a lot about people by watching them sleep or otherwise fight sleep in a public place? There were a couple dozen of us who spent the night waiting for our flight to Lynchburg. I read several good books, talked to some interesting folks, and wished that I had stayed in Memphis. I would like to share some thoughts here.

An airport can be awfully quiet and incredibly strange at 2 in the morning. I found me a place to sit and read and proceeded to watch and listen. Two guys were cleaning carpet near gate 6 (the gate through which I would take my next great adventure in Charlotte), others were generally cleaning up the place and doing odd work. What interested me was the sounds. A hard rain fell on the building, ringing on the roof and windows hard enough to make you fear for a flood. I could hear the escalators and moving sidewalks going through their eternal mechanical paces with no one on them. I could hear the pops and wheazes of the various machines in the restaurants and newstands. I could hear water drip, drip, dripping through a hole in the roof. It was, in a way, both strange and grand. Like sitting outside in the woods on a starry evening, you could hear creatures both stirring and still. In a way, it was almost idyllic and peaceful.

Around 5:30, human traffic in the terminals began to increase. Security people showed up to station themselves at their x-ray machines and their metal detectors. Someone started brewing coffee and the whole airport seemed to wake up like a gentle giant stirring from a blissful night of slumber. Footsteps echoed and voices penetrated the silence as the noise of life animated the lifeless airport and hastened the sleep from this giant's eyes. People began to trickle in, then rush in like a flood as the planes began landing and the ticket counters opened. The place that seemed almost like a giant tomb three hours ago now began to buzz with the business of another hectic day. It was downright inspiring.

I made my way to my gate, I got on my plane, and off I went to Lynchburg. Or, so I thought. We got to Lynchburg, but again we didn't land. Instead, we turned around and headed back to Charlotte. I thought to myself, "In the past 24 hours, I have landed at Charlotte 3 times, and I am beginning to dislike that place!" Well, to shorten the narrative, I rented a car and drove to Lynchburg. Three other passengers joined me in my mini-van as we made our pilgrimage from the awakened and almost angry giant of Charlotte airport to the quiet and welcome embrace of home.

I learned a lot that night:

1. I learned that in spite of 40+ years, I could still stay up all night.
2. I learned how long it takes to read all of John Grisham's The Bleachers and Millard Erickson's Postmodernizing the Evangelical Faith (approximately 7 hours total).
3. I learned that you can find "moments" of sanity in the midst of chaos.
4. I learned that God has a sense of humor.
5. I learned that I really don't like the travelling that much, and that no matter how many times you fly over Lynchburg, you may not land there after all.
6. I learned that life is what we make of it, and even in trying times it can be fun.
7. I learned that Charlotte can be a fun and frightening place.

Thanks for listening.

The difficulty of life . . . Part 2

Hello all, I wanted to update you on my two friends who were battling illnesses. Ann, the older of the two, lost her battle with cancer recently and went to be with her Lord. I know I speak for the families and friends when I say thanks for the prayers on their behalf.

Allison, the younger of the two, is actually improving. The doctors decided that her "cancer" was actually treatable, and she is currently undergoing a form of chemotherapy to fight the cancer. She isn't out of the woods yet, but the prognosis is more positive. Please continue to pray.

Life can be good.

Hang in there.

You matter.