OK, I'll grant you that the words don't completely make sense. Someone probably wrote it when they were stoned. But Lileks takes them in an ominous direction that is nothing short of hysterically funny.
It doesn't matter anyway.
When Tide used that song in a recent commercial, it became instantly irrelevant.
A good post by Amy Welborn comments on an ABC-TV special based on the recent best-selling novel “The DaVinci Code.” Beyond the dangers of people believing this fictional work as somehow true, Amy gets to the real issue for us as Christians — it distracts people from the truth of Jesus’ message about the Kingdom of God, his death and resurrection.
Satan doesn’t care how much people talk about Jesus — speculating on His sex life, searching for the historic Jesus or debating about whether He really said everything the Gospel writers attribute to Him. In fact, he probably loves it. All of those things really help Satan to rob God of His glory and distract human beings from the truth. What really makes Satan tremble is when people start focusing on Jesus Christ and the cross. The cross and the redemption it purchased for those who believe. The resurrection and the once-and-for-all defeat of Death.
We need to remember this as we share our faith with the people around us. I can easily get sidetracked on some hot debate about one arcane issue or other. But the real question for people is this: What about the cross? Remember Paul’s words to the Corinthian church: “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel — not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power” (1 Cor. 1:17). And this: “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).
Some good news from the doctor yesterday — my blood pressure is under control again. But he is still puzzling over why my creatinine is creeping up. He had me get an MRI a couple of weeks ago. That report led him to wonder if there were some sort of blockage between the kidney and the bladder, something called hydronephrosis. Or is it just that my transplant’s 23 years old? If it were rejection, I’d be having other symptoms, so he ruled that out (thank you, Lord!)
Investigating further, he sent me down for an ultrasound of my kidney. Even more puzzling, the ultrasound found what appear to be small cysts compressing the kidney tissue. So my doctor got on the horn to one of his urologist pals; he’s going to look at my films and get back with my doctor.
The finest medical minds in Michigan are trying to figure me out. Send a little prayer their way, would you?
Gary Peterson of Country Keepers has a good post up about the efforts of the Rev. Fred Phelps to erect sort of an anti-memorial to Matthew Shephard. Phelps is famous -- no, notorious might be a better word -- for his anti-gay activism. Phelps and his followers have taken it upon themselves to travel the country, stirring up anti-gay sentiments wherever he can. He even made an appearance in my insignificant suburban Detroit city when a non-discrimination proposal was on the local ballot. Peterson takes him biblically to task.
"24" starts its new season tonight! *jumping up and down* And I get to watch it! I can't wait! ("24" is my favorite show -- the only one I will take the time to tape when I am not home on Tuesday nights. Except for reruns of "Law and Order" on TNT, and whenever I can catch "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" on MSNBC.)
And there, friends, you have the sum total of the TV I watch with any regularity.
Amy and I went to the mall Saturday so she could do some clothes shopping for her 16th birthday present. Maybe because I really had a lot of other things to do that day, but I was feeling especially hateful toward the mall that day. Butt-naked materialism in all of its glory — music blasting out of every store, piles of stuff no one really needs and signs promising me beauty, popularity and fun if I buy it.
We were on our way back to the car, passing through Marshall Field’s famous Aisles of Beauty. A couple of sales clerks were stationed on either side of the aisle, ready to foist some new fragrance on us. There was no escape route. I tried not to make eye contact, but it was no use. One of them put in my hand a fragrance sample: “Would you like to try Dior’s Addict?”
What the …? I sniffed the sample card. Actually, it smells quite lovely — soft, powdery, with just a hint of spice. I offered it to Amy. “It smells like Grandma,” she said. A compliment, referring to my mom’s old habit of fragrancing her lingerie drawers with scent samples.
I turned over the card: Addict. My brain just can’t get past the disconnect of this lovely nostalgic scent and the mental image of some gaunt, hungry homeless person with needle tracks all up and down her arm. Addict. Is the scent supposed to be addictive? Am I supposed to aspire to be an addict? Is that supposed to be a good thing to be? Is it cutting-edge? Has this word totally lost its meaning?
Didn’t someone, in some focus group for Dior, ever voice the opinion that this is a stupid name for a perfume? Didn’t they say, “When my friends ask me what is this divine fragrance I’m wearing, I cannot possible say Addict with a straight face?”
Martin Roth has an excellent post about teen-age drinking, and how the alcohol companies are marketing sweet mixed cocktails that are obviously geared to younger tastes. Think of something that tastes like a milkshake with about the same alcohol content as beer. This is why I said no to my daughter’s request for a Sweet Sixteen birthday party. I didn’t want to spend the whole evening playing bad cop to a bunch of teen-agers, most of whom are a lot bigger than I am.
The marketing of alcohol for younger tastes has gotten so much more blatant than when I was in my late teens and early 20s. Back then, a sweet drink was a strawberry daiquiri, and after you were 21 and legal, it was a girly drink to order. If you wanted to appear world-wise and cool, you wouldn’t be caught dead ordering one. If you were serious, there was either beer or the “hard stuff.”
Picked up a couple of Web sites with articles, videos, books and other resource materials for people interesting in emerging worship. Here they are:
Welcome to Emerging Worship -- grew out of the PCUSA's emerging worship initiative, contains resources that were used at the conference I attended.
Ancient Future Worship -- Robert E. Webber's excellent source of books, videos and materials.
Go check them out. The first site has many areas still under construction. And if you know of any other Web sources of information, please leave them in the comments.
Mark Byron tackles the subject, rebuts some of Jim Wallis' points and gives us a good overall lesson in the biblical view of government's role and the morality of soldiering.
As I commented over at Mark's place, I think Christians have to walk a fine line between being subject to the government authorities (knowing God has placed them over us and they derive their power from Him), participating in that government in a manner that honors God, and yet not giving our allegiance to an entity that ultimately is just about worldly power -- and will eventually pass away.
On Saturday, our Alpha Course devoted the entire day to a retreat, mostly on the subject of the Holy Spirit, His work in our lives and how to be filled with the Spirit.
It was a refreshing and uplifting time for me. I often need to be reminded of how the Spirit empowers us and how people’s hearts are changed when He moves in them. In our small-group time, we talked a lot about how to identify what your spiritual gifts are, and what it means to be a living sacrifice, as described in Roman 12:1.
Just before lunch, we had an awesome time of prayer and ministry in groups of two or three. It is such an incredible thing to pray with someone, for someone, while they are sitting right there. It is so powerful. Many tears were shed, that’s for sure. But I wonder, so many times I tell someone that I will pray for them when they share a problem or concern with me. And I do, later, in my time alone with the Lord. But what a difference it would make if I stopped right there and prayed for them with them.
Meanwhile, on an entirely different note, Jim Wallis of Sojourners takes Boykin to task for his theology:
“But I want to raise some different issues: biblical theology, bad teaching, and church discipline. General, your theology bears no resemblance to biblical teaching. You utterly confuse the body of Christ with the American nation. The kingdom of God doesn't endorse the principalities and powers of nation-states, armies, and the ideologies of empire; but rather calls them all into question. You even miss the third verse of "Onward Christian Soldiers," which reminds us, "Crowns and thrones may perish, Kingdoms rise and wane, But the Church of Jesus, constant will remain." And let's not misinterpret the famous first verse, "Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before." The cross, General, not the Special Forces.
“General, I really don't want to blame you for the lack of Christian teaching that you have obviously suffered. But there is a legitimate issue of church discipline here. When a high-ranking military officer espouses a zealous religious nationalism that claims the name "Christian" for both his nation and his army, and when he invokes the name of Jesus - not to love our enemies as he instructed, but rather to target them for destruction - the church must discipline that errant brother and name his public statements for what they are, not mere political incorrectness, but idolatry. General, you have substituted your nation and your army for God, your faith is more American than Christian, the Jesus you claim is not the Jesus of the New Testament, and his kingdom will not be ushered in by the U.S. military.”
Wallis is right. As Christians, we are citizens of the kingdom of God first and foremost. We are also to “do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave Himself up for us.” We are to be light and salt wherever God has placed us. Lt. Gen. Boykin is to be light and salt as a soldier. By the power of the Holy Spirit, he is to do his job to the glory of God.
Nations, states and armies are not the principalities and powers against which we fight in God’s kingdom. But we are in a real battle nevertheless. It is a battle in the spiritual realms, in which we are already more than conquerors through the Lamb That Was Slain. Boykin should be forgiven for getting the lines blurred a little. Sometimes our spiritual battles spill into the physical world. None of us has the perfect image of God; I AM is too big to fathom. But if He is the eternal, unchanging, triune God, then the Jesus of Matthew 5:1-11 is the same Jesus of Revelation 19:11-16.
What troubles us more: Boykin’s confusion of God and country, or his defense of Christianity’s truth claims? For the former, he should be corrected in love. For the latter, we should look to our own hearts and ask the Holy Spirit to give us boldness.
Update:locdog shares his insights on what was on-target and what was off-base in Lt. Gen. Boykin's thinking.
Thursday and Friday we had open sessions to take an “elective” workshop on a variety of subjects. With three of us attending from our church, we were able to maximize our time by picking up six different workshop subjects. Then we’d get back together afterward and share what we had learned.
My Thursday discussion group was about using drama to enhance worship. We’ve already done a little of this, so I was interested in finding out more. I was pleased to see that you can make effective use of dramatic readings and interpretations without a lot of high-tech production or complicated costumes. Actually one of the most moving and effective uses of drama was during the Thursday morning service, in which three or four readers, male and female, read God’s response to Job from the whirlwind in Job 38:1-18. It literally made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
Friday morning’s keynote speaker was Robert Webber, whose presence was a big reason for my desire to go to the conference. He did not disappoint. He’s a dynamic, engaging speaker, even when his outline seemed to encompass the whole history of 20th century Western thought and culture. I ate it up. And I was so pleased and humbled when he agreed to sign my copy of “The Younger Evangelicals” that I had brought on the trip in case I got up the nerve to ask him. Shameless name-dropper that I am, I mentioned I had read about him and the book in an interview on Jordon Cooper's blog. He remembers Jordon well. Shelly and I were so intrigued by his description of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids that we are thinking of taking a weekend field trip.
Webber’s discussion group was a little less helpful to me personally, as we spent a lot of time talking about other people’s concerns in their different ministries and churches. Webber’s style there was to let everybody else talk first before sharing his take on an issue — if he did at all. I never did get around to asking him what he thought the Internet’s role (and especially blogging) was in the development of emerging worship and the breaking down of barriers between Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Christians.
Susan B. of Lilac Rose does an excellent job of rounding up recent posts commenting on the case of Terri Schiavo in Florida. You may remember her as the woman who has been in a persistent vegetative state for the last 13 years as a result of a heart attack. After many pitched legal battles between Terri’s husband and her parents, a judge decided last Wednesday to disconnect the feeding tube keeping Terri alive. Basically, she was sentenced to die of starvation and dehydration because her husband and the judge decided her life was no longer worth living. This is a case of keen interest to anyone interested in right to life/right to die issues.
We’re back all safe and sound and sleep-deprived from Louisville. I had a great time — came back with lots of new ideas that I can’t wait to try out. And some that may need to be tactfully maneuvered through Session in God’s own time.
Best of all, this wasn’t just a time to talk about worship. It was a time to just do it. From the opening worship the morning of the first day, through midday and evening prayer, to the closing service Thomas Mass on Friday, we worshipped together often and joyfully.
The Thursday morning service was quite a production. More than many churches could pull off on a regular basis, what with the liturgical dancer, painter, musicians and all. But it was a very moving worship centered on the remembrance of our baptism. The music was eclectic — from a Ghanian chorus to “Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah.” The instruments included organ, guitar, bass and drums. Trust me; it worked. It was also built around a more formal liturgy than most Presbyterian churches use: a great deal of sung and spoken call and response, a Gloria, a Creed, a Sanctus, a Kyrie, and of course Communion. One of the distinguishing marks of emerging worship is the frequent celebration of Communion — every Sunday if possible.
The Thomas Mass, which was our closing worship on Friday afternoon, began as a fairly typical contemporary-style service with more casual music, setting and instrumentation. Song lyrics were on a PowerPoint projection. After the sermon, everyone was given an opportunity to go to different parts of the worship space and participate in a variety of activities: lighting a candle and praying, visiting the baptismal font for a remembrance, seeking prayer for healing and anointing, or just sitting quietly to pray and sing along as the band played quietly. It was very moving and I felt more like a participant than an observer.
So … a lot of ideas and new ways of doing things. But before we jump in and start changing everything, we thought we’d spend some time letting it all percolate, then gradually introduce a few new ideas.
You won't be hearing from me much for the next few days. Tonight is Alpha. Roy, Shelly and I are hitting the road for the Emerging Worship Conference in Louisville about 8 p.m. -- shooting to drive straight through and get to town about 2 or 3 a.m. Get some quick shut-eye and high-tail it over to the conference by 9 a.m. We'll be heading home Friday night. Again, we'll grab some quick ZZZs and rise early Saturday for our daylong Alpha retreat.
Please pray that our travels will be safe ... that we'll be richly blessed and challenged ... and that we'll be able to get by on very little sleep. It's been a long time since any of us had babies in the house, so we're not used to sleep deprivation.
And thanks, babe, for being both mom and stepdad for a couple of days!
Sixteen years ago, right about this time, I was in labor. At 5:21 p.m. Amy Christine came into the world. To my awestruck eyes, she was beautiful, my miracle baby.
Then reality set in.
2 a.m. feedings, wide awake at 4 a.m. First word: duck. First steps. "I'n eatin' teeee-nut budder ... an' jewwy." Every day wearing "bears" -- a lavender sweatsuit with guess what on the front. Scattering baby powder all over her room during "nap" time. Drawing faces everywhere ... even her bedroom walls ... twice. The littlest angel in the church Christmas pageant, who could not tear herself away from Baby Jesus, even when the older angels tried to pull her off-stage.
First day of school. Learning to read -- Dr. Seuss and "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie." Riding a bike with training wheels. Taking off the training wheels. Starting dance classes. Quitting dance classes. Starting violin. Quitting violin -- after four years. Writing stories, writing journals, always writing. First crush, first boyfriend, first kiss, first broken heart.
Oh perfect Father, You have given me this precious gift of a child, who is now a young woman. I give her back to You, for she has always been Yours. Create in her a heart to love You, a hunger to know You, a thirst that won't be satisfied by anything but Your Living Water. Guide her when I can't be there and always keep her close to Your heart. Amen.
David Heddle, the good Calvinist physicist, poses a question to his blog readers -- in preparation for springing it on his high school Sunday School class.
And before you give me the pat answer, go read his entry and the many comments. That's what I love about David -- he really challenges you to think about what you believe and why.
Not sure which great Christian theologian said this -- please answer in the comments if you know -- but when he was asked which he thought was the greatest truth in Christianity, he replied, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."
Update: Enetation can't count. There are at least two comments in here.
Or is Pat Robertson thinking at all? In a recent interview, the televangelist said the country might be better off if someone nuked the State Department. I think it would come as a surprise to Colin Powell that his department is a danger to liberty, as Robertson attests. Chalk up another embarrassing statement from a loose cannon that the media like to use as a spokesman for all evangelical Christians. It just sets my teeth on edge to think that thousands of people in the U.S. think of Pat Robertson when they think of Christians.
I know that the First Amendment protects Robertson's right to freedom of speech, but isn't this going too far? Put those same words in the mouth of a prominent Muslim imam. Wouldn't he be hustled off to jail as a security threat in a heartbeat? Or do we just dismiss Robertson's ravings as coming from a man who has a shaky grip on reality?
Some of You Will Not Be Surprised By This Revelation
My inner child is six years old!
Look what I can do! I can walk, I can run, I can read! I like to do stuff, and there's a whole big world out there to do it in. Just so long as I can take my blankie and my Mommy and my three best friends with me, of course.
OK, things have gotten way too quiet around here. Where is everybody? Why are there big goose eggs on all of the comments? Let's see if this pokes a stick in anybody's cage.
Attorney Geoffrey Fieger is going to petition an Oakland County court to release Dr. Jack Kevorkian 4 1/2 years into his 10-25 year sentence for second-degree murder. Kevorkian is 75 years old and in frail health.
He's petitioned for early release before and has always been turned down because he's failed to prove any legal basis for the release. He's promised not to assist in any more suicides.
“I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. … For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? For when one says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos,’ are you not mere men?” (1 Cor. 1:10, 2:3-4)
“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” (Eph. 4:29)
“If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.” (Phil 2:1-2)
Please pray for my church, and for my committee meeting tonight.
I first read about this study back in mid-September, when I followed a link from Randy McRoberts’ Upward Way Press to this George F. Will column. The Commission for Children at Risk, a blue-ribbon panel of doctors, research scientists and youth service professionals, came together to study what to do about the rising incidence of serious mental illnesses among U.S. adolescents. What they found supports what Christian parents have been saying for a long time.
Here’s a scary statistic from the report: Scholars at the National Research Council in 2002 estimated that at least one of every four adolescents in the U.S. is currently at serious risk of not achieving productive adulthood.
“The basic conclusion of this report is that children are hardwired for close connections to others and for moral and spiritual meaning.”
”The Commission is calling upon all U.S. citizens to help strengthen what it calls ‘authoritative communities’ as likely to be the best strategy for improving children's lives … Authoritative communities are groups of people who are committed to one another over time and who exhibit and are able to pass on what it means to be a good person.”
Why emphasize the moral and spiritual meaning aspect? The Commission referred to research on the human brain in the last two to five years that indicates “the human brain appears to be organized to ask ultimate questions and seek ultimate answers.” What are “ultimate questions”? Why am I here? What is the purpose of my life? How should I live? What will happen when I die? Scientists have found that the pursuit of meaning is physiologically linked to spiritual and religious seeking.
I have a question of my own here — if human biology is determined by evolution, by what best helps the species to survive — then what possible evolutionary purpose is served by the brain’s being chemically geared to asking ultimate questions?
Clue #1: You won’t find the answers to those ultimate questions in your science book, kids.
Today we celebrated World Communion Sunday in worship. I always enjoy communion, but today especially my experience was enriched as I thought of the many brothers and sisters I have met through our blogs. I imagined each one celebrating communion in their place of worship and thanked God for the blessing each of you have been in my life.
During our greeting time, one of the women in my Alpha small group came up to give me a book she had been sharing about on Wednesday night. I had been talking about my spiritual dryness, and she shared about this book as a way of encouragement. It's "Christmas in Harmony" by Philip Gulley. I was so deeply touched by her gesture, it moved me to tears.
I took the leap and bought a new HP Pavilion a330n last night. So very cool. Amy and I are trying to get things set up the way we want ... so far I think she's ahead of me!
Unless I decide to do some shopping, I'll have to go cold turkey on the blog for the weekend. You kids play nice while I'm away.
My buddy Ron tells me that a mercy killing may be in order for a 6-year-old machine, but that I might be able to easily salvage the hard drive by installing it as a slave drive in the new computer. Hmmm. *stroking chin* Something faster, with more memory, and a CD burner? Well, this is a three-paycheck month ...
My emotions have been pretty close to the surface all day, so I guess that’s why this post by Pen at The Gutless Pacifist has been on my mind.
Pen asks, with the evidence of WMD, and thereby Saddam’s imminent threat, in question, can the Iraq war be judged just? Do we need to go back to the old definition of just cause as “the undoing of injustices and the recovery of things unjustly taken”? Is Saddam’s continued defiance of repeated U.N. resolutions just cause enough? Was the U.S. acting out of “revenge or hatred for the enemy”? Didn’t the administration give us multiple reasons for deposing Saddam — or did it just fail to stay “on message”?
Is it too soon to reflect on our reasons for going to war, to judge their rightness and to repent if necessary?
What form would or should that repentance take? (And I'm not just talking about Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al. When a nation repented in the OT, it was for every citizen to put on the sackcloth and ashes and fast and pray. We have a joint culpability for our nation.)
I don’t think anyone would advocate returning Saddam to power as a reasonable penance. How would U.S. penance to Iraq look different from what we are now doing — helping to rebuild the country? Don’t tell me what we should have done. Tell me how we move forward from here.
Science Answers One of the Most Pressing Issues of the Day
British physicists, not having anything better to do with their time, have used an optical technique called "digital speckle pattern interferometry" to discover why some of the cookies in a package are broken when you buy them.
And this is a problem?
Doesn’t everyone know that broken cookies have fewer calories?
This preliminary report by the Chicago Sun-Times looks at what U.S. weapons inspector David Kay will report today to Congress. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
“The Washington Post said he would report that Saddam "never abandoned his ability" to develop weapons of mass destruction and that after the 1998 departure of United Nations weapons inspectors he continued to buy equipment that could have been used to make the prohibited weapons.
But Kay is also expected to suggest that Saddam may have misled the world by exaggerating the scale of his threat to intimidate his citizens and to deter an invasion. Saddam is thought to have shifted equipment and personnel around Iraq and made ambiguous statements about his weapons of mass destruction as an elaborate bluff that backfired.”
Sounds like nothing we didn't already know or suspect. Naturally, political observers are expecting this to give ammunition to those in Congress opposed to granting President Bush’s request for $87 billion in aid for rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan.
As if our being deceived is reason enough to abandon the Iraqi people to the Islamic extremists or the return of the Baathists.
Back in August, David Heddle of He Lives posted a lengthy and thorough study of Satan. I link to it here because I reread it after seeing Adam’s comment about how he has seen and experienced some demonic oppression when he participates in the Alpha Course. David puts, in a very readable nutshell, what the Bible teaches about angels, Satan, his (limited) powers and methods.
While I am perfectly capable of tripping over my own feet, spiritually speaking, I also think that Satan doesn’t leave any fingerprints. I’m reminded of C.S. Lewis’ classic “The Screwtape Letters” in which Screwtape advises Wormwood to use everyday, ordinary means to distract his victim from focusing on God. Something as simple as a newspaper headline, hunger pangs or a crowded city street. He tells the novice tempter that complacency is their friend, that keeping godly thoughts out of a man’s mind is just as effective as putting evil thoughts in.
But “greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” We are "hard pressed but not crushed" because of the Spirit who lives within us.
Bryan shares his personal morning routine, only to defend himself from the charge that he is becoming hopelessly absent-minded. Hey, I’ve been there. I’ve had to catch myself a couple of times from putting the cereal in the fridge and the milk in the pantry. Probably because we have so many cereal boxes, there isn’t room for a gallon milk jug. That’s my first clue.
I share this only to say that marriage often brings out these delightful lapses in memory that give one spouse momentary gloating rights over his or her beloved. For example:
My usually thoughtful and doting husband and I were having an innocent conversation about an off-site airport parking service that he typically uses on his business trips. I said I remembered we had used it sometime on a trip together … perhaps when we went to Florida?
We’ve never been to Florida, he asserted.
I gave him The Look.
He remembered. Our honeymoon to Clearwater Beach. Oops.
I think he knew I was laughing through my loud fake sobs.
Both of our home computers are out of commission. Amy and I took her laptop to the "doctors" at CompUSA last night. But my 6-year-old desktop is on the fritz, too. It just won't boot up. Power light comes on, but the hard drive activity light just sits there. Could it be the hard drive got fried when the power came back on after the big blackout in August? Is it worth trying to get repaired? Or should I just junk the thing and buy a new one? I would really appreciate some advice!
