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Mr. Photoengraver

Perhaps he was quite old, maybe younger in his late 50’s but most probably, older. He probably learned this technology as it was dying out in the early 50’s and 60’s. The technology was first used in the 1850’s. Were talking old, and were talking about the graphic art technology called “photoengraving”. At a major newspaper where I work, I just put through the forms to let go of a man whose title was “Photoengraver”. I asked someone, and upon their brief explanation of what it was, I became intrigued and dug a little deeper. It was chemical/mechanic process of taking a photo of a subject through a fine mesh of wire, so that a transfer of negative to metal plating, would be more accurate. Where light hit the metal, an acid was applied so as to engrave the image of the negative on the metal. In the newspaper industry they would apply the metal image to a newspaper cover or columns, and voile! you have a picture on newspaper. Back it up a step, just leave the metal as is (don’t press paper to it), and you have the way they used to engrave metal plaques for names, organizations and such.

I wonder if he probably made photos for Al Capone, the World Wars, etc. In a way, just honoring this mans work while looking back into the history of photography.

Look at the photo below, and notice how it looks kind of copperish color, because it is. The common metal used for posters like this were made from copper.

If you’re a photographer and want to shed light on this, clarify, add, or correct, feel free.

Because its Friday...

This is just because its Friday, and I want to post a breakdancing video, or more like creative dance meets breakdancing. Enjoy!

Whats the big deal with Jesus and sex? REVISED

If God ate the food that he created, why is it such a big deal that Jesus could not have participated in a sexual act, which he also created.

The question really is, does it compromise Jesus as who he was? Fully God, yet fully man? Because if it doesn’t, then no I have no problem considering that. But does it compromise Him? Yes, absolutely! It actually makes him out to be a hypocrite. Bible memory 101 is John 3:16, “God so loved the world (but Mary Magdalene the most)…” Oh my bad, that’s not in the Bible. To think that Jesus “must have” had sex in the first place is such a human thing. "It just makes sense, that men everywhere have had the desire at least once, for a woman." The people claiming this, purporting this, writing novels and making lay-readers’ minds spin with bewilderment, are those who simply don’t get the life of Christ in the first place. Here are a few points I’d like to make on this matter concerning the person Jesus Christ.

Jesus, the hypocrite?
Jesus’ message of love and salvation was equally for everyone. To admit that Jesus chose a favorite compromises his universal message and makes him out to be a hypocrite. To say “No, he didn’t love everyone equally, Mary the most, but pretty much equally, generally speaking” is worldly and finite thinking. Jesus was deity, in flesh. God incarnate! Immanuel!

Take Christ as the husband of the church model. Just as Christ is wed to his bride spiritually, us collectively the church, it would be selective, partial, theologically incongruous and hypocritical for him to actuate the spiritual understanding in physical form. The act of sex would be an infinitely insufficient act of union between Jesus and a woman, to exemplify his relationship with himself and the church. Why? Because eternity in perfect relationship with God himself, FAR ECLIPSES any sexual relationship one can ever have. That is what’s promised to us, his bride, the church. On top of that, there is no record, anywhere, that he ever got married. If he did have sex and never got married, obviously that is a sin, thus nullifying his ability to be offered as a perfect sacrifice, without blemish, as was Jewish law. If no atoning sacrifice, there would be no forgiveness of sin, and if no forgiveness of sin, God would be totally just in wiping out everything offensive (mainly, us) to his Holy presence. “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.” Colossians 3:5-6

Divine Lineage?
If Jesus had relations and a son birthed, that would create theological chaos, not to mention sexual immorality. What if the fountain of youth was found in a young woman, and the only way you could live forever was to have relations with her. She would be the most sought after young woman, the world would ever know. Men would do whatever they needed to get her to ensure their children were in the divine lineage, in order that they may secure life everlasting. This would be the case if salvation were by means of lineage, if Christ had relations and his offspring were the “sons and daughters” talked about in the gospels. When Paul said that we are adopted into the family of God, that could then come to mean, you are adopted by God, IF you insert yourself into the divine lineage. “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" Galatians 4:6 The lines of theology would be blurred to utter confusion.

Jesus, the less-than sufficient God?
If Jesus had relations, it would admit that Christ had need. We are created, God is not. Everything comes FROM God. There was never, nor will there ever be an instance when God is not in need of something, when there is a void that we can fill for God. “Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?” Isaiah 40:14 When God created Eve, it was because Adam was in need, he was lonely and had no way of expressing physical intimacy. We are beings who long for intimacy and companionship, and sex is one of those ways. “It is not good for man to be alone,” God himself said in Genesis. Crazy isn’t it? In the garden of Eden, when man had perfect relationship with God, one thing was missing. In the slightly modified words of a cheesy bygone movie, ladies “You complete [us].”

There are many other great resources out there on this subject. If this intrigues you, the person of Jesus Christ is worth digging deeper on. Read the gospels, read the heretical gospels (gospel of Thomas, Mary, Barnabas) and find out for yourself these things.

A home is where hospitality lives

During the civil war, houses that were caught in midst of battles were transformed by need into buildings that could best serve the wounded. Because of the urgent need for shelter, water, and personal attention to wounds many homes turned into hospitals, barns into Intensive Care Units, and the resources on the compound no longer only serviced the needs of the family, but of those in need, the soldiers.

Fast forward to around the early 1900's and you'll find a radical named Francis Schaeffer. His philosophy was also formed around the home, and was also formed around the need of those around him. The need? People wanted answers to life concerning just about anything spiritual: Why am I here? If God is good, why does evil exist? How can God allow pain and suffering and still be a just God? Francis Schaeffer, a theologian, an artist, a pastor, and a philosopher believed that the Word of God and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is sufficient to answer all these and more. He bravely opened his home to anyone who would want to struggle through their big questions in life, and thus birthed a theory of community that exists in many cities throughout the world, called L'Abri.

I've been thinking some about homes, and how they are an echo of our heavenly home. Just as my home in heaven will be perfectly God exalting, so I want my home to be. Christ exulting, brother and sister admonishing, where broken-hearts are lifted and the refreshing breath is breathed into each others sails.

Brothers and sisters, we have about 70-90 years on this earth. You don't exist for yourself! If you think you were made for coming home to watch your TV 'til you go to sleep, your selling yourself extremely short (I'm not saying TV is bad, we just tend to not be good stewards of things that feed laziness). If you just want to go home and not be bothered by those people who want to "be up all in your business", you may not understand the purpose of the community of Christ. I'll close with a quote I heard recently from John Piper,

If you don't at least have a leaning towards a desire to excercise hospitality to others, you may not have truly felt the love of Christ from the cross."

What do you want your home to be? What do you want your home to be TO people?

"Death is a cruel, brutal, and fearsome trespasser..."

This moving article was published October 5th, on Christianity Today, by Gordon Conwells provost, Frank James III. He lost his brother on a climbing venture to summit Mount Hood and return...he never did. Frank recalls that day in an emotionally stirring article. You can read the whole thing here.

Midnight, it is said, is the portal between this world and the next and is somehow in league with chaos, death, and mystery. It is the moment of dark visitations. So it was for me in December 2006. My sleep was interrupted by a phone call, and I was instantly shocked into full consciousness: My younger brother was trapped in a snow cave on Mount Hood, and an unyielding blizzard prevented rescue.
The mountain proved to be Kelly's final adventure. Losing my brother on Mount Hood has been a painful reminder of my own spiritual fragility. None of us is immune to the heartaches and sorrows that inhabit this misbegotten world. Though I am a preacher, a professor of historical theology, and the provost of a theological seminary, I have found it agonizingly difficult to come to terms with my brother's death. It is one thing to talk about death in the abstract. It is entirely another to cope with the death of someone you love very, very much. The truth of the matter is that losing a loved one hurts down to the deepest parts of your soul.
I was the first to learn the news days later. Hearing those words announcing his death was like a blow to the solar plexus knocking the breath out of me, but telling the rest of my family was more dreadful. I had known heartache before, but this transcended every previous emotion I had ever experienced. My vision blurred. My feet were heavy and seemed to resist carrying me to the next room, where my family anxiously awaited the latest news of the rescue mission on Mount Hood. Kelly's wife, Karen, the children, our mother, three brothers and a sister—they took the news hard. I have never heard weeping like I heard that night in the village at the foot of the mountain. The Bible sometimes refers to "wailing" as an especially forlorn kind of weeping. That is what I heard that night—wailing. I hope I never hear that sound again.
Death is ugly, and we cannot—indeed, should not—try to make it palatable or explain it away with pious platitudes. Death is a cruel, brutal, and fearsome trespasser into this world. It is an intruder and a thief. It has severed an irreplaceable relationship with my brother. We shared the same story, and he knew me in a way no other person did. Kelly would no longer return my calls. Never again would I hear him cheerfully mock me as "Frankie Baby." Sometimes I see him in a dream, and I reach out to grasp him—but he is not there.
We are created for life, not death. Kelly had a shameless zest for living life to the fullest. When death strikes suddenly from the shadows or claws at us until the last breath, those left behind experience numbness and disorientation. Somehow we know in our hearts that it is not supposed to be this way.

Later in the article he asks the question Why would God let his brother freeze to death on that mountain? In his struggle he says this:

One of the profoundly difficult lessons is that amid all the spiritual consternation in the shadow of Mount Hood, God has manifested himself in my grief. Somehow he is found in the disappointment, the confusion, and the raw emotions. This does not exactly make sense to me, and I'm quite sure I don't like it. But I have felt the divine gravity pull me back toward God, even while I am dumbstruck by his hiddenness. My conception of faith has become Abrahamic—which is to say, I must trust God even though I do not understand him.

Dying on vacation

This is a re-post I thought very compelling. I find myself guilty of this..."at least" I'm not doing XYZ or ABC, like so'n'so...when if I have the eyes of God, I'll realize that whatever I do to offend an almighty, is an offense, period. Enjoy!

If it were up to me, you’d be allowed to board an airplane based on how fast you took your shoes off in the security line. Clock a good time? You’re on the plane first! Slowly unlace waist high boots? You’ll board last.

It would be like the Olympics of airport security. And it would be awesome.

These are the kind of things I think about when I fly. If you follow me on twitter, and you really should, you know all of this. You know that last Saturday I tweeted about the four year old next to me who shook his sippy cup like he had just won the NBA Championship. Milk flew on my book and my face. It was a scene man, a real scene.

Eventually the flight attendant stepped in when the kid made a play for the fire extinguisher and the bullhorn. Party time!

But that kid wasn’t even the most interesting thing that happened on that flight. There was an officer in the army sitting on the other side of me. He was flying back to Afghanistan and said something that really surprised me. I asked him what was one of the biggest misconceptions about Afghanistan and here’s what he told me:

“We statistically lose more 18-25 year old soldiers when they go home for R&R than we do in combat in the field.”

That surprised me. If you asked me which was more dangerous, being in the middle of an armed conflict in Afghanistan or going home for a few weeks of rest and relaxation, I’d pick the first option. But the more the army officer explained it, the more it made sense.

“What sometimes happens is that you have folks that go back home after being out of the country for months at a time. They’re flush with cash, haven’t been in a lot of social situations lately and think they’re out of danger.”

They buy motorcycles and crash them. They make crazy financial situations that wreck them. They get in DUIs. In a million different ways they make the kind of mistakes that can ruin you. All at home. All on vacation.

The more I listened to him, the more the story started to sound familiar. In fact, I think we do a similar thing with our faith sometimes.

We all know the “neon sins” we’re not supposed to do. We all know the big things we should avoid like the plague. Adultery, murder, money laundering, robbing banks, chances are if I suggested we shouldn’t do those things you’d agree. There’s nothing groundbreaking about that. But sometimes we play the “at least game.”

My friend reminded me of this a few years ago. I told him I felt like I was struggling with some lust issues. I told him I was feeling pretty wrecked by some decisions I was making. In the middle of our conversation he said,

“Yeah, but at least you’re not sleeping with hookers.”

That’s true, I wasn’t sleeping with hookers. I was avoiding some neon sins in my life. I wasn’t involved in prostitution. I was staying away from the combat zone types of sins, the at war in Afghanistan type of dangers. I was escaping the trenches in my life on the battlefield of my heart.

But I was dying on vacation.

I might not have been sleeping with hookers, but I was slowly wearing myself away with lust and pornography. My death might not have been dramatic or extreme, like a rocket-propelled grenade from an enemy, but it was happening nonetheless. My faith had grown weak and comfortable. I wasn’t growing, I wasn’t being renewed, I was a adrift. And I don’t want that.

I don’t want “at least” faith.

I don’t want to find somebody who is worse off than me in order to feel better about me.

I don’t want to prepare and train and fight hard against the big enemies of my life, only to die in the middle of an ordinary weekday, during an ordinary vacation.

The battlefield is a scary place. We’re constantly reminded of that as pastors and friends alike give in to big terrifying foes. But in our desire to prepare for the battlefield bruises, in our focus on the big, loud, neon sins in our lives, let’s not lose sight of the little things.

Let’s let go of “at least” faith.

Let’s not die on vacation.

Read the whole post here.

Tomato's, USA's new weapon of mass destruction

There are times when I can’t help myself from laughing. This morning was one of those times when I read an article about the chief of the ministry of education in Turkey talking about how the country needs to research how to produce more native tomato seeds in Turkey, rather than importing them from Israel and USA. Why? Because we are implanting “genetic mechanisms” into the seeds in the pursuit of world domination. Here is what he said;

The seeds of the tomatoes and wheat we grow in Turkey mostly come from abroad, because we don't have enough seeds of our own. They come from the US and Israel. As a Turkish intellectual, sometimes I feel very little.

I mean, can't we produce our tomato seeds here in our country?.... And we don't know the consequences either. You're buying these tomato seeds. There is something called 'genetic programming.' They can implant a genetic mechanism into the tomatoes and we can eat it without even knowing. We can be infected with some diseases that we don't know anything about. In the meantime, you can destroy a whole nation. They can implant such things that people who eat these seeds die in the meantime. There are things like that and it is very dangerous. Therefore our universities need to help us in that matter.

This is where I read it.

I’ll give him the benefit the doubt, perhaps hes heard wind of genetically altering vegetables to be bigger, but to wipe out a nation? How can you not laugh at that?

Don't like to read theology, you may enjoy this book!

Or watch it here!

Why learn theology? Am I already a theologian? True theology manifests true living.

From freak to fighter!

This is a short story I found on Boston Reviews Creative Short Story contest website.
Its a beautiful story, and about a 10 minute read! A great read at that! Its good to taste a good literary work once in a while. Enjoy!

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by Adam Sturtevant

You could say the trouble started a couple weeks ago in art class, or you could say it started long before that, back when Kyle’s teeth started coming in crooked, when his chin buckled under his jaw and ceased to grow, when they first noticed his crossed eyes, when the neighbor’s freckled son first called him those names that made his throat close up, planted that seed in his mind that grew and made him cower from the world and especially other children.
He could feel that he didn’t look quite right, that he didn’t act quite right, that his clothes didn’t fit, sagged over his skinny shoulders and curved spine. He’d look in the bathroom mirror and see it. Even when they weren’t calling him names he knew that if they caught a good look at him they’d start in, so he kept his eyes down, bent his face away toward something on the ground or the wall, pretending to be absorbed by a poster or a book. Afraid to show his teeth, he would cover his mouth with his hand as he turned the pages and pray that no one noticed him. Sometimes he was sure he could hear his name being whispered behind his back. Sometimes he’d think he was only imagining it, but then he’d feel something hard or something wet or something sharp smack against his skin and he’d twist around and bat his arm in the air. Like a gerbil doing a trick. They’d laugh harder each time.
It had been like that forever, and Kyle could have endured it for one more year until high school, where there would be more kids, more distractions; it would be easier. But then in art class, he let his guard down. On his way back to his desk from the pencil sharpener in the corner, he bumped Joey’s desk. Yellow acrylic paint spilled onto the crotch of Kyle’s corduroys. Joey had been painting a lion under a tree, with a drip of blood on its whiskers and a pile of red flesh its feet. He looked up, locked eyes with Kyle, saw the fear, saw the stammering, slack jaw. Kyle took a step back, waving his wrists in front of him, a clumsy apology, but it was too late. Spit sprayed from Joey’s lips, and he pointed at Kyle’s crotch. Look, everyone, the freak pissed his pants, he howled, and the room howled with him. What happened next was strange and cruel, if an accident can be something like cruel. Kyle really did wet himself beneath the yellow paint.
The principal explained to Kyle’s mother what had happened while Kyle sat in the waiting room in his gym sweatpants with his corduroys in a plastic bag at his feet. He covered his mouth and turned his head away, staring at the knick-knacks on the secretary’s desk, careful not to let the gawkers in the hall see his face. Pissed his pants, pissed his pants, they whispered. They scattered when his mother and the principal finally came out.
Kyle was taken out of that art class and switched to music. The teachers were on the lookout, but the children were cunning. The teachers didn’t see them spray Kyle’s locker with ketchup, spelling the word “freak” on the door. They didn’t see the boys piss into a water bottle in the bathroom and pour it into Kyle’s open backpack while it sat on the floor in homeroom. Joey orchestrated the whole thing, whispering in the other boys’ ears, pointing, sneering, making sure Kyle could see them. The word, “freak,” was murmured constantly in the halls when he passed. He looked away, pretended not to notice. Joey spit down Kyle’s shirt and flicked his ears on the bus, leaning in close and whispering that word over and over, so often that it took on a new meaning, so often that Kyle believed it because it was the only explanation. When he got home he went straight to the bathroom, gripped the sides of the sink, and watched himself cry in the mirror.
His mother got him to open the bathroom door, helped him wash his face, sat him on the couch, and gently rubbed his back. He caught his breath and told her he didn’t want to go back to school anymore. You can’t run from your fears, she said. I should just beat the shit out of him. Violence doesn’t solve anything. You know that, Kyle. You just need to talk to him, like an adult, ask him to stop. He’ll listen. He won’t listen. He will. Just talk to him.
On the bus on Friday morning Kyle scribbled a note in his notebook—Joey, can we talk please? When Joey got on the bus and walked past him down the aisle, Kyle held it out for him and he took it, walked back a few rows and sat with his friends. Kyle turned toward the window, covering his mouth, straining to hear. He heard the unfolding of paper, a lot of whispers, but no laughter. When they reached the school and filed off onto the sidewalk, Joey handed Kyle a response. He stuck it into his pocket and didn’t read it until homeroom. It said, Meet me at bathroom before lunch.
That morning he rehearsed in his mind, repeating words and phrases over and over until they sounded right. Please . . . discuss this like adults . . . what did I do to you? . . . not fair
. . . yourself in my shoes. His leg shook as he covered his mouth and watched the clock on the wall.
After fourth period, before lunch, he went to the boy’s bathroom, and Joey was standing outside the door, waiting.
What do you want?
I want to talk.
About what?
Why are you picking on me?
Because you’re a freak. Look at you. Look at your fucking teeth. Your glasses. You’re disgusting.
Listen, I just want to talk, like adults, about this.
What, are you going to cry now? Are you crying?
I’m not crying.
You are! You’re such a fucking little wimp, you can’t even talk now, can you?
If you don’t stop, I’m gonna . . .
You’re gonna what? Kick my ass? Right! You’re going to piss your pants again, you fucking freak!
When the tears really started to come, the other boys rushed out of the bathroom, cackling. One sprayed more piss from a plastic bottle onto Kyle’s pants and another snapped a picture of Kyle, bawling, teeth protruding, pants wet.
Kyle?
Hi, Dad.
Hit him in the nose first.
What?
What a fucking little monster. I’m going to call his mother, she said. No mom, you can’t do that, he sobbed, that will only make it worse. What about the principal? I can call the principal. We can have a conference. No, you don’t understand. She looked away and clenched her jaw. What the hell can we do then? She rubbed her forehead, thinking hard. He was crying, trembling on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, hair still wet from the shower. She rubbed his back, pulled him close, feeling to blame for everything.
She went into the other room and called Kyle’s older brother, at college upstate, talked to him for a long time. He heard the sounds of arguing. No, no, no. He can’t. There must be another way. She came back into the room and sat down, put her hand on his back. He could feel her looking at his buckteeth, his crossed eyes, her heart aching. He said you have to beat him up, Kyle. He said that’s the only way. He said that everyone has to do it, sooner or later. He had to do it when he was your age, and then afterwards, things were better. Kyle stared at the floor, nodding, and she pulled him close again, apologizing.
Suddenly she got up and decided to call Kyle’s father. Kyle tried to hear what was said in hushed tones in the other room. There was some yelling. Maybe if he had a father around, she said. After a while she came into the room, her hair tousled, her eyes exhausted. Your father wants to talk to you, she said, holding out the receiver.
Kyle?
Hi, Dad.
Hit him in the nose first.
What?
It hurts like hell to get hit in the nose. Hit him in the nose first, and then keep on hitting him. Don’t stop until he goes down.
That night Kyle stayed up watching Bruce Willis chase bad guys through the streets, gun in hand. He wore a tight white T-shirt, his muscles bulging. When he caught the bad guys, he threw them up against brick walls, threw punches and kicks. They connected with a popping, slapping sound, the bad guys flew and landed in piles of black garbage bags. Kyle’s heart raced and sent a warm, stinging sensation down into his hands. He clenched his fists hard, until they turned white and trembled. Then the nausea started.
Saturday he went into the woods behind his house with his hunting knife, a gift from his older brother. He picked a tree and taunted it, called it Joey, practiced pulling the knife out of its sheath, waving it in front of him, lunging at the tree, stabbing it in the side, in the front, slicing it across. His lips curled over his teeth, he bit down hard, growling, stabbing fast and hard in the same spot until the bark chipped away. A car pulled into his neighbors’ driveway, so he hid the knife and paced around the tree, face to the ground, kicking dried leaves. He looked at the divot on the tree, at the clean whiteness underneath, the translucent sap beginning to seep out.
On Sunday morning his stomach still ached. His mother was silent and watchful, finding something to clean or rearrange wherever he went. She tried to get him to eat. She asked him once, only once, midday, if he was going to do it tomorrow, and he nodded his head. He sat on the couch, looking out the window at the cars driving by, wishing with every breath to be any one of those other people. On TV he saw more people fighting, punching, kicking. It seemed impossible. His mind wandered, lost, exhausted, until suddenly his whole body clenched and he threw a punch furiously in the air. Startled, he looked around to make sure his mother didn’t see.
He waited until he was on the bus, then he waited until he saw Joey pass down the aisle. He waited until they were at the school, and then he waited until first period. There were no whispers or taunts or laughter. It was as if they had all forgotten. After second period, on the way to his locker, he saw Joey and walked straight toward him, his heart racing, his hands on fire. Then, the sickness, and he ducked into the bathroom, catching his breath in the stall.
After fourth period, he decided, before lunch. Please God, he said to himself, just get it over with.
Third period came, and then fourth, the bile rising in his stomach with every tick of the clock, and then it was time.
He went to his locker first, to do something, anything until Joey came. He opened it and saw, tacked on the inside of the door, the photo: his face contorted and red, in pain and misery, bawling like a baby, his unfortunate teeth sticking out, his crotch wet with someone else’s urine.
He hit him in the nose first, like his father had said. Joey’s head snapped back into the locker, and Kyle kept going. He used only his right hand, over and over, all towards the nose, like a machine, and he felt something crack. So this is what it’s like, he thought. The buzzing in his ears, the tingling in his hands—not like the movies at all. So much faster, so far away, like a dream. Joey bent down and put up his hands but Kyle maneuvered around them, catching him in the chin, the head, the ear. He kept going. He had never touched a person like this before, felt their body, their weight, their density. Joey’s face felt wet and soon Kyle’s hand did too. He began to say things as he did it, using words he had never said before, explaining to Joey what was happening, showing him what was inside him, then asking if he understood. He wanted to be clear. He had never felt such strength, like he could do it forever, so simple, back and forth, over and over, with everything he was.
Someone from behind pulled him off, held his arms back tightly. He realized then that a crowd had formed, that the buzzing in his ears was the cheers of the other kids. They were watching and cheering for him. He looked down at Joey, kneeling there on the ground, touching his hands to his face and looking at them. The wetness was blood, and it was dripping from Joey’s face onto the porcelain floor into round, dark blots, almost as black as night. Kyle realized then—we really are all full of blood. But Joey wasn’t crying. In fact, he looked calm, almost pleased, like he didn’t feel a thing. He looked up at Kyle and said the word again. Freak. Kyle broke free, lunged forward, and tried to explain some more something that Joey didn’t understand.

The Goodness of God...in the face of suffering

Sometimes it takes one who has been muddied up for so long, to be truly appreciative of cleanliness, when it comes.

I think this is the story behind Randy Alcorns new book, The Goodness of God: Assurance of Purpose in the Midst of Suffering. I happen to know that for a long while in 2007 he was suffering from depression. The school of suffering can teach you more things than the school of pleasure I believe, so perhaps this book is a manifesting of the wisdom he gained through those times. Here is a blip from his book.

Jesus Christ’s life and death demonstrate that God has never dished out any suffering he hasn’t taken on himself.
His death on the cross is God’s answer to the question, “Why don’t you do something about evil?” God allowed Jesus’ temporary suffering so he could prevent our eternal suffering . . .
God wrote the script of this drama of redemption long before Satan, demons, Adam and Eve—and you and I—took the stage. And from the beginning, he knew that the utterly spectacular ending would make the dark middle worth it. Paul writes, “This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time” (2 Timothy 1:9). How could God give us grace before our lives began, even before the universe itself existed? Only because God knew and determined in advance the work of Christ for us on the cross.
The story’s low point is the death of Jesus, yet this low point is the basis upon which he will one day, in a dramatic resolution to the story, return to establish his eternal kingdom on Earth. (pp. 44-45)

The question I have for you readers is this:

How does suffering make sense as a Christian? Does it make sense that a non-Christian would get mad at God when he gets cancer, receives news of his dead family member, etc?

If our happiness in life were the goal, it would TOTALLY make sense to be mad at God through tough times, but to know that God brings us through those times for a reason, is the bit of hope I can really chomp onto. This is why Paul calls our struggles “momentary”. They won’t linger, and even if they do, and breathe down your neck all the way to the grave, you have an inheritance from being a son or daughter of God (if you have put your life faith in Christ) mainly, heaven.

Thematic summarization of the role of Sacrifice in scripture.

Excellent, excellent work!! This is an excellent brief summary of the role that sacrifice has in scripture.

Questions to ask:
Why is an offering of food not sufficient?
Why would God even consider telling one his chosen to sacrifice his own son?
How is Christ like the sacrificial lamb?

Just because...

This is just because...I just felt like posting this. More thoughtful and compelling material to come...later. Until then, enjoy a creepy and weird classic.

Muslim Christian dialogue in Dubai last year

Thabiti Anyabwile is part of the Gospel Coalition and last was at a Christian Muslim dialogue conference. This is one where each respectfully presented their cases, and is a good example of how it can be done. I encourage you to watch the trailer here.

Stockpiling snow balls

One thing I know to be true when I was a child growing up in Minnesota was this; if I saw the other boys stockpiling their snowball inventory in their snow-forts, one thing was sure...there was to be a fight soon! Consider this bit of news...

The Gulf countries have embarked on one of the largest re-armament exercises in peacetime history, ordering US weapons worth some $123 billion as they seek to counter Iran's military might, with US arms worth more than $67 billion going to Saudi Arabia, accounting for the largest single component of this military buildup and providing a huge boost to the American defense industry, reported the Financial Times on Sept. 21.

Read the article here

We will not forget...but does that mean tolerance is not possible?

America doesn’t seem to have healed from the wound that the terrorists gave us on 9/11. We won’t forget, and indeed this generation who beheld that event, will not be able to forget. We will all remember.

But the lesson of forgiveness is a hard one learned. People are still struggling through issues of justice in light of what happened almost 10 years ago. I think America is still asking the question, “how much grace is too much grace?” Are we being too gracious in letting Muslims build a Mosque near ground zero? When do we say no more? Perhaps, when we have healed, and we are able to open the hand of tolerance and be able to live in peace side-by-side. One way to get there might be for there to be understanding of each other. We get frustrated at things and people we don’t understand. The Organization of the Islamic Conference are thinking education is the answer to Islamaphobia.

Islam has recently been under attack in the United States, especially with a controversy over a proposed Islamic center near the World Trade Center site and threats by groups to burn the Quran in protest. The OIC chief’s new book, “The Islamic World in the New Century: The Organization of the Islamic Conference, 1969-2009,” includes an entire chapter on the danger of growing Islamophobia in the West.

“The Muslim world is going through an unprecedented difficult and trying time,” İhsanoğlu told the ministers during their annual meeting Friday. “We are facing daunting challenges and severe hardships. Islam and Muslims are under serious attack, and Islamophobia is growing and becoming more rampant and dangerous by the day.”...

...Education, İhsanoğlu said, is the key to helping the West truly understand Islam.

Read the article here

Papyrus, scrolls, books, Kindles...and now, Nelson, Coupland and Alice?

Chicagos Uno has the Craziest Food Creation from 2010

Uno Chicago Grill Mega Sized Deep Dish Sundae

Calories: a whopping 2,800

Mega? That's an understatement. With three-and-a-half day's worth of saturated fat and more sugar than you'd find in 14 Twinkies, a better name would be The Belt-Breaker. Unless you're about to walk the green mile, don't even think about it.

Heres the top 20 craziest frankenfoods of America for 2010. Enjoy!

For all the single people...a heart to heart blog!

This is a re-post, but I liked it, and thats why I'm posting it here. I want to highlight her concluding paragraph.

In dealing with the issue of contentment, when you feel like God has not given you the mate you feel like you deserve she writes this:

The bottom line is that I don’t know if God will ever grant my desire, but I do know I should not worry about it any longer. What he has granted must be embraced, Himself, His son, the guaranteed indwelling of the Holy Spirit who provides spiritual gifts to demonstrate what He has provided, His provision and His people. I may not find happiness with a mate but there is sure to be joy with attention paid towards Him. And that is where it behooves us to focus, because God never promised us a mate.

"Let us become biblical thinkers..."

Check out John Pipers new book. I'm getting a copy...whether my wife knows about it or not. Sweetie, are you reading this......I love you! Enjoy!

A response to Yaron Brook and Onkar Ghate

Yaron Brook is president of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights and a columnist at Forbes.com; Onkar Ghate is a senior fellow at the center. Brook is one of the speakers at The Economist's "Ideas Economy: Human Potential" conference in New York.

He recently wrote an article, "Our Moral Code is Out of Date" for CNN, and they bring out some compelling ideas I think are worth exploring.

His basic gist is that the "antiquated" moral code of the Old Testament or the Quran...

Although few of us would turn to the Old Testament or the Quran to determine the age of the Earth, too many of us still turn obediently to these books (or their secular copies) as authorities about morality. We learn therein the moral superiority of faith to reason and collective sacrifice to personal profit.

...was ok when we didn't have science, and industry, but now that there has been a flurry of creation, a flurry of industry, an era of productivity, we ought to base our morality off a different code. "Times are a chang'in" and according to these writers, our moral code should too.

A great article to write would really be, "Should Christians get rich?" We know that Jesus said, "It is harder for a man to enter the kingdom of heaven, than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle." But isn't monetary success included in God's blessing us? It is around money, and religions seemingly forceful shaking of our hands to release any wealth we may possess, in the name of self-renunciation.

The fact that earning money is ignored by most moralists, or condemned as the root of evil, is telling of the distance we must travel.

As Jesus' goal in his parables was to speak beyond the law and speak more to the nature of the heart, so money can be an evil in your life, if you allow your heart to be consumed by it. This fits into the category of idol, anything that takes the place of affection in your heart, where Jesus is supposed to be. The moralist will inevitably not grow rich if he abides by "do's and don'ts". Especially by the definition they give:

If morality is judgment to discern the truth and courage to act on it and make something of and for your own life, then these individuals, in their capacity as great creators, are moral exemplars. Put another way, if morality is a guide in the quest to achieve your own happiness by creating the values of mind and body that make a successful life, then morality is about personal profit, not its renunciation.

When you consider morality as binding, and restrictive to your personal profit, of course you're going to move beyond it. But when you consider yourself under Christ, and all that he's given you, is for your good, including the law of morality, which is his will for us (that we walk uprightly, pursuing righteousness), its more of a pleasure for us to live moral lives.

As a husband will do things that please his wife, so we Christian do things that please our Savior. He's asked of us, defend the poor, take care of the needy, shelter the widowed, do good to others as you would have them do to you, and this we do with pleasure!

But can we pursue riches? Firstly, there is a reason why he said its so hard for rich men to enter the kingdom of heaven...THEY'RE RICH! They lose their ability to behold God, when their sufficiency grows from themselves. High wealth is for the spiritually mature I believe. To those who can be good stewards of the wealth that is ultimately Gods, to them he will give it.

I'm not going to go any further...what do you think? How can a man grow rich, but still maintain his walk with God? Do you feel you need to be rich? Why? Poor? Why?

A free resource from Desiring God ministries

John Piper has come out with a book, "With Calvin in the Theater of God". Here is a brief description of the book.

The West is awash with pragmatism. Do whatever works. Tips and techniques. Self-improvement mania. We’re fascinated with the seemingly relevant.

It is in the midst of this malaise, we need to hear again from John Calvin—born 500 years ago and one the founders of the West—as he pages through the Bible and addresses what is enduringly applicable.

Make no mistake, Calvin is intensely practical—practical in all the right ways. With Calvin, we don’t get little how-to's and gimmicks but the biblical beauty of the central truths about God and the world that affect everything. We get the majesty of Jesus and his purposes for the world through the lens of Scripture, with Calvin’s life and theology adjusting the focus.

If you want the truly practical, don’t reach for gimmicks, how-to's, and self-helps, but come with Calvin to the Bible in God’s theater and get the know the most important realities in the universe: God, creation, sin, heaven, hell, the cross, and the Holy Spirit.

Reflecting on 500 years of Calvin’s legacy, John Piper, David Mathis, and an all-star team of contributors invite us to join Calvin in the theater of God and see how the biblical vision of the glory of God in Christ is the most practical reality in the universe. This volume includes chapters by Julius Kim, Douglas Wilson, Marvin Olasky, Mark Talbot, Sam Storms, and John Piper.

Sit with Calvin and marvel at the Glory that changes everything.

Click here to download the book

One days worth of calories...in one drink!!!

What are we eating today? What happened to lemonade? You know, water, lemon, and sugar!! Or green tea? You know, water and leaves? Take a look at Americas Worst Beverages, as explored by Mens Health magazine! But really now, who is approving this? "Oh look at this heart attack...hmmm looks delicious...APPROVED!" How much money do we spend on food? America cracks me up sometimes...thanks for listening!

#1. Worst Beverage In America. "PB&C Chocolate Shake by ColdStone, 24 fl. oz) is a whopping 2,100 calories!!! The average American male, "ought" to consume that amount of calories in food throughout his day!!!

Sugar equivalent? 30 sugar cookies! Who's a hungry hippo? Hippo indeed!

Why is stoning not just a death penalty?

What do you think? Is the time of death, a chance to anhiliate ones identity, to the point of beyond recognition?

The incredible healing power of sleep.

From a lecture John Piper gave on Charles Spurgeon, in 1995.

"There were early days when I would work without regard to sleep and feel energized and motivated. In the last seven or eight years my threshold for despondency is much lower. For me, adequate sleep is not a mater of staying healthy. It is a matter of staying in the ministry. It is irrational that my future should look bleaker when I get four or five hours sleep several nights in a row. But that is irrelevant. Those are the facts. And I must live within the limits of facts. I commend sufficient sleep to you, for the sake of your proper assessment of God and his promises."

CH Spurgeon on bravery!

“You are not generally satisfied with the bare necessities of life, you desire to possess its comforts and luxuries. I will commend you if you carry this into spiritual things. Do not be content merely to be saved, merely to be spiritually alive; ask to be valiant for truth. I should feel it a great honor, I hope, to be the commonest soldier, if called upon to defend my country. But I must confess I should not like to be in the ranks always. I should like at least to be made a corporal very soon, and a sergeant as soon as possible; and I should grumble wonderfully much if I could not rise to rank among the commissioned officers. I should like to be found doing my very best.”

C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, 1950), III:665.

A plea from a woman at the outskirts of my church

I think most churches have someone like this. A little socially off, non-reciprocating on friendship, they come every Sunday but during fellowship you don't really want to talk with them, because they just vent into some issue that just happened to be on their mind. There is one such woman in our church, I will call her Amy, and tonight I just learned she had a really tough child-hood, with abusive parents, and having had many friends who had backgrounds in drugs, there might have been some heavy drug use in her past. Sometimes she's not the most coherent.

After having a conversation about her not having any friends in the church, and about how she currently doesn't want any friends, she said something I'll never forget. "People don't listen to me with their heart, they listen to me with their head. The head can be full of judgement toward someone, I think I am very misunderstood here. I wish I was just more listened to by their hearts instead." Amy, you are right on!! I was listening to a heart plea from a woman who was living at the fringes of our church. I think she is at a place where she neither wants in on the economony of the body of Christ, nor does she want to leave. She's just been hurt! Both from her past, and current judgements placed on her by our brothers and sisters.

Here are some points I'd like to make about these kinds of people.

1. Everybody has a longing to be a part of a family, so include them. They may be that token outsider, that no one talks to. Sacrifice your image, your social comfort, and reach out.

2. Realize everyone has a past. There are reasons for the way people are, and someone may need help maturing through a struggle. Who cares if they're heretical, if they're in church, they're in the right place.

3. Listen with your heart. Spare the corrections, spare the judgements. They may know themselves they don't have all the doctrines figured out, and they're not looking for a professorial lesson from you, but rather a heart to heart conversation. There is a time for rebuke and a time for correction. When a person is starving for water, they don't need to train for a marathon.

4. Pray for them! Satan doesn't usually attack people who have their lives all figured out. If Satan is a predator, which he is, he's going to go for the weak minded, the already injured, and the deeply hurting. These are the ones who are susceptible to attacks the most. Pray for them!

Top list of important sermons and books worth reading

Again, Justin Tayler, VP of Editorial at Crossway, has come up with a list of articles, sermons and books that have influenced these great leaders of our time. Perhaps, read a couple, enjoy!

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A few days ago I was thinking back to a few classic sermons and essays that have made a significant impact on my own thinking and ministry. They are the sorts of pieces that can get lost in the shuffle in the midst of book recommendations, classic and contemporary. For example, a few that came to mind were:

Thomas Chalmers, “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection”
Jonathan Edwards, “The Excellency of Christ”
B.B. Warfield, “The Religious Life of Theological Students”
B.B. Warfield, “The Emotional Life of Our Lord”
So I thought it might be helpful to ask some pastors and theologians what they would recommend as sermons or essays that have had a special impact on them, or that they would seriously urge students and pastors to consider reading.

I’m thankful for all of the responses. I’ve tried to add as many links as possible to free versions online:

Bryan Chapell

J.I. Packer, “What Did the Cross Achieve? The Logic of Penal Substitution”
Francis Schaeffer, “A Day of Sober Rejoicing”
Thomas Chalmers, “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection”

Graham Cole

“The Martyrdom of Polycarp“
Adolphe Monod, Adolphe Monod’s Farewell to His Friends and to His Church [note from JT: I just received from Amazon this print version and wouldn't recommend it. It's a typographical nightmare. If anyone is interested in scanning and editing a clean version of it, drop me a note and we'll try to get a free version available online.]
B. B. Warfield, “Imitating the Incarnation“

Mark Dever

Jonathan Edwards, “A Farewell Sermon“
Dever also mentioned three books:

Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress
Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry

Kevin DeYoung

John Piper, “Boasting Only in the Cross” (Passion OneDay 2000 sermon)
C.S. Lewis, Introduction to Athanasius’ On the Incarnation
J.I. Packer, Introductory Essay to John Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ
Jonathan Edwards, “Heaven, a World of Love“
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “What Is Preaching?” (included in Knowing the Times)
J. Gresham Machen, “What Is Christianity?” (in Selected Shorter Writings)
J. Gresham Machen, “History and Faith” (in Selected Shorter Writings)
J. Gresham Machen, “What Is the Gospel?” (in Selected Shorter Writings)

Stephen J. Nichols

J. Gresham Machen, “The Good Fight of Faith“
Jonathan Edwards, “The Most High, A Prayer-Hearing God“
John Chrysostom, “Homily 21, On Ephesians 6:1-4“

Ray Ortlund

Francis A. Schaeffer, “The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way“
C. S. Lewis, “Three Kinds of Men“
Martin Luther, Letter to Jerome Weller, in Luther: Letters of Spiritual Counsel, edited by T. G. Tappert, pages 84-87.
Jonathan Edwards, on spiritual pride, in “Thoughts on the Revival,” in Works, I:398-403.

John Piper

C.S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory” (first sermon in the book by that title)
C.S. Lewis, Introduction to Athanasius’ On the Incarnation
J.I. Packer, Introductory Essay to John Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ
Jonathan Edwards, “A Divine and Supernatural Light Immediately Imparted to the Soul“
Martin Luther, “Justification by Faith” (Luke 16:1-9) in The Protestant Pulpit, ed. by Andrew Blackwood
Charles Spurgeon, “The Minister’s Fainting Fits“
Charles Spurgeon, “The Blind Eye and the Deaf Ear“
Geerhardus Vos, “The Scriptural Doctrine of the Love of God“

David Powlison

B. B. Warfield, “Imitating the Incarnation“ (“The last page and a half offers the most riveting description of the goal of Christian living that I’ve ever read.”)

Fred Sanders

Henry Scougal, The Life of God in the Soul of Man
Athanasius, “Letter to Marcellinus on the Reading of the Psalms“
Lancelot Andrewes, Private Devotions

R.C. Sproul

Jonathan Edwards, “A Divine and Supernatural Light“
This section of Luther’s last sermon at Eisleben

Carl R. Trueman

R. V. G. Tasker, “The Biblical Doctrine of the Wrath of God“
Martin Luther, “Two Kinds of Righteousness“
George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language” [the most brilliant statement (and example) of clear prose—something which pastors and theologians need to grasp.]

Bruce Ware

R.C. Sproul, Lecture on “The Locus of Astonishment” (A brief summary is available here. For a similar talk, listen to “When Towers Fall.”)

Donald Whitney

Charles Spurgeon, “The Minister’s Fainting Fits,” from Lectures to My Students.
Charles Spurgeon, Sermon on “The Eternal Name,” from Ps. 72:17, no. 27 (New Park Street Pulpit), May 27, 1855 PM
Charles Spurgeon, Sermon on “Baptismal Regeneration“
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “‘But God’: The Christian Message” (Ephesians 2:4)

Corban: A brief study of the only occurance

This is a word that occurs only once in the entire Bible. Scholars know it is a Hebrew word that received no translation into Greek. This is just a quick exploration into this word, and its implication on the passage in which it appears, Mark 7:11.

Definition: The word describes anything dedicated to God, and therefore not available for ordinary uses. The utterance of it was held to constitute a binding vow, and the fulfillment of a vow was regarded by the Pharisees as of deeper obligation than the duty even to parents. See Matt. 15: 5 and Mark 7: 11, where it appears that the Pharisees misused the opportunity of dedicating their material possessions to God, in order to avoid responsibility to care for their parents.

One commentary suggests that pharisees developed this responsibility shedding tradition from a couple of Old Testament commandments found in Leviticus and Numbers.

Leviticus 27:14-15 This chapter talks about dedicating things to the Lord. In verses 14-15 it talks about dedicating ones house to the Lord; a priest would appraise it, deem it worthy or unworthy of being dedicated ("No broken shacks please Levi, c'mon") to the temple.

Numbers 30:1-2 This chapter talks about vows, and specifically it says in verses 1-2 that if a man makes a promise or vow, he must do it. No exceptions.

Lets put it all in context and lets see how this might go down. Moshe wants to dedicate his house to the Lord. Moshe has parents still who are of old age and will need assistance next year. He doesn't want to take care of his folks, so he gets the priest to approve his house to be dedicated to the Lord, so that it is now "corban", dedicated solely to the use of the temple and no other. Now Moshe on a good conscience can say, "Well, I made a vow to the Lord, and I have to keep it....sorry Mom and Dad."

Like some pastors and leaders today, they are comissioned to be shepherds and care for their flock, but don't even care for their own family at times. This is backwards, and you get a good feel on what Jesus' sentiments are for the pharisees, who live by such flagrantly disrespectful traditions. These are the same people who Jesus calls a family of vipers and children of Satan.

Here is Mark 7:9-13, for you to read with this new knowledge of corban.

"You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, "Honor your father and mother; and 'Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.' But you say, 'If a man tells his father or mother, 'Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban (that is, given to God) - then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the Word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do."

Do we understand the heart of things, presented in the word of God, so as to be careful not to make our own traditions today (examples being perhaps, swearing by the KJV, living in alegiance to a form of Christian nationalism, or even slight as allowing doctrines of the church slowly replace the heart of the gospel in our lives)

Unbelief: The Failure to Think

Because I've been reading a lot of Martin Lloyd-Jones lately, I need re-post from Tim Challies blog.

Faith according to our Lord’s teaching in this paragraph, is primarily thinking; and the whole trouble with a man of little faith is that he does not think. He allows circumstances to bludgeon him. . . .

We must spend more time in studying our Lord’s lessons in observation and deduction. The Bible is full of logic, and we must never think of faith as something purely mystical. We do not just sit down in an armchair and expect marvelous things to happen to us. That is not Christian faith. Christian faith is essentially thinking. Look at the birds, think about them, draw your deductions. Look at the grass, look at the lilies of the field, consider them. . . .

Faith, if you like, can be defined like this: It is a man insisting upon thinking when everything seems determined to bludgeon and knock him down in an intellectual sense. The trouble with the person of little faith is that, instead of controlling his own thought, his thought is being controlled by something else, and, as we put it, he goes round and round in circles. That is the essence of worry. . . . That is not thought; that is the absence of thought, a failure to think.

-Martin Lloyd-Jones

Top 10 books to read on culture!

Again this is a post from one of my favorite bloggers, who works at one of my favorite publishers!

Ken Myers’s Mars Hill Audio is one of the best resources for intelligent conversation about books and culture. Here are ten books he recommends for a better understanding of culture:

Five “Thinner” Books

1. C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (1943)
2. Wendell Berry, Life Is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition (2000)
3. Colin Gunton, Enlightenment and Alienation: An Essay Towards a Trinitarian Theology (1985)
4. George Parkin Grant, English-Speaking Justice (1985)
5. Richard Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences (1948)

Five “Thicker” Books

6. John McWhorter, Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music and Why We Should, Like, Care (2003)
7. Jacques Barzun, The Use and Abuse of Art (1974)
8. David Thomson, The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood (2004)
9. Julian Johnson, Who Needs Classical Music? Cultural Choice and Musical Value (2002)
10. Langdon Winner, Autonomous Technology: Technics-out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought (1977)

Here is the original article

The incredible beauty of choice!

What a beautiful thing choice is! Isn't it? I was just thinking about two things recently; morality police in Iran, and the love that my wife shows me. One is totally volitional and the other forced and coerced!

If the sole way I felt loved by my wife was for her to make me my favorite meal that she makes, and I stood behind her and like a puppeteer forced her hands to make the meal I wanted. "Stir my little puppet stiiirrr!" It was not what she desired to make, but what I wanted her to make, so I forced her. She did not make it out of love, she had no choice. I forced her to make it, and so it was not love, not even remotely. This is where the beauty of choice comes in and makes everything worth it! Somewhere in the heart, in the deep mechanical caverns where things like epistemology and morality is digested, comes a sweet fragrance. A fragrance that sweetens most outcomes of the persons choice, a fragrance as unique as every person. Every cross-roads we encounter, every problem we must process, and every hurt we must mend, is followed by a choice, whether for the best or for the worse. That depth of mystery from which a choice boils up, is unique to each person, and is one of the core dimensions that make up our personality.

It is to our complete awe that it is God who gave us this! He is the one who at great risk to himself, gave us the freedom of choice. He very well could have made us robots, and just recognize him and love him for who He is. But a robot cannot do that, they cannot behold Glory, and so actuate a process of beholding Him, realizing His worth, and choosing to love Him. It was at great risk to himself that God gave us this freedom, with the risk that our eyes that were made to behold Him, would become distracted or self-centered eyes, and not behold Him, and so not realize Him, and would not be able to choose Him.

It is my guess that maybe, aside from sending Christ to die on the cross, the hardest moment for God would have been when he breathed the freedom to choose into our being. As infinite as He is, and able as he is to in one moment (for he is outside time) to consider eternity future, and see those would not choose Him. In His sovereign wisdom, he allowed some the ability to truly express their love and worship to Him, thus magnifying God and His glory, while also cutting off the only chance some humans would have had in escaping hell (but that's totally a "what if..." question, He knew before the creation of the world whom He would choose, and to be honest I'm not entirely comfortable with what was said in the last paragraph, just thinking really in this last bit...care to comment?)

It is a beautiful thing to be able to choose! Choose well!

Words and God: Inseparable!

Again I'm referencing another blogger, Justin Taylor VP of Editorial of Crossway. I've enjoyed his works immensley and wanted to share his latest blog. A brief excerpt from the book he co-authored with John Piper. Also i can't resist as a Linguist...I love words!!


Go to the page here

What's happening to my boys!?!?

Russell Crowe has to be one of my favorite actors of all time. Master & Commander, Gladiator, that one movie where he sees people and he's a math genius? Yeah, excellent actor....that is until I heard a song by one of my favorite Irish bands, Gaelic Storm, where the lead singer used to manage a bar out in San Fransisco (true), and how Russell Crowe came in and tried smoking during the ban (probably true), and like the song goes, good ol' Gladiator was drunk and up for some scrapping when the lead singer told him he couldn't smoke at the bar....so he hit Russell in the head!! You can listen to the song while reading this here. Gaelic usurped the position of affection in my mind that Russell once had. But Russ was a great actor, and if you've seen him in Master & Commander, you might agree that was one of his best roles. One interesting thing from the movie of actual historical significance is this: you ever notice who the seamen (a few elderly men) called Lieutenant....those 17 yr old boys. No, it was not the mistake of the producers to put in boys when they meant men.

Sure Russ was older and the commander and all, but it was common practice to put 16-18 yr old boys into leadership on those boats during the wars of 1812 and earlier. It was practice of the British Royal Navy to enroll young boys by the age 13 to start their training to be midhshipmen, and then if they passed their test, to be Lieutenants. Interestingly, the practice to train up young people in the seafaring skill, is still continuing to this day in a program called Outward Bound (if I had the time and money, I would so do it, but alas...).

That was the 1800's. Now consider the early 1900's to the 60's. If you were 26 yrs old, there was a 68% chance that you were married, had kids, and a mortgage. Fast forward, to today. The average 26 yr old (I believe the stat for which this is true is 78%) is not married, does not have a mortgage, but is the main consumer of video games. In the US, the age bracket 18-34, makes up 95% of the consumers of video games that come out today. What happened?

Something happened in the early 20th century, that changed things forever for men. In the marketing world there was a term called "elusive gap", which were men between the ages of 18-35. You couldn't reach them. They were not shoppers, they were content (maybe, or just depressed...or rich), you couldn't reach out to them. That is until something happened in marketing theory. Something so radical, it would change the face of marketing to really what we know it is today. Over our great pond in England, the president of Maxim (a gentlemens magazine), started walking down a radical path wih marketing, which said, "Give them what they want." That was it!! The women began showing up on their magazine covers in ways that would set the model for marketing that we see today. Beautiful blonde babes, draped (not dressed) in clothes almost falling off, starting getting mens attention, and consequently brought mens eyes over products inside the magazine.

It is the same today. We get what we want!! It's gone so far as company's studying bilogical responses to images, smells, and reactions to products. Emsense is such a company, that scientifically measures the neural reaction to movie trailers, to see which ones will do the best. The main thrust in marketing today seems to be satiating the consumers. "The customer is always right", right? But what's best for us?

The society has fostered a stagnant atmosphere for our young adults, one in which they are not challenged. "You want to stay home with your parents in the basement until your 24? Ok, how many twinkies would you like? You dropped your gaming console....here." It's almost as if were now saying, "Whatever the young adult wants, is right?" So lets give them what they want?

My one single question is this? Are we challenging our men? Period. Perhaps we are, but are we challenging them enough? This may be no secret, but men love challenges. That's why we like complicated and competitive video games. Say, "you'll never be able to do it" and watch him excel in trying to prove you wrong. That's not entirely my idea of challenge though.

I feel we have a domino dillemma. If our fathers weren't instructed into passing into manhood, how are they able to do that for us. Its a domino effect. Put yourself in the feet of your father, especially if he doesn't feel fulfilled in his occupation, and his marriage is struggling, it will be difficult for him to look at his son, and breathe manhood into his sails, when he alone doesn't feel manly. My challenge to anyone reading, is to simply begin treating our young adults like men. You treat them like boys, they'll stay boys. Treat them like men, and they'll become men. Sure, they'll be immature. In the 1800's, the biggest problem they had with young lieutenants was laziness. We as men are always growing though.

Challenge us! Treat our young people in the way you want them to be!!





A number of things as of late has fueled thought on this matter. One of the articles that did so, was this one.