Monthly Archives: November 2009

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This morning we were in the church service (which almost always is started with prayer).  This morning Jeremiah (the worship leader) just jumped right into the music (and he is the best "pray-er" I have heard at this church).

He was leading the music at the right speed, but after the intro when he started singing it was at twice the speed we should have been singing.

After the first line, he stopped..."Somebody up here needs to calm down and I think it's me.  Let's stop right now and pray."  And he did.

After that...it was wonderful.  It's not the teaching or the leadership that keeps me going to this church...it's Jeremiah.

"All Creatures of Our God and King"

All creatures of our God and King,
lift up your voices, let us sing:
Alleluia, alleluia!
Thou burning sun with golden beams,
thou silver moon that gently gleams,
Refrain:
O praise him, O praise him,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

Thou rushing wind that art so strong,
ye clouds that sail in heaven along,
O praise him, Alleluia!
Thou rising morn, in praise rejoice, ye lights of evening, find a voice, (R)


And thou, most kind and gentle death,
waiting to hush our latest breath,
O praise him, Alleluia!
Thou leadest home the child of God,
and Christ our Lord the way hath trod: (R)

Let all things their Creator bless,
and worship him in humbleness,
O praise him, Alleluia!
Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son,
and praise the Spirit, Three in One: (R)

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A study conducted by UCLA's Department of Psychiatry has revealed that the kind of face a woman finds attractive on a man can differ depending on where she is In her menstrual cycle. For example: If she is ovulating, she is attracted to men with rugged and masculine features. However, if she is menstruating, or menopausal, she tends to be more attracted to a man with duct tape over his mouth and a spear lodged in his chest while he is on fire...

No further studies are expected.

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The Parables of Jesus: Entering, Growing, Living, and Finishing in God's Kingdom by Terry Johnson

If you ask, "Why did Jesus teach in parables?" most people will answer:  "to make it easier to understand."

When the disciples asked Jesus why He taught in parables, He answered, "

This is why I speak to them in parables:
"Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
" 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people's heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.'

But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. (Matt 13:13-17 ESV)

According to Jesus, He used parables not to make it easier to understand, but to make it more difficult to understand!

Why?  Johnson puts forward the thought that parables were perfect for Jesus' "purposes in election".

He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. (v.11)

I think the verse that follows contradicts the imposition of the doctrine of election into this passage, though.

Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. (v.12)

I think this verse says that (even if there is no doctrine of election and we all start out with the same ability), those who have even a little bit of understanding will be given more...and those who refuse to listen to the Word will have even what they started with taken away.

But the point remains that Jesus used parables to illuminate the truth to some...and to veil it to others.

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From Tom McMahon

tags: beatles, flow chart

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More Americans are "pro-life" than "pro-choice" -

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A great blog I discovered by a military wife

Found through "Obama doesn't "get" the military he commands" - a great post.

tags:  military, Obama, politics

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On the other hand...

tags:  military, W., Bush, politics

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Four Types of Theologians - from Parchment and Pen

"Where do you roast your marshmallows?"

tags:  Christianity, religion, theology

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Well of course!  If there are too many books on the conservative best seller lists...give them their own list!  (That way they're not competing with the liberals...)

In a Nov. 9 entry on The Huffington Post that laments Fox News host Glenn Beck pulling a feat not done before - holding the number one spot on The New York Times' four lists: hardcover fiction, hardcover non-fiction, paperback non-fiction and children's - they suggest a separate category altogether, not for political non-fiction, but conservative non-fiction.

tags: conservative, books, Huffington Post, politics

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How many people died at Fort Hood?  Fourteen...A grim reminder of the ones who are forgotten...

tags: Fort Hood, military

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This is interesting...from the "religion of peace" and all...

Coworkers told police that Hamid's actions were out of the ordinary and that he had worked at the kiosk for years. (...) Through an interpreter, Hamid requested a public defender and was scheduled to appear in court at 9 a.m. Thursday where he is expected to enter a plea.

What's up with that?  He's been working at a mall in California for YEARS...and needs an interpreter to ask for an attorney?

tags:  Islam, politics, religion

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Blackfive...another new blog I'm reading...

this post made me cry. - Lest we forget...

tags: military

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For those who want a "level playing field" - here's a woman who...well...read.

tags: sports, disabilities

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2009:

President Barack Obama recently told ABC News' Jake Tapper that he shares Pelosi’s belief that jail time is an appropriate punishment for not buying health insurance.

2008

And I think that it is important for us to recognize that if, in fact, you are going to mandate the purchase of insurance and it’s not affordable, then there’s going to have to be some enforcement mechanism that the government uses. And they may charge people who already don’t have health care fines, or have to take it out of their paychecks. And that, I don’t think, is helping those without health insurance.

and Pelosi dodges...

tags: health care, Obama, Pelosi

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"Christian"?  Or "The Way"?

Both work for me...

tags: Christianity, religion, Jay E. Adams

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I posted on this a long time ago...it wasn't well received then...or would be now I suppose.

Egalitarianism and Homosexuality:  Connected or Autonomous Ideologies?

Evangelical Christian organizations that hold to a complementarian view of gender roles, such as The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW), have expressed concern over a possible connection between an egalitarian view of male/female gender roles and homosexuality. For example, in the list of central concerns stated in Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood-perhaps the most thorough defense of complementarianism-the authors declare, "We are concerned not merely with the behavior roles of men and women, but also with the underlying nature of manhood and womanhood themselves.

tags:  egalitarianism, complementarianism, homosexuality, Christianity, religion

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Let's play:  One of these things is not like the other.

or...

"Why Can't Jill BIden Take Mrs. Utopia Shopping Sometimes?"

I like these guys...

tags: politics, fashion, Michelle Obama

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via "Cruising Down the Coast of High Barbaree" who thinks this explains a lot...

“I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.” --BHO, 2008

tags: politics, Obama

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"Why I Think Women Need to Study Theology"

I have a confession to make.  I am not fond of women’s ministry programs.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my sisters in Christ and enjoy fellowshipping with them.  But programs that involve some type of teaching, such as workshops or conferences, generally don’t appeal to me.  Why?  In my experience, gatherings to hear teaching have been little more than encouragement sessions to make us feel better about being “God’s women”.  Unfortunately, I find the same thing on women’s blogs, even ones that have been advertised as a place for serious thinkers.  There are a few exceptions, but generally, I find them lacking in rich theological substance.

tags:  women, theology, Christianity, religion

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From "The Parables of Jesus: Entering, Growing, Living, and Finishing in God's Kingdom" by Terry Johnson.

We know that Jesus taught with parables (not the only way He taught, but (Johnson says) that whenever it is recorded that Jesus taught, He included parables.

He gives 5 related by slightly different definitions of "parable".

(1) "wise sayings of a pictorial kind" (Leon Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew, 354)
(2) "A story taken from real life (or a real-life situation) from which a moral or spiritual truth is drawn" (J.M.Boice)
(3) "an earthly story with a heavenly meaning" (an old Sunday School definition)
(4)"examples of popular story-telling that are meant to evoke a response and to strike a verdict" (A.M.Hunter, Interpreting the Parables")
(5) " a comparison, a putting of one thing beside another to make a point" (Robert F. Capon, The Parables of the Kingdom)

The parables are interesting because they sometimes turn what we "know" upside down.

"bad people are commended, good people are scolded and unanticipated pople are rewarded and punished" (p.16

The parables illuminate those with the key, but obscure it for those who do not. The disciples had to ask about the parable of the sower.

Johnson says,

Jesus' answer is that parables are uniquely suited to the central principles of redemption in that they in fact both reveal the truth and veil it. They are illuminating for some and at the same time obscuring for others.

  • do the definitions make sense?
  • why would Jesus use a confusing method of teaching?