Another Birthday has come and gone

What left a mark?

• The joy in my son's face as he gave me his hand picked gift. "The John Lennon Collection Collectors Tin".
• Beating my parents to the "Happy Birthday" phone call with the phrase "Happy My Birthday" as they answered the phone.
• Finding out that we finally did get the Amazon Wish List to work and I now am looking forward to reading "The Nature of Atonement" and "Hebrew Thought compared with Greek" and listen to "Whole Lotta Blues - The Songs of Led Zeppelin".
• Finding out I now look in my 40's instead of 30's.

I think, what left it's mark most recently was waking up because of "partying too hard" and having to take TUMS. That Cookie Dough DQ Blizzard was good however.

1, 2, 21, 22

Yesterday, I wrote about reading the "whole gospel". In other words, reading the Bible from Genesis 1 rather than Genesis 3 and reading through Revelation 22, rather than Revelation 20.

Let me give an example.

A popular evangelism technique is called the "Romans Road". In the past, I've been trained in using the "Romans Road" but have always felt a little strange using it.

In the "Romans Road", you are to first turn to Romans 3:23.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Where does this start the discussion? Genesis 3...

The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." (Genesis 3:21-22)

What would change if the "whole gospel" were used? Although there are lots of places to start, lets try Genesis 1:27.

So God created human beings in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

This can then be followed up by verses like Romans 3:23 and so on.

What about the other end of the story. If we do not read to Revelation 21-22, you get this (again from the Romans Road).

If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)

While this is true, it speaks nothing of the return to paradise described in Revelation 21-22. If we wanted to stay with the Romans theme, look at Romans 8:20-22.

20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?

What does it come down to?

If we read from Genesis 3 to Revelation 20, we see a creation that is, as the Calvinist would say, Totally Depraved, ending the story with God's judgement of the world.

In reading from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, we see a creation that was made in the image of God and declared good. While that creation did sin, there is hope through Christ and, in the end, those adopted into God's family get to live in the redeemed world with God.

The perfect storm?

This is a bunch of thoughts that have converged together...

A couple of years ago, I listened to a talk Scot McKnight gave on "The Whole Gospel". In this talk he expresses concern that we are not, as a church, preaching on Genesis through Revelation.

In "From Eternity to Here", Frank Viola states that most of the evangelical church today teaches from Genesis 3 to Revelation 20 and needs to look at Genesis 1 through Revelation 22.

Today, I listened to a message from Rob Bell at Mars Hill Bible Church titled The Importance of Beginning in the Beginning which talks about the same thing. He also states that if we do start at Genesis 3 rather than Genesis, our view of God changes and we start to separate the wonder of the creation from God himself.

Here is where the perfect storm starts....

Jerry Falwell stated (and apologized for saying) that the September 11 attacks on the US were God's judgement on homosexual sin in the US.

Others believed that the tsunamis in 2004 were God's judgement on the affected areas. Pat Robertson claimed the hurricanes which struck New Orleans were also God's judgement.

This week in Minneapolis, a tornado struck a Evangelical Lutheran (ELCA) church, causing minor damage. There was a claim that this is a warning from God to turn from "the approval of sin". This has caused a lot of controversy in the blogosphere. There is discussion here as well as links to some of the comments.

Why the perfect storm comment? Because this dovetails into the thoughts from Scot McKnight, Frank Viola and Rob Bell. I believe that those who declare natural disasters (large or small) to be Gods Judgement on (fill in the blank) are starting the Gospel at "The Fall", not at "Creation".

Did God use natural disasters as Judgement? In some cases, yes. One would be hard pressed to explain Sodom and Gomorrah as anything else. The difference is that there were no innocent parties involved there. That tends to hold up throughout scripture.

200100

I have to brag just a little. This is a picture I took with my cell phone of the odometer of our 1998 Dodge Caravan (minivan). Yes, it's only 11 years old (that's a little over 18,000 miles per year) and has had no major transmission or engine work done yet. We are quite happy with it so far.

Our biases

I caught just a bit of the story on the confirmation of Justice Sotomayer as they were heading to vote. The announcer mentioned the block of opponents who thought she was too biased to be a good Supreme Court Justice.

I found this to be a bit ironic. You see, what I believe they were really saying is that her biases didn't match theirs so she didn't appear unbiased...

To truly be unbiased, you must ignore your own personal opinion and side with right, with "Justice". I don't know that any of us can be unbiased, that is a hard thing to do. I believe, however, that it is probably a Christ-like thing to be.

Extreme Sheep Herding...

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad

They have been the rocks in my life. Always there, always supportive.

Happy Anniversary!

Back from Oregon

We pulled in about 12:15 last night on our return trip. Here are the highlights.

• Our car passed 200K miles on the way back. Many people have difficulty believing that a Dodge Caravan could do that well being "American made". Some of this is because we do care for the car, some because it is a good car, 11 years old and this makes just over 18K miles per year.
• Marj and I had a pleasant journey out alone because Kyle flew out a week early to visit cousins, etc. We finished "Transition" on the way.
• The Garmin GPS was invaluable... I like the interface and, with a few quirks, it was accurate. Once, a wrong turn by me proved to be a great re-route through the desert of Eastern Oregon. It helped us find a good Chinese restaurant up the coast and even provided the phone number for it.
• If you have to go through Eastern Oregon, I-84 is a lot more scenic than US-20, until you hit the Willamatte Valley.
• We got a couple of clearer days but the spot we were in on the Oregon coast was somewhat overcast most of the time... But BEAUTIFUL! Living in Colorado all these years, however, I could see that I might start getting a little crazy without nearly daily sunshine.

We arrived at the coast yesterday, after dropping the dogs off at a kennel.

I thought the temperatures were chilly (about 60F) but was told they were perfect.

I took the following pictures as the sun set over the horizon.

On vacation...

We've been on vacation since Friday. Packed up the dogs and headed west.

Here are some of the photos we have taken...

These were taken over the Snake River near Twin falls, Idaho.

Listen to the Jesus Manifesto

Last month, I wrote about the Jesus Manifesto. I have read the manifesto several times but listening to it was a big treat for my ears. Especially to hear the authors read it. You can listen here. Turn it on, sit back and close your eyes...

Stockholm Syndrome

Derek Webb is in the process of releasing a CD called "Stockholm Syndrome". It's got challenging lyrics to listen to. Jesus Creed posted about it and you can listen to one of his songs there.

Stockholme Syndrome is described here as:

The term, Stockholm Syndrome, was coined in the early 70's to describe the puzzling reactions of four bank employees to their captor. On August 23, 1973, three women and one man were taken hostage in one of the largest banks in Stockholm. They were held for six days by two ex-convicts who threatened their lives but also showed them kindness. To the world's surprise, all of the hostages strongly resisted the government's efforts to rescue them and were quite eager to defend their captors. Indeed, several months after the hostages were saved by the police, they still had warm feelings for the men who threatened their lives. Two of the women eventually got engaged to the captors.

As I thought about is, I started wondering why the title? Is it possible that I am experiencing Stockholm Syndrome?

Completing the TULIP/BEERS debate

Grace has completed the TULIP vs BEERS debate with her final post, TULIP or BEERS: Perseverence of the Saints. I also updated the list I posted earlier.

From Eternity to Here - Take a listen

Frank Viola has posted chapter 1 of his book in audio format here. If you want to hear what struck me, take a listen.

Interesting postings 2

The second series of interesting posts is from the "From the Pew" blog. I got interested in Steve's work when he posted "What I used to believe, What I now believe".

He has a series he calls "Scripture American Style". His first post (and introduction to the series) is here. Again, I find Steve's blogs thought provoking.

Interesting postings

I've been following a couple of bloggers with interest. I'll detail them in separate posts.

The first is from "Kingdom Grace". She has been posting for the last few days on "Doctrines of Grace". She has had 5 posts looking at the 5 points of Calvinism -- TULIP vs. her view she calls BEERS.

TULIP is an acronym for a systematic theology (a systematic way of looking at how God operates in our world. This interests me for several reasons.

• First, I've had several discussions with people around many of these points. In fact, while in college, many of the friends I had held fast to many if not all of these points.
• Second, as I listen and apply the Bible (through Daily Audio Bible), I am gaining a different picture of how God has and does work in this world.

While I don't agree with everything Grace talks about, I have found the discussion compelling and thought provoking.

So far, along with the introduction, there are only TULI and BEER so I am expecting one more post soon.

You can read them all

• Introduction
• Total Depravity vs Broken Icons
• Unconditional Election vs Eternal Purpose
• Limited Atonement vs Extravagant Atonement
• Irresistible Grace vs Response to Grace
• Perseverence of the Saints vs Shalom

I'll add the last post to this list when it appears.

Save The Antelope

A friend sent this video to me. I just knew it had to be out on YouTube (and it was).

A Jesus Manifesto

Frank Viola and Leonard Sweet have published an excellent document called "The Jesus Manifesto". Whether you agree or not, it's worth the read. You can also download the manifesto here (to save it to the drive, right click and "Save to Disk").

Toto’s “Africa” performed by Perpetuum Jazzile

Brian from the Coverville podcast posted this and thought I'd share it here. I love the sound effects they create at the beginning of the song but found they sound better through headphones than my laptop speakers.

Perpetuum Jazzile is a vocal group from Slovenia*. There are several more videos available on YouTube.

* Location above was corrected...

The worst...

I was listening to a radio show (on the web) today that mentioned Men's Health Worst Meals.  You can get the list of the "worst" things to eat here.  Quizno's does make the list, Subway does not.