Scala & Candlewyck played on Coverville

Coverville hit another one out of the park with Episode 719.

Brian started off playing 4 selections from Scala / Kolacny Brothers. Scala is a Belgium girls chorale which has recorded popular songs. The Kolacny Brothers are the conductor and pianist for the group. You can watch "With or Without You" below.

My favorite that for that set was a Phil Collins cover of "Solsbury Hill".

The show was finished out with a cover medley of Kansas' "Point of no return" and Rush's "Spirit of the Radio" performed by Candlewyck. Candlewyck is a bluegrass band (or as one music source put it nuGrass). Since I've liked both Kansas and Rush as well as those song in particular, this was a hit with me.

You can listen to the show on the embedded player from the link above.

Do you walk your dog or does your dog walk you?

The photo on the left shows the "proper position" for walking dog. The photo on the left, while not extreme like some I've seen, shows the dog walking the owner.

We take our dogs out for a walk nearly every day (at least week days). Let me chronicle our routine.

1. Before leaving the house, the dogs must sit in the doorway to the laundry while we get ready and wait to have their leashes attached.
2. We head out the door. The dog must wait for the owner to go out first. It's a pack behavior that we want to instill (we are the "alpha").
3. We have rituals that the dogs have learned. One such ritual that we do for their safety is to stop and sit on both sides of the street.
4. Sometimes we let the "play". When we walk by an area which isn't owned by a neighbor, such as a park or an empty lot, we let the dogs explore to the end of the leash.
5. After a "play" we call them back to "heel". Keva will slow, sometimes imperceptibly to allow me to catch up with him.
6. Sometimes we work. One of the most difficult things to teach a dog at first is to "down", that is to lay down on the ground. The reason is that down is a submissive action and also, in the outdoors, a dangerous one. We will sometimes do a "down in motion" where we have the dog do a down while we are walking. While the dog is down, we will continue, sometimes to the end of the leash, sometimes much further. At some point, we either return to the dog or call the dog to us.
7. Walk time is, of course, one of the times the dog can "do their duty". We clean up after them.

One of the most satisfying times is during those walks where the dog is focused on me. Where he senses what I want him to do. I'll look down and see him looking up at me.

I started this post a couple of days ago and have let it age a bit before completing it.

About a year and a half ago, I posted "What my dog teaches me about God". Looking at the list above, I am still learning. Is God "walking me" or am I attempting to "walk God".

Run...

I may have watched the Orphan/Often scene (below) from the Pirates of Penzance too many times.

Others may say I am a bit pedantic at times (definition 2 here).

I flipped on the TV and heard the contestant on "The Amazing Race" yell to his father...

"Run like you've never run before"

I grinned! Why? I knew he meant to have his father running as quickly as possible but the following picture popped into my head...

The picture of a grown man trying run for the first time.

Election Day -- Yea!!!

It's election day! November 2nd!

Why am I excited? It's the last day of calls throughout the evening that I don't want to hear. It's the last evening of advertisements on television and radio that annoy me. I'll get less junk mail as well!

The bad part of the end of the election process? Each one of those things I mentioned above is a shot in the arm for our economy. As much as I dislike the advertisements, the printers will have less to do, the postal carrier will have less to do, the media will also have less income.

Scott McKnight talked about "The Eschatology of Politics" on his Jesus Creed blog today. He wrote:

This was published at Out of Ur blog; it is now edited for a new day.

Somewhere between 6pm and 8pm, Central Time, on November 2d, 2010, the eschatology of American evangelicals will become clear. If a Republican (or a Tea Party candidate) wins and the evangelical becomes delirious or confident that the Golden Days are about to arrive, that evangelical has an eschatology of politics. Or, alternatively, if Democrat wins and the evangelical becomes delirious or confident that the Golden Days are about to arrive, that evangelical too has an eschatology of politics. Or, we could turn each around, if a more Democrat oriented evangelical becomes depressed and hopeless because a Repub wins, or if a Republican oriented evangelical becomes depressed or hopeless because a Dem wins, those evangelicals are caught in an empire-shaped eschatology of politics.

I can’t imagine 1st Century Roman Christians caught up in some kind of hope whether it would be Nero or Britannicus who would succeed Claudius.

Where is our hope? To be sure, I hope our country solves its international conflicts and I hope we resolve poverty and dissolve our educational problems and racism. But where does my hope turn when I think of war or poverty or education or racism? Does it focus on my political party? Does it gain its energy from thinking that if we get the right candidate elected our problems will be dissolved? If so, I submit that our eschatology has become empire-shaped, Constantinian, and political. And it doesn’t matter to me if it is a right-wing evangelical wringing her fingers in hope that a Republican wins, or a left-wing evangelical wringing her fingers in hope that a Democrat wins. Each has a misguided eschatology.

Now before I take another step, it must be emphasized that I participate in the election; and I think it makes a difference which candidate wins; and I think from my own limited perspective one candidate is better than the other.

But before I take the next step I’ll say this: if our candidates lose won’t make one bit of a difference for our obligation to follow Jesus today. Not one bit.

Participation in our election dare not be seen as the lever that turns the eschatological designs God has for this world. Where is our hope? November 2 may tell us.

What I hope it reveals is that:

Our hope is in God. The great South African missiologist, David Bosch, in his book Transforming Mission impressed upon many of us that the church’s mission is not in fact the church’s mission but God’s mission. Our calling is to participate in the missio Dei, the mission of God in this world. So, at election time we can use the season to re-align our mission with the mission of God. Therein lies our hope.

Our hope is in the gospel of God. God’s mission is gospel-shaped. Some today want to reduce gospel to what we find in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, while others want to expand it to bigger proportions, we would do well at election time to re-align ourselves once again with the gospel as God’s good news for our world. Therein lies our hope.

Our hope is in the gospel of God that creates God’s people. God’s gospel-shaped mission creates a new people of God. In fact, the temptation of good Protestants to skip from Genesis 3 (the Fall) to Romans 3 (salvation) must be resisted consciously.

We need to soak up how God’s gospel-shaped work always and forever creates a gospel people. The first thing God does with Abraham is to form a covenant people, Israel, and Jesus’ favorite word was “kingdom” and Paul was a church-obsessed theologian-missionary. Herein lies the challenge at election time.

We are tempted to divide the USA into the good and the bad and to forget that the gospel has folks on both sides of political lines. Even more: we are tempted to think that the winners of the election are those who are blessed by God when the blessing of God is on God’s people. God’s gospel-powered mission creates a new people, the church, where we are to see God’s mission at work. Therein lies our hope.

Our hope is in the gospel of God that creates a kind of people that extends God’s gospel to the world. Chris Wright’s big book, The Mission of God, reminds us that election is missional: God creates the people of God not so the people of God can compare themselves to those who are not God’s people, but so that God’s people will become a priesthood in this world to mediate the mission of God, so that all hear the good news that God’s grace is the way forward.

Our hope is in God’s mission in this world, and that mission transcends what happens November 2d.

Politics

Last week, Greg Boyd tweeted:

I admire the courage of some of our political candidates. Most people avoid public debates even when they know what they're talking about.

I love that quote...

Jeremiah

I've been listening to Jeremiah on the Daily Audio Bible for the last couple of weeks. It has been interesting and, as a result, enjoyable. Here is a summary of what I've discovered.

• Lots of talk of judgement.
• God "divorced" Israel because of their unfaithfulness to him (idolatry).
• Both Israel and Judah are referred to as "prostitutes" because of their actions. I found an interesting parallel to the references to the prostitute mentioned in Revelation.
• There appear to be lots of parallels with Judah and the Church.
• The deception by false prophets seem similar to some pastors and their congregations.
• Jeremiah was given the task of wearing linen underwear, then hiding it to let it rot as an illustration to Israel.

Strange bedfellows

I was listening to Frank Pastore on the Drew Marshall show last week. He was a pitcher in for the Cincinnati Reds and is now a Christian and talk show host.

During the interview, he mentioned that he was on Salem Communications stations. Salem bills itself as "Reaching audiences interested in Christian and family content and conservative values on air and in print". The interview was quite good and is worth listening to.

The thing that perplexed me a little is his comment about Glenn Beck being on Salem with him. I've got nothing against Glenn Beck, even though I have some disagreements with some of the things he says on the air.

I was perplexed because, according to several things that came out during his rally in Washington, Glenn is affiliated to some degree with the Latter-Day Saints (the Mormons). That doesn't make him a bad guy (I have friends who are LDS and would treat me better than a lot of other people I know) but it raises some questions in my mind about Salem Communications decision to sign him.

The Conference Call

This is way too close

Let me throw this out. It is not quite fully thought out so take it with a grain of salt... A big grain.

Our churches and religious leaders prompt us toward "perfection" or "sinlessness". Part of my scripture reading today was from Psalm 27. David was, as we know, far from sinless. He was, however, considered "A man after God's heart".

This verse rang out today...

Psalm 27:4 (TNIV)

One thing I ask from the LORD,

this only do I seek:

that I may dwell in the house of the LORD

all the days of my life,

to gaze on the beauty of the LORD

and to seek him in his temple.

What if, what God really wants from us is not sinlessness (he has that covered -- literally) but for us to desire him.

We often desire or worry about all sorts of things we think are worthwhile or even "holy". We worry about our theology, our "sin" state, our jobs, our homes, our kids, our church. The list goes on. What if our focus was purely on seeking the Lord.

God forgave David's sin. In fact, only the matter with Uriah was counted against him according to scripture. That being the case, if we are truly seeking the Lord, we might be surprised how little God cares about the sin against us.

Let Him Play

Years ago (don't ask how many), I played in a band where one of the songs we played was "Mama Let Him Play" by Jerry Doucette. It's a song I love to this day.

Doing a YouTube search, you find a lot of different videos of the song, a song that, from what I can tell, not too many outside Canada have heard of...

Here is one of the nicer covers of the song from YouTube... Of course, it is Jerry Doucette playing along.

Of course, you can find someone trying to figure the guitar solo out... This guy does pretty well!

I think I'll pass...

Actually, I didn't pass... I pulled into the parking lot and snapped this photo. It has to be one of the worst cases of business signage combinations that I've seen. Of course that makes it rather funny.

Free Audio

I don't know how old he is but it seems like I grew up hearing A.W. Tozers name, although I am almost sure that isn't quite true.

His book (audio), The Pursuit of God is available free on the ChristianAudio.com store this month (July 2010). In order to download it, you need to (if you haven't already) create an account, then add the book to your shopping cart. At checkout, enter the coupon code they give you which will charge you the wonderful $0.00 amount!

Transactional Salvation

Some time back, Michael Spencer, the InternetMonk, posted a piece about being "Out of Business" with God. Since Michael's death earlier this year, it has been reposted here.

He observes that we tend to look at God quite transactionally. In other words, if I do this, God will do that. The extreme case of this is the prosperity gospel but I think we do tend to view our spirituality this way. (my examples not his)

• If I commit my life to God, he will save me from hell.
• If I pray more, God will hear me better.
• If I read the Bible more, God will ....

I've heard this preached for years now... Since I was a kid. There could be lots of reasons for treating the Gospel like this. Michael summarized his question with this...

Let’s summarize what I’ve covered so far.

• I’m questioning whether Christianity is a religion of transactions with God, particularly transactions where our actions are the primary reason God acts or responds.
• I believe the Gospel doesn’t proclaim a transactional “contract,” but a new order where the sovereignty of God expressed through the Lordship of Christ is the ultimate reality of the universe.
• The incarnation and death of Jesus are sacraments in which we see and experience the reconciling forgiveness and mercy of God for a fallen creation, and particularly for sinners. Reality itself is sacramental, as is the focused life and worship of the church. These sacraments proclaim to us the eternal, gracious mediation of Jesus.

Before I talk about some of the helpful applications of this theology, I want to acknowledge the obvious: the Bible is written in covenantal language which is generously transactional. Because the Bible is a historic, temporal narrative written in a mixture of points of view- some divine, some human- transactional language is not surprising.

Michael went on to suggest that we should be looking at salvation sacramentally, rather than transactionally. It would definitely be to your advantage to read the post as my summary doesn't do it justice.

What I found interesting is that, for the last couple of years, I have felt uncomfortable of the "version" of salvation that I was taught and have ascribed to. Whether it is due to the fact that some of the theological baggage preached along side that view which, in my traditions has tended to be, to some degree, more or less Calvinistic, or whether it is because, the version I grew up with leaves a lot of questions open as it is held up to the mirror of the Bible, I am not sure.

I found a link, however, in one of the comments, another view of the Transactional Paradigm (right click and save as to download) that was quite worth reading. I know nothing about the author as there isn't even a name on the paper.

This author contrasts the transactional paradigm with a love paradigm where, rather than making sure both sides of the transaction are satisfied because of the debt owed, but because of the love expressed.

He states that, until Christ, man was under a transaction paradigm (The Law?). After Christ, however, love takes over.

re: The Jesus Manifesto

There are sample chapters of The Jesus Manifesto here. They have also made the first chapter available in audio format here.

Every time I hear it, I am amazed.

Why do we fight it...

This post has been a long time in the making.

When I mean making, it's sort of like a crock pot rather than a microwave.

You see, about a month ago, while listening to the Daily Audio Bible, I heard the story of David prior to his being made king of Israel and with his struggle with the king at the time, Saul (1 Samuel).

Several attempts were made on David's life by Saul, including throwing a spear at him, plotting to kill him, etc.

At the same time, however, David had opportunities to kill Saul and refused to do it. Why? Because he refused to take on the job of killing God's anointed king.

Fast forward to Romans 13 (the Daily Audio Bible hasn't gotten this far yet). The first verse reads.

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. (Romans 13:1 TNIV)

Then I hear of the pastor who is praying for President Obamas death (an extreme case but...). I also hear conservatives who call themselves Christians who are also quite outspoken about the president. How is this any different than David's situation. These people believe that somehow, what is in their best interest is in danger so they slander and defame the man in the office. A man that, if I read the passage above correctly, God appointed.

Then I think back to David... I will not kill God's anointed king...

Hmmm...

About Books

I just ordered a copy of Jesus Manifesto. You can read a good review/commentary of the book here.

Marj just bought 2 copies of Alter, a book my friend Dave wrote.

Once I get time to read one or the other, I'll review them here.

What's A Blog?

AOL (America on line) posted this video where they asked people in Times Square....

I wonder how many of their statements define me.

Watch more AOL News videos on AOL Video

Sheep & Shepherds

John 10:14-18 struck me as I heard it yesterday. This is from The Message version

“I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own sheep and my own sheep know me. In the same way, the Father knows me and I know the Father. I put the sheep before myself, sacrificing myself if necessary. You need to know that I have other sheep in addition to those in this pen. I need to gather and bring them, too. They’ll also recognize my voice. Then it will be one flock, one Shepherd. This is why the Father loves me: because I freely lay down my life. And so I am free to take it up again. No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my own free will. I have the right to lay it down; I also have the right to take it up again. I received this authority personally from my Father.”

Do we truly know Jesus' voice? Do we really know how to listen to Jesus' voice?

An elephant in the church?

Dallas Willard was interviewed in Conversations Journal in an article called Getting the Elephant out of the Sanctuary.

In this interview, he discusses transformation and views of the atonement.

God's Love

Since the week after Easter, Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, MN has been teaching a series on God's Scandalous Love, a series I am really enjoying.

So far...

• Love Is... - It is impossible to fully grasp God's love because it is infinite! The best we can do is humbly recognize our limitations in this way and give ourselves over to the overwhelming love that God extends to us. Focus Scripture – 1 John 4:8
• God Is Love - The love of God expressed in Christ on the cross was “foolishness to the Gentiles” and “a stumbling block to the Jews”. God’s love is scandalous to us all in different ways. Focus Scripture – 1 John 4:8
• Covenantal Love - The love of God expressed in Christ on the cross shows the radical lengths God is willing to go to restore us. This healing of our relationship with God takes the form of a covenant, not a contract. Focus Scripture – 2 Corinthians 4:4
• Victorious Love - God’s love is victorious! But perhaps not in the way that you’d expect. We often associate victory with our ability to control or defeat others but God’s victory encourages our freedom rather than squelches it. (We love discovering art that connects us to God in unique ways. Focus Scripture – 1 Corinthians 1:18,23-24

The take away point from "Victorious Love" is that if your view of God is not scandalous (see 1 Cor 1:18, 23-24), you have the wrong view of God.