What I learned from Ted

Last night I watched the "Ted Haggard: Scandalous" on TLC (The Learning Channel). The show briefly touches on the scandal that occurred in 2006 which got him fired and placed under a restorative path. It concentrates on events which occur after that with this summers starting of St. James Church. I realize it is quite heavily edited but here is what I learned watching the show.

A lot of people "know" the Bible. That doesn't mean, however, that they really know what is in the Bible. They know enough of the Bible to support a position or belief they may have. This was evident as you saw people quoting scripture to support their belief that he should never pastor again.

As a population, Christianity doesn't seem to believe in redemption. Simply put, redemption is the process that occurred on the cross and afterward. Think of it like a gift card. It is just a card until you use it.

As a population Christianity doesn't seem t0 believe in justification. Through the New Testament, the word for justified and righteous and their derivatives are the same word. The translators make the decision to which one is used where. An overly simplified meaning of justification is "Just as if I had never sinned". As I watched the show, I saw a world that seemed to treat Haggard as if he had changed but "the Church" which has a lot of mistrust of him.

As a population, Christianity doesn't seem to believe in sanctification. Sanctification is the process of becoming like Christ. It's that whole "If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation". The calls and comments he received from Christians that were shown portray a people who do not believe that Haggard is a "new creation".

As a population, Christianity doesn't seem to believe in a God who is love. As you list the characteristics of God, there are a lot of them. The Bible makes it clear, however, that God is LOVE. If you need a refresher of what that means, look up 1 Corinthians 13. I'll admit that I wasn't always very loving when the scandal occurred. Hopefully, I've changed.

Being called a "Christian" identifies us with a lot of groups. There are the "liberals", "conservatives", "moderates" and "crazies". Unfortunately, the crazies get the press. As I write this I am reminded of the law passed in Arizona so that Westboro Baptist Church can not protest the funerals of those killed a week ago.

It is pretty sad when the world around us appears more loving to people like Haggard than those that are supposed to love.

My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. - 1 John 4:7-8 (The Message)

Christmas according to John

The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
in readiness for God from day one.

Everything was created through him;
nothing—not one thing!—
came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
the darkness couldn't put it out.

John 1:1-5 (The Message)

A new dentist in his crowing glory

I was scheduled to go to my dentist of 10+ years next week. It has made sense to drive the 20 miles to Thornton 2 times a year because I can go to the dentist, then drive to the Park & Ride and catch a bus to downtown.

Last month, however, Qwest moved our office to an area where it made absolutely no sense to try mass transit. I found, however, that my commute is actually shorter if traffic cooperates.

The new dentist had been advertising this cool thing called a waterlase. It sounded high-tech and cool so I called. They had a check up appointment on Wednesday so I canceled my old dentist. Going to visit was quite the experience.

• Digital X-Rays.
• A review of the teeth by the dentist
• Digital pictures
• The explanation that I need crowns (I've never had them before) -- some sooner than later.

So, off we go... Yesterday, they prepped the teeth for crowns, sent the molds to the back, they "printed" the crown on a 3-D mill and re-filled a tooth. In the afternoon, I walked out with 3 crowns for the new year.

"Why The Daily Audio Bible" on Video

If you've read through some of my previous posts, you would discover that I am a big fan of the Daily Audio Bible podcast. In fact, I've listened to it for the last (nearly) 4 years.

This year, in order to help present the case for the Daily Audio Bible, it was asked that we (I didn't, however) send in videos of what listening to the podcast has done for us.

You can watch the result on YouTube below:

If you'd like to download it for use elsewhere (just don't change the video), go here.

Jesus Manifesto revisited...

A few months ago, I mentioned the book "The Jesus Manifesto". This month, WBCL's (Indiana, Ohio, etc) "Mid-Morning" show's Char Binkley talked with Gloria Gather about the book.

You can listen to the discussion below...

Christmas Wrapping

The song "Christmas Wrapping" by The Waitresses has to have one of my favorite bass lines in it. This light display puts the icing on the cake for me.

Puzzling logic

Online, I saw this article -- "Does a New Life Form Mean God Is Dead?" -- with the following paragraphs:

The discovery of what is apparently an entirely new form of life -- a bacteria based on toxic arsenic rather than phosphorus, one of the six building blocks of all life on Earth -- has set the scientific world abuzz, prompting White House inquiries to NASA and threatening to upend longstanding beliefs about biology.

But some say the announcement also signals an end to religious faith, or at least the beginning of the end, because it implies that life can spring forth unexpectedly on Earth or even on other planets, and in unexpected forms -- developments that seem to run counter to literal readings of biblical creation accounts.

"The polite thing to say is that discoveries such as this don't really impeach the credibility of established religion, but in truth of course they really do," David Niose, president of the American Humanist Association (AHA), a leading secularist organization, said of this week's revelations about the microbes discovered in Lake Mono in California.

"The fact that life can spring forth in this way from nature, taken in context with what else we've learned in recent centuries about space and time, surely makes it less plausible that the human animal is the specially favored creation of all-powerful, all-knowing divinity," Niose said.

Oddly enough, reading this, I didn't come to the same conclusion of Mr. Niose. What that does mean, however, is that I have a different view of how God can work in the world.

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.