Thought of the day

D.A. Carson, in his For the Love of God, Vol. 2, writes:

We must always remember that: The Gospel is not admired in Scripture primarily because of the social transformation it effects, but because it reconciles men and women to a holy God. Its purpose is not that we might feel fulfilled, but that we might be reconciled to the living and holy God. The consummation [of Christ and the Church in the future] is delightful to the transformed people of God, not simply because the environment of the new heaven and the new earth is pleasing, but because we forever live and work and worship in the unshielded radiance of the presence of our holy Maker and Redeemer. That prospect must shape how the church lives and serves, and determine the pulse of its ministry. The only alternative is high-sounding but self-serving idolatry.

Amen, brother. Amen.

Bad News for Andrew

Actually, this is bad news for all you Calvinists out there. I was looking around the internet for information on the theology of 7th Heaven, and a Google sponsored result led me to an article that very persuasively refutes Calvinism. You can read it here.

Rev. Paul C. Jong points out basic logical errors in the theology of Calvinism, such as how:

What the untrue theology says about predestination is that God elected the people He loves while condemning those He dislikes. This means that some who were elected are born again of water and the Spirit and accepted into heaven while the others who were not elected are destined to burn in hell.

If God in fact elects only some of us, we cannot help but agonize over the question, "Was I elected for salvation?" If we were not elected, it would be useless for us to believe in Jesus. Thus this theory has made many people more concerned with whether they were elected by God than with faith itself.

(Disclaimer: I am writing this sarcastically; I thought that this article represented one of the worst misunderstandings of Calvinism I have read yet.)

The Last Tempation of Jacob

I regret to inform you all that I have fallen. I didn't want to do it, but my entire family was talking about the presidential debate this evening. I should have yelled, "Get behind me, Satan!" and left the room, but I must admit that I sort of wanted to hear what was happening. I only have seventeen days left in my policktical fast, but I succombed to temptation. These last days are going to be harder than I thought they would be.

Still, I am not going to just throw in the towel. I will continue to shun news and politickery as much as I, by the grace of God, can.

Homecoming

It's homecoming time in Hastings, sports fans! My dad picked me up at about 2:30 from Lincoln, and we just got back into town. The reason was twofold: (1) my car had broken down, but was now fixed in Hastings, and so the trip from Hastings to Lincoln and back again was inevitable for him (whether it was he driving a vehicle and my mother driving my vehicle, their leaving my vehicle in Lincoln, and then driving back together in Hastings; or whether he picked me up from Lincoln, took me back to Hastings, and I drove my car back to Lincoln myself); and (2) my brother's Homecoming at Hastings High School is this evening, and my brother has been nominated for the prestigious position of Homecoming King. So, it made sense for me to come home, go to all the Homecoming festivities, and return tomorrow morning in time for a friend's wedding in Lincoln.

We are all really excited for my brother. The semi-humorous part about all this is that I, when I was in high school, ended up taking the Homecoming King crown for the class of 2002. I don't generally volunteer this information because the title "Homecoming King" conjures a different image in most people's heads than the sort of monarch I actually was. You see, I was not all that particularly popular, nor was I a jock, nor really anything that should have stuck out in any traditional sense.

So how did I usurp the throne of Tiger-land? In terms of geo-political affairs, the events leading up to my coronation were more complicated than those leading up to World War I.

It all started when I voted to nominate myself and my immediate friends. I mainly did it as a joke, but apparently a lot of other people were in on the joke as well.

But my seizing the throne basically came together because I carried the band vote. All the jocks and popular kids split their respective votes amongst themselves, but I was the solitary band member on the ballot. I think that I also carried the drama vote and part of the choir vote, but those were relatively small groups, with most of the major figures in both were also in band.

The political anomaly no one would have factored in was the freshman girl vote, of which I had a cult following. I'm still not exactly sure what that was all about, but there were several freshman girls who actually wore small pieces of paper that they taped to themselves that said, "I voted for Jacob Gerber, did you?" As long as there are historians, I think that they will be puzzling over that one.

So that's the story, recorded for posterity's sake. And as I read it, I'm glad that I'm not in high school anymore.

***GEEK ALERT***

If you enjoy video games, you have to see this eBay auction where 1355 video game system and accessories (including over 290 entertainment systems) were auctioned off in a lot (Slashdot reports that there were over 1300 games, but I didn't want to count them). The lot went for $11,500. There are some rich nerds out there.

Furthermore, Google has added SMS service which, in their words:

...enables you to easily get precise answers to specialized queries from your mobile phone or device. Send your query as a text message and get phone book listings, dictionary definitions, product prices and more. Just text. No links. No web pages.

Ahhh...The path to world domination is moving along smoothly!

"Imagine there's no heaven..."

MC Hendrick wrote a thoughtful post on what the world would be like if there were no God and everything were irrelevant. He makes the case that there is no freedom if there is no creator, since there would then be no objective set of morals, not ultimate purpose for our lives, and no reason not to do the sort of things we don't want done against us (murder, adultery, theft, etc...). I very much agreed with what he said.

Personally, John Lennon's "Imagine" never made much sense:

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
(Source)

I understand the argument that many wars have been waged because of conflicting religions, but how would "living for today" bring about any peace? If there is no God, then there are no moral standards that might prevent starting a war for even more petty reasons. Furthermore, if there were no reason to abstain from certain activities in life that are harmful to others, why bother when I might gain something out of it?

To be fair, I am probably setting up a straw man here, but I think what I'm saying is ultimately true. If you are interested, Hendrick listed a link to another blog, No Religion Now, which basically argues the philosophy of John Lennon's song (WARNING--strong language). It is pretty enlightening from someone who has been a Christian his entire life (me).

Feeding the hungry...

If you attend the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, you have often seen a gentleman holding a sign requesting alms for the poor (himself), and challenging us to think about what Jesus would do were He in our shoes. This has always been a dilemma for me.

On one hand, Jesus describes how those who will be saved will have been feeding the poor and clothing the naked, et cetera; and, in the process, they will have been serving--in addition to the poor and naked--Jesus Himself. Obviously, there is a clear biblical basis for serving the poor.

On the other hand, if this guy were really needy, why would he try to get alms from college students? In fact, one of his signs says, "Will work for food." What sort of work would college students have for him to do? Their term papers? Something just doesn't seem right about the whole thing.

So what am I supposed to do? Do I snub him, and miss an opportunity to show the love of Jesus to a poor man? Or, do I wisely invest my money in the needs of those who are really poor (in which category this man might not fall)? I have, in the past, given some money to people on the street (not often, and not much), but should I be doing it more often? What are your convictions about this?

New Google Service

Good news! Google has stepped up its services, probably in an effort to edge out the new Clusty search engine and, to a limited extent, Amazon.com (only in the way that Amazon allows you to run searches that will scour the text of their books). According to a Reuters news article, Google will now be offering a service called Google Print.

Apparently, if you keep using Google as your search engine, you will start to notice books appearing in your searches. This doesn't so much compete with Amazon.com, but instead is only a service for your searches. In other words, this does not mean that Google is going to actually sell the books. The Google Print site probably says it best:

Finding books is easy. Just do your usual searches on Google and whenever a book contains content that matches your search terms, we'll show that book in your search results. Click on the book title and you'll see the page of the book containing your search terms and other information about the book. Click on the "Buy this Book" link and you'll go straight to an online bookstore where you can purchase the book.

You will not, however, be able to read entire books through this service:

Google Print is designed to help you discover books, not read them from start to finish. It's like going to a bookstore and browsing – only with a Google twist. Google searches across entire books in order to find the pages that are most relevant to your search. Once you're on a book page, you can 'flip' two pages forward and back, view other information about the book and even conduct another search within the book.

So, fortunately, we do not need to worry about Google's downfall. I will therefore be able to sleep well tonight.

To which circle do you belong?

For my Medieval Literature and Theology class, we are reading Dante's Inferno. In this book, Dante puts certain figures from history and his contemporary world into different circles of hell, depending on their crimes.

If you are interested in determining which circle you are headed for*, take a survey** that will determine your destination here.

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* - This does not apply if you have accepted Jesus as your Savior to forgive your sins.

** - Caution, this survey asks potentially offensive quesitons, but only for the purposes of determining your circle of hell.

For the Love of God

As you may have noticed, I have listed listed this book on the list of books that I'm reading/digesting since I put the list up. The reason I am still reading it is that this is the devotional guide/commentary that I use to study the Bible.

Actually, I have been using this, as well as the first volume for about four years. The reason I have used it so much is because it, more than anything I have found, puts an incredible emphasis on the importance of saturating ourselves in the Scriptures. Carson writes in the following in his preface:

This book is for Christians who want to read the Bible, who want to read all the Bible...Here you will find a plan that will help you read through the New Testament and Psalms twice, and the rest of the Bible once, in the course of a year--or, on a modification of the plan, in the course of two years. Comment is offered for each day, but this book fails utterly in its goal if you read the comment and not the assigned biblical passages. (ix-x)

This is one of the best attitudes about one's commentary that I have yet read. Still, he's being modest; his comments are very good, and rooted in an extraordinarily high view of God. (I quoted him in an earlier post.) This is also in his preface:

Devotional guides tend to offer short, personal readings from the Bible, sometimes only a verse or two, followed by several paragraphs of edifying exposition. Doubtless they provide personal help for believers with private needs and fears and hopes. But they do not provide the framework of what the Bible says--the "plotline" or "story line"--the big picture that makes sense of all the little bits of the Bible. Wrongly used, such devotional guides may ultimately engender the profoundly wrong-headed view that God exists to sort out my problems; they may foster profoundly mistaken interpretations of some Scriptures, simply because the handful of passages they treat are no longer placed within the framework of the big picture, which is gradually fading from view [in western Christianity]. Only systematic and repeated reading of the whole Bible can meet these challenges. (x, original emphasis)

So, if you are looking for a good Bible reading plan where you will actually read Amos, Nahum, and all of Leviticus, I highly recommend this book, as well as its first volume. Anyone know of any other good devotional guides/commentaries?

The Joys of Java (coffee, not computers)

My dad brought me up more coffee from home today. This was wonderful, because I was about 11.25 ounces through my 11.5 ounce container of coffee (the one I purchased at the beginning of this semester). I have no idea where it all went so quickly, but I love coffee. I take great delight out of my coffee routine.

First in my routine, I get my coffeemaker all set up the night before, spooning out just the right amount of coffee into the filter, and measuring out the perfect amount of water (I usually drink about five cups in the morning). After I wake up in the morning, I turn my coffeemaker on and leave to take a shower. When I get back, my room has that wonderful coffee smell, and I quickly get dressed so that I can enjoy my first taste of coffee as I'm reading the Bible or studying, or doing whatever it is that I happen to be doing that morning. Ahhh, life is good when I have my coffee!

That's why I was so upset to read that coffee is addictive. I mean, this has to be a hoax, right? I love my coffee, so it surely isn't addictive! It has no power over me. None whatsoever. I could stop drinking coffee right now if I so desired, without any side effects. I just don't particularly have such a desire. I love my coffee in a pure, unaddicted way. You don't have to worry about any addiction in me. I just like a good cup of coffee now and then.

I'm glad that's settled. I need to go to the Mill to get some studying done. and to drink some coffee.

Google's Downfall?

I found out about a new search engine that, according to the New York Times, is going to give Google a run for its money. Clusty the Clustering Engine apparently has a method of searching that is comparatively as good as Google's (I think it uses some sort of technology Yahoo! developed), but a method of sorting and organizing the search results that blows Google out of the water. I tried it out, and there were things I really liked about it, but there were also things I didn't appreciate so much about it. This is big news to me, because, since the dawn of Google News and Gmail, I have been anticipating Google to take over the world. (By the way, if you are really interested in either Google, Google News, or "Fair Use" issues--which is really only Ben--you should read this article about why Google is having problems getting its Google News to make money.)

Furthermore, Google has attained the status where it is beginning to be vilified, much as Microsoft has. I found this site about how Gmail is too creepy. Not much of it is that interesting unless you are a privacy nut, but I really liked this picture:

So, what's a Google afficionado to do? Well, I have just converted everything I use from Yahoo! (which gave me a great 6 years of service) to Google, and I'll be darned if I'm going to switch loyalties right after I got my oh-so-spiffy-never-mind-the-creepiness Gmail account, this Google-owned blog, a Google search engine on my navigational bar, and a membership in the Google Fan Club. So, search limitations and fair use doctrines aside, I will stand with Gmail.

Bible Quiz

If you would like to test your Bible knowledge, you might enjoy this quiz. I received great insight from the person who designed this quiz--almost as much, in fact, as I received from the Prayer of Jabez. Look out, Dr. Warren Wiersbe--the About.com Bible pundit is taking the theological world by storm, shining light on profound theological truths, such as Adam's real sin in the Garden of Eden:

In Genesis 2:15 God appoints Adam a gardener in Eden. "The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it." Distracted by other goals, aims and activities, Adam never attended to this task of caring for the garden. The question that this passage now suggests is whether humanity is doing any better at caring for the earth than Adam?

I'm thrilled to hear insights from those who take the time to read the Old Testament.

Also, be sure to take note of the moving article on About.com's web site, "Pop Spirituality: What's Hot; What's Not," where guru Charles Henderson will update you about the latest spiritual trends. Here is Henderson's noble goal:

But once the passions of religious conviction are let loose upon the world, unchained to any particular tradition or discipline, all sorts of new and wonderful things begin to happen, some quite positive, others much less so. The ideas of a Matthew Fox, for example, are very creative. While the doctrines of the Heaven's Gate cult group were obviously very destructive. Given the widespread popularity of all things spiritual, there is a need for a review of what's hot and what's not in the spiritual arena these days. In that context, we offer the following.

This review of "what's hot and what's not" is certainly a need of mine--I never know which gods are en vogue, and I constantly worry about praying to the unfashionable deity.

What dreams may come...

As I promised, here is a post about my dream. After I explain what exactly my dream was about, I will then explain how I think I would turn it into a novel.

In my dream, I met a girl named Sarah in one of my classes, whom I really felt led to witness to. (This really was not a romantic thing.) So, I tried to develop the sort of relationship necessary to tell her about my faith and invite her to come to church with me. She was hesitant to go to any church, but I kept at it. One day, as we were walking down some stairs after a class or something, a man was waiting on one of the landings on the steps. When we got to that landing, he said to her, "The Lord, in His infinite sovereignty, has chosen not to choose your fate; but, whatever you choose in regard to following His Son Jesus Christ, you will either do great work for or against the Kingdom of God." He then turned to me and said, "Pray for this one; do not cease to pray for this one." He then went out a door on that landing and was gone.

So, I instantly realized the great magnitude of her life. I began to pray for her quite a bit, and I took every opportunity to tell her about Christ. She, though, became very afraid of what is happening to her, and became very defensive about having to make a choice either way.

Because of all the spiritual warfare going on surrounding her because of the unique dynamic of her life, she became very sick (coughing up blood), which only made her more afraid. That Sunday, I got the Berean College Group to go to her house to lay hands on her and pray for her.

At this point, my dream started to take an odd turn. When I got to Sarah's house, I saw an elf (identified by her pointy ears), I grabbed the elf, and, as though she were a leprechaun that would then have to take me to her pot of gold, I demanded the treasure that came with capturing an elf. The elf smiled and took me behind Sarah's house. Suddenly, the elf turned briefly into a picture of pure evil in front of me--it was a demon. I was horrified to find out that these demons masquerading as humans had persuaded Sarah to leave town with them. My dream ended watching Sarah smile as she drove away with her family and the demons.

So here is the premise for my potential novel: that there are people whose fates God has not predestined. She would not be the only one, but would be part of something like the 144,000 talked about in Revelation 7:3-5, except that these people would not be sealed, but instead the opposite.

There are several issues that I would like to explore:

• Certainly, I would like to look at the seemingly contradictory issues of God's sovereignty vs. our free will (which are both biblical). The twist here would be that there would still be a level of God's sovereignty, even among the people for whom God has made no choice regarding their fates. The analogy I would use is this: angels certainly had some level of choice (otherwise, they would not have chosen to rebel against God), but their level of choice was different than ours since they had been in the throne room of God and should have known better. Although God has not made the same type of decision that He has with us (the "regular" Christians), there is still some kind of choice made on His part.
• I want to really emphasize the power of prayer, especially by contrasting the power of prayer with our powerlessness. The main character is commanded to pray and can only affect change through his prayer.
• I really want to have the main character be a realistic, but ideal, Christian. What I mean is that I do not want a shallow I-always-do-what-Jesus-wants-me-to-do Christian, but someone who goes through times where he can't see his impact and has a difficult time justifying being consumed by getting Sarah to come to Christ. Furthermore, I want someone who knows what it's like to screw up in front of the person to whom he's trying to witness, and the issues of relying not on our power to bring someone to Christ by our rightousness, but by being weak--though strong in the grace of Christ--and being about continuing on toward perfection, not by trying to live perfectly. I really want to look at what it means to live a transparent life, unashamed to let others know our struggles, and proud only in what God is doing in our lives.

My biggest problem in all of this is how to present it. These "unchosen" people are not Scriptural, so do I set this in a fantasy world, or do I put it in this world and hope to avoid being brought up on charges of heresy (probably with Andrew leading the charge)? I would like to set this in this world, because I would like to use our Bible in looking at what it says about human choice and God's sovereignty.

Well, sorry for writing so much, but it's kind of a complicated idea to explain. I would appreciate any and all thoughts about how I might get this to work.

The Old Testament

One of the things I appreciated most about Laura Winner's Girl Meets God was her strong appreciation for the Old Testament (coming from an Orthodox Jewish background), and especially why it is still important today, even though we have the New Testament. Winner writes about a time she went to a Messianic Jewish Church:

The rabbi is in the middle of a sermon series on the Book of Joshua. "Well, that's refreshing," I whisper. "A whole sermon series on something from the Old Testament. You would never hear that in regular church." Steven shushes me before I can climb onto one of my favorite soapboxes, the Christians-think-the-Bible-starts-with-Matthew soapbox. (p. 17 in my version)

I really think that Christians cannot understand their faith unless they have a strong understanding of whence their faith came: Judaism. This doesn't mean we need to go to such lengths to study the Talmud (although doing that wouldn't be such a bad thing, especially because Paul's ideas of slavery to the Law in Romans and Galatians would really make sense), but I think that we should make a concerted effort to be reading the Old Testament as we read the New Testament.

Here are my main reasons for advocating this:

• Jesus, His disciples, and the apostles who wrote the New Testament only had the Old Testament--if it worked for them, it surely will work for us.
• We cannot really understand what Jesus means when He says things like how He is the good sphepherd without understanding Old Testament basics such as that David (in whose line Christ was born) was a shepherd, or that in Ezekiel 34, God promises that He would shepherd His people, but that David (a symbol for the Messiah) would (see how this all comes back to Christ?).
• By reading the Old Testament, we realize that the when and the how and the who and everything else about Christ's birth, life, death, and resurrection wasn't merely something God decided one day when He was bored or something, but that the plan was extraordinarily deliberate, and known from the very beginning.

Well, I'll get down from my own soapbox now. I will probably post a little later today about the dream I have been promising, but, until then, go read the Old Testament...all of it (you know, if you have time).

***GEEK ALERT***

For those of you who, like I, enjoy Star Wars perhaps a little too much (don't worry, your secret's safe with me!), you might be interested in knowing that George Lucas has approved a Star Wars TV show that should premiere in May 2005. The article about this is here.

More Marching Band

In today's issue of Sports Illustrated On Campus, there was an amusing article about great moments in band history. It was a true/false quiz (which was kind of annoying), but I have distilled the following list of humorous, true, band moments in history:

• 1941: The University of Chicago disbands its marching band--two years after having disbanded its football team.
• 1967: During a nationally televised game against Harvard on ABC, the Princeton band intentionally spells out the letters NBC.
• 1974: On Children's Day in New Haven, Yale's band dedicates a halftime show to birth control.
• 1981: The Brown band visits Columbia, in New York City. During the halftime show the band forms the "I [heart] NY" symbol. Suddenly three saxophone players don stocking masks and begin mugging their fellow performers while other bandsmen pretend not to notice.
• 1981: During a postgame performance a few members of the Stanford band reportedly urinate on the field.
• 1989: After a dean is named at Columbia, band members blockade his office, refusing to disperse until he accepts a list of 10 demands. Among them: "Write a glowing law school recommendation for [the band manager]."

This article isn't up on Sports Illustrated's web site, but last week's cover story about the murder of the Husker soccer player, Jenna Cooper, is here if you missed it.

Ezekiel 33

Today, my Bible reading plan brought me to one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, Ezekiel 33. Here's a quick run-down of why it is so meaningful to me.

• Verses 1-9: It is a challenging and sobering thought that we are responsible to communicate our knowledge of Christ with those who don't know Him, although we obviously have no control over their response. Paul, toward the end of his life, said that he was innocent of the blood of all men, because he never shrunk from proclaiming the gospel to people. Ezekiel, though, had already received this challenge from God when he was first commissioned.
• Verses 10-20: God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but wants all to turn to Him. We really need to see people who are lost as just that--as people who need a Savior just as much as we do. Still, our God is a just God, who must ultimately meet those who reject His grace and mercy with the wrath their sins deserve. (Paul explains this as well in Romans 2:1-16.) And remember, it's not that God did not demand justice for the sins of those who trust His Son, but that God met His Son with the wrath that should have been put on us.
• Verses 21-22: As soon as Jerusalem falls to the Babylonians, God lets Ezekiel speak again (previously, Ezekiel was only able to speak when God was directly speaking). This concept was one of the biggest motivating factors in beginning my policktical fast. The idea is that God wanted nothing of Ezekiel coming from Ezekiel, because otherwise that might corrupt the pure message of God. I realized that much of what was coming out of me was not God's pure message (the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ), but a lot of party-line rhetoric, some of which having dubious Scriptural roots, even though it might not have been outrightly contrary to Scripture. In the process, I built walls between people of different ideologies that were a hindrance to the gospel, since I might have been giving the impression that to be a Christian, they needed to vote for exactly the same people I would vote for. Thus, I had to get rid of it, at least for a little while.
• Verses 23-33: When I first read this, I didn't really know how to tie it together, so I will instead quote the thoughts of D.A. Carson in his For the Love of God:

  So the news arrives: Jerusalem has fallen (33:22). Ezekiel is now released from the silence God earlier imposed: he can converse openly and can say things other than what was given to him as a prophet. But all that he says in the rest of this chapter are more words from the Lord. He has two themes. (a) Regarding the people left among the ruins of Jerusalem, they are ever the optimists. They think they will reestablish themselves, even though they have not renounced their sins. So God will continue his chastening until there is only desolation, so that they will learn that he is the Lord (33:23-29). (b) As for the exiles whom Ezekiel addresses directly, they have learned to enjoy listening to him, as one enjoys listening to a gifted orator--but they have not learned to repent.

  Where are the closest analogies to such stances today?

There are a lot of challenging ideas here for only being a 33-verse chapter!

DN Extravaganza

Some of the important news of the day from our beloved college newspaper, the Daily Nebraskan:

• Apparently, Rep. Tom Osborne (R-Neb) has switched houses in Congress to be in the Senate without my knowledge (is that even legal?). This is news to me, because I haven't been paying attention to such things. Here's the headline of the DN today: "Osborne near rocket explosion: Senator unharmed after incident" (my emphasis). As you can see, it wasn't really a political discussion, so I felt it safe to read. I couldn't find a link to the story on the DN's web site, but maybe I'll try to get this scanned and put up on my blog soon.
• The next article that caught my eye was one entitled: "Phishing trolls for personal information as latest online scam" This brought to mind the story of how Ben, upon receiving an e-mail purportedly from eBay, signed up for identity theft by giving out his social security number, his checking account number, the user ID and password to his eBay and PayPal accounts, as well as his mother's maiden name (which is needed to get new credit cards and bank accounts). Ben later said that he did, in fact, have warning bells going off in his head, but he just hit the "Manual Override" switch because, after all, who would try to steal someone's information and use it for ill-gotten gain?

That's pretty much all for the DN today, but I thoroughly enjoyed it!

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Update:

I forgot to mention that the reason Ben's story is funny is because he never actually lost any money, and (so far) no one has tried to get a credit card in his name or anything like that (Ben put a fraud alert on his credit report). I didn't want you to think I was sadistic or anything, but since no one got hurt, it is really funny!

Anyway, I also forgot to provide a link to today's letters to the editor. Most of the time, I don't read them, because what do I care what people with too much time on their hands write? (Don't think about that too much.) Anyway, read the insightful letter titled: "WWJD? Probably practice safe sex." I love his logic:

1. Assume "hypothetically" that Jesus sinned.
2. Would it not make sense, that, if Jesus sinned, that he would do it in a "responsible" manner?
3. For example, if Jesus murdered someone, would he not do it in a humane (rather than torturous) way, and would he not clean everything up afterward?

Bravo, Mr. Griess! You have proven...nothing!

Unbelievable.

A more Orthodox Christianity?

Continuing my series of posts on Winner's Girl Meets God, the next subject I would like to broach (and probably the last, unless I think of anything else) would be that of Orthodox Christianity. This is not so much in the sense of the principles contained in the Apostle's Creed or the Nicene Creed, but in the sense of the rituals and practices the Christian Orthodoxy has promoted over the centuries. Winner is herself Episcopalian, and her book is structured through a year of her life, each section of the book being a new season of Christianity. She does this largely because her former life as an Orthodox Jew was structured around the festivals and calendars of Judaism.

In the denominations in which I grew up, there was something of a fear about celebrating anything other than Thanksgiving, Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter. For example, we never observed lent, I never attended an Ash Wednesday service, and I only now know what the Maundy in Maundy Thursday means because she explained it in her book (it has to do with the Last Supper). I am now wondering why we didn't.

Before reading this book, I would have given a pat answer that would be something like, "Rituals can take the place of a relationship with God. Remember, Christianity is the only world "religion" that is not about man's trying to get to God (religion), but is about God's attempt to get to man (relationship)." As I read this book, though, I wondered if my Christian life (which is largely a routine of when I get up to read the Bible to pray, when I go to church, when I meet with other believers to fellowship, etc...). Furthermore, how different really is each service I attend from the last one--there is a very "ritualistic" pattern of worship, announcements, more worship with perhaps a special program on some ministry or other, a sermon, and a little worship to top the whole thing off. What's more is that I take comfort from this pattern of the service. I need the ritual of the worship and the teaching to be reminded of who God is and to be taught what God wants from me every week. Is that a bad thing? If not, then what about more rituals, as long as they are designed to continually remind me about the nature of God and the nature of His commandments?

Of course, there is a point where ritual takes over, but are we anywhere close to that dividing line? Furthermore, is it a bad thing to be prepared for Easter by the Lenten season? I have always been skeptical of what people were giving up for Lent, because (a) I knew a lot of people who quickly broke their fasts; and (b) even if they could stave off temptation for that time period, they were always back at whatever they had given off--so what was the point? Now, though, as I am giving up politics for forty days, I realize that the purpose is not so much on giving something up (if you should give something up--for example, a specific sin--that surrender should probably be permanent), but it is more about replacing what you are temporarily giving up for time in the Word, in prayer, and doing other things that perhaps don't have quite such a hold on your life.

Winner also talks about the "icons" (posters) of Jesus she has around her room. She writes several times about the conversations she has with different depictions of Jesus (for different moods she is going through--one Jesus may look encouraging, another may look forgiving, and another may look powerful). To me, this raised a few more warning bells than the stuff about Christian holidays and church service rituals, because this seems to teeter on the brink of breaking God's commandment against idols. Still, because we know pretty much everything we know about relationships from what we've learned with flesh-and-blood people, it seems like it would be comforting to at least have an artist's rendering of Jesus to talk to. As I said, I am quite a bit less sold on this idea as I am on the idea of rituals in Christianity, but it was certainly something to think about.

So that this post doesn't get too long (and so I can get back to my homework), I'm just going to post the rest of the ideas I gleaned from Winner's book about this subject in bullet-point fashion:

• Using a Book of Common Prayer--the book of Psalms also, in a way teaches us to pray, and we certainly pick up ways to pray from some of the good Christian music we listen to (like Derek Webb's "I Repent"), so why not have an organized book of topical prayers? Might they be good guidance for our prayer life, or should we try to "rough it" and be taught by the Holy Spirit?
• Confession--the Bible tells us to confess our sins to one another, so why not make a regular practice of it to a pastor? This, of course, is not for actual forgiveness (we as Christians have the authority to go straight to the throne of grace because our High Priest is Christ Himself), but it seems like it could be useful for accountability, support, and prayer in the areas of our struggles.

Finally, I want to point out that it is possible that all these things are externals, and if one denomination practices one of these sorts of things, we should praise God for how He is working there without feeling the need to adapt our denomination to do the same thing. As long as we are following Christ, perhaps the how's and the when's and the what's aren't so important.