Fatwa!

It is human tendency to generalize. I guess when we generalize about someone other than us, it makes it easier to categorize, package, and label them, so that we know why we're not them, and we tell ourselves that's why we're better than them. But it's rarely that simple in reality is it?

Here's a great example. Just saw this news article and it made me chuckle. While strongly differ with the Islamic belief system, I don't have to argue through generalization, that just alienates people. After all it stings when those same kinds of generalizations come back around our way.

Muslims issue fatwa against terrorism.

Cricketer of the Year

For anyone who's been following the IPL (Indian Premier League) 20-20 cricket series, I have just found the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, as far as I'm concerned.

It's got nothing to do with cricket, and everything to do with having the most creative parents ever. I don't even know if he's actually played an official match yet off the bench. Ladies and gents, I give you... the one, the only...


Napoleon Einstein

No, I don't know if he's related to the Dynamite clan.

Skinny Contemplations on Art

Is it just me, or does it seem that the more immersed an artist (regardless of field) is in a particular art, the further away from truth about God that artist seems to get?

Maybe I'm generalizing from my own limited experience, but it just seems that eccentricity and moral ambiguity seems to be directly proportionate to serious art, and it makes me wonder...

Edit:
On further thought, I applied this to audio-visual media: entertainment, movies, books, music... and the prognosis isn't good. Art in general does not deal with the righteousness of God. Having realized the secular-humanistic (and therefore godless) perspective of the entertainment industry as a whole, it becomes obvious that the morality present in these art forms will be fatally flawed. Not because it is always necessarily immoral or amoral (as many times is the case) but because even any morality that is sourced in humanism is limited by its very man-centeredness. Holiness is not the measure, and therefore God is not the standard; social relationship is.

In sum, be it the most inane work of art, what is presented about love, about romance, about human relationships, about service, about politics, about violence, about peace, about sexuality, about business, about anything you can think of, even religion, all this is ensconced in a man-centered world-view. Man is the focus of the universe. The godlessness of it all is not explicit, but subtle.

The themes of good vs. evil, or the goodness of man, or the love between human beings all become a facade that subtly encourages the ignorance of God's perspective and ultimately the abandonment of true religion. Morality by itself is damning, a religion that in reality despises God.

All that to say guard your heart. Protect the gates. Know what you watch, read and listen, and don't inform your morality or practice from entertainment or art, ultimately, set God at the center and inform your life with His Word at the center. Let that center inform all pursuit of art.

I will ponder the way that is blameless.
Oh when will you come to me?
I will walk with integrity of heart
within my house;
I will not set before my eyes
anything that is worthless.
I hate the work of those who fall away;
it shall not cling to me.
Psalm 101:2,3

The "Diabolical" Devil

With reference to Genesis 3, the question arises how Satan could successfully manipulate a perfect human being, untainted by sin and in perfect union with God to willfully fall into disobedience of God’s simply and clear command. In the narrative of Genesis 3 the serpent’s diabolical genius is at work. And from it we learn about why he keeps "getting" us.

First, the serpent gently led Eve to progressive departure from implicit trust in God. Satan did not start with outright denial of God’s Word. Instead, he led her gently into a process of doubting God’s purpose (3:1), to contradicting His Word (3:4) to actually doubting that God had her own interests at heart (3:5).

Second, the serpent aroused in Eve a desire for fulfillment apart from God. Having fractured her trust in God, the serpent implied to her that there was something she lacked, by telling her, “Your eyes will be opened” (3:5b). He then opened to her a potential world of knowledge; again with an indirect statement about God’s supposed secret fear, “you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (3:5c). He had led Eve toward a thought process of obtaining fulfillment apart from God. However, his real genius is seen in his final step in the procedure.

Finally, the serpent stepped back to allow Eve to foment in her own lust. Having done his work in putting the seed of doubt in Eve’s mind and arousing her own desires, the serpent is then interestingly not a part of the further narrative that leads up to and past the fall of Eve and Adam into sin. In 3:6, it is Eve’s thought process alone that led to her sin. The serpent’s work was done, and he shrewdly distanced himself from interfering in her final individual plunge into sin, knowing “each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire” (James 1:14). In fact, the serpent did not make Eve sin, he just encouraged her doubt and made it seem the reasonable course of action. Eve rationalized progressively that “the tree was good for food” (3:6a) – that firstly it would provide bodily nourishment; God indeed desired Adam and Eve’s wellbeing (2:16,17). She then rationalized that the tree was “a delight for the eyes” (3:6b) – God indeed had created trees for this very purpose, “God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food” (2:9), and therefore partaking would fit in with God’s express desire. Finally, she saw that “the tree was to be desired to make one wise” – and such a result would only be in the center of God’s will.

The serpent brought Eve to sin, not by making her choose sin over obedience, but by helping her paint in her own mind her need to think independently of God and thus see what actually was sin as the expedient course of action.

Let this reminder ring a warning bell in our own hearts. Don't try to wrestle with the devil. Resist him.

Welcome to the Brave New World

As always, it's like something from a comic book, but it's real. A robotic exoskeleton for soldiers. Eventually it will be part of a complete suit unit.



That's crazy.

OK, let's balance the last post

A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong she is until she's in hot water.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Mother

This mother's day, a secular, cynical, depressing, non-autobiographical song.

Mother
Pink Floyd

Mother, do you think they'll drop the bomb?
Mother, do you think they'll like this song?
Mother, do you think they'll try to break my b****?
Ooooo mother, should I build a wall?

Mother, should I run for president?
Mother, should I trust the government?
Mother, will they put me in the firing line?
Ooooowaa is it just a waste of time?

Hush, my baby. baby, don't you cry.
Mommas gonna make all of your nightmares come true.
Mommas gonna put all of her fears into you.
Mommas gonna keep you right here under her wing.
She wont let you fly, but she might let you sing.
Mommas gonna keep baby cozy and warm.
Oooo babe.
Oooo babe.
Oooo babe, of course mommas gonna help build a wall.

Mother, do you think shes good enough,
For me?
Mother, do you think shes dangerous,
To me?
Mother will she tear your little boy apart?
Ooooo mother, will she break my heart?

Hush, my baby. baby, don't you cry.
Mommas gonna check out all your girlfriends for you.
Momma wont let anyone dirty get through.
Mommas gonna wait up until you get in.
Momma will always find out where youve been.
Mommas gonna keep baby healthy and clean.
Oooo babe.
Oooo babe.
Oooo babe, you'll always be baby to me.

Mother, did it need to be so high?

Mothers: don't build it too high, I guess.

Missions is about Worship

Anyone familiar with John Piper's landmark work knows this already... but it's worth a post.

The passion of a missionary-as distinct from that of an evangelist-is to plant a worshiping community of Christians in a people group who has no access to the gospel because of language or cultural barriers. Paul was one of those "frontier" missionaries: "I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named... But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions... I go to Spain" (Rom. 15:20, 23-24)

Then this:

The first great passion of missions, therefore, is to honor the glory of God by restoring the rightful place of God in the hearts of people who presently think, feel and act in ways that dishonor God every day, and in particular, to do this by bringing forth a worshiping people from among all the unreached peoples of the world. If you love the glory of God, you cannot be indifferent to missions. This is the ultimate reason Jesus Christ came into the world. Romans 15:8-9 says, "Christ became a servant to the circumcised... in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy." Christ came to get glory for his Father among the nations. If you love what Jesus Christ came to accomplish, you love missions.

That, right there, is the heart of the book, Let the Nations Be Glad. And if you want to know more, the entire book is his case for every aspect of those statements.

The urgency is such when you study this issue, that individuals and churches who are not in some explicitly involved way (prayer? money? GOING? supporting? encouraging others to go? informing others? studying? networking? All the above?) a part of God's global undertaking are badly missing the point of God's purposes for all of creation. Read Revelation 5 (the last revealed chapter of God's story of redemption) to get some idea. And then get out of your neighborhood, and hop on the global missions bandwagon.

Michael Jackson's got nothing on this

Babies are thrown off the roof as an exercise in faith.

Surreal, but totally normal... in Martian culture. And I speak as an expert on martial culture.

edit:

Like Hacking a Path Through the Amazon Forest

What is Indian Red Tape like? A great anecdote from a book I'm in the middle of, made me laugh it's so ridiculous but having lived in the system it's totally believable. As Luce says, it's like hacking a path through the Amazon; by the time we have proceeded a hundred yards, the undergrowth takes over again. The author, Edward Luce, recounts a story from Arun Shourie, minister of administrative reform in New Delhi from 1999 - 2002.

Shourie also provided an example of the farce that sometimes results from efforts to reform a system that will go to great lengths to thwart even the smallest of changes. In April 1999, India's ministry for steel submitted a formal query to Shourie's ministry for administrative reforms. The grave matter, which would take almost a year to resolve and would consume the valuable time of some of India's most senior officials, was about whether civil servants should be allowed to use green or red ink, as opposed to the blue or black normally used to annotate documents.

After several weeks of meetings, consultations and memoranda, the IAS (administrative) officers in Shouries' department concluded that the matter could be resolved only by officials at the bureau of printing. Another three weeks of learned deliberation ensued before the bureau of printing returned the file to the department of administrative reform, but with the recommendation that the ministry of training and personnel be consulted. It took another three weeks for the file to reach the ministry of training, since the diligent mandarins at administrative reform needed time to consider the expertly phrased deliberations of the bureau of printing.

And so this question of state meandered for weeks and months, in meeting after meeting through ministry after ministry, before the following Solomonic compromise was struck: "Initial drafting will be done in black or blue ink. Modifications in the draft at the subsequent levels may be made in green or red ink by the officers so as to distinguish the corrections made," said the new order. Hierarchy also had to be specified. "Only an officer of the level of joint secretary and above may use the green or red ink in rare cases [duly set out, with appropriate caveats]." As Shourie noted: "A good bureaucratic solution: discretion allowed but circumscribed!"
Edward Luce, In Spite of the Gods: The Rise of Modern India

It's interesting to me, but this kind of management (to misuse the word) is visible to some level at every level of Indian practice, whether in the private or governmental sector, religious or secular. Procedure most often trumps common sense, with the result that things move forward arduously but upward (in terms of stacks of paperwork and procedure) most earnestly.

Why I am a Die-Hard Petra Fan

Enter In
Words by Bob Hartman
Music by Jo, Cooper & John Elefante

Once a year for sacrifice
just one priest could pay the price
And step inside the inner veil to make the people free

Temple stood the same for years till the Nazarene appears
Things will never be the same since 33 A.D.

When He spoke and bowed His head
He who saved the world was dead
Then the earth began to shake
Heaven's wall began to break
Opening the Holy place
The temple veil is torn in two
The way is clear for me and you

We can enter in, enter in
Into Heaven's Holy place
We can enter in, enter in
Boldly by His blood we can approach His throne of grace
We can enter in a new and living Way
By our faith He will receive us when we pray

Now without a second look
we forget what all it took
To be seen as innocent by His Holy eyes
Never thinking foolishly there is something He won't see
For our lack of righteousness there is no disguise

He won't look the other Way
Someone's life will have to pay
Once for all it has been done
Taken out upon His Son
He remembers it no more
Now for us He is the Door
Opened up forevermore

We can enter in, enter in
We can enter in His gates with thankfulness and praise
Into the once forbidden Holy place

We can live in goodness and in mercy all our days
We can enter in a new and living Way
By our faith He will receive us when we pray
We don't have to be afraid to seek His face
We can enter in

Copyright (c) 1995 Petsong Pub.
(Adm. By Word, Inc.)/SESAC/Jimmy Vision Music/Uncle Pitts Music/BMI

Here

Worship and the Work of God

"I am of the opinion that we should not be concerned about working for God until we have learned the meaning and the delight of worshiping Him. A worshiper can work with eternal quality in his work."

"Christ saves us to make us worshipers and workers. But we evangelicals ignore the first altogether so that we are not producing worshipers in our day. Workers, yes, we're producing workers. Founders, yes, they're a dime a dozen. Promoters, producers artists, entertainers, religious DJs, we've got them by the thousands. Beat a bush and there will be two artists to hop out and a DJ." (Sermon to Youth for Christ, National Convention of YFC in Chicago, 1960)

"To try to get souls saved at the expense of the glory of God is to cheat God of His glory and not get souls saved anyhow. We just make proselytes who aren't Christians but something else." (Sermon, "Prayer," Chicago, 1956)

Tozer on Worship & Entertainment, Compiled by James L. Snyder

Remember...

To wrer Her into your Haaar.

Proverbs 5

Babylon, she beckons
broadcasting her glitters of ephemeral joy and
generously hiding from view the hook, the gambit;
offering addiction packaged in satisfaction
glamorous destruction

"That which is collective is desirable"-
an underlying rationale,
the consequences of which one must bear alone;
victim to one's own excesses
imprisoned among glittering shards
of one's own folly.

Wisdom, she cries out to the wise, Truth
values reality precisely:
glamor ≠ advantage
Two paths; one wide and shiny,
one True.

The iniquities of the wicked
ensnare him and he is held fast
in the cords of his sin, he dies.

Jesus, you draw me close, so
that I behold your preciousness, safe
eternal, glorious life far beyond
the passing pleasures of
a fading day

Feb 16th, 2008

For Valentine's Day

Many a man in love with a dimple makes the mistake of marrying the whole girl.

STEPHEN LEACOCK
humorist and economist

In Honor of the Bearded Genius

It is apparently the great (loose usage) Charles Darwin's birthday today, the 12th of February. I felt like I had to celebrate, I don't know why.

What better way, than to burn a monkey. Watch at least halfway, will you?

Yes we can WHAT?

Soap Box time.

I have no issues with Obama... I kind of like the guy and his smoke-mouth. But with this talk of movements and change and revolution and young people excited about politics and whatnot... it gets me thinking there's a bit of overstatement going on about the needs of the moment. Obama echoes language in his talks from the great speeches of past generations, but my issue is that we aren't really facing the same kind of issues at the same level as we did at those times.

Slavery? Genocide of Jews? Racism and Human Rights? When we say Yes we Can with reference to such issues, it rings true. Rallying support looks righteous, not cultist.

But this?


Speaking as an outsider, it's hard to understand why we need to be passionate about this at the level that its being portrayed. The foundation just does not come across as critical enough, especially in the middle of a nation that, all things considered, still is probably the "free-est" place in the world to live in.

To me it seems that it's more about the dynamism of Obama than anything else. And ultimately, that people need hope at a scale that this stuff cannot even begin to touch. That seed of need is unidentified by most, but ever present in the heart and ignited by the slightest whisper of false salvation.

But hope cannot begin by looking inward. The idea of "the Human Spirit" is so subtly Godless that it's hard to catch it, but it takes hold of the heart like a firestorm, and before you know it, we're self sufficient, and Yes We Can.

edit: Glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks this.

Simple in truth, profoundly hard to imbibe.

In line with what's been on my mind for the past few months, here's parts of a book report that I wrote recently:

Christ is infinite in his fullness – in Him is a boundless abundance of supply for those in great personal, spiritual and emotional need. It does not matter what the misery or bondage is – Christ is sufficient. Christ deals not superficially or symptomatically but with the root of the matter – the human heart.

...it is only when we see Christ in his all-sufficient fullness that we can confidently embrace his power to change lives – whether in emotional issues, broken lives or depression. Any attempt to apply the world’s theories to attempt to solve these problems is an implicit affirmation of Christ’s inability and insufficiency.

True believers are those who have seen and been captivated by Christ – they have experienced the immensity of His gloriousness. A central feature of His glory is the glory of His all-sufficiency (Col 1:19, John 1:16). Christ is supreme in His glory (2 Cor 2:14-4:6) – no other shares His glory. Not only that, His Glory is sufficient. At the center of His glory is his infinite fullness (John 1:14-17). In light of this, the believer can rest in Him in full confidence, that nothing outside of what He provides is necessary for the soul ailments of life.

This morning an old (relatively) song that I knew popped into my head... which sums up the idea simply in its title. It is so easy to understand, yet I am coming to realize that for me this is going to be a lifelong quest in terms of submitting my life to that understanding. I hold on to so much, despite knowing that I can let go, He holds me. It's not that the storm isn't strong. He holds me, and knowing who He is, as the song begs, then why do I sway?

You're All I Need
The Kry

Why do I sway
I can't face the day without You
my heart drifts away
but Your love remains always true

As I'm sailin' away
on the rivers of time
Your love will carry me through
the storms in my life

You're all I need
when the world is closin' in
my strength is runnin' thin
when i'm lost in the storm
You're all I need there's no need to look anywhere
there's nothing that can compare
to the love that You give
You're all I need

Sometimes I wait
until I can't take anymore
You show me the way
You help me sail back to the shore

When I'm drifting away
on the angry tides
I cast out my anchor into
the sea of Your love

You're all I need
when the world is closing in
my strength is running thin
when I'm lost in the storm
You're all I need there's no need to look anywhere
there's nothing that can compare
to the love that You give
You're all I need

You're all I need
You're all that I want
nothing in this world
could give me more

Why do i sway
I can't face the day without You!
all I can say
You're all I need

Who is sufficient for these things?

I just finished a conversation with one of my closest friends. Who just got saved. Who's resisted during decades of prayer and conversation. Who knew all but rejected it just the same. Now he testifies that God forgave him, changed him, saved him.

And on that basis, as I told him, I am amazed - you just cannot force the hand of God. It is instances like these that reinforce his sovereignty over the human heart, that he will call when he wills. And when he does, the hardest heart turns to flesh and sings his praise.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Romans 1:16,17

And this is why we preach, because faith comes from God. And we trust, because there is never one without hope. And we love Christ, because salvation is found nowhere else.

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
1 Corinthians 1:17-25

I have been struck again with the lack of human wisdom to save a man - even if that wisdom is based on Truth. Man cannot convince anyone to be saved, even if there is great love in that relationship. We are foolish, powerless on our own - But we preach Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. And he saves to the uttermost, because his salvation is not about words, but actual cleansing and heart regeneration.

Better than I can say myself.

Epiphanies are so subjective: they mean the world to the person involved but are just run-of-the mill words to most everyone else. With that understanding, I share this anyway.

It's easy to wonder about God's timeline - the "whens" and the "how longs".

Well, I think I'm starting to "get it" in my own life... "when?" "how long?" - "till" I begin to understand just how great God is: how marvelously applicable His Word is - the power of His grace, the effectiveness of his comfort, the marvel of his shepherd's care, the rest that can be found in the goodness of His sovereignty. "till" I rest my joy in these things alone, and "till" I hang on every word.
It's impossible to talk about these truths in abstract anymore! How can I not point people to Him?

I ask myself: were it not for these things he's allowed, would I have even stopped to ponder His purposes or His glories? Oh, but now He has arrested my attention.

So in agreement with the Psalmist, I post this testimony to the treasure that God is: Immensely simple words, yet truer and better than I could ever say myself.

Your testimonies are wonderful;
therefore my soul keeps them.
The unfolding of your words gives light;
it imparts understanding to the simple.

I open my mouth and pant
because I long for your commandments.
Turn to me and be gracious to me,
as is your way with those who love your name.

Keep steady my steps according to your promise,
and let no iniquity get dominion over me.
Redeem me from man's opression,
that I may keep your precepts.

Make your face shine upon your servant,
and teach me your statutes.
My eyes shed streams of tears,
because people do not keep your law.

Psalm 119:129-136