Changing things up

So. I obviously haven't posted anything here in a good long time. There are several reasons for this. My computer was broken for the first part of the year, which limited my internet time to what I could squeeze out of my schedule at libraries. This left little time for blogging. Once my computer was fixed, I found that I was out of the habit of blogging.

Not only was I out of the habit, but I was intimidated by the commitment it takes to blog consistently and blog well. I didn't see a way to fit that into my already busy schedule. At the same time, I still see the value of blogging: as a way to stay in touch with friends, to share what I am learning, and to keep track of my own thoughts and interests.

I have spent quite a bit of time thinking about how I can make the blogging experience healthy in my life and helpful in yours. Here is my new plan: I'm going to shift most of my blogging over to notesfromfaraway@tumblr.com. For those who have never heard of this, Tumblr is sort of like blogging in short form (but it is emphatically way more than Twitter). For whatever reason, I feel less pressure to post well-developed, completely thought through posts. Instead, I'll just be posting whatever catches my attention that day: quotes, videos, half-formed thoughts. This will be helpful for me to keep track of my own thoughts. Will it be helpful for anyone else? Honestly? Who knows. It will at least be interesting, since it will be all the things that interest me. So if you share my interests, and/or want to keep track of them, check it out. I've already started posting over there.

If you know my interests are not your interests and this whole things sounds boring to you, no worries. I will still post the occasional developed, well-thought-through, devotional thoughts over here. But I will also post them (or at least link to them) on tumblr. So if you want everything, you only have to check one site. And if you don't want all the personal reflections and random thoughts, you don't need them. You can just hang out here.

Hopefully that makes sense, and this will work out better for me and for you.

Quote of the Day

"Even if I were not an evangelical Christian, I'd like to think I could see which is the more important matter: stopping the international child sex trade or getting Melissa Etheridge a marriage certificate."

Carl Trueman, discussing the media's single-minded focus on gay marriage.

Looks like I may be taking a J-term class from Dr. Trueman on the life and thought of Martin Luther. Should be good times.

HT: BJ

Lessons from an unlikely source

Extremely convicting words on evangelism from an atheist. Who happens to be a magician.

Here he is, Penn Jillette (The louder half of Penn and Teller):



"How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize?"

HT: Vitamin Z

What is he so excited about?

Pretty much every time I read the Bible, I am reminded of its inspiration. So much of it is so different from anything else I've ever read, or anything I would even think to write. There are theological riches that humans could never think up on their own. There are unflattering details that human authors would not want to include. And then there are passages where, for some reason or another, the writer is focused on something I would probably just glance over. Take this passage, and watch the exclamation point. I'm pretty sure I would be excited about a different part of the story:

Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, two women coming forward! The wind was in their wings. They had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven.

There were two women! They were coming towards me!! The wind was in their wings.

...Oh yeah, did I mention they had wings like storks?

The verse is Zechariah 5:9. You should read the whole chapter, or even the whole book. You'll see visions of judgment, followed by visions of restoration. You'll gain a deeper understanding of the visions of the Book of Revelation. But you still might not understand why Zechariah seems more excited about the women than about their wings.

Transformative Theology

Chapel was excellent today. Dr. Kruger brought the Word from Psalm 63. Lots of encouragement, lots of challenges, lost to think about. Here is just one quick thought:

"If your study of theology is not transformative, you are not doing it rightly."

Theology (thinking deeply about God) must transform you.

...nobody blasphemes like an evangelical can

Doug Wilson reviews The Shack, and discusses the "peculiar form of evangelical blasphemy" the book presents:

I remember one time I was at a conference where the group I was with was sharing the venue with another group. So one time I sat in on the chapel services of that other group, and they began singing "Spring Up, O Well," which was fine with me. But since the song involved water, somebody had developed hand motions, and jumpy-up-and-down-motions. So there was this room full of adult Christians jumping up and down while they were singing, splish splashing along. But then they got to a verse where it was all about the blood of Christ instead of water, and they continued right on with the hand motions and the jumping, and the only thing missing was the rubber ducky, and nobody blasphemes like an evangelical can.

What do you bring to the table?

William Temple:

The only thing of my very own which I contribute to my redemption is the sin from which I need to be redeemed.

JC Ryle:

True faith has nothing whatever of merit about it, and in the highest sense cannot be called "a work." It is but laying hold of a Savior's hand, leaning on a husband's arm, and receiving a physician's medicine. It brings with it nothing to Christ, but a sinful man's soul. It gives nothing, contributes nothing, pays nothing, performs nothing. It only receives, takes, accepts, grasps, and embraces the glorious gift of justification which Christ bestows, and by renewed daily acts enjoys that gift.