Year: 2004

Scripture vs. Experience?

As I’m getting into the swing of my seminary class, I’m noticing a strange trend, particularly among “Theology people:” They have this… tendency to criticize the modern church for putting too much emphasis on experience, apparently at the expense of scripture. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that not all is well and good with the church in the world today. There’s all kinds of stupid stuff going on. Nevertheless, it’s a rather disingenuous dichotomy

As I’ve said before, it’s very difficult to honestly say that scripture and experience are opposed to one another and then proceed to pass judgement on experience while lifting up scripture as a better reflection of reality. The people who are the most successful in making a distinction between scripture and experience usually proceed to throw out the bible, because most people understand that people whose experiences don’t match up with reality usually end up very carefully medicated, sitting in little padded cells.

Have no fear. I’m not saying that scripture doesn’t match up with reality. I’m saying that scripture and experience *both* match reality. In John 5:39, Jesus is speaking to an unspecified group of Jews and says “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me.” Basically, he was saying that Scripture and experience matched up perfectly in the presence of the Messiah. You might even say that he was raising experience *above* scripture, because he was saying that the scripture only spoke *about* him, yet here he was, the reality in fact. Nevertheless, the two matched up, as far as Jesus was concerned. He went on to say “yet you refuse to come to me to have life,” indicating that their failure to recognize him as Messiah didn’t have anything to do with a discrepancy between the Scriptures and the experience, but with the evil in their own hearts. That is to say, it was an interpretation problem brought upon evil men by darkened minds. They had a moral failing to recognize reality.

In case you have any doubt that the Scripture and experience can match up (at least as far as the bible’s own testimony is concerned) 2 Peter says that Scripture actually came into being by means of experience: “Prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” “Carried along,” huh? sounds to me like these prophets had “an experience” and that the bible came into existance as a result.

The bible speaks in countless other places about spiritual “experiences,” and never once (that I know of) does the bible condemn a person using their experience as a basis for belief or for understanding God’s will and purpose. Nowhere does Scripture indicate that Moses should have ignored that burning bush and stuck to what he learned from his father-in-law Jethro, or that Ezekiel shouldn’t have trusted that experience he had in the valley of dry bones. On the contrary, Paul speaks with some confidence to the Thesalonians, when he says, “We know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.” That “power and the Holy Spirit” thing may just mean really dynamic speaking skills, but it’s very doubtful. Paul was clearly indicating that there was something in the way the Gospel was preached to the Thesalonians that involved something more than the words, and that that “something” was of a supernatural nature. That is to say that there’s a pretty clear precident in scripture that experience can actually work to ratify the scriptures, and very little to indicate that scripture and experience should be placed in opposition.

There is, of course, little verse in in Deuteronomy that people tend to worry over:

If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder takes place, and he says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and will all your soul.

To me, the hypothetical experience described here is something like the happily married man who is sitting absently in a public place when suddenly a strange woman walks up to him and plants a solid smootch on his lips, and proceeds to say things like “come away with me, baby.” Any self-respecting man (who *is* happily married) would know exactly what to do in this situation: run away fast. The experience of being kissed by a strange woman in a public place, no matter how impressive, is not to be compared with being kissed by his own wife. A kiss from the wife communicates a sincere and devoted affection. A kiss from a strange woman in a public place is… violently scary. There is absolutely no chance that her advances could ever lead to anything good.

Nevertheless, a man who is afraid of being kissed in public places by strange women (a very nervous and jumpy man, to be sure) does not retreat from kisses. He retreats from strange women. He does not rush home and forgo the physical attentions of his wife in favor of reading through old high school love letters. For one thing, he will quickly discover that his wife was actually a quite terrible writer in high school, and for another, the man who avoids the experiential knowledge of his wife eventually ends up in the same position as the man who goes off in persuit of strange women: divorced. And from every indication in scripture, to be divorced from God is a very terrible thing indeed.

Of course, God has never been a terrible writer (unless you’re refering to the fact that Leviticus is really boring for the bedside table), and I’m sure I know what they’re after, those theologians who warn against putting our trust in experience: I don’t think they’re really worried about us putting trust in our experience. Who could really trust in a god with whom they had absolutely no experience? Even the simplest kind of faith requires the intervention of the Holy Spirit, which would be a kind of experience. Even reading the bible is a kind of experience. I think what causes them alarm is not that people put *trust* in experiences so much as that people so often *persue* experiences. Like Baby in the muppet sit-com Dinosaurs, we get thrown across the room by some experience and, instead of saying “wow, I just put a hole in the living room wall. Maybe screaming and yelling isn’t all it’s cracked up to be,” we just cry out “Again!!”

Persuing experience for the sake of experience is, if not evil, more than a little foolish. It’s like the college girl who receives a bouquet every day from an admirer. Every day she rushes to the mail room expectantly, and sure enough, she gets the most beautiful bouquet anyone has ever seen. And every day she cries out, “oh! I *love* flowers!” The flowers are real. There’s no doubt about that. But if she doesn’t put some serious thought into what those flowers mean, she’s going to end up in real trouble. She needs to find out who it is that’s sending the flowers, and what exactly he means by it. She needs to find out if his intentions are honorable, and if she’s truly interested in the relationship he intends for her. If she doesn’t put in the necessary thought, she’ll be setting herself up for some unfortunate possibilities. Her admirer (assuming the best aims on his part) may eventually give up if she doesn’t ever get the hint. Worse, some other schmo may come along and claim credit for the flowers and who knows what this other guy wants?

Jesus told the Sadducees, “You are in error because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God.” The Sadducees had it bad because it wasn’t like they didn’t have the scriptures or the power of God. Both were quite available to them. They were certainly *aware* of the scriptures, and Jesus himself was living nearby; if they had cared to inquire about the scriptures and the power of God, info was available. Today though, its a rare sort that drives off both sides of the road at the same time (you can do it, but it’s difficult). Usually, we pick our favorite curb. “Theology people” tend to err on the side of the guy who ignores his wife and reads her letters. “Mystics” or “Spiritual people” tend to err on the side of the girl who loves flowers, but doesn’t do the research to find out what they’re supposed to mean.

Nevertheless, I believe that both are important to the church and *both* need to be examined in the light of each other.

Jesus was a liberal, not a libertine

Honestly, I’ve just been wanting to say that phrase for a long time. I heard that Al Sharpton made the claim that Jesus was a Liberal during the Democratic National Convention, but I can’t find a proper link. Nevertheless, it’s true: Jesus *was* a liberal, given the proper definition of “liberal”:

Liberal:
Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.
Favoring proposals for reform

Or try this: opposed to the establishment.

Of course, this begs the question of whether *Democrats* are liberals, since it seems that they’re more likely to be limited to “established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes,” since it seems to me that recently the Republicans have been the ones coming out with more non-traditional and experimental ideas and the Democrats who have been opposing them by authoritarian means. But:

Jesus was a liberal, by the generic definition. Hey, “liberal” means “free” and it was Jesus Christ who said “the truth will set you free.”

Let’s see, Jesus:

  • Bucked the establishment.
  • Dissented from authority
  • Associated with social outcasts.

    • and

  • Broke lots of rules

All in all, Jesus was probably about as liberal as they got, short of denying the authority of the Scriptures. He was even accused of being a glutton and a drunk.

This *should* give liberals the world around cause for great rejoicing: the founder of the Christian faith was *one of them.* (For that matter, Paul was considered pretty liberal too: he dragged poor uncircumcised Timothy with him to Jerusalem to make a point about gentile Christians.) It should also give pause to Christian conservatives the world around, since it wasn’t really Jews who killed Jesus, per se, as it was conservatives. Nearly every person involved in Jesus passion was Jewish, pro and con, so you can’t say much about it, based on race. But the people who rigged the crucifixion were almost all conservatives.

But honestly, the “Jesus was a liberal” meme doesn’t help many traditional causes. You see, Jesus was a liberal, but he wasn’t a libertine. Here’s a working definition for “libertine:”

Libertine:
one who acts without moral restraint

This means that, while Jesus was all for throwing out traditions made of men, he wasn’t too in favor of throwing out moral commandments given by God. Remember this quote?

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

If anything, Jesus was famous for upping the ante. “You have heard it said… but I say unto you…” Not once did Jesus take a moral law and make it lighter. There were a couple of times when he threw out extraneous foolishness, but never a time when he said something like, “actually, fornication’s not that bad, as long as you don’t get pregnant.”

Jesus wasn’t even all that tolerant. He was more likely to say “you’re all wrong” than “nobody’s wrong.”

You might even say that Jesus was in favor of capital punishment, since he practically rigged his own—refusing to defend himself, deliberately assenting to the most incriminating accusations…

The confusing thing for me is that, while Jesus was in fact a liberal, many of the people who currently *call* themselves liberals seem to be less liberal than libertines. In fact, if you cut out everything from the stereotypical liberal agenda that smacks of casting off moral restraint, what you have isn’t particularly liberal at all. It isn’t innovative. Not really. Those are the same positions that have been being held for, what, 50 years? I guess that’s better than sticking with the same positions as people 500 years ago, but (excepting areas of basic moral restraint) who thinks like the people 500 years ago? Even if we manage to come to a similar conclusion, the process of getting there is **way** more liberal for everybody, especially if you define “liberal” as simply “new.”

In all honesty, Jesus wouldn’t allow himself *ever* to be confined by someone else’s world-system. He had his own agenda, and it didn’t fit with anybody’s. He set his face like flint toward Jerusalem, because he had a mission to accomplish that could be performed by no other.

In short,

Don’t be co-opting the King of Kings,
Cause Jesus was a liberal, not a libertine.

EDIT: Incidentally, Eugene Volokh has some interesting things to say about liberals and morality at GlennReynolds.com

Notice

It has come to my attention that some people were refraining from commenting on the blog because they didn’t want their email addresses posted on the web for all to see. That was a problem in MovableType. It isn’t in WordPress. Emal addresses are not displayed in the comments section, only html addresses.

The email is still required though, but only for internal reference. I need to have some kind of attempt at a viable contact in case of people spamming my blog or inappropriate comments.

Thank you. That is all.

No Place for Truth

I supose this is really just another plug for a product, but it’s infinitely more important than Firefox.

I just finished reading a book for my Theology class by David Wells, a professor at Gordon-Conwell. The book is called *No Place for Truth,* Or *Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?* and I there’s a good chance that it ought to be required reading for every True Christian embarking on a path for ministry today. The basic premise of the book is that, in general, evangelical Christians, those of the heritage of the Reformers, the Puritans, the Methodists and the Charismatics, (and I suppose the Baptists too) have essentially lost their first love. Evangelical Christianity is growing by leaps and bounds recently, but they’ve accomplished this growth not by sufficiently challenging the surrounding culture, but by becoming enough like it that people find the evangelical Gospel acceptable to their social mores. For the most part, evangelicals have abandoned the knowledge of God (Theologos) and have replaced it with a kind of knowledge of man. The result has been that the Jesus we present has been dummed down enough that he’s finally acceptable to put on the shelf next to whatever other gods people have.

The first part of the book is a very difficult read, for several reasons. It consists of a scathing critique of modern evangelicalism, and a description of how and why we have abandoned our prior fascination with theology. Part of the difficulty with this part of the book was simply that it was written in 1993, just before the public started really gaining access to the internet. So a lot of his criticisms were just too outdated to make any sense to me. His discussions of how mass marketing and TV had inured our minds to thinking objectively were a bit amusing in light of RatherGate and the collapse of interupt marketing. The other thing that made it difficult is that I grew up pretty isolated from “modern culture.” I was in rural Oklahoma, and stupid wasn’t allowed in the house. You have to take that off and leave it on the porch. As a result, I haven’t ever really been aware of the broader evangelical culture, of which I seem inadvertantly to be a part. So some of his scathing criticisms seemed a bit off base. But then it occurred to me that, while *we* didn’t go to *those* sorts of churches, most nearly every other Christian we knew did. I had been fortunate, and unaware.

I do, however, have memories of people coming back to school from church and telling me that it had been prophesied: Revival was coming. Next tuesday. Be there.

But the second part of the book was well worth it. He describes the importance of Theology, why we need it, and what may likely happen to the church if we don’t get some of it out of the lofty universities and grounded in the actual church. While I wasn’t raised headlong in modern America’s “cliche culture” (to steal a line from the book), I was raised in a family with a pretty strong bias against formal education. Learning? All for it. But stay away from those schools: they’ll charge you an awful lot of money to give you a piece of paper, and you won’t really have gained much by it in the end. It’s a position I’m still inclined to agree with, much to Valerie’s chagrin. I remember when I got my English degree, the first thought that passed through my head was “now I finally know what it’s like to have a high school diploma.” *No Place for Truth* largely confirmed these inclinations. He points out that, while the church has lost it’s taste for rock solid truth, the university has lost its focus and understanding that the intended audience for theology (the persuit of the knowledge of God) is the church. If the church has no thorough concept of who God is and what he really wants from us, the church has very little reason for existence. And yet, even those people who point out the most adamantly that you have to know both the power of God **and** the scriptures, are pitifully ignorant of the scriptures in comparison to say, John Calvin. Incidentally, Wells also mentions that my current degree, the M Div, was a bachelors degree as recently as 50 years ago. It was “upgraded” officially to accord the same prestige to ministers that is given to doctors, lawyers, and MBAs, against the protest of older ministers who were stongly suspicious that there was a financial motive to adding an extra 4 years to the required education to get a theology degree. It was a gut-level sense that something like this was in place that persuaded me to drop out from school for three years, looking for the necessary theology education outside the accredited system. Honestly, it’s only because it didn’t work that I’m now back in school (still). My $30,000 in debt continues to persuade me that there was some financial motive in this “upgrade” to “professional status.”

The final chapter in *No Place for Truth* is the most impelling. Most of the book is written in academic style, with enough footnotes to choke a goat. But the last chapter is almost free of footnotes, and Wells speaks freely of his diagnosis: The evangelical church, progressing as it is, has become so much like the surrounding worldly culture that it is almost totally ineffective in making a true representation of Christ to the world. The salt has for the most part lost its saltiness. We aren’t changing the world nearly as fast as they are changing us. Even our revivals are pretty much human engineered, and so lacking the key ingredient to actually do what they’re supposed to do. We don’t need a revival: we’re lively enough as it is, and that liveliness has less to do with the actual presence of a holy God than it has to do with an engineered enthusiasm. What we need is a reformation.

I am inclined to agree. Granted, not every church in the world is soaked up by the world. Maybe your church is *the* church in your town that is preaching the true gospel, complete with a holy and awesome God who is sovereign, and wholly other and above the world. So was Martin Luther’s church, even before he nailed his 95 theses. This doesn’t negate the fact that the church at large has no clue, and it is continuing to persue the path of cluelessness.

David Wells’ prescription involves a renewal of the place of theology in the local church. That can’t be all of it, of course. God is still sovereign and has his own purposes. He also does nothing that he doesn’t first reveal to his servants, the prophets. Nevertheless, if you accept the premise that the knowledge of God is key to a functioning church, then a church that has no place for theology has surely left it’s center.

Restoring theology to its rightful place in church life could be a good start.

Quick plug

For all of you who think the browser wars are dead, check out Mozilla Firefox. It’s pretty.

Plus it does things right when Internet Explorer won’t. A couple of examples:

You should note the fancy boxes around some menu items to the right over there. In IE, those are just static boxes. In Firefox, they’re bona fide drop down menus. Not that I have much set up to drop, but soon….

Secondly (and this is probably the most beautiful thing) , I haven’t tested it yet but it looks like Firefox has an RSS reader built into the browser (**R**eally **S**imple **S**yndication). That means you can subscribe directly to yours truly and other blogs directly through your bookmarks..

So anyway, I’m going to be using firefox for a few days to see if I like it better…

Thought to Ponder

Are you being Salty?

You know how most people have a preference for either sweet or salty things to munch on? Well, nine times out of ten if you ask me what I’d like to munch on it would be something salty. I’m not sure why but I prefer salt to sugar, which means I really have to be careful not to get dehydrated. I have something of a fascination for salts in general though (probably because I like the taste so much) so I have a tendency to perk up in my chemistry classes when they’re discussed. Now don’t look at me like that; I am a science major and sometimes really weird things are interesting to me like the like the different affects that salt has on people, plants and water.

Did you know that you need salt in your body in order to function properly? Take a look at this:

Vital Functions of Salt in the Body

1. Salt is most effective in stabilizing irregular heartbeats and, Contrary to the misconception that it causes high blood pressure, it is actually essential for the regulation of blood pressure – in conjunction with water. Naturally the proportions are critical.

2. Salt is vital to the extraction of excess acidity from the cells in the body, particularly the brain cells.

3. Salt is vital for balancing the sugar levels in the blood; a needed element in diabetics.

4. Salt is vital for the generation of hydroelectric energy in cells in the body. It is used for local power generation at the sites of energy need by the cells.

5. Salt is vital to the nerve cells’ communication and information processing all the time that the brain cells work, from the moment of conception to death.

6. Salt is vital for absorption of food particles through the intestinal tract.

7. Salt is vital for the clearance of the lungs of mucus plugs and sticky phlegm, particularly in asthma and cystic fibrosis.

8. Salt is vital for clearing up catarrh and congestion of the sinuses.

9. Salt is a strong natural antihistamine.

10. Salt is essential for the prevention of muscle cramps.

11. Salt is vital to prevent excess saliva production to the point that it flows out of the mouth during sleep. Needing to constantly mop up excess saliva indicates salt shortage.

12. Salt is absolutely vital to making the structure of bones firm. Osteoporosis, in a major way, is a result of salt and water shortage in the body.

13. Salt is vital for sleep regulation. It is a natural hypnotic.

14. Salt is a vitally needed element in the treatment of diabetics.

15. Salt on the tongue will stop persistent dry coughs.

16. Salt is vital for the prevention of gout and gouty arthritis.

17. Salt is vital for preventing varicose veins and spider veins on the legs and thighs.

18. Salt is vital to the communication and information processing nerve cells the entire time that the brain cells work – from the moment of conception to death.

19. Salt is vital for reducing a double chin. When the body is short of salt, it means the body really is short of water. The salivary glands sense the salt shortage and are obliged to produce more saliva to lubricate the act of chewing and swallowing and also to supply the stomach with water that it needs for breaking down foods. Circulation to the salivary glands increases and the blood vessels become “leaky” in order to supply the glands with water to manufacture saliva. The “leakiness” spills beyond the area of the glands themselves, causing increased bulk under the skin of the chin, the cheeks and into the neck.

20. Sea salt contains about 80 mineral elements that the body needs. Some of these elements are needed in trace amounts. Unrefined sea salt is a better choice of salt than other types of salt on the market. Ordinary table salt that is bought in the super markets has been stripped of its companion elements and contains additive elements such as aluminum silicate to keep it powdery and porous. Aluminum is a very toxic element in our nervous system. It is implicated as one of the primary causes of Alzheimer’s disease.

21. Twenty-seven percent of the body’s salt is in the bones. Osteoporosis results when the body needs more salt and takes it from the body. Bones are twenty-two percent water. Is it not obvious what happens to the bones when we’re deficient in salt or water or both.

(* The information on salt intake is taken from Dr. Batmanghelidj’s book, “Water: Rx for a Healthier Pain-Free Life”.)

** This is also another really good site to look at: http://www.saltinfo.com/salt%20health1.htm

I read stuff like this and it makes me stop and say “whoa, way cool!” (Yes I told you already that I’m a science nerd…get over it.) But something even more than this makes me stop and think. Imagine having this kind of knowledge and reading this over again
13″You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
14″You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” – Mathew 5:13-16

What does it really mean to be the salt of the earth? Have you ever really thought about it or just made a cursory glance at the verse, said, “that’s nice”, and went on to more important things? Now to give people credit…most people do realize that salt is a preservative and we are called to preserve/save the earth, but it doesn’t stop there by any stretch of the imagination. Look at the verse again; one of the first things that strikes me is the part about salt losing its saltiness…. What? How can that be? Salt’s still a salt right?

Guess what a salt by definition is a chemical compound formed by replacing all or part of the hydrogen ions of an acid with metal ions or electropositive radicals. What does that mean? It means that if you take two oppositely charged atoms or small molecules (like sodium and chloride…which are both highly toxic on their own, btw) and bring them together, they will form an ionic bond. Think of it as putting two kitchen magnets together. They stick together but they can be easily pulled apart, especially if you put that salt in water.

Now about salt losing it’s saltiness… When you put some salt in a solution like water it dissolves, right? Ok now you’ve got water with salt in it but you can still taste the salt. Now add some more water…add some more…keep adding until you can’t taste the salt anymore. The salt hasn’t disappeared but it has lost its saltiness. It’s become too dilute for your taste buds to distinguish.

What does the verse say about salt that has lost its saltiness? That’s right “It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” It becomes completely useless. It can’t preserve anything, it can’t make things flavorful, it can’t even be distinguished from tap water. You can become diluted by the world to the point that you’ve lost your saltiness and you become useless. Don’t let yourself be fooled into thinking that if you just let this be a part of you or watch that in order to fit in that people will be more willing to listen to you. When you do that you’ve fallen into the trap of dilution.

Now here’s something else to chew on. As the salt of the earth, we are vital for the earth’s day to day survival. Do you remember when Jesus prayed for his disciples? One of the things he said was, “15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world” (John 17). I believe that this prayer was not just for those original twelve but also for all of us who “have heard and believed” (John 17) and are now Christ’s disciples as well. We are the essential compound that keeps our world from immediate death.

‘A little bit of salt goes a long way,’ but if we have every Christian being the full potential of their “saltiness” the evil in this world cannot survive. I believe that we should be working towards a point where we become so salty that the ruler of this world burns his fingers and spits us out of his jaws. We need to be the irritation in the wounds that he receives from our prayers and the prayers of our spiritual leaders.

The sea is filled with salt and we would die if we floated in it for too long (and not because of the sharks either). Even then there is abundant life in the oceans.

The Dead Sea is filled with even more salt; to the point that fish cannot survive. But there is still life in the form of microorganisms that flourish even at that high salinity.

We need to be so salty that nothing born of the ruler of this world can take root and grow like in a field that has been salted. We are in a battle for the survival of this world; it’s time to start using those battle tactics.

“You are the salt of the earth
You are the salt of the earth
But if that salt has lost its flavor
It ain’t got much in its favor
You can’t have that fault and be the salt of the earth! “ (Lyrics from the song “Light of the World” in the musical Godspell)

Thought to Ponder

“Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.” – Proverbs 12:1

Have you ever said, “Lord, change me” and then rejected the criticism of your neighbor? Now I don’t mean the kind of criticism that is said with a spiteful attitude and primarily about something temporary or physical. No, I mean the kind of criticism that hits a nerve because you know it’s true but don’t want to really listen because it would be too hard to do. The kind of criticism that could get you that “A” on a paper or be a more visible representative for Christ. Are you willing to open yourself up to other people for correction or are you planning to be mulish all your life? We can’t improve if we don’t know what needs to fix.

Also, stop fencing yourself in with excuses about your past failures. Your past cannot dictate who you are unless you choose to give in to it and the “oh woe is me” attitude that goes along with it. Now don’t get me wrong…some things that happen in people’s pasts hurt and have had an enormous effect on who they’ve become. But do you honestly think that you’re useless because of something that happened yesterday or fifteen years ago? Of course not!

God loves each and ever cracked, bruised and broken piece of us because they make us even more unique and better vessels for him to pour out life and healing in the cracked, bruised and broken world that we live in. If we don’t have these experiences, we can’t relate; and what is a ministry that doesn’t cross the boundary between heaven and the earth? We are the messengers. Your failings are the kinex that God uses to branch out with.

So the next time you ask God to “change you” if it’s really something that needs to be changes, listen to the criticism that he imparts to you through your neighbors and if it’s not, thank him for another opportunity to shine for him and pour out his healing into the lives of your fellow battered.

Wait for the Switch

This is a hack. This is only a hack.
Had this been a real website update, it would have looked *way* cooler.

This would be, I guess, phase 1 of my switch to a whole new blog. I’ve brought everything over from MovableType to WordPress, which, contrary to what Jared Bridges seems to think, is pretty hard work. I’m pretty sure the only thing I’ve got to do on this end is go through and update all the poetry. WordPress recognizes linebreaks differently than MovableType, and as a result, everything on here in verse (pretty much) has been converted to long, senseless, lines of text. I’ve got to go back and add in those breaks manually (gulp!).

If you’re the sort of person who goes aimlessly browsing through other people’s archives, now would be the time to do so. I could use your help. If you see typos or other obvious mistakes, put a comment on the post (thereby also testing the new comment system). Hey, if you’re really vigorous (and I can trust you with a login), I might even teach you to put in those linebreaks for me!

Phase 2 will be coming shortly: the new site design complete with new url (and a new banner from one I love dearly). I’ve seen the prototypes. It’s **nice**.

Phase 3 is going to be the tricky part. We need to figure out the best way to run both blogs on the same site. I welcome all suggestions…

Thought to Ponder

A story from one of my dailies that I really thought was special:

A visitor at a school for the deaf and dumb was writing questions on the blackboard for the children. By and by he wrote this sentence: “Why has God made me to hear and speak, and made you deaf and dumb?”

The awful sentence fell upon the little ones like a fierce blow in the face. They sat palsied before that dreadful “Why?” And then a little girl rose.

Her lip was trembling. Her eyes were swimming with tears. Straight to the board she walked, and, picking up the crayon, wrote with firm hand these precious words: “Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight!” (Matthew 11:26).