Tag: David

The Spirit of the Lord Rushed upon David

1 Samuel 16:13,

“Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.”

You read a text often enough, and you start to wonder what’s behind it. Who wrote 1 Samuel? Did he interview people? How did he know that? What does it mean, that the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David?

I’m assuming David told somebody, later, that he felt something. How else would he know that the Spirit “rushed” on him? The ’84 NIV says that the Spirit “came upon him in power.” Which begs the question of what it means to come upon somebody in power, as opposed to just coming upon them the normal way. We’re still left with the impression that David had some kind of experience that he felt. Maybe that experience had later results in terms of supernaturally increased ability to lead or sing (prophesy?), or go to war. But for it to be noticeable, at just that moment, David had to have an experience.

That semi-mystical experience then had enough theological value to be included in the text of scripture as an example of what it means to have the Holy Spirit come upon you.

Morning Links

David is still home. His supercold has mostly gone away, but now he has an ear infection from the buildup. And of course, a fever. As soon as I get done being the worst Mr. Mom ever, I’ll see about posting something that I originated myself.

In the mean time, links:

  1. More on Watchmen: revision as political statement. I doubt I will actually watch the movie myself. Some things that are bearable in print, should not be seen in action.
  2. David says B, which has always been my preferred position on the matter, but I think we’ll be going with A for a while.
  3. Ok. If I can get them to use this patch for something, we will do Boy Scouts.
  4. Population rapidly declining, liberals rejoice?
  5. Only works in English
  6. More on the Evangelical collapse. From one view, it’s a good thing – the part that’s supposed to collapse is the part that I didn’t consider Evangelical.
  7. Apparently, I need to read more Wodehouse, cause I never heard of Bertie Wooster. I have heard of Jeeves, though.
  8. (Obliquely) via Rick Joyner: Todd Bently on road to restoration, via a remarriage. My only thought: Remarried? I couldn’t even get married that fast!
  9. A critique of the Lorax, with which I agree. I’m all in favor of taller buildings!
  10. Scary place to do your business.
  11. Embryos might become fertilized?

Early-afternoon Links?

I’m late this morning. David had a doctor’s appointment this morning at 8:45 for a case of RSV, which is actually something like a really, really bad cold. So bad that it causes pneumonia. An 8:45 appointment means seeing the LPN at around 10:00, which is to say we got home at around noon. As an added bonus, the doctor’s office and the pharmacy are having a little disagreement about whether our insurance will pay for David’s breathing treatment. Fortunately, a moderate case of pneumonia is as nothing to basic asthma, so I’m unimpressed with his pressing need for expensive asthma medication.

But links:

  1. Confusing “unfettered capitalism” with mercantilism.
  2. Billy Graham at Harvard. Unfortunately, in RealMedia format.
  3. Obama and his teleprompter. I thought it was safety glass.
  4. Apparent proof that Obama is not an idiot. Though it leaves the other option (either stupid or…).
  5. Often, good politicians lie. Adroit politicians lie often.
  6. It looks, however, like Obama is really starting to feel the weight of the presidency. Or at least, the press is beginning to feel something.
  7. Scripophily – like collecting stamps!
  8. An excellent quote by the former president of my seminary, especially when applied to 1 Corinthians 12.
  9. Divine Vinyl – Brace yourself.
  10. Well it ought to be.
  11. Two words – Central Planning.
  12. The complications of being a senator and an OBGYN.
  13. Barry Manilow – not a weapon? (H/T: Dan Phillips)
  14. Also via Mr. Phillips: Letters to the editor re: Galatians.
  15. Just don’t get it. “Don’t waste your sports” is only slightly more confusing than “don’t waste your jigsaw puzzles.”
  16. Proper use of capital and lowercase numbers – which is why I now type everything in the Georgia font, if I possibly can.
  17. Also: spacing between sentences. So hard to unlearn!
  18. Barak Carter? Jimmy Obama?
  19. Logic!
  20. Watchmen, a review. Any movie rendition without the pirate comic would be a certain improvement, but even then, this movie is rated R, for the same reason the Passion was rated R, with the exception that the Passion is about the gospel, while Watchmen sort of wants to be, but isn’t. Well, they got sin right, anyway.
  21. Flash fiction. (Officially creepy.)
  22. Love makes for great photography. Because there’s no way that those bowls are intrinsically beautiful.
  23. Taking up slack. As soon as I get done taking care of my perpetually sick kid, I’ve got a list of certifications to work on while I look for new work. Oh, and I’m writing again.
  24. Worse than poverty? Yes.
  25. Ha! Something about a historical “living document” which claims a triumph of orthodox theology over heretics just sticks funny with me. Are we talking orthodox or Orthodox, here? The “living document” thing is why I’m inclined to mistrust the Textus Receptus over against modern critical versions of the Bible. The Textus Receptus was preserved by the Orthodox, and they have this thing for preserving “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” in “living documents.”
  26. Professors tend to be liberals. Who knew?
  27. Continuing a classic trend in American prison systems.
  28. Bankruptcy, as seen through a cheap gass grill
  29. Against children’s church.
  30. Might be useful.
  31. Fleeting temptation. Just… wow.
  32. On the other hand, an interesting paradigm for avoiding it, though lacking in detail
  33. Confusing Sam with John.
  34. A different Sam. Check the quip quotes at the end.
  35. Don’t lose the keys! Rather the Protestant position, I should think:

    Some poor prelate forgot to pass them to his heir,
    but when Martin Luther found them,
    il Papa claimed they weren’t there.

    Well, he claimed that those keys weren’t the keys, anyway.

  36. On the health care debate. There’s a gap in these arguments that I could put my finger on, if I took the time to find it.
  37. In which “woo-woo” is exemplified.
  38. A new approach to scripture memory. This actually works. I can still remember the titles of books I never read as a child, because they were on my bookshelf and I looked at the binding every day.

Morning Links

Good Morning. I’ve been flat on my back all weekend with one wasting disease after another, which made our concert experience with Celtic Woman less than ideal for me. In other news, David has taken to tasting his feely books. On to the links:

  1. Taxes rising.
  2. “For fear of Rush Limbaugh” sounds an awful lot like “Because of Winn Dixie“.
  3. Obama’s voice like liquor that makes markets stumble. Reminds me of a Bible verse.
  4. 140 psi sounds a little high.
  5. The Conservative as Traditionalist, rather than Libertarian. I used to think I fell pretty well in both categories, now I’m sure only of the former. Libertarians kind of scare me anymore.
  6. It’s Greek to me! A map.
  7. Double Amputee becomes mermaid. It’s kinda sweet.
  8. Presidential approval ratings
  9. Meta tagging
  10. The top 2% is not enough.
  11. Critiquing Obama’s speech, in a Venn diagram.
  12. Herod’s temple
  13. Personall Branding with Google – which explains a bit of why I had a hard time blogging when I was a teacher. Something about the Christian school felt… political.
  14. More likely to discuss advanced calculus.
  15. So close!
  16. Peculiar story (flash fiction)
  17. I didn’t realize he was born in Tulsa.
  18. A punt. Putting copyright holders in the driver’s seat makes it clear who’s being a jerk about their copyright.
  19. “Having tasted the goods” I think I can say with confidence why economists don’t usually moonlight as musicians.
  20. Iz not pincussion! Or “martyrs who just won’t die!”
  21. Still believing Ron Reagan.
  22. Against unionizing. Or at least, against bullying, which is often the same thing.
  23. How to podcast.

Update

Hi guys. Looks like I’m behind a bit on my links. I’ll probably share some tomorrow. Events have been happening.

Last week was rough for David. Right after his first birthday, he developed a fever that kept him out of day care, so we rotated keeping him home. I stayed with him Tuesday, and Valerie’s mom took off Wednesday. That was the day, giving him some fever medicine, that Valerie’s mom had the joy of watching her grandson have a seizure. So he went to the hospital, where they discovered that he had gotten dehydrated (which can apparently cause seizures). Thursday Valerie stayed home with him, and by Friday, he was fine.

At the same time, David’s illness was also floating around at work – at least 2-3 people were home sick on various days that week, with high fevers. And on Thursday evening, I had a bout myself. So I had to call in sick a second time in a week (and the first time ever that it was actually me who was sick).

Around noon on Friday, I got a call from my temp agency – don’t come in on Monday. Apparently my day off was also my last day at work. Not really unexpected – our office has been closing down for some time, and this is the way of temp jobs. But at the same time, in most books, to let a person go when they’re not even there is plain rude.

Nevertheless, God is gracious and we are not ungrateful. We’ve been watching with familiar admiration all through this. In the years since I moved out on my own, though I’ve never particularly had any steady work, I’ve never been too short-handed to pay a bill that was due. Since we’ve been out of college, we’ve never even missed a paycheck, and this was no exception. I kept my job in a closing department, rather inexplicably, until Valerie had gotten her first paycheck. Now I’m looking again, and I’m confident that he will be faithful to provide – right at the last minute. 🙂

In other news completely, I’ve been thinking about changing our web address. First, It’s finally beginning to dawn on me that there is a certain measure of hubris in naming your site “spiritual,” in Greek no less, as though announcing to the world that this is exactly the embodiment of what you are. Secondly, nobody can spell it.

I’m thinking about changing it to something revolving around God’s grace, and the phrase that keeps coming to mind is from Psalm 18:34 (also 2 Sam 22:35)

“He teaches my hands to make war,

So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.”

So I’m thinking BronzeBow dot net or org or something. There’s already a weblog at BowOfBronze.com, but I’m sure there’s plenty of room for all.

The Bronze Bow, of course, is also the title of a delightful children’s book by Elizabeth George Speare, which, oddly, was read to me in fourth grade, but I never owned.

Yesterday’s

Well, yesterday was exciting. David’s fever was apparently not just a teething issue. Or maybe it could have been, but he had a little seizure yesterday, which was apparently due to dehydration. At least, that’s what they said at the emergency room. They also discovered something in his lungs that looked like a little pneumonia, so they gave us an antiboitic, which is supposed to also help in case of the chance of UTI, which can happen when you get dehydrated for too long. His fever broke this morning, so he’s pretty much fine now.

Against my will – I’m grateful that we have insurance. Hospital visits are not cool.

And links:

  1. Galaga for girls
  2. Harsh words appropriate in theological debate. See also this excellent sermon by Mark Driscoll.
  3. Obama’s grammar better than Bush’s? Well, it’s at least as interesting.
  4. One more step in the right direction.
  5. Fascism!
  6. The drive to the bottom – and the gospel.
  7. Backups
  8. Beards. Not exactly why I have a beard – but it’s a nice line of thought.

Yesterday’s

Technically, this would be links from the day-before-yesterday, but that looks silly as a title. David had a fever yesterday, so I stayed home with him. He had no other symptoms, other than a general clinginess, so I’m going with a coworker’s theory that he’s just teething. Unfortunately, staying home means I’m completely out of my schedule and end up playing video games during my free moments. I come to work the next day so grateful for a job to prop up my sanctification.

Of course, now “Yesterday’s” is getting a little disingenuous for a title, since obviously I’m not always going to be able to get back to it the next day. Any suggestions what I should call these things?

On to the links:

  1. Mark Driscoll’s missed opportunity. I definitely think Driscoll blew it on this one. “Do you dig Jesus?” leaves it too open for the person to make up their own Jesus to believe in.

    A better question might be: “Do you understand that, apart from Jesus’ intervention on your behalf, you are a rebel and a traitor to God?” They may be traitors who go to church; they almost certainly are who refuse – How can you say you love God, whom you have not seen, when you hate your brother, whom you have?

  2. On reading books. I relate. I also know that when the hen ceases to lay eggs, it becomes a stew.
  3. Indiana Jones. As a citizen of Springfield.
  4. Economist Greg Mankiw corrects a journalist. The last two paragraphs are actually in English.
  5. Bussman’s holiday. So sad.
  6. Crochet – Bad! No!
  7. The Microsoft Store – via Windows Vista.
  8. Wiemar America
  9. Acquired heritable characteristics – does not apply to circumcision or baptism. Apparently applies to sin.
  10. Authenticity
  11. Apparently the church has never “been a philosophy” – not even what might be termed “the false church.”
  12. Dogs and cats.
  13. On Rule Breaking
  14. Competition
  15. Finale!
  16. Obama had a dream. (Satire)
  17. Marx Cat
  18. Economists agree (and I do too).