Fortnightly rant or so

What's this? A post?

2007-09-13T16:04:00.000-05:00

Not really, it's just a commercial. Artur's world is changing. A race of giants has invaded the homelands of his people, the Rufoux, and the barbarian tribes of the fantastic land of Medialia are begging for the help of his warrior clan. Ahead of him lies an epic struggle to protect the lives of his clansmen, and their lifestyle as well, as he denies himself the love of the beautiful Andreia. Only he can deliver these pagan nations, separated from God, in this ancient world, but the effect on their lives is greater than he could have ever feared or imagined. Read "Wars of the Aoten" at StCelibart.com, free and available to all. Also much poetry, children's books, artwork, music, film and devotional material with a Christian viewpoint.

More stuff at St. Celibart

2007-06-23T14:15:00.001-05:00

A couple of new posts at St. Celibart: A modest nature film with eagles, falcons, a raccoon and some cool footage of a pileated woodpecker at work, “Birds&Bees.” Also new music, “Just the Sea,” a song about a girl from a poem. I’ve also improved the quality of “Hummingbirds” and “Animations,” so they should be more enjoyable to watch; they are larger files now, though, so please be patient. Come and visit, and spread the word.

Arts for Christ's Bride

2007-06-03T13:28:00.001-05:00

A couple of new posts at St. Celibart: A piece of short fiction, “Conversation at Rome,” which I’m not going to tell you what it’s about, and the long-awaited “Sonny Boy: Harps of Angels,” a short documentary about Sonny Boy Williamson, pioneer of the blues harmonica. Come and visit, and spread the word.

New posts

2007-05-21T21:32:00.001-05:00

A couple of new posts at St. Celibart: a recently discovered and translated Celtic ballad, “The Adventures of St. Celibart,” not performed since mediocre minstrels sang it sometime between 500 and 1357 A.D., and a devotional essay, “Serving the Spirit,” a therapeutic look at sin in the life of the believer, and belief in the life of a sinner. Come and visit, and spread the word.

1 Chr. 22:9-10

2007-05-03T10:29:00.000-05:00

"Behold, a son shall be born to you who shall be a man of rest. I will give him rest from all his surrounding enemies. For his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. He shall build a house for my name. He shall be my son, and I will be his father, and I will establish his royal throne in Israel forever."

As usual, it's best to lift the veil and interpret OT passages according to NT revelation, that is, Christologically. This little passage about Solomon then should be approached typologically. The interesting thing here to me is that we often think of Christ in His second advent as the Conquering King, the typology that is applicable to David, while it is also in the second advent that He will fully take on His role as Prince of Peace. This is the typology of Solomon. “Solomon” means peaceful, and he was son of the king, making his title Prince Peaceful.

As well, compare Heb. 3-4. The author indicates that the rest of the land, promised here to Solomon, was really a prefiguring of the believer's rest in Christ. In all of Israel's history, the only extended time of rest in the land occurred under Solomon; all the judges and the rest of the kings had to deal with constant threat or warfare, not to speak of the later times of gentile domination or dispersion. Through Solomon God presented a prefiguring of the kingdom under Christ.

In v. 10 the promise extends beyond Solomon, the type, to Jesus, the antitype. If you, like me, interpret the genealogy of Matthew to be Joseph's and the genealogy of Luke to be Mary's, you will see that Jesus' bloodline to David split away from the kingly line at his sons, that is, went through Nathan instead of Solomon. So the men who sat on the throne after David did not carry the seed, and the promises of v. 10 are not really applicable to Solomon, only to Christ. Therefore, the building of the house refers to the Church, not the temple, and the promise that God would be his Father indicates David's Son, not his son. Again, Solomon is a type, but the real message is about the antitype, Jesus.

Back with more stuff

2007-04-23T08:06:00.000-05:00

A couple of minor new posts at St. Celibart: “Benediction of St. Jude,” new music that you may hear again somewhere else, and a drawing based on Galatians 6:11. Come and visit, and spread the word.

He said, She said

2007-04-18T11:19:00.000-05:00

Today I was watching the news and heard a female anchor ask Franklin Graham a question: "If there is a God, why would He — or She — ..." The rest of the question doesn't matter. I have two thoughts on this issue of applying gender to God; please read both before rolling your eyes and slamming your keyboard.

The first is that gender is a limitation of created beings. To apply this, or any human limitation, to God is to insult Him (and I say "Him" because that's how "He" chose to describe "Himself" in Scripture, and that's the only reason.) To think He is limited in any way, including gender, is to have a low perception of Him. He is all things to all people, Father and Mother, male and female.

The second point is that women who think the Judeo-Christian tradition demeans them need to remember this one thing: God has elevated them high above all other created beings. The purpose of creation is to facilitate the work of Christ, and that work began in a physical way with the Incarnation. Womankind was absolutely essential to the Incarnation; mankind had, by necessity, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with it. What more do you want?

Music and stuff

2007-04-18T10:14:00.000-05:00

New posts at St. Celibart: An oldie but goodie, “To Your Holiness,” and a combination of homilies on Christ’s words from the cross, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”

On Sunday St. Celibart received its 5,000th hit, in just over six months of existence. Probably about 10% of these were me, so they don’t really count, but I send a shout out to all of you who have visited and thanks for your support. I hope you will continue to come by every now and then, and that the material is a blessing and exhortation to you. Please pass the word: Arts for Christ’s Bride, free and available to all.

1 Chron. 4:9-10

2007-04-16T10:14:00.000-05:00

Almost nothing is said in scripture of Jabez, and yet a few years ago he still became a cottage industry. I confess I never read the book concerning his prayer, but I have seen the bumper stickers. I was reading through this little passage the other day, and the recent hoopla about it struck me as just more health-and-wealth gospel, which goes against all the rest of scripture. So I did a little digging. Here's a literal translation of the passage, from Young's Literal Translation of the Bible (third edition 1898):

“And Jabez is honored above his brethren, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, ‘Because I have brought forth with grief.’ And Jabez calleth to the God of Israel, saying, ‘If blessing Thou dost bless me, then Thou hast made great my border, and Thy hand hath been with me, and Thou hast kept me from evil—not to grieve me;’ and God bringeth in that which he asked.”

So the structure of this prayer indicates that it's not a petition at all, but an acknowledgment of God’s blessing already applied to Jabez; God then continues to bless. The blessing would be an indication of the honor God held Jabez in, rather than a reward for whatever honor Jabez had earned. God blesses those whom He will bless and curses those whom He will curse, more in line with their belief than their behavior (Ex. 33:19, Rom. 9:13), but regardless by His sovereignty. This reading of the prayer is much more in line with the testimony of the gospel, and of scripture as a whole.

Scintillating new posts

2007-03-28T14:50:00.000-05:00

New posts at St. Celibart: Pen & ink rendering “Emmaus,” with the song “Communion at Emmaus.” And yet another rendering, “Fruit of the Spirit.” There is also a new link to sign up for email alerts about new posts at St. Celibart. Arts for Christ’s Bride, free and available to all.

Heb. 4:14

2007-03-26T18:56:00.000-05:00

"Since we then have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession."

This is not an insight so much as a simple observation. Lewis and Tolkien and many others before them noted many similarities of pagan religions to Christianity: stories of the god that was born a human, or the god who died. These truths must have come to them from the gospel preached by Noah to his sons, truth that became diluted as people fell away from God. Another way false religions reflect the truth, and I believe this is true of them all with one notable exception, is the use of priests. Every religion, true or false, recognizes the necessity for a mediator by having priests to represent the laity before God. The only exception I know of is Islam ... the easy grace of an unholy god requires no mediator.

Back in the cyberworld with new stuff

2007-03-13T18:07:00.000-05:00

After several days in the iHospital, Mac and me are back with new posts at St. Celibart: Pen & ink rendering “Holiness,” with the instrumental “Dream.” Also new music, “Look and Behold” – it rocks. Arts for Christ’s Bride, free and available to all.

St. Celebrate Art

2007-03-05T19:58:00.001-06:00

New posts at St. Celibart: Pen & ink rendering “The Ascension.” Also new poetry, “Waiting.” Arts for Christ’s Bride: Visit early and often.

Evangelicals amok

2007-02-28T16:27:00.000-06:00

As part of the ongoing attempt by the Church to imitate the culture (instead of the other way around), some group has come up with a clone of MySpace call HisHolySpace. It is full of cheese, but I have a presence there anyway because it's basically my target audience. Anyway, the site has been shut down because the administrator decided to disallow Catholic groups because of traditional Catholic teachings about salvation. Now if you call up the site you see the following message:

"The recent fury of attention brought to HisHolySpace has caused the management to take an honest reflection as to the original intent of the site. In light of the Site Administrator's recent actions that have come into question in message boards across the world, we have spent time reviewing the Radio Show transcripts and Administrator Correspondence over the past few weeks and we believe this Administrator did not act in the best interests of the site, or its 7500 members. HisHolySpace is a place for Christian Fellowship. It is not our place to judge what denominations of Christianity are worthy of membership on the site.

"HisHolySpace will return with a new Site Administrator in place. It will return with a renewed commitment to the entire Christian Community, and a clearer understanding of the goals and guidelines for use of the site."

So the divisions continue as some evangelicals seem to be more interested in whom to disallow rather than whom to reach. Never mind all the evangelical Catholics you can find if you look; never mind the former Pope's declaration (written by the current Pope) declaring salvation through faith alone. It's a sad state, but many protestants still seem to have the mindset of wanting to take anyone who disagrees outside for a good thrashing. "When the son of Man returns, will He find faith?"

More from the Saint

2007-02-08T17:22:00.000-06:00

There are a few new posts at St. Celibart: Did you ever wonder if some of the trouble in translating Scripture is because of idioms that made perfect sense back then but are lost to us now? Three thousand years from now, what will phrases like "spic and span" mean to anybody? So I offer a few Proverbs for Today. Also a pen & ink rendering “Pierced” and new poetry, “Ecstasy!” Arts for Christ’s Bride, free and available to all.

New posts at StCelibart.com

2007-02-02T12:06:00.001-06:00

New posts at St. Celibart: Pen & ink rendering “Ecce Homo,” along with original music “Ecce Homo.” Also new poetry, “Dream Shadows.” Arts for Christ’s Bride, free and available to all.

Rom. 9:29

2007-02-02T11:56:00.000-06:00

"And as Isaiah said before, 'Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a Seed, we had been as Sodom, and been made like unto Gomorrah.' " — Rom. 9:29

The capitalization above is mine; I don't think this verse can be understood unless you do capitalize "Seed." Except for the sake of the line of Messiah, the seed that was passed from generation to generation, God would have destroyed Israel just as He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. At each step of history, from Abraham to Jesus, God preserved the Jewish nation for the sake of the single man carrying the seed: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Perez, Hezron, Arni, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David, Nathan, Mattatha, Menna, Melea, Eliakim, Jonam, Joseph, Judas, Simeon, Levi, Matthat, Jorim, Eliezer, Joshua, Er, Elmadam, Cosam, Addi, Melchi, Neri, Shealtiel, Zerubbabel, Rhesa, Joanan, Joda, Josech, Semein, Mattathias, Maath, Naggai, Esli, Nahum, Amos, Mattathias, Joseph, Jannai, Melchi, Levi, Matthat, Heli, and then Mary. "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed ..." (Gen. 3:15)

Liberty and Authority

2007-01-26T12:09:00.000-06:00

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

“God helps those who help themselves.”

Quick, which quote is from the Bible? Sorry, it was a trick question. Neither quote is in scripture; instead, they were both made up by Founding Fathers, one a deist and the other a rake who sometimes attended meetings of a Satanist group. Great men, both of them, but they gave God only lip service; when He didn’t suit their purposes they were happy to shove Him into a closet (to say nothing of Christ). These quotes were indeed “made up” to suit the agendas of these politicians, and both are actually at direct odds with Christian orthodoxy.

The idea of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as a Christian goal can be defended on the basis of God’s real concern for each individual life. Jesus’ declaration was that God cares deeply about the life of every sparrow, much less every human being. There can be no doubt about that. But to extend His statement to individual liberty and pursuing whatever direction a man’s heart takes him — to declare these things as God-given rights — is simply mistaken. For this argument I’m going to concentrate only on the question of liberty as a gift from God guaranteed every child.

This ideal is certainly a democratic doctrine, but it is nowhere to be found in scripture. It is political doctrine, not spiritual doctrine, which is not to say it’s a bad thing, but the two should not be confused. For the Founding Fathers to ascribe it to God is to make the same claim that its intended target, George III, made: While the king declared divine right for his royal rule, the rebels claimed divine right for their self-rule. That was all there was to it, and to look in scripture, the king was more right than the rebels. But both were wrong in that they cynically used scripture to promote their desires upon the vain, passing things of this world, while scripture’s import concentrates upon eternal things.

An article written a few months ago by Alan Keyes, a brilliant Christian, unfortunately made the same mistake. While arguing the point that fundamentalist Islam and freedom of conscience are incompatible, he made the claim that the God of the endowed-right-of-liberty was superior to the god of fanatics who enforce believe-or-die theology. It is true that these fanatics elevate the here-and-now upon Earth over eternal matters, but so does Keyes’ god of vain prosperity. Followers often tested Jesus with worldly questions, but He always turned them aside (sometimes refusing them outright, Lk. 12:14 for example) and emphasized instead His listeners’ standing before God, which would determine their eternal habitations.

Actually, the scriptural call is quite the opposite from proud liberty. Throughout both testaments God’s people are directed to submit to authority: to God, to political leaders, to spiritual leaders, to husbands, to parents. There’s no end to it. Paul does not encourage Christian slaves to stand up for their God-given right to freedom; he tells them to submit and be content to serve Christ as they serve their masters in a holy way.

Now, why is this an important issue to most of us white bread evangelicals? Because the idea of a God-granted right of liberty is running amok in Protestant churches. American Protestant congregations often find themselves in an uproar because they are run by the office staff or a body politic, or worse yet cliques of busybodies. The lack of a standard of leadership leads to a tyrannical minister in one church, laissez-faire committees in the next. Often when things don’t go one group’s way, the political campaign begins immediately to undermine the result. When a minister rubs somebody the wrong way, the backstabbing drives him out of the pulpit faster than the Spanish Inquisition. But why not? We all have the right to force things in the direction we want — it’s the American way. After all, God helps those who help themselves.

As a result, even evangelical Protestant churches have fallen away from living the gospel, local congregations have been on their own as they face onslaughts by secular humanists who want to change the church to fit their agenda, and the discipleship of believers has been thrown to the wind, each man his own priest. Compare the Catholic church, with all its warts, and see how its evangelical factions have withstood the same attacks without bending: Liturgy and the monastic tradition offer rules for worship and daily life, the Pope flatly says no to abortion and elevating homosexuality, and parishioners thirsting for Christ know to go to their leadership for help. Strange as it sounds, even this last point is not true at many Protestant churches.

I’m not suggesting that everyone convert to Catholicism — I wouldn’t myself — nor that Protestants should adopt a Catholic-style power structure. But it is a fact that Catholics are under the power of authority, Protestants generally are not. I think the best solution for evangelicals is simply for individual congregations to submit to the leadership of elders as described below, and, like the apostolic church, rely on the apostles for oversight; I can’t do any better than that. This still leaves local church bodies to face challenges from the world basically alone, but where submission to the Holy Spirit is present, so also is the Holy Spirit present. “For I also am a man set under authority, (and) having under me soldiers ...”

“God is not of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.” He has set authorities for His churches, clearly laid out in scripture. Each congregation is called to have elders to lead and deacons to serve, and all members are expected to submit to their authorities. The authorities themselves are given guidelines to promote wise appointments and prevent abuses. And this, friends, is truly liberating, for younger, inexperienced Christians are not expected to make important, spiritual decisions as liberty-endowed individuals. Instead, they can rely on their more mature, wiser leaders who as a group can seek out the Holy Spirit’s leading for their flock and counsel them. Congregations need no longer fear the tyranny of the majority, instead relying on the trusted intercession of seasoned leaders. This is orthodox church organization, truly found in scripture. The trick for Americans is, it requires humility, not proud reliance on self-determination.

The United States is not a Christian nation and never was. Certainly God will not heal this land as long as His churches in it are in chaos.

Time to grab the sock

2007-01-23T20:33:00.000-06:00

The end is near.

More of the same

2007-01-18T09:55:00.000-06:00

Hey, think politics isn't all about politics? Seems prominent Democrats were for the surge in troops before they were against it. Meantime, I've come to find out that our troop numbers in Iraq have consistently fluctuated between 110,000 and 160,000, so the president's proposed "surge" is really no change. President W is just touting it as a new strategy for - hold on to your butts - political reasons. The world is awesome in its cynical manipulations! Fortunately, Christ is true.

Ranting resumes!

2007-01-12T11:04:00.000-06:00

For those of you who have been hungering for a blithering idiot rant but have been left wanting, here we go again.

Here is a very interesting article about the uprightness and purity of the lovely liberal Democrats now in power. As bad as corruption and uncontrolled spending was in the recently and unlamentedly departed Republican Congress, you ain't seen nothing yet. Unfortunately, this type of thing is all we should expect to come out of our government the next couple of years, along with unbridled screeching like this against everything (regardless) coming out of the White House.

Probably not the true meaning of Christmas ...

2006-12-22T16:23:00.000-06:00

The "Parched Moose" sounds like a place I'd like to go.

This one's for you, Petey!

2006-11-22T12:18:00.000-06:00

"Reality Check" by Doug Whamond

Hmmm ...

2006-11-13T10:44:00.000-06:00

Here's something puzzling to me. President W has had quite a bit of electoral support since the attack on the WTC. In 2002, an off-year election, he gained seats in both houses of Congress, an almost-unheard-of thing. Then again in 2004 he was re-elected and gained seats in the Congress. Now, two years later, he's completely repudiated. Things in Iraq are not going great, but they're not a disaster either. The economy is going great. W has not changed his approach to government in a drastic way, either, except for the prescription drug debacle (which was and is pure idiocy.) So why this turnaround?

Now, just a week after a watershed election, a poll comes out showing that almost 80% of respondents are worried Democrats are going to pull out of Iraq too fast. 80%! That's huge! The same poll shows 70% are afraid Democrats are not going to allow Bush to do what he needs to to fight terrorism. 70%! That's huge too! Those numbers are overwhelming majorities! Are these the people who voted Democrats into Congress? Again I ask, where did this turnaround come from?

I have to wonder ...

Not-so-instant analysis

2006-11-09T11:13:00.000-06:00

Here's a few more thoughts about the election just past.

1. Bill Frist can forget about being president. Conservative voters just repudiated his Senate in a big way. He can save himself a lot of time and trouble now by forgetting any plans he had about running for president.

2. The last time Democrats were in charge of Congress they engineered the two biggest tax increases in history, over the course of three years. What's coming will not only take money from your family, but it will cripple the economy. Brace yourself.

3. However, the Bush tax cuts are set to expire in 2010. If Congress doesn't extend them, the tax rates go back to 2000 levels, ipso facto, a tax increase. I wouldn't be surprised if the Democrats do nothing tax-wise until after the 2008 presidential elections. Raising taxes in the next two years would just give Republicans a good campaign issue, and Democrats would probably rather consolidate their power by winning the presidency before doing their thing.

4. Democrats won, so good on 'em. But they didn't run on a single idea, and now they may try to govern without a single idea. All politics is the same, but it really does seem it's more about power than policy with Democrats.

Instant analysis

2006-11-08T08:21:00.000-06:00

Here's a couple of things to look for over the next two years:

Nationally, the Democrats ran on nothing proactive. Locally, many of the new House members ran as conservatives. The national leadership of the Democrat party is way-far-left-liberal. So, as their agenda takes its liberal shape, will these new conservative Democrat members fall in line behind their leadership, or will they vote their values? This could make the "Blue-Dog" Democrats a key group for both parties to court.

The other thing is Senate Republicans. Assuming that they will be the minority, will they conduct themselves as followers, or will they adopt the Democrat strategy of obstruction? After all, they'll be only a one-seat minority. If every piece of legislation that comes up is under threat of filibuster, nothing will pass. One thing's for sure, though, no Bush judges will be approved.

Christians and politics

2006-11-01T11:42:00.000-06:00

" 'Vanity of vanity,' says the Preacher. 'Vanity of vanities, all is vanity' " In others words, the world stinks, and we're not going to change it. So should Christians swear off politics - after all, in the U.S. government is trusted to the people - and just let the world go its way? After all, all is vanity. We're never going to make the world look like the Church, nor should we want to. Really, the Church should want to stick out like a sore thumb. But is it Christ's will that we let society go its way into utter judgment? I say no; if we do, surely it will suck us along with it. If we have to be surrounded by vanity, I think we should try to at least make it good vanity.

Cool Stuff! I think

2006-10-26T11:34:00.000-05:00

Doh Better Blues

Cool stuff at StCelibart.com. Check it out. Visit often.

History and politics

2006-10-19T11:44:00.000-05:00

An unfortunate development in our culture has been a growing tendency to remember nothing older than yesterday. Everyone's promised fifteen minutes of fame has turned into fifteen seconds. The media has been bleating for a long time about the divided and vitriolic nature of the nation's politics lately, but it really is our natural state. But we forget easily, and here's why (in this case): From the Civil War through the Depression, the Republicans were basically in charge. Then from the Depression until maybe 1980 the Democrats were pretty much in charge. During both periods the minority party rumbled every now and then, but overall it recognized its lot in life and behaved itself. But since Ronald Reagan's election things have been much more competitive, which by definition has caused a lot more debate. This is not a bad thing. As Patrick Beard is fond of saying, "Controversy is only dreaded by the advocates of error" (Benjamin Rush). If you think you're right about something and are not afraid of defending it, then debate is a wonderful opportunity. So, for you history buffs out there, we find ourselves back in the 1800-1860 period, when political parties were about even and had to scrap for every vote. It was a time of lively and contentious debate. We live in a battlefield of ideas, and the worst thing that could happen would be for partisans to give up their ideas and strive for the inoffensive middle. The last time that happened it led to Civil War.

Letter from Iraq

2006-10-10T10:29:00.000-05:00

Here is an excellent letter written by a Marine in Iraq, which I found through TimEllsworth.com. A lot of what the Marine complains about are the same things I griped about in my last job (and a lot isn't.) Call me an idiot ("Who is this idiot?"), but this helps persuade me that the situation there is better described as a post-war period than a war. Of course this does not mean men and women are not continually in jeopardy there, but the job we do in sealing the victory would progress better if we first acknowledged the victory. We need to adopt the attitude of Iraqi police recruits he describes: These guys' bravery and 'tenacity' is mind-boggling. The only issue I might take with the Marine's assessment would be paragraph six - I hear quite a bit about Ramadi and al-Anbar province on the news.

Anyway, if the U.S. is in this mission seriously, we need to remember that the post-WWII era in Europe lasted for 45 years. At the beginning it was very rough rooting out Fascist loyalists and your run-of-the-mill criminal activity (rent "The Third Man"; you won't regret it), and it remained tense through to the end because of Soviet-bloc opposition. It will be a long slog in Iraq, and Afghanistan, and anywhere else we end up, as new governments struggle to learn to crawl even after dictators fall in only a few weeks.

2006-10-04T21:01:00.000-05:00

St. Celibart

2006-10-03T15:41:00.000-05:00

It's here: Christian arts at StCelibart.com. Check it out. Visit often.

Frederick Buechner

2006-09-21T13:42:00.000-05:00

"(Friends who) had entered the part of me where my dreams come from, and although a number of years have gone by since then, some of them come ambling through my dreams still." Frederick Buechner, "Now and Then"

Your dreams tell you when you've become attached to someone. I love Buechner. Even his prosaic accounts are beautifully written and full of insight and imagery. One problem resides with him, though: You can't talk about him with friends because nobody really knows how to pronounce his name. Even people who have heard it pronounced in the media are likely to have heard a handful of different pronunciations. So, after much trouble and exhaustive investigation, I hereby reveal the correct pronunciation: FRO-derick.

By special request

2006-09-21T13:41:00.000-05:00

Here's that toon you asked for Pat. "Reality Check" by Doug Whammond.

Mark 12:19

2006-09-13T11:17:00.000-05:00

" 'Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. ...' "

This comes from the well-known passage in which the Sadducees use a hypothetical to challenge Jesus and try to disprove the resurrection. Here is the footnote to this verse from the Reformation Study Bible, edited by R.C. Sproul: "The story they tell to Jesus is based on the 'kinsman-redeemer' law of Deut. 25:5-10, which provides for a family line to be perpetuated by the nearest of kin in the event of a premature death."

Wow! The kinsman-redeemer, especially as seen in Boaz, is a type of Christ, the true Bridegroom. The Sadducees try to trip up Jesus with a passage about Himself! Well He said, "Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?" As Luke 24:27 attests, truly all of Scripture is about Him and no other.

What's going on in there?

2006-09-12T12:56:00.000-05:00

Winsor McCay lived in the land of dreams and nightmares, so it's no surprise (to me, anyway) that not only did he use that as fodder for his comic strips but also imagined a world where drawings come alive. His masterpiece, "Little Nemo in Dreamland," always featured fantastic adventures of Nemo and his friends, followed by a sudden awaking upon the floor next to his bed, his mother always wondering what all the noise is about. The beauty and imagination of his drawing is still unsurpassed in the funny papers.

Not only did he draw wonderfully, but he was fast. As inventor of animation, he drew all his cartoons by himself, each frame a complete, stand-alone drawing. His first experiment was based on Little Nemo, and consisted of 4,000 drawings, all penciled, inked and colored by himself. His technical achievements were not his only claim to fame here, though, because he also gave his characters personality, no mean trick in silent film, a lesson many cartoon studios could well learn today. One of the most fascinating animated films he made was a documentary-style treatment of the sinking of the Lusitania.

QotD

2006-09-12T07:48:00.000-05:00

"But there were others (who worked in East Harlem), the regular parish staff, who gave their lives to it. They didn't just work with the poor. They lived with them. ... There were times when you couldn't escape the feeling that, no matter how hard they fought against it, they thought of themselves as a kind of spiritual elite and of all other types of Christian service as comparatively irrelevant. There were times when their lightness of heart seemed forced and artificial and when their total immersion in the life of the ghetto seemed to border on the perverse. There were occasional glimpses of bitterness, envy, dissemblance among them ..."

Frederick Buechner, "Now and Then"

Buechner is not gratuitously bashing people who can't defend themselves here; he goes on to call them closer to saints than anyone he had ever known. Statements like this make me look at the attitude I take toward my own walk and service. It hit me hard.

Song of Feallengod

2006-09-05T09:18:00.000-05:00

Lift high your shoulders, take the red seal,
Establish the mighty king’s strength.
The distant shadow of deep despair’s hope
Knows not height, neither breadth, neither length.
Bend hard under blows, lift high ev’ry head,
One day Gægnian’s door 'ere life’s losing.
Thorns pierce the flesh on the road's compelled walk,
But for one, and that of his choosing.

Writer's block

2006-09-01T08:08:00.000-05:00

Cushlamochree!

2006-08-31T11:03:00.000-05:00

If you think you recognize the kid at left, you're probably familiar with a cousin of his, a boy with a purple crayon. "Barnaby" was drawn by Crockett Johnson, the same man who brought you children's classic "Harold and the Purple Crayon." The two works share the same fondness for the fantastic, and promote the world as a much more interesting place than adults realize. It's a little hard to pin down "Barnaby," except for the beautiful minimalist drawing. It comes close to being a comic-strip version of what Tolkien would define as a true fairy tale, except that the fairies intrude upon the human world instead of the other way around. Mr. O'Malley, fairy godfather to Barnaby, leads the parade of fantastic characters. He's generally incompetent, perhaps because his magic wand suspiciously resembles a cigar. Barnaby suffers from Snuffleupagus syndrome, his parents never seeing Mr. O'Malley and believing their child to have emotional troubles. On the other hand, Mr. O'Malley is not sure Barnaby's parents exist, either.

Johnson drew the strip mostly during the 1940s, but stopped its production at that magical 10-year mark. It never had a wide audience, but those who loved it loved it. In the mid-80s an attempt was made to reproduce the strip's entire run in paperback, but as far as I can tell the project was dropped after five or six books.

QotD

2006-08-30T16:55:00.000-05:00

"(Prayer) is, above all, fellowship with God and being brought under the power of His holiness and love, until He takes possession of us and stamps our entire nature with the lowliness of Christ, which is the secret of all true worship. ... The faith that always thanks Him - not for experiences, but for the promises on which it can rely - goes on from strength to strength, still increasing in the blessed assurance that God Himself will perfect His work in us."

- Andrew Murray, "The Prayer Life"

The Devil made them do it

2006-08-29T13:45:00.000-05:00

The Vatican has announced that Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin were possessed by the Devil, hence some 55 million people killed. I don't doubt the existence of demons and their ability to inhabit people and pigs. As well, I doubt I'm really equipped to convincingly argue with Vatican theologians. However, pronouncements like these seem to me to be grounded in the idea that people generally are OK. It puts me in mind of Flip Wilson in drag: Whatever little thing happens, well, it wasn't me, the devil made me do it. The only way to explain monsters like a Hitler, or Dahmer, or Speck, or the child molester down the street, is to attribute their behavior to evil incarnate.

But that's not what scripture says about us: “Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Ps. 51:5.
“Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one,” Job 14:4.
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men ...” Rom. 5:12a.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart …” Jer. 17:9-10a.
“But we are all like an unclean thing. All our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. ...” Is. 64:6a.

James tells us, "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death." (1:14-15). The sin we commit arises from our own lusts. The role of Satan, though he's often referred to as a tempter, more often shows up as accuser or in simple destruction: He takes over someone's life, ruins it, then throws the man (or pig) away. Note that Jesus' temptation came directly from Satan; He had no inner lusts, so His temptation had to come from an outside source. Not so with the rest of us.

Scripture shows that from God's perspective all mankind - the mass murderer, the child molester, the shoplifter, the evangelist, the nun - is evil to the core. Hitler, Stalin, and all those other guys did what they did because they were human beings, each put in a position with the opportunity and power to do whatever they wanted. We look at them with horror because we can't see ourselves doing what they did, but we'll never really know because we'll never have their opportunity. Know this, however: Hitler did not think he was evil; he thought he was doing the world a favor, particularly Germany. And while we find it impossible to join hands with Adolf Hitler in the brotherhood of man, remember too that God's perspective toward every last one of us is the same, so separate is He in His holiness and righteousness. Praise be to the Lamb! For He alone is worthy, and He has stood in the gap for us.

I Yam What I Yam

2006-08-23T10:37:00.000-05:00

Meet Popeye. "Thimble Theater" began in 1919, but it wasn't until 1929 that Popeye appeared as an incidental character, gradually becoming the star. He became the dominant character, completely displacing the previous hero, Castor Oyl, and grew into a major animation star. He even brought spinach to the consciousness of mothers everywhere, much to the chagrine of their children. But many other memorable characters came out of the strip, including the genius moocher Wimpy, Li'l Swee' Pea and the evil Sea Hag.

Elzie Crisler Segar, who signed his name with an "S" made of smoke coming from a stogie, was the son of an olive oil (!) distributor. He had a relatively long career but short life, dying at age 44. More than any cartoonist of his time, he worked the environment of vaudeville/cinema into his comic strip. He also gave the world the words "jeep," after the dog-like creature Eugene that could disappear and reappear at will, and "goon," a weird, giant creature named Alice, who wore a delicate flowered hat. Afterwards soldiers took the vernacular for their "general purpose" vehicle that could go anywhere, "G.P.", and merged it into Jeep. And thugs hired to beat up union activists came to be known as goons.

Good Grief!

2006-08-16T14:50:00.000-05:00

The name was forced upon him by the syndicate, and he always hated it. Its funny shape was due to the syndicate's desire to sell it as a "space saver," so editors could cram three strips into the space of two. They gave the strip little care or thought, but what they got was the most successful and beloved strip IN THE WORLD! And Charles Schulz carried these insults with him all his life, as he did every indignity that added to his insecurity, and wove them into the first pop-psychology, -theology, -philosophy comic strip. It's no wonder that the catch phrase of the hero (or anti-hero) was "good grief," a contradiction in itself, mankind's habit of reacting to constant disappointment with illogical hope. Schulz may have actually invented the phrase, along with the security blanket, the Great Pumpkin, and Snoopy.

Schulz drew from the sorrows of his life to reflect on the futility of it all. The little red-haired girl was real, his first love, who in turn spurned him. As Randall Goodgame has pointed out, "Peanuts" is ripe with unrequited love, only the best example of the failures we all endure. Schroeder is a prodigy who can't get rid of Lucy. Lucy takes her frustration out on Linus, a genius who depends on a blanket to quiet his fears. Charlie Brown fails at everything. And through it all dances Snoopy. And along with Schulz' introspective meditation, as the panel above testifies, he could draw a funny picture.

We're doomed

2006-08-15T11:25:00.000-05:00

I realized something today that makes me lose all hope for the world. In other words, I've had to submit to the words of Christ.

The acquisition and maintenance of power is everything in this world. In most places, certainly through most of history, it's not the enlightened people who talk who come to power, it's the thugs with weapons. But even in societies where you can talk your way into power, still the desire to retain it is intoxicating (witness Robert Byrd, in the Senate since WWI and running again this year). Wars are fought primarily to either force governments, or particular people governing, to change, or to prevent them from changing. This is why we will ultimately fail in the war against terrorism: Terrorists don't threaten governments. Their purpose is to stop cultural and economic activity through terror - frightening everyday people into changing their habits for fear they will die. But the survival of governments, even Israel's, are not seriously threatened. This is incredibly cynical, but political leaders will eventually lose resolve because their power is not on the line.

Now consider antichrist. Let this war go on another 30, or 50, or 100 years, and how many peace-loving people around the world are going to be completely exhausted opposing the tiny, tiny percentage of the population who enjoy blowing them up? Already I hear many Americans say they wish the war in Iraq would go away, after some three years. In the meantime, terrorist groups grow into political parties, as they already are. So then a terrorist leader arises, either an individual or a group, and promises an end to all the violence, even against Israel. How many people are going to flock to him? Everyone? Governments won't play the key role in this decision, the general population of the world will welcome this peace.

I think the American ideal of spreading peace through representative government, personal liberty and economic opportunity is sincere. It is also doomed. "There will be wars and rumors of wars;" "And he will confirm the covenant with many for one week; and in the midst of the week he will cause the sacrifice to cease;" "If any man say to you, 'Lo, there is Christ,' believe it not;" "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

Muslim mafia

2006-08-14T10:09:00.000-05:00

It seems to me, in the aftermath of the latest terrorist plot hatched in London, that Muslim extremists have very little to do with religion and are more like the mafia than any other organization we know of. They deal in human life as if it had no value at all, opulent lives and deaths (funeral arrangements for mafioso, screaming passions for Muslims) being their most highly regarded reward. Both groups have leaders that own the lives of their underlings: If Don Ayatollah sends you out on a "hit," then you go, regardless of danger to yourself, while he sits safely in his suite. As well, the inference that every law-abiding Italian-American had to live with is now being felt by law-abiding Muslims — they are suspect by virtue of their heritage. Any Muslim who wants to live at peace with the modern world needs to take notice of this. It is human nature to lump the majority of a group in with the worse aspects of its minority. This is how we develop stereotypes.

Terrorists are Muslims in the same way mafioso are Catholics, and I doubt God will be pleased with either of them. The weakness of a works religion is that the world is forever undermining your works. If you're busy trying to do good, as you define it, and the world (i.e., the people) around you only heap more temptation at your door, the only reaction left to you is hatred. Of course you're going to hate the people trying to drag you into Hell, and the best way to end the temptation is kill the people. So the last error is worse than the first, unless your organization just doesn't value human life. But the world goes on anyway, regardless of how many you hate or kill, and the only way to save your weak religion is to make it grind to a halt in the year 632 (or perhaps 1950), that simpler, gentler time. Works are useless to change the nature of people or the world at any point in history, but the grace of God through Christ is stronger than all creation.

The Divine Comicy

2006-08-09T09:42:00.000-05:00

Whenever you get together a bunch of comics eggheads, if such a thing is possible, you will no doubt get the consensus that "Krazy Kat" was the ultimate comic strip. This comes from its simple theme, revisited constantly over the course of some 30 years, of the poetry of life. Krazy Kat featured three main players: The Kat, who loved the mouse; the dog (Offissa Pupp), who loved the cat; and the mouse (Ignatz) who loved himself; and never the trey shall meet. The mouse took no better joy in anything but lobbing a brick at the cat, and the cat took no more joy than receiving the brick, for that was testimony that the mouse was thinking of him ("him," we think; it was never quite certain.) This look at the fickle nature of being was reflected as well in the surreal backdrops in the background and ground-breaking graphic design of the Sunday pages.

The strip was drawn by George Herriman, who had all the typical newspaper credentials going in. He was born in Louisiana and was thought to have some African ancestry, which no doubt made life difficult in that enlightened state in the post-Reconstruction world, so his family moved to California when he was still a toddler. The landscapes of the desert southwest inspired Herriman and were the models of some of the bizarre formations that appeared in his drawings. Krazy Kat developed out of a kind of footnote to another strip, "The Family Upstairs," in 1910 and survived until Herriman's death in 1944, largely because William Randolph Hearst ("Citizen Kane") loved it.

Anti-semitism

2006-08-02T13:11:00.000-05:00

By now we're all familiar with Mel Gibson's scree. These are terrible things to hear, especially from the mouth of a brother, and Gibson realizes that. An interesting angle here is that he's in the middle of a project about the Holocaust, which now will probably never see the light of day. But what's more interesting to me is how the news coverage of the incident opens a window to the mass media.

The talking heads are all horrified by Gibson's words, but these are the same people who ask us to try to understand Muslim terrorists. Gibson's career, in spite of his plea for mercy, may well be over, and this incident will surely follow him the rest of his life. Meanwhile, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Iraqi insurgents are given largely sympathetic media treatment. The leaders of militant Islam are driven by one thing: hatred of Israel, not just the division of the land but also the identity of its occupiers, Jews. Many radical Muslim teachers even use classic Nazi propaganda, e.g., Jews are some kind of sub-human race (never mind that Arabs and Jews claim a common ancestor.) But this basic hatred is glossed over in the media in favor of emphasizing political and economic issues. Israeli Jews in turn deal with this with utter disdain: They've been hated for centuries, and a few more people hating them isn't going to make the persecutions and pogroms any worse.

Of course I realize that there is hatred to go around, Israel is no doubt full of people with no love lost for their Muslim neighbors, and radical Jewish groups exist as well. My greater concern is what the Christian response should be: certainly not Mad Max's after a few drinks, but neither should we necessarily be Israel's cheerleaders. We should not wink at hatred from either side, particularly when it leads to mass killing, and certainly not join in that hatred. At the same time we have to accept this is the way the world is and will continue to be ("You will hear of wars and rumors of wars ..."). Meanwhile, God winnows His chosen, and all creation groans. Peace will not come to the Earth until the Prince of Peace comes to the Earth.

I Go Pogo

2006-08-02T11:35:00.000-05:00

In my mind "Pogo" was the greatest of all comic strips. I remember as a kid hearing about how great it was and never really understanding, although I did like the fairy-tale parodies that appeared on Sundays. The problem was that I was born too late, because the golden age of Pogo was in the 1950s. I discovered this in college when I found some book reprints from that period. Like most great comic strips, Pogo had about ten years of brilliance before burning out into repetition and trying too hard. Of all the great strips, only "Peanuts" seemed to avoid this downfall, and that may have been because it was less about being fall-down funny and more about wry comment on the human condition.

Walt Kelly, a brilliant satirist, poet and artist, wrote and drew "Pogo." He had spent years working in newspapers and had been an animator with Disney, working on "Dumbo" and "Fantasia" (IMDB also gives him a writing credit for a Bugs Bunny cartoon.) He was incredibly generous with his work, giving away untold hundreds of his strips, and loved to travel. He apparently was also a two-fisted drinker and something of a womanizer. Late in his life diabetes hit him hard and just before he died he had pretty much lost his sight, and both legs had been amputated. But, as all artists hope, his legacy lies in the brilliance of his work, though it be but a tissue of paper reveries.

Dispensationalism

2006-08-02T11:10:00.000-05:00

I did not grow up in the Baptist church and can't claim to know what goes on in those arcane halls, but a number of my post-Baptist friends often bring up the idea of dispensationalism. Apparently it is taught as "God had Plan A (the law), but that didn't work, so He had to come up with Plan B (the cross)." This presupposes the idea that man could, and was expected to, earn his salvation under the law. Any serious OT student knows that doesn't ring true. This confused me, because most of my Christian life I've studied out of the Scofield Reference Bible, C.I. Scofield being one of the early proponents of dispensationalism, but never did I come across the Plan A/Plan B idea. So I have to conclude that dispensationalism has been corrupted by the people teaching it now.

My further comment would be that I don't think dispensationalism should be considered a doctrine. To me it's no more than a useful roadmap to the revelation of the cross. It's noteworthy that at each of the seven dispensations that Scofield identifies, a major type of Christ is revealed, until you get to the sixth dispensation, the Church, at which point the antitype has already appeared. Anyway, just so you know, here is the footnote that the Scofield Bible places at Gen. 1:28.

"A dispensation is a period of time during which man is tested in respect to his obedience to some specific revelation of the will of God.

"Three important concepts are implied in this definition: 1) a deposit of divine revelation concerning God's will, embodying what God requires of man as to his conduct; 2) man's stewardship of this divine revelation, in which he is responsible to obey it; and 3) a time period, often called an "age," during which this divine revelation is dominant in the testing of man's obedience to God.

"The dispensations are a progressive and connected revelation of God's dealings with man, given sometimes to the whole race and at other times to a particular people, Israel. These different dispensations are not separate ways of salvation. During each of them man is reconciled to God in only one way, i.e. by God's grace through the work of Christ that was accomplished on the cross and vindicated in His resurrection. Before the cross man was saved in prospect of Christ's atoning sacrifice, through believing the revelation thus far given him. Since the cross man has been saved by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ in whom revelation and redemption are consummated.

"On man's part the continuing requirement is obedience to the revelation of God. This obedience is a stewardship of faith. Although the divine revelation unfolds progressively, the deposit of truth in the earlier time periods is not discarded; rather it is cumulative. Thus conscience (moral responsibility) is an abiding truth in human life, although it does not continue as a dispensation. Similarly, the saved of this present dispensation are "not under law" as a specific test of obedience to divine revelation, yet the law remains an integral part of the Holy Scriptures which, to the redeemed, are profitable for 'instruction in righteousness.'

"The purpose of each dispensation, then, is to place man under a specific rule of conduct, but such stewardship is not a condition of salvation. In every past dispensation unregenerate man has failed, and he has failed in this present dispensation and will in the future. But salvation has been and will continue to be available to him by God's grace through faith.

"Seven dispensations are distinguished by Scofield: Innocence (Gen. 1:28); Conscience or Moral Responsibility (Gen. 3:7); Human Government (Gen. 8:15); Promise (Gen. 12:1); Law (Ex. 19:1); Church (Acts 2:1); Kingdom (Rev. 20:4)."

© 1967 Oxford University Press, Inc.

A new law

2006-07-31T19:44:00.000-05:00

"don’t teach me about politics and government
just tell me who to vote for

don’t teach me about truth and beauty
just label my music

don’t teach me how to live like a free man
just give me a new law

(pre-chorus)
i don’t wanna know if the answers aren’t easy
so just bring it down from the mountain to me

(chorus)
i want a new law
i want a new law
gimme that new law

don’t teach me about moderation and liberty
i prefer a shot of grape juice

don’t teach me about loving my enemies

don’t teach me how to listen to the Spirit
just give me a new law

(bridge)
what’s the use in trading a law you can never keep
for one you can that cannot get you anything
do not be afraid
do not be afraid
do not be afraid"

"A New Law" © 2006 Derek Webb

Friends, God has given us a new law, and like the Israelites before us we have rejected it. It is the law of liberty. (Jas. 1:25, 2:12; Rom. 8:21; Gal. 2:4, 5:1, 5:13; 2 Cor. 3:17; 1 Cor. 8:9, 10:29)

Rights to the land

2006-07-26T15:52:00.000-05:00

Here's an excellent sermon by John Piper on the turmoil going on in the middle east and what whole-Bible doctrine says about the land. The one additional thing I'd have liked to see him expound upon is how Heb. 3-4 teaches the "rest" of entering the land was a type of perfect rest in Christ.

For his teaching about gentiles being grafted onto the vine, consider too Jesus' teaching of Jn. 15, in which the dead wood of the vine is pruned away and burned. So scripture tells us Isreal was at one and the same time winnowed and expanded. Thereby God created "the Israel of God" (Gal. 6:16) which we call the Church.

Swan song

2006-07-26T13:28:00.000-05:00

Life is cheap, if it's not yours

2006-07-25T10:00:00.000-05:00

I saw a report on the news a few days ago that included clips of Saturday-morning-type cartoons shown in Iran. The cartoons featured heroic Muslim boys and girls strapping bombs to their bodies and diving onto truck driven by horrified Israelis. Then the bloody animated carnage was shown with a voice-over praising the young martyrs.

This attitude toward glorious death is something new, relatively; the Spartans may have approached this, but I doubt it. The point of war for millenia has been to make the "other poor bastard die for his country" (George Patton). The presumption here is that the other "poor bastard" doesn't really want to die. But now a whole generation of Muslim children has grown up being taught is a good thing, perhaps the best thing, if you can die and take a few westerners with you. There is no political or military answer to this. If you make these poor bastards die for their ideology, you're doing them a favor. Then a new bunch of kids grows up to take their place — not an army, but just enough in any given time or place to create havoc — taught by a bunch of cynical manipulators safely tucked inside their mosques who think they're serving God.

So what then? Be a prayer warrior. Don't pray for peace, pray for the Prince of peace.

Mac winds down

2006-07-20T11:42:00.000-05:00

Eggs-egesis

2006-07-13T08:17:00.000-05:00

In a world filled with sticky buns that look like Mother Teresa and plates of spaghetti with the face of Jesus in them, it's good to know Islam also has its nutty goodness. But the theological ramifications here are mind-boggling.

Duck Redux

2006-07-12T11:53:00.000-05:00

Magic Kingdom

2006-07-11T14:28:00.000-05:00

"Zidane! You've disgraced yourself and your whole nation, but you won the World Cup's biggest award anyway! What are you going to do now?"

"I'm going to cccjacksontn.com!"

Mt. 12:40-41

2006-07-08T13:35:00.000-05:00

"For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it; because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and, behold, a greater than Jonah is here."

I'm reading through Matthew (in case you were wondering), and I must confess I've never read it before with a real understanding of the term "kingdom of heaven," a phrase found only in Matthew. I understand it now (I think) to mean the Church Age, and it's a whole new world. See 12:16-21: Jesus would not be taken prematurely by His enemies, and He would not be made King by His followers (Jn. 6:15), because His mission was to extend grace to the gentiles. The kingdom of heaven, announced as at hand by the Baptist and by Christ, is the period of time when God demonstrates He is not just God of Israel but sovereign Lord over all His creation. He does this by creating a new nation, not just a physical people on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, but a vast people, Jew and gentile, across the entire world - His Church, the Israel of God (Gal. 6:16). Keeping this in mind while reading Matthew is a revelation.

So what of the sign of Jonah? The prophet spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish for one reason: so gentiles would be saved.

An article of moderate interest

2006-07-08T10:03:00.000-05:00

Here's an article that appeared in the local paper about the Orthodox Church and how some members of America's black population are rediscovering their history through it.

Mt. 9:30-31

2006-07-06T10:27:00.000-05:00

"And their eyes were opened; and Jesus strictly charged them, saying, 'See that no man know it.' But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country."

I grew up hearing that this incident and others showed Jesus cleverly using reverse psychology to get the word out. I don't buy it; there was a real desire to elevate Him as king (Jn. 6:15) and that was not His mission, so He truly did not want a lot of hype among non-disciples surrounding Him.

Besides, imagine, if you will, this greeting: "Hey, Eliazar, how are you? Lookin' good! There's something different about you, I just can't seem to put my finger on it ... Did you change your hair? What could it be? Wait a minute, you can see!"

It's hard not to talk about such a thing; I don't think reverse psychology was needed.

Garry Truduck

2006-07-05T09:35:00.000-05:00

Superhero alert

2006-07-04T13:18:00.000-05:00

If you're disappointed by the new Superman movie, this will help you remember what a true super hero is. Turn on your speakers.

Comic strip mining

2006-06-28T13:09:00.000-05:00

Feallengod III

2006-06-24T13:42:00.000-05:00

I am in the midst of rewriting "Feallengod" yet again, and I know my readers (five? six, perhaps?) are clambering to know what's up. Just the other day the public appeared clambering at my door, but I had to turn them away. So here is a taste of the rewrite. I hope you like it.

Never have I seen Gægnian. Powers and authorities rightfully deny such things to men such as I was. The buildings rise into the heavens and spread out over the land like nothing upon Feallengod, the legends say, and I believe. The sky and waters, even the soil underfoot lies about in its mean state, richer and purer than anything we might suppose to compare.

Surrounding the domain sit great white formations, stone pure as snow and sparkling like ice, billowing upwards to take their place with the clouds. Just as suddenly their outer rim dives steeply, cliffs crashing into the sea. Waving grasses and flowers fill the valley within, delicate petals playing upon the breeze like an underwater ballet, obeisant to grand stands of trees, some tall and straight like rain, others squat with twisting branches reaching and turning in every direction as if stretching to scratch their backs. Limbs heavy with leaves extend over the ground, rest and shade to creatures great and small, feathered and furred.

A multitude of columns fill the high city, each building supported by a gallery of pillars apparently thrown in place by some brilliant, distracted god, like a cavern of cathedrals. Each post glistens with luminescent color from deep within its core, streaked with golden reds and blue grays, turning every edifice into a petrified forest of sculpture beautiful in its simplicity. Gold domes rise out of the skyline, dominating the innumerable flags and banners ripping in the winds. Broad boulevards, smooth and beautiful, cut slices of the vast acreage, radiating from the central structure, Ecealdor’s palace, radiant with light, blazing with untold splendor, rising through the celestial blue to challenge the sun. But I have never seen.

I think we islanders have a distant memory of the wonderful stuff, even so distant that we can never truly lay hold of it. Without the memory, how else would we know that we miss it, that we long for something better than only the clear pearls of our own fountains? And doesn’t every other heartache pale in comparison? The legends, those stories I stake my life upon now, they say one day the courts of the king will open to us all, and I want to believe, how my heart trembles to believe, for I have seen people who abide there. Tales abound in my homeland about the citizens of Gægnian, about incredible powers and fantastic happenings, and so I have seen. In the days of my disgrace did I meet Mægen-El, emissary from the distant king’s presence, and even then I believed. How dark a heart, to see such things and still turn away.

Marquee suggestion from Kathy Guthrie

2006-06-21T11:31:00.000-05:00

Comeduck

2006-06-21T11:22:00.000-05:00

Old song, new dress

2006-06-20T13:49:00.000-05:00

We're an Easter people, and hallelujah's our song
Glory honor and praise, to the Ancient of Days,
Rise with the dawn.
Maranatha Jesus, You are coming again
All will worship the Lamb, holy living I Am,
World without end.

Wacky Packages

2006-06-18T15:52:00.000-05:00

Back when I was a kid there was a general fascination with the grotesque. 'The Addams Family' was on TV and Mad Magazine was coming into its golden age. Popular toys included Wish-niks and Rat Finks. One of the things I remember most fondly are Wacky Packages, produced by Topps Bubble Gum, and apparently they are still being made. The one here was probably my favorite, although there were many great ones. To see more and perhaps gain some insight into just what my problem is, check out this link.

The only temptation of Christ

2006-06-16T09:21:00.000-05:00

Hebrews 4:15 tells us that while He walked the Earth Jesus was tempted in every way that we face temptation, but was without sin. But James 1:14 further tells us that every man is tempted from his own lusts, his sin nature. But Jesus, being without sin, by definition had no sin nature. So that was the purpose for going out into the wilderness and facing Satan. Satan himself had to tempt Jesus, for there was no other way for Him to be tempted. But this appears to be an unusual occurrence: Satan is often called the tempter, but outside of Eve and David (1 Chr. 21:1), we don't see him tempt anyone in the OT. You could even argue that he had to get involved to entice Eve, who had no sin nature at the time, and David, a man after God's own heart (see 1 Ki. 15:5); why should he bother tempting the rest of us when we do such a good job of it on our own? (although see 1 Cor. 7:5) More often he is portrayed as an accuser, trying to undermine our standing with God that we have through Jesus' work, not by influencing our own behavior. Anyway, the puzzle pieces come together and offer a reasonable exposition for Jesus going through His wilderness experience.

Delta Upsilon Kappa

2006-06-14T11:32:00.000-05:00

Global warming

2006-06-14T11:26:00.000-05:00

In the mid '70s we had three harsh winters in a row, and the media was full of information about a new ice age coming. So I've always been skeptical about global warming. Here's an article that suits my agenda.

Privacy

2006-06-13T09:38:00.000-05:00

It seems to me, while thinking about the world today, that our idea of privacy is something completely different from perhaps 100 years ago. I was thinking about some of the old movies I've seen about intrigue, with guys nervously whispering into phones or surrepticiously slipping a note to someone else, and about how terrorists have to be tracked down today, and the difference is striking.

There have always been terrorists among us. Before Oklahoma City the biggest loss of civilian life in the country's history was a bombing on Wall Street in the 1920s, a crime that was never solved. Looking through history we could legitimately call Viking raiders terrorists, and Spartacus, and so on. These people were pretty easy to identify and track down in their day because to effectively communicate they had to be physically together. When bad guys have to gather together in the same room, they're relatively easy to catch.

Things changed with the automatic-dial telephone, when there was no longer the chance a human operator might be listening in on a "private" conversation, but still a person had to be at a phone attached to a building, or at least an identifiable public phone. Communication between criminal types was getting easier, but still had restrictions. Today, though, you can have a conference call on your cell phone from practically anywhere you want to stand. You can go to a public library and quietly send mass emails to your terrorist friends throughout the world.

Meanwhile, the idea of privacy has entered our legal system. Birth control items were largely illegal early in the 20th Century until court rulings declared that a "right to privacy" covered the use of such items. That Supreme Court case later was applied to Roe v. Wade, the abortion ruling. So we've got this new idea of the sanctity of privacy, added to the ability to communicate widely in complete privacy.

At this point my thoughts trail off. I think what has struck me is simply that those who wish to hide their plans from public notice have a much easier time of it now than ever before. As usual, what western man has nurtured in his culture, the right to privacy, was meant as a benevolence but is corrupted and abused by those who would do evil.

Chest flatted

2006-06-07T11:32:00.000-05:00

How to get to Sesame Street

2006-06-07T09:36:00.002-05:00

Hey Bert!

Sign of the times

2006-06-04T21:21:00.000-05:00

We've all seen hundreds of stupid church marquees in our lifetimes, but have you ever noticed how stupid the signs at paint stores are? Here's one here in town:

"Paint — It's not for dinner. It's what we do."

Huh?

That has to be the dumbest sign I've ever seen.

Blondie and Duckwood

2006-05-31T13:07:00.000-05:00

2 Kings 20:5

2006-05-29T10:35:00.000-05:00

"Return and tell Hezekiah, the captain of my people, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of David, thy father, "I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold I will heal you. On the third day you will go up unto the house of the Lord." ' "

A great Bible practical joke is to ask someone to find the book of Hezekiah; they'll swear it's in there somewhere. For some reason this king of Judah sticks in people's minds, and indeed scripture praises him above all the kings of the southern kingdom. He's godly, but on a human level he seems to have all the foibles of other men in scripture. So what makes him so great? God declared him as good as dead, and then raised him on the third day. Like Isaac, he is a type of the death and resurrection of Christ. He's great because of how God used him, on a sickbed, in just a few days.

NOT the madonna

2006-05-25T09:45:00.000-05:00

I've never been a Madonna fan. Her music is mostly pointless, and so is the rest of the stuff that goes through her head. Check out this story and you'll see why. It boggles me that Madonna thinks she knows more about Christ than the Church. If she knows He taught to "love thy neighbor," how come she doesn't know He taught that He is Almighty God? Her statements are a testimony of the low perception the world has of Christ: "I don't think Jesus would be mad at me." What about her total depravity? This is not news to anyone; I just felt a rant coming on.

Henny Youngman reducks

2006-05-24T13:41:00.000-05:00

(He's buying lip balm, or ChapStick as most of us know it. It's an old joke.)

Paul timeline

2006-05-19T11:01:00.000-05:00

Here is, as best as I can figure, the chronology of Paul's scriptural activities, for those of you who care about such things:

AD 32 - Conversion on Damascus Road, meets Ananias in Damascus, goes into Arabia, returns to Damascus
AD 35 - Escapes to Jerusalem (let down in a basket), rejected by apostles, received by Barnabas and meets with Peter and James some time later
? - Returns to Tarsus via Caesarea
AD 39? - Sought out by Barnabas and goes to Antioch for one year
AD 40? - Takes financial gift to Jerusalem with Barnabas
? - Returns to Antioch with Barnabas and Mark
AD 42? - caught up into "third heaven"
AD 45 - First missionary trip with Barnabas and Mark: Seleucia, Salamis, Paphos, Perga (Mark departs to Jerusalem), Antioch Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra (Paul stoned and left for dead), Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, Antioch Pisidia, Pamphylia, Perga, Attalia, Antioch (it is stated that Paul remained in Antioch a long time after returning; rebuke of Peter); Letter from James sometime in this period
AD 49 - Council at Jerusalem
AD 50 - Second missionary trip with Silas (split from Barnabas): Syria, Cilicia, Derbe, Lystra (Timothy joins and is circumcised), Iconium, Antioch Pisidia (directed away from Asia), Troas (gains Luke, directed into Europe), Samothracia, Neapolis, Philippi (imprisoned), Amphipolis, Apollonia, Thessalonica (three weeks), Berea, Athens, Corinth
AD 51 - • First letter to the Thessalonians, • second letter to the Thessalonians
AD 52 - Resumes second missionary trip after 18 months in Corinth, going to Cenchreae, Ephesus, Caesarea, Antioch; • letter to the Galatians; attends a feast in Jerusalem
AD 53 - Third missionary trip: Ephesus (three years)
AD 56 - • First letter to the Corinthians; resumes third missionary trip after Pentecost, planning to sail to Syria but instead going back through Greece and then Macedonia (three months)
AD 57 - • Letter to the Romans; ends time in Macedonia by going to Troas to wait for Luke's group (• second letter to the Corinthians, collects gift for Jerusalem church, visits Corinth during this period), resumes third missionary trip after Passover (seven days after Luke arrives), Assos, Mitylene (one day), Chios (one day), the island of Samos (one day in Trogyllium), Miletus (farewell to the Ephesian elders), Cos (one day), Rhodes, Patera, Tyre (seven days), Ptolemais (one day), Caesarea (several days), Jerusalem in time for Pentecost
? - Arrested in Jerusalem, handed over to Romans, removed to Caesarea, judged by Felix 12 days after arriving at Jerusalem
AD 59 - Still under arrest but at liberty, judged by Festus and Agrippa, sets sail for Rome in the autumn: Sidon, Myra, Fair Havens, shipwrecked (likely in October) on Malta for three months
AD 60 - Resumes voyage: Syracuse, Rhegium, Puteoli, Rome; • letter to the Ephesians, • letter to the Colossians, • letter to Philemon, • letter to the Philippians
AD 62 - End of the written record, Paul living in a rental house in Rome
AD 64 - • First letter to Timothy, Paul in Macedonia
AD 65 - • Letter to Titus (free during this period)
AD 67 - • Second letter to Timothy (back in prison)

I'm sure other folks who are better scholars than me have already tried to piece this together. If I've got errors here, well, I'm not surprised, but there you have it anyway.

Ducking issues

2006-05-17T13:42:00.000-05:00

2 Kings 10:30-31

2006-05-15T11:26:00.000-05:00

"And the Lord said unto Jehu, 'Because you have done well in executing that which is right in my eyes, and have done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart, your children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.' But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart; for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin."

Seldom in the Christian life are we called to do something specific. It's happened to me twice. Although work is work and we should expect to have difficulty with it, still I find these are the easy times. It's so great to actually know what you're supposed to be doing, to have a way to do it and have a goal in sight at the end. But most of the Christian life is not being called to some great work. Most of it is walking with Christ through the daily grind and waiting on Him. These are the difficult times, when we are most likely to believe God has withdrawn from us, or when we start off on some great project of our own design that leads to failure. This was Jehu's problem: He was great at fulfilling his mission, but his day-to-day life fell into destruction.

Action is easy; walking is hard.

How to be boring

2006-05-13T22:00:00.000-05:00

Hey, I went golfing today with Ben. Shot pretty good, too, which surprised me because I hadn't been out for close to two years. Got the second par hole of my illustrious career. Ben cheated, but he was honest about it.

2 Kings 8:6

2006-05-12T11:58:00.000-05:00

"And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king assigned unto her a certain officer, saying, 'Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land, even until now.' "

This woman is the Shunammite, who has to be one of the most blessed characters in all of scripture. We first meet her in 2 Kings 4:8, where she is referred to as a 'great woman.' She is shown just out of the blue forcing her hospitality upon Elisha, not once but often, before she's really aware he's a prophet. So Elisha wants to bless her in return, which she humbly declines. So Elisha promises her a child, because she has none, and sure enough she has a son. But the next time we hear from her, years later, the son is sick and dies! So Elisha raises him from the dead. Ho-hum.

Then she disappears from the scene for awhile, but in chapter 8 she's back, being warned by Elisha of a famine that will strike Israel. So she moves to Philistine territory and survives, then returns after the famine is passed. It just so happens the king of Israel (presumably Joram, who's not that great) feels like hearing about all Elisha's exploits that day, and he is told of the son's resurrection. Then who walks in the door but the woman herself, begging for her lands to be returned to her now that she's returned to Israel. Joram is only too happy to serve the woman who blessed Elisha.

This is a gentile woman, singled out for tender care by God even as He besets Israel with warfare and famine. She is a type of the Church, chosen from the nations to be the bride of Christ. Ray Stedman points out that Elisha's ministry, following the harsh judgments declared by Elijah, is a foreshadowing of the sweet graces Jesus performed in His first advent. The Shunammite woman is just another testimony that God always had the gentiles in mind, not as a people in the way Israel was a people, but as a nation brought forth where there was not one before (1 Pet. 2:9-10).

And it's not even Sunday

2006-05-10T13:03:00.000-05:00

Acts 3:13

2006-05-10T09:11:00.000-05:00

"The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Son, Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go."

This may sound like a stretch, but work with me. Pilate was completely ignorant; therefore, he thought of Jesus as a harmless rabble-rouser. The Jewish officials, the scribes and Pharisees, were educated in the Scriptures and had all the information; therefore, they had the responsibility to recognize Messiah. In the same way Judas had the Jesus experience first hand, and he should have recognized Him. But they all betrayed Messiah and handed Him over to the ignorant gentiles. None of this came as a suprise to God, and He of course predetermined to use the unbelief of His people to bring about His plan. With God the promise always depends on some level of belief, even if that level is nil. So, He in effect says, "Because you don't believe Me, I will save you. I will use your hatred of Me to forgive you."

In v. 18 Peter reminds the Jewish crowd that they also have the information from Scripture to realize that Christ was appointed to suffer. So again, he calls upon them to recognize Messiah. It boggles me that the accusation of killing the Holy One is always followed by an invitation to seek mercy.

Life is hard

2006-05-04T08:50:00.000-05:00

So, early this morning I went to the dentist to get a tooth filled. It was the first dental work I had to get done in about three years, which is pretty good for me. I'm surprised my teeth don't set off metal detectors. So first thing today I went down there and submitted myself to the dentist.

Dentists' offices these days are filled with more weird gizmos than Frankenstein's laboratory. They've got all sorts of lights and stuff that have no apparent function, and wear funky Mad Scientist gear over their faces nowadays. I've never really understood the appeal of working inside someone's mouth. But then, I haven't been married for awhile. Overall it was not a bad experience, and I was out of there in 30 minutes.

The worst thing about it is I missed my morning coffee. Half of my head still feels like Play-Doh, so if I tried drinking anything now I'd end up pouring it all over my face. Probably not a good thing with steaming coffee. Of course, if I'd gotten some McDonald's coffee, I could have sued them (obscure not-so-current events reference). I wish I'd thought of that when I was over there.

Captain's blog, star duck 2006 ...

2006-05-03T11:10:00.000-05:00

Run for the border

2006-05-02T12:49:00.000-05:00

Here's a sign from Monday's nationwide march by illegal immigrants:

"No Illegals, No Burritos
(You'd better think twice, America)"

We've clearly reached the crisis point.

Tonsil-egg-tomy

2006-04-26T12:03:00.000-05:00

Gasoline prices

2006-04-24T13:25:00.000-05:00

I looked up at the ol' clock on the wall and saw that it's time for another political rant. So ...

Boy, gas prices are high. And they're only going to go higher, but it won't be because someone is manipulating the price. It's all supply and demand. I heard on the news the other day that China and India are now using as much oil in a day as the whole world was using per day 10 years ago. That's a lot of pressure on the supply. So in my mind the country needs a two-pronged strategy.

In this I give President W credit, because he's the only elected official I've heard who seems to get it. Republicans consistently want to open up more oil drilling and development in this country, and don't go beyond that. Democrats want to throw all the oil overboard (figuratively) and rely on the benificence of the sun and wind, never mind that it won't work. What we need is short-term solution to protect us while we pursue long-term solution. As I understand, this is the essence of what Bush said in his state of the union this year.

If we could tone down the politics a little, increase our domestic drilling and build a couple more refineries, then at the same time work on hydrogen, clean nuclear and other viable options, in 10-20 years we could be energy independent and not be subject to wild swings in energy costs.

BTW, next time you hear someone rail at the oil companies, just think to yourself, "Self, just who are the oil companies?" They are thousands of employees and millions of investors, people just like you. If they can prosper within the constraints of law, then more power to 'em.

New song

2006-04-19T11:27:00.000-05:00

Up on high, hard against the midday sky
Hanging tree, bloody hellish nails
With the power to make a broken heart
Lucky if you are.

Piercing spear, flashing point of Caesar fear
Baptist flood, water and the blood
With the power to make a broken heart
Lucky if you are
With a broken heart
Lucky if you are.

Weeping eve, tearful witness women see
Holy grave, seal the garden wound
With the power to make a broken heart
Lucky if you are
With a broken heart
Lucky if you are.

Upper room, birthmarks of the earthen womb,
Flesh and bone, Jesus lives again
With the power to heal a broken heart
Lucky if you are
With a broken heart
Lucky if you are
With a broken heart
Blessed if you are.

Duckbert

2006-04-19T11:22:00.000-05:00

A Word from the Fathers

2006-04-15T10:23:00.000-05:00

Let no one grieve at his poverty,
for the universal kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again;
for forgiveness has risen from the grave.
Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free.
He has destroyed it by enduring it.

—John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople; sermon, ca. 400

Earthquack

2006-04-12T13:07:00.000-05:00

1 Kings 5:7

2006-04-11T10:24:00.000-05:00

"And it came to pass, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he rejoiced greatly, and said, 'Blessed be the Lord this day, who has given unto David a wise son over this great people.' "

Hiram was king of Tyre, which also had rule over the city of Sidon. Flash forward now to Matthew 11:21: "... For if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes." These are the words of the Son of David. I find this fascinating.

Ps. 109:1-20

2006-04-07T08:50:00.000-05:00

You didn't really think I was going to type in all these verses did you?

Read this passage with Judas in mind. It's amazing.

Mac Quirk

2006-04-05T11:04:00.000-05:00

Dogs-ology

2006-04-04T08:08:00.000-05:00

"Reality Check" by Doug Whammond