a break and a driscoll

have not been posting much.
except to lament my poor pens.
partly coz of busyness, partly coz our internet went over 350Gb!

one possible reason for this is (ruling out for the minute porn) massive downloading of vodcasts - and very probably of Mark Driscoll, pastor of super-church (i think they call 2000+ a mega-church, but super-church sounds so much better) Mars Hill in Seattle.

he's in town, talked at a RICE event on Saturday, at St Thomas' North Sydney on Sunday, at bible skool on Wednesday, at the Sydney Entertainment Centre last nite (burn your plastic jesus), and is sharing the stage with Don Carson at Engage this weekend. he's also been up and down the central coast like a nomad (according to DMDC).*

apart from constantly berating Australians, and Australian men in particular, for not moving out of home and getting married, he's been quite interesting.

i can really see how he's worked hard at dissecting Australian culture; it was interesting to say that one of the main ways he does that is watching TV - he says back home he has two tevos, one for him, another for his family. and they watch, dissect, discuss etc.

i'll post some more thoughts when i've thought some more.

* i'd put links to all these, but your internet is probably much better than ours - at least until monday!

upside down

i have two ballpoint pens sitting in a drawer, nib-end down, above my heater.
my hope was that soon the ink would return to the nib end so i can use them.

but nothin' doin'.

i don't want to be a cheapskate, but neither do i want to be a western consumerist who chucks stuff out just 'coz it's a bit broke.

any ideas anyone? how do i make the ink go where it should be?

take up your cross

how do you understand the take up your cross passage?

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

Matthew 16:24 (cf Matthew 10:38, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23, Luke 14:27)

is it:

1. follow Jesus, even to the point of death?
   
2. forget who you are, think only of the crucified Christ?
   
3. to follow Jesus is to count your life as cursed?

i always thought the third, but realise others feel quite differently about it. mind you, i've never thought super-deeply about which it is.
compounded with that, there is (at the very least) an element of truth in each of my options.
there may of course be other readings.

i believe in God

a common statement indeed.
the question the christian asks is then: which god? or perhaps: what do you mean you believe in god - are you a christian?

Karl Barth in Dogmatik im Grundriß says that when Christians say: i believe in (on) God, they mean to say i believe in (on) the Lord Jesus Christ.*

firstly, i wonder how this might work apologetically. imagine a conversation with a non-Christian:
NC: yeah i believe in God
you: oh right, so you believe in Jesus?
NC: um i dunno about Jesus, i mean i believe he existed and stuff...
you: i guess my point is that to say you believe in God is to say that you believe that God reveals himself, that he doesn't want to remain a mystery, but wants to be known, and that God has made himself known is in the man Jesus, who incidentally, said that he was the only way to know the Father, that is, God.


i guess where you go then is to say that for someone to believe in an abstract idea of 'God' is simply that: abstract. but the way Barth so simply puts it makes it 'konkret', a statement of fact that must be engaged with.

worth a try, anyway!

*Und wenn wir sagen, ich glaube an Gott, so heisst das konkret: ich glaube an den Herrn Jesus Christus. the german isn't in (in) but an (on). it makes logical sense but not grammatical. hence my brackets.

#11 - Thou shalt not ogle

growing up in canberra, i would always be amazed at how one prang could lead onto a series of lesser prangs.
you'd see all these people on the side of the road exchanging details, wonder what's going on, and then see there'd be a bigger prang off to the side.
i don't know if it's a canberra thing, but they are worse drivers there generally.

but i guess my question is about voyeurism. not in the sexual way my dictionary wants to explain it, but more just the general staring and taking an unnecessary interest in things that do not concern us.

on the way to the snow, we saw cars off the side of the road, some even upside down, even one with the numberplate 'LEJND', or something just as bad (can't remember - how could i forget!). now it was really hard to not watch it - but it does get you wondering - what is it that makes this SO irresistible to look at?

is it the same thing as greed, or envy? well, i don't want to be in that car lying upside down in the ditch.
it it just simple schadenfreude? possibly.
it could just be thankfulness that it wasn't me! or possibly pride? being haughty?

maybe it's just harmless, but i never feel like laughing watching Australia's Funniest Home Videos. maybe it's cause i know it could very probably be me!

it could also be i'm worried about this sort of response:

“You have heard their taunts, O LORD,
all their plots against me.
The lips and thoughts of my assailants
are against me all the day long.
Behold their sitting and their rising;
I am the object of their taunts.

“You will repay them, O LORD,
according to the work of their hands.
You will give them dullness of heart;
your curse will be on them.
You will pursue them in anger and destroy them
from under your heavens, O LORD.”

Lamentations 3.61-66