minor change

after a recommendation from Reuben, i've decided to add RefTagger to my blog. it basically means when i write a bible reference like Ezekiel 33:11, if you move your cursor over it, it should just pop up! it's that easy. no running around to find a bible, no opening a bible gateway (or your bible viewer of choice's) window. just hover. like a hovercraft.

speaking of which, what ever happened to hovercrafts?

anyway, talking about minor change, here's Django Reinhardt (legend) with minor swing:

Alone

as mentioned, i'm reading Tim Keller's the reason for God for a book review. and just made it to the half-way point this afternoon (before succumbing to swine flu for an afternoon nap).

in it, this masterful quote from C.S. Lewis (who i think Keller really likes for his apologetics):

If what you want is an argument against Christianity... you can easily find some stupid and unsatisfactory Christian and say ... "So there's your boasted new man! Give me the old kind." But if once you have begun to see that Christianity is on other grounds probable, you will know in your heart that this is only evading the issue. What can you ever really know of other people's souls - of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands.

If there is a God, you are, in a sense, alone with Him.

You cannot put Him off with speculations about your next-door neighbours or memories of what you have read in books. What will all that chatter and hearsay count when the anaesthetic fog we call "nature" or "the real world" fades away and the Divine Presence in which you have always stood becomes palpable, immediate, and unavoidable?

this is from Lewis' Mere Christianity (Macmillan: 1965 p168), which (so it was sold to me) is what Tim Keller is trying to perhaps not emulate in the Reason for God, but retell, from his own perspective; to set out clearly, and carefully, just what it is that makes Christianity not stupid, but reasonable, and sensible.

i think Keller wants the non-Christian to pick up this book and say firstly, 'that's a stupid title - as if there's a reason for God'. then he wants their Christian friend to say, 'why's it stupid?' and then whatever their answer, be able to say, 'no, he talks about that too - he's thought about that, we - Christians - HAVE thought about that. you're not the first or the only one to ask that. read his answer. than come back to me'. or something like that.

if you're reading, Mick, i'll have that review out for you soon!

3 John Analysis

Greeting

1 The elder to the BELOVED Gaius, whom I love in truth.

Walk in Truth :: A Prayer

2 BELOVED, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.
3 For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth.
4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

Walking Well

5 BELOVED, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are,
6 who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God.
7 For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles.
8 Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

Walking Wickedly

9 I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority.
10 So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.

Walk Well Not Wickedly

11 BELOVED, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.

Witnesses (3)

12 Demetrius has received a GOOD TESTIMONY from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true.

Farewell

13 I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink.
14 I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.
15 Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends by the name.

books books everywhere

reading three good ones at the moment:

1. Reformation, by Diarmaid MacCulloch (Penguin: Victoria, 2004)
   
   you may remember it from here!
   
   i'm really enjoying it - it's engrossing, thorough, and good at drawing together various threads.
   
   
   
2. also on my stack is The Reason for God, by Timothy Keller (Penguin: London, 2008)
   
   
   
   i'm reviewing it for church, where we're trying to get regular book reviews going. if you've read his ground breaking article (download here i think), Deconstructing Defeater Beliefs, you'll know what it's about.
   
   
   
3. last on my list is a book that my friends at AFES ordered me a review copy of! It's called What are we waiting for? Christian Hope and Contemporary Culture, eds. Stephen Holmes and Russell Rook (Paternoster: Bucks, 2008)
   
   
   
   i originally heard about it from Chrisendom, and have already read the first three chapters - getting it only late last night!
   
   when i've finished and reviewed it, assuming i don't upset anyone in the upper echelons of AFES, it should turn up here, at the AFES online magazine, webSalt. (where you can sign up to get RSS feeds - you can even check out my old reviews of Lee Strobel's the case for easter and Peter Bolt's Living with the Underworld)

lots to read about, lots to think about, lots to chat about.

Proverbs 3:1-12 Chiasm

yes, i know, it's been too long between chiasms. here's a little sugar for you all:

1 My Son, do not forget my teaching,
 but keep my commands in your heart,
2  for they will prolong your life many years
 and bring you prosperity.
3  Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
  bind them around your neck,
  write them on the tablet of your heart.
4  Then you will win favour and a good name
  in the sight of God and man.

5        Trust in the LORD with all your heart
        and lean not on your own understanding;
6         in all your ways acknowledge him,
        and he will make your paths straight.

7               Do not be wise in your own eyes;
              fear the LORD and shun evil.
8               This will bring health to your body
              and nourishment to your bones.

9         Honour the LORD with your wealth,
         with the firstfruits of all your crops;
10        then your barns will be filled to overflowing,
         and your vats will brim over with new wine.

11 My Son, do not despise the LORD’S discipline
  and do not resent his rebuke,
12  because the LORD disciplines those he loves,
  as a father the son he delights in.

as you can see from what i've bolded, the structure presents itself:
1&11 - my son
5&9 - Trust/Honour the Lord
7&8 - the central idea
yep, we've got a typical A B C B' A' chiasm

i'm actually preaching on proverbs 3 this week (see post below), here are my notes that i plan to preach from for this section:

• My son - tefillin, t-shirt. v3b,c - breath, heart.
  
• maybe mention Hebrews 12 - the good father, the son who can trust in his father
  
• Trust - lean = chair
  
• Honour --> generosity
  
• Central idea = 7-8 = Don’t determine for yourself what wisdom is. but fear the Lord, knowing he is the one with power over life and death, he is the one who by means of a crucified Palestinian carpenter was able to reconcile a sinful humanity to himself.
  
• What healing and refreshment this will bring!
  
• It’s not all about us.
  
• We need to keep remembering our poverty, our inability to create a universe – let alone to keep a family functioning. But we have God’s wisdom – revealed ultimately in Christ.
  
• So we keep turning away from evil, and to this omniscient (all wise) God.

i think that with our new website at St Albans Lindfield, there may be the opportunity to listen to my sage words. check there in a week or so. or just check out the site anyway - it's pretty!

Paraphrasing Proverbs

The worshippers of Yhwh counted the wise among them, and the wise faced the realities of experience from the point of view of the Yahwist faith that was theirs.
R.E. Murphy, Proverbs WBC 1998, i think describing G. von Rad's understanding of OT wisdom

i'm trying to work out (preferably before Sunday @8:30am!) what the relationship is between

wisdom,

the son, and

the man (הַאָדָם)

do you think the above quote is right?

i'm thinking in particular about Proverbs 3:13-26, and throughout proverbs - i take it that instruction for the man is general advice to humanity, whilst that to the son is specific for the follower of Yhwh. but why would the man care unless he followed Yhwh?

backmasking for beginners

a post on Led Zep IV over at F&T reminded me about the eerie art of backmasking. my old music teacher once put on Queen's another one bites the dust, which when backmasked (ie, unmasked by playing it backwards i presume), appears to say 'start to smoke marijuana'. we then got to try it ourself, doing it both backwards and forwards (ie saying 'start to smoke marijuana' and seeing if it said 'another one bites the dust'). we did it on a cassette player with an adjustable head so you could read the tape going the other direction. it was pretty cool. a few years ago i tried the same thing with the Beatles' i'm so tired, which pretty obviously says 'paul's dead man. miss him, miss him' as i recall. Revolution 9 also says 'turn me on, dead man' under 'number 9'

as a youngin', i was pretty freaked out. we were played a gospel choir, and that was backmasked, and the subtitling told us we were hearing them say good things about God. even backwards! however when played death metal, they all seemed to be saying that Satan was a swell guy and they had fun serving him. [i'm not quite sure then where the other popular idea going around back then came from, that people in satanic churches read the bible back to front - is it back-to-front or all thru?!]

for your paranoid pleasure, check out this guy's site for a dozen more obvious songs backmasked (without you having to destroy your dad's records!)

it did put a lot of fear in me, but in retrospect it shouldn't have, for several reasons:

1. enough songs are, and always have been, explicitly immoral and crude, and generally against the very idea of God, that putting messages in backwards isn't really necessary
   
2. you have to be a] paranoid, and b] have someone tell you what it says in most cases for you find it plausible
   
3. who says we can hear stuff backwards anyway? it's not like it's straightforward - it's not like reading a word backwards, it's a completely different thing

it seems you can separate this into two groups: some are really bored people putting things into their music (including things really really slowly such that it just sounds like bass, or the converse - really fast so it seems like a quick electronic squeak - both needing to be played at an appropriate speed to get any meaning from them), or it's the paranoid people imagining things.

but i don't know - maybe there is something to it. but i doubt it. it's cool tho!

[i hope the thing with the tape made sense. there's two sides to a cassette reel, normally only half is played, whilst the other returns to the spool. when you spin it, that bit gets played. but if you move the head that reads the tape to the 'returning side', you are backmasking. easy!]

Maundy Thursday's Watchword

Thursday, April 9

Maundy Thursday

Watchword for the Day
He has gained renown by his wonderful deeds; the Lord is gracious and merciful. Psalm 111:4

Psalm 47
Job 12:13-13:19; Romans 15:17-29

'Am I a God near by,' says the Lord, 'and not a God far off? Do I not fill heaven and earth?' Jeremiah 23:23-24

Jesus said, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done." Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. Luke 22:42-43

Atoning Saviour, may your will be our will; may our lives reflect your love and compassion every day. Amen.

this is today's daily reading from the Moravian Church in North America .
as far as i can gather, these watchwords are put together by lay-people, and are sent out daily, and anonymously, which continues a tradition of almost three hundred years.

i started receiving the daily watchwords after doing some wiki-research about the Moravians and Count von Zinzendorf - absolutely the most astonishing missionary source in the last half millennium at least. have a read through. really fascinating.


the reason i haven't posted for sometime is i've been away. talking to people about Jesus. more about that later.

Allah and Yhwh

I've just finished reading 'Revelation?' by Mark Durie (2006), which asks the question, do Muslims and Christians worship the same God?

it's a really interesting book - well written, easy to read. the main thing it is asking, is whether it is right to engage Muslims (or for Muslims to engage Christians) with the premise, 'we all are talking about the same basic thing - let me show you how our understanding is different/better/correspondent.'

this is basically the approach suggested by Colin Chapman (Cross and Crescent), where you talk about Isa in the Qur'an and say 'see, don't you want to know more about him? read his biography with me (in the Injeel)' (hopefully this isn't too simplistic a summary)

Durie wants us rather to look at the characters of Isa, Allah, the Ruh Al-Qudus, and see what similarities and differences exist (between, respectively, Jesus, Yhwh, and the Holy Spirit). now, whilst this approach isn't as conciliatory as Chapman's, it's also not as polemic as Sam Green's (he works for AFES in Tassie i think), who attempts to show how wrong Islam is - the unreliability of the Qur'an, the questionable character of Muhammad etc - pulling no punches.

again, i found it an engaging book (there are bargain bin copies for $6 at Moore Books!), especially in countering Islamic claims that they're all the same - even the names of Jesus and Yhwh are corrupted when taken up by Islam - having no linguistic links at all (supporting the understanding of Muhammad's syncretism of the religions around without fully grasping them). however it does this linguistically, and based on the characters of the characters - trying to enter into the conversation in a way that distances the two religions - they are not, nor ever were, the same religion. Neither Adam, Noah, Abraham, Lot, Moses, David, Solomon nor Jesus were Muslims - which is not to say the characters of the Qur'an - Sulemann, Isa, Lut et al weren't - but they aren't the same bunch of guys.

i still need to think about the relative merits of the approaches - what do we lose by Chapman's approach? what do we gain by Durie's?

to decriminalise is to legitimise

Phillip Jensen wrote today on this issue in regards to the abhorrent victorian abortion legislation (is that too strong a word?). you can find it in today's SMH, or here.

despite the histrionics of Green's MP Lee Rhiannon*, i think Jensen makes a really good point:

Since the 1960s, censorship and gambling laws have been relaxed, and prostitution and homosexuality have been decriminalised.
[... T]o decriminalise is to legitimise.

whilst i am generally quite liberal (if i don't say so myself), i am thankful for this reminder about the impacts of decriminalising things that society has generally had questions about. decriminalising under-age sex for example sends the message not that society doesn't think jail is too extreme a punishment for teenage kids who have sex, but rather it says anyone is fair game - don't ever let age (or anything!) limit your sexual freedom. however old you are. and your respective age differences.

we need then to think not just about the immediate impacts of decriminalisation (eg ending backyard abortion clinics - tho i didn't think this was currently an issue), but what it implies society thinks on certain issues (eg an abortion is a lifestyle choice). it's about keeping the big picture in perspective.

* i should perhaps note, i have written written favourably about the Greens previously here. however i have sadly rarely found Rhiannon to be representative of myself or rational discussion.

Salt :: Resurrection

the latest AFES magazine is OUT. lots of zombie talk. among other things...

check out mark's blog for his thoughts on the issues - he's one of the editors of Salt.

check out also websalt, there's not nearly as much there as the hard copy, but some interesting articles to get you thinking and (hopefully) talking. included for your reading pleasure is my latest review on Lee Strobel's the Case for Easter.

a little primer:

The only thing that I perhaps missed was the other side – surely the atheists they line up for these apologists to knock down have heard their arguments and remain unconvinced? Does Strobel, writing after his conversion, truly represent the 4 billion plus who remain unconvinced about the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth?

But I guess that book is for others to write. Yet I still had a bucket load of questions I wanted to ask his experts – and that is as a Christian. To play the Devil’s advocate would have raised many more. As a journalist, he was surprisingly soft on his subjects. By no means was he the rock-hard Dick Tracy character he painted himself as in his introduction.

John 5:16-20 Chiasm

well, to all you who think i'm chiasm mad, i've found another one!

start from the top if you are a Greek nerd, from the bottom if you've got better things to do than learning a dead language (like talking to real people and that kind of thing)


16 καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἐδίωκον οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι τὸν Ἰησοῦν, ὅτι ταῦτα ἐποίει ἐν σαββάτῳ.

            17 Ὁ δὲ ἀπεκρίνατο αὐτοῖς· ὁ πατήρ μου ἕως ἄρτι ἐργάζεται κἀγὼ ἐργάζομαι·

18 διὰ τοῦτο οὖν μᾶλλον ἐζήτουν αὐτὸν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι ἀποκτεῖναι, ὅτι οὐ μόνον ἔλυεν τὸ σάββατον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πατέρα ἴδιον ἔλεγεν τὸν θεὸν ἴσον ἑαυτὸν ποιῶν τῷ θεῷ.

            19 Ἀπεκρίνατο οὖν ὁ Ἰησοῦς καὶ ἔλεγεν αὐτοῖς· ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, οὐ δύναται ὁ υἱὸς ποιεῖν ἀφ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ οὐδὲν ἐὰν μή τι βλέπῃ τὸν πατέρα ποιοῦντα· ἃ γὰρ ἂν ἐκεῖνος ποιῇ, ταῦτα καὶ ὁ υἱὸς ὁμοίως ποιεῖ. 20 ὁ γὰρ πατὴρ φιλεῖ τὸν υἱὸν καὶ πάντα δείκνυσιν αὐτῷ ἃ αὐτὸς ποιεῖ, καὶ μείζονα τούτων δείξει αὐτῷ ἔργα, ἵνα ὑμεῖς θαυμάζητε.

there is actually a purpose to this structure - the two A sections (v16, 18) give us the explanation - 'and because of this', 'therefore because of this'.

the B sections both give us Jesus' responses.

there is amplifying parallelism, as the As are upped - v16 they were pursuing him, v18 they are seeking to kill him. likewise v17 Jesus says that he and his father are both still slogging away as they always have been; v19-20 fill this out.

16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

            17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

            19 So Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel."



i should add, we were warned in class about not finding chiasms under every rock we look under - if you think i've imagined this one, do let me know (hopefully before Tuesday midnight when i have to hand an exegetical on this passage in!). hmmm... maybe i should just talk about parallelism and not chiastic structures - they're usually more ABBA or ABB'A' than ABAB aren't they?

Plato, they say, could stick it away...

1. Plato: What is Plato’s theory of forms, and how does his ‘cave’ story help explain the theory?

One of the key problems Plato sought to solve was the relationship between forms and matter. In response to the Sophists, with particularly Gorgias’ radical scepticism, Plato sought to find a better answer than agnosticism, yet was dissatisfied with empiricism. Thus the sign in front of his Academy: ‘Let none but geometers enter here;’ his concern was with the formal sciences, with abstract ideas. For these abstract ideas, or forms, are part of the primary world, yet a metaphysical realm, yet one which is more real than this world which we inhabit. It follows then that this world is somehow corrupted – as the matter differs in its degree of correspondence to the ‘idea-’ or ‘form-world’. However, as Plato has Socrates ascertain in elucidating the Pythagorean theorem from an uneducated slave, within our souls we have this true knowledge of the forms.

The problem is however education. Education – from ‘educare’ (to lead out) – is quite literally Plato’s goal. We are all, he believed, in a darkness as if we were shackled to one another in a cave, looking at the flickering shadows on the cave wall. Since we have been in this state for such a long time, this is all we could believe to be reality. We are not cognizant of the source of the shadows, that they are only rough, imperfect representations of what is creating them. As we are led out of the cave, or educated, blinded as we may be at first by the light, we are then able to understand for the first time the forms that had been making the deceiving shadows.

The way for this education to happen is not by observing nature by experience (a posteriori knowledge), but by contemplative reasoning (a priori knowledge). Thus the best way to spend one’s time is in this honourable pursuit – contemplating the forms, the essences, rather than the materials, sciences, the receptacles of the forms.

this is part of a series

Men - Firing through all of life - a review

A guest post - by a budding writer - my dad!

A friend of mine is having trouble coming to terms with middle age. He is going bald, and realises that he will never again have hair like Michael Douglas had in “Streets of San Francisco”. He knows it is too easy to spot plugs and rugs. He realises that he will never achieve that great sporting moment he has been meaning to get around to for the last couple of decades (he was certain he still had a 3’15’’ marathon time left in him). Even if he did get around to doing the training, he would probably strain something. His body and mind simply cannot do what they used to do, seemingly, only a short time ago.

He’s done the maths and realises that he simply doesn’t have the years left on this earth, or the finances, to do all those things he has had his heart set on for longer than he can remember.

People who he regards as younger friends clearly regard him as elderly.
Then, last Christmas, his (wise) son bought him a book: “Men – firing through all of life” by Al Stewart, Bishop of Wollongong.

My friend has read a lot of self-help books (he needs all the help he can get), but this book is far and away the best book in terms of articulating the plight of middle-aged men. Not only does Al brilliantly define the situation of middle-aged men and outline the causes of their predicament, he also shows them a way forward. It is tremendously reassuring for my friend to realise not only that he is not alone, but also that there is a way to turn things around.

“Men – firing through all of life” by Al Stewart – what a great gift for a middle-aged man you may know.

Reformation

i was looking for a book on the reformation for church history 2.

typed it into a search engine and found up the top of the page this:
coincidentally, just the one i'd been thinking about.


next but one was:


now i don't want to judge a book by it's cover, and, hey, you get free postage at fishpond for $50+ - so maybe i could just them to throw it in!