Original Sin

Good quote today concerning original sin from the book, Beyond Identity, by Dick Keyes:
“The original sin is refusal to be and live as a creature and instead to pretend at knowing better than God himself, to set oneself up as the ultimate judge…The original sin is not always expressed in conscious animosity toward God. More [...]

Sabbath

One goal I forgot to list in my goals for the new year was to enjoy a greater faithfulness to the idea of sabbath, both individually and as a family. With this in mind, we’ve made some changes to our weekend, and it’s been good.
Actually, it’s been a little surprising how good it’s been. One [...]

So Many Classes, So Little Brain

The good news is classes started yesterday and it’s going to be a great semester. My classes:

Acts & Paul
Reformation & Modern Church History
Intro to Counseling
Developing Lay Leaders in the Church

The other news is 137 assignments stand between me and the end of the semester, with what looks to be the most reading and writing I’ve [...]

Poli Sigh

Currently watching the State of the Union Address. Sigh.
If anybody wants to know why so very little seems to get done in Washington, it may be because our government leaders – Republicans and Democrats alike – are too busy posing for national television as bi-partisan politicians who like each other (when they really aren’t and [...]

The Big Read

Our little book club at Memorial is taking part in The Big Read, a national effort modeled on successful “city read” programs designed to encourage literary reading by helping communities come together to read and discuss a single book. The selected book is Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.
Lectures, readings, art exhibitions, theater productions, book discussion groups, [...]

Happiness Is…

…when your 8-year-old, given the task of coordinating the cleaning of the two rooms belonging to her and her sisters, requests as a soundtrack, “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles (later covered by The Presidents of the United States of America for The Wedding Singer).
Training them up in the way they should go [...]

24 and Convergence

The four-hour premier of Fox’s 24 these past two nights was quite a start to the sixth season of the show, ending with last night’s detonation of a nuclear bomb (the first of supposedly five across the nation) in Los Angeles. Megan and I became fans of the show by way of a DVD “catch [...]

MLK

Here’s a link (complete with audio, video, and transcription) to one of the greatest speeches ever given in American history. I post and ponder it today to remind myself of how far we have to go in seeing Martin Luther King’s dream (and one of God’s, for that matter) realized.
How long, O Lord? Why is [...]

January Update/Open House

For what it’s worth, I just posted our January update for our friends and supporters.
Also, we’re having an informal open house this Saturday, January 20th, from 1-4 p.m. If you’re within 8 hours of St. Louis, you’re invited (of course, those outside of 8 hours are invited, but let’s be realistic). Email me for the [...]

On Teachers and Teaching

My kind of weekend: intensive January term class on prophecy with visiting prof, Dr. Richard Pratt of Third Millennium Ministries (check out the website – way cool vision); teaching tomorrow morning at Memorial on leadership (specifically how being a good follower is key to being a good leader); and digging into Proverbs to prep for [...]

Almost But Not Quite

I just read that Hugo Chavez of Venezuela called Jesus “the greatest socialist in history.”
Hmmm.
Not sure who said it (it’s not original with me), but the difference between socialism and Christianity is socialism says, “What’s yours is mine,” whereas Christianity says, “What’s mine is yours.”
Same four words; two very different orders and outcomes.

On Second Thought…

I sat down to blog tonight, but for some reason had a difficult time picking a topic and investing the energy. Thus, I won’t subject you to a “second draft” that’s really only a first one.
Hope you feel loved.

The Way of Wisdom

Today I started my second semester teaching at Wildwood. The topic? Biblical wisdom literature (Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes, with some Psalms thrown in for good measure). I’m pumped.
Two texts (among others) I’ll be using to prep for this class are The Wisdom of Proverbs, Job & Ecclesiastes by Derek Kidner and Old Testament Parallels: Laws [...]

The New Homestead

Our new “palatial imitation” house (dinner with the Dunhams to the first person, couple, or family to correctly name the 80’s movie, exact year, character, and actor who used the quote).

When Sub-Culture Attracts

One of the many perks of moving into our new place is picking up an extra channel or two on the old tube. As we don’t have cable, we’re heavily reliant on our rabbit ears, which (now that we’re above ground instead of in our basement apartment) pick up the following stations:

NBC
HSN
PBS
CW
ABC
TBN

We don’t get CBS, [...]

And I’m Off Like a Herd of Turtles…

Been up to my eyeballs in paper grading and the last of our moving experience (my least favorite part: hanging stuff). We’re loving the new place and really making the most of the new space, planning to host an open house before the spring semester starts later this month. If you’re in town, consider yourself [...]