I haven’t joined in the jokes about Kim Jong Il’s death. By all accounts he was a terrible leader-according to many accounts truly awful-but I don’t relish the death of anyone.
But, I read about his mythical athletic prowess, and it is of course laughable. Many North Koreans cite these stats! Certainly it is impossible to know if they truly believe his monikers are accurate – “Best Leader Who Realized Human Wisdom,” “Master of Literature, Arts, and Architecture,” “Humankind’s Greatest Musical Genius,” “World’s Greatest Writer,” and “Greatest Man Who Ever Lived.” – or they were just coerced. Few really know, as informational transfer is so restricted.
We at least know that the Humankind’s Greatest Musical Genius is wrong. Nickleback gets that one.
No? Who then, Creed?
Sorry, back on track here… It is so easy to look into another culture and see how they misconstrue reality…how they miss the point. It made me stop and reflect a bit about how we do the same. Things that seem self-evident to us can be very easily seen through by others. Cultural nuances that we are blind to. It makes me want to be very deeply rooted and carefully reflective. It makes me want to be sure that I am among people who will help me to make sure I see myself and the world the way that God would have me.
Sure, I would never say I shot 5 (or 11) holes in one in a single day. But what other lies might I be very willing to tell myself? Makes me think of a Proverb that says, “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.”
Let’s pray, for the sake of the South Korean people, that Kim Jong Un will do better.
I have am blessed to have very wise friends who have a variety of takes on any number of issues. One that is coming up right now is the issue around the phrase, “Merry Christmas!” Should we be allowed / encouraged to use that particular term at the expense of the more generic greeting, “Happy Holidays!” What do each of those phrases represent and what is the larger issue that is bubbling just under the surface? It is a very meaningful discussion, no?
This is an by Elizabeth Hunter, from .
While I don’t resonate with all of her thoughts, my question is… What are your thoughts on her thoughts?
This will likely be the last posting for the year as I am taking a few days off and then will be going to !
In the name of our Messiah whose birth I celebrate,
Jim
So, the inevitable piece of news. Westboro Baptist Church is coming to Blacksburg
today to protest in front of Cassell Coliseum today just before the of Officer Deriek Crouse. Notice no hotlink to Westboro’s site?
A bully in middle school taught me why.
There was a kid who lived near me (I won’t name a name as I am always surprised to see who reads this) who loved to mess with me. It kind of became his thing. I was a small kid with… ladies prepare yourselves… a bad haircut, bifocals, braces with headgear… That’s right. Add to that an almost complete lack of coordination, and a very smart mouth that often moved a bit faster than my brain.
Needless to say, I talked myself into a lot of situations.
This guy, who was much bigger, decided I would be his bullying muse for the year. I tried to fight back – verbally, physically. I tried being nice. Nothing would work.
Then I decided to simply render his insults irrelevant. He would make a comment and I’d say “not bad.” He would shove me when he walked by and I would say “nice form.” The first thing that did is it calmed me down. The next thing it did was it removed the audience he loved to get by messing with me.
I took his audience away.
In Proverbs 16 we are told that a wise persons’s heart makes their speech wise and more persuasive. I have learned over the years to tame my mouth -most of the time. Sometimes that means overlooking a wrong, other times to speak against it. Both of those pieces of wisdom are given to us in Proverbs and both are right.
But I think of this response as neither overlooking or speaking against.
I think Proverbs 26.4,5 shares the tension we walk in…
4 When arguing with fools, don’t answer their foolish arguments, or you will become as foolish as they are. 5 When arguing with fools, be sure to answer their foolish arguments, or they will become wise in their own estimation.
Both are true. When you understand the proverbial wisdom nature of, well, Proverbs, then you see these aren’t in contradiction. They are both right. Wisdom therefore, needs to guide us into which one we invoke. I think, today, verse four.
People have tried for years to speak wisdom and truth into these folks’ lives. I tried when they last came to Tech. I spoke with Shirley Phelps-Roper, unsurprisingly to no avail. They want the audience, they are somehow energized by the counter-protests. Their revenue stream is dependent on getting big numbers of web-hits, drawing big crowds. So, now, like my middle school bully, let’s move past them.
Let them come.
Ignore them.
With the prayer-filled hope that they will just fade away.
Yesterday was a swirl of emotions. A sinking feeling when I got the text about a shooting on campus. Growing fear as we heard about the possibility of another victim. Relief that more weren’t killed. Sadness as I reflected on the lives that ended. left a wife and five kids. Five kids! A friend of mine had to deliver the news to the brand new widow.
So we walk today in the tension of relief and sadness. The awareness that things aren’t as bad as they could be and still not as good we wish.
Jesus told us this was the case. That the reality of God’s presence in our world doesn’t mean that evil isn’t also here. And the fact that evil remains (for now) doesn’t mean God is sitting idly by. He is active and reminds us to be active as well.
Peter said it like this, “God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost.” 2 Peter 3.9 The Message
And it is Jesus’ example of unfair suffering that inspires me to action. He died for a purpose, for the Kingdom. For us. Now he calls on me to lay down my life as he did.
Yesterday reminds me this life isn’t a game.
I am conflicted about the Occupy Wall Street movement.
I can understand the frustration that many feel when they think about our current political system. I feel that pursuit of power and lack of willingness to serve is not connected with any political party. It is a part of who we are as people. So, I get the idea that “Just vote them out,” only replaces one problem with another. We are almost always in campaign mode and the problems of our country and world require more focus than they receive.
I can also understand the frustration of those who look at the ways the OWS movement is getting in the way of the commerce of the regular working class people they are claiming to represent. The excesses, the question of whether it will ever really amount to anything. Who are the 99%, do they really represent me, and what is it that they would suggest that is better?
This certainly isn’t the first to handle that dilemma, but I like it and wanted to pass it along. Thoughts?
Jesus Ween. Let it sink in. Jesus Ween. 
Here is the from Tamara Gignac of the . Please know, it isn’t the heart of what Paul Ade is doing that is the problem as much as the cheese factor of the naming.
CALGARY — Tiny ghosts and goblins hoping for sugary snacks may find something odd in their loot bags this Halloween: a bible.
A Calgary pastor is promoting Jesus Ween, a faith-based alternative to the traditional holiday fare of candy and spooky garb.
Instead of chocolate bars and gummy bears, he’s asking people to shun demonic costumes and instead dole out pocket-sized bibles or other “Christian gifts.”
The idea has caught on in communities across North America, according to Jesus Ween creator Paul Ade. He’s hoping it will bring a new perspective to an otherwise pagan festival, he said.
“I do not associate myself with ghosts, demons, Satan and witches. These are things I want to get rid of,” he said.
“If it’s OK for a child to know about demons, it should also be OK for a child to know about Jesus.”
Jesus Ween has attracted international attention, with media reports circulating as far away as Britain.
The Calgary man’s efforts to reinvent Halloween even prompted parody south of the border, with recent gags from U.S. pop culture satirist Stephen Colbert and late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel. (more…)
I guess I have a few concerns about this whole . I mean, beyond the potential misuse of millions of dollars in endowment
money…
What is clear here is that the church leadership is trying to blend two things that I feel are not good to blend. 1) the scriptural challenge to help one another out – this one I like; and then 2) the cultural value of keeping others away from us – this one I don’t. 
It would seem that the church is so comfortable maintaining distance between the leadership and the members that they don’t see the disconnect. So you get “Please help out by sending over meals – but give them to the limo drivers, please don’t come by our home.”
Am I the only one who is bothered by this?
On this day in 1517, the priest and scholar approaches the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and nails a piece of paper to it containing the 95 revolutionary opinions that would begin the Protestant Reformation.
If you want a brief rundown of the ensuing years, hit .
And so began the Protestant movement, even though it wasn’t called that until a number of years later.
I am a product of that, especially now that I am a pastor of a non-denominational church near Va. Tech. My question is, “do we as Protestants, or better yet, do I as a Protestant, protest too much?” This question comes up as we as a church are in the midst of a series on the Lord’s Prayer. A prayer that many recite weekly in church’s all over the world.
We as a church don’t.
And my question is, is that good? Is it good to include in the general flow of a Sunday gathering time something that can easily become rote and mundane? Or the counter, is it wise to not regularly participate in one of the traditions the church has widely participated in over the centuries?
My concern with the former is that we can easily mishandle very sacred things. A bit like eating on the good china everyday somehow reduces the specialness of it. But my concern with not engaging in its reading and reciting is that I am pushing away something very valuable just to show that we are different.
To be fair, to me and the elder team I lead with, we have thought about this a great deal. We aren’t just pushing away tradition for the sake of pushing away tradition. But, on the anniversary of this moment in time that truly created a fork in the road, I do wonder if there are areas I simply protest for reasons less well thought out. How much of my decision making is influenced by the fact I am a Protestant, who is in ministry primarily among generations that are much more comfortable determining what they are against than what they are for.
So… thoughts?
Peace, Jim
I remember the first time I read Job. I remember reading the wild account of God and Satan interacting. I remember the tension of a real Satan that was seeking to harm humanity in real ways being allowed some freedom to work by God, while at the same time being contained beyond a certain point as well. I remember Job’s life being ripped to shreds by Satan. I remember Job’s very visceral suffering, his understandible anguish at the loss of so much in his life. I remember Satan’s claim that Job would eventually curse God and I remember wondering if he would.
And I remember his friends.
11 “Three of Job’s friends were Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. When they heard of the tragedy he had suffered, they got together and traveled from their homes to comfort and console him. 12 When they saw Job from a distance, they scarcely recognized him. Wailing loudly, they tore their robes and threw dust into the air over their heads to demonstrate their grief. 13 Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and nights. And no one said a word, for they saw that his suffering was too great for words.” Job 2.11,12
So, Job’s friends hear that he is suffering and decide to come and comfort him. When they got there, his pain is so overwhelming they just sit with him for a week. Just spend that time with him. Amazing.
Then they started to talk. (more…)
At a coffee shop and restaurant I frequent I was called on the carpet for what Harold and his devotees have been saying. My friends’ eyes would gleam as they razzed me for being connected to the same faith as Family Radio. Honestly, I used to get so angry when a Christian would step up to the bad quote plate and swing for the fences. I would have to answer for them. It seemed like every bad quote, every unkind, unreflected on sentiment, made my faith seem more and more silly to more and more people. These people were seen as jokes and Jesus (and I) was often thrown in with them.
Harold Camping, founder of the Christian station Family Radio, also known as the man who sounded the May 21 Doomsday alarm, warned the world will start falling apart as each time zone reached the six oclock hour. First we would experience an earthquake that “would put what Japan experienced to shame,” we would experience the Rapture, followed by five months of suffering for those who remained on earth. The 89 year old Camping has predicted the end of the world before. On Sunday he was quoted by the San Franciso Chronicle as being “flabbergasted his calculation was off.” Again.
Oh Harold.
But I don’t get angry at people like this anymore. I do get angry at the problems they cause. The followers of his highly obscure
teachings, his weird numbering of the 3,000th anniversary of the flood of Noah, a thirty three year season of tribulation of the church, and a level of certainty of the year of the death of Jesus that few share, have been devastated. Their faith is understandibly shaken. Life savings’ have been spent on getting the word out about what was to happen on Saturday. Even Camping’s own family has been torn apart by all this.
I do get angry at that.
For me, I try to look at what is going on in the world around me and look for what God is trying to say to me through it. What I noticed is that I really don’t think about Jesus’ return very much. With so many challenges in my life now, Jesus’ second coming rarely comes to mind. That is not a good thing to me. (more…)
