Let’s make sure this is stated first. Â I love Va. Tech. Â Not just love it, I LOVE it! Â I am an alumnus, and I have served God here for the past 16 years.
Love Va. Tech, love Blacksburg, love Montgomery County. Â The whole bit.
But I have really struggled with the Victoria’s Secret Pink Party that was held last night on the Drillfield. Â Possibly for some reasons you think, and maybe for others that you don’t.
Remember, I went here. Â I get it. Â A huge concert/party/Va. Tech community event like this? Â I like some of the stuff from Gym Class Heroes, and the chance to hit up a free concert and likely have a blast? Â I really do get it.
I certainly don’t object to students being able to decide whether or not they can attend the show.
What concerns me is how this impacts an already typically unhealthy sexual ethic. Â Please stick with me a bit here and try to ignore how poorly the last sentence was constructed. Â The healthiest development of our sexuality I believe is stated in the scriptures. Â Not arguing for prudishness (although some will undoubtedly disagree) here, just more reflection and restraint than I think we typically see. Â Allowing God to show us how to express our sexuality in the manner that he engineered it.
One final word, friends. We ask you – urge is more like it – that you keep on doing what we told you to do to please God, not in a dogged religious plod, but in a living, spirited dance. You know the guidelines we laid out for you from the Master Jesus. God wants you to live a pure life. Keep yourselves from sexual promiscuity. Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body,not abusing it… Â 1 Thess 4
Please keep in mind that Jesus spent most of his time removing the extra rules that had been added by his religious compatriots. Â He seemed to want to free the pursuit of God from many of the restrictions that were squeezing the life out of that very pursuit. Â But in the Sermon on the Mount, probably in my opinion the most clarified teaching that he gave and the one that most helps me to understand the heart of God towards us, he actually tightens up the understanding of what sexual purity meant. Â He said it was not just about what you did, but about what was in your heart in the first place.
Now if Jesus was the prude that I thought he was up through my last year a Tech, that wouldn’t surprise me a bit. Â But he wasn’t. Â He was accused by the religious elite of being a drunk. Â Of hanging out too much with prostitutes, the untouchables of his day.
So, I guess my concern is that his concern just isn’t getting much play in our culture today. Â I don’t say this because I want to be seen as right or in the majority. Â More and more I wonder if followers of Jesus do better when we are the minority. Â I say this because I talk to hundreds of people each year and many have been hurt greatly by the sexually free culture we experience. Â That in our freedom we actually lose access to a part of who we were created to be.
As I am reading a bit of Socrates recently I will use his preferred method… Â Likely poorly 🙂
That is why I have struggled so much with this one…
Peace, Jim
and I have a complicated relationship. Â There are things about them that I respect and appreciate, and things that I wish they 
would do differently. Â I have no doubt that many in the Gospel Coalition would say the same about me. Â Also, the Gospel Coalition is just that, a coalition. Â A group of pastors, theologians and writers that are attempting to communicate a certain perspective about God, faith and our world. Â So there is a range of thought that needs to be implicitly understood.
What I appreciate is their commitment to teaching the scriptures and training people in them. Â This is a scripture focused coalition. Â That is a very good thing. Â I also appreciate their commitment to explaining the truth about what the death and resurrection of Jesus meant when it happened, and what it means for us today. Â I mean, Jesus is at the center of God the Father and God the Spirit’s plan for our world. That focus is a good thing. Â Had that not occurred, there would be no hope for us.
So, while I might follow those same scriptures out and draw different conclusions in some instances than they would; and might articulate some of my views differently than they would, I appreciate their presence at the table. Â If you are interested in more specifics about where I would differ, just ask…
And I love this . Â It is simple, straightforward, and needed. Â Often it is easier to condemn the whole church thing than to see the beauty that is mixed up in the mess. Â Certainly our highly cynical culture can lean that way. Â I am encouraged by the bible’s honest account of the mess that the early church was as well! Â God in his sovereignty has chosen to allow us freedom to sort out many pieces of of how the Spirit interacts with different cultures over time. Â Sometimes we take more freedom than we are granted and other times we hold on to a way of doing life with God that is just that… a way. It makes me appreciate Mark Galli’s book about the church even more. Â He titled it . Â How true, no?
Many thanks to n for reminding us of the beauty!
I have am blessed to have very wise friends who have a variety of takes on any number of issues. Â One that is coming up right now is the issue around the phrase, “Merry Christmas!” Â Should we be allowed / encouraged to use that particular term at the expense of the more generic greeting, “Happy Holidays!” Â What do each of those phrases represent and what is the larger issue that is bubbling just under the surface? Â 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… Â Â Â 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
There is this very strange interaction between this young girl and an angel that I read about this morning. Â Not only strange, but it was one that made Christianity hard for me to accept for a long time. Â Let me just let you read it…
In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married
to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.
Virgins getting pregnant, angels talking about it… it reads like a fairy tale. Â In fact for years that is all I thought the bible was, an extended set of fairy tales, stories that perhaps held some usefulness, but only in measured amounts and in measured places.
Then I started to reflect on what I was rejecting. Â I was one of those that read the background material that 99% of people think is painfully boring. Â I read evidences against the bible being an accurate translation and those in favor of it being an accurate one. Â Keep in mind, when I started this whole thing I was firmly in the not accurate camp. Â Over about a year I frustratingly became more and more convinced it was accurate. Â That it had held up over time .
That didn’t mean it was true, mind you.  Just that what we have now is an accurate portrayal of what they had then.  To answer the question in advance, yes I continue to read about this.  I have probably read 20-30 books  in the past ten years  written by biblical or literary critics that argue against my position.  Even on my sabbatical, I was reading about the political and sociological streams that have influenced how we come to the conclusions that we do about scripture.  If you have questions about my conclusions with them, let me know…
Then I started to ask whether the book might be right. Â Over time I came to conclude it was. Â Again, please know that at this point I still didn’t like that it was true, I was still rejecting it. Â But I couldn’t deny what I had come to learn.
Actually this account of this young girl, Mary, had a part in it. Â It was one of the first miracles that is recorded in the bible that I believed. Â
So, the inevitable piece of news. Â Westboro Baptist Church is coming to Blacksburg
today to protest in front of Cassell Coliseum today just before the of Officer Deriek Crouse. Â 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) Â who loved to mess with me. Â It kind of became his thing. Â I was a small kid with… ladies prepare yourselves… Â a bad haircut, bifocals, braces with headgear… Â That’s right. Â 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. Â I tried to fight back – verbally, physically. I tried being nice. Â Nothing would work.
Then I decided to simply render his insults irrelevant. Â He would make a comment and I’d say “not bad.” Â He would shove me when he walked by and I would say “nice form.” Â The first thing that did is it calmed me down. Â 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. Â I have learned over the years to tame my mouth -most of the time. Â Sometimes that means overlooking a wrong, other times to speak against it. Â 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. Â When you understand the proverbial wisdom nature of, well, Proverbs, then you see these aren’t in contradiction. They are both right. Â Wisdom therefore, needs to guide us into which one we invoke. Â I think, today, verse four.
People have tried for years to speak wisdom and truth into these folks’ lives. Â I tried when they last came to Tech. Â I spoke with Shirley Phelps-Roper, unsurprisingly to no avail. Â They want the audience, they are somehow energized by the counter-protests. Â Their revenue stream is dependent on getting big numbers of web-hits, drawing big crowds. Â 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. Â I feel that pursuit of power and lack of willingness to serve is not connected with any political party. Â It is a part of who we are as people. Â So, I get the idea that “Just vote them out,” only replaces one problem with another. Â 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. Â The excesses, the question of whether it will ever really amount to anything. Â 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. Â Thoughts?
Jesus Ween. Â Let it sink in. Â Jesus Ween. Â 
Here is the from Tamara Gignac of the . Â 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.
I remember the first time I read Job. Â I remember reading the wild account of God and Satan interacting. Â 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. Â I remember Job’s life being ripped to shreds by Satan. Â I remember Job’s very visceral suffering, his understandible anguish at the loss of so much in his life. Â 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. Â When they got there, his pain is so overwhelming they just sit with him for a week. Â Just spend that time with him. Â Amazing.
Then they started to talk.
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. Â 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. Â Â The 89 year old Camping has predicted the end of the world before. Â On Sunday he was quoted by the San Franciso Chronicle as being “flabbergasted his calculation was off.” Â Again.
Oh Harold.
But I don’t get angry at people like this anymore. Â I do get angry at the problems they cause. Â 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. Â What I noticed is that I really don’t think about Jesus’ return very much. Â With so many challenges in my life now, Jesus’ second coming rarely comes to mind. Â That is not a good thing to me.
