October 13

By | October 13, 2009
2 Comments

If you were planning on going to TMC chapel on Nov 11 and 13 to hear from a remarkable servant of God, you should know that the plans have changed and he will not be there.

Is this the future of shopping?  If so, it might not be so bad.

Volkswagen made some cool stairs in Sweden.

What do you think that Greenland looks like?

Verse of the day: Jeremiah 3:17 (ESV) “At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart.”  When you think about amazing miracles, this one makes walking on the water look real easy.

Swindoll’s 10 Leadership Lessons After 50 Years

By | October 9, 2009
0 Comment

Charles Swindoll gave these ten lessons on leadership when recently receiving a reward:

  1. It’s lonely to lead. Leadership involves tough decisions. The tougher the decision, the lonelier it is.
  2. It’s dangerous to succeed. I’m most concerned for those who aren’t even 30 and are very gifted and successful. Sometimes God uses someone right out of youth, but usually he uses leaders who have been crushed.
  3. It’s hardest at home. No one ever told me this in Seminary.
  4. It’s essential to be real. If there’s one realm where phoniness is common, it’s among leaders. Stay real.
  5. It’s painful to obey. The Lord will direct you to do some things that won’t be your choice. Invariably you will give up what you want to do for the cross.
  6. Brokenness and failure are necessary.
  7. Attitude is more important than actions. Your family may not have told you: some of you are hard to be around. A bad attitude overshadows good actions.
  8. Integrity eclipses image. Today we highlight image. But it’s what you ‘re doing behind the scenes.
  9. God’s way is better than my way.
  10. Christlikeness begins and ends with humility.

I feel like I’ve learned the truth of some of these by observing failure.  If I only had space to list five of these, I’d go with the even numbers.

HT: Justin Taylor

20 Years

By | October 8, 2009
7 Comments

This post is testimony that I survived 5th grade adventure camp.  I did not, however, decide to make a career switch to camp counselor.  Nor am I enrolling in certification courses to become a 5th grade teacher.  I will teach the two that I have, and no more.

Now I have two days at home (one down, one to go) and then I’m off to my high school reunion.  I’ve long thought that I would go to my 20th, but not necessarily any other.  I happen to be in the right hemisphere for the occasion, so I will journey out to southern California for a Saturday evening with many people I grew up with but almost none that I have stayed in contact with.  I will be proud to answer the question that everyone will ask with the response that after all these years, I have worked and struggled and climbed the ladder to become…a student.

I am most interested to know if any have become believers.  In my larger circle, a couple were believers, a few went to church, but most were too smart to believe in God or to submit to his Word.  I suspect that the faith of some withered somewhere between college and career.  I wonder if the Lord brought some to himself.  And I wonder how.

On Sunday morning, I’m planning to be at Grace Community for first service.  If you ‘re there and want to say hi, I tend to be drawn towards the building on the south side of the sanctuary.

B03-068-01520-8804, pole vaulting21 years ago.

Keeping Jews Out of Israel

By | October 8, 2009
0 Comment

From the Caspari Media Review:

In an extremely lengthy article published in Haaretz (October 2), Yuval Azulai suggested that the Israeli Ministry of the Interior works hand in hand with the anti-missionary organization Yad L’Achim, making use of details and acting against Messianic Jews on the basis of information supplied by its members. The multi-headlined article ("Birthpangs of the Messiah: All Israelis are brothers – forget it!"; "Not to believe") noted immediately underneath that: "The Ultra-Orthodox organization ‘Yad L’Achim’ locates ‘Messianic Jews’ (who accept Yeshua as the Messiah), collects information about them, and passes it on to the Interior Ministry. Clerks from the office ask them [Messianic Jews] in for questioning and turn their lives into a bureaucratic nightmare. Alongside this are also cases of harassment against them, dissemination of rumors, and attacks on their livelihood."

You can read the whole thing here.

Fifth Grade Camp

By | October 5, 2009
2 Comments

I am off for three days to Fifth Grade Adventure Camp with Luke and Mark.  Though required for parents of certain children, Kelli was told this morning by the principal that it is her favorite week of the school year.  Activities include boating, archery, dendrology/compass, prairie ecology, forest trail, lake trail, and water quality research.  That sounds more advanced that I ever made it, even in grad school!  This is a public school and there is one parent counselor for every six kids.  I am praying for good opportunities.

Why Are Jews Liberals?

By | October 3, 2009
0 Comment

I’ve been asked this question many times.  Now Norman Podhoretz answers that question in his latest book and Commentary asks six prominent Jewish Americans to reflect on that question. 

I recommend reading Michael Medved’s answer in full.  He begins:

For most American Jews, the core of their Jewish identity isn’t solidarity with Israel; it’s rejection of Christianity. This observation may help to explain the otherwise puzzling political preferences of the Jewish community explored in Norman Podhoretz’s book. Jewish voters don’t embrace candidates based on their support for the state of Israel as much as they passionately oppose candidates based on their identification with Christianity—especially the fervent evangelicalism of the dreaded “Christian Right.”

This political pattern reflects the fact that opposition to Christianity—not love for Judaism, Jews, or Israel—remains the sole unifying element in an increasingly fractious and secularized community. The old (and never fully realized) dream that Zionist fervor could weave together all the various ideological and cultural strands of American Jewry looks increasingly irrelevant and simplistic. In an era of budget plane flights and elegantly organized tours, more than 75 percent of American Jews have never bothered to visit Israel. The majority give nothing to Israel-related charities and shun synagogue or temple membership. The contrasting components of the American Jewish population connect only through a point of common denial, not through any acts of affirmation.

Imagine a dialogue between Woody Allen and a youthful, idealistic emissary of the Hasidic Chabad movement—who might well be the proud father of nine religiously devout children. Both the movie director and the Lubavitcher may be publicly identified as Jews, but they share nothing in terms of religious belief, political outlook, family values, or, for that matter, taste in movies. The one area where they find common ground—and differ (together) from the majority of their fellow citizens—is their dismissal of New Testament theology, with its messianic claims for Jesus.

William Kristol’s response begins:

Why do Jews remain liberals?

God only knows.

Why has He chosen to allow Jews to stay mindlessly attached to a liberalism that is no longer beneficial or sympathetic to them? Why has He chosen to harden Jewish hearts against a conservatism increasingly welcoming to Jews and supportive of the Jewish state?

And ends:

Norman Podhoretz has explained with great insight and elegance how it came about that, in the words of my late uncle Milton Himmelfarb, “Jews earn like Episcopalians and vote like Puerto Ricans.” The challenge now is for Jews to live like . . . Jews.

September 30

By | September 30, 2009
0 Comment

Yesterday I blogged about the apocryphal book 1 Esdras.   Perhaps I should have noted that this book is the only place in the Bible/Apocrypha that contains the phrase “truth endures,” the title of the new book honoring John MacArthur (1 Esdras 4:38).   I guess I’m not the only one reading the Apocrypha!

I mentioned before how surprised I was at some elementary errors made by Dan Brown in the DaVinci Code.   Here is a list of 50 mistakes from his three books.   As you ‘ll see, you can’t even trust his directions.

If you ‘re a student with an edu email address, you can upgrade to Windows 7 for $29.   If you ‘re thinking about upgrading from XP, don’t. (Buy a new computer instead.)   The upgrade might be worthwhile for computers with Vista.

This guy can multiply numbers in his head like you wouldn’t believe.   Then he tells you how he did it.

If you were wondering what to get me for Christmas, this is it.

BTW, if you remember that commentary on 1 Kings that I wanted but was unwilling to spend $2,736.18 for, I see that it’s now available new at A1Books for $43.   The reason I know that is because I installed the Invisible Hand add-on for Firefox and when I looked at the book (now back in print) at Amazon for $65, it alerted me to this lower price.   Yet another reason to use Firefox.

UPDATE (10/3): A big thumbs-down to A1Books for taking my order and then permanently canceling it for being out of stock.

Was Josiah responsible for his own death?

By | September 29, 2009
0 Comment

On my first Isaiah post (is that series dead? I don’t think so), I included a “footnote” at the end of the first paragraph which read:

5 minutes ago I finished reading through 1-2 Chronicles in two sittings.  This cleared up a problem I’ve long had: was Josiah’s death at the hands of Neco the result of his sin?  The answer, if you read all of Chronicles, is clearly yes.  What is not necessarily clear from the immediate text is clear from the larger context.  The details are for another day, but I think this a relevant supporting point.

Recently I was reading in the Apocrypha and found an interesting statement.  The book of 1 Esdras is a history book that is somewhat parallel to the end of Kings/Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah.  It was written hundreds of years later, and thus serves as something of a commentary on Scripture.  Note what it says about Josiah’s death:

1 Esdras 1:28-31 (NRSV) “28 Josiah, however, did not turn back to his chariot, but tried to fight with him, and did not heed the words of the prophet Jeremiah from the mouth of the Lord. 29 He joined battle with him in the plain of Megiddo, and the commanders came down against King Josiah. 30 The king said to his servants, “Take me away from the battle, for I am very weak.” And immediately his servants took him out of the line of battle. 31 He got into his second chariot; and after he was brought back to Jerusalem he died, and was buried in the tomb of his ancestors.”

This is interesting not only because the author of this book interprets Chronicles the same way I do.  It is also interesting because of how Jeremiah shows up.  Here is what Chronicles says:

2 Chronicles 35:22-25 (NRSV) “22 But Josiah would not turn away from him, but disguised himself in order to fight with him. He did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, but joined battle in the plain of Megiddo. 23 The archers shot King Josiah; and the king said to his servants, “Take me away, for I am badly wounded.” 24 So his servants took him out of the chariot and carried him in his second chariot and brought him to Jerusalem. There he died, and was buried in the tombs of his ancestors. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. 25 Jeremiah also uttered a lament for Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women have spoken of Josiah in their laments to this day. They made these a custom in Israel; they are recorded in the Laments.”

1 Esdras takes out any possibility for misunderstanding, by replacing the word of the Lord through Neco with the word of the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah.  Why did the writer make this change?  Possibly he had some extra knowledge that Jeremiah directly warned Josiah.  Possibly he inferred from the phrase “from the mouth of God” that it must have been a prophet who spoke this (and not a voice out of the sky), and Jeremiah was the most well-known prophet of the day.  I am not sure, but I think it worth noting that a very ancient source shares my interpretation that Josiah’s death was not a random accident, but was the result of his disobedience.

Four Types of Learners

By | September 28, 2009
1 Comment

From the Mishnah:

There are four traits among those who sit before the sages:
a sponge, a funnel, a strainer, and a sifter.
A sponge—because he sponges everything up;
a funnel—because he takes in on one side and lets out on the other;
a strainer—for he lets out the wine and keeps in the lees;
and a sifter—for he lets out the flour and keeps in the finest flour.

(Avot 5:15)

Yom Kippur

By | September 27, 2009
1 Comment

Yom Kippur begins at sundown, and if you ‘re interested in reading what the Bible says about it, read Leviticus 16.  It’s also mentioned in “God’s calendar” of appointed times in Leviticus 23.  What God desires and delights in fasting is given in Isaiah 58.  Of course, the final “day of atonement” is described in Hebrews 9.

A major problem for the Jewish people today who reject Jesus’s atoning sacrifice is how their sins are forgiven.  Short of temple sacrifices, they have to hope that God will cover them some other way.  Three years ago I wrote about a strange practice that Jews observe for Yom Kippur, sacrificing a chicken for sins.