Scribbling in the dirt

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, 'Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?' They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.
(John 8:3-6)

Because of what Jesus eventually ends up saying*, it's been suggested that Jesus could have been writing down the sins of this woman's accusers.
One idea I had when I read this last week was that he could have just been scribbling, testing their patience.
Another idea I had, while typing this up, is that maybe he was doodling to help himself think about how to respond.

Another thing I notice is that there is only mention of the adulteress. There is nothing said about the man she had sex with, as though he could do what he wanted, just because he was a man.

*'If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.' (John 8:7)

Seed of Urbanity

Today I went to visit Urban Seed in Melbourne (that big place I used to live in) to help out and talk to them about maybe being a resident next year.
Spent most of the morning cutting up vegetables for the lunch they provide.
During lunch today some lawyers came to help out people who'd been given fines and stuff. Tomorrow a councillor is coming, and some accountants are coming on Thursday to help people out with their tax.
After lunch Paul Toms showed me around the place. In the process of being shown around I met EcoPaul, who is in a film. He said I looked like a lazy American, with my hands in my pocketses.
After the holidays I'll stay there for a week, and then I'll (probably) apply to be a resident.

C.H.R.I.S.T.O.P.

I saw this on Craig's blog, and then Trav's, so I thought I'd probably better pretend to be possibly cool and do it to.

Surrender

Read Trav's post first.
Last night Av was talking about surrendering everything to God. One part of the scriptures he talked about was the bit where Jesus feeds over 5000 people with five pieces of bread and two fish (John 16:1-15).

When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, 'Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?' He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
Philip answered him, 'Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!'
(John 16:5-7)

It seems to me like Jesus is giving Philip an opportunity to surrender something - either some money to get some food, or even just some of his time and energy* to go to a town and get some food. However, Philip didn't see the point, as he reckoned there wouldn't be enough for everyone.
Then this little kid shows him up by surrendering just five bits of bread and two fish, which feed the whole crowd.

*I just realised that I'd prioritised money as being more important than time or energy.

A Tribute to Minimal Techno

Check this out, it is seriously supercool. Found it via Fernando's Desk, which is a very interesting blog.

'too much magic not enough art?'

DJ Haggis from wee beautiful pict has written a response to Darren Wright's podcasting whinge. Both are worth a read.
Haggis says:

Where the tiny few who bought the performing/copyrights to christianity and church - are we now drowning in an ocean of crap music, digital art, blogs, podcasts, videoblogs... amazing gifts given by Christ to a world he adores- end up becoming thin attenuated ghosts of what they could be - too much magic not enough art? too much greed for power not enough thirst for real relationship?

That's not good ...

I'm in the library at Mt Helen campus, and there is heaps of water coming out of the ceiling and dripping through one of the lights.

Jesus the Fool?

In their book Beyond Prediction (Raylene from Cornerstone lent it to me while I was up there), John Drane, Ross Clifford and Philip Johnson explain the Jewish and Christian symbolism of the Tarot.
Their interpretation of the Fool card ↓, the most powerful in the deck, is that it represents Messiah, Jesus.

He seems as though he's about to walk off a cliff, which seems like a pretty foolish thing to do. However, this may be because he is not subject, but master to the laws that we take for granted, and doesn't fear gravity. Perhaps he only appears to be a fool because he bases his behaviour on different assumptions.

As I've been going over the gospels again, I think I've been coming to understand this interpretation better. It seems that Jesus talked a lot in riddles. Sure, we normally call them parables, but essentially I think they're riddles, and most people didn't get them right away. Here's an example:

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, 'Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.'
In reply Jesus declared, 'I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.'
'How can a man be born when he is old?' Nicodemus asked. 'Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!'
(John 3:1-4)

Shopping for community?

On the weekend I heard someone suggest that people might spend so much time in shopping centres and malls because they want to be around other people and thus feel like they are part of a community. (I think it was from Trav's CD of Erwin McManus' Brisbane seminar, on the way back from Cobden.) I remember that when I lived in Melbourne I used to go to Knox City a lot when I was feeling lonely, to be around other people, even though I ususally didn't know any of them.

Geoff Bullock at Signposts

In case anyone is interested, Geoff Bullock, who used to be the music pastor at Hillsong has been commenting quite a bit at Signposts. He's also been allowing them to publish revised lyrics to some of his old songs.

Come on, fall over!

Last night I decided I was going to go to the church service for the first time in a while, but found out that our church had cancelled the evening service so people could go to hear this guest speaker from interstate at one of the Pentecostal churches. I went along because I was pleased that we 'Baptists'* were going to a church that has previously been seen as some kind of opponent.

Anyway. At the end of the service, I went up the front to be prayed for, and the guest speaker pushed me over. Because I had my hands in the air and my head back, he got me off balance. I probably could have got my balance back and stopped him from pushing me over, but I didn't really want to resist him for some reason. I didn't want to make a fuss.
For anyone who is a bit confused as to why this guy would be pushing people over in church, it's something that happens sometimes or a lot in some - probably not all - pentecostal churches. I think it's supposed to be that the Holy Spirit knocks you down, and I don't doubt that it could be real sometimes.
However, the guy had been saying in his sermon that If you claim that God told you something, when you just made it up, then that is blasphemy (and I agree). Therefore, wouldn't pushing someone over and pretending it's the Holy Spirit doing it be just as blasphemous?

*I don't actually consider myself to be a Baptist.

Solomon the plagiarist?

"There’s nothing new under the sun," King Solomon said, without crediting his source.
('Let us Decompose', Relevant)

I think he means deconstruct, but anyway.

'Mud Story'

If you want to read the story I started writing last night, here it is. If you see any problems with it or whatever (or if you can think of a title) please tell me.

A World of Mud

This is a short fragment I've written for the Grainery Lane writers group. (This weeks theme is 'mud'.)


Lieju lay in bed dreaming about things made from mud. There were an awful lot of things made of mud. Mud houses and mud castles, where mud people went about their mud lives. Mud birds flew across backdrops of mud clouds. Mud fish* swam the in muddy rivers and seas.

Then Lieju woke up.
Thank goodness it was just a dream, thought Lieju. Imagine if the world really was made completely of mud! Stuff would be falling apart all the time, or drying out and getting all crumbly...
Then he remembered that the world really was made completely of mud.**
Oh dear, he though, with his muddy, clay brain. Not very sensible, mud.

As usual, Lieju had dried out considerably overnight. He’d developed a thin, crusty skin, which made his movements rougher than normal. Nothing, however, that couldn’t be fixed by a short soak in the tank.
Lieju peeled himself away from his bed (they’d become somewhat attached), crossed his roughly spherical, mud-carved chamber and climbed into his corrugated mud tank. Lieju sighed as he sank into the cool, murky water. Beneath the surface, he used his hands to knead his flesh, allowing the water to soak right in. Once he was done, he stepped out of the tank. He didn’t want to go runny.

Lieju climbed out of his chamber, into a hallway of Gyttja, which was currently the the Regat of Ierde’s largest fortress. Until two weeks previous, Maapera had been the largest, but an unexpected mudstorm had considerably diminished it’s grand towers.


* These often got sloppy.
** This made air tricky. Not as tricky, however, as in a neighbouring universe, which was made entirely of ham Ray Charles.

Two stories of Judas

In Matthew's account of the gospel, it says,

When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. 'I have sinned,' he said, 'for I have betrayed innocent blood.'
'What is that to us?' they replied. 'That's your responsibility.'
So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.
(Matthew 27:3-5)

But in Acts, Dr Luke writes,

With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out.
(Acts 1:18)

I don't think I totally agree with inerrancy of the scriptures. I definitely think that they're inspired by God, but I still think that leaves room for human ¿errors?. (I'm a bit hesitant about describing them as errors.) In that ↑ case there's obviously two different stories of the same event. I'm pretty sure they can't both be right.

The Last Supper

The Last Supper, Simon Ushakov, 1685

When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, 'I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me.'
They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, 'Surely not I, Lord?'
Jesus replied, 'The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.'
Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, 'Surely not I, Rabbi?'
Jesus answered, 'Yes, it is you.'
(Matthew 26:20-25)

I think if I was Judas I would have been pretty scared. I wonder why the other disciples didn't try and stop him?

'Who do you say I am?'

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say the Son of Man is?'
They replied, 'Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.'
'But what about you?' he asked. 'Who do you say I am?'
Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'
(Matthew 16:13-16)

Darren Wight wrote a post about this at Alternative Hymnal the other day.
I think one of the reasons I really like Jesus Christ Superstar is because it encourages the audience to wrestle with this question. It doesn’t offer an easy answer.
When Peter comes to the conclusion that Jesus is Messiah, it seems like Jesus starts predicting his death so that his followers will stop expecting him to overthrow the Romans and re-establish the kingdom.

'... should we expect someone else?'

When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, 'Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?'
(Matthew 11:2-3)

Erwin McManus says in The Barbarian Way (we read that on the way to Broken Hill) that he reckons Baptist John was having doubts about whether Jesus really was Messiah (or just a very naughty boy) because he'd ended up in prison, even though he’d supported Jesus.
McManus talks about how we often expect 'the centre of God’s will' to be a safe easy place, despite the fact that a lot people in the scriptures (Job, Jeremiah and Paul come to mind) that lived according to God’s will had a lot of awful things happen to them.

Jesus replied, 'Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.'
(Matthew 11:4-6)

Urgent work

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.'
(Matthew 9:35-38)

Can't remember where I heard I read this – it was either in Shaping of Things to Come (which I don’t have a copy of anymore) or at one of the Forge intensive open nights late last year (and I don’t usually take notes) – but the First Century Palestinian context is important in understanding this parable.
These days, because of genetic engineering and pesticides and stuff, farmers don’t have to be as on the ball about when they harvest a crop. When Jesus was around they didn’t have all that, so crops had to be harvested at exactly the right time. If they weren't, they’d get eaten up by pests, or they’d just go bad. So when Jesus says that there aren’t many workers, that’s an urgent problem.

They're drilling through the wall!

I'm in the computer lab at Camp Street. The computer lab at camp street is joined onto this cafe I don't remember the name of [Actually maybe I do. It might be called Cincotta's.] which seems to renovate every other week.
They're renovating at the moment and today they're drilling into our wall. It keeps sounding like they're going to go right through, hopefully improving the awful piece of 'art' that is bolted to said wall.

'Follow me'

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 'Come, follow me,' Jesus said, 'and I will make you fishers of men.' At once they left their nets and followed him.
(Matthew 4:18-20)

I always used to forget that they didn't know how the story was going to end, or that following Jesus would take up the rest of their lives. Now I always wonder what they thought when Jesus said that. Did they think he wanted to hire them? Did they think he just needed them for a minute?
This begs the question: what do I mean if I agree to follow Jesus?

'Wake Up'

by Arcade Fire
from Funeral


Somethin'
Filled up
My heart
With nothin'
Someone
Told me
Not to cry

But now that
I'm older
My heart's
Colder
And I
Can
See that it's a lie

Children
Wake up
Hold your
Mistake up
Before they
Turn the
Summer into dust

If the children
Don't grow up
Our bodies get
Bigger

But
Our hearts get torn up
We're just
A million little gods causing rain storms
Turning every good thing to rust
I guess
We'll just have to adjust

With my lighning bolts a-glowin' I can see where I am going to be when
the reaper he reaches and touches my hand
With my lighning bolts a-glowin' I can see where I am goin'
Better look out below!


Originally heard this song because U2 have been playing it at the start of each show before they go on stage, and my brother Doomie has a few bootlegs.
Not sure why, but I really like it. It seems like it's mourning the results of us thinking we're gods.

How amusment

Sean has started a blog, which is quite good. Gareth and Alt Tab (as in my housemate) have also started blogs, which are quite good, but I hadn't explicitly mentioned yet. Gareth's blog is the only decent blog on MSN Spaces, and probably justifies it's existence.

Another thing I find dangerously amusing is Hydro Lite Mineral Water™. However, I do not find Hydro Lite Mineral Water™ particularly amusing because of its falvour or wetness, or even because it is particularly Lite. It's not even because each unit contains 1.4 servings. (That's right, you can use it to serve 1.4 people.)
However, it is the packaging that sets this mineral water apart from other mineral waters. It doesn't exactly come in a bottle. It doesn't exactly come in a can either. It comes in this thing that is not quite sure whether to be a bottle or a can. It is mostly like a bottle, except with the neck cut off and the top of an aluminium can stuck on the end, and that my friends (not to alienate any non-firends who may be reading) is why I choose Hydro Lite Mineral Water™.
You can get it at Coles. If you live in Melbourne, Canberra or Sydney, you can even buy it online.

Going to Melbourne

Catching the train to Melbourne in an hour. I've been really sick for the last week, and haven't been getting any better because of the weather here, and because it's been impossible to get my room warm. So I'm going to stay with my family until I get better.

Fountain Gate is in the Bible.

Cyrus

This weekend I read Ezra, which is basically about some of the Israelites being released from exile in Persia. King Cyrus of Persia actually pays for the Temple in Jerusalem to be rebuilt (Ezra 1).
Some people think Cyrus might have had the first charter of human rights written up.

Head Beetle

Yesterday me and Trav and Craig (Trav's brother) went down to Warrnambool to talk to people who want to be involved in the Scripture Union mission there.
We were using the Presbyterian church's building, and their elder was there when we got there.
I'd met him before, so I said, 'Hi, you're the elder aren't you?'
'Yes,' he said, 'I'm the Head Beetle.'
We spent much of the day trying to work out why this guy had said he was the beetle. We even messaged Chris and asked if it was some kind of Presbyterian tradition.
Eventually we were told that he was actually the beadle, which means he has to carry this great big Bible into the chapel at the start of the church service.

POWs

Just been reading 2 Chronicles 28. What's happened is that Israel (Samaria) has just beaten Judah in battle, and captured a lot of prisoners. However, the way they treated the prisoners doesn't seem to be the norm:

But a prophet of the LORD named Oded was there, and he went out to meet the army when it returned to Samaria. He said to them, 'Because the LORD, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he gave them into your hand. But you have slaughtered them in a rage that reaches to heaven. And now you intend to make the men and women of Judah and Jerusalem your slaves. But aren't you also guilty of sins against the LORD your God? Now listen to me! Send back your fellow countrymen you have taken as prisoners, for the LORD's fierce anger rests on you.'

Then some of the leaders in Ephraim — Azariah son of Jehohanan, Berekiah son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah son of Shallum, and Amasa son of Hadlai — confronted those who were arriving from the war. 'You must not bring those prisoners here,' they said, 'or we will be guilty before the LORD. Do you intend to add to our sin and guilt? For our guilt is already great, and his fierce anger rests on Israel.'

So the soldiers gave up the prisoners and plunder in the presence of the officials and all the assembly. The men designated by name took the prisoners, and from the plunder they clothed all who were naked. They provided them with clothes and sandals, food and drink, and healing balm. All those who were weak they put on donkeys. So they took them back to their fellow countrymen at Jericho, the City of Palms, and returned to Samaria.
(2 Chronicles 28:9-15)

The soul as a garden

Someone just sent this to me in an email:

What is the spiritual battle? Well, the soul is a garden divided into two parts. On one half are planted thorny bushes, and on the other half flowers. We also have a water pump with two taps and two channels. The on guides the water to the thorns and the other to the flowers. I always have the choice to open one or the other tap. I leave the thorns without water and they dry up, I water the flowers and they blossom.
(Elder Porphyrios, Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit - The Lives and Counsels of Contemporary Elders of Greece, p170)

The Sandman #5: A Game of You

On Sunday I read A Game of You, from Neil Gaiman's Sandman series.

Here's a page from it (click to view it full size):

What's just happened is that Thessaly (the one with the big glasses) has just summoned the Moon, who doesn't appear to be very happy.

It seems like the depiction of the Moon's been influenced by the idea that God is three but also one, with the threefold facial features, and the echoes in the central frame.

Also, when the Moon says,

You you you, need need need something thing thing from from from me me me? What have you given me? What have you done for me? Why should I do anything for you?

it reminds me of when YHWH shows up in front of Job and points out that he's far greater than Job and owes him no explanation for what Job's gone through (Job 38-41)

The Moon never catually admits to being obliged to do whatever Thessaly says. When Thessaly says, 'you are mine to disperse of, mine to command,' the Moon just says, 'Perhaps,' and warns Thessaly that her hubris will be her undoing.
I don't want to say anything about what happens later, in case it ruins it for someone who hasn't read it and wants too. So to keep reading, select the blank space below.
Because Thessaly summons the Moon, there's a hurricane, which ends up destroying the block of flats the main characters live in. Kind of like a nemesis.

'If anyone adds anything to them...'

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. (Revelation 22:18-19)

I've always presumed that John was warning against adding to or taking away from that particular book, Revelation, seeing as the Bible didn't exist at that stage. He appears (to me) to be speaking specifically about the book he's about to finsih writing. However, I was talking to someone the other day who reckons John is warning against adding new books to the canon, or taking books out. What do you think?

Micaiah's vision

This is what Micaiah said to Ahab (once Ahab had agreed to summon him):

I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standing on his right and on his left. And the LORD said, 'Who will entice Ahab king of Israel into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?'
One suggested this, and another that. Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, 'I will entice him.'
'By what means?' the LORD asked.

'I will go and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,' he said.
'You will succeed in enticing him,' said the LORD. 'Go and do it.'

So now the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you.
Micaiah, 2 Chronicles 18:18-22

I don't get it. It seems to be saying, pretty blatantly, that YHWH was behind the deception of the prophets. Also, since he was trying to trick Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead, why did he let Micaiah know what was really going on? I suppose he knew that Ahab hated Micaiah, and wouldn't want to listen to him, but I'm still confused.

Ahab chucks a tantrum

The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, 'There is still one man through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.'
'The king should not say that,' Jehoshaphat replied.
(2 Chronicles 18:7)

That just cracks me up.

Exodus

The priests and Levites from all their districts throughout Israel sided with him [King Rehoboam]. The Levites even abandoned their pasturelands and property, and came to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them as priests of the LORD. And he appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat and calf idols he had made. Those from every tribe of Israel who set their hearts on seeking the LORD, the God of Israel, followed the Levites to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to the LORD, the God of their fathers. They strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam son of Solomon three years, walking in the ways of David and Solomon during this time. (2 Chronicles 11:13-17)

Reminds me of Christian Exodus:

ChristianExodus.org offers the opportunity to try a strategy not yet employed by Bible-believing Christians. Rather than spend resources in continued efforts to redirect the entire nation, we will redeem States one at a time. Millions of Christian conservatives are geographically spread out and diluted at the national level. Therefore, we must concentrate our numbers in a geographical region with a sovereign government we can influence through the electoral process.

Rehoboam

A couple of days ago I read 2 Chronicles 10, which is about Israel's rebellion against King Rehoboam. The people had asked him to reduce the heavy taxes Solomon had introduced. However, Rehoboam said,

My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions. (2 Chronicles 10:14)

It seems kind of like he's treating them just like their ancestors were treated in Egypt, when they were slaves:

Afterwards Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, 'This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: "Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert."' (Exodus 5:1)

That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and foremen in charge of the people: 'You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don't reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, "Let us go and sacrifice to our God." Make the work harder for the men so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.' (Exodus 5:6-9)

Because Rohoboam wouldn't reduce the taxes, all the tribes of Israel, except for Judah, rebelled against Rehoboam, and made Jeroboam their king.

Ballarat

From Google Earth.

Solomon's request for wisdom

Last night I started reading 2 Chronicles.
What stood out to me in the first chapter was that YHWH was pleased with King Solomon's request for wisdom because he wanted it in order to serve his people well, not so he could become rich and famous or whatever.

God said to Solomon, "Since this is your heart's desire and you have not asked for wealth, riches or honor, nor for the death of your enemies, and since you have not asked for a long life but for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I have made you king, therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you. (2 Chronicles 1:11-12)

Previously I'd gotten the impression that Solomon had had asked for the right thing, but now it seems more like he had the right motive.

King David and the Temple (part 2)

David said to Solomon: 'My son, I had it in my heart to build a house for the Name of the LORD my God. But this word of the LORD came to me: "You have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my Name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. But you will have a son who will be a man of peace and rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. His name will be Solomon, and I will grant Israel peace and quiet during his reign. He is the one who will build a house for my Name. He will be my son, and I will be his father. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever."' (1 Chronicles 22:7-10)

When I was down in Warrnambool last month, some guys from one of the churches there invited me round to their place to eat pizza and watch this film about King David.
When it got to this bit, at first I thought it was a bit harsh on David, considering that YHWH aided him in battle (1 Chronicles 11:14, 14:10, 18:6, 18:13).
I have a feeling now that YHWH might not have been punishing David, as such, but that maybe David just wasn't the right person to build the Temple, same as a chainsaw isn't the right tool for banging in a nail.

King David and the Temple

I've been reading 1 Chronicles. Almost finished it.

This afternoon I was surprised to read that Nathan originally told King David that he should go ahead and build YHWH a temple, before God told him that he didn't want David to build it (17:1-6). I think Nathan would have had to be pretty humble to go back to David the next day and admit he'd been wrong.

When YHWH says:

'I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought Israel up out of Egypt to this day. I have moved from one tent site to another, from one dwelling place to another. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their leaders whom I commanded to shepherd my people, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?"' (17:5-6)

it seems to me as though he is suggesting that he is a wild deity, and that David is (conscuiously or unconsciously) trying to contain or domesticate him.

This reminds me of one of Pro Hart's paintings, which we saw at his gallery in Broken Hill:

It's called The Search for God. I'm finding it hard to put into words why I've been reminded of this painting though.
Any ideas?

TERUWAH!

Picture: Return of the King

One word Paul uses to describe the fruit of the Holy Spirit is 'joy'.
One of the Hebrew words that we translate into 'joy' is 'teruwah', which is a battlecry. It's used to describe the sense of jubilation in battle:

When they make a long blast with the ram's horn and you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout [teruwah]; and the wall of the enclosure shall fall down in its place and the people shall go up [over it], every man straight before him.
Joshua 6:5

So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. When the people heard the sound of the trumpet, they raised a great shout [teruwah], and [Jericho's] wall fell down in its place, so that the [Israelites] went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.
Joshua 6:20

Upon what were the foundations of it fastened, or who laid its cornerstone,
When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy [teruwah]?
Job 38:6-7

And when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout [teruwah], so that the earth resounded.
And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, What does this great shout [teruwah] in the camp of the Hebrews mean? When they understood that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp,
The Philistines were afraid, for they said, God has come into the camp. And they said, Woe to us! For such a thing has not happened before.
1 Samuel 4:5-7

And now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies round about me; in His tent I will offer sacrifices and shouting of joy [teruwah]; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.
Psalm 27:6

I realised that I've been getting sick of the spiritual battle (parituclarly against my own sexual lust) and fed up with it. Need to get back into fighting joyfully.

Broken Hill photos

These are some photos Tab and Em took. (Haven't got mine developed yet.)


This is one of the exploded tires.


This is my Best Soft Feather Heavy Breed ribbon.


This is Peter Browne's gallery, in Silverton. Silverton is a ghost town. They've shot a lot of films (Mad Max 2, Town Like Alice, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Dirty Deeds) and ads there. It rained a lot when we were there.

Op shopping and desert wandering

Almost everyone has gone back to Canberra or Strathalbyn or Sydney or wherever now. We're going back to Ballarat tomorrow.
This morning we went op shopping. I got two shirts, some grandpa shoes and four Everworld books for under $10.
This morning I've just been walking around in the desert taking photos (the sun's come out a lot more today).

Pro Hart's gallery

Apparently Broken Hill has about twenty four art galleries. Some of us went and visited four of them yesterday.

The best was Pro Hart's gallery. He has the largest private collection in Australia, including a lot of his own work, as well as some stuff by Salvador Dalí, Claude Monet and George Gittoes (my favorite Australian artist).
Pro Hart also has a sculpture park across the road from the gallery, which backs onto an old picture framing shop, where Adam (fine art student from Canberra) found a huge, gold frame, which he now has to try and get home somehow.


Pro Hart's Miner's Cricket Match

Broken Hill Poultry & Pigeon Club

I forgot to mention last night that I won the Broken Hill Poultry & Pigeon Club 2005 Best Soft Feather Heavy Breed award.

Explosions

Two of the tires (front right and back left) on Matt's car blew up between Avoca and St Arnaud (very early in our trip) at the same time. The RACV towed us into St Arnaud though, and we got them fixed up there. Blog more when we get back.

Broken Hill

Me, John, Kelly and Em are leaving for Broken Hill at 6am Sunday, so I probably still won't be posting much for ages. We're visiting Tab and taking part in Discovery Week (which is to do with the fruits of the Holy Spirit) at Cornerstone.
Haven't been to Broken Hill before. I've been told it's in the desert and there are a lot of artists, so that sounds good. Apparently someone from Broken Hill won Big Brother last year, but I'm sure it can't be too bad.

Book meme

Kitty tagged me for this meme yesterday.

Total books owned, ever:
Don't know. Probably about six-hundred. I just counted that I have eight-two at my parents house, and I've probably got about twice that at my house. Maybe I'll count them when I get back.

Last book I bought:


Last book I read:


Five Books that mean a lot to me:


Now I'm tagging Adam, Anthony, Susan and Ted.

God changes his mind?

Here's an example of on of the many things I don't understand:

In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, "This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover."

Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, "Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: "Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, 'This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the LORD. I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.' "
2 Kings 20:1-6

If God doesn't change, then why does he change his mind? Why would God chnage things because of people praying?
Maybe he intended to change his mind all along once Hezekiah had humbled himself. But if YHWH was intending to heal him all along he would have been lying to say that Hezekiah wouldn't get better.
Another idea that came to mind is, maybe God really did intend to let Hezekaih die, but was emotionally moved by Hezekiah's misery, to the point that he was willing to change his plans, even though he was in the place of authority.

ARGH!

Why does this have to happen? It's the last day that I can hand in my last essay and the computers aren't working, so I can't access my essay to finish it and even if I could, I can't print it.

Hezekiah

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah's reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria came to attack the fortified cities of Judah and conquered them. King Hezekiah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: "I have done wrong. I will pay whatever tribute money you demand if you will only go away." The king of Assyria then demanded a settlement of more than eleven tons of silver and about one ton of gold. To gather this amount, King Hezekiah used all the silver stored in the Temple of the LORD and in the palace treasury. Hezekiah even stripped the gold from the doors of the LORD's Temple and from the doorposts he had overlaid with gold, and he gave it all to the Assyrian king.
2 Kings 18:13-16

I was really surprised when I read this bit. I was pretty sure Hezekiah was one of the kings that honored YHWH, and for some reason I thought YHWH wouldn't be to happy with him giving away all the Temple's silver. But it doesn't say anything about God getting angry about it, and he looked after Jerusalem all through his reign.

Stealth idols

When the Israelites were wandering in the desert, and were attacked by snakes, YHWH got Moses to make a bronze snake. Everyone who looked at it was cured of snakebite. (Numbers 21:4-8)
However, the Israelites eventually ended up worshipping the bronze snake, and King Hezekiah had to destroy it. (2 Kings 18:1-4)

It seems as though a gift or tool can become an idol, even though it's good and God has given it to us. We can end up putting our faith in these things, instead of in God, who gives them to us.
It's possible for us to idolise buildings, music, scripture, particular forms of church. In the emerging church we're just as much at risk of this. We're just as susceptible to idolising postmodernity as our predecessors were to modernity. Any ideas about how we can avoid this?

Sell-out

I've decided to start blogging stuff that stands out to me when I read scripture, to make sure that I am taking something in. So if I don't say much about what I've been finding in the scriptures, please email me and ask, because the chances are that I haven't been bothering.

Just read 2 Kings 16. I was pretty upset that the Israelites' exile started because King Ahaz let King Tillegath-pilneser of Assyria take over Damascus, in exchange for protection from Prince Pekah.
In the next chapter, Tillegath-pilneser's successor, Shalmaneser took over Samaria, so King Hoshea (Pekah's successor) asked the King of Egypt for help.
The people also tried to solve their problems by worshipping idols, through magic and by ignoring YHWH. As a result, the Israelites (except for Judah) were exiled to Assyria, and their land was resettled.
I suppose what I understand from that is that we need to depend on God before we depend on other people or on money or strategies or whatever.

Another thing I noticed was that the new settlers were given an opportunity to follow YHWH:

The king of Assyria then commanded, "Send one of the exiled priests from Samaria back to Israel. Let him teach the new residents the religious customs of the God of the land." So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria returned to Bethel and taught the new residents how to worship the LORD.
2 Kings 17:27-28.

21 Grams

Last night I watched Alejandro Iñárritu's 21 Grams, a film about life and death and revenge and forgiveness and redemption.
Sean Penn plays Paul Rivers, who is dying and needs a heart transplant. Benicio Del Toro plays Jack Jordan, an ex-convict who has turned to fundamentalist Christianity in order to redirect his life. Naomi Watts plays Cristina Peck, a reformed cocaine-addict.
Their stories merge when Jack runs over Cristina's husband, Michael, and Cristina allows the hospital to give Paul her husband's heart.
Jack turns himself in, and his faith is severely tested in gaol. Cristina ends up back on cocaine. Paul finds out about what it cost Cristina and Jack for him to live. He struggles with whether he should try to reconcile them or avenge Michael's death.

The title of the film comes from the experiments of Dr Duncan MacDougal, who claimed that the human body lost 21 grams at death. He rekoned this was the weight of their departing soul.* In this film, Iñárritu raises questions about the 'weight' of life, and what it is that leaves our bodies when we die. He also wrestles with questions about why people have faith and why God would allow such awful stuff to happen to people.

*Ian Sample from The Age got a bit upset about this, here. I think he missed the point.

'Falling at Your Feet'

by Bono and Daniel Lanois
from the soundtrack to The Million Dollar Hotel


Every chip from every cup
Every promise given up
Every reason that's not enough
Is falling, falling at your feet

Every band elastic limit
Every race when there's nothing in it
Every winner that's lost a ticket
Is falling, falling at your feet
I've come crawling, falling at your feet

Everyone who needs a friend
Every life that has no end
Every knee not ready to bend
Is falling, falling at your feet
I've come crawling, now I'm falling at your feet

All fall down All the manic dazed faces that you pull
All fall down All the action is not under your control
All fall down The graffiti rolling down off of your tongue
All fall down And the compromise you make for some

Every teenager with acne
Every face that's spoiled by beauty
Every adult tamed by duty
They're all falling at your feet

Every foot in every face
Every cop's stop who finds the grace
Every prisioner in the maze
Every hand that needs an ace
Is falling, falling at your feet
I've come crawling, and I'm falling at your feet

All fall down All the books you never read
All fall down Just started
All fall down All the meals you rushed
All fall down Never tasted

Every eye closed by a bruise
Every player who just can't lose
Every pop star hurling abuse
Every drunk back on the booze
All falling at your feet
Oh I'm falling at your feet

All fall down All the information
All fall down All the big ideas
All fall down All the radio waves
All fall down Electronic seas
All fall down How to navigate
All fall down How to simply be
All fall down To know when to wait
All fall down Explain simplicity
All fall down In whom shall I trust
All fall down And how might I be still
All fall down Teach me to surrender
Not my will, thy will


Last night we were having a look at some scriptures on humility, and I was reminded of this song. It seems to be based on Philippians 2:

Because of this, God raised him [Jesus] up to the heights of heaven and gave him a name that is above every other name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Everyone and everything falls down at the feet of God. The pop star, the alcoholic, the loner, the police officer. It doesn't matter whether they realise their imperfection or not; they all fall down. The song concludes that the only way to find peace is to surrender to God, rather than trying to have our own way.

Helping children and young people respond to God

That is what I'm supposed to be talking about Friday morning at New Life Centre's Bible school, in Warrnambool. They asked Trav to, but he can't, so he asked me to.

Our experiences of evangelism influence our understanding of evangelism. We develop the way we evangelise based on how what we have seen work or fail in other situations. What positive and negative experiences of evangelism have you had?

Scripture Union has ten principles of conversion:

Holy Spirit is responsible for conversion

'And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.'
Romans 8:28-30

'No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: "They will all be taught by God." Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.'
Jesus, John 6:44-45

If it is God that brings people to himself, then what's our role?
If we can leave the responsibility of changing people to God, we can also concentrate more on our own relationships with God.

Kids are different to adults
Kids aren't able to respond to God in the same way that adults do.
For example, younger kids usually find it hard understanding abstract ideas. For example, last year when Trav was a Religious Education teacher, a lot of the kids reckoned that God was a person, a kind of superhero.
However, just because kid is unable to understand the human ideas about God doesn't mean that they can't have a relationship with God. In the scripture I quoted earlier, Jesus refers to Isaiah's prophecy:

'All your sons will be taught by the Lord,
and great will be your children's peace.'
Isaiah 54:13

This implies that God is already in a relationship with a person before they can understand him. In that case, perhaps we need to provide an environment where kids can experience God and continue to learn from him.

Darren Wight has post on this here.

We need to avoid manipulation
I think that's pretty obvious. I think this is particularly relevant in helping kids and teenagers respond to God.
Why do you think people use manipulation? Would they necessarily think they are being manipulative? Could any of our evangelistic methods be seen as manipulative?

Children are concrete thinkers
As I mentioned earlier, most kids have a hard time understanding abstract ideas. This can make it hard for them to understand the Bible, because it wasn't written for children, so it contains a lot of abstract stuff. So how do we explain the content of the Bible with kids?

Kids are part of families
Often we forget that kids are part of families, and that this has implications on conversion. For example, if a kid's parents don't want them to go to Sunday school (or whatever) there's not much the kids can do about it. Conversely, sometimes parents send their kids to the Scripture Union Family Mission program in Warrnambool even though they don't want to go.

Kids need to respond individually
It's no good if a kid decides to 'respond' simply because all of their peers do.

Relax
We need to be relaxed when helping other people respond to God. This isn't easy. It helps to remember the first principle - that it's not up to us to make someone respond to God.

Conversion is a process
A lot of the time we see God's kingdom as being like a farm with a fence. We see each person as being inside of outside the farm by whether or not they display different characteristics that we see as 'Christian'. This way of understanding God's kingdom means that we see it as our task to get people who aren't Christians onto the inside of this fence.

In the desert the farms are so big that fences aren't very useful. Instead, the farmers dig deep wells, because they know that the animals won't go to far away from their source of water.
We can look at God's kingdom like this. Instead of regarding each person as either inside or outside the kingdom, we can look at in terms of how close they are to the centre of the kingdom (Jesus) and whether they are getting closer or further away. This model acknowledges that every decision a person makes is important, as in bringing someone closer to God.

Earlier in the year I did a more in-depth post on this here.

Males should counsel males; females should counsel females
Obviously, so it doesn't look like there's anything dodgy going on.

Presume nothing
Just because someone responds in some way (at an altar call or whatever) doesn't necessarily mean they've decided they want to be a Christian. It might be that their dog died, and they want to talk to someone about it. We need to find out what they want.

PostSecret - confession?

Just found this blog. The reader is invited to send in a home-made postcard with a secret on it that they've never been revealed to anyone else. Some of them are published on the site.

Dragons

This G.K. Chesterton quote is in the front of Neil Gaiman's Coraline, which I'm writing an essay about:

Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.

Although his name sounds familiar, I don't know much about him, but he seems interesting, and appears to have been a theologian, so I think I might have to find out more about him.

Affective/Neutral

<< Seven dimensions of culture index
In more affective cultures it is appropriate for people to display emotions openly, and it is unnecessary for people to hide their emotions. A person from a more affective culture is likely to ignore less obvious displays for emotion them, because they appear unimportant.
This often causes conflict when a person from an affective culture encounters someone who is more accustomed to a neutral culture, because neutral cultures assume that it is wrong to show one's emotions openly. People from neutral cultures do have emotions, they are just displayed very subtly. People from neutral cultures often think that people from affective cultures are to easily excited and overly emotional, because they display their emotions more obviously. A person who displays their emotions to much will not be very highly respected.

I think mainstream Australian culture is probably more neutral than affective, but I think it's a very moderate example of a neutral culture.
One of my friends, whose family are from a Mediterranean country is always getting Caucasians telling her that she is too agressive, because she is used displaying emotions more loudly than most Caucasians are.

Do you think that your culture is more neutral or more affective? Have you ever expeienced a culture that was the oppsite?
<< Seven dimensions of culture index

Wilsons Promontory

Haven't posted in ages because I've had so much homework, and then I was hiking on Wilsons Promontory over the long weekend.

The ten of us stayed in Foster, at Fiona (the hike leader)'s grandma's house, on Friday night. We drove down to the Prom early Saturday morning, and set off for Five Mile Beach from the Five Mile Road carpark. It rained quite a bit at Saturday, but it had stopped by the time we got to Five Mile Beach. Me, Andre, James and George stayed set up camp at Five Mile Beach. The others decided they wanted to keep going on and camp at Johnny Souey Cove, even though they'd have to cross a lagoon at high tide, spend two hours travelling over rough, steep terrain, and it was getting dark.

Hardly slept at all that night. I did a bit though, because I had some dreams.

We met the others at Johnny Suey the next morning (we crossed the lagoon at low tide), and then we walked along the beach to Three Mile Point. From there we set out through the bush toward Three Mile Beach. The track was pretty ellusive, so we got lost, and ended up bush-bashing our way to the rocky coast, and rock-hopping the rest of the way to Three Mile Beach. I suggested that it would be easier to get back to Johnny Suey by rockhopping, so me and Andre and Fiona went back that way.

The second night we all camped at Five Mile Beach. There were these other people staying there, a guy and his son, so we got them to come and have tea with us because Suzie had cooked way to much food. There was an old couple staying there too, but whenever we tried to talk to the they just went, 'Hmph! Hmph!' and told us where our campsite was.

Yesterday we packed up all our stuff and walked back to the Five Mile Road carpark. We drove to Fiona and Caroline's parents farm, near Fish Creek, where Malcom had a conversation with their mum in New Zealish and Australian accented Japanese and the rest of us drank tea. Then we went back through Gippsland and Melbourne, to Ballarat.

Blog tree

Thought I'd made a blog tree. Admittedly, some of these blogs have only two posts. Please tell me if I've missed anyone, or if I've mixed up who got who to start blogging.

Specific/Diffuse (part 2)

<< Seven dimensions of culture index
Specific/diffuse is hard to understand, so I'm putting together an example. Tab said about Broken Hill,

It's hard to get in (to the native culture) but once ur in, ur in for good, and it's a complete acceptance.

So I'm going to use my constructed idea of Broken Hill (having never actually been there) as an example.

Frederick, who is from my constructed idea of Newcastle moves to my constructed idea of Broken Hill. At first he finds that the people in Broken Hill won't talk to him very much. They don't seem very welcoming. However, over time, some of the locals do begin to open up.
My constructed idea of Broken Hill has a very diffuse culture. It appears to Derrick that the locals are pretty stand-offish, and they are pretty cautious about making friends. They want to find out a reasonable amount about a person before they're willing to open up. Compared to people from more specific cultures, they don't have many friends. However, their friends will be very close. They'll just have one group of friends. They will play tennis, go to the pub, do road trips with the same group of friends, whereas in a more specific culture there will be a different group of friends for each social activity.

Hope that helps to explain it better.
<< Seven dimensions of culture index

Specific/Diffuse

<< Seven dimensions of culture index
A person who is part of a more specific culture has a large public sphere and a small private sphere. They will easily accept somebody into their public sphere, but will not easily allow anybody into their private sphere.
Each area or activity in which two people interact is understood to be completely seperate. A person's life is divided into many components, of which only one can be entered at a time.
Specific cultures consider everything to be made up of specific elements. They analyse each element seperately, and then recomposite them. It is understood that the whole is the sum of it's parts.
In a more specific culture, interaction between people is highly Purpose-Driven™. Facts, standards and contracts are highly valued.

A person who is part of a more diffuse will tend to have a large private sphere and a small public sphere. Strangers aren't easily admitted into either sphere. However, once a member of a diffuse culture does accept someone, they will give them access to every part of their life. Your friend is your friend in eevry area of life. Your boss is your boss in every area of life.
A more diffuse culture will see something as a whole, and see all the different elements as interdependant. The relationships between different elements are regarded as more important than the seperate elements.
Style, manners, trust and understanding are very important in diffuse cultures.

Do you think that your culture is more diffuse or more specific? Have you ever expeienced a culture that was the oppsite?
Please tell me if I've explained this dimension adequately, because it's probably the most confusing out of the seven dimensions.
<< Seven dimensions of culture index