Revision29.com - The Place of Oddity

Time and the Message

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:31:58 CST

I have been taking a class on Biblical interpretation for ministry. We have been working through how to interpret the various genres represented in Scripture. Time and time again, we are memorized as our professors help us to uncover the meanings of various passages because we are confronted with insights that almost shock us with what a Biblical author was actually "saying." The most common issue is context.

Context considers the historical and textual context of a passage. The historical is usually easy to discover as there are many wonderful resources available for that purpose. However, fitting a passage into its literary context is not so easy. It requires looking at the genre of a passage (which might require looking at how the passage fits in the surrounding context), how the passage fits in with surrounding stories, parables, plot lines, character developments, and so on. It is tough work, but extremely rewarding. When things are placed in the proper context, a reader can quite clearly see what the author meant and why he arranged the material the way he did. Some of the principles that we are being taught are the same tools used to describe non-biblical literature, and have proved themselves necessary for understanding a piece of literature.

In considering a more literary approach to studying the Bible, and using various tools to uncover authorial intent, some issues keep recurring. One is the question is, "why do these principles seem new or foreign to us as students and potential scholars?" Another is "why have these methods been neglected?" Those two questions I would like to address from my own experience. The first question can be answered quite shortly thusly: we tend to focus on smaller segments of scripture (paragraph, chapter, parable, etc.) and ignore the surrounding context. We are taught otherwise, but it is something that we neglect for pragmatic reasons.

The second question about the neglect of literary methods is the one that has been haunting me lately. Even when people preach or teach through a book of the Bible, there are so many connections that are not made, leaving a Biblical author's meaning in the dark. In fact, I would answer the question at hand by saying that we in practice do not look at what the author intended, but look at what Jesus or David or Adam intended. We fail to recognize that Biblical writers hand selected the contents of their writings for a reason. Why did Moses not give a day by day account of Israel's desert wanderings? Why did he write what he wrote? He has a purpose and a meaning that he wanted to get across, a theme, message, or plot. The gospel writers could not include an account of every second of Jesus' life, but they too recorded for us what they thought was important so as to get their message about who Jesus was and is across.

I am not satisfied that I have answered my second question. The issue is that we do not look for the author's intended meaning, but why do we not do that? The answers are probably quite numerous, but as I mentioned earlier, I want to reflect on this from my own experience. I think the basic reason is that we do not preach or teach in a way that is conducive for searching for the author's intent. We may spread the teaching or preaching of a particular book over 6 or 12 weeks, or even when we spread it out more, we digest very small portions. I am currently co-teaching a class on the gospel of Mark. We are cramming it into 7 weeks. There is not enough time to go over what is in the book, let alone teaching people how to read and interpret each genre that is present. There is not enough time to put each teaching or parable in its literary content so that the book as a whole comes together. We tend to default to teaching keys events and timelines instead of the deeper, more meaning.

From what I have seen in myself, we miss the author's meaning and the meaning of a particular passage because we are concerned primarily with what is in a book and how it fits together chronologically. We are more interested in resolving supposed conflicts between passages, than seeing how an author paints a particular scene and how that scene fits in the mosaic of his work. If I could perhaps put it another way, we are more interested in what Jesus said and did, that who he is in light of those things.
The struggle in my mind is how to balance time constraints with effectively communicating an author's message? The author's message is ultimately God's message to us, so we had better seriously analyze what balance we are striking, if any.

An Unlikely Mission

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:52:15 CST

Here is the recording of my latest sermon. The title is "An Unlikely Mission," which is based on Mark 1:16-20. Since I recorded it, I thought I would share it with the world.

Download

Binding and Loosing in Matthew 16

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:09:54 CST

[As usual this is a roughly worded/formatted article. I am thinking out loud and looking for some input from others. In other words, I am seeking some peer review.]

I have been working through Matthew 16 for NT independent class. My goal is to compare the reactions of the disciples with the religious rulers to determine what is the difference between these groups not getting Jesus. My thesis for the paper that I will produce as the fruit of my study relates to why there is a difference between these two groups not getting it. I'll save the reason for later. I am having a hard time wording my thesis in a comprehensible manner. It is really a secondary issue that I am hoping to extrapolate from the text, which makes it a little hard to put down on paper.

I have not approached an exegetical project in this way. That is, I am looking at a theme that might not be something Matthew was trying to show, but is based on a pattern that I have deduced from the text. So my method is to exegete the text properly, then once I have a proper interpretation, see if the pattern I have deduced is valid. Usually I like to take the idea / thesis straight from the text itself or make the thesis what I think the passage means. In this case the meaning becomes the foundation for making sure I understand the text properly and then I build on top of that to demonstrate my thesis. It will make sense once I make public my thesis /summary of my paper.

I really wanted to say that to lay the groundwork for what I am about to write. In exegeting the text, I am forced to deal with some fairly difficult issues. One is the rock upon which Jesus will build his church. That is really the "easy" issue. The really hard part for me is the binding and loosing. Because it occurs so infrequently, there are not several clear passages to help interpret the difficult one in Matthew 16. However, the context speaks volumes about what is happening. That is that binding and loosing has something to do with building the Church. I would say they are directly related. In addition, Matthew 18 contains a similar promise to the disciples. In that context, there is a context of keeping people in or kicking them out of the church. I wrote the following as a brief and rough summary of what I think is going in with binding and loosing in Matthew 16. If anyone has any thoughts, please leave me a comment. Here it is:

Binding and loosing in Matthew 16 is the activity of including and excluding people from the ἐκκλησία. It is the act of God building the ἐκκλησία of Jesus through Peter. This is done as Peter binds/looses those whom God has already bound/loosed. It is done as he proclaims that Jesus is the Christ. The brightest example of this is at the conclusion of the Pentecost sermon when 3000 people were bound (saved).

Chapter 18 describes another instance where Jesus declared that what is bound/loosed on earth will already have been bound/loosed in heaven by God. This time it was promised to the disciples in the context of disciplining a person who has sinned against another. If said person repents, he is bound. If he fails to repent, he is loosed and released from the fellowship of the ἐκκλησία in hopes that he will repent. One who is acting against the will of God cannot remain a part of his community, though he may have once belonged. He may once again belong if he repents.

Binding and loosing is akin to why Jesus preached in parables. In essence it was to bind those who would willingly heed, and to loose those who would willingly disregard Jesus' words. Binding and loosing is a natural byproduct of how people react to encountering the word of God.

It is natural that Jesus would give Peter the authority to bind and loose because he is the one upon whom the ἐκκλησία would be built. It will be God working through him to gather people into the ἐκκλησία of Christ. It is also natural in that Peter is willing to stand up and speak for everyone when the need arises, such as when a large crowd gathers in response to some miraculous happenings. In other words, his impulse to speak makes him a great candidate for communicating the gospel of Christ.

Ubuntu Studio and Wireless

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:17:15 CST

I feel that part of my job as internet support technician is to keep up to date with latest technology developments. This would include messing around with various flavors of Linux. So the other day while I was taking care of other business, I installed the latest edition of Ubuntu Studio based of of the new Ubuntu 9.10. It really did not suck my time up as I already had my computer setup to accept an installation of Linux. It was just a matter of running the install DVD while working on various labor tasks that I have been leaving undone due to attention given to programming tasks. That is to say I did not waste company time educating myself on new technology developments.

The only problem I had was getting my wireless connection to work. Other flavors of Linux that I have tried tended to operate like Windows in getting connected to a wireless router. Ubuntu Studio makes it easy to connect to a hard wired ethernet connection, but wireless on a MacBook did not work for me out of the box. So I fired up Synaptic and searched for a network manager system other than the default mechanism. The first one I tried failed. Then I tried Wicd. Once I did that it placed an icon in the task bar in KDE (yep I installed KDE beside Gnome as KDE4 rocks) and listed the networks that the wireless card could see. All I had to do was click connect on the network I wanted. For encrypted networks it tells you it needs to have encryption on and password set which is as easy as clicking "Properties" next to the connect button.

In summary, Wicd is a wonderful network manager for wireless networks in Ubuntu Studio for both KDE and Gnome.

My Favorite Passage in Matthew

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:38:07 CST

16:5-12, and here is why...

In chapter 14 the disciples carried to the crowds the bread that Jesus multiplied from five loaves and two fish. In chapter 15 they do the same with seven loaves and a few small fish. The disciples have seen what Jesus can do with a tiny amount of food. Food is a huge theme in these two chapters. However it does not end there.

Chapter 16 continues this food motif. This time Jesus warns the disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. He does this while they are whispering amongst themselves that they did not bring any bread to eat. Remember that they had witnessed how Jesus produced a ton of food from a few tiny morsels. Jesus knows that they still "do not get it," and I think he plays with them a little bit.

So while they are whining about being hungry and having no food, Jesus warns them about the leaven of the religious leaders. They are obviously confused by this. Perhaps they are thinking they will happen across a village with a couple of bread stands and Jesus is saying to stay away from the bread of the Pharisees and Sadducees. The disciples had gotten chastised by these guys for following Jesus, so perhaps they might poison some bread and give it to the disciples. So just in case they ran across these bread stands, they need to be careful about who they buy some from.

Ok, so that is a little over dramatic, but it still reveals something about the text (16:5-12). The disciples thought Jesus was talking about literal leaven and literal bread. Hello, Jesus had just made a bunch of extra bread (a point I have beaten to death) and they should have known he could have done another miracle to feed 13 people.

Jesus knows they are not going to get it and uses a metaphor that he knows they will take literally. After he issues his warning and sees them wondering amongst themselves what in the world Jesus is talking about, Jesus reminds them of the great feedings that they participated in. Then he again warns them.

Finally, they understand that Jesus was not talking about actual bread, but about the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

This is my favorite because Jesus exploits a known weakness in his disciples. To me this seems like he is using a sense of humor, which has the ultimate purpose of revealing a more profound truth than what they could understand had Jesus just outright told them to not heed the teaching of the religious leaders

Bigotry

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:31:45 CST

I know know why the world thinks Christians are a bunch of bigots. I got an email from a Christian news organization. It linked to an article that blasted Brian McLaren for fasting during the month of Ramadan. The reason they gave for him doing it was so that he could understand Islam better. They obviously thought that is was a horrible thing.

He is trying to understand Islam better so that he can better reach Muslims with the gospel. When we understand what someone else believes we can know better how to reach them with Christ. It is what Paul did at the Aeropagus and what he did in the Synagogues. With the latter he had an advantage because "he were one," as southerners might say. Knowing something better to find entrances where we can introduce the gospel does not mean we accept the opponents beliefs. It means that we understand it enough to know where we might be able to witness to someone other than immediately saying "You are going to Hell without Jesus." It is knowing the other side enough to have compassion bring grace to their situation.

The article I read had a poll that went with it. It only had three choices, all of which were condemning in tone. There was no mention of McLaren doing something good to have an inroads for the gospel. There was no mention of it being a good idea so that the love of Christ might be show. There was no mention of sacrificing one's self so that another might be won for the gospel. Timothy was circumcised so that he could be a witness to the Jews. This was a way of participating in their culture. He was not condoning their rejection of Messiah, or their persecutions of Christians. He made a very painful sacrifice so that grace might be shown to others.

It is articles and polls like those that I have just read that show just how bigoted we can appear to the world. Instead of being a condemning voice, we must be one that speaks the truth in love so that grace might abound. I do think we cannot be relativistic, but we need to be creative and open to different ways of reaching the lost.

There are set standards and teachings in Scripture, and then there are lots of traditions and opinions that we have heaped on top. Those extras get in the way of spreading the gospel. How about we get rid of the extras, cling to Scriptures, speak with love, and do things a little different to win the lost.

Here is the poll question and possible responses that I referred to above.
What impression is left when Christians participate in the practices of other religions?
They have given up on the idea of absolute truth
They believe God has spoken through other religions
They believe Jesus is not the only way to salvation

Apollos Walks a Bit More

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:55:26 CST

Apollos and the Newspaper

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:54:47 CST

Apollos Walking in the Grass

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:54:18 CST

A Real Google Voice Widget

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:56:01 CST

After working a couple of hours to get my proof of concept Google Voice widget up and running, I found one that works really well. I don't know how I missed it, but I apologize. It was made by Andreas Amann and provides good visual feedback and control over making calls. To get it go to:
http://homepage.mac.com/aamann/DashBoard.html

To get mine to work the same it would have taken too much time and would have required skills that I do not have.

Image from Andreas' page.

PHP Error Messages

joe@revision29.com — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 10:11:39 CST

So, when there is some background programming error on my site, I get an email from the server. THis morning, I had well over a thousand over the course of a minute or so. The bottom line is that someone is attempting to hack or mass spam my site. They are attempting to guess the captcha that is built into the comment submission system, or trying to guess my password.

Whoever it is, please stop. I hate getting a flood of email for no reason. This is not a high traffic blog and posting spam entries to it will get you no business.

Google Voice Dashboard Widget

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 23:04:36 CST

Ok, so no one has done this. It has been frustrating having to fire up Safari every time I want to make a Google Voice call. I wanted a widget, so I made one. I had only made one simple widget before, so this was a new adventure.

The first step was to install pygooglevoice via the instructions found at http://code.google.com/p/pygooglevoice/. I then downloaded the package (and extras) and began playing with the call.py example file. It was cool. Typing a command in the good ol' command line to ring my cell was very cool. But there was too much yet to be done.

I did not know python, but the mods were simple when google search results were consulted. Also, Apple's documentation helped me figure out how to run a command line program from a widget and how to store / retrieve widget preferences. I dropped the modded call.py file from the examples into my widget resources sidebar in Dashcode.

After some toil, I have an alpha version running. It needs some GUI love, but it works. On the backside there are the prefs necessary for making calls. A person just needs to input the email address associated with the Google Voice account, the account password, and the desired number to which the call will be forwarded. I use my SIPGate number so I can use Telephone to make / receive calls from my MacBook.

The drawbacks: A number must be entered in 10 digit format (in other words, one must add the area code).

Here are some links of useful resources:
http://code.google.com/p/pygooglevoice/
http://code.google.com/p/telephone/
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-cheatsheet3.html

Healthcare, Anger, and Thinking

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:06:56 CST

People are getting mad at the healthcare reform townhall meetings because they are angry that the government is trying to socialize everything. It is not because they are the drones for the Republican party. People are genuinely mad.

Instead of saying that shouting matches and demonstrations of anger at these meetings is the result of a widespread GOP plot, the Democrats should be listening to why people are mad. Then they need consider those reasons and build them into their legislation. Our government is based on fair representation of the voice of the people. If the voice says, we do not want Government Motors, or Obomacare, or any other socialized program, then the representatives should be bound by the will of the people to listen to their voices.

Part of the problem is also with us. We just passively accept what the experts or government officials tell because we have been lead to believe that they know better. We have stopped thinking for ourselves, both individually and as a society. We need to ask tough questions, search for answers, and not be content with just "because I said so." Of course this must be done with tact and respect. Christians especially need to be careful with this because we are supposed to be a blessing to the unbelieving world, instead of a thorn in the side.

I am afraid that this problem extends far beyond politics, though. Politics makes me mad because the people who are supposed to listen to us, do not do so but attempt to sell us on their worldview. But I am even more fired up with regards to Christianity, theology, interpretation of Scripture and application thereof. We blindly accept what is spoon fed us from preachers, TV evangelists, publishing houses, and various other sources. We do not ask tough questions, nor seek to understand for ourselves. And I think that even when we do seek for ourselves we might not be sure of what we are looking for, how to do it or where we are to look.

I fear that much of the blame falls on us preachers and teachers who usually tell people what to think and believe. People have lost what it means to study Scripture, individually and as a community because we stopped showing how to do it.

Perhaps we need to repent and start making disciples...

Mac OS X Updates

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:48:15 CST

OS X 10, is up to version 10.5.8. To first number indicates that it is OS 10 (X). The second indicates that it is the fifth major release (a.k.a Leopard). The final number is the number assigned to the more important updates to this current version.

When the next to last update came down the pipes, that would be 10.5.7, some glitches popped up such as the drop down list for OS X's search tool began to flicker when I was typing in something to search for. Other problems included stability with System Preferences and Mail. When 10.5.8 came out, I was hoping these things were fixed. I was disappointed.

But then I got to thinking. When Apple release an update to the operating system, it basically just replaces files with ones that were changed since the last update. However, they do have a second method for updating called the combo update. This method replaces all of the files that have changed in all of the updates. It is like all of the updates have been shoved into one. This update must be downloaded from Apple's website instead of from the built in updating mechanism. Sometimes it can be hard to find, but the real trouble is in its size. A usual update will be around 150 to 200 megabytes. The combo update for 10.5.8 is 759.2. It takes a while to download.

But since I really wanted to get these glitches fixed, I downloaded the combo update and let it fly. A couple of reboots later, and the glitches seemed to be fixed. No programs have crashed on me yet, and the search menu drop down does not flicker anymore.

My advice for people running OS X, is simply to take the extra time and download the combo update and install it that way, especially when there have been so many updates along the way.

Literal Sizes of the New Jerusalem

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:22:11 CST

In preparation of this Sunday's sermon including Revelation 21, I decided to do some calculations based on the dimensions of the New Jerusalem. Here is some of what I found:

-The width of the city is 1/18 the circumference of the earth. Only 18 of these cities would fit end to end on the earth.

-The height of the Earth's atmosphere is only around 75 miles tall. That would mean that most of the city would be in outer space.

-The New Jerusalem will be 39,410 times bigger than the current one.

-The wall would be around 216 feet thick.

-The Earth's diameter is 7,926.3 miles. You would have to stack only 5.75 of these cities on top of each other to equal Earth's diameter.

- If the size of the new heavens and earth has the same proportion as the New Jerusalem is to the current one, the new Earth will have to be 361 times bigger than the sun.

- The United States is 1,582 miles tall and 2,680 miles wide. If you place New Jerusalem over the US, there would be a gap less than the height of Missouri at the top, and you could almost fit two of them side by side.

Do "literalists" take these numbers as literal as 1000 years?

Babylon and the United States

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:57:51 CST

Every time I read Revelation chapters 17 and 18, I cannot help but think about our American culture. Let me help you see what I mean.......

In chapter 17, we are introduced to a great harlot, who is called Babylon. As we read in the chapter, she is symbolic of the Great City. What John is saying is that this great city acts like a whore and exhibits many of the same qualities (or lack thereof) and characteristics of the Babylonians. Though she may be stunning to the eye, she is full of wickedness and seduces the world to follow her way of life. She was greedy after wealth, physical comforts and sexual gratification.

Who in the world is John talking about? When we take into account the various symbols and how John's audience would have most likely have understood them to be, it becomes fairly clear that John had the Roman empire in view. It had a culture that exalted wickedness and put down the righteous. For example, when Jews would riot against Christians, the Christians would be punished instead of the wicked people stirring up the riots. This happened because the roman officials did what was best politically so that their high positions would not be taken away. What I have in mind here are the accounts in Acts where the Jews rioted against Paul and his companions such as in Thessalonica.

When you read Revelation 17 and 18, you can see how materialistic and sexually immoral the culture was and how it had the power to seduce people into pursuing worldly pleasures instead of the Kingdom of God. It seduces people away from the pure and gloriously beautiful New Jerusalem of chapter 21 to a city that is destined to be destroyed (the point of 17 and 18).

I cannot help but think that our culture is so sexually charged and seeks all sorts physical lusts for happiness and security. It has the same seductive drive and power of the Romans. What I realize, is that this same power has been alive in the world since The Fall. The Bible is full of stories of people that have succumb to Her power.

It is hard to not fall to her calling for the call of wicked culture can be so sweet. To think otherwise is to be putting one's self off guard and even more vulnerable to a fall. Let us be aware of the call that beckons us away from Christ and let us hold firmly to the vision of chapter 21. It is a vision of the bride, the dwelling place of God. The city made up of those who have not given in to the temptress' call and have remained steadfast to The Kingdom, even unto death. Let us never forget that we will be described in such precious terms when we too are found faithful in the end.

Hey Washington!!!

joe@revision29.com — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 09:18:04 CST

When the economy tightens up a little, we spend less to make ends meet. Maybe you should try the same. Stop spending so much money. Individuals spending more than they had got us into the current mess. Do you expect the inverse to happen when the government spends money it does not have? Even with tax hikes, you can't pay for what you propose. STOP IT!!!!!

Os X Chrome (Chromium)

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:34:29 CST

I just checked out the Google Chrome source and built it for Os X. It is certainly not finished, but still very cool. I was watching the waterfall that they have which shows if part of the build is broken or not, and when it was all green, I nabbed it.

What I notice is that the draing on the window contents is still sluggish. This is especially evident when resizing it. It is also not smooth when pulling up new pages. The other problem that I see is that the text in the address bar is too freaking huge!!!!

Other notes:
1) The menu option to add a bookmark does not seem to work. It puts the current page in the bookmarks menu, but they cannot be clicked.

2) There are no preferences.

3) A lot of menu options are diabled, and many key combinations bound to those menu items do not work.

4) I am running the debuf build. I will change to release and re build and it see howit works then. I assume it will seem snappier.

5) File form inputs do not work. I had to switch to Safari so I could attach a screenshot of the Chromium window.

Work of the Holy Spirit

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:47:50 CST

There has been a debate in Christianity for a long time as to whether some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are still given to people. The most debated ones would be healing by touch and speaking in tongues. I have usually pitched my tent in the camp that says these have stopped. This view is labeled cessation. The main passage in 1 Corinthians 13, where it is says that these gifts will stop when "the perfect comes". This perfect is usually attributed to the completion of the Biblical cannon.

Since I have taken a very short look at this passage, I have taken my tent from Cessation Land. The word translated perfect is teleios (Ï„ÎÎ»ÎµÎ¹Î¿Ï‚) (related to telos), which really means end or complete. It is used almost exclusively in the New Testament of the return of Christ. It is never used in reference to a complete document. The fact is that this is really a difficult text and it is exegetical bad to say this refers to the completed Biblical canon as there is nothing in the passage that hints toward this. You have to look more at the use of this word in the rest of the book and the NT, and when you do that it has much more second coming overtones than we have acknowledged in the past. Thus, exegetically, I am not a cessationist.

However.... When I look at some things that people call supernatural gifts, something does not square up with Scripture. This is especially true in christian sects that say the evidence of these things demonstrates that a person is genuinely saved. If these gifts are not evident in a person, then the person is not saved. That is of course un-Biblical and heretical. But my biggest beef comes when I look at many of the faith healers. They make a big show of healing people, rather than being humble and going places, like hospitals, where there are people who need healing. The attitude they have, the methods that they use and the glory they seek for themselves does not match with scripture. Peter and Paul did not make a show of healing. They just did it.

Secondly, I do not think what people label as speaking in tongues is what they think it is. Biblically, it is a spoken language, not gibberish which is how it is manifested today. To be Biblical about it, I cannot say what people call tongues is tongues. I know it is a spoken language from the various Acts accounts, and Corinthians where an interpreter is often required if someone is present that does not know the language. If a person was speaking in the Hebrew tongue and no one present knew Hebrew, someone would have to interpret.

That said, I do not think a person is not having a genuine experience with the Holy Spirit when they are speaking in tongues. I just think that we are giving it the wrong label. I have a theory. A person speaking what we call tongues has the gift of expressing verbally the depth and closeness of the present encounter with the spirit. Their gibberish is a verbal expression of the feeling produced by a genuine experience with God. I think this is a gift as they can express what many of us cannot at that moment. In congregations this can enhance the worship as it encourages others to know that God is present in their worship in a greater than normal experience. This would be acceptable in such congregations because they are used to be encouraged by people's expressions.

No matter what you believe about this, there are not things we need to consider. In the Bible, there is nothing that says you are saved or not saved based on the gifts of the Spirit that may or may not be given to a person. Also, there are restrictions of what is done in public worship based on whether it will edify the body or not. We must follow the teachings in the new testament about these things, such as 1 Corinthians 14.

Where is my MacBook

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:15:39 CST

I would like to give a shout out for whereismymacbook.com. It is a service that will track your external IP address when you open your web browser. It works by setting your home page to a specific URL that will pull the ip address, then forward to a desired home page. I am currently working on a background daemon that will communicate with the server to update the ip address by sending a simple curl query every 15 minutes. It is a great and free service which has already saved one laptop in its couple of weeks of existence.

Tradition and Church

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 09:30:59 CST

I am generally weary of traditions that get solidified in churches. The problem is not the tradition themselves, but they they are not adjusted to meed the needs of subsequent generations. Those who hold to the traditions hold on to them and refuse to let them change or let them loose. They may fear that truth, Scripture or the fundamentals of our faith may be under attack, which is a very good concern. When new people come along, these traditions are seen as legalisms and irrelevant to present culture.

I am beginning to think that tradition is not bad. Everyone has them and creates new ones. In 20 years, the traditions of churches will look like the cutting edge movements of today. The problem, as noted above, is that they become tests of faith and orthodoxy and tend to the needs of a particular group. We need to allow ourselves the flexibility to change our traditions for the sake of others so that they be won by the Gospel and not pushed away by our artificial demands. We need to be able to evaluate tradition against Scripture and current cultural need. I am not talking about following every fad, but allowing the Spirit to move in different ways to meet the now generation.

I made a desktop the other day inspired by one found on despair.com

Google Privacy

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:37:49 CST

I just read something about how Google will be tracking more of our web surfing history for targeted advertising. The main problem is that they collect so much information and must supply what they have stored in case the government subpoenas them for it. This is not a problem for law abiding citizen, unless the government is bringing or following up on bogus charges. My main fear is that one day saying certain things from the pulpit will be illegal, such as saying certain sins are wrong, that there is on true God, that Jesus is the only way to God, etc. If one were to really tick off the government in such situations or if an anti-Christian leaning government were to rule over us, then they might use whatever data they can against us.

If I wanted to do some googleing on how making positive change in individuals through non-violent and peaceful means of living of the Gospel especially with regards to the fundamentals in the Sermon on the Mount, some people in government might think that to be talk of revolt since it threatens their power base. It might sound like revolt because I would be search for counter-cultural things and how to be different or how to live under a system that oppresses Christians. If the wrong person put the correct slant, searching for things in google could look like treason. My rights to my google searching would not be private since it is openly available online, even though I do expect for my information to be private and not shared with third parties as if I were having a private conversation with a friend within my home.

Sorry, I am ranting and rambling. I am becoming less trusting of government not as it is now, but at what it could be in the near future. I want to know how I can protect my privacy and keep the government and third parties out of my internet life.

Anyway. I logged into my google account, and found that there is a way to delete one's search history. When ones clicks the link to delete all search history, it supposedly pauses the collection of such data. That is more like it. However, I suspect that they are still tracking the data, just not letting me see it from my account settings.

You Have Got to be Kidding Me

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 23:22:20 CST

So you passed an almost $800 billion dollar bill without reading it? ARE YOU NUTS? If I did my taxes without reading the form or the directions you would throw me in jail. Please do what we elected you to do. Read the bills and be a servant of your constituents and not politics.

Apollos Crawls

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:19:47 CST

The Youtube video may still be processing, thus you may need to check back later when the video preview can be seen.

Apollos Drum Solo

joe@revision29.com — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 11:03:00 CST

Our Gov

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 09:21:55 CST

This morning I awoke to some pretty good news. I feel bad for putting it like that, but I call them as I see them. Our governor was arrested for apparently trying to sell Obama's senate seat to the person that would help him the most. For those living in this state, it is wonderful news. There has been a lot of corruption and very bad decisions that are causing our state lots of money.
Such things include closing prisons in cities where the people heavily depend on the prison for jobs and contain many prisoners. There have even been new prisons built, but never opened because they were unneeded.
Also, there was a developmental center in town for the mentally incompetent that had a new addition added, but was closed down. The governor has promised money to reopen, but has never fulfilled that promise. As a result all of the residents of that facility have been released with no means of having proper care given to them.
The gov also decided to move the main offices of the traffic safety division to the southern part of the state saying it would be cost less. His office did a study that said it would boost the economy of the southern region of the state and so forth. However, another independent group did their won study and found that in fact it was a terrible idea. The cost of renovating the building they were purchasing, moving people, the loss of those jobs and the money those employees spend would have a negative effect on the state economy.
The mantra seems to be that if someone makes the governor mad or does not play into his corruption, will be punished. That seems to be the case with each of the three items listed above. Beyond that our state is getting more and more in debt and is unable to pay for its services (medicaid and other social programs) while building empty prisons and spending excess money on moving things around on a whim.
I am glad to see a supposedly corrupt politician get caught in the act. However, the goal of all punishment should be simply to punish for wrongs committed. According to Scripture the goal should be that he come to repentance, forsake his sin and seek after God. Let us pray that he will find the grace and forgiveness that come through Christ. Let us pray for his family as they will certainly be facing a tough road ahead. Let us pray that he will truly be humbled and that God will make some good things come form this.

Our Kingdom

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:56:03 CST

As I reflect on the results of the presidential election, I want us to be reminded of a few key principles.

1) Our primary focus and energy resources need to be directed toward the Kingdom of Christ. We are first and foremost members of that kingdom and must show absolute allegiance to it. Our country is exhibiting symptoms of deep spiritual illness (greed, prevalence of sexual sin, racism, oppression of the poor). From what Scripture tells us, God is against any such nation. Why should we be so concerned over a nation that is really not our home?

2) God is Sovereign. Even when nations rebel against him, and when things do not go according to our plans, God is still in control. When all is said and done God will have his way. He will defeat all of the enemies of his people and as long as we remain faithful to him, we will share that victory.

3) Societal change does not come from government. It comes from the Church. If we want to solve the economic crisis, let the Church be the ones who will set aside greed and do not take advantage of others. Let the Church be willing to feed and clothe the needy. Let those who are in the Church support and provide for one another. Let the Church help people find jobs (I have my job because of a few key people in my church). Let the Church make in impact in one person at a time, and then the government will reflect the changes we make. The government is only a reflection of the society that it rules over. If you don't like what you see, make changes for the sake of Christ in the live of others.

4) We are called to pray for those in authority over us. Such commands were given in the first century where those ruling over them persecuted Christians in one form or another. If the first century Church could pray for Nero, I think I can pray for Obama or George Bush.

5) Our country will not last forever. Only Christ's kingdom is guaranteed to last forever. The Roman empire thought it could last, but it is no longer here. That is a stark reminder that our country cannot last. It especially cannot last when it condones the sort of sin we allow to go on. The culture of america will the the downfall of the nation, not some outside force. When that happens are you prepared to trust God for every last thing in your life? Do you trust in this country and what it offers so much that you would have no security if it all went to pot?

6) Trust in Christ. When you trust in him, there is security when everything in the world is crumbling. Governments and economic systems will disappoint every time no matter if it is communism or democracy. Christ will provide what we need when we need it? Can you picture him doing that if America ceased to exist tomorrow?

7) We are peace makers. We are to bring the peace (gospel) of Christ to all. We are to help remove difference amongst us as we conform to Christ. Even when we disagree, Christians can still remain united and strong. Instead of complaining about politics, let us be humble, gentle and peaceable.

Summary : Let us be the king of people who seek not only Christ's kingdom first, but let us seek only it.

Congratulations Obama

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:09:18 CST

Know that though I do not support you political opinions, I will be praying for you.

It Is About Time!!!

joe@revision29.com — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 21:59:25 CST

A Florida TV station put Joe Biden's feet to the fire about some stuff Obama has said. IT IS ABOUT TIME!!!! The media has been worshipping Obama and Biden and it is about time someone asked them real questions and held them accountable for their reckless words. Check it out for yourself.

Education and the Election

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:53:43 CST

The other night during the debate, both candidates quickly disappointed me when they spoke on education. The moderator asked about their plans to improve education in the U.S. in light of the fact that the U.S. scores much lower than other coutnries in math and science. I liked what both of them had to say, and wish they could mesh their plans / ideas in a way that reduced the cost. But keeping in mind, I do not like the idea of the government forcing people to be educated in public schools (i.e. California), for I feel that is primarily the role of parents. If parents can / will find a way to educate their students apart from themselves, that is fine. If they use the public schools for that end, that is also well.

I like the idea of reform, giving parents choice, and not retaining teachers who perform poorly. We can all name teachers who were not good at what they did, or disliked the students they taught.

Our educational system is actually doing what it is designed to do : not be objective. The prevailing educational method that has been propagated heavily in the last 15 years or more is one based on post-modernist ideals where the teacher is not an "expert" teaching students to learn what they know. Instead, a teacher is to help students learn and create knowledge and reality for themselves. This is of course a very subjective way of education, and thus de-emphasizes courses in math and science because they claim to have certain absolute, objective knowledge about our universe. Post-modernism espouses that no one can have any grasp of absolute, objective truth because none of us can remove ourselves from our culturally shaped view of the universe. Thus there is no way we can know objective truth and should not teach that such a thing can happen. This is why we are to create our own knowledge and reality, since all I know is what I know / experience.

When this happens, "objective" measurements that compare us to other nations will fail miserably. We don't care about objective truth of science and math, and so we don't teach them as we used to.

Obama has been educated in institutions that teach this philosophical system. So when he says we are not measuring up to international standards, he really does not care. He only says that for political purposes, to gain power. Power is what post-modernists would claim is the driving force of the universe, not knowledge. Even if Obama wants to improve the situation, it will only be to increase the power of the marginalized. From his theological camp, that would be the poor black people of the country. Thus poor black communities would be supported / helped and poor white communities probably would not get the same, if any, attention.

The problem with this election is one of philosophical mindset about epistemology. McCain comes from a modern heritage, whereas Obama comes from a post-modern / liberal perspective (post-modernism is different than liberalism in many ways). Since the culture has shifted to post-modernism and beyond, Obama will certainly have an upper hand, unless McCain packages his views in post-modern language. That will not happen.

Site Design Tweaks

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:20:38 CST

I have been tired of my site's look for a while. So I took a little time to tweak it.

Edit : My inspiration for this was the default interface for MintLinux. Said distribution is based on Ubuntu, but is made to work and look nicer. I had the striped background laying around from something I had previously done. Also, the font was on my computer as I downloaded a while ago from a free font repository. I wanted bright colors, such as the orange, but could not make it look as I desired (I have a hard time with picking orange on computer) and went to Adobe Kuler to find a color scheme that was close.

Duh!!!

joe@revision29.com — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:01:16 CST

This morning there is a cool story on the front page of foxnews.com [url]http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,436435,00.html[/url]. This story shows the reason why a total reliance on the stock market it a really stupid idea.

Excerpt:
"Robert Shiller, an economist at Yale, puts it bluntly: The notion that you lose a pile of money whenever the stock market tanks is a 'fallacy.' He says the price of a stock has never been the same thing as money

Revelation and the OT

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 02:09:31 CST

One cannot understand Revelation without knowing the Old Testament. The visions that John was given by God is described in various images that John's readers would understand. Why is this? He describes the visions he sees in terms of visions God had given the OT prophets. Without understanding the OT passages that he alludes to, the images make no sense.

So, this semester in Revelation we are being pressed hard to look at the passages John may be alluding to. Some are obvious, whereas others are not. In addition to checking allusions, a student of Revelation must check how certain words are used in the OT. Since the OT is written in hebrew and the NT in greek, the Septuagint becomes a great, though imperfect, mediator between the two. Today I got my hands on a plain text version of the LXX complete with parsing info and will be running the import script I built to put that data into a database. Thus I will be able to to a concordance like search of where words are used in the LXX and how that helps understand Revelation.

Remember context is king. Context in pericope, chapter, book, OT/NT and Bible as whole.

Converter Box Coupons

joe@revision29.com — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:37:19 CST

A while back I requested my 2 coupons for digital converter boxes so I could be ready for February 2009. Unfortunately I tucked them away until I had the time to shop around for a good box. Thus, they are now expired. The coupon website said that once they expire, they expire 90 days after you request them. Why would a government funded coupon expire within 90 days, when they could just expire on the day of transition? I know they want to pace things out, but this is ridiculous! They don't have a way to get new ones. I would suggest allowing us slackers the opportunity to send back the original, unused ones in place of new ones. Or perhaps, not let them actually expire.

One Problem with Black Liberation Theology

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 21:36:47 CST

Black liberation theology uses Israel's exodus from Egypt as an analogy for their own emergence from slavery. I can understand the power of being a slave and seeing a future time when God would free them. However, contemporary black liberation theology uses that to prop up a false, divisive racist agenda. It is used to equate white people with the Egyptian captives. Do you see it?

The strangeness of this comes when one considers the continent which Egypt lies upon. More specifically, the color of people who lived in Egypt at the time before there was an influx of muslims into the region. Egypt is a region in Africa, the continent from which slaves were sold by their own people to a people who were driven by greed. Thus black people use the story of blacks oppressing Israel and God's deliverance of Israel from blacks as the driving force of black liberation theology.

So before espousers of black liberation theology oppress white people for sins of the past, they should look into their own past and see the sin there.

All ethnicities have sins and things they should be ashamed of. But praise be to God that Christ has died and risen so that such sins and hurts can be done away with. Praise be to God that mistakes of the past that caused groups of people to hate on another have been done away with. Praise be to God that we can once more have peace between people groups because of the same forgiveness from the same Lord and King.

My Fix for the Economy

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:15:15 CST

Our economic problem is complex. My proposed solution seems simple, which may make it wrong, but I think it is feasible and the best choice.

The solution comes in the problem. People were buying homes that they could not afford with adjustable rate mortgages because the initial payments were fairly low. Many people hoped to flip the house and sell it for a much higher price before the 3 year initial rate of the ARM was raised. When people stopped buying houses, when the housing bubble burst, people were stuck in their adjustable rate mortgages and when the new rates kicked in, they could not afford the payments and had to foreclose. With so many people foreclosing, banks have less credit to borrow from others, and the domino effect kicks in and the whole credit market slows and is close to a collapse.

Thus the starting of the downfall is the fact that too many people can't afford the ARMs. My solution is this : the banks need to refinance the loans themselves and convert them to fixed rate mortgages with low interest rates. This should bring the payments down to an affordable level for loan holders and the foreclosure rate will go down. The bank continues to get interest of their investment, the credit on their books turns from negative to positive and they can get and lend more credit.

If the government takes over the loans, the same payments will be demanded of the loan holders and they will still not be able to afford the payments. With the banks lowering the payments through refinancing (loan restructuring), they eliminate the problem of people having payments they can't afford.

Of course this does not take into account the vast number of people who bought homes that even at a fixed rate mortgage at a very low rate could not afford. I lived in Florida until coming to seminary and saw this first hand. People in their low twenties with fresh careers were buying $200,000 to $300,000 homes with no down payment-- 100% financing. When bills came due and they maxed out their credit cards, they had to pay those and their mortgages and thus could not pay either. People spending way outside of their income level is one major cause. For these people and the banks who were irresponsible for lending to them, they should face the consequences of their greed. For those who were suckered into ARMs and who could afford their homes, but at a fixed rate mortgage, the banks should refinance for them. Even for people who bought way outside their income level, refinancing may also be an option.

When I say refinance. I mean refinance the original loan amount, even if the home value has dropped below that. In the life of a 30 year loan, that value should slowly get back up and should be good. However, when one takes out a mortgage on a home, they will be paying at least double the original cost (or at least 170% of the value, I can't remember the exact figure).

The Economy

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:46:29 CST

I am shocked that the executive branch of our government is trying to take over the assets of very large corporations to stabilize the economy. This should be a wake up call for us that our federal government is too big and wields too much power.

The problem is complex and I do not understand it all. However, I can tell that the problem is greed. What makes it worse is that our financial system is based on a greedy system where money is not real. By not real I mean that there is nothing to back it. The value of money is based on calculations of GDP, debt, and the supposed value of stocks. When people think that some stocks are not worth anything, the stock price goes down and the money that backed that value vanishes.

Why don't we back our economy on something solid, like gold, rather than subjective value based on public opinion.

Cannibal Baby

joe@revision29.com — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:07:11 CST

Apollos loves to grab things and stick them in his mouth. Such items include his rattle, burp cloths, and his pacifier. Never did we think he would eat our chins. You can see how mad he gets when he is unsuccessful.

Exegesis of Revelation

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:36:41 CST

Last week classes started at Lincoln Christian Seminary. One class that I am really excited about is Exegesis of Revelation. I love greek and exegesis, and have grown fond of the last book in the Bible. Of primary concern for us this semester will be looking at the many Old Testament passages that John alluded to. In understanding their original contexts, we can see how John uses that imagery to describe the visions he saw. It is also cool to see that some of the OT prophesies regarding Jesus that were only partially fulfilled will find their fulfillment when Jesus returns. It is also interesting to see how the message of the book ministered to the late first century church in Asia Minor that was enduring persecution under the Roman empire.

The passage I chose to exegete was chapters 17-18. It was chosen because we see the whore and the beast defeated. Babylon (Rome will fall)! The message for the first century Christians was that there would be retribution upon their oppressors, and if they remained faithful, they would be preserved. The message applies to Christians in all times who face such hard times. No matter the oppressor, one day there will be relief. Either it will be when we die and are in the presence of God, or if we live to see Christ's return. the work we do here matters, and will be rewarded in the end, even if it looks like it might not amount to much now.

Bible Search Parallel Versions

joe@revision29.com — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:55:25 CST

Once again, I have made updates to the Bible search schema. This time the changes impact the way the parallel view is displayed. Now verses from each parallel resource are aligned in a row. This took a lot of head bashing and hard thinking due to the fact that I would dump the whole search for a particular resource into a single table cell. That meant I had to create markers in the returned text for each new chapter and verse (because sometimes versions leave out verses due to textual criticism). This proved to be crazy in the situations where the number of verses in the greek text was different than the english which would throw of the table alignment. The problem with that at the moment is if a verse is missing from the english but is present in the greek, the next verse will be put in the table which throws off the verse alignments, but is corrected by adding blank cells at the bottom. I am not sure how I am going to work around that, but I will come up with something.

With all that said, the parallel view works and looks much better.

Life on Mars!!! Or Not

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:46:29 CST

Today I read through my daily [url=http://www.slashdot.com]Slashdot[/url] email newsletter. There was an interesting article that suggests scientists have found something that indicates a definite possibility for life on mars. Apparently the president is being briefed on the findings. The only things I can think of is that Mars contains the right elements, including water which they found this week, to sustain life, i.e. if we were to send people to mars the minerals and such could be used by them. Well, that at least is my theory.

With the instruments on the mars observer, it is scientifically impossible to determine if there are any building blocks for life such as amino acids or proteins. Basically the observer scoops up the dirt and puts it in a small oven and super heats to so that it can run a spectrum analysis on the sample. The only results that they can get are the elements (types atoms, as apposed to various soils components) present in the soil and their amounts. There can be no way that scientists can say they have found life or amino acids or anything, only elements. If they were to fly a sample back, they could do more extensive tests, but that will not happen with the current mission. So if you hear that they say life on Mars has been found, keep in mind that is a interpretation of the data that is way outside of their current ability to test. They would need a microscope at the least to look and see the structure of the findings.

The article that /. linked to can be found : http://www.universetoday.com/2008/08/02/the-white-house-is-briefed-phoenix-about-to-announce-potential-for-life-on-mars/

Does Voting Work?

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 23:08:07 CST

Why vote? Seriously, why should we? I have a small theory why our voting really does not matter in America.

Think about how we pick our candidates. We choose the lesser evil from among a short list of people who have some political, social, and religious commonalities with us. Once they get to Washington (or whatever city they govern from) they forget the people who voted for them. The cheers of people who really believed in them at the conventions and rallies around the country are silenced. The will of the people stops at the voting box. From there, the will of special interest groups or the stubborn pride of the elected official take over.

You are probably wondering, what the heck is wrong with a person having his/her own beliefs in politics and such? Nothing, as long as the elected official are willing to bend and mold some as the voice of the people speaks out. Such bending should be within the basic political philosophy of the candidate, but he or she needs to be humble enough to know when his or her policies are wrong.

The only time when we see any bending is during an election year. John McCain is sounding a little more conservative, especially in his economic and energy policies, but he is only 75% conservative based on his voting record (at statistic that I heard several times that is compiled based on the person's voting record and is the same that indicates that Obama is the most liberal of all Senators). Two years ago we were promised tougher border enforcements along with a wall, but nothing has been done because that election year has come and gone. Instead, congress today decided to apologize for slavery.

What I am not espousing is that a candidate change with the wind of popular opinion. Instead he should stick to his fundamental political ideals, even when the other side is applying too much pressure and the more outspoken americans get the major media outlets on their side.

All that is just to say that we should not pick the least offensive candidate for an office hoping he will do better than guy on the other side of the line. We should pick a candidate that will best fit out political, social and moral ideals and who is willing to listen to us throughout his term. One who is willing to admit he can be wrong and is able to make changes in his policies when the people who elected him sound their voices. He should not bow to pressure from the other side or trade his integrity for the appeasement of the masses. He should stick to his fundamental beliefs with the humility that informs him that he does not have all of the answers, and the ones he has may be wrong at times.

Voting in America is broken because we cast our vote based on a person's persona at the time of an election with the assumption that who he is now will be the voice for us in government. Voting in America will work when not only do we choose a candidate whose beliefs more precisely mirror ours, but when he listens and acts according to our opinions and voices instead of special interests, appeasement of the masses, political forces or out of selfish ambition.

Update 2: Major Backend Changes

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:38:51 CST

I have rewritten the Bible search code so that its results are more reliable. There were some kinds of searches such as Matthew 28:5-Mark1:3 that simply did not work. I have worked and worked and worked at getting my algorithm so that it would properly detect each kind of search(es) being done by the user. Beyond that I had to maintain support for keyword searches which is a somewhat different beast altogether. But it is good to say that one can search with things double quoted if an exact match for that phrase is desired. This can be coupled with other search words such as: "Jesus replied" depart.

Beyond the Bible search capabilities, I have re-written much of the back end code for the site. That means nothing to you, unless something is broken such as my rss feed. Please let me know if something is off with the pages or if you run into problems with the Bible searching.

Comments work again :)

I do Notice that I need to fix my URL parses to include commas and &

Apollos and Music and Kicking

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:11:24 CST

Apollos Kicking

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:51:42 CST

We have added some pictures of Apollos on the Gallery page. There are sub-galleries for various themes, and one is for him.

Also, Sarah and I thought you would appreciate seeing this video of him kicking in his chair so that he could get the toys to move.

EOS

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:00:11 CST

The semester is finally over. Actually it has been over for more than a week, but I had yet one final project to turn in. Apollos has taken a lot of my time, which I do not regret, but only makes getting things done that much more difficult.

Summer is here, but my mind will not rest. I plan on studying 1 Timothy by exegeting from the Greek text. At several points in the summer I will be able to use my study in pulpit supply opportunities. This book really excites me as it presents lots of great leadership principles describes how God intends churches to be lead. Of great interest is the study of elders and deacons. As as I have been reminded, these are not offices in the church but are descriptions of roles that people have in the church. Guidelines for those roles are fairly clear and concrete, but I look forward to seeing which are so and which ones are to be handled with more flexibility.

Meet Apollos

joe@revision29.com — Sat, 10 May 2008 01:01:00 CST

Here he is. 6 pounds 6 ounces and 19" long.

Baby Update

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:23:52 CST

Today we went to the doctor and found out that our baby is breech (his butt is down instead of his head). The doctor is going to try to turn him after 6:30PM cst. If she cannot turn him, a c-section will be performed.

A Sad State of Affairs

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:21:27 CST

My power adapter is on the fritz. My battery life is slowly fading away as it apparently can't get a good enough charge from the power adapter. I don't have enough money to buy a replacement power adapter ($25 from a reputable Apple replacement parts seller) and a $130 battery. So now I am stuck with a battery life of about 30 minutes. Very annoying when trying to do some homework and the computer wants to go to sleep. I guess I will have to live with it. Besides, would it be worth it to pour $155 into a computer that is 4 years old?

Barak's Preacher

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:22:27 CST

The now former preacher, Jeremiah Wright, at Barak Obama's congregation is an extremist looking out only for black people. As a Christian, he should be looking out for Christians, no matter what their skin color. He should decry all of the evil that the people of this world has done to Christians, not how rich white folk have oppressed the blacks. Instead of preaching that whites are oppressing blacks, he should be angry that rich black people in his church are letting poor black people go hungry. He should be angry that when he or his church bought a gold plated microphone a poor black person in his congregation had to go to a loan shark to pay the bills. IN the you tube clip below, you can see just how radical this guy is. He said that Jesus was black. jesus was not black, neither was he white. He was a jew with olive toned skin. But it does not matter what color Jesus is, or what color I am. Jesus died so that all races could be equal. As long as people of different races keep playing the blame game nothing is going to happen. Only when we come in the unity of Christ can there be peace and reconciliation.

Son, Put Down That Candy!

joe@revision29.com — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 09:00:00 CST

There apparently was an incident in Connecticut where a kid was suspended for buying Skittles from a classmate. The school district had banned the sale of candy so when he needed to have his candy fix he got booted out of school, kicked from his class VP post and a couple of other things. That is what you get when you put a government in charge of food and the sever consequences of going against elected officials. Now what will happen when they socialize healthcare?

[url]http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,337419,00.html[/url]

New Sins?

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:58:56 CST

The Vatican has published a list of new sins. I guess you can just make sins up and enforce them on your people. We all do it when we say we have to have this style of music or that style of dress (rockin music and flip flops for us youngins). It makes us sound so stupid we we say there are new sins. God has always had a set moral code for us to follow, but we must apply that morality as new situations arise. We need to acknowledge things like environmental pollution and cloning but we don't have to make up new sins to outlaw them. The Bible was written so as to be applicable to all time until Christ returns, thus its contents should be sufficient for governing our morality in the 21st century. So mr pope, is the Bible so irrelevant that you have to make up new sins? I don't think so.

[url]http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL109602320080310?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true[/url]

This Would Not Bother Chet

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:54:11 CST

In Minnesota a lawmaker is trying pass a new law that would make schools smell free zones. That is students could not wear strong perfumes and colognes. This is absolutely stupid. This is a teacher responsibility, not a government problem. They seriously want to create a law against teenagers who douse themselves with junk they think smells good in order to get a date for the valentines dance. If a kid's fragrance is bothering other kids' allergies call his/her parents and send his little butt home. Don't waste tax money on a campaign and enforcing laws for things parents and teachers are well enough equipped to handle. Just don't get on their backs when they do send a kid home because he put on too much of his dad's aftershave.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080310/ap_on_re_us/fragrance_free_schools

MacSword and Hebrew

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:45:49 CST

For anyone who is a fan of the Sword Project and Biblical languages, this post may be of interest. I had downloaded the Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC) and was disappointed at the lack of Hebrew vowel points, accents, and punctuation. Thus I set out to find a digitized version of the Biblia Hebraica Stuggartensia (BHS) the standard edition of the Leningrad Codex for doing OT translation. Such a digitized version is on Logos, but I am on Mac. There are some excellent web editions such as tanakhml.org but that does help me since there is no internet access at my apartment due to technical limitations of the wireless equipment at my school.

One day I was playing around with MacSword the Sword project interface for Os X and noticed that I can actually turn on and off the accents, vowels, etc of the WLC which are off by default. Not I can see the Hebrew OT as it is in my BHS with some exceptions (such as the inclusion of textual variants without being able to hide them). This comes in real handy as I can copy and past a section of the Hebrew text into my word processor, search for consonants without the vowels being in the way so that I can find words that may have only 2 original consonants and other oddities. Then I can go into MacSword, turn on the vowels and copy/paste the text into my exegetical notes.

Sadly, I can't find a module like this for Greek. So if you know of an accented Greek module for the Sword Project, add a comment below.

Maintaining The Essentiality of Baptism When It Literally Can't Be Done

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:24:12 CST

Currently I am taking a class which seeks to help us use some social sciences to understand a culture that we are trying to reach. One thing that we have talked about is how certain cultural elements obtain their meaning and how to translate that meaning into another culture. Sometimes this requires directly transferring the cultural form or finding something within the target culture which has the same meaning and use that form instead. Within our class discussion we brought up certain cultural forms within Christianity which may or may not need to be translated in to other cultures. Specifically we discussed the Lord’s supper and baptism.

With the former, I could understand using elements other than flat bread and wine, especially since we have already translated the use of wine to grape juice. The reason for the easy translation to using different elements is that the meaning of the Lord’s supper is not directly tied to the exact elements used. Of course, the obvious exception is that the elements were used in passover which has theological significance in that Jesus is our passover lamb who causes God’s wrath to pass over us. However, the main meaning has to do with Jesus breaking the bread, that the bread as a whole symbolizes the unity of the Church from which each person participates. The wine gains its significance from both the Old Testament imagery as wine as God’s wrath as well as being similar in color to blood. As far as God’s wrath imagery is concerned, it is more about the wine being made by stomping and smashing the grapes. So in translating Communion to another culture in which flat bread and wine are not available, finding food and drink which can carry this same imagery can make the meaning come out.

Baptism, however, is a different matter. The meaning is tied directly with the form. That is, the washing that Christ performs is symbolized by the washing of the water. The physical orientation of the baptizee’s body is symbolic of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. The fact that one puts on clean clothes after a good bath is again symbolic of having put on Christ and put away the old flesh.

How does one bring baptism to a culture which has no river lake or bathtub to immerse a person into? How can the meaning be withheld if the only water source is the family cistern that would only be made unclean by immersing the person into to? How can the true meaning of baptism remain if all one has is a polluted river that causes disease and death? Sprinkling does not get the meaning across because it is not a total washing, which is what the soul needs. Neither does the person imitate Christ’s death burial and resurrection. Giving a person a sponge bath would not get the image across either because not only would you be exposed to shameful parts, but also that the cleaning is not instantaneous as is Christ’s forgiveness. Praying Jesus into one’s heart does not have any elements related to baptism except for having faith in Christ. So in these occasions, which are far more common in other countries than America, what do we do? How do we maintain baptism in those circumstances?

Internet Anonymity Is Almost a Thing of the Past

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:19:48 CST

There is a lawmaker from Kentucky who is trying to pass a law requiring people to register with sites using their real name and contact information so as to cut down on internet bullying. That would then mean I would have to create a registration system which would have to make sure the person is real and their information is legitimate. This is absolutely retarded. We don't require people to wear name tags just in case they bully someone and the victim can properly identify them. That would be asking too much.

There are many reasons why such a law is irrational.
1) It violates the free speech amendment for those who want to post. It is my responsibility as a site administrator to make sure my standard of language and content of comments are maintained.

2) It would be impossible to enforce. The internet is world wide, not USA only. I could shift my website to be hosted in Paraguay making it outside of US jurisdiction. Tracking down the millions of websites and determining which ones are in violation of proposed law would require the hiring of thousands of people or writing an expensive computer program to discover violations.

3) It violates my right to free speech. The internet is my mode of getting my writing out there and is a form of written speech. For me to not be able to post something or making me ban certain things from being said creates mandatory censorship of my free speech and my allowance of others to voice their own opinion.

4) It opens the door for censorship of the web in general. One day when Christianity is outlawed or severely oppressed by the US government, I will loose my right to speak out against that tyranny and proclaim the Gospel of Christ.

5) The time and cost with creating a registration and verification system would be prohibitive to many people. Mandating that people restrict this free speech and pay for it themselves is socialist in method.

6) It is another example of Big Government getting bigger and reaching way outside of its bounds.

Check out the story yourself at http://www.wtvq.com/content/midatlantic/tvq/video.apx.-content-articles-TVQ-2008-03-05-0011.html

Old Testament Textual Crticism

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:30:53 CST

Over the last few weeks, we have been doing a lot of deep digging into the text of Deuteronomy 6. In the process, we have been introduced to how to study textual variants of the Old Testament, which is different from the New Testament. With the OT, there are several manuscript traditions in the history of its transmission. That is just to say that in different geographical regions, different variants arose.

What is astounding to me is the reason for all of the minor variations in the Hebrew text. At some point scribes undertook to do their own textual criticism to attempt to correct grammatical errors or errors in spelling that had crept in over the many years of copying copies. The cool thing is that the Old Testament text has gone through some revision not to change the plot or by the will of later editors who added to the history of Israel, but to preserve the text. Scribes over time have sought to recover/maintain the integrity of the Old Testament not change it to fit what they wanted to portray as Israel's history as liberal textual critics would have us believe. So the textual variants themselves actual provide evidence of the genuineness and uniqueness of the Hebrew Old Testament.

SPAM!

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 12:38:20 CST

No I am not talking about that nasty canned ham, rather something even more disgusting: e-mail spam. I have received this in many different forms, but today I got very annoyed. Not that I got spam, but the method used is very aggravating.

What the spammers did was send out e-mail messages to a bunch of fake email addresses for real websites such as randomlettersandnumbers@hotmail.com, with a fake e-mail address from my website such as crackhead@revision29.com. The result is that the server receiving the message says that that e-mail can't be delivered because the e-mail address is invalid, thus it sends out a message to my web server saying that the message can't be delivered and puts the contents of the original e-mail after the error message. The result is that I had about 215 of these in my inbox this morning, and will lead to the other web servers reporting my website as a spam host. What makes me mad is that I have to deal with the spam and my website gets a reputation as being a spam site, which then affects how my email is treated by some websites and Outlook as mail coming from my server is automatically marked as spam and placed in the recipient's Junk mail folder.

Copyright

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 23:31:04 CST

I was reading an article, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122800693.html, about how the RIAA is saying that even ripping a CD into MP3's without distributing them is illegal. What is really annoying is a lobby group is going around saying what is legal and not, instead of using legislation to actually make certain activities illegal. Within the article, the part that really makes me mad, is that someone was fined $220,000 for distrubuting 24 songs. That is $9,250 per song! Wether or not one thinks distributing MP3's is immoral/illegal, it is immoral to penalize someone beyond what is necessary. The person should be required to pay exact restitution for the songs that were distributed, not almost 10 grand per song. The punishment far outweighs the "crime." Using iTunes prices, the 24 songs would be $23.76, so the person should be asked to repay that amount. Perhaps the person would have to pay $.99 for each time the track was downloaded by someone else. That would certainly be much less that $220,000!

It is far more immoral for the RIAA to sue someone for so much money than for the person to actually distribute the songs. The big record companies and rich rock stars don't need the money "lost" to "pirating," but look at how they cripple those who can't afford to pay the fines. They RIAA and recording artists make it sound like they loose so much money from the lack of record sales due to pirating, which is probably true for smalltime independents, but the big names make most of their money from concert tickets, t-shirt sales, advertising on their websites, etc. The artists should be thankful that they get more fans (through the distribution of ripped MP3's) who love their music who shell out ridiculous amounts of cash for overpriced concert tickets and who have to spend outrageous prices for concessions at the venues. "Pirating" increases popularity which drives up sales of merch and concert tickets.

Of course let me say that we may not agree that ripping and distributing MP3's is illegal, but we still much respect the artists who work their butts of to give us music that we enjoy. Also, we must respect the law of the land so far as it honors God. Beyond that, we must stand up for the little people that the RIAA and greedy artists are oppressing through excessive and unnecessary fines.

American Health System

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:05:46 CST

Today I got distracted by the Scientific American website. specifically I was being entertained by the trivia section. Aside from interesting scientific facts, I was being bombarded by subtle political messages. Namely that global warming is caused directly by humans and that that Canada has a cheaper healthcare system but has the same results. Actually let me quote the question and answer:

Q: Which country spends a little more than half what the U.S. does on health care but, according to a recent study that looked solely at mortality, has comparable health outcomes?

A: Canada

I will give you a minute to digest that. Concentrate of the population of Canada and the baseline for their argument.

You see it don't you? The population of the United States is 9 times larger than Canada. So they should be spending 11% of what we spend, not 50%. So person they are spending more than we are. But they are not getting any more bang for their buck. Think about this: their baseline was mortality. The number of people who die. Last I checked the death rate of Canada is the same as anywhere in the world, namely that 100% of the population at some point will die. Not a good standard to base things on. So no matter what, if you get health coverage from America or Canada, you are eventually going to die.

I actually think that the question may refer to a study that shows per person, each Canadian spends 50% less than an American on healthcare, but the wording makes it sound different. But still, the message of the question is ridiculous: If you are still going to die, why pay twice as much in America to get the same result?

Writer's Redaction Versus Jesus' Action

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 22:14:23 CST

This semester I am taking New Testament Eschatology. The format is intensive week, meaning that we meet for one whole week and throughout the rest of the semester we work on reading and other assignments. We have a major project which comes in the form of an oral presentation during intensive week. My assigned topic is Mark 13. You may be thinking, "Did you not already do a presentation on Matthew 24, you text's parallel?" And you would be right. We were asked to choose 3 topics which interested us. From there the professor, Dr. Lowery, would assign our topic or passage. For the record, I did not pick Mark 13. I picked three things that were nowhere near related. I though it would be unfair since I had done a lot of research already, etc., plus I did not want to do the same thing twice. But Dr. Lowery chose to give me Mark 13....

On to my real point. I have been attempting to discover the author's intended meaning. Mark's redaction is very interesting. He takes the events of Jesus' passion week and pieces them together for his theological purposes. The historicity of the events do not change. The meaning of Jesus' words do not change. From my vantage point, there is a very intricate dance between Mark's redaction and theological agenda with Jesus' original meaning. Mark formulates his narrative in a very thoughtful and precise manner. His verb and noun choices in chapters 12 and 13 make stark contrasts with what is perceived and what is actual. Jesus' genuine authority is contrasted with the false authority of the religious leaders The outward righteousness of the scribes is contrasted with the genuine righteousness of the widow who gave all she had to God. In Mark 13, the misconception of the disciples regarding Jesus' parousia and eschatological events, are contrasted with Jerusalem's destruction and the unknowable time of Jesus final appearance.

It is clear that Jesus is clearing up the disciple's misconceptions, but the way in which Mark redacted it, makes that fact even more clear. So it may be safe to say that a Biblical author's redaction was guided by the Holy Spirit who helped to preserve Jesus' original intent, while helping the author make his theological point.

Site Redesign

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 12:33:40 CST

I am in the process of redesigning my site. The basic concept as well as some css came from freecsstemplates.org. In order to make it work, there was much work done on the back end code, especially with the Bible search. Currently, the translation tool view is not working right due to some css problems, but that will be remedied soon. Check it out at www.revision29.com/remake.

What I did was use their basic layout, borrow some code and meld it with a lot of existing code. The reason why I did not rewrite my own code, is because I liked the colors as they go with my current color scheme as well as the header that I made from a picture taken at Mathiessen State Park. I really like the style, as it is something that I have been wanting to do for a long time, but I tend to overdo my site graphics and it does not look as simple.

Comments Should Be Working

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 09:40:16 CST

Thanks to Chet for pointing out that the new site did not allow for comments. The problem lied in page that processes comments and blog articles. I forgot to include the database function page, so when I called a particular function, php got mad and did not process the form.

[update] Please check though. I am doing a lot of code work and things might stop working [/update]

Bible Tweaks

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 21:53:41 CST

I have overhauled some code in the Bible search page. You will notice that the form input field names have changed. Also, I have added the ability to use shorthand in your browser's location bar to do a search without having to go to the search page then type in your search. Also, you don't need to add the file extension .php anymore when accessing the search page, as well as the other pages on my site. Thank you Apache and .htaccess.

To use shorthand just type in revision29.com/bible?s=1john1
You can substitute 1john1 for your normal search criteria. If you want to see it in greek add &gnt. Thus revision29.com/bible?s=1john1&gnt will show the greek for 1 John 1. THen if you append &tt to & gnt, you will be presented with the translation tool view.

Importance of Context

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 16:37:30 CST

I am currently reading a book on the history of various Old Testament peoples, and even of pre OT cultures. One section equated the Egpytian myth "Tale of Two Brothers" with one from Hittite mythology and the story of Joseph's refusal of Potiphar's wife's sexual advances. It is my interpretation that the author does not mean that the three are equal in myth but that they equally portray virtue as was exalted in mid eastern / egyptian cultures. Because virtue was a very important value, Moses, who wrote the story down, would have included it in the book of Genesis. Considering the wealth of information that Moses could have wrote, such detailed stories are important. He could have left that section out to save room to expound on the call of Abraham, but did not. Why would he do this?

Because virtue was a very important issue, at least at points in Old Testament history, it was important to show that Joseph, a very important person in Jewish history, was a man of virtue. It was Moses, perhaps by God's prompting, to appeal to the value system of the culture to show the superiority of God and his followers. To be held in high honor by the culture means that you have an "in"-- that you have a way of reaching them with the truth of God and the salvation he offers. Yes I use salvation to speak of the OT because God offered them salvation as realized in Messiah--Jesus.

When one finds paralells between Old Testament Judaism or Christianity with the culture of the day, it does not show our belief system to be flawed or weak. God had to reach the culture where it was and appealed to their values and ways of life. It also happens that cultures have at least some part of God's truth, which can be used by Him. Also, it so happens that God uses things from other cultures as the norm and requirements for his followers. This does not mean that some things are bound to culture, such as the practice of baptism, but that God wanted something to be used in how his people worshipped him so perhaps he moved to have it created in culture so he could integrate it into his people. God is the God of history, so he moves to bring things about so that his message and will can be known and spread by all. Consider the cultural, religious, political world of Jesus' day. God had moved history so that the situation was perfect for Jesus' ministry to flourish and for the gospel to reach the extent of the inhabited world.

Form / Source Criticism

joe@revision29.com — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 14:39:01 CST

When I was taking a class on the gospel of Matthew, we were required to do a lot of reading on form / source criticism. In addition, these issues surfaced during research. One thing that astounds me about this area of textual criticism is that scholars tend to forget about the role of the holy Spirit. This is not just a phenomenon of the liberal scholars, but also conservative. I am a theological conservative, who believes that the books of the Bible are inerrant. That is to say the original manuscripts. But I also mean that the copies of the manuscripts that we have today are very close to the originals, with some slight modifications by scribes and others. What I don't mean is that the early Church made up or added to the original version of the cannonical books.

I do not, though, discount the fact that some Biblical writers used existing documents to aid them in writing. When you read 1 Kings, for example, you will find citations to other writings that are no longer in existence (1 Kings 14:19). Luke himself claims to have consulted people what they delivered to him in writing his gospel (Luke 1:1).

The apostles did, however, have special gifts of the Holy Spirit, who they could also pass to others, who in turn could NOT pass them on (follow the development in the book of acts). In reading 1 Corinthians we can see that such gifts included prophesy, speaking in various languages, understanding among others. So now the situation is very complex. There are eyewitnesses who saw what Jesus did and taught. You have the Holy Spirit speaking through people about things, only a very small amount of which we have about. You have people writing down various sayings and teachings of Jesus, which would have been refuted if in error. So you have Truth being communicated in a multitude of "medium." What many liberal scholars conclude is that determined by the form/source of a passage of scripture and how it is used in scripture, a passage may be genuine or added by the early church. That to me is ridiculous. That is playing favorites with the medium by which truth is proclaimed. God used the medium he did so we would have the knowledge we do so that we can know and serve Him. The media and use of it do not determine its validity. God does. for us to say it is invalid is to say that God is wrong. That puts me in a very veRY VERY bad place.

Retina

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 23:02:02 CST

Yesterday, Sarah had to have a follow-up exam after going to the eye doctor for contact lens prescription. She went to the Wal-Mart vision center here in Lincoln, because it is convenient and cheap. The optometrist had a new toy, and were giving people free tests with it. It is a machine that takes pictures of the retina with laser light. Since it is new, they give people free exams with it so that they can become familiar with it. After Sarah had her time with the doctor, we both were invited to have our retinas pictured for free. What I found out is that I have a small hole in my left retina. The doctor then proceeded to tell me that it was not a major problem, but that I need to be aware of the symptoms of a detached retina, which can be a serious condition.

What can happen is fluid can enter the hole and get behind the retina and detach it slightly, or completely. If I get the symptoms, then I have 3 days before it gets real serious. To fix it, they hit the area around the hole/detachment with a laser in order to re attach and to stop it from getting worse.

What is interesting is that she asked me if I saw floaters in my left eye, because that coupled with other signs, can be cause for alarm of the above said condition. Actually the interesting is that there were no problems with my right eye, despite the fact that I can see floaters all the time. It is a very annoying condition, especially when I am looking at anything white.

Greek New Testament

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 06:19:19 CST

Where to begin...
I got my hands on James Tauber's CCAT MorphGNT project http://jtauber.com/morphgnt/, which basically is a large text file with each word in the Greek New Testament in order as it appears in the text. The text file is set-up to give the parsing information and lexical form of each word. Needless to say this is very powerful. After much fighting with PHP and MySQL over proper text encoding, I finally imported the text into my Bible database and have tweaked the backend to properly display the text. The bottom line is that now you can display the Greek New Testament on my site. This also means that you can view it in parallel with english translations which are available from my site. Actual searching of greek words may not be possible unless you can type in unicode greek, and I don't have it setup to search transliterations.

But wait, there's more!!! You will notice that if you are displaying the greek text, you can click on a link towards the top of the page to display a translation help grid. It is formatted in the standard 4 line approach to translating scripture for the purpose of exegesis. The top line is for parsing information; the second is the greek word as it appears in the text; the third is for a rough translation; and the fourth is for a smooth translation. With the layout, there is plenty of room for adding additional notes. The purpose it to print out the table and work on it by hand, which is my preferred method. Eventually I may create a login system and make the table in such a way that you can type your translation info and save it to the database. This will require extensive programming and work with AJAX, with which I have heretofore not worked with, thus this might not come to pass.

Great Comission Thought

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 18 May 2007 17:10:37 CST

We all know the great commission very well. It was on that great mountain in Galilee that Jesus gave the mission of all Christians. Nestled within [bs]Matthew 28:16-20[/bs] is a statement which uses the names of all three parts of "the trinity."

What you may not know, as an aside, is that I lean in the direction of Barton W. Stone who said that there is no direct Biblical teaching of the trinity and thus we should avoid using the terminology. I am not opposed to trinitarian teaching, as he was, but do find the argument for it weak. God is hard to understand. His nature and being are incomprehensible. Because he has chosen to reveal himself in three forms, which we call the trinity, does not mean that there are three completely distinct parts of God. Yes, I do acknowledge that Jesus himself used language that made it seem that to some degree he and the Father are seperate. Especially when we declared that he would be at the right hand of God, though not God himself. However, on other occasions, he did say that he and the Father are one. It would be my assertion that God has chosen to describe himself to us in the way he has, because we could not understand his true form. The images the he uses to describe himself are metaphors taken from humanity and thus are only metaphors to help understand him better. being based on created things, the comprehensible descriptions of God in the Bible are very limited as we are limited.

Now back to our passage. Jesus told the 11 (Judas killed himself, remember) that as they went they were to make more disciples by a) baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and b) teaching them to obey all of his commands. If we believe that God exists in three persons, we should expect the greek to reflect that the names are distinct. What we really find is that name is singular, not plural. The three names given by Jesus are not descriptions of thee distinct beings, but are synonyms that are grammatically parallel. From my point of view, which may very well be wrong, God is not three persons, but one who has revealed himself in three forms that we can understand.

Another aside. The Old Testament has many great descriptions of God (judge, husband, counselor, king, etc.) that we don't emphasize much. We limit ourselves to the three names in Matthew 28, but the Bible is filled with tens, if not hundreds, more name which give a more holistic picture of who God is and what he does.

Grades Are In

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 14 May 2007 14:43:33 CST

Today I checked and my grades have been posted on the LCCS Student Portal. I surprised myself. I have two A's and one A-, which gives me a term GPA of 3.89 anda cumulative of 3.67. I had taken some classes at FCC that Dr. Shaw had taken, but in those I had only gotten a 3.5. The A- was in Matthew Exegesis which was pretty tuff workload wise.

Basic of Biblical Hebrew

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 14 May 2007 11:14:37 CST

I an selling a brand new copy of Basics of Biblical Hebrew for $27 on amazon. I bought it at the bookstore for that amount. A new edition is coming out in June, and we will be using that instead of this one, so I must sell it. If interested visit http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/exchange-glance/Y01Y6111887Y4535266 . I really need to sell it so that I can buy the new one for next semester. I also don't want to loose money on the deal.

Facing the Challenge

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 11 May 2007 13:52:38 CST

[NOTE] This is an article that I had to write as a requirement for my Matthew Exegesis class taught by Bob Lowery http://www.rlowery.com. It goes along with an oral presentation that I gave. The rough draft of which can be found in the archives to my blog. [/NOTE]

One thing that astounds me is that within the west, there is a pop-Christianity being sold on T.V. the Radio. It is comfortable. It is tame. It manifests itself on t-shirts and bumper stickers as a happy, bubbly, and almost arrogant. Is this the image that Jesus wants his followers to live by?
In the book of Matthew, there are many difficult passages, but none quite like chapters 24-25. Therein we find grandiose images of Jesus coming on the clouds, an abomination of desolation, angels blowing war trumpets, and the persecution of Jesusâ€™ followers. We find parables of ten bridesmaids, wise and foolish servants, and talents. Such images could be the subjects of many fiction novels and remind us of Old Testament prophets and things we may have glanced at in Revelation. With such awe inspiring images, understanding what they â€�"meanâ€ can be quite challenging.
Such was the case for the first disciples, whose presuppositions often clouded their understanding and got them into trouble. Peter assumed Jesus did not have to die. James and John thought they could receive high kingdom honor. They all longed for the day when Jesus would violently overthrow the oppressive Romans and exploitive religious rulers. These assumptions were rooted in their understanding of the Messiah as portrayed in the Old Testament. Moreover, exaggerations and additions to Biblical prophesies caused misinterpretation of Scripture. Perhaps greatest of which, was that Jesus would establish a physical nation, restore the Davidic throne and Israel's prominence over the gentiles. This expectation would skew Jesusâ€™ words as recorded in Matthew 23-25.

Questions
In Matthew 23 Jesus declared woes on the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy, misuse of the law and acting in accordance with those who killed the prophets of old, such as Zechariah. This was the indictment Jesus made against them as he declared their accountability for the blood of the prophets. He then alluded to the type of sentence that would be instituted, by announcing that Jerusalemâ€™s desolation, which was demonstrated when Jesus, the very presence of God, left the city.
As he walked away, the disciples came to him to point out the beautiful buildings. Their statement seems to have implied a question to Jesus: â€�"You canâ€™t really mean these buildings, which were built so beautifully to honor God, are going to be made empty, do you?â€ His response was that there was not one stone on another which would not be toppled (24:2). Their center of religious life, the place they loved and adored would be destroyed. How would you feel if some poor, itinerant preacher came and told your elders that your church building was going to be destroyed? You would not be happy either.
For some reason, Jesusâ€™ declaration caused some odd thoughts to enter into their minds. So they sent Peter, James, John and Andrew (Mark 13:3) to ask Jesus two very important questions, to clarify what was going to happen. The first was â€�"when will these things be (the destruction of the city and temple)â€ and the second, â€�"what is the sign that will indicate both your [messianic] coming and the end of the age.â€ (Matthew 24:3) They made a connection between the destruction of the city and the establishment of the Messianic age. Jesusâ€™ answer would challenge the disciples and their devotion to the one they knew as Messiah. In fact, the circumstances in Matthew 24:1-35 describe the horrific judgement of Jerusalem and the establishment of the true, spiritual kingdom. Events contrary to the discipleâ€™s presuppositions would cause this to happen, namely intense persecution inflicted upon them. By observing Jesusâ€™ challenges to the first disciples, we better understand true, Biblical discipleship.

Signs
The disciples wanted a sign to indicate when Jesus was going to come. Signs that Jesus promised included false messiahs, persecution, the abomination of desolation, and Jesusâ€™ coming on the clouds with great power. These would indicate the judgement against the nation through the Roman army and their destruction of Jerusalem in ad 70.
When looking back at these passages, we read eschatological meaning into them. This was not Jesusâ€™ intention. He wanted to give signs of the destruction of the city in order to give Christians a chance to flee and spread the Gospel as they went. In 24:36-25:46 we read Jesusâ€™ teachings that the day of his final appearance would be unexpected and no signs would be given.
Our pop-Christian culture, however, desires signs. World calamity, natural disaster or when a world power flexes itâ€™s military muscles, many declare that the end is near. Difficulty arises because similar to events have occurred throughout human history. God was again to work in human history to fulfill his divine purpose. This time Rome was to be the tool used to bring judgement. In 24:38, Matthew records Jesusâ€™ saying â€�"where the corpse is there the eagles will gather.â€ Jesus uses the greek word for eagle not vulture, which hints at Romeâ€™s use of an eagle as their national symbol. He also specifies that the events would happen within that generation, no more than 40 years (24:34).
The problem with looking for signs of Jesusâ€™ second coming, other than the absence of them, is that they are unnecessary. Disciples of Jesus, are called to live by faith. Looking for signs shows a lack thereof. The truth is that we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, who gives us strength and comfort in our time of need, such as persecution, political unrest, or natural disaster. Genuine discipleship requires that we rest on Jesusâ€™ promises regarding the Holy Spirit.

Endurance
Another aspect of Jesusâ€™ discourse on the destruction of Jerusalem, was the need for endurance. Great persecution was to be inflicted upon his followers. Some would fall away and betray others. False prophets would arise and lead many more astray. Jesus promised that the one who endured these things to the end would be saved (24:13).
Such difficulties have occurred throughout Church history, as people reject Godâ€™s messengers. Such things would be precursors to the destruction of the Jerusalem, but must also be endured by disciples in all eras. Pop-Christianity lacks this quality, just as it lacks faith in God.
This has seriously handicapped the Churchâ€™s effectiveness in fulfilling the great commission and caring for the body. Long fights against feminist and liberal theologies are slowly being lost as Christians quit the battle. Instead of continuing the intellectual and spiritual battle, we have acquiesced to societal pressure.
Moreover, time and effort is required to win people to Christ and cultivate them into genuine disciples. Frustration and heartache are part of the process, but many are unwilling to withstand. Instead, we invite non-believers to church or a conference, hoping someone else will do the work. Even when a person is won, insufficient effort is put into growing him/her. Genuine discipleship demands that we expend whatever is necessary to bring people to Christ and strengthen their walk with him. It also demands that we continue our fight against heresy.

Sacrifice
Urgency would surround the events of Jerusalemâ€™s destruction. The man on his roof was not to go down and get his things. Neither was the man in the field to turn back for his cloak. (24:17-18). In fact when they would see the abomination of desolation (an occupying force that would cease temple function and erect an idol in the temple, as previously done by Antiachus Epiphanes in the inter-testamental period), they were to flee to the mountains. Jesus required that they be willing to leave behind all that they owned in order to obey his words. Such sacrifice would enable them to live through the slaughter and spread the gospel.
Jesusâ€™ challenge to the 12, and disciples to come, was to have a willingness to abandon earthly treasures in service God. This counters pop-Christianityâ€™s desire for riches and comfort. Too many words are being spoken from pulpits about gaining riches and improving health. These misspoken words oppose Jesusâ€™ frequent rebuke of those who would seek to increase their earthly treasure.
Pop-Christianity proudly proclaims, â€�"I will follow Christ as long as it is comfortable and does not threaten my lifestyle.â€ Words like these, though commonplace, are heretical. Jesus never called us to maintain our standard of living or enlarge our stock portfolio. In fact, I recall him telling a rich young man to sell his stuff and help the poor. How many people could we feed in Christâ€™s name, or how many Churches could we plant or many missionaries could we support if we went out to eat less, bought a used car or used a slower internet connection? God wants us to show mercy to those in need. But, only through making sacrifices can mercy be shown

Our Response
The type of discipleship that Jesus demanded in Matthew 25:1-35 is completely opposite of pop-Christianity. It requires faith, endurance and sacrifice, which lack in the lifestyles of many Christians.
The world, however, needs for us to be the kind of disciples that Jesus prescribes. We have a message of hope and reconciliation that needs to be spread in word and deed. Without both, our message will wither be lifeless or unauthentic.â€¨
Will you decide to be something more than pop-Christian? Will you be the kind of disciple that world needs to see? Will you be the disciple that Jesus calls you to be?

Perfection

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 07 May 2007 17:53:11 CST

I am currently outlining the Gospel of Matthew for my Matthew exegesis class. As I consider the many words spoken by Jesus, and futilely make a tidy outline of the book, things start making sense. The exercise is challenging me to consider each pericope and it's context. Connections are made that might be missed reading Matthew chapter by chapter or paragraph by paragraph. I will describe such an instance.

I am currently at the sermon on the mount. Jesus had taught about lust, divorce, oaths, vengeance, and moves onto loving our enemies. He counters the oral tradition which says to love your neighbors and hate your enemies (Mt. 5:43), by saying we should love our enemies and offer prayer to those who persecute us (vs 44). His argument is that even gentiles show friendliness to themselves. The point is that he says the gentiles, who are the scum of the earth, know how to do what you do. He then says to be perfect like your heavenly father is perfect (vs 48). What is the connection? It seems Jesus is off his rocker and just adding a non-related saying to his teaching. The connection is that in verse 45 Jesus indicates that God blesses all people, jew and gentile, with rain and sunlight which are symbols of his blessing. He is telling the people, "yeah you see that the gentiles are kind to one another, but you are to show kindness to all people, not just your own." Jesus was telling this group of jews to not hate gentiles, and not just tolerate them, but to extend blessing to them.

As the Church we are called to follow Jesus' teachings, which include this one. Jesus is telling us to look beyond our Christian subculture and see those on the outside who need blessing and give it to them. He had spoken a few words before about being the salt and the light of this world. How can we be salt and light if we never are placed in the world or venture into the darkness to shine the light?

AmigaOS

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 14:32:59 CST

Ok, there are some things odd about this world. Today I decided to take a look at my website stats. I have had several thousand hits this mnth. Most were for rss.php which is the xml version of my blog for, you guessed it, rss feeds. The other, still with thousand of hits, is addarticle.php, which is the page that processes comment posting / article adding. The thousand of visitors to that page tells me it is a blog spam factory trying to infect my site with viagra / porn adds, which I don't like. At one time they had added thousands of entries of that crap.

The oddest thing that I found was the breakdown of operating systems that have viewed my site. Most are Windows (Chet, a very good friend, and spammers, enemies), second is unknown (spammers), third is Mac (me, and probably some other friends), but forth with 69 hits is AmigaOS. I know one person with an Amiga, but he does not use it anymore (hmm I wonder if I could get Os X on it if he is not using it). I've had 3 people using Risc OS, 3 using an unknown flavor of Unix, 2 using FreeBSD, and 1 using CP/M. All of these are odd, especially CP/M which has not been used since DOS took over the planet. For more information see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/M. I wonder if that is an appliance in a spam factory?

Snake!!!

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 14:09:09 CST

Sunday afternoon was a beautiful day. It was in the 70's and there was a brisk wind. Great day for a walk. That is exactly what Sarah and I did. When we got home, we entered through the patio door because it was closer to where we came from and because the screen door was unlocked. As we entered, I immediatly went to kick off my flip flops while Sarah closed the screen door. She yelled a bit at something (not scream), and so that was odd, because she usually would scream. So I looked and there was a 4 foot snake. it looked cool, so I went to follow it. After grabbing my camera, I followed it as it made its way around the building trying to find some food. Afterall it has been a long winter and he is probably very hungry.

He was a very tame snake. He did not get frightened by my close proximity, but would only stop if I stood up in front of him. At first I thought he was a corn snake ('cause, hello, there is a corn field [though barren at the moment], and it was very docile), but the markings are not completely consistant. Specificlly, there is a lack of a stripe that runs from his eye to his neck. He does not appear to be an indignous venomous snake. It's underbelly is mostly white (most venomous snakes here have dark bellies) and its head was more rounded than you typically find in such a snake. Also, the shape of the end of the tale was more rounded, than tapering off which sort of clues me that it is a constrictor of some kind. It was pretty fat for its length and time of the year.

I really have no clue what kind of snake he is. No pictures I found matched his markings. Perhaps it is a pet snake run away. If you can tell from the picture, let me know.

Sinner's Prayer

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 23:26:20 CST

Sometime I think about weird things. Sometimes I think about important things. The other day, I had a combination of the two. Being a person who holds strongly to the authority of the Bible, baptism by immersion is what I understand as the vehicle by which a person is washed of their sin and filled with the Holy Spirit. This is not a contradiction of the Biblical teaching that salvation comes by faith, not by works to fulfill a system of law. Bible is clearly described as our identification with Jesus' death, burial and ressurection (Romans 6) as well as being the act of faith that God requires in order for our sins to be forgiven. Baptism is not an option is it a command (the imperative mode for those who know some koine greek). It is a command to be obeyed through faith. Faith requires action (see James). Abraham was told by God to leave his land and go to a land that would be shown to him. He acted out in faith by going. It is the same with baptism. We act our our faith in obedience.

That is actually an aside to the thought I had. Many people who say that baptism is not essential for salvation, often point to the thief on the cross as their rationalle and say that all we have to do is say a prayer. the interesting thing is that the thief on the cross never prayed. He simply demonstrated faith and repentance. When he had been initially crucified alongside Jesus, he hurled insults, but alter he realized who the person he was cursing actually was. There was not the opportunity to be baptized. Also, baptism for the remission of sins and for the gift of the Spirit was not instituted until the day of pentacost. Until this point baptism was commanded, but as a sign of repentance, and had not been given its full power until Jesus had ascended. Besides, that thief may have followed Jesus, or John the baptist, and could fully have been baptized but did not take Jesus' seriously until later. This happens a lot with "christians" who grow in their understanding of Jesus and theological issues, or perhaps were baptized under false motives who later came to a real understanding of what they did.

The thief never prayed. Prayer is something that you must do, yourself. Baptism is something that you choose to have done to you by someone else. Prayer for salvation is more of a personal work of salvation, than baptism. Baptism is a physical submission to the power of another in faith that through that act of obedience God will fulfill his promises (forgiveness, gift of Holy Spirit). There is no promise in regards to salvation by prayer in the Bible, except that prayer uttered through people of faith are answered.

This is somewhat rambling and not well constucted, but hopefully helps us to understand that prayer for faith is not a Bliblical command with promises attached. Baptism, on the other hand, is.

By the way, I chose to include a picture of a flower with this post as a symbol of new life. It is a picture of one of our plants that has blossomed this spring, which never blossomed the 2.5 years that we had the plant in Florida.

Climate Change

joe@revision29.com — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 11:39:45 CST

Today I was looking at NOAA's site to check the weather for today. During my scanning of the site, I discovered a link to get a climate report for a given city. I selected Springfield, IL since it is closer than the other option. The information in that report is helpful for seeing trends in climate change and comparison to a baseline period. NOAA's data is used by people on both sides of the global warming debate to substantiate how hot the earth actually is. Recently, they issued a statement that last winter was the hottest ever (though .7 degrees [the exact figure escapes me but it was less than 1 degree] hotter than the baseline temperature).

What I find interesting is that the baseline for climate is the years from 1971 to 2000. This is the same period of time that scientists and ecologists said the earth was going to cool. There was a Time magazine article in the 70's declaring that the earth was going to get too cold and one of the proposed solutions was to cover the polar ice caps with black soot to prevent the earth from cooling. I am not sure of the link to the article, but you can Google it and find it. Many conservatives have mentioned it and have posted a copy of the article online. Glenn Beck had a link on his site a while ago, so that may be the place to start.

What is problematic to me is that we are comparing our current temperatures to the baseline between 1971 and 2000, which were supposed to be cooler. If our temperatures are warmer now, than during that period, should we be surprised? I have heard it said that the earth's climate changes in roughly 30 year cycles. So we should be expecting things to change, since the 30 years "are up".

Global warming science is flawed and should not be trusted. Consider their baseline years. Consider that we have been keeping climate records only since around 1890. Consider that scientists think the earth is billions of years old, which is different than what we Christians believe, and their only other source of climate data is in core samples from glaciers. Their data will be flawed since the actual dating of the "stuff" they find is off by millions or billions of years.

Let me also state, that despite the fact that global warming may be a farce, we still need to take care of our earth. We have been given stewardship of this place and God will hold us accountable as to how we use it. If we cut down the rain-forests because we waste wood and paper, that is bad stewardship. If we over farm our land and destroy the soil because the price of corn is up and we will make a huge profit, that is bad stewardship. If we want to release hazardous chemicals into the air which will cause us and our children to have higher rates of cancer, that is bad stewardship. If we take bribes from special interest groups or big business to ignore ecological problems, we are sinning in a big way. Let us look past ourselves, our politics, and out bank accounts and help our environment. We have enough in the Bible to motivate us, without the need to turn to bad science to scare the masses.

Minor UI Tweaks

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 18:54:32 CST

When you look at the comments for any article that I have posted, you will notice some minor UI tweaks. The comments are now displayed in a thought bubble. Ok. I know that is unoriginal, but I like it. The comments of a comment have a slightly different bubble (and is indented more) so you can see the flow of conversation. Check it out and enjoy.

PowerBook Picture Frame

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 12:26:14 CST

A very long time ago, a friend wanted to purchase my old PowerBook with broken hinges so that he could create a PowerBook picture frame, He had seen a blog post from someone who had done just that. Reluctantly, I said no. I just could not let go of my old reliable (except for the hinges braking), first Mac. That was a smart idea.

Fast forward the clock. I am now married to a woman who loves music. A year or so ago, she received an M-Audio Keystation Pro 88, which needs a computer to drive it via USB. We set-up her keyboard and placed a plastic box beside the stand and placed the PowerBook on that. Annoyingly, the screen had to be carefully propped against the wall to support it. Fast forward again. We are now living in Lincoln, IL so that I can attend seminary. I have a full-time class load, and was unemployed for a while. I got bored. I was not satisfied that my wife has to deal with the crappy laptop set-up. So I bit the bullet. I drove down to Dollar General and purchased a 6 dollar frame. Of course I had to cut the matting to fit the visible area of the screen.

I set the laptop on my bed and pondered how I was going to do this. Planing ahead is not my strong point, I just jump in and get to working. I think through it as I go. You can see from the pic that the computer is no longer its stylish gray. No sir. I had previously disassembled it and painted it black and green.

From there, I took off the outer covering of the hinges so as to give slack to the display cables, and put the covers back on.

Next, I carefully placed the screen on the frame/matting so as to not cover any visible areas of the display. Who wants to see only half of the menu bar? To affix the display, I used aluminum tape because it is strong, heat resistant and durable. I also, put spacers on the back of the display so that there could be airflow between it and the computer body.

The body of the computer was flipped up carefully so that it would rest on the spacers. More tape was added. Then I had to attach 4 L-brackets to the back of the frame to hold the computer in snug and provide a good location to mount to mounting string. After nailing in three nails (I could not find a stud where I needed for one good nail), I hung the computer on the wall, attached the cables and fired it up.

There you can see the finished product. My wife now has a Mac that she can use for her music, surf the web and do whatever else she would need to use mine for (MySpace). Unfortunately, it is an old Mac (though it does run great). We are too poor to afford a new one for her.

iClip Review

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 08:55:02 CST

One thing that gets really annoying when trying to multitask, is that you inevitably run into an instance where you are trying to copy and paste a billion things at once (ok, so that is a little over the top, but roll with me here). Eventually you will paste some real sensitive information (like social security number) which can then be exploited. It would suck to try and paste your credit card number into a Keychain note, but find out that you actually pasted it on your blog and discovered that you had a billion dollars worth of charges. 5555-1234-4231-4564:827 (awwww crap! It happened to me.)

Fear no more. The frustration is gone. iClip has come to the rescue! This great little app makes it so that you can have 99 items in the clipboard, rather than just 1. What is even cooler is that you can edit the text contained with a clipboard item. That is cool when you find out that you have been pasting a string of text, but have been finding that it was initially typed in wrong and you have had to fix the text every time you paste it. Now you can edit it once paste it with perfection.

The interface for iClip is decent. When you hover your mouse over the screen edge containing the app, it pops out at you displaying the clipboard goodness. Though the icons are a tad too big (but are that way for a reason), they are designed with a neat concept. There is a row of icons which are iris opening doors. When that clipboard item contains something, the iris will be opened and you can see what is inside. That is even cooler than randomly pasting from 99 different elements.

This is a great app, and I suggest that you pick it up from http://inventive.us/iClip/.

Sorry Chet, it is Mac only. But hey check out there site, it is awesome.

The Semi Finished Project

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 09:24:07 CST

Here the full text rough draft of my presentation. Happy reading and don't plagiarize.

Introduction/Thesis:
In the centuries following Jesus' ascension there have been many theories as to the meaning and application of Matthew 24:1-35. Many place the bulk of the passage in the category of eschatology. Though there are certainly echoes of eschatology, the content of verses 1-35 have a primary focus on the judgement upon Judah as realized by the destruction of Jerusalem and them temple in ad 70. Like many in Church history the discourse offered by Jesus would not have been well received or understood by his disciples. However, as the disciples of Jesus would have had to contemplate the words of Jesus, seek to understand them and allow them to shape their beliefs, so must we as modern disciples. It is simply not enough to accept popular consensus, rather one must arduously study the words of the Teacher. This is what we shall endeavor to do in our study.

1) Setting the Scene
The first thing that we must do is set the scene. Of primary importance is the expectation of the Jews of the coming Messiah and the messianic age. There is no consensus as to exactly what they were expecting (there were as many theories as their are today in regards to His second coming). Basically they were expecting one who would come i fulfillment many prophesies about him and the age he was to bring. They would have expected his to a) Usher in the age of Godâ€™s blessing promised to Abraham and progeny, b) Establish his kingdom, c) Overthrow oppressive forces (governing nations) and d) bring judgement upon the world. The coming of messiah was theologically and chronologically linked with eschatological events, though it is not necessary for the final judgement to happen directly at his coming. It is important to consider however, that judgement (whether direct or eschatological) is a very strong OT theme encompassed in Messiah.

In Matthew 23, Jesus had proclaimed woes upon the Scribes and Pharisees and declared that they would be held accountable and punished for the the blood of the prophets (Old Testament, John the Baptist, Jesus and Christians who were killed for spreading the Gospel). He announced that Jerusalemâ€™s house (the temple?) would be left desolate (23:28 c.f. 24:15) and to physically demonstrate this he departed the temple (24:1). Then the disciples catch up to him and point out the beautiful buildings (Mt 24:1, Mark 13:2, Luke 21:5) as if they are saying â€�"you canâ€™t really mean that this temple will be empty, do you?â€ Jesus replied by saying that â€�"there will not be one stone that is on another that will not be destroyed.â€ This no doubt would have brought up in their minds Scriptures which declared judgement upon Judah (e.g. Zephaniah

2) and the Messiah's role in bringing such.
The structure of this passage is quite curious. Verses 1-3 continues the narrative plot in chapter 23 and sets the stage for the impending discourse. Beginning in verse 9 there are 8 occurrences of Ï„á½¹Ï„Îµ which do not necessarily indicate a movement in time, but rather provide additional details of the sign of the destruction of Jerusalem. These almost lend themselves to have been a structural device by used by Matthew, but their location in their containing clauses does not provide support for this idea. In fact the structure appears to be: 1. Introduction (1-3); 2. Declaration (4-14); 3. Retelling with added detail(15-31); 4. Assurance that it would happen soon (32-25).

It should be noted the location of Jesusâ€™ discourse. After departing the temple he went to the Mount of Olives. In Matthew we see him going there immediately before the triumphal entry and the location of his betrayal. Significantly, Zechariah 14:4 as the location where Messiah would appear.

2) Curious Disciples
As Jesus sat down on the Mount of Olives the disciples came to ask him a question. Markâ€™s parallel account specifies which disciples went to him. They were Peter, James, John and Andrew (Mark 13:3). Perhaps Matthew left out this detail because Mark had already written about it and because it did not have significance in the development of the narrative and preceding discourse. This is of course not a contradiction, just a case where Matthew decided to leave out detail but instead use the more generic term disciple. Inconsequently, we observe that the disciples engaged the teacher so as to gain knowledge and understanding. Note the sitting posture of Jesus, which was common when the teacher taught his pupils.

When one initially looks at the structure of the question asked he/she may think that there are three questions due to the fact that there are three occurrences of ÎºÎ±á½·. It appears as if there are three statements being connected. However, when you look at the structure there is one main verb Î•á¼°Ï€Îµ (2nd person singular present active imperative) with 2 dependent clauses. The first is â€�"when these areâ€ and the second is â€�"what [is] the sign of your appearing and the consummation of the ageâ€. The first clause is an adverbial clauses which modifies the main verb â€�"tellâ€. In the second clause Ï�'Î¼Îµá¿�"Î¿Î½ (the main noun with an understood linking verb â€�"isâ€) is a nominative singular neuter. There are two genitives of apposition that modify sign (Ï€Î±ÏÎ¿Ï…Ï�'Î¹á½±Ï‚ and Ï�'Ï…Î½Ï„ÎµÎ»Îµá½·Î±Ï‚) which give further information as to what the sign would indicate. Since we have two dependent clauses modifying the main verb, we can conclude that the disciples are asking two, not three questions. Further when we look at that parallels in Mark 13:4 and Luke 21:7, we discover that the disciples asked two questions: 1) when will these things take place? and 2) what is the sign that they are about to happen?
When noting the differences between the parallels, we realize that the questions that are being asked are linked theologically. The disciples realize the connection between the destruction of the temple, Jesusâ€™ parousia and the end of the age. It would seem that they perceived the events to be one and the same. Why would this be? Let us first investigate the meaning of Ï€Î±ÏÎ¿Ï…Ï�'Î¹á½±.

Î Î±ÏÎ¿Ï…Ï�'Î¹á½± has the basic meaning of someone being physically present at a certain place or with people. For example Paul used it in reference to the coming of Titus, which had comforted him (2 Cor 7:6). There was also a more technical usage of the word in secular contexts. It would be used when a king or emperor visited a subject town. The people would gather and it was a big deal (now whether it was such because he was a tyrant or because of his generosity is another matter). The technical usage for the Jews applied to the coming of Messiah, a king.

Another word that we must consider is Î±á¼°á½½Î½. It simply means a span of time or an age. So what time are they looking to end? For one age to end, another must follow. The age to come (from their perspective) was the age of Messiah. The age that was to end was the time leading up to His appearing. This new time would include all of the prophetic promises of Messiah which would include judgement, elimination of oppressive forces (Rome, religious leaders), abundant blessing and the establishment of His kingdom.
So then, the disciples were anticipating that Jesus would overthrow Rome and establish an earthly kingdom and bring justice throughout the land. They wanted to know just how soon it would happen. Little did they know, that their expectations would be shattered as they lived out the establishment of The Kingdom.

3) False Messiahs
Undoubtedly, the disciples were hurt to hear that the temple, their way of life and worship, would be destroyed. It would certainly be a message that the religious rulers would be enraged by. It would be a message ignored by the people.

Such messages had been declared through prophets long before, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zephaniah. When they rose up to warn the people there also arose false prophets who would proclaim a message appealing to the people. A message of peace, prosperity and Godâ€™s deliverance over the enemy. Likewise, Jesus knows that such false prophets would come along claiming to be Messiah, the one who would lead the nation to victory. Jesus warned the disciples not to be led astray by the false message of hope. They were his disciples and knew his character and teaching. As true disciples they were to spread the true message, even when it was against popular opinion and when the message included the destruction of things that they had loved for so long.

In speaking of wars and rumors of wars it is important to remember that God uses nations to bring judgement upon other nations who have been warned and called to repentance. We recount nations from the Old Testament such as Assyria, Babylon, and Persia who were used as instruments of punishment.
One ancient source points to the fulfillment of the famines, earthquakes rumors of wars et al., by saying â€�"anyone who reads Josephus knows what kind of famines, plagues and tremors afflicted Judea before the fall of Jerusalem. These were of course the pangs of birth (Ï‰Î´á½·Î½). Î©Î´á½·Î½ refers to the pains associated with childbirth. It occurs only 4 time in the New Testament. Once in Matthew, another in Mark 13:8 (a parallel), 1 Thessalonians 5:3 (in reference to the day of the Lordâ€™s coming) and Acts 2:24 (in reference to Jesus being loosed from the pangs of death). So, if this verse has a reference to something being born, what is being born with great pain? I suggest that it is the Messianic age. The rabbinic use of the word referred to the beginning of that age. The transition from a located physical nation into a global and spiritual one, was not something that was going to happen easily. It was going to take much pain as a large segment of Godâ€™s chosen people would be cut off forever and the Old Covenant would be done away with (as it was fulfilled in Christ).

4) Tribulation
Many had expected the Messiah to come with force to overthrow Rome. Few could have predicted that the opposite would happen. Instead of Messiahâ€™s kingdom being spread through violence, it was spread because of violence. Those who would endure the tribulation of being hated, being betrayed by loved ones, and being immersed in rampant lawlessness, would truly be members of the Kingdom.

Jesus made a bold statement that the end would come when the gospel had been preached in the whole world. The end of which he speaks is not the end of the world, but an end to the age preceding Messiahâ€™s rule. The end of the Old Covenant as marked by the destruction of the temple. The whole world is not every square inch where people were, but á¿žÎ¿Î»á¿�' Î¿á¼°ÎºÎ¿Ï…Î¼á½³Î½á¿�': the whole inhabited earthâ€" a reference to the extent of the Roman empire. It is not that because the gospel had been preached that Jerusalem would be destroyed, but that the events that caused the destruction of the temple would be the same which caused the kingdom to be spread.

Luke 21:12-14 and Mark 13:9-12 provides some details as to how it would happen. They would be brought before councils, governors, and thrown in prison with the opportunity to preach in those contexts about Jesus. In a quick skimming of the book of Acts, we can see how it all played out.
Additionally, Paul declares in Romans 10:18 that the gospel had gone to the end of the inhabited earth (Î¿á¼°ÎºÎ¿Ï…Î¼á½³Î½Î·). The words of Jesus had been fulfilled within the lifetime of the apostles (at least some of them). Should we then expect the fulfillment of the rest of this passage to be in the same timeframe?

5) Abomination
Thereforeâ€¦ Jesus warned of the destruction of Jerusalem, false prophets, persecution, the end and declared that the gospel would be preached throughout the world. He then proceeded to give them signs by which they were to act. He is in a way retelling what he had just told, in a slightly different way, with actions that were to be taken.

They were to look for the Abomination of Desolation. The anti-Christ? Certainly not. Jesus tells us that his source is the prophet Daniel, who had foretold of this abomination (Daniel 9-12). Î'Î´á½³Î³Î¼Î± means to cause abhorrence and was used frequently in the LXX to describe idolatry and wickedness. In Daniel there is a sense that this abhorrent thing would be worshipped as an idol (11:31) and would be brought by force (9:26-27).

We know from history that what Daniel predicted was initially fulfilled when Antiachus Epiphanes setup an alter to Zeus on the alter of God after brining and end to sacrifices. This was of course a type of what Jesus again foretold. When the people say an idol established in the temple by force, they were to take note and run for the hills, which would provide protection.

Jesus expressed great danger urgency about fleeing. People were not turn back to get their things (Î¼Î· coupled with imperatives - indicating prohibition), women nursing and pregnant who would be weakened and vulnerable would face difficulty, and it would be terrible for the people to flee in winter or on the Sabbath. The winter could bring hard rains or even snow, and the Sabbath restrictions would limit how far they could go and what they could bring with them. Such urgency was necessary because the abomination of desolation would bring destruction to the city and the temple, just as the ante-type had done.

As an aside, verse 21 refers to Daniel 12:1 and verse 22 refers to Isaiah 65:8, both in the context of judgement. Jesus kept referring back to Old Testament passages of judgement to reiterate the fact that judgement was coming despite what the false messiahs would claim. Their private declarations would pale in comparison to the obviousness of the judgement to come.

6) Coming on the Clouds
Jesus continues the judgement motif, by describing the heavenly bodies being darkened. Often in the Old Testament such imagery was used to describe the terror of judgement that was about to be brought upon a certain nation. In Ezekiel 32:7, Joel 2:10 and Isaiah 13:10 it is used by God to describe the day of the Lord in the context of national judgement (Judah and Babylon). Jesus had already declared such upon Jerusalem, and has made many references to the prophets, thus it makes sense for him to use this imagery at this point. There is no need to assign this passage to the final day of the Lord, though the same language can and has been used to describe it.

The next image, which again is tied to judgement, is described as â€�"the Son of Man is seen coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great gloryâ€. Surely this has to be a reference to the end times, because Jesus is to return the same way that he left, that is by a cloud. Again, the image is of judgement, and does not necessarily point to eschatological events. This phrase appears in Matthew 24:30, a parallel account in Mark 13:26, Revelation 1:7, Matthew 26:64 and its parallel Mark 14:62. The one that I want to focus on most is 26:64. Jesus was standing before Caiaphas along with the Scribes and Pharisees. They had brought up the accusation that Jesus said he would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days and then asked him is he was the Messiah. His response was â€�"I am. But I tell you that from now on you will see the Son of Man seated on the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven (ESV)â€. From then on, they would see him coming on the clouds of heaven. They would not see him at the end of time, rather they would â€�"see himâ€ when he came in judgement. Note that Jesus said he would be seated at the right hand of power (i.e. God). His place where he would be and from where he would execute justice was in heaven, not on earth. For Old Testament uses in the context of judgement see Zephaniah 1:15, Daniel 7:13, Isaiah 19:1.

When Jesus is seen coming on the clouds, he will send out messengers to gather the elect our from the four winds, from the highest heavens. EÎºÎ»á½³ÎºÏ„Î¿Ï‚ is used in regards to the chosen, the best (of soldiers). In the LXX it is used often to denote holiness and righteousness. It is even used for the best fruits. The term is used to describe quality, not a special and exclusive calling from God (aside from the gospel message). Recall earlier that Jesus told them to not be deceived to endure to the end and they would be saved. For that to happen they would have to be holy in doctrine and in behavior. They would have had to become the teachings of Jesus and live according to his example which results in a greater degree of holiness. á¼ˆÎ³Î³á½³Î»Î¿Î¹, as used in verse 31, are not â€�"heavenlyâ€ messengers. They are the ones who fled Jerusalem to avoid slaughter (24:16), who were scattered because of persecution (24:14), and those who went to fulfill the great commission (28:18-20). As they went they brought the Gospel of the Kingdom, which took the worst of sinners and transformed them into the choicest of saints.

7)This Generation
Our passage of study concludes with Jesus declaring that â€�"this generation would not pass away until all these things take place (ESV)â€. The nearer context is Jesus; coming on the clouds and the greater context is the Judgement theme which had begun in chapter 23. Jesus reiterated how serious he was by declaring that his words would not pass away though heaven and earth would. The events about which he spoke could not be eschatological in the nearer sense, because he said it would happen relatively soon.

In all other uses of this Î³ÎµÎ½Îµá½° in Matthew, it referred to the generation living at the time of Jesusâ€™ ministry. In 23:26, Jesus said that the blood of the prophets would be upon â€�"this generationâ€. In the Old Testament we find that a generation is 40 years (e.g. the 40 year wandering in the desert so the people of the generation coming out of Egypt would perish for their disobedience and lack of faith). Jesus was asserting that the things he had just talked about would happen within 40 years (ad 70 is clearly in mind).
What Jesus said certainly happened. The temple was destroyed with great bloodshed in ad 70. The Kingdom had spread throughout the whole inhabited earth. Judgement had been executed and the Messianic age had been firmly established, though it did not come in the form that everyone had expected.

8) Discipleship Connection
Jesus had been describing judgement that would befall Jerusalem. The events that he described would create challenges for his disciples. He has spent three years teaching themâ€" molding their minds, hearts and wills. Yet there would be false messiahs claiming physical salvation (vss 5,24-28), great tribulation (vss 6-12) and Godâ€™s chosen nation rejected. There would be much temptation to follow the false hopes proclaimed by false teachers. There would be temptation to deny Christ and live a few more short years.

In spite of all the hardship, Jesus promised that if they endured they would be saved (vs 13). If they would not forsake the words of their teacher they would enjoy eternal life. He did say that heaven and earth will pass away, but his words certainly would not. As long as they trusted all that he had told them, they would be provided for.

It was time for them to go out and spread the Gospel of the Kingdom, making more disciples. Each time they were persecuted and interrogated they would be given the opportunity to speak before powerful men (Mark 13:9) about the wonders of Godâ€™s love. Because of their steadfastness the whole Roman empire would hear the words of Jesus and have the opportunity to experience eternal life with God (Matthew 24:14).

For the modern day disciple, the words of Jesus are no less applicable. We will face hardshipS and temptations of all kinds. In those instances we will have the opportunity to live out the example of our Teacher. In so doing we will have the power to expand the Kingdom as we proclaim the Gospel message.

Also, we must learn from the first disciples that endurance is essential to salvation. We must not forsake the teachings of our Master in order to follow some new theological fad which is nothing but a heresy straight from hell. We must not give up in the face of opposition and persecution. In times where are lives will be threatened we must not worry about what to say, but instead take the opportunity to bring glory to God.

Matthew Research Project: Progess

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 12:53:33 CST

I have begun writing my manuscript for my research project on Matthew 24 which is to be delivered orally. I am posting my introduction and my first major point. Please, please give me feedback.

Introduction
In the centuries following Jesusâ€™ ascension there have been many theories as to the meaning and application of Matthew 24:1-35. Many place the bulk of the passage in the category of eschatology. Though there are certainly echoes of eschatology, the content of verses 1-35 have a primary focus on the judgement upon Judah as realized by the destruction of Jerusalem and them temple in ad 70. Like many in Church history the discourse offered by Jesus would not have been well received or understood by his disciples. However, as the disciples of Jesus would have had to contemplate the words of Jesus, seek to understand them and allow them to shape their beliefs, so must we as modern disciples. It is simply not enough to accept popular consensus, rather one must arduously study the words of the Teacher. This is what we shall endeavor to do in our study.

1) Setting the Stage
The first thing that we must do is set the scene. Of primary importance is the expectation of the Jews of the coming Messiah and the messianic age. There is no consensus as to exactly what they were expecting (there were as many theories as their are today in regards to His second coming). Basically they were expecting one who would come i fulfillment many prophesies about him and the age he was to bring. They would have expected his to a) Usher in the age of Godâ€™s blessing promised to Abraham and progeny, b) Establish his kingdom, c) Overthrow oppressive forces (governing nations) and d) bring judgement upon the world. The coming of messiah was theologically and chronologically linked with eschatological events, though it is not necessary for the final judgement to happen directly at his coming. It is important to consider however, that judgement (whether direct or eschatological) is a very strong OT theme encompassed in Messiah.

In Matthew 23, Jesus had proclaimed woes upon the Scribes and Pharisees and declared that they would be held accountable and punished for the the blood of the prophets (Old Testament, John the Baptist, Jesus and Christians who were killed for spreading the Gospel). He announced that Jerusalemâ€™s house (the temple?) would be left desolate (23:28 c.f. 24:15) and to physically demonstrate this he departed the temple (24:1). Then the disciples catch up to him and point out the beautiful buildings (Mt 24:1, Mark 13:2, Luke 21:5) as if they are saying â€�"you canâ€™t really mean that this temple will be empty, do you?â€ Jesus replied by saying that â€�"there will not be one stone that is on another that will not be destroyed.â€ This no doubt would have brought up in their minds Scriptures which declared judgement upon Judah (e.g. Zephaniah 1) and the Messiahâ€™s role in bringing such.

The structure of this passage is quite curious. Verses 1-3 continues the narrative plot in chapter 23 and sets the stage for the impending discourse. Beginning in verse 9 there are 8 occurrences of Ï„á½¹Ï„Îµ which do not necessarily indicate a movement in time, but rather provide additional details of the sign of the destruction of Jerusalem. These almost lend themselves to have been a structural device by used by Matthew, but their location in their containing clauses does not provide support for this idea. In fact the structure appears to be: 1. Introduction (vs1-3); 2. Declaration (4-14); 3. Retelling with added detail(15-31); 4. Assurance that it would happen soon (32-25).

It should be noted the location of Jesusâ€™ discourse. After departing the temple he went to the Mount of Olives. In Matthew we see him going there immediately before the triumphal entry and the location of his betrayal. Significantly, Zechariah 14:4 as the location where Messiah would appear.

Matthew 24 Study: Part 2

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 00:22:56 CST

Now it is time to go over a little bit of a word study. To get a fuller grasp of the disciple's question, we need to study what they meant by appearing. They wanted a sign that would indicate his coming and the end of the age. The sign would indicate both because they are the same event. The word for appearing is Ï€Î±ÏÎ¿Ï…Ï�'á½·Î±. It has a basic meaning to be present in person in a literal sense. Over time it was used to describe the appearing of the Messiah. It was worked into the Jewish expectation of the Messianic age which was the summation of all of the Old Testament promises regarding the age in addition to the things added by the oral tradition.

The reason why this word came to imply the Messiah in the Jewish culture, was that the word had a technical sense which was used when a king or ruler would visit one of his subject towns. The people usually would make a big deal out of it. In the Jewish sense the Messiah would come to earth to establish his kingdom and usher in the Messianic age. The one to whom all authority had been given, would make himself known (Ï€Î±ÏÎ¿Ï…Ï�'á½·Î±) to his subjects. Daniel 7 describes the authority given to the Son of man.

The disciples wanted to know when Jesus' Ï€Î±ÏÎ¿Ï…Ï�'á½·Î± was going to happen. They wanted to know when he would establish his earthly kingdom and overthrow all of the oppressive forces of that time (Rome and the religious rulers).

The problem with all of this is that the disciples did not yet know the nature of the kingdom. It was not going to be a kingdom of swords and battles. It would come through the propagation of a message of love and hope not by domination. God would not use this kingdom to bring judgement upon Judah in the physical sense, though he would bring that judgement as promised.

As a not I typed directly into the textarea box in greek in some cases. If it does not come through for you, please forgive me. I just thought I would test to see if my ability to type in Greek on my Mac would pass through to people on other platforms.

New Shortcut Key

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 11:59:25 CST

I was attempting to adjust the volume on my Mac laptop earlier. To do this I must hit funtion-f4, which turns it down. To my dismay I thought I was pressing the key combination, but in reality I was scrolling through all of the windows that are open. The scrolling was not limited to a single application, but scrolled through each and every open window. Usually when one wants to just scroll through the windows of the frontmost application he woulnd press command-`. I am not sure if control-f4 should act as it does, but it is a great feature.

Just out of curiosity, I am going through pressing control-fX where x is a new f-key number. control-f3 puts focus on the dock, where I can arrow through the items in the dock.

Image Note

joe@revision29.com — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 21:41:18 CST

I have now added the ability to get the full size version of the thumbnails that you see in my blog. Just click, and if you have javascript enabled, a window will pop-up with the big picture.

Matthew 24 Study: Part 1

joe@revision29.com — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 10:52:27 CST

I have decided that I need some help thinking out my research project for Matthew Exegesis. To do this I am going to write some articles, which discuss different elements of my project. This is simply to help me think through it and is not a final product.

Historical Context
Firstly, to properly understand the disciples' questions of Jesus and Jesus' response, we need to know something about the messianic expectation. The Jews of that time were looking forward to the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophesies of the messianic age. This was to be a time of God's blessing his people and His reign here on Earth. An interesting facet is that there were a lot of people who focused less on the Messiah and more on the age of blessing. Messiah would usher in the age and blessings but he is a means to an end. In the Biblical context this is less the case as people were certainly looking forward to the person of the Messiah.

So what did they hope the Messiah would do? In addition to bringing God's blessing, there was the expectation that the rule of the Romans over the Jews would be destroyed and the oppression by the religious would cease. He would usher in a time of judgment (this view would have been dependant on whether they viewed all messianic events as eschatological or some temporal and some eschatological) where the wicked would be assigned their place in hell and the righteous would be rewarded.

These things would be ushered in by the parousia, the appearing. This word was used when someone would make him or herself present and was used when a king would visit one of his subject cities. The word is interpreted to have eschatological significance in numerous occasions, but many commentators eisegete this rather than allowing context to dictate.

Scriptural Context
In Matthew 23 Jesus pronounced woe and judgment upon the religious leaders who had persecuted every prophet sent to them (Jeremiah, Zechariah, John the Baptist, and eventually Jesus). He pronounced that the blood of the prophets would be vindicated on that generation. Concluding his address, Jesus declared that Jerusalem would be left desolate and illustrated it by leaving.

In chapter 24 we find the 12 catch up to Jesus point out to him the wonderful temple buildings and seemingly ask, "you said the city will be desolate, but what about this marvelous temple devoted to the worship of God?" Jesus declared that no stone would be left on another. This would have sparked revolutionary thoughts in the disciples, as they would have perceived Jesus that was predicting the institution of the messianic age and the overthrow of oppression. Intrigued they tell him in the imperative to tell them 2 things: 1) when it will happen and 2) What will be the sign of his appearing (parousia) and the end of the age. The clauses "when will this happen" and "what is the sign as" a grammatically dependant clauses which contain no verbal ideas. In considering the sign it is a sign of the parousia and the end of the age as a single sign. The clause "sign of your coming" and "the end of the age" are not two separate thoughts as the English translations suggest. Parousia and age are grammatically parallel and connected by the word kai (and). Both agree in case number and gender (genitive, feminine singular) and are part of subordinate to sign.

They are basically asking when are you going to usher in the messianic age and what are some signs that it is near. They are not asking 3 questions 1) When is the temple going to be destroyed, 2) what is the sign of your coming and 3) when is the end of time. They are only asking when the messianic age will begin which is triggered by the fact that the temple (the symbol to them of the religious oppression that they faced and which could be rebuilt as it happened twice already) would be destroyed.

The grammar, spelling is terrible. The thoughts are not precisely formulated. It is very rough. Thanks for listening to my ramblings

Update The spelling has been corrected, and many of the grammar issues are fixed.

Update x 2 If you did not notice the spelling in the graphic for this post was wrong. I accidentally typed two taos instead of two thetas. It has been fixed.

MacZOT

joe@revision29.com — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 08:49:33 CST

I am going to do a little shameless promotion. There is a site called MacZOT. Each day they offer a new piece of shareware at a discounted price. Sometimes the products are really good, but sometimes you wonder why would someone make that program and why would someone sell it? What is really cool is that sometimes they do a mystery bundle. I have had only limited success, but have not spent that much money on it. Usually you get one good useable application a a really good dicsount so it is not a waste. Take a minute to browse their site by clicking the following image.

Photo Gallery

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 23:45:58 CST

I have added a new feature to my site. it is a photo gallery. Just click on the gallery image to the left or http://www.revision29.com/gallery.php for all of you rss feeders.

The really cool thing is that everything is handled in php and javascript. From initial thumbnail loading, to the image hover feature, to the changing preview image to the right of the small icons. All of the code was hand crafted by me with some suggestions early on by Chet in how to use the window.setInterval method. Thanks a lot buddy.

I just posted a couple of images to get things going. I have yet to create a back-end for it so all of the database entry and image resizing must be done manually. That is such a chore.

[update] I changed the code so that performance and page loading should be faster. In a previous implementation I would pass two images into the function, one was for the real small thumb and the other was for the right hand side thumb. There was no reason to load both when the larger one could be scaled down with css. So the code had been changed so that it would pre-load the full-size image and I tried to change it to prevent this behavior, but it broke the code. I still needed to have the second image location passed into the function without actually loading the image in order for the click for full-size feature to work. The code has been successfully changed.

Drumm Lessons

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 14:41:52 CST

Every wanted to play the drums, but have been cursed with the no-rythm disease? Perhaps you just have not had the cash flow to get some professional lessons. I have good news. There is a guy named Darren Matthes in South Dakota who wants to teach you how to play drums and give misc. tips. You don't have to go there to get them. All you have to do is subscribe to his video podcast, watch and practice, and you too and be a good drummer. But wait, there's more. IT IS FREE!!!!

If you would like to get more information visit Darren's site which is http://www.unirunner.com From there you can find the iTunes subscribe button or copy the rss feed into your favorite rss reader.

Blog Images

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 14:57:11 CST

I now have the ability to add images to my blog. It took some time and some hard manipulation on the server side, but it is working.

The image that I choose to showcase along with this post is one from a snow storm we had a couple weeks ago. It just happened that the pure white snow and brown and greens in the tree trunk contrasted nicely.

Also, I will tweak the code to allow you to click on an image to get a full size version.

Viral Campaign

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 15:17:31 CST

So funds are far too short. I have been unable to find a job. I am tossing around the idea of opening a paypal account and creating a site called something like helpjoethroughschool, which would encourage people to donate money to help Sarah and I as I attend seminary. One avenue for spreading the word initially would be sending out a bulletin to everyone on MySpace.

If it is going to work, I am going to need to offer something to those who decide to donate. I could offer up a status of my classes, some theological articles, or something that would cause people to want to be a part of my educational endeavor. I would make a video, as Chet once suggested, but I don't have a video camera, except that my digital camera can take some short videos at 640x480, which is good enough for the web. If you have any ideas, please pass them on.

The Tax Man

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 21:13:39 CST

We finally got all of our w2 forms in the mail. After filling in all of the information using H&R Block's free online TaxCut we apparently still owe uncle sam around $460. That is CRAZY!!! I purposelly made it so that I would have extra money taken out just to cover my butt. Guess not. As if we were not already dead broke.

As it is, I don't have a job, Sarah's car broke down and we had to fork out $260 for that, her tag expired so I will have to get new insurance in Illinois and an Illinois tag. We simply don't have enough money.

Please Explain Why the Polar Ice Caps are Melting

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 00:04:04 CST

I was reading up on the temperature and precipitation of the polar ice caps. Apparently the temperature remains well below zero and the precipitation is very low which means the caps can be considered deserts. Explain to me how the ice caps can be melting, if they are always below freezing, have very little solar radiation and the sun 's rays are striking at a much greater angle? If global warming is the cause the temperature in the ice caps would have to be raised to above freezing for the argument to be valid.

Living in snow country has given me some perspective. Even when it is below freezing the snow melts due to the sun. It is not because the earth is warming, it is because the sun is melting the very top layer of snow, then the next and so on. It is similar to how a piece of ice melts in a glass of soda pop.

This observation is some as applicable because the polar ice caps don't receive as much direct sunlight. Yes, the sun is beating down on them 6 months out of the year, but the angle of the rays coupled with the high reflectivity of the snow, not as much sunlight impacts the surface. The temperature then stays very low. But, I am sure that there is some melting because of the exposure to the sun. But the problem is that is is very cold, and the sun has some but not a lot of influence on the melting of the caps. There is some missing factor to the melting ice caps. Another insight from snow country: salt. What surrounds the polar ice caps? Very large oceans with lots of salt. What does salt do? It decreases the melting point of ice (though only to a certain point). The salt that is in the air and the water that is interacting with the polar ice caps is one very large factor in the melting of the snow, especially in the north ice cap since it is "floating" in a huge body of salt water.

I don't hear much of Antarctica's ice melting (because most of it is on solid ground). All I hear from Al Gore is that the northern ice cap is melting. Well Al, Put a little salt in a glass with ice and water and stick it in the freezer overnight. Tell me how much is left in the morning, Honestly, I have not tried it but will tomorrow night. I want you, Mr. Gore to do the same. When it melts, don't blame it on global warming, please.

Pictures coming soon

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 11:27:21 CST

Soon, I will be developing a pictures gallery section as well as the ability for me to add pictures to my blog entries. The site is so dull without some more interesting colors. Stay tuned.....

Blizzard!!!

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 20:54:31 CST

No, that is not just a wonderful treat from DQ. Today I had my first real blizzard. The kind with the heavy snow, strong winds, big piles of snow and all that jazz.

Last night, well after midnight, it began to snow pretty hard. Not only that, the wind was blowing very hard. I had anticipated not going to class today, because one of the professors e-mailed us and said it was a possibility. So, when I awoke my eyes gazed into the "back yard" a.k.a. the corn field behind our apartment, and was dismayed at the apparent lack of snow. I check the school's website, just in case and sure enough, it was canceled.

Then Sarah had to go to work. I was going to drive her there just in case it was snowing. So, I looked out into the parking lot and there was snow everywhere. My intention was to start my car and take her on her way. The first thought that this was not going to come to pass was the 2 and a half foot pile of snow on the sidewalk leading to the parking lot. Then on my way to my car, I had to traverse a pile about the same size but pretty much covering the entire parking lot. There was a shimmer of hope in that it looked as if the snow behind my car was small enough to drive over. No such luck. So I tried Sarah's. The drift behind her car was only up to her truck, but the rest of the drive was clear because a plow had cut a single lane sort of clear. The car simply could not push the drift out of the way.

Several times the plows tried getting in, but one got stuck and every-time they pushed the snow out of the way, more would blow in, filling in the gap. So, hopefully the plows will come early in the morning and allow us to venture out in town where there will be many large piles of snow, ready to be tunneled through by all the children who have the day off.

Parallel View

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 21:23:55 CST

I have added a new functionality to my Bible search called parallel view. Once you have search for a passage, you will notice that there in an option towards to top of the page which gives you the ability to turn it on or off. The link should be right next to the top heading which says "Bible Search." Te reason I put it there is because I need to be able to compare a text that I am studying for my Matthew exegesis class between different Bible translations (and eventually the Greek text). This was built for a pragmatic reason, just is the origin of the Bible search functionality.

Please be advised that there may be bugs. I have tried to iron out as many as possible, but you never know. If you fid a bug please let me know. I probably won't improve on this feature for a while (except major bug fixes) because I have important classwork to do and I need to spend time with Sarah,

My Dearest Apology

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 14:56:59 CST

I would like to apologize to all my my faithful reader(s). Due to my lack of necessary work to secure my site from spam, there has been a lot of inappropriate content posted as comments to my articles. Some of them were benign (at least they were at first), but as I was sorting through which ones were legit and which ones were not, i found that there was a lot of immoral content. There were many links to pornographic sites, for which I am deeply sorry for. If you have run across those sub-articles, please forgive me.

Vista, what?

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 11:31:07 CST

Ok, so Windows Vista has been released to the general public. It is a wonderfully elegant looking operating system, but I am no fan. Being a Mac enthusiast, I have been used to many of Vista's ground breaking features since I bought my first Mac in 2002. I have been frustrated with Microsoft's un-innovation by copying much of what Apple has offered in Os X. Don't get me wrong, I think if someone has a great idea that you can incorporate in your product to make it better, go ahead. One person or organization can't have a monopoly on good ideas, so borrowing ideas is inevitable. What bothers me most is that Microsoft has claimed innovation in many areas, but clearly they were not the ones who actually did the innovation. In an interview with CNN, gates was asked about whether they had copied Os X. His response was was something to the effect of no, we have done a lot of innovation. He then went on to enumerate those innovations: parental controls (in Os X, though not as good which is being remedied in Leopard); "even in this photo area, you know, we would like for you to compare in the photo area I want you to compare who we've done the.. made it easier to make a dvd (which has been a part of Os X in iDVD/iPhoto for a very long time); edit high definition movies (again is Os X in iMovie for a long time and made HD in Tiger). What Gates named had already been in place by Apple. What is interesting was when he was calling attention to the photo manipulation progra,m, he started so say that he wanted us to compare, stuttered then changed subjects. Perhaps that was him saying to him self, "oh crap, they are right!!!!"

One other major difference I want to discuss is price. Os X costs $150 or so when it comes out (student price of $79). When you buy it you get all of the features. You don't have to pay extra for iMovie, iDVD, etc.. The costs is cheaper and there is no confusion about which version to buy.

Server Upgrade

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 00:34:45 CST

Today, I was having a lot of problems with my website. To keep you from being bored, I will not explain the symptoms. The root cause is that my hosting provider is upgrading their server to a 3gHz Xeon Quad core.

It is cold

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 09:03:09 CST

Ok, so right now is the coldest weather that I have ever been in. It is 7° with a wind-chill of -8°.

Matthew Exegesis

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 15:26:01 CST

As some of you know, I recently move to Lincoln, IL to attend Lincoln Christian seminary. One of my classes is Matthew Exegesis with Dr. Bob Lowery. This is going to be a challenge due to the insane amount of work. Though there is a lot to be done, it is well worth it. As we go about our work, we are looking at the book through the lens of discipleship.

One of the assignments that we must do is an exegetical research project for a certain portion of scripture. We each have our own passage which we will translate, research give a 45 minute lecture and submit a publishable article based on our presentation/research. This is going to be an awesome undertaking. The passage that I was assigned to, based on my own desire, was Matthew 24:1-35. Dr. Lowery me and the other guy translating the rest of the chapter that this is the hardest passage in the whole book due to its subject matter. In fact this section is not without controversy because may people take the majority of the verses to refer to the end times. My conjecture, which goes against many scholars (even some in the Restoration heritage), is that my section deals solely with the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the nation of Israel as God's chosen people. The reason why people assign this passage to the end times is the references to the abomination of desolation (who people claim is the anti-Christ), the coming of Jesus (which people see as a reference to the second coming rather than in a figurative way regarding judgement as in OT), tribulation, and the phrase "end of the age". It will be fun delving into the depths of meaning that Jesus intended us (actually the disciples to whom he was speaking) to understand. I will try to post some progress on my project and maybe share some of my translation and excerpts from my article. More likely than not, my entire works won't be posted in fear of plagiarism.

Relativism Rocks!

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 11:26:53 CST

Yesterday I was reading up on the Emergent Church. It is an extremely exciting move in the Church as a group of people are having discussions on how to "do church" and think theology in the postmodern context. Much of what they are getting at rings very familiar to my Restoration Movement ears. I do believe that the Emergent church is right about so many issues, especially when it comes to social action and making a positive impact in the community.

There are, however, many dangers with their thinking. As I was reading one particular article, which was quoting the Wikipedia article on their movement, there was a section describing the Emergent hermeneutic. It is a recognized fact that they hold one's own background, experience and knowledge to determine what the text means rather than looking at authorial intent/cultural context. This is blatant relativism. Now, don't get me wrong, I love and believe strongly that the gospel is relative. It is applicable and relative to every culture at all times in history. This is why every culture does not need direct revelation from God, all they need is his pre-written and proven word.

One's background, experience and knowledge do play a role not interpretation, rather in application. It almost seems as if what the postmodern does is skip the interpretation and go straight to how it applies to me. Man, do you miss a lot when this is done (this coming from a postmodern). When you look at the historical context and authorial intent, you see just how much greater the text speaks to us now. You see how the same false teachings have stayed around for 2000 years. You see that persecution comes but the Church flourishes. You see how real and relational God is. When you see how and why the text was originally written, you can see how much more liberally the text applies to your life.

So sure, be relative, but only after you do your homework. Be as relative with application as you want, as long as honors God's word.

Saved but not Secure

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 14:02:09 CST

The following is an article that I wrote a while back. To be honest I have not reread it, nor have I proof-read it. I will not be held liable for stupid or incoherent things that I spoke in the past:

A popular thought in the Christian world is that once you accept Christ nothing can take away your salvation. Paul speaks of this when he says in Romans 8 that nothing can separate us from the love of God. It is true that no person or outside circumstance will cause God to stop loving us or cause us to loose our salvation, however that says nothing of the heart. Satan can't take you from God, your mean boss can't take you from God, your broken down car can't take you from God, but YOU can!!!

When you become a Christian you tell God that you will follow him for the rest of your life. Like many commitments we make, we may regret that decision or not hold to it for one reason or another. Jobs, families, friends, and sins can all be far more enticing that having an eternal relationship with God. So we choose to break the covenant we made with him, a covenant that stated out loyalty, devotion and obedience for all time. It is our choice, not God's, not Satan's or our boss'. To see how this works turn back to the Old Testament.

The Old Testament in part was written to show God's plan of salvation for mankind which would have its final fulfillment in the messiah--Jesus. Part of this plan included the nation of Israel, God's chosen people. Nothing could snatch these people from God's hand, except for their own choices. After God had established the nation of Israel it existed for a long time as a unified country but then because of sin the nation was cut in half. Israel to the north and Judah to the south. Both of them were God's chosen people but one would seriously rebel against God. In fact they would invent their own religion and forsake the true worship of God. Because of this God cut this nation from his people and considered them to be gentiles. They in effect had lost their special status with God and had lost the way of salvation.

When you turn to the new testament the story is the same. Once one becomes a Christian he become a member of God's chosen people, Israel. But because of rebellion and purposeful, unrepentant sin that status can be removed. This is why the new testament frequently says that he who endures will have eternal life. You have to endure temptation to sin, to turn away from God and loose one's salvation. Mark 13:13 says, "You will be hated by all because of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved." Jesus was speaking if persecution and he said that if you turn from Him because of the pressures of the world then you sill not have salvation, but if you endure you will be saved. Hebrews 6:4-6 says, "For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame." Paul was speaking of people who tasted of the heavenly gift (salvation), and were partakers of the Holy Spirit (who dwells in a person beginning at the time when his/her sins are washed away which happens at baptism). These are characteristics of people who have been given salvation. In this context Paul says that if they turn away from God then it is impossible to bring them to repentance (because they have hardened their heart to the guiding and conviction of the Holy Spirit). It is possible to be a Christian and be given the assurance of salvation, then because of one's own sin and rebellion reject that salvation.

You must endure sin, temptation, and trials or else you forfeit the gift if salvation and practically spit in Jesus' face and tell him that you don't need him.

If you believe in once saved always saved you take away all concern for committing sin and all responsibility to do what God wants you to do. However if you realize that you can loose your salvation you will be sure to remain close to Jesus, have a vibrant and growing relationship with Him, and be on guard against the devil and the sins that he wants to use to bring you down.

Poking The Nest

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:11:13 CST

Ok, so there leaks of a report that indicated how muslim extremism has increased since we went into Iraq. Ummmmmm, duh! You have a bunch of people who want us dead to begin with, then when you take them on in their own territory you are going to really tick them off. Of course they are going into an advanced recruitment and training program. Of course they are going to spread out around the globe. They hate us. If they can't win in their own territory they are going to spread out, try to spread us thin and then take us down in a weakened state. If you go and poke the hornets' nest, they will scurry around and sting you.

The leftist wackos are saying that it is a mistake to have gone into Iraq because we have done things to cause more muslim extremists. Of course you are going to make them mad, but that is no reason to not go in and take out an evil leader and his oppressive government. You have to do what is morally right no matter who is going to be mad especially if those offended are the enemy. The libs want to stop those who are doing right because their doing right causes offense. This is precisely what they have been doing to us Christians for years. We are targeted for censorship because of the love and truth that we proclaim. The darkness hates the light. The darkness will strike the light with more intense force each time it steps out to do what is right. This has always been and always will be the case.

I've been podcasted

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 15:03:11 CST

I now have a podcast. All the sermons that I will be recording can be found here. Also I may consider doing a five minute commentary on things relation to the Bible, politics or something that has been on my mind. The link is [url]http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=196334526[/url]. Be advised that it will take a couple of hours from now to see it in iTunes.

Video Sermons

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 11:34:27 CST

Well, we started to video record our Saturday night youth service entitled Fire. I edited last week's (9-16-06) and was working to put it on youtube. For some reason I can't upload it despite having a director account which provides unlimited size and duration of videos. As a temporary fix I will place the videos on this webserver and post the links for your enjoyment.

Without further ado... The message is called "What Lies Behind The Door" and can be watched at http://www.revision29.com/video/wlbtd.mp4

Enjoy

The Unexpected Turn

joe@revision29.com — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 21:38:56 CST

The last article was an allusion to some events that have happened in the past week. Before I speak on those events let me speak on the past. Last year I had started working at my home church doing youth work. The associate minister had moved up to the senior minister spot and I had come in to be the interim youth minister. The idea was that the position would start out part time, then move to a fill time ministry. We waited a long time at in June of this year I went full time as a trial basis to determine if the congregation wanted a full time youth minister. There were some expectations and a contract that I signed agreeing to them. The main idea is that I would put a plan in place to grow the youth group through the summer. Within that period the eldership decided that they would make the position a public matter and would collect resumes. They wanted to get the best candidate for the job. I was a little shaken but overall o.k. with the situation. Everyone thought I would get the position as this just seemed to be a formality. It wasn't. From what I understand the senior minister wanted to see where the eldership stood and somehow called for a vote to see if I was going to be the candidate. He spoke to them about the contract I signed and that I had fulfilled the expectations with the exception of missing a couple of dates on the timeline. In their discussion, a one night thing, despite fulfilling the requirements it was decided that I was not a viable candidate. The reasoning were some intangibles such as a lack of quality relationships with the parents, sponsors and kids. Their decision was not decision. Naturally I was very upset at what had transpired. We had the next few years all planned out, then in the course of a single conversation with the senior minister, all of those plans vanished.

At the moment Sarah and I are at peace with the situation. We see that God has closed a door. We had been praying for a clear sign for a long time and we now have it.

The only issue that I really have is the way in which the decision was reached. There are many people who like what I am doing. I will be the first to admit that the things they said I was not doing I am weak at. The truth is that I had purposed in my mind to fix the very things they said I was not doing. The problem is that they based their opinion of my ability on the complaints of a couple of people. Even more agitating is the fact that never did they mention these things to me. The only concerns I heard from the elders where about a time when a student was spreading rumors and my name got dragged into it, a time or two when I did not get resource orders in on time and how a mother had taken her daughter to another church to get better spiritual training. Then recently a family left the church and in great degree because things had deteriorated in the youth group. The problem is that I did not hear of these things until it was too late to do anything. If it were a problem I would liked for the elders to have approached me and helped me to work past the weaknesses. They were being very inconsistent because they don't hesitate to speak of complaints to other staff members. scripture tell us if we have a problem with someone to go and talk to them about it and if that doesn't work to bring some witnesses and so on. It would be one thing if they wold me about those things and we made a plan to fix it but then I continued to not do well in those areas. It is another issue that they never gave me the opportunity to improve myself and to grow in my abilities. Instead they saw my weaknesses, did not come along side and help, did not come and shepherd me as a younger minister who needs to grow, and are effectively sending me off to another church as damaged merchandise. The decision is fine, but the way that it was reached was in error.

I hesitate to write this and post it on the internet, but I want people to know how I feel and get this "on record."

This event not only show my weaknesses, which I concur with, but also shows some problems with the leadership at the church. I am not the only one who has suffered because of this. There are others who are constantly criticized by leadership and congregates for doing Gods work in an appropriate manner. Those complaints are not handled appropriately either. This concerns me because the complaints that are lodged against myself and others are rooted in anger, hatred and a spirit of division. Those things should not be tolerated. It is in my opinion that the leadership needs some change of heart and some change in how they handle things. If they are unwilling to accept the same criticism and unwilling to conform themselves to the Biblical standards for their positions, they should step aside until their hearts are more precisely conformed to Christ's. I do not advocate splitting the church, nor causing heartache. I think this situation needs to be handled with love, humility or grace. It is a problem that must be addressed. Current staff has problems with how some things are handled and I am worried for the one who will come after me. Also I am worried for those who may come into the church afresh and be turned away because of the problems that are present. If there is not change the church cannot grow the kingdom.

My desire is that when certain people confront the elders that it will be done in love and a spirit of unity. I want for the elders to come with humble hearts ready to accept any criticism and exhibit genuine repentance. Above all I do not want this to be a device for the devil to split the church. Rather I would like to see God's will be done and some positive change be made. Change that if done correctly will bring forth a bountiful harvest in the church and in each of the leaders' hearts.

The Unexpected

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 11:47:06 CST

Just when you have God figured out or his will seems clear, there is always the possibility that something will not be as expected. When this happens it might sting, it might hurt, it may confound, but God is always there. That which is scary about the unknown is only scary because of the limits we place upon ourselves or where we hope to be. But God is there and he has a plan. He sees within us something greater than we could ever imagine. His vision and his plan are much more exciting than what we as humans posses. Sure there is fear driven by uncertainty but God is. God was. God will ever be. He is the single comforting force when change happens and life takes a different direction than what we had planned. All we can do is reach out and embrace the father and let him carry us where he wills.

Smoking Hot Processor

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 08:22:14 CST

I have been using a MacBook Pro for youth group stuff for about a month ago. Overall the product impresses me. The only concern is the heat. From the outset I searched for a suitable temperature monitoring app because this thing gets hot. I mean it is uncomfortable at times to use the track-pad because my fingers are pretty sensitive to temperature. The first application I downloaded, Core Duo Temp, gave some real good basic info such as processor temp and speed. Then I ran across another application called Temperature Monitor which gives a little more hardware info. What shocks me is how hot the cpu is allowed to get. I thought a processor should not get above 140 degrees Fahrenheit or it would cook the system. Well when I run about 140 consistently my mind gets to worrying. Anyway, this second app tells me the temp limits of the sensor, the temp at which the computer will shut itself off to saves its butt. To my dismay the limit is 212 deg F!!!!! I could not imagine that is safe for the system or my lap.

I wish I could write

joe@revision29.com — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 14:55:46 CST

Sorry world for not talking to you. There is much that I would love to talk about, like "Revelation Fallacy Part 2", the Living Water that Jesus promised, or an update on the youth ministry.

Blog Spam

joe@revision29.com — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 21:36:41 CST

My friend over at Chetos.net has had a problem with getting spam on part of his website. He added a CAPTCHA input for a particular feature to filter out spammers. Tonight as I was looking around the web, I found out that this problem is huge.

Let me explore the logic in this. I hire a company to send spam to people. This company sends spam to email and submits spam messages to blogs. People will see these ads for my fake products and pay me lots of money. The more people who see my ads the more money I will get.

Does this person, in the form of the rhetorical me, actually think he will get more business and money through this type of advertising? The better question is whether the people phishing for information in order to steal another's id actually think people will fall for their stupid scheme? Who in their rational mind would think by irritating people out of their minds they will make money? Who would pay a person money who fills their inbox with dozens of spam emails per day? I guess if you have to steal someone's money it is because you are stupid, lazy or both.

I'm off the bandwagon

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 23:07:09 CST

So Rush Limbaugh was detained and questioned and shot at by the drive-by-media, for having viagra. He was coming home from vacation in Jamaica or an island in the bahamas, and he had a bottle of the "performance enhancer" which was prescribed to his doctor. From what I have heard this is common practice for men who take this drug to have the label made out to his doctor so no one would know it was his. Everyone should get off Rush's back for this because they were his drugs prescribed legally.

My support for Rush died when I learned that he was coming back from vacation with the pills. Apparently he is not married, so the pills were not to help the misses, which would be a legitimate reason to have them. What was he doing with drugs to enable him to have sexual relations, if he does not have a wife? He was having such relations with a person or persons who were not his wife. As a Christian, I must put things in perspective. Homosexuality, which Rush is against and so am I, is destroying our culture, our Church, and our country. You know what? SO IS SEX OUTSIDE OF MARRIAGE. Fornication, adultery, and homosexuality are all destroying families, our culture, our Church and our country. Rush, if you are going to sand against homosexuals, then stand against yourself. This type of hypocritical behavior is what gives conservatives a bad name. You preach against one thing when you are doing something just as bad.

Now I am in a moral dilemma. Should I continue to listen to Rush, or switch over to the FM dial during his time-slot? I for sure will not listen to Bortz because he is a libertarian and is for things that I do not condone as a Christian. If I am going to be consistent, then I must not listen to Rush either. Well Z, I guess you will be getting some more of my time from now on.

Change in Tongues

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 10:05:40 CST

On Sunday my preacher, Mark, gave a real good Pentecost sermon wherein he mentioned a controversy. The problem is who exactly did the gift of the Holy Spirit fall upon. The issue really who was in the upper room where this took place. Mark indicated that there are two schools of though-- one being the 120 and one being the 11+Matthias. The second camp is where my tent has been pitched for a while. This was to go along with my commonly held belief that it was the apostles who were the ones being heard speaking different languages. What irritated me was that Mark said that the answer to the question is up in the air. So I whipped out my Greek New Testament and looked for myself. Then for the last few days I have been stewing over it.

So what does the Greek say? In english the questionable phrase in chapter 2 is "When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place (NASB)." The literal meaning of in one place is the it (masculine). What is this "the it"? It would be the upper room in 1:15 which is the nearest antecedent of concord (previous noun with same gender, etc) that is a place. So the people who were gifted were in the upper room. This is not the debated part. The noun for the people present is pantes (a 3rd declension, masculine noun) which means each, every, all, etc. The nearest concordant noun is the phrase "eleven apostles". However since the pronoun that places their location is in the same sentence as pantes is can be that pantes refers to the crowd in the upper room.

On the same token this section is book-ended by the eleven 1:26 and 2:14. So I would lean in the direction that the eleven were alone in the upper room and alone were gifted with the gift of speaking in tongues. When they baptized those who accepted their message the indwelling of the Holy Spirit was from then on passed on. Problem solved.

But then there is Acts 10. Gentiles were given the ability to speak in tongues without the apostles being present. This has changed my whole perspective on how God has poured out his spirit. He not only poured it out on the apostles, but also on gentiles who were no apostles. Sure these people could not pass the gift on as the apostles could, but they still were gifted.

This has totally rocked my entire foundation. If God could pour out miraculous gifts on gentiles of old, what prevents him from doing so now? Don't get me wrong healing and some other gifts was an apostolic gifts and would not be give again as their are no apostles to pass them on. But why can't God gift someone to do weird things?

Tongues as we know it in the modern Church is a heresy and a joke. But God certainly gifts people to be able to learn and speak a multitude of foreign languages. He would not enable them to speak non-understanable words as is the modern case in many holiness Churches. But if we are to call ourselves men and women of the Bible we must leave room for God to do some amazing things through the power of the Holy Spirit. Acts shows us that God gifts people who might not deserve it or who are not Christians (the crazy part). Sure we say that the gift was to bring credit to the message that the apostles had and to open the door for gentiles to be accepted. but is that the end? Remember back to the early days of the Restoration, were there not strange signs being revealed? Sounds like barking emanating from people's chests, people who were not speaking with their mouths. People nearly doubling over forward and back while making these strange sounds. To me t would seem as if the Holy Spirit was at work in those days. Why would he not? After-all we are reaching back and dusting off the teachings of Scripture and making them the standard of our lives and Churches. We are allowing the Bible to be freed from thousands of years of tradition, legalism, and fallacies of all kinds. Why would not God let us know that we were doing the right thing, the thing that the intended to happen all along?

Or am I wrong?

Affirmative Inaction

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 15:38:15 CST

As I was checking Google News for any interesting news bits, I came across an article in which described a case that the Supreme Court is going to hear. The case will decide whether race should be a factor when assigning kids to public schools. In other words it will be decided whether or not affirmative action is constitutional. Boy do I hope that they find that race should not be a factor in decided who goes to what school (in order to meet racial quotas). A person should be awarded for his/her achievements and should not be given a free pass just because he or she has a different heritage. This is grossly unfair. But that is where our society is at. A man who works hard to earn what he has is punished whereas the sluggard who has not worked hard gets things handed to him. If you are lazy and can't work then you don't get anything. If you work hard but perhaps you are going through a hard time, there perhaps is room for a little something to help you get by, but only for a limited time. You by no means should be given a pass (a good job, a good education) just because you are a different race than someone else. After all that is that not what racism is? One group giving favors, handouts, opportunities to people like them but ignoring those who actually earned them.

Affirmative action had a purpose for a couple of years to level the playing field while Mr. Whitie learned not to play favorites and ignore Mr. Darkie. But now it is doing the very thing that it sought to abolish. In the process it has brought minority groups to the point where their culture expects and demands things from others just because of their race. They don't get good paying jobs, they don't get a good education, and they don't care about being productive citizens. If you want to fix the problem of blacks not getting good jobs then find ways to reform their culture. Instill them a positive work ethic. Give them pride in their race and help them see the disgrace that has been caused be the sluggards among them who demand everything given to them. If you want blacks to have a leg up on whites teach them to focus on taking care of their families and not feeding their drug habits, not spending all their money on pimp rides when their family lives in the ghetto, not wasting money on gold teeth when they don't have money to pay their bills. Don't think that I am too hard on blacks for this behavior. There are many people who have huge trucks jacked up to the moon while their families live in a run down trailer. They too must get their priorities straight.

If you are not willing to do what it takes to get ahead in life, don't expect someone to carry you to the top. Work hard, seek God and you will be given what you need when you need it. Instead of having no pride in something given to you you can have pride and joy seeing what you can accomplish through the strength of God. No longer will you have to say that "this came from uncle sam" but this came from my own hands.

Attention Reader

joe@revision29.com — Thu, 25 May 2006 22:07:02 CST

In analyzing the stats for my website I figure that there must be one person reading my site. Of course I don't have much to offer as I have not really had a lot of time to add cool stuff to my site. Between marriage, work and ministry there is not much time for leisurely pursuing website coolness.

For my information if you read my crazy thoughts please put add a comment to this article with your real name so I can know who you are. You will have to click on the article title to get it viewed alone without the others articles being displayed.

Revelation Fallacy: Part One

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 16 May 2006 21:31:30 CST

Revelation-- the mysterious book at the end of the Bible that no one understands. Everyone, except for a select number of people who have read the "Left Behind" series. Far too many people have adopted their interpretation of Revelation from what they have read, seen on T.V., or heard their "pastor talk about it." When it comes right down to it most Christians have no clue about the real meaning of Revelation and the hope that it is supposed to bring. They see it as a book of gloom and doom instead of the realization of the victory that Christ has and the ultimate defeat of all things sinful on the last day.

Those who profess to know all there is to know about Revelation (Tim LaHaye for one) often take many things literal and at the same time take many things to be figurative. IN fact they will take elements from a verse and declare them to be one and other elements from the same verse to be the other. Of course this is bad reading comprehension skills which many a literature teacher would be ashamed of. Example one. The anti-Christ. Often times the beast (of the land) in Revelation is given the title "Antichrist." Consider A) anti-christ is a term used only in 1 and 2 John to describe false teachers who John said already are in the world (not to come in the future) and never is found in Revelation; B) The beast is never described in definite terms. Let me explain B. In Revelation 13:11 the beast of the land is described as follows: "Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon." The language is that of metaphor indicated by such words as "like" and "as." As a side note remember how Jesus warned of false teachers as ones who would come as sheep but really are ravenous wolves on the inside (Matthew 7:15). Hmm.... perhaps God wants us to see HEY THIS BEAST IS THE EPITOME OF WHAT JESUS SPOKE OF.

Consider also where it is spoken of that a third of the stars will fall and destroy a third of the Earth. Well people say this really will happen. This is physically impossible. Stars are billions of light-yeears away and if one got too close (like our own) the earth would melt. Also if these stars are just meteors then what would account for a third of the stars in the night sky to go black, after all would the night sky be clearer as there would be less light pollution? So it is taken that the stars are figurative but the quantity of the Earth that is destroyed is literal. Well who died and made you the messenger who showed John this vision? Literal is literal, figure is figure. After all most of the book is a figurative vision that John was given.

Multilingual Os X

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 14 May 2006 17:29:00 CST

Lately I have been on a kick to make my computer lean and mean. Over the time I have had Tiger (Apple Os 10.4) installed on my machine, there have not been many problems. In fact it has been a long time since I have wiped my system and started from scratch. This is something I have done out of the desire to fix something that is not broken, or had installed numerous little stupid apps that put little files all over my hard drive in "hidden" unix directories which needed deletion (the good old fashion way). Actually since I am looking I installed Tiger June 19, 2005 and I guess have not deleted it since then, which is odd for me. Since my life is real busy and I don't have the leisure to reinstall my os every 6 months it has not been done.

Anyway, all of that to say-- I am trying to clean up ship. My 40Gb hard drive is getting a little full. iWork '06-1.4Gb; Adobe Apps-700Mb; Home directory 14.4Gb and so on. Plus over time I have installed many system tweaks/hacks which have left "residue" that slows me down a bit. I would make a new user and copy my files over but that is a pain because there are a lot of files and some of them need to be dug up from the depths of the filesystem. Wholly COW this entry is LONG and BORING!!!!!

Here it is. Not enough drive space and system is slow therefore changes must happen. Os X and apps for it have multilingual support (localization) which amounts to a lot of extra space being taken up. Enter Monolingual!!!! This app will go through Tiger and any applications to search out unneeded language files (for the languages you don't want installed on your system like spanish, swiss french, chinese, and about 30 others) and deletes them. In addition Monolingual searches through applications and removes support for specified kinds of processors (since Tiger has to support G3, G4, G5 and Intel). Since I speak english, type some greek (the koine kind), might want to play with german, and have a G4 processor many many files can be trashed. So I ran the program and it kicked out about 2 Gigs of unneeded files. I don't complain about Apple and other software developers including support for multiple languages and architectures, but I wish that the Os X installer and subsequent application installers would know what not to install. It is not a problem because some really cool people made a real sweet piece of software called Monolingual for FREE!!!! The app can be gotten by going to http://monolingual.sourceforge.net, or http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/7758. Now I don't remember if I built in support for blogging tags like url, b, i, etc so those links might not be links, just text. Anyway you can cut and paste.

A Little Thought

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 05 May 2006 21:52:38 CST

For a while I have been reading through Genesis. Last night I read the part where the angels visited Abraham and Sarah to announce that they would have a child. It is awesome that even though they were well past time to have children, God had enabled them to do so. This I have heard/read this fact for a while now so it does not come as a surprise. What got me was the proximity of this announcement with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra. When the angels were leaving his house they told him about what was going to happen because of the rampant wickedness of those two cities. At the beginning of the chapter (18) there is is promise to a man of faith that he would be blessed with a son and would become the ancestor of a great nation. Towards the end there is the promise of destruction to those who have no faith in God and who in fact openly rebel against Him. Even in the midst of this declaration of judgement, there is a hope that the city would be spared if only 10 were found righteous.

Many say that the Old Testament is full of law and judgement whereas the New Testament is all about grace. This proves to some to show that the Bible is messed up because it depicts two different pictures of God. Some have even gone as far as to say that the God of the Old and the God of the New are two different gods. When looking at this account in Genesis, you can see that God showed grace and mercy time and time again. When Abraham doubted or tried to do things his own way and sinned, there was grace. When Sodom and Gomorra sinned, time was given for them to repent. If only 10 people out of the whole population walked close with God, the cities would have been shown grace.

One can't look at the Old Testament and the New Testament and say they show a different God. Perhaps what you see is people who worship different gods. You see the righteous worship the one true God, and thus are given grace, mercy, and forgiveness. You then see the unrepentant sinners who at first are shown grace and mercy, but then are punished for the sins they committed. The problem is not with the consistency of God, for he never changes, rather it is the sinfulness of man. But instead of facing sin, people make excuses, tell lies, and quiet that still small voice. Accept responsibility of your actions. if you obey God and walk closely with him there will be good consequences. However, if you do not obey and do not walk closely the grace and mercy will come to an end eventually.

Linux and Me

joe@revision29.com — Fri, 05 May 2006 21:24:12 CST

Over the last couple of days I have been trying to get Ubuntu Linux installed on my Mac. For those of you who have not ventured out of the Windows world, linux is a free operating system (the software that lets you and your programs talk to your computer) which can be real cool. There were some problems with installation and of course my Apple branded wireless adapter does not work, surprise!!!. Once all of the problems got smashed out, I booted into linux and all was well. I switched the theme, browsed the web, and spent a long time just messing with things. Boy did I get bored real quick. Though Ubuntu comes with some programs, there were none that really suited my fancy. I tried to install some better apps but THE STUPID THING WOULD NOT INSTALL. It would appear as if my version of Ubuntu is too old to be able to install programs. How disappointing! Since my wireless signal is not that reliable (reference the wireless adapter sitting on my window sill and connected to my wife's computer), I did not feel like updating. I know, i know if I am going to rant and rave about something not working but the fix is within my grasp and I don't fix it, then I am dumb and lazy.

Frustrated and bored I boot back into good ol' Os X (pronounced o s 10). Wholly cow, what a difference!?!?!?! I used to think that the graphical interface for linux was so cool, but it is nothing compared to Apple. I have been spoiled, oh shucks. The way that OsX draws the graphics on the screen is absolutely wonderful. I have forgotten how linux and Windows (even vista) do not compare to the graphics of OsX. Things are smooth, clear, crisp, and not jagged.

Perhaps I will keep Linux installed, or maybe I will just use that partition as swap space. There is no use for me to run it as I can't run Adobe apps, Office, or iWork (my personal preference over Office). Why use something hard to configure, half as attractive, and unable to use the applications that I need? Just because I can.

Communion

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 22:14:46 CST

When it comes down to communion meditation at Church, the part of the service when we remember the sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf, the most common scripture read from is 1 Corinthians 11. The part that gets picked out is the part where Paul says to examine oneself so as to not eat the bread or drink the wine in an unworthy manner so as to eat and drink condemnation on oneself (v27-28). This is all well and good to point out, but the emphasis that is often added I feel is not what Paul had in mind at all. What is emphasized is that we must have reverence for the Body and Blood of Jesus, which I agree with, but the implication is if there is no reverence then there is sin. What if as a person is sitting contemplating the communion bread and juice, his mind wanders to the meal he will eat later that day and partakes of the elements with such thoughts in mind. Is is sin? Would it be wrong to think about the sacrifice and then wander to think of other means by which God provides for us? Those who would misapply the words of Paul would be inclined to say that there is indeed sin. But what would Paul say?

Theoretically this is easy, as long as you can follow logic which unfortunately has been replaced with opinion and emotion in our age. Soapbox aside let us look to the scripture. In 1 Cor 11:17 Paul begins to explain to the church that they were messed up because they had allowed divisions to form (v18). So bad were these divisions that it affected the time when they would partake of the Lord's supper. When they met together the rich would eat the food and get drunk before the poorer people could get there to eat (v21). Paul tells them that the rich should eat at home so that they would not be jerks to their less fortunate brothers and sisters. Then Paul tells about how Jesus instituted the Lord's supper. From there he warns not to eat or drink the blood in an unworthy manner. Is the unworthy manner irreverence, or distraction? In part, but the unworthy manner that Paul is speaking of is being gluttons to the point of depriving those who need food and drink. The unworthy manner is eating and drinking in such a way as to split apart the Body of Christ which is the Church.

The application of this passage is not how distracted are you when you take communion, though that is something that you must be careful of, but are you doing things that are splitting the Church? Are you doing things to take advantage or oppress your brothers and sisters in Christ? Are you doing anything to harm the Body of Christ? If you are and you partake of communion and you are not to the point of repentance, then you are eating and drinking judgement upon yourself (v29). So next time you are at the Table, consider whether you are disrupting unity, pushing other Christians apart, or anything else that harms the Church seek repentance so that you may partake of the body and blood of Christ in a manner worthy of the Sacrifice paid so that we all might be forgiven.

Things have changed

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 21:44:44 CST

As you may tell the site has changed, again. I don't have a lot of time to really play with the feature that matter to me, like the blogging, the commenting, the Bible search and so on. However I can scrape together some time to mess with the site design. Ohh well.

Enjoy

Another Crazy Site

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 21:38:29 CST

Lately I have been working on the website for my youth group, well lately is not the right words. For a couple of months is more like it. The first thing I did was setup the sizing for it, then went to wrk on the header. I thought it was the "coolest" header that I had done, now if only the rest of the site would have come so easy. The rest of it has come in two phases, the oh my goodness I can't believe I produced that crap phase, and the that is better now phase. Phase two can be seen at http://www.titusvilleyouth.com phase one can be seen at http://www.titusvilleyouth.com/old/. Look for yourself and see which one is better!!!!

What An Idiot!!!

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 00:00:55 CST

For the longest time I thought that I was getting "prank" comments to some of my articles. There would be a name, but not comments displayed for some replys. At first I thought it was a problem with the code which parses data pulled from the database. As I was digging around, I thought I would do a test comment to an article, so i did which yielded an error message. This was actually pleasing to my eyes for I could now troubleshoot.

The problem was stupid. Very stupid. When you fill out a form it can either post the data behind the scenes or but the information in the "address bar" of you browser which tells the server that a form was filled out. With either method you must pull form data out and do something with it. The data is accessed by pulling the data from a variable in the server's memory containing the form data. You reference it by looking at the form item name (like first_name, password, etc) and declaring a variable based on that name using the variable on the server. An example would be $my_happy_variable=$_POST['first_name'];. Well in my code I put a $ in front of the form item name which was description, as that corresponds to the comment that was written. That dollar sign is what tells php that the text in the programming of the page is a variable. The code read $description=$_POST['$description']; but should have been $description=$_POST['description'];. The form did not an item called $description, so the server basically told me, "you idiot, you don't have a form item called $description." It took two seconds to fix, so now I am cooking.

Bible Search

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 12:58:59 CST

Several weeks ago I underwent a process for revamping the code for the Bible search feature of this site. The issue was that I had several hundred lines of redundant code. For each potential kind of search there was code to handle the database interaction, format the results, format some links (like expand to show whole chapter, go to next chapter, etc). There were some functions I wrote to handle some of this, but the amount of variables that had to be passed was ridiculous.

Now I have kept the same structure of determining the kind of search and database interaction, but instead of formatting the results based on the type of search, the results are formatted at the same step no matter what kind of search was made. Before it was like I had a box of oranges, a box of grapes and a box of apples and sorted them inside their own box. Now it is like taking each box and dumping it out on a table and sorting it there.

The only problem that I now face is making the code to format the results flexible enough to determine how to format the results based on the kind of search. I want the way it formats the search for a single verse different than a search for a specific chapter, group of verses, etc.

the main reason why I decided to do this is that I want to change the layout of my site. Instead of changing a couple lines of code to make the style fit the new layout, I would have to change about 30 lines of code which pretty much are the formatting style definitions, but because of redundancy they are shot gunned all over the code.

If anyone has any suggestions for how I should make the Bible search feature better or tell me where it is broke, please do not hesitate to do so.

Religious buffet

joe@revision29.com — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 12:40:29 CST

One things bothers me, like many other Christians, is the relativism of the age. Perhaps it is not just of this age, but it is more prevalent now than in the last several decades. This trend is part of a great cultural shift called postmodernism. The truth that science and modernism proclaimed was greatly disappointing and thus people have no respect for "truth" for it has been shown that truth has been relative to environment. Science claimed one truth, and religion yet another. Throw in the emergence of new age religion, cults galore and the emergence of all sorts of other religions and the line of truth is blurred as each one claims truth to be one thing.

One thing that has hurt Christianity's claim to truth are the many denominations based on one person's opinion and tele-evangelists whose sole goals is to raise money for their own pockets.

All of these things can be most frustrating when trying to communicate the gospel so people who see truth as relative. However, in the midst, I am glad that I am able to proclaim the truth of God without denominational predispositions or out of greed. I am more encouraged from 2 Corinthians 2:17 which says, "For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God." As I proclaim the truth of the Gospel, it brings me joy to know that even though many may be doing so out of greed or distorting the truth, that I God is there with me. He sees my motivation and the clarity of teaching and guides me to correct myself in the light of what I find in his Holy Word.

Comments Galore

joe@revision29.com — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 08:31:34 CST

You may now post comments to an article. To do so view the article by clicking on it's title in the article list then scroll down to the bottom. Type comments and submit.

Abortion and Politics

joe@revision29.com — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 21:28:53 CST

One day in Church I was sitting in on Richard teach the senior high class. He had been teaching on ethics and the topic for that day was abortion. I got to thinking...

There are many on the politically left that are pro-abortion. They believe that it is ok to kill unborn children to make their lives easier, to keep from having to tell their parents they did something stupid, or whatever other excuse may be offered. Many of these people are the same people who are telling us to conserve resources and protect wildlife. Many of these people (P.E.T.A. for example) will take people to court or make sure people are put in jail for mistreating animals. They want to protect animal life put kill human life.

This is my proposition: if you were to start forcing abortions on lions, smashing bald-eagle eggs, or drive your car on a beach where sea turtles lay their eggs then these people would get up in arms call their lawyers and make sure you rot in jail. They would fight for the rights of unborn animals but seek to murder unborn people. Since when are animals more important than humans? In Genesis God told Adam that he would have dominion over the animals, thus indicating that animals are less important than humans.

Obviously there is a problem with priorities in this world. These priorities come from hearts that are flawed because they try to deny God. The fix to this problem is for people to give their hearts, osuls and minds over to Christ and allow him to mold them to what he wants them to be. No politics will do the trick, only Jesus.

Bible Search...

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 08:01:24 CST

As of right now you can search the Bible right on this website. As of now the version that I am using is the NASB (New American Standard Version) as it has been my favorite for some years now. In the future I will add the NIV and some others as options. My friend Chet at Chetos.net ran across a site that has a lot of Bible translations in a database. There are no cross references or subheadings in the database so this is a limitation, but I don't like subheadings anyway as they "give away the story" before you read about it. The good thing as that you can search for a verse, passage, combination of different passages from different books even(though this still needs work) or search for a word or phrase (exactly as it apears in the Bible).

The page to search the bible it http://www.revision29.com/bible.php. As of right now it is pretty much working great, however there are still some issues that I must work out. Last night I totally reworked the logic for it which causes one of the features to not work. When you search for something like asdfghjkl (something that does not exist in the Bible, or no reference can be found like John 99) it used to display some text indicating that the search turned up no results. But this is not that big of a deal for if you search and get a page that just says Bible Search and no results then you must search again. If you find a bug, please email me at joe@revision29.com.

Church Clothes

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 07:42:06 CST

A couple of weeks ago one of my professors began giving a sermonette (he does this often to my liking as it gets me excited about preaching particular texts) about how to dress in Church. I am under the impression that he believes that when we go to Church we must look our best, which generally means to dress formally with unsoiled, un-torn unstained clothes. The point that he was making is that when we go to Church we must dress in our best in reverence to God. He seemed to be pushing quality, not in regard to cost, while not speaking to the formalness aspect. Although he has mentioned that you should not go to Church in shorts and flip flops. I generally disagree with this professor's opinion about this.

I agree fully in the quality aspect, but the type of clothes should not really matter. The problem is that the issues of which type of clothes is most respectable is a matter of cultural relevancy. In some areas of the country it is respectable to wear a suit, including jacket, and tie while in other areas it is respectable to wear a polo shirt and slacks. The people in the NT wore robe like garments with sandals. In the middle ages the clothes were different than that. Even in the last 100 years the types of respectable/formal clothes has changed with each decade. From my studies I have not found any Biblical teachings about how we should dress when we are gathered together as a Body except that we are to be modest and now showy. My professor, on the other hand, says that when the Israelites would gather together for the major feasts of the year they would go to the Temple (or Tabernacle depending on the period of history) and dress in fine garments. I have not done the research and since is a prominent Old Testament historian his world will be trusted. However this does not take away the issue in my mind. Sure the Israelites would dress their best then going to the temple for a very important event, but what about the new Testament? I wonder if there are any extra-Biblical accounts of what Church was like in this manner. Since such information is not readily available to me at this moment I will simple theorize on this for a moment.

Sure, we need to have reverence for God, but I think that when we gather together as a Church, that the least important thing is dress, excluding the need to be modest and not showy. The reverence should be shown in our lifestyle and how we treat each other. It should be how we serve Christ. I wonder if John would have dressed up in nicer clothes when he went to Peter’s house to celebrate the Lord’s day. I wonder if they would have simply dressed up in their normal everyday clothes, the nice ones not those worn to tend the flock or gut the fish. I find it hard to imagine that they would worry about being fashionably reverent, or if they made sure their hearts were pure before God. I am sure that there would be an aire of casualness that would accompany going to a friends house for lunch. Reach inside the minds of those early Christians. They had spent 3 years with Messiah wearing their work clothes, wearing their everyday clothes and wearing even those extra special clothes reserved for the feast days. They had spent their time with Jesus in all sorts of settings and I would imagine that they had a sense of casualness of everyday living with Jesus that would have been in their meetings. Why would they all of a sudden change their attitudes? They already knew Jesus as the Son of God and showed him reverence, but in formal and casual settings. So I would think that formalness in our dress is not necessary in coming together as a body.

You may read this and think I teach that you can be as informal as you want. This is not really the case. I simply find no Biblical grounds for dressing formal in Church. If Biblical evidence is given I will accept it, but I think that knit picking at whether people are formal in their dress is missing the point of why we gather on Sunday. The reason why we should give some thought to our dress is so that we can gain the respect of those around us. If I am going to an ultra-formal (three piece suit) kind of congregation, I will dress up so as to not loose credit with the members of that congregation. If I go to a polo-shirt kind of congregation, then polo shirts it is so again I can earn their respect rather than appearing too pious. I agree with the apostle Paul who became like all men so that he might win them. In addition I think that leaders need to dress in a slightly more formal way, so that they will give the impression that they are more respectable and worthy of leading. If I am leading youth and I wear oil stained clothes to Church what sort of respect will I have? Will they want to follow my leading? I would hope not! The bar must be higher for leaders.

I think that for members of the congregation that they can be casual if they want, as long as they are not wearing nasty clothes, but leaders should dress in a more respectable way. To add to this I think that perhaps it is appropriate to dress up for the more important services where we celebrate the birth of Christ or his resurrection�"the major “feasts” of the Christian age. This would follow the Old Testament pattern of wearing the best of clothes to the feasts. These factors combined seem to be a good compromise.

This debate is a hard one to find an answer to. There are cultural issues, both Biblical culture and today’s culture, that blur the lines. Also the Biblical text is obscure as to how we are to dress in Church, with the exception of modesty and not being flashy. We must then show respect to one another and adapt to our surroundings so as to bring about unity. It is useless to fight over something so insignificant when souls are to be won.

Test, etc

joe@revision29.com — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 19:39:21 CST

I am not sure if the article submission page is working so I am writing this article as a test.

In the next couple of days I will post an article that Professor Chambers wrote outlining some important events in the last year that support the beliefs of creationists. Such things invovle cool stuff about fossils and philosophers. It is real cool and will give a boost to your faith in Christ. Stay tuned.

The First Amendment

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 22:45:34 CST

There has been something that has been irritating me for a long time in regards to seperation of Church and state. It seems that when anyone talks about the first amendment they refr to it as constitutional speration of Church and state. This statement is flawed because that phrasing does not exist in the ammendment. The purpose of this article is to explain the implications of the first ammendment on our current laws.

Ammendment one begins, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." This phrase means (not what people have falsely assumed it to mean) that Congress is not to make a law that establishes an official state religion nor is it to prohibit a particular religion. I propose that 1) Congress has established laws (mostly through indirect legislation) to prohibit free exercise of religion and 2) the Supreme court has done likewise.

Congress has enacted certain laws that prohibit the practice of Christianity. The example I have is with government educational grants. If you are receiveing money for work study, you can't do that work inside of a classroom taht is used for reiligious education. I go to a Bible colelge and students taht have gotten federal work study can't clean those classrooms because they are used to teach Christianity. The grants/work study programs have been instituted by congress with limitations set in place to discriminate against religion. This is just one example that I have personalyl witnessed.

The Supreme Court has ruled time and again that there is such thing as separation of Church and state. Since that is not constitutional language they have in effect added law to the Constitution through illegal means (that is not through Congress). When they rule that a person can't pray at a high school football games, that is a violation of the free exercise of religion. When they say that a teacher can't bring up a discussion about Christ, they violate free exercise. If they say that my city hall can't exclusively display a nativity scene they violate free exercise. When I say that they violate free exercise I mean to say that law is made prohibiting the practice of Christianity.

One issue that has really gotten me panicked is the Supreme court rulings on immanent domain. Not only does this tick me off because I have no more property rights, but I am ticked off because of how this ruling will affect Christians in the future. This is the way I see it... If I am practicing my Christianity and offend someone else with my practice, all of a sudden uncle Sam may come along and take my land because it can be used for something better. Or perhaps my Church speaks up against abortion or the homosexual agenda, oops uncle Sam says that our Church is not paying taxes and that our land is better used by someone else. Someone who will pay taxes. As it is the government is limiting the voice of the Church through the tax exempt program. One thing that I know is that if a Church supports a particular party or candidate that Church may loose it's tax free status. Since many people are more concerned about money than standing up for God the government can use this as leverage.

I feel that the government has and continues to overstep it's boundaries when it comes to religion. Something must happen to call them into account and seek reform for all of the ill laws that have been passed through Congress and the Supreme Court. I am not stating that we need to revolt against the president, or congress or kick out all of the judges in the country. What we need is for people to be men enough to realize and admit they are wrong and be courageous to make the necessary changes. No more cowards that stand behind party line. Men who will stand for what is just and right. Not just what is right in the eyes of men, but in the eyes of God, the one who has graciously allowed for this country to exist.

Evolutionary Thoughts

joe@revision29.com — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 20:43:57 CST

In Apologetics we have been learning about the teleological argument for the existence for God. The basic premise is that the universe is too complex to have just happened by chance/evolution. Some great evidence/arguments involve the Anthropic principle, that the universe is precisely made to allow for human life. This is substantiated by calculations that involve tweaking universal constants (gravity, strong force, weak force, etc.) to show that the slightest alteration of these constants would disallow the existence of life.

Then comes in evolution. Biologists claim that evolution itself can explain the complexities of life and the universe. One thing should be noted before I go on (that is to say I will go on a short rabbit-trail). Darwin himself said that there had to have been a first cause is the evolutionary process, that it all did not just happen from "nothing". Anyway, back on subject. I do believe that the assumptions of Biologists that the complexities of life are the result of the evolutionary process. When I took AP Chemistry we learned of this wonderful principle called entropy. Entropy is the amount of disorder in a given system (like a pond, a building, the universe etc.). Given time entropy increases in a given system (it gets more chaotic, less order). The potential for entropy increases as things get more complex, like taller buildings or larger strands of DNA. It appears to me to be that the universe is ever going more towards higher entropy than less. Even if for a time it seems less, give time and the system will degrade. The tendency for things to get more complex is opposite of entropy. Take the life of a human for example. When a baby is born it reaches a point where growth stops and then begins the process of dying and the increase in entropy. The systems of the person degrade are corrupted. The process of aging is caused as DNA degrades and gets flawed. Now answer me a quick question, if biological systems move towards increasing entropy as they age how can the DNA evolve into something more complex? It should not. It theoretically should not get more complex, only simpler. Sure there may be some small changes in the DNA sequence of a given “species,” but the length of the DNA strands and the number of chromosomes remain the same (except for those who have a shortened chromosome due to a defect). We do not see humans evolving to fight cancer, only DNA degradation causing cancer. So it would appear that in Biology entropy cancels out the thought that organisms get more complex.

Perhaps this is not the best composed argument, and I apologize if it is, but I am taking this time to begin to arrange my thoughts. If you have a comment or something to add please email me.

New Feature

joe@revision29.com — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 11:21:36 CST

Just to let you know... I have added a blog section (see the navbar above) and an rss feed. The RSS feed can be found at feed://www.revision29.com/rss.php. The blog section is my comments on politics, Christianity, religion, youth ministry and whatever else happens to come to mind. If you have suggestions you can email me at joe@revision29.com

Youth Ministry

joe@revision29.com — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 23:05:09 CST

So this weekend I think I am officially starting youth ministry at First Christian Church of Titusville. This is a little deceptive since I have been working there for a couple of months on an interim basis. However, the budget year starts on the first of October and that is when Mark (the senior minister) and I had initially talked about.

This is an exciting venture. First of all this is my "home Church" where I was baptized, grew in my faith and even began learning how to preach. Ever since I have been to college they have been real supportive of my venture and have provided financially, prayerfully and have been sending me a monthly card of encouragement.

Secondly, I have have recently realized how great of a Christian vacuum there is in the young people of our country. With the prevalence of relativism, the teaching of humanism and the philosophy of post-modernism they are being left with a spiritual void. Not spiritual in the sense of the world but in the sense of having a relationship with the one and only God of heaven and Earth.

When you look at what kids are looking to in order to fill the void in their lives you see how hopeless they can be. When they turn to sexual encounters they find that the one they thought they loved soon fades from the picture and takes a piece of their heart. When they turn to drugs the high that they feel is never satisfying. When they live according to their desires and whims they get bored. When they are told that they came from monkeys they began to act as such. The happiness, fun and pleasure they are promised does not last and they are left wanting.

The only thing that can truly fill their lives and give them meaning is Christ. Nothing else.

I find it then my task and joy to lead them to the Spring of Life.

RSS and PHP

joe@revision29.com — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 23:04:38 CST

So I have started to read up on setting up an rss feed with php. It is not as easy as I thought. My initial idea was to have all of my articles stored in a database, then have php build the rss feed page dynamically. Quickly I have discovered that I can't do this. Under Apache .rss and .xml pages are served as is without any php code being executed. When I put xml content into a .php page the php parser serves up a blank page.

So the next option is to use the xml parsing functions in php and use a .xml or .rss page as the source of the info (as well as the target of additions to the blog) instead of MySQL. I would use the functions to read the xml file and load each section into an array and use that array to dump data onto the page in formatted html. The problem is that I don't understand all of the xml parsing functions. All i know is that when running the parser you send it function the name of user defined function to take care of the xml values every time it hits the beginning of a section (channel, item, image). Until I figure all of these weird things out, I will make this section fed via the xml file and have the xml file available to the public for reading as a feed.

Then comes the issue of calling individual articles to display on it's own page. what I mean by this is that I will have page that will be passed the id number for the article then uses Xpath or something like that to seek that entry from the file and use a function I write to display it nice and pretty on the page. Again this is foreign to me and will take a while to research.

Soon to Come...

joe@revision29.com — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 23:04:05 CST

As you can see I have begun work on my layout. It is not complete, but I wanted to put something up that was more that my logo.

I soon hope that I will be able to add some cool things to the site. My objectives are: to add podcasts of sermons I have preached, have a blog on the front page

It Works!!!

joe@revision29.com — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 22:56:17 CST

If you can read this, I have successfully created an interface to interact with MySQL so that I can have an rss feed. Also I am going to use the rss articles / schema to generate content for my site.

Please chack back some time soon for a link to my rss feed.