Why not stand?

Very interesting article on our favorite recipient of a Heresy Horn, Joel Osteen, and his empire.  Worth the read.  Written by a non-Christian.  The last paragraph is telling.

How tempting it would be to just stand and turn my will and life over to Jesus if, in exchange, I will be led down a righteous path of prosperity, taken in hand by Jesus, and Joel, and delivered to my gilded acre of the American dream. Yes, yes, why shouldn’t I stand? Because who am I not to want to be saved? Who doesn’t need a little bit of Joel in their life, tonight, every night, forever, leading us from this dark place to our promised land? Together, hands joined, shoulder to shoulder, we will march forward into our glorious future. Delete the negative thoughts, Joel preaches. Yes, yes, delete them.

From Megachurch Preacher Joel Osteen

Commentaries

Being here at GCTS has taught me the value of a solid commentary.  Currently, I have seven.  3 for Hebrews, 2 for Psalms, one for the NT Use of the OT and 1 for Romans (which I got yesterday for my birthday. Yeah, I ask for school books for my birthday.  We’re poor, okay… ).  The rest I borrow from our library.  I have definitely come to know the names of the folks I like and don’t like.  Much to my enjoyment, most of the names I like appear on the following list, a great post by lay scholar Tim Challies:

How to Begin a Commentary Collection

Mid July

Here’s a bunch of random happenings, both recent past and soon to occur future:

• Steph’s mom is here for a 10 day visit.  It’s nice to see family again after so long.
• 27th birthday was yesterday.  Yep, still feel 26.
• I’ve been painting fences for horse paddocks.  And listening to a whole lot of The Lord of the Rings while I’m at it (thanks Cameron!).
• Not too much time left til I start my summer 3 course: NT Ethics.  Oi.  Lots to do to prepare for it.
• Steph’s done an awesome job in the last couple weeks communicating her love for me.  In the almost seven years we’ve been married, I’ve never felt so loved and appreciated.  Steph is a great woman and an amazing wife.  I love you, Babe.
• While painting a fence may not sound like terribly difficult work (it’s not), it is messy and, considering this is the first manual labor job I’ve ever had, quite tiring.  It’s good for me.  But it results in not having much energy at night for things like thought-provoking blog posts.  Hence this list. 

Techie

Apparently my oldest daughter knows her way around a cell phone.  This is not good.

Spiritual poverty

Interesting take on the idea of being “poor in spirit” by RLP.  Doesn’t plow through it in a “examine every word of the text” kind of way, but thinking more conceptually.  However you find his analysis, it is a thought provoking piece.  And the name of the post is hilarious.

Spam & Grey Poupon

Summer cold

I have a cold.  It’s supposed to be close to 80 degrees today.  Life is funny sometimes.

You will know

The phrase “And/then you will know that I am the LORD” appears 26 times in the Old Testament.  21 of those times it appears in Ezekiel.

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that knowing who God is is important to Ezekiel.

Abraham, Isaac and somebody

The normal formula for referencing the ancient fathers in the OT is some form of “Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

However, there’s a handful of spots where it says, “Abraham, Isaac and Israel.”  I don’t have a clue yet as to why.  This is going to be my online spot for notes on this difference.  Any ideas you have would be appreciated as well.

Where’s your line?

Fun discussion with the Mrs. a little bit ago.  She came up with this question:

At what point are you done with a bag of potato chips?

1. No more whole chips
2. No more half chips
3. No more quarter chips
4. Handful of crumbs
5. Shaking the bag into your mouth
6. Licking your finger to press against the inside of the bag

Wha huh?

This is more of a rhetorical question post, simply because of the nature of it, but if you do have an answer, I am curious to hear.

What the heck are we supposed to do with 1 Kings 13?  How are we supposed to take it, especially with the way it ends?  Why does the old prophet lie?  And then want to honor the guy he lied to?