Smoked Meat
  "Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire..." -- Exodus 12:8
 

Monday, February 27, 2006

Who's Afraid of the Holy Spirit? (pt. 8)

As I have continued posting to the series from Who's Afraid of the Holy Spirit? I have to say this: the past couple essays were a bit tedious for me to get through. As a result, I'm afraid I didn't have much interaction or thoughts to contribute. Not that there wasn't some good content there, but it wasn't anything really new or exciting to me. I even thought about taking a little break from the series to avoid getting into a rut. But tonight I decided to keep plugging ahead, and I am definitely glad I did after reading Richard Averbeck's essay titled: God, People, and the Bible: The Relationship between Illumination and Biblical Scholarship.

I don't know if anyone else has been following along via the links to bible.org. It's really OK if you're not--I am writing here more for my own benefit than anyone else's. However, this is an essay that is really worth reading for yourself. In my mind it is the best of the lot so far. My thoughts and response are still percolating a bit in my head, but I really want to camp on some of the things in this piece. If you get bogged down with some of the vocabulary in the begining, that's alright--stay with the train of thought as best you can and you will be rewarded with some great insights about the purpose of Bible study and the Holy Spirit's involvement when we approach God's word.

Here are the major points from Averbeck's essay that stuck out to me:


1. All communication is primarily relational and involves meaning, intent, and response.

2. The Bible is a special class of communication in that it was written through inspiration of the Holy Spirit (meaning & intent) and is understood by us through illumination of the Holy Spirit (response).

3. Biblical scholarship needs to be centered in relational communication; meaning cannot be divorced from response.

4. Biblical scholarship needs be grounded in God's intention for us: to grow in love for God and others.

5. Biblical scholarship needs to be an act of worship, done in the presence of God.

6. Biblical scholarship needs to engage the whole person: heart, soul, and mind.

7. Biblical scholarship needs to be done on the Bible's own terms, using the best tools we have, while recognizing our own subjectivity and limitations.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

"Not-so-chilly" Chili

Here is version #2 of a chili I invented for two recent cookoffs: one at work last week, the other at church today. I really like it and have gotten positive reviews also. I won 2nd place in the "Specialty" category today. It has sort of a "sweet-and-spicy" vibe, and I credit my mom with the brown sugar making an entrance.

Ingredients
1.5 lb. ground beef
0.5 lb. Italian sausage (ground beef can be substituted)
1 onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
46 oz. tomato juice
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can pinto beans (rinsed)
1 can kidney beans (rinsed)
5 tablespoons brown sugar
4 tablespoons diced jalapenos
3 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons BBQ sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon black pepper
dash of cumin
dash of ginger

Instructions
1. In large skillet, combine meat, onion, and green pepper. Cook until meat is browned. Drain grease.
2. Pour meat mixture into crock-pot and add the remaining ingredients.
3. Heat in crock-pot for 4-5 hours.
4. Enjoy!

Friday, February 24, 2006

Friday Musings

Google for Your Cell
I just found a cool use of Google for cell-phone users. Wondering about the forecast? Just text-message "weather" + your zip code to "GOOGL" (46645) and you'll get a message back with the 3-day weather prediction. Or maybe you want to know what time the latest movie is playing. Just send "glory road" (or whatever you want to watch) + your zip and get back a listing of theaters and showtimes. Click the link for more cool examples.

Waiting
We are now at T-minus 13 days and counting until the due date. You would think that after 9 months, a couple more weeks would be a breeze. Yet I still feel like a kid waiting for his birthday and asking his mom repeatedly "how much longer?". Lauren is growing more uncomfortable, but doing as well as could be expected for being ready to give birth.

Favorite Translation?
Over on the EBCAlumni.net website there is a poll going on now, namely "Which Bible translation do you prefer?". The current breakdown is shown at right.

The NAS has a commanding lead right now, probably due to its precise word-for-word rendering. Good choice, but I find it a bit clunky for general reading, and so my vote goes to the NIV. Of course when its time to do serious exegetical work, its time to pull out the Greek.

One version that I see missing from the list is the free NET Bible, which I have done some reading of online. From what I can see, the translators notes are awesome and provide a lot of very valuable insight on why a particular rendering was chosen. I think I need to order myself a hard-copy at some point, and it could become my version of choice.

There are also a couple inclusions in the list that I would not classify as translation, particularly "The Message" which is more of an interpretive work or loose commentary. I'm a little scared that it has 2 votes. Anyone care to chime in here on what their favorite version is, and why?

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Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Who's Afraid of the Holy Spirit? (pt. 7)

The Spirit's Role in Corporate Worship is the title of the essay by Timothy J. Ralston. Worship seems to be the topic du jour among evangelicals today, judging by the number of titles recently released covering it. A word search on Amazon using "worship" reveals a wide spectrum of books covering the what, when, why, where, etc. of how we should praise our Creator. Ralston points out that this renewed emphasis is a good thing, since "Worship is a central emphasis of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation."

However, the question that Ralston gives at the beginning of the essay is this: what do we mean when we speak about worship? He wants to get past the current catch-phrases and vocabulary used to describe worship and make sure it has a Biblical basis:
Great danger lurks here. Popular descriptions are theological sandbars. They can shift our focus from God’s inspired objective statements about his role in our worship to prejudices formed by the feelings aroused through a particular style of music or service. The Holy Spirit’s role in corporate worship becomes a function of our response rather than an objective theological reality. We miss the more basic and important roles that the Holy Spirit assumes whenever God’s people gather to worship. The Old Testament provides many examples of God’s condemnation and rejection of worship that forgot or ignored his expectations. Even if we offer worship with the sincerest of motives, we overlook what God says at our peril.

He proceeds to examine the Spirit's role in relation to corporate worship from seven perspectives:

1. Covenant
Worship is only acceptable within the parameters of covenant relationship with God testified by the Spirit.

2. Community
Worship needs to be rooted in the community of faith, which the Spirit helps to identify.

3. Sanctuary
The location of the Spirit influences worship: from the tabernacle of the Old Testament to the indwelling temple of our bodies in the New.

4. Unity
The Holy Spirit works to bring unity, which Ralston identifies as "believers' common twofold allegiance: the Lordship of Christ over community and relational harmony within community." He also makes a good observation that unity "does not demand conformity or uniformity in thought or practice (as helpful as these might seem)."

5. Integrity
The Holy Spirit "provokes and judges those things which violate the demands of the covenant, pollute the holiness of the sanctuary, disturb its communal identity, mar its functional unity, or disqualify its witness and offerings."

6. Ministry
Ralston lists three areas in which the Holy Spirit functions in corporate worship. He instructs us through the reading of the word, reminds us through communion and baptism, and enables us via individual spiritual gifts.

7. Liberty
The Spirit works to minimize the tension between freedom and forms: "Form assumes and fosters liberty and creativity of expression. Conversely freedom can beget new forms that speak in fresh ways."

The essay does a good job of grounding communal worship in a historical Biblical context, and it is good to step back sometimes and take a wide-level view like he does here. Afterwards, he briefly examines popular terminology like "leading of the Spirit", "decency and order", "liberty of the Spirit", "quenching", etc. This section seemed to be a little less helpful to me than the previous points, although he does have a good reminder that we need to be careful about the language we use, since the "language of convenience for one generation usually becomes the theology for the next and conviction for those following."

Friday, February 17, 2006

Friday Musings

Snow Day
After 63 degrees a couple days ago, we had real winter return to Iowa yesterday. With ice, snow, and cold. I decided to take the day off since it will probably be the closest thing we have to a "snow day" this year. It was nice to spend time with Lauren at home doing pretty much nothing.

A Good Day for Chili
We are having a chili-cookoff at work today, so I also spent the afternoon yesterday concocting my entry. I sampled a few bites, but the true test of a chili comes when you eat a whole bowl. My first impression was that it wasn't spicy enough, but settling overnight will change the taste also. If I'm happy with it, I may post the recipe here. One thing I am afraid of: work could be a dangerous place this afternoon due to so many partaking of the cold-weather cuisine.

Hero
Here's an overlooked DVD recommendation for you: Hero. It is a Chinese movie, and as such you have to live with either overdubbing or subtitles. But the effort is worthwhile and you will find an intriguing story, breathtaking scenery, stylized martial arts, and a wonderful score. For me to put a film into the highest tier (among my favorites), I have to watch it a couple times and still think it is great. This is one of those films for me. One thing to remember though: the story is a Chinese legend told through a narrative framework. As such, the martial arts scenes are idealized and not meant to be realistic. My rating: 5 stars.

Still a Hoosier at Heart?
It is telling that in spite of Alford's best season ever at Iowa, most Hawk fans still don't like the guy. And so here they sit, atop the Big 10 standings, and the talk is whether he will go to Indiana. This isn't unusual for successful coaches, but the twist is that most Iowa fans want him to go. With Davis stepping down yesterday, I think things are falling into place for that to happen. My prediction is that if Indiana offers him the job, he takes it. And Iowa fans won't be disappointed.

Another Loss at Hilton
Do we even need to talk about ISU anymore this year? I don't think so. They are imploding from within right now, with plenty of blame to go around. Blalock made news Wednesday by calling out the post players. And with 5 total rebounds they deserved it. But Will and the rest of the team have played lousy enough not to be pointing blame. Wayne has his work cut out for him, because right now this season is going down in flames.

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Tuesday, February 14, 2006

True BBQ

I realized today that it has been far too long since I have written about the topic this blog is named after: smoked meat. And I have a pet-peeve of mine that I have to get out in the open. It is about the incorrect usage of the term "Barbeque", or as it is often termed in shorthand usage: "BBQ". The travesty I speak of is to refer to "grilling" as "BBQ". These are two distinct culinary arts which should not be confused.

Grilling is the method used in most backyards to make hot-dogs, brats, hamburgers, or steaks. It involves high temperatures, meat placed directly over the flame, and short cooking times. Sometimes, chicken wings or ribs might be prepared in this fashion while basting them with barbeque-flavored sauce, but this still does not make it a BBQ. A grill looks like this:


BBQ is characterized by real smoke, low temperatures, long cooking times, and indirect heat. The meat is carefully prepared beforehand by using the right rub, or perhaps even a brine. It is an all-day process, and used to prepare delicacies like brisket, pork shoulder, turkey or ribs. Barbeque happens on a smoker like this:
or


Just wanted to clear that up lest there be any confusion in the minds of my readers. Even looking at pictures of smokers is enough to cause my mouth to start watering and my mind to start plotting the next occasion when I will fire mine up.

Monday, February 13, 2006

Who's Afraid of the Holy Spirit? (pt. 6)

JI Packer takes on the topic of how the Holy Spirit relates to issues of guidance in the essay The Ministry of the Spirit in Discerning the Will of God. It is a topic that Packer notes has received much attention lately, and has become for many a "source of intense personal anxiety." In my experience, it seems like the treatments I have read on the issue fall into two camps.

Henry Blackaby's Experiencing God is a good example of the first. He says: "Knowing God does not come through a program, a study, or a method. Knowing God comes through a relationship with a Person. This is an intimate love relationship with God. Through this relationship, God reveals Himself, His purposes, and His ways; and He invites you to join Him where He is already at work." He views guidance through the framework of relationship and outlines how we can know what God wants in the specific instances of our lives.

At the other end of the spectrum is a book like Decision Making and the Will of God by Gary Friesen. He shifts the burden of decision-making back into the rational realm by saying that God has given us freedom to choose (within the parameters of Scripture) when it comes to the issues of career, marriage, etc. In Friesen's perspective, we should be praying for wisdom to choose rather than specific guidance.

Packer seems to be responding to books like these which seem to try to make "God's will" into a stand-alone topic when he says: "...the problem is regularly discussed in too narrow terms, isolating it from God’s total ministry to his Church on earth in a way that is biblically improper, and that makes it both more difficult in itself, and more threatening to sensitive souls, than ever it ought to be." This is a great point. We can narrow our focus too much by asking a question like: "Will God give me exact guidance in this [fill in the blank] instance?" Maybe so, maybe not. There are a lot of Christians who can look at times in their life when God intervened and led them in a direction they would not have expected or chosen. There are also other times when His voice seems to be silent.

This anxiety over finding God's will is a new one according to Packer. Of the older saints, he says:
Informed by biblical theology and narrative, soaked in the biblical text itself, aiming always at the best for God’s cause and others’ good, and confident in God’s promise of guidance to the humble and prayerful (see Pss 5:8; 23:2–3; 25:8–9; 32:8–9; Jas 1:6), they sought to be made wise, prudent, and judicious, men and women of good judgment. They asked that God would thus enable them to see each time the course of action for which there was most to be said as they reviewed facts, took advice, measured their personal resources, surveyed circumstances, and calculated the consequences of possible choices.

At the end of the essay I was left feeling like there wasn't much else added to what I have read before. I somewhat agree with what Wayne Grudem wrote in the appendix of the book about this section: "But what I had hoped for, in addition to these valuable warnings, was a positive word about a moment-by-moment relationship with God the Holy Spirit that is pursued in subjection to the teachings of Scripture and constantly evaluated in light of Spirit-sanctified wisdom."

I think a "moment-by-moment" dependence on the Spirit is what God desires, although I am not always sure how this translates to my everyday life. When I am "living in accordance with the Spirit" (Rom 8) that will naturally lead to choices that line up with what God wants, even if I'm not receiving special revelation. At the same time I don't want to discount God's ability to speak through circumstances and impressions, even if that is more rare. I am reminded of what Jesus said in John 10: "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me." It would be a shame to miss the voice of the Shepherd--whether it comes through Scripture, the encouragement of a friend, or the conviction of the Spirit. I don't want to neglect to enter into a deep and vital relationship with God because I hold Him at a distance. Our Saviour does not stand aloof in heaven with arms crossed, but has poured the Spirit into our lives, and by that Spirit we cry "Daddy" and "Father".

Friday, February 10, 2006

Friday Musings

Pesky Wildcats
I don't know what happens to the Hawks when they play at Northwestern, but it happened again on Wednesday. At least they can take solace in the fact that they are still in first place. Meanwhile, the Clones lost to the "Mildcats" of Kansas State in a close one. Stinson is playing well right now, but apparently no one else can step up to give him a hand. Where's Will Blalock? Where's the toughness to finish close games? Where's the free-throw shooting? NIT here we come.

Are We Talking About a Cartoon?
Muslims worldwide erupted in violence over a cartoon depicting Allah as being portrayed as--get this--violent. Yet another example of how Islam is unpeaceful to its core. Yet the media usually bends over backwards trying to remind us that these are the just the "extremists" and that Islam is really a peace-loving religion. Right. And grizzly bears make great pets.

The Winter Olympics
It seems like I don't get excited for the Olympics like I used to. Maybe it's because the 2-year rotation between summer and winter is too close together. Maybe there are too many events that really aren't sports. Or maybe we are just missing the Tonya Harding / Nancy Kerrigan scandal.

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Thursday, February 09, 2006

Oh Hawaii


This was taken a year ago on our honeymoon to Kauai, returning from a half-day trip to the Na Pali coast. A nice diversion in the midst of Iowa winter.

Monday, February 06, 2006

Who's Afraid of the Holy Spirit? (pt. 5)

The Witness of the Spirit in the Protestant Tradition by M. James Sawyer is the fifth essay from Who's Afraid of the Holy Spirit?. In it, Sawyer deals with the historical Protestant answers to the following questions:

"What is the Spirit's role in giving us personal assurance of salvation?"

and

"What is the Spirit's role in determining the canon of Scripture?"

The essay is not building an exegetical argument, but observing the historical flow of thought around these two related issues. Sawyer looks at the perspectives from the time of the Reformers, the Puritans, the First Great Awakening, and the Late 1800s. He notes a shift from a reliance on the Spirit to a reliance on human reasoning and has some thoughtful observations. Reading this brought another related question to my mind that may have been planted after reading the last essay by Gerald Bray: "Do I know how my theological perspective has been unconsciously affected by the time and place in which I live?"

The roads taken by the gospel to find a hurting soul are many, but every sinner rescued by God's grace begins somewhere: a tract left behind in a restroom, a quiet moment of prayer, a fire-and-brimstone message, or a conversation with a friend. And then, hopefully, this new believer is taken in and discipled by other followers of Christ. He grows and matures and learns about Christian living. He reads the Bible and is taught what it means. Hopefully this instruction is sound, and contains the essence of historic Christianity as relayed by the apostles:
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures... (1 Cor. 15:3-4)

And yet, moving forward from the essentials of the faith, the avenue that this new believer finds Christ through will shape much of his understanding. Scripture brings us knowledge of God, but our vision passes through the lens of time in which we live. This leads to action and reaction, emphasis and de-emphasis, and the ebb and flow of thought. Just as a pure white light passes through a prism and separates into many hues, the gospel comes to us through imperfect people. People whose own unique history, personality, and understandings bring a different perspective from those around them and those who came before them. This is why Augustine, Luther, and Wesley (all sincere men of faith) can come to different conclusions. Yet in spite of this, God uses broken vessels to proves that "this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." (2 Cor. 4:7).

All of that to say this: it is good to think about the "theological river" that I swim in. I too have been shaped by the time in which I live, and the stream through which the gospel found me. This gives me humility and the realization that I bring my own unconscious tendencies along when I approach God's word. There is much to learn from the men on whose shoulders we stand, and much to appreciate about the river of faith that has brought me news of my Saviour.

Friday, February 03, 2006

Friday Musings

First Anniversary
Tomorrow will mark one year of marriage for my wife and me. What a quick 365 days! From the rehearsal dinner, bachelor party, wedding, honeymoon, summer trips, pregnancy(!), painting the house, and holidays to today. And all the amazing moments in between. In all these experiences, from the exciting to the ordinary, we have been more than blessed by the goodness of God. I truly couldn't ask for more, and look forward to all the years together ahead of us.

Super Bowl
Ok, I enjoy the big game as much as the next fellow. But does anyone else get a little sick of the hype? Do we need to count down every Super Bowl ever played on ESPN? Do we need all the newspaper articles previewing the commercials? Do we need to hear every person's opinion on who the winner will be? Especially clueless celebrities? No. And for the most part all the hype is just that. Rarely does the game live up to the billing. Sure, I still enjoy the food, the parties, and the (ahem) game. But let's not give "Super Sunday" holiday status yet. The best sporting event of the year is still the NCAA tournament. I'll post more on that when March rolls around.

Those Crazy Hawks
Speaking of "March Situations" -- Steve Alford is finally earning his coaching money this year. I've been waiting, waiting, waiting for the customary mid-year conference lull. But with the win over Purdue earlier this week, the Hawks made a statement that they're here to play. I'm not ready to anoint them regular-season Big 10 champs, but they're in the mix. That's more than I can say for my Clones right now.

Welcome Visitors
If this is your first stop to my blog, don't get your hopes up too high. You'll find anything from theology to sports to BBQ here. In other words, whatever I feel like writing. If you want to catch up on my review of Who's Afraid of the Holy Spirit, here are the links to the previous posts. I try to post to the series on a weekly basis.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

If you're sick of wasting time at Blockbuster, read my review of Netflix.

If you want to read a blog that is funnier than mine, then read Tristan's article about couple dating.

Oh, and I almost forgot. I'm cheering for the Seahawks and Seneca Wallace, but I think the Steelers will win 20-17. Not that you needed another prediction or anything.

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