Ever wish the lyrics of a song matched its music video? Well, thanks to these Internet spoofs, now they finally can. Check out the literal rendition of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Under the Bridge” below, and click here for more videos, including A-Ha’s “Take on Me,” Tears for Fears’ “Head Over Heels,” and Beck’s “Loser.”

This is the 100th post I’ve written for this blog. I think it represents a transition: Either I’m going to start making blogging a regular habit again, or I’m going to shut this thing down once and for all. I’m hoping to start writing more regularly on this site, and I do have some ideas. It remains to be seen, however, how much of a toll a new semester will take on my will or ability to write things that have no deadline and no import beyond the sharing of ideas. (Also, Facebook and Twitter tend to steal my fire for blogging. Why write 5-7 paragraphs every few days for 1-2 comments when you can write a sentence or two every 4 hours and attract 5-10 comments?)

Still, I’ve got some ideas and I have a desire to start writing again, if only as a personal discipline. It may turn out to be one of those things, like jogging or getting out of bed at 7 every morning, that I always resolve to do but never can quite pull off. It’s worth a shot, though. I never regret having old stuff to go back and comb through to see how I was thinking at the time.

I’ve had this idea in the hopper for a while to do a series of posts titled “A Brief History of Myself.” That may sound vain (and it may be), but I really want to do it for two reasons. First, if I write it well enough, it might be interesting to you. Second, I have no idea what would come out of the wash. I’d like to write it just to see where the plot turns would be. It’s good to map the lay of your life sometimes. You might catch a glimpse of some of the pivotal moments in your life, vanishing traces of the Spirit’s fingerprints in key decisions you’ve made.

Another idea I have is to do a podcast. I’m not sure what it would be about, exactly. I’d like to interview ordinary people (ordinary people have the most interesting stories), recommend books, riff on different Scriptural passages, and maybe feature a song of the week. I’m not sure anyone would listen to the podcast if I did one, but it’s another idea I’ve been mulling over.

Well, autumn (and school) are just around the corner. Classes start back on September 8th. I have Ben Witherington for “Theology of the New Testament” – I’m really excited! I’ve found a church that I’m easing my way into and as of today, I am completely moved in to what will be my room for the fall semester. I’ll be rooming with Abe again, which makes me very happy. Also, I have a job interview on Wednesday morning for a writing/editing position here at the seminary. If I get it, I’ll be balancing school, work, and church commitments. I’m hoping not to get overwhelmed.

It’s weird to think that a year ago tomorrow, I was on a plane headed to Switzerland. It feels like a lifetime has elapsed since then. God has definitely been at work during that time, shaping me in a lot of ways I couldn’t have foreseen. (I wonder what life will be like in another year?) I feel as though now, I am beginning to make the transition into manhood. I mean, I have been doing that for a while, but it seems that now more than ever, I am grappling with all sorts of difficult questions: Am I a Calvinist or an Arminian? A complementarian or an egalitarian? A Pentecostal or something else? Adulthood seems to mean taking a stance on so many things, and there is pain in the process–deciding in favor of one view can often mean a parting of ways, in some sense, with some of the people whom you love and respect.

So where to from here? Only time will tell. I’m just hoping not to lose the blog in the mix.

After a phone conversation with my brother last night, I was reminded of how much the Lord can do through someone whose life is completely yielded to Him. From the moment he picked up the phone, his voice exuded confidence and peace. You could hear a smile in his voice and his conversation was punctuated frequently by laughter. He was at rest.

It hasn’t always been this way. There was a time in my brother’s life when he was severely depressed. In his teenage years, he contracted a rare form of chronic fatigue that doctors could not cure, and as a result, he was sluggish when most other people his age were bursting with energy. Frequently, he lacked the strength even to do his schoolwork, a fact that discouraged him even further, since he had always been the diligent type that rises early and hits the books even before breakfast. His spirits were very low in those days. It was difficult to know what to say to him.

Last night, I listened in amazement, however, as he spoke excitedly of his classes and assignments, as well as a recent weekend trip to Bethel Church in Redding, Cal., where the Holy Spirit has been moving powerfully and reports of miracles are a regular occurrence. Although he didn’t get the instant miracle he went there hoping to find, there was excitement in his voice as he spoke of his upcoming Prophetic Ministry class, for which the professor has given the audacious assignment of seeking seven prophetic words from the Lord during the course of the semester (five have to be given to unbelievers). The boldness of this assignment really challenged me to seek the prophetic gift more diligently, expecting God to move through me in that way on a regular basis.

Gradually, the conversation shifted to other things. He told me about his STITCHES route (a bus ministry that picks up kids from underprivileged neighborhoods to take them to church) and some of his kids who will have the chance to go to camp this year. Once a shy, reticent kid himself, he tells me how he will make his debut as a cabin leader this year, with his eye on kid in particular. “I didn’t really want to do it,” he tells me. “But there’s this kid named David who’s really on the edge right now — he could either get really touched at camp and end up serving Jesus, or he could fall under the influence of some really bad kids he’s been hanging out with. I didn’t really want to be a cabin leader, but God said, ‘Give it a try, at least for David’s sake. Do it for him.’”

Things like this are what makes my brother a hero in my eyes. He’s setting a magnificent example for me and for anyone making an earnest attempt to follow Jesus — you don’t have to be particularly brave, or wise, or strong, or talented. You just have to love God and love people, and trust Jesus enough to obey Him in the moment from one opportunity to the next.

By William Billings

Now shall my inward joys arise,
And burst into a Song;
Almighty Love inspires my Heart,
And Pleasure tunes my Tongue.

God on his thirsty Sion-Hill
Some Mercy-Drops has thrown,
And solemn Oaths have bound his Love
To show’r Salvation down.

Why do we then indulge our Fears,
Suspicions and Complaints?
Is he a God, and shall his Grace
Grow weary of his saints?

Can a kind Woman e’er forget
The Infant of her Womb,
And ‘mongst a thousand tender Thoughts
Her Suckling have no Room?

Yet, saith the Lord, should Nature change,
And Mothers Monsters prove,
Sion still dwells upon the Heart
Of everlasting Love.

Deep on the Palms of both my Hands
I have engrav’d her Name;
My Hands shall raise her ruin’d Walls,
And build her broken Frame.

• More about the hymn “Africa”
• “Awake, My Soul” – a documentary about the Sacred Harp tradition of hymn-singing

While reading through St. Augustine’s Confessions this week, I was greatly moved by the following passage, which clearly demonstrates God’s Providence at work, easing his mother’s anguish as she interceded fervently for the salvation of his soul (Augustine had rejected his Christian faith in his teenage years, falling into a heretical sect called the Manichees, an error from which he would not recover until he was in his 30’s):

Meanwhile you gave her another answer [to prayer] that sticks in my memory. For I pass over much because I am hurrying on to those things which especially urge me to make confession to you, and there is much that I do not remember. You gave her another answer through one of your priests, a bishop brought up in the Church and well trained in your books. When that woman asked him to make time to talk to me and refute my errors and correct my evil doctrines and teach me good ones—for he used to do this for those whom perhaps he found suitably disposed—he declined, wisely indeed as I later perceived. For he answered that I was still unready to learn, because I was conceited about the novel excitements of that heresy, and because, as she had informed him, I had already disturbed many untrained minds with many trivial questions. “Let him be where he is,” he said; “only pray the Lord for him. By his reading he will discover what an error and how vast an impiety it all is.”

At the same time he told her how he himself as a small boy had been handed over to the Manichees by his mother, whom they had led astray. He had not only read nearly all their books but had even copied them. Although he had no one disputing with him and providing a refutation, it had become clear to him that that sect ought to be avoided, and therefore he had left it. When he had said this to her, she was still unwilling to take No for an answer. She pressed him with more begging and with floods of tears, asking him to see me and debate with me. He was now irritated and a little vexed and said: “Go away from me: as you live, it cannot be that the son of these tears should perish.” In her conversations with me she often used to recall that she had taken these words as if they had sounded from heaven.

Maybe they did. After all, Augustine eventually did come to repentance and faith, an act he would later compare to a lazy man deciding at long last to get out of bed and face the day.

Origen

Surprising as it may seem, the quote in yesterday’s post came not from the pen of a 19th-century higher critic, but from the early church father Origen (c. 185-254).

According to Wikipedia, Origen married Platonic philosophy to Christian theology, resulting in some truly bizarre theological conclusions such as the transmigration of souls and universal reconciliation (the idea that all being, even evil spirits, will one day be reconciled to God). The Catholic Encyclopedia modifies that view somewhat by stating that Origen frequently “recognizing the contradiction of the incompatible elements that he is trying to unify, recoils from the consequences, protests against the logical conclusions, and oftentimes corrects by orthodox professions of faith the heterodoxy of his speculations.”

Whatever your view of Origen’s theological speculations, what is of interest in the quote posted yesterday is that it proves that a non-literal reading of Genesis is by no means a product of 19th-century higher criticism or Darwinian biology. On the contrary, early church interpretations of the creation accounts (and there are actually two creation accounts, not one, in Genesis) were as varied as those in the post-Enlightenment era. Despite its popularity today among evangelical Protestants, a literal, six-day reading of Genesis 1-2 was by no means the accepted reading in early church history, nor is it even the majority view across 20 centuries of church tradition.

To what theologian is attributed this quote about the first chapters in Genesis? If you don’t know, at least try to venture a guess when it was written. (No plugging this into a search engine, either.)

“What intelligent person can believe that there was a first day, then a second and third day, evening, and morning, without the sun, the moon, and the stars; and the first day…even without a sky? Who is foolish enough to believe that, like a human farmer, God planted a garden to the east in Eden and created in it a visible, physical tree of life from which anyone tasting its fruit with bodily teeth would receive life; and that one would have a part in good and evil by eating the fruit picked from the appropriate tree?

When God is depicted walking in the garden in the evening and Adam hiding behind the tree, I think no one will doubt that these details point figuratively to some mysteries by means of a historical narrative which seems to have happened but did not happen in a bodily sense.”

Answers tomorrow!

Here’s a thought-provoking article from WORLD columnist Andree Seu questioning the Christian’s responsibility toward Israel. Depending on which part of the church you normally hang with, this may or may not be a pressing question to you. Rest assured, however, that this is a very big deal in some parts of evangelical Christianity and that there is a truckload of bad teaching on this issue. Here’s a sample:

We Christians have a responsibility to Israel, but what is it? To be cheerleaders for her current Messiah-rejecting government, or to preach to her the gospel? If you tell me it’s both, then how do you pull that off? How do you bankroll her without giving her (and the world) the impression that you are behind her without qualification? Or without tipping her off that she is completely lost unless she repents?

If you then tell me that evangelicals support Israel because she is, as Pat Robertson said, “an island of democracy . . . in the midst of a sea of dictatorial regimes . . . and a fanatical religion intent on returning to the feudalism of 8th century Arabia,” that’s fine as long as you’re aware that you just switched horses. Democracy is an entirely separate reason for supporting her.

And if it’s a true reason, then presumably you will be prepared to revoke your support if she is ever found to be not so democratic. “The political support for the nation of Israel is a distinct issue,” said Vern Poythress, “and should be qualified by the standard of the justice of God.” That is, you apply the same yardstick to Israel’s behavior as to any other nation’s: Does she honor her treaties? Does she treat her citizens with equity? Is she engaged in genocide? Etcetera.

Read the whole thing.

Yesterday, I had my first session in the OT Intro course I’m taking this month. The OT is a collection of literature that at times can seem brutal, irrelevant, primitive, and arcane. Attempting to convince us of its importance, my professor pointed to the fact that Jesus and the NT authors appealed to the OT as their authority.

“Isaiah alone is quoted 450 times in the NT,” he said.  Pausing for dramatic effect, he continued, “That means that if you aren’t familiar with what Isaiah says, the lights in your mind go off 450 times as you read through the NT. And that’s not even counting all the times other OT books are cited or alluded to.”

In my mind’s eye, I pictured those maps of the world that show the world as it looks at night from space. Invariably, those maps are brightly lit in North America, Western Europe, Japan, and Australia, but very dark in Latin America, Africa, and much of Asia, where the countries are not as highly developed. Perhaps that’s what the minds of many Christians look like over huge swaths of Scripture–huge forests of unknown punctuated by small islands of light, cities of understanding in books like Psalms, Matthew, John, or Romans. It’s a sobering thought.

Which parts of your Bible are lit up? Which parts are experiencing blackout? What are you going to do about it?

The World at Night

The Internet Monk has an interesting post today titled “On Being Too God-Centered“:

I’ve sensed, as long as I have been around my intensely theological Protestant (mostly reformed and evangelical) brothers and sisters, a kind of clumsiness with the subject of the significance of anything in human experience. By clumsiness I mean that these matters are handled, but the constant pressure to be singularly God centered and God focused makes it difficult to handle both God and human life at once without one overwhelming the other.

…

Many Evangelicals see a frightening and dark world. They are suspicious of art, music, literature and the imagination. Books are dangerous. Culture- be it high or low- is of little value. Those evangelicals who are not of that mindset know full well what the arguments are: How is this serving the glory of God? What is the value of this activity as compared to theology or worship? What is any of this when compared to God?

The reformed doctrines of depravity and corruption are applied to everything, and the only answer is God. But can the world of being human gain and keep its significance in and through the glory of God, or must it give way to the glory of God? That discussion seems to be going on in many different ways and places, with varying levels of helpfulness.

Read the whole thing. He also links to a very good column in The Guardian, a British newspaper, about the influence of Calvinism on modern individualism.