Breaking The First Commandment

"if what we call "God" is in fact not God then we can ascribe transcendence to it and bow before it with a humble "soli deo gloria" (to God alone be glory) but it still would not alter at all the fact that the revered entity is not God. In Barth's own words: even "by placing [this] God on the throne of the world, we enthrone in him only ourselves." - God is God: The Meaning of a Controversial Formula and the Fundamental Problem of Speaking About God, Eberhard Busch

Real Hero.

For those of you who've logged time in Baja dodging federalies the new chief of police should inspire you. These are the kinds of people we need to be praying for! Check out the LA Times article on this guy.

The Signs Are All Around You...

We all know that 666 is the Number of the Beast. But did you know:

· $665.95........Retail price of the Beast
· $699.25..........Price of the Beast plus 5% sales tax
· $769.95...........Price of the Beast with all accessories and replacement soul
· $656.66.........Walmart price of the Beast
· $646.66..........Next week's Walmart price of the Beast
· 00666............Zip code of the Beast
· 1-666 ...........Area code of the Beast
· 1-900-666-0666 ..Live Beasts! Call Now! Only $6.66/minute.
· 670..............Approximate number of the Beast
· DCLXVI...........Roman numeral of the Beast
· 666.0000.........Number of the High Precision Beast
· 0.666 ...........Number of the Millibeast
· / 666 ...........Beast Common Denominator
· 666 ^ (-1).......Imaginary number of the Beast
· 1010011010.......Binary of the Beast
· Phillips 666.....Gasoline of the Beast
· $6.66 9/10.......Price of a Beast gasoline
· Route 666........Way of the Beast
· 666 F............Oven temperature for roast Beast
· 666k.............Retirement plan of the Beast
· 6.66%.......5yr CD rate @ First Beast National Bank, $666 minimum deposit.
· i66686...........CPU of the Beast
· 666i ............BMW of the Beast
· DSM-666..........Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the Beast
· 668..............Next-door neighbor of the Beast
· 666 mg...........Recommended Minimum Daily Requirement of Beast
· Lotus 6-6-6......Spreadsheet of the Beast
· Word 6.66........Word Processor of the Beast
· 6 h. 66 min......Beast Standard Time (BST)
· Boeing 666......."A jet for the Beast Age"
· 6/6/66...........The birthdate of the Beast
· 666-66-6666......The Social Security number of the Beast
· 6666.............The PIN of the Beast
· 25.806975........The square root of the Beast
· Motel 666........Beast Western
· Beverly Hills 66666..........Beast's favorite TV show

Calvin On Idolatry's Affect

"Hardened by habit, they sit in their own excrement, and yet believe they are surrounded by roses." -Institutes, 1.11

Why Long Beach?

"The fact that our modern culture is so explicitly evil is the reason why some who follow Christ, despite the biblical injunction to take up a world-wide cultivating ministry, still find it necessary to cut out of their lives as much culture as possible. Some Christians believe they should sell all that they have and join something like a Mennonite community in Paraguay or in the frozen blue mountain country of northern Canada where all your time goes body-heart-soul-mind into hacking sustenance out of the environment for your families, in moving dependence upon the Lord God generation after generation, as far from the secularized cut-throat world as possible. I respect much strong christian living as a personal decision for faith survival, but I believe its driving force is at bottom counter-creational and is mistaken when it is adopted as the direction for Christ's body on earth to take. It's true, if you covertly covet automobiles, it's better to demolish them and walk rather than keep your garage stocked with idols. And if you compulsively overeat and grow fat or pursue slim-hipped thinness of the American shape as your ticket to well-being, it's better, both ways, to put on a camel's hair shirt, eat locusts and honey, get a tough, durable body and baptize for a living as John in the Gospels did-although Christ's disciples ate and drank, healed the sick and told the people stories, parables, like their master rabbi. Indeed, it's better to cut down cultivating to the bone rather than go well built into hell. But what's "better" is not yet positing the full norm of goodness which our Father in heaven has given us to believe as the way of cultured life."

-Calvin Seerveld, Rainbows For The Fallen World

Prayer & Divine Pathos

Walter Bruggemann delivered a riveting paper at SBL/AAR last month titled, "The Recovering God of Hosea" which explored the theology of Hosea as a glimpse into the internal life of God. The presentation was so powerful that it was followed by a haunting silence broken by some reverent "amens" muttered under the breath of attendees. [F.Y.I. It is not politically correct to amen at SBL.] Bruggemann's words have stuck with me and in the past few weeks I've been inadvertently meditating on the way Hosea bespeaks a unique, unsettled complexity in God's internal life.

One half hazard discovery -

By thinking of God's internal life as less complex than my own (I dare not say "messy") I have unconsciously believed the complexity of my own internal life as unsuitable for prayer. Was it David's belief in the breadth of God's pathos that explicated his own volubility? Was he a "man after God's own heart" by virtue of believing God's Heart was sophisticated enough to receive his surprisingly frank process? This has legitimated a new season of irreverent but sincerely honest prayers in which I choose to include God in everything from gripes, to ambivalence, to words I wouldn't say in church. This is good news (euangelion) for those who, like me, find it hard to believe God is honored with honesty in spite the endless mixture of complex,unsettled, messy and sometimes dark internal states.

God & The Monsters

As a stay at home dad wanting to do something besides play dolls until my ears bleed I've been spending an unusual amount of time looking at dinosaurs. From New York's Natural History Museum to the La Brea Tar Pits in LA I've been logging a lot of time thinking about these ancient creatures with my preschooler. Preschoolers know dinosaurs are intrinsically problematic:

Why did God make the dinosaurs? How long is a mommy dinosaur pregnant? What did the dinosaurs eat for breakfast? Why did they die away? Why did God let them die?

Ironically, faith needs a healthy dose of agnosticism to survive. When it comes to origins I've resolved that Genesis was not written to satisfy our scientific curiosity and there is room for a variety of scientific possibilities. But that has not relieved me of the theological tensions my preschooler has reminded me of.

While viewing the T-Rex with my little girl I saw these creatures from a new light. As she approached these gigantic scaffolds her face filled with fear and awe. She asked me (again) if the dinosaurs were "real" and I concurred. While looking at her face it dawned on me that dinosaurs are the closest thing we have to real monsters. These terrifying, ominous animals will forever be shrouded in a bit of mystery, awe and terror. How do I harmonize a God shaped world designed for man and its creatures with the presence of these terrifying monsters? How do I reconcile God & the monsters?

If you're going to deal with the theological question of these monsters you need to read far beyond Genesis. The end of the book of Job presents animals [whether actual of mythical ] that fit the bill. In Job 41 we read,

Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook [...]will he speak with soft words? Will you play with him as with a bird, or will you put him on a leash for your daughters? [...] When he raises himself up the mighty are afraid; at the crashing they are beside themselves. Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail, nor the spear, the dart or the javelin. He counts iron as straw; and bronze as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee; for him sling stones are turned to stubble. Clubs are counted as stubble; he laughs at the rattle of javelins [...] On earth there is not his like, a creature without fear. He sees everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride.

The Bible says the real angst regarding the monsters is deeper than my intellect. The existence of animals that could so easily make toy of me is a reminder that I am not in charge. They are a reminder that God has, for whatever reasons, allowed for ominous chaotic elements to exist in the midst of the order and beauty. They remind me that I will not be able to relegate the foreboding of monsters to children's stories. And they remind me that processes are in place that are beyond my knowledge and that God alone knows the final answer to some things (like whether T-Rex's hunted in packs.)

In the Bible it is the existence, not the absence, of monsters that is to lead us to faith.

Motivational Posters For The Emergent

For the record I'm not pro or anti emergent but for a fun time click here.

Bono On Spiritual Growth

Your nature is a hard thing to change; it takes time.  One of the extraordinary transferences that happen in your spiritual life is not that your character flaws go away but they start to work for you.    A negative becomes a positive: you've a big mouth: you end up a singer.  You're insecure: you end up a performer who needs applause.  I have heard of people having life-changing miraculous turn arounds, people set free from addiction after a single prayer, relationships saved where both parties 'let go and let God'.  But it was not like that for me.  For all that 'I was lost, I am found', it is probably more accurate to say, 'I was really lost, I'm a little less so at the moment.'  And then a little less and a little less again.  That to me is the spiritual life. The slow reworking and rebooting of a computer at regular intervals, reading the small print of the service manual.  It has slowly rebuilt me in a better image.  It has taken years, though, and it is not over yet.   - -Bono, u2 by u2

Chloe on God, Life, Her Daddy...Part 2

Part 2 of "Kids Say The Craziest Things".



[After her swimming party she says] "Dad, thank you for throwing a swimming party, let's do it again...and also have a raking party." [She just got a new kid rake.]

[Hearing the words of a song] "Daddy, who built that song?"

[Saying goodbye to a friend] "Bye Gracie, you are always in my heart, like a bench"


[While Walking Up A Hill] "This is great! I've always wanted to walk up a hill!"

[Naming her new pet turtles she got in Chinatown] "This will be Mr. Captain Ling Chinatown and Mrs. Mulan Ping Chinatown"

[When Saying Grace] "God help us...now you say something Dad"