Like I said the other day, I picked up Timothy Keller's The Reason for God at the airport in Singapore. A couple days later, I've finished about 160 pages (with quite a few left to go).
Being one of those that always thinks about things that really have little importance, I've always enjoyed philosophy, even deconstruction in which I can state I'm sitting on an Oreo eating a toilet. Maybe because of my fondness for the abstract, I've always tried to reason myself out of Christianity, mostly when I read the Bible or books defending the faith. Of course I've never come close to not-believing, I just like spotting the logical fallacies which run rampant in Christian writing and talk in Christian circles.
With that said, I've approached Keller's book with the mind of a skeptic, wondering if its arguments would hold up. The result? So far, I have found a couple of problems in its reasoning, but overall it's one of the least fallacious books on the topic that I have ever read--maybe because Keller is a pastor instead of an apologist.
And, with that out of the way, I'll continue to plug the book. If you want your mind stimulated, read it. If you want to be encouraged in your faith, and learn a lot of new things along the way, read it. If you want to prove him wrong, read it.
The Reason for God by Timothy Keller
Oh yeah, and I just downloaded and will start to read Plantinga's "Two Dozen (or so) Theistic Arguments," so I recommend that too, if you're willing to read Plantinga-jargon.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
over the hump - 28/08/2008
It's Thursday...
Life:
It's Thursday and I'm sitting in Chiangi International Airport. My plane has a delay, so I'm trying to take advantage of Singapore's hospitality, which includes free, fast, wifi, among other things. As stated in the last post, my life is one of those things where no matter how hard I try, I can't do it gracefully, and usually the outcome is confusion and more problems. One of my more fleshly problems is pride, and I think this is just God trying to show me that I really am pitiful and there is nothing to take pride in, even in the eyes of the world. Six years ago he showed me that with salvation--I cannot boast that I believed in the name of the Lord, as He is the one who called me. Now he's breaking me down in every other way.
Anyway, the good news is I just obtained my new visa; I'm over the hump that has taken almost seven months to ascend.
Links:
Perlious Plunge at Holiday World - needless to say, I'm pretty excited, and am already thinking about Summer 2010.
7 Tough Questions to Ask Your Friends - I need this to be asked of me (hint, hint), and I need to ask others
The Reason for God by Timothy Keller - just bought it five minutes ago at a really high airport/Singapore price, but plan on reading it this week
Nobody's Got It All Together - Jill Phillips
Working hard to tie up the loose ends
So hard to decide who you let in
Put your best foot forward with a grin
I can see the fear behind your eyes
Wondering if someone will recognize
You’ve grown tired of keeping up the lies
Don’t whitewash the truth about yourself ‘cause
Nobody’s got it all together
If you want to be like everyone else well
Nobody’s got it all together
I have seen the darkness of my heart
And found a love that taught me its too hard
To walk through life and not let down my guard
What good is it to say please savior come
If there is nothing you need rescue from
Life is something no one has a corner on
Don’t whitewash the truth about yourself ‘cause
Nobody’s got it all together
If you want to be like everyone else well
Nobody’s got it all together
When the parts that are self righteous
Start to disappear
Every other life is
Just another mirror
And life is way too short to run and hide
Don’t whitewash the truth about yourself ‘cause
Nobody’s got it all together
If you want to be like everyone else well
Nobody’s got it all together
Life:
It's Thursday and I'm sitting in Chiangi International Airport. My plane has a delay, so I'm trying to take advantage of Singapore's hospitality, which includes free, fast, wifi, among other things. As stated in the last post, my life is one of those things where no matter how hard I try, I can't do it gracefully, and usually the outcome is confusion and more problems. One of my more fleshly problems is pride, and I think this is just God trying to show me that I really am pitiful and there is nothing to take pride in, even in the eyes of the world. Six years ago he showed me that with salvation--I cannot boast that I believed in the name of the Lord, as He is the one who called me. Now he's breaking me down in every other way.
Anyway, the good news is I just obtained my new visa; I'm over the hump that has taken almost seven months to ascend.
Links:
Perlious Plunge at Holiday World - needless to say, I'm pretty excited, and am already thinking about Summer 2010.
7 Tough Questions to Ask Your Friends - I need this to be asked of me (hint, hint), and I need to ask others
The Reason for God by Timothy Keller - just bought it five minutes ago at a really high airport/Singapore price, but plan on reading it this week
Nobody's Got It All Together - Jill Phillips
Working hard to tie up the loose ends
So hard to decide who you let in
Put your best foot forward with a grin
I can see the fear behind your eyes
Wondering if someone will recognize
You’ve grown tired of keeping up the lies
Don’t whitewash the truth about yourself ‘cause
Nobody’s got it all together
If you want to be like everyone else well
Nobody’s got it all together
I have seen the darkness of my heart
And found a love that taught me its too hard
To walk through life and not let down my guard
What good is it to say please savior come
If there is nothing you need rescue from
Life is something no one has a corner on
Don’t whitewash the truth about yourself ‘cause
Nobody’s got it all together
If you want to be like everyone else well
Nobody’s got it all together
When the parts that are self righteous
Start to disappear
Every other life is
Just another mirror
And life is way too short to run and hide
Don’t whitewash the truth about yourself ‘cause
Nobody’s got it all together
If you want to be like everyone else well
Nobody’s got it all together
Monday, August 25, 2008
my Charlie Brown moment
Today I caught myself dripping wet, standing under a tree, with no place to go.
The story is long, so I won't go into the details of my life being living proof of Murphy's law, but I just want you to picture this: white girl in a brown-skinned world, standing under a big tree, wet shirt, wet, dirty pants and feet. No where to go, and no clue about where I was actually headed. It was raining hard, and I didn't have an umbrella since this is the dry season. I was very sad, and emotionally feeble from a rough day.
It took about fifteen minutes for me to turn to God, and even then my heart was weak and all I could do was a muffled prayer in my head of, "God, please let this all stop."
In that second I realized that it didn't take cancer to make me feel sad. It didn't take a tsunami, losing my job, having my family die in a car wreck. It didn't take a crippling disease, holding a dying child in my arms, being engulfed by war, or even being imprisoned. I wasn't beaten or teased, never harassed. Yet, at that moment, all that was within me was ready to give up, as if I had suffered some atrocity.
Paul should have addressed his letters not to people who were really suffering, but just to some twenty-something girl who was stuck under a tree during an hour-long rainstorm, because if he had, maybe I would have realized that I could persevere through such an ordeal.
^ That last part was sarcastic, for those who are less inclined to read it that way.
At the same time, I checked Tim Challies' blog tonight to find his post about trials and suffering, which only did more to convict me about the "trials" I have to endure. This is from the Valley of Vision:
Father of Mercies, Hear me for Jesus’ sake.
I am sinful even in my closest walk with thee;
it is of thy mercy I died not long ago;
Thy grace has given me in the cross
by which thou hast reconciled thyself to me and me to thee,
drawing me by thy great love,
reckoning me as innocent in Christ though guilty in myself.
Giver of all graces, I look to thee for strength to maintain them in me,
for it is hard to practise what I believe.
Strengthen me against temptations.
My heart is an unexhausted fountain of sin,
a river of corruption since childhood days,
flowing on in every pattern of behaviour;
Thou hast disarmed me of the means in which I trusted,
and I have no strength but in thee.
Thou alone canst hold back my evil ways,
but without thy grace to sustain me I fall.
Satan’s darts quickly inflame me,
and the shield that should quench them easily drops from my hand:
Empower me against his wiles and assaults.
Keep me sensible of my weakness, and of my dependence upon thy strength.
Let every trial teach me more of thy peace, more of thy love.
Thy Holy Spirit is given to increase thy graces,
and I cannot preserve or improve them unless he works continually in me.
May he confirm my trust in thy promised help,
and let me walk humbly in dependence upon thee, for Jesus’ sake.
The story is long, so I won't go into the details of my life being living proof of Murphy's law, but I just want you to picture this: white girl in a brown-skinned world, standing under a big tree, wet shirt, wet, dirty pants and feet. No where to go, and no clue about where I was actually headed. It was raining hard, and I didn't have an umbrella since this is the dry season. I was very sad, and emotionally feeble from a rough day.
It took about fifteen minutes for me to turn to God, and even then my heart was weak and all I could do was a muffled prayer in my head of, "God, please let this all stop."
In that second I realized that it didn't take cancer to make me feel sad. It didn't take a tsunami, losing my job, having my family die in a car wreck. It didn't take a crippling disease, holding a dying child in my arms, being engulfed by war, or even being imprisoned. I wasn't beaten or teased, never harassed. Yet, at that moment, all that was within me was ready to give up, as if I had suffered some atrocity.
Paul should have addressed his letters not to people who were really suffering, but just to some twenty-something girl who was stuck under a tree during an hour-long rainstorm, because if he had, maybe I would have realized that I could persevere through such an ordeal.
^ That last part was sarcastic, for those who are less inclined to read it that way.
At the same time, I checked Tim Challies' blog tonight to find his post about trials and suffering, which only did more to convict me about the "trials" I have to endure. This is from the Valley of Vision:
Father of Mercies, Hear me for Jesus’ sake.
I am sinful even in my closest walk with thee;
it is of thy mercy I died not long ago;
Thy grace has given me in the cross
by which thou hast reconciled thyself to me and me to thee,
drawing me by thy great love,
reckoning me as innocent in Christ though guilty in myself.
Giver of all graces, I look to thee for strength to maintain them in me,
for it is hard to practise what I believe.
Strengthen me against temptations.
My heart is an unexhausted fountain of sin,
a river of corruption since childhood days,
flowing on in every pattern of behaviour;
Thou hast disarmed me of the means in which I trusted,
and I have no strength but in thee.
Thou alone canst hold back my evil ways,
but without thy grace to sustain me I fall.
Satan’s darts quickly inflame me,
and the shield that should quench them easily drops from my hand:
Empower me against his wiles and assaults.
Keep me sensible of my weakness, and of my dependence upon thy strength.
Let every trial teach me more of thy peace, more of thy love.
Thy Holy Spirit is given to increase thy graces,
and I cannot preserve or improve them unless he works continually in me.
May he confirm my trust in thy promised help,
and let me walk humbly in dependence upon thee, for Jesus’ sake.
free album: JJ Heller
In my life-quest to acquire as much modern folk music as possible, I stumbled upon the free download of JJ Heller's new album, "Painted Red." I've downloaded many free (and legal) albums in my time, and sometimes the songwriting/quality is what you pay for. This album, however, is different. (Had I heard of JJ Heller before now, I would have known that she would produce quality music.)
Download the album. Plus, donate some money.
"Painted Red"
If I could not hold a pen I would write of you on my heart instead
You have bought me with your blood and I am painted red by your love
If I could not say a word my life would speak of love I don't deserve
Hope means holding on to you
Grace means you're holding me too
Download the album. Plus, donate some money.
"Painted Red"
If I could not hold a pen I would write of you on my heart instead
You have bought me with your blood and I am painted red by your love
If I could not say a word my life would speak of love I don't deserve
Hope means holding on to you
Grace means you're holding me too
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
what is written above your door?
I could go into a long story about how one of my favorite aspects of soteriology is found in Exodus 12 and the blood of the sacrifice on the doorposts of the houses of the Israelites, but I won't. Instead, I'll go directly into the story of what we recently found above our door. You see, for a while Erin had noticed an enveloped taped to the wall high above our front door. Since the ceilings here are pretty high, and we're both pretty lazy, we let it go, only imagining the big piece of wall that had been chipped-at underneath the envelope.
At the same time, there had been some...different things happening in our house.
It started with our money. Little by little, sometimes big by big, would disappear from the places where our money is kept safely. One morning Erin went to shower. At that time, she had been keeping close tabs on her money, as we'd seen so much disappear. She counted it before she showered. Our house helper and I were the only ones in the house, and when Erin came back, some of the money from her wallet in her purse was gone.
Now, logically, the house helper was the only one who could have taken it. And yes, even though our house helper treats us like her own children and we think of her as family, we did suspect maybe she was doing it. We were hurt and a little angry. I confronted her about the issue, not directly casting blame, but just letting her know what was going on. Erin and I prayed that whatever had happened would stop, that we would be able to forgive Ibu Mila, with whom we are trying to be lights, and that it would all go away.
The very next day, I came home and had a significant sum of money in my wallet from my most recent trip to the ATM. I put my bag in my room and went to help Ibu Mila in the kitchen. Two hours later, I had a portion missing. Ibu Mila hadn't left my side.
At this point, for a while that at the time did not seem connected, both Erin and I had experienced a darkness in our house. When Erin was here, I would pray as I was walking around the house, not liking the weird feeling. I would pray in the bathroom. Pray as I used the shower. It wasn't a good feeling. I didn't know it at the time, but Erin was feeling the same thing, and was praying every night before she went to bed that nothing evil would enter the house. Then more recently, Erin woke up several nights in a row, petrified for no reason but feeling something bad.
By far the strangest thing happened one night in Erin's room. She woke up to a light noise in the middle of the night. Assuming it was a magnet falling off her dry erase board, she rolled over and went to sleep. The next morning, Erin saw something underneath her bed, at the foot. It was a Chinese coin. To understand the weight of this, you have to know Erin. Her room is impeccably neat. She had just remade her bed the day before. There was nothing in her blankets but blankets. Moreover, even though her friend had recently traveled here from China, she had never owned a Chinese coin, and did not know where it could have come from.
Being Americans, we tried to think of as many scientific reasons as we could before we even thought of the spiritual realm. (Which, by the way, is very real here. Very. And not fun, although thankfully aside from these incidents I've been blessed to not witness its power.) We still can't explain what all happened, and of course people in the West will think it is ridiculous, but there is a striking darkness that is over the darker places in the world, and this sure is one of them. You don't have to be "sensitive" to the spiritual world or even be seeking it out to feel it, it's just there.
One night a friend of ours saw the envelope above our door. He decided to take the envelope down, only to find out that when he did it, inside were some incantations and stones.
We believe the weird animistic spell that was meant to keep spirits out of the house for the previous owners was actually acting as an invitation. We know the ultimate solution isn't to get rid of the envelope, but we did. We know the real solution is to worship the Conqueror of sin and death, which we do and will continue to do if more weird things keep happening.
Yesterday, I read one of the best...collection of thoughts...on spiritual warfare. It's a long article, but it's very biblical and insightful without fanning fanatacism and promoting Exorcist t-shirts. Highly recommended.
At the same time, there had been some...different things happening in our house.
It started with our money. Little by little, sometimes big by big, would disappear from the places where our money is kept safely. One morning Erin went to shower. At that time, she had been keeping close tabs on her money, as we'd seen so much disappear. She counted it before she showered. Our house helper and I were the only ones in the house, and when Erin came back, some of the money from her wallet in her purse was gone.
Now, logically, the house helper was the only one who could have taken it. And yes, even though our house helper treats us like her own children and we think of her as family, we did suspect maybe she was doing it. We were hurt and a little angry. I confronted her about the issue, not directly casting blame, but just letting her know what was going on. Erin and I prayed that whatever had happened would stop, that we would be able to forgive Ibu Mila, with whom we are trying to be lights, and that it would all go away.
The very next day, I came home and had a significant sum of money in my wallet from my most recent trip to the ATM. I put my bag in my room and went to help Ibu Mila in the kitchen. Two hours later, I had a portion missing. Ibu Mila hadn't left my side.
At this point, for a while that at the time did not seem connected, both Erin and I had experienced a darkness in our house. When Erin was here, I would pray as I was walking around the house, not liking the weird feeling. I would pray in the bathroom. Pray as I used the shower. It wasn't a good feeling. I didn't know it at the time, but Erin was feeling the same thing, and was praying every night before she went to bed that nothing evil would enter the house. Then more recently, Erin woke up several nights in a row, petrified for no reason but feeling something bad.
By far the strangest thing happened one night in Erin's room. She woke up to a light noise in the middle of the night. Assuming it was a magnet falling off her dry erase board, she rolled over and went to sleep. The next morning, Erin saw something underneath her bed, at the foot. It was a Chinese coin. To understand the weight of this, you have to know Erin. Her room is impeccably neat. She had just remade her bed the day before. There was nothing in her blankets but blankets. Moreover, even though her friend had recently traveled here from China, she had never owned a Chinese coin, and did not know where it could have come from.
Being Americans, we tried to think of as many scientific reasons as we could before we even thought of the spiritual realm. (Which, by the way, is very real here. Very. And not fun, although thankfully aside from these incidents I've been blessed to not witness its power.) We still can't explain what all happened, and of course people in the West will think it is ridiculous, but there is a striking darkness that is over the darker places in the world, and this sure is one of them. You don't have to be "sensitive" to the spiritual world or even be seeking it out to feel it, it's just there.
One night a friend of ours saw the envelope above our door. He decided to take the envelope down, only to find out that when he did it, inside were some incantations and stones.
We believe the weird animistic spell that was meant to keep spirits out of the house for the previous owners was actually acting as an invitation. We know the ultimate solution isn't to get rid of the envelope, but we did. We know the real solution is to worship the Conqueror of sin and death, which we do and will continue to do if more weird things keep happening.
Yesterday, I read one of the best...collection of thoughts...on spiritual warfare. It's a long article, but it's very biblical and insightful without fanning fanatacism and promoting Exorcist t-shirts. Highly recommended.
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