saw a good movie

recently.  The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, starring Ingrid Bergman. Though it was made in 1958, and probably not in the communist China at that time… I found it to be a really engaging and stirring movie from the start. I think it won an academy award so as far as I am concerned it is right up there with Chariots of Fire in terms of awesomeness. If you didn’t like that movie, well then, that is too bad.

The back of the movie case gives the following excerpt:

After making her way to China to become a missionary [and after going on her own, by train across Siberia into Northern China, after the London Missionary Socety turned her down as being "not qualified,"] an English palor maid (Bergman) wins the heart of a Eurasian Colonel and the respect of the local Mandarin [lke a mayor?]. But her greatest accomplishment [was] leading 100 homeless children to saftey across enemy held terrien during Japan’s invasion of China. Adapted from the novel “The Small Woman” about the true life story of Gladys Aylward, this powerfully poignant film is inspiring entertainment from beginning to end.

So I thought it a good flick.

On the recent Pat Robertson flub…

Pat Robertson really has become a sick sick man. I remain uncertain how to pray for him, I really do….

read Dan’s post to get very pointed comments from Russell Moore about it all… where he writes in part:

Pat Robertson’s cruel marriage statement is no anomaly. He and his cohorts have given us for years a prosperity gospel with more in common with an Asherah pole than a cross. They have given us a politicized Christianity that uses churches to “mobilize” voters rather than to stand prophetically outside the power structures as a witness for the gospel.

But Jesus didn’t die for a Christian Coalition; he died for a church. And the church, across the ages, isn’t significant because of her size or influence. She is weak, helpless, and spattered in blood. He is faithful to us anyway.

… Read More

via Apprentice2Jesus

Book Review: Walking in the Spirit.

It is with thanks to Angie from Crossway Publishers that I offer a review of Kenneth Bearding’s short book Walking in the Spirit (Crossway, 2011).

My wife didn’t like me too much for saying this but if there were ever a book that could be truly described as “how to be a Pentecostal or Charismatic, without actually being one…”. Ken Bearding’s latest book Walking in the Spirit would be it!  Really, I don’t mean to be presumptuous or condescending on purpose but the things Bearding talks about in this book is what you hear about in your average Pentecostal church on a fairly regular basis.  For the average Pentecostal or Charismatic Christian (not the fringe folk you see all too often on Scott Bailey’s blog) this is what living the Christian life is all about, Walking in the Spirit. Hearing the voice of the Spirit in one’s heart and life; walking and or living in the power of the Spirit; praying in the Spirit (not necessarily in tongues); hoping in the Spirit (for the eschatological fulfillment of all things); living life led by the Spirit of God and so on.  This is the essence of what it is to live the Spirit led life.  Well, that is how I see it anyways.

Dr. Bearding (PhD, Westminster; Prof at Talbot) then, has written a tightly focused work centering on one of the more significant passages in the Bible on the person and work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, Romans 8. It is not a scholarly work and does not interact too much with major scholarly commentaries on Romans.

Instead, he seeks to talk specifically about a life led by the Spirit and draws his points from the text of Romans 8:1-24.  In a lot of ways it reads a bit like a 7 part sermon series on the Holy Spirit since he fills the texts with plenty of personal stories and anecdotes and points of application along with questions for consideration at the end of each chapter (hint, hint, wink wink, for those wanting to do something like that in their congregation).

It is a short book with only 112 pages (7 chapters) of main text with two appendices one of which he seemed to write to calm some scholars down who might read the book (it addresses some basic academic issues with regarding the passage, i.e., some OT in the NT stuff with regard to the use of the “law”).  It could easily be read in one sitting but I think the better approach would be to read one chapter at a time and let the concept and points sink into one’s heart and life.  Personally, I found it quite stirring and am still feeling the effects of having read it).

Each of the chapters talk about a different element of the work of the Spirit and follows the flow of the text so the first chapter hits on the first instance of the work of the Spirit in the passage.   So, for example, one chapter focuses on what it means to set one’s mind on the things of the Spirit.  Another focuses on what it means to put to death the misdeeds of the body by the Spirit.  Yet another, what it means to be led by the Spirit, and what it means to know God as our Father by the Spirit (no, Abba doesn’t mean “daddy”), to hope in the Spirit and also what it means to pray in the Spirit.

FWIW, I actually agree with him that “praying in the Spirit” is not about tongues per se, but, that it is to pray in conjunction with, or alongside the leading of, the Spirit.  For example, all too often a person gets sick or is injured in some fashion, prayer requests go out for quick healing and such for said person.  Well, to the consternation of many, it should be asked, is this the leading of the Spirit as to how we should pray for this person?  Maybe we should simply pray that they be strong through the process and so on.  How is the Holy Spirit leading us to pray regarding various situations?  That is what it is to be led by the Spirit.

So, if you want to be invigorated in your “spirit-ual” life and walk this book is certainly a good place to start.  I really do recommend it to any and all, and even maybe especially to scholars who tend to get all too heady about stuff (not that there is anything wrong with that per se).

Blessings.

so i got a job

doing substitute teaching work. Just spent the last three days being eaten alive….. and before you say all students eat their subs alive it isn’true. I subbed at the canyon and that never happened. So, this is going to have to suffice until something else more sustantial opens up. Any prayers and loud cries of intercession on our behalf will be appreciated.

the latest with us.

As most of you know earlier this year, just before Easter, Debbie and I made a semi-sudden decision to leave our home and minstry in the Grand Canyon National Park (South Rim). It was primarily motivated but our weariness from and desire to protect our two small children’s health issues. The health issues were related to long-term exposure to toxic mold. That and the presence of several other mitigating factors forced us to confront the fact that, put bluntly, and pretty negatively, you can only polish the brass on a sinking ship for so long…

So the questions become “How have you all been doing since?” “What have you been doing since?” “Where are you living now?”

These are fair questions and they demand answers. Let me see if i can try to answer them to some level of satisfaction.

One word describes our experience since our sudden departure that lead also to loss of home, income, and livelihood: WILDERNESS.

Our leaving the Canyon was a kind of exodus (it happened in the middle of the night leaving nearly all our things behind) after which we were immediately lead into our own wilderness experience (now going on 6 mos of no home and no work). It has been a going from one place to the next wherever we can stay.

We just spent the last four months living with another family (in N. Phoenix) in their home in an extra room they had with its own bathroom. Though it was very gracious of them and was neither an ideal situation nor without its challenges (Two differnt families with two differen ways; We got rejected from every job we applied and or were interviewd for, which at one point lead to my having an anxiety attack, often confused with heart attacks, that lasted several days, and me having my first ever EKG) the time came for us to move on. We are now in a house by ourselves in south Phoenix through someone at the Church we’ve been attending. Can’t say how long we’ll be here. We like it so far but still, it is not home for us, yet.

The Psalms often give voice to the many and varied situations we face in life. I have learned this over time but found it most pogiently expressed in the works of Eugene Peterson. There are many Psalms that have wilderness themes or that allude to the people of Israel’s time in the wilderness thatcan give voice to our own wilderness experiences. One pertinet Psalm that has significance for us is a portion of 107th Psalm, which seems to be in a string of Psalms reflection on the exodus and wilderness experience.. It reads in part:

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love endures forever.

Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story -
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south.

Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle.
They were hungary and thirsty,
and their lives ebbedaway.
Then theycried out to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
He led them by a straight way
to a city where they could settle.
Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for humankind,
for he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things. (TNIV)

Though we are in a city, we are still waiting for a sense of being able to settle and and have a place to call “home.” We have had a sense of wandering but I suppose as Tolkien writes “not all who wander are lost”? We fight against despair and and continue to trust that hope will not disappoint, that God will deliver us and that all will indeed be well in the end. I miss my books and having a functiong computer with Bibleworks on it (I wrote this post and the last several from my kindle). I don’t know how much longer our wilderness experience will last. I hope not much longer.

We know not what the future holds though we press on.

more on exegesis and translation

from Steve Runge’s book Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament: A Practical Introduction for Teaching and Exegesis (Hendrickson, 2010). In talking about the role of “de” and “ouv”as development markers, Runge writes:

So far, we have looked at how English uses adverbials such as “then” and “now” to mark new developments. Greek uses its rich set of connectives to mark development, resulting in a mismatch between the function of some conunctions in Greek and that of their English counterparts. The most commonly used development markers in the Greek NT are “de” and “ouv.”

Not only do the particles “de” and “ouv” serve as conjunctions, but also they serve as development markers in the discourse in ways comparable to temporal adverbs in English. This raises the question of how to best translate them. Should we translate “ouv” as “therefore,” “then,” or “now”? This quandary illustrates the problem of needing to express all grammatical information in translation. There may not be an easy translation solution. This is where exegesis and exposition come in. Even if we cannot capture everything in a single English word, we can still understand the function of the Greek word. We can understand what it signals in the discourse and find other ways of capturing or communicating its function.

I very much appreciate this comment and feel this is why it is really important everyone pick up this book and read it along with Wallace’s GGBB. It also highlights the importance of why second year Greek is needed. My second year Grrek prof Ben Aker told us about how in first year Greek one is a form chaser whereas in second year Greek one becomes a function chaser.

Words have more than meaning, they also have function and place within a given text. Knowing the function of words, phrases, and clauses, helps get at what is going on in the text under study. Good exegesis leads to better exposition and application of the text and good exegesis requires a working knowledge of these kinds of issues.