A brief announcement

With the blog finally caught up -- I've had a rough week -- I'm just worn out. I'm taking a week off from it. I'll see you in January.

Job 30

From being a great man, Job fell to become worse than nothing.

To be nothing, to be forgotten, would have been bearable. As it was, he was mocked and made fun of by men he'd always considered worthless. Worst of all, when he turned to God for help, there was no help to be found.

Review: ACTION PHILOSOPHERS! by Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey

It shouldn't come as a shock to anyone, but I am very interested in both philosophy and comics. This is both,

That I'm interested in philosophy wasn't a surprise to me. Neither was the fact that I'm not interested in reading huge dull books. Fortunately, writer Fred Van Lente has done the hard work of taking these books and distilling them down to short, funny cartoons. Ryan Dunlavey provides art that matches the script and defines the look of the book, but also lets him draw almost everything. Though the art seems simple, it's very adaptable, and Dunlavey can apparently draw nearly anything.

This book feels like it was put out just for me. I doubt there are that many people looking for a black-and-white philosophy comic book, but if you're one of those few, I recommend this one.

Job 29

Job begins his summary defense, and focuses in this chapter on what his life was like before he lost everything. He was not only a spiritual leader, but a financial and political one as well, loved and respected by everyone.

He knew God had allowed that to be taken from him, but he never blamed God.

Review: THIS PRESENT DARKNESS by Frank Peretti

About 15-20 years ago spiritual warfare was the Next Big Thing in the Christian subculture. Frank Peretti was in the vanguard of this trend, and as far as I know he never left.

Reading it all these years later, it's obviously not the work of a seasoned writer. Though all of the boxes are dutifully checked, it's done without grace, as if Peretti typed it with a sledgehammer. Simply put, it's not a very good book, and could have used some more rewriting 

At this point this is of more interest as a cultural artifact than as a book. I don't recommend it.

Job 28

Where does wisdom come from? Only God knows.

Long ago, someone explained the difference between intelligence and wisdom this way: intelligence is what you can know, while wisdom is what you can do with what you know. The Bible has very little to say about intelligence, but a lot to say about wisdom.

The first commandment

2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

3 "You shall have no other gods before me."

-- Exodus 20.2, 3, ESV 

The first commandment is simple, as is the reasoning behind it. No one else brought the Hebrews out of Egypt, so the Hebrews weren't to worship anyone else. And "no other gods before me" didn't mean they could have a lot of gods as long as Yahweh was their favorite. If you think that's the case, try telling your wife that you're going to have a lot of wives, but that she'll be your favorite. Let me know how that works.

Job 27

Job maintains his own integrity, and refuses to compromise his honesty, even this late in the game. Though his chances of getting a hearing before God appear increasingly remote, he still insists on both God's and his own integrity.

When all else fails him he can still believe in that.

My beef with Christmas

First off, I've never said "Bah, humbug!" once in my life, and Ebenezer Scrooge was a character in a piece of sentimental fluff that had more to do with Guatemalan independence than it did with any kind of biblical Christianity. And it had nothing to do with Guatemalan independence. So don't waste your time or mine calling me a Scrooge. Or a Grinch, for that matter, or any of the other names it's become acceptable to call people who don't like the way things are.

My biggest problem with Christmas as it's currently practiced is that it's based on what a particular group of people did in the 1800s. It's about Currier and Ives prints and A Christmas Carol. It's tradition for its own sake, and that's something for which I have no patience at all.

Watching the same movies and singing the same songs every year doesn't mean you have the "Christmas spirit"; it means you watch the same movies and sing the same songs every year. If that's what you like, fine, but let's not pretend that there's some virtue in repetition. Besides, I've read the Bible several times, and I haven't seen anything about a Christmas spirit.

There's a really good part about a baby, though.

Review: WHAT IS A KINGDOM CHRISTIAN? by David Bercot

Having looked at what Jesus said about the Kingdom of God, Bercot examines the sort of people who will inhabit it. This is a more controversial subject, but Bercot approaches it as carefully as he does anything else. Being familiar with his work, I didn't find his conclusions surprising, but I also found they didn't match those of any church to which I'd belonged.

What really matters is whether they match the Bible, and as near as I can tell they do. Some people won't read it just because it's Bercot, and while I understand that, I think it's wrong. Personally, I recommend it; it's better to find out you made a mistake and fix it than to never find out.

Job 26

God is great.

By that I don't mean he's really good. I mean that he's great: unfathomable, unknowable, and unimaginable. Despite that, he loves people and wants to spend eternity with them. Because he's good, too.

Job 25

In this very short chapter, Bildad says that there's no way man can be righteous before God. If even the moon and stars aren't pure in his sight, what chance does Job have?

It's another variation on what we've already read, but at least it's short.

Review: BELIEFS by John Roth

I read this to learn what Mennonites believe, instead, I learned that the Mennonite Church USA is very liberal.

Aside from strewing his work with liberal buzzwords and catchphrases like "conversation" and "faith community", the author has Rob Bell Syndrome, saying very little that can be nailed down. With all due respect to Mr. Roth, the goal isn't a conversation between faith communities; the goal is to be as much as possible like Jesus.

There are a number of reasons I don't recommend this book, but probably the most important is that for all its words, it doesn't say much.

Job 24

Being upright doesn't seem to do anyone any good. Go ahead and prove me wrong. That's what Job's arguments are in this chapter.

Even though he's clearly getting angry, he never curses God. 

Review: NEXTWAVE vol. 1 by Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen

This is a comic book, and a funny one, which isn't as redundant as it sounds. In this country, comics are dominated by superheroes, and superheroes stopped being funny in ever. But this book is hilarious.

Writer Warren Ellis takes several unused characters (and one new one) and throws them into a S.H.I.E.L.D. story that's been cranked up to a ridiculous extreme. Stuart Immonen is one of the top artists in the industry, and draws in an angular style that perfectly suits the frankly insane story.

The series was only 12 issues long, and volume 1 contains the first six. I liked it a lot, and I highly recommend it for anyone else who likes comics.

Job 23

God isn't afraid of our questions.

He's big and tough and can handle them. He created the universe and keeps it going, so he can handle anything you've got. I will warn you about  one thing, though: be as good as Job before you start asking.

Looking positively at Anabaptism, instead of negatively

I don't mean thinking favorably about it; ultimately, what a person believes is between him and God, and I don't expect people to do as I do anyway. What I am saying is that nobody should be defined by what they don't believe, rather than what they do believe. And that includes Anabaptists.

For example, Anabaptists are not people who refuse to bear arms. We're people who trust God to protect us. We're not people who don't take oaths, but people who try to be so honest we don't need to.

Anabaptism isn't about not doing things; it's about doing the right things. It's about obedience out of gratitude to Jesus Christ for saving my soul. There's nothing negative in that.

Job 22

Eliphaz appears to have run out of arguments, because this chapter is just a long list of accusations. Rather than trying to convince Job to repent, Eliphaz seems to pepper him with accusations, hoping he'll confess to something.

It's not fun to read, and it couldn't have been any fun to listen to.

Review: DAD IS FAT by Jim Gaffigan

As might be expected from a comedian's first book, some of this seems like recycled stage material. Most of the book is original, though, and when it comes down to it, it's just one long love letter to his wife and children.

Gaffigan has always used minimal profanity, and I don't remember anything in this book I wouldn't want my daughter to see. Given how few books celebrate families, it's hard not to recommend one that does. Especially if it's funny.

Job 21

"But," Job says, "the wicked do prosper."

It's true. Some people spend their lives at best ignoring God and seem to do just fine. That's one reason Christians believe in Hell. It's a horrible concept, and no one in his right mind would want anyone sent there. But evil will be punished.

Three reasons I still belong to a Southern Baptist church

Longtime readers have seen my theology shift over the last year, to the point where I can no longer consider myself a Baptist anymore. Baptists were originally heavily influenced by two very different groups: the Calvinists and the Anabaptists. The mixture of the two created Baptist theology.

Personally, I've always leaned very hard to the Anabaptist side. I've always had a problem with eternal security, or, to use a more common phrase that I've come to loathe, "once saved always saved". Since that's at the heart of the Baptist faith, giving that up meant giving up being a Baptist, and that was a huge part of my identity.

In the end, though, it was easy, probably because we haven't left our old Baptist congregation. That just raises more questions; my wife in particular has asked why I continue to attend a church with which I don't agree. That's a good question, and deserves a good answer. Here are three attempts.

Eternal security is the only thing I've found so far about which I disagree with the Southern Baptist Convention. The Baptist Faith & Message, though not required for individual churches, tells what the Convention itself believes. Revised in the year 2000, it has one article that's specifically about eternal security, and 17 that aren't. Also, I don't recall a single sermon or lesson on the subject.

The closest Anabaptist congregation I've heard of is still very far away. Years ago I heard of some Mennonites who lived in southwest Chilton County. That's about 70 miles as the crow flies, and probably 100 by car. So we can either drive for three hours to maybe find a congregation that used to be there, or we can drive five minutes to where we know we'll find people we know and love.

We have quite possibly the best pastor in the entire world. I make a point of not mentioning names here, so you'll just have to trust me. Besides, he'd just get the big head anyway.

Hopefully it's a little clearer now.

Job 20

All Zophar can do is just repeat that the wicked will suffer.

It's interesting to me that Job's three friends seem to get more indignant as the book goes, like they're taking his refusal to repent personally. It's something I've never noticed before, and that's the advantage of reading the Bible slowly like this.

Review: AMERICA AGAIN (RE-BECOMING THE GREATNESS WE NEVER WEREN'T) by Stephen Colbert

I don't recommend it. See yesterday's review for why not.

Job 19

Job asks why his friends are blaming his state on him. He didn't do it to himself, he reasons. God did, and if he'd sinned against God, that's between him and God. It had nothing to do with Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.

Basically, he told them to mind their own business.

Review: I AM A POLE (AND SO CAN YOU!) by Stephen Colbert

This is a very short book in verse, a parody of the overtly polemic children's books sometimes published by neoconservative talk show hosts. For several years Colbert played a character, also named Stephen Colbert, who satirized such hosts, and this book appeared just after his first one, I Am America (And So Can You!).

The audio version, which I have, is read by Tom Hanks, so it's both well-written and well-read. The problem is that it depends on the reader having a heavy sense of irony for its humor. The joke is often not always made because the joke is always assumed to have been made. There's a wide streak of knowing sarcasm in this book and in all of Colbert's books, as if he were saying, "Those people really believe this, but we know better."

In short, to use CS Lewis' term, it's flippant. That's why despite it being very, very funny, I don't recommend it.

Job 18

Once again, Bildad takes on his self-appointed role as God's defender.

It's important to note that God didn't ask him to do this. None of Job's friends was assigned that job, and God himself makes it clear later in the book just what he thinks of them assuming it. The fact is that God doesn't need defending. He can defend himself.

Job 17

"I might as well die. What hope is there anyway?" That's the essence of Job's argument in this chapter. It's not a fun chapter to read, but it is short.

Maybe it was meant that way.

Review: KINGDOM OF GOD by David Bercot

The central idea of this book is that the focus of Jesus' preaching as revealed in the New Testament was not, as I had always thought, how to be saved, but the Kingdom of God.

And that's true, as a quick check of the NT will prove.

In fact, everything I've checked in this book was true. Everything I've checked or already known from any of his books or messages has been true, which is the main reason I've come to trust Bercot over the years.

Most of the book explores what is meant by "Kingdom of God". Given how much emphasis Jesus Christ placed on it, it's a very important concept, and one we should understand better. For that reason alone I'd recommend this book.

Job 16

Job still asks to speak with God. After all, he reasons, he won't live forever.

The most interesting thing to me is that other than a few comments, Job doesn't seem to be talking to his friends at all in this chapter. Instead he seems to be speaking through them to God, while begging God to speak to him.

I have a teenage daughter

It's true. She's 13 now.

Conventional wisdom says that I should be more or less crazy right now, trying to keep her my little girl and having an irrational hatred and fear of all boys. But I'm not. 

I'm not happy about it, of course. I've loved having little girls. Part of me wants that to last forever. Most of me knows, though, that it would not only be unhealthy for both of us if I tried, it's not what I really want anyway.

I'm not an idiot who just lets his kids do what they want. (And if you do that, then allow me to say with all the love and good will in the world that you are an idiot.) But I also am not an idiot who would intentionally try to keep his daughters immature and afraid so they'll always stay close.

I know my daughter is growing up. I know that one day she'll break my heart and I won't be the most important man in her life anymore. And that's as it should be.

The reason my wife and I have devoted so much time to teaching her to do what's right is that one day we won't be right there choosing for her. Hopefully she'll do it herself.

Year two

I've had the iPad for two years now, and I'm still very grateful for it. But have I used it well?

It matters what we think and do. This past year I've tried to bring them into alignment. Anything less would be hypocritical, and I do not want to be a hypocrite.

Just like the year before, I've used it mostly to write this blog, read books, and communicate via Facebook. There have been three big changes, though. The first is that I've decided to learn French through the Duolingo app. French is an official language in Newfoundland and Labrador, and while it's only spoken exclusively by about 5% of the people there, I figure knowing it will make me a better missionary. At the very least, I'll die knowing some French.

The second is that given that people are already riled up about the presidential election next year, I'm going to try and stay clear of Fb until at least then. The last thing I want is to waste this gift tthat God has given me being snide and angry.

Finally, a good friend has given me carte blanche to post on The Bible Exchange. Hopefully this will eventually lead to my being able to do this for a living, but as it stands it's a very great honor for me, and a privilege I don't intend to abuse.

I've read 134 books in the last 12 months, which is more than last year but far less than I was shooting for (200). Next year's goal is 20, which sounds ridiculously small until you realize I have some reeeeeally long books I want to read.