justindetmers.com

Damien Rice - Cannonball

It is easy to think of God as merely part of our story, when we are in actuality part of His story. I love the way Ephesians 1: 9 & 10 (in The Message paraphrase) tells us that Jesus is the end, the point…we find meaning and endless good for ourselves, but in the end, He is the end, not the means.

“He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.”

I’ve been prompted in this direction by reading “Christless Christianity” (website here) by Michael Horton…which is a series of pointed and critical examinations of the church in the US. At a few points he may be too critical, but none-the-less, I’ve been encouraged by how Horton has called out attempts to make God into ‘our’ image to do our will, as opposed to the other way around.

Here’s a few quotes:

It is easy to become distracted from Christ as the only hope for sinners. Where everything is measured by our happiness rather than by God’s holiness, the sense of our being sinners becomes secondary, if not offensive. If we are good people who have lost our way, but with the proper instructions and motivation can  become a better person, we need only a life coach, not a redeemer. p. 15-16

Does Christ come merely to improve our existence in Adam or to end it, sweeping us into his new creation? p.24

Jesus has been dressed up as a corporate CEO, life coach, culture-warrior, political revolutionary, philosopher, copilot, co-sufferer, moral example, and partner in fulfilling our personal and social dreams. But in all of these ways, are we reducing the central character in the drama of redemption to a prop for our own play? p.25

The challenge before us as Christian witnesses is whether we will offer Jesus Christ as the key to fulfilling our narcissistic preoccupation or as the Redeemer who liberates us from its guilt and power. Does Christ come to boost our ego or to crucify our ego and raise us up as new a creation with our identity in him? p.33

Damien Rice - Older C

A daughter!

Justin Detmers has a beautiful baby girl cookin’ in the oven.

Wow.

God is good.

This is happening to the guy who used to go streaking, the guy who swallowed a rock to win a bet…this same guy, is going to be a dad.

All of the sudden things feel very real.

My imagination races into her first word, preschool, prom…

I’m so excited to hold her, so hungry to provide.

I’m so excited to have fatherhood shape my perception of God & His great love.

A tsunami is coming my way, what can I do to brace for it?

Pray for grace?

Laugh?

Buy a gun?

All of the above.

Yeah, all of the above.

My life was improved by clicking here. (Laundry Room is one of my favorites…they play it)

Ben Folds - fred jones part 2

“Human language appears to be a unique phenomenon, without significant analogue in the animal world.”

“If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion.”

“Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.”

“As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise, human science is at a loss.”

“Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, it’s unlikely you will step up and take responsibility for making it so. If you assume that there’s no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, there are opportunities to change things, there’s a chance you may contribute to making a better world. The choice is yours.”

Okay; this is not real, but it could be:

Domino’s Scientists Test Limits Of What Humans Will Eat

Guster - The Captain

“You’ve got to talk about the cross…you’ve got to talk about the atoning work of Christ on the cross, you’ve got to do that. If a place doesn’t do that, it’s not a church. If there’s no cross it’s not a church, it’s a gathering of good people…if there is no cross, not blood & agony & screaming & the absorbing of wrath — you don’t have a church, you’ve got something else. Self-help…good people…the rotary club…you don’t a church. You’ve got to have the cross to have a church.” - Matt Chandler

I have always liked this video/song:

John Mayer - The Heart Of Life

Early June means another year has been wrapped up for my favorite teacher. I’ve always been so impressed with her integrity and skill, but perhaps the most appropriate measure of a teacher is the impact she has made on her students who will miss her:

(yes, I just took a picture…the check book says I can’t have a scanner)

Israel was the only nation that God has ever called His own. Those of us who know the story, know God didn’t choose Israel over everyone else, He chose them for everyone else. And like all peoples, they made mistakes and their historical books in Scripture document that fact quite well.

So, that’s why I’m puzzled by those who seem to think the U-S & A is the second nation called by God, chosen over other nations, and immune to criticism. As a Christian, Social Studies teacher, and an American,  I’ve been wrestling with how to reclaim the fusion of faith & tellings of US History/patriotism. The application of OT/Israel promises (out of context) and romanticizing of people, events, & documents does damage. It damages the truth of our history & theology, our global citizenry, and our ability to truly celebrate what is good about our past. 

I post this topic because a blog I frequent thoughtfully raised questions in light of a refreshing review of “The Patriot’s Bible“. Dr. Gregory A. Boyd, who authored The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church, commented:

“Every special interest Bible imposes a certain agenda that to some degree colors the Word, but the Patriot’s Bible takes this “coloring” to a whole new level. There’s not a single commentary in this Bible that even attempts to shed light on what the biblical text actually means. To the contrary, the text of the Bible is used merely as an excuse to further the patriotic agenda of the commentators…Yet, the selective retelling of American history found in the Patriot’s Bible is not what concerns me the most. What disturbs me more is the way the commentators attempt to give their idealized version of American history divine authority by weaving it into the biblical narrative.

Yet, the selective retelling of American history found in the Patriot’s Bible is not what concerns me the most. What disturbs me more is the way the commentators attempt to give their idealized version of American history divine authority by weaving it into the biblical narrative.”

It boils down to an attempt to make God into ‘our’ nationalistic/WASP image. And sadly, many are leery of Christianity precisely because they are actually literate in history. Oh, may be careful with our definitions of what it means to be a patriot and Christian!

Shouldn’t the church be the first to repent and be honest? Don’t we get our value, worth, identity, and goodness from not our nation, but King…who said that His kingdom wasn’t of this world…thus not one with nationalism, militarism, racism, genocide, inequity and so on? 

So, because I pledge allegiance to the ideals of liberty and justice, I want to recommend 3 books (in addition to THE Bible & besides the aforementioned version) which can be found on Amazon:

Blue Öyster Cult - (Don’t Fear) The Reaper

“Chazaq” (חזק) is an old Hebrew word that’s used over 300 times in scripture; it’s pronounced in a “throaty & guttural” way that starts with an ‘h’ sound and makes the ‘c’ silent. Chazaq is courage that comes from God, translated as strength, something to fasten upon, be strong/strengthen, be courageous, cure, help, fortify, encourage the self, be established, fortify, harden, maintain, mend, become mighty, prevail, be recovered, repair, retain, seize, strengthen (self), be stout, be sure, behave valiantly, withstand…

We see it in show up in places like Psalm 27:14 - “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” & 31:24 - “Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.”

And Chazaq begs the question, “What gives you strength?” Because the thing is, we all practically call on ‘gods’, if you will, to give us strength. The ‘god’ of money can deliver us from bank account woes, the ‘god’ of what people think can attempt to deliver us from rejection and insignificance, the ‘god’ being attractive can try to deliver us from the plight of ugliness, the ‘god’ of pleasure can temporarily deliver from burden of discomfort and stress. Having stuff go our way isn’t a bad thing, it’s just unhealthy when something good is elevated as an end in itself. We see this when someone lives for petty and shallow things, and as soon as their fleeting ‘god’ let’s them down (they become poor, rejected/disrespected, feel unattractive, or experience pain), they fall apart.

And as I’ve been thinking about what it is that give me “Chazaq“, about what it is that affirms me, makes me feel whole, makes me feel okay, gives me the gusto to be courageous…I’ve been encouraged by a passage where David ran into horrible circumstances. David had been running from his own king (Saul) who, despite serving and respecting, was trying to kill him. Enemies kidnapped the wives and children of Dave and his men, and now Dave’s men were thinking of killing him too. We see in David someone who, like us, is very vulnerable and human, but fortunately his God was the Lord, not just a favorable state of affairs.

1 Samuel 30: 1-6

David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it, and had taken captive the women and all who were in it, both young and old. They killed none of them, but carried them off as they went on their way. When David and his men came to Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep…David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God.

Awful circumstances knocked David down to a point where he didn’t even have the strength to weep; lonely, rejected, and in immediate danger… “but he found chazaq in the Lord His God.” Chazaq grounds us in unseen and eternal Divinity, saying, “Be brave. Be strong. Take courage. Endure. Press on…do not let up, don’t give in. You’re not forgotten in the chaos of life, your suffering is redemptive.”

May you get your chazaq on!

Rage Against The Machine - Born Of A Broken Man

My friend sent me a link to a NY Times story…hard to imagine:

“Racially segregated proms have been held in Montgomery County — where about two-thirds of the population is white — almost every year since its schools were integrated in 1971. Such proms are, by many accounts, longstanding traditions in towns across the rural South, though in recent years a number of communities have successfully pushed for change. When the actor Morgan Freeman offered to pay for last year’s first-of-its-kind integrated prom at Charleston High School in Mississippi, his home state, the idea was quickly embraced by students — and rejected by a group of white parents, who held a competing “private” prom…”

READ MORE…

The Avett Brothers - The Ballad Of Love And Hate

I don’t get philosophical too often on my blog because I know it bothers or bores most people…to make up for it, I’ll soon return to short & funny clips. Anyway, I’ve done only a little reading lately (job hunt), but it has none-the-less been excellent. When I came across the following by Christian Smith, I said to myself, “Oh snap! This must be posted”. Modern snobbery seems to be unaware of the fact that rationalism/empiricism (and the things that have been constructed from these) are imperfect and insufficient; absolute and universal knowledge is elusive. In the end we really are dealing with being (un)confident of the things we know in part and hope for.

“For centuries, many Western thinkers have tried to identify a universal and certain foundation for human knowledge. Various movements within the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century “Enlightenment” in particular sought to specify an authoritative foundation of knowledge not based on the revelation, faith, and tradition of Christianity. Instead this project sought to identify a strong foundation for knowledge that would be secular (non theistic), universal (applicable to all people despite their differences), and indubitable (irrefutable and certain). One way to understand philosophical epistemology since Rene Descartes is a story of of repeated unsuccessful attempts to identify this kind of foundation of human knowledge. Like the would-be champions who sought to become the first to be able to draw the fabled sword from the stone and so become king, many philosophers have ventured to identify this prized strong foundation of knowledge on which the rational. universal, modern social order could be build. In each case, however, other philosophers always stepped forward to demonstrate why their attempts at this secular, universal, indubitable epistemology did not work.

As a consequence, what we have come rather decisively to see in recent decades is that this epistemological project itself is fatally flawed and that all such attempts to discover a universal, indubitable foundation of knowledge have failed and necessarily will fail. Strong foundationalism is dead. Its quest has come up empty-handed. There is no secular, universal, indubitable foundation of knowledge available to us humans.

What we have come to see is that, at bottom, we are all really believers. The lives that we live and knowledge we possess are based crucially on sets of basic assumptions and beliefs, about which three characteristics deserve note. First, our elemental assumptions and beliefs themselves cannot be empirically verified or established with certainty. They are starting points, trusted premises, postulated axioms, presuppositions, — “below” which there is no deeper or more final justification, proof, or verification establishing them. In philosophical terms, these beliefs and commitments may be “justified,” but they are not “justifiable”. Rather, they themselves provide the suppositional grounds on which any sense of justification, proof, or verification for a given knowledge system are built.”