Early Christmas Present!

Michelle and I went to Guitar Center to "look" around. While we were there, she surprised me by saying, "If you can find one that you like, you can get it today."

So floored as I was, I did manage to find one that I really liked.

It's a Takamine EG523SC Jumbo.

I am really excited about this. It gives me a creative outlet that I have not really had lately. It also inspires me to write and play again. We also picked up a really decent Crate amp to go along with the guitar.


Who knows. Maybe with my portable recording studio (AKA Macbook), I may start writing and recording some original music for the new year.

The gods aren't angry...part 2

Rob continued speaking about sacrifice and offering. Specifically he talked about God telling Abraham to offer his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice. Interestingly, Rob points out, Abraham never questioned God about this. He never asked, "Why?" or "How?" or "um, are you sure about that?" He doesn't question that God would demand such a sacrifice. Which should point us to the framework from which Abraham was acting. It was culturally acceptable for gods to be offered those things that were most valuable to the people, even their children.

But that story doesn't end there. Just as Abraham is about to sacrifice his son, God intervenes with a ram and essentially says, "Look, you have always assumed that you had to do things to bless gods and you had to provide sacrifices in order to please gods. But I am in the business of providing. It is not about you providing, it is about trusting that I will provide."

Rob mixes in a lot of quirky humor. He refers to Monty Python and other cultural tidbits as if he is just speaking with friends. at one point he refers to the book of Leviticus (a book of tedious ritual laws) as a "B-grade slasher film that misses something we refer to as a plot...it's all about killing and where to put the blood." Granted the books has its specific purposes, but for a first time reader, it is a bit daunting.

Rob then explained the idea behind certain offerings in the Hebrew system. The grain offering, the meat offering, the peace offering (which culminated in a feast with friends and family), the sin offering and the guilt offering. The point of these was that they provided a way to know where the people stood with God.

The old ways of offering sacrifices to gods was to please and appease the gods. But this new way of offering was not really for God. As Rob put it, "Sacrifice was about offering a way for us to tangible put to death our sin, shame, and guilt and walk away from the alter having entered into peace with God and leaving these things at the alter."

Now this should not be taken to imply that in the sacrifice we somehow can save ourselves from our sin. The point is that God used a method for his ends. HE provided the salvation. We simply admitted our guilt and sin.

Rob spent the last 30 minutes elaborating on a redemptive movement of Jesus. His death on a cross was God's sacrifice for us. Paul (the writer of nearly 2/3 of the New Testament) writes about Jesus' sacrifice as "reconciling all things to God." As Rob pointed out, "Other gods wanted you to sacrifice what was most important to you in order to have peace. This God sacrificed what was most important to him in order for us to have peace."

Sacrifice, according to Rob, was always about what the human heart needs, not about what God needs. God doesn't need anything from us. One passage in the Old Testament has God saying, "If I was hungry, why would I tell you?" Essentially saying, "You cannot provide me with anything. I am the provider."


Not only did we get a chance to hear Rob teach, but we got the opportunity to hang out with some old friends, Kasey and Lisa. They are part of a new church plant in Irvington (a neighborhood in Indianapolis). For what it's worth, this couple epitomizes kind, gentle hearted humility. They are the type of people I want to be. So it was really great to spend some time (although it was much too little for me) with them.

I love interacting with people who are pushing ministry in new directions. And I feel that Kasey and Lisa are doing just that.

Anyway, I will quit blowing sunshine at them. The point is, that I value interaction with brave people who are courageous enough to push limits, admit doubts, and risk failure; all for the sake of promoting a life in the Kingdom.

The gods aren't angry...part 1

Last night Michelle, Rochelle, and myself went to Indy to listen to Rob Bell speak on the topic of the history of religion. It was a very interesting look at how the pre-Abrahamic people worshiped different gods, and how the God of Judeo-Christian faiths interacted with the people in a new, and specifically different manner.

There were several interesting comments made, and from my chicken-scratched notes I can make out a few:

The talk started with a brief narrative about how primitive cultures ascribed worship to forces they believed manipulate those aspects of life that were beyond human control. These would be the harvest, the weather, the sun, moon, and stars, theaffect of biology on us, how food effects us, the rhythms of life. He went on to explain that these people eventually gave names to these forces and began to worship these gods. The idea arose that good things happened in life when the gods were happy, and bad things happened when the gods were unhappy. So the central concern of humanity became pleasing the gods. In order to please the gods, they offered sacrifices. These started as surplus offerings of harvest, but eventually evolved into sacrifices of those parts of our lives that were most important to us: up to and including children.

The idea arose that whether good things or bad things happened, you had to please the gods, so you had to offer more and more valuable and important sacrifices. That caused a huge insecurity and anxiety in the people in regards to their relationship to the gods.

Rob spoke about God's call that Abraham "leave his father's household." This was more than a call to leave his home. It was a call to leave all that his father had taught him about life and religion. It was a call to leave the religious rituals and perspectives of the culture. It was also a call to radically change his worldview. Nothing would be the same.

I will continue this later in "part 2" but I wanted to post a little about it here.