Think Wink.

It is amazing what will go through a person’s mind when s/he works for UPS. Imagine 5 hours of extremely repetitive motion consisting of sort four to six packages; look at the label that says what package car the package belongs and where on the car it goes; re-write the truck ID and shelf number on the packages. Then take packages out of the cage and place them on the correct trucks with the scanning label facing a certain direction that makes it easy for the driver to find while keeping what has just been written on the package facing the aisle of the truck for easy reference. Really repetitive but it allows for eight hours of work to be done in five. Seriously it does. But this becomes so routine that the mind can wonder to places. I have written up entire sermons/Sunday school lessons here. I have practiced Greek and Hebrew here. This past week I have planned out what I am going to get my soon-to-turn-ten year old sister for her birthday at the end of the year in December.

What is even more weird was that about a month ago, I thought through how I would propose to a girl that the Lord had led me to wed. Right now Jesus has not seen fit for me to even be in a courting relationship so I don’t know why I was thinking about this. Honestly, some days I’d like to skip the whole wedding and engagement and go straight to being a daddy. Lightsaber fights and comic books with the boys and/or tea parties and shopping with my little girls–I’d even play dolls or watch some rediculous TV that I don’t have to watch as a brother. I actually look forward to that some days. But last month it was how to propose. Not going to spill the beans on that because I wouldn’t want the archives to come back and bite me. Read more

Division on Baptism

Top Marvel Replacement Character

I guess I’m not a man…

Yep. This is the day 500 or so years ago Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 theses to that church door. Michael Bird posted this awesome rap on his blog so I thought I’d pass it along even though I’m not sure about the whole denominations thing towards the end. Still good though.

H/T: Euangelion: 95 Theses

Dr. Jerry Falwell

Another look into euaggelion

Way To Go!

I, like so many around the blogosphere, just recently finished watching John Piper present his take on the election. He does not endorse a candidate nor does he give away his personal vote this election. I like his take on the election and the interesting dichotomy that is presented to the Christian. As a Christian I hate racism. There is no place for it anywhere. All human beings are created by God. All human beings are condemned by sin. All human beings are saved by sovereign grace through faith in the finished cross-work of Jesus Christ. No one can belittle anyone on a racial or gender or socio-economic ground (that is also true for political views as well). I hate abortion. It is infanticide, the wanton murder of thousands–no millions–of infants since 1973. In the black population alone since Roe v. Wade in 1973 some 12 million babies have been killed (see the video below)! The problem is that the black candidate in Barak Obama is the most radical pro-abortion person in both houses of Congress. I want to vote for Barak Obama because of what will happen for race relations in this country. It will go a long way to heal the wrong of American slavery and the rampant racism that was so prevelant in this country–even today. Yet by putting that man in office, more will be done to further cheapen the sanctity of human life by furthering the cause of abortion. Millions more people will die as a result of this same candidate that can do much to heal the grievous wound caused by slavery and racism. It is almost a question of what is more evil, racism or abortion? I think the question is better stated, “What is more important to me, healing the wound of racism or eliminating the murderous practice of abortion?” I guess I’ll find out come Tuesday.

By the way, I love Piper’s smile when he speaks of an African American president. He really wants to see this happen. And he is right, Obama needs to address the issue of 12 million African American babies dead because of Roe v. Wade. Why is it this way? Tears well up just trying to grasp the breadth of that number, let alone the total number of people who are dead because of abortion. Here is the video and I know that certain readers of this blog will squirm at Piper’s comments and probably want to dismiss everything else he has to say about the election.

Wednesday and Thursday

With All His Warts

If anyone ever thinks Piper is perfect…

Congratulations to my friend JR of C-MO!! I am so happy for ya man. Really I am.

No related posts

Here is BMB’s commentary on the penultimate chapter of Marvel’s SI, not Sports Illustrated but Secret Invasion; which I’m thinking concludes with Norman Osborn, aka the Green Goblin aka William Dafoe’s character in the Spider-Man movies, taking over the Superhuman Reginstration Initiative that oversee’s the US (and now the world) superheros and making sure that they reveal their identities to the US government (and now a very terrible and evil man) so that the heroes can be held accountable. If you want to know more about this, see the Civil War story lines from two years ago. Good stuff. That’s where the “Illumi-naughty” or Evil Illuminati and Dark Reign come in. I’m guessing this from some hints that Bendis drops in this commentary about Iron Man and from Newsarama’s Damn Dirty Skrulls: What We Know Now 15 review of Thunderbolts. Also on the Newsarama page is a page-by-page breakdown of SI 7. Good stuff about my boy New Captain America. Their sponsor couldn’t be more right on this, trust me.

No related posts

I was checking my RSS feeder and Honzo linked to a post by Greg Boyd about the atonement. Boyd was reporting on a debate he had just returned from and was mentioned that the nature of the atonement came up. Greg Boyd holds to a position called Christus Victor which he defines in the post as “the view that the main thing Jesus did on Calvary was defeat the devil and free us from his oppression.” Boyd is thinking out loud (or so it seems to me) on how to make Christus Victor compatible with Penal Substiution. If you want to read more about Christus Victor click on the following link (Christus Victor). If you want a good picture of this–although it is more of a picture of the Ransom theory of which Boyd’s view is a modification–see C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Aslan (Jesus) is seen as triumphing over the White Queen (Satan) by his death. This is a part of how the New Covenant portrays the death of Jesus (cf. Colossians 2:13-15; 1 John 3:8; Hebrews 2:14). But to remove the Penal Substitutionary meaning of the cross is a reductionism that one cannot make as I will comment on later. Read more

Wednesday and Thursday

Iron Man Trailer

Sunday Morning Drive

Michael Bird reviews an audio address by D.A. Carson to the 1998 ETS gathering. I look forward to hearing Dr. Carson speak. Allow Michael Bird to give a couple of reasons why

I agree that evangelicalism must be defined theologically (as opposed to defining it sociologically or as a post-enlightenment religious renewal movement). For me the centre of evangelicalism must be the evangel, rather than things like inerrancy or complementarianism, while a number of theological corollaries follow from the evangel, nothing must displace the evangel as the theological center. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the distinctive element of an evangelical theology would be the setting out of the gospel as part of it’s prolegomena…

I could not agree more with the importance of biblical theology as something that needs to be taught in order to provide an over-arching meta-narrative for evangelical students and scholars. The sad fact is that it is not taught in a number of institutions and it desperately needs to be.

I eagerly await Carson’s address.

About Think Wink

My Theological Worldview

Wow…..

Here are two great posts from the Koinonia blog.

First is one about the imperfect tense of NT Greek by Greek scholar Bob Mounce, the father of Bill Mounce who wrote Basics of Biblical Greek, and also the author of a commentary on Revelation. I really enjoyed reading about the many nuances that the imperfect tense carries with it. Translating the Imperfect (Monday with Mounce 11) by Bob Mounce

The second post is some comments about Jesus and the Canaanite/Syro-Phoenician woman in Matthew 15:21-28/Mark 7:24-30. The author here argues that even though Jesus seems to be somewhat of a jerk to her he is actually allowing her to be seen as virtuous while maintain his status as a Jewish prophet. He is expected to act that way towards a Gentile woman. The woman was able to gain honor by approaching Jesus as he does and he is seen as an excellent leader. The fact that she engages Jesus as she does shows her view of Jesus and how low a view his followers had of him. Being a good leader, Jesus allowed her to have the miracle she sought for. I really enjoyed this post and the passage really makes more sense. I might have muddled it a little but read it and you’ll see what I mean. The Canaanite Woman of Matthew 15
by Lynn H. Cohick

Augustine

The New Captain America

Pistis Christou and Francis Watson

Here is an interesting article about gendered language and its use to describe God at Ancient Hebrew Poetry. The blogger asks this question in relationship to a work entitled “On Beyond Gender: Representation of God in the Torah and in Three Recent Renditions into English” by David E. S. Stein, “Is the biblical God a persona beyond gender?” While the blogger and Stein would both answer “no,” the two would differ on the nuance of their answer. The post is an attempt to critique Stein’s nuance and lay out the blogger’s own nuances. I really enjoyed reading it and was enlightened by it. I’ll post the concluding paragraph to the whole post but do take the time to read the whole post. You’ll be glad you did if you are interested in this topic.

Is the biblical God a persona beyond gender? No, but gender insofar as it is ascribed to God by the biblical authors cannot be taken to imply that God is an inherently male or female deity. The biblical authors thought of their God in all of the following categories: gender-specific, personal, and a-personal. Specific truths are conveyed in each case. We do well, should we choose to situate ourselves in the slipstream created by biblical tradition, to emulate in our own God language the range and variety of categories and social constructs through which God is described in the Bible.

Ancient Hebrew Poetry: Is the biblical God a persona beyond gender?

Discipleship, Suffering & the Glory of God

Doubting Thomas

Wisdom Warns Against Sexual Immorality

Here is a clip from Tuesday’s Dividing Line where an unknown caller did an amazing Chris Hitchens (the noted neo-atheist) impersonation. I laughed so hard I had tears. I do apologize for the audio and video not lined up right. Dr. White had to transfer from PC to Mac and it didn’t work out perfectly. Enjoy!

It’s Very Familar

A Text Critical Look at Luke 23:34

Dividing Line for 08-12-08