Praying at the Piano

I will sing of steadfast love and justice;
to you, O LORD, I will make music. - Psa. 101:1

Last night I had a great time of prayer at my piano. Sometimes the world gets so overwhelming that you just have to stop, take a step back, and block it all out and pray. Last night was one of those nights for me.

So I lit a candle, turned out the lights, and went into my library.

I sat there for a while just taking in the quiet, and then I got up and went to my piano and sat down. I began to pray and play, letting the music speak for my heart, working through each piece of music over and over again. A lot of it was original, spur of the moment compositions, lost forever to the world but given to God in that moment. Other times I played simple songs like "Father I Adore You" and "I love you Lord."

I don't know how long I was in there, but my fingers hurt when I was done.

My heart felt great.

Joel

Generica

Once upon a time this was a vast and diverse country. The houses in one region looked distinctly different from the houses in another region. The language was different, the food was different, the culture was different from state to state, and even county to county or city to city.

And then came television. And with television came advertising. With advertising came giant corporations with huge economies of scale. And suddenly we began to see a homogenuity to this nation take hold.

When I go to Chicago I want a fantastic deep dish pizza, not dominos. But if you look for Dominos or Pizza Hut in Chicago, there are tons of them. A friend of mine told me of how he was in Baltimore on a business trip and he wanted crab cakes. When he and the client went to lunch, the client took him TO MCDONALDS for crab cakes. They didn't have them, so they ended up just eating big macs.

Big housing companies are building the same house in every state. Local flavor is being replaced by ubiquitous subdivisions that all look the same. You could probably move from state to state and always buy the exact same house if you looked hard enough.

Local shops that carry local goods have been replaced by Wal-Mart. The small company that produces a niche good has all but been priced out of the marketplace by large distributors hawking cheap stuff from china. Innovation has been reduced to copying the designs of a few and mass producing it as cheaply as possible.

Artwork is now a commodity. You can buy a Thomas Kincaid in fifteen different varieties at various price points. Forget the art school graduate who lives in your neighborhood, rush to get the latest copy of mass produced artwork! Swap Meets and Flea Markets now sell mass produced hand painted copies of well-known paintings. Originality and expression of the artist have given way to looking at a picture and copying it as fast as possible.

There are still local differences, but they are like a grape in front of the ever growing steamroller we call Generica, threatening to turn this country into one big fat mass of sameness.

I can't do it anymore. I am all done with Generica. I am seeking out original artwork for my office and home. I am fortunate to live in a custom home that is very likely one of a kind. I make every effort to eat exclusively at restaurants that are not national chains. I drink coffee that I roast myself, not mass blasted starbucks or anything that comes in a can. I drink only California wine where I can visit the winery, talk to the people, and taste it before I buy it. Anywhere I can choose the small over the big, the unique over the same, the local over the national, I will do it.

Down with Generica. Viva America!

Joel

Is it possible to have too much coffee?

Today I went to the SCAA national conference in Long Beach. SCAA is the Specialty Coffee Association of America. I have no idea how much coffee I drank, but I tried coffee from Thailand (woof!), El Salvador, Brazil, Kenya, and what seemed like a hundred other countries. We looked at roasters, bags, teas and a million other things. In between all of the caffeine from the coffee we had chocolate, just to be sure we didn't fall asleep.

Needless to say if I ever get to sleep tonight it will be a miracle. On the whole the show was a good experience, but I think I enjoyed the smaller, more homey feel of Coffee Fest last year in Las Vegas. One of the things church tasked me with was finding Tea. I think I will be successful there. I made plenty of good connections, the trick is choosing one.

I feel like writing more, but I have nothing to say. My stomache is reeling from the effects of all the coffee, followed with a nice steak dinner at Northwoods Inn. It was all great, but I'm stuffed and jittery...

Joel

Created for a Purpose

My son likes racing. That is not unusual among six year old boys, but what is unusual is that he lives in a NASCAR-free household. We watch formula 1, champ car, the paris-dakar rally, LeMans and the odd miscellaneous race now and then. Jacob likes to ask daddy about racing and think through theoretical situations involving cars from different series.

A couple of weeks ago while we were watching an F1 race he asked me what the fastest cars in the world are. I told him that in a straight line it was a Top Fuel dragster, and if there are turns involved it is Formula 1. Having never seen a drag race, he was curious about Top Fuel, so we tivoed a drag race for him to watch.

Jacob began asking questions. Which would win, an F1 car or a Top Fuel Dragster? What if the race didn’t have any turns? What if the race was a mile long instead of a quarter mile? I told him the F1 car would win because a dragster blows up after 1/4 mile.

That got me thinking. Put an F1 car in one lane and a Dragster in the other, and the Dragster will win every single time, no contest. But extend the race to 1/2 mile and the dragster will never even make the finish line. Why? Because a top fuel dragster is a very precise piece of equipment, designed to do one thing extremely well.

As if on cue, they ran a video of a driver whose throttle stuck open. The engine of the dragster exploded about 100 feet past the finish line. Dragsters define the term “purpose built machine” and if they are not being used for that purpose, there is no more useless piece of machinery on the planet.

That got me thinking about our relationship to God.

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10 ESV)

God designed us to glorify Him, and we do that by doing good works. What does Paul mean by good works? This is one of those verses where studying the Greek can really help us understand what Paul is saying. The ESV translation above is a good one, but it fails to capture some of the subtleties of Greek that really bring out the meaning in this passage. Let's take a look:

The phrase Paul uses that is often translated "good works" is ergois agathois. A look at the UBS Greek Lexicon on the word agathois (here translated good) is very illuminating. The Greek term applied in this manner means "good, useful, satisfactory for one's purpose, fitting, beneficial."

Now let's look at the word used for "workmanship" which is poiema. This word means "That which has been made" or "a work of the creator." Certainly workmanship is a good translation, but it's not a word that we use often. This might better understood as creation, although the phrasing in English gets a little awkward with "creation created" back to back. Still, we aren't translating for posterity, only for understanding, so we'll use the awkward phrasing.

The last word we need to look at is peripatesomen. This is translated "we should walk" by the ESV. This word can also be used to indicate "to live or behave in a customary manner, with possible focus on continuity of action"

Thus if we think about this verse with the Greek in mind, we see what Paul is saying "For we are his creation, created in christ Jesus to do things that fulfill our purpose, which God prepared beforehand, that we should live doing these things regularly"

When we are done we have a very message-esque translation, in that you cannot pin the words back to the Greek very easily, but we have unpacked this passage and have a much clearer picture of what Paul is trying to communicate. God created us with things in mind for us to do. These things are predetermined and they are our purpose in life.

A quick look at Romans gives us a picture of what that means for us:

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,* for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28 ESV)

God created us for a purpose, which he has pre-ordained for us. When we live for that purpose, when we love God and seek to do His will, he promises that he will work things out for us. On the other hand, when we deviate from that purpose we become as effective as a top fuel dragster trying to take the famous corkscrew at Laguna Seca. The end result is disaster.

You are made for a purpose. Are you living for it, or are you doing something else?

Joel

Speaking of Baptism

Sunday night at 7 we did baptisms. We told anyone and everyone in the audience that if they hadn't been baptized or if they had just accepted Christ, that this was the time to do it. We had 84 people come forward. A team of volunteers listened to their testimonies, and if there were questions or if they didn't have a clear testimony they were directed to a pastor. After they had given their testimony they went in and we did the baptisms during an extended worship time. I was priviledged to take photos of the event. I put together a little video of it all here:

7 Baptism Slideshow

If you have a slow connection, you might be happier with this link:

7 Baptism Slideshow Low Bandwidth

There are a lot things to do on a Sunday night that are worse than being part of the baptism of 84 people...

Joel

Puppies

Around the end of February a dog showed up and decided to live on our back porch. It's a nice dog, but we didn't want a dog. A month later she gave birth to 10 puppies. So we went from the perfect number of dogs (0) to having 11 of them...

Sigh.

One of the puppies died early on, likely it was too small to get fed by mom. My dear wife buried it and now we are down to 10 dogs. While we really don't want any of these dogs, the puppies _are_ cute. We shot a little video of them, and you can see it here:

9 Puppies @ 4 Weeks!

Be warned, this video is big, around 30MB. I didn't make it for online distribution, but people have asked to see the little guys. They are way more active now than they were in this video. They are actually a lot of fun.

No we aren't keeping them.

Joel

A few words on baptism.

A friend of mine asked me a question recently, whether or not baptism is essential for the forgiveness of sins. Most people who believe that it is focus on the words of Peter:

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." - Acts 2:38 (All verses ESV)

This appears to be very clear, that you must be baptized in order to receive forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, we have passages like John 3:16 that paint a different picture of salvation:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. - John 3:16

What appears to be important in John is simply the act of belief. Baptism is not mentioned. Proponents of this argument usually cite the thief on the cross as another proof that baptism is not necessary:

“One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”” - Luke 23:39-43

This passage is very important to understanding the process of salvation. The words of Peter say to "Repent and be baptized" but the thief clearly didn't have the opportunity to be baptized and yet he was certainly saved. The words of Jesus in John 3 say that belief in him is what matters, but do not mention repentance, and yet you would be hard pressed to find anyone who argues that only belief matters. Even the demons believe in God (James 2:9).

We need to be careful that we don't put too much stock in a single verse, but instead consider all of scripture if possible. The thief on the cross believed in Jesus, repented of his sins and was saved.

One way to look at this passage is as an extraordinary circumstance. Truly there was no way for this man to be baptized, nor to listen to a sermon, and he had a direct dispensation from the Lord Jesus Himself that he would be saved. But I think to do this is to ignore what the passage is meant to teach us.

In looking at this I think it's key to realize that the thief's action was a combination of Peter's exhortation to repent and Jesus' teaching that belief in the son leads to eternal life. It seems that the process of salvation is believe (in Jesus), repent (of your sins), and receive (the gift of forgiveness of sins and of the Holy Spirit).

There is little argument there, but that leaves us with the question of what Peter meant when he said "repent and be baptized" and I think this is where context becomes so critical. In verse 22 Peter addresses his audience, and that audience is "Men of Israel." This is a key point, because the entire system of Jewish law is about external action as evidence of internal state. The Jews show their allegiance to God by obeying the law. When speaking to Jews, Peter would need to explain what external action would represent their internal change of repentance, and this action was baptism.

I do not believe that Peter here is insisting that baptism is necessary for salvation, but rather that baptism is how you show that you have repented of your sins. For the thief on the cross this was not necessary because he had shown his repentance through his action (defending Jesus to the other thief), and it was not necessary that he do anything other than believe and repent.

Another key point is that baptism was viewed as a way of identifying yourself as a proselyte. Paul addresses this very topic in 1 Corinthians 1:13-17 when he says that Jesus did not send him to baptize, but to preach. This was in the context of division in the church, and Paul was thankful that he hadn't baptized anyone because he didn't want them to have bragging rights.

It is interesting that Paul does not ever preach that you must be baptized in order to be saved (not sure about Romans 6. Maybe we'll come back to that later). In Romans Paul writes:

“But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” - Romans 10:8-10

Paul's audience is not only Jewish (although it does include them). Paul was called to take the name of Christ to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15) who did not have the same emphasis on external signs of internal change. Thus Paul focused on belief in Christ, and then how one should act after professing that faith.

That does not mean that baptism is unimportant. Indeed Paul did baptize people, as it is written in 1 Corinthians 1:14 & 16, and Jesus Himself underwent baptism. Paul was baptized immediately after the scales fell from his eyes. The New Testament is filled with examples of people being baptized after confessing their faith in Christ. Let's not forget the "great commission" in Matthew:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” - Matthew 28:18-20

We would be remiss to ignore all of this evidence (and a direct command from Jesus Himself) and view the sacrament of baptism as unimportant. But it is not the waters of baptism that save, it is repentant faith in the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ that offer salvation and forgiveness of sins.

Joel