Celtic Odyssey

In this mornings readings, the OT passage was Daniel 3.1-18 . I have always loved this passage for several reasons but primarily because of the true faith -- the real, genuine, 'rubber meets the road' faith -- of Shadrach (Hananiah), Meshach (Mishael), and Abednego (Azariah). The type of faith in this passage is scoffed at today by many within the family. I hope we can learn a lesson from them. Here is that passage from the New Living Translation . King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold statue ninety feet tall and nine feet wide and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Then he sent messages to the princes, prefects, governors, advisers, counselors, judges, magistrates, and all the provincial officials to come to the dedication of the statue he had set up. When all these officials had arrived and were standing before the image King Nebuchadnezzar had set up, a herald shouted out, "People of all races and nations and languages, listen to the king's c...

Well, more like, another name added to the list of many. In fact, this author has been mentioned before by other scholars. I'm talking about Priscilla. That's right. A woman. And not just any woman, but the wife of Aquilla who co-taught the great Apollos ( Acts 18.24-26 ). I have read some compelling evidence for this being the author of the letter to the Hebrews. Here, in no particular order is what I have read: 1a. Strong connection to Rome ( Heb 13.24 ) 1b. Priscilla fits this bill ( Acts 18.2 ) 2a. Teacher living and teaching in the city ( Heb13.22-24 ) 2b. Priscilla fits this bill ( 1Cor 16.19 ) 3a. Instructions in baptisms ( Heb 6.1 ) 3b. Priscilla fits this bill ( Acts 18.24-26 ) One of the most telling things, to me anyway, is that fact that we don't have the authors name . If the author was Priscilla, a woman, that would help to explain why the name was lost (or left off). Women, still, weren't seen as equals. To quote Ruth Hoppin on the subje...

Wow. We had some severe weather tonight. I just watched a tornado form while watching the weather. It was pretty amazing. I am on the edge of language in trying to describe it. I watched the news report as they were streaming the activity. There was a nice size wall cloud and part of it started to rotate. Then, as the 'storm chasers' started to get excited, you could see a funnel appear from the centre of the rotation. It was thin and small at first. But as I was watching it you could just see it slowly make its way toward the ground. And then...it touched down. Debri started to fly in the air. It whipped past some trees. While that one was moving along (it later disipated), a second formed behind it. It was thinner than the first one but it was headed right for some hangers at a local airport. It hit three of them dead on. You could see the debris in the air -- what you could only assume was sheet metal and parts of airplanes. Then, just like that, it disipated ...

Bald Eagles: Friday after work, we drove to Eufuala to visit my folks. We haven't been up there since Christmas I don't think. Anyway, it was a great time! (Except, Mahina got sick.) One of the highlights was on Saturday after lunch. My Dad and I took out Sumi, Daystar and my nephew Tyler on Dad's boat. They wanted to go swimming so we found a nice little spot and beached the boat. (The lake is down about 2 feet so finding a place to beach wasn't all that difficult.) The kids jumped in the water and Dad and I stayed on the boat talking, listening to music, and I was smoking my pipe. Then we noticed a pair of bald eagles. They were swooping and spinning and circling around. It looked to us that it was probably a courtship flight called 'cartwheeling'. I have heard of these and seen a wildlife show about them but never saw one in person. Until now. It was truly amazing. I was hoping that we would be able to see that whole thing -- climaxing in the...

Well, I finished off reading the sermons from Acts and Bishop Wright was correct. Every sermon was based on the OT. It saw Jesus as the climax to the story of Israel. Even Paul's message in Athens hints at this. So, this is the question: How do we present the gospel today? How do we summarize that story? Our story? Which parts do we put in the story and which ones do we leave out? It is a very complicated and multilayered story but it is one I think that needs to be told from the beginning. So? How would I present Jesus? I would say something along these lines (and mind you this is just a first draft)... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Creation – YHWH created everything, including people and it was all ‘very good’. People were to be the priests of creation. YHWH did this so that all peoples could find ‘him’ though ‘he’ was not far from them. Fall – However, people rebelled and all creation suffered. Injustice, hatred, death and many other things are all outcomes of this chaos. Is...

The more I read about this, the more it seems to line up with what I see in the New Testament. There are a couple of great articles on it here and here. I also have a link to a great egalitarian website, Christians for Biblical Equality , or CBE. They have some grand resources for purchase and download. You can even join them and get subscriptions and discounts on different items. They also have information about local chapters. I tried to contact the local chapter but the email bounced back. I'll look more into this. For those of you who don't recall, I have posted a couple of times on this issue, primarily this one . Basically, people should be chosen for the 'offices' of church leadership based on their gifts (which YHWH gives to men and women) and not on their gender. Although I am still wrestling with the details of this issue (as I think a lot in the Church are), I am pretty certain that it is right. Furthermore, I think that whole idea of 'roles...

What a weekend! On Friday night we went to a concert on OU campus. The bill consisted of The ills , Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey , and Kid Koala . What an amazing show! If you ever get a chance to see, no, experience , any of these amazing people -- go do it! Wow. On Saturday Mahina and Sumi went over to a friends place to work on some sewing. I stayed home and did the whole house cleaning thing (laundry, kitchen, bathroom, dusted, swept, etc.) while listen to a Greatful Dead CD a buddy of mine loaned me. After a while I went out to the garage room and did some drumming. Later that night, we fixed some Mexican chicken casserole and took it over to a birthday party. It was great night. Good food, good beer, good friends, good music. You get the picture. Good times. On Sunday we went to see my Grandmother for her 95th birthday. There was a whole mess of us in that little room and we had cake and ice cream. Then, we left there and went to my Mother-in-laws for her birthday. We w...

Yesterday the dust -- no, scratch that, the dirt -- that was in the air was incredible! I have seen it dusty before, but nothing like that. Usually (and those of you who live in the plain states will know what I'm talking about) the air is just hinted at with dust. It will be a light orange tone or even skin tone (kind of like the default colors of Ubuntu ). But not yesterday! Yesterday there were wall clouds! On the way home I could actually see the dirt blowing in the air. I could make out the vehicle in front of me, but anything beyond that was blocked by the thick walls of dirt. It was amazing. Man, do we need some serious days of long, slow, deep rain. Please? May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance. +OD

. . . or as I like to call it . . . The End of the World as We Know It! If you don't know what I'm referring to, let me assure you that I have not joined the follies of Dispensationalism. No, I'm referring to something a lot different. You can now run Windows natively on your (Intel based) Mac. That's right. You read that correctly. Apple has released a beta app called 'Boot Camp' that will let you install WindowsXP on your Apple computer and then dual boot between Mac or Windows. The interesting thing about this is that, while this is beta software now, it will be a part of Apple's next OS, Leopard. Now, there is no reason for panic. At least, I don't think so. Right now, Apple is growing by at least 30% which is roughly three times faster than any other computer company out there. And this little feature should increase that to three hundred times! Imagine, all the people that we know who still are using Windows but we keep pestering them to get a Ma...

The Last Word: Okay, I am reading through the book of Acts and it seems that Bishop Wright is on to something here. As you recall from yesterday's post, Wright stated that the 'good news' was a simple message about YHWH's promise to Israel and that Jesus, particularly his death and resurrection, was the climax of that story. Well, so far, it seems to be that way. Every sermon has mention of Jesus and Israel and how YHWH has fulfilled his promise to Israel through Jesus' death and resurrection. Even in Peter's sermon to the house of Cornelius the two subjects are intertwined. I think, then, that the good Bishop is on to something here. And it makes sense. If Jesus isn't the climax to the story of Israel, then their story is unfinished. It's like a mystery missing the final chapter. All the clues are there but we can't know for sure to whom they are pointing. Furthermore, it makes Christianity a 'second plan' type of thing instead o...

The Gospel: According to Bishop Wright in The Last Word , the gospel is 'the story of Jesus (particularly his death and resurrection), told as the climax of the story of God and Israel and thus offering itself as both the true story of the world and the foundation and the energizing force for the church's mission' (pg. 48). With that stated, I am re-reading the NT sermon's and discovering that he is correct. I just started the sermon of Stephen in Acts 7 and this is how it starts: Brothers and honorable fathers, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he moved to Haran. God told him, 'Leave your native land and your relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.' So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran until his father died. Then God brought him here to the land where you now live. ( Acts 7.2-4 ). It's just like Bishop Wright stated. I will be continuing on with this study and let you...

Weekend: Well, we had a grand weekend. On Saturday, we met with some friends and had breakfast at The Diner -- a great little place. Then, we all went over to the Medieval Fair. The other couple was dressed for the occasion. We go to this every year but have been thinking about not going next year (which, I doubt will happen). Even though everything seems the same, it is kind of nice just to walk around outside and look at all the cool booths and what not. The MedFair has grown little by little since it moved from it other location (the 'Duck Pond'), this means that there are even more 'freaks' to see around! Ha! That night, Ben and Suzane came over. It was great seeing them again. It has been too long. We grilled out some steak and chicken and served it up with rice and salad. Then we watched Walk the Line . It was a good evening. On Sunday, we worked outside in the yard and boy am I sore! We moved in 10 - 40lb bags of pea gravel, 5 - 40lb bags of Peet...