Friday Photo - 6/29/07

This is Mt. Jefferson, which is a sister mountain to Mt. Hood in Oregon. This was taken looking outside the Timberline Lodge windown on Mt. Hood. Unfortunately, the camera can’t always do God justice.

My Fall Reading List for School

Well, I have it; the fall reading for my doctoral studies. What I see here is that we will be reading poetry, innovation, civil religion, semiotics, and Jesus.  Oh, and we’re watching the movie “Freaks“, which is a 1930’s English black & white movie that is supposed to be quite the oddity.

Some of these you might want to check out for yourself, especially the book “Signs in Contemporary Culture”.  It is very interesting what Jesus said to the Pharisees in Matthew 16:1-3:

1 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3 And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 

I wonder how well we read the signs of our culture?

Anyway, here thay are:

1. Bauckham, Richard. Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony.
2. Berger, Arthur Asa. Signs in Contemporary Culture: An Introduction to Semiotics.
3. Chamberlin, J. Edward. If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories?: Reimagining Home and Sacred Space.
4. Ehrenreich, Barbara. Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy.
5. Heath, Chip, and Dan Heath. Made to Stick : Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.
6. Martin, Regis. Garlands of Grace: An Anthology of Great Christian Poetry.
7. Valente, Judith, and Charles Reynard. Twenty Poems to Nourish Your Soul.

Book Review: Experiencing the Trinity

This small book by Darrell W. Johnson helps us understand the essence of the trinity - how the term came about, the preservation of the idea by the early church and the biblical texts that demonstrate not only the concept but the reality of the truth.

The author also gives practical meaning to the theological nature of the trinity. All theology must be practical and that includes the trinity. Johnson makes the trinity practical for us.

This little book would be an asset to any theological library. It is both theological and practical, and an easy read despite the topic it is trying to convey.

Rating: 8/10 stars

Great God

I was messing around on iTunes the other day and saw where Todd Agnew had just released a new song which is the first song off of his “Better Questions” album, so I picked it up. The song is entitled “Great God” and it has Rebecca St. James helping out with harmonies and additional vocals. The words are powerful; I love his music because much of his lyrical content comes straight from scripture. Here are the lyrics:

Eternal God unchanging mysterious and unknown
Your boundless love unfailing in grace and mercy shown
Bright seraphim in endless flight around your glorious throne
They raise their voices day and night in praise to you alone

Chorus:
Hallelujah Glory be to Our great God
Hallelujah Glory be to Our great God

Verse 2:
LORD we are weak an frail helpless in the storm
Surround us with you angels old us in your arms
Our cold and ruthless enemy his pleasure is our harm
Rise up oh LORD and he will flee before our sovereign God

Chorus:
Hallelujah Glory be to Our great God
Hallelujah Glory be to Our great God

Verse 3:
Let every creature in the sea and every flying bird
Let every mountain every field and valley of the earth
Let all the moons and all the stars in all the universe
Sing praises to the living God who rules them by his word

Chorus:
Hallelujah Glory be to Our great God
Hallelujah Glory be to Our great God

The Next Two Months

Here is my plan over the next two months (July & August). Next week I have 2 papers due for school, and a missions team coming in to do a sports camp. Probably very little posting, if any, will happen next week.

Beginning in July, I am off from school for 2 months. My wife will be taking our kids from church to children’s camp, and at the end of July/first of August, my wife and I will be driving up the East Coast to Maine and back (from here in Delaware, that’s only 8 hours each way) on vacation. I hope to get some good pics and share some great places with you.

In addition to writing, I hope to read some more interesting stuff that I will blog on. Here is my list so far, in no particular order:

1. Static, by Ron Martoia
2. Comeback Churches by Ed Stetzer
3. Experiencing the Trinity by Darrell Johnson
4. Whose Religion Is Christianity?: The Gospel beyond the West by Lamin Sanneh
5. Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends by Kevin J. Vanhoozer
6. Organic Community by Joe Myers

During this time, I intend to finish a book I’ve been writing on the book of Jude. I hope that it will be the first book published by Missional Press, a new publishing company that has started to give missional folks the opportunity to publish missional resources. Their website is coming soon I’ve been told.

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