I may have mentioned I'm reading Paul Theroux's Ghost Train to the Eastern Star. He convicts me with some discussion of late on his travels through India:

When an Indian says, as one said to me, "There are two hundred and fifty million middle-class Indian, which is very nice, but four hundred million are living below the poverty line," how do you respond? Two hundred years ago, the French aphorist Chamfort described Paris as "a cityof amusements, pleasures, etc., in which four-fifths of the inhabitants die of want." You could say the same of any city in India. (197)

"The high standard of life we enjoy in England depends on keeping a tight hold on the Empire," Orwell wrote. "In order that England may live in comfort, a hundred million Indians must live on the edge of starvation." (197)

Finally, after witnessing Americans drawn to tears in response to Indian poverty, he writes:

I have never seen any community in India look so hopeless or, in its way, so hermetic in its poverty, so blatant in its look of menace, so sad and unwelcoming, as East St. Louis, Illinois, the decaying town that lies across the Mississippi from flourishing St. Louis, Missouri. Yet I can imagine that many people from St. Louis proper would weep at the sight of Indian poverty. They dare not cross their own river to see the complacent decrepitude and misery on the other bank. (199)
Convicting.

The latest edition of In Hope arrived in my inbox earlier this week, and I just now got the chance to read it. Dr. Timms, the author, discusses the Scripture from Genesis 2 where it is written, "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."

He writes how unnatural this is for me, as "The Hebrew word (dabaq) is used elsewhere in the Old Testament when Ruth clung to her mother-in-law amidst their mutual grief (Ruth 1:14). It also appears in multiple texts that exhort Israel to "cling to the Lord your God" (for example, Deut 10:20; 11:22; and Josh 22:5)."

He continues, "This is the stuff of infatuation and devotion -- rarified air for many males once a marriage sets in. We cleave to our jobs, our sports, our toys, or our TVs. We cleave to power, fame, and success. But cleave to our wives?"

Then he delivers the knock-out blow to me and my fellow men: "Perhaps this highlights one of the reasons why many marriages fail completely or fail to produce the kind of intimacy that pre-marital counselors glow about. We don't cleave. We can't cleave. We fear it and resist it because, at best, it suggests weakness on our part. But the apostle Paul packs the toughest punch.He called it a mystery (Ephesians 5:31-32). And then connects this 'marriage text' to Jesus and the Church. Those who do not cleave to their wives quite probably do not cleave to Christ, either."

Take a moment and read the entire text, linked above, it'll be worth every second.

Just finished watching V for Vendetta again, I watched it for the first time about a year ago, then it was on again about a week ago. Love the film.

One quote I just love:

Creedy: Die! Die! Why won't you die?... Why won't you die?
V: Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof.

World, beneath our facade, there is an idea...an idea that a man named Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became flesh and departed eternity to enter our world...He brought the message of the Kingdom of God, took our sins upon Himself on the cross, and rose on the third day...that is what we give our lives for.

Speaking of giving our lives for something, I was humbled as V talked about the Three Waters incident and the virus that killed the chilren and such. For some reason, as I pondered the reality of that happening in our times, it reminded me of an excerpt from the Apocrypha, 2 Maccabees and the zeal of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a story well-known by some, and reprinted by I unashamedly:

...It happened also that seven (Jewish) brothers and their mother were arrested and were being compelled by the king, under torture with whips and cords, to partake of unlawful swine's flesh. One of them, acting as the spokesman, said, "What do you intend to ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our fathers." The king fell into a rage, and gave orders that pans and caldrons be heated. These were heated immediately, and he commanded that the tongue of their spokesman be cut out and that they scalp him and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of the brothers and the mother looked on. When he was utterly helpless, the king ordered them to take him to the fire, still breathing, and to fry him in a pan. The smoke from the pan spread widely, but the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die nobly, saying, "The Lord God is watching over us and in truth has compassion on us, as Moses declared...:

When the first brother had died in this manner, they brought the second to be made sport of. After tearing off the skin and hair of his head, they asked him, "Will you eat the pork rather than have your body tortured limb by limb?"

Answering in the language of his forefathers, he said, "Never!" So he too in turn suffered the same tortures as the first.

At the point of death he said: "You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever. It is for his laws that we are dying."

After him the third suffered their cruel sport. He put out his tongue at once when told to do so, and bravely held out his hands,
as he spoke these noble words: "It was from Heaven that I received these; for the sake of his laws I disdain them; from him I hope to receive them again."

After he had died, they tortured and maltreated the fourth brother in the same way.

When he was near death, he said, "It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the God-given hope of being restored to life by him; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life."

They next brought forward the fifth brother and maltreated him...
After him they brought the sixth brother. When he was about to die, he said: "Have no vain illusions. We suffer these things on our own account, because we have sinned against our God; that is why such astonishing things have happened to us...

Most admirable and worthy of everlasting remembrance was the mother, who saw her seven sons perish in a single day, yet bore it courageously because of her hope in the Lord.

Filled with a noble spirit that stirred her womanly heart with manly courage, she exhorted each of them in the language of their forefathers with these words:

"I do not know how you came into existence in my womb; it was not I who gave you the breath of life, nor was it I who set in order the elements of which each of you is composed.

Therefore, since it is the Creator of the universe who shapes each man's beginning, as he brings about the origin of everything, he, in his mercy, will give you back both breath and life, because you now disregard yourselves for the sake of his law."

Antiochus, suspecting insult in her words, thought he was being ridiculed. As the youngest brother was still alive, the king appealed to him, not with mere words, but with promises on oath, to make him rich and happy if he would abandon his ancestral customs: he would make him his Friend and entrust him with high office.

When the youth paid no attention to him at all, the king appealed to the mother, urging her to advise her boy to save his life.

After he had urged her for a long time, she went through the motions of persuading her son.

In derision of the cruel tyrant, she leaned over close to her son and said in their native language: "Son, have pity on me, who carried you in my womb for nine months, nursed you for three years, brought you up, educated and supported you to your present age.

I beg you, child, to look at the heavens and the earth and see all that is in them; then you will know that God did not make them out of existing things; and in the same way the human race came into existence.

Do not be afraid of this executioner, but be worthy of your brothers and accept death, so that in the time of mercy I may receive you again with them."

She had scarcely finished speaking when the youth said: "What are you waiting for? I will not obey the king's command. I obey the command of the law given to our forefathers through Moses.

But you, who have contrived every kind of affliction for the Hebrews, will not escape the hands of God...

...At that, the king became enraged and treated him even worse than the others, since he bitterly resented the boy's contempt.

Thus he too died undefiled, putting all his trust in the Lord.

The mother was last to die, after her sons.

Father, when my times comes, and that time of my family, whether it be in sleep, in sickness, or in torture, may I stand firm for Your Truth, for You, for Your Kingdom. May my family do the same. May we not compromise our convictions or belief in your eternal Kingdom, knowing that though we die in the body, we live in the Spirit, and look forward to eternal life with you.

Maiya and I have been working our way through Lewis's Narnia Chronicles, though unfortunately not in order. We started with Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe, proceeded to Prince Caspian, then went back to the Magician's Nephew and just finished The Horse and His Boy. Lewis is an absolute genious. I've found many quotes and narratives I've loved through the first four books and I wish I could write them all down, but this latest from The Horse and His Boy is one of my favorite:

He turned and saw, pacing beside him, taller than the horse, a Lion. The horse did not seem to be afraid of it or else could not see it. It was from the Lion that the light came. No one ever saw anything more terrible or beautiful.

Luckily Shasta had lived all his life too far south in Calormen to have heard the tales that were whispered in Tashbaan about a dreadful Narnian demon that appeared in the form of a lion. And of course he knew none of the true stories about Aslan, the great Lion, the son of the Emperor-over-the-sea, the King above all High Kings in Narnia. But after one glance at the Lion's face he slipped out of the saddle and fell at its feet. He couldn't say anything but then he didn't want to say anything, and he knew he needn't say anything.

For some reason I subscribe to TIME magazine. It comes every Friday, I take about five minutes when I get home from work to page through it, see there is nothing in it, and toss it. This week's issue was different, I was enjoying it, good articles on the election, financial collapse and government bail-out, lifeline for GM, even a Q & A from Alec Baldwin, etc., til I got close to the end. Then I came across this headline:

The Good Book Goes Green

Did I read that right? And the picture? Yep, there is a new color-coded Bible that is being marketed to environmentalists, which "calls attention to more than 1000 verses related to nature by printing them in a pleasant shade of forest green..."

At my core, I obviously have no issue with printing a Bible of recycled or enviro-friendly paper, covers, etc. I recycle, try to conserve gas and electricity, try to use eco-friendly materials, etc. I'll probably even put solar panels on my house and buy a hybrid for my next car. But these two points raise my blood pressure to dangerous levels, just ask my wife:

1. This new version's message, states an introductoin by Evangelical eco-activist J. Matthew Sleeth, is that "creation care" - the Christian catchphrase for nature conservancy- "is at the very core of our Christian walk."

Hmmm...nature conservancy...core of our Christian walk...at least they provide a counter-point by Southern Baptist leader Richard Land, "...but when they asked Jesus what was most important, he said 'Love your God, and love your neighbor as yourself...'" There is much more we could add to the list before nature conservancy even gets a mention.

2) Then they discuss something that I've encountered much in the recent past when I ask what biblical support we have for the case being made for the religious green movement. I'm continually referenced to Genesis 1:26-28:

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

As you can see, the NIV translates this "dominion" as "rule," but the King James translates it as "dominion." In any case, according to Strong's, the original Hebrew here is radah and can be translated into English as subjugate, to crumble off, rule, dominion, take, prevaileth, reign, or ruler. Furthermore, the English word stewardship is oikonomia and "primarily signifies the management of a household or of household affairs." It is used in various places throughout the Bible, including when Paul "applies it to the responsibility entrusted to him of preaching the gospel" in 1 Cor. 9:17 and in Eph. 1:10 and 3:2 where "it is used of the arrangement or administration by God, by which in 'the fullness of the times' (or seasons) God will sum up all things in the heavens and on earth in Christ. A final meaning from Strong's that provides the closest link to what the "Evangelical eco-activists" want it to mean is that "a steward oversees another's goods and dispenses them in accordance with the Master's desires," though I still see that as a stretch.

I could go much further and also dissect the Greek translations of the English "steward," (which simply means overseer or manager)but I'll save you the agony. My point here is what it has always been. I do believe we are to take care of God's creation, but I do believe there are limits to what humans can do. Not all natural disasters are man-made, the earth has warmed and cooled before carbon emissions, "the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth" and "this world in its present form is passing away." We are not sole proprietors of the earth, God is sovereign, Man is fallen and the earth is under the same curse, we can't just stop using carbon and turn things around, it's deeper than that.

You know that I believe STRONGLY in an apolcalyptical interpretation of Scripture as a whole, and I think there's no arguing the theme that runs through the Bible, and two tenets of apocalyptic thinking, that this age is passing away and a dominant mood of strain and tension, with pessimism concerning the present. That clearly is applicable here, if, and only if, one is concerned with a serious biblical interpretation using the rules of exegesis, number one being that the text means what the original author meant it to mean.

I love Paul Theroux. If you've followed this blog for a while you may remember my review of and quotes from his book Dark Star Safari. I've tried to get into a few others he's written but while I've enjoyed the writing, the locations haven't interested me all that much. Another of his works I've wanted to read was published in 1975 and is called The Great Railway Bazaar, telling of his travels via train through various Asian countries. Fortunately for me, he just wrote an updated version of an updated trek, again through Asia, retracing the steps of his great voyage years ago, and I picked it up.

I love Theroux's little quips, whether he is making fun of someone or something or his various encounters. In my short experience with this book, he makes one of my favorite in describing other travel writers and their work:

Most writing about travel takes the form of jumping to conclusions, and so most travel books are superflous, the thinnest, most transparent monologuing. Little better than a license to bore, travel writing is the lowest form of literary self-indulgence: dishonest complaining, creative mendacity, pointless heroics, and chronic posturing, most of it distorted with Munchausen syndrome.

I have to be honest, my first thought upon reading this was that it reminded me of some of the mission letters I receive weekly as well as a few I've written in the past (sorry friends). Dishonest complaining...pointless heroics...chronic posturing...yep, that was me, and yep, that's many of the letters I get.

What's interesting is that is the mission culture we've developed. We can't tell people that things are getting better, then why should they continue to sponsor you or your work? If we tell people that things are cool now and great work is being done, they may not see the need to support the work. We need to make it an adventure for them, to think of the people as uncivilized, ancient natives in need of converting, in need of saving, with children dying everywhere of tropical diseases, that is what we Americans are in the business of. It's a fine balance, we need to show them that work is being done, but not so much that they are not needed. Thus, we get what we deserve, dishonest complaining...pointless heroics...chronic posturing.

Thinking about getting back into the blogging thing on a more regular basis...don't hold me too anything, but I have some thoughts swirling in my head and want to get them out.

One thought I wanted to start with and share deals with some seemingly divergent thinking that I wanted to bring together. Let me share a few points that are in no way earth-shattering ideas:

1) We've heard much over the past few years (especially since Pres. Bush brought back the idea of "compassionate convervatives" and the Democrats sought to "get religious") about social justice int he church, questions about what we are doing for our
fellow brethren. Church en masse are tripping over themselves to respond to the AIDS crisis in Africa or the next natural disaster (both good things, I may add).

2) As a result of that, much of the pr that is sent out into the media (at least the good stuff, see below for other pr) has focused on "what we are doing for the poor and marginalized and others." Again, this is not a bad thing.

3) Other than what we are doing socially, the other pr that gets thrown to the wolves exists around what we are against rather than what we are for. I'm reading David Kinnaman's "UnChristian" as I write (a book that I feel I won't like, by the way, but feel I should read) and he writes, "Most people I meet assume that Christian means very conservative, entrenched in their thinking, antigay, antichoice, angry, violent, illogical, empire builders; they want to convert everyone, and they generally cannot live peacefully with anyone who doesn't believe what they believe."

He goes on to say that the top three perceptions of modern-day Christians are, you guessed it, antihomosexual, judgmental, and hypocritical. Nothing new there.

Here is my point, as we've often heard it said, we've taken the focus in Christianity off of Christ and put it on the Christians. From the political definitions of faith to how we have portrayed ourselves in the world to what others think of us, we've allowed our faith to be judged not by our leader but by His followers, we've made our faith about what we do rather than who we are and who Jesus is. None of these moves I would consider wise.

As I read this book and reflect on the world and it's opinions and thoughts about Christians, I'm saddened by the fact that none of the perceptions, whether right or wrong, have anything to do with Jesus. I heard yesterday (though have yet to confirm) that Rick Warren's Purpose-Driven book - one of them anyway - is the second highest selling book behind the Bible. Warren's an all-right guy and he isn't evil (that's about all I can say for him, I hope I put it nice enough) but he is a perfect example of what I am referring to. Ask people about Rick Warren and they may say meag-pastor, mega-church, AIDS activist, political debate moderator, etc., but very few people will equate him with follower of Christ. Read his work or listen to his speeches and you may hear a few Scriptures and such, but little talk of the person of Christ and how Christians follow Him. I'm not saying he is not a believer, but when people think of him, few equte him as a follower of Christ.

My hope and my goal is that when people think of me (and Christians in general), they don't think of whether I drink alcohol, whether I'm pro- or anti-gay, whether I belong to the NRA, or whether I'm conservative or liberal. When people think of me, I want them to think of me as a follower of Christ, nothing more, nothing less.

I've been thinking of these two quotes from Thomas Kelly's A Testament of Devotion for the past couple of weeks and trying to find the quotes. I finally located them and am placing them here for future reference to save me some time in the future.

And much religious work is carried on in just this same way. With shrewd and canny foresight religious people study the past, examine all the factors in the situation which they can foresee, and then decide what is wisest to undertake, or what is most congruous with the Christian life described in the Gospels. Then they breathe a prayer to God to reinforce their wills and keep them strong in executing their resolve.(69)

The Cosmic Patience becomes, in part, our patience, for after all God is at work in the world. It is not we alone who are at work in the world, frantically finishing a work to be offered to God. (100)