This looks like it will be a really great conference.

Check it out here.

I will actually be helping and serving at this, so if you’re planning on coming, let me know.

Radiohead - All I Need (Official MTV Video)

Once again, a great representation of what good art can and should do. Awaken within us a sense of that which is grander and more noble than ourselves.

Enjoy, and be challenged.

Does the Gospel, really, bear on every aspect of the world? Does this include prison, and criminals? Should we care about prison rape?

Yes…

But by and large, we seem to find more humor than outrage in these crimes. In part, this simply reflects the nature of our criminal justice system, which has become decreasingly rehabilitative and increasingly retributive.

Here are some other interesting quotes.

“In the 1970s, as economist Glenn Loury has written, “the corrections system was commonly seen as a way to prepare offenders to rejoin society. Since then, the focus has shifted from rehabilitation to punishment and stayed there.”

“Morally, our tacit acceptance of violence within prisons is grotesque. But it’s also counterproductive. Research by economists Jesse Shapiro and Keith Chen suggests that violent prisons make prisoners more violent after they leave. When your choice is between the trauma of hardening yourself so no one will touch you or the trauma of prostituting yourself so you’re protected from attack, either path leads away from rehabilitation and psychological adjustment. And we, as a society, endure the consequences — both because it leads ex-cons to commit more crime on the streets and because more of them end up back to jail. A recent report released by the Pew Center on the States revealed that more than one in 100 Americans is now behind bars. California alone spends $8.8 billion a year on its imprisoned population — a 216% increase over what it paid 20 years ago, even after adjusting for inflation. That’s money, of course, that can’t be spent on schools, on job training, on wage supports and drug treatment. Money, in other words, that can’t be spent on all the priorities that keep people out of prison. Money that’s spent instead on housing prisoners in a violent, brutal and counterproductive atmosphere. And there’s nothing funny about that.

Ok, so anybody have any thoughts on this?

Should the gospel have an impact on the way we allow prisoners to be treated?

Should the church have and take responsibility for this?

Well, I just wrapped up my half-week in New York attending the Dwell Conference, and I hope to post some thoughts and refelctions from that time. In the meantime, here is a excellent and challenging quote I just read off of Tullian Tchividjian’s blog (someone I saw at the Conference, but didn’t happen to connect with, unfortunately - as I have been really enjoying his blog lately.  You should check it out here).  

This quote comes from a longer quote dealing with the question of “Educational Excellence” in our American Educational system.  I found it extremely challenging and provocative, especially as we, the church, need to think very long and hard about what it will take to gain an influential hearing with the world around us.   As always, thoughts, comments and other provocations are greatly welcomed and encouraged.

“If the evangelical church is to have any meaningful voice in the circles of elite global influence, then it will need to do more than address its latent anti-intellectualism. It will have to make the life of the mind a spiritual responsibility of faithful apprenticeship to Jesus.”

Today’s thought & quote comes from Miroslov Volf. I’ve recently begun reading his book Exclusion & Embrace and am being challenged greatly by many of the things he writes.

This thought has to do with the scandal of the cross, against the backdrop of the world as we know and often experience it - less than perfect!

After reading the quote, tell me: What do you think?

Is self-donation a viable expression of the Gospel? If so, how should we identify with the concept of self-donation, when in this life we will experience more exploitation, than reciprocity?

“A genuinely Christian reflection on social issues must be rooted in the self-giving love of the divine Trinity as manifested on the cross of Christ; all the central themes of such reflection will have to be thought through from the perspective of the self-giving love of God…

“Would not a world of reciprocal self-donation…be a ‘world that which none better can be conceived’ because it would be a world of perfect love? The response is good, provided the condition of reciprocity is fulfilled. But one of the reasons we can conceive of a much better world than the one we inhabit is that the condition of reciprocity is so rarely fulfilled. Self-giving is not met with self-giving, but with exploitation & brutality…

“The ultimate scandal of the cross is the all too frequent failure of self-donation to bear positive fruit: you give yourself for the other - and violence does not stop but destroys you; you sacrifice your life - and stabilize the power of the perpetrator. Though self-donation often issues in the joy of reciprocity, it must reckon with the pain of failure and violence. When violence strikes, the very act of self-donation becomes a cry before the dark face of God. This dark face confronting the act of self-donation is a scandal.”

- Miroslav Volf, Exclusion & Embrace, 25-26.

I have regrettably not been posting with much frequency lately. I am happy to get back into a groove with yet another Thought on Thursday.

This thought comes from a book I’ve recently finished: The Future of Justification: A Response to N.T. Wright by John Piper. Let me recommend this book to you if you are at all interested in the fairly recent debate regarding the Christian of Justification, especially if you are the least bit curious about N.T. Wright. I have been reading several of his books, and I must confess that I sometimes have a hard time following his thoughts.

But let me also say, that I have benefited greatly from Wright’s writing, thoughts and even parts of his theology - the man is brilliant and if you take your faith and theology seriously, you would do well to expose yourself to some of his insights. And John Piper would echo this thought. This book is is no way an attach on the man himself, or even an outright denial of everything Wright has put forth; Piper actually speaks fairly highly of Wright. Piper’s contribution comes in critiquing the few areas where Wright’s theology could be considered dangerous, particularly with the topic of personal justification of sinners in Christ.

Here’s a quote, and today’s thought:

Why should a guilty sinner who has committed treason against Jesus consider it good news when he hears the announcement taht this Jesus has been raised from the dead with absolute sovereign rights over all human beings? If Wright answers, ‘Because the narration of the events of the cross and resurrection are included in the heralding of the King,’ the sinner will say, ‘What good is that for me? How can that help me? Why does that provide hope for me or any sinner?’ If the gospel has no answer for this sinner, the mere facts of the death and resurrection of Jesus are not good news. But if the gospel has an answer, it would have to be a message about how the rebel against God can be saved - indeed how he can be right with God and become part of the covenant people…We are ’saved’ through the gospel…and the gospel is the message that Christ died ‘for our sins,’ (I Corinthians 15:1-3). It is precisely the personal ‘for our sins’ that makes the heralding of the historic facts good news. And Paul is eager to make explicit that this ‘for our sins’ is good news because by it we are ’saved.’ this is at the heart of what makes the gospel gospel, and not just an effect of the gospel.

- The Future of Justification: A Response to N.T. Wright,

by John Piper (Crossway, 2007), 89.

For further reading, you brave interested souls:

N.T. Wright addresses some of this criticism in an article, “The Cross and Its Caricatures”. If you’re worried that he denies substitutionary atonement, read this, especially pages 9 and following.

I’m tired of hearing myself, as well as others, ask the above question as an attempt to soften the blow of what the Bible often tells us to do.

Case in point:  How many of us would actually do this?

Could it be that there actually is a way to live that is counter-cultural - that cuts across our unevaluated biases that we possess?

Maybe Jesus was on to something, and we would be wise to take Him at His word.

Fellas: what keeps us from doing this ourselves?  Thoughts, comments or other provocations…please.

I rarely will do this…but a friend of mine has asked for some help in getting support for his cause. Go here and then leave a comment saying something to the effect of “Keep it”.Thanks for your help on this matter! 

Mad TV Bob Newhart Skit

This is just hilarious! Had to share it…

It does provide for an interesting commentary on  how we may deal with sins and patterns in our lives.

What do you guys think?  Besides just being funny, could this be good advice to listen to when dealing with sin and our sanctification?

Here are some links to recent articles and posts I have found interesting over this past week on the web:

Tim Challies reviews Bart Ehrman’s new book God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question—Why We Suffer.  Worth checking out (especially if you won’t read Ehrman’s book on its own).  I always find Tim’s reviews helpful.  Plus his sight The Discerning Reader is a great site and resource.

Graeme Goldsworthy lectures at Southern Seminary on the necessity and application of Biblical Theology - both in the seminary and the pulpit. (I admit, I have not listened to these yet, but I plan to this week). [Thanks to Justin Taylor for the link].

There’s an interesting post on how to assess and interview potential missional community leaders, thanks to Drew Goodmason of Kaleo Church in San Diego (Acts 29).  I find Drew’s thoughts extremely insightful as a would be church planter in the somewhat foreseeable future.

This was actually a very insightful and helpful post from Zen Habits, on Emotional Intelligence. I usually think I am emotionally aware of myself and everyone else around me.  Time and experience continues to prove me wrong.  These little things help from time to time.

Oh yeah…and Tim Keller’s newest new book.  No, not this book, but this one.