GroshLink

We are in a strangely dangerous position. I got through one conference where many of the people did not share my theology. One girl said to me, ''You're the weirdest mixture I've ever met in my life." I said, "I can understand that, but just in what particular degree is the mixture so weird?" She said she had never thought that it was possible to be conservative in theology and so progressive in every other area.

And I am convinced that this is precisely what God needs today: People who will be true to the Word of God, who will have absolute standards, and yet will try to recognize that there are peripheral things that are not basic to the truth that they preach. We have much light from anthropology that can help us here. (You should read some anthropology and sociology.) This subject becomes more and more important as people travel so much more and see so many more TV programs.

--May it be so. FYI: Eric Fife's 1967 Urbana presentation on Bible and Culture can be found here. The next Urbana Student Missions Convention will be December 27-31, 2006 in St. Louis, Missouri. Hope to see you there :-)

Gotta get ahold of The Google Story . . . its generating more public conversation regarding What lurks in the soul of Google? and What Google Should Roll Out Next: A Privacy Upgrade. Another provoking excerpt can be found at Chapter 26: Googling Your Genes. Anybody out there read this? Maybe I'll get a copy for Christmas w/a Barnes and Nobles gift card, hint to family and friends :-)

Recently, as result of our Colossians Remixed book discussion, a student applying for a National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant questioned the salvific rhetoric used in the application. I responded that it is right to question to whom our research is offered and toward what end. We are to delight in the opportunity to explore the beautiful creation by offering our use of and insights to the creation in a manner which enables us to be a redemptive influence among the people, ideas, and structures of the university. We are to handle the fruit of knowledge, research, and money with care.

In the [Genesis 3 Temptation] narrative, the forbidden knowledge, which is not a created entity, is represented by a fruit, an element of the created order. What is the full implication of this 'detail'? It is immense. It recalls this point: it is always in his use of the created order that mankind exercises the autonomy that he pretends to have seized. When mankind decides to be like God, 'knowing good and evil,' he fails lamentably to create anything at all. He cannot withdraw from God's world, neither can he bring about any innovation except by misusing the wealth that God has given him. Thus, it is always with regard to one of the fruits of God's garden, a fruit that is genuinely beautiful, pleasant an useful, that mankind is tempted. Evil is not in the good that God has created, but in the rejection of the order that God has instituted for the enjoyment of the world. Temptation plays with facets of things that are good and highlights the attractions of the beauties in creation. Sin then perverts the excitement which these objects quite rightly cause within us. Thus, to revert to John's words, 'the lust of the flesh' perverts and corrupts the excitement which drives us toward what is good and beneficial. The 'lust of the eyes' likewise corrupts the drive towards what is beautiful and true. The 'pride of life' perverts the rightful effort to be, and to be valued. Thus, in the temptation of Jesus, the devil offered to him things which by right belonged to the Son of God; but he invited Jesus to invert the order established by the Father. Thus, in Genesis 3, the fruit of the tree planted by God was intended to be beautiful and good -- the opportunity for sin was an innocent creature -- but the human race perverted the order of the Creator.

It was by doubting God and by desiring in a wrong way something good in creation that the first couple sinned . . . What, in the last analysis, is the reason for the role that doubt and covetousness appear to play in the narrative? It shows that the first sin was a human act. A human act is never completely simple, and sin, being a corrupt act, is less simple than any other. As soon as it enters, sin is just as we know it -- complex, involved, mulitvalent, like an octopus with its spreading tentacles or like a cancer with its manifold mestastes

Taken from pp.140-2 of In the Beginning: The Opening Chapters of Genesis by Henri Blocher.

As my parents travel across the state to join us, I am reminded that I do not live alone. I am not of my own origin and I do not live in my own world . . . in contrast to those who would seek to spin their own worlds into existence, I have become convinced to embrace and be thankful for where and among whom I have been placed. Many intellectuals find a corner and consider the world on their own, good thought can come from silent, internal reflections (such as what I'm engaged in now), but we need to be imbedded and in dialogue with a godly community which encourages, guides, shapes, and sharpens us. Otherwise, danger ahead! It is not good for me/us to be alone and find our own path.

Can we go a step further? Might there be more here than analogy? Would the being-with of mankind be necessary for him to be able to respond to God as a quasi-son to his Father? This we have the right to suppose . . . It is not good for mankind to be alone on the earth, beacuse it would be fatal for him to be alone, without God, amongst the creatures. Immediately we can see the perversity of the androgyne myth; by conferring on the same individual the attributes of both sexes, it expresses the ideal of self-sufficient solitude, it rejects the duty towards one's neighbour that God has inscribed within in mankind, and thereby it rejects the duty towards the Creator that neighbour-love both reflects and honours.

Why, however, should there be the difference between the man and the woman, and not simply the distinction between one person and another? Sexuality is certainly not necessary to being-with. True enough, but it necessitates being-with. The fact that the first company given by God to man in order to break his solitude was of the other sex reminds us that God does not insitute an abstract otherness. He gives a 'neighbour' and not merely an 'other.' He gives a concretely qualified presence, in the order he has decreed and not in abstraction. And the 'neighbourship' which is defined within God's order by sexual differentiation is of a most radical nature; every human individual, being either masculine or feminine, must abandon the illusion of being alone. The constitution of each of us is a summons to community. Genesis throws light on this privileged relationship.

Taken from p.97 of In the Beginning: The Opening Chapters of Genesis by Henri Blocher.

On Tuesday, our morning crew contrasted false humility with true humility. A number of images of false humility come to mind

1. How we downplay the affirmations of our appearance/beauty/fashion (Oh, it's nothing. Really, do I look good?), when it is really something in which we place a lot of time/energy and enjoy the recognition.
2. How we consider ourselves as the source of helpfulness in the lives of others, when only really God can bring joy/peace/wholeness to those in need.
3. How we are unable to let God be in control, even when we declare that we're nothing and need Him.
4. False confession of sin to alleviate our own conscience or to gain power in particular situation

Here are some texts we considered, Philippians 2:1-11, Matthew 23:1-14, I Samuel 2:1-11, Jeremiah 31:18-20, James 3:13-18.

True humility flows from our dependence on God. The One who watches over us like the a perfect Father would watch over His children (note: this is so hard to imagine. The ability to know how to perfectly care for one's children and see the direction which their actions/words/thoughts will take them), even though they are found to be seeking their own way. Even willing to come to earth in human form, to offer grace, but receive judgement and rejection by His own creation/likeness/stewards. To even go through a separation of some form within His own being and pronounce judgment upon Himself in some way . . . finding the Son the perfect sacrifice, One who lived in humility and reversed the curse by not deciding to discern good and evil on His own . . . but with a pure heart trusting, living within the Father's true understanding/perspective/framework on the world. By not grasping for equality with God, but to be a servant.

Grant us grace to be humbled, to acknowledge we don't know everything, to set aside comparativism/boasting/envy and encourage those in our midst, even confess (and pay the price for) when we fall short. May we see the fruit of order, righteousness, and bold, godly living as responsible people of God (counter-cultural to the our fallen nature, ideas, relationships, and structure) emerge from humility, no matter the cost, lived out in our context.

Encounters with the Word of God among the people of God, remind me what a blessing it is to be an instrument of God's grace on the University campus.

Not many have the opportunity to be in the midst of a vocational forming institution, holding forth the Bread of Life to all who acknowledge their inability to feed themselves and to prophetically call to the attention of all those who will hear, that the God-shaped vacuum in our person, can only be filled by the Love and Presence of Christ.

. . to learn more about our work, check out our most recent newsletter.

Video Games Are Their Major, So Don't Call Them Slackers . . . what a glimpse into a particular CMU subculture, not to mention the dream of many of the undergrads in general :-)

Most of the game programs are so new that track records hardly exist, but Mr. Gordon said that the master's-level program in entertainment technology at Carnegie Mellon had been the most successful in embracing a multidisciplinary approach and producing work-ready students. That program, which helped pioneer the field when it began in 1999, is led by the odd couple of Donald Marinelli, a drama professor, and Randy Pausch, a computer scientist.

"When students want to come in and complain that they can't work with people from other disciplines, we tell them to come in and tell us both about it," Mr. Pausch said.

Great to see this receiving national media attention. Randy is a creative genius and by-the-way, great to meet on the basketball court. Here's a link to CMU's Entertainment Technology Center. I find the Hazmat trainer of particular interest.

Just came out of our morning crew's conversation. We delved into love, specifically contrasting our culture's lovey-dovey, low intentionality and nonsacrifical norm with those encountered in the Scriptures. We focused upon I John 3:11-18, I Corinthians 13:3-8a, and John 3:16.

Just a few brief reflections, much more could be written, but wanted to share these thoughts while they were fresh on my mind

1. Cain, as his parents before him, desires to discern good and evil in his own eyes. He is volatile over God's embrace of Abel's full offering, an over the top expression of his love for God. Cain further defines good and evil by eliminating Abel and lying with regard to his demise. How we have fallen. Each day we, who were made in the image of God follow his example and despise, envy, gossip, and even murder/destroy those who get in the way, instead of that of Christ. Forgive us as people, as a nation, as local communities, as individuals . . . forgive me. Lord, grant us your grace so we may intentionally care for the well-being of others today through our actions and words
2. Love is expressed in humility and submission. Love always trusts, hopes, perseveres . . . love never fails. As Pascal noted, we all have a God-shaped vacuum. May we find that space filled first with the love and Presence of Christ . . . and faith and the hope not far behind.
3. Love is a verb. God's loving goes the distance. Sometimes we are confused by it, as religious experts such as Nicodemus (or the disciples which flee in the Garden and helplessly view the crucifixion). Although the cross may appear a failure in the short term, it is the answer to evil, sin, broken-ness. The Father and the Son suffer the pain of separation. The Son endures judgment and physical broken-ness. But His total life devotion is accepted and He is given new life, a new day for the Kingdom of God dawns, and the freedom of Spirit comes closely on His heals. This is more than a story. It is the reality of God's love for His creation and the redemption of those made in his image. All glory and praise be to Him.

I first came across Henri Blocher when seeking a larger framework for addressing the question of the effects of evil in day-to-day living. I found Evil and the Cross: An Analytical Look at the Problem of Pain a powerful piece for directing my consideration of the topic. Since then, In the Beginning: The Opening Chapters of Genesis has regularly been brought to my attention as a helpful piece for interpreting the opening chapters of the Genesis. Questions posed by a friend, pushed me to pick it up and delve into it. I have to admit that it was hard to put down. For your consideration, I'm posting a series of insightful quotes over the course of the next several days. Here's the first (p.96-7):

"It is not good that the man should be alone" (Gn 2:18). The remark amazes us. It is the only negative assessment in the creation narrative, and it is emphatically negative. By this divine reason of the creation of the woman, Scripture could not underline better the degree to which solitude contradicts the calling of humanity. From the very beginning, the human being is a Mitsein, a being-with; human life attains its full realization only in community. No man is an island, and everyone must discover himself to be his neighbour's neighbour. At the final completion of the operations of the grace of God, the multitude in the City of God multiplies the victory of the first couple over human solitude (Rev 21-22). In the final paradise, as in the first, mankind will for ever be no longer alone.

Community does not abolish personal individuality, which is more sharply marked in the Bible than in any other ancient culture. Or rather, the Bible is its very foundation. Just as the most natural mirror we have is the eye that beholds us, so it is our encounter with another which allows our inner life to become aware of itself . . . The individual finds himself only beyond himself, in salutation.

Dare we point out that, as with mankind, so it is with God, whose image he is? The oneness of the LORD is not loneliness, which he deliberates with himself, with his Spirit . . . if we cannot find exegetical grounds for explaining 'the image of God' by the phrase 'male and female,' our thoughts should turn to the undoubted analogy between the non-solitude of God and the communal structure of humanity" . . . more to come

Taken from pp.96-7 of In the Beginning: The Opening Chapters of Genesis by Henri Blocher.

For the beauty of the earth
For the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies.

Refrain

Lord of all, to Thee we raise,
This our hymn of grateful praise.

For the beauty of each hour,
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale, and tree and flower,
Sun and moon, and stars of light.

This hymn comes to mind each morning I come to campus. For a few minutes I just sat in the car watching the final leaves fall off the trees on Flagstaff Hill, adjacent to CMU campus rejoicing in the splendor of the creation. While reading CMU's Tartan, I came across a piece describing How Fall Leaves Work. Enjoy.

As Psalm 96 declares (the lead into GCF's prayer time this morning) . . .

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let the sea resound, and all that is it;
let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy;
they will sing before the LORD, for he comes,
he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples in his truth

Yes Lord, come quickly! And may we be found to have ascribed worship and obedience to you alone in all areas of life (relationships, work, neighborhood . . .)

A lot of people ask me what it is like to be about ministry on a campus like CMU. I think CMU's culture of competitive complaining belittles us all has some helpful insights regarding the campus community and ideas on how well meaning students (and others) try to make it a better place from a humanistic perspective. The campus tension between peers reminds me of a comment by a CMU Professor that pointed out that instead of celebrating our ability to understand (and build upon) what is shared by cutting-edge colleagues, we tend to be envious of those who have achieved just a little more than us (especially if we were close to similar insights).

But one has to keep in mind that our sinful nature is always with us and respecting/listening to one-another is never easy, even when filled with the grace of God. This morning one of the students led a consideration of Jeremiah 17:9, Matthew 15:19, and Romans 7:15-25. What a wake-up call!

He sent us off w/the question, How have you been able to preach the gospel to yourself daily? How can we today? Pray for followers of Christ to be a redemptive influence among the people, ideas, and structures of the campus as long as they are called to be a part of it. That the light of the Gospel would shine through their hearts, actions, conversations, and vocational decisions as individuals and as part of larger campus/academic entities.

From the Christian History Archives: Clyde Kilby's reflections on C.S. Lewis' journey Into the Land of Imagination . . .

Every normal person is blessed with imagination. Imagination operates ceaselessly and is capable of tying together even grotesque elements of matter and spirit. The apple which is said to have fallen on Isaac Newton's head launched him into a set of meanings which culminated in his laws of gravitation and motion. In his theory of relativity Einstein combined complicated mathematical equations with images of trains rushing into distant space. The best scientists know that great discoveries are not made simply by experiment and reason but sometimes in mental gyrations as great, even as delightfully humorous, as Alice's adventures down the rabbit hole . . .

Owing to the Great Mistake of Eden, life tends habitually to settle into the prosaic and ordinary. Indeed, is it not symbolic of fallen man that a steady smell of roses leaves them odorless? Imagination is necessary to the worthwhile life . . .

Some devout Christians fear imagination is inevitably evil, yet the Bible is almost embarrassingly imaginative. Lewis insists that the reader of the Bible, without losing sight of its primary value, must always remember that it is literature. Most emphatically, he says, the Psalms must be read as poetry. We remember such highly imaginative passages as Let the floods clap their hands, let the hills be joyful together, and Christ as a great storyteller describing a man who built his house upon sand and a sower who went forth to sow. He compared the kingdom of heaven to a grain of mustard seed and described Himself as the true vine. God, the greatest of imaginers, gives all men power to imagine, just as he gives them free will. Either can lead to steady and joyful devotion to Him or else to everlasting misery . . .

 (More)

On Friday, one of our engineering students asked for prayer for science. The rhetorical gulf between the scientific and the religious continues to grow in the day-to-day interactions on campus, to some degree provoked by the media's fascination with the topic and an embracing of polarizing perspectives which fail to foster a shared pursuit of truth through intentional, humble dialogue.

But followers of Christ are not stepping away from engaging the campus with a Biblical perspective on work in the University. On Thursday, David Snoke, a physics professor at Pitt, delivered a presentation on Can a Physicist Believe in Miracles. This first presentation in a Christian faculty forum series was a bold statement regarding how a follower of Christ's belief in miracles challenges secularism/pluralism and the fortress mentality of some which cling to an axiomatic faith. He looked at the common objections

1. It's not scientific to believe in miracles
2. To believe in miracles is a curiosity killer
3. To believe in miracles yields a chaotic picture of the world
4. Why believe in the Biblical miracles in particular?

David defined a miracle as a mighty act of God accompanied by a Word of God. A miracle is not a random strange thing happening, but a rare, well identified act for the particular purpose of demonstrating God's lordship over nature. Much more was said, most importantly in my mind, he pointed out that the relationship between science and Christianity is a 2 way street. If Christians want to speak to the whole world, then uncomfortable questions will arise. Furthermore, our Biblical data is not equal to our theological theories. As new data from the creation becomes available we may need to adjust our theology within the range of Biblical data, this interaction enables us to speak to/with the world.

For more of David's work, click here.

For a hot topic on the relationship between science and faith check out Our Faith in Science, which declares Buddhism's and science's shared search for the truth and for understanding reality, encourages neuroscience's research of Buddhist meditation and . . .

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Even Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California and author of The Purpose-Driven Life has gotten into the mix with regard to the future of Anglicanism in America. At the Anglican Communion Network's Hope and a Future Conference, he declared:

What's more important is your faith, not your facilities. The church is people, not the steeple. They might get the building, but you get the blessing.

I couldn't agree more. For the NY Times coverage on the conference, going on right now in Pittsburgh, see Conservative Episcopalians Warn Church That It Must Change Course or Face Split

I find the response to Terrell Owens (T.O.) by the Eagles quite encouraging. A team demands team players, not a collection of superstars who do whatever they want. Individuals can have great accomplishments, but whether in the university, the nuclear/extended family, the local congregation, a civic club, or kids soccer team . . . Community demands mutual submission, respect for one-another, focused on a shared end. May, by His Grace, the People of God testify to this reality and may we also not be afraid to exercise discipline upon those which seek their own ends instead of the good of the team. For more on T.O. click here.

During our morning time, Ryan led us into a consideration of Everything is Meaningless from Ecclesiastes 1. Several rich images came to me as I considered in whose Presence I find meaning day by day, the One

1. who is the Creator/Sustainer that brings about the natural world, in particular my mind was on the beauty of the fall foliage
2. who is my very Bread of Life as we sit around the breakfast table, our Provider of manna during our desert travels
3. who is our family's Shepherd, even through the valley of the shadow of death
4. who has entrusted to me the care for our family and a ministry on campus.
5. who bursts forth in my life to share His grace with all whom I encounter

In whom or what do you find meaning? Do you find your end in life vacuous or full in the Creator/Redeemer of Ecclesiastes 12 and Mark 8:31-36.

Ever wondered how coffee worked? Check out this piece from the CMU Tartan. Just the way to start my week off, w/a nice cup of coffee . . . oh right, I don't drink coffee.

I'll have to stick w/the lesser doses of caffeine provided by tea when the CMU Morning Crew meets to debrief our Saturday conference on Success & Failure in the University. FYI: I'll be posting some session notes in the coming days.

Thank-you for your continued prayers and encouragements. It is such a joy to receive God's grace and love through our family, the People of God. One particular praise is the continued love and care expressed by Hayley & Ellen. They love their sister, have one-another to play with, continue to embrace their kindergarten community, and do not appear to be suffering from perceived neglect. At times they are tired, but much of that is adjusting to their daily schedule. Note: they sleep right through Eden's midnight calls for mom, even though they're in the same room!

Onto last week . . . Eden visited the facial nerve center (plastic surgeon) for follow-up. Each times she's there they can measure improved movement in the muscles of the left side of her face. So that's encouraging :)

The next day she had another hearing test. This was a behavioral hearing test where she is supposed to turn her head to the direction of a sound. If she turns, a toy lights up to reinforce her correct response. I was skeptical going into it that it would tell us much b/c I didn't think she would respond as they hoped. And she didn't, but they aren't able to say whether that's because she didn't hear the sounds or because developmentally she wasn't able to respond by turning her head. They also tried to gauge by her facial expressions whether or not she heard the sound. But that was very subjective. I know that she can hear. We just don't know if she hears anything out of the left ear. This week we will see the ear doctor and get his opinion. He can check out her middle ear too because other tests they did last week showed that her eardrum was not responding as it should to the stimulus. But that could be due to the residual effects of a cold she was getting over.

In normal baby development news--Eden cut her first tooth (Note from Tom: Hope this means back to more regular sleeping and eating habits)!

According to Listening In

"The Department of Justice wants 24/7 access, whenever they need it, and they want remote access. We find that too extremely burdensome in terms of money, staff, and technology," said Maureen McFalls, Director of Government Relations for Carnegie Mellon and the coordinator of Carnegie Mellon's response to this issue. According to an ACE press release, the cost to universities could be upwards of $7 billion, or at least $450 extra on each student's tuition bill."

The financial burden is significant, but the monitoring is more disturbing to me. This seems like too much access to information, a little too much looking over the shoulder as one tries to have normal life at college.

I was encouraged when I opened up the Tartan's Pillbox to find these words at the end of U2 rocks the Mellon Arena

After queuing up a drum machine over the loudspeakers, Bono and the group closed out the first encore with With or Without You, leaving the crowd, as expected, begging for more. The group came back once again to perform All Because of You and Yahweh. As the hour became late and the older crowd either went home to bed or sat down to mend their ailing knees, the ever-youthful group belted out one last cry of hope in 40. Bassist Adam Clayton switched with guitarist The Edge as Bono belted, with every drop of hope and optimism left in his body,

I waited patiently for the Lord
He inclined and heard my cry
He brought me up out of the pit
Out of the miry clay
He set my feet upon a rock
And made my footsteps firm
Many will see and hear
I will sing, sing a new song.

As U2 continues to conquer the world, they leave in their path millions -- billions? -- of fans, worldwide adulation, and political, cultural, and religious unity. In the future, well, let's just hope they keep doing what they're doing. 'cause hell, whatever it is, they're doing it right.

May the fans be directed to the Christ to whom these words and the actions of Bono point. May we be encouraged in declaring the true Presence of Christ in our daily lives and professions/vocations.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to share my perspective on Halloween w/2 Korean students and in turn they shared some regarding family rituals in their culture. I was encouraged by their testimony regarding followers of Christ who seek to remain faithful to God by rejecting ancestor worship and widespread influence of Confusianism in the culture.

Facing Halloween as a follower of Christ w/young children has been complicated, I confess that my initial reservations emerge from the mass consumerism of the holiday (Note: According to the link below: Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday). Secondly, the fantastical nature of the holiday encourages, people to inhabit other worlds and the forms of other people, something that was a pattern in my childhood and now which I reject as I embrace Christ who created, called, and indwells me to be all he has created me to be. Not that we can't use our gifts of creativity and not that we don't play dress up, but it is overdone in the popular culture. Relatedly, the light hearted nature of our treatment of the dark side concerns me. It probably stems from some of the thoughts expressed by C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters regarding not taking the devil/demons seriously as a way to influence a person's (and in our case a wider culture's) engagement w/the really real. Our materialism makes this holiday a time to consume not just candy, but also relationships and images in an unhealthy manner. Note: I think this is a particular issue among young adults who see this as a 'time to party.' We are distanced even further from the reality in which we live by sugar-coating it w/superficial spirituality. This combination of consumerism and materialism has a great forming influence on children and adult alike in our culture.

As a counter-cultural measure our children took part in a Harvest Party which directed attention along a more godly direction, but it did not occur on Halloween. To fill Halloween we went out with friends for dinner and play time at a Chik-Fil-A. Re-inforcing to me that counter-cultural lifestyle is greatly enhanced by community. I was burdened by not participating in one of the only American holidays that invites us to meet our neighbor. I'm still seeking to find more ways to engage our neighbors in conversation in our day-to-day living. If you have some tips, in addition to borrowing lawn tools, talking on your porch, inviting over for a meal, let us know. I would add individualism to the list of consumerism and materialism as the fine sounding arguments that we are warned against in the Scriptures. Hoping to do something w/All Saints Day next year, more on that when I have the time to write again.

For the history and development of Halloween click here. For a slightly different view check out Christianity Today

Old Words, Vibrant Faith tells the story of Jars of Clay's recent hymnology project. I found the delving into their understanding of blended worship which does not loose sight of musical heritage quite encouraging (note: something which our local congregation, to some degree, also strives for) . . . particularly the link to the Moravianism of my (Tom) family's past.

But I must admit that although I agree with much of the philosophy behind their endeavor, I connect with the work produced by the Sparks on a much more visceral level. Part of that most probably stems from knowing them, but even more I think Christ brillantly shines forth through their vibrant enthusiasm for Him, His people, and their offering of their gifts/family to His service. This has spilled over into our house, leading our family to join our voices in worship while the CD (or the memory of it) plays at home and in the car.

What did you learn about the Moravians and John Wesley?

The Moravians were selling themselves into slavery so they could be a witness to their masters of God's love and his work. That just blows our mind today. Today's all about freedom and self-discovery. We would never dream of the concept. And they were on a boat with John Wesley to America. These Moravians would come up at the same time every day and sing these hymns in German. And so John Wesley translated them into English. John didn't have a true conversion experience yet. He was romanticized by the idea of being a missionary, but hadn't had a full salvation experience before the Lord. But these Moravians were really pivotal in inspiring him and showing him what devotion is. "God Will Lift Up Your Head" was originally called "Give to the Winds Thy Fears," the first line of the song. And he translated it into English. That was one we found and really liked it. We wrote it once in the blues/gospel tradition, and it just felt like it needed an anthemic feel, so everyone can sing along that this is my battle cry, that God will lift up my head. You can defeat me and enslave me, but at the end of the day God is my help and my refuge.

On Sunday evening, our family had the opportunity to participate in A Celebration of Hymns: Concert for All Ages led by the Sparks. The time was a great encouragement to us. Ellen was dancing in the aisle! I believe that we first heard Greg & Rebecca about a dozen years ago at one World Vision's first 30 Hour Famines for college students.

Their music and life continue to evidence the Presence and Power of God as they assist with worship and young adult ministry at the local congregation we attend. I've gotten to know Greg over the past several years and their music is an expression of their life/walk in Christ, placing the focus on Christ and not 'branding' themselves. I'd encourage you to soak in some sample Hymns from their new release Rapture

I can't articulate it yet, note: there many times are no words for the mysterious work of the Spirit, but I was deeply moved by the time of worship that our family experienced with the Body of Christ last night. It touched roots of faith that extend beyond our short lives to the work of God among sinners across the ages who have come to him At the Cross and continue to find Him their Vision until they Fly Away with Him. More later, as I find words to express my experience/thoughts which almost kept me up all night praising God in song . . . let me know if the Spirit has likewise moved you by the hymns of the faith. Would love to read your stories.