Quote of the Day

“Religious tradition has by and large encouraged us to take the Bible seriously rather than to enjoy it, but the paradoxical truth of the matter may well be that by learning to enjoy the biblical stories more fully as stories, we shall also come to see more clearly what they mean to tell us about God, man, and the perilously momentous realm of history” (Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative, 189).

tax time

Just got done paying the taxes. Ouch! But at least it’s over with until next year.

Time for a career change?

Have you ever seen those sign spinners on the side of the road, you know, the hyper active ones that can do all sorts of tricks with their signs? Word has it that they are employed by a rapidly expanding business called Aarrow Advertising, owned by Max Durovic. Max first got the idea of starting the business after getting bored holding signs for a sandwich shop. He is now known as the “Spinja.” At present, 300 moves comprise his “trictionary,” and his business employs 750 young spinners nationwide. His employees meet weekly with “spinstruckters” to learn new moves. One such employee, a 20 year old who spins signs full time for 8 hours a day, has spent 3 years honing his skills.

After reading about this odd job, I thought, “Wow, I will never look at those people the same way again.”

Mrs. Butterworth’s

This advertisement, found in today’s paper, was the funniest thing I read all day, and I quote:

Win a Year’s Supply of Syrup
You could win a year’s supply of Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup… Here’s the deal: take a photo of yourself with a bottle of Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup and submit it along with a 200-word essay explaining the photo. You have until Sunday to enter. For more information, go here.

My question: How much is a year’s supply of syrup? I’ve had the same bottle of syrup in the pantry for over a year now. How much syrup does Mrs. Butterworth think we put on our pancakes?

10 lessons I learned from…

My wife and I were browsing in Barnes and Noble the other week. Among the many fascinating books on the shelves, I noticed one entitled something like 10 Life Lessons I Learned from my Dog. The reason it caught my attention is because I have, like nearly every other pet owner, imagined writing just such a book. Think of how easy it would be to write it. All you would have to do is think of 10 things you’ve observed from your pet, tell a cute story about each one, apply it in general to life, and then contact the publisher (oh, and don’t forget the pictures).

If I were to write one about owning Sophie, I would entitle it, “10 things Sophie taught me about Theology,” and these would be some of the chapter headings:

1. Sin is nothing but a stinky trash can (why does a trash offer such an alluring attraction to Sophie?)
2. God will never abandon us (no matter what Sophie ever does, I’ll never get rid of her)
3. His gentleness is my strength (the longer I own Sophie, the more confident she becomes)
4. You don’t have to understand (Sometimes Sophie just can understand why I tell her no, but I have my reasons)
5. Obediance is better than sacrifice

Hebrew NT

So, I’ve got a question for you bloggers out there. I am hunting down a copy of a Hebrew New Testament and want to make sure I get the right one. Any suggestions on publishers/editions. I’m assuming there are various kinds, some containing modern Hebrew, and some older, more ancient Hebrew. Who publishes a good ancient Hebrew NT?

Robertson on prepositions

Today in Greek class, studying through Robertson’s grammar, we were reminded not to build theology soley upon prepositions. 1 Thes. 1:10 is a great example of this, where Paul writes “Jesus who rescues us ek the comming wrath.” While “ek” often means “from” or “out of,” it has numerous other meanings, including, “through” and “by means of.” So if one wanted to build an argument soley upon the preposition in that verse, he could argue that Jesus rescues us by means of the comming wrath. It seems, then, that attention must be given in interpretation to the immediate context and the teaching of the whole book, rather than an exegesis of prepositions.

All the saints

This evening we gathered for a church wide prayer meeting. Towards the end of the prayer time, we broke into small groups and I had the privilege of praying with George and Michael. George is an elderly gentleman, over 80 years old, and Michael is a fine young man, 12 years old. Praying with these three men was a very special opportunity, and I cannot imagine how different it would have been if the ages had been segregated.

Student to Scholar

Today the good ‘ole mailman delivered a book from Amazon entitled From Student to Scholar: A Candid Guide to Becoming a Professor, by Steven Cahn. The book proved to be a quick read, and very helpful. To sum up the advice offered in the book: In order to get a teaching job, have a track record of writing and publishing; to get a tenured teaching job, write and publish; to keep a tenured teaching job, write and publish.

Also noteworthy:
1. In 1861, the first ever doctorate degree was awarded in America. Since 2000, more than 40,000 are given annually (Cahn, XI).

2. Cahn, in the epilogue, shares the story of how he first became drawn to the academic world. An interruptible, intersted professor took the time to poor into the young man’s life, and Cahn now models his own teaching career after such an example, and wishes each young reader a similar inspirational acadmic mentor.

3. “Putting one’s ideas into writing was indespensable to precise thinking” (Cahn, 77).

4. Amazingly, Cahn earned his PhD from Colombia University at the age of 24.

John 12:43

These words impacted me today in my reading, “They would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue. For they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God” (Jn 12:42,43).

May we always have the boldness to confess His name, loving His glory more than that of man, despite ostracism or expulsion.