Threads from Henry's Web

Author: henry

  • It’s Broken!

    Soviet electric locomotive VL60pk (ВЛ60пк), c....
    A little bigger than the one we were playing with!
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    “I know what’s wrong with it,” said six year old Steven.

    From the eminence of 12 years old, I was showing Steven my electric trains, most of which I had salvaged from other sets and lovingly repaired. Suddenly one of the engines we’d been playing with just quit.

    That’s when Steven said: “I know what’s wrong with it.”

    I turned to Steven, wondering how he had figured it out. “What?” I asked.

    “It’s broken!” he announced solemnly. The look on his face told me he clearly believed he had solved the problem.

    I got quite a good laugh about that little incident, telling my parents and friends, and we all enjoyed the humor. Clearly the 6 year old’s lack of understanding was on display and very amusing. Knowing something is broken doesn’t mean you know what’s wrong, and certainly doesn’t mean you know how to fix it.

    But over the years since, I’ve begun to wonder. Nobody would really claim that just pointing out that something is broken means you’ve accomplished anything. Yet many, many people, who exceed age 6 by many, many years, behave as though this were the case.

    “My community is broken. People don’t talk to one another or know one another any more. Problems turn into lawsuits for no good reason.”

    So what is causing this? Where is the problem? How can it be fixed? Many of the same people have no idea and clearly have no intention of trying to fix it. They want to identify the problem and complain. Let me ask you this? When was the last time you did more than wave to a neighbor?

    “My church is going the wrong way. It’s broken! Things are falling apart! We’re losing members.”

    But what’s the problem, and what are you doing about it?

    I had an interesting experience with this once. I was leading a Bible study group, and somehow a text led to a series of complaints about our church.  Now there was a visitor there. I knew that she was the chair of our staff-parish relations committee. Those in the Methodist church know this is the group that theoretically deals with complaints about how the pastor and staff are accomplishing their mission. If you have a complaint in a United Methodist congregation, the SPR chair is one person to talk to.

    The rest of the group should have know who our visitor was too, but they didn’t (problem #1). The visitor pulled out a notebook as the complaints flowed, and started to ask questions. When did these things happen? What might be done? “I’m the SPR chair,” she said. She wanted to go do something about the complaints.

    What happened? The complaints dried up. Like six year old Steven, folks wanted to say, “It’s broken,” but they didn’t know where to go from there, or perhaps the desire to pursue the issue was missing.

    “Washington is broken. The politicians don’t listen to the people. We need to fix things!”

    One of my favorite questions at this point is to ask the person whether they voted in the last election. You might be amazed at how many complaints come from the non-participants. But if you want to get even closer to the problem, ask the person if they know how their representative or senator voted on the problem. If you want to get into even darker territory, mention state representatives, county commissioners, or city councilmen.

    Realizing that something is broken is important, but it’s the easy part. It’s where the work starts, not where it ends. At least if you’re not six years old, and thus don’t have someone else to make it better for you!

    (I’m submitting this to the one word at a time blog carnival, on the word broken)

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  • See I Can …

    And now for a rare humor break:

    See i can swimz. Now u climbz tree.

    Reminds me of all the things people think I should be able to do because I read Greek.

  • ISV Whole Bible Available

    The ISV whole Bible is available in electronic form. It’s a sort of pre-release, with a module available for eSword, along with Word 2003 and 2010 docs. I now have the whole Bible, even though corrections may be made before printing, so I’m planning to check my key verses and make up my numbers to post on mybibleversion.com.

    I recently found what I consider a wonderful, though simple, wording in the ISV New Testament, “no inconsistency or shifting shadow” in James 1:17.  I’ll be interested in seeing how the Old Testament translation compares with the new. I will post a link here once I’ve written up my notes.

    (HT: Better Bibles)

  • What Would Jesus Do? – Gun Edition

    From Christian Girl at College, who has been writing an impressive number of great posts. I disagree with this one, but I think we should look and think. See my thoughts on personal gun ownership here.

  • In Case of Murder, Attack Some Metaphors

    I haven’t yet commented on the shootings in Tucson. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims, all of them, not just those in federal service. I’m concerned when people are killed because of senseless or unnecessary violence wherever that occurs. I don’t say this to diminish the importance of an attack on a member of congress. There is a special importance to such an attack, and we should be deeply concerned. This we ought to have done, but not to have left the other undone (Matt. 23:23).

    But how should we respond? Too frequently we look for some sort of law that is going to make us completely safe from such things. But such safety, like complete safety from terrorist attacks will remain elusive. We need to reflect soberly on what will actually accomplish useful goals. I’m perfectly happy with the idea of looking at the type of weapons available and the people who can legally purchase them, though we again need to make sure that any such restrictions actually accomplish their goal.

    But then there’s the attack on certain target maps, or on certain ways of talking about one’s opponents. I think there’s a good summary of the maps over at Unsettled Christianity. They aren’t just made by one side. That’s important. But even more important, in my view, is this: They weren’t intended to incite or encourage violence.

    We use violent metaphors in much of our speech. There is even the entire Christian metaphor of spiritual warfare. Though there are some that seem to miss the metaphorical side, or the fact that spiritual warfare is not “against flesh and blood,” the vast majority of those who use this language intend no violence by it. I don’t believe that New Testament writers intended any such thing by it either.

    Now Congressman Robert Brady (D, PA) has introduced a law to prohibit certain expressions regarding public officials. One of his particular concerns is the maps I referenced above:

    “You can’t put bulls eyes or crosshairs on a United States congressman or a federal official,” Brady said. “I understand this web site that had it on there is no longer in existence. Someone is feeling a little guilty” (Source).

    I don’t know about feeling a little bit guilty. I’d rather say that, under the circumstances, the makers of the map though displaying it was in bad taste. That’s their decision.

    But making a law against metaphor, which is what this is, is not going to accomplish anything. It may make people feel like they have done something. It may make people feel more secure, but it shouldn’t. Some may think it’s insensitive to oppose something like this at a time like this. Proponents of such measures count on that feeling.

    But just because a law claims that it will make us safer doesn’t mean it will. No law will make us safe from craziness or evil.

    From the same CNN article:

    As for support for the bill, Brady said, “Why would you be against it?”

    Because it simply creates more laws without providing any more safety. Because it allows us to pretend we’re solving problems when we aren’t.

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  • Bible Memorization and Reading

    When I wrote about different approaches in reading the Bible I left an important one out–memorization. I was reminded of this when writing an e-mail to some friends and quoting scripture. I quoted the KJV and wasn’t even aware of it until I’d completely quoted the text.

    So what does quoting the KJV have to do with the value of memorization? It goes back to my school experience. For four years of elementary school I attended a small Christian school that required regular Bible memorization. We didn’t do memory verses–well, we did a few of those two–but the bulk of the program was memorizing chapters or groups of chapters. These included Matthew 5-7 (The Sermon on the Mount), Psalm 78, Genesis 1:1-2:4, and Psalm 119 (all 176 verses). All of this memorization was from the KJV.

    Since that time I’ve learned to read Greek and Hebrew, and I include both in my daily devotional reading. I’ve read the Bible through numerous times in a variety of translations, and I’ve written any number of working translations of verses I’m studying. But I still remember most verses, even ones I never memorized, in the KJV.

    I’m not making an argument in favor of memorizing the KJV specifically. Rather, I’m suggesting that memorizing scripture and doing it early will tend to keep that scripture with you later in life.

    There was one aspect of this training that didn’t stick. They hoped that by making us memorize all this carefully selected scripture, they would guarantee that we’d stick with the doctrinal positions they held. That was one of the major reasons they included texts as well as chapters. We had four texts on the Sabbath, four texts on the state of the dead, and various other Adventist doctrines. It was also hoped that having memorized Genesis 1 we’d be protected against the wiles of evolutionary theory. They didn’t consider that one might love those words, and yet understand them very differently.

    Nonetheless I recommend memorization. In fact, to Greek and Hebrew students I recommend memorizing texts in those languages. I have much better memory for both words and constructions that are in passages I have memorized than I do otherwise. Even better, when I’m discussing the meaning of those words of constructions, I can easily cite the memorized text. I wish I had memorized more back when I was a student, but I still can remedy that.

    So I recommend memorization of selected texts as an aid to your Bible study, whether in English (or your native tongue, whatever that is), or in the original languages.

  • Ephesians 3:1-12 – To the Rulers and the Authorities

    This is from the Epiphany 1A lectionary.

    This passage interested me because of the reference to revealing God’s wisdom to the authorities in the heavenly realm through the church (Eph. 3:10).  The reason for this interest is the “great controversy” theme that I grew up with as a Seventh-day Adventist. The foundation for this is Ellen G. White’s book The Great Controversy, and it has been taken up by a number of Adventist authors.

    One of these was my professor Dr. Malcolm Maxwell, and another is Dr. Alden Thompson, author of Who’s Afraid of the Old Testament God?, which is published by my company.

    This great controversy theme essentially sees the world as a theater with heavenly beings watching the way good and evil plays out. Amongst the texts on which this is based are Job 1 & 2, which has God demonstrating his righteousness to the waiting heavenly court, and of course this passage, in which the church shows the heavenly powers God’s wisdom.

    It is one explanation for the reason that sin has to run such a long course. Why doesn’t God step in if he can and if he cares? There are many, many explanations for this, but this explanation suggests that if God wants to deal with sin permanently, the entire universe must see just how evil sin is on its own, and also see how good God is in redeeming fallen creation.

    Alternatively one can connect this with ancient cosmology. To quote the just released Ephesians: A Participatory Study Guide (also by my company):

    However, we should remember that according to the ancient world view what happens on earth mirrors what is also happening in heaven (Matt. 6:1 0). Therefore, even as the church delivers this message ? concerning the mystery of God ? on earth, the church is also delivering the message that God is sovereign over all things to the rulers and authorities in the heavens. This message is rooted in the belief of the church that in the resurrection of Christ, these powers that be, which seek to block the purposes of God, have been defeated (40).

    Come to think of it, the two aren’t really in opposition, though they look at the issue from different angles.

    I wonder how many pastors will have the guts (or lack of good judgment) to preach on the authorities in heavenly places?

  • My Wife Comments on Arizona Shooting

    Link.

  • Why is This Translation Important?

    Because obviously the most important thing about being a man is the way you use the bathroom. Potty training issues, maybe?

    (This is the second time there’s been a video of this guy preaching this. I blogged about it earlier here. Hat tip for this round: Abnormal Interests).

  • Listening to Whose Voice(s)

    Quote of the day:

    The sin of the church too often is to listen to the voice of those already in it. We let the comfortable voice of the familiar become the voice of God. Breaking free of that sin is necessary. But replacing one human voice with another is not the same as following Jesus.

    From: John Meunier