My son (15 years old) spoke to Mashie by cellphone and told her he loved her. We kissed and hugged her and said our goodbyes. Then we wondered whether we would see her and her brother (Niblick - gone 2 years now) in heaven.

Today I saw this quote from N.T. Wright (HT: JOLLYBLOGGER)

This brings me to 'heaven'. Yes, in the New Testament of course there is the hope for being 'with Christ, which is far better' (Philippians 1.26). But have you not noticed that the New Testament hardly ever talks about 'going to heaven', and certainly never as the ultimate destiny of God's people. The ultimate destiny, as Revelation 21 makes abundantly clear, is the 'new heavens and new earth', for which we will need resurrection bodies. Please, please, study what the Bible actually says. When Jesus talks in John 14 of going to prepare a place for us, the word he uses is the Greek word mone, which isn't a final dwelling place but a temporary place where you stay and are refreshed before continuing on your journey. The point about Jesus being our hope is that he will come again from heaven to change this world, and our bodies, so that the prayer he taught us to pray will come true at last: thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as in heaven. That is God's will; that is why Jesus came; that is our final hope. Of course, Christians who die before that time go to be with him in heaven until the time when the whole creation is redeemed (Romans 8.18-27 — have you studied that recently?). That isn't a 'symbolic meaning', and I confess I don't know why you should think it does.

The problem is, I think, that there are some Christians who have not been taught what the Bible actually teaches about the redemption of the whole creation. The Bible doesn't say that the creation — including earth — is wicked and that we have to be rescued from it. What is wicked, and what we need rescuing from, is sin, which brings death, which is the denial of the good creation. When we say the creation is wicked we are colluding with death. Sadly, some Christians seem to think they have to say that.

I gain hope from thinking on the new heaven and the new earth. A physical place with our incarnate Lord. In this physical place, where the whole of creation is redeemed, surely there must be redeemed animals - and than surely redeemed pets?

Won't that be the greatest joy - to see all our loved ones, including our pets? Of course, we will not be married, nor will be masters of our pets - but maybe, just maybe we will see them romping in fields of green - as the whole creation worships God.

What happens is that in this effort to combine a narrative and a logical approach to theology the narrative approach invariably wins out. Stories are so much more fun than logical deductions and discriminations.

Donald Miller, known for his lived or hated "Blue Like Jazz", and his influence in the Emerging Church movement says in this month's issue of Christianity Today:

"Truth is rooted in story, not in rational systems. The Christian mission is not well served when we speak in terms of spiritual laws or rational formulas. Propositional truths, when extracted from a narrative context, lack meaning. "The chief role of a Christian," he says, "is to tell a better story."

The tension between the two is magnified on both sides - presuppositional apologetics vs. emerging metanarratives. I like Helm's piece because it highlights the strength of Biblical Theology and Systematic Theology.

Yes, I would agree that great minds like Helm and even Miller (in very different ways) probably can't hold the tension between the two. Me, I like my Biblical Theology with a strong dose of Systematics thrown in - my small mind has no problem holding the two as compatible.

Awhile back, I asked CCM if I could write this story. I felt…still feel…uneasy about that photo shoot princess moment. Not because there’s anything wrong with feeling momentarily flawless…but because that photo and many like it, in no way represent my real life. I feel rather nauseous when I consider the young girl who sees that photo and has no idea that it took 5 hours and an entire team of makeup artists and stylists to make me look like a princess. She also has no idea that even after all that, somebody sat at a computer (with my enthusiastic blessing) and point and clicked away my acne scars, my 35 year old wrinkles and the roll of flesh around my middle that makes me look like I am perpetually stuck in my 2nd trimester.

This doesn't affect women alone, note what Chris Tomlin says at the end of the article.

Want to read more about doctored magazine covers - Check this out - it will make you feel better.

The June/July issue of Men's Fitness enhanced Andy Roddick's bicep muscles -- so much so that Roddick said he stopped in his tracks when he saw the cover while walking through the airport. The tennis star dubbed the hulking masses “22-inch guns” and wrote on his blog, “If you can manage to stop laughing at the cover long enough, check out the article inside.”

Birnbaum said she underwent in-vitro fertilization (IVF) last year in Cape Town, South Africa, so her youngest son, Ari, would have siblings closer to his age and because she wanted older women to be able to deliver children “without a stigma attached.”

Do the math, when her twins are 12 - she is 72, Ari will be 18. Most likely will have to be their surrogate parent. The death of parenting continues in so many ways.

14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

We talked about great meals or food memories that smelled great - that just the mention of the aroma, and we are hungry. Some of the memories were a neighbor‘s Bar-B-Q, bakeries on Sunday mornings, Thanksgiving Dinner and bread-baking (my memory - now that I’m low-carb it is a distant memory). Paul makes it clear that we as Christians are the “aroma of Christ” and His righteousness to God. But, to those who are perishing we are the smell of death.
This morning I came upon Thomas Chalmers‘ exposition on the imputation of Christ’s righteousness where he speaks of, “the merit of His well-beloved Son is to Him a sweet-smelling savor.” (HT: Michael Haykin)

“Had we fulfilled the law of God, heaven would have been ours, and it would have been given to us because of our righteousness. We have broken that law, and yet heaven may be ours, not because of our righteousness, but still because of a righteousness; and the honor of God is deeply involved in the question, What and whose righteousness this is? It is not the righteousness of man, but the righteousness of Christ reckoned unto man. The whole distinction between a covenant that is now exploded, and the covenant that is now in force, hinges upon this alternative. If we make a confidence of the former plea, we shall perish; and if of the latter, we shall have everlasting life.

”The merit of His well-beloved Son is to Him the incense of a sweet-smelling savor, so that the guiltiest creature who takes shelter there, has posted himself on the very avenue, along which there ever rolls the tide of divine complacency. We should invest ourselves then with this merit, and wrap ourselves firmly in it, as in a covering. We should put on Christ, who is offered to us without money and without price. We should present ourselves before God, with His invitation as our alone warrant, and the truth of His promises, which are yea and amen in Christ Jesus, as our alone confidence. His place in the new covenant is to declare our forgiveness, through the blood of a satisfying atonement. Our place in the covenant, is to give credit to that declaration.“
Thomas Chalmers, from his introduction to Abraham Booth’s The Reign of Grace from its Rise to its Consummation (1768)

I am so thankful that Christ has covered me with the smells of July 4th Bar-B-Q’s, baking bread, and Thanksgiving Dinner and not the reek of rotting death.

Technorati Tags: imputation

Bottles of fruit juice that appeared to be tampered with were found at same drug store where grape juice that sickened dozens of churchgoers had been purchased, police said....

The discovery comes after 40 churchgoers at Calvary Baptist Church were sickened last Sunday. Five people were sent to the hospital with nausea and vomiting after drinking the juice during a communion service, but nobody was seriously injured.

Read the whole story and be careful!

I grew up resisting the leisure suits, jumper dresses, no make-up and long braided hair of my fundamentalist friends. I prided myself in short skirts, stylish hair and tasteful make-up - and yet still a Christian. Pride is the word. I judged by outward appearances - they judged me by outward appearances. Whether it is dress, smell or color of our skin how easy it is to judge on outward appearances.

It sounds like Christine Rosen received an excellent education. She has gone on to write insightfully about sex differences, eugenics and religion. She has learned the Bible, was taught to love reading, honed her writing skills. Her fundamentalist education served her well. Faced with today's public schools and politically correct educational mandates I believe she would make similar choices for her children.

Next time a visiting preacher has on a dated suit, a tie with a lapel pin that is so 60's, and talks about his modestly dressed children I hope I can open my Bible and ask the Holy Spirit to open my eyes and heart to the Word of God.

Update: A good book about the legalism that Christine Rosen is rebelling against and that is food for thought for everyone is David Swavely's Who are you to Judge?, reviewed here and here.

Anyway, Purgatorio as finally defined it for me You Might Be Emerging If...:, I laughed as clarity dawned.

In my Nos Sobrii column: Systematic Theology, Apple Computers, Church, Cooking, Hiking, Blogging. Maybe that is why all these things are hidden in my virtual drawer - I wish I could be be Nos Sobrii about less - so I could be Nos Sobrii in the first sense about one. But Kevin is right - "sobriety has the power to make us humble."

Read the post and ye shall understand. What is in your Nos Sobrii column?

The US has lately had some controversy over municipal trees being called "Holiday Trees" instead of "Christmas Trees." Christians have objected to the name of their holiday being obscured in such an ambiguous term. In particular, Boston has been the site of a controversy this year over the naming of the tree. The man who donated the tree even said that had he known it would not be called a "Christmas Tree," he would not have given it to the city.

A representative of House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert said, "To rename a Christmas tree as a holiday tree is as offensive as renaming a Jewish menorah a candlestick".

I'll go one step further. While Christians consider the renaming of the holiday symbol an affront to their religion, I find it offensive to my Judaism. The implication is that the tree is a symbol of the various holidays celebrated in America, most notably Hanukkah that generally falls out around the same time as the Christian holiday (particularly this year). The tree is not. It has nothing to do with Judaism, Hanukkah or any of our holidays. Regardless of its historical origin, the tree has come to be a symbol of one of the most important Christian holidays. Using an ambiguous term that implies it has significance to Judaism is, in my opinion, extremely offensive to Jews (and presumably members of other religions) and is simply inaccurate.

P.S. Dennis Hastert is a graduate of my Alma Mater - Wheaton College - he doesn't get a lot of Christian press because he lives a fully developed Christian Worldview that makes a respectful impact on our culture.

Here's how Ellen Goodman from the Boston Globe talks about Plan B.

Saving Plan B from the zealots
"If teenagers also need Plan B it's because Plan A -- abstinence -- fails more often than condoms. Too many teenagers end up pregnant, facing Plan C: abortion or motherhood. In the name of protection, we are leaving teenagers far too vulnerable."

As God is the Order and Controller of all things - but not the author of sin, we know that only by God's decretive permission did Plan A -- abstinence fail. But this does not mean we should go to Plan B or Plan C. We are to called to faithfully obey God's will, even after sin and failure - God will provide as we pursue His Plan A. This will not leave us vulnerable - but victorious with God's divine providence.

BTW: My new name for Plan B is Plan S (short for sinning - by disobeying and not trusting God's Plan A).

I've had many good friends who are continuationalists - I've found their hearts to be turned towards God. I've found their thinking often to be convoluted. Their experience, their impression of what God is telling them, there "word from the Lord" always trumps basic Scriptural principles. It is as if their individual revelation from God - supersedes Scriptural instruction.

A great post by Daniel Phillips talks about the Bill Clinton option. It is sad if we affirm God's redemptive plan from Genesis to Revelation - but still need a Bill Clinton option. Read it.

Between a massage, yoga (where I try to think of nothing - less I think about some inner-power), Tai-Chai meditative walks my mind gets empty and gets increasingly desperate.

So what am I doing? I'm sneaking in my Ipod filled with John Piper's talks from the Sovereignty of God Conference, I'm bringing Bruce Ware's book on the Trinity and Grudem's, Systematic Theology, and I plan on working on my 4-6th Shorter Catechism questions for memorization. For fun - I'm also taking my new camera and hope to get some great autumn shots of New England.

I'll also try to not obsess about not thinking. I'm sure I'll do less thinking and reading than planned. I'm sure on some level this is good for me. But it is bitter medicine! I'll survive until next year's intervention.

Thinking of my previous post - I must say I really like the Prince Fredrick's hands tremble when Luther hands him his gift of the German translation of the New Testament. What a privilege, honor, hand trembling moment it is for us to hold the Bible, translated so we can READ it and understand!