My worlds of work and home collided one day after picking up “Eat This Book” by Eugene Peterson at the office and coming home to see my children playing with “Bite Me, I’m a Book.”
One of these takes a little longer to work through, but both understand some basic instincts we have that inform how we act. Young children learn by taking objects to their mouths, touching, and tasting them. Disciples of Jesus learn by taking the words of God to their mouths, tasting and digesting them.
We have been given the words of God in print form. It is something to be treasured. As Peterson says, “Reading is an immense gift, but only if the words are assimilated, taken into the soul – eaten, chewed, gnawed, received in unhurried delight” (p.11).
And so, when the angel said to John, “Take [the little scroll] and eat it” (Rev. 10:9) we might imagine how completely John was to consume those words … with his entire being. A strange, albeit beneficial, idea … to consume God’s words. May we be among the people who “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps. 34:7).
I really like to listen to the Bible on my iPod. It’s not only more productive than what’s on the radio, it gets me ready for a busy day in the morning, it transforms my demeanor after work, it challenges me to submit to transformation, and inspires me with thoughts that inform my teaching.
Does anyone else out there listen to the Bible? How do you consume God’s Word?
Before the invention of the printing press around 1440, Christianity was primarily shared through spoken words. Few people had Bibles and few people could read. Since that time millions of Bibles have been printed and the ability to read has become more common among more people.
For almost 600 years the printed word has been a primary source of information and inspiration for believers who wanted to connect with God and understand his will for living. The printed Bible has become so aligned with the Christian faith that some people have denigrated others for attending a Christian assembly without the Bible in their hands. Others have called their religions tradition “people of the Book.”
The question I’m asking you is this: Are we moving away from the printed Bible and returning to an auditory tradition? Technology has allowed us to transfer printed words into digital sounds that can be carried wherever we go, listened to on a whim, or amplified to thousands gathered in one place. Are we listening to the Bible (and sermons, sermons podcasts, etc.) more than we’re reading the hard copy of the printed Bible?
Oh, and the next time you see someone enter a church building without a Bible in their hands, remember that they could have 10 Bibles in their pocket.
I was in Austin yesterday at a Bible Teacher’s Workshop when I went outside to sit in the sun for a few minutes.As I sat there I heard a sound that I don’t hear on a regular basis, but it was familiar nonetheless.It was the sound of locusts in the trees, and it immediately took me back to Snyder, Texas in the early 80s.Every now and then we would visit our cousins there and on one of those trips I remember discovering that sound for the first time, finding shells of locusts left behind, and trying to catch these noisemakers.
Reflecting on those memories led me to recall some other notable sounds from childhood … like F-16s from Carswell Air Force Base flying over our house, and the sound of the train passing our home.
What about you?When you think of childhood, what sounds do you hear?
1,000 years from now when people look back and study this culture do you ever wonder how hard it’s going to be to decipher some of the language that’s emerged over the past 20 years? Think about it … iphone, ipod, ecommerce, mlearning. From their pronunciation to their meaning these words are going to be difficult. They make sense today but I wonder how cryptic they will sound in 2108 or 2208. (Then again, some of these, like the iPhone, may reach “printing press” fame and go down in history books as a great invention.)
If you were going to describe a term or cultural icon to future generations, what would you explain? What will they need help with?
While most of my tech savy friends have, at some point in their lives, come to appeciate Mac computers there are a few who refuse to consider that Apple has made a better product. Having said that, I must maintain my tech integrity by confessing that my Mac computer is not perfect. In fact, it’s in the shop. I couldn’t even get it to turn on over the weekend.
So while I type this post on an old Compaq computer made pre-millenium you cynics set on derision of all Mac things are welcomed here to insert your favorite remarks about why your computer is better.
The question stems from the reading of “a first-century BC tablet, thought to originate from the Jordanian bank of the Dead Sea, that tells the story of a Messiah who rose again after three days from the grave.”
If the dating, reading, and interpretation of the tablet are all correct it suggests there might have been a reference to a three-day resurrection before Jesus.But as the article admits, that view depends on “creative interpretation of a smudged passage.”
While I’d like to learn more about this tablet, I’d also like to answer Time’s question: Yes, Jesus’ resurrection was a sequel … Episode III to be exact.It was preceded by the son of a widow in Nain (Lk. 7:14,15) and a man named Lazarus (Jn. 11:44) who were both raised from the dead.
But Jesus’ resurrection is distinct from these two in that Jesus predicted his own suffering and death, as well as his resurrection … and then did it.
All of this leads me to wonder, what scientific or archeological discovery would challenge people’s faith?
My A/C is off as I commute. It’s one small way that I’m saving money on gas mileage. Not by choice, though. My A/C is broken. So every late afternoon when the sun has had all day to rev up it’s heat, I drive home, windows down, sweat dripping. And since my windows are down, I can hear other vehicles better than I could before. Something I’ve noticed is that more and more people are turning off their engines at stop lights. I’m also seeing (maybe just noticing) more motorcycles and scooters on the roads. I don’t think people are driving any slower to save gas, but I’m more conscious every time I accelerate from a stop. What about you? How have you seen gas prices influence people’s driving?
Did you see the news report today that “The international space station’s lone toilet is broken, leaving the crew with almost nowhere to go.” (CNN.com/technology). Talk about an understatement! How would you like to be suspended hundreds of miles above the earth with no bathroom?
And what do you think the astronauts said to Mission Control when it happened? I’ll go first, “Houston, we have a problem!”
These two instructions (Prov. 26:4,5) appear to contradict each other. That would certainly be the case if every situation were the same, but the wisdom of proverbs won’t let us off that easily. The proverbs don’t prescribe actions for every situation. Instead they teach principles that should be headed.
In once instance it may be appropriate to answer and in others it may be appropriate to abstain from answering. “The goal [of these proverbs] is to create a wise person, rather than to define the rules of what wisdom dictates should be done on particular occasions” (Clements 2000, 27). Do you agree or disagree?
Clements, R.E. 2000. The sources of wisdom. In W. S. Brown, ed. Understanding wisdom: Sources, science, and society. 15-34. Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press.
My worlds of work and home collided one day after picking up “Eat This Book” by Eugene Peterson at the office and coming home to see my children playing with “Bite Me, I’m a Book.”
