Almost two years ago, I was lucky enough to
tour Mount Vernon with a dozen people
including him. (If I were David McCullough I
would know the date and time. But I know the
weather.) At the bottom of a stairway
leading to the second floor, we chatted for
a moment, and I asked him how he accounted
in his imagination for the amazing fact of
the genius cluster that founded our nation.
How did so many gifted men, true geniuses,
walk into history at the same time, in the
same place, and come together to pursue so
brilliantly a common endeavor? "I think it
was providential," he said, simply.
Well, so do I. If you do too, it's
part of what you're celebrating today.
 |
Ronald L. Dart |
 |
For Email Marketing you can trust
February 28, 2010 I came across some notes on a book I read that formed the basis of at least one radio program or sermon. I wrote a short review at the time, intending to post the review here. Somehow, I mislaid it, but things have a way of showing up. It is a short review, but a book worth reading. Steering Through Chaos, by Os Guiness. February 14, 2010 Some have asked, "What is the scope of the work CEM and Born to Win are doing?" So, we rummaged around and produced a page with a summary of our activities and productivity. Take a look and see for yourself: What We Do. February 5, 2010 Why We Read Political Pundits For more than one reason, I am sure. The better ones are connected, and have lunch with important people. Consequently, they gain insights (and facts) they share with the rest of us. While he was alive and working, Robert Novak was invaluable. People would talk to him on background, and his knowledge and insight helped his readers to understand what was going on at a level surpassing the stuff on the front page. But there is more. The best of the pundits are widely read, have a strong sense of history, and a knack for conveying understanding---and, in the words of King Solomon, understanding is greatly to be sought after. Pundits are not always right in their conclusions, but at least the best of them let you see clearly why they think the way they do. One of the greatest surviving pundits these days is one Charles Krauthammer---a thinker of the first order. He is no knee jerk right winger and resists categorization. His column today is a classic example of clarifying issues that the reader may already have a sense of, but hasn't found a way to put it all together. In "The Great Peasant Revolt of 2010, Charles explains with keen insight (and a little irony) the weakness of the present administration, but also of any and all congresses in past years. Evaluating the rebuke the Democrats got in Massachusetts, He asked: Speaking as one of the "dim" I have begun to smart a little under the assumptions of our betters in Washington, and after this editorial, I will never vote again without thinking about it. Someone, I forget who, recently opined that the intellectual may be smarter than any one of us, but he isn't smarter than all of us. Never forget that, for since in our wisdom we founded a nation governed by the people, God has the right to hold all of us accountable for the stupidity of our government. Attention must be paid. January 30, 2010 Against "the Wicked" In thinking about the Lord’s prayer, I came to the phrase, "deliver us from evil." I suspect this is where we might pray some of the imprecatory psalms. In doing my books on the psalms, I noted that David does not pray against people by name, but by description of what they are and what they do. Another Scripture says, "The curse causeless shall not come." Thus, we do not pray against people who have done us no harm, and whose story we may not know. Thus, we may curse the wicked as a category, but not a given person we deem to be wicked. We might be wrong. "As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come." (Proverbs 26:2 KJV) In listening to the stories on the health care bill, which some declare to be dead as the dodo, others that it is on life support, I found myself wondering why on earth congress persons would attempt to do what they were/are trying to do. They don’t have a clear majority, even in congress, who like this bill. And the public is foursquare against it. Why would they try to do this in face of so much opposition? Doubtless they consider this the right thing to do, but where is the payoff? To this day, I have not heard a plain statement about the payoff on this bill. It is dying the death of a thousand cuts, perhaps unfairly, but if it is really good for us, why no coherent statement of why it is so? So, I have taken to praying that the Lord will expose the wicked and defeat their plans. I did that months ago, and now I am adding a request that he examine the hearts and minds of those attempting this law, who also seem to have little regard for our freedom. For those who wonder why the wicked prosper, and why God allows it, a reading of the psalms should answer that question. God allows it because we do not ask him to act. "You have not, because you ask not." (James 4:2 KJV) January 29, 2010 Haiti on my mind It would be interesting to know more about the efforts and results of Christian ministries in Haiti. I get the impression that there are hundreds of them, if not thousands---some having been there a long time. I get the impression that they have not made much of a change in the overall culture of the country. In fact, Christian Missionaries have been going to China for centuries with little effect, but now, internal Chinese Christians are having a profound effect there. What has made the difference? Where do they start with the Haitians? The Gospel according to John, to be sure. The death and resurrection of Christ, certainly. I expect they teach heaven and hell, and the after life. But I wonder how much they teach about the here and now. Years ago, I read a novel titled, White Man's Grave, which gave a lot of insight into tribal life in Sierra Leone. It seemed obvious to me that standard Christian fare would have little or no traction among those people. What they needed was a good dose of the Law of Moses. To be sure, the teachings of Jesus are firmly based on, and a more full development of the Law of Moses. But there are times when a people need something very basic. Only have sex with one person for the rest of your life. When it comes time to relieve yourself, go outside the camp and bury it. The discipline of a ceremonial law that has meaning behind it is helpful to keep the whole system bound together. And I am not talking about Messianic Judaism. I am not talking about teaching primitive peoples the Hebrew language. I am talking about simple practical obedience to the real God, the Creator of all things, the source of all justice and righteousness. How much are the books of the law taught by Christian Missionaries? Would they help, if taught? January 27, 2010 Toward a More Secure Church The Christian faith is a curious mixture of individualism and collectivism. We are saved, individually and personally. Faith in an institution is cannot be a substitute for faith in God. Yet are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves—thus, we voluntarily join ourselves to a community of faith. This is important for a lot of reasons. The problem arises when the church begins to dominate and demand. Just as we say "yes" to Christ, there are times when we must say no the church. And the church has to be secure enough to take no for an answer. January 24, 2010 "Incrementalism" Just last week, I noticed the word in an article on health care reform. Joe Klein, writing about Obama's problems wrote: "By the end of his presidency, Bill Clinton had come to the conclusion that he made two big mistakes in his own near fatal push to enact health care reform. One was to go whole hog, all at once, rather than try for incremental change that would slowly transform the system." There was the word. And it reminded me of something I had all but forgotten. When I was going through college and learning to be a public speaker, the civil rights issue was on a boil. And I asked black fellow I knew what the hurry was. Why not solve one problem at a time rather than attempting a revolution. I don't remember what he said, but I distinctly recall the emotion connected with his rejection of the idea of incrementalism. You can't blame blacks for feeling that way. They wanted their rights and they wanted them now. And I wondered when I read Joe Klein's article if the emotion connected to the word "incrementalism" is still driving people who remember the struggle. Incremental is bad. Do it all and do it now. But when you are dealing with something as big as the United States, some careful consideration is needed before you try to reverse course and run onto the reef of the law of unintended consequences. It is a lot like turning an aircraft carrier around when it is steaming full speed ahead. I was shocked when I learned how far one of those great ships had to go and how much room they needed to complete the maneuver. If I could have found a bumper sticker last year that said, "Too Much, Too Fast," I would have broken a personal rule and put it on my car. Nobody is smart enough to foresee every pothole that might take out the bottom of your truck. It is a good thing that they have been forced to slow down. There are some more rough roads ahead. January, 22, 2010 Respect for God? Someone I read recently used that expression, but the word, respect, seems too small. Perhaps, "in awe of God"? Yes, but falling on your face? Chances are, anyone who does that these days is doing it because he thinks he is supposed to, probably because he read that someone in the Bible did it. I think that if God is present in his glory, a man will be on his face because his knees will not hold him up. Abraham was a friend of God, and his close encounter with God just before just before the fall of Sodom did not require histrionics. And God did not appear in his glory that day, but as a man. How would you know of the presence of God in form of a man? You wouldn’t unless he intended you to and he plainly intended that Abraham know. They ended that visit walking along a road together and talking seriously as two old friends might. The disciples of Jesus on the road to Emmaus knew something was different about the man they were talking to, but they didn’t know what until Jesus revealed himself. With hindsight, they realized that their heart burned within them along the road. It seems that a lot of what we experience with God only comes with hindsight. January 21, 2010 I was more than a little stunned this afternoon when I read an editorial by Mort Zuckerman, Editor in Chief of US News and World Report. It is so rare to see a major news figure admit he is wrong, but this mea culpa goes to the wall. No one could explain more effectively the failure of the Obama presidency, but this explanation comes from an important publisher who voted for Obama and endorsed him. The title of the piece tells you what Mort is trying to say: "He's Done Everything Wrong." I've been praying for a few months now that God would expose "the wicked" who are wrecking this country, and the prayer seems to have been answered. I am reasonably sure I am not the only one praying this way. Candidly, the degree to which wrongdoing has been unmasked is astonishing. I have never seen anything quite like it. January 19, 2010 I just finished preparation for a radio program we will tape this morning, and I am trying to be a little more diligent in posting my program notes here. Today's program is titled, "The Christian Virus," and it begins this way:
The rest of the unedited notes can be read at this link. December 26, 2009 On Prayer and Translations. It occurs to me that translation of any document is not merely a matter of words. A lexicon will give you a number of words to choose from, but it isn’t much help in deciding which word to use in English. Much more is involved—the culture of a people, their style of communication, and, when it comes to the Bible, the broad theology of the book. Of the many words that might make a valid translation of a single Hebrew or Greek, there may be only one that catches the meaning in context. And it is the meaning that is the thing. There are times, for example, when the King James Version gets it right, and times when it simply does not. According to the KJV, "The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much" (James 5:16). On the other hand, the New International Version renders the sentence: "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." In both versions, a single word, energeo, is rendered by two words as the translators reach for meaning. But the Greek word comes from a root that simply means "active." Actually, I think James may be saying that the work of prayer is effective. If it seems strange to think of prayer as work, perhaps that explains why people find it so easy to forget to pray. The word dikaios might be better rendered "just" instead of "righteous." Thus, the work of prayer by a just man or woman avails much. I don’t think of myself as righteous, but I am coming to see that the work of prayer does a lot more than I might have thought. And one need not be critical of people who put in a given number of minutes in prayer each day. Sometimes we work by the clock, and work has a beginning and an end. I suspect that there are people whose special calling is the work of prayer. It is what God commissions them to do. These may be people who are physically limited and other types of work are closed to them. I do not think anyone is called to merely recite prayers written by others. The Psalms most likely are written to teach lessons about prayer, not to be merely recited. The Lord’s prayer was given in response to a request: Lord, teach us to pray, not "write us a prayer." Jesus responded, "After this manner, pray." He did not say, "pray these words," but he gave them an example to follow. December 13, 2009 A Change of Heart, by Linda Gallia. For the most part I do not agree with our President and the kind of change he has tried to bring to our country. I will agree with President Obama in the regard that I do believe our country needs "change". After lots of thought about this subject and some inspiration from other people I have listened to and some things I've read, I have come to another conclusion regarding the change we need. What kind of change will really help America? I wonder quite often how many Americans truly want to hear truth? I also wonder if our President believes he speaks the truth or if he is truly as deceived as he seems to be? I was observing a discussion about Jonah and all that had happened with Nineveh when God sent
him there. Usually we focus on Jonah and how he ran away and ended up in the belly of the
whale, or "great fish". There are great lessons to be learned in what Jonah did. I have rarely seen
much focus on the city of Nineveh or the people and why they repented. It really got me to
thinking about the question: "Why did Nineveh repent?" It certainly seems that everyone in town
repented, but it still begs the question: Why? December 6, 2009 One World Government, How Likely? December 6, 2009 For those interested in this kind of stuff, I built this site entirely on my own and maintain it using Microsoft FrontPage. It is a one man show, so you will see typos and other errors from time to time. I don't have time or staff for much proofreading. But the joy of FrontPage is that corrections are easily made. You can always point out needed corrections using the comment link (above, right), or my email address if you have it. I don't post my email address because of all the robots people use to collect them and send spam. If you are conversant with MS products, you will find FrontPage easy to learn. I recommend a book titled, Teach Yourself Visually, FrontPage 2002. MS has passed beyond FrontPage to a new generation, but FP still works just fine for simple stuff and information transfer. December 5, 2009 Psalm 94:12 ff. Blessed is the man whom you
chasten, O LORD, There is a powerful lesson in this short passage. The chastening of the Lord is a blessing because it keeps us from making mistakes that the wicked fall right into. There is a pit being dug for the wicked, and God's people pray regularly that it would be so. In recent days, we have seen startling examples of answered prayer as people we didn't recognize as wicked turn out to be so as they are exposed. So we recall that the chastisement of God may be painful, things would likely be much more painful without it. So don't be envious at the prosperity of the wicked (Psalm 73). Take your lumps gladly. November 28, 2009 One of the problems Bible readers encounter is the common use of figures of speech. When we are cautioned that we are to live by "every word of God," it isn't surprising that we tend to take things literally when they actually are figures of speech, metaphors, similes, parallelism, etc. All these have Greek names that are confusing, but they do often render rewards when struggling with difficult passages. Everyone knows that "kicking the bucket," in English, has little to do with buckets (unless you milk your cows by hand). There is, online, a very useful resource for describing and analyzing the literary techniques used in the Bible. It is "Figures of Speech Used in the Bible," by E.W. Bullinger. There are a number of such resources out there, but this one, which has been around a long time, is handy and easy to use. The Bible is God's revelation to man, but it is also a fine work of literature, and and uses a wide variety of the figures Bullinger describes. You may want to bookmark this site. November 27, 2009 I came across an old sermon recently which must be included in my planned "Collected Sermons" book. You can read it at this link: Facing the Tidal Wave. Here is how it begins:
November 21, 2009 Got a question this morning on the pre/post tribulation argument. Answer here. November 20, 2009 I got a letter a couple of days ago that expressed dissatisfaction with my use of the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible. As it happens, I was brought up on the King James Version (KJV), and have used it for years as my primary Bible. I love the old language, and admire the work of the translators. When I use the KJV in a sermon, I commonly paraphrase as I go to make the read fall better on the ear. About the time I was writing my books, I got a complaint from a young reader that he had difficulty in reading the KJV—I think that is fairly common in this post Shakespeare generation. So, I switched to the NKJV, but hit a snag. The publishers of the NKJV have much more stringent copyright rules than the NIV, and so I switched to the NIV, correcting it where I felt it was in error. Even now, I use the KJV as my primary study Bible and usually speak from it. But it is sometimes difficult, especially in print. In point of fact, there are places where the NIV is more true to the Greek than the KJV, and there are places where the opposite is true. And then there are the textual issues as well. Doing the best for my readers leaves me with the NIV where it is useful and another version where it is not. November 18, 2009 Came across an interesting link this morning having to do with the Stock market, that had a lot of interesting graphs and stuff. I am utterly unqualified to give financial advice, but then who is qualified. Joe Friday only wanted the facts, and those are hard to come by these days. To be a faithful steward of what God has given us, attention must be paid to what is going on. We have to watch out for the Sundowners these days, some of whom may be crying "Wolf!" This chap does not seem to be doing that: Why the Stock Market Should Crash November 12, 2009 The latest version of Living to Win, the CEM Newsletter is posted here due to the construction proceeding on the Born to Win site. I'll try to include any audio links as soon as I have them. We should have an email going out shortly with the links as well. I am particularly anxious that you should hear the program on Progressive Christianity. Watch for news here, and sign up for the email updates. November 5, 2009 We are studying Romans in the Online Bible Study, and it occurred to me that even an English major can forget how figures of speech are used. Paul uses many figures of speech in his letters, and it is useful to understand the principle behind the practice. Figures of speech are as old as speech itself, and have been studied extensively. For a useful rundown of the top 20 figures of speech, and a link to many more, see this link. The Top Twenty Figures of Speech. The Prayer Lady, by Lenny Cacchio. October 23, 2009 Too Much, Too Fast. Peggy Noonan’s column today, It's His Rubble Now, was thoughtful and thought provoking. In the first few months Obama’s presidency, she gave him the benefit of the doubt, the chance to govern without frivolous criticism. But in recent weeks, she has been forced to call it what it is. The parallel drawn with Bush, standing on the rubble of the World Trade Center is apt. The economic rubble upon which Barack Obama now stands is his rubble. That said, there was one disconnect in her piece that deserves some thought. She said, "The case can be made that day by day he's moving the Democrats of Congress in the historic direction he desires. All his adult life he's played the long game, which takes patience and skill." I suppose that is true at one level, but one has to wonder about the tactics in this game. He is pushing aspects of his program at breakneck speed. If I were a creator of bumper stickers, I would have one on the market that said, "Too Much--Too Fast." The change he wants to bring about is generational, the work of a generation, not a term of congress. When Douglas MacArthur took over as commandant of West Point, reform was definitely in order, but the General said that the changes that were coming would be evolutionary, not revolutionary. If, indeed, the health care situation in this country needs reform, it is plainly a long term job. Trying to go from where we are to a European style national health system should not be attempted with a coup. As Ms. Noonan said in an earlier column to the Democrats, "you are scaring us." If the president had defined one, fixable area of the healthcare problem and addressed it clearly, his ratings today would be far higher than they are and he would be laying the groundwork for a second term. As it is, people are increasingly becoming uncomfortable with him. I have no special insight into what should be done. All I know is that the president appears to be attempting too much, too soon. The grand old American system may be on the verge of rebuking him. October 22, 2009 At the feast this year, Allie
prepared a speech for orientation of teachers who teach the YEA program
at the Feast of Tabernacles. There were more that 150 children
registered for the program this year. Because of our accident, Allie
gave the speech to Paula Hughes who read it to the assembled teachers. I
quoted part of it in my first morning sermon. By popular demand, we have
published the text of the speech, both in print and on the Web, right
here. Give it a read:
Change---is it Good? October 20, 2009 The cover of Time magazine recently featured an article titled: "The State of the American Woman." The subtitle was: "A new poll shows why they are more powerful—but less happy."1 I must have missed something in all the poll results, because I didn’t really get a clear vision of why women are less happy. I can’t say I am surprised at the result. More power does not often result in greater happiness. The authors wrote about what has come to be called, "The War Between the Sexes," but a much more interesting article appeared about the same time in First Things, a journal of religion and public life. By Mary Eberstadt, it was titled, "What does Woman Want?" 2 Subtitle: "The war between the sexless." Teeing off on two articles on opposite sides of the marriage issue, Mary Eberstadt asks an obvious question: What is modern marriage doing to kids? I get the impression that a lot of people would rather not talk about that. For Ms. Eberstadt, though, there was a more interesting question: "What is modern marriage doing to adults? More precisely, what today is the state, in our apparently postmodern, postfeminist, post-judgmental social order, of what antiquarians once thought of as ‘the war between the sexes’?" She cites Caitlin Flanagan’s article in Time, "Is There Hope for the American Marriage?" "There is no other single force causing as much measurable hardship and human misery in this country as the collapse of marriage. It hurts children, it reduces mothers’ financial security, and it has landed with particular devastation on those who can bear it least: the nation’s underclass." There was one telling line: "The current generation of children, the one watching commitments between adults snap like dry twigs and observing parents who simply can’t be bothered to marry each other and who hence drift in and out of their children’s lives—that’s the generation who will be taking care of us when we are old." The other side of the story, told by Sandra Loh, amounts to two charges made repeatedly, almost always by women and with many echoes elsewhere in contemporary sources: first, that the combined pressures of motherhood and marriage and breadwinning are just too much to bear; and second, that many of today’s marriages—that is to say, marriages made among enlightened, older, educated, sophisticated people—are a sexual desert. Now how on earth has that happened. There may have been a society in history as sex obsessed as ours, as inundated with everything from bikinis to pornography and married couples live in a sexual desert? The answer seems to be that contemporary man has lost interest in sex. I had wondered about that. Some time ago, I noticed that the aspirin and Alka-seltzer advertisements had all but disappeared and had been replaced by ads about Viagra and Cialis. The number of men, still in the prime of life who need help in this area is, well, surprising, to say the least. You don’t need scientific surveys to know that something is wrong. All you have to do is watch television. So what is going on? One answer cited by Eberstadt gets close to the heart of the matter. It was a study by Jean Twenge based on data collected from 16,000 college student, that found a sharp rise in what she called, "narcissism index," disproportionally among the young women. Eberstadt, though, seems to trace the trend back to pornography. It is true enough that porn plays a role in desensitizing males to the allures of the fairer sex. But the game didn’t start there. It started back in the ‘60s when Mary Quant invented the mini and then micro skirt. I’ll leave it to you to read Eberstadt’s article. It is well worth your time. But I think women have followed style all the way to our teens wearing what is called "slut wear" and have played a major role in desensitizing men to sex. Pornography is the end game. The opening gambit occurred long ago. I can’t hold out a lot of hope. For things to change, it would take nearly all women everywhere re-mystifying sex again by simply covering up. It doesn’t require a burqa. Just lowering hemlines and raising necklines would be a start. A next step would be back to the one piece bathing suit. But don’t worry, that’s not going to happen. Fashion won’t permit it. If you are a woman, you can do it yourself, but you will be mostly alone, I fear. October 19, 2009 We have had a long and happy relationship with Christian Educational Services, Australia (CESA). They are an independent service ministry, like CEM, and they are licensed to distribute all our material in the land down under. John Klassek was kind enough to send a link to a page of pictures from their festival. I thought for certain that many of you would enjoy a look in. They often have visitors from overseas, and will surely make you welcome should you decide to go. Feast of Tabernacles, Caloundra, Queensland, 2009 October 17, 2009 I see that the Borntowin.net site is back up, but the forum is not. One of the problems is some unexpected conflicts between the rebuild of the Born to Win site in a dot.net.nuke format and the operation of the forum on the same server. For the time being, this site will have to be News One for our operation. The live streaming experiment worked well today, some tell me better than it did for the feast. We will be making it a standard from now on, and I hope we will get better at it. As for the forum, I will be looking overnight for a substitute forum to see us through. Watch this space for news of what we are doing. I am sorry for the inconvenience. The timing of the problem was unfortunate, because it caught us on the hop after the feast. Allie and I made the trip home without incident and with the help of Skip and Diane Martin who delivered our rental car back to Lucedale, Ms. I purchased another car in Florida so we could get home. Allie felt well enough to help drive back, and we are recovering from the feast. Allie is recovering from her injuries. Apparently, she suffered a separated sternum which was causing the pain, but that is improving. We are very grateful for the good wishes and prayers of our friends, and feel we were spared a much worse outcome. Today's sermon was titled, "How the First Christians Assembled." About 50 tuned in to live streaming, which probably translates out to about 100 viewers. The CDs will go out Monday to those on the list to receive them, and the download link will be emailed Monday as well. That's it for tonight. October 16, 2009 One of the great lessons from Psalm 94 is the short passage that reads, "Blessed is the man whom you chasten, O LORD, and teach him out of your law; That you may give him rest from the days of adversity." It calls to mind that great passage from Paul: "The Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?" (Hebrews 12:6 NIV). Understand and know that while the time of chastening seems grievous, it is designed to keep us from far worse pain and loss later on. And the lessons to be learned are found in the law. September 27. 2009 Thomas Sowell touched on an aspect of race relations today that I had only partly thought about. For some little time, I have felt we don't have a race problem so much as a culture problem. Reading this, I began to realize how we hurt, not merely black Americans, but the entire country with segregation. Slavery was bad enough, but when we freed the slaves, we didn't set them completely free. That's a hard thing to do. Even Moses had a problem with that. But Sowell caused a couple of ideas to gel in my mind. One is that in segregating blacks, we forced them to develop their own separate culture. Naturally, many tended to look toward Africa, having little idea of the disaster the real Africans were creating in the home country. This began to become clear to me when I listened to the sermons of Jeremiah Wright, the Pastor of the church where Barack Obama attended for some 20 years. What this has done is to imbed the remaining vestiges of serious racism in, of all places, the black churches. And why, in this age of reconciliation, do we still have black churches? It is not because blacks are not welcomed in non-black churches. White Christians long ago learned better than that. It may be because of the roots of Black Liberation Theology. In any case, Thomas Sowell shed some light on the subject with "The Underdogs." Maybe we need to replace the term "racism" with "culturism." Seems more accurate. September 13, 2009 A New question shows up today. See the Q and A page. August 30, 2009 Working my way through Psalm 81 this morning, I came to "selah" for the umpteeth time and looked again at the Hebrew and the usage in the psalms. I am increasingly aware of the musical nature of the psalms, and at the same time noticing it in a parallel study in Ezekiel. I am coming to the conclusion that one of the reasons we have trouble with some passages is that we are interpreting them as prose when they are written to be sung. Selah comes from a root that means "to hang up," hence, "suspension." But what is suspended? It could be that the singer pauses and allows a musical interlude, or that the instrument is "hung up" and the singer(s) continue a capella. I am inclined toward the latter, not only because it is the words of the psalm that matter, but also because singing a capella changes the mood. It caused me to remember: "By the rivers of Babylon-- there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our harps (Psalms 137:1-2 NRSV). This goes with another thing I am seeing: The change in perspective. When you start noticing that a few verses are sung in the first person about God, and the next verses are sung in the first person singular as from God, the psalm begins to take on a new shape. At first, I just assumed this was like the mixed metaphor, merely a reflection of Hebrew thought. But then it dawned on me that if this was in performance, it might be done by two singers or a singer and a chorus. If their music were done in the idiom of, say, Bach, Handel or Mendelssohn, it would be a cantata or an oratorio. This has jarred me loose from some old views of the prophets. I am surprised it has taken me so long to see this, because it seems fairly obvious. How broadly does this affect our hermeneutics? We already know we can't take the Bible literally everywhere. Maybe our problem is not merely literal/figurative, but prose/musical. Now add the element of vocal interpretation. I had a high school speech teacher who, when interscholastic speech competition came along, entered me in, of all things, poetry reading. It turned out to be one of the best things any speech teacher ever did for me. It was there I learned how much meaning could be developed in reading text aloud. Pacing, volume, pausing, and other vocal effects could completely change the way the listener received the text. Every musical artist knows that even with a mechanical device like a piano, there can be enormous differences in interpretation of a piece of music. This is a good reason for families and churches to have oral readings of scripture. Not merely the monotone reading of verses as is commonly done, but interpretive reading. Teach your kids to read the scriptures aloud, with feeling. Teach them to interpret the scriptures with the voice. August 16, 2009
This psalm seems to have been written at a time of invasion and destruction. Even the sanctuary of God is burned. We get a glimpse into a very hard time. The picture I get from Jeremiah and others is that Israel was no longer capable of governing themselves, so God sent the Babylonians to govern them. It seems clear enough that by the time Jesus walked the streets of the city, they were coming to the same terrible pass. It would be almost 40 years, but the Temple would once again be destroyed. As one watches Israel in the modern world, the thought occurs that once again, they are falling into disarray and are increasingly failing to meet challenges as they once did. Even here in the United States, we seem to be seeing a failure of government. This Psalm seems to be a prayer for all ages and all places. Read it here: Psalm 74 July 26, 2009 A Broken Wall I have seen before what happens when a tragedy strikes suddenly and without warning. A gentleman I knew lost his wife in a terrible car accident. One day she was there, smiling,
cheerful, beautiful. And the next day she was gone. In another case, a man went down with a
stroke and died quickly. There was no hint of a health problem before he died. July 24, 2009
July 12, 2009 The previously announced chat room is not working well, so I have placed an embedded chat on this site. See the linked room near the top of the left column. July 9, 2009 I had never heard of David French before I spotted a column of his just this morning: "Obama's Irrelevant War Rhetoric." Just one paragraph here, but the whole column is worth the time. July 8, 2009 It is always gratifying when someone who has the public ear, and plenty of contacts among the elite, comes to the same conclusion you came to yourself. That happened again to me this morning when Tony Blankley asked simply, "Why can't we just take Sarah Palin at her word?" For days I have been asking that of myself and adding, "and wait and see what she is going to do? A governor turns the office over to a competent lieutenant governor and steps down to get off the stage and take her state out of the line of fire. Normally, that might have taken a short notice on the news. But people of power obsess over Sarah Palin, because she is everything they are not, and because she poses a threat to their own power. This is just as true of Republican nabobs as Democrats. One thing I found of special interest. She got more news coverage than anyone would ever have expected. Free of charge. You may want to read Blankley this week. His column is penetrating. July 3, 2009 I don't always agree with Peggy Noonan (I know, that is a silly thing to say, because I don't always agree with anyone). That said, she is always worth reading. She is conservative (perhaps libertarian conservative along with William Safire and George Will), and open minded. And she is a patriot. But the reason she is worth reading is that she writes so very well. An example is today's column, Making History. She wrote of the men who were the founders of this country, and of David McCullough, whom she titled, "America's greatest living historian." About this man, she had this to say: Providential. It is a word men used to understand. It doesn't mean "lucky." By definition, providence means, "Divine guidance or care." And it is indeed part of what we celebrate this weekend. June 27, 2009 My apologies for not having this up last night. I forgot that many of you won't get the newsletter. Here is the link. It is still on the Podcast site. Weekend Bible Study, Ezekiel 19-20. Those chapters were hard going. New set of sermon notes
today. Will record it this afternoon:
Godliness with Contentment. June 26, 2009 Peggy Noonan doesn't swing for the fence. She is a switch hitter, changing sides of the plate, depending on the pitcher. And she places her hits carefully. Forgive the baseball analogy, but it came to mind reading today's column. I read Peggy consistently, and I think she bats in the 300 range. She has avoided piling on the new President, because there is a time to give a man a chance; or a time to give him enough rope. Her column today, "To-Do List: A Sentence, Not 10 Paragraphs," is a remarkably insightful view and comes from someone who knows what it is like to be young and in the Whitehouse. She is a good writer, and wise, and I hardly need to add: but no one is perfect. What she has done today is to put her finger squarely on what is wrong with the Obama administration. Perhaps it is not all that is wrong, but an awful lot of what is wrong stems from that title. Do yourself a favor and read her column. It may go a long way toward explaining why Obama could be another one term president. June 24, 2009 Things are improving a bit, but we still can't access the old WBS files online. I'll have links on this page Friday that will go to last Sabbath's sermon and the Weekend Bible Study that will start with Ezekiel 19. Most of the CEM website is fine, but some of the front page links are broken. We have someone working on it as we speak. So watch this page, and be sure and look down the page. The most current dates are here at the top. I often mention the History and Prophecy series, and Doug Young has them posted on his sermon site. Just click on this link. The series is down the page. History and Prophecy. June 22, 2009 The Born to Win site is back up and operating, although some links are still broken. Check back here from time to time for updates, and if you aren't signed up for the email newsletter, by all means, please do so. We will leave these links here for the time being and will put up more as we can. The Forum: You can access the forum at this link: CEM and Friends. Here is a radio link from a recent program: The Will to Disbelieve. Sermon notes from last Sabbath: That I May Know Him. And our Father's Day radio program: A Father in the House. The Bible study for this weekend: Ezekiel 17-18. Because our website is down, this is posted on "Pod O Matic" for your convenience. We are sorry that we can't give you the older Bible studies right now, but we are working on it. June 7, 2009 This morning's radio program, "The Class that Never Was," (which played on all our stations) was originally recorded in 2002, and played in Graduation week. I got a couple of emails this morning asking about the information, scripture references, etc. in the program. Much to my surprise, I found the notes to the program in my archives and posted it this morning in my program notes. So for all you who are interested in the biblical issues associated with abortion, the notes are there for you. May 27, 2009 Posted today in Sermon Notes, "The Kingdom of Heaven."
May 25, 2009 I am still working in the Psalms and found the 62nd Psalm almost as relevant to today's world as the 64th. Take a look. May 6, 2009 As I was editing the next book of Psalms this morning, I came to the 64th, and it seemed strikingly relevant to the national scene. I have heard more and more people expressing fear of their government--a very unnatural response for law abiding citizens. Then, I came upon Psalm 64. Does it say anything to you? April 28, 2009 I carry copies of the magazine, First Things, to have something to read when waiting at the doctor’s office, or oil changes on the car, etc. That is how I happened to read an item from last summer by Richard John Neuhaus, in his regular column, “The Public Square.” The presidential campaign was going strong, and Senator Barack Obama was the focus of everyone’s attention. I laid the article aside at the time, but came across it again in last few days. Mr. Neuhaus died last January, and I am sorry we have lost an editor with his insight. Here is what he said at that time about Barack Obama and his roots: The senator lends his prestige to the claim promoted by sundry race hustlers that Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Clarence Thomas, and Bill Cosby, along with millions of other black Americans, are not black enough to be part of “the black community.” One can understand why a Harvard Law School graduate born in Hawaii with a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas would, for political and perhaps personal reasons, seek the street credentials of having “roots” in a militantly black sector of the intensely race-conscious city of Chicago. But complicity in the explicit slander of America and the implicit slander of most blacks in America is a very high price to pay for a ticket of admission to “the black community.” Read on April 14, 2009 How many legs does a dog have if you count the tail as a leg? Abraham Lincoln asked a crowd that question, and most people answered "five." Wrong, said Lincoln. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg. Taking off from this homely illustration, Thomas Sowell today addressed a fundamental fallacy in progressive thinking: Magic Words. What I had not known until I read it in his column (which his readers gave five stars), was that China is starting to sell some of its holdings of U.S. bonds. Economic advice is not my specialty, and I had thought that bonds have a face value that can only be redeemed at maturity. That is true enough, but apart from the face value, bonds have a market value that can change from day to day. New bonds have to be issued and sold at today's market value. Common sense suggests that if the Chinese are trying to unload large amounts of U.S. government bonds, that will put a downward pressure on prices-supply and demand and all that, you know. That means our government will have to lower prices or raise interest rates on the new bonds we want to sell. I can't tell you what effect this will have on our economy, but you don't have to be an expert to realize it is not good. "The Chinese are not fools," observed Thomas Sowell, and they realize that inflation is coming: "That in turn means that the dollars with which U.S. government bonds will be paid off will be worth a lot less than the dollars with which the bonds were bought." I don't know, but I suspect the government is counting on the man in the street not realizing that inflation is a hidden tax. The intellectuals in the administration know it well enough, and it makes their statements that "no one making less than 250,000 dollars a year will have a tax increase" into, well, a lie. Assume an inflation rate of, say, 13.5 percent (which we saw in 1980), and that your apartment rents today for 500 dollars a month. When your lease comes up for renewal in 12 months, the rent will be 567 dollars a month. That will take another 804 dollars out of your pocket. And lest you think your wage will go up the same percentage, 1980 saw seven percent unemployment as well. Those were the years of the "misery index." But the value of the article does not stop there. You can read the whole thing at Magic Words in Politics. There are those who think precious metals are the refuge in times to come. But you can't eat Gold, and there is always this to think about:
This may be a time for us to respond as Paul:
April 4, 2009 God--In Person Is God everywhere? Is he in every leaf of every tree? Does he permeate the
cosmos with his being? Is he in every blade of grass? April 4, 2009 I wonder when the first case against the newest laws of the new congress will hit the courts. Typically, these things take a while, but it seems plain enough that little consideration is being given to the constitutionality of actions being taken right now by both the legislative and executive branches of government. During the campaign, I was worried a the way some candidates talked like they were running for emperor instead of president. I discounted it as campaign rhetoric, but now I can no longer discount it. They meant it. George Will, last week, rose to the challenge and called the actions of congress unconstitutional. I think it is only a matter of time until someone or some group decide to find out through the courts. It seems the administration is determined not to waste a good crisis. I hope the people have the will to stand up for the constitution.
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