A lot of random stuff tonight: Middle East Policy, Season Changes, and the End-Times. So I'm taking a shotgun approach. Also, my bud Jason Parks wrote a blog post at my suggesting (coercing?), so I'm giving him the honorary mention in this one. Good job, Jason! Now sit and reflect on how coffee has changed your life.
First, Middle East Policy (per Jason's post). I also think it's pretty silly to try to fix a problem with policy. Nations are made up of people, and policy (should) always reflect the will of the people. That's Democracy, right? Even if you said "OK, here's the line. You on the left, you're Israelis. You on the right, you're Palestinians. Done." people would still fight each other because they aren't angry about policy. There's no problem with a nation sitting in and being the referee, helping people along, but that's a lot different than meddling. It's more like "Hey, remember our civil war a century and a half ago? Learn from our mistakes." than "We are big and powerful, you should listen to us or we'll kill you."
The responsibility for this lies as much our shoulders as the President's. Especially the church, remember, we're supposed to change the world? You see, if your worldview requires the world to turn on Israel at Armaggedon, you believe that Middle East peace is a pipe dream and you just watch the news to see who else steps up to "hate the Jews." However if your worldview doesn't require that, then you're more apt to say, "what can I do to help, and to bring what God wants here?" Because the President can't do it. Legislation and policy can't do it. It's doing what Jesus did, getting down to the level of these people and being a peace maker (not a peace keeper). I have a cousin who is (or was) working with Israeli and Palestinian kids in schools, teaching them why they shouldn't hate each other. That's what changes things!
Second topic. This is our last night in our apartment. Funny how transitions always make you nostalgic. I was rocking Zemi to sleep just thinking about all the memories here. This is the only home she's known. I've had so, so many good nights rocking her to sleep. Nights where I've wrestled with God on different topics, had wonderful worship, all kinds of stuff. Tomorrow night we'll continue at our first house, but it'll be in a different season. New things. But I've learned that the goal of life is never to become comfortable in a season. It's to learn how to navigate through them, and the transition from them without leaving your life a train wreck. Good times, even better to come!
Finally, a bit more on the end-times. I still haven't had time to begin digging into a lot of it, but I thought I'd share a few things it's not:
1.) It's not an escapist theology, where I "spiritualize" verses I think are a little too harsh because I don't want to deal with them.
2.) It's not downplaying the holiness and justice of God, replacing it with a tolerant, backbone-less God. I do believe in a final judgement day. My definition of justice is "wrongs being made right." Jesus was the ultimate work of justice. Now justice is being worked on the earth as the kingdoms of this earth moving toward becoming the kingdoms of our God. God does not tolerate sin, but Jesus was most furious at the ones who did everything right but missed the point. He loves real people, not people pretending to be someone else, justified in their own eyes.
3.) It's not new. The end times view with the antichrist and the tribulation period, etc. has only been prominent for the last 70 years or so. It started during WWI in Europe, and in America during WWII. Church Fathers from Origen to John Wesley leaned more on the Victorious view than the common 7-year Tribulation view that's popular now.
4.) It's not regurgitated. At least it won't be. That's why I haven't written a ton about it, because it can't be someone else's. It has to be something that is truth deep in my heart, that's been formed after tons of study and prayer. I could talk about how Daniel's 70th week took place immediately after the 69th, and how the only future portion of Matthew 24 is verse 30 and on, but right now that's me just reciting information I've learned. It was also the same when I was reiterating information I had learned from Marv Rosenthal or Mike Bickle or Tim LaHaye.
5.) I'm really not interested in debating theology. My long term worldview determines where I'm going to invest long term, and I need to figure that out. I love good discussions, because it makes you seriously question your viewpoint to see if it's secure and biblically founded or just a regurgitated tidbit, but I'm not going to get caught up in a "who's right/wrong" discussion. Even though I disagree on some points with Marv, Mike, Left Behind, David Wilkerson, pretty much everyone, I do agree on way more and I love these guys tremendously. They are all incredibly valuable to the body, just like Paul, Peter, and Apollos were. I'm not going to get caught up rallying around doctrine, because "the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith" (1 Tim 1:5). Rather, I'm going to rally around family, and try to figure just what in the world God is up to...
...because He wants me to be a part of it.
Anyways, that's my thoughts for tonight! Please let me know what you think, some great convos have come from it! Love you all!
PB
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
This Time Next Week...and other ramblings
This is a picture taken on our anniversary last year:
We were downstate, grandma was watching the peanut, and we were thoroughly enjoying a nice dinner at Olive Garden. We talked about being parents, things we were excited about (funny how it seems like months can fly by without a good "talk" with your spouse. Kids keep you busy!), and we also talked about buying a house. We'd been looking on and off for a while, but we were really itching to finally own our living situation. Our dinner (and Tiramisu) was finished, and the waiter brought us our bill and these after dinner mints. I grabbed them, and on a fidgety, slightly wine-influenced whim, I built a little house and made a prophetic declaration that this was going to be the year we bought a house. Now "prophetic declaration" sounds pretty cool, but all it means is, basically, this is going to happen. God spoke everything into being, and He made us in His likeness, so we can speak things into being, too. The prophetic part is just speaking what God says. Pretty deep subject, but it's just another facet of our being in relationship with the creator of the universe, and how He wants us to be a part of things. Maybe I'll blog on that more, later, but back to the story. I wish I could say that the heavens parted and I felt this rush of...whatever it is that the super christians get...but it was, as I said above, a fidgety, slightly wine-influenced whim. Kind of like "alright, I'm just sayin' here." But it was honest, and heart-felt. Of course, like any important moment, I promptly forgot about it.
Fast forward to today. This time next week, my family and I will be spending the first night in our first house. Get this: it will be exactly one year since that night at Olive Garden. Even more, I built the little house out of four dinner mints. We were only a family of three at the time, but we will be moving in as a family of four (one still in utero). Crazy, eh? Needless to say, we're really excited, blown away, and very thankful. The takeaway for you: God is faithful. Even a fidgety, slightly wine-influenced (they have really good chianti at Olive Garden) whim, when it is mixed with a grain of faith and lines up with His heart, can move mountains.
And now for the aforementioned ramblings. I haven't posted much on Victorious Eschatology, mostly just because I'm still where I was at the time of the last one. I'm in Matthew right now, but as soon as that's done I want to get some serious study on, because this is something that's burning in my heart that I need to get to the bottom of. More to come!
Also, my good friend Jason wrote on the role of excellence in worship music. Really good stuff! I've heard people say they didn't want the music to get "emotional" in the sense of trying to get an emotional response from the congregation. That's good in the sense of playing for their emotions, but, as musicians we are supposed to lead them with our emotions. The worship set is supposed to take people somewhere. It's supposed to move people. It's not about how good you play in and of itself, but it's about giving your all, doing your best, playing your heart out. If that means you keep tempo, great. If that means it totally, absolutely, incredibly rocked, that's great, too! Psalm 33 says to play "skillfully, and shout for joy." Doesn't sound ho-hum to me. There's a great balance and tension to being totally awesome but not in the spotlight, not caring if anybody notices. Jason does this really well, and by the way, he is the only drummer I've ever heard use a cowbell and make it sound amazing.
That's all for now!
PB
We were downstate, grandma was watching the peanut, and we were thoroughly enjoying a nice dinner at Olive Garden. We talked about being parents, things we were excited about (funny how it seems like months can fly by without a good "talk" with your spouse. Kids keep you busy!), and we also talked about buying a house. We'd been looking on and off for a while, but we were really itching to finally own our living situation. Our dinner (and Tiramisu) was finished, and the waiter brought us our bill and these after dinner mints. I grabbed them, and on a fidgety, slightly wine-influenced whim, I built a little house and made a prophetic declaration that this was going to be the year we bought a house. Now "prophetic declaration" sounds pretty cool, but all it means is, basically, this is going to happen. God spoke everything into being, and He made us in His likeness, so we can speak things into being, too. The prophetic part is just speaking what God says. Pretty deep subject, but it's just another facet of our being in relationship with the creator of the universe, and how He wants us to be a part of things. Maybe I'll blog on that more, later, but back to the story. I wish I could say that the heavens parted and I felt this rush of...whatever it is that the super christians get...but it was, as I said above, a fidgety, slightly wine-influenced whim. Kind of like "alright, I'm just sayin' here." But it was honest, and heart-felt. Of course, like any important moment, I promptly forgot about it.
Fast forward to today. This time next week, my family and I will be spending the first night in our first house. Get this: it will be exactly one year since that night at Olive Garden. Even more, I built the little house out of four dinner mints. We were only a family of three at the time, but we will be moving in as a family of four (one still in utero). Crazy, eh? Needless to say, we're really excited, blown away, and very thankful. The takeaway for you: God is faithful. Even a fidgety, slightly wine-influenced (they have really good chianti at Olive Garden) whim, when it is mixed with a grain of faith and lines up with His heart, can move mountains.
And now for the aforementioned ramblings. I haven't posted much on Victorious Eschatology, mostly just because I'm still where I was at the time of the last one. I'm in Matthew right now, but as soon as that's done I want to get some serious study on, because this is something that's burning in my heart that I need to get to the bottom of. More to come!
Also, my good friend Jason wrote on the role of excellence in worship music. Really good stuff! I've heard people say they didn't want the music to get "emotional" in the sense of trying to get an emotional response from the congregation. That's good in the sense of playing for their emotions, but, as musicians we are supposed to lead them with our emotions. The worship set is supposed to take people somewhere. It's supposed to move people. It's not about how good you play in and of itself, but it's about giving your all, doing your best, playing your heart out. If that means you keep tempo, great. If that means it totally, absolutely, incredibly rocked, that's great, too! Psalm 33 says to play "skillfully, and shout for joy." Doesn't sound ho-hum to me. There's a great balance and tension to being totally awesome but not in the spotlight, not caring if anybody notices. Jason does this really well, and by the way, he is the only drummer I've ever heard use a cowbell and make it sound amazing.
That's all for now!
PB
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Why I Eat (mostly) Organic
My wife and I are members at the Marquette Food Co-op, and we love going to the farmer's market. We really try to eat as organic and unprocessed as possible. We're not nutcases about it (at least not our definition of nutcase), because sometimes you just need a Butterburger from Culver's or something good from Frosty Treats. But these are the exceptions, not the rule. So, in the spirit of working out my thoughts in my blog, I'm going to list the reasons why I choose to feed my family this way, and counter some of the reasons against it. Despite my media background, I'm not going to cite my sources and I'm going to make some generalizations, but the information that backs this stuff is readily available in a quick Google search. OK, here we go!
1. It was one of our first commands. We were commanded to care for and rule the world with respect for the one who created it. He made things to work optimally a certain way, which I believe is not the way modern commercial agriculture goes about raising crops and livestock.
2. Modern commercial farming is driven primarily by money. This will inevitably lead to every decision being evaluated by reducing costs and increasing profits. Local, organic farming is driven by maintaining the natural ecosystems that work together to produce a good harvest.
3. You are what you eat. The old adage "garbage in, garbage out" is true with what we eat, too. It goes a little deeper than that, too, because the food we eat is what it eats, too. Modern commercial farming depletes the soil of it's natural resources, and it's replenished with artificial fertilizers that aren't as nutritious to the plants as their natural setting is, which in turn produces a less nutritious product. Organic farming keeps the soil rich by crop rotation and using natural fertilizers optimal to each plant's diet.
This also goes for pesticides, too. I read an excerpt from a speech Prince Charles gave that stated the average person on a Western (Europe, US, Canada) diet consumes around a gallon of diesel a day in pesticides. Not literally, but it's referring to the amount of petroleum-based pesticides needed to produce the fruits and vegetables in that diet. And we do consume some of those residual pesticides left on the fruits and veggies. Remember, they are oil-based, they don't just rinse off. Organic farming only uses natural pesticides, if at all. They also use natural pest repellents, like strategically planting certain plants near others to drive certain pests away.
Let's talk livestock, hormones, and genetically modified stuff. Organically, livestock is fed a healthy diet free of growth hormones, antibiotics, and that is full of nutrition specific to that animal. Plants are not genetically modified in any way, but are grown and cared for like they were originally intended, because again, organic farming is not driven primarily by money. Sure, the apples from a commercial farm might be gigantic, but they are less nutrient-dense then their organic counterparts, and contain traces of all kinds of junk I don't want to feed my family.
Summing up a long #3, organic farming doesn't try to "improve" on God's original design. There is a lot of research starting to emerge linking artificial fertilizers, pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics, and genetic modifications to cancer and other diseases and conditions. Search for it, you'll find it.
4. "But it costs so much!" You're right. It is more expensive. There is a cost, for sure. But to me, it's totally worth it. It's worth knowing that I'm feeding my family the best quality, healthiest stuff I can get. The benefits are that we, in turn, are more healthy, can fight off diseases better, and overall just "feel" better. Not to mention the fact that it tastes better, too!
Also, it is really important to me to sow into the local community. I know the amount of extra work required to farm and raise livestock this way, and I'm all for supporting it. Money is just a tool to advance the kingdom, and I totally see it as a worthwhile investment to sow into the lives of local farmers, and not into a greed machine (whoa Phil, little bit of strong language there).
5. "But it can't feed the world's growing population!" Baloney! Why else is it called "sustainable" agriculture. Another excerpt from the Prince's speech (I think it was to a university in Georgia recently) stated that the local, organic farm is the most productive food-producing engine in the world.
Alright, I think that's enough for now. I'm going to keep writing about it, as it's something I'm passionate about and want to educate others about. It's not just the farming itself, but I'm starting to see the wonder of the harmony God built into these natural ecosystems that is capable of sustaining incredible amounts of food for us, without our needing to modify any part of it. It's designed in a way that works best, why not cooperate with that?
Right?
PB
1. It was one of our first commands. We were commanded to care for and rule the world with respect for the one who created it. He made things to work optimally a certain way, which I believe is not the way modern commercial agriculture goes about raising crops and livestock.
2. Modern commercial farming is driven primarily by money. This will inevitably lead to every decision being evaluated by reducing costs and increasing profits. Local, organic farming is driven by maintaining the natural ecosystems that work together to produce a good harvest.
3. You are what you eat. The old adage "garbage in, garbage out" is true with what we eat, too. It goes a little deeper than that, too, because the food we eat is what it eats, too. Modern commercial farming depletes the soil of it's natural resources, and it's replenished with artificial fertilizers that aren't as nutritious to the plants as their natural setting is, which in turn produces a less nutritious product. Organic farming keeps the soil rich by crop rotation and using natural fertilizers optimal to each plant's diet.
This also goes for pesticides, too. I read an excerpt from a speech Prince Charles gave that stated the average person on a Western (Europe, US, Canada) diet consumes around a gallon of diesel a day in pesticides. Not literally, but it's referring to the amount of petroleum-based pesticides needed to produce the fruits and vegetables in that diet. And we do consume some of those residual pesticides left on the fruits and veggies. Remember, they are oil-based, they don't just rinse off. Organic farming only uses natural pesticides, if at all. They also use natural pest repellents, like strategically planting certain plants near others to drive certain pests away.
Let's talk livestock, hormones, and genetically modified stuff. Organically, livestock is fed a healthy diet free of growth hormones, antibiotics, and that is full of nutrition specific to that animal. Plants are not genetically modified in any way, but are grown and cared for like they were originally intended, because again, organic farming is not driven primarily by money. Sure, the apples from a commercial farm might be gigantic, but they are less nutrient-dense then their organic counterparts, and contain traces of all kinds of junk I don't want to feed my family.
Summing up a long #3, organic farming doesn't try to "improve" on God's original design. There is a lot of research starting to emerge linking artificial fertilizers, pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics, and genetic modifications to cancer and other diseases and conditions. Search for it, you'll find it.
4. "But it costs so much!" You're right. It is more expensive. There is a cost, for sure. But to me, it's totally worth it. It's worth knowing that I'm feeding my family the best quality, healthiest stuff I can get. The benefits are that we, in turn, are more healthy, can fight off diseases better, and overall just "feel" better. Not to mention the fact that it tastes better, too!
Also, it is really important to me to sow into the local community. I know the amount of extra work required to farm and raise livestock this way, and I'm all for supporting it. Money is just a tool to advance the kingdom, and I totally see it as a worthwhile investment to sow into the lives of local farmers, and not into a greed machine (whoa Phil, little bit of strong language there).
5. "But it can't feed the world's growing population!" Baloney! Why else is it called "sustainable" agriculture. Another excerpt from the Prince's speech (I think it was to a university in Georgia recently) stated that the local, organic farm is the most productive food-producing engine in the world.
Alright, I think that's enough for now. I'm going to keep writing about it, as it's something I'm passionate about and want to educate others about. It's not just the farming itself, but I'm starting to see the wonder of the harmony God built into these natural ecosystems that is capable of sustaining incredible amounts of food for us, without our needing to modify any part of it. It's designed in a way that works best, why not cooperate with that?
Right?
PB
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