Succumbing to Tom Waits

I've never been a big drinker, but I feel like a drunk. I don't know what it is, but vagrancy has always seemed a few short steps away, and tales of collapse have always resonated with me. I guess in the cafe vagrants were a few short steps away, and plenty of friends have collapsed.
I like Brecht and Woyzeck, and so it comes as a pleasant surprise that I have only just discovered Tom Waits.
I knew he existed. I knew I would like it. I just never got round to it.
And perhaps my musical tastes had to change a little. To allow a banjo.
Tom is beautiful and grotesque. Beautifully grotesque. Vomit out your pores with warmth.
If you've never tried it, why not start with "Lost at the bottom of the world"

Albert Mohler denies the clear teaching of scripture

Apparently single guys find it hard to get jobs in American Evangelical churches


"R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., said it was unfair to accuse churches of discrimination because that word implied something “wrongful.”

“Both the logic of Scripture and the centrality of marriage in society,” he said, justify “the strong inclination of congregations to hire a man who is not only married but faithfully married.”

Mr. Mohler said he tells the students at his seminary that “if they remain single, they need to understand that there’s going to be a significant limitation on their ability to serve as a pastor.”

The logic of scripture? Are you on crack?!?!
Hows about that 1 Corinthians 7?

This is the PRESIDENT of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the flagship of the Southern Baptist convention, and a member of the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. I guess that's one of the privileges of being 'biblical', you don't have to bother reading the Bible anymore

Eat, pray, love, vomit, repeat.

A few people have linked to John Dickson's article at the ABC, about a culture where people can no longer share ideas, even disagree on things. It is sad


I really wanted to share some cartoons with you from

www.polyp.org.uk

They are great! Look especially at this consumerism ones, hilarious, thoughtful, challenging.
Now, he and I obviously have a different opinion of Jesus (although I wonder if it is that different, his beef seems to be with right wing politics more than anything else), so he declined to have the comics put up on the blog. Fair enough I guess. But it is still sad that we form ourselves into such tight camps that we can't see the people alongside us travelling in a somewhat similar direction.
Do look at the comics though, the blog title was from one on Yuppie tourism

Freezer to Fridge

I have been looking at converting a freezer to a fridge for a while now.
The extra insulation and top opening mean it uses far less power than a regular fridge (80-90% less) and keeps food at a more stable temperature, which means the food lasts longer.
So when our old fridge
1. Didn't fit in the fridge hole at our new house
and
2. Stopped working
I finally bit the bullet and convinced Rosie the freezer/fridge was a good idea.

We bought a fairly large Fisher and Paykel chest freezer, mostly on the criteria "Will it fit in the space" and energy efficiency stars. The Fisher and Paykel wasn't great on the efficiency, but was about the right size. Or so we thought. In hindsight, I hadn't really allowed enough space around the freezer, so we had to turn it side on, which is still ok. I also should have gone for the thickest insulated freezer I could find since that impacts it's efficiency more than anything else with this kind of usage.




With the conversion I tried three different approaches.
First, I got a thermometer to monitor the temperature. I found the best place to go for a decent thermometer was a home brew store we found in Albion Park.

I tried to regulate the temperature with a timer that plugged into the electricity at the wall. It was digital one, so I could control the on/off to the minute. Even so, because of the varying outside temperatures, and varied use of the freezer throughout the day, it was really hard to get it to maintain a stable temperature. It was still better than our old fridge, but not really adequate.

So I heard about a thermostat kit from Jaycar electronics that you built yourself. They give you all the parts and you just pop it together, Bingo, freezer conversion. Well, it was a bit more complicated than that. I got all the parts, looked at the instructions, and got a bit scared. "Do I really trust myself with all these wires and electricity?"

So I caved in and bought a pre-made one from a gentleman in Victoria. It works perfectly and keeps the fridge at 2 degrees Celsius. All the time.

What is it like?
At first we thought it would be a real hassle, not having shelves. You do have to be a little more organised about how you put things away (at least I do). I find the baskets at the top more convenient than regular fridge shelves, as you can easily access whatever you want. Ro reckons it is a about the same level of convenience, even at six months pregnancy.
We also buy our milk in bulk, and were able to fit 50 litres of milk in the bottom, which means everything else is stacked a bit higher. (it also helps regulate the temperature inside the fridge).

On the plus side, nothing goes off in this fridge. Ever (well it has only been six weeks, so, maybe it would). The temperature is so stable because the cold air never escapes, so food lasts for ages.
It is also very quiet because the motor is rarely ever on.
The only other downside is the condensation. You need to wipe down the walls and a bit of the floor once a week.

But for 90% less energy use, I think I can live with that.

Exile of the Innocent

Psalm 44 presents us with a scary picture, that God would exile and abandon his people, even when they are innocent.
The sons of Korah remind us that it is God, his hand, the light of his face, his favour , that wins the battles for the people of Israel, not their swords or might.
But what about when God fails to turn up?
Usually this would be time for some soul searching, or some idolatry hunting. Who sinned?!
Yet in this Psalm, there is a protest, "it's not as though we broke your covenant".
It seems as though God is asleep, as though he needs to be roused into action for his people.
Though we are in the dust, all we can do is ask God to rise and redeem us, all we can do is trust his faithfulness, his love, his hesed.
Paul picks up this Psalm in Romans 8. It is the same faithfulness and the same love that we wait for, and the same suffering we go through now. This passage is often used in a triumphalist way, "Don't worry, God has everything under control", but that isn't the vibe I get from the Psalm. Instead the Psalm says, "God has everything under control, WAKE UP GOD!!" The absence of Jesus is an exile. Not an exile because we are being punished, but an exile nevertheless. And like the Psalm, it is made worse because we have seen the full extent of what God's power can do, he can raise the dead. In it we share in the sufferings of the innocent Son. Only as we walk with the abandoned one are we actually in the presence of God. God has abandoned us (though gives us his Spirit), but that doesn't mean we are punished, nor should we stop crying out for him to rise and redeem us from the dust.
It is a far cry from "Come and have a close personal relationship with God right now"

Gospel Conversations

If you live anywhere near Chatswood and are interested in a gospel that is for the whole world, not about escaping it, then you should go along and hear these guys. Gospel conversations is a new series of dialogues about the Christian faith from people with a missional perspective, interested in what God has done and is doing in his world. Later in the year they have Iaian Provan coming over to talk Old Testament, though Mark Strom's dialogues in May look enticing too, even without set topics, he is such a fascinating character. Ron used to lecture on the intersection of Christian thought and Science at Maquarrie Christian Studies Institute.

Prayer that changes our World, Shane Claiborne in Sydney

Shane Claiborne, American speaker, writer, hippy, christian is speaking at Sydney University on 30th March. If you are nearby you should go along.

details here

The Fathers wrath?

As good evangelicals, we are always fighting off the claim that we believe in divine child abuse. We speak of the death of Jesus, the Son of God, as a sacrifice, yet one made willingly, as the one act of the one God
But in our popular piety, I don't think we can escape the charge so easily.
There is a song we sing at our church, 'Jesus, Thankyou', by Pat Sczebel, Sovereign Grace, that illustrates this well.
At one point we sing 'the Fathers wrath completely satisfied', and it makes me really uncomfortable.
It makes me squirm, not because it speaks of the wrath of God, but because it is call 'the Fathers' wrath. As though this one person of the Trinity is the one angry about sin, and the Son is the one that is nice to us. Just last week I read on a popular reformed evangelical blog the comment that ' I wouldn’t want to inadvertently suggest to peoples’ minds that the God the Son was judging God the Son'. I was too late to the discussion to ask, 'why?'. As evangelicals are fond of saying, Jesus spoke about' hell' more than anyone else. What we are less likely to do is connect all those passages about judgment to Jesus death. It is as though Jesus has dealt with the Fathers anger, but still has his own beef with us to be worked out later!
The challenge is seeing Jesus action on the cross as the action of God. That this really is God's way of judging sin, of expressing his wrath, with Jesus as the subject and not just the object of that action. A strange kind of wrath, certainly, but we follow a strange God.

Am I way off mark here? Have I missed something?

Are we serious about Biblical models of leadership?

Allow me some tongue planted into cheek


Are we serious about biblical models of leadership, or are we simply swayed by our culture?
I present to you these simple facts.
Almost every leader of God's people in the Old Testament was Jewish.
Every one of the apostles in the New Testament was Jewish.
Though there are occasional leaders who aren't Jewish in the OT, their nations are never described as blessed in the same way that Jewish led ones are.
In fact, God's people shouldn't even want leaders like other nations, or who act or dress like them.
Though some people like to get rid of order in the bible, Paul clearly says that the gospel comes first to Jews, then to Gentiles.
The Jewish nation are given a clear responsibility to be the teachers of the rest of the world and in families when it comes to the word of God and world leadership. When others take up this role, we simply allow them to be slack with this responsibility.

I think it is clear that Jews should be leading and preaching in our churches, and even go so far as saying it is wrong to vote for a gentile to be in a position of leadership in our nation. It simply goes against clear biblical teaching and patterns.


*remove tongue from cheek*

Reformed and Anglican

One of the interesting and encouraging changes around Sydney Anglican circles is the idea that being Anglican might actually mean something more than 'it is a good boat to fish off'. Anglicans are more than Baptists with property, or Presbyterians with no conscience.
While we are more than happy to wear the Reformed Evangelical label, there are perhaps differences between ourselves and our Reformed brothers, especially in America.
Brad at the sword and the ploughshare has an interesting summary of a ramble of Oliver O'Donovans between different 'protestentisms'.
Well worth reading

H/T Byron

John Piper on Julia Gillard?

If anyone is going to the John Piper conference later in the year, can someone ask him whether it was sinful to vote for labor at the last federal election, because Julia Gillard is now Prime Minister?
Or does the prohibition only apply for American commanders in chief?
Or do we want to avoid going into this because he will either a) call us soft on complementarianism or b) embarrass us terribly

Chopping up God

Following from Matt's post on tritheism last year, I'm starting to wonder whether a number of issues around our churches are related.

Pop Penal Substitutionary Atonement theories that see the cross only as the action of an angry father on a somewhat coerced Son abound. (despite the protests of more learned PSA theologians etc, this crap is still the general model of gospel summary. While we say Jesus takes the wrath of 'God', what we really mean is he takes the wrath of the 'Father', which leaves Jesus in a strange position of not being angry about sin. Rarely do I hear talk of God taking his wrath upon himself, in fact this is generally poo pooed)**. Overemphasizing the garden of gethsemane, the idea of competing wills in God is assumed. Chopping up God.

Pop functional subordination takes this a step further, and imagines a reluctunt Son who gives in to the authority of his Father, and does so eternally.
Chopping up God

Now interestingly,
the same group of people, while confessing the existence and presence of the Holy Spirit in believers, is often accused of not really acting as though God, God in himself, is actually present in believers. We have a bit of God. A part. ( part we find difficult to talk about.)
Chopping up God

Do we believe in one God or don't we?
Do we believe that the whole of God is in each of the persons due to their mutual indwelling or not?
Have we read our own sinful competition with God's will into the eternal Godhead and imagined that there is some primeval quelling before the creation?

** And on a sidenote, the same group of people generally downplay the representative role of Jesus' obedience as Israel/humanity, the faithfulnes of Jesus. It almost seems as though Jesus is neither God nor human when he dies, simply exchange fodder.