...sometimes one line says it all.

"Just to know that You are near is enough."

What an important thing to sing.
RSB, gang.

BOOKS ARE GOOD

It's taking me forever to get through N.T. Wright's Simply Christian. It isn't a hard read, I just haven't made the time to finish. So far, the book is fantastic and I would heartily recommend it. Read this quote the other night and really liked it:

"Nothing in all the history of paganism comes anywhere near this combination of event, intention and meaning. Nothing in Judaism has prepared for it, except in puzzling, shadowy prophecy.

"The death of Jesus of Nazareth as the king of the Jews, the bearer of Israel's destiny, the fulfillment of God's promises to his people of old, is either the most stupid, senseless waste and misunderstanding the world has ever seen, or it is the fulcrum around which world history turns."

I found this little quote to be powerfully poetic...kept reading it over and over and over. It's great when a book does that - when it captures your imagination and heart and mind all in one little paragraph.

What about you? Share a quote that's grabbed you recently...

PS...just posted a new Christmas Poll over at the blog. Click HERE to check it out!

The Theology Blog (Always A Favorite)

If you happened to have checked out David's blog today, you'd read about an afternoon planning meeting we were a part of earlier in the day.

In September, we'll be starting a new sermon series that's tentatively entitled "God 101." It's actually a sermon series in the book of Job, but our pastor is really striving to dig into Job as a means to learn and know certain characteristics of God. The hope is that it might be engaging for those in our crowd who are spiritually mature as well as for those who are still sorta "checking this out." I think the God 101 idea will also help us to build some interest that might not occur if we were to say, "Uh, yeah...we're, uh, talking about Job."

So far, the service planning is coming along great. We're really playing with/messing with the first thirty minutes of each of these services to prepare our people for the Word by some real intentional thematic planning. (Always a challenge for a contemporary worship dude, gang!)

Okay, there's the setup. But the real reason for this post is to see where a bunch of you land on one particular contested issue that's prominent in the book of Job: suffering.

It happened quite innocently - I was talking and used a phrase that included "God tested..." which prompted a pretty quick response from our associate pastor (my boss and the dude preaching this series!)

Essentially, he and I were landing on different sides on this issue of suffering.

I stated that I believe that the book of Job seems pretty clear as to God having a very definite REASON for allowing Satan to have his way with Job. God pretty much brags on Job..."Hey, have you seen my boy, Job? He's awesome." (Paraphrase mine.) While I'm not ready to build a theology on the idea that all suffering is a "test" of God, I think we see a pretty clear picture of God having some sort of agenda here - some reason, some goal in the amazing trouble that came to Job.

Our associate pastor leans toward the view that bad stuff (disease, hardship, etc.) is a natural product of the Fall; that because of Adam and Eve, things are messed up...therefore life is hard and...well, junk happens.

I see his point and I agree with him to an extent, although I'm not sure that this is a fair representation of what's going on in Job.

So, my deep and eloquent brothers - in dealing with Job ( a weird book to be sure,) where do you stand? God having an agenda or God allowing the Fall's consequence to run its course? I'm still thinking on it and most of you tend to pretty smart in the things of God. Let your voice be heard!

This oughta' be good....