My new music playlist!

I love music.

My friend Bethany told me about this website where you can create playlists of all sorts of music. I really had wanted to listen to some hymns, and I was a bit disappointed when I could not find all the hymns I wanted. But I still made a couple of lists, one of mostly praise music, which can sometimes be so encouraging to hear.

On this playlist, there are a lot of songs put up by Church of Christ churches. Theologically, I disagree with the Church of Christ on several somewhat major issues, but I can't deny the talent that comes with singing everything A capella. Some of the best hymns on the list were by Church of Christ, and some of the other versions of the hymns I wanted sounded too commercial.

quotes from D.A. Carson's book

D.A. Carson on how faith is connected to being reasonable and rational:

But on what basis do they come to faith? Is this merely an existential leap? Far from it. [John 20:29] is integrally related to verses 30-31: "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." In other words, later generations come to faith by means of the historical witness of the first generation, the generation that included Thomas. He saw, and he believed, and these things have been written so that we may believe too. Here, then, is emphasis not only on the truth of Jesus' resurrection, but on the historical nature of the truth and the need for reliable witnesses to that truth and for faithful recording of that truth in written form."

D.A. Carson, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church, 215

Found this on imonk... worth watching for sure!

Love it!

By the Pricking of my Thumbs, Is not Elisha also among the Prophets?

I began to enjoy Shakespeare the summer before my senior year of high school. I knew that I would have to read Macbeth and Hamlet the next year in British Literature, so I thought I would get a head start and read Macbeth, or 'The Scottish Play' if you are superstitious in the theater, during the summer. I also went and saw Macbeth and was well impressed.

Read Act 1, Scenes 1-3 which can be found many places online for free including here, on google books. Note, that from what we can tell, Macbeth had no plans of murder until the witches suggested it. This brings up questions of fate and human depravity. Clearly, Macbeth was capable of treason, but did he only do it because the witches suggested it, or would he have anyway?

Earlier this summer, I was reading 2 Kings, and was struck by a similar scene in 2 Kings 8 and Macbeth. A trusted underling of a king meets someone who predicts that the underling of the king will murder the king and become king himself. Here is the text from 2 Kings.

2 Kings 8:7-15
Hazael Murders Ben-hadad

7 Now Elisha came to Damascus. Ben-hadad the king of Syria was sick. And
when it was told him, "The man of God has come here," 8 the king said to
Hazael, "Take a present with you and go to meet the man of God, and inquire
of the LORD through him, saying, 'Shall I recover from this sickness?'" 9 So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, all kinds of goods of Damascus, forty camel loads. When he came and stood before him, he said, "Your son Ben-hadad king
of Syria has sent me to you, saying, 'Shall I recover from this sickness?'" 10 And Elisha said to him, "Go, say to him, 'You shall certainly recover,' but the LORD has shown me that he shall certainly die." 11 And he fixed his gaze and stared at him, until he was embarrassed. And the man of God wept. 12 And Hazael said, "Why does my lord weep?" He answered, "Because I know the evil that you will do to the people
of Israel. You will set on fire their fortresses, and you will kill their young men with the sword and dash in pieces their little ones and rip open their pregnant women." 13 And Hazael said, "What is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing?" Elisha answered, "The LORD has shown me that you are to be king over Syria." 14 Then he departed from Elisha and came to his master, who said to him,
"What did Elisha say to you?" And he answered, "He told me that you would certainly recover." 15 But the next day he took the bed cloth and dipped it in water and spread it over his face, till he died. And Hazael became king in his place.

In one of Donald Miller's books, a chapter is
subtitled, "Why William Shakespeare Was a Prophet." While I don't know about
that, I do know that reading the KJV version of the Bible in my quiet
time when I took Shakespeare my freshman year of college really
helped.

I am not going to argue here that that Shakespeare was a Christian writer as some
have because the similarities here do not point to that. But I just like to think that great books explore some of the same facets of humanity.

I think the most powerful difference between the stories is that Elisha mourns the evil that Hazael will bring about because his reign will bring about the death and torture of innocent people, and the witches celebrate it.

In both stories, we don't know whether the villains would have committed their evil deeds without the prophetic intervention. But in both cases, their is a sovereign author, writing for their own glory. Shakespeare bashed Macbeth and praised Banquo because the ruling monarch in England descended from Banquo. And in the Bible, everything works to God's glory and His own ends.

How to deal with bad moods...

"We have to take ourselves by the scruff of the neck and shake ourselves, and we will find that we can do what we said we could not."

May 20th, My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers

Another quote from Boxen

As I mentioned before, Boxen: The Imaginary World of the Young C.S. Lewis contains a collection of short stories Lewis wrote when he was young about talking animals.

In this scene, Puddiphat is asking two sailor characters to go out for the evening, one is trying to reform the military and the other is in the process of being reformed(see my other blog post on this book). Bar used to be all about having a good time, so for him to decline Puddiphat's invitation is surprising.

Boxen pg 183 In The Sailor: Volume II

'My dear Viscount,' protested Bar, ' we must decline your hospitality if it entails mixing with these low actresses, whose presence recalls a chapter in our life, which we would fain forget.'

'This is Saul among the prophets,' laughed Puddiphat. 'But come along, the girls can dine at the inn."

The book of 1 Samuel in the Bible describes when King Saul winds up prophesying even though God was no longer supporting him. "So it became a saying: 'Is Saul also among the prophets?'" which I always assumed meant that someone did something out of character for them.

The quote in Boxen excited me because I have always wanted to be able to use this saying, but had never actually seen or heard it used. Now to have confirmation that I can mention Saul being among the prophets and know that I am not the only person in the past century to use the phrase.

I always wondered why people at churches don't use this saying. I resolve to use this saying sometime soon.

Faith saves, not works, but works follow faith

"You cannot do anything for your salvation, but you must manifest it, you must work out what God has worked in."

--May 15, My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers

So true! Works do not save you, but works do stem from your salvation.