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Name: David
Country: United States
State: Arkansas
Metro: Harding
Birthday: 3/30/1982
Gender: Male
Interests: Jesus. Peace. War. Joy. Mourning. Hope. Despair. The Kingdom of God. People. Relationships. Girls. Relationships. Astronomy. Biology. Geology. Baseball. Stand-up comedy. Preaching. Singing. Chick flicks. Sad songs. Geography. Languages. Harry Potter. Lord of the Rings. Cooking. Weight lifting. Playing the guitar well. Etcetra. Etcetra. Etcetra.
Expertise: Failing miserably at all aspects of relationships. Being preachy. Playing the guitar lousily. Singing (I'd like to think so, anyway...). Being flirtatious without trying. Trivia (in many different areas). How not to be funny. How to un-funny what should be funny. How not to understand people. Being messy. Being nostalgic. Becoming quickly infatuated. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Occupation: Student
Message: message meEmail: email me
AIM:  shoelessdave82
Member Since:
6/21/2005
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| I think I'm beginning to understand the nature of my current lethargy/depression/restlessness/whatever.
It is because, suddenly, the world seems less open to me. I find the path ahead getting narrower and narrower. I find myself hankering for the old days when I was pretty much careless and barely responsible for anything at all (with the exceptions of the obvious, like showering and brushing my teeth). Most of all, I suppose, I find that, being in a collegiate environment at my age, I'm being exposed to new trends and fashions and media that simply make me feel as though my youth has gone, because I can't enjoy the "new" as much as so many of those of my acquaintance.
Welcome to this brave new world, Dave. May you find your courage.
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|  | Currently Watching
Grave of the Fireflies (Collector's Edition)
By Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Yoshiko Shinohara, Akemi Yamaguchi, Nick Sullivan, Rhoda Chrosite, Dan Green (III), George Leaver, J. Robert Spencer, Veronica Taylor, Shannon Conley, Amy Jones, Crispin Freeman
see related |
I dearly hope that none of you have been so thoroughly defeated that defeat began to seem inevitable. Have you ever fervently hoped, against all received wisdom, that your tomorrows will not reflect today?
"Do not be deceived: as a man sows, so shall he reap." Makes me pray for a crop failure sometimes.
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|  | Currently Watching
10 Things I Hate About You
By Kyle Cease, Cameron Fraser, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tarance Houston, Greg Jackson (II), Allison Janney, Andrew Keegan, Demegio Kimbrough, David Krumholtz, Heath Ledger, David Leisure, Quinn Maixner, Larry Miller, Daryl Mitchell, Larisa Oleynik, Susan May Pratt, Eric Riedmann, Julia Stiles, Gabrielle Union
see related |
The history of the Israelites up to the time of Jesus was marked by a profound failure to be "a light to the Gentiles" as they were supposed to be. The Law was forgotten and rediscovered, forgotten and rediscovered. By the time of Jesus, it had become encumbered by added traditions; in seeking to provide guidance on how to obey the Law, the Jews had completely missed the point of the Law. They imagined that God created the Law, and then created men so that men could obey the Law that God had created beforehand. They had arguments about whether God himself abided by the Law. They conjured from the air the idea that the Law's purpose was to regulate behavior (see Deut. 10:12-17, 30:6, and Jer. 4:4 for evidence that it was not).
Into this mix comes Jesus:
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:17-20)
He has already taken the world of his disciples and turned their perception of 'blessing' upside-down (Matthew 5:3-12). He had then told his disciples that they were going to take up the task that had been formerly given to Israel: as God's new 'chosen people,' Jesus's disciples were going to be "the light of the world" (vv. 13-16). He then announced to them (in what I like to call the "preemptive strike") that this would not involve getting rid of the Law; instead, the Law will be even more central in the kingdom of heaven. This was foretold by the prophet Jeremiah:
"'The time is coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,' declares the LORD. 'This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,' declares the LORD. 'I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, "Know the LORD," because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,' declares the LORD. 'For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.'" (Jer. 31:31-34)
And so the righteousness that Jesus talks about in v. 20 which surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees is based in the same Law that the scribes and Pharisees purported to teach and follow. Jesus' teachings in vv. 21-48 talk about actions, yet his words in vv. 17-20 indicate that the "righteousness of the kingdom" and that his own teaching on the Law will be qualitatively different from what has come before. We can thus understand that the teaching in vv. 21-48 is describing actions which flow from the heart which has had God's law written on it.
And not just written on it. We always talk about how Jesus seemed to see the intent of the Law, how he points us always to what the Law means for our hearts or our inner selves. Yet we don't recognize the same sort of teaching here. Jesus is showing us what life looks like when one's heart has been circumcised. Having God's law written on our hearts means something different than merely having the words enshrined there; the Law is supposed to shape our hearts. Look at the command against murder: what sort of people are we to be on the inside if we are commanded not to be murderous towards each other? Our attitude towards people should be life-giving; thus we will not be saying things ("Raca!") to our brothers that lead us down a destructive road--for what earthly court can actually prosecute one for being angry? No, they can only prosecute you for what results from your anger. The command against murder is supposed to shape your heart such that you don't have to worry about your anger leading you to do things that can be prosecuted or pulling others into such a situation with you.
Edit:
Just thought I'd include a little something about how/what I'm doing. I've grown ever more sure over the past few months that where I'm going is not where I want to go--I'm thinking that my current educational pursuits don't have as much to do with what I'm interested in as I would like. So, in all probability, I'm about to enter Careerland.
Another thing some of you should know is that there have been long periods of intense doubt for me in the past year-and-a-half or so. And by "intense doubt," I don't mean the common "I'm questioning my faith" stage that most Christians go through as they grow up. When that happened for me, it was the working of my mind that brought me back. This time, it has been my heart crying out against the life-blaspheming alternatives.
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| 1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Hot Chocolate.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Santa? Presents? Tree? None of the above.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
Well, I prefer white.
4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No.
5. When do you put your decorations up?
Decorations?
6. What is your favorite holiday dish?
Dressing (with giblet gravy, of course).
7. What is your favorite holiday memory (from childhood)?
The year I woke up on Christmas morning and found out I'd gotten a bicycle (with training wheels); I then proceeded to ride all over the neighborhood
in shorts and short-sleeved shirt, because the weather was almost sub-tropical that year. I was in kindergarten, I believe.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
My brother told me when I was 5 or 6.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Used to, whenever we were able to be with my mom's family on Christmas Eve.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
Um, no.
11. Snow: Love it or dread it?
Love, love, love it!
12. Can you ice skate?
I can, but don't ask me to demonstrate any technical wizardry.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
I believe it was a Nintendo.
14. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you?
Family.
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert?
Probably whatever doesn't have nuts.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
The traditions have pretty much died in my family. We kind of get together at my grandma's house on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day, but it's not
really something that's laden with tradition.
17. What tops your tree?
<<----You see all that nothing? Since there is no tree, that's pretty much what's at the top of it.
18. Which do you prefer - giving or receiving?
To be honest, I don't know. We've never really done much gift-giving in my family.
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
3-Way Tie: "White Christmas" (but only if sung by Mr. Crosby), "O Holy Night" (especially if sung by John Berry), and "Silent Night" (my favorite
version is, oddly enough, the one by Charlotte Church--it's odd because I'm not a great fan of Charlotte Church).
20. Candy canes: yummy or yucky?
I like the ones that are kind of chewy, but if I want peppermint I'll just stick to my Altoids. So, mostly yucky.
21. What's your favorite Christmas movie?
Miracle on 34th Street (the original, of course). | | |
| So I think that, when I get time to seriously post, I'm going to do a series on Matthew 5. I just got done teaching Matthew 5 over the last 3 weeks in Home Bible Study, and there was a lot of stuff that I would have liked to cover, a lot of stuff that our discussion really (in my opinion) bungled--like when we were talking about vv. 21-48, the adults insisted on defining those passages as depressing, "I-can't-do-this," "hard sayings" kinds of teachings that drive us to recognize that we can't keep the law. I strenuously disagree with that interpretation (although, Jenny: I'm not sure the model proposed in Kingdom Ethics is the best interpretation, either), so I want to get some of the stuff that I would've liked to have said (if we had had more time) out there. But I think that we still had some really good discussion.
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