I got a lot of good comments in response to my last post. I have been intending to write a follow-up post, which I usually like to do instead of simply adding a comment at the end. But life and work have been quite busy lately, so Jungle Pop’s been the one to take the hit.
We’re going out of town tomorrow, but who knows? I might have internet access and time on my hands. Meanwhile, hope you all are doing well.
I know, I know. The title of this post is gross. It’s scandalous. It’s vulgar. I hope that when you read it just now, you shuddered and went, “Ew!” And yet, here you are still reading. Good. For the faint hearted, you’ve had a whole paragraph to click away; here’s your last chance.
I’m making you click here, not to tantalize you but to add one more barrier to blog spammers who will certainly target posts with the word ‘genitals’ in them. For a less “ranty” treatment of this topic, check out what Internet Monk had to say. (more…)
From time to time, I read a Bible passage in a totally new way, and wonder if I’d misinterpreted the text all along. One example is about Jesus renaming Simon to Peter and proclaiming, [U]pon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matt 16:18 KJV). For some bizarre reason, I had always thought that this passage spoke about the ability of the Church to withstand Satan’s attacks; however, it’s clear to anyone paying attention to the passage that gates aren’t for attacking, but defending. Ah, so Satan won’t be able to withstand the Church’s attacks! Ding!
So yesterday I had another “Ah ha!” moment. Here is Paul’s rant (one of them) which frequently brings a chuckle to the crowd:
As for those agitators, I wish they [those in the Galatian church who are trying to get Gentiles to be circumcised] would go the whole way and emasculate themselves! (Gal 5:12 NIV)
Ha ha! Good one, Paul! Most of the other English translations I checked (NIV, NASB, ESV, NLT, CEV) give a similar wording: Paul wants those people to cut off their penises. But after seeing what the Greek text states (”cut themselves off”), and just thinking commonsensically about the passage, I’m not so sure that that is what Paul means. I’m more inclined to agree with (*gasp*) the KJV (and NKJV) in this matter:
I would they were even cut off which trouble you. Gal 5:12 KJV
I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off! Gal 5:12 NKJV
I think Paul is saying that he wishes these guys would just leave the church. In other words, Paul is applying a metaphor. The church is a Jewish male, and these “circumcizing advocates” are foreskin. I believe the correct reading to be the one given by the NLT as an alternate translation:
I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would cut themselves off from you. Gal 5:12 NLT (alternate reading)
My most recent entry, The Tuches Monster Has Died, is up on DadBloggers. Comment here or there!
I had to laugh when I read this “article” over at Tominthebox News Network. Excerpts:
“We don’t sing any of the old-timey praise choruses anymore,” said Treadwell. “I remember when we’d sing Lord, I Lift Your Name on High, and As the Deer, but we’re not doing any of those kind of songs anymore. And we haven’t sung anything from Petra in months now. All we’re doing now is these crazy new songs that sound like they were written by heavy metal bands.”
“I suppose maybe the young people like this stuff or something, but I want my old-fashioned praise songs back. I mean, there’s some songs where we don’t even use a synthesizer anymore, it’s just electric guitar, bass and drums.”
Many have become concerned that this latest trend in worship styles will lead to divisions within the church. Various committees have met to discuss the issue. Two possible solutions include having a “blended service” which will incorporate both old and new contemporary worship styles, or the possibility of having two services each Sunday with an early service being for more traditional contemporary worship and the later service for more contemporary contemporary worship. But it seems that every moment a solution is delayed tensions grow only deeper over the issue.
If you haven’t read Tominthebox News Network before, you really should. It’s the Christian’s answer to The Onion.
I have a Facebook account. When I signed up, I was skeptical. I had already tried MySpace, but it must be a generational thing, because MySpace is dorky. Facebook seemed to be offering themselves as a slightly more mature version of MySpace. Oh, but it’s ever so slight.
I’m not going to talk about the idiotic time wasters on Facebook, or the attempts by Facebook to have you share those idiotic time wasters with every single one of your Facebook friends. There is a more significant defect in Facebook and the culture that it is promoting.
In the past few weeks, I have been invited on Facebook by two significant friends. These are not friends-of-friends, people I attend church with, or people whom I know casually. These were people I shared my life with during my college years. We were all members of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship together. We met together formally a couple times a week, and often ate meals together. They were also fellow music majors, so really, I saw them constantly. It has been over 15 years since I have seen either of them.
And now we’re friends. Officially. Thanks to Facebook. But you know what? Since being added as their friend, there has been literally no communication with them. No email, no message on my Facebook wall (dumb feature), no anything. But I’m their friend. I was going to write to them, but thought I’d let this experiment play out and see if they would write me; after all, they sought me out. But nope.
This is Facebook culture. You have friends, but not friendships. I can challenge you to a movie trivia challenge, or poke you, or super poke you, or invite you to join my latest cause, but it’s all meaningless. None of the interactions (except, perhaps, the rare entry on one’s “wall”) are significant.
But perhaps I’m not seeing the bigger picture. Any Facebook advocates out there?
We got paid today. The amount was enough that we were able to pay the last $900 on my credit card. We clicked the “Authorize Payment” button together. I think, at its worst, we topped out at about $4500 in the first month or so we were back. So this is a great achievement, and we are truly grateful to God for the provision.
We’ve really been scraping by lately, but as I said back in September, it’s a good feeling. We have had to trust God for our finances, and we’ve also had to do some serious budgeting - something we hadn’t really done in our married life, since money was never scarce. When our paycheck comes now, it’s actually a little bit fun to sit down together and do our budget for the month. And then it’s fun (for me, anyway) to see how much under budget we can come.
Now that this credit card has been paid off, we just have a few hundred bucks to go on Jane’s card, which will happen next month. Then we’ll be able to start saving money again, as we do have a couple of expected expenses in the next year or so. And yes, we do plan on continuing the monthly budget!
Another thing that I think I want to implement is to make payday “Thanksgiving Day” in our house. Our organization allows for us to take one day per month to focus on correspondence, so I want to use payday for that purpose - to write to our donors and extra-gift donors, as well as some of our regular donors. We do that some, but not enough. And making it a family event will also involve the kids to the extent that they’re able.
When we came to this country last term, we did so for a particular task. It became apparent early on in the term that we were ill-equipped for that task. Nevertheless, my sense of duty compelled me to finish the term in that role, regardless of how horribly I performed (or how excellently I failed to perform). We told ourselves that we did not want that to happen this term, as we saw (even before we returned) the potential for history to repeat itself.
And here we are. We’ve been here for six months, and my current project is still stuck in the mud. Part of the problem is the mud (external obstacles and hindrances), but part of the problem is also the vehicle (me). I know, I know, the Holy Spirit is the fuel, but let’s stop the analogy here, okay? :^) The project itself, once it gets going, would be doable (even fun). But getting the project going involves motivational skills, people skills, networking skills - skills I either don’t have or don’t like to use.
So at our group’s annual retreat and strategic planning meetings (which was this past week), our director suggested that we consider cutting our losses and moving to a different part of the country. There are other places where I could try a similar project, but which already have personnel on the ground who could help us with all the orientation and networking needed.
I have to say, it sounds good. I still have a sense of duty to this current project; however, the memories of the last term are still fresh, and I know that sometimes duty is the enemy of common sense. So we’ll be praying about this in the coming weeks, and hope to have a little more clarification later. Appreciate your prayers for wisdom to make a good decision!
I’m kind of a stickler for proper grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. I suppose that would make me a good editor, though I’ve never given it a shot. At the very least, it makes me annoying to my friends.
There’s one line in the hymn Amazing Grace that always bugged me. Actually, it’s from one of the verses that was added on later, and first appeared in the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Here’s the verse:
When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.
Do you see it? Right there, in the third line. “We’ve no less days?” What does conventional grammar teach us about the use of less and fewer?
Use fewer to describe countable things. Use less to describe uncountable quantities, collective amounts, and degree. These terms are not interchangeable.
Last time I checked, a day is a countable thing. But in eternity? Hmm, maybe the lyricist was using correct grammar after all. Cool.
I just sent off my cancellation request to LivingDot. For those of you who have been following me a while, you’ll remember that I used to be a huge fan of LivingDot. Their service was exceptional, and their response time equally so. But even as early as March 2006, I was starting to see the tide change. I don’t know, maybe they got too big and popular. But instead of getting my problem fixed (or at least on the road) by the first rep, I was instead getting, “Thanks, I’ve forwarded that on and someone else will get back to you.” For almost $14/month (I just noticed that their advertised rates are $10.95/month!), you really have to have top-notch service. And I wasn’t getting it.
On the contrary. I have had billing issues with them, seeing my blog temporarily shut down until it was sorted out. On three different occasions, I had to have LivingDot (re-)activate the service that hides your domain name information (name, address, etc) from people performing a WHOIS search on your blog. For an “anonymous” blog, this is kind of important! In one case, I had been paying for the service for six months without getting it. Shoddy. Real shoddy.
I had previously moved our personal/ministry blog over to ICDSoft, thanks to Jared. Very reasonable rates, and so far not a blip in service. I was planning on moving Jungle Pop over there, but had never gotten around to it. But after giving a WordPress-hosted blog a spin (with my new woodworking blog), I liked it enough to take Jungle Pop there too.
I’ve actually toyed with upgrading my woodworking blog to allow me to include AdSense and a PayPal button. It would mean paying $50/year instead of the $10/year I pay with WordPress.com. But my wife wisely asked, “Do you really think you’re going to get $40 a year (if at all) through those things to make it worthwhile?”
Good point.
