6When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. 7And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. 8And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. 9And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. 10And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.
11And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. 12And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger.
- Judges 2:6-12, ESV
The people "who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel" "served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua. The generation "who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel" "did what was evil in the sight of the Lord" and "provoked the Lord to anger."
Let this be a lesson to us. God tells us a lot about who he his by what he has done. We can learn propositional truth by reading Ephesians 1 or Romans 9. How much better, though, to hear of God's election of Abraham and his faithfulness in delivering Abraham's descendants from the Egyptians? We can read James 1 and be encouraged to see the joy in our struggles, or we can read in the Book of Genesis and see how Joseph handled trials greater than anything we will likely face, because he trusted in God who was faithful to him. Our children will also have greater success learning these stories than they do apprehending doctrinal truths as presented didactically in the New Testament.
When we (and our children) don't know what God has done, we are prone to idol worship because, in our ignorance, we believe that any god will do. In fact, this is the anthem of our generation. We need to be reminded, perhaps by stories like the one found in 1 Kings 18:20-40, that there is only one God deserving of our worship.
Rudy Giuliani:
Terrorists “hate us and not because of anything bad we have done; it has nothing to do with Israel and Palestine. They hate us for the freedoms we have and the freedoms we want to share with the world. The freedoms we have are in conflict with the perverted, maniacal interpretation of their religion.”
Americans would fight for “freedom for women, the freedom of elections, freedom of religion and the freedom of our economy. We are not giving that up, and you are not going to take it from us!”
Source
LOST has been on for almost three seasons now and, thanks to the acronyms "DVD" and "DVR," I've seen every single minute of every single episode. I know the name of Desmond's girlfriend's father. I know "What Kate Did," and how Jack got his tattoo. I can identify Goodwin, Ethan, and "Henry Gale" when I see them on screen. I know what the French chick's message was, who translated it, and how long it has been playing. In other words, I know the whole story.
I watched LOST this week with a friend of mine who hasn't really been a big fan of LOST. He has always thought it was a little too "out there" and never really understood why Amanda and I would rush home from AWANA on Wednesday nights and slip the kids some Benadryl (kidding, just kidding…) so we could watch the show without the slightest distraction. But all of that changed a week and a half ago when he, for some unknown reason, sat down and watched the entire episode, entitled "One of Us." I got an e-mail from him next morning disclosing that he had been surprisingly entertained (It was a great episode!).
With Amanda and the kids out of town for the week, I faced the prospect of watching LOST by myself, which isn't nearly as fun as watching it with a "LOST buddy." So, I called up my newly converted friend on Wednesday and asked if he was planning on watching it again. He was, and we made plans for him to join me.
As we watched, there were frequent references to events from previous episodes, and some things just didn't make sense without knowing the back story. Several times I paused the DVR to explain why Desmond can see glimpses of the future (which rabbit trailed into a discussion about why the hatch imploded, which rabbit trailed again and again and again), who the girl in the picture was, why Charlie must die, and so on. It became very clear that he and I weren't watching the same episode.
My friend could enjoy the show on one level, as it was entertaining in its own right. Still, he missed out on all sorts of subtleties, details, and even inside jokes, because he had no idea what had come before. I, on the other hand, was able to catch all of those things and enjoy the episode on a much deeper level.
This whole encounter reminded me of our approach to the Bible. As modern-day Christians, we pay a lot of attention to the New Testament, as of course we should. However, many of us (myself included!) all but ignore the Old Testament. We may dabble in Psalms or Proverbs, or quote a verse out of Jeremiah to make us feel good about ourselves or our pro-life campaign. But, by and large, we are woefully ignorant about the history of God's people, the messages of his prophets, and the people, events, and symbols that foreshadowed the coming Messiah.
By majoring in the New Testament (at the expense of the Old), we are able to learn quite a bit about Jesus, and about how we should live our lives. Yet, without knowing the back story we miss out on many of the subtleties and "inside jokes" that would make perfect sense to a reader who had a well of O.T. knowledge to draw on. We may even completely misunderstand a passage because we are unaware of the events or principles that serve as its foundation.
Amanda and I started watching LOST with the first episode of Season 2. All we knew was what we had seen in promos during football and baseball games. We got a taste of that first episode and were hooked. I rushed out to Blockbuster and rented the entire 1st season on DVD, and we got caught up as quickly as we could. Oh, that I would show such ambition for "catching up" on the Old Testament!
From twenty-some years of Christian education, I have a pretty good idea of what happened in the books of the Pentateuch. Beyond that, my awareness drops off considerably. I've started reading the book of Joshua, and I hope to continue to become more informed about what God has to say to us through what is recorded in the rest of the Old Testament. My hope is that I will gain a better understanding of who Jesus is by reading the Scriptures he grew up with, that also point to his coming on every page. Hopefully it won't be too long before I'm hooked!
Only one shopping day left before Earth Day! If you haven't already heard, the hottest Earth Day fad is purchasing "carbon offsets." The way it works is simple. All you have to do is send some of your money to companies like Carbonfund.org who will use it to plant some trees in your honor. The trees will then filter CO2 out of the air for years to come, helping you to approach the ideal environmental goal of becoming "carbon neutral."
For example, if you are going to take a round trip commercial flight from New York to Los Angeles to, for example, promote a documentary about global warming, the per-passenger carbon output of the flight would be 1,920 lbs.1 (calculator here), or just shy of one ton. According to Carbonfund.org's donation page, a donation of $14.96 will take care of 6,000 lbs of CO2, or roughly three round trips from LAX to NY La Guardia. Fifteen bucks seems like a pretty good deal for a green conscience. Too good to be true? Yep.
A single mature tree can absorb approximately 50 lbs. of carbon dioxide per year (source). If we assume trees cost $5 each2, your donation would purchase three trees. These trees would, in turn, pull 150 lbs. of carbon dioxide from the air per year. Assuming these trees remained healthy, it would take about 40 years for these trees to eliminate the carbon dioxide produced by just three round trip flights from LA to NY.
In other words, you can achieve carbon neutrality, as long as you can afford to wait four decades.
If that's not good enough for you, then you might want to consider switching to gasoline with ethanol added to it, which results in a net reduction of carbon emissions by 30%. Of course, it takes "about 74 units of greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuel energy to produce 100 units of ethanol" (source) . In The Rough Guide to Climate Change, Robert Henson notes that growing enough corn to have an impact on greenhouse gas emissions would require "covering 15% of the world's agricultural land — a country the size of India — with nothing but corn, solely for ethanol." Considering that such a solution would lead to massive starvation around the planet, we probably need to keep looking for other alternatives.
By now you're probably starting to get the point; the reason I don't believe in man-made global warming is because the people who are predicting an impending apocalypse don't really believe what they are telling us. If they did, they wouldn't be bothering with carbon offsets that don't really accomplish anything or bio-fuels that will are more likely to lead to starvation than salvation. These supposed solutions may be powerful symbols for the global warming movement, but symbolism accomplishes very little when trying to stave off the supposedly cataclysmic effects of global warming.
Furthermore, as Greg Koukl noted today, there is "an inherent contradiction in the underlying convictions that drive annual "Earth Day" celebrations" since most environmental activists are also Darwinists. If we are all involved in a survival-of-the-fittest world, why should we waste valuable resources on conservation efforts? You'll have a hard time convincing me that the survival of our species is somehow directly linked to that of our polar bear neighbors to the North.
As Koukl points out, we all have an obligation to be good stewards of the planet. We should certainly adopt measures that save energy, reduce waste, and provide protection for God's creatures. However, our environmental stewardship should be rooted in reality and motivated by a worldview that revolves around Christ, not the sensationalism of Hollywood celebrities and over-hyped and radically expensive solutions.
This post by Peter Leithart is too good not to share:
Paul and Israel
Liberal/Socialist 1: I don't like the way things are going lately. We need to find a way to increase our political power.
Liberal/Socialist 2: Yeah, I agree. We need to think of a way to raise taxes and increase people's dependence on government intervention in every aspect of their lives.
Liberal/Socialist 3: But how can we convince people that *we* know what's best for them better than they know themselves? Don't you think that people will resent the idea of us taking more of their money away from them, keeping a little for ourselves and giving the rest to someone else?
L/S 1: Good point. This could be tricky.
L/S 2: Wait. I've got it! Remember that movie, Canadian Bacon? You know, the one with John Candy and Alan Alda? The President of the United States (Alda) needs to raise his opinion polls and jump start the economy. So, he starts a "Cold War" (get it?) with Canada. Of course, there's no real threat to the U.S., but the people buy into it and start burning their ice skates and dumping out bottles of maple syrup.
L/S/1: Where are you going with this?
L/S 2: What I'm saying is that we need to create some kind of common enemy. An enemy so frightening that people will think the very world will come to an end if we don't do something to stop it. Then, we ride in on white horses and promise to "SAVE THE WORLD," for the small price of higher taxes and a little bit of freedom sacrificed on the altar of international government.
L/S 3: Do you think people are really so ignorant that they would believe something like that?
L/S 2: Well, we'll need a little help from The Media, and our friends in Hollywood.
L/S 1: They've always helped us in the past.
L/S 2: And, it will have to be something complicated enough that nobody can prove that it *isn't* a threat. I've been around the Internet long enough to know that if you can't prove it wrong, it MUST be true.
Continue reading this post »
Alas! and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sovereign die!
Would he devote that sacred head
for sinners such as I?
Was it for crimes that I have done,
he groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! Grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!
Well might the sun in darkness hide,
and shut its glories in,
when God, the mighty maker, died
for his own creature's sin.
Thus might I hide my blushing face
while his dear cross appears;
dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
and melt mine eyes to tears.
But drops of tears can ne'er repay
the debt of love I owe.
Here, Lord, I give myself away;
'tis all that I can do.
- Isaac Watts, 1674-1748
Last week, Fred Thompson filled in as the host of Paul Harvey's News and Comment. During one broadcast, he commented on the conspiracy theory being floated by political geniuses such as Charlie Sheen and Rosie O'Donnell, claiming that the World Trade Towers were actually brought down by our own government. This, of course, in spite of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's confession of that same week claiming to have played a major role in the planning and execution of the attacks.
Thompson went on to note that many Americans "just don't like to think about how much our enemies actually hate us." This self-delusion is attractive, and alarmingly common. The majority perspective is, I believe, that the Muslims who call America the Great Satan and have vowed to kill as many of us as possible really aren't so bad. In fact, they are just like us in a lot of ways, and if we could just stop being so *American* for a little while and sit down to have a nice chat with them, we would probably be able to reach some sort of peaceful middle ground.
Ideas have consequences, and this idea is a dangerous one. One of the consequences of this logic is an inability to deal with the real and significant threat posed by Islamic extremists in an appropriate way.
Consider the current hostage situation with fifteen Britons being held captive by the Iranian government. John O'Sullivan suggests a "thought experiment" that might shed some light on this situation:
Imagine that the British ten days ago had stopped an Iranian ship in Iranian waters, took its sailors prisoners, paraded them on television offering apologies for their trespassing, and was now demanding an apology from the Iranian government itself for breaking international law….
Condemnations would pour from the United Nations and other international bodies. Britain's allies in Europe and the U.S. would publicly press for the release of the Iranians. Human rights bodies would point out that Britain's actions were in direct violation of the Geneva Convention. And other NGOs would attempt to drag British leaders such as Prime Minister Tony Blair before the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges….
Publicly Iran would shout defiance. It would use all the usual avenues of diplomatic protest to demand the return of its sailors. It might ask its terrorist allies in Iraq and elsewhere to launch bombing attacks on British institutions and personnel. And it would tell its captured sons and daughters through the media that they had been given a heaven-sent opportunity to embrace martyrdom.
Privately it might decide to avoid antagonizing Britain in future — and to antagonize, say, Spain instead. But it would not negotiate, still less compromise, with an adversary so friendless and universally condemned.
Back in reality, Iran has the hostages, the U.N. has essentially ignored the situation, and not a single building, vehicle, or flag, to my knowledge, has been set on fire protesting the great evils committed by the Iranian regime. Continue reading this post »
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