You know its very easy to grow a church without God? You know that don’t you? All you need is classy music and classy communication and a few relevant points about your pain and you got a church. – John Piper

Buddha has more karma in his finger than…

A relic supposed to be Buddha’s finger was put on display in Hong Kong. Somehow I missed it when I was there this past weekend. Just missed Michael Jordan too. Equally upset by both huge disappointments.

Buddha’s finger or even his hair seem to generate a lot of interest and devotion. Not bad for a dead guy. Fortunately for us, we don’t have any relic of Jesus’ body. Unlike Buddha, he rose entirely from death to life. He took a dead, decaying body and, showing his surpassing power, brought it back to life. He showed himself to hundreds of people and then, after teaching his friends for 40 days, he took that body into heaven and sat down at God’s right hand. From their he rules his church. In time, that physical body will return to earth, still alive, perfectly glorified. He will raise his saint’s dead bodies to life and we will rule with him.

We don’t have a piece of bone or a skull. We have an empty tomb and a risen savior. Somehow I just can’t get to excited by Buddha’s finger, anymore than I could about Lenin’s body or Peter’s bones. In contrast to Jesus, these things seem small and foolish.

By the way, “Buddha’s Finger” would be a cool name for a rock band.

It was a wonderful trip to Asia! God did many things through/without/despite us. We had meaningful discussions with over 100 people and 43 professed faith in Christ.

My role on this trip was not frontline evangelism, I never got to the point of sharing in depth with anyone and so never lead anyone to salvation. My role on this trip was prayer and discipleship. For example, three Asian girls adopted me. We were sitting in a coffee shop when one of my team members pointed to a girl he’d been talking with and said that she had decided that she wanted to become a Christian. I told my girls and told them to explain to her what was involved and how to do it then I sat back, watched and prayed. The idea was to spark a church planting movement and not just have the believers sit on their hands until the Americans showed up again. That is exactly what happened and God granted a bountiful harvest.

I don’t want to reveal too many details on the Internet because the country is still somewhat closed and I don’t want anyone to get in trouble. If you want to know more, e-mail me, if I know you I’ll tell more.

Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord. And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. – Zechariah 2:10-11

I’ve just finished my last final exam of the term. Shew. Hope I passed. I’ll be leaving tomorrow for a short term mission trip to Asia for a few weeks. No updates after tonight.

Not sure about progress on getting the comments fixed, I do have a few ideas to try. Later, will work on them latter.

For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind,
and declares to man what is his thought,
who makes the morning darkness,
and treads on the heights of the earth?
the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name! – Amos 4:13 (ESV)

Alice Cooper is indeed a Christian. I’ve heard he golfs with RC Sproul too. Go figure. I guess his album “Alice Cooper Goes to Hell” is now a misnomer. BTW, he is not Fred Rogers’ son, his birth name was Vince Furnier before he changed it to Alice Cooper.

I recently bought the Master & Commander soundtrack. Now I have the music stuck in my head. I’m listening to it so much I’m afraid I’m wearing grooves in my iPod or something. I can’t wait till this passes.

Since I first started using Microsoft Office on the Mac (after years of using it on the PC) I have said a number of times that the Mac version is better. Well now none other than Time Magazine agrees! Here’s the heart of it:

My verdict: Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac is clearly superior to its PC counterpart for most users.

Last fall Microsoft put out a bloated update of Office for Windows that focused more on collaborating with other users than on making it easier for you to get your own work done. The streamlined Office for Mac puts individuals first. Developers, developers, developers indeed!

Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain offering and a drink offering
for the LORD your God? – Joel 2:14

It is good to read this stated so clearly. I tend to think that the things I offer to God are gifts to him from me. I give him 10% of my money (aren’t I generous?) and I give him my future career plans (provided he handles them the way I want) and I give him… You get the idea.

In Joel, the terrible “day of the Lord” is threatened and yet God makes this promise. Though his army will march across the earth and leave destruction in its dreadful wake (2:1-11), yet he calls for repentance and faith even in light of the brimming destruction and wrath (2:12-17).

So why is it that I don’t get that? Why is it that when I consider my life I feel like I’ve made a terrible decision in coming to seminary? Why is it that I demand that God tell me why I’m doing this? I’m like Job, “I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me.” (Job 10:2). My underlying assumption is that God owes me an explanation. He has to tell my why he has called me to this and what he wants me to do with it or I cannot obey in the doing.

When will I remember (and act like it) that anything I have to give to God is only what he has already given me? Am I offering to God my life which he didn’t already own? Do I control my future so that I can direct it to God or away from him? Just who do I think I am? God may yet leave me days which I can give back to him as a grain offering and life that I may pour it out as a drink offering. Either way, if he does or doesn’t I’m not giving to him anything which he didn’t already own.

This whole “living sacrifice” thing is difficult. It sure is hard to stay on the altar. Sometimes I wish what critics of Calvinism say were true, I wish I was a robot.

In Jeremiah 31 there is an interesting proverb about fathers eating bitter grapes and children’s teeth being on edge. It seems significant to me (see my paper on paedobaptism) but I haven’t heard others make much of it. Dr. Carson today expressed my thoughts on the subject better than I have. He pointed out that the proverb demonstrates that the Old Covenant was tribal and representative. If a father sinned, his family came under judgment (see Joshua 7 and be honest, it only talks about the father’s guilt not his family’s yet they were all stoned), when David sinned the nation was punished, and so on. But the contrast is that in the New Covenant it won’t be like that. “Everyone will die for his own sin” (Jer 31:30). The nature of the New Covenant is that it is no longer tribal and representative.

In the discussion about infant baptism, those who hold a baptistic view are often challenged to produce a verse that commands the end of automatic infant inclusion in the covenant. Of course one cannot be found or we would not have a debate. What has happened is not that it simply ceased, but the very nature of the covenant has changed. Jeremiah 31:29-30 shows that and then the rest of the chapter goes on to restate it in the repeated refrain “from the least to the greatest.” This business about no one teaching his neighbor “know the Lord” (verse 34) is not abrogating teaching in the New Covenant (see 1Co 12:28-19 and Eph 4:11, Heb 5:12) but it is abrogating a representative teaching office where one person has the “inside track” to God and the other doesn’t. We all have the Spirit in the New Covenant (1 Jn 2:27).

A while ago Palm announced that it would not support the Macintosh in its next version of software. That and my run in with their customer support had to thinking about switching to a Pocket PC. Palm has sort of a connection to Apple. Some of the team that developed the Newton at Apple went on to start Palm. They left Palm and started Handspring because they felt Palm was heading in the wrong direction. Last year Handspring was bought out by Palm so I guess they were wrong. Anyway, from the beginning of Palm they have supported the Mac.

Fortunately, Palm reevaluated this decision and decided to stick with the Mac. Thank you Palm!