Dr. Joel Garver linked an excellent article from the most recent issue of "Image: A Journal of the Arts and Religion". The article is in regards to modern day evangelicalism's need for sentimentality, particulary found in the works of Thomas Kincade.

Just a snippet:

"When it comes to theology, however, he is a little more original. The majority of his expressions of faith are fairly conventional, solidly within the evangelical mold, but his theological defense of the world depicted in his paintings is that “I like to portray a world without the Fall.” I have yet to encounter any evidence that Kinkade cites scriptural or other warrant for this modus operandi. The Bible, as a narrative, seems fairly explicit about there being a Before and an After. Moreover, Christ’s message was not to pretend the world isn’t fallen but to take up our crosses and follow him through suffering and sacrifice. To create a body of work illustrating a world without the Fall is, for a Christian, to render Christ superfluous.
The more I’ve thought about it, the more it seems to me that Jesus took every opportunity he could to counter sentimentality. At just about every juncture when those around him are tempted to rely upon sentiment, he brings them up short. To the announcement that his mother and brothers have arrived at the edge of the crowd—a Hallmark moment if there ever was one—he replies that only his disciples are his mother and brothers. And the one recorded instance when Jesus weeps takes place after he has deliberately delayed coming to see the dying Lazarus. In John’s recounting of the story, Jesus is clearly moved by the suffering of the man’s family, and perhaps his awareness of this death and resurrection as proleptic of his own passion. But whatever emotions he was feeling—grief, pity, regret—they were inexorably shaped by the reality of the Fall."

Read the article here. Dr. Garver's comments are excellent as well.

Too much good stuff:

From Razormouth.com

"[A]lthough Christianity does not end with the broken heart, it does being with a broken heart; it begins with the consciousness of sin. Without consciousness of sin, the whole gospel will seem to be an idle tale. … But if the consciousness of sin is to be produced, the law of God must be proclaimed in the lives of Christian people as well as in word. It is quite useless for the preacher to breathe out fire and brimstone from the pulpit, if at the same time the occupants of the pews go on taking sin very lightly and being content with the moral standards of the world. The rank and file of the Church must do their part in so proclaiming the law of God with their lives. …"
—J. GRESHAM MACHEN, Christianity and Liberalism

My friend Rick complained that he got frustrated when he looked at my blog because there was no way to respond to my insane ramblings.

Well guess who just added comments to his blog?

Blast away Rick.

The children...Think about the children



Oh by the way the young lass is eating a DEEP FRIED SNICKERS BAR

Further proof that the doctrine of total depravity is alive and well.

You want more? Howzabout a DEEP FRIED TWINKEE.

Oh the humanity.

Well I met with the elders of my church tonight for my examination for the diaconate (to be a deacon) and I can say things went generally well. They were all set and well with my theology all except the theonomy thing. My pastor has an appreciation for theonomy so he was pretty much cool with it but one of the elders, who has had some bad run-ins with theonomists really had a problem with it. So I spent the better part of the hour discussing my views (refer to my post on 9/6/02) and I think that we pretty much squared away alot of stuff. They wanted to make sure that I would'nt be proselytizing people who really didn't have any interest in it and I assured them that that wasn't my bag, but if anyone asked I wouldn't hesitate to share my views, which they said was fine.

The elder who has a problem with it ironically is the elder that I've grown closest to over the last year. I can't tell you in how many ways he has encouraged me, from praying with me, to gently needling me to lose some weight (which I really need to do), to giving me sound advice when I really needed it (let's just say that this year has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster for me due to certain events). I regard him as a father in the faith and the way he cares for me and my family speaks volumes about his love for Christ and His saints.

I really did appreciate the fact that he had concerns and that he wanted to make them known. I know that he didn't have an anti-theonomic axe to grind, but a heart for Christ's flock that he wants to protect from potential wolves. He's a very practical man.

At any rate we (the session and I) seem to be OK and I hope that my theology won't preclude me from the diaconate. I don't think it will.

Y'know what my problem is?

I read too much theology.

Actually, I did just finish "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay", which I thought was a brilliant piece of writing. Michael Chabon is a modern-day Nabokov. He writes some of the most beautiful prose I've ever read, but like Nabokov he has a depraved worldview. Read discerningly.

Basically, the book is a story of a young Jewish man who escapes from Prague during Hitler's rise to power in the '30's and teams with his cousin in America to write comic books. The story shows the rise, fall and redemption of the team and to say more about the plot would do it injustice. It takes you from Prague to America to Antartica and back to America. The book also gives a first rate history of comic books as well as Jewish golems, Houdiniesque escapistry, Brooklyn in the 1930's and Prague during the Nazi occupation (right before things got bad), all the while holding your interest.

My Mom's reading it now and she's having a tough go at it...but then I told her that Jude Law will be playing Kavalier, so I'm sure she'll put in the extra effort. :-)

Ahhhh...be still my beating heart.

Check out T.J. Flats HOTTEST hot sauces.

I can personally vouch for #11:



I'll blog about my experience with Dave's later...

Once more, RC Jr. says all the things I wish I could'a said.

Memento Mori

Well I suppose I should take this time to reflect on the events that occurred on this day last year. In a way it was innocence lost, feelings of invulnerability and security were dashed and replaced by an unshakeable sense of mortality and sleepless tear-stained nights.

My family and I were fast asleep at 8 AM when a knock on my bedroom door brought us out of slumber. The door creaked open and I heard the nervous voice of my Mom (we were living with my parents at the time) breaking, “Bobby, wake up..terrorists have hit the World Trade Center”. “Again?” my sleep-addled mind thought, and I turned over to catch some more sleep when my mom said again “No Bobby get up now, look at the TV”. Disgruntled I got up, poured some coffee, went into the front room and looked at the screen.

And the coffee dropped as fast as my jaw.

Before my eyes I saw a huge cloud of smoke engulfing skyscrapers and ships off of the NY Harbor. Stunned, I slumped on my family’s steps as the reporters repeated the stats, the first plane first, then the second plane, then the south tower, then the northern one. Then they replayed the incident and all I could think was “What movie is this?” As far as I was concerned it wasn’t real and it didn’t happen. But as I watched and watched (for eight straight hours that day), it became all too real and clear.

Grief turned to helplessness, helplessness to fear, fear to anger.

The evening was quiet and still, there was barely any traffic on the streets that night as Karly and I drove to my church’s Tuesday night prayer meeting. The drive was silent, both of us dealing with the residual shock and fatigue from watching eight hours of the coverage. We knew that we needed to be with God’s people that night.

That night was a powerful night of prayer, worship followed by repentance and intercession. For the first time in my life I prayed imprecatory prayers asking God to bring down the doctrines of Islam as well as the nations that practice it. To this day I’m not sure if what I prayed was right, but it was honest and I needed to say it.

I’m thankful that Caleb was much to young to remember, Joshie on the other hand, still to this day repeats it in his play time with various action figures albeit less frequently as time has passed. Me, I ran the gamut going from hawk eventually to dove with hawkish tendencies.

I feel sickened that to this day, America has not repented of its idols. That after a time of national disaster, we have not acknowledged God as the Judgement Bringer, rather than the popular, sentimental hand-wringing grandpa-in-the-sky.

We have called upon false gods to intercede for us in, what Doug Wilson aptly called, National Pantheon services, invoking the scandalous name of Allah and secular Judaism to protect us.

We have not clearly defined our enemies and boundaries of attack and are therefore about to start a war that we have no business being in.

We have been afraid to call Islam a false religion for fear of hurting the feelings of the nice Muslim couple down the street.

We continue to support Israel, even though they’re big boys now and can take care of themselves and have military occupation in virtually every country in the world.

We throw away our civil liberties, especially the right to bear arms, in order to allow the State to take care of us.

We have learned nothing.

OK...writers block time. I'm the main media guy for NCA, which means I have to write most of all the propaganda for the school (donor letters, policy manuals, articles, etc). I'm trying to write the donor letter for the beginning of the school year and I'm not sure what the subject should be'

Idea 1: Changes at NCA
I. Intro (changes @ NCA, new teachers, location)
II. Body (further exposition on changes, personal history of teachers, etc)
III. Conclusion (Why should the donor care)

or

Idea 2: Investing in our future
I. Intro (nothing is for certain, stock market changes last July)
II. Body (NCA is the perfect place to invest in the future b/c it investing in a vision)
III. Conclusion (Give til it hurts)

OK, I'm not so sure on the conclusion of the last one. Whenever I do these kinds of things I try to avoid the rhetoric that befits TBN-esque panhandling, but I find it difficult. I'm not the type of guy who asks for money and so I tend to tread gingerly around these kinds of things. Any suggestions?

Don't you hate it when your internal monologue becomes external...in a room full of people.

Oh yeah by the way...



RAIDERS BAYYYBEEEEE!!!!

Raiders - 31
Seahawks - 17

The march to Super Bowl XXXVII begins!!

Josh (my five year old) has been very inquisitive about the world around him lately. He has recently rediscovered an old souvenier photo book from Sea World from our our trip there two years ago and he has been educating himself in all forms of ocean life, particulary the noble whale and it's bretheren. Basically he's overwhelmed by the sheer sizes of different whales and has taken to ask anyone who'll listen their opinion on the size of the whale:

Josh: How big are humpback whales?
Innocent Bystander: Ohhh, maybe about from this wall to that car.
Josh: *gasps* Oh man, that's too long. That's kind of scary.
IB: Well actually Josh, whales are very doc--
Josh: Um, how big are killer whales?
IB: Well probably, about as tall as that tree.
Josh: *gasps* Oh no, that's pretty big. They might eat me.
IB: Well Josh they usually prefer seals or even--
Josh: Um, how big are bottlenose dolphins?
IB: About as long as your Dad's car.
Josh: I want to name Dad's car the "Bottlenose Dolphin".
IB: Uh...OK
*silence*
Josh: How big are humpback whales?

OK, now imagine that scene replaying itself over and over and over and over during these last few days and you'll start to get a picture of what his mom and I are up against. It didn't help that his grandparents took him to the LB Aquarium. After awhile I started to get creative in my answers:

Josh: Um, how big are humpback whales?
Me: Well Joshie, "big" in a referential sense is a loaded term. Are we talking length, breadth, height or weight?
*Josh takes some time to think that one over*
Josh: Dad, how big are humpback whales?
Me: Approximately 30-33 feet though females can be significantly smaller. Would you like that in yards?
*More face scrunching from Josh as he ponders this*
Josh: Do killer whales like to eat me?
Me: I don't think they even know you Josh. It would be quite rude of them to eat you without a proper introduction.
Josh: Nooo Dad, they only like to eat fish like this one in the picture.
Me: Well I wouldn't be too sure about that Buck-o.

Cruel you say? Well yes, I wont deny it. But when you answer the same question again and again ad infinitum you have to start entertaining yourself.

I cant say it's been all about aquatic mammalian life at the Chapa household. Bugs have also been a big topic of conversation as well. Particulary beetles, bees, wasps and ants. This has been status quo every since we had an ant invasion in our kitchen at the beginning of summer. And when I say invasion I mean, INVASION. I'm talking Alexander the Great meets the Third Reich proportions. So you could pretty much repeat the above dialogue and substitute whale terms for bug terms and you're looking at a full night of conversation at the Casa de Chapa.

The upswing is that we've taken this as an opportunity to educate the boys on these issues. All joking aside, it really has been a fun time of learning.

Uh...Annnnnnd why is this news??

Here's a great post by Dave Henreckson about the objective standards of beauty and art. Check out his Socratic discourse...pretty clever stuff.

Dave is also the editor of New Christendom Journal which I enjoy immensely. Tolle lege!!

Well this didn't look good...



Seriously, they should ban any and all late afternoon games until the shadows disappear from the field.

Thankfully he's OK, skull fracture and grade 2 concussion notwithstanding.

I saw the replay of Ishii going down and it truly was a sickening thing to behold. I would imagine he's feeling pretty below average right now.

You're in my prayers Kaz.

I f you haven't guessed by now, I think parenthesees "( )" are the bee's knees.

A few years ago when I was on a big "holiness" kick, I threw away many, many fine CD's. CD's that I regret now having dumped. Thankfully, my generous friend Dave has quite a prodigious CD collection and he has from time to time loaned them out to me for my use. I recently got a chance to pop in on of the old Smiths CD's "The Queen Is Dead" while I was loading the dishwasher and within minutes I was back in my soph/junior year in high school. It was amazing how I was still able to remember and sing (yes, sing) not only every word to those songs, but also every one of Morrissey's changes in pitch as he sung (to the uninitiated he has a tendency to moan in different pitches at the end of some his lines...trust me it doesn't sound as weird as it seems).

I mean I haven't listened to this disc since 1993 and blammo, there I was in my mind driving around in my '89 White Honda Accord (R.I.P.) eating Double-Doubles and getting into car crashes (hence the R.I.P.).

This truly was a remarkable album, probably The Smiths best (although their self titled debut could give it a run for it's money). I know, I know, Mope-essy tends to write rather depressing verse, and to the unregenerate he offers a hopeless future. But to me he writes very honestly with great passion and feeling. I mean how can anyone who's ever had unrequited love not listen to "I Know It's Over" and not be moved to tears. This kind of passion can't be found in many contempo artists today (let's see the morons from Blink/nickelback/limpbizket/linkenpark/vines/hives pull off the wit of "Cemetry Gates" or "Frankly Mr. Shankly. Nope, not gonna happen.)

Anyway that got got me thinking about high school...but that is a post for a different time.