DIY Hero

See me? See DIY? See painting and coving? Natural born talent.

Poptastic Lyrics of Pop: No 3

I went to the doctor n'guess what he told me
Guess what he told me
He said girl u better try to have fun
No matter what you'll do
But he's a fool
`Cause nothing compares
Nothing compares to you

Home 2

I've been home in Scotland for one week, and I've been ill for most of that time. So I've done very little apart from sleep, browse blogs, visit friends and family. Is the West of Scotland really such an unhealthy place to live? Today is damp and cold, and I don't like it much. I've lived away from the Ayrshire and Glasgow areas twice in the last few years. Each time I have experienced tiredness and ill health on coming home - chronic sinus congestion, and all the associated ailments.

I move back into my flat in Glasgow this weekend. This will allow me to start getting back to normal. Everything over the next two weeks is geared to being ready to start work as a probationary assistant minister at Partick South Church of Scotland on 1st July. Basically I want to tidy and decorate the flat, make study and reading plans for the next 15 months, and rest some too. I put some weight on in America, so that's going to have to go. (I'm not worried about my weight as such, just the consequences of carrying too much fat, and the potential for heart problems ten or so years from now.)

Study plan will include reading through the works of Herman Bavinck, relearning NT Greek, and preparing for mission and church planting work. I read somewhere today that the best context for evangelism is the context of church planting. I'm pretty sure that the only Scottish churches that will survive the next three decades will be those that plant other churches, or at least have a heart for such work.

Home

I am back in Scotland after my academic year in Princeton, New Jersey. The last week or so I travelled to San Antonio, TX, and then on to Missoula, Montana. Spend quality time with some quality people, including a few hours at a Six Flags fun park with Katy F (we went on the Superman rollercoaster, as well as all the other coasters), and a day or so in and around Glacier National Park in north west Montana.

I hope to keep blogging - but I have noticed a real change in the blogging world over the last year. So I may yet decide to stop active blogging, and simply keep the blog online for future historians to use. How will historians research 21st century life two hundred years from now...?

Aren't planes amazing...

...they can fly from places like Newark, NJ, to San Antonio, Texas, to Missoula, Montana, and back again in no time. And then you can do it all over again, or just go back home to live with your Mum and Dad for a few weeks while you recover. Brilliant!

Crème brûlée...

...overrated.

Guggenheim Redeemer and Famous Dead People

Travelled back to NYC yesterday. Visited the Guggenheim, possibly the second coolest art gallery building I've been in. (I think the Tate Modern in London is the best.) The art works themselves were pretty amazing, but I only recognised the Picasso stuff. Why do I appreciate art work more when I'm familiar with it?

One thing about being in NYC is spotting famous people. Everyone is either famous, or trying to look famous. Yesterday I'm sure I spotted, among others, James Joyce (I know, he's dead, but really this one guy was the spit of James Joyce), Ewan Mcgregor, Kathy Burke.

Early evening I attended Redeemer Presbyterian Church again. I picked up more insights about this phenomenal church. The most impressive thing was recognising David Bixler. Who is David Bixler? Well, I don't know the guy. Last night at 5pm he was saxophonist in the Jazz worship band. A few weeks ago I watched him as part of Chico O'Farrill's Jazz Orchestra.

Cool! But what's cooler - playing at a New York Jazz club, or playing in a church worship band at the coolest church in the city? Part of Redeemer's vision includes building New York into a great city for all people through 'a gospel movement that brings personal conversion, community formation, social justice and cultural renewal'. This link shows another aspect of this big project.

It's interesting how un-Presbyterian all this feels - the opening reflection on the order of service last night was a quote from Bono about Karma and Grace. At the mic Tim Keller looked more like a stand up comedian than a Presbyterian minister. Lots to learn... but what are the Scottish equivalents to New York jazz clubs and multinational CEO business conferences?

Finis

Today is Friday, May 11. Bar the (graduation) shouting the academic year at Princeton Theological Seminary is over. Last final exams were yesterday for almost everyone. At least three of my friends have already gone home for the summer. People are leaving the dorms today too, and I guess that by Monday the only people left will be those waiting for commencement. This morning I returned the remaining library books in my room, including J. Stuart Russell's fascinating The Parousia.

My first blogpost from Princeton was fairly lengthy. Reading it again, I'm surprised how accurate some of my first impressions were. I have indeed had a great year. I've received much in almost every way, so that Luke 12:48 is on my mind these days. It's too early to reflect on what I have gained, or to assess how I have changed. At the moment I'd say that many of my thoughts and ideas about church, theology, and modern life in the West have been confirmed by my time here.

Over the last months I've learned that the world is a lot bigger and a lot more complicated, and I remain rather naive in the middle of it all. But I've decided that the Christian gospel is big enough and simple enough to embrace the world in all its complexity. The difficult thing about the gospel is not understanding it, but accepting it. It can appear too good to be true. It can seem too fantastic to be real. It can be attractive and it can be shocking.

Based on Psalm 2, and some verses in Paul's letters to the Corinthians, the truth of Jesus Christ is crisis and consummation. Christ's final appearing will be the most welcome and the most obnoxious of all events. A few people long for it. Others scorn the thought. Many are hopelessly ignorant of the prospect. If Christianity is true, all people will experience this dreadful and glorious day, it will be for all either the most welcome or the most obnoxious of events.

One day Christ's new creation will be manifest for all to see.

Things I didn't know: No 13

The LA Dodgers baseball team used to be the Brooklyn Dodgers, not to be confused with the Brooklyn Dodgers football team. The Dodgers major league baseball franchise moved to LA in the 1950s.

I learned this yesterday evening while watching the New York Yankees destroy the Texas Rangers at Yankee stadium in Bronx, NY.

Jenny Smith also taught me the difference between home and away baseball jerseys. I think the idea is that the home team jersey is always white with stripes. That's something you need to know in the US.

Last night I might just have graduated as a potential resident alien in the US. I sang God Bless America with gusto, ate hot dogs, and almost bought a baseball cap and jersey.

Sunday School art

Poptastic Lyrics of Pop: No 2

Say if it could be that we once passed like strangers,
Long before the love we ever new

Children of Men

Watched this film for the first time today. Why all the fuss? All the reviews I read, and many of my friends, told me it was a great movie. I fail to understand the enthusiasm, can someone explain it to me?

Exciting

Managed to watch both 2nd leg Champions League semi-final matches live over the last two days. Just back from an afternoon in Winberies watching AC Milan destroy Man Utd. Utd were very disappointing. Milan looked immense. As for Liverpool and Chelsea, watched that game in NYC. Can't wait to see if Liverpool can do it again against AC. But Chelsea! I don't know what, but something's not right at Stamford Bridge at the moment. One thing I noticed - Lampard looked lost. That must be a worry for England and Chelsea fans.

In my spare time I'm reading some more about eschatology, including G.E. Ladd's The Blessed Hope, and John McDowell's Hope in Barth's Eschatology.

Spot the Difference

Poptastic Lyrics of Pop: No 1

'But you’ve been cold to me so long, I’m crying icicles instead of tears...'

From a Jim Steinman song.

Things I didn't know: Nos 11 & 12

If it hadn't been for the U.S. there would be no modern Europe. (Depends how you define modern I suppose. But Matt Frei is always worth reading. Go for it Gore!)

Jonathan Woodgate has had a rough time with injuries in his career, and never settled at Real Madrid. Another case of just how good could a player have been.

Finished

As of this evening I am finished my work as a Th.M. student at Princeton Theological Seminary. Depending on how far my money stretches the next five weeks will be fun.

Mum and Dad arrive in New Jersey on May 16 for a one week stay. Otherwise I'll be taking things easy.

First Edwards Paper

Just got my first Edwards paper back today, (not this one). I've posted it here. Not sure I really say very much with this paper on Edwards and the incarnation, but I'm still curious about how Edwards manages to be 'at times on the brink of formal heresy' in his understanding. I might also post the complete version of my second paper, which amounts to a summary of The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God.

Charity

This goes out to all my good mates out there. Mates, I don't like to talk about it, but I tend to do a little bit of work for charity every now and again. This morning, took part in a fund raising walk for The Crisis Ministry.

In a day full of excitement, I also discovered that dollar bills can survive a standard wash cycle in a dorm laundry washing machine.

Tonight I'll be listening to some friends sing their little hearts out in Princeton University Chapel.

MLJ 'preached liberation theology' shocker

News is breaking that Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a famous 20thC Calvinistic preacher in the UK, known to readers of this blog, has been shown to be a preacher of liberation theology. An amateur church historian, currently working at Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS), claims Lloyd-Jones has been misunderstood for the last fifty years.

'I've been reading through some sermons that MLJ published under the title Spiritual Depression,' said David Shedden, a student coming to the end of a one year course in theology at PTS. 'I couldn't believe what I was reading near the end of the book. I'd always taken MLJ to be radically conservative in everyway.'

Shedden refers to MLJ's sermon, Learning to be Content, a sermon on Phil4:10-12. The sermon series was written for publication in the early 1960s. The following extended quote is at the heart of Shedden's thesis that perhaps MLJ was more radical than we tend to assume:

'It is characteristic of this particular generation in which we live to find a tendency on the part of large numbers of people to feel that the Christian gospel has been a hindrance to the forward march of mankind, that it has been a drag on progress, that it has been nothing but "the dope of the people". They say that it (Godliness with contentment is great gain, 1Tim6:6, cf Matt6:34) is a doctrine which has taught people to put up with all kinds of conditions whatever they may be, and however disgraceful and unjust. There has been a violent political reaction against the gospel of Jesus Christ because people have so misinterpreted this kind of text as to put it in this way:

"The rich man in his castle, The poor man at his gate, God made them, high or lowly, And order'd their estate"

Now that is just rubbish and a blank denial of what the apostle teaches here... "The rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate". Were men meant to be like that and to stay like that for ever? The Bible never teaches that; it does not say than man should be content to remain in poverty, that he should never endeavour to 'better' himself. There is nothing in the Bible that disputes the proposition that all men are equal in the sight of God and that all are entitled to equality of opportunity.'

p 279, Spiritual Depression by Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1965.