End of a good week

More so than when I was at The Mechanics Bank, I get a good reeling at then end of a week's worth of work atWestamerica. I think for the last 3 years or so at Mechanics Bank that I was on a bit of cruise control. Business was good and well established and I didn't have a lot of incentive to go forward.

But here I'm starting from the ground floor. This week wasn't as successful $$-wise as I would have liked it to be, but I'm still doing at lot to build up by dealer base. I'm expecting at lot of good things in June. After an afternoon of running around to dealers and making a lot of phone calls, I feel satisfied. It's Friday night and Im going to make a Martini, grill some steaks, bake some potatoes and saute some asparagus.

Our tentative plan

Granted, this plan has not been okayed by Christa yet...

It really is time to move. We've so totally outgrown this condo that we need a bigger place. Yet at the same time we keep waiting and waiting and waiting on God.

We're going to take 2 more months (June and July). If there is really nothing strong working on the ministry list, then we will buy a place in Brentwood or Oakley and move out there. Since Wisconsin I haven't even got a phone call or any nibbles from, churches I have sent my resume to. So...2 more months and we will see what happens

Caleb and Indiana Jones

I have no idea how Caleb became an Indiana Jones fan. He's never seen any of the movies and maybe not even any scenes from the movies. THey'ved got Indy toys at Burger Kinhg, but I don't think he's been there. But all of a sudden he's wearing my fedora around the house and saying that he wants to be Indiana Jones for Halloween.

So I got Caleb and Indiana Jones hat at Party City today. Kind of a cheap hat because I think this might go away soon. But then again, if he has a hat like daddy wearing. He's even trying to hum the theme music.

Time with Zack

Zack came over Saturday ngiht for dinner, stayed over and came to church on Sunday. We stayed up until about midnight reminiscing about various things and talking about him and what is going on. I hope I was able to ecnourage him with Scripture. As far as I can tell, Zack needs to do 3 things:

1. He needs to make a conscious decision to give up his ex-girlfriend and move on in life. To an extent, he is happy being miserable over her.

2. He needs to make a determination about who will be in charge of his life. Will he stubbornly still try to do it himself or give up control to God?

3. He needs to get away from the 'Garden of Eden' trick that the adversary is using against him. It wokred in Eden and has been effective ever since. The enemy's tact is to get Zack to take his focus off of everything he does have and focus solely on the one thing he does not have.

A good holiday with the family

Originally we were going to go to Stinson Beach today for Memorial Day but the weather was not going to be cooperative so we bagged that idea and went to Fairfield and Vacaville instead.

Vacaville was pretty much for Christa with all of the outlets. I pretty much just walked and strolled the kids around as she went from store to store. Lunch was at Arby's and I was very disappointed. I got a Turkey Bacon Club sandwich which was advertised as toasted but came out hot as it had been in the microwave instead.

We then went to Scandia in Fairfield to play miniature golf. Caleb's first time and I had to keep teachign him how to hold the club but he did all right for his first time. My handicap was having Regan on my back in a backpack. Probably cost me about 5 shots.

I then wanted to go to the batting cages. Hadn't been in maybe a year and a half. But my swing was still there and I was hitting some pretty good line drives. The best part of this was Caleb on the other side of the fence watching me and saying the whole time, "Daddy, get the big hits!!" That was special.

Then home for Chicken Piccata for dinner along with roasted asparagus with goat cheese and bacon.

Irenaus's other famous saying

Evidently Irenaus had another famous saying or point, of which I am ignorant. Waht else did he say that was so famous and tht I should comment upon it?

Irenaus and biblical interpretation

While in seminary and even before that, when I would read theology or maybe a Biblical commentary on a certain book or passage, one principle of Biblical interpretation always came up. Always interpret obscure or difficult passages in light of clear ones. I was a bit surprised to hear that it was Irenaus who came up with this in the 2nd century of so.

WHat is this principle? Don't try to build a theology around a verse or passage which can be difficult to interpret or understand. Instead focus on a verse or passage like it wich is much clearer to understand. Difficult passages lead to difficult and multiple interpretations.

John Chrysostom as a predecessor to Tony Robbins

Who knew this would be true?? As I am reading about how the earlhy church fathers dev leoped their theologyt, the inevitable comes up. What do we do with pain and suffering? Why do bad things happen to good people? Theologians and others have asked this question for thousands of years.

Jophn Chrysostom approached the problem with the idea that it is not what happens to us that is important but rather how we react to it. People can view or experience the exact same thing and what is important is not that it happened but rather what we do with it. As a primary example, he uses the crucifixion of Christ. The event happened. How will we deal with it? Many in the crowd were happy that it happened, bloodthirsty for more and perhaps angry at Jesus. But the thief on the cross? His reaction was different. He saw and unjust murder and committed himself to Jesus right before death. The same event and different reactions. For Chrysostom, the correct way to deal with pain and suffering is to focus on how you will react to it, not on the event itself.

Flip forward 1500 years or so. Tony Robbins (the guy on late-night infomercials before the FLobee guy shows up) teaches the same thing. How we make progress in life and make things better is in how we deal with the events of our life, not in the event itself. For example, if you get laid off from your job, what will you do? Mope around or get your resume out there? Is it an opportunity for self-pity or self-advancement?

Conclusion...Chrysostom had it right. We need to look beyond what happens to us to see how we will reqct frrom a Godly perspective. We look for the hand of God in our lives. Robbins, using the same basic principle, focuses instead on the self. What will YOU get out of it rather than how can you hear the voice of God? Age-old wisdom doesn't change, but seems that the d=focus shifts from God to the self, from divine providence desiring for us to become more Christlike to how can I be a better person on my terms and according to the world's model.

God is silent

Today is May 20. I have been seeking God through prayer and fasting for almost 3 weeks now in terms of what our family should do, where we should go and what to do about ministry.

For the most part I feel as if I have been praying to a brick wall. God is not there. For some reason He has been silent so far, not responding to my prayer. There have maybe been small bits and pieces, such as a friend mentioning that when God speaks I better listen. Matt's encouraging email and another friend mentioning Proverbs 3:5-6, which says, "Trust in The Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight." Good, sound Biblical advice.

But none of this is resonating with me so far. My prayer and seeking after God bounces off the ceiling and comes back down to me.

Where are you Lord? I need to hear from you! Speak to me and give me guidance so I may know which way to go.

The Pelagian controversy is still with us today

One of the issues that the early church had to wrestle with was how to deal with the nature of sin. What was it? How do we deal with it? How did it affect us? How did what happened with Adam and Eve fall upon us?

This last question led to the development of what we would call 'original sin'. Pelagius basically taught that the effect of the first sin ended with Adam and Eve. There is no transmission of the sin and its effect down to succeding generation. The implicatin of this is that we are not fallen men and women and that we can make a conscious choice to follow God and be obedient without any string attached. That is, our nature is not corrupted by sin but becomes that way as we sin our way through life. God has given us natural grace to obey Him and we do not ever have to sin. It is an act of the will to be obedient to God and we have it in us to do so.

Augustine thought different. We have indeed been damanged by the events in Eden and we will always carry that scar with us. God's grace in helping to overcome the effects of and desire to sin is external. That is, we need to ask God for His grace to help us be obeident. Pelagius taught that this grace was already in us and we didn't need to ask for it. We simply needed to try harder to be obedient.

According to Pelagius, a Christian can lead a virtuous life once he understands clearly that the human will can accomplish this on its own. Human nature, in and of itself, because of grace already within us, can obey God under its own strength. The problem lies in the fact that, if left solely to ourselves, we would not choose to serve God and ber obedient.

Pelagius understands the sin of Adam and Eve to be theirs alone with no ramifications for us today. Augustine, however, saw (most correctly) that human nature is condemned b y the guilt of this sin and it is only God's grace outside of ourselves that can save us.

How do we deal with this controversy today? Go to Barnes and Noble. Go to the self-help section and look at Dr. Phil, Tony Robbins, and yes, even Joel Osteen. Many others are available also. The basic philosophy behind all of these is Pelagian. Your life is yours alone and you have the strength to overcome adversity if you try hard with the tools that I give you. Your destiny belongs to you alone. Human nature is not corrupted but you are able to overcome the 'sin in your life because you have the innate ability to do it.

Parsnips...who knew???

I'd never had parsnips before tonight. But I'd found a recipe worth trying and they were pretty good. Very starchy, like a plantain or maybe a yam.

Mix about 4 tbs of olive oil with some salt, pepper and about 2 tbs of minced fresh ginger. Peel the parsnips and cut them into thick strips. Coat them with the olive oil mixture and roast at 325 for 45 minutes.

A comment on my pastoral search

When I say that I am waiting to hear from God, I mean just that. Through whatever medium He chooses to speak.

The following is the text of an email I got from Matt regarding this.

"I read the blog post about your questioning of your calling. You said, "I remember when He called me into ministry that the call was clear and distinct."

What exactly did He call you to? Did He say where? Did He give you the name of a people? A city? A denomination?

Everytime I have heard you talk about your ministry I have heard a description of what you want (e.g. a church with 400 people in a small city or vtown) not a description of what God wants. But if God called you He must have told you wnat He wants.

When Fraces of Assisi was called he couldn't control himself, he had to preach. And for lack of an audience he preached to birds. When my dad was called he preached to trees when he deidn't have people to preach to. Do you have that feeling of "fire shut up in your bones" described by the Holy Prophet Jeremiah?

If you are called to preach then preach. But know that God doesn't owe you a thing. Not a living, not a house, not respectability, not a career path, not a middle class lifestyle, not a familoy, not food, not even an audience to hear your words. But if you are a precher then none of that stuff ought to matter. If He called you then obey the call. But if you called yourself stick to banking. There is nothing bad about being a banker."

It is words like this from a close and trusted friend that carry much weight. I have been brooding over them the last few days and will continue to do so until the end of May.

By the way, I'm still working on the church fathers book. I had to balance it out with a light baseball book. Reading Basil the Great can cause headaches after awhile.

A divergence from normal reading

Okay, no more Faulkner, Dickens or Poe...at least this week.

I'm digging into one of my dad's books called "Zim: A Baseball Life". Don Zimmer has been a player, coach and manager in the major leagues for the past 50 years or so. He played with Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson, managed the Cubs and Red Sox and coached for the Yankees for many years. This is his baseball memoir.

Zim is pudgy, cherubic with a pixie-like smile and a face like lumby oatmeal. Who culd not love such a guy?? He's got a plate in his head from being beaned and famously got thrown to the ground by Pedro Martinez about 8 years ago. This will be fun reading.

Excited about May 24

We haven't had a dinner party in a long time but we are having one on May 24. Zack is coming over...haven't seen him in 5 years. Matt and his family are coming also (unbeknownst to Zack). What to make? I might ask matt to make his famous French onion soup. I'm considering the filet mignon with mushroom ragou, but nothing firm yet.

Gregory of Nazianzus

Great quote about the humanity and divinity of Jesus

"He ws baptized as man-but He remmited sins as God...He was tempted as man but He conquored as God...He hungered-but he fed thousands...He was wearied, but He is the rest of them that are weary and heavy-laden...He prays but He hears prayer. He weeps, but He causes tears to cease. He asks where Lazarus was laid, for He was man; but He raises Lazarus, fur He was God. He is sold, and very cheap, for it is only for thirty pieces of silver, but He redeems vthe world, and that at a great price, for the price was His own blood...as a sheep He is led to the slaughter, but He is the SPeherd of Israel and now of the whole world also. As a lamb He is silent, yet He is the Word, and is proclaimed by the voice of one crying in the wilderness. He is bruised and wounded, but He heals every disease and very infirmity...He dies, but gives life, and by His death destroys death."

How an ancient controversy can help us today

Way back in the 4th century an issue developed which became known as the Arian controversy. A man by the name of Arian began to question the pure divinity of Jesus. Could Jesus be divine in the same sense that God the Father was divine? He posited that there was a time when Christ was not, even if that was a time before time as we properly understand it began. The ultimate end of Arius' arguement is that Christ was in some sense a created eeing, even though he went out of his way to stress that Christ was divine in some sense.

The great theologian and church leader Athanasius would have none of this and made carefully reasoned and nuanced arguments that Christ was every bit as divine as God the Father was. He chose his words carefully to refute what became known also as the Arian heresy.

What does such an ancient discussion and debate have to do with us in 2008? Several things. The first is that we need to be careful how we speak of God. What words do we use and what terminology do we employ to describe and talk about God?

The second is that it is difficult to wholly compare God the Father to human fathers. One of the mistakes that Arius made is using human, natural terminology to describe that which cannot be described. Our human fathers are fallible, sinful and in some cases are just bad fathers. To compare our human definition of a father to God does a disservice to God becausw we are describing different things. For someone who has had a difficult time with their own human father we need to stress that God the Father does not act like their human father.

Sometimes it is easier to say what we do not mean when talking about God than to talk about what we do mean. For those who have had poor experiences with fathers, our God does not act like that. The ideal view of a father, one who loves and protects is what is in view.

Studying theology with the church fathers

This is a title of a new book I am working my way through by CHristopher Hall. He also wrote another one called "Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers". The whole idea of these 2 books is to back to some of the earlier fathers in the faith (Justin Martyr, Augustine, Athanasius, etc.) to see what they thought and said and about crucial theological issues. What did they say about how Christ related to the Father? What is the Holy Spirit's purpose? What is the church and how is it to operate?

There is a danger in the church today of inventing theology (can you hear me all you Emerfing Church people??) How can we be so arrogant as to think that we, after 2000 years finally have discovered what Scripture says about such crucial issues?

Stay tuned for a trip through this book

Seeking God

In the aftermath of Wisconsin, Christa and I are doing a little reevaluating of where we are and what we are doing. I've got a great new job at Westamerica Bank, but are we still going into full-time ministry and if so when?

We are going to take until the end of May to really seek God on this and look for a sign or answer from Him. I don't really consider that I am questioning my call as much as I am trying to clarify it. There is precedent in Scripture. Luke tells the story of when John the Baptist was in prison. He was asking if Christ really was the one or whether to look for another. He had been preaching Christ but now needed some clarification and reassurance.

What kind of sign are we looking for from God? I don't know. I remember when He called me into ministry that the call was clar and distinct. There was no mistaking it. Now I go to Him again, asking for a sign that we are on the right path. What will He send? I have no expectations other than wanting to hear from God. To this end, I am making the choice to fast every Monday and Friday in May until dinner as a way of seeking The Lord's Face in this