His by Grace

originally posted on February 9, 2010

I just finished a study of Hebrews this morning. Near the end of the letter, the author says, ‘Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire’ (12:28-29, ESV).

Just what is ‘acceptable worship’? I’ve heard this passage quoted as reasoning for using (and forbidding) certain musical styles in church services, for encouraging (and discouraging) certain types of clothing being worn to church, etc. The idea is that certain music, clothes, etc. is ‘reverent’ or ‘irreverent,’ and we should use the reverent and forbid the irreverent in our worship. I’ve even used this same logic myself in the past. But is this what the author of Hebrews means by ‘acceptable worship’?

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So, I’ve been doing some thinking, and I’ve decided that it will be best for the next year-ish to shut the blog down. I won’t be doing it right away, and this may not even be the last post, but at some time in the next month or two, I’ll be taking it down, at least for a while.

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Well, since I’m on a blogging kick tonight, and I’m still waiting for Ciaran to wake up from his nap and eat lunch so that we can skype together, I thought I’d give an update of the past few days.

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One often hears remarks from critics that evolution is ‘just a theory.’ Such a statement isn’t false, it’s non-sensical. Continue Reading »

As promised, here is the first of what will probably a short series of quotations from John Walton’s The Lost World of Genesis One for edification and/or discussion (hopefully both!).

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I get to see these guys in five days!

A guy from Zion, Illinois (my closest thing to a hometown), just changed his name. Read about it:

The second of seven religious name changes planned by a Zion man – from In God We Trust to One Nation Under God — was approved Friday by Lake County Associate Judge Helen Rozenberg.

One Nation Under God, who was known as Steve Kreuscher before he made his first name change in 2008, said his next name will be 777, a sequence significant in Christianity.

. . .

“People still call me Steve, which is fine with me,” Under God said. “My boss calls me In God (now his former first name).” He said he doesn’t know if he will now be called One Nation (his new first name) at work.

Although he took his name from a phrase in the Pledge of Allegiance, “I don’t say the pledge,” Under God said. “Christ said make no oaths.”

. . .

After 777, Under God said he wants to change his name to What Would Jesus Do, No Cross No Crown, Thermado Zattersof and, finally, Angelico Zioneero.

via Zion man is now ‘One Nation Under God’ – Chicago Breaking News.

(Thanks to my cousin Glen for the link.)

I recently read John H. Walton’s The Lost World of Genesis One. This is going to be one of the more important resources for some time in the discussion of human origins amongst Bible-believing Christians. Walton is a scholar whose expertise is Ancient Near East languages and literature, as well as a crack Old Testament exegete. (He wrote the NIV Application Commentary on Genesis.) That may sound irrelevant for what some consider to be a scientific question. But Walton’s perspective is indispensable for those of us considering the meaning of the first chapter of Genesis for Christians today because, although divinely inspired and relevant for all of God’s people, the book of Genesis is a piece of Ancient Near Eastern literature, written in an Ancient Near Eastern language, by and to people of the Ancient Near East. Thus, if we want a clear, detailed grasp of what Genesis says to us, we need to listen to people like Walton who know the linguistic, literary, and cultural context inside and out.

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